10 April 2013 the melody and lyrics linger

Cassi Creek:  My next colonoscopy is scheduled for the end of December.  Yesterday the paperwork for the procedure arrived in the mail.  Today’s delivery brought the preparatory medicine.  I have to find some place to store two gallon jugs where they will not be damaged or forgotten. 

          The prep regimen at VA has changed markedly since my last procedure.  What was a single prep day, as recently as last spring, is now a 2.5-day regimen.  The final dose is to be ingested at 0200 before driving in for an 0700 appointment.  This could be a very interesting trip.  While the procedure does not worry me, the prolonged prep does.  More on this later.

          Pulled a burn permit this morning and plan on spending the afternoon tending the burn pile. 

          The riding mower started up with no hesitation this morning.  That pleases me.  The string trimmer and push mower are next on the maintenance schedule, followed by the generator.  If everything works, I’ll be very pleased.

          Spent some time yesterday on Pandora.com listening to folk singers from the late 50’s and 60’s.  I recall so many of the musicians and their groups.  Those days before music came to be delivered via ear buds or headphones that isolate the listener from most interactions with the rest of the locale, are long ago memories.  Part of yesterday’s listening was to remind me of songs I used to play and to encourage me to keep trying to find some more dexterity and muscle memory for my guitar’s fret board.  It may be that I put new strings on the old classical guitar that I bought while still in high school.  It was used when I bought it at Shaw’s Music.  Either it will have a well-seasoned sound or it will crack and crumble under the pull of the strings. 

          I once had a repertoire, or at least, a passing acquaintance with about 400 songs.  I imagine that many of those may be retrievable with the right encouragement.  We will see.  Currently 15-20 minutes at a time is about all I can mange before my left shoulder and arm give out.  My right hand is slowly recalling some old skills. Very frustrating when I recall how effortless it seemed before 2003.  Still, I’ve left the guitar cased and crying for attention for long periods and managed to bring the skills back.  Perhaps I can still repeat that effort.