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On Sept. 1, 2009 I decided to retire from full time work after more than 32 years or service. Though I worked at the same location over most of that time period the company changed from Ontario Hydro to Ontario Power Generation and now it is Kinectrics.

At this point I have many options (of things to do) which include, in no particular order and certainly not limited to:

• Home renovations e.g. en-suite bathroom, kitchen, wall-to-wall carpeting -> hardwood flooring
• Professional Engineering work on a contractual basis
• Quality Assurance inspection work in my areas of QA expertise ISO9000, Z299.x, ISO 17025
• Gardening and pruning, either my own or by contract.
• Implement the recommendations of the Home Energy Audit. The furnace, AC and hot water heater have been replaced with more energy efficient alternatives.
• Take time to read the paper.
• Walk the dog.
• Continue to run 5 to 10 km several times per week.
• Update this blog a little more regularly.
• Continue singing in choirs.

According to the PEO I can’t use consulting or consultant and engineer in my job title unless I have a specific license so I’ll represent myself as an Associate on my website.

Jim Service, P. Eng.

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There was a line up to exit through the small GO station at Kipling. Instead of patrolling the train to check for stamped tickets, the GO Transit police were checking passengers as they funnelled into the station. It looked to me like they already had a haul of half a dozen miscreants who had some “splainin” to do. Personally I think a 3 or 4 dollar fare is much cheaper than a $90 fine.

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In the it’s-obvious-to-me department, this article refers to a study at McMaster U. Men make irrational decisions when presented with “pretty women” choices. Women don’t make the same choices about handsome men. Or was it males who were conducting the study and their definition of handsome men isn’t the same as a female. Whatever. I know I have made a few kooky moves in my life because of pretty women but fortunately they are just funny incidents which would be too embarassing to relate. There’s no lost money or a wrecked marriage.

Besides, writing this little article gives me a chance to put a picture of a pretty woman beside it. The CBC used a not very pretty picture of Julia Roberts.

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On the way home from choir rehearsal, my wife and I visited the new Sam’s Club in Etobicoke about midway between my work and Sherway Gardens on North Queen. If I didn’t know it was Sam’s Club, I would have said I was in my local (Mississauga/Oakville) Costco. Same layout, pretty well the same mix of products (Though we noted some stuff that would probably be available at Walmart without having to pay a membership fee.) and about the same prices. Hmmm. It was pretty easy choice not to join up: there’s not enough to distinguish the “club” from Costco. Especially since there is also a Costco not far from my work, too. I guess the GTA hasn’t been big box store saturated yet.

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In this CBC news article, Canadian Alliance MP Peter Goldring is pushing once again for Canada to annex the Turks and Caicos islands in the Caribbean as our 11^th province. The islands are west of Cuba and north of Haiti. Sounds good to me—fun in the tropical sun without needing a passport.

In other (probably unrelated) news, the American travel guide folks at Fodor’s, for $600,000, published a magazine for the Canadian Tourism Commission. Several cities and a couple of provinces were left off the map while other names were misspelled. Look for the special fall errata issue!

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I guess it had to happen sooner or later. I was in-line skating home along an asphalt path which winds its way through the woods. I’d been through there a couple of days ago — no problems. Today there was a stick which I went around except there were a couple of muddy patches immediately after. So, I made an unexpected road rash stop: some abrasions on my left arm and much more on my left leg (a bit like the image). I skated home, cleaned them up and smeared antibiotic ointment all over the “affected areas.”After I have a shower tonight, I’ll try out those new gel bandages you can leave on for a couple of days.

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I finally took out the rest of the thorn bushes on the park side of the fence ^{[1], [2]}. I wore sweat pants, gloves, steel toed shoes and long sleeve shirt but still managed to get stabbed by the thorns on the hands and ankles. While I was tying one bundle a mere slip of branch sproinged near my face and stabbed my lip. The nerve! I was wearing safety glasses fortunately. The thorn bush I cut to the stump last year didn’t seem to recover so I’m hoping I’ll be as lucky with these nasty ones. Shortly, I’ll move the forsythia in the side yard out to replace those thorny bushes. The former shrub just grows too vigourously for the small space it’s in.

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Some people seem to want varmints as pets. Now there’s a bunch of prarie dog owners with monkey pox. These “dogs”got the disease from a Gambian giant rat at a pet distributor in the Chicago area. Apparently you can only get it from scratches or bites from infected animals and it is a milder form of smallpox. I’ll stick to keeping cats, dogs, song birds and tropical fish, thanks. I don’t have any of these animals, by the way. I just know people who do.

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Despite the clematis vine and trellis right beside the deck, I installed the penultimate railing post pretty quickly this evening. One more to go at the corner and then I’ll be ready to tackle the railings. I plan to take Thursday and Friday off to start this. However on Thursday I’ll be up bright and early at 5 a.m. ish to take my wife to the airport. She’ll be going stateside for a visit. My son and I will be on our own until Sunday.

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I required an extra cup of coffee — I attended a training session on the “Project Builder”module of our new SAP “do-everything”accounting and project management system. Tomorrow we look at the revenue side: I can hardly wait (zzzzzzz!). Perhaps, when I have more time I’ll take some screen shots and discuss the SAP method of interface design. Obviously the SAP people have never used Microsoft, Apple or even looked at Xerox Parc's original GUI designs. Very busy, very complex and very non-standard even between their own screens.

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The only poignant note at my high school reunion was to find out a very dear friend, my first vocal teacher, mentor, choir director and organist died in a “single vehicle”accident several years ago. He’d probably be in 70’s if were living. I suspect he terminated his own life — probably due to a terminal illness diagnosis. He had told me on several occasions he would probably end his life by crashing his car into a concrete abutment. John Herbert Purdy, the man I could call my “father”(My biological father only participated in my life as a visitor once or twice a month for a couple of hours ever since my parents separated and then divorced when I was 13.). My second “vocation”as chorister and singer was greatly encouraged by this man. And, as I have said before, I met my wife in his choir and I know he was instrumental in nudging me towards getting to know this loving woman: “I have these two ballet tickets I can’t use, why don’t you take Julie?”Since he moved away from Toronto and I had moved out to Mississauga we had lost touch: probably on purpose. John liked to move every once in awhile and “start over again.”As a church organist he usually stayed on three years; after that time period church people usually seemed to take him for granted. He hated that. About ten years ago he did manage to come to a concert, I forget if my wife or I were soloists or not at that time. Anyway, I’m sure he knew that we were still together (married 25 years next month!) and still singing.

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Should be a blast with over four hundred adults between 20 and 30 years out of high school being 18 and 19 year olds again. Will we have time to dance and carouse with all those years of catching up to do? I see from the attendee list, mailed late last night, some of our teachers and principals will also attend. Of course I’ll have to behave anyway since I’m bringing my wife. )

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The co-ordinator of the 70’s reunion party for Malvern Collegiate Institute’s 100^th anniversary asked for people to scan their pictures from the yearbook, the Muse. It turns most either don’t have a scanner or their 1973 Muse has disappeared. As the weather has been very dull and rainy for the last couple of days, I scanned in the Grade 13 “grad”pages of my copy of the 1973 yearbook. (I only had to erase one mustache — and no blackened teeth! I must have been more mature than I thought. I sometimes wonder about my 18 year old son in Grade 13, perhaps I worry too much. I certainly have a completely different perspective being a parent now rather than the “young punk”I once might have been.)

I sent Madame Coordinator the following links to class pictures: 13A, 13B, 13C, 13D, 13E, and 13F. Looking at my classmates' pictures brings back memories: girls I had a crush on, my friends, those I loathed (not too many of those) and some people I have absolutely no recollection of. Of course I had more hair back then and zits would have been a problem sometimes. Unlike my more hirsute classmates, I don’t think I was shaving regularly until my 20’s. Yes, it will be interesting indeed next week to see what my classmates of thirty years ago look like now and what they are doing. Will I recognize them, will they recognize me?

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I went shopping today. The first big box lumber store didn’t have what I was looking for, though I did buy a flush trimmer bit for my router. The sales clerk commented on the price (about $30). I told her routers were like printers, they’re cheap but the accessories (bits or cartridges) cost an arm and a leg. As I was in this shopping kind of mood I tried the other big box lumber store in the area and found what I wanted: the PT spindles (balasters), newel posts, top rails and 2×4 bottom rails to surround my deck. I bought about 100 spindles though I will probably be returning some. Spent probably half a grand on this stuff. Though the deck is only 18 to 20 inches off the ground, we wouldn’t be able to entertain our friends with the one year old on the deck without a railing. And since I am building a railing I thought it would be nice to have spindles rather than the square balusters and boards that used to be there.

Tonight I tried the flush trimming bit to trim the deck boards flush with the joists.. I wore safety glasses, face mask because it is pressure-treated lumber. I guess I should have checked the little allen screw that holds the bearing on the bit. It fell out in the lawn and debris around the deck. Not to worry though — I got the big 4”diameter magnet I salvaged from a speaker years ago. A few swishes back and forth located the little screw; which I tightened securely this time. On the other side of the deck there was a lot more trimming to do so I did the first pass with my circular saw. I had to use my dovetail to cut off that piece right by the house wall.

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It took me, maybe, two hours to dig a 70cm diameter hole out of the sod, 10cm of so-called topsoil and the 30 cm of “virgin clay”full of tree roots, rocks and one piece of cinder block in the middle of our front yard. I made a trip to the local big-box store and bought two 3.8m³ bales of peat moss. Most of the clay I layered on my compost as it eventually breaks up and “soilifies.”The rest of the soil from the hole I mixed with sand, peat moss and sifted compost to lighten its texture. It only took about half an hour to dig up the Rose of Sharon plant from its too shady location under the magnolia to move it to its new sunny location in the middle of the front lawn. I guess that shrub has been there at least five years — its largest trunk is 5cm in diameter. Back then the magnolia used to be a shrub, too. Now I can look straight out at the magnolia’s branches from my second story window. Hopefully, after the rose of sharon recovers, it will do better out of the magnolia’s shade. I moved the shrub now because it’s the last to leaf out in the spring.

While running this afternoon I saw my pet peeve. Why do parents buy those large battery-operated cars? Kids should be running around in this nice weather and getting some exercise.

This evening’s homework was proving trigonometric identities. We had a problem with one question and I finally determined that it was actually wrong. We’ll see what my son’s teacher says.

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Normally it’s pretty dull in Etobicoke, the former western suburb of Toronto where I work. Apparently someone on a backhoe doing storm sewer work near Bloor and Kipling cut through the gas main (Uh-Oh!) yesterday afternoon. Before the workers could summon help, the natural gas leaked into the basement of a nearby strip plaza and apartments and ignited. BOOM! The plaza was reduced to rubble and, unfortunately, six people were killed. I feel very sad about the owner of the family dry cleaner business in that plaza. He had just stepped out to get a coffee when the explosion happened. His wife and daughter were crushed inside. There were still lots of news vehicles and bystanders when I walked up today at lunchtime. I think nearby residents would rather Etobicoke go back to being dull.

Articles: insidetoronto, The Globe and Mail, Canada.com and a video

I had my own gas line cutting incident several years ago when I was putting in a fence post. The hole was nowhere near the line marked on the grass by the “Call before you dig”person. The gas lines are plastic so when I felt a bit of resistance I figured it was rock or a tree root: so I jumped on my spade. Uh-oh! I quickly shoved the heavy clay back in the hole and called the gas company. That sure was an expensive fence post — probably $300 in repair labour and gas charges. Only later did I read the fine print on the buried gas line notice that the error for the line on the grass was ±1 meter. Perhaps the backhoe operator or his foreman thought the gas line was exactly where it had been marked and that they were digging nowhere near it, too.

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Now that the evenings are longer I can go out after supper and see what has survived the winter. Several new (to my garden) perenials have survived including oriental poppies, large iris and early daylilies. On the weekend I collected old plant stalks and this evening I ran them through the leaf mulcher-vacuum. I just prop it on the handles of my wheelbarrow, support the bag on a bucket and then carefully feed everything in the tube. As I probably have mentionned before I now have sustained compost production. I put all the coarse stuff (e.g. sticks and pine cones) out for the yard waste pickup and the chopped up stuff goes into the composters. It decays pretty fast (a couple of months or less) depending on temperature, dampness and whether I’ve had the inclination to mix it up.

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How about that. I have my wife and my tax returns ‘netfile’d a week early this year — and didn’t stay up past my normal bedtime either. I printed out my younger son’s very first tax return so he can mail it away and get his roughly $80 refund. I still have to do finish my mom’s; but, there’s still a week to go. I should have time for that one tomorrow night, I expect.

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Does it ever feel good to wake up, see daylight under the blind, look at the time,realize it’s a holiday and turn over for some more shut eye. I looked out the back sliding glass door at breakfast and saw my barbecue on its side: blown off the deck by the wind. Good thing my deck is only about 20 inches off the ground. Now I know a good reason for railings. Though, I had planned to replace the innards of the BBQ (rocks, burner, rock grid) sometime this spring, it looks I’ll be doing this tomorrow since the insides got scrambled when it tipped over.

The cool, cloudy spring day was ideal for my run on the boulevards and in the ravine. Winter’s snow, ice and mud have finally gone. Being a holiday, the traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, was light.

My wife’s family had our Easter gathering today at her sister’s for a change rather than Easter Sunday. That way she could have the next three days off and others could go to their respective families for their Sunday dinners. Good planning. Our company has always had an Easter Monday holiday so I’m looking forward to the extra long weekend to relax and catch up on some other activities.

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My wife and I had a last minute chance to see a performance of the St. John Passion of J.S. Bach by the Pax Christi Chorale at Grace Church on-the-Hill last night. For a Wednesday night, it was very well attended. In one of those strange coincidence kind of things we shared our pew (they were reserved) with a good friend of ours and a fellow chorister from the Bell’Arte Singers. I fell asleep briefly during the performance, not because of it mind you, but because of a relatively sleepless night the night before what with the sudden hot weather and all — probably over-dressed and over-blanketed.

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A young female colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) weighing just 150kg (roughly twice as much as me!) was caught recently in the sub-Antarctic Ross Sea. Quite a catch, and so young as apparently they grow to colossal proportions as the chart from here illustrates. I hope these two people are olfactory-challenged!

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The IP address of my FreeBSD box was changed after over a year with the same IP. (Sniff, sniff such a good IP it was, too.) As I was out all night last night doing some plumbing-type work at my brother-in-law’s I didn’t get a chance to fix things until a while ago.

When Rogers caused my IP address to change via DHCP my box reported a conflict with another host on the cable network. My box is just too nice. If it senses another one using the same IP it doesn’t send out packets until the arp cache is cleared. You betcha I’ve now added a cron job to do this automatically now. I phoned Rogers this morning about the problem. I actually confirmed that my box was supposed to have that IP address. Tonight the offending computer doesn’t seem to be around with my IP address anymore. Anyway I also registed with DynDNS to have a place I can stick my IP until my son, the registrar, puts hubbo.com back on the 'net again.

By the way, I have to commend Rogers this time. Both the calls this morning and this afternoon were answered within five minutes by technical support. I managed to get a credit for the two days hubbo.com was off line, too. Technical support couldn’t do anything except ping my cable modem and confirm it was in working order. And since that other box was no longer causing me problems then I didn’t have any problem either. Still aggravating to have my box unresponsive for awhile, though.

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Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome seems to occupy as much news in the GTA as does the U’s–Iraq war. From what I have read, SARS effects are actually less severe (and “less”fatal) than “regular”pneumonia whose symptoms it resembles. However it is the contagious nature of SARS which has the health professionals closing hospitals and issuing voluntary quaratines. One woman in our choir won’t be out to choir practice for two weeks because she works at one of those hospitals — they have been told to be either at work or at home and where a mask at all times. Another choir member is in hospital because the twins she’s expecting are growing at unequal rates: only her husband can visit her. In “normal”times, anyone would be allowed — she’s not ill in any way, her fetuses need constant monitoring and she needs complete bed rest. It must be pretty frustrating for her and her husband.

My nephew in Thailand had a brief bout with pneumonia earlier this year. Perhaps this was something SARS-like. He recovered fully without a hospital stay; however, it did seem unusual for an active three year old to come down with pneumonia. More worrisome for my brother and his wife is that her brother is teaching in Hong Kong, another SARS warning area. Let’s hope they identify the real cause, real soon and thereby devise some tests so that everyone without SARS can carry on with their daily lives.

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Finally the temperature got up past 10°C and the snow is melting away. I went for a run this afternoon in shorts and my long sleeve running top — it felt great. However I can't give a forest path report as I figured it would be far too slushy, puddly and muddy. The local streams are now raging-river wannabees. A strange time of year, though, in the sun it is warm but running down through a hollow I felt the snow and shade keeping the air a good 5 C° cooler. I sure am looking forward to the day when I can run my regular grassy route, and find out whether I do run faster than in the fall or just think I do. Of course I had to barbeque something for supper tonight.

• I've entered 168 items towards my wife's private teaching expense - income data for her 2002 return; still quite a few more receipts to go.
• The scanner operation is much improved under Windows 2000. Here I thought it was a scanner problem when something would hang every so often. Blame Windows Me again: good riddance.
• Windows 2000 has an ntp client in the W32Time service though it needs a registry tweak to get it going. I used to use a separate application in the Startup directory.
• I have secured the DNS on my firewall but it complained about my win2k box trying to update records. Finally I tracked down a checkbox that was checked and shouldn't have been nested way down in the Advanced TCP/IP settings. I much prefer the Unix way with plain old text configuration files.

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My wife is back from her March break vacation at her friend's cottage. Her friend says in all the years she's been winter vacationing there she doesn't remember Lake Huron being completely frozen over.

I'm setting up a new side panel called Data. I'm testing a script which will download the Toronto weather and the current Ontario Electricity market demand and price and create a little html table. Using Apache server side includes, I intend to have this table included whenever you hit this site. It shouldn't slow page loading all that much because it will be a static file updated independently of the blog itself.

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Before departing this morning I shovelled snow yet again off the walks and half the double driveway. My son can do (or just drive over) the other half. As it turned out I didn't miss my usual GO train this morning because it had been delayed by half an hour due to a freight train blocking the line further up. I can look forward to more snow shovelling tonight as the white precipitation is continuing. I'm certainly glad this snowfall didn't start until just as I was leaving the community choir practice last night. We haven't had any really big snow falls this winter but, because of the cold, any snow we do get justs stays around. Now, the driveway piles are getting to the six foot mark which it makes it tougher for subsequent shovellings.

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If your MP is a back bencher you don't often hear about them except for the odd photo-op pamphlet now and then. I hear our MP, Carolyn Parrish is bad mouthing Americans. Maybe she does this often, I don't know, but this time it was caught by reporters. Everybody's just a little sensitive at the moment about the “to war or not to war” question. Somebody at work commented that perhaps I'll be voting in a by-election soon. Now if somebody asks me who my MP is (yeah right ;-), I can say, Ms Parrish, you know, that women who claimed Americans are all illegitimate children or words to that effect. No fading wall-flower back-bencher she.

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I was carrying a briefcase, a bag of music, a bag of things for snack and my water bottle to choir practice this morning. Therefore, I didn't have the range of motion required to wave my arms and prevent myself from falling on my backside on the “black ice” on the sidewalk. Ouch! My back hurts every time I change position. Guess I'll have to take something tonight or I'll be waking up every time I turn over. The injury might have been exacerbated by sitting up straight on the “bum-buster” pews at the church for the two and half hour morning practice. My voice is slightly hoarse, too. That's a lot of Brahms (Ein Deutsches Requiem, Gesang der Parzen and Schicksalslied) for one practice, though, I was pleased I didn't make that many mistakes.

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I cut in half about 20 cardboard rolls, the 3" dia x 3.5" long kind found in those large bum-wad dispensers found in institutional washrooms. My wife will hand them out at a her talk on Sunday about making instruments. These rolls will form part of a drum. I also put holes in and mashed flat dozens of beer bottle caps. I believe these will be for tambourine or noise-maker like instruments. Seeing the huge bag of assorted cardboard tubes I guess a lot of bums were wiped and hands were dried for the musical cause. Decorated drums will look and sound much better.

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My wife has invited a teacher colleague to supper tonight and my older son and his girlfriend, our daughter, will also be joining us. I have been told my birthday gift has been hiding out in his car. I have met the colleague, she's quite nice — obviously my wife enjoys her company.

On Saturday the Bell'Arte Singers and the OVF are co-sponsoring a Choral Conductor Symposium at a high school in Oakville. I'll be singing in the choir while four lucky (or unfortunate) souls will conduct us and be critqued by Dr. Richard Nace, a choral clinician. In the morning, Dr. Nace, will, apparently, be talking about the roles of choir members. The symposium will be an all day affair. Afterwards, the choir has been invited back to a member's place for a party. As she lives but a few kilometers from our place one of us is sure to attend.

My only problem will be my lack of vigourous physical activity on Saturday. I guess I'll have to run some extra kilometers on Sunday morning.

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I was informed by the manager of IT that the job opening I had applied for has been cancelled. He sounded quite embarrassed about it. I'm not really all that surprised. Perhaps the president looked at January's financial reports and declared wafy. My résumé is now on file and my intentions have been declared so I'll have to be happy with that for the time being. Apparently I came "highly recommended" to the IT manager.

In other news:

• Happy Birthday to Me!
• Happy Birthday as well to Kim, my wife's sister, and Susanne, a good friend.
• A niece in Victoria has been selected to be a page in the BC Legislature — her first job. Congratulations to Nicolia!

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Unfortunately these tragedies are so public. I hope the news media will grant the 7 crew members' families some time to grieve in private.Will we, the public, ever really know what happened? Just about seventeen years ago the "Challenger" blew up just after liftoff because of a frozen O-ring or two. Will the cause of this accident be so innocuous seeming? The only clue so far is that a bit of insulation broke off the rocket engines during liftoff and may have damaged some heat shield tiles on one of the wings. The grisly evidence is spread over Texas. Let's hope the various U.S. bureaucracies will eschew finger pointing and just find out what happened and how to prevent its reoccurence.

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I took a leave of absense from the OCS. Just this weekend I got a call from the music director to help out again. This term's music is, for the most part, "show tunes" and medlies. Apparently there will be some staging involved, too, as we'll be on stage at Sheridan College. Show tunes can be tricky to sing and perform as the tempi are irregular and the harmonies are not of the usual Mozart and Bach variety. They're easy, I guess, if you want to do a so-so job. After my first rehearsal back with the choir, I have already learned something: there actually is a spiritual about "Your foot bone connected to your ankle bone", etc.

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A great concert took place last night IHMO. It is always a satisfying, nay an exhilarating, experience to present a significant choral work with a well rehearsed orchestra. Maestro Marco Parisotto provided everyone with clear and sensitive directions and, I believe, the symphony and choir created beautiful music together. Marco shook our hands — probably everyone in the choir, a nice touch. A certain other maestro at a local opera company could learn volumes from this man. Unfortunately incompetent people aren't able to recognize their incompentence. But I digress.

During the interval, between the afternoon rehearsal and the concert, my wife and I went to see About Schmidt at the AMC in nearby Whitby. I still recall Jack Nicholson in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Often he plays a smart-aleck type of guy. However, in this role, he's an ordinary guy, just retired and then his wife dies suddenly. This isn't a tradegy, though, but a "wry" comedy about a man trying to find meaning in what has been a very dull life. My only caveat is that if you're under 40 and haven't experienced "family relationship problems" or "mid-life crises" you'll probably miss some of the humour. Anyway, it was a relaxing way to spend a couple of hours and, especially, resting up our voices by not talking or chatting.

Our choir was paid for this gig and the funds will go towards our next concert's expenses. Our personal expenses included 400 km of travel, several meals and, of course, the movie during our "break". It pretty much blows half the weekend. Nevertheless, the experience was worth it and my wife and I spent some time together. Oh, and we "worked" on the next concert by listening to Ein Deustches Requiem on the way home last night.

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We are the hired choir for the symphony in Oshawa tonight. Our rehearsal last night with Maestro Marco Parizotti went well. It seems that not all orchestra conductors are tyrants. Marco has definite ideas on how the Mozart Requiem should be sung in certain movements but they weren't weird or presented to us in an arrogant manner. He seems to be a very knowledgeable person musically, speaks at least three languages and conducts clearly. That is, we know the beats and the relative louds and softs. The only downside to all of this is the commute from Mississauga to Oshawa and the fact that we have a rehearsal this afternoon and then have to kill four or five hours out there until tonight's presentation. Maybe we'll catch a movie or get a hotel room or something.

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I had to borrow three works on behalf of our choir for our next concert. As it is borrowed music I have to keep accurate records of who borrowed it so I can harass those who don't return it (there always seems to be one or two). Otherwise the choir has to pay overdue fines or buy replacements. These days you have to buy choral music in lots of ten usually not just one or two. This time I have put sticky notes with the music numbers on each set. Then, as I hand it out, I collect each sticky note, put the person's name on it and stick the note in my file. We'll see how this system works. The only embarrassing part in all this is sometimes (all the time!) not being able to remember 40 to 50 people's names one after the other when I hand out the music. If I ever become a teacher (a possible plan when I retire, natch) I will need to have a small class with a seating plan I guess.

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Our choir has a new rehearsal accompanist. Our usual accompanist is far too busy now with several choirs and other music projects of his own. Plus I think the return commute from Stratford to Toronto just to accompany us is not a particularly efficient use of his time. With an accompanist, I believe our director can help the choir "lift the notes off the page" in a much shorter time than if he has to accompany or "note pound" the parts as well as direct. We've only got five full rehearsals to get our Brahms program in order. Many members performed the Brahms Requiem but that was eight years ago. I don't want to boast (but I will anyway); however, I think my wife and I as "first timers" were keeping up most of the time with the others. And, from where I was sitting in the back row, nobody was doing a very creditable job in the faster fugue parts. It will be a challenge certainly. I am also going to try and learn the baritone solo parts in Ein Deutsches Requiem for my own interest.

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I have updated the location information for our next concert on the right side side of my 'blog based on the Oshawa-Durham Symphony Orchestra web site. Note that the concert time is listed as 7:30 p.m on Saturday, January 18, 2003. Hard to believe it happens in less than three weeks.

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Snow in Mississauga

After a brief respite complete with raining, thawing and snow almost gone, winter has returned with about 20 cm of snow. My wife took 2 hours to shovel the stuff this morning and I spent another hour this evening. Our neighbour who has been in England for the last 3 weeks will hear about it from her friends: They look after her cats and have shovelled her driveway 4 times already this season.

Our New (to us) Car has New Tires

The car was making a funny sound the other day. Pulling into a parking lot, my wife spied a large bolt imbedded in the front driver's side tire. She almost made to Costco to get it repaired when the tire completely flattened. She called CAA and my son. As I understand it my son got there first and drove her to Costco where she found a CAA guy! He changed the tire with the donut spare and my wife drove to Costco for a fix. Well I had changed a flat on the same wheel several weeks ago and apparently there was yet another fix in that tire, making at least three now. That tire seemed to have had a rough go under the previous owner. The others were not in much better shape so we decided to replace them all — over half a grand. Oh well at least neither flat endangered us and, hopefully, we'll get more mileage out of the new ones.

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Our BM invited the department and their SOs out to his log cabin in the country for supper last night. I was already on vacation when the invitation was emailed but a colleague forwarded it. The function was catered and I understand that it was not at our boss' expense: he was treating us since the department met its budgetary target for this quarter. Whatever the reason, it was nice to get together and meet some of the wives and have a good feed, too. John is a pretty low key type guy so I knew we wouldn't have to "dress up". I think the "manager" in his title means that he manages to keep the president from overburdening and bothering us with profit and loss details; i.e, administrative BS.

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Instead of a bill from my local electrical utility I got a rebate cheque courtesy of the Ontario Government. They are "rolling back" electricity rates to 4.3¢ kWh and capping them at the retail level until 2006. Hmmm, California all over again. Ontario was "opened up" its electrical energy market in May of this year, and, surprise, surprise, the rates skyrocketed. Let's see if I can summarize:

Simple economics would imply that prices would rise. Are politicians that dense? If they had opened the market in March, cheap hydraulic generation could have been had from the spring runoff. Demand would be down because the days are longer and not so cold; yet, it hasn't got too hot either. Prices might have even gone down for a short while. Anyway, electricity rates have been transferred from the ratepayer to the taxpayer through this capping scheme.

One piece of advice I remember giving last spring to someone regarding a contract with an energy marketer for fixed electricity rates for n years. I said wait for a year or so before signing and see what may happen with the market. That legislated 4.3¢ cap is much better than any energy marketer rate I've seen, plus, it has been made retroactive to the market opening in May! Come election time, expected in 2003, the current Conservative government has some splainin' to do.

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Because I am on vacation I had the chance the help my wife with her "December" (can't call it Christmas, Chanukkah or Holiday even!) concert featuring the Junior Kindergartners through Grade Twos. For some reason a couple of Nöel songs sneaked into the program but it ended with a "unity" song so all was well. My role was rather modest in that I helped the custodian set out the chairs for the parents and, during the performance, I assisted moving some Orff instruments on and off the "stage". Yes, it was a typical kids concert but this, to me, is more the spirit of Christmas than the typical store or mall muzak carols. I have never heard Three Blind Mice (or Hot Cross Buns, same three notes) played in so many pitches on recorders. During the songs I noticed that, for many kids, there's not a lot of difference between singing and sprechstimme¹. Some of them moved unselfconsciously to their own rhythms, others, waiting their turn in the audience pestered each other or blew their recorders until they had them confiscated. A lot of energy and enthusiasm on the part of the kids and my wife, who led it all and caused it to happen, pleased the parents and relatives. Perhaps it is because my kids are leaving to build their own lives or maybe I am "mellowing" but I enjoyed it, too — I didn't enjoy these events particularly when my kids were participants. Back then, I was in amongst the parents and couldn't see all the kids and their reactions to what's going on around them as I could yesterday.

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The Toronto Star had an interesting article on the top six "mother-tongue" languages as reported in the 2001 Census for the GTA in the Saturday paper. Apparently in Mississauga, where I live, Polish is second after English closely followed by Chinese. I have an Italian friend in Vaughn where it is reported that almost 23% list Italian as their mother tongue. The demographics are quite interesting: I had the impression that certain nationalities gathered in certain regions and this article clearly demonstrates I wasn't mistaken.

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Before the Concert

My wife and I drove down early in the afternoon from Mississauga to the Danforth near Broadview and the "parking god" was with us as we got a "free" spot just beside Eastminster United Church, our concert venue. This meant I wouldn't have to schlep the music handed in to the librarian (namely moi) very far. We were also in fine position to go and have an early supper along the Danforth. Along the way my wife was very pleased to find a newly-opened Ten Thousand Villages store. In there, we sort of advertised our concert just by being in a tuxedo long black evening dress. After a short browse in the store we ate at a Thai restaurant on the south side of the Danforth at the Chester intersection. The waitress recommended "no curry" as any stains are impossible to get rid of from a white shirt.

Pre-Concert Warmup

At 5:30 p.m. we gathered at the church and "top and tailed" most of the pieces we were to perform later that evening. We practised processing in from the balcony to the chancel steps and after rehearsed a few more songs. Subsequently, we "casually" assembled in our long black dresses and tuxedos for brochure publicity photos. Then we had a break for about 50 minutes. I talked to some choir members and my wife retired to the car (parked close by, remember?) reclining in the seat to rest for a bit: She's had a final exam in one course, two other courses, private teaching, school teaching and December concert planning in just this week alone.

Saturday, December 14, 2002

Christmas with the Bell'Arte Singers

8 p.m., Eastminster United Church, Toronto, ON

The Concert

The event went very well overall IMHO. I sang a short solo (the "Frankinsence" verse from John Rutter's arrangment of "We Three Kings of Orient Are") which surprised my mom, my sister and her family as I hadn't told them. Apparently there were over 300 in the audience. Great news as we need the financing for our March concert featuring Ein Deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms with orchestra. The other features of the concert (beside my solo :-) including readings by Robert Fisher and brand new choral arrangements of the Coventry Carol, The Holly and the Ivy and I Saw Three Ships by our own composer/member Ben Bolden. The only small hitch in the whole concert was the recessional carol which we rehearsed just once from the chancel steps. However, we were installed in the choir loft at this point in the concert in somewhat reverse order rows. Those new row leaders lead us out the back doors instead of down the church aisles. Our director didn't have time to rehearse every detail because the choir couldn't book that extra rehearsal at the church where these important "blocking" manoeuvres could have been, well, rehearsed. I think our director may also have forgotten that not everyone, and especially the younger members, has been raised in church choir traditions: Automatically you know how to process and recess because you have done it for years of Sundays.

Post Concert Party

My wife went to my sister-in-law's place to work out a few last details regarding my parents-in-law's sixtieth (that's 60!) wedding anniversary. I went to the party and had a bottle of my favourite Old Credit Ale, some "nibblies" and some conversation. Headlines included Tim getting a contract position after some months of being redundantified, Ben's thinking of working on his Ph.D. in music education and Laura being pregnent with her second child. Congratulations to them all. I left and picked up my wife and we crawled exhaustedly into our beds around 1 a.m.

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The president of the company says we have to use our 2002 vacation or lose it — no carry overs except under special conditions. So I have started my holidays and won't be back at work until Jan 3. I have a shopping list of chores to do like replacing two bathroom sinks, replace one faucet set, change shower tap washers, put up the Christmas tree, put up the outdoor Christmas lights, clean my shop, and so on. More pleasent things include the up-coming Christmas concert, visiting family and friends and putting on a pot of coffee each morning and relaxing a few minutes reading a book or surfing the web.

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I had planned to put them up this afternoon as the temperature was around 0°C. (It's been in the minus Celsius region for at least a week now. The local rivers and streams have ice on them — this usually doesn't occur until January, if at all.) However of the 4 100-mini-light strings I have only one lit up. Now, am I going to spend hours testing 300 little bulbs in order to find out the two or three bad ones per string or am I going to go out a buy some replacements? Tomorrow I will have to look for a mini-light tester doodad.

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• ...until my birthday.
• Installed an overhead cupboard from Ikea with a vertically opening door — more space for stuff in our home office.
• Took the car to the gas station and made sure all the tires were up to recommended pressure. Pressed the reset button in the fuse panel and now I have gotten rid of the "Low Tire" light. Supposedly the car "recalibrates" as we drive in the next while so that the "Low Tire" light will come on the next time there's a low-pressure or flat tire.

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While driving to choir practice yesterday morning, there was bang on the Gardiner Expressway — either I ran over something or a blowout. The "low tire" light came on a short while later and, luckily, we were off the expressway by then. I pulled over, my wife called CAA, and I started changing the blown tire for the so-called "convenience spare". It turned out not to be a big job. The GM-supplied scissor jack worked fine and I was able to loosen the lug nuts. We cancelled the CAA call. I can't remember the last time I have had to change a flat on the road. The last few flats have been "slow leakers" caused by an imbedded sharp objects: an annoyance but not a catastrophe. We were about 20 minutes late for choir.

After choir practice, the section reps including myself had a meeting and my wife tried to find a place to fix the tire. No such luck in the big city: either too busy or closing early on Saturday afternoon. So we took a slow route so as not to stress the spare donut: Lakeshore, Queensway and Dundas from the Beaches to Mississauga and took the car into Canadian Tire. Now I should sign off as they phoned that the car is ready. I was afraid it wasn't repairable and we'd be looking at two new tires. The charge for fixing a flat seems a veritable bargain though I am going to leave our van there for a "brake job" — probably a few more dollars.

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Since our company went private, we have each become little entrepreneurs pursuing billable hours. I have been fortunate to have been around the 90%+ mark for most of the year. Now I have dropped to the 50s. This should be a short lull as there are a couple of projects just coming onstream. In 2003 I will have to try and do some business development and work on getting contracts from outside the company. My only problem is my preferred area of work and expertise lies in the C++ software, database, web-enablement areas of work and less and less in the electric power apparatus testing areas I used to be involved in. This doesn't mesh as well with the current "service lines" of our group. Anyway, we'll see what turns up in the next little while.

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My wife and I attended the Gala Dinner and Live Quilt Auction in Stratford, Ontario last night. One of our friends wasn't feeling well, probably suffering from the after effects of her gall-bladder surgery earlier this week, and her husband asked us if we would like come with him. It turned out to be quite the drive with snow in the "greater" GTA area both going and coming. Fortunately the weather in Stratford and environs was mostly clear. We enjoyed a fine supper of salmon, other fine delectables and jazz music at the Church Restaurant. I especially enjoyed the after dinner words from the sommelier telling us that the wine we ordered (the house pinot grigio) was compliments of the restaurant. Our thanks go to Mr. Kraft, the owner.

Luba Goy was a most humourous MC for the evening's auction where almost 200 quilts were sold. A professional auctineer kept the auction moving and even exciting at times. My wife bought two quilts: one by silent auction and one at the live auction. She was so excited. Being a quilter herself she could assess the workmanship, examine the quality of the quilts, get ideas for new quilts and find out what the quilts on our walls and beds might be worth. Even though she might have spend a bit too much on the silent auction quilt, she will be giving it away at Christmas and the money was going to a worthwhile cause.

The drive home was an adventure with the blowing snow (thanks to Mr. Smith, our driver, we made it home safe and sound), and it's still snowing this morning perhaps accumulating to 15cm. Winter has arrived here in Mississauga. We didn't get to bed until after 2 a.m. last night but it's Sunday so I don't have to go out and find the snow shovel and do that work until later in the day. Sitting here reading email and blogging with a cup of coffee suits me just fine at the moment.

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It has been several years and several diseases (I'm referring to the handout and questionaire they give you) ago that I gave blood. There used to be a clinic every 3 months or so at work back in the days when a couple of thousand employees worked at this site. With downsizing and the splitting of Ontario Hydro regular clinics became unsustainable. Canadian Blood Services managed to track me down and so I gave blood at a regular clinic at the Square One mall. Now the process of answering blood diseases questions and R.N. interviewing takes longer than giving blood. Back when I first gave blood they asked if you had eaten, pricked your finger and then you waited for the next available cot. There were nice old ladies to hand you cookies and juice before and after. Still it is a very worthwhile cause if you're healthy and disease free.

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While my wife was attending the OMEA conference in Niagara Falls I drove along the Niagara Parkway wondering what I could do during the day on Saturday until 3 when our hotel room would be ready. Noticing the Niagara River Recreational Trail along the way, I parked the car north of Queenston, donned the roller blades I had stashed in the trunk and skated the several kilometers (15-20?) to the cable car terminus and back again. There was a head wind most of the way there and an arduous climb up the hill where Brock's monument is located. Also leaves and twigs are not very in-line skater friendly, the former because one can easily spread-eagle if not careful, or get stuck between the brake and the rear wheel and the latter because the small wheels can easily jam on twigs and trip you. Fortunately this is all stuff I have encountered before. At the top of the hill into Queenston on the return trip I changed to hiking shoes and visited Brock's monument (closed at this time of year as most things are outside of Niagara Falls itself). I walked down the hill figuring I'd only wear out my brake and the many leaves on the bike path would make stopping a tad treacherous. Once back in Queenston I put on the in-line skates again. I stopped at one of the recreation trail markers and read the fine print: this trail isn't designed for small-wheeled things like in-line skates or skateboards. Oh well, I have already done probably 30km worth by then. I only suffered a broken blister on one ankle and, of course, major fatigue in the evening.

In the Falls we took a “Falls View” room at the Sheraton next to Casino Niagara. We did the touristy thing and ate at Planet Hollywood — lots of atmosphere and the food was pretty good, too. We both had the Asian noodles. There must have been something in it though that didn’t agree with us. We cut short our walk towards the Horseshoe Falls so my wife could rush back to the washroom. I just felt gassy and bloated for a while that evening. Instead we moved the couch in the room and sat by window gazing at both Falls’ and drinking a glass of wine. And yes we acted like newlyweds, too (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge say no more.). As it was pouring rain this morning, we ate an expensive breakfast in the penthouse which, of course, overlooks the falls.

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It has been awhile since I've been on my inline skates — there always seemed to be the threat of rainy weather and, for the last month, parts of my route have seen the the top layer of asphalt removed and the road resurfaced. Well, now that's done. It was just a tad chilly at -1.3°C this morning. I wear thin gloves under my wrist guards and a couple of years ago I had my Mom knit some oversize mitts which fit over the wrist guards. Still, the trip to the GO station is mostly downhill in the morning so it's hard to warm up. However now its a modestly faster trip down the newly asphalted road. I don't have to deke around the potholes and long cracks anymore.

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My wife and I have plunked down our deposit to travel with the Cathedral Singers of Ontario in the summer of 2003. For a week we will be singing Evening Vespers at Canterbury Cathedral and Sunday services probably sitting or standing here. After the first week we'll travel by ferry from Dover to Calais, sing at a Canadian war memorial and then to Paris where we'll sing at La cathédral de Notre Dame. We plan to stay a couple of more days in Paris and celebrate our 25^th wedding anniversary in style.

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I did. Or at least I screwed the last two deck boards down and moved the gas BBQ back on to it. "Fancy stuff" like triming the ends, adding facing boards, making and installing a railing with turned spindles and making some benches out of the leftovers will wait until spring or if it turns incredibly mild during my Christmas holidays. My older son says it looks like a stage. Winter theatre anyone? This afternoon I got around to the usual fall chore of mulcher-vacuuming the leaves around the place. I have now filled my three compost bins. Seeing as there seems to be as many leaves still on the maple tree as I vacuumed I will use the rest for mulch on the flower beds.

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As the Bell'Arte Singers have a dress rehearsal and concert on the same days as the Oakville Choral Society has their concerts, I have decided to leave my bass section leader post for the time being until 2003. There are now about 15 basses most of whom can sing, many who can read music and some who can even count and watch the director! I will miss that great bunch of people in the OCS and their director — a man who refuses to treat them as "just" a community choir. They are performing Beethoven's Mass in C at Christmas, no trifling work there my friend. He believes, rightly of course, that every one can express muscianship by simple observation of dynamics, letting the part with the melody sing out, blending your sound with your neighbours', emphasizing and de-emphasizing syllables of words, and so on. Good luck to them.

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From A.Word.A.Day. Of course I don't think anyone reading this humble blog could be called this. I remember an elderly neighbour who I might have described this way when I was a kid; perhaps those kinds of people have died out.

agelast (AY-jel-ast) noun

Someone who never laughs.

[From Greek agelastos (not laughing), ultimately from gelaein (to laugh).]

"Between the obscene, crude buffoon of the old comedy and the boor, the dour agelast who takes offense at everything ..."
Giuseppe Mazzotta, Playboys and Killjoys, Shakespeare Quarterly (Washington, DC), Autumn 1988.

"An hour of stand-up which the audience absolutely loves. I don't spot a single agelast."
Deborah Ross, Interview: Sandi Toksvig - I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Hairdo, Independent (London), Jul 16, 2001.

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Today's concert where ourselves, the Bell'Arte Singers, and some of the Hamilton Philharmonic were hired to sing and play with the Bach-Elgar choir this afternoon. The star attractraction was the Mozart Requiem which went very well indeed IMHO. As music librarian for the Bell'Arte I was glad to not have to collect music at the end of the concert since it's all ours and we have a rehearsal next Saturday anyway. The Bach-Elgar had a short presentation at the beginning of the concert announcing they will receive a $76,000 grant over the next 3 years. Lucky ducks! The Bell'Arte face much stiffer competition in Toronto for grant monies with all the choirs the GTA has.

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Installed all the Deckster brackets. I had to buy 5 more from Rona to complete the job. As my wife and my son had the two cars I went by bicycle. Fortunately I had velcro stretch bands so I attached the 5 brackets to the crossbar. After that I laid out the 21 PT 5/4 x 6 x 16' deck boards. Not too much warpage though I'll have to make spacers so I can screw down the boards with even spacing and straighten out the warpage.

I roller-bladed to Mosto Vinho and added yeast to a Merlot which should be ready to bottle in 6 weeks. It is worth the extra money to pay for juice rather than the concentrate as the taste is far superior. I have been given wines from others and it has been acutely obvious they went the "cheapola" suitable only for cooking wine route.

I finally got through to the call centre at 407 ETR and lo and behold they "found" my two payments. So, this month, I just sent what is owed for last month. I didn't pay the $0.11 interest on my supposedly overdue payments.

Brother Tom phoned (from Victoria) last night with some questions about installing some more "hockey puck" halogen lights. He'd done OK with the first set but hadn't had much success with installing two more. Hopefully, my over-the -phone explanation helped.

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I spent some time at Rona today looking at hardware for my deck. Eventually I bought 1x6 joist hangers, 4x4 post to 2 x 2 brackets, "hurricane" ties, Deckmaster brackets and 21 16' deck boards — probably spent around $500. I decided on 5/4 PT deck boards this time screwed from underneath with those Deckmaster brackets. Hopefully this will help this deck current version of the deck last for at least a decade. The old deck was made of 2x6 cedar just nailed to the joists.

This afternoon I replaced the rotten cedar double 2x6 header. The chain saw was handy for this job. First I supported the deck frame and joists with some scrap lumber, then I sawed the through the header in several places and removed the pieces. I smeared lots of preservative on the tops of the 3 4x4 posts (and was very glad I didn't have to replace these). Using the 4x4 post brackets it was easy (well relatively so) to slide in two PT 2"x6"x16' boards. Nailing up the brackets and adding some nails to the header made everything secure. I removed the scrap lumber and attached the joists to the header with "hurricane" ties. Not that I am expecting a hurricane; but, it is far easier to pound in a few short galvanized nails at right angles to the board then trying to toenail some much larger nails. I expect this version 2.0 of the back deck will be stronger and more rot resistant.

Tomorrow I will "hang" a few joists and attach the deckmaster brackets and then it should be ready for the deck floor.

While I was working outside I heard a loud "thump" and then some more thumps. A short time later I heard sirens of all sorts. I figured there was an accident but thought it strange that I hadn't heard the screeching sound of brakes, too. Much later (an hour and a half?) I went for a run and found that the local main 6 lane street about 1/4 km from the house had been closed to all traffic. A minivan was on its roof and partly covered with a tarp and another van was partly crumpled in the engine compartment. Emergency vehicles were everywhere. This was serious. My son, who was working at the nearby grocery store, said he had heard there was death at scene. Very sad.

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I am the bass section leader for a community choir in Oakville. Unfortunately I have a conflict with their Christmas concert dates as they are the same as the dates for the Bell'Arte Singers. More's the pity as the major work is the Beethoven Mass in C. I have made enquiries much not had much success at finding a substitute for me. For now I'll continue "section leading" and trust that my fellow community choir basses will learn the repertoire well enough so that they can sing it without me.

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The back deck has a few boards starting to rot so I have decided to remove them all and replace them. The major rot problem was caused by the having the 16 foot long deck constructed with 14 foot boards butted to 2 foot boards. At each of those butt joints, rot has started and, in some cases, even spread to the joist below. The other problem was the use of galvanized nails which eventually corrode and sometimes pop up which makes it difficult to refinish. Anyway I had replaced about a half dozen of the most rotten boards with screwed down pressure-treated stock about two or three years ago.

After some research I found I could use pressure-treated lumber (cheap), cedar (more expensive), a plastic-wood composite (very expensive). Because the deck is under a tree I don't think cedar would last very many years so I am opting for the cheaper alternative of pressure treated lumber. As I am starting "fresh", so to speak, I am going to use brackets attached to the joists and screwed underneath to the deck boards so there won't be any surface attachment markings at all.

Today I took off the railing and 2x2 supports. There sure was a lot of those! I had enough time before supper to take the nails out of two of the boards. I have found the easiest way to do this is to pound a small crowbar under the nail head with a hammer and then pry up slightly. Then I take a 1 m crowbar and pry the nail out the rest of the way. Still it is tedious work with about 30 nails per board. My aim is to have the deck surface finished before my wife's family comes for (Canadian) Thanksgiving dinner in about three weeks time.

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My younger son's assignment seemed to be a short essay on "The End Justifies the Means". For bonus marks he had to find out who coined the phrase so he asked if I knew. Being a humble engineer I didn't. Nevertheless, after a little searching with Google both quoting and unquoting the phrase and also adding quotation to the search string I came up with the most probable answer that Nicolo Machiavelli said it first in The Prince. That's the answer the teacher was looking for so we got the bonus marks.

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This slogan appears at the top of my Royal Bank VISA bill. This month's statement had one item:

Sep 13 VISA FEE 110.00

The only I reason I obtained this card was:

1. no fee
2. some places in Europe don't except the MasterCard I usually use
3. Did I mention no fee?

I phoned the 1-800 customer service number and, after punching through some voice menus got "Mike" on the phone. After proving I am who I said I am (birthdate, credit limit, etc) he told me "there's been an error" and this charge will be removed. Since the statement processing is totally automated, this looks like a tweaking bug in their software or database rules. One must be ever vigilant.

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The Bell'Arte Singers, the fine, nay superb, choir I belong to, retreated to the Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts about midway between the Hanlan's Point and the Centre Island Toronto Islands' ferry stops. It was a day for singing, rehearsing, relaxing and meeting choir and board members. The forecast rain never appeared though the weather was typically Toronto hot and humid. A cooling lake breeze in the afternoon was most refreshing.

In addition to rehearsing together and in sectionals for our upcoming concerts (see right side panel) our special guest was Timothy I-didn't-catch-his-last-name. He is or will be composing a piece for our May 2003 concert. Tim led us through some interesting rhythm and song exercises. Though they were fun to try I always have difficulties. I believe I can tap my foot and count well enough to come in or out of the choral tapestry at the appropriate times; however, I start to screw up just adding hand clapping, for example. One such exercise involved clapping every fourth beat and singing a dotted half rhythm, half, dotted quarter, quarter, etc. Too bad I couldn't have experienced my wife's early childhood music education program at the Toronto French School when I was a child. Good thing I don't chew gum or I would never be able to pat my stomach!

In the evening we enjoyed a potluck supper and BBQ viands provided by the BAS board. Our music director, Dr. Lee Willingham, showed great dedication in directing us all day and barbecuing in the evening despite being afflicted with a cold. My wife and I received a framed poster of our Italy tour as thanks from the board and choir members for our work as Music Librarians. We appreciate the gesture greatly; though, perhaps, it comes with the price of having to continue the job for some time in the future. Once the music is obtained and handed out we can enjoy the rehearsals like everyone else. Their is no greater joy (for a music librarian, anyway) than if all the music is handed back in and accounted for after a concert. This season also starts off well for us as we have managed to sort, file and record in a spreadsheet all the original scores in the BAS music library over the summer.

I would also like to apologise to my wife for creating a misunderstanding and not making her a sandwich for lunch. Sometimes I talk, sometimes I listen and, sometimes, I do neither or both at the wrong time.

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Son's Accident #1 — Wed. evening

My son's in our '92 car with his girlfriend waiting to left turn. The tow truck in front of them backs into the car trying to let a transport pass. The hood is buckled and gouged. They exchange insurance and address info. Tow truck operator says to get three estimates and they will foot the bill. Tow truck driver assures son that the hood still latches, only "about $400" of damage and the car is drivable.

Son's Accident #2 — Thurs. morning

Son checks hood and decides to secure with bungee cords, too. He drives girlfriend to work prior to getting damage estimates. Hood flies up and breaks windshield en route. Luckily no one is hurt and son pulls over to the shoulder. A young OPP officer doing radar duty on the other side comes over to investigate. Gives son a court summons for driving an unsafe vehicle and he asks son for a statement "which may be used against him in court". Son declines to give statement. Officer calls a tow truck and a taxi for the girlfriend. Car is towed (impounded?) to an autobody shop in Mississauga not too far from where I live.

Friday — Running Around

Had intended to take day off anyway but not spend it doing this stuff. Call insurance agent and give particulars. Find out that we didn't have collision on the '92 vehicle. We pick up damage estimate. Son takes lots of pictures. Son faxes estimate ($3,000+) to tow truck company and we visit Peel accident reporting centre at local police station. Accident took place in Halton region but he gave all sorts of advice. I try to get permission from autobody shop to release vehicle to tow truck company so that they can take it to their shop to get fixed. Autobody shop just wants $200 towing fee and $125 per day pound charges. I was told this was "standard industry practice". Beginning of long weekend so it was looking unlikely we were to get "loaner" car promised us from towing company.

Saturday — Stuck at Home waiting for phone calls

It took a Saturday of phoning and leaving messages to finally get a "loaner" car delivered by tow truck at about 10:30 p.m. Stress unbelieveable for wife and I. I had the cleanest colon in Mississauga that day! Son had the nerve to complain about the junky vehicle. The price was right, and he has a car again. When (and if since this sauga isn't done) this is over we'll have a talk with my son. If he feels hard done by the arrangements we've made and with all the stress his mother and I went through. Fine. He can go out get his own insurance as an under-25 single male. Last time I checked the premium was about $5,000 per year.

Rest of Labour Day Weekend

I can't say that it has been that enjoyable; however, we could forget the situation until Tuesday. I had a couple pleasant walks with my wife. We caught up on our sleep and generally tried to relax a bit. Unfortunately resolving accident and loaner car details did us out of a chance to do some visiting. Sigh!

Lessons Learned So Far

1. Drive or have vehicle towed whatever the damage to collision reporting centre.
2. Check with insurance agent about what to do next. Don't let a roadside tow truck operator tow vehicle to an autobody shop compound — they'll charge pound fees unless they fix it.

To be continued...

You can be sure on that!

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Following up on this note I am happy to report that this week the landscape contractor has re-graded and spread topsoil on the damaged parts of the park. The damage occurred when a new sewer connection was buried from the school addition clear across the park to a nearby street. I hope the weather co-operates and is a little wetter and cooler than it has been this summer once the sod has been laid.

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A sore throat gave me a restless sleep last night. So I turned down the volume on my clock radio so it wouldn't wake me. I had some breakfast and then went back to bed and didn't wake up until 12:30 p.m. I guess I needed some rest. Now the throat is "scratchy" rather than being really sore. And I feel tired again so I will go to bed. The only activity today was to sort some more music for our choir and update the music database. I should be able to issue the spreadsheet real soon now.

Yawn, night all!

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As a former colleague used to say "How 'bout them apples": I ordered pizza from Pizza Pizza, you know the 967-1111 people (at least in the GTA) last night. They gave me a 40 minutes or free guarantee. At 50 minutes I was getting hungry so I phoned and they transferred my call to Customer Service.Indeed they confirmed my pizzas (2 for 1 + $3 deal) were on their way and, yes, there would be no charge. All right!

For some reason that free pizza tasted better: Perhaps it was because I had almost finished my glass of Australian Shiraz before eating anything. Or it may have been the jalepeño-cheese dipping sauce.

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Today the BAS sang at Maki and Daniel's wedding. It was a truly Canadian (or at least downtown Toronto) type of affair. The bride is of Japanese descent, the groom is Chinese, the "wedding manager" was black and the choir was mostly of the invisible majority. The wedding took place in Rosedale amongst multi-million dollar homes while, as one choir member remarked, a short distance away on the other side of Bloor Street their were homeless and street people wandering about. However, this is a wedding, a bit of fairy-tale for an hour or so. If the warmth and depth of their smiles is any indication then this couple will have a very successful marriage. Though the bride assured us at the rehearsal that it would start on time, the choir ran through all of its on-hand prelude repertoire (> 15 min.) and so the pianist had to take over again and fill in the space. Lee and Imre offered to do Hungarian folk song duets but no-one seemed inclined to accept that offer.

Once the wedding started everything seemed to go as planned. We had sushi, cookies and soft drinks in the park opposite the church following the ceremony. The Bride requested a picture of her and her husband surrounded by the choir. I took that opportunity to congratulate the couple and kiss the bride. Then most of the choir left. Alas my date as far as the subway forsook me for another man who offered a ride to her home. Oh well, at least on the way home I picked up a case of Old Credit beer.

Julie had some more homework to do so I went for my usual 10 km weekend run. Boy it's dry out there. Most of the park fields have turned brown except for the odd weed. Fortunately, though it was hot, there isn't the usual humidity so that most of the sweat evaporates rather than trickling down my forehead to sting my eyes.

On our next stop we drove to my son's apartment in "downtown" Mississauga to feed their two cats and the budgie. The procedure is feed and water the cats, strain the clumps out of the litter box, play with the cats, carry one cat into the bedroom, call the other one, close the bedroom door, let the bird out of its cage, blow the hulls out of the birds seed dish (budgies don't dig into their seeds to find uneaten ones apparently), have the bird perch on something and bring it back to its cage, let the cats out of the bedroom. There seemed to be a lot of dirty dishes around so Julie washed them and I dried and put them away while we did the animal feeding routine. We found the laser pointer: great fun as the cats love to chase the spot. Then it was off to Swiss Chalet for the first real meal we have had together all week. My wife is at the midpoint of a "9 to 5" two week course with assigments every day and more on the weekend. Imagine a one night a week full-term university course compressed into just 2 weeks. It would be hard if she wasn't enjoying it so much.

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The BAS had a practice last night for the wedding of a young choir member. I wonder is this a wedding or a concert? Here's just the wedding music:

• Prelude
  • Exultate Justi in Domino, L. G. da Viadana
  • Sicut Cervus, G. P. da Palestrina
  • Ave Maria, S. Rachmaninoff
  • Ave Verum Corpus, Imant Raminsh
  • Osanna in Excelsis, G. P. da Palestrina
• Processional
  • Laudate Dominum, W. A. Mozart
• Bride Processional
  • Ave Maria, Franz Biebl
• Signing of the Register
  • Amazing Love (Hymn)
  • Crown Him with many Crowns (Hymn)
  • Lord Most High (Hymn)
• Recessional
  • Domine Fili Unigenite, from A. Vivaldi's Gloria

The bride thought the last piece would be too long but our director explained that, from an artistic integrity point of view, you can't chop these types of compositions. And, I add parenthetically, it is isn't a pop song with a repetitive tune and chorus but complex counterpoint and harmony that winds through the two minute (that's right, it is only that long!) piece. After we sang it through the bride-to-be agreed.

I'll be singing second bass this time, though I usually sing baritone or first bass. There will only be four of us and the second bass needed more volume assistance than my fellow baritone did. I was glad someone else can do the baritone part of the trio in Biebl's Ave Maria. I did it several years ago but declined to try it after not having sung regularly for over a month. Better to go with second bass so if my voice tires at least I can still make some rumblings on the low notes.

Prior to the practice I had supper, a couple of beers and a too brief visit with my Mom who lives in the area. I had expected a longer visit and time to drink my tea after supper; however, an SUV rollover right at the eastbound fork of the Gardiner Expressway and the DVP delayed me for at least an hour. Only one lane of four could get through. Then the DVP was slow as well. I'm sure glad I don't have do that rush hour driving schtick every day.

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Oops, my late (at least for me!) night posting was mis-classified. Sorry about that.

Back in December when it's dark by 4:30p.m. hereabouts I almost ran into a fence put up by a construction company around St. Mark School and part of the park. They removed a "temporary" structure and have been putting in an addition to the school. About a month ago they dug through the park including a soccer field and a baseball diamond to put in a sewer line connection. So, for the past month, this "scar" has been there — and I walk through this park on my way to the GO station each morning. Well today I phoned Newgen Construction from work and asked for the project manager. Rick was called and explained that a landscape contractor would be re-sodding the entire soccer field and repairing the damage in "a couple of weeks". We'll see. Otherwise I will have to use the power of email and contact the city, the mayor, the councillor, the separate school board trustee, and so on. But I will give the company the benefit of the doubt and call them again in a couple of weeks. I almost feel like an activist, sort of.

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It's another 3H day in the GTA. At least in Mississauga our garbage is being collected unlike Toronto's. I wonder if the Mississauga garbage collectors have noticed an increase. I had a bag from my sister-in-law and my neighbour had bags from her in-laws — two gentle old folk who shouldn't have to wait in this heat while trying to cross the picket line at the so-called transfer stations.

My brother and sister-in-law and my young toddler nephew probably find this weather quite comfortable as they are here on a month's leave from Thailand. My Yahoo! Weather icon for Chiang Mai, Thailand showed greater than 30 °C high temperatures for most of the year. Several years ago he taught in Hanoi, Vietnam and then found Toronto rather quiet. This time his school is in a pleasant (though hot) rural setting and now Toronto is noisy and dirty by comparison. Not to mention the garbage, of course. Anyway, they will be over to the Trapper Estate for supper tonight and looking forward to seeing them after a year's absence. Apparently my young nephew is now talking, though the pidgeon Thai and English combination will probably be unintelligble to us.

Today's new tag is acronym. If you put a title= attribute in it then the newer broswers show a pop up tooltip.

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I know what I was doing. Party! What a great reception my father-in-law gave us: a jazz band, an open bar, delicious food (roast beef if I recall). But most of all I married and am still married to his beautiful daughter, Julie. Weren't we a pretty couple back then? I guess we have matured somewhat now — our kids are approaching the age we are in this picture! Ah so many memories.

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Usually it is some months to a year before I hear our choir's recording of a particular concert. This time, it's been less than a week. CBC chose to air the two combined choir works of the Chichester Psalms and the Missa Brevis. In general, I liked what I heard but I do agree with some of the Toronto Star music critic's "faint" praise. Alas, the two choirs combined don't have the same sound as the Bell'Arte Singers. Perhaps we'll hear ourselves alone on Sunday.

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Yesterday it got hot and the people of Ontario turned on their air conditioners (surprise!). Apparently this caught the IEMO off guard at about 10 a.m. yesterday morning as the price of electricity shot up to 70¢/kWh. So far the average price has been between 3 and 4 cents per kilowatt-hour. As I haven't signed on with an energy marketer I will be very interested to see how this affects my electricity bill.

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Congratulations to all for returning your concert music. And special thanks to those who knew they couldn't attend and forwarded their music to us.

We only have one set outstanding and that member hasn't been out in the last while, nor, apparently does that member read the emails!

There are still a few copies of Ice and Snow and Libera Me out there. Please check and mail them back to us once you find them. You may not be aware that not only did our resident composers compose these scores, they also typeset, printed and provided these copies to the choir. Let's not abuse their generosity.

Julie and I plan to do an inventory of the choir music this summer for several reasons:

• our successor(s) will have an easier job
• the music director and the librarians will know what we have on hand
• the music is an asset which should be mentionned in the Bell'Arte Singers financial statements.

So, if you find any Bell'Arte music kicking around your abode, please send it to us. We'll accept it, no questions asked!

There seems to have been a rumour going around that Julie is no longer sharing the music librarian duties. This caused some marital disharmony at the Trapper Crescent estate. I believe I was mis-quoted when I said Julie hadn't be able to do much of the librarian stuff before this concert due to course work and teaching duties. Rest assured, her quick sorting abilities yesterday allowed us to find out who was "naughty or nice" in short order!

Have a great summer!

Your Music Librarians
Jim and Julie

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It was muggy in the church last night and we did stand a long time on those risers, but despite the physical difficulties I believe the concert went well. According to the programme, CBC Radio Two will be broadcasting (parts of ?) the performance. So, for those of you who couldn't attend or ourselves in the combined choir who could only hear our own and the neighbouring parts, the performance will be aired:

• In Performance on June 12, 2002
• Choral Concert on June 16, 2002

I could have been better prepared for this concert. Sometimes I rely just a little too much on my sight-reading ability and depend just a little too much on the other great singers around me. In the words of our director I should have "owned" the pieces more. Be that as it may, I didn't make any obvious, audible mistakes. There were certainly opportunties for that in some of the the Glick In Memoriam Leonard Bernstein movements and in the Bernstein Chichester Psalms, particularly in the allergo feroce section of the second movement where the men have sudden, accented interjections here and there.

I also discovered from the programme that the Budapest Central Choir director, Gábor Oláh, like the Bell'Arte Singers' director is a singer, too. This makes quite a difference from a choir perspective in that the director can mold and demonstrate how they would like the sounds to, well, sound. I see also from the programme that as well as Gábor, his son, Zsolt and his daughter (?) Irén were the baritone and mezzo-soprano soloists respectively. His brother, Imre, is in the Bell'Arte Singers. A family affair indeed! Oh, and I must commend to you the counter-tenor, David Dong Qyu Lee — a very clear, excellent voice. Apparently he has moved to Toronto so I expect we'll hear more of him in the future.

Of course, I made myself popular once again after the performance by nagging people to return the music. I take my music librarian responsibilities seriously, I guess. The Kodály Missa Brevis was borrowed from the University of Western Ontario music library. Each overdue score is charged $2/day and the due date is early next week.

I hope those of you who were there enjoyed it and, to those of you who couldn't come, I have noted in the Events on the side panel when the broadcasts are supposed to take place.

After the concert, we (my wife, another soprano from our choir and two of my wife's "course-mates") wandered about the area looking for a place to slake our thirsts and ended up at Denison's Brewing Co. & Restaurants specifically in the Louie's Brasserie & Patio section. We found several other choir members and Lee were also there. Being a fan of micro-brewed beer, I was delighted to be able to try their wares. The dark lager was good. Certainly I will have to return and try some of their other brews. Unfortunately, in that part of the restaurant they only serve (non-fish) seafood which I don't care for. I was looking for some salty, fatty pub-type fare (wings, fries come to mind) but the Growler's Pub section appeared to be closed.

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If you have been peeking at this website you will know that today is concert day for the Bell'Arte Singers and the Hungarian choir from Budapest who will be joining us. Last night was dress rehearsal. Our conductor will be directing the combined choirs in Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. I understand his english directions, of course. Gabor Olah will be directing us in the performance of Zoltan Kodaly's Missa Brevis. Even though I know no Hungarian nor does any of it sound like the languages I am familiar with (English, Français, Deutsch, Italiano) Gabor's musical and voice production directions were clear enough — we just need translations for such directions as "start at 4 bars before rehearsal number 6". I am looking forward to tonight. CBC will be there to record for some future broadcast on CBC Radio 2.

Well it's June and the weather is now typical for a concert: warm and humid. I hope Metropolitan United Church has enough thermal mass to be cool enough tonight. Oops, time to go to catch our 5:00p.m. rehearsal call.

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I didn't get a chance to post yesterday: the company took our project team out to lunch, our relay team ran the race in the evening, and I was too tired (but not too tired mind you, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more) when I got home.

Lunch: Kinectrics, well at least the general manager of the department, took our project team out to lunch yesterday at the Canadiana restaurant to congratulate us on a good, nay excellent, first quarter 2002: meeting milestone targets, delivering deliverables, and getting invoices paid. I had ceasar salad, a tasty pork souvlaki dish and washed it down with an Upper Canada wheat beer. I had the chance to talk to a couple of project team members whom I didn't know as well. I just felt a little over-garliced in the afternoon.

Relay Race: Kinectrics entered two teams in the YMCA Corporate Challenge 4 x 5km Relay Race. Team 10 with a collective time of about 98 minutes had our best time ever. Of course, this was our first time ever!. One of my teammates said that he/she ran slower than expected. However, I countered that our team ran fast enough to be able to get pizza, beer and seats in the hall before the line-ups started and there was standing room only. Surprisingly today, other than a bit of stiffness, I feel OK. Update: Here are the race results

Award: We were called into the project manager's office this morning and I thought the news would be that our hours would be cut back. Turns out that the team members received corporate award letters which weren't ready in time for yesterday's lunch. Not only that, we get to take someone out for dinner or to a theatre at corporate expense (up to some limit, of course) and we can order a logo'd jacket. All right! Perhaps I'm easily amused but I haven't "won" anything before that I can recall. The expense allotment will be convenient seeing as our 24th wedding aniversary is coming up in less than two weeks.

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Our "professional-amateur" group of singers said goodbye at last night's rehearsal break to an older man who left the choir last fall. I was glad to see him go finally because, even with his hearing aid, he wasn't hearing nor singing the music well. He was also getting, well, eccentric. I tried to avoid him when he was at choir practices because he'd tell me about this and that scheme to make lots of money. "A great opportunity" he would say. Before the concert last fall, he "self selected" himself out of the choir via his own embarassment. For a change the men's concert dress was black dress shirts and pants — he showed up in his tuxedo, with a white shirt, the usual men's concert attire. He left before the concert and, a couple of days later, sent an email to everyone saying he was "retiring".

Nice words were said about this man during the rehearsal break last night and then he was given a chance to speak. Well, his few words, included a near proselytization about "Noni" juice and how the company marketing it was growing "faster than IBM". Again, we were all glad he had decided to leave the choir of his own accord. Obviously, his music talents have been superseded by a saleman's fervour. Maybe men change in their 70s, I know my Dad just started living with a single mom about my age. However, I will leave that topic for another day's ramble. I won't mention any names because this man means well and is nice person, but, like an overly sweet confection, you can only take him in small doses.

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It's been one of those days. The IT people changed the IP address on my Windows NT workstation and broke several scripts and server connections. And my VPN connection to an outside company also broke so they had to fix that. Now it appears I can't reach my home box anymore either. At least there will be a Bell'Arte Singers (BAS) rehearsal this evening. Though I ended up spending my lunch hour correcting the "IP damage" to my FreeBSD box instead of practicing the Hebrew words to the Chichester Psalms. It looks like I will have to go out to Cambridge on Tuesday evening to pick up an office desk from my aunt and uncle. They are moving and the desk takes too much room. My son would like it but he is even busier than I am. I hope my uncle has a cold beer anyway. Now I am off to my Mom's for supper as she live near where the BAS are practicing this evening.

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On Easter Monday I added yeast to two batches of wine. Today I bottled them at Mosto Vinho here in lovely Mississauga. Now there's 30 bottles of an Australian Shiraz which, I'm told could age for four or five years. And I have 30 bottles of an "European Select" Pinot Noir. Each batch also had a glass extra. Tonight I'm sampling the Pinot. Not bad even now but a month of aging will make it that much better.

And, now that that Aïda is over, I have time to read again. So a trip to the library was quite in order after the bottling. Especially since it has been another mostly rainy day. Good thing I scrambled out and mowed the lawn, trimmed the edges and planted some perenials yesterday evening.

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Let me tell you, this AGM of the Oakville Choral Society was pretty good. Of the many GM's I have attended over the years I can only remember two: one, where the agenda item was to allow blessings of same sex marriages, and two, where the entire Ministry and Personnel Committee had resigned because of a minister's actions. Anyway this AGM was quite short. There was the usual treasurer's report, president's message and music director's report. The music director gave the president a "Hero's Medal" for service above and beyond the call of duty of a volunteer president of a volunteer choir. As I reported our president had to work quite a bit to calm down the "Monstro" of Opera Mississauga. The business part also included "service" awards for 5, 10, 15(?), 20 and even 30 years with the OCS. A nice touch I think. Anyway, the meal was OK — Chicken breast with pretend real mushroom sauce, veggies, and potato balls. Dessert was whip cream in a semi-sweet chocolate cup. Thanks to Sheila I had two. My table companions were an excellent bunch I might add. Then it was on to the entertainment.

Unfortunately, Lee, our original emcee was taken ill with manly plumbing problems, so James, the funeral director, took over. First up was Helge, our octogenarian, with a couple of little ditties, "You are the mustard on my hot dog" which begs to have a next line "and the mayo on my weenie". However, Helge was born in a different age where songs were pure of meaning. This song is so old that I couldn't find it on Google. His second song, a 1933 piece called "The Pig!", I did find on the Internet. Jane sang the Sinatra song "I've Got a Crush on You". Rosie sang about her "Favourite Things". And James our emcee finally realized his ambition in life, that is, to sing the "Dentist's Song". I'm wondering if this is the one from the "Little Shop of Horrors". Mike sang an down east song whose title I didn't write down and forgot to ask about in all the excitement. Donna and Laurie performed a Maestro and Chorus Master skit — just what are we all going to do without Dwight and Gergely to talk about or make fun of? Ann led us in a rousing chorus from the Finale to Act II of Aïda to the words of "Mary had a Little Lamb". Have we flushed this out of system yet? And finally, the newly formed OCS Chamber Choir sang three selections.

Someone asked me why I hadn't sung a solo. Upon a little reflection I believe it's because I don't need to show off anymore. Besides with all my extra singing time taken up with Aïda I didn't have time to prepare something. Perhaps another year.

To all my friends in the OCS I have gotten to know much better during the course of Aïda rehearsals and performances have a great summer!

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How are these two events related? Hmmm, they aren't, but everyone in the GTA is celebrating the Toronto Maple Leafs quarter final victory over the Ottawa Senators.

The Oakville Choral Society had their (brief) AGM sandwiched between the cocktail hour followed by supper and entertainment. After work I will post details and commentary. Sorry, I won't be doing this at lunch time — the sun has come out after almost 3 solid days of rain. I brought my in-line skates today and I'm going to take advantage of the change in weather.

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At about 8:10 EDT the power went out in the entire building and it stayed out for about two hours. Eerily quiet: I didn't know computer fans and ventilation made up such a large part of the ambient noise. I wasn't feeling too well, perhaps it was something I ate. Once I called Ralph on the Big White Phone I felt better though I haven't eaten my lunch. We'll see if the banana stays down and I will continue to drink green tea. I wish I some of those "just add water" chicken noodle soup cups. Perhaps my body is missing Aïda — I haven't hummed a note or recited an Italian word for at least a day now!

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Did the Maestro "get it" yesterday, was he lectured to, was he happy about a sell-out performance, did we actually almost meet his expectations at Tuesday's performance? For whatever reason, the Maestro behaved nicely towards us at last night's pre-performance chorus warm-up. We did a trio-numbering off exercise for a major part of the hour and not a lot of singing but at least no one was kicked out or yelled at. He deigned to acknowledged the Oakville Choral Society's (OCS) contributions to the Opera chorus. The unfortunate problem is that with human nature, being what it is, a right doesn't necessarily cancel a wrong (or wrongs). Likely, there won't be an association between the OCS and Opera Mississauga at any time in the future as long as he's the Maestro.

The performance went well from my perspective: The house was sold out. The audience, on a couple of occasions, seem to want to applaud the men's chorus. And I remembered most of the Italian words to the Act II, Scene II choruses. Apparently some of the (OCS) women have been grumbling about the lack of their exposure in the Opera. The men appear on stage in 3 scenes and off stage in 3 others while the majority of the women appear only in 1 scene on stage and 2 offstage. This really isn't news as we have been practicing the score since January and it was obvious (well, at least to me) back then. Next time around we'll get Verdi to add more women's chorus parts to Aïda. :-)

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As regular readers are no doubt aware, I am part of the chorus for Opera Mississauga's production of Aïda. Our Maestro continues to astound us with his seemingly callous disregard of our individual and collective emotions. His refrains include "Are you with me?" and "These remarks aren't meant to be taken personally." As I have ears and a brain, which appear act in a fundamentally different manner than our Maestro's, by the way, how else am I to interpret his remarks. Anyway, on with the 'Sauga

Tuesday's chorus warm-up call happened routinely enough. We gathered around the piano in the backstage corner, men down one hall and the women down the other. Chorus Master, Gergely, ran us through pitches, intervals and some choruses where one or more of the choral parts can go flat (in pitch). The Oakville first basses went over a chorus from the the Grand Finale scene where we sing a separate verse from our Opera Mississauga counterparts. Unfortunately we fumbled our words a bit. A this point the Maestro showed up. One thing he can't tolerate is chit-chat while he's in front of us and (I think) he tried to see if the ladies of chorus way down the hall would settle down. They didn't and I think he did a slow burn. He "ragged" on the various men's parts about which ones were flat or not. He asked if anyone had perfect pitch and then proceeded to tear apart the poor individual who "admitted" to it, "You are wrong! You were at least a quarter tone out." I certainly didn't want to be a peg sticking out higher than any of the others at this point or anytime the Maestro is around for that matter! He "fired" one woman. I'm not sure what the misdemeanour was, but she may have been talking when he glanced in her direction. Rule: Never talk when the Maestro is around.

Maestro had the assistant stage director call out the names of those men who hadn't signed in because he wondered "where everyone was". All the absentees from the Oakville chorus had been absent since before the dress rehearsals because of illness or business reasons. The incredible Opera Mississauga organization hadn't thought to delegate section representatives to keep track of these things. Anyway things got from bad to worse and Maestro dismissed us and called for the Oakville Choral Society president. Needless to day we wandered dejectedly away to the dressing rooms after this direct opposite of a pep talk.

About 10 minutes to performance time the men of the chorus were called to the backstage corner again. I thought, what now? If he "fired" all of the Oakville chorus, half the men and probably two thirds of the women would be gone. It he fired the chorus master it would have been the same result. But no, our choir president Lisa gathered us together[1]. Maestro was apologizing through her. Quite rightly our president told him to go play with the orchestra. I believe if he had tried a personal apology things might have gotten really nasty[2] and the performance would have suffered severely. We have to remind ourselves that our Maestro is just the traffic cop guiding the music from the cast, chorus and orchestra to the paying audience. Lisa also did repeat that phrase he said to her, "don't take his remarks personally".

From my Oakville Choral Society, first Bass centric point of view, this performance was probably our best so far. And the Leafs won, too!

Notes:

1. Where in the job description does it say that a community choir president has to practice extreme diplomacy and mediate between an AS-afflicted artistic director and ordinary choir members?
2. Seems to me that the Maestro has a classic case of Asperger Syndrome.

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Working like a beaver last night, I finally finished the tax returns for my wife and me. This year I used QuickTax to speed the process. In previous years I had made up my own spreadsheets; however, incorporating the many separate forms and miscellaneous numbers derived therefrom was getting to be an onerous chore. I also "netfiled" this year. Also a great convenience. Now if I can only persuade myself to log my receipts for my wife's music teaching business, say, every quarter, instead of leaving it until the end of April I might get the returns done (and receive my refund!) earlier next year.

Unfortunately, I couldn't finish my Mom's return as I was missing an important piece of data which could potentially reduce her tax payment. Oh well, I did her 1999 and 2000 tax returns at the beginnning of this year. It had been my sister's job: she hated it and kept putting it off until Canada Customs and Revenue Agency came after my Mom. Really, those returns weren't that complicated if you use the software. And my Mom even paid for the software!

Performance number 3 of Aïda takes place tonight. The trick is to psych ourselves up to make it a "fresh" performance once again. I look forward to a less crowded dressing room — all the mens' chorus and supernumeraries were put in one dressing room on the weekend because the other room was being used by another theatre in the Living Arts Centre. And my costume will have been laundered: at least my physical person will be fresh!

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The Toronto Star critic, William Littler reviewed the opening night performance of the opera Aïda. As you know I'm an Aïda chorus member affiliated with the Oakville Choral Society. Overall he seemed to have liked the production. I stole his title. I would like comment on this quote from his review:

"The addition of the amateur Oakville Choral Society to the Opera Mississauga Chorus helped produce the most full-bodied, carefully enunciated choral singing I've ever heard in an Opera Mississauga production."

This comment could be taken as quite an inflammatory criticism of the Opera Mississauga chorus members. I rather think that because of the "amateurs", our chorus master, Gergely Szokolay, spent a great deal of the rehearsal time working on Italian diction, especially rolling the r's and not making double vowels into diphthongs. The end result was that everyone's diction improved. A little footnote to this, however, is that Maestro Bennett gave us a "pep talk" before the Sunday matinée with a message to the Opera Mississauga Chorus: this season's audition would consist of parts of Aïda and their acceptance may be conditional unless they demonstrate good Italian diction. I don't know, perhaps the "amateurs" were doing better just because our vocal and musical "slates" were less cluttered with higher music education.

Oh, before I forget, a Maestro Bennett quote: "Now, I just want those who have an ARCT to sing this [starting] note." As if an ARCT diploma will help you to come in right on his downbeat and bang on pitch.

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Finally, after weeks of rehearsal and a week of rehearsals, Opera Mississauga's fully-staged presentation of Aïda open last night. There were no major problems from my point of view in the chorus and my wife, in the audience, enjoyed it. Even from the second balcony, the acoustics and design of Hammerson Hall in Mississauga's Living Arts Centre give the audience clear sight and hearing lines.

I was thinking this morning about our (Oakville Choral Society) and my own personal debut in an opera chorus: we certainly didn't start with a "small" opera. Aïda is four acts and lasts for almost 3 hours with large sets and a large chorus. The chorus was called at 6:30 p.m. and we left about 5 hours later. Small mercies, though — now that the performances have begun, we didn't have to stay for a debriefing afterwords. I'm sure the Maestro and Chorus Master will have things to say to us and have us to practice before the Matinée performance this afternoon.

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Aïda Rehearsal — Last night was a "technical run-through" rehearsal on stage at the Living Arts Centre (LAC). What this meant was that the cast, chorus, extras and stage hands went through the opera, performing at least the beginning and ends of each scene. The sets are quite massive and they experienced a few problems in the transitions from scene to scene. Even though the artistic director gloated that the Hummingbird Centre stage was too small for these sets, apparently some parts couldn't be navigated from the loading dock to the stage. The sets are so big there may be not be enough room for the full backstage chorus. The Oakville Choral Society wasn't called for last night but I was glad to have gone to get some more experience being on stage and rehearsing the movements and the entrances and exits. I left before the fourth Act. The stage hands were having some trouble assembling those sets and it was already 10:30 p.m. I hope tonight's rehearsal will run just a bit more smoothly. Tonight's call is for 6:00 p.m. and I don't imagine will be finished until after 11 p.m. One other bit of news from the rehearsal: apparently there would be a big dry cleaning bill for the costumes if we use makeup (white people turning into swarthy ancient Egyptians) so high level discussions are on-going. Details to follow.

The Weather — I saw snow on the magnolia blooms for the first time in my memory (there was a magnolia outside my bedroom room when I was a kid.) Last week the temperature reached 30°C (high 80's), but yesterday the thermometer barely reached 3°C. Here's hoping we'll return to spring again after experiencing a hot, hazy, humid summer and a snowy winter all within one week. It's no wonder we Canucks talk about the weather.

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Basically this meant standing and singing for almost three hours last night. The artistic director reminds me of a Monty Python sketch: "I am looking for an argument", "Sorry this rehearsal is for abuse." At least with 120 in the chorus you don't feel you need to take it personally. There are some rules that, at least for a community choir, might be hard to do.

• No talking.
• Freeze except when singing. You don't want to upstage the stars.
• No picking your nose. Actually this is part of the previous point but the artistic director seemed to make a big deal about it. I guess there was someone on the other side whose personal habits were bugging him.

I found out I still need to do some more memory work but that's just details. At least I know the music well enough to be able to make sounds in the appropriate places.

I can't help comparing the experience of being part of a "Grand Opera" and being in a Gilbert and Sullivan production of the "Pirates of Penzance" last year. There were probably 40 all told in the G&S production. We were encouraged to move around and look alive. Ham it up on occasion. There dance steps and movements to learn and the words, being in English, were easy to pick up after awhile. Music and staging rehearsals were combined over the course of two or three months. In Aida, it is serious, freeze unless singing, no room to move with so many people. Staging is being done in four rehearsals this week and dress rehearsals begin the next!

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I'm having trouble memorizing the words; so, I thought I might type them out and post them, too.

Notes:

[n]

n bars tacet

(x)

x beats

{person}

person singing

Act I, Scene 1

I sacro suolo dell'Egitto è invasso dai barbari Etori gia marciano su Tebe

Ed o - san tan - to

Un guerriero indomabile, feroce, li conduce, Amonasro.

Il Re!

Guerra

Guerra! guerra! guerra! guerra!

Guerra

Guerra! guerra! guerra! guerra! tremen - da, i - ne - so - ra -ta.

Ra - da - mès!

Ra - da - mès!

Ah! - sien gra - zie_ai Nu - | Ra - da - mès! Ra - da - mès!

Ra - da - mès! Ra - da - mès!

Su! del Nilo al ... sorti del guerrier,

Su! del Ni - lo_al sa - cro li - do
sien bar - rie ra_i no - stri pet - ti;
non ec - cheg - gi che_un sol gri - do:
guer - ra, _ guer - ra e mor - te_al - lo stra - nier!
[15]
(2) Su! del Ni - lo_al sa - cro li - do
sien bar - rie ra_i no - stri pet - ti;
non ec - cheg - gi che_un sol gri - do:
guer - ra, _ guer - ra e mor - te_al - lo stra - nier!

Guerra

Guerra! guerra! guerra! guerra!

Guerra

Guerra! guerra! guerra! guerra!
guerra! guer - ra! ster - mi - nio! _
ster - mi - nio al - l'in - va - sor!
ster - mi - nio al - l'in - va - sor!
ster - mi - nio al - l'in - va - sor!
guer - ra! guerra! guer - ra! guerra! guer - ra! guerra! guer - ra! guer - - ra!
[2](3.5) Ri - tor - na vin - ci - tor!

Scene II

Pos - sen - te, ... {women} Noi t'in vo - chia - mo!

Tu che dal nul-la_hai trat - to
l'on - de, la ter - ra,_il ciel, noi t'in - vo - chia - mo! -

Im - men - so, ... {women} Noi t'in vo - chia - mo!

Nu - me che del tu_o spi - ri - to
sei fi - glio_e ge - ni - tor, noi t'in - vo - chia - mo!

Fuo - co_in - cre - a to, ... {women} Noi t'in vo - chia - mo!

Vi - ta del - l'U - ni - ver - so,
mi - to d'e - ter - no_a - mor, noi t'in - vo - chiam!

Im - men - so Fthà!

noi t'in - vo - chiam!

[40] Im - men - so Fthà!

Noi t'in - vo - chiam! -

[6]Il sa - cro bran - do dal Dio tem - pra - to, per tua man di - ven ti_al ne - mi - ci ter - ror, fol - go - re, mor - te.

Il sa - cro bran - do dal Dio tem - pra - to,
per tua man di - ven ti_al ne - mi - ci ter - ror, fol - go - re, mor - te.

[14]{Radamès} pro - teg - gi tu, di - fen - di d'E - git - to_il sa - cro, il sa - cro

Nu - me, cu - sto - de_e vin - di - ce, di que - sta
Nu - me, cu - sto - de_e vin - di - ce,
Nu - me, cu - sto - de_e vin - di - ce,
di que - sta sa - cra ter - ra,
la ma - no tua di sten - di so - vra, so - vra l'e - gi - zio suol!

Pos - sen - te, pos - sen - te Fthà,

Pos - sen - te Fthà, [1]
spir - to fe - con - da - tor

ah! ah!

(2) tu che dal nul - la hai trat - to l'on - de,
la ter - ra,_il cie - lo, noi t'in - vo - chiam, noi - t'in - vo chia - mo!
tu che dal nul - la_hai trat - to_il mon - do, noi t'in - vo - chia - mo!
[2] noi t'in - vo - chiam! (3)
[1] noi t'in - vo - chiam! (3)
[1](2) noi t'in - vo - chiam! -

Im - men - so Fthà!

Im - men - so Fthà!

End of Act I

Act II, Scene and Duet, Backstage

Allegro marziale[2](2)

Su! del Ni - lo_al sa - cro li - do
sien bar - rie ra_i no - stri pet - ti;
non ec - cheg - gi che_un sol gri - do:
guer - ra, guer - ra e mor - te_al - lo stra - nier!

{Aida} mor - nel - la tom - ba io spe - ghe - rò,

Guer - ra_e mor - - te,
guer - ra_e mor - te_al - lo stra - nier! -

{Amneris} e_ap - pren - de - ra - i se lot - tar tu puoi con me.

guer - ra_e mor - te_al - lo stra - nier!

Grand Finale II, Act II, Scene 2

[28] Glo - ria_al E - git - to,_ad I - si - de
che_il sa - cro suol pro - te -ge!
Al Re che_il Del - ta reg - ge,
al Re che_il Del - ta reg — ge
in - ni fe - sto - si_al - ziam! (3)
[1](1)Glo - ria! [1](1) Glo - ria! [1](1) Glo - ria! [2](1) Glo - ria! (1) Glo - ria! (1) Glo - ria! (1)
In - ni_al ziam, in - ni_al - ziam! (1) Glo - ria al Re, al Re!
In - ni fe - sto - si al - ziam!

{women}[17]

Del - la vit - to - ria a - gl'ar - bi - tri su - pre - mi il guar -do er - ge -
Del - la vit - to - ria a - gl'ar - bi - tri su - pre - mi il guar -do,
il guar - do_er - ge -
gra - gra - zie ren - de - te nel for - tu - na - to di,
In - ni fe - sto - si_al - ziam al Re, al - zia - mo al Re.

[2+41+4+70+3+33+6+43+4]

Vie - ni_o guer - rie - ro vin - di - ce, vie - ni_a gio - ir con noi; _
sul pas - so de - gli_e - ro - i,
sul - pas - so de - gli_e - ro - - i i lau - ri_i fior ver siam!
gra - zie_a - gli Dei, a - gli Dei ren - de - te
[1] nel for - tu - na - to di,
Glo - ria, Glo - ria, Glo - ria,
Glo - ria_al guer - rier, Glo - ria_al guer - rier, vien - ni,
o guer - rier, vien - ni, o guer - rie - ro,
[1 .)] vie - ni,_o guer - rier, vie - ni_a gio - ir con no - i,
sul pas - so de - gl'e - ro - i_i lau - ri_e_i fior ver - siam.
Vie - ni, o guer - rie - ro, vie - ni_a gio - ir con noi;
sul pas - so de - gl'e - ro - i_i lau - ri,_e_i fior ver - siam
Glo - ria! Glo - ria! glo - ria! glo - ria_al - l'E - git - to,
glo - ria, glo - ria_al - l'E - git - to, glo - ria
glo - - - ria, glo - ria, (3)[1] glo - ria!

[2+28]{Radamès} Concedi in pria che innanzi a te sien tratti i prigionier

[1] Gra - zie_a - gli De - i, gra - zie ren - de - te,
nel for - tu - na - to, nel for - tu - na - to di
(1) gra - zie, gra - zie, a - gli Dei.
[2](3.5) Su-o pa - dre!

[17+3+19+3]{OM men} cio che n'è dato soffrir!

Strug - gi,_o Re ques - ste ciur - me fe - ro - ci,
chiu - di,_il cor al - le per - fi - de vo - ci;
fur dai Nu - mi vo - ta - ti_al - la mor - te,
or - de' Nu - mi si com - pia_il vo - ler!
Sa - cer - do - ti, gli sde - gni pla - ca - te
(3)(1) l'u - mil pre - ce_a scol - ta - te;
[2](1.3333] sa - cer - do - ti, gli sde - gni pla - ca - te,
[2](1.3333] l'u - mil pre - ce de' vin - ti_a - scol - ta - te;
stru - gi, stru - gi,
sa - cer - do - ti, gli sde - gni pla - ca - te, (1)pie - ta!
(.) | 2) Re(5) pos - sen - te,
(2.5)[1](2) Re pos - sen - te,
struggi, o Re e tu,_o Re, struggi, o Re tu, o Re, queste ciu - ... tu pos - sen - te tu for - te,
a cle - men - za,_a cle - men - za di schiu - di_il pen - sier
Numi votati alla mor... a cle - men - za di schiu - di_il pen - sier
[2](1) si com...oh Re, po - sen - te Re.

[6]{Radamès} mando e libertà.

Mor - te_ai ne - mi - ci del - la pa - tri - a!
Gra - zia per gl'in - fe - li - ci!

[36+]{Amneris}Venga la schiava venga a rapirmi l'amor mio se ...

Glo - ria_all' E - git - to,_ad I - si - de,
che_il sa - cro suol di - fen - de,
s'in - trec - ci_il lo - to_al lau - ro,
s'in - trec - ci_il lo - to_al lau - ro sul crin, sul crin del vin - ci -
In - ni le via - mo_ad I - si - de che_il sa - cro suol di - fen - de!
Pre - ghiam che_il fa - ti_ar - ri - da - no, Pre - ghiam che_il fa - ti_ar - ri - da - no _
fau - sti_al - la pa - tria_o - gnor.
Glo - ria [1](1-) ad I - si - de!
[1](2)glo - ria!

[1](2) glo - - ria!

[3]{OM} Inni... Glo - ria, glo - ria, glo - ria
glo - ria_al - l'E - git - to! Glo — ria
In - ni le via - mo_ad I - si - de, che_il sac - cro suol di - fen -de!
s'in - trec - ci_il lo - to_al ri - da - no,
pre - ghiam che_i fa - ti_ar - ri _ da - no, fa — sul crin del vin - ci - tor
s'in trec - ci, il lo - to, il lo - to_al lau - ro sul crin del vin - ci - tor,
il lo - to_al lau - ro sul crin del vin - ci - tor
s'in trec - ci_il lo - to,_il lo - to_al lau - ro sul crin del vin - ci - tor,
s'in trec - ci_il lo - to,_il lo - to_al lau - ro sul crin del vin - ci - tor,
sul crin del vin - ci - tor.

Act III

[16] O tu che sei d'O - si - ri - de
ma - dre_im - mor - ta - le_e spo - sa,
Di - va che_i ca - sti pal - pi - ti
de - sti_a gli_u - ma - ni_in cor;
Soc - cor - ri, soc - cor - ri a noi Soc - cor - ri a noi pie - to - sa
ma - dre d'im - men - so_a mor,
soc - cor - ri a noi, soc - cor - ri a no-i.

[13]{Ramphis}Andiamo. Pregherai fino all'alba io saro... {Priestesses}Soc - cor - ri, soc - cor - ri a noi.

Soc - cor - ri_a noi pie - to - sa
ma - dre d'im - men - so_a mor, soc - cor - ri a noi, soc - cor - ri a no-i.

Act IV, Scene 1

[9+3+18]{Amneris} io stessa lo gettai e in poter di costoro io stessa lo gettai!

Spir - to del Nu - me so - vra noi di - scen — di!
ne_av - vi - va_al rag - gio del - l'e - ter - na lu — ce;
pel lab - bro no - stro tu-a giu - sti - zia ap - pren — di
{Amneris}[4] Numi Disperato, tremeno è il mio dolo-
Spir - to del Nu - me [2] so - vra noi di - scend - di!
[10]{Ramphis} ... Discolpati Di - scol - pa - ti! Egliatace: Tra - di - tor!
[9] ... Discolpati Di - scol - pa - ti! Egliatace: Tra - di - tor!
[9] ... Discolpati Di - scol - pa - ti! Egliatace: Tra - di - tor!
{Amneris} ... Numi, pietà, Numi, pietà,
Ra - da - mès e de - ci - so_il tu-o fa - to,
de - gli_in - fa - mi la mor - te tu_a vrai
sot - to l'a - ra del Nu - me sde - gna - to,
sot - to l'a - ra del Nu - me sde - gna - to a te vi - vo fia schiu - so l'a - vel
[8+12](3) Tra - di - tor! tra - di - tor! tra - di - tor!
[6] È traditor È tra - di - tor mor - rà!
[...] È traditor È tra - di - tor mor - rà!
[2](3+) mor - rà!
[3](1-) È tra - di - tor mor - rà! mor - rà!
È tra - di - tor! è tra - di - tor! mor - rà!
è tra - di - tor! mor - rà, mor - rà!
è tra - di - tor! mor - rà, mor - rà!
è tra - di - tor! mor - rà, mor - rà!
Tra - di - tor! tra - di - tor! tra - di - tor!

Scene 2, Last Finale

{Aida} l'estasi d'un immortale a...
Ah! — noi t'in - vo - chia - mo, t'in - vo - chiam, t'in - vo - chiam.
[16+3]{Radamès + Aida}
Im - men - so Fthà,
noi t'in - vo - chiam, noi t'in - vo - chiam,
t'in - vo - chiam, t'in - vo - chiam
[9] Noi t'in - vo - chiam, noi t'in - vo - chiam,
im - men - so Fthà, im - men - so Fthà,
[4]Im - men - so Fthà!

The End