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A night to be thankful

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Absolutely beautiful night for sitting on the porch, listening to the Tigers and doing some journaling. The frogs and crickets are serenading me. It’s early August, not too hot, and I’d be happy to sit here for many, many days.

A beautiful night on the porch

The house behind me is pretty quiet – I can hear Max and Maggie playing a game together in the basement, laughing quietly and enjoying time together. Another few weeks and they’ll be heading out, back to college, and I’ll miss the sounds of them laughing…. or fighting, or singing, or all of the sounds I’ve gotten used to hearing again since they moved back in waaaaay back in March, when the pandemic was just starting and we weren’t sure how long the interruptions would be. Of course I’ll be worried about them, and I still hate that they’re going, but they have leases on apartments, and most of their classes will be online, and so I have to trust they’ll be okay. Ugh.

Jeanne went to sleep a little early, she had a long, busy day. Some exciting things happening for her that’ll be announced soon enough. Yesterday evening the four of us took the dogs for a nice walk as the sun was setting, walking around the neighborhood. We were laughing, watching FlipFlop pull Max on his skateboard (which he LOVES to do!), and Sneakers was pulling on Maggie because she wanted to chase them… as we followed behind Jeanne said “Aw man… we aren’t going to get many more nights like these” and I knew she was right. The kids will be moving out soon, and who knows when or even if they’ll move back in. Sneakers is not doing well – she’s almost 16 and had a good life, but probably won’t be with us much longer, so we’re really trying to enjoy the time we have with her now. Even if you take the pandemic out of the equation, the constant shifting of sand beneath our feet will be bringing us to a new place again soon.

Can we take the pandemic out of the equation? I mean, all we can do is be as careful as possible, and wait. Wear our masks, wash our hands, Hope people do their best, and hope for a vaccine. And do our best to manage the change that keeps coming as time drifts on, gently dragging us along (and sometimes not gently at all).

Thing is, every time I can remember thinking “Aw man, this is the end of an era” in our family, or with friends, later I also found myself having nights like last night, or tonight, once again, where I wound up thinking “This is beautiful. I’m a lucky, lucky man.” So, even though everything is so up in the air right now, I have faith that as much as I love tonight, I’ll have more moments like this again in the future. Hopefully I’ll remember to take the time to recognize them.

For now, though, I’m going to enjoy the back-and-forth of this ridiculous ball game as the Tigers keep finding ways to give away the lead, and listen to the frogs and crickets reminding me to just breathe, and savor.

Ch-Ch-Changes…..

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Sat down to update my journal, and realized it’s been two months! Amazing, where did that time go? Well, life got crazy:

*We sold our house in Chelsea and moved to Williamston!
*We have officially become “empty-nesters” with both kids now moved out of the house and into their universities, University of Michigan and Western Michigan University!
*A BIG renovation has been taking place for the last 7 weeks at Williamston Theatre, at the same time that we’re rehearsing and about to go into previews for the beautiful play The Safe House by Kristine Thatcher.

So – life has been busy!  And WONDERFUL.  We’re about to open SEASON FOURTEEN at Williamston Theatre!

The kids:

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The building renovation.  We tore out our old Stage Manager tech booth and put in a new one!

How it looks now:

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How it looked a few weeks ago:

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and a couple weeks before that….

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…aaaaaand from the other side….

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Also, here’s our new house!

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AND here are a few rehearsal shots from the BEAUTIFUL show The Safe House by Kristine Thatcher, directed by the wonderful Casaundra Freeman, and starring Karen Sheridan, Dani Cochrane and Tobin Hissong.

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So, the last 8 weeks have been insanely busy, but also pretty darned wonderful.  I’m so grateful for my family, and my work, and the people I get to work with!

I hope everyone else has had a good summer as well – now that Fall is upon us, and my that wonderful Autumnal feeling is in the air, I’m really looking forward to what’s coming up. I hope you all are too!

A Big Move!

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Too long since my last post, and that’s because we have been swamped with MOVING INTO A NEW HOUSE!  Jeanne, Max and Maggie and I are now living in Williamston, Michigan.  Several reasons for the move, like being closer to Jeanne’s parents, looking to downsize now that the kids are both headed to college, wanting a smaller yard to take care of, stuff like that.

It’s been a crazy couple months – some of it I chronicled here – got back from Italy, got sick for a few weeks (man, that bronchial infection kicked my BUTT!), slowly got better from that, then got super busy packing a house we’d lived in for 17 years (while trying to PURGE also!), and moving, and now we are slowly unpacking and making our little house feel like home!

I am loving being able to walk to work.  After working in Williamston for 14 years it already felt like home, but now walking to and from work, I’m falling in love with it even more.  Crossing the bridge over the Red Cedar River and passing by McCormick park with all of its carved-tree artwork, kids playing in the giant play area, it’s a beautiful place.

The kids seem to be enjoying the new house, even though it won’t be long before they are both moved into their college dorm rooms and Jeanne and I are gleefully selling their stuff and turning their rooms into offices and exercise rooms (HAH!  Kidding!)

So, right now we’re all deep into “managing change”, and adjusting to this new phase of life, and enjoying it!  Lots of good things happening, INCLUDING the kids moving to college and diving into THAT big change in their lives.  (Maggie’s been going to school for two years now, but this will be her first time living in the dorms. Max will be in college for the first time this fall!  Both kids lived away from home, of course, for a year, when they did their exchange programs in Finland and Germany, but this will be a cool new experience for them.  I’m excited for them!)

For now, though, we’re still digging out from boxes that need unpacking.  We “downsized” on purpose, and purged a bunch of stuff before moving, but as we unpack, I think another purge may be due!

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Amazing Anniversaries and Other Awesome Things

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The last couple of weeks have been full of positive things.  Not everything, of course, but right now I feel like focusing on the things that are making life wonderful.

My son came home from Germany!  After 7 months, it’s great to have him back.  Now he’s prepping for Western Michigan University in the Fall.

Jeanne and I celebrated 25 years of marriage.  Can’t believe it’s already been that long!

This week is my 5 Year Anniversary of coming home from the hospital after my meningitis coma “vacation”, as my wife calls it.  So many memories popping up on Facebook, and nice comments from people.  It was 5 years ago yesterday that I came home after being gone for two and a half months in St. Joe’s of Ann Arbor.  So, as I do every year, I celebrated by taking them fruit and chocolate gifts, and “Thanks for keeping me alive” cards!  If you see a doctor, or a nurse – thank them.  They’re heroes.  Without those amazing people I would’ve missed my kids graduating high school, my 25th wedding anniversary, the pride of seeing my kids go to other countries and become independent amazing human beings… and so many other things.

Other great things:  Opened The Gin Game, the 76th production at Williamston Theatre, to great reviews and thrilled audiences.  Held general auditions for our upcoming 14th Season, which I am IN LOVE WITH.  Our summer show, which is a co-production with Tipping Point Theatre, opened at their space and is terrific, and I am excited to get it to Williamston.  The new season of Major League Baseball is upon us – and even though the Tigers are going to have a challenging rebuilding year, it’s going to be fun to watch.

Jeanne and I have had a fun time looking at houses lately.  We love the house we’re in, but with us entering the “Empty Nest” phase of life, we’re looking to downsize a little bit.  It’s been 17 years – I’m done raking so many leaves!  🙂   So, big changes coming there, which are exciting!

So much happening.  I hope things are going well for you, too.  Spring is finally here, and with the new warm weather and sunshine we can enjoy looking forward to what comes next.

Sometimes….

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Sometimes, electronics fritz out. 

Sometimes, the electronics that fritz out are the things that make your life easier like, oh, a thermostat. 

Sometimes a thermostat for your furnace, that is not connected in any way to your air-conditioner, completely freaks out and decides that, since it’s numbers go up to 88, it should try to heat up your house to 88 degrees. 

Sometimes your central air unit, responsible for the air-conditioning of your home, has a thermostat that works juuuuuuust fine. 

So, sometimes the air-conditioner feels like it’s too warm in the house, and it begins working to cool down the house to a nice, livable 75 degrees. 

Also, there’s a natural weather thing that happens where, sometimes, it’s 85 degrees outside with a humidity reading of approximately 71,000%. 

Aaaaaaaaand sometimes you come home to discover that ALL DAY LONG your air-conditioner and furnace have been battling for total domestic domination. The baseboards are scorching hot, the floor vents are ice cold. The temperatures in the house vary so much that the sweat you work up walking through the family room turns to frost crystals on your face by the time you’re through the kitchen. 

Predicted utilities bills for the month of July: 71,000% of normal.  There’s a fruit basket on the kitchen table. DTE Energy sent it as a thank you. 

Sometimes…..  

  • Casa de Caselli: 0 
  • Technology: 1

…..sometimes, technology wins.