The last several days -- ever since my last entry, probably -- are a muddy, muddled, murky blur as I try to sort them out into a proper order as I type this.

There were some good moments to be sure, but the bad ones dominate my thoughts at the moment.

My "Uncle" Richard -- the family friend since before I was born whom I talked about a few months ago -- was hospitalized last weekend, and died this past Tuesday due to his lung cancer. We buried him on Thursday. He and Marvin had been together for 39 years and 3 months.

Saturday morning, at the church where I work, the Sexton was doing his usual morning check of the buildings when a finely dressed gentleman approached him, expressing an interest in touring the church and parish house's hall as he'd like to get married there. No sooner were they inside when a second man joined them, and both of them pulled guns on the Sexton. They robbed him, and forced him to open most of the rooms as they searched the church for the collection money. They definitely came to the wrong church (even if it wasn't the wrong day as well) for that. Thankfully, neither the Sexton nor his dog were injured, and for reasons perhaps only known to God, they were spooked off by something before stealing anything beyond what they had gotten off of the sexton.

Suffice it to say that I am rethinking what I do when I am working alone there in the office. Baloo might not like climbing the stairs leading up there, but he just might find himself going over there on the days that I have to work alone.


In other, brighter news. Rehearsal work on the play is going great! At the moment, it seems that I will be playing 4 roles: the named roles of Dennis (Act I, Scene I) and William (Act V, Scene I); and one each of the lords associated with Duke Frederick and Duke Senior. It looks like we'll be doing the play on the church's lawn, which, though not their first choice, might end up being easier and better for us in a number of respects, not the least of which is the easy option of moving the show into the parish house's hall should it rain!

The news, Wednesday morning, of Richard's death actually solved that problem that I mentioned in my last post. Mom came to the rehearsal that night, not wanting to be alone with her thoughts, and got to see what it was that we actually do there all night, and how it is possible for the ending time to be rather fuzzy and constantly being pushed back. It was actually cool having her there as she brought goodies: watermelon, sherbert, grapes, and an assortment of chips and munchies of that like.

Friday night was, by far, the best night of the week. In place of rehearsals we had an improve class. Mom was rather amused watching me until I dragged her into the action -- one of the other stage moms was also in the class, so mine couldn't easily worm her way out of it. She wasn't happy at first, but by the end of the night she was eagerly looking forward to next week's improve class.

My quest to get Queer As Folk: Season One from the library was foiled by people who had taken out the videos only to never return them. All I got of Season I was tape #4 of a five-tape set. *grumble* So I coughed up some money and joined Blockbusters and rented #1-4 of the 6-DVD set (5 and 6 were all rented out), and started watching it........ with mom. I have never seen QAF until now, so there are parts of each episode (we've viewed ep. 1 thru 12 so far) that are... *ahem* ...a bit uncomfortable to watch with her (oddly, especially the lesbian sex scenes).

That's all for now.