A shot of the Paper Mill Playhouse – I only have these because Don asked me to take some pictures, so I ran out of the theater and snapped a few. Track 3 and Track 4 are references to Murder on the Orient Express, of course. This is a very old theater and there are other buildings in the complex – a restaurant/catering facility, etc. It’s quite lovely and has a long, long history as a major regional theater which happens to be quite close to NYC. In fact, it’s the State Theater of New Jersey.

Part of the courtyard. It was dusk when I took these, so they’re not the best.

The show officially opened on Sunday night. Everyone associated with it has done a great job. In all honesty, I’m not crazy about the script, which mines the mystery for laughs. It was adapted by Ken Ludwig, who wrote the well-known Lend Me a Tenor, which is a farce. So, there are elements of farce in this adaptation. I’d prefer the mystery itself with maybe a few quirky elements along the way. We all know that Poirot has his own quirks. But I think farce cheapens the brilliant Christie story. It’s not all farce, of course, but I did find it jarring and unnecessary. However, the director and cast have done an excellent job with this adaptation.

We worked outside yesterday, clearing a few more garden beds. I think they’re all fairly free of leaves now. Working outside is tiring for me because of my allergies, which flare up and sort of take over for the rest of the day.

I wanted to tell you that we had a long phone conversation with Adrian on Sunday afternoon. He’s home – we were quite surprised at that bit of news – and, after two months there, he’s very, very happy to be home. But he has to go through rigorous testing every week – a heart biopsy (which is done to see if the body is accepting or rejecting the heart) and a slew of other tests. He’s still in a great deal of pain. Adrian has had a lot of injuries – some major and life threatening – in his life and he said it’s like every bit of physical trauma that he has experienced has come back to haunt him. He’s obviously not sleeping as well as he would like, given the pain. We love him so much and pray that the pain eases soon.

I woke up very, very early today so I’m going to take it easy. We do have to buy some top soil and netting of some sort, but that will most likely be tomorrow.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

Just a quick note to say we’re both feeling very sick. Don has had this longer than I have and he’s still not feeling well. I’m in the middle of it and it’s god-awful. I coached from home via zoom yesterday and I’ll do it again today.

We’re pretty convinced it’s the flu. I had chills the other night and maybe a low-grade fever. Don had the same about a week ago. We did have flu shots this year, but that doesn’t always protect you from other strains.

Anyway, we’re wiped out and I have to try and coach in the midst of blowing my nose and coughing. It was my suggestion to coach via zoom as this show has a very short rehearsal period and I wanted the actors to have some one-on-one time with me before they start the second week of rehearsals.

Also, keep in mind that this kind of thing always hits me harder because with my allergy/sinus problems, I’m already quite congested.

So, I’ll be back when I’m back.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Well, here we are. We’ve left a couple of messages about the urgency of an oil delivery. We originally called last Thursday, but…the weekend screwed things up. I’m going to make Don call again in a few minutes.

And the service technician is coming to look at the washer. As soon as I’m done here, we’ll take showers and then remove the doors and molding in prep for his arrival. There’s a nice tracking code which we can use to see how many stops away he is. Four stops as of now, but each stop can take an hour or so, so maybe around 11 am?

And then, we just get out of the way while he does his thing.

And we await 5 – 8 inches of snow tonight, another 1 – 3 inches tomorrow morning….and wait…the same thing on Friday. I have been telling Don all along that we’d get walloped in March. Sigh. We need the snowpack for our water table, so it’s a good thing in the long run. It’s just not something you want to see in March.

All of the above on the same day.

Ah, well.

Please cross your fingers that this thing with the washer is something we can get fixed.

And that oil is delivered. Today.

I won’t share a photo of me in pajamas, a hooded sweatshirt, and a wool cap. I’ll spare you that.

Edited: The oil is coming today. Whew!

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.