Sunday, November 8, 2015

Fall, Fall, Fall!

I love music....especially show music.  My father was a singer and it would have been his lifetime profession if he hadn't developed thyroid cancer when he went for a physical prior to starting a new show in Hollywood in 1956...the treatments destroyed his amazing voice...music was still a part of our life growing up....dad took up the banjo and I sang with him and his buddy when they'd 'jam' on weekends.  I'm always up for a musical movie - always!  between light jazz and soundtracks, I have a nice collection of CD's.  Now, let's move forward to a couple of years ago....I'd reconnected with a childhood friend on Facebook - Jane Warman McSpadden.  She and I spent a lot of time together during our elementary and middle school years but lost contact when we went to different high schools...I'd briefly reconnected in our mid-20's but life got in the way and we lost track again.  We didn't correspond  much on Facebook and then there was a flurry on her page - I posted on the page that I'd been thinking about her.  I got a private message from a man named Gary Mauer who told me that he was one of her former students at Thunderbird High School and that Jane had passed away the day before...hence the flurry of messages on her page.  Gary and I continued to correspond for a while and I learned that he had gone on from high school and then college in Tucson and finally, had made a career in New York on Broadway.  I learned that he was going to be near my home for a concert in Bartlesville, Oklahoma this past Wednesday and made arrangements to go to the concert.  After a most enjoyable 2 hours of showtunes and laughter, Gary and my friend, Terri, and I went to a late dinner.  What an awesome evening! 

  I had made a Christmas table runner for Gary and his wife, Beth.  And the upshot was that Gary is going to send me his collection of Broadway t-shirts to make into a quilt for them...I am so honored!  

When we built this house, our dream house, we made it single story cause stairs are so hard on old knees.  There are very few places for storage except for two spaces - one above the pantry and one above our walk-in closet on the other side of the house.  John has always had to schlep one of his taller ladders into the house and set it up so he could get into the attic spaces.  As of yesterday, the Christmas attic (so names cause the only things in there are holiday decorations) has its own ladder....installed by John and his buddy John!  



It's very solid and John says it went in easy, for the most part. 

My John plans to complete the installation of lighting in that attic space soon.  Fortunately, he wired it for lighting when he wired the entire house.  Now he just needs to finish putting the lights in and we are golden for that job.  

The next space to get a ladder is the one in our closet that leads to the major storage space....that one requires a different kind of ladder cause of space...we are researching a telescoping ladder for that space.  And then to finish the lighting.  There are plenty of odd jobs to keep him busy for the next few years!

I'm off to finish the laundry, and work on a quilt, of course.  Thanks so much for stopping by!