I am sick, sick I tell you!

How do people survive ailments of import? I had a tough time falling asleep last night just because I had a little head cold! Glarg! Hopefully this shall pass soon. It would be aided, of course, by plenty of sleep, fluids and a modicum of exercise, none of which has been happening for the past several weeks because of all the time I have been spending at The Smith. Don't get me wrong, I am happy to have the stuff to do at The Smith. I just also need time to sleep and such. And of course to spend time with my mom, which is my primary reason for being in Geneva.

It was a two movie day Saturday. At the Smith, I projected Michael Cera in Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus. Overall, I thought it was ok. I am not a huge Cera fan. He is good, not great. The story was sort of rambling and all over the place. As many of the theatre goes said, we weren't sure what the point really was. Still, I am glad I saw it.

The other movie was Moonrise Kingdom. Great movie! I thoroughly enjoyed it. A Wes Anderson movie with lots of high powered actors in it. Very quirky and fun. The two lead kids were very entertaining. I had put it on for mom before I left for the Smith not knowing what her reaction would be. Turns out she loved it! Yay! I am sure she missed a lot of the subtleties. Nevertheless, the fact that she liked it is great!

The NY Banjo Summit went really well! The people who showed up to work for The Smith, Kate, Daniel and Charlie, did an amazing job. Kate did lights, Charlie and Daniel moved equipment and helped with set-up and I supervised excellently (if i must say so myself) (and a lot of other stuff...just sayin'). Mark and Bill from Rosewood Sound got their stuff set up and working and Sound Check was right on time. The show went off without a hitch. The music was great, there was a decent sized audience. Load out was very smooth and I think everyone was happy. Can't beat that.

I had a minor Smith epiphany. There is a crunch in a couple of weekends when we have three events right in a row. Dick Clark, Lone Bellow and then Ballet X. Ballet X is the most demanding technically - especially their need for a dance floor and for a completely different configuration of lighting that the house plot. I was trying how to get all of it done between the end of Lone Bellow and 8 am the next morning when the Ballet is to load-in. I think we can get the marley dance floor down to relax after Lone Bellow leaves. The lighting, we might be able to get away with reconfiguring the lights before lone bellow and just using that set-up (minus the side booms/trees) for both Lone Bellow and Ballet X.

Who is the Person?

I am the person! I rocked it at the Smith yesterday. My intention was to get the house lighting plot rehung, recircuited, refocused and regeled. And all of that got done. Well, one bit still remains, one of the two boom boxes or lighting positions in the front of house still has a little work to be done. Hopefully we will be able to accomplish that during load-in. We shall, of course, see. Anyway, I got there and was immediately pulled in three directions. Luckily, Kate was working with me and started to plug along on getting the house ploy back in shape.

First visitor, John from the Geneva Historical Society. He was borrowing some pipe and draping for an event. He had never used it before, so I gave him a quick training, loaded his truck and sent him on his way. Next, Chuck, the guy who seems to run the bar, came and asked me to get the video working. Sigh. I know nothing to less than nothing about what is wired where regarding the video. I tried a few things and then spoke with the man who had actually installed the camera. I had never noticed it there before! Cool! Then he mentioned that there was a plug/transformer that could have become unplugged. Sure enough, it was. So I plugged it in, fiddled with some wires and amazingly got video. Crappy, ugly video, but lots better than nothing, I hope.

Next, I wanted to get the red lights behind the busts house left fixed. I climbed up there with various things - light bulbs, trash bag, step unit etc. and proceeded to a) put in some bulbs, b) started to clean the space and c) helped focus and replace lamps and regel the boom box on that side. Yay!

Earlier, I had climbed the sixty feet, give or take, up to our grid and catwalk in order to add some weight and take some weight off of some battens. It wasn't all that scary. Yippee!

Oh, I forgot. A potential helper/student came to be interviewed and to get a tour of the Smith. Nice person and I hope that we will work together at some point in the not too distant future.

Mixed into all this, I tried to clean up for the upcoming show. Putting away things, neatening and generally preparing. Yay!

Eating for health

Eating to enhance one's health makes sense to me. Seems sort of common sensical in fact. I swear, though, that some food makes me sick. Not food sickness, sick to my stomach sick, but low grade infection or cold sort of sick. Perhaps it isn't the food itself, but a germ that happens to have piggy-backed on it. But though I believe in germs as a transmission methodology for illness, I also believe in the immune system, mine in particular, that prevents such transmission in most cases. I do know that sometimes I eat food from a fast food place and I feel depressed afterwards. I think that is some sort of psychic transmission - not just the normal depression that comes from doing something that really, we know, not so deep down, that what we did was perhaps not the best, most healthfullyness thing to have done. Anyway. I am sick right now. Not Big Sick, but little sick. A little sore throat, a little stuffed nose. Poo.

I swear that I asked mom if she would like to see a Marx brothers movie. And I swear she said she would like to. So I ordered a set of Marx Borther's movies from Amazon. The other day, I asked if she wanted to watch one. Her response? "I never really liked them." Great. Well, luckily, I recall enjoying them! Yay even!

Learned a lot at the Smith today. Played with the fire curtain. Fun and easy. Way too expensive, but that is the price of safety, apparently. I also spent an hour with people who know things about boilers! Wow! We have a boiler in our house, so I was a leg up from someone who doesn't know about steam heat. Still, it will take some maintaining. Joy.

Mastication and Fire Curtain

Eww, mastication. In public. Sometimes I have to watch, sometimes I can avoid watching. Sadly, I can't turn my ears off. Sigh.

My friend asked me to talk a bit more about he fire curtain - or as it is called, a safety curtain. In larger theatres that have proscenium arches, there used to be a large fire hazard on stage. Gas lighting, and then early electric lighting was fraught with possibilities for starting a blaze. A curtain was rigged to close off the stage from the auditorium in case of a fire breaking out - allowing the patrons to escape. In the old days, these were often made of asbestos, because they were flame retardant. The curtain was sort of like a wall, only made of fabric.

In The Smith's case, our fire curtain was deteriorating. We had to have it replaced. The modern safety curtain that we have is made of Zetex - apparently made from fiberglass. It was a huge job. The new curtain weighs almost twice as much as the old one. It is run electronically - so motors and winches had to be installed. The old smoke pockets weren't large enough to easily accommodate the track into which the curtain was to be set, so they had to be removed - large pieces of steel reaching from the stage to the grid - about 60 feet worth! Then new ones had to be installed! Add to this all the wiring that had to be done. And a manual release system, so that people on either side of the proscenium (Backstage - not front of stage) could pull a handle and have the curtain lower. Not a small job!

I just got a call saying they were done. Yippee! I am heading down there in a few minutes to lock up and will get training tomorrow. Even cooler, in my book, is that I found out that it is ok to paint on the fabric, as long as we use fire retardant paint. Huzzuh!

Wee tree dings

Of orient are...

Anyway, I started to watch The West Wing on Netflix last night and I couldn't stop. I watched three episodes and could have watched three more without a hesitation. A glance at the time stopped me, though, since I had to be at the Smith at 9 in the morning to check in with the workers. What a fun show - good writing, good stories. I had forgotten most of what I had seen - if I had ever seen it before. I know I saw the pilot. And some of the rest of the next four seasons (I stopped watching after Aaron Sorkin left) So, if I don't post a blog, I am going to blame it on The West Wing!

For dinner, I got Arby's food last night. I was, yet again, aghast at how much a fast food dinner for two adults of decent appetite costs! Glarg, even! And it was ok. We had two sandwiches, onion rings, curly fries, a soda and two chocolate lave cakes. Honestly, my primary reason for choosing Arby's this time was because of the cakes. Sadly, they were not totally awesomely delicious. They were good, just not great. Curly fries with Horsey Sauce, well, those are another magnitude of yum. Not worth going there all the time for, though.

Sometimes I leap to the most negative conclusion I can imagine. Case in point. Last night, I went to fill a Brita pitcher. The sink was, sadly, a tad full, so I tried to cram the inflexible pitcher under the spigot  in several different ways to no avail. Finally, I removed some of the dishes in the sink and put the pitcher in - only to find that no water came out of the tap! Eeek! The water in the house is broken! Maybe a water main is being repaired. Maybe a pipe in the house is broken and water is gushing into the basement! How much will that cost to fix? Who is going to come fix it at 1 in the morning? Where is the water turn off? Where would I look for a leak? What will mom do for water for washing up and flushing and things? Listen for sounds of running water, nothing...Upstairs, the water worked fine. Hmm. Back downstairs, kitchen sink faucet still not producing water. Now wait a sec, there is a filter thingamabob on the faucet - that hasn't been used as an active filter since 1984 and there is a little slidy switch thing that just might...yup, that did it. Flowing water. I hope no one was looking or listening to my thoughts. Phew, even.

4 showings in three days

Wow, it seems like I have been living at The Smith. Four showings of Blue Jasmine in three days. Joy and rapture. It has gone pretty smoothly and we have had a decent turnout. Not a great turnout, but decent. There was a sound issue, which I think I have managed to make enough better for the time being that we won't have anyone else walking out. That would be good. And maybe we can get more people in. That would be even gooder. Mom hated the movie. I am not surprised. It flips back and forth in time and that can't be easy to understand for someone whose time sense is already not so hot. I liked it, but find that most Woody Allen movies lately are not all that great.

I am having fun playing with the slide show that we have instituted at The Smith. Garrett, our current ITish sort of guy, started it and I have been tweaking it. It will be a good tool to let people know what is coming up at the Smith. Played before movies, and perhaps other events, we might even be able to charge for advertising space. That would be nifty. And I am learning more about Powerpoint. That is just the most exciting bit.

I hope to get to a place where I only have to be at the Smith 10-20 hours or so a week most weeks. That would be nifty. We shall see. I feel like I am neglecting mom. Boo.

Ok, time to shut off the projector and head home! Happy Sunday!

Finished TOS

Recently, I watched the last episode of Star Trek (The Original Series). I am glad I sat through them all. Good stuff, and so ahead of its time. I still love Spock best. Watching them all again, uncut and cleaned up, was good fun! And it certainly was revealing. Now, though, I don't know what to do. Start Next Generation? Or should I watch something else for a while. West Wing sort of appeals. Any advice or suggestions will be entertained. I am watching on Netflix, so please suggest things from there.

Still puttering at the Smith.  Mostly I spent an hour setting the space up for a film - rolling out speakers, bringing in the screen, making sure the borders and the legs masked the screen well. I also did some neatening of the area in front of the stage. And worked on the slide show. Sadly, the slide show was not the right shape. I tried to adjust the size using the proprietary software that we use - to no avail. The tech support people suggested I resize the document in Powerpoint instead of using their scaling tool. Which I have done. Yay!

Yesterday we also had a great Smith Buildings and Grounds meeting. I am very excited about the work that is being done there. Yay! I also got to show Blue Jasmine for the first time. One down, three to go. I didn't watch the whole thing - I got too antsy. I will probably watch the whole thing on Sunday at 2 when mom is in the audience.

Michael J. Fox is my age

Just sayin'! Anyway, I watched his new sitcom on TV last night and it made me sad for some reason. He was fine, the characters and set-up are fine. It just made me sad. And I don't think I will watch it again. Partly because it made me sad. Largely because it is on network tv and I can't stand sitting through the commercials. I mean they really make my skin crawl. I must admit, having an iPad handy does make them a bit more palatable. But still, I would rather not be inundated with them if I don''t have to be.

I went to the Farmer's market yesterday. The pickings were kinda slim. It looked like a third of the vendors weren't there. I think next week is the last week for this particular market. Eeek! Anyway, I looked at several booths and then decided to spend all of my hard earned, hmm, not so hard earned coupon dollars at one. I bought: small seedless grapes - yum city!! - leeks - haven't figured out what to do with them - a cool sweet red/orange banana pepper - some beets - for dinner on Saturday night - some kale - out of which I made baked kale chips that were ok - I need to make them into smaller pieces for mom next time - and five ears of corn which I steamed last night - mom ate two of them! Go her! I am glad, in some ways, that she still has her appetite. And sometimes a sense of humor. Yippee!

We also watched a collection of short Pixar films. I thought they were enjoyable overall - even though I had seen most of them before. I am not sure whether or not mom liked them. I think she did. Mom used to own Pixar stock which became Disney stock which she sold. She used to be a big fan of Pixar but has forgotten all of that. Sigh. 

I didn't spend much time at the Smith yesterday. Yippee! And the fire curtain installation is proceeding on the schedule that was last presented to us. Two crews helps a lot! Speaking of the Smith - I get to show Blue Jasmine a few times this weekend. Huzzuh!

I looked into getting tickets to Matilda. There were $50+ of service charges for buying two tickets! Oh my god, no! I have to figure out some other way to get tickets. Maybe Erich would buy them for us and then we could pay him back. Or something. $50 is parking in NY or a lot of other things. Service charges my butt! $2 a ticket - maybe. Even that is stupid. Why are there service charges? What services are they providing? Glarg!

There are good things about being up early

Aren't there? I am sure there are. Hmm, more hours in the day? No, not really. I mean if I am awake for 17 hours, does it matter which seventeen? I think not. Well, I will keep pondering And since I am up early, I will ponder now! I will ponder ponderously!

Ok, pondering done. Well, napping at least. Anyway, I went in to the Smith this morning and had a brief meeting with a member of the Buildings and Grounds committee. It was very informative for me. I hope it was for him. Week Two of the Fire Curtain - or is it three now - is winding to a close. I am looking forward to seeing what progress they made today. They seemed a bit surprised that I needed to have the theatre ready for a film on Friday, though I had mentioned to it several times.

This morning was recycling day! I haven't done much sorting lately, and the big pile in the dining room is gone - mom hasn't noticed that I can tell. So I wasn't sure what to put in there. I do have a cache of boxes behind the yellow sofa in the living room. I grabbed one, opened it and sorted it really quickly - the boxes there are mostly sorted already. I was saving stuff in case mom wanted it. Mom won't want it. So I recycled almost the whole thing. Yay!

Zoom, zip, pow!

I did in fact get the papers on my desklet sorted and the major bills paid. Yay! I count yesterday as a success. Well, most days I count as successes as I have survived them. That is a good thing, right? Other than that, not a lot of note occurred.

Dinner was totally left overs. And a salad. Does salad count as a leftover? Or does only leftover salad count as a salad? I mean the lettuce and the ingredients have all been in the fridge for a while. The carrots and celery last a long time bathing in water as they do. The mushrooms last longer in the fridge in a bag than they were lasting out of the fridge. Anyway, mom had left over taco stuff, I had left over fajita stuff. Everyone seemed happy.

Since it is so late in the day, I am going to touch on what is happening. I am at the Smith and work is progressing on many fronts. I am getting thing accomplished. Our volunteer is nearing completion of his first major project - getting some lighting storage built. The riggers are doing their fire curtain thing. All is swell with the Smith world. Yay!

Sorry for the thin and boring post. Maybe life will become more exciting later in the week. Here's hoping!

Sunday Post

I think I have arthritis. Eeeek! I am only 52! And a bit of a hypochondriac. Though despite my constantly thinking I have some sort of disease, I rarely go to the doctor. Maybe if the Affordable Care Act actually starts up, I might afford to have health insurance and might actually be able to go to a doctor. Anything is possible. I still think that the rich people ought to pay for health care for all of us not so rich people. We are, after all, just here to serve them, like servants or slaves even. And if they want a continuation of that then they need us to be healthy. Just sayin'! Anyway, my right toes seem to be sending pain signals when I am walking. It might be my shoes, but they are wide toed Birkenstocks so I think that is doubtful.

Tracking the audio books with my perpetual calendar continues to challenge my creativity. The current book has about 11 sections per cd. I often stop part way through a section. So I use the month as the minute marker and forget about the seconds. A running start is often good in any case to get me back in sync with the story. This particular book is about the 60s and corruption. Not my typical sort of book, but it has been enjoyable so far.

I did head into the Smith yesterday to give someone a refresher on using the digital projector and sound system. He only needed a quick lesson. We then had a good chat and wander through the space talking about what there was, what could be better and what will never improve. Good stuff.

Guess who neatened his room!?!

That's right, this guy. Phase one is complete. I got my room back to a semblance of neatness. Most of the mess was clothing. So it wasn't that hard to clean up. We did laundry yesterday - mom read a book, had a snickers bar and a bottle of water out of the vending machines and watched me put clothes in machines and take them out again. She is, as I type, working away at folding some of the clothes. Go mom!

Sorry for the digression - where was I when I so rudely interrupted myself - oh, right, a neatened room. I wouldn't say clean because, well, it could do with a bit of vacuuming. That isn't going to happen anytime soon. Later today or tomorrow, though, the plan is to clean up my desk like thing - tomorrow - bill paying. Baby steps.

We also went to the library. Mom didn't really know why she wanted to go. Then she decided it was for Gideon books - they were all out of the library. And a book that she saw on the back of the New Yorker - which has four people requesting it before us. Yippee. I am thinking a few months before she will get to have it in her hands. We took out two Rumpole of the Bailey books but she found the one she tried to read not to her liking. Back they will go! I got out two audio books that I picked randomly from the shelves. I hope they are ok. 

Oh, huge-ish news! The pile of newspapers and other things in the corner of the dining room is completely gone. All that remains are some National Geographics which I have a hard time getting rid of for some reason. But they will be moving soon. I think the last time that corner was empty was 2009. Yay!

I did spend some time at the Smith yesterday, despite wanting to have a full week day away from the place. I did neaten a little there as well. And decided I would like some cross bracing on the light storage unit that Bruce built. It wobbles side to side a little too much for my comfort. I don't think that will present a problem. Not looking forward to working on that project on Monday. Poo even.

I ordered a set of Marx Brothers movies for mom. We shall see if she likes them as much as the Fred Astaire movies. I doubt she will. But at least we will have them for a rainy day. Speaking of which, I think a lot of the Northeast is getting rain today. Yay! And the trees are starting to tunr colors and shed leaves. Before we know it, snow! Erich, one of my nephews, loves winter. Me, I can take it or leave it. I have read somewhere that it is supposed to be a very cold winter. Brrr.

Blogger McBloggerson

That name just kept running through my mind, for some reason...

Watched Despicable Me last night. I had gotten it from Netflix in the hopes that mom would enjoy it. She didn't. Well, poo. So much for being able to figure out what mom likes. I decided to watch it myself. I know that we saw it in the movie theatre. Or that I saw it in the movie theatre. (Having to keep memories for two people in my head isn't always easy...) I know I enjoyed it when I saw it. But I remembered almost none of the movie when I watched it last night. A few things here and there, but mostly it was new again. And not as good as I had believed. Enjoyable and fun, but not great.

Yesterday was kinda tough at the Smith. Kate and I cleaned out all the areas I wanted to clean. I don't think we let go of much, but we did neaten at least four areas. Yay us. We lugged a lot! I think there is only one more area that is high on my list for going through. Next up - actually working on the light plot. I would like to free up some circuits and hopefully will get that settled to my satisfaction.

Ok, off to do laundry! And the library! Yay!

I must admit...

I must admit to being a little stressed out. All this getting up early every day is for the birds! I cannot wait to get back to a more relaxed schedule with the occasional early call. Glarp. And mom is getting on my last nerve and I don't really have any recourse there. True, Juliet has offered a respite in November, which will be very welcome - we just need to figure out the details. I need to figure out what the schedule it at the Smith. I doubt we will do anything that weekend - unless the Nutcracker is coming up around then. Nope, not on the schedule yet. I will check with Kelly. Eventually.

Meanwhile, stuff progresses at The Smith. The riggers are still working on installing the new fire curtain. The electrician popped in and did a little work today and now says that he doesn't know when he will be able to get back to do his bit for the curtain. Sigh. Bruce our volunteer carpenter is working on building storage thing for some lights. And the HVAC people are apparently coming in to finish up the work they started back in June! Yippee!

The other day I watched a video of a recording session of a song done by the Capital Children's Choir from London, England. Good stuff - catch them if you can!

I went out on Tuesday and had a mostly boring evening. I went to Canandaigua to have some wings. They weren't really buffalo style - I will have to see what they have on their list. These were just hot. Not bad, but not awesome either. And it was pretty dead there. Sigh. I guess I will go to Red Dove next Tuesday.

Went to Parker's last night and had a lovely time with Bill, the technical and design person at Hobart. We had drinks and chatted about all sorts of things. It was nice to have a chat with an adult. We might actually do sushi next time!

Ok, too exhausted and, yes, a little stressed out to write more. Though writing this has helped a teeny bit! Yay for public therapy!

Underwhelmed

I was excited to hear what Apple was going to announce and underwhelmed when I read about what will be coming out. Hopefully they will do better soon. Anything is possible and hope springs eternal.

Speaking of underwhelmed, my home work ethic is underwhelming me just now. My room is habitable - just. No sorting is getting done. In fact, nothing much is getting done. Bills are being paid, mostly on time, dishes are getting washed and food is being prepared. Mom is being taken care of, for the most part. Just nothing above and beyond that is being accomplished. Yes, I am doing more work at the Smith and that is taking some mental and emotional time and energy. Still, I feel like I am slacking! Yay!

I think I need to make a list:
Establish World Peace
Create limitless free energy source available to all
Save the Environment
Eradicate Hunger
Eliminate Disease

That should about do it. I think that is all in a day's work.

Actually my list looks more like:
Clean Room
Sort one box
Pay Bills
Do Laundry
Do paperwork

Oh, I might add do daily blog to that second list. Or the first.

Last night I watched Your Highness. The vulgar humor was not my cup of tea, but despite that, I enjoyed the movie a lot. I like fantasy. I like satire. I love Natalie Portman. Win, win, win!

Worrying vs. Planning

Most worrying and most planning are equally fruitless. Though it seems that planning is a little less so. And sometimes, planning can help you be prepared for when things take a left turn when a right was expected. For instance, I am going to borrow some light trees from HWS for a ballet in October. And I was going to store them until HWS did a dance performance the next month. Figuring out where and how to store them was taking up some grey matter but I did come up with a couple places and a few questions about space at the Smith. Yay! Then I get a message saying that HWS will need them back after all. So, see, worrying and planning...

Mom is still surprising me. I keep waiting for the next shoe to drop and thankfully it hasn't. Yay! Yesterday she even asked to go to the library! And to New York to see a show! She hasn't asked to do anything like that in a long while. Maybe the heat was debilitating. I don't know. But it is pretty ok by me! She would like tickets to Matilda for Christmas. We will see if we can make that happen. And I hope to get us to the library on Monday or Tuesday.

Things keep percolating along at The Smith. The work has begun to install the new fire curtain. Yay! I didn't realize that they were going to rip the old smoke pockets off and install new ones. Fun, fun, fun! I am hoping that Kate and I will be able to do some more work next Thursday. That would be good. It is our last full week of being closed for a long while. And I can think of six projects right off the top of my head that I would like to get accomplished. The tech cemetery needs neatening - again. The stage right corner under the apron needs cleaning out. The orchestra pit under the apron needs cleaning out. Two closets stage right need cleaning. And a storage space near the dressing rooms needs cleaning out. Yay cleaning other places that aren't my house!

I think I have come to a small realization. It isn't that I am a saver. I am just not good at letting things go. I think they are different mindsets. Similar, but not the same.

Extra Random Thoughts

There are some things for which is it better to have too much (or too many) than to have too little (or too few). High on this list, for my mom especially, is toilet paper. Another I guess is money (which is a lot like toilet paper). But this isn't really about the list of things, rather than being about the toilet paper. I went shopping yesterday with only a mental list of what was wanted and what was needed. The needed list was short - a vegetable for dinner - I went for spinach. Wanted - not much at all, so I just wandered through the store. I picked up a yam, some cookies and a huge thing of toilet paper, because mom really does go through it like it grows on trees. (Yes, I know, trees, paper...) As I was taking stuff out of the car I remembered that I still had a good bunch of toilet paper in the paper closet - not a closet made of paper, but the closet in which the paper products reside (along with other residues, or is that residents?).

Now that the drip is gone from the bathroom faucet, I don't have easily and pre-filled watering containers. So the plants are getting a little parched. Then, one day, I was getting mom some water from the refrigerated brita pitcher and I realized that I had water in her glass! In the past I have put it in the top of the pitcher. But from that time forward, I use that little bit of water in a plant! Yay! Win win!

As some of you recall, no doubt, I listen to audio books. And when I do, I turn off the CD player and thus lose my place. Some CDs have few divisions - either they divide only by chapter or by some random method - but most of them have less than 31 divisions. There is one company, though, at least, that breaks each CD up into 99 pieces! Eeek! How on earth is a calendar supposed to accommodate the number 99? Then I had one of those epiphany-lets: Months have numbers associated with them - who doesn't know that April is 4. So, I use the day of the week - 0-9 for the tens place and the month for the ones place! It has worked so far! Yippee!

Get video replay out of golf! Really. Seriously. Tiger is the most video taped player of any player out there. So there is much more video of him than anyone else. From a bazillion angles. Golf has always been a gentleman's sport, hasn't it? And honestly, who hasn't fudged a shot here or there (especially on mini-golf when the damn ball just won't go in the hole and who wants to write down 27 as the number of shots, so you just put down par...). The latest Tiger incident is his ball moved when he moved a twig and he didn't see it move. Or if he did he thought it was so little that no one who wasn't standing right on top of it could see it move. And it wasn't like it moved enough to make any difference at all. But some video guy was editing his extreme closeup of the ball and it moved miles in the frame - the equivalent of 2 millimeters. But most anyone else wouldn't have had that shot on tape. Why penalize Tiger for being scrutinized? Sigh.

And there is it, a thought filled and thought provoking post. See, they happen!

Maybe you noticed?

I took yesterday off from the arduous schedule I have given myself in regards to blogging. It wasn't that there wasn't time. There is always time - weird, but most days have just as much time in them as every other day. Anyway, it wasn't a lack of time, it was a lack of mental energy and physical time combined. You all may not realize this, but it takes a decent amount of mental energy to even come up with a boring, nothing filled post. Just think how much a pithy, interesting post takes! The mind boggles (which is a fun game, by the way...)!! So yesterday, since I did work at The Smith a good bit, I just didn't do much in the way of anything blog related.

Speaking of working at the Smith - Kate and I got a lot done! All of the lighting instruments that we can find are now stored in one place. Yay! We tested a lot of instruments and found many that work - some that could easily be repaired and a few that probably could be junked. We emptied out of most of the area under the apron and discovered a bunch of random things under there. Some of which will go away. Some of which was redistributed. We have stored the lighting cable under there for now. We still have two areas under there to go through and that will be one more area touched. Yay!

We also went through the storage area where the extension cords were. Mostly empty now - except for a few hundred (literally - maybe a ton worth when I think about it and do the math - 50 at 46) pounds worth of stage weights. Wow! I guess we might need them one day if a show comes in and has a lot of heavy stuff to fly. Right. Anything is possible. All in all it was a sweaty and productive Smith Day.

And what happened on Wednesday? I couldn't tell you without a lot of thinking - and my thinking cap is in the wash. Actually, I can't remember where it is - and no, it isn't on my head - I already looked.

Looking forward to sleeping in!

Really, I am. This getting up early is for the birds who like worms. Me, I am a steak and potato sort of bird. Let me rise when my body wants to and all will be right with the world. As it is, I am feeling a bit on the tired side. Ok, a lot on the tired side. I really am looking forward to my nap. Which I will have as soon as I post this. Yippee!

Yesterday was not a learningful day. I did get up early again. Yay. And it looks like I will be up early the next couple of weeks. Sigh. I thought a job in the theatre would be starting later in the day generally. Poo. But I digress. I didn't spend a lot of time at the Smith yesterday. I did, though, spend a lot of time on the computer at home doing Smith things. My Smith mail folder is already bulging at the seams. Yippee?

My friend Jeff asked me what about Middlesex made me say that it was the sort of novel that I would like to write. First, I would say it was balanced in terms of description and dialogue. I didn't think it was too talky or too wordy. There was an economy of language in regards to description that I liked. I also enjoyed the fact that the narration changed between first and omniscient third. Not being much of a refined sort of critic mostly I just liked it - which is what I would like people to say about a novel I wrote.

And that's about all. I made some arsenic laced rice (when did that happen?) with veggies and eggrolls for dinner. Tonight I am making home made chicken nuggets. Mom likes finger foods!

Another Learningful Day

I learned, to my chagrin, that Abscom wanted to start work at 8. Oops. I thought they had said 9. Oh well, better late than never. The Syracuse Scenery people had said between 9 and 9:30 - which is when they arrived. It was an interesting experience to watch the "containment" wall go up. I couldn't really see the work that was being done on the curtain rigging - it was happening on the grid which is out of sight from the house. Heck, it is hard to see from the stage!

Meanwhile, I was keeping myself busy with various Smith related tasks. First, I contacted our film distributors and started getting my ducks in a row there. We normally preview/screen a given film a few days before it is presented to an audience. Originally, David would sit through the whole film to see if there were any problems. Later, he learned that the film could be run without turning the projector on - and then checking the server log to see if there were any errors. Saves wear and tear on the projector and saves someone from having to sit through the film. I also asked them a technical question, to which I have yet to receive a response.

Another mission was to try to nail down the schedule for the rest of the work being done. There are four parties involved and I had to contact them all multiple times. Fun, fun, fun! (I finally managed to do figure it all out today.)

In other news, I decided I wanted to start working on possibly getting our "cloud" machine functional. I didn't know where to start except for the internet. I put in Cloud Machine and found a picture of something that looked like ours. Turns out we have a Brenograph. Yay! Next step, finding out more about the machine. And finding out how difficult it will be to change the carbon arc illumination to something more modern and safe.

All in all a busy day at the Smith. I was busy doing my stuff while the Abscom people were busy doing theirs. By the end of the day, the curtain was completely in the containment unit awaiting dismantling (which happened today - but more on that tomorrow).

Last night, I watched 50/50 which I thoroughly enjoyed. The lead was a little wimpy for my taste, a nice guy, but that is ok - I kind of identified with him. And I love Anna Kendrick. Seth Rogen appeals oddly. I don't know why. It was funny and poignant. Glad I rented it!

Slow Sunday

It was just one of those days. Nothing too exciting transpired. In fact, nothing even barely interesting transpired. I don't think I even perspired. Not a bit. I had intended to neaten up my room - it is in a pitiful condition just now - but I didn't get there. I did, though, do a bit of cleaning in the kitchen! Yay! That was also a little overdue. I also made it trash day - collecting trash from all over the house and putting it out onto the curb for pick-up.

And that was it. How exciting is that? Mom watched a lot of Downton Abbey - it is all new to her. I played and prepared meals. Lunch was standard fare and dinner was left overs.

That's it. That's all. Sigh. Not very exciting stuff. Ho hum. I guess I could think of something pithy to write, but that would take effort. And I am busy-ish at the Smith today. So, um, thanks for stopping by!

Wow, quite a day!

I finally finished listening to Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Interesting, entertaining - the kind of novel that I wish I could write. Well, ok, I would hope mine would be a little funnier, since that is how I like to think I roll, but still...It took a lot longer than I thought it was going to - more than three weeks! Eeek! I had a dream, that I read a book (350 pages or so) in a day. Haven't done that in a while. Haven't read an actual book in a long while in fact. Maybe one day it will happen.

I ran a few errands yesterday. Grocery store was grand central station - really busy! I guess Saturdays are normally busy. Lots of staff standing around peddling stuff - a cashier friend was pushing papayas. Ran into Cassie while buying veggies. And they finally had salami in stock. I asked the guy what the issue was - he happened to be standing there stocking things - and he said the distributor was slow. Not really an answer, but I am not sure what I expected. Maybe something about there not being as much supply as their used to be as people moved away from things like salami in their attempts to eat more healthfully. Hmm. Speaking of shopping, though, I need to go again soon and get more nose tissue. Someday, I might actually pay attention to how long it takes mom to go through ten boxes of tissue. I hope it is more than 10 days!

After the grocery store, I stopped and got gas in the car. I haven't had to do that in a while - I don't really drive that much. I got my gas at Kwik Fill - they proudly proclaim that they only sell gas from crude that is from North America. Go them! Last stop, Rite Aid to get some pills for mom. I miss my favorite pharmacist. The one who was there didn't even look up or smile the whole time I was there. Remind me not to go when she is there again, please. 

Our lunch was one of mom's favorites. Or at least I thought it was. Junior bacon cheeseburgers from Wendy's. Turns out that mom thought the hamburger tasted weird and that the fries were limp (they are Wendy's fries and are never particularly crispy). Oh well. Our mass produced food is done for a while. Back to Augustus made food for the next week or so. Yippee!

We watched a movie together last night - The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer - starring Cary Grant,  Myrna Loy and an older Shirley Temple. Madcap comedy ensues. Fun and worth watching. At least in my estimation. I don't know if mom enjoyed it as much as I did, but I think she liked it ok.

Early to wake...

I am not a fan of early morning meetings. Not the schedule to which I currently adhere. I normally rise around 9 - sometimes later - so am easily ready for a meeting that starts at 10. Unfortunately, not everyone is on that schedule. They are early risers - five and six in the morning are not unheard of times for them. So a meeting at 8:30 seems like getting off to a late start for them! Eeek! I managed to get to my 8:30 meeting a few minutes early - yes, even for early meetings I like to be early. The third of our triumvirate arrived soon after - the first was there waiting. The meeting was about the HVAC system at the Smith.

The person representing the controls company seemed young - but that was only to be expected when it turned out that there was a lot of control scripting that happened under the hood of the controls application. Who knew? Apparently this guy did. After listening to our woes, he opened up some files and found the major culprit - one piece of logic had been mis-written - making it so that no matter what we did after we turned the system on, it would try to cool down the space to the unoccupied coolness setting - a not-so-balmy 55 degrees! Eeek! No wonder it never turned off!!

After the technician made such quick work of figuring out that problem, my fears were assuaged about the system. We spent the next couple of hours tweaking things and learning some of the ins and outs of the program. All in all a well spent few hours, I believe. Yay, even!

Unfortunately, it made Augustus a tired puppy. I dragged myself home and made lunch for mom - note to self (and anyone who reads this) - mom does not love left over quiche. The supermarket has been out of salami the last two times I was there. Poo. If they are out the next time, I will check at Tops. Glarp. In fact, I plan to head to the supermarket today before lunch and resupply with salami for mom's lunches.

After lunch, I napped for a bit to try to regain my customary alterness. It worked to a teeny degree - at which point I started working on my blog - hence the lateness of the post yesterday. I also started thinking about dinner. I thought, heck, I will do the normal Friday dinner - salmon for mom and pizza for me - but I couldn't face making pizza and the salmon hadn't been thawed - so I came up with the idea of ordering pizza! Yay! Except that mom informed me that she didn't like pizza. Sigh. I got pizza anyway - and some chicken wings - mom mostly ate most of the chicken wings. I now have pizza for meals for the next couple of days! Yippee! Everyone, mostly, was happy with the dinner.

Late post full of Wonders!

Sorry, it was an early morning for me - more on that tomorrow. But why don't people realize that I can do more if I am awake than when I am still half asleep. Hmm...
Here is a thought that I keep having and wanted to share: Racism (here on Earth) (and maybe bigotry, though I think that one is tougher) might only end when we find actual aliens from another planet and realize that we all here have a lot more in common than we do with them...

I finally broke down and bought honest to goodness Bandaid brand bandages. The others just don't seem to work as well for some reason. And mom needs and deserves bandages that work! Yay!

Work at the Smith continues. Kate and I spent four hours there yesterday working out more of what is where and how things have been cludged together. I think I have a handle on what is working, what is not, what is where and why - for the most part. We discovered two more instruments that have burned out lamps. We got the remote control for the lighting board figured out again. We got a couple of instruments relamped. Tested 30 instruments and found some working ones - stored the bulk of the lighting instruments in a space that isn't used very frequently, and cleaned up the stage in preparation for the removal of the fire curtain. Yippee! Long day - lots of exercise and lots of accomplishment. I like it like that.

Mom and I watched Oz the Great and Powerful last night. Overall I liked it. Sadly, I didn't love it. Mom, despite it not being anything she really understood, liked bits of it. Her phrase that she uttered several times during the movie was - "I hope little kids don't watch this movie" meaning that it was scary for her (and for kids) in some places. I didn't find it that scary. I didn't like the lead actor at all. Maybe I wasn't supposed to. I didn't like his acting. He actually made me cringe a little. I also thought Mila Kunis was did decently until she turned green (yes that was a spoiler). All in all, decent, not great. I did add Mary Poppins and The Lone Ranger (when it is released on DVD) to my Netflix cue.

Learned a butt load!

What an odd phrase - "butt load." I use that and variations on that a good bit now and again. And yesterday I was schooled (in a good way). I had a meeting with the two main parties going to do some work at The Smith next week. I am glad that they were able to meet face to face as a realization was had - each thought the other was responsible for an important part of the task! Eeeek! I think it all got resolved to everyone's satisfaction and the work will still take place early next week. Yippee!

That wasn't what I learned. Sure I learned some stuff during that conversation, but the important stuff happened after the communication snafu was discovered. I learned a) how to put on the harness for going up on the grid, something I plan to do at some point in the future, b) that what I call electrics, lighting installation people call connector strips and c) that it will be possible to maybe fix at least one of the broken circuits fairly easily. That would be nifty indeed! Yay! I am so excitimacated (thank you George Bush satirizers for that word)!

When did it become difficult to get pictures off of my camera and onto my computer? It used to be so easy - yes, my computer is old and the software is out of date - but still, it should be fairly simple to get the photos into iPhoto still. Shouldn't it? Grrrr. It seems like I have to restart the computer each time I want to upload pictures to the silly application. Poo! Well, at least they are there now. Safely ensconced on my computer, never to see the light of day again...

Just kidding - here are a few pictures:

A not so great picture of the fire curtain that is being replaced

Close up of the corner

Fuzzy front of harness

Fuzzy back of harness

Wow, I have missed having pictures in this blog. No, I am not going to start doing it again - see the above paragraph.

I think Fall is coming. Yippee?

A little of this and some of that

What must it be like to live in Alzheimer's world? Not remembering if you had slept or not. Not knowing what was a current memory and what is a memory from the past. And to be so frequently unsure of what is going on. Eeek! And as caregivers, it is suggested that it is easier to go along to get along. In other words, if the patient (I don't know what else to call mom - mom?) says it is cold - agree - even if it is not. Being right is difficult with an alzheimer's patient for both parties - I know this from experience. The two actual cups of coffee has helped a lot, by the way!

Yesterday, I went into the Smith to meet with a man who is going to help around the place by doing some woodworking and stuff of that ilk. That will be amazing! I would like to have the place a bit better organized! Yay! Very nice man, loads of experience - I haven't seen any of his handy work yet - but am looking forward to it.

Last night was my night out on the town! Woo hoo! Red paint all over the place. Ok, not really. I did go down to Beef and Brew and stuck my oar into a little bit of trivia. Mainly because I was waiting for it to be over. One of the team participants had agreed to go to Canandaigua with me to partake of beer, pool and inexpensive wings. Sadly, our desires were thwarted regarding the wings. They were sold out of them! How the heck does that happen? Whatever. We settled for garlic fries instead that were great! I think I must have eaten 6 cloves worth of garlic. Yippee! Beer was, as usual, inexpensive and the pool was only $1.00 per game - we played five. I do so enjoy playing pool.

Double Decker

This is something that I keep meaning to write about - and soon won't be doing much - Double Decker Steaming - something the Chinese have been doing for centuries - maybe millennia. I had the epiphany-let a while back. Steaming two things in succession - or steaming them in two separate pots was getting old. I have four of those wonderful steamer thingies (vegetable steamer baskets) - two of them have little feet - one has lost its feet - and one is much older - it has adjustable feet and opens completely flat - so it really isn't so much of a basket at that point. Anyway, I put one of the ones with decent feet into the pot - put the corn on that - then I extend the feet as far as they will go on the oldest one and put that down around and on top of the corn. Lastly, I put whatever vegetable I am "also" steaming on that - broccoli and green beans were the two most common. When the top vegetable is "done" (I prefer my vegetables to be still almost crunchy when cooked) I bet the corn is two and remove them both. Now, here comes the less than optimal bit. I like most of my vegetables to be covered with butter and garlic salt (hey, did you know that there is salt in garlic salt?!) so I transfer them to another dish and adulterate (in some people's eyes at least) them there. I still often end up with two things to clean, but it still feels like I am being efficient somehow. Yay for double decker steaming. With the disappearance of corn on the cob imminent (hopefully just for the winter), I don't know how many more times I will be doing this - but it was so cool, I had to share!

Yesterday, Kate (a person who has done a good bit of work at the Smith) and I spent two hours working on the electrics. For some reason, there were two sets of numbers on them - one set of huge, lovely old numbers and a second set of teeny weeny little numbers - both represented the dimmer pack number to which the socket was supposed to be related. I, for one, was tired of telling people who came in what was going on - and I wanted to get a handle on exactly what was working and what wasn't. Turned out that we really only had one bad circuit - the receptacle had been pushed into the electric somehow. There was one other place where a circuit had never been. Four circuits that we have no idea what happened to them and one circuit that somehow isn't connected to where it should be connected. Weird stuff. But I am glad we are taking the time to do this. We also found six instruments (lighting instruments) that were non-functional. Most of them probably just need their bulbs replaced. But that is for another day. The next day will be for working on the front of house light trees. Fun stuff!

Remembered the forgotten

Yesterday's Daily Challenge was to turn the computer or TV screen off on hour before going to sleep. Oops. I have a hard time with that. Often, as I am shutting down for the night (me, mentally, not the computer) I have thoughts that could be aided by the computer - one last thing to check before sleep - so it isn't running around in my brain anymore - how much something is - where someplace is - it could be anything. Like how much a followspot costs. (I wonder if it would cost less to fix the carbon arc spots we have in house...) Or - who was that in that episode of Star Trek TOS? Or who does the voice for Lilith on Borderlands 2?

Yay leftovers! And there are still more. I hope mom likes quiche again - we have a lot of it left. I wonder if it freezes well. I would tend to doubt it. Just looked it up and apparently it freezes and thaws out ok - in a toaster or conventional oven - not the microwave.

Intense dream last night about being in a show - theatre - I was playing a wizard - and everything was not going that smoothly - well, one of my scenes went really well - John Cleese riding on a horse being funny with a fiery lance that I was apparently responsible for (or at least took credit for). Weird.

I started writing with an idea that I was aiming for - digressed a smidge and in the process forgot what my original aim was. Glarp.

Everything has many facets. For instance, fixing the faucet drip was a good thing. Unfortunately it means that the little green watering vessel doesn't get filled - which means that it takes more effort to water the plants. Which I already hate to do. Sigh. (This was the thought that started me writing today..)

Aha! I wrote some notes!

I did it, and it works. Ok, I knew that. I have done it before. But seriously, my posts have been short because a) not a lot has been happening and 2) I forget the few thoughts and interesting bits that do occur. Sigh.

Mom scared me the other night. I was up latish watching TOS - the episode where the people from Andromeda are turning people into interesting shapes that are easily crushed - when I heard someone (hmm, who could it be, I didn't wonder) creeping down the stairs. I got up and found mom at the top landing. She was heading downstairs to tell the kids who were sitting on the porch to move along. I told her to come get me next time she had such concerns (not that she will remember to, but she might) and that I would happily zip down to check for her. Sure enough, no kids on the porch, just some kids walking by across the street. This incident did scare me a bit, because it proved that mom could be a wanderer, despite her dislike of moving around. Eeeek!

I had a cooking epiphany the other day. Quiche! It has been months since last I cooked it. Mom doesn't know what it is but seems to enjoy it. I explain it as "egg pie." One of the two was a quiche lorraine sort of thing - the other was more of a garbage type - tossed in a bunch of leftovers (not the taco meat) and called it dinner. I forget how easy it really is to make - basically milk product (I use half and half) and eggs in a pie shell. Just about anything else can be added. In my second one we had feta, spinach, mushrooms, onions, chicken and cheddar cheese. Yay. We also had what was probably the last two ears of corn on the cob that we will have for the year. They are just getting small and unappetizing. And a salad. I need to use up my salad like ingredients! I dislike things, especially food, going to waste!

Speaking of which, I noticed some pistachios lying on the floor of my room. There were in a ziploc bag, so I was hoping that they would still be happy and fresh-ish. Sadly, they weren't. Ick. Soggy pistachios are not the best thing on the planet to eat in my opinion. But I didn't want to throw them away, so I suffered through the eating of them. Luckily, there weren't many left! Huzzuh!


At Wegman's, they don't sell Hershey's ice cream - I will look at Tops is I remember - but they did sell a store brand called Cappuccino Chip that might suffice. I bought a tub of it for mom - so when she finishes her pistachio ice cream, she can try that one. Yay!

Mom and I watched Big Miracle together last night. She seemed to enjoy it and I know I did. Loosely based on actual events from 1988, it tells the story of the media frenzy and eventual rescue of some gray whales near Barrow Alaska who had gotten cut off from open ocean by ice. Worth a watch if you like feel good movies about nature.

Where have all the ideas gone...

My brain was tossing ideas out left and right yesterday for things to write about. Really, it was! And I thought, self, it would be good to go and open the blogger page and jot a few of these down (in a typing sort of jotting way), you know that you won't remember them until after you finish the day's blog if you don't (if you even remember them then). But did myself listen? Nooooooooo! Sigh.

Well, maybe, if I write about the day, I will cause a little bit of mental stimulation and the ideas, or heck, maybe even other ideas, will re-pop into my brainlet. Here's hoping!

Mom volunteered to go do laundry with me. "Do you want me to come?" she asks. That isn't the point, is it? "Gee, of course, I want you to come." Really? So that I have one more concern while I am out doing laundry? Sigh. But at least she got dressed and got out of the house. With less self inflicted stress because she was choosing it on her own. Not one mention of feeling sick. Yay! Not much I could think of having her do to actually help. I suggested putting the quarters in the machine, but she passed on that. Oh well. We did go for ice cream after the laundry. She got some cappuccino crunch. Sadly Mr. Twistee is closing for the year come Tuesday. Maybe the grocery store will have something similar. Look at me - reminding myself by adding it to my shopping list on my phone! Go me! Mom does love her cappucino crunch! Lo and behold! Hershey's makes some! Now, if I can find it in the grocery store...

And there we have it, our excitement for the day. Laundry! Three baskets of it. This necessitated buying new laundry detergent - the inexpensive stuff we had purchased on our cross country trip last year (?) finally ran out. I also got some stain remover, which didn't work on the sternum stain on one of mom's shirts. All this was purchased at the Family Dollar store in downtown Geneva. The ATM at the community bank was down for servicing (on the Friday before a holiday?) so I needed to get some cashback as well as the laundry detergent. A man was in line buying a dress for a toddler and he and his friend were, luckily, amused by my antics of suggesting that, though it would be a little small on him, it suited his coloring.

Wow, no, I didn't recall all the things I wanted to write about. Which means that there is potential for more things to be written about at a later date! Yippee!

(Btw, I came up with a few of them after I finished this and will put them in tomorrow's post!)

The meeting that wasn't

Don't you hate it when you have a meeting and everyone who is supposed to be there isn't? What's the point in having the meeting when all the players don't play. Sigh. So, it was rescheduled. Yippee! I did get some work in the office accomplished, though. And my new time sheets for The Smith's hourly employees, me included, will get their first trial run starting next week. I can hardly wait.

And there we have it. The excitement for the day. Woo hoo! We can all take a break now. Phew! Ah. If only I knew someone who was a masseuse who could come in and give me a good working over. Heck, I would like a massage of any kind at this point in my life. Maybe after my next pay check? I think we get paid every two weeks...

Aide day! Yippee! Mom says she doesn't need the company - but she does so enjoy an audience. For a while. Then she is over it. Jenny is great, though. I am very happy that we have her helping out. 

Some of you may have noticed that I am have not been writing much about relationships or the lack there of. That is because there is nothing to write. Nothing positive that is. Which is sad. And not worth writing about. So, I am not writing about it. Yay?

What is Irony?

I am not sure I understand the concept of "irony" entirely. Maybe because at one point I listened to Alannis Morrisette's Ironic song and got all confused. Anyway, I save everything for a while. Well, just about everything. Not used tissue, but just about everything else. Or nail clippings. Ok, few things bodily related. But papers, I save those. A lot. Just about every receipt gets saved for at least a year or two. Except for one pair of receipts recently. Remember when I was doing the faucet drip thing? I bought a faucet replacement set at Lowes. Brought the receipt home and nonchalantly tossed it at a box - my recycling box. I vaguely thought, "Oops, wrong box" and intended to move the receipt later. That night, Wednesday, was recycling - and we all know how I don't like to miss an opportunity to put recycling out, so out it went. I sort of recall thinking "Hmm, I wonder if I will need that Lowes receipt. Nah!" And now, here I am, wanting to return the faucet thing but not sure if Lowes will do it without a receipt. They ought to - since they are so computerized, but I haven't gone out to try. So, is that irony? I save all the receipts except for the one that I really could make use of?

I made a delicious meal last night, if I must say so myself. It is one of my more favorite meals to make. BBQ (homemade BBQ sauce) ribs with baked beans, coleslaw and corn on the cob. Everything turned out well and mom enjoyed it. Unfortunately, ribs just doesn't turn out to be enough food for her. Sigh. Sometimes she reminds me of that huge cornucopia looking Doomsday machine on Star Trek (TOS).

Late night movie choice was The Odd Life of Timothy Green. I liked the ads for it when I saw them. Jennifer Garner has always been an actress I enjoy watching. The movie was pretty good, all things considered! Made me cry a lot, which is always fun!

There was a time

When I was younger, I was happy to fill a day full of activities. And when I am traveling, I generally do a good bit in a day. Just now, though, I in am a one-a-day sort of frame of mind. If I have one thing to do, that is plenty. One major thing, that is. Not a small thing like normal daily activities - I am not all done after brushing my teeth. That would be sad. For instance, Monday, I had the stuff at the Smith to attend to. It didn't take all day - but it did take a good chunk out of it. I could have, though, if I really, really wanted to, worked in all sorts of other non-daily activities in - like laundry or cleaning my room or some such nonsense. Instead, I didn't. Yesterday, I had no non-daily, non-maintenance sort of activities to do. So I played. Today, I had my one activity and am now over it for the day. The rest will be daily stuff - lunch and dinner and things of that ilk.

But back to yesterday, I played a lot of Mass Effect 3. I teared up a few times and eventually got to the end of the game. It took a while and had a lot of cut scenes. There was a big hubbub in the gaming community about the ending - that was all I read about it until after I had finished the game. I didn't mind the ending. And I enjoyed the series overall. Yay games!

Mom had another memory flash - and I think they might hurt her a little bit - they just keep going round and round. This time it was a song from South Pacific.

Time to start thinking about dinner!

Topical Tuesday

We are thinking of instituting a Topical Tuesday movie series at the Smith. The idea is to show movies that are thought/discussion provoking. Maybe show them on alternate weeks. Wednesdays, again on alternate weeks, we are going to run movies that are interesting cinematically but not necessarily large audience draws. Any ideas for a catchy name for our Wednesday movie series would be appreciated and entertained (maybe a glass of water - champagne is soooo expensive...). (Whacky Wednesday is off the table!)

That is part of what I did on Monday, a staff meeting at The Smith. I also met with a man (Mark) who works with the Dance Department at Hobart and William Smith about a fall dance concert that they are going to present at The Smith rather than at the Winn-Seeley gym as they have done forever in the past. I think he was anxious at first, but got more relaxed after we had chatted for a while.

Lastly, I spent a little time going through a large collected stack of CD/DVDs. Many people create them for an event presented at the Smith. I think there were four or five years of senior slide shows from Geneva High School in that pile. Mainly I was trying to find anything that we can use for music before movies and plan to let go of all of the stuff that has been abandoned there. Goodness knows we don't need them when the show that they were for happened 5 years ago! Or longer! I think I am going to like working as the Technical Manager of the Smith. Now I just have to decide if I want to always capitalize "The" or not. Hmmm...

Mom had Jenny the aide and was a bit cantankerous until she got her food. Mom ate a lot yesterday. Dinner was chicken and corn and broccoli - after that she had at least one fiber bar and ice cream. I have to remain happy that she has an appetite! She watched Shall We Dance again last night. She really doesn't like Swing Time and Shall We Dance all that much. I will put them at the bottom of the rotation. I like them both and don't understand what she doesn't like about them. It could just be Alzheimer's. (When in doubt, blame it on the disease.)

You may be wondering what excitement transpired on Sunday. I am wondering that, also. If anyone has any idea, please write and tell me!

Quite a Day

And now it is Sunday. The day of rest! Yippee!

Yesterday was chock full of exciting times. Not a bad thing, but not something I need everyday.

First off, the wedding at the Smith. It went off without a hitch - well, the couple got hitched, so, I guess that isn't an accurate statement. It went off with a hitch - but the good kind. There was only one surprise - that they had planned on taking photos at the location. No one mentioned it to me. Oh well. The photographer, John, did them efficiently, which was great. I puttered and did some cleaning while waiting for them to finish. A few interesting things were hidden in the closet I am currently working on. Anything I can move out of the manager's office and out into other people's spaces, I am happy about! Oh, and I plugged in the phone in the manager's office and it seems to work. Yippee! I wonder why it was unplugged...

After work, I bought mom a tuna dinner from Parker's. It was a tad more expensive than I would have liked or thought it should be, but mom seemed to enjoy it. She still has a good appetite. Yay for blessings of any size, shape or kind! I ended up with a slice of pizza from Cam's and some pretzels that the wedding party left behind.

Next up, showing the movie - The Bling Ring - at the Smith. It was not very well attended. I guess (college) kids just aren't interested in going to see movies in the theatre when they can watch it on their laptops or tablets. Whatever. I didn't like the movie all that well. The acting was mediocre, the film was just all over the place, the story was a depressing one. All in all, glad I saw it, and am glad it is not something I will ever have to see again. Yay!

After the movie, I went to the Red Dove for a beer, Left hand Milk Stout. I needed some graham crackers to have with that. Yummy and very, very sweet! New bartender there, who I think I might have seen before. Had a nice time just relaxing after the excitement of the day.

At home, mom was in her room, but not ready to sleep. I think she might have a bit of sundowner's going on. Anyway, I offered to put a movie on for her - and she accepted. And ended up watching two. I must remember that she doesn't like Swing Time. Hates it in fact. Sigh. I also fed her two bowls of popcorn - of which she only remembered one and kept whining about not getting a second bowl. Sigh. It is so sad to see her when she gets frustrated about not remember the seemingly simplest things to remember. Oops, two "sighs" in one paragraph. I think I need a break! Anyway, we were up until 3 - when I passed out. I think I need to get her a DVD player for her room. Maybe this week. We shall see.

I love Weddings!

I was going to write: "I love weedings" but I doubt anyone would have gotten it. So I chickened out and went with the correct spelling. Sigh. I hate it when I chicken out. Luckily, this is a small chickening.

Anyway, I do love weddings. I am note sure why exactly. They are times of high stress for all involved. Ok, not all. Some people are just there for a good time. But the bride and mother of the bride are usually quite stressed out. And sometimes the maid or matron of honor. Sometimes the groom and the best man. I think it is that, despite the stress, most people are in a good mood. Happy about the whole experience. And all dressed up!

This is my first wedding at The Smith. I hope not the last. Not a huge wedding. Four bridesmaids and four groomsmen. I think they are expecting about 150 people for the service. The rehearsal went pretty smoothly, all things considered. I got there early and set up the sound. Lots of things needed plugging and lugging. I got the amp up on stage all by myself. Yay me. I would like a new dolly with much larger wheels. Just saying. Anyway, I didn't put the speakers up on the tripods. I just couldn't get them that high by myself easily. Not even easily. With much effort. Oh, I just had a thought. A little stepping ladder or even one step up would help. That will have to be looked into. I also put the railings on the steps - another job that is easier with two people. More people need to be added to the list of potential helpers at The Smith.

The wedding party arrived around 3:30 pm. Frank, a family friend from Pennsylvania, was the designer and sort of wedding director. He and his friend/co-worker Brittany (not sure how she spells her name) did a great job setting things up - though they still want to do bows before the wedding. Everyone was pretty easy going (despite the stress). The rehearsals (three times) went smoothly. No big technical issues. I get to raise and lower one light. And play some tracks from a CD at the appropriate times. I think I can handle it.

They left about on time as well. Yay! I stayed and shut things down and then headed home to cook dinner - salmon for mom, sausages for me.

Short but to the point post

Part of the yesterday's excitement was visiting the Geneva Community Center where the Smith is sort of helping to put on movies. I don't understand how this came to be, but I am happy to help out. The space is still the black box theatre it was last time I visited. I did, though, learn about where the light switches were! Yay!

Yesterday was also the last day of service at the Leaf Kitchen. I went and had a few beers to show solidarity. I don't think Tatiana got the turnout she was hoping for, but it seemed to be picking up as I left to head home and make dinner for mom.

I watched Safe House last night which starred Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington. I was tired, but it kept my attention, which is a good thing. Overall I enjoyed it - not great, but entertaining. I like Ryan Reynolds. And there wasn't a whole lot of dialogue. I don't want to give it away, but the good guys won!

Today I get to start work on the first wedding I am helping with at The Smith. Yippee!

Yes - short post - got up late and have to head off to work.

Two weeks in a row!

I'm back! Phew! When I forgot to put the recycling out last week, it really threw me. True, my reminder on my computer had stopped (why had I stopped it?) so nothing popped up at midnight to tell me to put the recycling out. I don't know why I felt so discombobulated by a missed rendezvous with the recycling. Maybe because it is the one thing I can do each week that makes me feel like I am emptying the house of clutter just a teeny bit. Teeny, weeny, little bit. But better than nothing! Two weeks and counting!

Met at the Smith to talk about movies. Apparently we are going to be showing movies at the local Girls and Boys club as well as at the Smith. Interesting. So I had to get my head around two different sets of programming. Not a big deal, in the larger scheme of things. Still, all information has the potential to be useful. And I did learn a good bit. Somehow, though, I got the times all mucked up. I thought David and I were meeting at 4 and the meeting about the community center movies was to be at 5. Ooops. 3 and 4 respectively. I was only an hour off, but on time for the group meeting. Yay. I am hoping I can do some of the film stuff from my Mac. There are mostly MSFT PCs at work. Although I can get around them in a pinch, it has been years since I have done a lot of work with them. Poo even. But I will re-learn. Yippee!

At some point in the near future, motivation must be manufactured to get out of the little rut in which I have maneuvered myself. There are many things that would benefit me to get accomplished and I am really busy at not accomplishing them. Not that my days are so jam packed with other priorities. (Like getting my blog done - big and tough and rewarding that one is)(ok, yes, it is - well the last one mostly, which, when I analyze it, is pretty important to a sense of well-being) And making lunch and dinner and doing a crossword with mom are not that time consuming. Oh, I did have a realization - not an epiphany-let because it was really a one time thing - or maybe those ought to be reversed in meaning - hmm - anyway, while showering, last year (I like to be dirty) I put together my plan for an evening meal. Yay! Don't you find that the effort of figuring out what to make for dinner can be daunting at times?

Last night, latish, I met up with David and Keiran and Jason and Laura and played some pool at Trotta's. No one was there except for the bartender, Mario. He graciously let us play as long as we wanted, which ended up being till about midnight. I didn't play all that well. I realize that I am still ok, not good. Certainly not great. Sigh. Still love playing, though. Even on small bar tables.

And by nothing, of course, I mean something

There is always something to write about. If nothing else, one can write about not being able to write. One of the quickest cures to "writer's block" is to write about not being able to write. Yesterday's post wasn't about writer's block, though, it was about thinking that the subject matter for a post was not leaping out at me, as it frequently does. Sometimes I have way too many ideas for one post and try to jam them all in. Other times I do a decent job of spreading the ideas out over several posts. Yay!

We had a visitor yesterday. Not a gentleman caller, but a young woman from the EISEP program - an Ontario County Program that helps to pay the cost of mom's aide. This was the annual review to check on eligibility and to see if anything had changed substantially in our/mom's circumstances. Nothing had, that I could tell. But apparently, I had forgotten to mention something or other last year which I did mention this year. This caused a change in the amount we have to pay for the aide. Downwards. Yippee! Life is grand! More money for pistachio ice cream!

I went back to the Beef and Brew for the first time in a long time last night. I couldn't go to Red Dove, because Alan the new bartender is just too darn chatty! I may go back eventually, but only time will tell. And Leaf Kitchen is no more. As of Thursday. So I went to Beef and Brew. They were having two events there - one on the patio - spoken word, open mic sort of thing. And trivia inside. 21 people or so were playing. David's team was full and I just didn't feel like playing. Instead, I had a delicious Yeti from Great Divide and toddled off to Jose's in Canandaigua for some chicken wings. Yay! It was fairly crowded when I got there, but most everyone left soon after. Some people played pool, but no opportunity presented itself for me to play. I sat at the bar, had a good Southern Tier IPA and a dozen inexpensive and tasty chicken wings! I will probably go back again in a couple of weeks.

All in all, a pleasant day was had by many!

What to write when there's nothing to write?

Just writing total nonsense is an option of course. Not that I would ever do that without warning. But I am not in a nonsensical sort of mood. I could write about the loads of nothing I did yesterday. Sigh. But that gets a bit tedious, even for me. I could write about Mom and her wild gadding about town - except that didn't happen, which brings us back to the nonsense option in any case. I could write about Star Trek (TOS)(The Original Series) episodes I watched last night - one of my favorites amongst them - A Piece of the Action. Hmm, decisions, decisions.

Yesterday was a "Jenny the Aide" day. Mom got washed, her bedsheets got changed. Life is clean and happy and good. I also re-taped mom's self inflicted, scratched, wounded forehead. Later in the day, she trimmed all of her fingernails, all by herself! I am so grateful that mom is so self-capable. I keep reading horror stories about later stages of this disease and quail at the thought of going through some of that stuff. Thankfully, we are not there yet. May the powers that be (if there are any powers that be) grant that mom not suffer through that.

Dinner was fairly typical and mom seemed to enjoy it - cheese stuffed hamburgers, corn on the cob, green salad and tater tots. Mom didn't ask me if I made the tater tots myself or if I bought them. Is this a bad sign?

Here I am, writing about Star Trek, TOS. I don't know why I enjoy A Piece of the Action so much, but I do. Maybe it is Shatner's over acting (as usual) that just fits somehow. Or Spock in his suit and hat. Or the little kid who wants a piece of the action. I just think it is a great, fun episode. It seems that the latter half of the second TOS season is filled with the crew exploring planets with Earth reflections - this one, a roman one, the Nazi one and one about the Yangs versus the Kohms. Interesting. Or as Spock says quite a bit - Fascinating!

I don't know why I wrote my post and forgot to publish it for so long yesterday. It's not like it was an exceptionally full day. Oh well, life is just like that sometimes!

Mom's Memory Moment (amongst other things)

It is so odd how mom's memory works. Justin came over and solved our leaky faucet problem and mom remembered a lot about him. That he was recently married, used to work for Mary Gerhart and helped us out with a big drain problem. All without prompting from me! True, she did go through the whole litany of what she knew about three times in a row, but at least there was some spark of memory there! Huzzuh!

Late last night, I watched Small Apartments which was weirdly fun. It got low ratings on IMDB, but I liked it a lot. Very quirky. I thought that a friend had watched it and reflected that on Facebook. In fact, I am sure that is where I saw it mentioned. Unfortunately I forgot who said they had watched it. The person I thought had watched it said she hadn't. Hmph. Oh well, I am glad that it found its way onto the Netflix queue.

Sunday was also a busy time at The Smith. Guys and Dolls loaded out and did an excellent job cleaning up after themselves. They all believed that the theatre looked better than they had found it. Probably true! Then there was a going away party for David, which was fun. I couldn't stay long, as I needed to get back to feed mom dinner, but he got a good sized group of attendees and everything was very pleasant. Yay!

Still no drip from my bathroom faucet! I am soooooo handy!

I am listening to a book called Middlesex and enjoying it so far. I am curious, though, why the Greeks portrayed in NYC have accents that sound Jewish.

This is one of those periods in my life where everything seems a little too overwhelming. I know that life is not under my control. I fully understand that. Right now, though, things are worse than normal in my head. I try to live in the moment, be positive, all that jazz. Please realize, this is not depression. It is confusion. Ok, maybe it is a bit of depression. But life goes in cycles. And most of my cycle is way above the median line of unhappy. What is that song - into each life some rain must fall? This too shall pass.

And then I think about mom and what she is going through. Sigh.

Internet Fail!

No Post yesterday, not exactly sure why. I just didn't manage to get it done. Sigh. I did, though, do other stuff. And I did stuff on Friday too. Weird, right?

One of the exciting things that happened recently, was a second round of dimmer vacuuming. This fun filled process is not doen frequently, but seems to do the trick in preventing the dimmers from occasionally failing. Not failing catastrophically, just failing enough to make it annoying for the audience. Since I haven't heard anything from The Smith, I am guessing it did the trick. Yay!

On Friday, mom had a doctor appointment. It was zippy and easy. Sadly, they have gone to an electronic check in system. I guess they are trying to save money by having fewer reception people. Sigh. Why is it all about money? The scanner that is attached to the system had fallen from its velcroed position, so I thought it had eaten my mom's health insurance card. But it hadn't! Phew and yippee! Mom got weighed, not measured, blood pressured, temperatured and blood oxygen leveled by a nurse. Then, almost immediately, Dr. Ryan appeared. He didn't have much to say since mom didn't have much to say. Besides her Alzheimer's and some of her other issues, she is healthy. I am happy about that. Mom thinks these 6 month check-ups are a waste of time and money. Speaking of which, I was surprised that the visit was only $15. Huzzuh!

So much for Friday. Saturday, Daily Challenge wanted me to do a chore I had been putting off. I was going to, but then decided that I was going to take Saturday and Sunday off from chores. But the universe wasn't letting me off the hook that easily. A little before five, Justin came over and took a look at the leaky faucet. Turns out that the internet was wrong about what needed to be fixed in the faucet. They had said replacing the little cylinder thing would do the trick. When I couldn't find a replacement cylinder, I figured I would need to replace the whole faucet assembly. Justin stuck a screwdriver down into the bottom of the faucet housing and pulled out a little washer/gasket and spring pair. Who knew they were there? The internet videos I watched hadn't mentioned these. Apparently, they get tired eventually and need to be replaced. $5 at Value Hardware. Desiree didn't know where they were, so she got me another associate who helped me locate the right ones. Back at the homestead, I replaced one of them, and the leak continued. So I replaced the other one and, voila, leak no more! Yippee! Cheers from the masses! A chore was accomplished despite my wanting to not do anything of significance on Saturday. Silly Universe.

Saturday night, I went to Leaf Kitchen to help them try to get rid of some of their bottled beer. I did a good job. I think they appreciate my efforts. Saw people I knew and chatted with them a bit before eventually toddling home. It was a fairly early evening for me as I popped into bed almost immediately on my return. I guess I was tired or something.

Up and at 'em

I used to think the saying was "up and atom" - of course, I grew up when atomic energy and such was still pretty fantastic sounding and new. Now I know what it really is. Got get 'em, tiger! That is what I did yesterday. Up at the crack of dawn. Ok, not really. But I was showered and out of the house before 9:30 am to spend time at The Smith playing with the HVAC controller. Fun times.

Since I was up, I decided to run a couple more errands. My first (and most likely my last) trip of the summer to the Geneva Farmer's market was first on the agenda. Not the most thriving farmer's market I have ever been to. No broccoli! Or artichokes! They did have corn, so I got three ears. (It was delicious.) Not a lot of people there at 10 in the morning either. Still, some farmers market is better than no farmers market.

Next stop, the library. Mom wants to go to the library. I will get her there again sometime. I think she just enjoys looking at the books and then taking a few home. I don't think she really reads them. But I don't sit with her every minute of any day, so I don't really know. Since I was by myself, I got two audio books to listen to in the kitchen. Yippee!

Next major event, napping! I was tired so a nap was definitely in order. Yay for naps. Oh, and crossword fun with mom. This is something that I try to do at least once a day, but I do miss some days: read clues from a crossword for mom and try to help her to figure out the responses. Kind of like Password (the tv game show) which I really enjoyed. On a side note, I think I may have mentioned this before - mom wants me to try out for Wheel of Fortune. I did once, years ago, and didn't become a contestant. I don't know that I would qualify next time either. And that show has a huge element of luck involved, which counteracts my cleverness quotient, such as it is.

After nap, was dinner - last night I made store cooked chicken with house made corn on the cob and sugar snap peas. Yum!

After dinner, mom watched a couple of movies - one Cary Grant and one Fred Astaire, while I played. I finally finished Red Dead Redemption - which I enjoyed thoroughly. I started a game about Alice and Wonderland (not much of a resemblance to the books) which is pleasant but not scintillating. Suddenly, the phone rang. Or rather, I looked at the phone and saw that Kelly from the Smith had called and left a message minutes before. Apparently the dimmers were flipping off again. Sigh.

I headed down and did what I could to help out - which basically meant standing around and watching to see if it happened again. Which it didn't. Yay! This morning, David and I vacuumed the dimmers off and out and hopefully that will solve the problem, as it did last time. I was a bit surprised at how much dust (saw dust?) was in the vents. Eeek! Quite a day!

Drip, drip, drip

I have a leaky faucet. That is not a euphemism. It is a fact. Actually, I think there are two in the house, though one isn't actually a faucet, it is the sink itself, I believe. Anyway, I took it apart hoping to fix it and failed. Then I decided to replace the unit - and failed. And the drip changed locations - from being down the drain to down into the innards of the house and into the kitchen. Slow, but steady. Sigh. Last night, as I was going to sleep, I had an epiphany-let. Sometimes they come fast and furious, other times, well, this one was a long time coming. I replaced the pieces to the faucet and now the drip is back in the drain. Yay! If only I can find someone to come and replace the faucet for me. Any takers?

Many accomplishments yesterday, not the least of which was getting mom dressed. Luckily, she can still put clothes on by herself. So far. Yay! We did have one mission for which she was required - a visit to the phlebotomist. She has a 6 month check-up on Friday and we were supposed to get a blood test done before the visit. So we went yesterday. Mom still has her humorous moments, asking me if she could stay home and give blood from the house. Tee hee. I do realize that I get the urge to amuse people (especially people in their work spaces) from both sides of my parentage. I didn't get to see my father in action - well, I might have seen him, but not that I remember (since he died when I was 6)(not when he was six, because that would have made me impossible)(or at least very unlikely) but I heard that he enjoyed making people amused. Mom, when she is in a decent mood, also does her best to be charming and amusing when out and about. And yesterday was a good day. The phlebotomist said my mom was lovely and very pleasant. Huzzuh!

I had two more errands and I dragged mom along on those - though she actually walked around without much dragging. Thank goodness for the handicapped parking tag! The first of the two errands was to get my NYS driver's license. Finally! After just over two years of being here, I have finally gotten around to doing it. A year ago at this time, I almost got one. But I needed a social security card, which I couldn't easily put my fingers on. So I got a new one. And then didn't follow through and get the license. But now I am all set! Temporary license is in my wallet - permanent is on its way. Two weeks the guy said. Yippee!

Next stop, Rite-Aid to get some pills for mom. I discovered that my Favorite Pharmacist got the transfer she desired up to Rochester - where she owns a home and lives. Good for her. A little sad for me. Not that I have been going in much in any case. Just a little sigh.

Because mom was along, I decided that we would go for ice cream, despite it being a relatively cool day (high of 67 degrees Fahrenheit). We went to Mr. Twisty's. Mom loves the cappuccino crunch and I got some blue colored raspberry Italian ice. Mine was good, but I could also have not gotten any. In order to avoid the questions from mom, I just got myself some.

And yes, I did get the recycling out. Mom seems unaware of the dwindling pile of New York Review of Books in the dining room. Yippee on both counts!

Selfishly, I wonder, should I live so long, and the disease not be conquered, who will take care of me as I am taking care of mom? And will they be nicer to me than I am to mom? Or will I end up in a refrigerator box (living, sort of, I guess) in some sort of hobo town for poor, old people? Maybe the world (as we know it) will come to an end before then...happy thoughts!

Sleep Glorious Sleep!

For some reason, I didn't sleep well the night before last. I think I got about two hours of sleep before I woke up and couldn't fall, or didn't fall, back to sleep for another 3 hours or so. At which point it was 7 and I needed be out of the house by 9. I woke up at 8:54. At least I got another two hours of sleep. But neither of the alarms I had set on my phone had woken me earlier, as I had hoped they would. Why? Well, because the phone was dead - uncharged. I think the uncharging was partly due to the weather. I don't get awesome ATT reception on the best days - which makes my phone search for service more than I would like, which drains the battery. One reason I didn't sleep so well, I think, was because of a big storm that came through. Said storm probably also caused atmospheric disturbances which made my phone do more searching which drained the battery which led to me waking up 6 minutes before I was supposed to be downtown. Eeek.

Finally, I figured out how long it takes for me to drive from my house to The Smith without much traffic and with zippy parking: 3 minutes. That is pretty quick. Yay. We were meeting to go through some of the stuff in the Tech Cemetery or the Dungeon of Despair. Over the past few months, David and I have been putting things we didn't think were useful anymore (or things about which we had no clue) down into a room in the bottom of the Smith. Even more recently, we spent half an hour cleaning that space up. The next step was to get someone in who might be able to assess what we had and what we might be able to let go of and for how much. That person was Greg, the sound guy. The three of us spent most of an hour looking at things and deciding which pile they needed to live in - the sell pile, the keep pile and the "we have no idea what this is yet" pile. Huzzuh!

Next up, a bit of time was used looking at the HVAC system. It just doesn't seem to be working they way we would expect it to work. And experimentation seemed to prove that was indeed the case. Hopefully we will get some help from the controls people and the whole thing will work as expected. That would be nifty!

I really needed a nap all day, but didn't get one. Instead, I came home, made lunch for mom and then headed out to do laundry. I also decided to tackle the drip in the faucet in the small bathroom. Sigh. First off, I didn't have a wrench large enough to do the job of getting the lock ring off. So I bought one, and a box of washers for around the house. Who knew what size I would need? Turned out, upon returning home, that it was a washerless faucet - there is a cartridge in the faucet that gets replaced when it goes bad. Easy peasy, right? Wrong. Lowes didn't have the replacement cartridge. Not really a surprise since I am sure the faucet was put in many years ago. Huge sigh, though. I got home with a replacement faucet set - which the man assured me would be simple to install. And I think he is right, if I had the right tools and double jointed arms. Meanwhile, the leak continued. The shutoff valve to the cold water doesn't actually shut the water off. I guess that needs replacing too - though a functioning faucet would probably make the problem less pressing. How did I realize the extent of the problem? A puddle of water in the kitchen was a good clue. Glarg and glarp. So, right now, I have a huge pile of mess in the little bathroom and no end in relief in sight. I have written to our former handy person, Justin, but he has not written back. I heard an ad on WNYR about help around the house - Fingerlakes something, but didn't write down the information. Poo.

After the day I had had, I did not feel like cooking, so headed to Ling Ling to grab some Chinese food. Yum! Mom doesn't mind when I don't cook. I had already decided that I didn't want to go out on Tuesday night, so I stayed in and played while mom watched some TV and ate ice cream. Later, she had problems with her new television set. A new remote is, of course, daunting to someone with Alzheimer's. I am not thrilled with the whole set, but it works. And I think I got mom to a place where she was able to do what she wanted to do. Not understanding time doesn't help. She wanted to watch David Letterman and didn't understand that he wasn't available upon demand. I was exhausted from a long, frustrating day and did my best not to hurl the TV from her bedroom window.

All this is to explain why there was no post yesterday. Today is another day. We are having a bit of fall, weather-wise, in beautiful Geneva, NY. We need to get mom's blood tested and run a couple of other errands. And I still have no idea what we are doing for dinner tonight. I do have an avocado that is rapidly going bad...

Media-tastic Day

Yesterday was a media-rich day. The first media event was live theatre! Yay live theatre! Two local theatre groups got together and mounted an ambitious production of Guys and Dolls and presented it at the Smith.  I got mom up and dressed and to the theatre early. (I must was that sweater she wore - eeek!) She managed pretty well, though her clothes wearing skills were a bit iffy - she kept trying to put one arm through the neck whole of her shirt. That didn't work. Anyway, we got there and sat in the seats that I think are best for her. Since we were there really early, we watched the cast wander around and do some warm-ups before the show began. At 2, with an audience of about 250 (which is great, but looked teeny in that space (holds 1400)) the show began.

Overall, I enjoyed the production. The performances though uneven were enjoyable, the music was decently performed, the sets were great and worked well and the lighting wasn't adequate. Of course there were things I would have done differently, I wouldn't think of myself as a director if there weren't. I think mom enjoyed the show as well. Lots of recognizable music in the piece (which I had forgotten).

A funny note: one of my favorite parts of Guys and Dolls is when Nicely Nicely sings "Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat." Mary Flett, I am sure you remember that part. Anyway, I love the music and it has a lot of possibilities for production. Just as the song started, mom needed to go to the bathroom, so I missed most of it. But we made it to the bathroom successfully - which is one of the reasons I picked the seats I picked for her! Yay!

Later, mom and I watched Argo. I thought it was good, not great. Ben Affleck didn't have a lot of dialogue, which helped a lot. That was a scary time for a lot of people - I vaguely remember the whole hostage crisis - but not the bit about the six people being rescued. The main thing I remember was the disastrous attempt to try to mount a rescue and the helicopters malfunctioning or crashing or some such. Anyway, the movie was a little too confusing for mom, but I think she managed to eek out a little bit of enjoyment from it, which is always a good thing.

We have a doctor's appointment this week with Dr. Ryan. Yippee!