
Greetings, Dear Reader. It’s almost late morning on Tuesday, October 20, 2020 here in New Hometown, Florida, and it looks as though the day’s weather is going to be a repeat of yesterday’s cloudy/rainy experience. Right now, things aren’t too bad; the temperature is 76 ˚F (25˚C) under partly sunny skies. With humidity at 94% and the wind blowing from the east-northeast at 7 MPH (11 KM/H), the feels-like temperature is 76 ˚F (25˚C).
The forecast for the rest of the day calls for a high of 86˚F (30˚C) and increasing cloudiness. In the evening, rain showers are expected, and the low temperature tonight will be 74˚F (23˚C). So if I’m going to venture out, my best option is to go as soon as I take my shower, wash my hair, and get into my “street clothes.”

Today is the day that Amazon is supposed to deliver my copy of John Williams In Vienna [CD/Blu-Ray Deluxe Edition],a two-disc (1 compact disc, 1 Blu-ray) Deutsche Grammophon album featuring a concert performance of some of John Williams’ iconic film score themes by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (Wiener Philharmoniker) and German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter under the baton of Maestro Williams himself. I bought this deluxe edition on my mom’s 92nd birthday because even though I have plenty of albums of Williams’ music – including original motion picture soundtracks, recordings made during his 1980-1993 stint as conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra (where he is still its Laureate Conductor), and even a few “cover” albums – I don’t have any Blu-rays or DVDs of the Evening at Pops PBS-TV series from the Eighties and early Nineties. This is the next best thing to that, so I bought it.[1]
As of this blog post, my set of John Williams In Vienna [CD/Blu-Ray Deluxe Edition] is not yet Out for Delivery per its last status on my Amazon orders page. As of 3:34 AM Eastern, it arrived at a carrier facility 16.7 miles away from the house. Amazon usually sends out its delivery drivers around 10 AM or so, so I should have this package in my hands sometime before 4 or 5 PM, though the Deliver By deadline is 9 PM.
On a more somber note, today is the eighth anniversary of the last time that my mom was willing to be taken out on her wheelchair – which was provided by the state of Florida as part of her Medicaid benefits – for a ride around the “Big Block” in East Wind Lake Village. We – Mom, our home health aide, my older half-sister Vicky (sometimes), and I – would go out on sunny days (such as on October 20, 2012) to make sure she got some fresh air and sunshine.

At first, Mom was cooperative and enjoyed these 25-30 minute trips outside of our townhouse. But as time passed (her ordeal began in the spring of 2010 and ended – with her death – on July 19, 2015), she became less enthusiastic. Depression, dementia, and her frail state of body and mind robbed her of her love of the outdoors.
I’m not sure what my plans for the rest of today are. More than likely they’ll involve writing of some sort; I am, after all, a writer, even though as of late I’m more of a blogger than I am a writer of fiction in any format. If I can get motivated, I might write a review of something, or maybe another op-ed piece about politics or the COVID-19 pandemic.

I should wrap this post up and go tend to my personal hygiene routine; I do need to go for that walk before the weather starts to deteriorate, and a little time outside of the house will do me some good. I’ve always been a homebody, even when I lived in Miami, but in New Hometown I have become too much of a recluse, and it is not doing my mental health any good. So…yeah…I need to go out and maybe take a book, sit on one of the park benches, and read for maybe half and hour while getting some fresh air and sunshine.
So, until next post, Dear Reader, I hope you stay safe and healthy, and I’ll see you later.
[1] The closest thing I have to a Boston Pops Orchestra Blu-ray is A John Williams Celebration, a 2015 release from Germany’s C-Major Entertainment that presents the opening night concert at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra’s new home, the Walt Disney Concert Hall. This was an all-John Williams program featuring a composition – Soundings – which was commissioned for the occasion. However, the Academy Award-winning Williams is mostly seen as the guest of honor while the conductor of the LAPO, Gustavo Dudamel, does most of the work onstage. Williams only conducts one piece in the 85-minute program – The Imperial March from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
I still hope to find a DVD or Blu-ray with performances from Maestro Williams’ Boston Pops years. If not on Amazon, perhaps from another source. Surely there is one, no?