Reflections in Mid-summer, 2017

It's been a fairly leisurely summer. I've been able to get up to the cottage about 4 times since April. One thing that I'm kind of excited about is the outdoor shower that I connected back in July. Next step is to play around with getting some solar-heated water!

We've just been caught up for the last few days getting Olivia moved out to an apartment over near Wentworth. Back in June we gave her and boyfriend Matt that we were not going to be able to sustain having both of them living in our basement beyond the end of August. They decided to leave and find their own place.

Now we're doing a big switch with Ian moving into the basement bedroom, and setting up his recording stuff in the music room. He's also going to put a desk in the rec room area.

Tomorrow is a fun gig at Gore Park. Nathan fleet will have a video crew there, and Tom Bigas will be doing our sound, since we got rained out a few weeks ago at the Waterfront Stage. Then, I'm having a coffee with drum dude Corey Pearce. Not sure what he wants. Last time we met he asked me to join the board for Impact Percussion.

On Wednesday Brenda and I are going to officer training for the Musicians Guild for two days. Then on Friday the Canadian Conference of Musicians gets started and goes until Sunday.

Week after that, I'm hoping Brenda and I will head up north on Wednesday for a couple of weeks. Aaah, the real holiday part of our summer!

Taking Care of Mom

It's November 18, 2016.

Mom is 89 years old today and I'm here with her now.

I'm sitting on the new couch at Palermo, waiting and listening while the nurse Sandy (short from Sandipat) gently talks mom through the Pas de Deux called Having A Shower. I'm glad we have Sandy here to help in this way. Mom's got a hospital-type bed in the living room. It's right next to the sunny doorway onto their patio deck, and on the other side of the bed is the piano.

I'm here for a few hours while dad goes to the hospital for a heart stress test. He's had his own health issues springing up during these past several months. He thinks he might have to get another stint installed. He recently had a pacemaker put in, and a few years before that he had stints put in. Which reminds me, brother Gerry had a couple of stints put in last summer. Just like that he went from 90% blockage and regular chest pains to "normal."

Mom's heart is a trooper, but these days it is under seige. She's been losing weight and is down to about 100lbs. The muscles of her heart are deteriorating steadily. It's like the central power station is on the fritz. It affects all of her systems and her thinking from time to time. She's very, very tired. On oxygen all the time.

I'm glad I can be here with her today.

"Glen I want out of here," I hear her voice from the bathroom. She is sitting in the shower and wants to get out. So I go into the bathroom and Sandy and I lift mom off the shower seat and into the chair. Mom doesn't want to get dressed in the bathroom; she wants to go into the bedroom to get dressed, so that's what we do.

The green outfit is one of mom's favourites. In a few minutes we've got her hair brushed and she perked up for a nice birthday photo.

Happy Birthday Mom!

For another article about Mom called Dorothy Jean Brown, Loving and Caring click  https://brown-history.blogspot.com/2016/12/dorothy-jean-brown.html

My son Ian composed and recorded this with his friend Brock Hewitt yesterday. I'm glad I could loan him the car to go to Waterdown where the studio is. It's a damn fine piece of writing. #kudos

Hamilton Musician Media

What I'm Reading - Feb 2016

Title: The Industries of the Future

Author:  Alec Ross

The book explores how technological developments and global shifts and trends will create our future, whether we like it or not. 

Key idea: "Societies that do not overcome their negative cultural legacies regarding the treatment of women will founder in the next wave of innovation."

1. Here Come The Robots

LIASMA - This is my acronym for LIfe ASsist MAchine. As it turns out, aging populations in many developed countries will not have enough people available to care for them. The answer is already being developed in Japan, where research and development of assistive robots is underway. How do you feel about a robot brushing your mom's teeth, or helping her get out of bed? 

The combination of cultural, demographic, and technological factors means that we will get our first glimpse of a world full of robots in East Asia.

2. Genetics and Genomics: The Future of the Human Machine

Many of the most powerful Chinese leaders believe that genomics is the next trillion-dollar industry, and they are determined to be its leader.