Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

The end of an era.

Wednesday, Apr. 19, 2006
6:19 p.m.
Little Princess and I just took a walk down the road, a road that didn�t exist until just recently, on what used to be a footpath through woods, pine and spruce and beautiful needle-covered forest floors, down where the kids tobogganed when they were little, where we would have to make our way carefully through streams and freshets that turned the ground into a muddy mess every spring. It�s all gone. Our street is no longer a dead end; it is finally connected to the other street which also bears its name. No more will pizza delivery men call because they can�t find our house. It is the end of an era.

This is all � propos Little Princess noticing that the garbage truck was coming from the wrong direction. Then I noticed that the recycling truck did the same. So we went out to investigate and one of our neighbours enjoying the beautiful spring weather confirmed it. Drat. My favourite spot in the woods is gone. The trees have all been cleared to make way for houses, and all but three of the subdivided lots have been sold. I found the oak tree that grows in our front yard in those woods: it was just a tiny sapling sprouting out of an inch of soil on solid rock. The feathery spruce that I took to Toronto to plant over my dad�s ashes came from those woods. There are already several houses on those lots. Damn.

I ended up having a bath and hanging out laundry and waiting for the tech support guys from Finale to get back to me. I ended up emailing the document in question to them, and haven�t heard anything since, which makes me think they can�t figure it out either. Then I went to the university to sit in on three of my students� rehearsals with the accompanist. By the end of the day she was exhausted. Poor girl. She�s been doing this non-stop all week. When she got to the end of Erlk�nig, she �I�m not playing that one twice.�

There�s a half-recital tonight, it was supposed to be two, but the tenor has laryngitis or bronchitis or one of those itis diseases that keeps singers from performing. If you missed my earlier post, by all means, click back one.

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