I don't mean to neglect this page, really. It's only that it has become something of an afterthought when I don't have a regular internet connection and Comcast does not see it fit to install one when I ask them to.
So much has happened in the last 3 weeks. It's challenging to recall it all with the same color I usually lend my entries.
I suppose I'll start with my traffic accident. On October 11 I was hit by a car while riding my bicycle in the bike lane on Cambridge St. A car made a left turn into an alley directly into my path of travel and hit me, sending me over the top of his car and onto the street on the other side. By the will of some galactic predestination, I not only didn't hit my head on anything, I barely hit any part of me on anything. I took a good lump on my left leg, where the car struck me, and on my right elbow which was shielding my fragile cranium, but otherwise injury free. By another telling predestination, an ambulance was driving by at the exact moment I was struck. Before I had even hit the ground, the EMTs were on their feet.
So there's that: I went through a bicycle-versus-auto collision with no lasting damage. All in all pretty lucky, huh? Oh wait, my bike was destroyed. There is that.
I am sad that my bike was badly beaten. It was an
awesome machine, the best bike I have ever owned, without comparison. During the accident the front fork - which is carbon fiber - ripped in half, the handlebars compressed to half their size, the headtube twisted, the front wheel bent in half, the chainring dented...all sorts of nastiness. The one thing I can say is that were it not for the bike's inherent strength, I probably would have taken a much different path through the accident and possibly been injured more seriously.
So now it comes to buying a new bike. The insurance company of the other party will be paying for it, so I took the bike to one of Boston's best bike shops and had them write up a letter stating that it is a total loss, and quoting me on the cost to replace the bike, helmet, and cyclometer. This total comes out to be enough to buy the next model up on my previous bike's line, so i am debating whether or not to go that route. I can also claim as lost all the accessories which were on the bike at the time, which would raise the payout significantly to the point that I could easily afford the higher model and a better helmet, as well as some nifty new accessories, while at the same time salvaging some of the damaged-but-not-quite-totalled old parts, such as the very nice tires I had and the rack and pack. This may be the route I end up taking.
School is going well. I have lots and lots of work to do - don't we all - but I missed an entire week of solfege due to a cold and the associated inability to sing, and it's difficult to make those up when you still have to deal with the usual load of 3 sightsinging pieces a day. I will say this, though: My sightsinging has gotten much better in the last month and a half. Now if I could just my piano skills up to par...
I made good progress on saxophone through the first weeks of the semester, until I hit a rough patch in the last few. First came an ankle injury during a basketball game, so I couldn't stand while playing for several days, inhibiting my breathing ability; I fell ill, as previously mentioned, and had even further breathing problems; I was hit by a car and had bruising on my elbow sufficient enough to cause discomfort when playing for several days. However, all things have passed, and hopefully I can stay incident-free to the end of the semester and accomplish the goals I set for myself.
For the end of this semester I'll be finishing up the Ibert and putting away the Creston, and for next semester I'll take on the Dahl Concerto and the most challenging piece I'll yet face, the Fuzzy Bird Sonata. Ken is of the mind that I am already possessed of the skills necessary to perform the piece, having performed works of Ned Rorem in the past, but I am not quite so confident. Rorem and Yoshimatsu are very different, and Yoshimatsu very foreign to me, but I am nonetheless very excited.
Our quartet is progressing well. I have been very pleasantly surprised by our ability to put together complex pieces in very little time, and our ability to work together without conflict and in a singular direction. We may actually make an attempt at the Concerto Competition in the spring semester, something unusual for an ensemble that has been together for less than a semester.
I seem to have run out of things to say for now, so I will part and possibly post again in another 3 weeks.
