Musings & Thoughts for Wednesday, January 24, 2024, or: More (Light) Snow, More Work on Reunion: Coda

Late Morning, Wednesday, January 24, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire

Hi, folks, and welcome to another edition of A Certain Point of View, Too. It’s a gray, chilly, and sometimes snowy day here in my corner of Madison. Currently, the temperature is 22°F (-5°C) under cloudy skies. With the wind blowing from the north-northeast at 1 MPH (2 KMH) and humidity at 81%, the feels-like temperature is 32°F (0°C). The forecast for today calls for occasional light snowfalls, mostly in the late afternoon and early evening, and the high will be 29°F (-2°C). Tonight, we can expect a scattered mix of rain and snow showers. The low will be 22°F (-5°C)

As I write this, it’s almost 10 AM, and there seems to be a pause in the snowfall. There were a few flurries earlier – I could see white flakes drifting down amidst a backdrop of gray-hued bare trees and falling on the already impressive snowdrifts left behind by previous winter storms that passed through the Madison-North Conway area late last week. If the forecast is at all accurate, the snow won’t resume till after sunset, so I should be able to at least walk out to the front yard and get some sunshine and fresh air.

Will I go outside in 22°F (-5°C) temperatures and gloomy, cloudy skies? I honestly don’t know. I’ve wandered beyond the front door on cold days before, but the sun was out and the skies were clear, or mostly so. From what I see when I look out through my office window, though, I feel like I stepped into a Currier & Ives print or a Stephen King novel. The clouds are like a blanket of various shades of gray – probably 50 or more shades, at that – and the snow sticking to the trunks and branches of the bare trees gives everything a weird duotone look. Not exactly “go outside” weather, I think. It’s more of a “stay inside and drink hot cocoa while listening to music or reading a book” day.

We’ll see, though, what develops.

Edited to add: I went outside at 11:35 AM EST. It’s 22 degrees Fahrenheit (-5 degrees Celsius, and some snowflakes were falling. Not more than a light dusting, but it was still snow…and it’s chilly!

On Writing & Storytelling: The ‘One with the Emails’ Inches Closer to A Climax…One Transatlantic Missive at a Time

Since my writing days seem to fall into the same pattern – I work on my blog in the morning, take a rest break between noon and two in the afternoon, and work on Reunion: Coda till sunset or as far afterward as my stamina and enthusiasm levels take me, I will not subject you to a blow-by-blow account of yesterday’s “authorial exertions.” Suffice it to say that I didn’t start precisely when I planned, and that I worked on Jim’s email to Maddie till 7:30 PM. (I finished the first draft around 4:45 PM, but I made several revisions to the text after getting some feedback from my friend Juan Carlos Hernandez via email.)

So, without further ado, here’s an excerpt from Jim’s reply to Maddie’s last email for March 8, 2000:

Subject: Eagerly Awaiting Your Return

Dear Maddie,

I just got back home to my apartment after putting in another day at the University.  It’s just past 8 PM here, and even though I am a bit tired (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays tend to be my longest and busiest simply because of the number of classes I teach, not to mention the paperwork and other stuff I do during my office hours), I had to check my email to see how your day went.

Oh, sweetheart! I’m so glad that the recording sessions ended well for you and your fellow musicians of the Philharmonic, even if there were some bumps on the way to the finish line. So, no last-minute “pick-ups” or do-overs for any of the three pieces? As some of my younger students might say, “That’s hella good!”

I’m also over the moon at the prospect of you flying back to New York on Friday! Do you know what time your flight will arrive at JFK? I can take a cab and greet you there if you want. Please, let me know as soon as possible; I can probably arrange for a teaching assistant to cover for me if your ETA coincides with one of my late afternoon classes. It might not be easy, but I do have some clout in the History Department, and my boss likes me, so….

I must say that I was moved by your account of what happened with Evelyn during the first attempt to record Rhapsody in Blue this morning. I can only imagine how embarrassed she must have been when she hit that one sour note when she played the opening glissando – that clarinet solo intro is so iconic, so for such an accomplished clarinetist to, as you say, “bodge” it…must have been incredibly mortifying.

I am glad that you went over to her after that musical hiccup to console her and bolster her spirits. That was a kind and thoughtful gesture on your part, and I’m glad that Evelyn was able to put her anxieties and embarrassment aside thanks to your gentle hug and soothing words. I’m so proud of you – you’re not only a talented pianist, but you’re kindhearted and very much a team player.

(You’re also lucky that your conductor has good leadership skills and isn’t, at least from what you’ve told me about him, one of those tyrannical music directors who have loads of musical talent but suffer from a shortage of “people skills.” Otherwise, Maestro Masur might have speared you with the Glare of Death for leaving your place at the piano, even if it was only for a brief moment.)

Incidentally, I was taking a brief walk on the campus grounds just past Avery Hall, which is the home of Columbia University’s Architecture Department just as the sun was setting. I’m normally in my office inside Fayerweather Hall at that hour, but I needed to stretch my legs and get some fresh air even though the skies were partly cloudy, and the temperature was in the 50s. The sun was sinking below the horizon, and its reddish-gold glow was giving the gray clouds highlights with salmon pink and purple hues. Of course, there was the usual mix of people walking from building to building, some of them at a brisk pace to escape the chill of the dying day, while others, including me, weren’t in a rush to get back in. In some spaces, you could see the occasional smokers taking drags from their Marlboros, Pall Malls, or even Virginia Slims and blowing out blue-white puffs of tobacco smoke.

 (I usually avoid lingering in those areas; my mom smoked constantly till she quit in 1994, and I never did like the pungent smell of cigarette smoke that permeated our house all the time. I never smoked a coffin nail in my life, yet when I was at South Miami High School back in the day, people were always bugging me for a cigarette cos my jacket reeked of second-hand smoke. Ugh.)

Anyway, honey, apparently the universe was in harmony with us, because according to YoWindow, the sunset here was at 5:57 PM Eastern, or 10:57 London time, which was when you sent me your email.

Action This Day

Since today is Wednesday (aka “Hump Day”) and part of my regular workweek, my “game plan” for the rest of this grey, cold, and somewhat melancholic day is simple: I’ll follow my set Writing Day schedule and, regardless of the exact start time (I’ll try to shoot for a 1 PM “launch” if I can), write one or two emails in the Jim-Maddie transatlantic correspondence. If you’ve followed the epistolary chapter, you doubtlessly know that Maddie and the New York Philharmonic – for which she is the principal pianist – have just finished recording a new album at London’s Abbey Road Studios, and she has just told Jim, Reunion: Coda’s college professor narrator/protagonist, that she and her fellow musicians are flying home soon.

Since I wrote a “Jim-to-Maddie” email yesterday, it is a safe bet that today I’ll work on Maddie’s response. I always enjoy writing for her – she’s talented, intelligent, effervescent, charming, kind-hearted, playful, sophisticated, beautiful, and, as her relationship with Jim deepens and evolves, romantic and sexy.  I love all of my characters, including my original trio from Reunion – Jim, his best friend Mark Prieto, and Marty, Jim’s high school “crush” – but in Reunion: Coda, Maddie is my “favorite kid.”

If I get an early enough start on Maddie’s next email, and if I’m not exhausted when I finish it, I’ll write another one from Jim to push the chapter forward and closer to an end. (I’ve been working on this chapter since October; I’m beyond ready to finish it. I won’t rush it to completion, though. Haste, as the saying goes, makes waste.)

Anyway, that’s all I have to say for now, so…adios, amigos!