March 24, 2004

6:44 p.m.

One More Highway Song

From Tuesday - I talked to an entertainment lawyer today about a couple of copyright issues. She's Mama Cass's sister. Looks and sounds very much like her, too.

Dar is in rehearsal for his next show, now -- he's gone from costarring with Dick Van Patten to playing Scratch, the dwarf, in a kid's production of Snow White. Scratch, the dwarf. He's having trouble remembering his lines. I told him he used up all his memorization chits on the last show -- the part was enormous, and he started working on it months before rehearsals began. Last night he was doing laundry, and going over his lines in the basement of his apartment building, and he stopped to rest just for a minute on a piece of carpeting on the floor. Then he fell asleep.

Sound asleeeep.

We have a joke about falling asleep in basements. Aside from being an actor, he has a commercial cleaning business in Boston. Many accounts. Lobbies, stairways, brass polishing, shoveling in the winter. Very upscale clients. I had a few indoor accounts while I lived in Mansfield, in addition to my 35 or so window accounts. There are a few places throughout the Back Bay / Charles Street area where we store cleaning supplies, so we have access to some of the "underbelly" of Boston. We never worked together except sometimes on the windows, but we'd always compare notes about taking naps in the storerooms. The work is so hard, and sometimes you just don't get enough sleep, so when the cement floor starts looking good, it's time to lie down for a while. We'd find the nearest darkened storeroom, move the boxes or vacuums or brooms or trash cans out of the way, pull out the slab of carpet and Z out for twenty minutes. No one ever caught me or, as far as I know, him.

Dar gets maybe five hours of sleep a night. This has gone on for years; I don't know how he does it, but that's how hard he can push himself. As a result, he can nod off at the drop of a hat -- or a floormat -- and, sure enough, there he was in the laundry room, fast asleep. I suppose the dryer must have awakened him when the clothes were done.

I'm in a terrible sleep pattern now, which will cause difficulty this week when I have to get up early and drive. I see caffeine in my immediate future. Still, I'm looking forward to the drive -- instead of flying this time. And staying in hotels will be good. We get to open for Jonathan Edwards soon. I saw him at a festival in maybe 1995 and he was so good. God bless 'im for still being out there working.

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Wednesday - Yesterday I was listening to some news about Microsoft on NPR, and suddenly I wondered if the delay in sending my computer has anything to do with the court decision regarding Microsoft having to put out two versions of Windows, one without a bundled media package. Maybe they don't know what they can put in the computer yet. If that's the case, I could be waiting a long time, I suppose. That could suck.

I'll choose not to dwell on it, since I can't do anything about it anyway. Meanwhile I won't have my computer with me on this trip, and that'll be almost two weeks.

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Later - I was only going out to do errands, and got sucked into taking a gorgeous walk for an hour on the Rail Trail. It was so beautiful outside, and a few souls fortunate enough to be off work this afternoon had taken their bikes, their dogs, their kids or their jogging shoes out for a spin. After coming back and eating a very early supper, I decided to take a nap before having to load the car and get out of here. Things have changed since the window days; lately naps have been a gamble. The cold is almost gone so I'm breathing better, but with only 30 or 40 minutes to nap, it's nearly impossible to wake up afterwards. I'm just trying to clear the cobwebs enough to qualify as a safe driver. I'm trying to think of the last period of time I felt really rested, and it's eluding me.

At least I didn't sit at my computer all day, eh?

(Hint of separation anxiety)

Okay. I'm putting on my shoes and making tracks. Bye for a while. Don't forget me.