Backblog – Wednesday, April 29th

The theater fun continued on this Wednesday. I have a bias since I work there, but I think CVCA has a kick-butt theater program. I have been very impressed with the theater productions in general, but especially the spring musicals. The musical pulls together a pit orchestra, a cast of 30 or more, a set crew and tech crew and costume crew, and in all attracts the talents of about 100 students. It really is amazing, especially for a high school.

This year’s production was Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. While this may not be everyone’s cup of tea (in Chip, of course), the kids were really excited. I had not seen the animated movie in a long time, so while I knew the story, I had forgotten many of the particulars.

The set was fantastic, with three layers. The farthest back was the Beast’s castle, and it had two levels – an upstairs where the Beast’s library and rose were, and a lower level where most of the action happened. This allowed for some pretty dramatic entrances by the Beast, and forced him to be pretty physical. The lower level also had a dungeon door where Belle’s father was imprisoned (and included a door that the Beast could rip off the hinges while enraged).

There was also a mid-stage curtain that could be drawn across the stage that had a creepy forest painted on it for the scenes where Belle’s father (and later Belle) are attacked by wolves. The wolves were really neat. They were ensemble actors dressed as wolves who had well-choreographed dances and moves while attacking. They were very effective, and exited through the audience, which was a nice touch.

The front of the stage had mobile scenery that was often made up of the town that Belle lived in, and was home to the wonderfully chauvinistic Gaston. It included several building facades, a town well or platform (Gaston stood on it during one song), and two thrust stages on either side of the main stage for Belle’s garden and other smaller scenes. The scenery was not the stereotypical cardboard cutout falling over at the back of the stage!

The costuming was fantastic. All of the costumes were rented, so the costumes were pretty much what professional theaters use. The magical people/objects found in the Beast’s castle were much fun, with the costumes often being more suggestive of the object and sometimes more literal. The magic chest of drawers was a full costume including one drawer that opened up, while Lumiere (the candle) was mostly suggested by two flames that covered the hands.

Ahh, and the special effects. I don’t often think of special effects for high school productions, but this one had some doozies. There was Chip – the little boy who had turned into a teacup. He was wheeled in on a tea cart, and all you could see was his head. The cart was open, so it certainly looked as if there was no body below the head in the teacup. It worked really well (it was done by carefully constructed mirrors, and was apparently very cramped inside). There was Belle’s father’s invention – a machine that chopped wood. The character dropped a whole piece of wood inside his cart, and several split pieces fell out immediately. This was done with springs and a trap door, and was also very convincing. The Beast’s final transformation back into a human was a closely guarded secret, and it involved a huge rush of dry ice that immediately covered the back of the stage in a fog. It was very impressive.

The big central number, “Be Our Guest,” was amazing. It involved at least 30 people dancing on stage, and included hundreds of lights that burst on the stage in the middle of the song. It was pretty jaw-dropping.

The music was very fine. It turns out that the score for Beauty and the Beast is actually very difficult. Many of the pieces are very fast, and there is music through almost the entire play (at least as background music). The kids did a great job, and I was pleased to be sitting right next to the pit so I could see how they were doing. The singing was excellent – CVCA has a massive amount of singing talent, possibly a nice result of the students’ singing in church every Sunday for 15 years.

Mer and I both thoroughly enjoyed the evening. The kids did a great job, and there is a special treat of being “in the know” when watching a production: knowing the actors, crew, musicians, and directors adds a level of fun that makes the evening special.

Backblog – Saturday, April 25th

This particular Saturday was a fun “date day.” It was a beautiful April day, and it was “my” day, so I took Mer to go for a walk in a couple of parks. The first park is called Daffodil Trail, a part of the Furnace Run park, which is a short (about .6 mile) trail. What makes it special, especially in the spring, is that the trail has large collections of daffodils all along it, and Mer particularly likes daffodils. It was a very pretty walk with lots of flowers. Some had already gone by, and some other were not yet blooming, but there were plenty of flowers to see. The walk did not take all that long, so we proceeded to Rock Creek trail (part of Furnace Run, but in a separate area a few miles away) and hiked there as well.

On the way to the park we had passed a farm stand called Country Maid that sold ice cream. We had never heard of the place before, so we stopped on the way back. The articles on the wall of the stand praised the ice cream, but especially lauded the shakes of the place. I’ll have to take Sonotmu there sometime since he is a shake connoisseur. Mer and I both got ice cream, and we both thought it was very good. We both think Handel’s ice cream is better, but Country Maid has a wonderfully rural scene, and is a much nicer place to eat.

That evening, we went to see Hudson Players’ production of Guys and Dolls. Mer had bought me tickets for my birthday present, and was very excited to see the musical. We have had the sound track for years, and I liked the music, but the music did not make much sense to me as a story. Hudson Players is a community acting group, and I was not sure what to expect. They did a great job. They had a 7- or 8-piece orchestra that did very well, and the cast of the musical was very large. The acting was quite fine, and the singing was good; I would say the only thing that hinted at the play’s being an amateur production was that the singing was not always loud enough (and we were in the front row).

The scenery was fun – they had constructed a street scene in New York, with a painted background of a skyline and then several buildings and a newsstand in front, on the stage. When the play moved to Havana, the crew brought out a tiki hut. Well done!

I really enjoyed the play. It is a fun musical anyway, and getting to see the characters in context made the play fall into place for me. The scenery, music, and acting were all fine, and then to make sure our allegiance was won over, they had a cheesecake dessert reception after the show where you could mingle with the actors. Luck was a lady tonight, indeed!

Backblog – Friday, April 24th

Friday, April 24th, marked the first evening of a theater-intensive period for us. Mer had won tickets at the CVCA auction to see Kent State’s production of Twelfth Night. We had seen productions at Kent State before, and we were looking forward to this one.

The theater is semi-circular with colosseum-style seating that goes three quarters of the way around. It only seats about 100-200 people, and so is quite intimate and the actors do not have or need microphones. The set was very simple – it was a series of platforms set about the stage, and there were tall and thin curtains at the back of the set that were used very effectively at the start of the play to indicate a ship that was going down in a storm (the banners waved back and forth as if in a violent wind).

I am pretty familiar with Twelfth Night; we own two different copies of it on DVD, and we have seen it in the theater before. So, I had no trouble with the plot or the language or in keeping track of the characters.

Overall, the play was quite good. I was a little surprised at a few of the casting decisions. Most notably, the woman who played Viola (a major role) had trouble with delivering lines. She had them all memorized, but they were all said essentially the same way, no matter what emotion the play was calling for. As such, her role came across as flat. I think the director may have been going for a “stranger-in-a-strange-land” effect since the young woman had an accent and was exotic looking, but there were times where her monotone delivery of a line undercut what was going on around her. It was an odd choice for a leading role.

Some of the other major roles were quite excellent. The actor playing the uptight steward of the house, Malvolio, was just fantastic. He played the stringent joy-killer with a pompous air, and after he is fooled into thinking that the great lady of the house loves him, his comedic timing was wonderful. The others of the household were also excellent actors – Sir Toby and the man he is mooching off of, Sir Andrew, Maria the housemaid and the Fool of the house all pulled off their roles with gusto and with vigor. The multi-stage set was used to good effect to indicate where the action was taking place, and there was some fun but limited interaction with the audience. I did feel bad for the actors (and for us) in that the auditorium was really uncomfortably hot. I’m not sure if the air conditioning was broken or if Kent State had not turned it on yet since it was still April.

All in all, it was a good production and entertaining, and since Mer had gotten the tickets at about half price at the auction, it was a very successful outing.

Backblog – Saturday, April 18th

Every year for the last seven or eight years, CVCA has held an auction as a fund raiser. This includes a very good dinner, and a fair amount of nice things are donated. It generally brings in over $100,000, and it helps to keep tuition down.

Saturday, April 18th, was the auction for this year. I am always invited since the check-out procedure is computerized. It is an interesting evening for me – it is a wonderful dinner with lots of people that I know, with a constant background of checking on how the computers are doing. Meredith gets to come along, and that is fun for both me and her.

This year’s theme was “God Bless America” and so the food was American, which I loved. There were burgers and pizza and lots of other good stuff. I ate too much, as I always seem to do at buffet-style meals.

I’m not sure if it was because of the economy being down or because our table was way at the back, but the auction seemed more subdued this year. The results were still okay – we were down about 15% or so over all, but it just seemed to lack some of the energy of past years. Mer found some good buys, some of which she shared with me. She got a spa package, and gift certificates for 3 dozen donuts, and the real hit (for me) was that she got a gift certificate for a Dairy Queen Blizzard cake. Neither of us had ever had one before, and it turned out to be fantastic. What a great dessert. Funny story – there were two gift cards for a cake, and several days later a teacher who had bought the other one told Meredith to be aware that the expiration date was only a few weeks away. Mer told her that was not a problem since we had already eaten our cake.

Anyway, the auction went well from my perspective; Mer had a good time, I ate too much, and the computers behaved themselves.

Backblog – Sunday, April 12th, and Monday, April 13th
Easter Sunday was fairly mellow. There is a small church in Bridgman that Mer and I like called Olivet Congregational Church, and we decided to go there for Easter. It is a very small church; even with me and Mer and Ellen, the congregation was under 20 people. I’m not sure why that is – the preaching was fine, and the people were friendly, and the music is much fun – the music is provided by the congregation sitting in the first pews, and included saxophone and trumpet along with the piano of the church. The pastor was easygoing without being informal, and he chatted with us (Ellen and Mer and me) from the pulpit to welcome us. I really liked the church, so I am not sure why it is so small.

After church we went home and I made brunch – I served up strawberries and then made French toast. Marc’s brother makes maple syrup, and Mom and Marc gave us a mason jar of it. So, a brunch was certainly called for! I managed to pull it off, and it was tasty. Mom and Marc’s kitchen is open to the dining and living rooms, so the three of us were able to chat while I played chef for the morning.

The rest of the day is a bit fuzzy. There is an excellent chance that I took a nap while Mer graded and Ellen worked on her doctoral dissertation. At some point, we went down to the beach again so that we could see the beach without freezing. We did not attempt a sunset again, having experienced a rather lengthy one the day before. I expect a game or two was played at some point during the day as well, but all in all, it was a quiet day.

We had to go back home on Monday. We did take time to swing by Sammie’s for breakfast again. We then headed back to get Ellen home to Hillsdale, but we did manage a Dairy Queen stop just before getting to the town. Ice cream is always a welcome pit stop. Sadly, we could not really stay long at Ellen’s – we had school the next day, so we mainly just dropped her off at home and used her bathroom and were off again. We had no issues getting home, and it was good to see the kitties. It was a quick weekend get-away, but a very happy one.

Backblog – Saturday April 11th

There are many great joys of being at Mom and Marc’s place in Michigan (even when Mom and Marc are not there); it is quiet, and pretty, and near the lake, and has lots of cute towns nearby. But, perhaps the greatest pleasures for me and Mer are sleeping in and eating breakfast at Sammie’s Restaurant.

Since Mom’s place is very quiet, it contributes nicely to a good snooze. Add the fact that the house is on the far west of the time zone, which means the sun comes up later than it does in Ohio, and you get a very nice set-up to be lazy. Once you do roll out of bed, you can walk (if the weather is nice) about a mile to Sammie’s Restaurant, where they serve huge and tasty breakfasts until 2:00.

So, this Saturday was no exception. In fact, since Ellen had never been to the area before, it seemed like a downright duty to introduce her to Sammie’s. If I recall correctly, I did have to wake Meredith up; the morning was getting on and everyone else was awake, so the poor thing had to put up with my shortening her sleep. After everyone was ready (no small feat with five people), we all strolled off in the pursuit of high-fat breakfast foods.

The day was nice and sunny, and the walk was quite pleasant for an early April morning. We arrived to little or no wait at Sammie’s (an unexpected bonus), and we all proceeded to eat too much. On the way back, Shannon (who likes a brisk walking pace) pulled the long-suffering Jo along and they got home well before Ellen, Meredith and I did.

Not too long after we got back, Marc showed up. It is, after all, his house. He was on his way to visit his brother and sister, and he stopped in at the house along the way. Marc is one of the most hospitable men I have ever met, and he made Ellen feel quite welcome. Ellen, Meredith, and I had chatted about going to a nice town that was nearby called St. Joseph. When Marc found out that plan, he offered to be the tour guide, and we quite happily accepted. Marc would take Ellen and Meredith in his car, and I would follow along in mine. That way, he could continue on his way north after we were all done, and the three of us could drive back to Bridgman.

We set off in the very small convoy, and Marc took the lead along the back way to St. Joe’s. He quickly pulled into a parking lot, and I followed. We were at a donut shop, and we had just beaten their closing time. Marc bought everyone a treat of his or her choice, and thus provisioned, we proceeded in our 25-minute trek north.

We got to St. Joe’s and Marc pulled into another parking lot. I followed, and this time it turned out to be the Krasl Art Center, a very small but well-done art gallery in the town. They had five or so pieces of sculpture outside, and inside there were two galleries. I’m afraid at this point I have forgotten what was in the first gallery – I think it had some sculpture, but I am not sure, The second gallery was unusual – it had a special exhibition by an artist who was interested in palimpsests. Palimpsests are previous writings on reused surfaces. Normally, these are old writings that were written down when paper was very costly, and then the writing was scraped off so the paper could be reused. These older writings are often of great interest to archeologists, This artist created modern-day examples of this by using chalkboards. He would let people use a chalkboard, and then he would lightly erase the board and have them use it again. He then captured the images (usually by photograph), and he displayed them. I’m not sure it passed the “Matt test” for modern art (the test of “could I have made this?”), but the gallery was easily done in a few minutes, and I really enjoyed the small art center as a whole.

We then drove down to the main street. The main street area of St. Joe’s is a great place to stroll – they have nice shops and restaurants, and you can see the lake from cross streets as you walk. They have a very cool toy store, and importantly for the dessert-addicited Riordans, they have two chocolate stores. We stopped at both, and picked up some chocolates for later at the first one, and I got a chocolate chip cookie a local bakery. Since we are not faint-hearted sweet tooths, we stopped for ice cream at Kilwin’s (an ice cream/fudge/chocolate store).

By this point, Marc needed to be leaving to go to his family’s, but he recommended that we stop by a local art building called the Box Factory. It used to be a factory (presumable one that made boxes), but it has been converted into studio and display spaces for local artists. We stopped by, and wandered around. It is quite large, and they have a stage for musicians, and a small cafe. Since it was late afternoon on a Saturday during off-season, the place was quite quiet. We explored the two-level structure and poked around in the galleries. There was some very nice art, and it looked as if it could be a very festive place during a busier time in summer.

We headed back to the house and found that Shannon and Jo had left. Shannon had intimated that they had to leave, and they might leave while we were away. Since it was now getting along toward evening, I decided that Ellen had to see a sunset at the beach. Since the beach looks over the lake to the west, sunsets are very often spectacular. I calculated when the sun would be going down, and we left about 15 minutes before (we drove down since it was starting to get chilly). We got out of the car and wandered around. To my surprise, the sun was staying quite high and not making perceptible progress toward the horizon. No worries!  I knew how quickly the sun could sink into the lake. After about 15 minutes and no real progress, we began to discuss the situation. In talking it over, I realized that I had calculated incorrectly – I had mistakenly allowed that the sun went down earlier in Michigan than it does where we live in Ohio, when it is really the other way around. This meant that the sun went down about a full hour later than I had figured on. We decided to spend a good chunk of the remainder of that time in the car since a wind had sprung up which made the cold, well, colder. At length, the sun did go down, and it was a pretty sunset.

We headed back home and broke out our leftovers, as well as some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and the chocolates that Mer had bought. We had brought along a DVD of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labors Lost, which I had never seen or read. It was an updated version, with the setting being right before WW 2. They also added in song-and-dance numbers that used songs from various points of the 20th century. That sounds weird, but it worked okay. I enjoyed it. The only sad part of the evening was that I was so stuffed from all my eating during the day, I actually turned down eating some of Mer’s chocolates. Love’s Labors Lost indeed.

Mer and I slept in on the Friday of spring break, but we actually had weekend plans! We were going to Mom’s place in Michigan, and along the way we were going to go swoop up our friend Ellen from her home in Hillsdale.

We had good weather going to Hillsdale this time. We had been out to Hillsdale last December, and the weather had not been good. It was nice to be able to get to Ellen’s in a reasonable (3.5-4 hours) this time.

Ellen is probably our most “together” friend, at least when it comes to home decorating. She bought a house last summer, and she has spent the last year redecorating it to good effect. When we were last there, the house was in some disarray as she was painting and moving furniture and so on. No more! Ellen had painted all the rooms in the downstairs (and the bathroom and hallway upstairs). We toured her new handiwork and were impressed at how classy the place looked. Ellen had even used a stencil on her dining room wall, which is waaayyyyy off the Riordan radar.

Ellen is most hospitable, and she had decided to make a late lunch for us (we got there about 2:00). She had nice table settings out, and everything matched and looked nice. We sat down at the table (an extreme rarity for the Riordans), and had a delightful meal of good food and a healthy dose of laughter.

After lunch, we hit the highway again. It was about a 2-2.5-hour drive to Mom’s from Ellen’s. The drive itself was uneventful, but the conversation was excellent. Ellen is working on her doctorate, and she spent a good chunk of the drive trying to explain her topic to me and Meredith (upon my request! Ellen does not volunteer this information unsolicited). If I recall, her dissertation is looking at a 14th-century religious debate on a subject called nominalism. Nominalism turns out to be fairly complicated and a little hard to nail down, so I had a hard time grasping it. Ellen was looking at a Chaucer poem (not the Canterbury Tales) to show that Chaucer was against nominalism (some academics have tried to show the opposite).

Lest you think we spend all of our driving time discussing matters of academic weight, we also add real weight. Along the way we needed a bathroom break, and Ellen had mentioned a Michigan fast food restaurant called Culver’s that has excellent custard. Custard is a midwestern version of soft serve ice cream, but adds more fat. So, we carried our nominalism conversation into Culver’s and munched on ice cream. It was a most worthwhile pit stop.

We continued on to Mom’s place. Mom was spending the Easter weekend with my sister and her family, but Shannon and Jo were at Mom’s, at least through Saturday afternoon. We unloaded the car and greeted them. We grabbed some supper from a local Italian restaurant, and we spent the evening chatting and, importantly, playing a literary game.

Shannon and I took on Mer, Jo, and Ellen in a game called Dark and Stormy. It is a game where the game gives you the first line or first few lines from a work of literature, and you have to guess the title of the work or the name of the author who wrote it. Note that Mer and Ellen are professional English folks, and Jo is quite well read. But the male Riordans were undaunted! I did have an ace up my sleeve – Shannon is super well-read in science fiction, and that is one of the categories in the game, and he used to work at a Borders years ago and still can recall some of the books he helped people find. He proved most useful (including an impressive 4-5-minute sweat-it-out recall of a book that had been made into a movie). We sprang out to an early lead on some fairly easy questions, and we actually got to 7 books to 4 (you need 8 books to win). Sadly, we kept getting books along the lines of Obscure 16th-Century Topics by Unknown Authors  -or- While Riordan Males Lose while the ladies kept getting Dr. Seuss books. They even got a Vonnegut book question, which is something I had been waiting for (I was a huge Vonnegut fan in high school and read all of his stuff). We lost 8-7. Sigh.

Despite the loss in the game, it was still a weekend “away,” and with fun people.

Ha! I’m back. The ol’ blog has suffered mightily at the past six weeks’ worth of home improvement projects and graduation parties, but I’m going to try to get back on the blogging wagon.

To pick up where I left off….

Thursday, April 9th, was the last day of the Diakonos Habitat for Humanity trip. If you recall, Wednesday had been a very physical day for me, and I awoke on Thursday tired and with a very sore back. I went into the common room, and after everyone had breakfasted and assembled, I found out that I would be going with Ombudsman (Craig) and a team of students to a teen shelter in Akron. Craig was to take a vanload of kids with him, and I was to take four students in my car. Fair enough.

I got “my” students together, and Craig gave me directions. We piled in to my car, and we waited for Craig to lead the way in his van. We pulled out following Craig, but after just a mile or so, Craig went straight, while I was sure going right was quicker. After all, that was how I had been going to Dunkin’ Donuts for the last few days. So, we zoomed off to the right and went the Dunkin’ Donuts way. It was not until I got to Dunkin’ Donuts about 15 minutes later that I realized that my shortcut was great to get to town, but was not near the entrance to the highway that would take us to Akron. No matter! I figured if I headed west all would be well. At 25 mph. Through a stop-light-ridden town. Needless to say, progress was slow.

I was not recognizing anything, but we were going west, so I kept going. After a very long while, I saw a sign that pointed to the highway, so I turned that way. After a mile or two, I recognized that we were near Kent State University, which, while not way out of the way of getting to Akron, certainly was in the “scenic” category. Anyway, for those familiar with the area, we came out next to the restaurant Mike’s Place, and we stopped for a group photo in front of the X-wing fighter.

We did finally get on the highway, and I had one of the kids call Craig’s number so he would not think we were in an accident. We got his voicemail, and so left a message, and we drove on to Akron. We got off the highway, and then could not find the street we needed. We went right for about two miles with no luck, so we turned around. We went back to the off-ramp and kept going for a couple of miles, and had no luck. So, we went back to the off-ramp and took the last option – going on what looked to be an on-ramp to the highway, but turned out to be the road we were looking for. So, with no further adventure, we got to the teen shelter about an hour or more later than we had planned.

The teen shelter had just acquired the property, so our team was there to haul out old scrap metal and other debris from the basement (where there was going to be a nursery for pregnant teens), and then to do some painting. Craig laughed at my compromised sense of direction, and then asked if I had any ear protection. One of the projects was to use a saws-all to cut down old pipes out of a very small closet space, and the noise was terrific. I did not have any hearing protection with me, but I offered to go get some. Craig gave me some money and I went and asked some workers upstairs where there might be a hardware store. They indicated that if I went down the road out front and then turned once, I would come to a hardware store. Thus prepared, I went on my way.

I first knew it was not going to be my day (in a directional sense of the word) when the road I had been told the hardware store was on suddenly ended in a “T” crossing. I picked a way that looked promising and drove on. And on. And on. I stopped at a Walgreen’s and asked the clerk if she could point me toward a hardware store. She gave me directions that got me way on the northwest side of Akron, but I finally got to a Home Depot. Heady with my success, I asked a clerk to point me to the ear protection. He showed me the way, and I got there to find they were sold out. Apparently, early April is the start-up time for lawn care companies, and they buy hearing protection in bulk. Sigh. I bought a few packages of the squishy in-ear kind of ear protectors, and made my long trip back to the center. I think I was gone about an hour and a half.

When I did get back, I took some pictures of the students doing their thing. They had been doing a good job, and it looked as if we were going to run out of work by early afternoon. Craig was kind enough to put me on a detail paining job that was around an air-intake for the furnace; that way I would not have a  totally useless day. We broke for lunch and had a good time in fellowship (including Craig and me telling the students how we met and wooed our wives); it was quite relaxed and fun. After lunch, I finished up my small paint job and helped do some small amounts of clean-up (there was not much clean-up left to do), and we all loaded up to head back to Camp Carl around 2:00 or so.

Needless to say, it was not my finest day of service ever, but I think in some ways God was being merciful to me. My body was a wreck from the work on Wednesday, and all of my efforts were in good faith, but resulted in my not having to further abuse my back.

We got back to the camp to find that all the other students were back from their projects, and that the final packing was underway. I packed up my stuff and got it all into the car, and then I asked Craig if it would be okay if I took off. It was not yet 4:00, and if I was efficient, I could get to my chiropractor and get my back taken care of. Craig understood and let me go, and I was most happy to find that Dr. Knop could take me quickly. My back was not perfect after he was done, but at least I could move properly again.

I drove home and puttered around the house, waiting for the time I could go pick up Meredith at the airport. As the time approached, I went to a Giant Eagle grocery store and picked up a dozen roses. I almost never buy flowers for Mer anymore because of financial concerns, and I wanted her to know that I had missed her. I got up to the airport fairly early, but I was able to pass some time chatting with a CVCA teacher whom I ran into (the video teacher, Eric). Eric was there to pick up his college-aged daughter. Her flight was a bit late, and Mer’s flight was early, so my wait by myself was fairly short. I stood outside the gate area, and as people started streaming out, I put on my sunglasses. Now, I know it is dumb to have sunglasses inside, but Mer finds them attractive, and I wanted to look as good as possible for her. She came around the corner and saw me and was all smiles, and I gave her a kiss and her flowers (zeugma). I’m pretty sure the group of three women were “awww-ing” behind me. It was great to see Meredith again. Even after almost 11 years of marriage, I really do not like being away from her.

We got Mer’s things from the baggage area and headed away from the airport. I wanted to take Mer out for some food (I can’t remember now if it was dinner and dessert or just dessert), and after a few tries of finding closed restaurants, we found an open Friday’s. It was a nice end to a busy few days.

Wednesday bloomed with me feeling slightly under the weather (but just slightly). The solution was pretty obvious – I needed to go to Dunkin’ Donuts to get a hot chocolate and a sandwich. Sad to say, but that solution worked.

Once I got back, I waited for things to get rolling, and we were shortly divided up into teams. I was once again staying at Camp Carl, and I was in charge of five students. One of Nate’s friends works at the camp, and he told us to meet him by the trailhead near the cabins where most of the group stayed on Saturday night. We wandered down the hill to the trail, and we waited for a few minutes until Nate’s friend pulled up in a pickup truck full of tools and lawn implements.

We were asked to clean up the leaves near two of the cabins. Another group had cleaned up most of the leaves, but they had run out of time before doing this fairly small area. Once we had finished that, we were told we could clean up the leaves from off the walking trail, and to clean up any brush that hung over the sides of the trail. We were given three leaf blowers (one of them was a big-time backpack blower), a couple of rock rakes, several pairs of branch cutters, and a can of gas-oil mix for the blowers. Thus equipped, we were left to our own devices.

I have to admit that I was very skeptical about the blowers. The leaves were wet from the previous two days’ snow and rain, and there was even still a dusting of snow in the shady areas. Also, Nate’s friend had made the assumption that we could start the leaf blowers. Happily, they were similar to my old weed whacker, and after a couple of minutes of priming, choking, and yanking and yanking and yanking, I got the first one started. The other two started more easily. Later, one of the student pointed out that the instructions were printed on the nozzle in both English and Spanish. Hah! Who needs reading?

It turns out I was wrong about the blowers. They worked really well. I had three students go at it with the blowers. They blew the leaves toward the woods, and once the piles were too big, I had two students use the rock rakes to rake/shovel the leaves into the woods. Meanwhile, I went around and cleaned up sticks and branches. It was an efficient operation, but it still took us about an hour and a half or even slightly more. Since Nate’s friend had told us to come and find him near the other end of the walking trail when we were done, I think he thought we were going to be done with the whole project by lunch. Needless to say, this did not happen.

When we did finally wrap up the area in front of the cabins, I sent three students down the trail blowing leaves (one to the left, one to the right, and the big backpack blower doing the middle of the trail). The remaining three of us followed behind cutting down branches and trimming back brush from the trail. Again, I thought it was pretty efficient. We made our way down a big hill and got to a fun but treacherous-looking bridge. We stopped for a short rest, we moved a downed tree, and we took advantage of the photo op. We then pressed on up the other side of the hill. The blowers moved on out ahead, which was not too surprising, since they were mechanized. We followed along as best we could.

We got to the camp’s archery area and cleaned that up – it was pretty thick in leaves and sticks. Once we cleaned that up, we decided to call it lunch, so we hoofed it the mile or so back to the camp. As far as I could tell from having run the trail on Sunday, we were about halfway when we broke for lunch.

We had a mellow – and shortish (about 30-minute) – lunch, and hoofed it back down the trail again. In the meantime, we had picked up a couple of pairs of hedge trimmers, which were more effective against the bramble bushes we were starting to come across. We picked up where we’d left off near the archery area, and the leaf-blower folks took off. This turned out to be okay, since they were able to do a side trail that we had been asked to do. The brush trimming team never did make it down the side trail, but at least it was blown clear.

As we got to the home stretch, we hit more and more bramble patches. We tried cutting them back or even cutting them off at the ground. I also had a hand at trying to use a spade to remove rocks from the trail, and I got out several before turning a corner and seeing the whole trail full of buried rocks. I gave up at that point. As we got close to finishing up, some of the leaf blowers came back to help with brush control. I have to admit that I was happy to let them help. I have back issues, and I had spent the entire day bent over picking up sticks or cutting brush. My back was having great difficulty changing positions (to bend over or to straighten up). I let the younger set take care of the last several hundred yards.

We finished up the trail at a small outdoors chapel area, and we gathered up the tools and wandered down the dirt road that the trail came out onto. We were over a mile from the camp, but it was a nice day, so we took our time. We stopped at the stream near the cabins, and sat there for awhile (I stood since I was not sure I could get back up if I sat down). After puttering there for a few minutes, we headed back to our quarters.

Once there, I found out that four others wanted to go running – Nate, Jim, and two students. They had a “cool run” near the large reservoir nearby. So, I threw on my shoes and we all piled in my car. Now, I know it seems stupid to run after complaining about my back, but it does seem to help. It loosens the muscles, and it involves almost no bending.

We went a short distance (three miles) down a tar road that was more potholes than tar, and we came to a bike trail with a big “no parking” sign. We went 10 feet past the sign and parked. One of the students (Matt) took the lead and led us on a wild trail run that was windy, muddy, and hilly, and in one area the trail had fallen in the lake. It was a slow run, but we had a good time giving Matt grief about his choice of trail. By the end, we had only run about 20-25 minutes, but it was enough to loosen up.

I let everyone else shower when we got back, so I was able to let the hot water do its magic on my back. I had even checked online to see if my chiropractor was open, but he was closed on Wednesday afternoons, so I had to let hot water do the best it could, and I headed to supper, which was in a big multipurpose room in the next building. We were able to eat with plenty of space. We had an excellent Cincinnati-style chili (chili on top of spaghetti), and then we set up for the evening’s entertainment – the annual Diakonos talent show.

Every year, students (and chaperons) sign up to do things of varying degrees of talent, and they are a good time. This year, I think we had about ten acts, two of which were mine. I had four Ceili Club dancers on the trip who wanted to dance a reel for everyone (and I had access to iTunes so I could get a reel for 99 cents). I also had four members of my Royal Fools improv group along, so I signed them up to do a short skit (game) as well. I was very proud.

Some of the other acts included a thrown-together joke-telling group that told lame jokes that were funny because they were lame, and a group where Craig used word art to change a student’s name into a picture of a pig, a girl who showed off her solo skit that she used in speech competitions, a different dancing group, and a couple of guys rapping (which was the second year in a row – they are a big hit). Everyone seemed to have a fun time, and we got things cleaned up a little over an hour after the show started.

Back in the main living quarters, we putzed around until Craig was ready to lead devotions. We sang three or four songs, and then Craig walked us through a PowerPoint review of the Romans passages we had looked at, and he looked at what it means to live “in community.” Again, I wish I’d written these things down, but as best as I can remember, Craig talked about putting the needs of others above your own, willingness to build each other up, willingness not to judge on appearances (and how Americans don’t have people over because the house is too messy or the like), and he stressed a proximity that would be needed to maintain a community – it is hard to have community when you are an hour apart. He had some good points, and I hope the kids (and I!) remember at least some of them.

Tuesday I managed to stay put in the morning and not go to Dunkin’ Donuts. I read a chapter in my Bible, and then hung out and munched on breakfast cereal and chatted with folks until it was time for the work crews to get organized. This day I was going to be in one of two teams that were staying at Camp Carl. One team (not mine) was going to clean up scrap metal and cut and burn brambles back in one part of the camp. My team was heading to the fairly new storage/vehicle barn to hang plywood so that tools could be hung from the plywood wall. Since it was cold and spitting sleet again, I did not mind being inside this time.

I gathered up my five charges, which included two members of my improv group, so I was happy to know two of the kids pretty well. We walked down to the garage and waited for Chuck (one of the camp maintenance men) to come and give us tools and instructions. It turned out to be a healthy little wait – about 20 minutes or so, during which time the students amused themselves by posing on various pieces of heavy equipment.

Once Chuck got there, we got going, kind of. We were to screw 2-by-4 boards onto existing studs, and then screw plywood over that. So far, so good. We had to cut boards to size, pre-drill holes, hold boards in place and screw them to the existing wall. There were a couple of minor problems. One, our drills were cordless and all died within about 15 minutes. So, we had to wait while Chuck got us corded drills. Also, the screw bits we were using were pretty rounded off, which can make for some pretty frustrating construction. To be honest, we did have one or two good bits, but since this skill was new to the kids, we rounded those bits out pretty quickly. Once Chuck got us new bits (in the late morning), we were able to use those without incident. A second major issue was one of  hands – we had too many. There were six of us for a job that three or four could do. That is not a major fault, but the kids do like to work, so they were a little frustrated at standing around (which is a good work attitude). All in all, we made fairly minor progress all morning, and then we broke for lunch.

The after lunch period went fairly well. Two of the students volunteered to help with the other team, so we were  down to a more manageable four people. We had good tools all around, and we had all the brace boards cut (and many hung) before lunch, so after lunch we were able to turn our attention to hanging plywood. Hanging plywood is great in that it looks like speedy progress. Every other piece of plywood had to be cut down, but I was able to do that with a circular saw. It was certainly not finish carpentry, but it worked well for what we were doing. We actually were able to hang all the plywood and clean up all of our tools (which were everywhere by this point), and we still wrapped up around 3:30.

I have to admit I liked this work. I’m not a manly-man, but I do know how to use most basic power tools (largely thanks to my dad, who hired me to help build his house back in 1989). When I get put in charge of several teenagers who have not used tools before, it makes me feel all he-manish. I certainly do not blame the kids for not knowing how to use the tools – that is one of the parts of this trip (helping kids learn how to do basic construction). Still, it is a rare and ego-stroking day when I am the expert on the construction site.

After the work was over, I got showered up and hung out until dinner (I think I played a few games).Craig came up with a fun and unusual stunt for evening entertainment. We were to write down something we wished to face-paint on another person’s face. We then put the slip of paper in a plastic egg, which Craig and crew hid about the main room. You then hunted for an egg, and whatever egg you got was what was going to be painted on your face. I was a little horrified when I found that mine contained something like “Baby Hitler playing volleyball in PE class.” Everyone was chortling at how clever they were for coming up with these horrible designs. That is when Craig lowered the boom. You actually got to paint the other person’s face with what they wrote. So, I got to draw the volleyball Hitler on a student’s face. My face got my suggestion – I had written the words “You Rock!” backwards so that the person (in this case, me) would see “You Rock!” correctly when looking in the mirror. There was much amusement all around based on this game. My boss was on the trip and got painted as a stop light. He he! 

Craig then took on the unenviable task of doing devotions to a group of mostly painted people (he did give us the option to wash off the paint before devotions started). Craig mostly opened the floor up to students to reflect on what was going on for them on this trip. I mentioned how impressed I had been that no one had complained on my team the day before in the mud and the sleet. Several kids mentioned how cool it was living in close community. I’m sad that I did not write the observations down – they were worth remembering, but my memory is not up to it.