And with today’s matinee, The Merry Wives of Windsor comes to its scheduled end. It succeeded in regards to what it set out to do. It was not intended to be a definitive production of a lesser known Shakespeare play. It did not have the budget and resources to be a theatrical event. It took the technical capabilities of a church cafetorium and a disparate group of performers and turned them into a solid entertainment, true to Shakespeare’s intent, and allowed audiences to escape for a few hours. Sitting in the back and watching performances, I could tell that audiences, even those unfamiliar with Elizabethan patois, were engaged and drawn into our cartoon of the town of Windsor and were interested in the foibles and follies of aristocrats, merchants, and servants as their lives entangled and the careened around through the somewhat ludicrous plot. And I can’t ask for any more than that.
I have nothing on the books theatrically for the rest of the year as of yet, just a couple of one off choral concerts. I need some time back for writing and to catch up at work and for my long planned vacation next month. I had a callback for a Christmas show on Friday which may or may not amount to anything. And that’s one of the problems with being a theater person. You get your self worth tied up with your most recent production or role and then impostor syndrome kicks in and you wonder if you’re actually good enough to keep it up. And so you go off to another audition sure that you’re going to be laughed off the stage and then all of a sudden you’re handed a part you really don’t want to turn down and the cycle begins again. There aren’t that many actors who sing a little of my type locally so I can usually snag something when I feel the need to be working on a production but there’s always that nagging little voice that says you don’t belong here gnawing away at the base of the brain stem.
I know that I have reached late middle age as I have had to wrestle with a number of annoying, but not overly serious health problems recently. One is a prolonged issue of paraesthesias and pain in my left upper arm. It’s been going on since May and has not been amenable to most of the usual tricks for relief of which I am aware. (And was probably a major contributor to my grumpiness earlier in the summer – chronic pain is no fun). Two weeks ago I went in to the neurologist and had needles driven into various nerves in my left arm and am happy to say that I am not suffering from any dire degenerative neurologic condition. I can’t say I recommend the procedure but it wasn’t as bad as I expected. This means, that the likely source of my issues is arthritis in my shoulder and neck area impinging on the nerves. The next step is an MRI for a really good look. It was requested in May. It has been scheduled for October. Our broken health system at work. I have no intention of having surgery for any of this but if there’s something amenable to physical therapy or the like, I’ll figure out how to make time for that.
The second is an examination of a number of odd spots that have crept up on the skin in recent years. Having had a few carved off me by the dermatologist this past week, one has turned out to be a superficial skin malignancy that will require additional carving in October. It’s nothing to be overly concerned about. It’s been there for a while and not the kind of thing that metastasizes or causes other significant problems. However, if you see me limping a bit more the next few months, you shall know why as there’s a substantial divot in my right thigh.
The next few months, outside of work, are to be devoted to writing and travel. (Travelogue will resume in this space somewhere around September the 12th). That is if covid manages to keep its head down and that’s hardly a sure thing. Numbers continue to remain high locally and nationally (although some wastewater studies are suggesting things have peaked and may be starting on their way down). Fortunately, serious morbidity and mortality are still relatively low. If you catch it, the chance of it putting you in the hospital is not terribly high. The biggest issue remains that of long covid. With every reinfection, the chance of even a mild case becoming a chronic infection with significant medical sequelae goes up. It is therefore in everyone’s best interest to try and avoid reinfections. The new booster, which has been reformulated for better activity against currently circulating omicron strains, has been approved by the FDA and should be out in the next couple of weeks. I’m hoping it’s available before I head off on international flights. I have no real wish to experience a hospital in a country in which I am not fluent in the major language.
What else besides boosters? Wash your hands. Gather in well ventilated areas. Avoid the obviously ill. There’s nothing wrong with wearing a mask when in doubt. I probably will on my flight to South America.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 