Busy, Busy, Busy

I need to make a list or something


I have a full plate of activities for a change over the next couple of days, so my blogging might suffer a little as a result—but then again, maybe not, because I seem to be particularly agitated by world happenings these days (see my previous posting.)

First I have to finish the design of the set for our next dinner show at the C.A.P.E. Theater—“You’re a Good Man Charley Brown.” I attended a rehearsal last night to get a feel for the play in order to mentally complete the details of my set, and it ain’t gonna be easy.

I have to build a Doghouse for Snoopy, a “kite eating tree,” a school bus, Lucy’s psychiatric booth, Schroeder’s baby grand piano, and still have room for five adults and one teenager on a stage that is only 16’ wide. Even with the addition of two downstage 6’x8’ platforms of varying heights to increase the depth of the stage I think that things are going to be pretty tight.

The Piano and the Doghouse will probably take about 80% of my efforts. I have the piano structure figured out, but the Doghouse is kicking my butt because in spite of what the Peanuts cartoon shows, Snoopy cannot lie and sit and fight the Red Barron while perched precariously on the thin ridge line of a gable roofed doghouse.

Therein lies the problem, making a structure that looks like Snoopy’s doghouse to the audience and at the same time allows a grown woman actor that is playing the part of Snoopy to lie and sit on top. I hope that you’ll be impressed with my solution (once I come up with it.)

I had most of the materials delivered on Wednesday and got everything organized inside, but I have to work around a funeral this afternoon and the regular Sunday services (we use a church fellowship hall for rehearsals) and I’m afraid I’m going to spend as much time sweeping sawdust to clean up after myself as I will actually getting any work done.

On the home front, we are looking forward to the arrival of family tomorrow passing through on their move from Erie, PA to the Orlando area of Florida. I’m actually envious of their new residence location in St. Cloud because I think that the Orlando metro area is a pretty cool place to live.

Of course, like Atlanta did in the 1980’s, the fun down there may be wearing off shortly due to traffic clogs and general congestion that middle aged codgers like me tend to spend time and energy avoiding. Oh well, it will be fun to have three of Pat’s nine grandkids so close after years of using airline trips and rental cars to visit.

I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but if you want to go to Orlando and walk right into The Hard Rock Cafe or Sea World without standing in a line with 4,329 other tourists, fly or drive yourself into town on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, arriving about 8:00 AM.

Seriously…you can OWN the Orlando Airport, the rental car companies, and you can fire a cannon through the lobby of the resort hotels without hitting anyone anytime after noon on the Sunday after Thanksgiving because everyone’s kids have to be back in school and virtually no one does any business travel between Thanksgiving and New Years.

Actually, I should correct that statement to say that no one does business travel except for myself and the other members of the ASME STS-1 Steel Stack Subcommittee on any given Thanksgiving weekend. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers made me discover the above travel detail back in the mid and late 1990’s when they scheduled our annual meeting in Orlando starting on Monday morning after Thanksgiving. I snuck into town early on those Sunday morning because I was a sociopath and a cheapskate.

I think that most good travel destinations are easily accessible for childless curmudgeons like me whenever the kids go back to school. I spent several years making annual trips to Key West, arriving AFTER the Labor Day weekend. When we got there we found a huge traffic jam coming north on US 1 out of the Keys, and we ended up seeing about five other boats the entire time we were sailing up and down Florida Bay on a 45’ houseboat. The solitary experience was glorious when the mosquitoes weren’t eating us alive.

OK, time to decide between taking a nap or bitching some more about the West Virginia mine disaster and the NY Times and the new Congressional lobbying money scandal and the price of eggs or tea in China.

I decide, and you'll be the first to know... (snore)