See, if I do too much one day, I’m a basket case the next. Yesterday was busy, though not really productive, so today was blah and not productive at all. I keep reminding myself how blessed I am, how fortunate, what a good time I’m having, but I just keep dozing or goofing off.

Did I learn anything? Let's see....

1) A new, sort of, recipe for eggplant caviar, using 2/3 of an eggplant I had to deal with. I'm going to have to blog about leftovers soon.

2) Fifty-two places I should see this year in my travels, as recommended by the NYT. I read it earlier this year. Toronto is still the only place on the list that I’ve seen. I don’ mind. Travel is not as alluring as it was. It’s the tedium of getting there, wherever there is, that daunts one.

3) Several movie stars then and now, and what they look like, a sad reminder of how we all change and age. (They thrust themselves upon me when I was cruising eggplant recipes. I resisted the temptation to find out how much Nicolas Cage is worth and what George Clooney’s new home looks like,)

4) Nothing useful. I’m racking my brain…oh, yes, brain. Yes.

I started reading Norman Doidge’s recent book, "The Brain’s Way of Healing", Viking, 2015. Now that gives me something to work on. I am trying to recover from my three months of inactivity after my accident. My morning swim, always an addictive pleasure, has become a necessity, if I’m to keep moving. I have a Fitbit and I try to add stairs and more steps to each day. The first day I hit 8000 steps left me a lumpen thing the next day, but i’m getting stronger. Recovery time is better and the steps increase. I will try to get my brain to help me.

Sp this is not a blog, really, just a progress report. Tomorrow - well, I can’t promise tomorrow. I’m gong away for the weekend, beginning at 7:30 on a Greyhound bus, actually, before that. I’ll be getting on a subway train about the same timeI I usually swim. That’s okay; I’ll be in a lake before the end of the day.

See how I go.

Yesterday’s blog blacked out as I was discussing A Little Night Music; so did I. It wasn’t a discussion, really, more of a memoir. (Everything I do seems to bring up a memoir these days.)

Where was I? ...picking up from yesterday when I was so rudely cut off...yes, A Little Night Music is an operetta. I cut my teeth on operettas. My father loved them. He bought seats so close to the stage (in the old Playhouse theatre in Winnipeg) that I had to move my knees to allow room for the violinist’s bow. Romberg, Friml, Franz Lehar, and Victor…who I thought wrote Teddy Bear’s picnic (I can hum it and it starts like this:

"If you go down in the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise / If you go down in the woods today, you'd better go in disguise / For every bear that ever there was will gather there for certain / Because today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic…”

But that was John Walter Bratton (January 21, 1867 – February 7, 1947), an American Tin Pan Alley composer and theatrical producer who became popular during the era known as the Gay Nineties. (Wikipedia)

Oh, yes, and Victor’s name was Herbert, a prolific American (born in Ireland, raised in Germany, 1859-1924). Does anyone remember “Naughty Marietta”?

Who wrote “Desert Song”? Oh, that was Sigmund Romberg.

Does anyone remember Nelson Eddy (“Alone”), or Jeanette McDonald? (“Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life”) who, I just discovered when I looked them up, had a long-term secret love affair The media were more discreet in those days.

Then there were Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keele, later stars of Hollywood musicals. sigh. MGM, as I remember, was the big studio specialising in them.

Ah well, times change.

I’m still thinking about A Little Night Music. Sondheim has graduated to the Vancouver Opera Company with a recent production of Pacific Overtures, and now this one at the Stratford Festival. Graduated isn’t the right word. But he has moved on to posterity and to a permanent place in your memory and mine. Listen to him. Read the lyrics.

Brilliant. (aka Wow)