I didn’t leave the house yesterday. Was it cold outside? Sunny or rainy? I don’t know.

For one thing, I was still plagued by the hiccups that started the night before. Three times yesterday, I had hiccup spells of one or two hours each, and I felt vulnerable the rest of the time. This morning, the vulnerability seems to have passed, so I am optimistic. But the hiccups kept me from doing a lot, even when the grand children were here for lunch and most of the afternoon. I paid little attention to them, and they to me. Not the norm.

OK…..onward. I watched a little of the Rose Bowl Parade and, once again, thought it would be nice to live in Pasadena. I watched a little of the Rose Bowl game, and thought for sure that Alabama was outplaying Michigan. I was surprised to hear the result.

I watched the Wiener Philharmoniker concert on PBS. It was the 40th televised concert, and I have probably seen 40 of them. One of my few traditions. I remember thinking that last year’s was pretty dull, but this one was terrific (although they could leave out the staged ballet scenes, as far as I am concerned). They played some lesser known waltzes (and a polka) and conductor Christian Thielemann did a great job conducting the audience (the orchestra didn’t need him) during the Colonel Radetzky March. The audience has clapped since the march’s premiere in 1848. Colonel Radetzsky led the Austrian troops against the Kingdom of Sardinia over the fate of the city of Milan – something you never read about in school.

The Radetzky march was written by Johann Strauss, but not the one who wrote the Blue Danube. It was written by his father – Johann II, by the way, was one of Johann’s 14 children – six by his wife, and eight by his mistress. No, I don’t know any details. Of course, yesterday the philharmonic played the Blue Danube as well.

What else? I finished the 23rd and final episode of the Spanish Netflix series “Unauthorized Living”, which I must admit to have enjoyed. The bosses of the Spanish, Mexican and Columbian drug gangs had all seen their last days, and the two daughters of Nemo Banderas (the Spanish drug lord) were off on their own. And superman Mario Mendoza? His ex-wife and her unborn child went off in one direction, and he and his girl friend in another. What will happen to them? We will never know…..the series is finito.

We also turned on (never before and by chance) America’s Got Talent, and saw two acts who will now go on to the semi-finals (I think there are four more preliminary shows before the semi-finals). And, yes, they had talent: one someone who did finger shadow puppetry, and the other – a young man with clear and strong developmental disabilities who, nevertheless, can write music, sing his songs and accompany himself on the piano. Not hokey, either of them. Talented.

Sort of reminds me of the old, old show – You Asked For It. I still remember the man (woman?) who could type 60 words a minute using their toes, and the man (definitely a man) who could hum the Battle Hymn of the Republic and whistle Dixie at the same time (he wasn’t just whistling Dixie).

One last thing – today is the final day of the over-the-holidays visit from our good friends, the Aronins. As they know, they welcome here any time. Just saying.