PhloridaPhil

Today marks 6 years since I left UK for a new life in Tampa, Florida USA. A few days ago was the third anniversary of me ‘buying’ a house here (8 September) and of hurricane Irma sending a tree limb into my roof (10 September).

A wise woman told me many years ago that we should ‘grow where we are planted’. I remain wholly British but now capable of misspelling words much to the approval of the local tribe. I heard a few days ago that Americans hold their freedom very dear. I’m sure we all do, and some in the world don’t even have a sense of it! Whatever our freedoms are they must be tempered by common sense. However, as one of my Airbnb guests said, having destroyed a sunlounger by placing her voluminous, body directly onto the bands without adding the cushions, “common sense? …. It ain’t that common”.

So my neighbor in conversation with me recently was quite happy to spend time in close conversation, even occasionally fisting my arm in that strangely masculine way of showing bonhommie, before informing me that his family had been tested positive for Covid! I didn’t subsequently become infected so I’m presuming it must have been more than 14 days ago.

A drinking friend was with me at a party one Saturday night and left to join more of my friends at another party. She had to sleep over because she was drunk but the following afternoon was back getting very drunk in the Irish bar I frequent, swearing rather too loudly at a TV screen on which occasionally appeared Tom Brady, the latest, outrageously expensive purchase of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Friends, seeing her leaving, stopped her from heading to her car for quite a long drive home. She needed to visit the toilet but instead diverted to her car. With much relief I learned the next day that she had arrived home safely realizing how dumb she had been. Common sense ain’t that common.

A few days ago, I had a Frontier internet/cable engineer visit the house to get me back online. In the 5 hours of his work here he changed every unit that had not been changed for a while but was still scratching his head. In the last 10 minutes he discovered a cable was twisted and having replaced this minor item finally got the job done. Common sense ain’t that common.

Amid all this lack of common sense we have an election for one of the most powerful positions in the world. People here are so entrenched in their voting habits that it would seem that nothing will shift their allegiance to varying degrees of incompetence. Yesterday I spoke with a man who shared with me that this was not his habit, that his vote would be cast on how one party or the other might affect his own socioeconomic condition. There was nothing about the common good in his thinking … just ‘what’s in it for me’.

You can imagine my delight when a catholic media group, Faith in Public Life, offered a rallying call that expressed that the Church is not into single issue politics, that pro-life concerns, however valid, are not the sole concern of the Catholic Church. It bluntly described Trump as ‘a threat to Catholic values’ a contrary position to that Trump was seeking by aligning himself with pro-life.

https://drive.google.com/file//1gJKsColm70tLGhGAQQ35_1292sPCTbLx/view

www.faithinpubliclife.org/

Readers outside USA will want to know about the weather. This is the hurricane season here which lasts until November but we’re now in the middle of it. There are a few storms brewing but so far we have been lucky in Tampa. Earlier this week a hurricane changed course in the Bay and hit the northern parts of Florida bringing torrential rain bands to Tampa. At this time of year you expect regular daily downpours at 4pm then the temperatures are at their highest but these have been more erratic of late.

Musically, I have tried to discipline myself to composing a psalm setting each week. Without thinking this had led me to write in different styles to my norm. I still doubt that anything will ever get published as publishing psalms can be an expensive business. Today’s psalm had a smoky blues bar feel which went down well with my smoky blues congregation! We also did Michael Joncas’ ‘Shelter me’ for the first time. There were several people struggling to hold back the tears. It’s a wonderful setting of a text that is just the perfect prayer for these times of Covid19.

In 2016 I bought a brand new 2015 Nissan Rogue. Months later they updated the model in everyway imaginable and I regretted not waiting a little longer ever since. Two weeks ago I visited a dealer and managed to achieve a trade in price that was twice the value first offered me and went ahead with the purchase of an almost new 2019 Nissan Rogue SV. It was first registered in June 2020 and returned to the dealer 2 months later with 5k on the clock. Among the many gadgets is an intelligent driving assistant which I have now switched off. Quite unexpectedly it will take over the steering or the brakes whenever it feels under threat. There is so much I have yet to learn about this car which might be delivered by reading the 580-page manual! That is not going to happen easily!

 I had two great conversations this week with good friends. One was with Helen as a result of her posting on facebook. You would have to know that after over 50 years on this planet this was her first post. You would also have enjoyed the expression of surprise on her face when I FaceTimed her. When she had recovered her composure,  I took her on a brief tour of my place here and she kindly commented on the state of the kitchen. I had earlier begun tidying up the ground floor but had not got beyond the guest lounge. So later that evening I bombarded her facebook site with a sequence of photos of those areas I’d managed to clean. It was days before photos of the kitchen followed!

The second conversation was with Peter, a friend from the Iona Community. He had recently received a cancer diagnosis and when the consultant rang somewhat sooner than expected to relay the bad news he commented on how well Peter was taking it and wished all his patients had a similarly relaxed attitude. What Peter did not tell the consultant was that he had been enjoying several pieces of flapjack laced with narcotic substances!

Today is the last day of summer and the leaves have already started falling into my pool. The next few months will be spent getting the leaves out again! What a joy!

On this day in 1968 (or thereabouts) my parents moved house from Long Walk in New Malden to 12 Neville Road in Norbiton. Local snobs preferred to describe the area as Kingston-upon-Thames but there you go. As my grandfather used to say “There’s nowt so strange as folk!”

I have a few memories of this first house. I can recall hiding under the table when it became clear that a burglar was walking down the gap between our house and the neighbour’s. I can recall that we had an air-raid shelter in the backgarden and a rockery on which we brothers tried to imitate the Beatles. Ours was the only house which was owned. all the others were rented from the Council.

So my parents decided to move and after some deliberation the rest of us children followed.

Neville Road remained the family seat for many years. I remember the seismic ripples when a coloured family moved in next door. Wonderful aromas of what we were later to identify as curry pervaded the atmosphere. It was a new world. When decades later we moved again we ended up selling the house to Muslims. One neighbour enquiring about some strange-looking people who had visited the house looking to purchase was aghast when she learned that they were Muslims!

So today it’s just turned 4pm and the thunder and accompanying lightning and rain have arrived as they usually do during August in Florida. It’s been a wonderful day in which I have weeded both front and back gardens.

On Saturday evening at the 4pm Vigil Mass no sooner had the bells tolled 4pm than the heavens opened with an almighty lightning storm which persisted throughout the entire Mass unabated. The ferocity was astounding but the timing was normal.

Yesterday at church after the first morning Mass I discovered a small package left on the piano. Wrapped in tissue paper was a Covid mask with musical decorations. Later, after the midday Mass one of the choir came up and presented me with 2 t-shirts, a bowl of ceviche and a hand-written recipe for the same. There are so many lovely people here. They make up for the comments from another guy before the 10am Mass. During that Mass I heard in the prayers that his mother had died and privately forgave him!

During last week I finished working on an arrangement of ‘Silent Night’ for voice, SATB Choir, two solo instruments and piano (with organ in the background!). Any folk who might remember me from St Marie’s Cathedral might also recall the piano arrangement I improvised each Christmas for this carol. It must have been noteworthy as last Christmas one of those cathedral parishioners visited Tampa and wrote to me especially wanting me to play Silent Night at the midnight Mass. So now, 7 months later, I completed the arrangement and sent it to a respected musician for his critical observations. I’m hoping there won’t be too many changes as there is only so much of Silent Night that you can endure in balmy August.

My friend John Bell is enjoying his usual few weeks visit to Amsterdam where he covers for the priest in the English Reformed Church there. In return he has to walk the dog twice a day. This is not a preferred experience for John so you can imagine his delight when he learned that this year his hosts were taking the dog with them. To ease his remorse I sent him a picture of the most scary dog I could find. In reply John registered his fright at both pictures, the other being my headshot on the signature line of the message. Bloody cheek!

We have a new Communications Director at St Lawrence and she has enabled me to access my parts of the website so I’m busying myself with updating stuff since another member of staff, thankfully now employed elsewhere, used to be such a control freak that seeking to update the website was like asking for a massive payrise!

Airbnb has restarted in part. there have been a few cancellations due to Covid and quarantine restrictions but a group arrives tomorrow for 3 nights. The house is looking quite tidy as a result!

It’s now past 5pm and the rain has stopped so maybe this calls for a quick dip in the pool and a trip down the road to what my father used to euphemistically call the ‘Post Office’!

I want to start this blog with a good news story. We need this with all the bad news threatening us.

Mary Daniels of Jacksonville, Florida was heartbroken when her husband’s Alzheimer’s disease meant that she could no longer care for him in the way she wished. She found a place for him in a care home/memory centre but once Covid-19 kicked in a few weeks later she could no longer have direct access to him. She made a few visits separated by glass but the experience was clearly so upsetting for both of them that she vowed not to put him through this.

A few months later she asked the center if they had any employment vacancies. After a while she got a call inviting her to take a part-time position as dishwasher for a couple of days a week. Mary admits that she did not agree to this for any financial reason – she was paid a minimum wage – but the real reward was being able to see her husband for a couple of hours after work. Her husband seemed more at peace when he knew that she was in the building even though he would have to wait a few hours to see her.

Mary now runs a support group to enable access via employment to people in a similar position.

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Here in Florida things have taken a turn for the worse. Last week the daily toll of infections was 11,000! It is good that there are not so many deaths but that may change. I am beginning to hear people report that only now they are learning of a friend or neighbour getting the virus and even knowing someone who has died from it.

Masks are mandatory in all buildings. Last week I told a parishioner, whom I found praying in the church, to put her mask on. She asked me if I was Irish. When I enquired what that had to do with anything she said that sr Briege McKenna had informed her that an eminent Irish scientist had declared that wearing masks was dangerous. Somewhat mystified I asked her which country we were in and asserted that it was the law of this land to wear a mask in Tampa. Only when I added that the bishop had instructed the wearing of masks did she seem to agree. I understand that her family are pharmacists!

Since midday it’s been raining here. The temperature is still in the mid 90sF but it is a bit miserable. It’s my day off so to kill time while I wait to watch Chelsea play Liverpool I’m typing this blog and half-watching West Ham draw with Manchester United who got trounced by Chelsea last weekend.

My airbnb has started up again but I’ve had so many cancellations. you might be excused for thinking that these are because of Covid but in reality it is more often because people don’t read the listing and expect to have the house to themselves! I have a cancellation policy in place which often means that the guests don’t get much of a refund. People are so stupid!

I was delighted that Her Majesty the Queen took time out from knighting Captain Tom to grant me a new passport. Apparently they are made in Poland and appear black though they are really navy blue (apparently).

Last week I finally got down to revisiting a setting of psalm 27 (The Lord is my light) I’d aired at the composers forum meeting in January. It was well received there although someone mentioned a melodic similarity to Christopher Walker’s setting. Having conferred with CW I now have changed the melody to avoid legal issues. One of the OCP staff advised me to consider setting the same psalm for an Easter week with a different response. I was amazed to discover that the text fitted well to the response I had created for ‘The Lord is my light’. There is a new translation of the psalms and canticles which looks as though it will be the standard text in the new Lectionary when that arrives in approx 5 years.

Earlier this month I was expecting to speak to the City Council on the behalf of Goodwill, a national charity store. Behind and adjoining my local store is a residential center for folk who are re-entering society having served their time. Goodwill are hoping to be able to accommodate more clients in the same building than the present code allows. My presentation was biblically inspired and presented a different stance to other presentations. In the event the meeting has been postponed due to Covid-19. Did the Council only just realise that we are in a pandemic???

This blog might appropriately be titled ‘thrown under the bus’.

as I write USA is in turmoil. The number of deaths from coronavirus has passed 100, 000 and even in the relatively small country of Great Britain the incidence of coronavirus and death is very high. There is a lot of finger-pointing but now is not the time for this.

USA is also in turmoil over the murder of George Floyd. I watched on TV today as senators struggled to ‘take the knee’ for the almost nine minutes that the police officer knelt on George’s neck. There seems to be a will to look at reform of the American Police forces and this is indeed good. Movies have focussed on the corruption that can exist in the Police but you really can’t throw all of them under the bus because there are some and even many perhaps who are good people. I am certainly not denying institutional racism but nor do I agree with tarring everyone with the same brush.

There have been protests about George’s death in many American cities including my own. Protest has travelled across the world like the pandemic which so many protesters seemed to temporarily ignore. I agree with protest: the psalms are full of it and the prophetic witness to which we are encouraged by our baptism may also encompass protest. Violence and looting are something else. These are wrong. There may be those who point to opportunism and poverty being the factors but violence and looting are wrong and it would be equally wrong to thrown under the bus all protesters.

I recall the reaction of the media when the news broke of sexual abuse of minors by catholic priests. I recall priests removing their collars in fear of being assaulted. It would be and was wrong to throw under the bus all catholic priests when there are many good priests who share nothing with the evil minority.

I was thrown under the bus this last weekend. I received a request from ‘Alina’ to accommodate 3 guests via Airbnb. It was the first request in months as I’m sure you will understand. It was a last minute booking and the guests would arrive after midnight so I went to bed having given them the entry codes. At 3am on Saturday morning I was awoken by noise in the house. I donned a dressing gown and went to meet my guests. On the way I passed the bathroom, the door of which was wide open, and noticed a woman tying her shoelaces. I continued downstairs to where the noise was emanating and in the lounge was surprised to find it full of at least six persons. They showed an equal unease and a couple went upstairs to where they said ‘Alina’ was. I followed them soon after and in that short time they had concocted a complete fabrication that I had been ogling the woman in the bathroom whom they said was in the shower.

Ironically this week I finished reading a book entitled ‘Truth – A brief history of total bullshit’ by Tom Phillips. To those who believe that falsehood and fake news originated with the current US administration it seeks to show that falsehood and lies have been around for centuries.

There was no truth in the allegation but I was pleased that they all decided they would not stay. When they left I could hear them telephoning Airbnb and then the Police. So I rang Airbnb to lodge a report and the agent mentioned that a report had already be given by Alina and she dropped the phone on me. I then rang the Police for my first time in USA because I felt unsafe in my own house particularly because the ‘guests’ had my entry and alarm codes.

Four of the guests were still in one car when the Police arrived. Two cars had already left. The Police woman was very understanding but it was my word against Alina and she did not want to be the judge. I was very relieved that I was not arrested on the basis of whatever report had been given by them!

Later that morning I had to work but kept a keen eye on my phone app for the alarm system which also allows me to see if the front door is opened while I am away. Fortunately there was no issue.

I received a message from Airbnb that they had cancelled the booking and any payments to me and mentioned that an investigation was proceeding and that i could lose my membership of Airbnb. It felt as though I was being thrown under the bus. I could understand that if a serious or even mild allegation had been made then they had to take it seriously. How do you prove innocence when it was my word against the dishonesty of the guests?

I spent a long time on the phone with the ‘investigator’ on Sunday evening and nothing much had changed to ease my mind at all. So this morning I contacted Airbnb and again denied the allegations that I had heard them making as they phoned Airbnb outside my house. Furthermore I asserted that I was willing to make a statement to that effect under oath. A few hours later I received a note indicating that if I confirmed that I had read the safety rules they had sent me that no further action would be taken. It did not sound as though I was exonerated and I was still concerned about what Alina might write when she was asked for a review. If it was to be as false as the verbal allegations then I would not be happy since as they say, ‘mud sticks’.

It was with some trepidation that, having written my honest and full review of hosting Alina including a warning to potential hosts, I awaited her review of me. Fortunately her review written before mine amounted to a single word – ‘Honestly’ and accompanied it with a tight-lipped meme! I was relieved and replied “I don’t think Alina know the meaning of the word”.

I am fortunate that over the weekend I was able to seek the company of good friends and a game of dominoes over a few drinks.

There were other much more positive moments during the last week. On Tuesday I received a request from one of my Iona friends, Alison Adam, to provide a tidied up version of the scrawled manuscript of a new chant by John Bell. Moments later the pristine version was with Alison and John in UK.

Then came a further request to record the accompaniment with me singing the melody. The first attempt had too much of me and not enough accompaniment so a second attempt followed on Wednesday. It was to be used in a virtual gathering of the Iona Community and its supporters as we bade farewell to Christine and Kathy the Leaders and welcomed Ruth and Caro as new Leader and transition executive. We also welcomed New Members. I’d have to say that despite moments of clunkiness it was very emotional and typically direct in its focus. It was good also to receive plaudits from dear friends who were communally part of the experience.

Back home in England my mother is a cause of much concern but I am really pleased that I have brothers who live quite close and have been able to step in to the breach when necessary. I would love to have made a reurn visit but this looks problematic even if I can find a plane to take me: I would have to be quarantined for 2 weeks in UK before visiting mum and then on my return would likely be quarantined again. I am pleased that there are positive signs and that because of a recent ‘walkabout’ mum’s condition is being taken more seriously by the medical and social professions.

The other high point of the week was receiving a letter from Donald Trump. The letter accompanied a cheque for $1200 which all Americans and legal residents aliens have received as a hardship payment in times of Coronavirus (which by the way, one of my brothers insists on calling ‘Miley Cyrus’).

I have experienced some hardship but I still have a job which pays well when many have lost even low-paying employment. Strangely my main income loss can be put down to the temporary cessation in Airbnb hosting! But I have also lost out due to there being no funerals or weddings at St Lawrence and I have been unable to maintain my regular organ lessons for scholarship students at Jesuit High School. I really can’t complain as the temporary closure of bars and restaurants has reduced some expenditure.

We’ve had a few storms here but are expecting many more. I should have been on vacation last week for a few days in Key West in the south of Florida. Covid19 put a stop to that as nothing would have been open even if I had been able to get there. I was due to travel with another Iona friend, Dawn Young from Texas. Unfortunately she found a suspicious growth on her nose which had to be removed so she wouldn’t have been able to travel in any case. Spare a prayer for her and many others who are sick but prevented from getting the support of friends due to the virus restrictions.

Tomorrow is another day … and there are very few buses in Florida!

What an ominous day on which to begin my first blog in over a month. A severe storm is due this afternoon, the alligator mating season starts and the stay-at-home order in still in place across Florida.

Also continuing now for 6 weeks is the presence of builders in my backyard extending my pool patio area by 650 sq ft. Unfortunately the norm is that they work 2 hours and call it a day. The fact that I will reduce their payment by $200 per day after Tuesday may spur them on a bit but they didn’t show yesterday!

I am luckier than many since I can be almost in isolation at work in my office and at home. The organ O purchased last year for home practice has really come into its own as I have been able to schedule a different piece for each live-stream Sunday Mass. Sometimes I have to re-order things eg yesterday when I awoke to realize I could not play the chosen piece to my satisfaction and selected an alternative which in fact was more suitable for the readings!

Today is eerie. It is quite dark and the wind is up at 10am. A severe storm is expected after midday. This will keep everyone inside, I’m sure, but the air will clear and become drier than it has in recent days. Every cloud really does have a silver lining.

This week will be the last that our deacon/chief of staff works at St Lawrence as he enters retirement. There will be mixed emotions, I’m sure but life at work will definitely be different. The shock of the week was that the bishop is moving one of our priests who had been here only 10 months. Priests know that this can happen and they buy into it but the people really don’t embrace change so easily. Fortunately in his place we will be getting a priest who has been ordained for 6 years and who comes to us from his post as chaplain at a local university.

My work life continues much as it has always been. I work the same number of hours preparing the music for live-stream and sending out resources to our wonderful couple of cantors who have delivered some wonderful moments. It is much easier now that Holy Week is over so the powers that be have decided to live-stream a Mass for the school community on Wednesday mornings. Unfortunately the school has requested that this fits into their virtual timetable with only a 30-minute slot for Mass with music. The experience will be definitely different from that we normally offer!

You might imagine that the Covid19 restrictions would mean that my house is really tidy but that’s not the case at all. It’s not terrible but it’s unlike a show-house!

Financially I’m sure we are all taking a hit. I am fortunate that my salary is still being paid but the cushion of income from Airbnb, organ lessons at Jesuit and weddings and funerals make for leaner times. And all of this at the same time when I decided to re-finance the house to a shorter term and increased mortgage payments! On the good side there are less places open to spend money. I am however pleased to recount that even though my beloved Goodwill Stores have been closed for weeks I managed to find a great bargain last week. My mother always says that nothing is a bargain unless you really need it. Well I have been looking around for a petrol fuelled fire-pit for almost 2 months. Last week I saw a really hi-end example in a private online sale. The list price for this item is $2100 but they were selling it at less than half price. I expressed interest in knowing when they might drop the price from $900. They dropped it to $700 and I got it for $500 and they even delivered it! The granite was 48in diameter and too wide for my SUV but his BMW SUV was wider!

For the last 6 weeks my builders have been promising two actions which today they have completed. Neither were the normal tasks for builders. They removed 6 very spiky red pineapple plants from the backyard and also applied bondo to a broken pool step. Earlier in the week I’d filled it with expanding filler and had to drop the pool level almost 2ft to achieve this. Like gaffer tape, Bondo is a builder’s friend. It is easy to work with and hardens very quickly. Unfortunately due to a manufacturer error the first batch I’d bought had no hardener in the tube. This caused laughter at the store when I returned it but at least that task is now done and will have hardened before the storm arrives.

This isolation is tough for people. Yesterday we received a phone call that parishioners were planning to invade the live-stream Mass and demand communion. It must be a strange thing for a priest to refuse communion to anyone but in the event it never happened.

I hear that the naturally-tactile French are really missing the opportunity to kiss each other on both cheeks. Such intimacy would never be tolerated in UK. In USA gone are the ‘high fives’ and the hugging being replaced by a nod or an elbow bump.

On Friday the authorities opened a beach in Jacksonville way to the north of the state of Florida. Within hours it was groaning with sunbathers for whom the safe distance between bodies seemed to be a thing of the past. Daft, isn’t it?

Here in Trumpton POTUS still reminds of us of how daft the human race can be with his daily press conferences which offer cynics plenty of scope for ridicule. Fortunately not all state governors obey his every whim and apply more common sense. I recall one of Airbnb guests declaring the common sense “ain’t that common”. How correct she was!

Well it’s 11.15am and the workers seem to be packing up after what has been a comparatively lengthy time at work. The rain has started to fall and so have their tools.

It looks like the storm is imminent as there is an eerie calm right now when all the media are emitting warnings. I’m going to finish this blog before the lightning prevents me from using the computer!

Happy St Patrick’s Day … well happy if you’ve found a bar that’s open or if you’re drinking right now. But for millions of the human race this day will have been another harrowing day in the shadow of the Coronavirus which, I understand, is called Miley Cyrus in the UK. That would be amusing if this whole thing were something to laugh about but it’s deadly serious.

I’ve just come from conversations with my brothers in UK who are expressing due concern about mum. Drastic measures seem to be called for in the hope that she will maintain herself during these months when self-isolation is so necessary. And I’m here in Florida where we are beginning to share in the fallout from this pandemic.

After being told for days that the authorities have everything under control the President did a poorly disguised volte face and declared a state of emergency. For a couple of weeks the churches have relied on preventative measures but have still hosted gatherings for Mass etc. I had hoped that our bishop might stop Masses happening after a meeting yesterday but it appears more days must pass before this is announced, if  indeed it will be. I can however see some sense in each of the Florida Dioceses conferring and agreeing on a joint statement so that they may be in line with Florida State pronouncements. Last night it was announced that local bars and restaurants would close early at 10pm. Today the State Governor announced that restaurants would close earlier than that and that bars would cease business at 5pm. I see the sense in this but I also see the hardship this will bring. Workers in bars are paid a pittance but gain a decent amount from tips which makes the job worthwhile for most. The tips will dry up and the hours will be drastically reduced and what can they live on?

This pandemic will affect everyone economically, I’m afraid to say. So since we are all experiencing the Common Bad you might have thought that considering the Common Good might have been an attractive option … but no! Supermarkets shelves are empty of essentials (milk, eggs, meat, water, energy drinks (!), and toilet paper). Hoarding is not a possibility for the poor. Folk who have grown accustomed to living from paycheck to paycheck now have to suffer the indignity and anxiety of where their next loo roll is coming from!

The globalisation of our world seems to predict that we all want to hoard the same items. When a hurricane threatens here it is the same items that disappear from shelves even though the actual location of the emergency is more contained than anything this Covid-19 can embrace. I’ve just read that small local grocers in UK operate more fairly than the larger concerns with strict limits on multiple purchases. The vendor knows the purchaser and the purchaser knows this. In the best cases there is a sense of community and a responsibility that goes with membership of community. The mindless hoarding is self-centred and therefore unhuman. In essence human beings are relational but you’d have a hard job proving that to a visiting Martian!

Myself I’m in one of those ‘at risk’ groups owing to my diabetes. I’ve already had to advise my pastor that this condition made me uncomfortable attending Mass albeit as an employed Director of Music. The impact of this decision is unlikely to be relevant as pretty soon we may hear that in Florida as in other States the Bishops will be forced into the position of withdrawing public Mass. This may mean that we’d have to live-stream one Sunday Mass in English and another in Spanish (again, as in other States). Now I could cope with that as I’d imagine only the celebrant, possibly a reader, me singing at the organ/piano and a camera man being present and thus there being a reduced risk.

My youngest brother has just returned from France. It was no holiday. His daughter Alice had been working in a ski-resort in the French Alps. With no planes flying in Europe there were no skiers and no business. So my brother had to drive to this furthest point in France, collect his daughter and drive back. He tells me that whilst the effect of the virus was clear on the way down it was harrowingly empty on the return journey. Everything is closed. These are worrying times indeed and we must be serious about them. Some of our politicians may be laughable in their response but increasingly a more considered approach is being maintained.

So all of this falls at a time when I am considering my own mortality. The recent deaths of Graham Maule and Peter MacDonald, both friends through the Iona Community and both living only 61 years has prompted this introspection. The redeeming grace that both their funerals shared was such joy.

So as I ‘self-isolate’ between office and home my joy is increased by the fact that I have a job, am well paid and am in generally good health (apart from a collapse in November, falling from a barstool in January and damaging both knee caps and a constant cold for the past 3 weeks). Even then I am still joyful despite realising that I have lived here long enough now to get ‘allergies’. Feeling bunged up? It will be allergies that is the cause! I never had ‘allergies’ in the UK so this is all a bit of a mystery … (joyful mystery?).

I’ve cancelled all my Airbnb guests and although I enjoyed the varied company it’s good to have my own space again. I’m even expanding the patio to accommodate all the bargain patio furniture I’ve acquired. And the days are gloriously sunny right now so the space will get some use, I’m sure.

It’s a dull day today so here I am blogging.

The most significant moments of the last few weeks were spent in St Louis, Missouri during the last week of January. The weekend before that was spent doing the usual stuff in church and then on Monday I drove to the airport for the two hour direct flight to St Louis. A few days earlier I had come across some drinks vouchers sent to me by Southwest Airlines so I am afraid to admit that by 9am I had consumed three gin and tonics! I needed the drink as i had to occupy the middle seat and before I was even sat down the guy to my left said “Do not put your arm on the arm rest!”. Later in the flight he complained “your arm is inside my rib cage!” The guy to my right turned to me and said “your right arm is just perfect”. At the airport I had to wait about 90 minutes before there was any sign of the team that arranges the shuttles to the Mercy Center.

At the center I went to bed waking later for lunch. During the intensive next few days we listened to the publishers, to other composers, reviewed unpublished material from each of us, celebrated liturgies and prepared for a concert. I was pleased with the reception given to my setting of Psalm 27. It was in a gospel style and Chris Walker and others could not believe it when it was revealed that an Englishman was the composer! An even greater reception was given to the Morning Prayer I had devised using material from the Iona Community. The whole time together was a great opportunity to meet up with folk who have become friends.

After the sell-out concert on the final night a few of stayed and continued drinking the free wine until the wee hours. I left at about 3am when the only other person drinking was the octogenarian John Foley of St Louis Jesuits fame!

I returned to Tampa tired but fulfilled. Another weekend of Masses greeted me and it was the Feast of the Presentation although sadly at St Lawrence we did not do the processions required by the Church and strangely celebrated the St Blaise blessing of throats a day early!

My lodger had left my house three months earlier than I had expected. Fortunately when I reactivated my Airbnb site there was a flurry of interest which continues as I type.

The money from Airbnb will come in handy as I decided to refinance my mortgage and to reduce the term from 30 to 15 years. The payments will be high but it will be worthwhile in the long run.The refinance was done in record time …8 days!

On Wednesday I was taken out to lunch by Scott Geist who was visiting Tampa on work. I had last met him when I did a two week stint as musician in residence at St John’s Episcopal Church, Ellicott City. That invitation was the result of spending two weeks as relief musician in Iona when St John’s brought their massive youth group to Iona. The encounter was magic and I made several good friends. Indeed when I was looking for work in USA after the St Marie’s Cathedral Posluzny debacle they offered me a job with very attractive terms. Unfortunately they had not solved issues with the resident musician so I declined and came to Tampa instead. We dined in some style at the Oak on Ola in the Armature Works. The exquisite steaks were accompanied with a couple of G & T’s. We retired to sit and chat by the bar and the manager joined us and allowed us to sample some very distinctive gins which were so smooth that you could drink them without a mixer!

Yesterday Thursday 13 February I received news that the cellars of my house in Sheffield were once again underwater. The restoration company appointed by the insurance were successful in drying out the cellars but heavy rain had once more exacerbated the problem and there was 5 inches of standing water. I phoned the company to complain about their lack of communication and they promised to ring me again today and they rang at 6am this morning when I wasn’t too receptive. They haven’t rung me back so this is a disappointment.

 

 

My friend Ross arrived from Scotland on Thursday 2 January. I greeted him with a bottle of bubbly, the odd frozen margarita and some food by the firepit. The following day Ross was tired from the journey so after I’d returned from a funeral we hung out in the backyard and after several beers we drifted into a bourbon whisky tasting session. Ross joined me for the Saturday Vigil Mass and then we returned for a light meal of whatever was in the fridge. While I did the usual heavy schedule of Sunday Masses Ross lingered a while before heading for Orlando for a bit of shopping and to collect members of his family who would spend the night in Miami before heading for Key West . I had expressed an interest in joining them as I had never been to KW and having found suitable accommodation for only $45 a night I was set on a New Year trip.

I spent Monday 6 January preparing for the next day’s travel and tidying up the house prior to the arrival of a long-term lodger, Eamonn. He is a distance runner with an expectation to represent Canada in the Tokyo Olympics. He drove all the way down from Ontario to Tampa in 2 days and arrived at 2am on 7 January. I had fallen asleep in the chair so I was able to give him some brief introduction to the house.

At 7am I was picked up by an uber and taken to Tampa Airport where I boarded the smallest plane I’d ever used to Key West. The views from the window were amazing. A little over an hour later I was in Key West  itself.

The accommodation was NYAH (Not Your Average Hotel). The view from the street was unassuming but once through the door and the lobby the place opened up to reveal 3 pools, a hot jacuzzi pool and several blocks holding 35 rooms. This was a travellers delight of a place with each room offering two bunks and one shower/toilet. Yes it was basic but it was all I needed as I had no intention of spending any length of time in the room apart from sleeping. I passed the initial hours on the roof-top deck until my room was ready for occupation. Then having settled I went out for the first of several drinks. Ross and his family had agreed to meet me later on and we met at a very lively bar called the Green Parrot. 5 rounds later we moved on to sample at other bars before returning for a late night drink of a rather special Jack Daniels I had asked Ross to bring with him in his car. The lack of sleep caught up with me and I had to be guided home.

The next day Tuesday I decided to venture to another key Geiger Key. As the guide described it was very quiet and I saw only 3 people all day hut it cost quite a bit in Uber charges. The next day I was determined to return but this time by bus. The cost of the bus journey was just $1 and I was able to hitch a lift the three miles towards the sea.

I can’t recall much of what I did over the time in Key West for reasons that will not need to be stated! But the high point was an unusual one. Ross and I have a mutual friend in Graham Maule who was half of the most creative partnership with John Bell over almost 40 years. A month or so before he had been diagnosed with bone and lung cancer and on 29 december he had died. Ross and I wanted to spend time in prayer for Graham at the same time as the funeral in Glasgow’s St Mary’s Cathedral. The previous evening we had walked to the Catholic Basilica and met a very helpful man there who turned out to be a Catholic priest from New York. He was interested in our reasons for being there and offered to say a prayer for Graham too. So at 6am on Friday 10 January we met outside the catholic Basilica of Mary Star of the Sea and having been sent by email the Order of Service , we sang and spoke the same words used in Glasgow adding our own distant tears to those of the over 400 folk gathered there.

After almost an hour we finished our prayer and walked to the Southernmost Point. It was very windy and the waves wre engulfing the pier but we managed to take a photo. A little further from there we tried to get breakfast but nothing was open. We did bump into a couple who had just got engaged and who asked me to take a photo. Ross had to work during the day so I returned to NYAH for breakfast and chilled by the pool. Later that evening I met up with Ross and the family at the Blue Heaven restaurant. The music was great and as we arrived a table very close to the band became vacant. It was clear from the menu that this was going to be my best meal so I ordered a starter which featured brie mixed with cream and various salad bits. The main course was fish washed down with a fine bottle of Malbec. I had become very impressed y the trumpeter so I went over to thank him. He turned out to be Kenny Fradley of Kid Creole and the Coconuts. After the meal I ventured on with Ross for more drinks. This was probably unwise as I ended up falling off a barstool onto a hard marble floor, damaging my knee caps in the process.

The following day I spent by the pool as my knees were paining me and even at the evening Mass at the Basilica I found I could not kneel! I met up with Ross’s family again and we met at The Hair of the Dog where Kenny Fradley had assembled a wonderful group of young musicians who would play there every Saturday for the foreseeable future. I got chatting with a delightful woman who knew the young lead singer better as an actress which accounted for her command of gesture and facial expression. In the same way as when one visits an art gallery sometimes one has to leave before you’ve completed the tour … the artistry is so great … and we left to tour some other drinking holes and ate a simple meal near the marina where we had bought some fine rum earlier in the week. Ross left with me the ordinary Jack Daniels bottle and I finished this with fellow travellers around the jacuzzi pool back at the hotel.

The following day I spent around the pool until it was time to leave for the airport. In the bar there I bought a few double mojitos and had some amazing conversations. The flight was on time and I arrived back at Tampa having slept most of the flight.  Later that evening I ventured out to my local and thence to bed.

On Tuesday 14 January I was back at work. It was not the easiest first day back and was followed by teaching my organ students at Jesuit but that was fine. I slept deeply and was better the next day but my knees were still troubling me. On Thursday 16 Jan I went to see the doc after work and she ordered an xray.

On Friday it was my day off so I completed my UK tax returns and paid the 14 pound payment! Later that evening I stopped at the Cornerstone for a couple of drinks and thence to the Local with Dennis for another 3 drinks. Then I got a message from Collette to join her father at a small gathering there. It was delightful and I was driven back to my home at the end of the evening.

Saturday was another work day and I managed to do more work on the liturgy for the Composers Forum (LCF). They had asked me to produce an Iona Morning Prayer.

The weekend liturgies all went well. this was surprising since I had chosen to use John Bell’s ‘ Broken Body’ as a post-communion song. I had introduced it with a spoken explanation of the pain which Christians must feel when/if they acknowledge that although Christ wanted us all to be one we are in fact a broken body. I only had one person come to me and question this choice but I expect there may be a few more who will harbour such thoughts. this reminds me so much of Walter Brueggemann’s theory that American Christians are a therapeutic society in which the prophet who sows uncomfortable thoughts is not entirely welcome.

Today, Monday, the temperatures have dropped considerably but it was still pleasant in the afternoon having spent the morning ironing a pile of washed clothes that I had tried to ignore for days. In the evening I returned to my local bar, quaffed a few vodka with water and returned to finish the fine bottle of red I had started the previous evening.

I now feel ready for the week ahead and sleep beckons.

 

My last blog ended with a reference to news that Graham Maule had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer. This blog begins with news of Graham’s death on Sunday 29 December.

I first met Graham Maule at the LAST NIGHT OUT events of the Wild Good Resource Group of the Iona Community but never really began to know him until we shared a room in Iona Abbey during a Music & Worship week in 1998 in which Marty Haugen and I were the guest musicians. It was days before Graham ventured out of his room. His colleague John commented that he didn’t travel well!

I recall one evening when we drank, talked and laughed into the night … in fact there were several such evenings in his Edinburgh apartment too. This evening was during the annual Greenbelt Festival, a tented gathering of some 30k Christians. That night after a late evening worship session we retired to my tent which was always the largest and relaxed in the way we always did. Clearly we must have disturbed the sleep of nearby campers as one child approached with a request from her father to be quiet. That request came from a Cabinet Minister of the Scottish Government! When the sun rose the following morning Graham was found comatose half in – half out of his tent. It was difficult to see whether he had made it to the toilet or not. Later that morning I bumped into the esteemed Minister and apologized on Graham’s behalf but it seemed that he knew Graham and graciously understood. Still later that day I was taken to task by the leader of our group who had assumed that it was I who had caused the uproar and been the source of some pithy expletives to the child.

Many stories will be told of Graham both before and long after his funeral. His time with cancer was mercifully short and so most will have more positive memories of Graham than those of his colleagues, friends and family who cared for him. We will also have the recordings of his tenor singing voice. Most at ease in Scottish folksong he laid down some beautiful tracks with the WGRG and friends of their purpose.

As I type, and for the last few days his death has made my heart heavy. Barely a week will pass without my use of music with which he will have had some part in the creative process.

Tomorrow Ross, a mutual friend of Graham’s, will join me in Tampa having travelled from Glasgow prior to joining his family on a trip to Key West Florida. It will be good to light a candle for Graham at the same time as the funeral.

Christmas celebrations at St Lawrence went well. It could easily have gone pear-shaped as so many of the choir were either unavailable or ill. At the penultimate rehearsal before Christmas one singer fell badly in the car park and another became ill while she was there. In addition several sopranos would not be available. In the event I managed to entice singers from other musical groups in the parish to join us for the midnight Mass and it all went super-smoothly. At the start of every Mass I usually introduce some of the music to the people. It was a great surprise to see Val, a friend from Sheffield Cathedral days in the congregation with her son, Simon. After Mass she came up to me with tears in her eyes … my arrangement of Silent Night has that effect on folk!

The Pastor had kindly enabled me to hire another musician to cover me so that I could rest between the 4pm Vigil Mass and the Midnight and then again to lie in while the 7.30am Mass proceeded. I was then back the following morning for the three remaining Masses. I went home briefly and then joined Val with her family for a Christmas meal.

On what we Brits call ‘Boxing Day’ and the following day I relaxed and general pottered about the house. I needed to prepare for a spate of Airbnb guests. I declined one who wanted to spend almost a week from Christmas Eve and I even declined a neighbor who wanted to lodge his mother at my house! The booking on 27 December was for 4 persons who turned out to be a couple and their two mature daughters. Apart from the opening introductions I only ever saw the father who had a penchant for fine wines and rums. They were ideal guests.

On Monday 30 December I went kayaking and had the wind in my sails until the cable on my mirage drive (Hobie owners will understand) snapped and I was left at the mercy of the wind. Since it was blowing me in the direction I wished to travel it was no problem. However when I decided to return I had to abort use of the sail and paddle instead.

On New Years Eve my muscles ached after the strains of the previous day. I went into work for a few hours before playing a bilingual Mass at 5.30pm. While at work another couple who had stayed with me a few weeks earlier returned for another few days. Following this I went to a local party at which I was to offer frozen margaritas made with my Margaritaville frozen drink maker machine. Many who laughed when I first brought it to the pub were full of admiration once they tasted my potions. I had arrived at the party without a coat. The wiser locals had dressed for harsh florida winters and I was taught a lesson as the temperatures plummeted to 63f.

The party finished at 10pm and although tempted to join a few at the pub I decided that bed was wiser. I had two Masses in the morning and then a meeting with a musician colleague. Later that evening I joined friends and work colleagues for an annual bash. It was a great end to the toughest part of the Christmas Season. The rest would be downhill.

At 1.30pm on Saturday 16 November I had a funeral for a man who had been a lawyer for some big-time shady people. By 1.55pm there was still no sign of the visiting priest they had selected. Maybe he feared some reprisals, who knows? I was able to contact our own Pastor who stepped in to save the day.

The following Monday I drove to Clearwater for a lunchtime gathering of the local chapter of Pastoral Musicians. It had been cancelled once before due to a funeral and on this occasions the Chapter Director had chosen to do anther funeral rather than attend and the Secretary was ill. The person nominated to chair the meeting had no idea of what topics had been submitted for discussion and started with the usual fluffy crap. After 40 minutes I’d had enough of this as had another Music Director who described it as the same kind of car crash as the previous session we had with ILP’s publisher Vincent something Italian. I intervened and introduced the five items I had offered for the agenda and at least there was some real discussion and outcome rather than what our joys and sorrows might have been!

As I returned home from the meeting I stopped off at the Goodwill Store in Oldsmar. I had been keeping my eyes open for replacement wooden chairs for the staff kitchen table. I found an exact match and the following day this was delivered to work and our maintenance folk chose to resurface the table in their workshops. At $40 for 4 chairs and a table it was, as you might expect from me, a bargain!

On Wednesday 20 November I answered an advert about a bed for sale. These particular beds are tempurpedic and sell for about $8000. That’s a ridiculous price and one which I could not countenance. But having owned it for almost 6 months this couple were selling for $3000 so it was another bargain and was delivered on Friday 22 November.

On Thursday 21 November I had man round from Frontier to fit two further TV points (for the Airbnb rooms) and realign the wifi which had been misbehaving. See my entry for 11 and 12 December to discover how that went.

Thursday 28 November was Thanksgiving which in these parts is a big deal. In the Parish we offered a Thanksgiving meal to the homeless and lonely in addition to offering Masses which kept me occupied rather than in bed! During the afternoon I joined several friends from the pub for our own dinner at which I supplied the Margaritas via my bargain frozen drink maker.

Friday after Thanksgiving is Black Friday at which folk arrive early in the morning queue up to purchase the possible bargains from their favourite stores. I decided to take my kayak out on the waters. It was a wise decision but on the return home I hit a pothole and the hitch to my kayak trailer malfunctioned. Later I was to learn that the hitch was still usable but had to be connected in a particular way henceforth.

On Monday 2 December I got up late and started to reform my Airbnb page. I had reorganized my office within part of my very large bedroom and this meant I had 2 rooms to offer on Airbnb.

On Tuesday 3 December I had a funeral for which I and the church charged no fee. Before I arrived there had been some commotion regarding a singer who had arrived to sing the Ave Maria. I knew nothing of this and the presiding priest said she should not be allowed to sing. In the event the mother of the singer was causing such a disturbance that I took it upon myself to allow her to sing once I had ascertained that this was the wish of the family members. The priest thanked me for my diplomacy and then the mother vented her spleen against me. Both mother and daughter knew my contact details and could have alerted me to all of this prior to the event but chose not to. Both of them used to be regular members of the choir!

On Wednesday 4 December I received a booking for 4 months. His approach was by Airbnb but they blocked him because he had made it clear that he wished to continue of that network. I had his Christian name, the town where he lived in Canada and the fact that he was a hopeful distance runner for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. He was not difficult to track down and we spoke face to face later that night. My place was particularly attractive since only around the corner is his chosen gym, and training ground. His personal trainer would visit to stay on a couple of occasions during the four months.

On Thursday 5 December and the following day two friends from the local came to install and 8X12ft decking complete with TREX surface and two electric outlets. They did a great job and it is wonderful to look out and see patios furniture looking just proud to be on it!

I was determined to take some time off work during the next week but at the same time to complete much of the Christmas and New Year preparations while the other staff were there to assist. Our Pastor had generously given us all additional days vacation which amount to an extended time off over Christmas and the New Year. As ever I would not be able to take these as I would be working in the church over this period. It presents a dilemma for our HR people who often want there to be no exceptions. Anyhow I ended up working 13 hours on Sunday but completed the task.

On Tuesday 10 December I was able to complete an arrangement of a Christmas Carol and a translation from the latin of a movement from Charpentier’s Christmas Cantata. Then later that afternoon as usual I went to the Jesuit High School but on this occasion not to teach my scholarship students but to offer an organ recital. I played ‘Carillon de Westminster’ by Vierne and the ‘Magnificat Fugue of Bach. My students offered works by Couperin, Bach, Clerambault and Zipoli.

At Choir practice on Wednesday 11 December we welcomed Donna as a new member. However it was not a productive rehearsal as many were missing and then one old gent fell and banged his head in the car park and another lady became ill. This is one of the challenges of having an elderly choir. Illness are all around but they are a great bunch of people! I returned home opened a bottle of wine and prepared to relax in front of the tv watching a film on Netflix. I had no internet and no matter what I tried there was no success so I rang the provider Frontier. After 45 minutes the engineer had no success too and could only offer an engineer visit on Saturday morning. I had a guest arriving for 3 nights on Thursday so there was some urgency. I awoke and rag Frontier again at 8am and managed to get a really helpful engineer with much experience. But he too was banging his head against the wall and in the end suggested I drive to the Frontier store and exchange my router unit for a new one. I was there when they opened at 10am and had it all wired up when the engineer rang again at 11am. After an hour on the phone neither of us were having success so he expedited (that’s what they do in USA) an engineer to call hoping that this might be sooner than Saturday.

This week all the signs of Autumn are here. We had fog yesterday and today the leaves are falling and they’re all ending up in my pool! The temperatures have been in the low 80sF but there is a breeze in the air today which offers a certain welcome freshness to the normally humid experience.

This has been a strange month. It has been the first time since I have been here that I have experienced living from pay check to pay check. Don’t become worried for me … that happens when you spend $3000 on a bed, $2500 on lounge furniture, $2000 on a deck, $850 on the car in addition to all the usual bills. On the positive side the expenditure was all on bargains (apart from the car) and I was also able t book a holiday: 6 nights in Key West at the start of January!

The engineer arrived early on Saturday and quickly dismissed the telephone engineer advice as inadequate but then became dumbfounded himself! An hour later he had solved the issue and I was back online. By midday I was in work again and further prepared for the period after Christmas.

I had a wedding on Saturday 14 December after the Vigil Mass. It was a little unusual in that a young girl played the piano for the two entrance processions. When the bride arrived she did not look happy. They had a relative who was a deacon and he presided although he was legally blind. This might be why he missed some worrying moments like their failure to look at each other as they exchanged vows, to hold hands (they shook hands once at the point they should have exchanged vows while holding hands). It was all done and dusted within 30 minutes. I hope the marriage lasts considerably longer!

On Sunday afternoon I knew I was ill and by evening I had no voice. On Monday I had a free day so once the guy had been to fix some problems with the pool I went off kayaking at Caladesi Island. There was a good wind at first so I had an enjoyable sail until the wind dropped completely and I had to rely on the pedals.

The last complete week before Christmas is always one of trying to arrange last minute preparations around office parties etc. I always prefer to have done most of my work before this final week and by and large I managed this. The choir practice on Wednesday went really well and having lured some singers from other Masses the soprano section was looking healthy.

I had another wedding on Saturday 21 December. It started late but didn’t last long. I still had little voice so just had to play them in and out! Then began the weekend Masses and fortunately most had a Cantor so I did not have to abuse what little voice I had. I was feeling really tired due I’m sure to whatever illness I was enduring.

On Monday 23 December I stayed at home for my day off. It had rained heavily during the night and was continuing into the afternoon. Earlier in the morning I received a message from a friend that a mutual friend is in the closing stages of living with lung cancer. Perhaps the only comfort in times like this is that God is with us. God will be especially close to Graham and to those who care for him.