ANYONE FEEL LIKE THIS YET?

The Long Rain by Ray Bradbury - A group of astronauts are stranded on Venus, where it rains continually and heavily. the travelers make their way across the Venusian landscape to find a "sun dome", a shelter with a large artificial light source. However, the first sun dome they find has been destroyed by the Venusians. Searching for another sun dome, the characters, one by one, are driven to madness and suicide by the unrelenting rhythm of the rain. At the end of the story, only one sane astronaut remains, and manages to find a functional sun dome.

I just went out, in the rain, to take pictures of everything getting ready to overflow. The above story was all I could think of while I was out. I was gone for about an hour and had my car to get in and out of as I moved along my route. Still, I can see why it would drive somebody to madness. IT IS UNRELENTING! With a rain jacket, wellies, and an umbrella I still got soaked!

I was amazed at just how much water there is out there. We live at the top of a pretty good hill, so we're not having any problems with it but there are people who live awfully close to the river and the lake and I would not be surprised if they were all experiencing some kind of flooding.

Our street is horseshoe-shaped and the Whittenton River runs along it and then passes under it. At one end of the street is Sabbatia Lake which is fairly large and constantly moving, it pinches down to about 20 feet across and goes under a bridge to dump into the Whittenton. As you can see, it's really moving, and those concrete blocks you see just before the water is breaking are usually above the water.

This is the view from the other side of the bridge. Usually we can get down onto those rocks, but the water is so high and moving so fast, I didn't dare take a chance.
Further on down the river is the dam that was getting so much press a couple of years ago. This is what it looks like today.

Coming fast and furious and LOUD!

On the upside, I did notice that there are a lot of buds on the trees!

Then a little further on down the river, near the Reed & Barton factory, there's another fall. In this picture you can see just how hard it's raining too(click on the picture to enlarge).

And if you've never read that story by Bradbury, it comes from a book of short stories called The Illustrated Man. I highly recommend it.

BELIEVE

So, five weeks of doing laundry for The Lion King has come to an end. This was by far the best and hardest job of my costume/wardrobe career. Six days a week, eight hours a

day, collecting, sorting, hand- and machine-washing all the underpinnings, and many of the actual costumes, for the entire cast. This was my first union gig and I hope there will be many more. Gregory, Anthony and Gretchen, the wardrobe people who travel with the show were great to work with, thank you! The actors, the ones I got to know anyway, were great and the show was amazing! I didn't see the whole thing, but the parts I did were stunning. I was so taken aback by the costumes and the sets, just beautiful!

This show was the first to book into the Opera House when it reopened in 2002 after extensive renovation. The show was there for almost 8 months, so this was a kind of homecoming for them. Some of these people have been touring with this show for as many as 10 years!

The Opera House is great, but the best part of working on this show was the local wardrobe team. I got to know a lot of really nice people who've been doing this for a long time and I learned a lot! The wardrobe team is the best! Local 775, thank you for the opportunity to work on this show. I look forward to working with you again!

On Sunday, before the last show we were each presented with a diploma from Lion King University (LKU), a VIP ball cap and an LKU t-shirt. It felt like the last night of summer camp and those of you who know me well will not be surprised to hear that I cried. There were lots of hugs and promises to keep in touch, thank you Facebook!

ROCKSTAR?!

As you all know, I have been unemployed since June '09, which means that I've looked at MANY job listings over the last 7 1/2 months. I have found a disturbing trend, everyone wants a rockstar. Many of the postings on Craigslist are looking for Rockstar Administrative Assistant, Rockstar Executive Assistant, Web Application Developer Rockstar, Event Planner and Executor Rockstar, Rockstar PHP Developer, Sales Rockstar, the list goes on and on. How is a professional person supposed to take these listings seriously? Is it not good enough to have ten years of broad experience at a job? And, more importantly, if I apply and am hired, am I expected to dress like a rockstar? I just can't see myself dressing like Pat Benetar, or the girls from Vixen in order to go to work!



But, I DO think if I showed up looking like Joan Jett they'd know I meant business!