This and That

More daily life trivia...

Last night was a live broadcast of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. The first half of the program was two short pieces by Charles Ives and a Mozart concerto, all played by pianist Jeremy Denk, a new artistic partner at the SPCO. The second half was the Eroica, which was oddly thin and uninspired. Patrick said, "What are we listening to? We were supposed to be listening to Beethoven." I said, "This is Beethoven." Very strange. But the earlier works were fine.

I was thinking that there's a lot of fine music in the Twin Cities. But, in fact, almost every metro area has an orchestra and most have an opera company.

Also yesterday, I passed through the Farmers Market on my way to a coffee shop and was not able to pass a cheese vendor. I bought a chunk of cheese -- made from Jersey milk, very buttery and pungent -- and asked her about her farm and animals. Her cows are a mix of Jersey, Angus and Highland Scottish. I mean, the individual animals are a mix. I asked what they looked like. The answer was "Varied." The farm also has one Jersey, which I assume produced the cheese I bought.

I am trying to imagine an animal that is a Highland, Angus, Jersey mix. The farmer said the cows produce very rich milk.

Today is running errands. I need more paper and toner, since I still printing out my third novel and proofing it. The first has gone off to Aqueduct Press, with corrections made.

The most interesting part of this project is the afterwords I am planning to write. I want to put the novels in context: what was going on in my life when I wrote them. And I want to give my reaction to them many decades later. And I want to add interesting stories. For example, Patrick found himself in an unsafe neighborhood in Chicago many years ago, with five large, young men surrounding him. They wanted his belongings. It was night and pouring rain and there was no one around except the five young men. So he recited the prayer to the Great Fish in To the Resurrection Station, because it was the only prayer he could think of. A bus appeared out of nowhere and drew up next to him. The door opened. He told the young men, "This is my bus," and climbed on.

A genuine miracle. As far as I know, it's the only time one of my characters has performed a miracle. I told Patrick not to rely on the Great Fish in the future. You get only one miracle from the Fish.