A Rare Daytime Appearance

Horrible night again, thanks to mobile home park management arrogance, which I can't even address till Monday, + no word from contractors (ditto), + waiting to hear from Sunnyvale Players about Fiddler.

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Surprise call this morning from them, did not expect to hear on Shabbat. They offered me the part of The Rabbi. I was still half asleep, told her I would have to think about it.

Thought about it.

- The vocal director would be a huge part of rehearsals, and she just isn't qualified.
- He has the two stupidest lines in the show
- No matter what is promised up front, I know the choreographer and she would insist on The Rabbi dancing with the ensemble.
- Most of his time would be spent in the green room
- The commitment is for a month of Thurs-Sun with one double-header
- They don't know where they will be rehearsing

Called back just before noon and declined.

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It's 88° in Castro Valley, so not going to the rodeo.

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Coffee with Janice -she asked for 5, I suggested 5:30 to avoid the crowds

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Still feeling squirrelly from tension & lack of sleep. Got out of bed at 2 am to watch a Thai DVD which has been sitting on the TV stand for a couple of months. The title translates as "I was born during the reign of Rama 9", Rama 9 being the king who died last October after 70 years on the throne. I admired him very much, and the ads for the DVD sounded like they would be showing clips from his life, and talking to people whose lives he directly affected (they had their choice of pretty much everyone in Thailand).

It wouldn't play in my blu-ray player - probably wrong region or format. But it played on the PC.

Turned out to not be what was advertised. It's a 3-DVD set of the entire season of a very slickly produced TV drama, totally staged, with some scenes thrown in toward the end of Mom praying to a photo of the king to heal her son, and of a couple doing the same, praying to save their marriage. The final episodes show a newsreel clip of the king's final public speech, with hundreds of thousands of people in yellow shirts surrounding the palace, holding photos of him, and/or Thai national and royal flags. The last episode Mom and estranged daughter hear about his death, and it segues into a mishmash of the actual scene around the palace of about 2 million mourners, cut away to the main characters in the TV show being ushered by an actor in a police uniform to seats on mats on the pavement as if they were part of the public scene.

Production values were very high, but I feel cheated.

This is the actual event, I am in awe every time I see it.

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I have some pots to buy and fill with soil & saplings.

Recovery is slow

Very sleep deprived and anxious this afternoon, sat in the recliner concentrating on breathing, considered other useful things. Took some aspirin. Thought about breaking out one of the expired drugs I'd been given to dull the senses after operations, and before Cat scans and MRIs. Not a good idea. Decided that on my way home from meeting Janice I would pop into the nearby 7-11 and buy some wine spritzers.

Watched an episode of Match Game, they were all about R-rated questions this time. Cheap laughs. As usual, some of the questions had no obvious answers. One or two did, and this time the panelists tried to help the contestants win. But one of the contestants (a former Miss Arkansas or maybe it was Alabama) didn't help herself at all. Huge smile, dumb as a rock.

Off to Lowe's, but they didn't have 14" pots, so on to Home Depot which also didn't have them, so got a pair of 12" pots, saucers to go under them, and 35 quart bag of potting soil. Went for convenience - I could have made a third leg of the trip to the recycle center and fill the pots with mulch for free. Also bought some green garden stakes to replace the ugly wooden ones holding up the Bee's Friend plants.

Home, took the 2 paw paw saplings outside, planted them in the two pots, watered them and dumped the leftover soil into the compost bin.

Told Google to wake me at 4:45, and took a short nap. It did what it was told.

Off to MV, it only took 7 minutes. Janice was right, on a Saturday there are no huge crowds. I told her about Fiddler, and about the mobile home park foo, and watching the Thai DVD at 2 am. She told me she also was up at 2 am with anxiety insomnia. In her case it is about cutting the cord with someone she has known since that person's birth, has been a friend and supportive to, and now this person is in college a couple of  hours from here, and needs some mentoring by a social work professional. This week Janice will introduce the young one to someone who can find help, and be done with it.

We were both pretty tired, but made it to 6:30.

7-11 did not have what I was looking for, so on to Safeway, which had too many choices. Settled on barefoot wine spritzers, Cooks small bottle 4-pack of champagne, and a 6-pack of Angry Orchard hard cider. Also bought two bottles of Fumé Blanc (St. Jean and another local brand). Those are more for marinating than drinking. Probably.

Home, dinner was a smoked turkey leg, the last of the cole slaw and some marinated olives. Double fudge ice cream and pistachio halvah for dessert.  Angry orchard to drink, and it seems to be working. Watched an episode of Graham Norton, one of the more fun ones. Enjoyed the UK Eurovision entrant who was the musical guest. Good looking redhead. 

I'm on my second Angry Orchard, and even with the ice cubes my typing is suffering.

Plans for tomorrow:
Baylands Park if it is too hot at home.
Read some more Hugo nominees
Remove the Bee's Friends plants which have gone to seed, replace the wooden stakes with the green plastic ones for what is still flowering.