Middle of May Musings

It seems like more than just 4 days since my last post. The middle 1/3 of the month of May has been a potpourri of events, activities and happenings that have kept The Ancient One very busy indeed.

There have been the CCPT auditions and callbacks. In addition to a hoped for role in To Kill a Mockingbird, I am taking on a first-ever theater task for me this summer as I assist Director Heidi Dotson as a Producer for the Children's Popcorn Theatre production of Sluefoot Sue and Pecos Bill. It should be interesting.

There have been numerous events surrounding Alicia's completion of her 2 Masters Degrees including a Saturday evening reception/ceremony and Monday's graduation at Hebrew Union College's Los Angeles campus. To celebrate her accomplishments as well as Seth's new teaching credential and "permanent substitute for the rest of this school year" as drama teacher at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, we hosted a party on Sunday evening. It seemed like at least a 100 people were here at the house (and in the yard) drawn from family, friend and the worlds of both Alicia and Seth as well as older brother Bill (even though he could not get here from New York). Then yesterday, Alicia left on a 2 week trip to Germany.

It's also been an intense "medical" period for the family. Back on March 28, I posted about my brother Andy's quadruple bypass surgery and his wife Sandy's hospitalization with MRSA. Fortunately, they found the right anti-biotic to which her infection responded a few days later. But it was 7 weeks before Andy was able to be awake and breathing on his own for any length of time. Finally, he is doing well in rehabilitation and late last week I was able to talk with him for the first time since the surgery. A great weight was lifted from my heart when I heard his voice.

Two weeks ago, my older sister Bobby, who lives in the Detroit area, had shoulder replacement surgery (a relatively new procedure). She is now doing very well in rehabilitation and is delighted with the near disappearance of what had been years of incessant pain. She can't wait to reach the point of having full use of both arms again.

And then today; Donna went in to have arthroscopic surgery on her right knee. It went well and quickly and the entire time at the hospital was only about 5 hours. She is home and resting. Hopefully it will be many years before she will have to go back for knee replacement surgery.

Our two visits to Dodger Stadium were discussed earlier here and here. And there were even a couple of other events I may talk about later. Well, I guess that's it for our Middle-of-the-Month-of-May-Madness. Soon to bed; after all, I was up at 4:00 a.m. today and it could take days for this old body to recover.