5:34 PM. It is said that the German philosopher Immanuel Kant was so regular in his routines, including his walks, that neighbors could set their clocks by him. I like routine in part I expect because at times my life is at extremes and I don’t want, indeed can’t think of quotidian details. I eat the same breakfast almost every morning year in and year out. When ashore I workout six days a week about 4 PM. After which I shower and read some poetry and listen to some Bach. At 5 PM I pour my first of two drinks. Of late, usually but not always, Monday is a dry night. I have only tonic and lime. For whatever reason tonight I wanted a real drink and mixed a pitcher of two martinis, one of which you see in the glass above. Beyond it is my iPad Pro which is playing the 1981 Glenn Gould recording of Bach’s GOLDBERG VARIATIONS. I seem to recall that Gould preferred this version to the 1955 performance which made him famous. I prefer the 1955, but he did know more about music than I.
Our weather continues perfect. I suppose we will have some more too hot days, but they will be the exceptions not the norm they have been since mid-May. In many places spring and fall are the best seasons. In Hilton Head I much prefer fall which leads to eight mostly pleasant months.
I woke at 6 AM, read in bed for a while, then came out here on the screened porch for my breakfast which I was eating just at sunrise. Looking southwest I did not see the sun, but the sunlight coloring Skull Creek a slight blush of rose ever deepening.
I walked down to GANNET after breakfast because I wanted to bring the unused Raptor nonskid back up here to store and the roll is too big to carry on my bicycle. While there I scrubbed the interior and came to the sad conclusion that I really am going to have to repaint it. The Rustoleum is flaking off excessively. I also attempted to fix a leak around one of the halyard stoppers and examined the main halyard, concluding I need to buy a new one, which I since have done online. I also collected five moldy hats to bring up to the condo to put in the washing machine, which I also have since done.
I did my workout. I have read poetry, both ancient Chinese and some modern. The modern is in an anthology, BEING ALIVE. I am in a section of poems about death and dying. I think I have done better and may impose mine on you in a future post.
While writing Glenn Gould has continued to create beauty and I have finished my first martini. I pause to fetch the second.
That did not take long.
The temperature is 81F/27C. There is no wind and I was a trifle hot when I first came out before I remembered to turn on the overhead fan. It makes a decided difference. Carol has created a very nice place here.
Of music, Mark sent me a link to a project to finish Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony. I don’t know what to make of this.
There is Mahler’s Tenth Symphony completed by Deryck Cooke which I like very much and there is Mozart’s Requiem in part written by Franz Xaver Sussmayr. Perhaps others.
Of Beethoven, I admire his late string quartets more than his symphonies. I can not say why.
I am curious to see what this project produces.
If artificial intelligence can ‘create’ music the equal of Beethoven, we have designed our species into obsolescence.
I am indebted to my friend, Michael, for remembering something I have not.
He recently sent me a note of quotes that I once sent him from the Portuguese poet, Luis de Camoes, whom I have not forgotten, that are worth sharing.
As I sip my martini, enjoy the auditory and visual beauty around me and approach my 80th birthday and contemplate 2022 which will determine if I am finally used up, I smile particularly at the last quote. I have sailed to and from the Tagus. I once began a novel about Camoes that will almost certainly never be finished.
There should be a bigger gap between ‘his fame survives the years’ and ‘Rightly acquitted’. They are not related.
And I suggest that while I deeply admire Camoes, he was probably wrong about the guarantee of glory. I have risked life to the point of losing it for decades and doubt I will be remembered, something I accept with diminished regret.
I have done what I was meant to do. I still am. Others do not define me.
My music has moved from Bach to the African, Ismael Lo’s album THE BALLEDEER.
L’Chaim (to life)
2 comments:
Webb,
Sorry to hear the krylon didn't stick and is flaking off. I've had mine repainted once when I had it back at Ron Moore's shop. They used the original material that is called Polycore. If interested in seeing what you are applying on top of to might help.
http://www.fiberglasssupply.com/pdf/gelcoat/Polycore.pdf
I helped Ron once on a trip to CA and it's not anything you'd want to mess with as its pretty nasty stuff. But perhaps you can find what is compatible with it.
Good luck, Gannet always looks so well cared for in her photos. Keep it up,
Richard
Thank you, Richard. What is flaking off is not the original coating, but some Rustoleum paint I applied two years ago after completing GANNET’s circumnavigation. That was the second or third time I have painted the interior since I bought GANNET ten years ago. This time I used the wrong paint. I had been advised to use Rustoleum and so bought their standard paint at Home Depot. Not until later did I learn that Rustoleum makes a line of marine paint which is what I should have used. It is still too hot in Hilton Head to be painting the interior. At least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. I will get the job done sometime this winter.
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