2024
In January I joined a Community Choir at the College for the winter term. I had been in it before COVID, and we ended up getting shut down the day before our spring concert in 2020. I kept hoping it would start up again after COVID was over but didn't see anything advertising it until this fall. Previously, we had about 30 people in the choir and though we were small, we had a good sound.
Well, when I arrived for the first rehearsal, I walked into a room filled with around 75-80 people and a new conductor, Ken Graban. I had positive things about him in connection with the local high schools. He is retired from public education now. What a dynamic individual! He is by far the best vocal conductor I have ever sung under, and each rehearsal is a pleasure.
The first concert ended up being on my birthday. What a fantastic way to spend my birthday! We were at the Hales Center which seats around 500. We had been asked to spread the word as there was no advertising. I managed to get 7 of my very good friends to attend (maybe as a birthday present? I wasn't above a little coercion.) The auditorium wasn't full, but we had a very respectable crowd, and everyone enjoyed the concert. Our official name now is the Coos Singers.
We started rehearsals for our spring concert at the end of March and it is set for June 3rd. We rehearse 2-21/2 hrs each Monday and manage to put on a very respectable concert in only 9 weeks.
I'll miss it this summer but will look forward to resuming in the fall.
Laura and Kara hosted a nice birthday dinner for me the previous weekend with pasta, a chocolate silk cake, and many hands of Idiot and Square 9.
It was a great celebration!
ORVW resumed having rallies in March with our first rally at Winchester Bay. It was chilly and rainy but we had a lovely clubhouse, and it was really great to see everyone again. "Mom" Lindegren and Barb even made it and Mom played Square 9 with us several nights where she won the big pot and cleaned us out. She'll be 103 on May 11th and is still going like the Eveready bunny.
One of the activities we could participate in was making coasters with little plastic diamond dots. I bought a kit with the idea of taking the gnome coasters to the Spelling Bee this year and giving a couple to my partners there - Stacy and Gail. Sadly, they were not able to participate this year due to a prior commitment and the whole event ended up being cancelled when only 2 teams registered. I hope the event will resume next year with better planning.
I ended up hurting my back in mid-April, a week or so before that ORVW rally so I wasn't able to attend. I tweaked it spraying weeds with a vinegar/salt combination that works quite well but hauling the sprayer around wasn't such a great idea, plus the bending over and twisting. It's the worst pain I've had since my back surgery in 2020. I went to see Dr. Angeles again to see if it was time for a fusion only to find out that I have waited too long. I have 3 really bad vertebrae and a fusion would span 5. She said I'd be worse off than I am now. I trust her opinion and now have been back to Dr. Croson, the pain management doctor, who has scheduled an ablation for me in mid-June.
And in between all of this, I'm still spending a lot of time at the Egyptian. This year, we were able to get the original "Star Wars" and show it on May 4th. I don't know when or where the phrase "May the 4th be with you..." started but you see it every year now.
Jill arranged a costume contest with prizes as well as some raffle gift bags. She really put together some nice memorabilia and some of the costumes were out of sight - not cheap or homemade for sure.
One patron brought his R2D2 mini robot and he helped Jill judge the costume contest after the movie.
We had a great crowd of over 320 and everyone had a good time!
This has been a year full of loss thus far and I hope it will be ending soon. In February I lost my bridge partner, Diane Verger. Her death was sudden though she had been in poor health for some time. Exactly a month later, another bridge player from our Tuesday group passed away - Amy McSwain. Amy was in her late 80's and had been in poor health for some time so it was not unexpected and really a blessing.
Then I found out that an ORVW member had passed away. I didn't know her well, but I had looked forward to spending time with her this year and getting to know her better. That's not to be.
And finally, I hope, I recently learned that a longtime friend - Gina Masciantonio, passed away in Springfield. (Her photo to the right) She also had been in poor health and I'd been unable to get in touch with her in spite of trying a number of times. It was thanks to Gina that Janet and I finally made friends in Coos Bay. She was taking my computer class with her partner, Shirley (who passed away in 2017) and on a break came up to me and asked me if when I said "partner" I meant "partner." I said I did, and she told me she and Gina were partners. Then they introduced us to Linda and Tully and we finally, after 10 years, had some friends in Coos Bay. They also introduced us to ORVW and many more friends there. I will forever be in debt to Gina for asking me what I meant that night.
After almost a year full time with me, Jan finally found a house she could afford, and she moved in mid-April. She is getting well settled now and had many folks give her furnishings or she found some things second hand. We still see each other quite often and it's good that she is nearby in Shorepines.
During the winter, we started playing Square 9 every other Monday with a group of friends. That is slowly expanding now from 5 to 6 to possibly 7. Any bigger and it will be difficult to manage on Mondays when I have rehearsal, but we may move to a different night.
Nothing much exciting happened the rest of the month. My solar panels continue to go out and I had to have one replaced and then another one went out. That replacement can't be matched to the grid or something - the numbers don't match up - so Ben has ordered another one. I think this makes 9 of 15 that have been replaced. And they always go out in the spring or summer! Damn it!!
Went to the Chainsaw Carving again this year on Father's Day. There were quite a few that I liked. My favorite was the African elephant that had the map of Africa on the back of its head and ears. That was done by Chris Foltz.
Janet would have loved the herons. She probably would have liked to buy it, but it was $5,000 and was already sold when I saw it.
I don't know where the summer went, but it slid on by pretty quickly. I didn't make it to all the ORVW rallies this year, but did get to August thru October. I spent a fair amount of time at the Egyptian though our summer numbers left a lot to be desired. Wednesdays with Walt continues to be quite popular though. Things there seem to be picking up though as we enter the fall and holiday seasons. We actually had 172 people for our showing of the original "Beetlejuice". Boy were we busy at the concession stand!!!
Maggie is aging fast and I'm not sure how much longer she will be with me. It has come on suddenly in mid-October with a heart murmur and wheezing. She doesn't seem perplexed by it though it is hard to hear her struggling to breathe some days.
My Thanksgiving cactus always blooms in October so it's really a Halloween cactus. This year it's looking particularly glorious.
The Coos Singers Holiday Concert went particularly well. It was held at Marshfield HS because we were also joined by the two high school choirs for several numbers. While it wasn't SRO, I would guess there were more than 500 in attendance. Ken has managed to post recordings from the concert on his You Tube site and it has been fun to hear them.
The 50th Annual Sounds of Christmas concert was held on December 14th with Lee Littlefield at the organ. Paul has been very ill these last 3 or 4 months and the concert was dedicated to him. It was recorded for him to see at his facility. Sadly, we learned that he was in the hospital on Comfort Care only and he didn't see the tape. We don't know whether he heard it or not. He passed away in the early morning hours of December 15th. He was a remarkable musician, organist and human being, and he will be sorely missed.
For Thanksgiving, as I have done the past few years, I hosted a potluck where I did the turkey, stuffing and gravy and everyone else provided the rest of the fixings. One never knows anymore how Tully will feel about coming out, but I'm pleased to say that she attended, and we had a lovely conversation after everyone left that afternoon.
The day after Thanksgiving we started our annual showing of "Elf". The Friday night show was packed! People were in line for popcorn until 8:30 when the movie began a little after 7:00. We made 16 batches of popcorn and brought in almost $5000 in sales. I haven't heard how many socks were thrown, but there were a lot!
"Christmas Vacation" also did well with over 200 tickets sold. Folks love the Ugly Sweater contest.
I helped decorate Christmas cookies at Kara and Laura's the Sunday before Christmas. I'm really not very skilled at that but it's always fun and getting to eat your efforts never hurts.
Christmas morning came and went with my annual Sausage and Gravy breakfast plus a movie. Never got around to taking any pictures, but everyone seemed to have a good time. Had some new guests this time with Sherry and Carol and Sitka came again. Then there was Linda, Diana, Den and Christine to round it out. Tully didn't come this year. Linda said she has been sort of down in the dumps recently. I'm sorry she missed it, but glad she was taking care of herself. There was plenty of food with leftovers from our Square Nine game yesterday at Carol's, fruit brought by Den and Sitka and a sparkling drink brought by Christine. And there's quite a bit of sausage gravy leftover so I can have some and also save some for Jan for breakfast the next day or so.
I went over to Kara and Laura's around 3:00 and had a lovely afternoon with cards and a great dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole and more. Kara insisted I try a bit of pecan pie. Nope, just don't care for it. And why eat something so calorie laden if you don't really love it?
So, Christmas night they were predicting a bad storm with really strong winds. Turns out it was a thunderstorm as well though Maggie didn't notice any of it now that she's deaf.
This morning, when I backed the car out ot the garage to take her for a walk, I saw that a piece of flashing from the south side of the house had ripped loose. When I got out to look, it was basically the flashing on the whole side was torn loose. One piece is totally MIA. No idea where that has ended up. I called a fellow who did some work for me in the fall and he came right over. He said I'd need new flashing to replace the old as it was ripped and twisted. He went to a building supply place to see if they had some and found they didn't. He did manage to tack and nail the front piece back down but the ladder wasn't long enough to reach the back piece. And there's one piece that is just gone. He cut the back piece off so it's not flopping around, but now I have to find someone to install new flashing on that side. Ugh.
