Days to go: 948 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 52: I learned Variation III at home in the air conditioning -- oops, I mean on the piano. The three-part manual "sinfonia" above the passacaglia theme was so technically interwoven that I couldn't separate out the Left Hand. So I just played the variation HT 32 times.

Before you ask, no, I don't have OCD. I just find Dupre's method effective and efficient, and I believe it saves time in the long run.

Today Karen, my CAREpath nurse, asked if I had ever tried any visualisation (I guess as an aid to relaxing). I didn't mention the air practicing, but I did tell her about the Sacred Heart picture at St. Patrick's and St. Leo's, and how I imagined the rays -- red (for Jesus?) and blue (for Mary?) -- shining, like gentle sunbeams, from His heart into my body during radiation treatment.

This visualisation is quite comforting when I am inside the TOMO machine. Instead of listening to the machine I sing a verse of Silent Night in my head: "...Love's pure light....radiant beams...". A bit ridiculous, maybe, but it helps.

"Unless you are willing to do the ridiculous, God will not do the miraculous." (Mother Angelica, EWTN)

Days to go: 963 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 37: Planned to stop by St. Leo's this morning. It was locked. Note to self: the church is closed on Tuesdays. So I drove on to Bowmanville and air-practiced the passacaglia theme (a short pedal solo) when I got there, while watching "The Young and the Restless" with my sisters.

And I wonder why I have trouble air-practicing?

Lots of details to look after at the 'Brook tomorrow as radiation starts. It really helps to have been through it already. I also feel a strong need for personal space this time around. I don't really understand this feeling right now but I will go with it anyway.

It is kind of weird, but I didn't feel right missing my "fix" of practicing today. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. But then again, as Seneca said, "One should count each day a separate life."

Days to go: 976 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 24: Air practicing: EPIC FAIL!!!

Days to go: 977 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 23: This will be a short post because I still have to air practice. I'm on nephew Jim's computer, listening to some Bach from Iceberg Radio:

http://www.icebergradio.com

After discussion with TPTB (the very nice powers that be, I might add) at OTIP, it looks like no school for me in September but yes to volunteer work instead. For now. I am relieved. I have medical appointments lined up already and I just don't think it is the best thing for my grade niners to have subs at irregular times their first few weeks at school. So they will have one LTO instead, which will be better for them.

That Bach I'm listening to is so wonderful...I could just get lost in it. I remember so clearly Dr. Regula Qureshi playing a Bach chaconne on the cello in St. Joseph's Chapel (U of AB) at the blessing of the school year a long time ago. It was beyond classy.

Right, ONWARD, to air practice the exposition of the fugue. Hmmmm, I wonder if that Mike's hard pomegranate lemonade I just drank will have any effect on my concentration?

Nah.