My new (old) accordion

I have been busy learning my new button accordion. Not being able to read music hasn't helped. It means I have to have the melody in my head before I try to play it on the instrument. Then, as I find the right notes, I write them down as numbers. Number "1" is the first button from the top, number "2" the second button from the top, and so on. As a button accordion has two notes on every button, one on PULLING the bellows, the other on PUSHING, I am using regular numbers to indicate PUSH, and bold numbers to indicate PULL.

Here's "Advance Australia Fair":

5 6 5 4 5 6 6 6

7 7 6 6 6 7

5 6 5 4 3 5 5 5

7 7 6 6 5 5

5 5 6 6 5 5 4 4

5 5 6 8 7 7

5 5 6 6 5 5 6 6

7 7 6 7 6 6

7 8 7 7 6 6 5 5

6 7 6 7 6 6

I still have a big problem playing the chords with my left hand as I need to move the fingers on my left hand independently of what the fingers on my right hand are doing and somehow both hands always insist on doing everything in unison. Having a split personality would probably help! (but I'm in two minds about it)

In Memoriam

25 years ago to this day my father passed away. I lived and worked in Athens in Greece at the time and had visited him in Germany five months earlier. I had spent a week at his bedside and while we were never very close and found few words even on that occasion, I like to think that my visit had meant something to him. Far too soon, on the 31st of January 1984, he passed away and I flew back one last time to Braunschweig to attend his funeral.

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn's rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

Rest in peace, Vati! Your picture is on my mantelpiece and I look at it often and wonder why we had so little to say to each other when in fact we were so much alike.

In Memoriam

VATI geboren 9.12.1907 - gestorben 31.1.1984 Steht nicht an meinem Grab und weint, denkt an mich, wenn die Sonne scheint. Ich bin nicht mehr an diesem Ort, Ich schlafe nicht und bin nicht fort. Ich bin der Wind über brausender See, Ich bin der Schimmer auf frischem Schnee. Ich bin die Sonne in goldener Pracht, Ich bin der Glanz der Sterne bei Nacht. Ich bin die Freude der Blumen die blühn, Ich bin für Euch in allem was schön. Steht nicht an meinem Grab und weint, denkt an mich, wenn die Sonne scheint. Ich bin nicht mehr an diesem Ort, Ich schlafe nicht und bin nicht fort.

Merry Christmas

My 15th Christmas at "Riverbend"! After more than fifty relocations across a dozen countries on four continents when the longest I ever stayed in one place was just under a year, I seem to have reached 'Journey's End' - or is old age slowing me down?

Retirement is not what it is cracked up to be. There were times in my high-pressure working life when I wished for nothing more than to be able to sleep in late and spend a day doing nothing. After eight years in retirement, I wish I were what I was when I wished I were what I am now (you may have to read this twice to understand what I mean!) However, even nostalgia isn't what it used to be. And why Nelligen? Well, perhaps here the transition from life to death is hardly noticeable.

The number says it all!