We had three parties this last week. Our clubhouse is still closed, but the pool area is open. Friday we had a Chill & Grill event — frozen hamburgers and hotdogs with sides and deserts supplied by neighbors. Danita offered a very good Key Lime cake. Sunday was Ed and Lynne’s Parkton Open, a croquet tournament with plenty of good food. Tuesday, my nephew Rick stopped by on his way from Germany to the US to visit with Mom. His sister Kim flew in to participate. We had dinner at one of the Charlestown restaurants. That’s a class act Rick and Kim — way to go!

Breaking news – Successful visit to JaMM. We went up Friday. We’ll return today, hopefully in time for a BSO concert this afternoon. We had great success. Mark an Jiajia went out for an adult evening. Danita and I had a great time with Mira.

There’s not a lot to report this week. The Gelato food truck came Thursday. We enjoyed that. “Greek on the Street” was supposed to come Friday, but they cancelled. That didn’t even slow us down. We and the Joneses ordered carry out from Panera.

Traditionally we don’t go out to a nice breakfast on Mothers day. We are more likely to settle for someplace like Panera. But this year we decided we want an upscale breakfast. So we are going to a local place that opened not long ago canned “Jam”. To make it work, we are going to church this afternoon. We’ll be at Jam when they open at 6:00. We figure not too many mothers will want to go out that early. Wish us luck!

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The neighborhood pool is open. They got the damage to the downstairs of the clubhouse repaired. That means the downstairs bathrooms are available. And that means we could open the pool as scheduled. Danita volunteered to be the chair of the pool committee. So far things are running well enough. Danita has really enjoyed spending some time in the pool.

A couple of weeks ago we went to a very nice members evening at the Walters. Saturday we went to a very nice members evening at the BMA (Baltimore Museum of Art). We started off with a morning brunch at Gertrude’s. It was much nicer than we expected. There were small portions of about a dozen different items. Each was very good. My favorite was the chocolate rolls. They had plenty of chocolate. The weather was picture perfect — sunny with flowering plants everywhere. We had time to take a stroll around the statue garden. Afterwards, we went to a presentation about a forthcoming exhibit. It will focus on female artistic creators in 1600 – 1700. We had a great time. I would be hard pressed to say one museum did a better job than the other. They were both very nice events.

When we got home, I was in for a surprise. I was over half way on a bike ride when I heard something fall. I stopped and found pieces of my bike in the gutter. That’s never happened to me before. I found the pieces and was able to put them back together. I don’t know if what I did is correct, but it seems to be working OK. This is a record — to have a bike problem like this in less than 200 miles of riding. Here’s hoping this is a one-time event.

Today we went to a BSO concert. The conductor was our upcoming new music director, Jonathon Heyward, who got a generous round of applause when he first walked onto the stage. The music started with a modern piece that both of us actually liked — Blue Cathedral by Higdon. We aren’t the only people who like this piece. It’s been played by over 100 other orchestras. Next up was Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. It had all the bombast Tchaikovsky could generate. The pianist didn’t hold anything back. I’ll bet all 10 of his fingers are bruised. After the first movement, there was unprecedented and well earned spontaneous applause. It didn’t slow down until the pianist finally indicated he should play the rest of the piece. It was all the bombasity anybody could ever want. The concert finished up with the full, romantic sounds of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. All in all, a tremendous concert.

That’s a lot for one week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.