Theater Again

Can't believe I keep doing this, bitch and moan about it, but still, jump in and do whatever needs doing. Spend the day building a set for "The Secret Garden" and the director is pleased because yesterday there was nothing and after today it's nearly done. I've built so many sets, I can't even estimate, hundreds. I was doing some serious construction in Iowa City, a few years ago, and ended up building a set for "Hansel and Gretel" because a friend of a friend needed help. Always interesting problems, that's part of it, a free-standing gate that gets used is difficult, building something that works that kids can't destroy immediately, doing it cheaply, because there is no budget. At Janitor College there was a course, "Peripheral Projects" where we were expected to do things that weren't in the job description, land a plane at night, find a small island using only the stars for navigation, survive in the wilderness with just a knife. A great course, I'd never eaten lizard before, not bad but not even close to chicken, where you were only thrown curve balls. I'm cooling my computer right now with a two pound block of ham and bean soup that I'd frozen and forgotten about, I need to throw it away but it works fine for this. Like that. There was no rain in the forecast but these little cells keep sweeping over, hard rain for two minutes and then they're gone, no thunder and lightening, so I ignore them. Not quite true, I listen to them, watch, but don't shut down. We gauge the seriousness of events, make choices, live with the consequences. I might lose a paragraph, maybe not, I really don't know what will happen, likely I'll have to apologize for fucking up again. After work D and I decide to go for a beer at the pub, Jim had reinstated Happy Hour and ESB was on tap, half-price, too good to miss, a bonding thing, after hours, shooting the shit, the slightly off-color jokes, demanding the remote so we don't have to watch people fighting on the bar TV. Eleven dead on K2, Brett Farve is traded, we both roll a smoke before we leave and when we get outside it's raining hard, not in the forecast, so we stand under an awning and smoke, make a dash in a lull, yell good-byes, truck home. West of town the roads are dry, then another downpour on Mackletree, but the driveway is dry, a few drops as I achieve the ridge, everything is so goddamned local. A lesson there.