Welcome to a rare late-night edition of Wise Madness. I used to do this all the time. I’m doing it now because I have fallen so far behind, Tonight I’ll write about Friday and tomorrow about today. We’ll leave the rest of the time since I last wrote as a mystery as it clearly wasn’t worth writing about as I don’t remember it. On Friday I had a doubleheader, my first in-person visit with my new psychiatrist followed by my first night on the town since the pandemic started. As you might guess I was quite excited. I was up late on Thursday night recording Gord’s Gold. I guess I remember something I did. I spent a lot of time preparing that show. You can listen to it on Tuesday night on Folk Music Notebook. I had trouble getting traction on Friday morning. I then left myself 14 minutes to get ready to leave for the psychiatrist followed by a trip to Battery Park for the first Sunset Singing Circle. I had to leave at 12:30 and prepare for a day with large temperature shifts and bring my stadium chair to sit on at the Circle. That’s a long trip, from Harrison in Westchester to the Southern tip of Manhattan Island. The plan was to bring an extra hoodie and jacket. I left wearing a light sweatshirt over my t-shirt. I was also considering brining a mylar blanket. I had to gather all those things plus a water bottle, earbuds, and portable charger. I couldn’t find my travel water bottle and had to use the one I keep by my bed. Then I had to go to the bathroom. As I left the apartment the mailman saw me and told me to wait. He had a package for me. I had no idea what it was, it wasn’t from Amazon. I quickly put it in my bag and left. The upshot was that I left 9 minutes late. I walked as fast as I could and even took a well-timed bus a few stops to the MetroNorth station. I arrived to see the train already in the station and it pulled out just as I got there. I was 30 seconds from the platform. Arrgghh! I consoled myself with Krispy Kreme which is right by the station. This was my donut walk minus the short distance I took the bus. After the donut I called St. Vincent’s to change my appointment to one by telephone.
With all that extra time at home I should have blogged but instead I took a nap and wasted time. I managed to leave on time to meet Fred at Battery park. This was simpler than in the morning as all the things I packed in the morning were still in my bag. I went to listen to a podcast on the trip down and realized that everything I packed was not there. I had taken the earbuds out to talk to my psychiatrist. When I got to Battery Park the temperature had already dropped, I took out the hoodie. When I did that I saw that I had never packed my jacket or mylar blanket. As it was supposed to get quite cold I was worried. I beat Fred there and had some time. I opened the package. What was it? Bluetooth earbuds! Where did they come from? Was this a gift? Then I remembered. I got an email saying that I was lucky winner from some website I often use and could get earbuds a $119 value and just pay for $4.99 for shipping! I was as you might guess highly suspicious. The thing is I had a gift debit card with about $5 left on it. I figured I might as well try as I needed earbuds. After I gave he debit card info it then offered me a second set for $6.99, pretty amazing deal for earbuds they said were worth $119. Then they wanted me to buy something else, I could not see a way to say no to these things, so I just stopped filling out the forms and forgot all about it. I guess it was somewhat legit, I got the earbuds.
I put the earbuds in my bag and waited for Fred. The wind started howling fiercely. My app said gusts of 36 MPH, but it felt like more. I started to get cold, god knows what the windchill dropped to. Then it started to rain. I didn’t have rain gear. I was afraid the Singing Circle would be canceled. Five minutes later it stopped, the winds calmed, and the sun was out. Fred arrived and we went for dinner. There was an outdoor beer garden on the south end of Battery Park, I figured there was a good chance they were open, and I would have bratwurst. I wasn’t but there was an indoor restaurant in the building next door. We ate there. None of this would be a big deal except that Fred was the first friend I’ve made plans with other than Katherine since March 11, 2020. This was my first time in a restaurant since before that. There were only two other tables of people in a large space and Fred, and I were both fully vaxxed more than two weeks ago. I might have been hesitant without Fred there but he’s a microbiologist that teaches at a med school and has been cautious from the start. If it was safe enough to past muster with him I was fine with it. What a luxury, the food was great, the conversation was great, and I had a view of the Statue of Liberty. How can you beat that? I don’t know the name of the place, but you can’t miss it, I highly recommend it.
Then we walked up to Wagner Park for the Sunset Singing Circle. Terre Roche has been leading these for the last 20 years. I’m not sure when Fred and I started going, much more recently than that. When we got there we saw David, he remembers that he started four years ago so it’s long than that. After all this time in isolation I got to see Fred, David, Terre, and the musicians that play with her. Who am I friends with? Lori, Lisa, Richard, and Teak by name. I know everyone by sight.
We were all given songbooks and for the first time ever we are allowed to bring them home. They are in loose-leaf and there are always problems with page order. Before next week I will put my book in proper order. I will need a three-hole puncher to make one section work. They were punched on the wrong side which left the section in reverse alphabetical order. As is traditional we started with Red River Valley. Usually, they ask for requests for the song after that, but they didn’t yesterday. What’s also different was that there was a sound system. This is because for health safety reasons we sat much further apart than usual. As the new guidelines say that fully vaxxed people didn’t need to wear masks outdoors I didn’t. When the wind picked up I knew it was safe, any virions would quickly be blown away. The wind was so strong we had to hold down the pages. Terre said we were doing Here Comes the Sun next. I said we should do the more meteorologically appropriate, Blowin’ in the Wind. We went with Here Comes the Sun and upset the weather gods. There went the sun and then came the rain, and then the hail! We were caught in a summer squall like I had been earlier. We huddled under shelter while we decided what to do. Like the last squall, this one didn’t last too long, maybe 10 minutes. The question was if we should try and restart. If it was just wetness we were in danger of there’d be no question, but there’s a sound system; Terre was rightfully afraid of being electrocuted. We ended up compromising, we moved off the wet grass and on top of he wall at the entrance to the park. There are benches and space there. This was great. We sat on the benches and the musicians stood across from us while they performed acoustically. It was an adventure. We sang until 8:00 instead of the usual 8:30, so with the break we did maybe 40% of the songs we usually would. I still loved it. I made music and saw friends. I’m a Falcon Ridger, this happens every year there. I survived a microburst; a little hail is nothing. I’ll be back next week and every Friday I can for the rest of the season, sometime in June. You should join us. It’s one of the best hidden treasures in New York.
Today was equally exciting and I’ll write about that tomorrow.
Wise Madness 