Back From Mass

Friday morning Carmen and I left the precious (evil) kitties with a twice daily visiting juggler named John. We drove (she drove, I navigated, as is our custom) nine hours to tornado ravaged western Massachusetts for the ordination of Misty Dawn, our friend since early Andover Newton Theological School daze five or six years ago. We stayed with her and her wife Jenna Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, helping out with tasks (I word-processed and printed twenty six signs for pews reserved for visiting clergy, family members, choir etc.) and running errands.

Sunday we took care of the dogs while they were involved in church biz for morning services and preparations for the afternoon ordination. Then we drove to Northboro for the ordination. It was a beautiful service and celebration by her home church in Brookfield and her internship church in Northboro. Carmen did the Ordination Prayer and the Laying On Of Hands. The two choirs combined and sang beautifully, but the musical highlight was when four multi-congregational singers and a guitar performed "Down To The River To Pray," a goose bump moment.

So our friend Misty Dawn is now our friend Reverend Misty Dawn.

Early this morning (Monday) we left and came home, stopping only for gas, food and a major shopping trip in Erie, since we were coming through there anyway. It's been about four or five months since we stocked up in Erie. And don't tell anyone, but we bought a 32 inch TV for the living room. After Jenna's 55 inch all weekend, it was just too hard to think about watching our tiny little 19 inch HD television.

Anyway, we're back now, the kitties are well, and so are we.

Lame Update

This blogging thing seems to be quite beyond my capacity. It's been more than two weeks since my last post, and the only urges I've felt are motivated by pangs of guilt over my apparent inability to keep it up. I'm reminded of the late sixties and early seventies when I had a string of - what shall I call them? - Diaries? Journals? Record books? For days, weeks, sometimes months at a time I wrote down the events of the day. For years I was glad to have them, because when I or anybody else wondered when something happened, or tried to remember some detail of a significant event, I often had an account of it in my book. Not always, however. For instance, my best friend Michael's wedding happened during one of the many long dry spells. I had a book for 1973, but the wedding didn't get even a mention. Then, in 1974, I gave away, sold or threw away almost everything I owned, and after a long soul-searching, the diaries went in the dumpster - 1967 - 1974 gone.

Is that going to be my final solution thirty seven years later? I don't even know if it'd possible to obliterate a blog. I know I can delete posts, but would there still be an empty shell left behind if I stripped the guts out of it? So far I don't feel compelled to find out, but it could come to that. I have two copies in book form of The Gospel of Rand McNally, maybe I should try it on that one. For a while it was many people's favorite of the three, but the stories are pretty much written now. Occasionally I tack on another one, but its raison d'etre is spent. The Business of Show still
has about five years worth of stories to come - if I ever feel motivated to write them.

Motivation to write is hard to come by. In the beginning there were a lot of stories to tell and I had way too much time on my hands. Now it's a struggle to make myself write anything. Is it because I have nothing to say? Because I still think nobody cares whether I write or not? Because My time is spent on other pursuits?

Yes.

Great Show

Those of you who have read "The Business Of Show," the blog next door, know that I have done a lot of theatre over the past three decades. I have acted, worked scene shift crew, made or found costume parts, music, props etc., been sound person, hung and focused lights, run follow spot, and built lots and lots of scenery. I've seen great plays on crappy sets, seen crappy plays on great sets, and even crappy plays on crappy sets.

Not many people are as attuned to the scenery as I am. When I see a movie, I'm watching the sets as much as the story. When I go to a theme park, I'm feeling surfaces and knocking on them - fiberglass? concrete? wood? metal? But plays are the real deal. Ever since I saw "The Tempest" in London in 1975, I've known how stage scenery can be an integral part of the show. That was what nudged me into set work in community theatre, to get a feel for how it's done, and then to professional scenery construction for twenty two years.

When Mr. Snyder hoodwinked me into my first ever set design back in March, the pressure was on to create something that would be flexible and fast to shift on a tiny stage with no wing space and no fly capability. What I came up with worked, which is my first judging criterion. In fact, it gave me goosebumps a couple of times, shades of "The Tempest" in London.

The fact that it all looked good I attribute to Sue Crandall and her dedicated crew of painters. A scenery engineer I may be, but the look of it was all Sue and her painters. And the hinged walls were my idea, but Jim and Bill and Jason and Jacob and Lennie and Sue found and modified flats, secured them in position and hinged them so they would work, even with the uneven stage floor. I never had a hand in making my "boxes with exterior scenery on the outside and interiors on the inside" idea work. And work it did. The rolling double sided pieces were pretty much all me, as was the tree.

Better even than all of that, the show itself was excellent for a community theatre production. I think my greatest accomplishment in "The Secret Garden" was to design and build scenery that was as good as the show, that allowed the many overlapping scenes to flow into each other without bogging them down. I saw the show twice in rehearsal and twice in performance, and it made me proud every time.

Changes In Weather, Changes In Technology

It wasn't very long ago that I and everyone else walking the mean streets of Meadville, PA were happy to duck into a store or restaurant to get out of the cold and snow. I was wishing it would stop snowing nearly every day so I could put away my snow thrower and stop shoveling several times a week.

So now it's the middle of May. In April it rained twenty five out of thirty days By the time I had an opportunity to mow my yard and the neighbors', the grass was ankle-high in the short places and the dandelions were gaining on the grass in population. A short week later, it's raining again and the grass needs a mow job again. Suddenly I'm remembering last fall when I was wishing for cold weather so I could put away the lawnmower and the weed whacker. Little did I know... And yesterday when we went into stores, it was a relief to get in out of the heat and humidity - and then it started raining - AGAIN.

Albuquerque was the best, weather wise. No grass to mow, only a few weeds to pull out of the gravel every now and then; A three quarter inch snowfall was the most we got all winter. Massachusetts gave me some shoveling to do, but only because the blind landlords upstairs were oblivious to the real needs of the driveway - they had a person plow it, but he didn't plow it enough to allow the landlord's visitors to park out of our way. But a lawnmower I hadn't touched between June of 2005 and July of 2010.

Lake effect rain does not require shoveling or snowblowing, it's true. But it sure makes the grass grow. Time to start wishing for cold again.

A Long Three Weeks

My last posting was three weeks ago. Since then, I have cut all the parts for the rolling double-sided pieces, finished the tree, taped the stage to indicate where things probably will be, taken the sound equipment (including the new mixer!) back over to the church sanctuary and battled burnt out amplifiers for many hours, had two Saturday work days, pretty much finished the sets, and oh yeah, cooked and cleaned and scooped litter all de liblong day.

I have decided that somewhere along the line, somebody set up a computer program to design a theatre that features optimum inefficiency and difficulty. I know that I am at a loss to imagine a more inconvenient situation. Switch over to "The Business Of Show" and read all about it!

Cat Toys

Today was a perfect lesson in cat toys. Our friend Ann gave us a cute little plastic fabric arch with a ball on a string hanging down on the inside. She gave it to us because - wait for it - her cats weren't interested in it. We figured, hey, Lucia will play with anything. We put it down on the floor, and Lucia immediately went for the swinging ball. She broke the string and ran it around the house until she passed a plastic pull-plug from a milk carton. Ball forgotten; milk plug all over the house. Professor Remus J. Lupin walked over to the arch and began giving it a good long liesurely but thorough sniffing. Carmen wondered aloud if, when he smelled Ann's cats on there he got an image in his mind's eye of what they look like. We'll never know. So the arch thing is abandoned and the really fun stuff like bottle lids keep flying. Gotta love cats.

Paralysis

Here I sit. The tree in the basement is mostly done. It needs to be coated with glue and then painted, and yet here I sit. I have a list of things to buy for the rolling double sided pieces, and I can't begin building them until I purchase materials - and yet here I sit. The current MCT show has one more weekend to run before that set will be disassembled, beginning the panic-ridden transformation of the stage into sets for The Secret Garden during three Saturdays. The tree and the rolling units need to get done ASAP - and yet here I sit. I think about going down there to work, and something freezes up inside me. I don't understand why that is or, more pertinently, why I can't seem to break through and just get 'er done. What's wrong with me?

Meeting

At 10:30 this morning I met with Sharon Barnes, the director of The Secret Garden, to discuss the preliminary scenery plan. It was a good meeting, a few changes were made, and all for the better. You have to put something on paper as a starting point for making changes toward the final product. I learned that decades ago in the commercial art biz.

Her concerns were met - such as the bedroom being too small to fit the number of actors that are in certain bedroom scenes. My rolling double sided pieces were good, but we modified them to make them even better, hinging together clusters of them to make them easier to place and better looking. She liked the tree I described, and it is partially fabricated in my basement already. And we agreed that, given our space limitations, the gallery, the ballroom, the study and the library are all the same treatment.

So here we go. She will get information about my budget and the fabrication can begin in earnest.

Baggage Handled

Yesterday morning I sent the director an email asking her to let me know if she got my email and was able to open the Word document with pictures inserted. If she hated it, I told her, that's okay, we can work it out.

Yesterday evening the reply was in. Her husband had been home sick, throwing off her whole routine. She loved my designs but there are minor modifications to be made, and we're meeting as soon as we can manage it to hash out the details. So there, Dad!

Baggage

Last evening I went to my final Wildlife Rescue First Responder class, received my cute little diploma. Then I walked on up Main Street (up meaning up the steep hill) and prepared myself to hand over my drawings and descriptions of ideas for the sets to Sharon, the director of The Secret Garden. Unfortunately, she wasn't there. So this morning, before launch sequence began at 10:45, I scanned the drawings, inserted them into the Word document of descriptions, and emailed the whole package to her. Thirteen hours later, I have had no response.

I have vivid memories of my dad making up amazingly detailed stories about why he hadn't heard from someone. He dredges up a memory of something he thinks he might have said to offend them, or not said that he should have, or did or didn't do, and he believes in his heart that one of these scenarios must be true all the way up until he finally does hear from them, and it turns out that they were out of town, or caring for a sick relative, or just really busy in some way that made getting in touch impossible.

Well, my drawings were crap, my ideas were stupid, she's embarrassed to have to tell me how much she hates the work I have done, and that she's changed her mind about wanting me to design her sets. I don't blame her.

Thanks, Dad.

Free At Last!

We took Lucia to the vet yesterday morning to get her stitches out and, most importantly, her cone removed. It took her a little while to become accustomed to it once she came home and got over the trauma of yet another vet visit. Soon, however, she and Remus J. Lupin were charging through the house just like days of old. Up the steps to the big long attic room, back and forth around the upstairs, down the stairs, through the living room, dining room, bedroom, back up the stairs and around again. It was good to hear the pitter patter of little feet again!

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.

Worms Revisited

The plumbers are in the basement at this time. The water is shut off at the street, and there is a big hole in the sidewalk.

This just in...the plumbing job is finished, the water is back on, the inspection of the work is done, the shower is calling my name. Launch sequence begins!

Conehead

Our little girl came home yesterday morning, as scheduled. Her little stitched-up incision is curled in like a little inny belly button. They put a cone on her head to keep her from worrying the sutures and to slow her little frantic self down some.

She can lick her sutures if she works at it long enough, and she can still jump straight up on the stove, so I believe that the entire effect of the cone is to make her uncomfortable. It's doing a fine job of that.

Surgery

Our little kitten is growing up. She went into heat a week ago - was it from the Sam Cooke valentine? - and this morning we took her to the vet to be spayed. It was hard to watch her being taken into the bowels of the animal hospital by a perfect stranger. They'll call later when she wakes up to tell us she's doing fine, and to make an appointment to pick her up tomorrow morning. I hope she forgives us.

I also hope Professor Remus J. Lupin will still love her like he did before. Will she smell different? On the bright side, he'll be happier if she never goes into heat again. She tried all of her womanly wiles on him, and he was totally clueless. She persued him until he had to hide in the basement sometimes to get a break from her. He was fixed seven and a half years ago and has never felt the urge.

Meanwhile, the house seems very empty without her boundless energy. I can actually work in the kitchen without having to put her back on the floor every ten seconds and then wash my hands again. Otherwise, she would be running around, swatting every potential cat toy - meaning every thing - in the house, including The Perfesser. He has been looking for her around corners, expecting her to pounce as usual. I think he misses her. Me too.

Worms

About a month ago, MAWA came to the house. Meadville Area Water Authority wanted to install a new meter in our basement that can be read from outside, eliminating the occasional necessity of being allowed in for readings. Carmen was kind of hinky about it, but let them in anyway. They installed their meter and left.

A couple of weeks later, we got a letter from MAWA in the mail. Our plumbing, it seems, is not up to snuff. They require a backflow preventer, and a shut-off before and after the meter. So I looked at the installation and ascertained that I needed a backflow preventer and a shut-off after the meter, and that it was all threaded connections I could deal with myself. So I went to The Home Depot and bought my parts, then commenced to attempt installation.

W e e e e l l l l - the valve before the meter would not shut off the water, only cut the flow in half, and to replace that would get into soldering and sweating and stuff I have no clue how to do. So I began the long process of coaxing our plumbers, who did the work on the upstairs bathroom (and still have not billed us for it) to come do the job of replacing and installing the valves. They finally returned my calls on Wednesday and showed up Thursday. They looked at the situation and ascertained that the water needed to be turned off at the street to replace the faulty valve, and while we were at it, the copper pipe leading from the basement floor entrance to the faulty valve is corroded and needs to be replaced as well. We went out to the curb and searched in vain for the shut-off valve out there.

I called MAWA and they vowed to send out a representative to shut off the water the next morning. Lo and behold, he was there bright and early. It took him about fifteen minutes to find the spot with his handy dandy metal detector. The plumbers arrived just as the MAWA guy had ascertained that the access to the valve is bent and broken and needs to be replaced before the water can be shut off. He marked the location clearly with two colors of spray paint, and vowed that it would be replaced in three days, which I took to mean Wednesday, since it was Friday at the time. The plumbers will do their work while this magic is being done, they say.

I am waiting with great anticipation to see what additional worms crawl out of this can that opened when Carmen allowed the meter replacement. It's a beautiful new meter, though.

Thaw

It's forty degrees here in Meadville, Pennsylvania. It has been above freezing for a day and a half, and the world outside is melting. Of course, there is still over a foot of snow out there, so the melting will take a good while - unless it rains like it did over new years weekend. But the driveway and sidewalk are clear of snow and ice. The furnace is taking a well-deserved break after the minus fifteens of January, and the basement is returning to the wetness of spring, summer and fall. It's always something.

It's Valentine's Day. I found a beautiful card that plays "You Send Me" by Sam Cooke, one of Carmen's top 1,000 favorite songs (I know because I recently loaded it onto her new MP3 player.) The surprise was that our little girl Lucia (Little LuLu Two Claws) was fascinated by it. She ran back and forth over it, under it and through it, trying to find whatever was making that strange sound coming from the card. Left alone, she would have dug into the secret chamber and pulled the chip out - I know because she tried. The card had to be put out of her reach, like so many other "cat toys."

It's my day off this week as well. That means that after Friday, Saturday and Sunday being pretty much church-related busy-ness, and Saturday evening digging out of a six inch snowfall, I can do my laundry and clean the house today. Woo hoo! Look out, kitties, here comes the Kirby vacuum!

Discoveries

I grind coffee beans with a manual grinder. I hate the blade grinder because it grinds a quarter of the beans to dust and completely misses a lot of beans, no matter what I try. Dust is no good, because we use a percolator. We bought a "burr grinder" but the motor burned up in a month. I asked for the manual job, because I know the motor won't burn up. SO! When I load the hopper, I sometimes drop a bean or two. This morning, Lucia ran over to it, ready to soccer dribble it all over the house, but first she sniffed it. She must not have liked the smell, because she began pawing the floor to drag imaginary dirt over the tiny little turd I dropped.

Next on the list of new discoveries is the mouse cursor arrow/hand on my computer screen. Lucia will hang out, as long as I'll let her, in front of my monitor, chasing that little sucker around the screen. Sometimes she scores a direct hit, lifts her paw and it's not there! What the heck?!

Under discoveries yet to come, I must assume that our little girl, who is now over twice as big as she was when she came, is going to learn a hard lesson about jumping up onto our glass cooktop. One of these days it's not going to be as cool as it has been every time she has jumped up there so far.

And speaking of heat, she has finally learned that Carmen's side of the bed has the electric blanket turned on. Now that was the best discovery of all.

A Corollary

We went to a dinner and celebration of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King this evening. The featured speaker was a third grade teacher at Meadville Elementary. Her main point was that, as far as we've come, the work is not finished - and no matter how much farther we go, our work will never be finished. Humans being humans, there will always be forces intent on taking away the rights of others. She likened it to the Meadville snow: "Our sidewalks will never be so clear that we can ever stop shoveling." Amen.

White Blues

The sun came out this morning and has been shining pretty much all day. Of course, it snowed all day yesterday and most of the night, so there was still shoveling to be done. When it actually stops snowing for any length of time, I like to get out there and scrape down to bare concrete. Then I can actually see bare concrete for minutes, even possibly hours at a time before it starts snowing again. It's very disheartening to snowblow and shovel for an hour, only to find that it's all covered again before I even get the tools put away.

The warm rainy weather we had over New Years weekend melted all but the deepest heaps and plow ridges, leaving the world suddenly green. There was great rejoicing for a day - before the snow started again and everything was six inches deep in white by Tuesday.

When I look out the window and see flakes falling, I see more shoveling, more flakes in the face while walking to work, and basically being unpleasant outdoors. People tell me it will stop doing this eventually. Yay.