Copious Free Time

11:22am: ACK-ting!
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Finally, I'm back on stage. Not since "Company" in 2003 have I trod the boards, and I have missed it something fierce. In 2003, we went to China and became parents, which made me too busy to do anything. In 2005, things were under control enough that Cathy said I could try out for "The Music Man" at CNU... but then she was in the process of changing jobs, and I couldn't be sure of being at every rehearsal, so I reluctantly bowed out. Up through 2008, I was trying without success in Massachusetts. In 2007, I at least managed to audition a time or two, but couldn't crack any of the groups.

In 2008, we came here to western NY, and for a year or more, I never knew about any auditions. By the time I found out about a given show, it was a couple of weeks from taking the stage. (Now I find out that at least one of them could have still used a chorus body at that late date -- live and/or learn.)

Finally, it all came together for me, and I got the coveted part of Chorus Member in Pittsford Musicals' "Carousel," including a brief talking part at the very end. It's so great to be hanging around theaters, hobnobbing with my fellow thespians, and of course, being up on a stage with people looking at me. Hopefully, it'll be on to bigger and better things (for me -- the show itself is fairly big and it's going great).

We're halfway through the run. Two performances on Saturday and a matinee on Sunday down, a Friday night and two more Saturday shows to go. Sarah came to the Sunday matinee, and bless her heart, she seems to have been fairly attentive to all three hours of it. I showed her to as many of my fellow theater folks as I could afterward, and then we went to the chili party, which was pretty conveniently close to home.

Aspects of daily life continue. Sarah had a tooth hurting her and we took her to the dentist where she screamed in the chair while they tried to pull it quickly so they could go home. We're changing dentists next year, and I hope next year comes soon. The tooth was infected, so it was all probably quite painful for her, even with anesthesia. Yesterday she and I got new watches. Her old one got left outside, so she is paying for 2/3 of the cost of the new one. My old one no longer lights up at night (despite putting in a new cell), and after a couple of years of that, I decided to replace it as well.

I got all the leaves out of the front yard. Remembering that raking while I had a slight cold last year gave me pneumonia for my birthday, I got the blower out and let electricity do the heavy lifting. I think it's the first time in ten years I've used the thing, but results were satisfactory. It was even kind of fun.

Exercise has taken a back seat to the show, but I'm getting back on track with the daily walk (between one and two miles) and the stretches from the physical therapy I've been taking to try and mitigate some of the side effects of still being alive.

Also, I have been getting a fairly steady stream of inquiries about my professional services, some of which have resulted in paying work. That said, I should probably be doing that instead of this, but I wanted to catch up a little. Cathy's finishing a term paper for her class. She's not in love with what she did, but it should get her by. Sarah is done with sports for a while, but she's taking Tae Kwon Do (influenced, perhaps, by the impressive Shaolin Warriors we saw at the college). Her spelling is good at school, and though she doesn't study her Chinese vocabulary enough, she still does fairly well in class. We throw a tennis ball back and forth in the morning while we wait for her bus. The other day she gave me a cut-out heart she'd colored and written "Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you" on it. The spelling was erratic, but darn, what a sweetie.
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8:57am: october 30, 2009
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We had supper at King Buffet, a family favorite. It was Sarah's turn to choose. We headed first for the stuffed clams, but they weren't out. I think I may have managed to eat more lightly this time. Near the end, the stuffed clams showed up after all, and Sarah and I each had a couple. Then it was time for the main event of the evening, the Shaolin Warriors, live on stage at Nazareth College.

Cameras of any sort were expressly prohibited during the high-energy precision show. The eighteen men and two boys of the troupe all seemed to be able to do standing flips and were amazingly limber. It looked dangerous as anything. Partway in, they went into the audience and started recruiting kids to go up on stage, including Sarah. They stood them in two lines, and the grownup started making moves for them to imitate, then would pass among them correcting their position and stance. I wished I could have taken a picture, but even if I'd turned off the flash, the camera would have made a noise, and I would have gotten a blurry picture and been ejected.

They also brought some adults up to the stage later. I didn't volunteer.

At one point, they did the impressive stunt of having a man lie on four swords with a board full of nails on top (nails sticking out both ways) and another man on top of that. Then a cement block was broken on top of the top man. That was the only thing they did where I knew how it's done (the points distribute the impact; the breaking cement absorbs the blow), but I imagine it required a lot of control to lie on the swords without squirming. You wouldn't catch me doing it.

They also included some bits of comedy here and there. Every now and then there was a knockabout moment with one person cuffing another. They performed a drunken number, with pretended guzzling from gigantic pots and much weaving and passing out along with the impressive weapon work and tumbling.

They did precision fan work (of much interest to me, as I had done precision fan work as a chorus member of CNU's "Mikado" in 2000), spear work, sword work (The swords they wielded at each other seemed very flimsy, but I don't mind that. The ones they broke over their heads seemed solid enough.), knife work (One man held heads of lettuce or cabbage to his stomach and shredded them at lightning speed. The boys, as always, cleaned up anything that landed on the stage.), and cudgels. The whip displays were impressive and loud.

Perhaps my favorite stunt was with short lengths of rope. Sitting on the ground with the legs out, a performer (or perhaps I should say a monk) could whirl the rope in circles on the ground, and jump it. Sitting on his ass, he could jump rope, hopping up an inch or so each time the rope went around in order to clear it.

It all took place in the new theater at the college, which looked spiffy. My daughter has now performed on it before I had a chance to. The only technical aspect I felt like criticizing was at the end of music cues -- instead of a smooth cutoff, it sounded like a cassette tape being paused. The music got strangled about half the time. Sounded very clear while it was playing, though.

It was solidly entertaining. All of us, including Sarah, were enthralled.
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8:56am: october 31, 2009
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In Massachusetts, we would have hundreds, because families in Springfield would drive to West Springfield, and ours was the first street they got to.

Here in New York, they all seem to be local. Indeed, in at least half the groups of kids we ran into, there'd be somebody who went to school with Sarah, and they'd either say hi to each other or I'd hear them tell each other "It's Sarah!"

We got off to an inauspicious start. Sarah was supposed to go out with Zach from across our back yard, trick-or-treating over on his street, but for some reason that fell through. Alternate plans were made with Jay and Julia. Then an hour before time, Julia's mom called and said that she (Julia) wasn't feeling well, so I called over and arranged for Sarah to go out with Max and Gaby. A half hour later, Gaby's mom called and said that Gaby was having a meltdown over the issue of wearing an insufficiently warm costume on a cold, wet, windy night and might not get to go out at all.

At a bit after six, Sarah and I started out. I had her put on a jacket over her werewolf suit. She found the mask to be hot. I felt a light sprinkle and grabbed an umbrella from the car. The first house we went to was right across the street, and Mark's grandkids were just starting out with their parents. We latched on.

The rain threatened one more time while we were out, but it never really hit. Sarah was warm enough in her costume that she not only had me carry the mask most of the time, she also had me hold her coat from about halfway in. We covered the two blocks bounded by Round Trail on our side of Stuyvesant, walking about a mile (just under) in total. We ran into Julia. When we got to Max & Gaby's house, they were out. Not terribly surprising, considering the stakes: FREE CANDY.

I was curious about what the Chinese family on Vantage would be doing. They had moved in recently, and they don't seem to speak English. They were giving out dried fruit. At my prompting, Sarah thanked them in Chinese, and I added my own thanks to that. Once our group was away from the house, most of them decided they didn't like the fruit. Sarah gave me a piece, and it was something between a prune and a dried apricot. Not bad, but different.

Sarah's plastic pumpkin filled up and she emptied it into the canvas bag I'd brought for the purpose. Cathy said there were fewer kids out this year, so we have a serious surplus of treat material.

All in all, a fairly successful year.
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8:19am: thing to thing
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Yesterday was the busiest day of the week for me. In the morning, I had 'Art Ambassador' for Sarah's class; my first time as classroom coordinator. For this, I get a mixed grade. I did arrange the date with the teacher and get it on the calendar. I did not inform the other volunteer parents for the classroom. I got there and realized that nobody's going to do that for me this year. I was going to tell the teacher we'd have to reschedule, but as I got there, the substitute (both classroom teachers were out sick, as I recall) was telling the class we were about to do the project. I conferred with him and we decided to go on and give it a shot.

I went through the checklist, locating most of the items except for copies of the handout, so I took the master to the office and requested twenty, and for the next hour we kept the kids supplied with brushes and watered glue and tissue paper strips to glue down. I showed the Eric Carle video and the display board one of the other parents had made. Sarah had been present for the session where I was shown these things, and she was a valuable and very forward volunteer in helping get things done. We proceeded from step to step. After the glued parts went off to be hung up for drying, each of us took a group of kids to wash their fingers for the second part. I took the girls, with Sarah leading the way. Oh, she loves being in charge.

Things got tricky when we brought out the stencils (one kit for a caterpillar, one kit for a butterfly), but we managed to enforce sharing of the kits and of the limited scissor supply. I headed off some potential difficulties by telling them to number the pieces like the stencils so they'd know if they had a complete butterfly or whatever.

The handouts arrived before they left. As kids were finishing, I praised their work and urged anybody with free hands to pick up some of the leftover trash. They left, and I finished cleaning up and putting things away, with just enough time left to hasten homeward for the anticipated installer from Sears, bearing a new dishwasher. Sarah and I had gone a couple of weeks ago to pick it out at the store. There were phone messages, and I thought it was going to mean some delay with the appliance, but it turned out to be the author of a book I had just converted, telling me that one of the photos had vanished in the PDF. I fixed that and sent him the corrected file with apologies.

It turns out the installer was running late, so I was done with lunch when he came. That part went fine. Old dishwasher out and gone, new one in. Still, I had less time left than I thought, so I had to wait on the next part of my day until Sarah was home.

I told her when she got off the bus that we had to go out and do some things together. She suggested an alternative, but when I checked with the other parents involved, it was not workable. We went to the fire station together, and she got to see me get a flu shot. Then we went to the post office and I sent a thumb drive back to the author. Then we took a Pokemon tape back to the library, and I paid the overdue fine. Sarah vanished into the children's library, and for a while I just browsed the shelves. Libraries can be quite enjoyable. I'd been there on Tuesday for a luncheon honoring volunteers (of which I am one), and if I'd known, I could have returned the tape then. We got home half a minute before Cathy arrived. She had been at the grocery store, finding out that I had forgotten to call in a refill of Malathion for Sarah's head bugs. Oops.

A package arrived. It was the replacement for a shelf in the door of the fridge that had broken some time back. I put it in place with a sense of accomplishment. Then I relaxed a little and fiddled at the computer. Cathy made a tasty supper of stir-fried meat and Southwestern vegetables. Sarah helped me collect household trash and recycling and get it out. I couldn't tell exactly if I was required at rehearsal, so I went anyway and found that I could return home. I did find that our choreographer's husband was doing better (the car they were in was hit head-on by a drunk driver a few days ago, and he was badly hurt; she was injured, but not as much) and passed the news to another cast member who showed up as I was leaving.

This gave me time for stretches. I'm taking physical therapy to try and stretch some of my muscles and keep flexibility in the sacroiliac area. Only there are so many stretches now, that it takes the better part of an hour to do them all. Still managed to get to bed a little early and sleep pleasantly until morning. I got up and heard Sarah bossing her imaginary big brother, Sean, in the living room. Sean can't seem to do anything right. Her imaginary brother Alex doesn't get nearly as much criticism.

I didn't find out until today that Soupy Sales had passed on, which made me a little sad. He was a funny guy. Sarah mastered shoe tying earlier this week. I heard her tell Cathy that she didn't need Daddy for that. This is, of course, a good-news/bad-news thing. Daddy likes to feel needed, but then, Sarah says it was Daddy that taught her how to do it, and she just suddenly realized what Daddy meant. She seems concerned now that she doesn't tie them quickly, but I told her that will come. I put her ponytail up for her. We didn't play catch this morning because of the light drizzle.

Today is a day bright with promise. I showed Cathy a card that had been placed in our mailbox from a local piano tuner, and after I called them about their rates, she said I could get the piano in the music room tuned, and the sticky key unstuck. I'm looking forward to that. Tuning it myself has been gratifying enough when it comes to making bad notes stop being so bad, but I lack the chops for putting the whole thing in tip-top tune.

It's been a busy week, but Thursday was definitely the busiest day of it.
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9:34pm: help meeeee
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I have a potential job from a client with a QuarkXPress file they'd like changes made to. There is one small hitch.

"This is a multiple language document and can only be opened in QuarkXPress Passport." The document was saved in Passport as a multiple language document, therefore only Passport can open the document. Had it been saved as a single language document, I am told that regular Quark can open it.

If someone with QuarkXPress Passport could be found, they could save the document as a single language document. Barring further unforeseen developments, I should then be able to make changes to the document and earn a fee.

Does anyone out there in Radio Land have this program, which costs $500-$900 US? If so, I would be most anxious to enlist their aid. I have not yet reached the stage of an agreement between me and the potential client. I asked to look at the file so that I could make an estimate. It is possible I might be able to get a small sum from the client for the conversion. I don't know yet. I was hoping I could estimate two or three hours of work at my regular rate and make some quick money.

These are the facts. Can you tell me who killed Colonel Mus-- I mean, can anyone help me with this? If nobody else in the world has bought this program, I'll understand. Believe me, I'll understand. I'm exploring avenues here. (Or is that yet another Quark program?)
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12:22am: slide show
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I've been slaving over a hot keyboard today. I actually put in something on the order of six hours organizing and selecting photos, putting them on my flickr page, finding that half of them were already there, blasting away duplicates, deciding on an order, captioning, and mostly, waiting for flickr to wake up. That was the fun part.

Anyway, the magnum opus is finished. I have made a new photoset of the pictures I took in 2006 and 2007 of the derelict amusement venue, Holyoke's Mountain Park, and the nearby derelict (and somewhat newer) water park. Mountain Park closed in 1987 after 80 years, and the wooden coaster was torn down in 1990.

In the course of looking up older photos to put names on some of my pictures, I learned that Jay Ducharme (whose pictures and sound files I linked to) finished a book on the park's history. He was one of the last carousel operators. The book, fittingly, is being sold at the carousel, which is now in Heritage Park, by the Children's Museum. It came out about four months after we moved out of town.

I also found out that bulldozers have finished obliterating the place, and a new owner hopes to make a concert venue of it.

( some samples after the cut )

Seriously, go have a look if you can. I hiked in the hot sun to get these because I thought it was interesting, and I put a couple dozen of them up two and three years ago, respectively, and they've been looked at between zero and three times, ever. Be the first on your side of the Mississippi!
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10:37pm: our story so far
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Rehearsals for the play are going fine. We sing for an hour, then we choreograph numbers for two more. I've started bringing the big portable fan from home to put a little breeze in the room. Whenever my dance partner and I aren't being actively rehearsed and instructed, we use the time to confer desperately so we can figure out what we're supposed to be doing. We prevail upon two or three of the quicker studies for help. A couple of days ago, the choreographer got everything we've done so far up on the web page, so I've been constructing the most perfect possible cheat sheet. Things are going great.

Sarah has her bunk bed now. The guy we bought it from trucked it over and helped hold the ends up while I slid the cross pieces in so Cathy wouldn't have to do it. Got the whole thing together, and she's sleeping in it now for the second night. She went with Cathy to get linens for it. I went to Target with her to get a chair for her to use with the desk underneath, and we'll get her a lamp pretty soon to replace the one I borrowed from the sun room.

So far, she has no homework from school. That starts in October. She does have homework for her Chinese class, which she already says she's tired of. It's hard for her teacher to keep the attention of the half dozen or so kids (ages 6-7) in her charge. After about ten minutes, they spend the rest of the hour squirming and crawling and goofing off to keep themselves awake.

I'm getting back in the habit of walking each day. I started off doing just over a mile, then expanded my path to slightly under a mile and a half. Today I tried a new route that turns out to be just over two miles and takes me out of the neighborhood. It was pretty hot in the middle of the day, but it might be tolerable in the evening.

Speaking of hot, I looked at the weather on my home page this morning, and it said it was 121 degrees here. I clicked the link to find out more, but it said it was in the 50s. I returned to the home page, and things had heated up to 123. Gosh darn Congress.
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10:18am: OH --
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I auditioned for the part of Jigger in "Carousel" a few nights back. I had Cathy bring me sound tracks, a libretto, and the vocal score, and I sang his songs in the living room for a couple of weeks. First time I managed to catch an audition here. It went pretty well. I sang confidently, danced along with everyone else, and showed that I can stand still on stage when someone else is doing their bit. Only I didn't get to actually read a scene, and I wasn't summoned to callbacks -- which, we were assured, was not a bad sign. Then I waited for a call.

-- WE ARE THE BOYS OF THE CHORUS --

The call came. I am in the Townspeople's chorus. My heart sank, of course (of chorus), but I understand that this is part of the audition process for me. It's not always easy to crack a community theater group: Cathy says they probably have it half cast before the first audition, and I expect she's right. So I get in with one miniscule part, and after that either the powers that be will have learned that I am capable of good things, or I will have learned that the powers that be are morons who are not worth bothering with. In the mean time, I will get to hang with actors and choristers and develop the sort of familiarity with a classic score that can only come from weeks of rehearsal.

-- WE HOPE YOU'LL LIKE OUR SHOW! --

Mind you, being in the chorus is the hardest thing in the show. It's more work, more dancing, and way less fun. You have to watch people doing what you want to do. Well, except I have a speaking part as well. I am the School Principal. Listen:

Enoch Snow, Junior!
Miss Louise Bigelow!
Our speaker tonight is the most popular, best loved man in our town, Doctor Seldon--

See? I already know my lines! And I'm coming to grips with my character. I figure he's a bitter alcoholic.

-- WE KNOW YOU'RE ROOTING FOR US --

Tomorrow, it begins. After six and a half years of no theater apart from two Poe readings and a triple role in a reading of Richard III at CNU (an interval which corresponds almost exactly with the amount of time in which I have been a father), the long dry spell is over. This could... this should... lead to bigger and better things. Substantial roles. Getting out of the house. God willing, I'll even make some friends.

-- BUT NOW WE HAVE TO GO!
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8:08am: dads
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I meant to mention that I felt a tad silly taking pictures of Sarah getting on the bus for her first day, but did it anyway.

Later that day, I was going somewhere and at every bus stop I saw, there was a dad with a video camera, half-following the progeny as they boarded and watching the bus depart until it was out of sight. Now I just feel like I'm behind the times, Daddy-o.
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12:08am: dear diary
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Counted down to the end of summer. Sarah said she was looking forward to school, because she likes school. I said that was a good way to be. Much shopping was done, to prepare her for the demands of education. I went to her classroom for a prep session with the teacher, and volunteered for stuff. Art Ambassador (they'll be doing the unit I suggested on animation and Winsor McCay -- and the kids will do simple little animated gizmos), Science Action (I don't know yet which units), reading to the class (I'll bring scans of The Bear that Wasn't to project on the screen so they can appreciate the sight gags), and telling them what I do for a living.

On Monday, the last day before classes started, Sarah and I took a bike ride to Thornell Farm Park. She played a while (I took a movie of her making the circuit on the playground equipment) and then we rode home. I passed her on a long hill, so she had to get back in front of me. She cut it too close and got the pipe thing that sticks out from her back axle and we both became one with the pavement and our bikes and each other. "Where are you hurt?" I asked, and she said she was hardly hurt anywhere -- one elbow with a scrape about the size of a distorted dime. I had about a dollar's worth on my left knee. We were almost home anyway (a man in his driveway offered help, which we declined with thanks). We almost got in before she started crying, then Cathy was there to give first aid.

That evening was her first Chinese class with Miss Teresa (well, Missus, I guess, but everybody's Miss) at her home on Woodgreen. I got us there almost in time, but they fooled us by having two Woodgreens right next to each other. Some day, these will connect up. This reminds me that we drove out in somewhat the same direction to look at a bunk bed for Sarah, which met with everyone's approval. Her room should be painted (Cathy and Sarah are doing that) before it arrives.

This morning I put her on bus 420, with Brenda driving again. The schedule said she would come home on 400, but Brenda thought that might be a typo. I called the school and left a message telling them about the typo. Had a busy day after that -- talked to the author of the book I'm working on now, then went out to get a newsletter photo at the library, which led me logically to check the CDs for Bach's "St. Matthew's Passion." This led me to the catalog, which then had me end up at the main library in downtown Rochester, which is a nice library! I had an hour of free parking and barely managed to skim a quarter of the classical piano music after choosing a Matthew Passion, and after that I saw their used book shop and... well, I made it back to the car and hurried out the gate. I gave my ticket to the collector, not knowing if it would be free or $2 until she smiled and told me to have a good afternoon.

And then I realized I had to hurry home to wait for Sarah! I try to be home by 3:00, and it was twenty till when I remembered my parental duty. I acted quickly, getting onto 490 going the wrong way, and had to use the inner loop to get turned back around. It was maybe three minutes past three when I got in the house. Then I waited another 25 minutes before the bus came. It was 400 after all, which was interesting. Even more interesting, Sarah wasn't on it. Most likely because of me putting 420 in her head. The driver called, bus-to-bus, and spoke to Brenda, who rolled into view a couple of minutes later with my daughter.

She says she had a good day. Good.

Oh, yeah. Last night just before she went to bed, she came in here and gave me a hug and said "Thanks for a great summer." Sure, Cathy suggested it, but it was still sweet as all get-out.
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9:20am: modern life
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We took Sarah to see PONYO, along with her friend Lulu and Lulu's friend Si-Chen, who is visiting from China. They sat in back, glued to their Nintendo DS sets, squealing in unison through a networked game of Mario Cart. I watched the ebb and flow of the rain and Cathy watched the road. They wouldn't have looked up if Ponyo had ridden past us on a fish. When one of them said "Stop hitting me!", she meant in the game. Why, back in my day, we really hit each other. With rocks. And mud.

At the theater, I noticed that the sign for the show said that our 1:05 showing was at 1:50. We hunkered in for a bit of a wait. I wandered over to the game room, followed by the girls, who amused themselves at the games without actually spending any money. Sarah wanted to try the claw, the maze, the shooter, the race, and the vending machine with the fake teeth. Around 1:20, I judged it was time to give her four quarters and see what she went for. She went straight for the teeth. At 1:25, Cathy noticed that the tickets actually said 1:05.

We dashed to Auditorium 13, where I hoped we'd missed no more than five minutes or so, and enjoyed the movie, whose characters acted with subtle honesty, showing their thoughts and feelings in real expressions. It was like a rebuke to Disney product -- nobody wore a standard "I AM HAPPY!" or "I AM SAD!" expression, or stopped and sang "I am sad because of this and that, la la la." I expect that Disney executives looked at it and decided that they need to do a CGI comedy about a farting fish.

Afterward, Cathy spoke politely to the theater manager about the incorrectly stated time. The manager gave us five free passes, having just spoken to someone else on the phone about the issue. Someone who wasn't polite at all.

We exited the theater into a beautiful, windy day and drove home, with the girls in the back seat shouting over the same music and the same sound effects. I kept an eye out for deer, seeing none.
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12:49pm: and then
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I went back to Goodwill and bought a roll-up keyboard, which I unbought the same day. Junk! They issued me a gift card and I bought some more LPs.

On Saturday I went to the Red Cross to give blood (double red; type O-). Took about 45 minutes to sign in and wait for my turn, after which things went well enough until I thought I heard, through my earphones, an instruction to bend my arm. Turns out she said "don't" bend my arm. Then the next time the machine started returning plasma to my arm, I started swelling up. I watched it for a few seconds, then the woman saw what was happening, turned off the machine, took everything out, squeezed extra blood out of my arm, bandaged me, put ice on it, and that was it. As they say, the way to pass a blood test is to bleed. I seem to have failed. Almost a week later, there's still some bruising in the area. Next time a blood worker says something I don't fully understand, I'll ask them to repeat it.

Went home. Rested. Mowed the lawn in preparation for being out of the house six days. Did some packing. Next morning, we said goodbye to the cat ("And remember, don't eat all your food up at once!") (Just kidding; she's being looked after.) and started the drive down to Cathy's mom's house in NJ. Sarah's getting marginally better at traveling, but still leaves much to be desired as a long-distance companion. We passed through construction slowdowns and endless merges that would have tested the patience of someone who actually had some, and finally arrived. Sarah headed for the pool, and Cathy and I lugged stuff into the house.

That night I slept on the screened-in deck porch. If the sofa had been six inches longer, it would have probably been a nice night, once the screaming drunk finally got into his pickup and roared off down the road. Next day, we drove some more to the shore house of Cathy's Uncle Al and Aunt Mary. They were great hosts. We went out in Al's boat, and when we got into open water, he turned off the motor and unfurled the jib, so we have actually been sailing now. Coming back, he sat Sarah on his lap and let her turn the wheel.

The next day was a big day. We headed out to the beach for my first ocean wading in about 50 years, and Sarah's first, period. For some reason, nobody heard me ask for the sun screen, and I gave up asking after a couple of times. In retrospect, I should have kept at it. Anyway, Sarah and I frolicked in the surf for about three hours, letting the big waves carry us toward the shore and then trying to find the next big wave. I rated them from one to three. We wanted threes. We drove home, and I was slightly pink. When I woke up the next morning, I was a bit pinker, and the pus-filled blisters had begun to form, mostly on my shoulders. Thanks to the fact I now wear short-sleeved shirts most of the time, my arms never became painfully red, and my legs were mostly in the water, so they were spared too.

The drive back up to Cathy's mom's house was somewhat uncomfortable. Things felt scratchy against my skin. I took it pretty easy and was granted the air mattress to sleep on. If I stayed motionless, the feeling went away after a while and I could sleep, so I got some sleep. We used skin cream and burn spray to try and moderate the discomfort, but I woke up ultimately a little worse.

Which brings us to yesterday, and the arrival of Cathy's sister and our niece, who are staying with Cathy's mom. We moved operations to the Wyndham, where even the soft bed and pillows didn't help after a while. From 3:30 to 5:00 am, I camped in a chair where gravity didn't push me down on the burn zones quite as hard, then I was able to get back in the bed. I felt better in the morning, and the blisters seem smaller. (I had worse blisters when I was about 12, and have managed to avoid them ever since by wary avoidance of the eye of the sky demon.) Cathy and Sarah have been in NYC with her sister, her mother, and our niece, taking in the Museum of Natural History. I had a plan to go to the Odyssia Gallery to try and see their Tricky Cad (more information on Tricky Cad can be seen at my flickr page, where I have some scans and photos I snagged off the web), but my present red, itchy state would be keeping me from that (and from the music store that was my second choice) even if it hadn't turned out to be closed for the summer, and even if they exhibited the work, which they don't, as light degrades it and has apparently already rendered two of Jess's masterful collages unviewable, according to the museum's curator.

So I'm just hanging out. Tomorrow we'll drive home, and I hope I'm up to it. Not that I have a choice. Also, the engine light in Cathy's car is lit up. She called Honda, and they said it was nothing. We'll see about that... eh, readers?
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5:30pm: over the dam
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It's been a good summer so far, especially for Sarah. She went to soccer two nights a week, and her team, the Blue Lightning, came out on top of their rivals, the Orange Tigers, the majority of the time, losing one and tying one and winning the rest. The two teams were originally one team, but they had so many kids signed up, they were able to split in two.

The last week of soccer was also the week of basketball camp in the mornings, so I'd drop Sarah off and get her again two hours later. It wasn't enough time to read a novel, but it was all mine. She enjoyed the camp, and now I think basketball is her second-favorite sport.

This last weekend was Culture Camp, the weekend of a hundred or so girls, all (or most) adopted from China, running around. There were also about nine boys, also Chinese. We talked to a local Chinese teacher who might prove congenial to Sarah for another try at picking up some of the language. She uses singing, and the fact that she brought Sarah fully up to speed in a Chinese song at the camp in about ten minutes was a fairly impressive mark in her favor. This year the bonfire didn't get rained out, so I stood watch at the fire pit as my volunteer duty for the weekend, trying vainly to tell people not to thrust their marshmallows directly into the flames as I toasted marshmallow after marshmallow for myself, the slow and successful way. They were so tasty, it's about all I can do to keep from going up and toasting some over the stove on a fork, like we did when we were kids. Swimming in the lake did get rained out, so we went to the indoor pool of the campus we were at, and that was fine by me. Lastly, we stuck around for the drawing, and actually won stuff. Not once, but twice. So it does happen.

Cathy's off to Oswego now for a two-day conference, so Sarah and I are roughing it. All in all, she only has to be off her usual routine from about now through tomorrow morning, then her mommy comes home for supper tomorrow, and there will be hugs all around. Sarah and I went out today to take stuff back to the library, have lunch at Wendy's, and go hit the Goodwill for a couple more short-sleeve shirts for me. (I'm reinventing myself here as a guy who wears short sleeves. It's a shocking departure to anybody who's known me for a while. Call me a crazy rebel. Please.) The store has expanded into a larger store next door to the old one (they're in a semi-moribund strip mall, which I swear had another thrift shop a few storefronts away the last couple of times I was out, but I can't find it this time). The new place is extremely neat, clean, and spacious, and I'll be heading out there to dig through the LPs when I can do it without the impatient one. Lots of appealing titles there this time. I limited myself to a couple of Three Suns ten-inch LPs and hoped nobody else will want the stuff I had to leave behind. They also have roll-up keyboards, new in the box, and if they'll let me take one out and try it, I might purchase one. Cathy is hereby warned.
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11:37am: re: re-re-re-re-reading
re: re-re-re-re-reading

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Every day, I read just a few more pages of Jules Feiffer's America. This is the 25th anniversary collection of his comic strips. Inimitable, though often imitated, they are amazingly concentrated and powerful stuff.

Feiffer was already an experienced professional who had worked for Will Eisner by the time he hit the ground running during the Eisenhower administration. His drawings shimmered from one style to another briefly before settling into a style so direct and unvarnished it sometimes seems like no style at all. Though famous for his talking heads, his action drawings are full of life, especially his dancers (male and female), caught at moments of poise and release, like key drawings by a great animator.

Typically existing for about eight panels, his characters breathe nervous life. He sets up small slices of them speaking to us, panel leading to panel, until they have unwittingly revealed their hearts. Sometimes they are us, and the recognition is not always comfortable. Sometimes they are the evil others, only they look and sound a bit more like us than we would like.

They are history lessons for moderns who think the 50s were a sitcom, the 60s were a love-in, and our current problems are something entirely new and novel. His Eisenhower-era strips are insightful, and I'd read many of them so often before that I can't recall them being a revelation. His Kennedy strips are a jolt of cold water to Camelot fantasists. His JFK was vital, sharp, alive, and also shallow and poll-driven. Feiffer stuck it to him mercilessly, depicting him as a choreographed dancer "doin' the Frontier drag." LBJ was a shining knight until he revealed too much of himself; then he was a particularly disappointing political hack. Nixon -- well, we all know Nixon. So did he. Jerry Ford? "Shut up and ski, Jerry." Carter was Jimmy the Cloud.

I haven't been quoting (except for Jerry) because if I start, I won't stop. It's all too good.

I can't recommend this 25th-anniversary collection too highly. It's been more than 25 years since it came out, and I wish he'd do a follow-up. I don't know if reading all his strips in order without the filter of the creator choosing what to include would match the impact of this set, but I'd be willing to find out. Fantagraphics has started the ball rolling, and the volume they've done calls to me from the store shelves. Would that I were wealthier.

originally posted at The New Pals Club Web-Log
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11:34am: ahhhhh, YES!
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Before it vanishes, as it has other times, do yourself a favor and spend some entertaining time immersed in the scholarly pages of The Warner Brothers Cartoon Companion by Eric Costello.

I can't mention it without bragging that I -- yes, I! -- once had the privilege of serializing this groundbreaking reference in the pages of a monthly cartoon APA (private magazine that went out to the contributors). Once I learned that Costello was doing this, and having seen it, I got his permission to run a few pages of it each issue, with the intention of turning the text files over to him afterward, so that he wouldn't have to type the thing over another time, and could get it published somewhere reputable. My term of office expired before it was completely finished, but by then (or soon after) he took the show to the net where it could be appreciated by a wider audience.

So. You might ask what this wonderful thing is? (I pause while you ask.) It's a guide to all the puzzling references, in-jokes, catch-phrases and ad jingles that enlivened the classic Warner Brothers cartoons, and which now confuse and confound audiences, even as their kids are shouting "TURN OUT THAT LIGHT!" or asking "Was this trip really necessary?" Radio jokes, ration coupons, opaque slang, Texas trivia, aspects of Hollywood stars, and other detritus of the collective unconscious are aired and explicated herein.

A note of caution: It comes and goes. It seems that no sooner has Mr. Costello found a home for this indispensable repository of knowledge than something happens leading to a 404 NOT FOUND message. A Google search will show you all manner of no-longer-viable WBCC locations. We recommend saving the whole thing to your hard drive, and maybe converting it to some format in which you can carry it with you wherever you go. It's that good. Samples:

SOPHIE TURKEY

The Last of the Red-hot Gobblers. A caricature in The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (Tashlin, 1937) of Sophie Tucker.

“SO ROUND, SO FIRM, SO FULLY PACKED -- SO SMOOTH AND EASY ON THE DRAW”

One of the many advertising slogans for Lucky Strike cigarettes. Daffy-Duck-as-Danny-Kaye mentions the slogan in Book Revue (Clampett, 1946). The Christopher Columbus character in Hare We Go (McKimson, 1951) yells the phrase in exasperation at King Ferdinand while attempting to prove the Earth is round. Henery Hawk also used the expression when confronted with a fine specimen of alleged chicken tail.

SPARKS, NED
(1883-1957)

Cigar-smoking character actor with a dour face who was well-known and often imitated. His movie appearances include 42nd Street, Golddiggers of 1933 in which he playeed the producer, the live-action Alice in Wonderland as the Caterpillar, and Wake Up and Live.

Caricatures of Sparks appear in:

• Hollywood Steps Out (Avery, 1941) greeting the table of stonefaces
• Malibu Beach Party (Freleng, 1940) being buried in sand by Baby Snooks/Fanny Brice
• Slap-Happy Pappy (Clampett, 1940) indicating his joy (?) at the news that Eddie Cackler (caricature of Eddie Cantor) is going to be the father of a boy
• Fresh Fish (Avery, 1939) as an old crab

It is quite possible that the Rip Van Winkle character in Have You Got Any Castles? (Tashlin, 1938) is a Sparks caricature as well, given the character’s voice.

These are three successive entries, taken from the page I had it open to when I started this. I can't promise that the internal links work, but it gives you the names and the meanings -- there's enough there to satisfy your curiosity and make you want to watch all the cartoons again.

originally posted at The New Pals Club Web-Log
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10:04am: a step forward
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Everything's temporary. I mow the lawn, it grows back. I wash dishes, they get dirty again. Don't get me started on the cat litter.

Sarah and I went out to Target so she could show me bikes, and she pleaded for a single-speed model that was marked $65. She offered to put in $20 of her own money. I countered that I'd get it if she put in $35, and she agreed. Then we got a new helmet to replace the other new helmet that dropped off the earth, and once again, she's happy to leap on the bike and go off in search of playmates and adventures.

She brought Julia back to the house, and we all jumped on the trampoline for a while. When it was almost time for Julia to go home, her dad showed up to collect her, and before I could see them off, her mom showed up to get both of them.

Cathy had Friday off from work, so we officially wrapped up last Christmas by putting the grill together that I'd bought for her. She unboxed most of the pieces and helped with the one piece of heavy lifting, and after that I made Sarah happy by letting her help with the fiddly bits. Then I hauled out the outdoor table and umbrella, finding Sarah's next-to-newest helmet in the process. It hadn't dropped off the earth -- just behind the freezer. I set it all up, tested the gas lines for leaks (using soapy water and watching for bubbles), and just after 9:00 pm, all systems were go. Cathy made a cheeseburger for Sarah and hot dogs for everybody. I don't know about the burger, but the hot dogs I had were super, on buns toasted over the grill.

Just before I finished, I ran in and got a little bottle of Coke for us to share, because THIS is AMERICA, buddy!

This morning, I looked out the basement window at the patio. It's all still there, as is an equal volume of cardboard packing material in the sun room. Progress.
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6:17pm: day zero
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I greeted Sarah as she got off the bus, taking a picture of her last trip of the school year. I chatted briefly with bus driver Brenda. Sarah headed off to play with friends at the far corner of the rectangle formed by three sides of Round Trail and one of Stuyvesant. This morning I had reset my alarm to a later time.

The long weekend has begun.

Sarah brought her yearbook home, and it's a nice little volume full of color pictures. I couldn't see any I had taken, but there are at least three in there with Sarah in them. I also located various members of her soccer team (which played its last game on Saturday), the Purple Dolphins.

Cathy pointed out to me that Sarah has a coupon good for a free game of bowling (and shoes) every day, all summer, with a reduced rate for my games and shoes. This is a sweet ticket which I plan to use.

Previous summers have consisted in large part of Sarah telling me she's bored and demanding entertainment. I expect some of that, but she is able to hop on her bike and go 'around the block' (it's actually two blocks) until she runs into somebody to play with. She has a watch now, so I can tell her when to be back.

I'm expecting a jolly season, with mini golf, bowling, Sea Breeze Park, and other activities.
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5:57pm: mission accomplished
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Sarah's friends Ishan and Sonali were over here looking for her. She was over at #36, playing in a sprinkler. They went to the swing in the tree, and that's when I looked up and saw another partly detached branch up above. I told Ishan not to stand under it, and five minutes later, he was standing under it. Remembering the fast service we had gotten from the tree services we called (I think we called them in October, and we're still waiting), I sighed and got out the saw I bought for the last branch, which I hadn't had to use yet.

Unbending and setting up the ladder in the usual shaky way, I took the saw up and picked a spot. It was tight, being adjacent to another branch. I sawed, now with the right, now with the left, sometimes with both as my fear and caution turned to impatience and fatigue. When I was most of the way through, the branch (aided by my arch enemy, Gravity) slid imperceptibly into a position that clamped shut over the saw. I pondered the situation, and also realized that I was supposed to peel the labels off the saw so the Teflon coating would be somewhat helpful. I also got the rope (also purchased for the previous branch business) and spent some time tying it near the partial cut, threading it through other branches, unsticking it from its favorite wedging place between the ladder and the trunk, and after much time had been consumed this way, finding that the cut had indeed opened up enough that I could get the saw back in there and cut away until the branch made a creaking sound and moved four inches.

After this, much time was spent trying to get it to move some more. It was held in place by a half inch of twisted bark at the high end, and at the low end a forking branch nestled over another horizontal member of the tree, and it seemed quite content with the arrangement. I moved the ladder here and there, pulled the rope to little avail, and got some movement by pushing up with the shop broom.

Bit by bit, the tree yielded its broken lumber. I plied that saw wherever I could, cutting off the leafy ends of branches (which took less than a minute each), then going after the part that overlay the branch that was now supporting the wreckage. I used the rope to lasso the small end of the thing, and discovered another senior branchlet I hadn't suspected, which helped keep the whole thing trapped despite its topological disconnect from the tree proper. One by one, I removed the obstacles. One time there was a big crack and some shifting above as I was mostly done with a cut. I let go of the saw and left it to the tree while I scrambled down the ladder and stood away. After a minute, I went back and finished the cut.

In the end, I got the whole thing down. I also cut off another low branch that liked to mess with me when I mowed the lawn. Perhaps I'll go out another day and take off more of those low branches. For now, I'm glad to be on terra firma -- in the basement, in fact -- letting the fan tickle the flecks of sawdust in my arm hairs.
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3:11pm: useless samaritan
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I was coming back in from somewhere, and saw a woman sitting on the porch of a house for sale on Stuyvesant. Some weeks back, I had picked up a painting being given away from there (in a pile of stuff by the curb with a sign on it), and thought I would like to know something about the artist while there was still someone to ask. I stopped in my house long enough to take a phone picture and rode my bike over there.

She wasn't on the porch, so I rang the bell. I was answered by a vague voice from inside that I couldn't quite make out. I awkwardly tried to explain what I was doing there, finally opening the screen door to hear her better. That's when I saw that she was lying on the floor. I went right in.

She had fallen, of course. It couldn't have been long ago, because I'd seen her on the porch. She asked me who I was and I told her. I asked how she was, but she didn't quite know. She was bleeding a tiny bit from her lip and asked for some tissue, which I brought. I asked if she'd like help getting up, and she declined (each time I asked). She asked who I was again. We conversed briefly about the picture, which she didn't remember anything about.

I looked at the counter, at items of mail and so forth, looking for clues as to who I could call. I asked if I could bring her anything -- a small chair to help her pull herself up, if she didn't want me to help her up. She asked for a little stool that didn't look useful to me at all, but I brought it. I also brought her her phone and the card file with all her numbers. She didn't want a drink of water, either. We kept talking. She would ask me my name and I'd tell her, and she'd ask which street I lived on, and I'd tell her.

She seemed to want me to leave, so I finally did. I have to be here to get Sarah from the bus. I picked up a card from the realtor who's selling the house and called and left a message on his cell phone. I'll call again and leave one at his office. After I get Sarah, I might go by there again to see if she's up yet. Maybe I should knock on the door at her neighbors' houses to see if someone there knows her.

I feel like I haven't done enough. It was lucky that I could be there so soon after she fell, but now what?

Update - Things are better now. Thanks again for suggestions in comments. More details are in my comment in the thread.
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11:51pm: happy birthday
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Six months ago, Sarah and Cathy gave me a cat (Frances) for my birthday. Frances was said to be six months old. Logically, then, she'll be a year old on the 15th. Sarah decided to celebrate her birthday today, and she went shopping with Cathy and brought back a scratching rug and hidey tunnel for the kitty. They also got a tiny cake and more cat treats.

We had the party somewhere around noon, with Sonali and Isham from down the street. They gave Frances cat treats and her presents while we ate pieces of cake. We sang that song. It's also Ishan's birthday, though his party is tomorrow, and my sister's birthday (hipy papy bthuth thuthdy, gixhaix!).

It's also a day of celebration for the town, which has a wing-ding in the library parking lot, on the bank of the canal. Sarah was reluctant to go, but as soon as we got there she started running into school friends, so we hung around with their parents.

We even ran into Sonali and Ishan.

Since it was a midway, we ate some stuff. I had a cup of gumbo and a tray of fried alligator from a vendor and topped it off, a while later, with a nutella crepe (including strawberries, banana slices, whipped cream, and vanilla ice cream) from Simply Crepes for dessert.

I also encountered the local historical society folks. I'll probably join the group. It'll be another way to meet people older than myself.
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11:35pm: coins detected in pocket
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Been doing fairly okay since the return. I finished a second job that not only will put some money in the (well, read on), but it was sort of absorbing as well. I kind of had that feeling that I was working and enjoying it, all at the same time.

Sarah's been hustling on the soccer field. At Thursday's game, she kicked one from in front of her own goal that went all the way across the field and into the other goal. It's a small field, but then they're pretty small goal nets. Today was a real game, and though the Purple Butterflies looked pretty formidable and kept the ball on our end of the field much of the time, their goal kicks just didn't go in as much of the time, and the Purple Dolphins won 5-2, ending with a goal from our Sarah (as opposed to the other team's version of Sarah).

But I see I have skipped Thursday evening and Friday. Thursday evening, the battery light was showing when I drove home from soccer. Friday, I decided to have lunch 'out' (having consumed most of the luncheon items here), and forgot all about the battery. The light wasn't on, though, and I didn't think of it again until after the radio went septic. Then the turn signal stopped working and I decided I'd best head right home. The odometer went. I tested the wiper, and it worked -- very slowly. A mile from home, the fuel gauge and tachyometer had conked out. I had one traffic light to cross, but before it could turn, the car stopped running. I'd made it most of the way, anyway.

I hopped out and told the truck behind me that my car had died, without even the blinker working. They nodded and went around me. A guy in an SUV asked if I needed help, and watched traffic to the rear while I took the brake off and coasted backwards into the side street, then gave me a lift home.

I must have said something out loud about having earned that money. The car managed to take about half of it away from me.
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12:20pm: pretty vacated
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After some days of hopeless worry, I joined Cathy and Sarah in lugging bags to the airport, and then we all flew to Colorado. We were all together on the first leg, Rochester to Chicago. Then we were on two flights, with nothing much to be done about it. Small error; shouldn't recur. I hit the deck, got my large bag and a rental car (a Prius, at no extra charge) and got back in time to reacquire my family. Also to attend to other needs, one of which was food.

The drive up on I-470 and I-25 was calm and scenic, though I had the impression someone in the back seat was bored. Fortunately, she slept until we were almost to our hotel. Then we checked in with my sister Martha, had a tasty supper at Vern's, and turned in for the night.

All in all, a good trip. Sarah was frequently bored, but seems to have managed to enjoy aspects of the trip. She particularly doted on her cousin Liberty (Bonnie was suffering from a sore throat, so much of our interactions with her involved not tiring her out, and not breathing too much in her immediate vicinity). In many ways, we were on separate vacations, as I had friends to visit and also spent some time in family activities like music and work.

Music? Oh, yes. I got to play trios by Telemann and Pez with my sister and a family friend. Martha played violin, Jan played recorder, and I accompanied on Jan's nice harpsichord. I also got to jam with elements of the old gang two times, and guested on Excursions, Randy's radio show over KRFC (simulcast on the web every Saturday night from 9 to 11 Mountain Time) twice. I also got to play my old upright piano, which is at Martha's house. After mine, it felt in tune.

Work? Well, yeah. It's not like I've been working here all that much. She had a near-indigestible mass of Bible verses to proof, so we worked side by side for a few hours and got it taken care of in about three sessions. I pretty much paid for my part of the trip with that, plus the car. I also brought back another job that I will return to after some food.

Regrets? Always. I never got in touch with pal Jim, and I really wanted to see pal Steve one more time. Weather kept precipitating just enough to rule out a keenly anticipated trip to Signature Rock.

Joys? Packing. I didn't bring way too much stuff. What I brought got used. I was requested to pack up old artwork and strips to show to Randy's friend Mike (who writes comics), so we had a pleasant hour or two at Mike's kitchen table passing photocopies around. Even when I had everything together, including the man-sized suitcase, I could carry/wheel it all by myself and still open doors.

We came home separately -- Cathy and Sarah on the 1st, then I came back on the 7th. Seats were narrow, but I dug in with a crossword puzzle and iPod and the time went by. I'm thinking of marketing a bungee strap to keep one's legs more or less parallel on a flight, though the sprawlers who really need them probably don't suspect a thing. All was in order at home (though the lawn insisted on continuing to grow in our absence). The cat was fine; the basil was dryish but still alive.

I just came in from mowing the front half of the back yard, which means everything back to the hill has been trimmed since my return. The fan is still blowing on me at maximum, but it's now possible to think of a time when I could even turn it off. In the breeze it makes, a small America flag wags from side to side, and taped a bit lower at my eye level is a piece of paper from my desk pad decorated with the words "Dear mom and dad you are good parents to me. Love Sarah."

I saw my friends. I visited family. I made music and got some work. My daughter writes me notes. At times like this, it's too bad I don't ever seem to fill out the "mood" line below. Music either, but I was listening to Debussy.
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4:29pm: still ticking
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We're counting down to Thursday, when a nice airplane will take us off to Colorado so I can visit friends and family. The original plan was to go out when Dad was there, but he would not commit to a schedule until it was too late. It's been five years since I got to go home, though, and any reason is good enough for me.

Sarah's off school until Tuesday. We were waiting for the plumber to come and put in a new water heater. He called to say he'd be late, so we went out. First we hit Target, and we went to look at watches. Sarah found one she liked -- it has blue highlights, and that's her favorite color just now, and it doesn't have any princess stuff on it or anything like that -- and it was a mere ten dollars, so we bought it. Now she always knows what time it is. We'll see if this helps her stick to any sort of schedules, like when to be home.

We had a family lunch. Cathy joined us at Subway. I had my usual BMT wrap, and since it was a special occasion, I had bacon added. Instead of the smidgen of lettuce I usually let them put on, I asked for spinach instead, plus some onion. I can't believe I haven't been having onion put on there. My recipe has been changed for the better. And of course, I had it in a wrap. I keep thinking they don't have wraps any more, because one place told me they had been discontinued. Lucky for me everybody else still has them.

Subway is on the same strip center as the place I got my glasses, so I stopped by to see if they could do something about the spots that have shown up the lenses -- one on each. Turns out they can't. Apparently the earpieces rub on the lenses when I put them in the case. I have been putting them in the case almost every night in order to protect them. No worry; they'll sell me another pair for $350 or so. That's only $175 a spot.

We came home and Sarah wanted to ride bikes. I wanted to look at the computer for a while first, so she went out to go around the block. I wrapped things up and waited for her to return. Then I got on my bike and went around the block (it's two blocks, actually, but it's what we mean in this house when we say "around the block," which is about a half mile ride). I didn't see her or the scooter she took. She eventually showed up again, having managed to run into a friend from school, so we never rode our bikes to the playground. Now I'm waiting for the plumber to appear, which was going to happen about 45 minutes ago.

Cathy just got home. The weekend has truly begun.

UPDATE to our readers named Kate Schaefer: Please read the comments for a message from someone who may be your old classmate Julie. Thank you.
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8:37pm: fink
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Yes, I feel like a fink for not posting in so long. For a while, this was my main activity every day, reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, and posting, and in my continuing efforts to carve out time in which to do useful things, the reading went, and then the posting. Friends on facebook will notice I'm over there to some extent, but only because I can do it with a minimal investment of time. All the blogs I used to read have been trimmed down to three or four, which I ignore for days or weeks and then feverishly chop my way through with a weed whacker.

And what do I do with it; all this time I save? Beats me. Days feel about the same length, with me staying up late every night to finish whatever it is I do. I have some concrete achievements: I've ripped all five of my Herman's Hermits albums to iPod. Well, the last one is in process now. Two of them I just got last Friday at a garage sale. As always these days, I get a momentary twinge when the record is in a quiet spot and I hear a kind of quiet intermittent grunt of effort coming from the turntable, which we've had for thirty years now -- it was the first major purchase Cathy and I made together. Awwww.

Do I watch TV? Some, but I mostly omit turning it on until about 9 pm, and then I watch some stuff on Comedy Central. I have a TV Guide page set up with the channels I don't care about amputated, which saves time, and sometimes cues me about movies on Turner Classic Movies. We had another free movie channel, but they dropped off our cable, and they replaced it with something up in the digital tier that only comes in in the living room, also known as the room I'm hardly ever in. I do my living in the Office/storage chamber.

The other achievement is watching the new Star Trek movie. Sarah went to someone else's house today on the bus and was taken to watch her friend Sean in a swim meet. This gave me all afternoon to ponder getting out of the house. After I got the clothes into the dryer, I finally did go out, and got two new camp chairs (with arms!) for Cathy and me to sit in while we watch Sarah at soccer practice. While I was at the sporting goods store, Cathy called and said she was going to the movies, and I had just enough time to get over there and sit with her.

In a couple of weeks, I'm heading home for a visit. Cathy and Sarah and I are flying out to Fort Collins for a week, after which they're flying home while I -- get this! -- stay on for three or four more days by myself. Then it's back to New York where I'll be helping with one more art project for Sarah's class (the whole school is doing a running fence thing).

I might have some stuff to do before the trip. I got an inquiry about possible book work. At the same time, my sister might have a job to subcontract to me. As a rule, I can only get work if there are two or more things at a time, so whatever it takes.

At the same garage sale, I also got a turntable that handles 78s. I tried it out, and wasn't really satisfied, so now I'm back to square one with ten fewer dollars than before. Still, you have to try things from time to time, and ten dollars is a pretty inconsequential sum these days.

I'm rambling. Anyway, Sarah got back while I was maundering, so time for me to knock off. I'll try to post again when I remember what I forgot to mention this time.
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11:20am: so let's see
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Sarah's going to be home all next week. She insists she has nine days off from school, though I prefer to think of it as five. At any rate, we'll be together for nine. The pool at the Y should be open again by then, and she'll probably be in a mood to go back. She's been going to the Adventure Center there several times a week, which is good, as she gets to run wild for a while. I now sit in the lobby and do crossword puzzles, but have excavated and washed my jogging pants, thinking I might take her suggestion and exercise instead.

I exercised yesterday, at about this time. Went for a walk around the neighborhood, roughly a mile's worth. Dogs called "Hey! Hey!" after me, and once in a while, a car went by. I miss sidewalks. After lunch I went to the music store by the canal and bought an inexpensive piano tuner (Korg CA-30). In the afternoon, I spent some time on the middle octaves of the piano in the living room, with some success. I played through the Durand Valse that I have recently boiled down from five pages (with some awkward page turns) to three pages (with one easy turn) by notating when to play what. It comes down to Intro, A1, A2, B, A2, B, A2, C1, C2, D1, D2, C3, A2, B, A3, Coda (the different numbers mean that the last measure differs -- in the case of D, it's a repeat that does four measures for D1, and eight measures for D2). Printing it was harder, because the HP gives me more than I ask for, in the form of ghostly repeats of stuff from higher up on the page.

(Anybody know how to make it quit that? It's a Color Laserjet 2605dn. If I run a cleaning page before each page I print, the copy is clean until the last two or three inches, but there's always some ghosting at the bottom of the page when I print in black. One web page said you have to dismantle the machine and clean a mirror inside. Please don't make me do that. Sliding the cleaning slider back and forth is good exercise.)

We'll probably be going to Colorado at the end of May/beginning of June. First time in five years. It kind of grinds on me that I don't get out there more often. I'm getting old, and five years is too long to go without seeing my friends.

Sarah's roller skating has improved wonderfully in just two monthly sessions at the Y. The first time, she couldn't stay on her wheels for a half minute, but she persisted. The second time, she started off about the same, but by the end of the evening, she was good for a few minutes at a time. When they started dancing, she joined right in, doing the gestures for YMCA and the Chicken Dance and the Hokey Pokey (for our UK readers, that's a version of the Hokey Cokey, which somebody apparently got paid money for). I am so proud of that kid sometimes. We looked for a roller rink here, but the one in Macedon is closed because a pipe burst and warped the floor, and the one beyond Clifton Springs takes 45 minutes to drive to. Sonali's mom says there's one in Henrietta, and I plan to go out and look for it, because Sarah and I have rollerskate fever.

I keep meaning to put some of the 1979 photos I've been scanning where the "Lost Fort Collins" web site can get them. I think I'll put them on flickr and send them a link. (Some time goes by. Lunch is eaten. Photos are uploaded.)

( I think I'll show some slides. )