Life In The Way

I have about twenty five minutes to post this before launch sequence begins to get me showered, dressed and out the door for the twenty-five minute walk to Sherwin Williams. It's hard to remember either direction from here: there was a time when I worked fifty to seventy hours a week and had no time at all to call my own; more recently there was a time when I worked zero hours and had nothing but time and guilt to drive my blogging efforts.

This is a twenty hour week, five hours a day, noon to five Tuesday through Friday. This schedule serves to maximize my effectiveness as delivery boy. They normally wait until later in the day to send stuff out, because orders come in later in the day, and things can be delivered all in one trip. Of course, it's not always very efficient. Yesterday the late-in-the-day order was for a client in Cochranton, which I included in my trip to Saegertown - which means I drove within two blocks of the store on the way between Saegertown and Cochranton.

But I'm here to talk about my day off - Monday, February 28th, 2011. My first duty was to get Carmen off to the Pittsburgh airport, which I did. She left around nine thirty. Then I changed out the three litter boxes and got the trash out to the curb. Then the big time pressure was to get to the church before the office administrator left for the day, so I could grab Carmen's check to deposit in the bank. I took along the technology to hang speakers in The Arthur Room, the temporary home of Sunday services during the lead abatement project in the 175 year old sanctuary.

All of those tasks done, I walked to the Downtown Mall to get my way-overdue haircut, and some last minute groceries before walking home again. I had less than an hour to put stuff away and eat lunch/supper before launch sequence began for the evening's activities.

I walked to Carnegie Hall - not in New York, but at Allegheny College Meadville - for my wildlife rehabilitator First Responders class 6:30 until 8:30. After that I climbed on up the steep hill to the Oddfellows Hall, home of the Meadville Community Theatre, for a meeting with the director of The Secret Garden, which opens in May. This was when it became clear to me that I had been drafted as set designer for that multiple set show. Sneaky, those theatre people.

Remember that long dry spell in my blogs when I was building the sets for Irving Berlin's White Christmas in Albuquerque? Well, here comes another one.