The skunks have it made.
Each week people put their garbage out on the street to be picked up and
they only use plastic bags to have it there.
Well, this morning I saw a skunk having a right wonderful time foraging
for tidbits to tickle his palate. He did
not stand still long enough for me to get a picture of him, but he scurried
back under the bushes and tall grass to get away from me. I could still smell him even though he did
not spray. I guess if he had sprayed, I
would smell wonderful at the archives today.
Worked through all the papers that Jeff had prepared for me
and so he brought me more wet papers to work with. I wonder at the efficacy of the whole thing
and the benefit of working with wet papers.
I asked for more and he brought a whole pile and we worked through and
whittled it down to half. Our results
came in from last week and all our images passed. I wonder what will happen this week? It is a constant worry about re-works because
we cannot determine what makes a successful submission and what makes an
unsuccessful submission. At least they
cannot ding us for blurring because the table just does not move whereas the
cradle was always in motion. I decided
to keep the file boxes open until the papers have dried out. We have now finished our 10th box
and Jeff has brought us 10more and we have finished one and half way through
the next one. That leaves 280 boxes to
be done before we leave in September (remember, our supervisor said that we
would be able to do the entire Washington county 300 boxes filled with files
containing myriad fragile papers stuck together with sealing wax – still aghast
at the magnitude of the overestimation here).
He also said we would be able to humidify and flatten out the 35 cubic
feet of tightly wrapped court papers from the York county court……………… doubt if
we are half way through one box in putting the files in order ready for
digitizing. He expected those to be
digitized also before we leave………………Oh Yeah!
Jason, our working person on Christina’s machine, is the
music conductor for the musical Jeckyl and Hyde. That is such a macabre story to start with I
just cannot imagine it being set to music.
Apparently is has a following and they refer to themselves as
“Jekkies”. I went online to see if I
could hear some of the music and it is so gothic sounding to me that I do not
want to go see the play. I think that
Jason would love to have us go see his play but there is enough weird things
happening in the world, I do not need to go and subject myself willingly to its
influence.
We decided to buy tickets to the Bossov Ballet in
Waterville. We attended their December
performance of the Nutcracker in Skowhegan while the Waterville Opera house was
undergoing renovations. We do not know
our way around Waterville and I dare anyone to say they do………..the cars just
seem to go any which way and we drove around and around till we pulled into a
parking lot and decided to find something to eat. We passed a Chinese takeout/eat in place that
looked like a real dive and at the end of this strip mall there was a café that
on the outside looked promising.
However, when we got in, we realized that it was a ‘local watering hole’
kind of place but we needed to eat and it was getting time for the performance.
The people sitting in the café seemed to know each other and talked about
things as though they had had a prior conversation and the next conversation
they would take up the subject again. It
must be a very old café because they had the epitome of the 1950’s era milk bar
on one side and tables and chairs in the middle and aging booths on the
opposite wall to the milk bar. They had
a 4 at a time malted milk machine that I have not seen since I was a kid in
Australia. They also had the stemmed
glass compote containers for ice cream.
A chalk board announced the menu specials for the day and I chose the
fish and chips. Gortons seafood had a
good day at this cafeteria because my fish came – two Gortons type nuggets and
a load of overdone chips. Well, it was
food and it did not cost much and off we went to the Ballet.
So we went to see the Bossov Ballet at the Waterville Opera
house over in Waterville. This is a
pretty nice building now that they spent millions on renovating it but it could
still use some sprucing up here and there.
The Americans for Disabilities Association would have a field day with
this building because there is no way a disabled person could enter the
building that I could see. No ramps in
sight and certainly no elevator to ascend to the top floor.
According to the blurb in the program, Mr. Bossov was the
founder of the St. Petersburg Ballet. I
guess I was under the impression that the ballet company in St. Petersburg had
been going for centuries……… perhaps I was wrong. However, the tuxedo guy came out before the
show to threaten us about having our cell phones on, taking pictures or
recordings etc.etc. and he told us that we were lucky to have the Bossov Ballet
in our midst. He also told us that
dancers from this company go all over the world to work for other companies and
dance. It seems a little far fetched for
me to hear that, but maybe it is so.
Well, Mr Bossov is so protective of his scenery, costuming and
choreography that he forbids photos and recordings of any type. I’m ok with that – I’m not about to start a
ballet company up in competition with him here in Maine or anywhere else. I just think that it is hilarious that a
small dance studio, tucked away in central Maine, should feel that someone
would willingly travel to this performance with the sole purpose of copying the
costumes and the backdrops etc. Guess
Mr. Bossov is not wrapped too tight.
Everything was going along swimmingly until the leading
Male, the Prince, showed up on stage. A
little 3yr old girl sitting next to me asked her Grandma, “Why is that man
jumping so loud”. Well it was loud and
sounded very heavy. As I studied him, I
came to the conclusion that this was a man whose body had become set – i.e.
aged and not as limber as the younger kids in the cast. Each time he jumped he landed on the floor
with a thud and even though the music was very loud, it was not loud enough to
mask the sound of him landing on the floor.
He knew the steps and executed them well, but he was not fluid in his
movements but rather blocky and wooden, and past his prime. In the beginning of the second act the music
became softer and softer and eventually it quit and the kids were left standing
on the stage not knowing what to do. The
curtains closed and Mr. Tuxedo came out and announced that we had lost the
sound. They found a boom box somewhere
and then the music became alternately too loud and then too soft. It was a shame that this happened to the
performance. The Prince also lost his
shoe half way through one of the scenes.
The performance stopped again and Mr. Bossov himself appeared through
the curtains to ask us to be patient while they worked on the sound system.
Somehow we found our way back to our apartment but I do not
wish to ever live in Waterville. It
appears to have been put together like a jigsaw puzzle with some pieces
missing.
Today we went to the Maine Quilt Show and walked around for
3 hours to see all the quilts. It is a
massive show and they had wonderful vendors.
I read in their program that I cannot put up any of the quilt pictures
on the blog without prior permission or something. I have never heard of that being a
requirement at any other show I have attended.
But I can put up their whimsical stuff because they are not patterns etc.
At the show I was asked about 3 times if I was a nun. Always gives me a laugh to hear that. At one booth found a Japanese couple and
began talking to them and they were blown away that a Caucasian can speak
Japanese. They also found it hard to
believe that I learned to speak it in 1970-1972 in Japan. I do not think it strange – there are a lot
of people who served in missions in foreign countries who still speak their
newly learned language – especially people in our church who are returned
missionaries.
So this afternoon I took a run to the Maple Syrup place and
bought some syrup to take to Sara and to Bobbie. I also took a side trip to Messalonskee
Lake. I wanted to go see it when we went
to the Maple Syrup Weekend earlier this year but did not get there. The Messalonskee Lake is very pretty and I am
very glad that I took the time to go see it.
I love Maine – it is really a beautiful state. I love Arizona also and will be home soon.
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