14 September 2014
We're So Glad We Live In BC
14/09/14 10:52
Really we are. What prompts me to say that at this particular moment? Well, you see it’s like this. We had nephew Andrew and girlfriend Martha visiting us the week before last. We all had a nice time touring around, eating (Andrew has become a great cook), talking, and such. Then on Friday we took them to Victoria. We saw Miniature World, did some shopping, wandered around the waterfront and such. Then we dropped them off and returned home. It was a very pleasant day, sunny and warm but we’re far enough north that we didn’t even get burned despite being out in the sun for several hours. They flew back on Saturday and this last Monday we got a note from them thanking us for a good time and mentioning that they got back to Tucson, AZ just in time to meet the remains of a hurricane that blew in from Mexico. At that particular moment Tucson was around 100 degrees with heavy rain. Then the next day we heard a news report from Alberta. Calgary had been around 80F and sunny on Monday and then on Tuesday a storm came in from the Rockies that dropped a foot of snow. Trees were down all over the city. Power was out for thousands of homes. The airport had a bunch of cancelled flights. Traffic was a mess. All this time temps here on the Island have been around 50F at night and 70-80F in the day, with sunny days and star filled nights. Each morning has been bright with the huge full moon shining down on the grass covered with dew. We are SO glad we live in this place.
But you can tell fall is coming. Mornings and evenings are darker than even a couple of weeks ago. We got together with one of the other actors this week to practice our lines for Ethan Claymore. We were rehearsing after work on her porch so she could keep an eye on her kids playing in the back yard. I was reading Ethan, she was reading Teresa, her part, and Marsha was everyone else. I really think Marsha would be good at this if I could just coax her to perform on stage. Oh wait, we will be for Rigoletto. Anyway, on Monday we worked until 8:30 before the fading light forced us to knock off for the night. Thursday however, we barely made it to 8:00 before it was too dark to read our scripts. Fall is definitely on the way. Soon we’ll be into the wet season, and the dark of the year. For the moment though we’re enjoying the last few days of summer.
Of course we DO have a list of things we want to complete before fall; trim the hedge, weed the garden, finish a couple of small landscaping projects, and finish sealing up the outside of the house. When they installed the new window in the downstairs bedroom they pulled all of the siding off of that part of the house. They reinstalled it but there are chips and new nails, and exposed seams. I want to repaint that corner and seal all of the seams again before the winter rains set in. All of that will keep us busy.
And then there’s Rigoletto. We’ve been rehearsing every Saturday, and starting this week we’ve added a second optional practice on Wednesdays as well. It’s coming together. We’re now singing passages that are many pages long and we’re singing a LOT faster. What’s more, both Marsha and I are not relying on the score nearly as much. We’re able to close the book and just sing the sections from memory. I have to admit though, that while we’re getting to know the music pretty well, the words are often a struggle. As someone said after one of the rehearsals, “I have to admit that there’s more than a few time’s I was singing scat”. Now I'm not sure if she meant freeform jazz or animal droppings but it is coming together.
So between the household projects, and practice for the opera, and learning our lines for the play, and laughing at other people’s weather we’re looking forward to a busy fall.
PIX: This week marked one year since my surgery which we celebrated with a bottle of wine. We found an Italian muscat that might be our new favourite wine. The Nightmare Before Christmas glasses just seemed appropriate.
But you can tell fall is coming. Mornings and evenings are darker than even a couple of weeks ago. We got together with one of the other actors this week to practice our lines for Ethan Claymore. We were rehearsing after work on her porch so she could keep an eye on her kids playing in the back yard. I was reading Ethan, she was reading Teresa, her part, and Marsha was everyone else. I really think Marsha would be good at this if I could just coax her to perform on stage. Oh wait, we will be for Rigoletto. Anyway, on Monday we worked until 8:30 before the fading light forced us to knock off for the night. Thursday however, we barely made it to 8:00 before it was too dark to read our scripts. Fall is definitely on the way. Soon we’ll be into the wet season, and the dark of the year. For the moment though we’re enjoying the last few days of summer.
Of course we DO have a list of things we want to complete before fall; trim the hedge, weed the garden, finish a couple of small landscaping projects, and finish sealing up the outside of the house. When they installed the new window in the downstairs bedroom they pulled all of the siding off of that part of the house. They reinstalled it but there are chips and new nails, and exposed seams. I want to repaint that corner and seal all of the seams again before the winter rains set in. All of that will keep us busy.
And then there’s Rigoletto. We’ve been rehearsing every Saturday, and starting this week we’ve added a second optional practice on Wednesdays as well. It’s coming together. We’re now singing passages that are many pages long and we’re singing a LOT faster. What’s more, both Marsha and I are not relying on the score nearly as much. We’re able to close the book and just sing the sections from memory. I have to admit though, that while we’re getting to know the music pretty well, the words are often a struggle. As someone said after one of the rehearsals, “I have to admit that there’s more than a few time’s I was singing scat”. Now I'm not sure if she meant freeform jazz or animal droppings but it is coming together.
So between the household projects, and practice for the opera, and learning our lines for the play, and laughing at other people’s weather we’re looking forward to a busy fall.
PIX: This week marked one year since my surgery which we celebrated with a bottle of wine. We found an Italian muscat that might be our new favourite wine. The Nightmare Before Christmas glasses just seemed appropriate.