One of those days.

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened,'" - Joe Biden.

Joe, baby,  I realize you were only a toddler when President Roosevelt died, but you need a fact checker! (Wanna hire me?)

When the stock market crashed in 1929, FDR was serving as governor of New York. FDR wasn't elected President until 1932. His famous "Fireside Chats" were aired on the radio. Read the text of the first one from March 1933, on the nation's bank crisis here: http://www.mhric.org/fdr/chat1.html

Tuesday follies

I do like my opthalmologist. I think her receptionist needs a brain transplant because this is the second year in a row my appointment required no less than three re-schedulings before I actually could have it - and cannot seem to get it through her head that I work for a living and cannot come in before 4:30 in the afternoon.
 
The reason I like Dr. T is that she read my chart and said, "That's right, you had a reaction to the eye drops." I did. I experienced shock symptoms within seconds of having my eyes dilated - cold sweats, light-headed-ness, all that good stuff. In fact, anticipating that I would have to have this done was sufficiently stressful that it put my blood pressure reading way up above normal earlier in the exam. Anyway, she turned off  lights in the exam room, pushed the door most of the way shut so that there was just enough light coming from the hallway that she could see what she was doing, sat and chatted for a few minutes while I dark-adapted, then saw everything she pretty much needed to using a bright light and a scope.

As last time, my right eye is mighty with 20/20-ness. My left eye is being a slacker and minor age-associated changes were noted, but not enough to have to change my prescription yet. Reading glasses - as needed. I was out and done in time to make taiko class.

Worked on "Hiryu" some more - still don't know it and am having trouble with some of the moves, but it's only been two weeks and the first half hour of the class I was still in mental spaz mode over the eye exam.

Worked on "Fred" - until Sean-sensei gave in and decided to name "Fred" "Shinkyoku," which is Japanese for "the new piece." Starts with some dead simple cadences, then it gets syncopated. Context is everything sometimes: the fourth section was making no sense when he tried to explain it. It made no sense played by itself at 1/2 speed, but when we tacked it on behind section 3 at tempo, we could hear what was supposed to be going on. It flowed! Tracy and I were beaming at each other across our drums because the lightbulb went on for us at the same time. Fun stuff.

Except I just realized I left my bachi at the O Club. Doh!