Musings & Thoughts for Sunday, May 19, 2024, or: Weekend Part the First (Cloudy Day Edition)

Late Morning, Sunday, May 19, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire

Hi, everyone.

Well, it’s another gray and chilly (by my standards, anyway) spring day in New England. Currently, the temperature is 61°F (16°C) under cloudy skies. With humidity at 85% and the wind blowing from the east at 5 MPH (8 Km/H), the feels-like temperature is 66°F (19°C). Today’s forecast calls for continued cloudiness throughout the day. The high will be 66°F (19°C). Tonight, the skies should be mostly cloudy. The low will be 50°F (10°C).

I don’t have much in the way of news today, except to say that I didn’t work on Reunion: Coda yesterday. If the sun had been out, there’s a good chance that I might have, even though I was a bit tired and not feeling creative. I truly believe in a deep connection between weather and my emotions. Even in Florida, where it is far warmer than Madison, I tended to write more – and better – when it was sunny and brighter.  This is how I write in this corner of northern New England, where I keep my curtains open during the day. The sun makes me less sad and more productive even when it’s chilly outside.

I didn’t do much of anything yesterday. I tried to watch Titanic in the 4K UHD disc I gifted myself for my 61^st birthday in March, but I stopped the movie even before Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) wins the game of cards that changes his fortune and lands him aboard the doomed White Star Liner. Titanic is one of my favorite non-Star Wars movies, and I thought watching it might inspire me to at least start Scene Two of my novel’s newest chapter. Alas…I just wasn’t in the mood to watch it…or any other of the movies on my shelves.

I did spend a lot of time online yesterday, mostly on YouTube (where I watched The Historical Gamer play a game called Headquarters: World War II or something along those lines) and listened to two different versions of Johannes Brahms’ Poco allegretto (3^rd Movement from his Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 92).

One was the full orchestral version…

The other was a transcription of the Poco allegretto for solo piano, performed by pianist Tatiana Primak Khourif….

I first heard the Poco allegretto in my first semester at Miami-Dade Community College, South Campus, when I took the basic humanities class required for most of us who sought an associate of arts degree. I don’t remember, of course, how far along we were in the semester; too many years have passed since early 1985, after all. But I do remember how I felt when Prof. Jay Brown played the piece as part of his lesson on the Romantic era of the 19th century – the Poco allegretto being a beautiful yet haunting, melancholy theme.

I suppose I was drawn to that piece nearly 40 years ago because I am, at heart, a rank sentimentalist. (One of my English teachers in high school, once remarked that I am a Romantic as far as my artistic sensibilities go, so there’s that.) I was so moved when I first heard that Brahms piece that I had to bite my lip to keep from crying in front of my professor and fellow students.

I also played the Runway skirmish in Regiments on Medium difficulty, but it was late (9  PM) when I began, and I was tired and more than a tad depressed, so I quit after I captured Objective Zone Alfa with one of my NATO task forces.

After a late dinner of Campbell’s Pork & Beans and two fried eggs, I tried to end my Saturday night with a viewing of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (in glorious 4K UHD, at that). Alas, I was too tired and sleepy, so even though I watched more of Gareth Edwards’ direct prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope than I did of James Cameron’s “Romeo and Juliet in a sinking ship” epic, I didn’t finish that movie either.

Oh, well. Maybe I’ll watch Rogue One this afternoon and lose myself in that galaxy far, far away for a while.