Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Wednesday, May 11th

So it's my San Francisco birthday today. And if you can't figure out what that means, think for a while, it'll come to you. Where does the time go? All sorts of good wishes are pouring in, mainly through facebook. It's been very interesting peeking back in on the lives of people I knew in elementary school and haven't seen for decades to see what sort of adults they have become. Of course, it's impossible to hide your age from someone you were in kindergarten with. They more or less know. I don't feel a lot older. The knees creak a bit more then they used to and I don't have the stamina to run around all night the way I once did but that's about it. I hope I got the good genes from my parents who are still in reasonable shape as they complete their eighth decades.

It's been a wild time around Alabama the last few weeks. The worst tornadoes in seventy years hit two weeks ago today. 238 dead in Alabama alone and more than 5,000 homes destroyed in Tuscaloosa and Jefferson counties alone. I had occasion to be in one of the tornado areas on Monday and it's horrible. No house or building for miles without significant damage and in some places, whole blocks gone.

We were fine through the whole thing. We never even lost power and had no idea how bad it was until people started calling from out of state to check on us. Most of my friends and coworkers are also fine. One nurse I know lost her house and another couple of friends had significant structural damage requiring them to move but their stuff is fine. Everyone, however, has friends of friends who lost family or pretty much everything they had. It's going to be a long hard slog to recover as there was so much damage in so many places. The feds are helping but the city, county, and state are all nearly broke in this economy and there are very few public dollars around here for much of anything.

Been busy the last few weeks with this years Politically Incorrect Cabaret - Enemy of the State. We're taking on a lot of the idiotic things that the new Republicans and Tea baggers are ramming through various state legislatures. I feel like Susan Powter yelling 'Stop the Insanity'. At least there's plenty of fodder for satire. The show this year is pretty good and much tighter than many of them have been in the past. I think our audience will be pleased. I'll try to put up some performance shots later if anyone bothers to take some. It's always been a bit hit or miss in terms of photographing the show.

Tommy and I are looking at doing some traveling in the near future. I know we're making a WV/KY run the second week of June. Everything else is still nebulous but I'll put the schedule up when I have it. No west coast - airfares are horrible.