Thursday, April 24, 2008

Sprung!

I can finally walk around the back of the house without having to step in snow. Ice out on the pond was in the afternoon of the 22nd. Although there are still a few stubborn plow piles at the side of the road on my way to work, winter has at last thrown in the towel.

And in the Spring, a (not so) young man's thoughts turn to construction! We can park trucks in the front of the new house. The lumber is no longer frozen to the ground. The ground itself is no longer frozen, and ditch-digging and siding installation and plumbing and electrical and insulation and drywall hanging can now commence! I'm as giddy as a puppet on a string (and doubtless dating myself with that song reference). It might as well be Spring. Oh, wait! It IS Spring!

I can tell because it's light when I go to work in the morning, and when I come home. I can tell because I am actually wearing T-shirts as outergarments instead of undergarments. I can tell because I'm not turning on a single heater anywhere in the house.

I could go on waxing ecstatic, but I have to shower off some of this Spring sweat (no, really, sweat! Well, you had to be there) and shave before bedtime, which is fast approaching. Until next time.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Finally!

Now that "You Can't Take It With You" is over, I finally have some time to work on blogging and updating the site a little. New pictures, including a couple from the play, are coming tonight.

Today and Friday I'm going to spend a little time playing around with site navigation again, so that instead of you having to wait for me to set up galleries, which I never seem to get around to doing, what with plays and houses and kids and a job and all, you can find your way through a large collection of digital pictures, and even download much higher-quality versions. The same will go for movies; we don't have a lot of edited movies, but we do have quite a few movies from our digital cameras that I can upload.

The play, by the way, went very well. We had good crowds for a Spring show, and we got lots of laughs. I was very pleased with my last outing with the Village Players for a year or so.

When we were done, and the set had been taken down (which happens right after the audience goes home and before the party), I stepped out on the bare stage and looked out at the empty seats. I have been involved in seven productions with the Village players, six on the stage, and one out in the audience as director. I've entertained a lot of people and made some good friends. In "You Can't Take It With You," I shared the stage with seven performers who were also in "Dearly Departed," the play that inspired me to audition for "That Darn Plot." After that, there was no turning back. I'm going to miss it.

But I'll be back eventually. Meanwhile, there's too much to do before we head out for our extended vacation in California, another place that I miss, and that I'm very much looking forward to getting reacquainted with in the coming year. Not to mention introducing my two youngest children to some of the special people and places on the Left Coast that they know hardly anything about.

Monday, April 07, 2008

Here Comes the Sun

"Little darlin', I feel that ice is slowly melting.
Little darlin', it feels like years since it's been clear."

So sang the late Beatle George Harrison, and I know exactly what he meant! Though the days are much warmer, with occasional rain, we still have several mounds of snow and ice interfering with parking and construction. And the nights are still below freezing from time to time, which makes early-morning driving something of an adventure.

We opened "You Can't Take It With You" at The Village Players Theater on Friday, to an enthusiastic crowd (which happened to include Karen). Another good crowd followed Saturday night, and so we're two for two. We have a bit of a break, with only a brush-up rehearsal Wednesday before three shows for the final weekend. WIlliam and Daniel will be attending the last show. I have a few pictures, which I will put up when I get a few moments to breathe.

I should use some of those moments to sleep, which I have not done much of recently, and so this short entry.