The Conley Blawg

2012-01-24T09:44:00.000-08:00

I'd prefer a hundred or so of those new plastic bills, thanks!!

Just Got Back from Paris France

2011-05-17T07:41:00.000-07:00

If this was a bucket list item it was a darn good one. I certainly looked at the trip with apprehension, my balance, legs, and the fact I inhale things I shouldn't were a real concern. I had just had a bout of aspiration pneumonia, and my faithful Doc Bob decided I should take a course of anitbiotics with me 'in case'. Good decision. I was only 4 days in and something went in the wrong way. Next thing I've got that old feeling, a certain spot in my chest, a persistent cough and out came a weeks worth of pills which worked just fine. Too bad I'm a perpetual moron that way and some mixed nuts looked so good so sitting in a bar with a beer why not? Well, for a guy who can't manage to lick something off his finger, a mouthful of small pieces that will ot go down turned into sucking a bit of some nut into my lungs. Nice, I came home with the old feeling in my chest, and have just beat that. Now to find out what can I do about this long term. Stay tuned I guess.

Back to band practice with the horn last night. Well the Shriner's band is getting old, and even I had to replace the baritone horn with an alto, it's much lighter. I never played it before and was surprised I did so well. Now another band is asking me to come out so I guess this afternoon I'll give it a whirl. The Wednesday night Dutch Legion Band is also asking. Something to do.

My experience in Europe leads me to want to head back asap. What a great time. I loved everywhere we stayed and everything we did even if it killed my legs and feet on a daily basis.

Peripheral Neuropathy secondary to Cisplatin therapy is nasty. It comes and goes, burns, lets imaginary water run over you, cuts, and makes your fingers and legs numb. I'm lurching. Better than dead though, I guess.

It's very hard after spending every moment with someone you love deeply to suddenly come home and face the daily separation. The joy of discovery, of things being different was certainly a momentous occasion. Traveling from London to Edinburgh to Islay, Colonsay, Skye, Inverness, Amsterdam, Vienna, Saltzburg, Geneva, Staussburg, and Paris opened my eyes to new things. New attitudes. And an appreciation of the impact of the age of enlightenment. I think the fact that untreated my head and neck cancer was terminal, and the fact that they might not be able to cure it propelled me to reflect on many things. Can a value be put on one's life and it's contribution? My travel agent was the victim of a fire when I was an investigator. So I knew him before the fire, and he's a member of the Shrine as am I. However that was a bit of a defining moment for me.

I remember the call, about 8 p.m. on a cool late fall evening. Fire in an old section of Richmond Street. It was really not out when I arrived and I helped a bit with supervision of the overhaul and was left in charge of a crew. The fire had extended to the next structure's roof, and that was Jack's travel agency. He arrived on scene, but there was too much smoke so he couldn't come inside. He remarked just the other day at how much smoke I took, and how that might have caused cancer. But it was just one of probably 10 fires I investigated in the county that week, as was usual. Some very small. Others like this, much larger. I remember the initial discovery of the place the fire started, the basement of a church office. But it started on a desk, and there was no lamp. In fact no computer. But there were Playboy magazines and other stuff in the one open drawer that gave me concern. A witness saw the guy who's desk it was leave the building just before the fire, and what was he doing there on a weekend evening? I sealed the place up and put a police guard on it, made notes as to the point of origin and called in the detectives and when the smoke was clear they came in and I gave them the quick walk through and put together what we needed for a search warrant.

That scenario played out, an arrest was made. A conviction followed. But the real story was the travel agency. The roof was a huge hole. The firefighters had done the thing right, 'raided' the offices, putting all the computers and printers and phones on desks and covering them with tarps. There was water all over the first floor, but the far side of it was pretty good. I let the restoration people in and they moved all the electronics to their warehouse and got the dryers going in the room to get any moisture out. They sealed up and cleaned the far side of the building, where 4 agents sat, and all papers and tickets and stuff from the office was pretty much intact. That was Sunday a.m. and I had them bring in an electrician and we isolated the damaged second floor wiring and got the one side of the place back in operation. The computers were brought back and by Monday noon they were up and operating at half capacity, the rest of them working from home. I think at first Jack thought I was giving him special treatment and when a Chief came by he found out it was part of the 'service'. The fire department has a mandate to save things, people first, but get your business back running. This turned out to the start of the frustration to follow.

A building permit was required, and I knew how to do that. But the fire had damaged the hvac system, and the building division at City Hall refused to let work be done to fix the roof or systems until an architect and engineer submitted plans. I countered and ordered the roof closed in with a Fire Marshal's order and we stared all out war, they saying I could not let the roof be rebuilt to the old standard and I saying that it was required for the stability of the walls. I won, but got bloodied by my Chief who insisted I back off. Too bad for him that in reality once the order was written I was an assistant to the Fire Marshal of Ontario and it trumped him. Man was he upset. However, to this day Jack the travel agent holds the fire department in general in very high regard, they saved his paperwork and computers and phones, and I assisted him to get back running with a minimal loss. The hvac system and roof eventually took 9 weeks to get repaired. The perp got 3 years plus time served. He was trying to cover up the theft of funds and he later got some fraud charges to top things off.

So, there are a lot of those memories. I walked into band practice and a leading mason was sitting there, he was the chief electrical inspector and he started talking about an arson we did together out in the county. It seems like every other day I run into someone who I dealt with in one way or another. I know I should write some of those experiences down, perhaps it's my wee legacy.

2011-03-12T11:52:00.000-08:00

SNOW!

Different Ways to Share - Using Picasa Web Albums with Blogger

2011-03-11T18:55:00.000-08:00

Different Ways to Share - Using Picasa Web Albums with Blogger

Storm March 11

2011-03-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

This is a test of the blog and what I hope to do while in Europe. There will be pictures. And news.

I hope the pictures appear.

Saturday Musings

2010-07-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

Long time no blog. We took a long drive along Lake Erie to the east today. Sunny, no clouds and 28 C. I used to like the idea of great windmills. Not so sure anymore. They do go whoosh when you are close. That would disturb me. But when you are looking at birds and butterflies, and turkeys they seem like visual pollution. We saw a turkey hen with a dozen or so newly hatched chicks cross a road, but the ravine they went into was too steep and it happened too fast to be able to grab the camera.

Port Burwell was full of motorcycles. Went down to the beach and had some fries with gravy. Some of the first 'hard' food I've eaten if you don't count I had to spit out any hard cooked ends. No taste but it seems to be coming back.

A Short Reprieve

2010-06-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

I'm on a bit of a rest...subsequent to finding out I have cancer. I was just starting to learn a new instrument, and looking forward to the summer. Now I'm trying to hang in, day by day.

I hate not being able to taste, having no get up and go, having trouble swallowing, and being nauseated by everything. And maybe loosing a lot of weight was good, but not this way. My neck is burned from radiation, and my mouth and throat are raw. My few teeth hurt a lot.

Onwards and upwards, 11 more treatments and I'm outta there. It appears I need an operation to remove the wee lymph node that went from pea to Lemon in size, and after that let's hope the verdict is no more cancer.

Hope to be back with some new and old Masonic tunes. As soon as I can get there.

Masonic Tune/Hymn

2009-11-10T07:54:00.000-08:00

Aurelia, a tune written in the latter part of the 1800's has been used in numerous contexts. It has a 7676 meter, and is known by many who attend protestant churches as "The Church has one Foundation.."

It appears in several masonic music books, as "the Master Elect's Song", or Stand Forth O Worthy Craftsmen.

The Province of Cumberland and Westmorland Masons have it on their website as a PDF. As we are about to begin our annual Installations of new Lodge Masters this song would be a worthy inclusion in the ceremony as the Master Elect is presented.

Masonic Music

2009-11-06T05:43:00.000-08:00

As the organist for multiple levels of Masonic organizations, I have acquired a large collection of Masonic books related to music. I am attempting to organize a history of masonic music, from the first days of recorded masonry, to the present time, and to speculate on where music might fit into the future of masonry.

In the early days, during the age of enlightenment, music was a very important component in the lives of early masons. As society evolved (or devolved) the music went through major changes. This is not unique to masonry, it is the process that shaped society in general, through the coming Victorian era, and then the Post Victorian era. Post Victorian influences from the emergence of 'evangelical' movements, to the Temperance Movement, invaded Masonic Music Ritual, and the practices at the trestle board, or during the social hour.

I will discuss, in the next posting, a book published in Rhode Island, a book which my have had it's roots in a similar book published in Dublin about 1800. This book of songs, glees, canons, and hymns is a unique window into the masonic world at a specific point in time. Early music was passed from person to person, and performed. The early 17th century was devoid of phonographs, radios, mp3 players and electronic instruments. Most lodges would have no organ, nor piano, thus the music was sung by the memebers or a performer.

As we discuss the dozen or so Masonic Music books I have at present, we will look at how music enriched the lives of Masons. We will also examine Mozart, Sibelius, and other composers who have made an impact on society in general, and masonry in particular.

Photo from the park

2007-05-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

Victoria Day, Canada

2007-05-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

So it's Monday May 21. In Ontario Canada, the closest Monday to the 24th of May is Victoria Day weekend, and the Monday is a holiday. No stores open, no beer stores, no liquor or wine stores, well you can go to a pub.

Queen Victoria, the last teenager to be on the throne, remains a hero here. Of course, we call a 24 a case of 24 beers, and this is the kick off of the long weekend, celebrating the start of summer. On the other hand some of us have big summer solstace parties.

On the Victoria Day weekend we are allowed to buy fireworks for 3 days before, and let them off. The ony other day we can do that is July 1, which is Canada Day.

So, I've lifted a pint, and saw that the government buildings downtown were flying the Union Jack, and I sang God Save the Queen while I walked about a nice 20C cloudless day in downtown London Ontario, with a walk beside the Thames River. We walked up Queen St., King Street, and Dundas Street.

And I was in a parade in Woodstock and later in Thamesford.

Great fun.

Blog Changes

2007-05-20T08:45:00.000-07:00

So I've had nothing but grief with the orginal blog on my website so I've gone and made changes to where the blog is located.

It's Victoria Day weekend, and we in Canada still celebrate the birthday of a long gone queen. For which we are thankful. Renee-Marie is in Ottawa at francofest, a francophone weekend for french high school students, and Bob is busy with the social calendar of an 18 yr. old.

Other than that............not much.

Some horn practice, some flute, some keyboards, some cleaning and gardeneing.