Various and sundry

I spent the evening yesterday in the green room at our local community theater. I was at the ready with needle and thread. It was fun. The play is Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Most of the cast are children. The energy was exciting though not over the top. Last night was the dress rehersal. This morning they are performing for the local schools. Tomorrow night is the first public performance. I plan to go over there shortly and see what sort of costuming assistance I can provide. This time I'm taking my thimble. I forgot it last night, and my finger is consequently suffering. 

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Manny is on the fritz again.

Superman thinks ist's the starter motor. It won't start. Duh. Instead it makes this strange grinding noise. I said to Superman this morning if it is the starter motor, we should be able to push start the thing, bypassing the starter motor. We (meaning him and the boys) can push it out of the driveway and point it down the street (a very gentle decline) and I can start it as it rolls down hill. He agreed that if it is the starter motor, that should work. However, if it isn't the starter motor, we'd have a dead truck at the bottom of the hill and he wasn't going to push the damn thing back up the hill. Hmmm.  Good point. For now Manny will just decorate the driveway. We'll decide what to do with him in a week or two, or whenever it gets unbearable having only one working vehicle. 

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Just a quick note about the washing machine. I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of the subject. Anyway, it is working, but seems to be having balance trouble. These front loading babies are supposed to spin beautifully without the typical out-of-balance shimmy that many top loading machines have. Well, something is screwy. Superman is talking about taking the back and top panels off to check the shock absorbers. I don't know how he'll check them, but I'm not going to fret about it now. My point, though, is that I don't know how much longer this machine will last. I paid a lot of money for the thing, and I expect to get more than 6 years out of it. Although I love the features, the recent performance is frustrating.

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You have met Sproing, right? He's my bouncing (you have no idea) baby boy, nearly 11 years old now. We adopted him as a newborn, brought him home from the hospital when he was 4 days old. If you compare the picture of me in the right sidebar to this blurry picture of him (he didn't hold still) you will notice that our skin tones don't match. 

The dear boy gets teased a lot in school because of his race and skin tone. He's very dark, and by some twisted standard within the black community (at least around here) the darker your skin, the lower your value as a person. I could go on and on about how wrong that is, but I'll resist. He also, of course, gets a lot of flack because he has white parents. People are always asking him if he's adopted. Frankly, he's sick of it. He said so this morning. According to him, this is what he now tells anyone who asks:

These people are not my parents. They are my limo drivers.

Updatey Stuff

Yes I did go to the volunteers meeting at the theater. Sproing asked me why I had to go out. I told him I need to meet other adults. I don't think he understands. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

The meeting was fun. I was the only newby. I saw a couple of people I have known from around town, seen before, or have otherwise been remotely associated with. Most of the folks there I'd never met. Somewhere between 15 and 20 people were in attendance. I had the best talk with a very elderly gent named... I forget. Cliff, maybe. He was quite engaging. Another fellow I just saw from across the stage (we met up on the stage) had what I believe is a Scottish accent. Don't know his story. He and his older teen age (or early 20s) son were there together. The second in command of this operation is a slight thin man, approaching middle age. It's difficult to tell his age. I'm sure I've seen him from time to time, but can't remember where. He is the only one who pegged my gaydar meter. Kinda swishy, but subtle. We shall see. Seems nice.

I signed up to work with costumes. This is community theater. If you know anything about community theater, you are aware that they desperately need volunteers to help out in just about any and every way. I heard some task descriptions that I could probably do well, and others in which I would like to gain experience. I restrained myself from volunteering for anything besides the sewing. I figure as I get more comfortable with the people, with the way the operation works, and my limitations, I may step up and help in a few other areas. I just didn't want to jump in over my head at the first meeting. I have been known to do that, believe it or not.

Diva was under the impression that I was going for a job interview, that I would be getting a new job, for pay and everything. I had to disillusion the poor child. Then today I talked with Sproing about it. He seemed flabergasted that Iwould do something like this and not get paid!!!

Sproing did much better today. I slept through the entire morning routine, not waking until they had been in school for over 2 hours. So I didn't see Sproing pitching any kind of fits before school today. And I didn't ask. Ignorance is bliss.

I picked the boy up early from school to take him to his therapy appointment. We only had a half hour slot. We needed much more! We have another appointment next Tuesday for an hour long session. The therapist also said if things get as bad as they were earlier this week, I should call the office and she would squeeze us in somewhere. She was perhaps a bit distressed that I hadn't called when things were falling apart early in the week.

There was a lot of discussion between the therapist and me. Sproing was not very active in the session. He talked to me more afterwards though.

I want to tell you about our discussion, but I'm too tired now. Deity willing, I will elaborate further in the next day or two.