I did something today that I very rarely do. I arranged my day so that I could get home mid afternoon with every intention of taking a nap. I very rarely do such things but I wasn’t feeling 100% today and it seemed like a good idea. I suppose, with my next birthday in just over a week marking the earliest that I can take my Social Security, I am simply entering the band of life that encompasses afternoon naps, lamenting for the way things used to be and yelling ‘get off my lawn’ at the neighbors’ children. I won’t be doing much of this latter as it is a condo building and the lawn is somewhat negligible. I’m also a generation younger than most of the residents so children are few and far between other than the occasional visiting grandchild or great grandchild.
Alas, when I returned home, my terrace was full of Hispanic construction workers doing various things that required banging, blowing, and occasional mariachi music from a portable radio. At long last additional progress is being made on the retiling project that started something over 18 months ago. My terrace, and one other in the other building, are continuations of the pool deck and, in doing the repair prep work, various previously unknown complications regarding building drainage were uncovered and the whole thing has been hurry up and wait for months and months. The big issue has to do with drainage and rain run off. Design flaws channel far too much water off the building and onto my terrace where it does not go down the inadequate drainage system, but rather seeps through the deck and down into the parking garage below. As none of the residents of Arlington Crest has any interest in living in Surfside II, repairs must be made. Even if it did cause me to miss my nap. I’m going to bed early to make up for it. I know, I know… First world problems…
I have put both UAB and the VA under notice that I plan to retire from clinical work in the late spring of 2027. We shall see if they use the next three years wisely to prepare for an outpatient clinical program that does not have me shouldering most of the burden and soldiering on day after week after month after year. These plans could change, but after all of the events of the last decade, especially the catastrophes of the last six years, I’m tired and feel that it’s time to be put out to pasture. I think I’ve earned it. I’ll stick around as emeritus faculty if they’ll let me but that will not include any regular scheduled patient care. That doesn’t mean people can’t call me up for the occasional sage advice.
Rehearsals have started for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I have the utility character track meaning five or six characters in one scene apiece – pretty much all vital to the plot and requiring a different look and sound. It’s going to be another one of those shows where I spend most of my time changing clothes. Fortunately, all of those years of Politically Incorrect Cabaret have made me king of the quick change. We’re just starting into staging so I don’t have a complete idea yet of what all I have to do. The ensemble is composed mainly of talented kids in their late teens and early 20s (musical theater BFA students from the local programs who are on summer hiatus). I trust the director is smart enough not to try and force me to keep up with them. They could be my grandchildren at this point. The audiences at Virginia Samford Theatre really don’t need to see me up there shaking my sixty something year old bon bons and trying to pretend that I haven’t become a Paw Paw.
I poked around the latest Covid news earlier this evening to see if there was any news worth passing on. There really isn’t. It’s still very much with us but numbers have continued to fall over the last month or so as the weather has warmed up. The death rate is about half what it was in January and February which is good news. If you call 500 people dying per week rather than 1,000 people dying per week good news. There don’t appear to be any new wide spread variants of concern and there seems to be some argument as to the formulation for this fall’s booster. Whatever they decide, I’m going to get it around Labor Day (presuming it’s available) so it’s in my system before I leave on my big trip for the year (South America – more details later).
The political news from all over is bad. It sort of makes me itch to do another edition of Politically Incorrect but I really feel that my generation is too old and needs to pass the torch down to the Millennials and Gen Z. Perhaps I can talk one of the ensemble kids that it would be a good idea to run with a Berlin style cabaret show with elements of street theater and agitprop. The local news is mainly about fighting back against the worst impulses of Alabama’s legislature and governor regarding book bans and downright cruelty to gender minorities. Apparently they haven’t figured out that those who would ban knowledge in any form are never on the right side of history. My take on it is that with Dobbs having overturned Roe vs Wade, the powers that be have needed to quickly find a new social crusade to keep the rank and file in line and gender minorities presented an easy pivot as they would have grave difficulties fighting back. I wonder sometimes if the Republican party has read any histories of the 1930s but then I realize of course they have. But they don’t read them as cautionary tales, they read them as instruction manuals.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 