Tuesday was a fun and exciting midweek date day, initiated by Mer; she even got all dressed up. We started the evening by going over to Cardinal Village to have supper with Dale and Carlene. They asked what the event was, but all Mer would tell them was that it was a date night. After supper, she got me going in a specific direction, and I jokingly asked if we were going to Porthouse Theater. She surprised me by saying yes, and did I remember exactly how to get there? I did, and so that is where we ended up.

Porthouse Theater is the summer theater of Kent State University, located on the grounds of Blossom, the summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra. Porthouse typically puts on three productions per summer, with at least two musicals. We were there to see the musical South Pacific, which I had never seen and Mer had not seen in a long time.

The musical was very well performed, with especially strong leads. I was surprised by how much music I knew, from “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” to “Some Enchanted Evening.” Songs I did not know were not usually too politically correct, but were really funny (“There Ain’t Nothing Like a Dame” comes to mind). The set was very good, with two levels and lots of island-themed props, like bamboo.

A rather large storm front moved in right at intermission, and poured. While it did not affect the production because the venue has a roof, Mer and I moved from our front row seats to several rows back because we were under a leak in the roof. Other than that, it was a fine evening.

Until I got back to the car. The road noise had been loud on the way to see Dale and Carlene, so I told Mer to remind me to check the air pressure in the tires. When we got back to the car after the play, and just as the rain was starting to fall again, I saw we had a totally flat right rear tire. I was going to change it out with the spare, but when the rains started falling harder and the lightning came back, I decided to ruin the tire and drive the six or so miles home on the flat; it was not worth saving eighty dollars to change a tire in a lightning storm. We made it home fine, and I was able to get the tire replaced the next day (it turns out it could hold pressure for about twenty-four hours, so I was able to fill it long enough to get to a tire place).

I’m still glad Mer took me out on a midweek date – it makes the work week more interesting.