Tuesday. Dad seemed a little better today. Maybe. I’m not sure. It’s hard to tell because the meds make him sleepy most of the time, and loopy when he’s awake.
I wonder whether Dad will ever be himself again.
Spent some time with Shaggy and Chauncy this morning, after visiting Dad. They’re good kitties. Shaggy grew up with Dorabella and oh that lady has stories. Like the time she traveled all the way to Boston’s Gardner Museum twenty years ago just to see Vermeer’s The Concert. She arrived the day after thieves broke in and stole the painting.
Dorabella really likes Vermeer.
In the afternoon, Mr. Bassett Horne came to visit the Smiths. Mr. Horne is the principal clarinet of the Lake City Philharmonic. He’s a friend of Mr. Smith. They met at Old Ivy College -- Mr. Horne is on the faculty there. The Lake City Phils, as we call them, are in residence at Puddlewood every summer. It’s just down the road from Beauneville, so Mr. Horne agreed to drop by for lunch and listen to Roderick play the clarinet.
Mr. Horne brought his wife, Cora something. She’s in the orchestra, too. Uses her maiden name.
Oh, right. Cora Anglaise.
Lunch was actually dinner -- roast pork, applesauce, and little green things. I hung out beneath the dining room table and snared some tasty bits of pork.
After the meal, Roderick retrieved his clarinet from upstairs and Mr. Horne settled into one of the comfy chairs in the living room. I think he wanted to put his feet up on the ottoman, but I occupied it first and it’s my house.
Roderick did his usual bit on the clarinet: scales first, then Rose studies and an etude. Mr. Horne flipped through Roderick’s book of orchestral excerpts and asked him to play from the second movement of Beethoven’s Fourth, beginning at measure 81. I think they spent an hour going over those eight measures.
Then he had Roderick sightread the riff from the third movement of Beethoven’s Sixth. Roderick hadn’t played that before and fucked it up badly, but Mr. Horne just smiled and told him to practice, practice, practice.
After the Hornes left I went to visit Pia. She’s not in heat so we just chatted about KulturePunkz and stuff.
All for now.