Thursday, November 24, 2016
Last night’s performer, Patrick Alexandre, was definitely the best of the season and, in my opinion, he was the best we’ve had in a long time. We didn’t have the full house we expected because not everyone on the list showed up. We added one extra chair late in the day for one extra person, but then one of our regulars didn’t show up so we were still at a sell out. Then a couple who are relatively new to our shows didn’t come due to illness, but they had bought their tickets last week so Patrick wasn’t out any money. We have a couple, “the two Nancies”, who often come to the shows but one Nancy was supposed to pick up the other Nansi but didn’t show up; Nansi came half an hour late but Patrick lost $20 on that ticket. Another of our regulars and a couple who are semi-regulars didn’t show up either so Patrick ended the night down another $60. Pat says we can’t force our “regulars” to pay in advance next time and it is the first time so many have cancelled without letting us know ahead of time. It is frustrating because we probably could have sold the seats to others that we turned away based on a “sell out”. I won’t stress over it though as we are on a break until early February.
Our schedule was somewhat put off yesterday because Patrick doesn’t eat before a show. I have certain things that happen in a certain order when dinner is over – put on the tea water, put on the coffee, do/hide the dirty dishes and clear the counters, set up the cups/glasses for tea/coffee/water and get out the sweeteners (agave syrup, brown sugar, white sugar and Splenda). But without serving dinner I felt a little lost; there was no rushing around and it felt like there should be. We picked a perfect meal though for heating and serving after 10 PM – potato-leek soup with hot corned beef sandwiches.
It was midnight before we got to bed and we didn’t even take time to get our living room back in order; we did that this morning. A huge storm blew in last evening and we were a little concerned about the ferries today so Patrick decided to get up for the early ferry (8:05 AM) hoping if it didn’t run the noon one would. Pat and I were up at seven but Patrick decided he wanted to sleep and take his chances on the noon ferry. As it turned out both ferries ran without any problem and, although there was a bit of wind this afternoon, it wasn’t enough to stop the ferry.
Just after lunch Pat had a musician/electrician friend come over to start work on a few maintenance issues for us. Trevor has a slack period just now so he was able to fit in a few small jobs. We’ve had a hall light on the fritz for probably a year and I really missed it as it provided light for both my cleaning cupboard and my linen closet. The lights down another hall worked but after they had been on for about five minutes they started to buzz which was really annoying; the same with the ones in the bedroom closet. Those have all been fixed as well as the two lights going up the stairs to my sewing rooms. The three lights within my sewing rooms will be changed tomorrow. I can’t believe how much more light we are getting in the ones that have been changed; Pat thinks they are too bright but I love being able to see into the corners (and maybe I’ll do something about the cobwebs I’m seeing). I think once the fixtures in my sewing rooms are changed I will be able to get rid of a couple of floor lamps that I’ve added from time to time over the years.
I hope to finish sewing the buttons on my Advent Calendar before dinner. I cleaned up around my knitting chair the other day and I have no shortage of projects for my evenings.