June 25, 2009
Dear Everyone:
Last week I worked Monday and Tuesday, then drove
to Ashland on Wednesday. I
got a later start than I would have liked due to several things.
I usually start packing the day before the trip and
get a lot into the car before the day I actually drive.
This time I didn’t.
Over the past 30-something years, “Jeannie” and I
have driven to and from Oregon many, many times.
I have tried numerous times to find insulated travel cups that
suit us both. Consequently,
I always had a number of insulated travel cups from which to choose.
However, as a result of the move to the
condo and the
refurbishing of the townhouse, all those travel cups were either donated
or jettisoned. Belatedly, I
realized that I had absolutely no cups.
The only one I could get to on short notice was one I had in my
office. So I had to stop in
the office on my way out.
“Jeannie” had called me that morning to say that
she had left a box of donuts on the kitchen counter the night before,
when she and the installers were working on the flooring and carpet into
the wee, small hours.
Nothing puts off prospective buyers like ant trails in the kitchen.
So I swung by the townhouse and placed the box with its few dry
donuts in the garbage can.
By the time I actually got on the road, it was
11:06. The people I was
meeting in
I knew I could pick up an hour by not stopping to
eat. I had planned for this
and had nut bars and a container of almonds in the car.
And there are stretches of
Interstate 5 where you can drive like
a bat out of hell. I pulled
into
My
Portland friend had already left two messages on
my cell phone, so I called from the hotel lobby while waiting to check
in. By the time I got into
my room, they were already waiting for me and we rushed off to dinner.
Which is why I didn’t think to call “Jeannie” until halfway
through the meal.
Then we headed for the theater and watched the
Green Show before the play.
The Green Show started decades ago.
People in Renaissance dress, playing
Renaissance musical
instruments, singing Renaissance songs and performing Renaissance
dances. It was free for
anyone who wanted to stop and watch.
It was a way to encourage people to show up early for the plays.
Over time, people got bored with all the
Renaissance stuff and started branching out with other things.
Most recently, the previous
Artistic Director seemed to have a
thing for modern dance. A
little goes a long way.
Now that we have a new Artistic Director, he seems
to have other ideas. He’s
already announced that, while the
Oregon Shakespeare Festival is about
Shakespeare, it’s also an American festival, and he wants to explore the
history of
The Green Show our first night there was music from
Zimbabwe. The next evening,
it was the Siskiyou Violins, featuring violinists from their early
twenties to a three-year-old (who had her own solo!).
The Festival is also producing musicals with
The Music Man as the
quintessential American musical.
Other plays that I saw were
Death and the King’s Horseman,
A Servant of Two Masters (the breakout comedy of the season),
Henry VIII (for the first time
in 25 years),
Macbeth and
Don Quixote (which will also
be a big hit.)
Sunday morning, I packed the car (it’s always so
much easier to pack for the return trip, since you don’t care what
happens to used clothes), checked out of the hotel, walked to a
restaurant where I had a big breakfast and walked back to the car.
When I started the engine, it was 11:39.
When I started up the hill to my community, it was 5:40.
It’s definitely a six-hour trip if you don’t stop to eat.
I took Monday as a vacation day to do laundry and
recover from the trip. I
drove down to the townhouse to meet “Jeannie” who had hired an
electrician to deal with the
GFI outlets that were giving her trouble
and install the new chandelier and light fixtures in the bathrooms.
“Jeannie” got a call to go take a
deposition, so I wound up
hanging around the townhouse for four hours.
Wish I’d known; I would have taken my book and read another 100
pages while I was waiting.
A couple more weekends and the townhouse will be
ready to list. I’m
definitely looking forward to that.
Speaking of looking forward, next year is the 75th
Anniversary of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (1935-2010.)
They’re going to produce the first two plays ever done,
The Merchant of Venice and
Twelfth Night, plus the first
play I ever saw in 1974,
Hamlet.
Guess I’ll renew my membership for at least one more year.
Love, as always,
Pete
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