One of the greatest parts of being in a Jewish choral group is singing psalms in the original language, where they scan the way they’re supposed to and you can feel that, although you don’t have any idea what the tune was in the first place, you’re singing at least words that people sung 2500 …
Author Archives: deanb
Techline
Placewares, the former Boston area store chain that specialized in ‘places to put your things’, used to sell a line of furniture called Techline. The pieces all came knocked down, like Ikea stuff, and had to be assembled. They’re nice and sturdy, with a heavy laminate or thick enamel finish over chipboard. We have several …
Tile Saw
I forgot to say, one of the things I did last Sunday was use Matt’s tile saw to cut pieces to finish the hearth overlay for the Maine house. There’s a wood stove, but the brick hearth under it only extends a few inches from the front of the stove. Now, normally you open the …
Ignoring the Super Bowl Weekend
We were in Maine again this weekend. There was a lot of fog going up on Friday evening. We stayed on route 302 through Windham rather than taking the longer but faster but less traveled route through Gray, which had seemed very slow in the fog two weeks ago. The Windham route was still slow …
BBQ
The plant cafeteria had a special superbowl tailgate barbecue lunch yesterday, and I couldn’t resist. It wasn’t at all bad. Besides lots of ribs (and that was after I told the cook, “I’m a small guy, give me a small batch of ribs”) there was cornbread, baked beans, cole slaw, and corn. I would have …
But will I read them?
I jumped out of bed this morning and shaved in cold water, but it was still late by the time I left for work after the plumbers had removed our old water heater. I went to City Hall to pay the real estate tax, and then across the street to the library to return one …
Hot Water
When I got home from klezmer class last night Arlene said, “We have a problem. There’s water in the basement and the hot water heater is broken”. We’ve replaced our water heater twice before in this house. This one turned out to be just under ten years old, and since it was a warrantee replacement …
Two Songs by Request
Our starting piano player at klezmer class told us two weeks ago that she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. Not only did she tell us, but when our 80-something violinist, who’s a little hard of hearing, asked what was going on, the pianist had to repeat it, twice, louder and louder. I couldn’t …
PT
At my physical therapy appointment today, I thought someone who walked out of a small room a couple of tables away looked and sounded familiar. I asked my therapist, “is that ?” Yes. That was my last appointment there. The muscle spasm in my back is really gone. I’ve been typing and writing for much …
RI Day
Zum Gali Gali Rubber Stamps was invited to present a workshop at a Jewish education conference in Rhode Island that was today. The conference was on integrating art into Jewish education. The keynote speaker talked about theories of multiple intelligence, teaching with art, and teaching by art. Arlene had prepared a big display board with …