Letters for George: Burnet Woods on November 7, 2013

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Burnet Woods on November 7, 2013

Dear George,

There’s a cartoon in today’s paper in which a wife asks her balding husband, “What’s the matter, Morris?,” and he replies, “I feel like I’m in the autumn of my life.” Though she reassures him, that’s just how I was feeling today too. I figure if I were to live to 90 (an optimistic projection since neither my parents nor my grandparents lived that long), as of today I’ve completed about 85% of my life. If that were all condensed into a single year, 85% of a year would fall on November 7. That’s today! No wonder I’m feeling like Morris.

In fact, our autumn life has been quite pleasurable of late. The air’s cooler, which is especially good for the sheepdogs, and I think the air quality has improved. I’m always in a better mood when the football season starts, particularly this year because of the Bengals’ rejuvenation to date, and now the college and pro basketball seasons are beginning as well. I’ll go to games at the junior college down the street and am looking forward to it. A lot of the year’s best movies come out in November and December to beat the deadline for Oscar nominations, and we’ve been enjoying some of the new fall TV lineup. Halloween’s one of my favorite holidays of the year, and Thanksgiving is often a time when we get together with J and K and our grandkids. Nearly all of our cultural subscriptions have started up their new seasons – chamber music, the symphony, the university music/theater series. We’ll go to see Dracula this weekend at Covedale. I’ve joined Katja in taking classes in the university’s “Learning in Retirement” program this fall, and that’s been interesting. All in all, we have a busy and enjoyable schedule.

Our nearby city park, Burnet Woods, keeps me aware of the changing seasons more than anyplace else. It’s because it takes up two-thirds of the walk between our house and the university, and so I go through the woods several times a week. Every season is beautiful there. The winter because of the ice and snow, spring with the buds and wildflowers, a lush green summer, and now the colorful autumn leaves. I stopped to take some photos on my way to the office today. Autumn’s looking great in Burnet Woods, and life is good.

Love,

Dave

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MARCH 2024 HOLIDAYS

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Sun., Mar. 10. Daylight Saving Time starts. Clocks move forward one hour at 2 a.m. // Sun., Mar. 17. St. Patrick’s Day. Celebrating one of Ireland’s patron saints and Irish-American culture in the U.S. // Wed., Mar. 20. Spring Equinox. One of two annual equinoxes in which the length of night and day are nearly equal. // Thurs., Mar. 21. World Poetry Day. Promoting linguistic expression through poetry. // Sat., Mar. 23. Purim starts. A Jewish holiday which commemorates Jews being saved from extermination in Persia. // (Source: wincalendar.com)

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According to ratings by the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, Cincinnati ranks 4th best in parks among the nation’s 100 largest cities. 88% of Cincinnati residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park. Neighborhoods where most people identify as a person of color have access to 4% less park space than those in predominantly white neighborhoods. Park amenities ranked high for Cincinnati in categories of basketball hoops, playgrounds, bathrooms, recreation, senior centers, and splash pads. Dog parks were much lower, only 1.6 dog parks per 100K people. Cities ranked higher than Cincinnati were Arlington, VA, St. Paul, MN, and Washington, D.C. (wcpo.com, 5-5-22)

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I have one pair of prescription glasses for reading, one for distance (driving, movies). I also have a dozen $1.00 reading glasses from the Dollar Store so I can keep my prescription pair permanently on our dining room table. Of course I lost my distance glasses two years ago. I’ve been sure they was somewhere around the house, but I’ve scoured everywhere. Last week I got ready to go to my writers group and picked out a pair of reading glasses from my bedside table. One had orange and purple rims, one green and yellow, and one dark brown. I chose the conservative dark brown pair. At my group I tried reading with them, but everything was blurry. I was sure they weren’t Katja’s glasses, but they certainly weren’t my reading glasses. Back home Katja suggested that maybe they were my distance glasses. I looked out the window, and the house down the block was in clearer focus. So my lost distance glasses have been sitting next to my bed for the past two years.

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Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1888. His father, a prosperous businessman, sent him to Milton Academy and Harvard where he excelled. At Harvard Eliot studied philosophy, earning a master’s degree under George Santayana. He then studied linguistics, poetry, and philosophy at the Sorbonne and at Oxford University, settling in England after his studies, working as a banker, and writing poetry. Eliot published his first masterpiece, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, in 1917, and he followed it with “The Waste Land” in 1922, a long poem that had tremendous impact on Western literature. Andrew Lloyd Webber adapted Eliot’s 1939 children’s book, “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” into the stage musical “Cats”, one of the longest-running shows in Broadway history. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1948, Eliot died in 1965. (Tessitore, Extraordinary American Writers, 2004)

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We watched the total eclipse on TV, not wanting to risk our retinas. I read “An Ode to April” at my writers’ group and watched episode 1 of Ripley on Netflix (too scary for Katja). I went to the fitness center and did FaceTime with Donna. Katja and I ate out at Dewey’s (pizza and salad), Izzie’s (pastrami Reuben), and Lil Goodies (softserve sundaes). We took the tax info to our accountant, too late and requiring an extesion. Katja went to the Hair Salon. We wound up the week with Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office, a chilling PBS drama.