About last Wednesday … since I’m catching up from missing out on the week, and writing two weeks at one time …
It snowed Tuesday night, and well into the night. We woke up Wednesday morning to about four inches of snow in the great wide world. I set out to shovel it, so I could make my way to campus, but it was the thick heavy wet snow. Back straining work.
We have this snowblower. Last winter, we came back from a trip to find about eight inches of snow on the driveway. And it was a cold, cold evening. So as we shoveled all of that out of the way, there was no hope the exercise would mean body heat. A few days later, my lovely bride came home with a snowblower.
I assembled it, sorta, but never filled it with oil and gas. It didn’t snow again. So I put the blower in the shed and let it stay there until winter came back around. When the first big storm was forecast, I fetched the thing, went to the hardware store to get a few bolts and nuts to make the handles work as intended … and then watched two small snows, which< i estimated, weren't worth dealing with. But last Wednesday was the day. I've never run a snowblower and had no idea what to expect. I was a bit disappointed by the thrown.
But, snow blowed. Probably, walking up and down the driveway a few times was better than walking up and down the driveway and shoveling.
What’s great is that the roads were clear. So I went to campus and taught a class. We talked about books and printing.
By the time I got home that night, there was no snow in the way of anything. So I’m not sure if we needed that snowblower, but snow blowed, it works. (Now let me stow it away for the year once again … )
And then I started writing, which I did Thursday and Friday of last week, and will talk more about in subsequent posts. For now, we have to talk about today.
In today’s class, we talked about film making in various parts of the world. When it dragged, I turned the entire conversation to stereotypes, reinvigorating the class. But the problem is, you can really only use that one once or twice a term. But it did let me ask them what they thought when I told them where I was from. After a respectful pause, they got into it, and we all had a nice laugh.
One guy said, Country white. I asked him what that meant, and he thought I drove great big tractors. I said, no, I’m from the suburbs. And he said Lexus, then.
“Wrong suburbs.”
Then I told them about the Birmingham Bowl of 2010, when UConn was one of the teams and so the advertisements enticing fans of the Huskies to come on down. There, in the newspaper was an ad for the Wynfrey Hotel, a legitimate four-star establishment, proudly advertising their cable television and fitted sheets. My lovely bride’s old friends saw that ad and had a great time making fun of that.
“See,” I said, “stereotypes.”
For the record, we had running water, silverware, electrified crossing lights and everything.
This evening we set out to go over the river.
And if you go over the river, you have to cross a bridge. And wouldn’t you know it, we timed it just right for a dramatic sky, once again.
We had dinner at the James Beard nominated Kampar. We’ve been there three times in the last four months or so, and that’s apparently enough to make us regulars. People recognize us, which is funny because it’s a hopping little place, but they’ve set themselves up with a cheery, Malaysian corner store vibe. We came back with leftovers, and I am going to eat them soon.
I wonder when we’ll go back. It might not be long.
We went to the Miller Theater, the go-to place for traveling Broadway shows. Built in 1918, it’s only been the Miller for a few years. Originally it was the Sam S. Shubert Theatre and starting in 1991, the Merriam Theater. It’s only been the Miller since 2022. Names mean a lot. I wonder how many people use the old names.
Here’s the ceiling in the theater, which may or may not have been updated in a 1980s renovation. About it are six floors of offices and classrooms.
Here was the show we saw, the main players from Queer Eye are starting a tour. This was the first show, and it was a noisy, happy, loud, all over the place conversation. At least one of them needs to be taught that you don’t have to yell into a microphone.
It wasn’t my show, but it was a good experience, and a good fact finding effort. It was easy to get to the theater. We parked just a few blocks away. Getting inside was no harder than going up a long flight of stairs. We were able to exit the theater with ease. And they offer a Broadway bundle pack: here are the 16 shows this season, you pick four. We’ll probably try that next year.
Tomorrow, I will continue grading, and continue to catch us up on next week.
