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I won't bother to mention that this past week was incredibly bad - during which everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
I won't mention that I'm completely out of supplies and have to wait until Monday to go to town.
I will mention that the weather has been horrendous this weekend. The wind was so frighteningly strong this morning that I thought I was back in West Texas.
In Texas, however, I had a house made of bricks - which could courageously withstand the wind.
My Tennessee house is unnervingly flimsy. The Big Bad Wolf could easily blow it down.
And I feared that some of these gigantic trees would topple over and pulverize me.
A Tornado Watch accompanied the wind, but that didn't bother me. When I lived in the Missouri Ozarks there were Tornado Watches every day (or so it seemed....). Intense apprehension was part of my daily agenda.
Right now, in late afternoon, there is fog, thunder, and torrential rain. The brutal wind has subsided.
I've decided that I'll probably survive.
Although I might need a rowboat.....
So, what's this about Warsaw??
I'm talking about the Warsaw Concerto. I love this composition and have performed it publicly more times than any other piece of music.
I also recorded it at least a dozen times. Some of those recordings are now lost, but fortunately a few remain.
The Warsaw Concerto was composed by Richard Addinsell (1904 -1977) and featured in the 1941 British film Dangerous Moonlight.
It was originally written for piano and orchestra, but the version I play is my own arrangement for piano solo. I still have a few pages of my piano score - - which I wrote when I was in my early 20's.
I made this video recently. After exhausting my limited ideas for visuals, I decided to do an ocean theme.
When I first watched the result of my creative efforts, my first thought was
Holy crap, this is going to make everybody seasick!!
...but then I decided that it wasn't bad after all.
Take some Dramamine - - and watch the video full-screen.
Love this! The ocean visuals are a perfect accompaniment. Ya, this afternoon's wild weather was sobering. We prepped the "Coosada Room" (hall bathroom) with blankets, pillows, candles and helmets -- but only experienced straight-line winds and LOTS of rain. Fortunately, no trees down. This time.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the ocean is a pleasant diversion from all the rotten weather we've been having. The wind was really wicked - I thought the roof would blow off.
DeleteI'm glad you have the Coosada Room for a storm retreat.
I remember that I had only been living in the Missouri Ozarks for three days when I experienced my first tornado. I hid in the linen closet.
Such a dramatic piece and it suits the power of the water and the waves. I'm prone to seasickness, but had no issues. :) I loved seeing all the shots of the ocean, probably because I've lived around water my whole life-lakes, rivers, the Pacific Ocean...Hope that next week is calmer and better for you. We're expecting Snowmaggedon. Last February we got a foot of snow, and since I don't own a snow shovel, I used my rake to clear off a path so I could pull my car out of the garage. Fun times.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm glad you didn't experience sea sickness from the video. I was raised in Southern California and for much of that time we lived only a few miles from the beach. There are times when I really miss it.
DeleteSnow is wonderful to look at - but it's a nightmare if you have to shovel it or drive in it. Today it was an unseasonable 65 degrees here in TN, but unfortunately it won't last....
i am sorry to hear you had another bad week. you can't seem to get a break from it all. i'm glad though you survived the bad weather that touched your area. you could have had tree limbs rain down on you, but fate was on your side today. that trip to town will be worth the wait. i'm sure you''ll be ok til monday unless you've been reduced to using catalog pages because the toilet paper ran out. the store here ran out of the cat food we usually use. and all hell broke loose here on the homefront because neither cat liked the new food. without fail after searching every store in town, i find the old food they crave, now they don't want it, they want the new food. talk about being fickle. loved the warsaw concerto. i love the ocean, so waves crashing into the shore made my day. lovely piece. how cool is the fact you still have the original score. i'm still weighted down with health issues. but a new day is dawning. the good news is they found a potential drug that cures my illness. the bad news is it gives you shingles as a side effect and won't be on the market for 3 to 5 years. You take care. hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThe wind was so bad yesterday (Saturday) that I was really afraid those tall trees would topple. Fortunately the forest seems to be a sort of wind breaker. It's almost like a shelter.
DeleteI planned to go to town last Friday but was having car trouble and it took me hours to fix it. I'm almost out of toilet paper (hopefully I'll find some catalogs). Worst of all, I've been out of cat litter for nearly a week and the two litter boxes are horrible. It's been raining so much that I can't get any dirt from the yard. The cats are getting nervous with their dirty boxes...
Cats are SO VERY picky about the food they eat - and it's a disaster when the store runs out of their favorite kinds. Scratch is extremely fussy, but Bosco is a little easier to please.
Much like you, my biggest issues are my health problems. My spinal problems are so bad that I often stay in bed. I have great difficulty doing all the things that I used to.
It's great that a drug has been found to cure your illness (despite the side effect) but 3 to 5 years is a long time to have to wait. Hopefully something might be available sooner...
I'm glad you liked the video. It's relaxing to watch the ocean and it brings back good memories.
Ah yes, the Warsaw Concerto. Love it, love it, love it. The sun has just emerged from the clouds and that makes me want to sing. First time in ages!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteJust in case, and after many requests, here is my email addy. Chuck if not wanted! vdnewaddy@gmail.com, Don't want to put it on blog for obvious reasons.
I'm glad to hear that the sunshine is finally paying you a visit. Dreary, sunless weather can be depressing.
DeleteI've always loved the Warsaw Concerto. It's intriguingly romantic - satisfying to listen to and fun to perform.
Thanks for sharing your email. I will definitely keep it.
I liked the ocean theme going with the music, though I do admit I preferred the images where the viewer was on land with the waves rolling in!
ReplyDeleteWe've had non-stop rain for more than 48 hours and wind. Depressing!
It is much more soothing to be on land watching the ocean, than to be riding the ocean waves! I just threw a lot of haphazard ocean videos together and hoped for the best....with minimal seasickness!
DeleteI like occasional rain, but perpetual rain can really be depressing. Tennessee is the rainiest place I've ever been.
And I REALLY hate wind!!
The rain you experienced has found its way here to NH, Jon, although thankfully not with high winds. Temperatures are in the mid 60s today which is quite remarkable and yesterday folks were walking around in shorts and t-shirts when I walked downtown, which was nicer than driving and luckily close by. I hope you and Scratch and Bosco can make it until the shopping run on Monday without any mishaps from Mother Nature or otherwise. Thanks for the musical interlude which did not make me sea sick.
ReplyDeleteThe weather has been extremely weird everywhere lately. December started out frigid, but January is delightfully mild. It was 65 degrees yesterday (Saturday). The only thing that ruined the day were the high winds. There were times when I actually thought the roof was going to blow off.
DeleteThank goodness the bad weather didn't last very long. Can't wait to do some shopping on Monday. I'm out of milk, bread, eggs,...and many other necessities...
And I've been out of cat litter for a week, which is a nightmare!!! There's nothing worse than filthy litter boxes.
I'm glad you didn't get seasick!
Sounds like horrible weather your way. We had -27 night before last. I think no matter where you live the weather has been unusual lately. :(
ReplyDeleteMinus 27 ? Wow - I got a frostbite just thinking about it! I'm so glad that your Bird Cafe is open year-round to help the critters out.
DeleteIt was 65 degrees here yesterday (Saturday) and some of those pesky Asian beetles have returned! I mistakenly thought the cold would kill them, but apparently they were only hibernating.
I enjoyed watching your Warsaw Concerto video. The ocean was a very good background for it.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have much wind with our weather this weekend. Thank goodness. In the past few years we have had a lot more very strong straight wind gusts before storms than I ever remember having in the past. Sometimes in the past year we have had 45 mph gusts of wind around here when there isn't even a storm coming. In general I think there is more wind here all of the time than we used to have. For the past few years in spring it is a lot harder to get a day when the wind isn't too strong for me to sow flower seeds. I have a very difficult time sleeping when the wind is strong and gusting. It makes me very uneasy. I don't know why. From the way it makes me feel, one would think I was sleeping outside in the back yard or something. We live in a sturdy wood frame house, but there are always those strange noises in a hard wind. It's just that after more than 40 years in this house, I may not know what the noises are, but I feel confident things are going to hold together.
Here, in the suburbs of St.Louis, this weekend we had one day of very heavy rain and thunder that went into a few inches of snow yesterday afternoon and early evening and a dull,grey cloudy day today.Not one iota of snow melted off of the car today,so it will need to have the snow cleared off tomorrow. I like to keep an extra supply of toilet tissue on hand and usually do, but sometimes we use the emergency supply up because we just don't want to make a special trip to go out and get some, and forget to replace it before the next winter storm. My little old Pomeranian can always eat canned chicken and rice in an emergency, so he is not a problem. We get his normal food delivered to the house by Chewy's because the food he eats his not available in the grocery store,and not reliably available at the pet stores.
I noticed in past videos that your home seems to be far out in the country. I just wondered if Amazon or other mail order places deliver to your home (at the door) or do they just leave your packages by your mailbox. Weird question, excuse my ignorance, but it just occurred to me while I was writing the last couple of sentences.
I hope this coming week everything will go a lot better for you.
Take care.
First of all, I enjoyed reading your detailed comment. Thanks for taking the time.
DeleteThe worst winds I ever experienced were in West Texas (I lived there for a number of years). The dust storms were so frequent that everybody just accepted them without much thought. As you said, the wind is especially unnerving at night when you're in bed. There were many times when I'd be awake until dawn - praying that the house would stay in one piece.
I also lived in Missouri, near Springfield. I loved the Ozarks, but the severe storms were so frequent that it was almost intolerable. It was especially unnerving, because I originally came from mild Southern California - where bad weather is very rare.
Here in TN I live way out in an isolated area. The drive to town is so far that I only go about twice a month. I try to stock up on supplies but always seem to run out of milk, bread, cat food, cat litter, and toilet paper.
When I first moved here, I had some packages delivered and they were left on the ground, in the snow, by my mailbox (which is far away). Other packages were delivered to my door - - so I guess it depends on who delivers them.
I haven't yet tried Amazon.
Anyway, thanks for your comment.