March 31, 2024

The gods of the theatre are capricious gods. I suppose that goes along with the evanescent nature of the art form they sponsor – one that requires a small army of artists of varying skill sets to show up and work together in intricate patterns that put a football play book to shame . When things go well, it’s magic. When they don’t… well magic is probably not the right word. This is all a very long preamble to state that for various reasons, Encore Theatre is postponing the dates of ‘Love Scenes’ for which I have been diligently rehearsing and the new schedule precludes my continued participation as it conflicts with other projects for which I am already contracted. Oh well…

This does mean that this next week has suddenly opened up. I’m celebrating by taking a nap this afternoon. Something I don’t often get to do but which I am reaching an age where it’s reasserting it’s importance in life. The last few years, my afternoon post prandial dip has become somewhat more pronounced and About 3-4 pm I am very much out of steam. On my house call days, this coincides with the trip back to Birmingham from the hinterlands so I can snooze in the passenger seat of the car. On other days, I will often fall asleep for a few minutes at my desk while typing progress notes. When retirement comes in a few years, I will probably set up life to make mid-late afternoon home time so I can settle into that particular circadian rhythm.

The suddenly free evenings and weekend should eliminate my excuse of not having progressed further on the new book and I will hopefully knock out some significant paragraphs of structure and not so epic prose which my publisher has been patiently awaiting. I think I’ll also go to the movies at least once to see Dune II. I liked the first half and I have heard that this next piece is even better. I may or may not allow Mrs. Norman Maine to accompany me. She’s gotten better at seeing a few things and writing them up which has made the folks at Movie Rewind happy. But she doesn’t always have things to say about every film that crosses my path. It will also allow me to keep a couple of social engagements I was bowing out of due to rehearsal commitments.

I haven’t poked around in the Covid data for a while so I spent half an hour looking through my usual sources to see what all is going on. It’s no longer on the front pages but everyone knows someone who’s had a recent case so it’s still very much out there doing it’s viral replication thing. The numbers all look pretty good. There have been significant declines week to week through March in terms of test positivity, hospitalizations and deaths. It’s still hospitalizing about 10,000 people a week in the country and has settled in around 1.5% of total deaths. This puts it somewhere between 8th and 10th leading cause of death in the US (way down from the 3rd leading cause it held in the three pandemic years of 2020, 2021 and 2022). Will it stay there? Who knows. It could mutate again. Or we could get a brand new highly infectious viral agent that seeds in the population again (and the chances of this keep going up as we add more and more people and they keep spreading into new territory, previously uninhabited, coming into contact with new animal populations.) And if we get a new one, we’ll be in a far worse position thanks to the politicization of public health which will hamstring the response.

The weather has been lovely the last few days and I would like to be enjoying my terrace, but the project of redoing my tiling (which is pretty much a continuation of the pool deck) has slowed to a crawl so all of my patio furniture remains stacked in the parking garage and it’s sort of a mess out there. I was quoted 9-10 weeks for the repairs to be done. As it took the HOA nearly two years to actually get to the project after announcing it, I assume I shall have a terrace again sometime around 2026. I suppose I can just drag a dining room chair out there and have a class of pinot grigio and toast the sunset later today if I feel up to it.

And happy Easter to those who celebrate. And happy trans day of visibility to those who celebrate that. And for those who are upset that the two coincide this year. 3/31 has been the trans day of visibility for years. If you don’t like Easter falling on it, stop relying on a lunar calendar calculation for its date which makes it bop all over late March and early April. Easter next falls on March 31st in 2086 so we have about six decades of respite from this particular overblown fake crisis de jour. I spent my Easter morning at church singing in the choir. I then had to switch over to my religious education duties. The RE committee sponsored an egg hunt for the kids (and there were a lot of them – we’re in a major growth spurt with young families). My job was to oversee the candy table and make sure there were no fist fights or inappropriate greed. I dressed as Willy Wonka for the occasion. I don’t see why he can’t be an Easter figure.