January 16, 1997
Dear Everyone:
It’s cold here.
I realize that those of you living in
Frostbite Falls would laugh at an overnight low of 30o,
but we’re not used to it in sunny
California.
People were scrambling to try and protect their plants.
One resourceful person gathered all his wife’s precious potted
plants together on the patio, then pulled the umbrella off its stand and
placed it, opened, over the plants.
The plants survived.
I had an appointment for my car Monday morning.
Usually there’s a long line of people and I barely finish in time
to catch the shuttle that will take me to the office.
This time, I was the only person there, so I was ready 40 minutes
before the shuttle departure time.
I figured, it’s not much more than a mile to the office.
I can just walk there.
It’s been a long time since I had to deal with ice on the
sidewalks.
And that’s just outside.
CREMCO, who owns and operates the warehouse, has finally admitted
that there’s something wrong with the heating system and they’re
“sincerely” looking into the problem.
For the past three weeks, it’s been in the low 50’s all day.
People who can’t type very well to begin with don’t do much
better when they try to type while wearing a heavy coat and gloves.
We tried plugging in a couple of small space
heaters to warm up the office area where we’ve been working.
All the computers promptly went down.
Seems everything, including the refrigerator, microwave and water
cooler, is on a single circuit.
A couple of us went for Chinese at lunch time on Monday.
It was a case of “never mind the menus, just bring us a pot of
tea so we can warm our hands.”
The renovation is proceeding fairly well, although
it’s doubtful that we’ll be able to move back inside on Monday.
The walls have been painted, ceiling tiles replaced and carpet
laid; well, most of it.
Cubicles are springing up like great rectangular mushrooms.
There’s still the electrical work to do.
“Brad” discovered that the electrical company was only planning
on two outlets per cubicle.
Since each cube will have two under-the-cabinet style fluorescent
lights, that leaves nothing for the computers, not to mention radios,
fans, modems and such. We’ve
already been told not to plan on using space heaters.
We’ll see about that.
My plan to come into the “office” each morning,
then head home to work has gone “gang
aft a-gley”. There’s
always some question that needs answering, a problem that needs solving.
And there’s almost always somebody who’s away and I can use their
PC for a few hours. So I
keep a set of warm clothes in a tote bag, just in case I’m going to be
there all day.
In other news...
“Jeannie” “wasn’t up for”
Evita
last Sunday, so I went by myself.
I suspect it has something to do with a certain antipathy towards
Antonio Banderas,
who plays the role of Che.
She gets that way about some actors, notably
Michael Douglas.
Can’t drag her to one of his movies.
Must be negative pheromones, or something.
Actually, it was lucky that she didn’t come because
I got the very last ticket
for the 1:00 show. It looked
like half of Rossmoor was there.
(Rossmoor
is a local retirement community.)
I estimated the median age at about 55.
Some of these people probably remembered
Eva from the first
time around.
However, it was “Jeannie’s” loss, because the
musical was excellent.
Madonna
is perfect casting for the role of Eva Peron.
Who better to portray a self-made woman than a self-made woman?
And Banderas just about bowled me over when he started to sing.
All I’ve ever seen him play are tough guys, and you don’t expect
a “tough guy” to be a tenor.
Juan Peron is played by
Jonathan Pryce,
a British actor best known in the States as the guy who’d like to sell
you an Infiniti car
on TV. This is just one
example of how the movie is better than the
stage production
that “Jeannie” and I saw in
San Francisco
many years ago. On the
stage, Juan Peron was just one of the many men that Eva used in her
social climbing. When she’d
slept her way to the top, he was the guy who happened to be at the top
at the time.
But in the movie, Pryce brings a lot more depth to
his part. Same thing with
the character of Che, the revolutionary.
On the stage, he wore “eye-catching” camouflage, jumped around a
lot and really belted out his lyrics.
In the movie, Banderas can afford to be more reflective and
becomes a sort of
Everyman, the waiter in a restaurant, the doorman at a hotel,
dressed up at the opera, or leading a group of marchers, hopeful, but
still doubtful that Evita is really a good thing for the country.
I’d forgotten how many lovely songs are mixed up in
it and kept thinking, Oh yeah, I remember this one.
Definitely worth seeing.
Maybe even worth dragging “Jeannie” with me to watch it again.
Love, as always,
Pete
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