On Relaxing Less

... cartoon from the archives of The New Yorker...

I had such a relaxing day yesterday. Anything that was going wrong, was righted. And when there was nothing that was going on, the day got filled with so much happiness that Bonnie and I extended it until 5 am this morning. The morning had started with Bonnie wondering if it would be ok for us to sing together – no one else in the house and maybe we could learn some tunes.

I thought I could work through Sally Go Round the Sun with her, and add 50 or so songs to her musical backpack for work. We did that for about an hour. 

But that is not what Bonnie wanted.

It seems she wanted to sing popular songs, or show tune songs, Canadian folk tunes, or arias from operas.So today she choose “Stars” from Les Miserables, the first tune that we hear sung by Javert (Russels Crowe). You may know it: There, out in the darkness / a fugitive running / fallen from God / fallen from grace . So for yesterday, the tune of the day was “The monkey stomps, stomps, stomps his feet”, and the melody for today has all of the key changes and chord resolutions over which a person might love to sing lyrics that set up a great musical show and at the same time give a person a good chance to practise control of the diaphram.

One of the light switches at our house had a sizzling sound when it was turned on and off. Both Bonnie and I had noticed it. After a question went to Google, “how do you fix a sizzle in a light switch”, the answer came back, “get a good electrician”. 

We phoned Dave Wood. He was so much fun, checking out the problem, going to town to buy the switch, and then letting Bonnie do some of the electrical work as he supervised. She is not afraid of copper wiring she told him, at the same time showing him the copper necklace she made in a metallurgy class. He stood back and coached her until the job was done – telling her that for perfection, the screws should be twisted until the groove into which the screw driver fits was vertical. She laughed, and only did good enough – not perfection on that piece of the job.

Little Women (2019)

The day continued in a perfect way. I wanted to watch some of Kurt Weil’s opera, Street Scene, but I could feel that it was getting set up for some sadness. 

Not having researched anything about the opera and wanting to stay relaxed, I decided to take the evening to a less stressful place: Little Women on Amazon Prime, I didn’t want to see it. Still, it seemed it would take no emotional toll on me. the reviews in the newspapers had been charming and though I could not remember a word of what the reviews said, I had enough faith in them to relax and just let the scenes go by, having them bring back all of the memories around Louisa Mae Alcott and that lovely book so beautifully brought to the screen. 

 Biopic: Miss Potter (2006)

Since that movie was good, we decided to follow it up with another movie and we began to watch Miss Potter (2006), a wonderful true story of Beatrix Potter, who lived in about the 1900’s -- a charming story with extreme long shots of the Lake Country that reminded me of the Shuswap. I noticed that the movie budget was about $30,000,000. That seems like a lot of money and as I watched I thought how I lucky I am to be alive and see this kind of film. 

I told Bonnie, when I had a chance to see the Lake District, I was wanting to see ghosts of Wordsworth or at least some daffodils or an unusual cloud, “I wander lonely as a cloud” always on my mind. I didn’t see any of the three, but often on the ride through that country I could see what looked like my own home at the Shuswap, the still , the low hills, the meadows, the trees. Amazing, Bonnie and I agreed afterward, that Potter had purchased a lot of land from the proceeds of her earnings and then left it in trust for people to enjoy as a park. I guess the amazing part is that though she was a scientist, she made a substantial amount of money from her books and associated products and then turned the earnings back into a park for the children who had read her books, but were now adults.

It was midnight and I thought I was going to bed but Bonnie brought out the game of Lost Cities to play. We kept dealing the cards until we noticed that it was 5 am and then we went to bed. I usually get up at that time.

Arta