Day 1836: Seventy three degrees!

Seventy three degrees here on February 24!  Oh, but there's no such thing as global warming.  The daffodils are up, crocus are blooming, buds on the lilac are swelling.  Tomorrow night, a cold front will blow through and freeze it all again.  On the west coast, drought has turned into floods.   Their empty reservoirs are now at 120% capacity.  And that's before the snow pack in the Sierras starts melting.  Colin says the rain is constant, but it soaks into the ground quickly.

Every topic has political implications and every day there is a new onslaught to deal with.  Today, the madman again attacked the free press and banned several news agencies from White House briefings.  Their complaint is the stories about the administration's efforts to squelch the investigation into their connections to the Russians during the campaign and with Flynn.

I speak with Reed's office each day about a variety of topics, but this week my focus has been on Trump's taxes, an independent investigation of the Russian influence into our election and HR 610 which would eliminate the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and provide block grants to each state.  A portion of each grant would be given to families to send their kids to private, religious or charter schools.  It would also eliminate the no hungry child act which provided nutritional guidelines for the kids' breakfasts and lunches.  When this campaign first started, I always spoke with Jacqueline, but now there are three more people in the office.  Must be he had to hire more staff.

Tom delivered the components of the largest main set this afternoon.  He's been working like crazy to plan, measure and cut all the pieces for us to assemble.  It was a huge undertaking and his last for FHS musicals.  He's been a team player for ten years, but he's done and he told Steve that he ought to say no more often, too.  It has crossed our minds.  This is my 20th show and Steve's 18th.  That's a long time.

The assemble crew today was Steve, Ben S, James, Kyle, Caryn, Adam and me.  We built the whole frame between 3:30 and 5:30.  Steve, Tom and Ben unloaded and stacked all the pieces.  Caryn and Kyle used the hammer drills, the rest of us measured, assembled and held pieces in place.

On the book front, there is progress as well.  The publisher emailed the book back to me, all laid out.  Over the next few days, I will review the text again since he said I use too many exclamation points.  Although I want to publish, I also had hoped for incisive editorial comments from an experienced, neutral reader.  This particular firm is not likely to provide that service.  I'm excited, but with reservations.  There are so many unanswered questions at this point.  So this is my next challenge.