(February, 2008 update)

A lot has happened, some good, some not so good since I last accessed this web page in December. I should mention that some things have gotten better, with at least two grocery stores, a few restaurants, a hardware store, a couple of banks and a gas station being opened fairly close by. But the gas station charges too much, so I still drive to Metairie for gas (and lottery tickets.)

Earlier this month, my cousin Doug Henderson and his wife JoAnn invited Jean and me to visit them in Florida for a few days. We had a great time getting to know each other again after many years. A highlight of the trip was attending a Symphony Concert and meeting and hearing harpist Katie Ott.

I lost my sister Margaret (at age 89) early this year. She was the last of my eight siblings and we had been very close. Since my mother passed away in 1987, Margaret was the closest I had to a parent. Another loss was the wonderful friend and singing partner, Barbara Nester. My wife Jean and I had visited with her at home on Mobile Bay several weeks previously. It was a tremendous shock.

Our music activities have been a real boost in our morale since Hurricane Katrina. I have become a board member of Symphony Chorus but have not sung in the chorus much in 2007. Instead, my time has been taken up with being the M.C./Narrator for harp programs, as well as giving lectures on Old Time Radio. I had rejoined the Opera Chorus just before the storm and was in the 2006 Domingo Gala. It was great to chat with Placido about his American debut here in 1962 (I was in the chorus at that time).

Several others in the Gala were in the chorus then, too.

There was another Gala last spring. Anthony Laciura was the M.C. I had met him a few months before at an event at Madewood Plantation.

I had a small feature role as a Customs Officer in La Boheme, the last opera of the season. That's Sara Jane McMahon as Musetta.

In the recent Faust production I was in the chorus, this time as a soldier. (yes, I have lost most of my sight in my left eye, due a blocked a vein which drains the eye.) The accumulating blood causes a blurring of the vision (90 %, plus). I don't wear the eye-patch all the time, but I feel I can see better out of the right eye when the brain is not working to go around the left.

Greer Grimsley played Mephistophile. I told him he compares very favorably with Norman Treigle.

I find it amazing that in all the years I have been in New Orleans my path had never crossed with Anthony, Sara Jane or Greer (New Orleans natives all) until I became active again in the opera chorus.

There will be another Gala this New Year's Eve. I am scheduled to be in the chorus of Rigoletto around the time of Mardi Gras.

Jean has played for weddings, memorial services and other special events and has formed "Harps, Beaucoup" which can be two or more harps playing together. She is a member of NOCHE, the New Orleans Celtic Harp Ensemble, (mostly folk harpers) as well as being part of "Harpeggio", which is composed of only pedal harpists.

In June we attended a harp gathering in Chicago to receive the Chapter of the Year award from the American Harp Society.

I have joined the local chapter of the American Harp Society, also. Not only do I serve as M.C./Narrator at perfomances, but I am now the webmaster (www.harpnola.org).

We have also been kept busy with the repairs and renovation of Jean's family home in Lakeview which received extensive damage in the storm.