We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays on 7:45 pm at my place.
Please remember that with as few regular attenders as we have
right now, we especially appreciate dropin members, but we also
really appreciate them letting us know by Tuesday morning if
they’re dropping in.
We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays on 7:45 pm at my place.
Please remember that with as few regular attenders as we have
right now, we especially appreciate dropin members, but we also
really appreciate them letting us know by Tuesday morning if
they’re dropping in.
Sammy, the day before he died
Sammy was found in the parking lot of a Texas supermarket in May of 2001. The family who found him thought he was the perfect size, although since he was at that time between 6 and 8 months old, he of course grew quite a bit after that.
When he was about 5, he moved with his family from Texas to Massachusetts. He loved his family, which by now included a little brother, but the cold and snow and ice always seemed completely unnecessary to him.
In 2010, his father (now divorced) moved to an apartment in Waltham where he was assured keeping a dog would be fine. However, Sammy was by now quite arthritic in his hips, and very nervous around jumpy young dogs, and there was some incident with the landlady’s dog which enraged her and she insisted that he leave her house.
This was right after Sunny died, and a mutual fried arranged for us to be introduced, and Sammy came to live with me. He missed having his little brother to play with, but he liked the band soming over on Tuesdays to tell him how handsome he was, and the walks through Cambridge with all the other dogs to sniff. Also the living room window with a panoramic view of a busy street and the park across the street.
Unfortunately, in addition to all the other disadvantages of the New England climate, living with me meant he had to climb long flights of stairs to either go out or go to bed, and in winter weather, all the sidewalks in the park across the street are heavily crusted with salt, which hurts his paws.
Over the last few weeks, even walking on the flat on dry sidewalk has become increasingly difficult, and he’s been regularly having days when his legs collapsed under him whenever he tried to stand up. The last such day was Friday, February 14.
He weighed close to 70 pounds, so getting him up and down stairs when this was happening was difficult for both of us. He decided he didn’t want to go through this again, and stopped eating and drinking. I managed to drag him down the stairs on Saturday morning, and he had a bowel movement and go a passerby to pat him and tell him how handsome he was, but then getting back up the stairs was even harder than down, and I started making plans for getting someone to help me get him to the hospital.
We stayed up most of the night, listening to death music (The Saint Matthew Passion is what I’d want to go out to.) His Daddy came over at lunchtime on Sunday and agreed with me that if he wasn’t eating food with bacon grease in it, he should be able to end it. He carried him out to the car, and I drove him to the Angell Memorial Hospital. Sammy at the animal hospital. He enjoyed being on the stretcher and having all the pretty technicians tell him how handsome he was.
He perked up quite a bit when they lifted him out of the car and put him on a four-foot high cart and all the pretty technicians stood around and told him how handsome he was. He even ate some dog biscuits the vet offered him. But we were pretty sure he still didn’t want to go up those stairs ever again, and the vet said sometimes it was better to go out on a relative high note than a low note. So he got the shot and was gone in a couple of minutes. Sammy, at the animal hospital
We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays on 7:45 pm at my place.
Performing schedule
Church Service
We’ve been asked to perform on April 6 at the Community Church of
Boston for their 11am service. I’m thinking we might do some
of the Guerrero we’ve been enjoying.
Walk for Hunger
We have again been invited for the same slot as we’ve had since
1998 or so. This will be 10am until 3 pm on Sunday, May 4 on the
Charles River at the Cambridge-Watertown line. I’m thinking we’ll repeat whatever we end up
performing on April 6, and add some Spring music.
Signing up
If you want to perform at either or both of the above places,
please let me know. I can’t decide on repertoire until I know
who’s coming.
Exactly how much rehearsing for how long of a program (on May
4) is negotiable, but please plan on coming at least to the
rehearsal immediately preceding the performance. If you don’t
play with us regularly and know all our music, you should probably
come to a few more
rehearsals than that.
Other events
Delight Consort at Loring-Greenough
The Delight Consort will be performing a Presidents’
Day Special Program at the Loring-Greenough House, 12 South Street,
Jamaica Plain, MA, on February
16 at 3pm.
We resume our usual meetings on Tuesdays on 7:45 pm at my place.
Other events
Music
for Viols and Friends will perform the complete Dowland
Lachrimae at 8pm on Saturday January 25 and 3 pm on Sunday January
26.
Convivium Musicum will
perform Puccini’s Tosca with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra
on Sunday January 19, and a program entitled “Lost” on January 25
and 26.
No meeting reports
since we haven’t had a meeting since the last one. There was a
snow storm, and then it was Christmas Eve, and then it was New
Year’s Eve.
Regular meeting
There will be a meeting as usual tomorrow
night, January 7, at 7:45pm but my furnace isn’t working, so it
will be at Stuart’s. He lives at 1328 Broadway, Unit #2, in
Somerville, and his phone number is (617) 776-0065.
Another party
Although we just had a party, we’ve decided it’s time for
another one. Barney Gage will be in town for the weekend, so
anyone who wants to is welcome to come over to my place on Sunday
evening, January 12. Some of us will be at West Gallery in Newton
Highlands until 5, so the party can’t get started until 6 or so.
We will do some combination of eating, drinking, playing,
singing, and telling war stories. Let me know if you want to come
and whether you’re bringing food.
I’ve been counting votes in Cambridge instead of putting out
meeting reports, so here are several.
Meeting report, November 26
Loeillet, Sonata in A minor
Hymn tune warmups
Byrd, O Lord my God
Palestrina, Vestiva i Colli
Adieu mes amours, Des Prez, Moutons
Guerrero, Adios me amor
Cavendish, Come, gentle swains
Meeting report, December 3
Lots of Susato
Des Pres, Mille regrets
Susato, Les miens aussi
Lassus, Bonjours mon coeur
Certon, Chantons Noël
Praetorius, Lo how a rose
Star in the east
Meeting report, December 10
Deloach, A Baroque Christmas
Gaudeamus Pariter
Quem Pastores Laudavere
Arbeau, Bransle Officiele
Praetorius, Psallite, Von Himmel Hoch, In dulci jubilo, Puer
Natus
Josquin, Adieu mes amours, Mille regrets, O Venus bant
Carols
Schedule
We will meet as usual on December 17.
We will not meet on December 24.
I’m easy about meeting on December 31, but I would expect most
poeple to feel that they had something either more exciting or
less exciting that they’d prefer to do that evening, given we’re
having the party on January 1. Let me know by the December 17
meeting if you would like to come over on December 31. And
consider it a commitment – I’ll be annoyed if I turn down
invitations or don’t go to First Night and then nobody
shows up. I’ll schedule a meeting if at least two people want one.
The Christmas party is on January 1 at 4 PM. Please invite all
your friends, especially people you feel might be interested in
joining us on Tuesdays some of the time.
After that, we will resume meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place.
It will be at 4 PM on Wednesday, January 1, 2014 at 233 Broadway, Cambridge. Tell everybody you
know to bring everybody they know.
Bring any food or drink you want to share, any instruments you
want to play, and a cheerful voice. If there’s music you
want to do, bring 10 copies or so.
![[Sammy]](http://serpentpublications.org/laymusic/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-02-15-17.57.42.jpg)
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