Tag: california

Back and forth, back and forth

We got back from California on Monday. Well, we actually got back on Sunday, but we spent the night at my parent’s house rather than drive back after dark, so we didn’t get home until Monday morning.

I landed at OAK on Monday afternoon, grabbed my luggage, and then spent forty five minutes trying to get my rental car. The first car I picked out had a really low steering wheel – like, brushing the tops of my thighs low, and it didn’t get adjust any higher. The second was fine, but when I ried to leave it turned out that it wasn’t actually available for rent so I had to reverse back into the rental lot, park, and then pick out the third car. I ended up driving a Nissan Versa which was the example model they listed when I chose what class car I wanted to rent. After finally getting to leave the rental lot I drove straight to the school.

What is there to say about the situation at Moreau? Grant, the latest fired designer, was about halfway competent. When I arrived there were a bunch of lights already hung and “focused” in the theatre, and there were some cues already, but it was a terrible job. Most scenes were being lit from the same six lights at the back fo the house, giving every song and scene the same flat, washed-out look. Plus, there was so much spill all around the proscenium I have to assume he either planned to re-focus later or just didn’t care. Probably the latter.

So for the first rehearsal I just watched, took some notes, and tried to make sense of what I had walked into. Tuesday I refocused the lights that were already hanging, ordered a rental package of 18 additional lights, and started re-doing the cues. Wednesday I picked up the rental, hung more lights, and continued refocus. By Thursday I was seriously re-writing the cues and adding more, and by Friday opening I was just down to tweaking the look and timing of some of the cues.

Now, it doesn’t look great. We opened the show on Friday with what I’d usually peg as a Sunday or Monday before opening version, but given the speed with which this all fell together I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

It was really nice to see everyone again. I spent most of my time in the theater, of course, but I spent the week sleeping in Angela’s spare bedroom. The students

We’re okay

I really want to talk about my parents’ visit out here, but first I wanted to assure everyone that we’re okay after last night’s earthquake. It woke us up in the middle of the night but all it did was rumble a bit. Nothing fell down or even shifted around.

For the curious here’s a map of all the earthquake’s we’ve felt since we moved here. It’s a lot shorter of a list than I expected it would be when I started the map.

Okay, since the embed doesn’t seem to be working, try clicking here instead (and zoom way out to see last night’s quake.

Halfway up the mountain

* Gill and I decided to take a ride up Mount Doom Diablo today (I still can’t believe we actually live near Mount Diablo. It’s like we’re living in a bad fantasy movie or something.) Anyways, it was fun. Once you get past the super-expensive homes at the base of the mountain, the road into the park itself barely qualifies as two lanes, and the lane up the mountain is right on the edge. There were some great views here, but only a single place to pull over and park right before the gate and the Ranger’s station. We had a great view looking south though.

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As you can tell, the slight overcast we experienced on the ground had turned into full-on fog up the mountain, and it only got worse the higher we climbed. We passed several camping and picnic areas, with the fog getting worse and worse, until we finally decided to turn around even before we got to the road leading to the summit. I think we only got as high as 2200 feet before the fog became too thick to continue driving.
On our way back down we stopped at this little picnic area called the “Bridal Nook Picnic Area”. It was literally a half-dozen muddy steps up to a picnic table and grill, but the fog really made it magical.

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We stopped again about halfway back to the gatehouse and did a little walking on a trail. Unfortunately, the trails are all hard-packed dirt and had turned into mud with the last several days of rain, but we managed to pick our way over to what would have been a beautiful view, if the fog wasn’t in.

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All in all it was quite an adventure. I’m amazed at how green everything was, especially as I can count the number of days of rain we’ve seen since we moved here on both hands (as a sign at the park entrance said “The fire danger today is LOW”.)

* On the way back home we stopped in Danville to have a bit of a walk on the Iron Horse Trail. We also found where the Trader Joe’s, Post Office, and Z Pizza are in Danville, so that’s handy.

* Speaking of Trader Joe’s, we did a brief bit of shopping. The cookie butter is so good but so bad for us. And the freeze-dried unsweetened blueberries are fantastic!