In the Good Ole' Summertime

I am not a summer person. I do not tolerate the heat well, I hate chiggers and mosquitoes, and I really detest grasshoppers. Snakes come out when it is warm and they scare the pee out of me. I have enough hair on my head for three people and I have said for years I was obviously meant to live further north than Kansas with that kind of insulation.

It has been my contention for years that there are just a few things in life that make summer bearable. They are baseball, fresh vine-rippened tomatoes, vacations, and Music Theatre of Wichita.

Baseball has definitely lost its glitter. None of the teams I like are peforming at a professional level. Although I don't think steriod use is a matter for Congress to waste its time on, I do think it has really spoiled the game, for me anyway.

Vine-rippened tomatoes from our own garden have been hard to come by lately. They have drowned out the last few years. Fortunately Bob and Jana grow enough for the whole city, so we do still get to enjoy them.

Since Harry retired from Boeing and went to work for Spirit (not necessarily a voluntary decision), he has been unable to get a handle on how much vacation time he has, so vacations have almost become a thing of the past also.

This bring us to the one remaining summer bright spot - Music Theatre. I am a late-comer. It has been around 35 years and, although I attended my first show in the early 1990's, I have not become a real affacianado until the last few years. I discovered that I really love live theatre.

Saturday night Harry and I went to "The Full Monty". I wanted to see it but I have to admit that I was a little anxious also. The idea of full frontal nudity is not an attraction to me, but I had listened to the sound track and knew just enough about the story (I have not seen the movie) to know I wanted to go. GOOD IDEA! I loved it. The nudity part was so minor and so not visible that it was really a non-factor.

I will have to admit that this play would not be for everyone. The subject matter pretty much dictates some rough language and portions some would find objectionable. But I found it to be so funny and entertaining. I did not realize it was a 2 hour and 45 minute show until we got back in the car after it was over and I saw the time. I laughed and laughed and laughed. And I have been listening to the CD of the soundtrack ever since. So my recommendation is if you get a chance, go see "The Full Monty". Unless you are easily offended. Then go see "The Sound of Music". There is something for everyone in the theatre.

As Long as I Am Complaining

Harry and I went for a stroll down by the river downtown Saturday evening between stuffing ourselves at Famous Daves and attending the Music Theatre of Wichita's production of "The Full Monty".

The Hyatt Hotel has a lovely water feature. It is a wall with water running down both sides into rectangular pools with steps in them, kind of like a fish ladder.

At intervals of about six feet all along the water feature are plaques on short brick pillars. These plaques say "Help preserve our water feature. No wading or swimming." (I may not have quoted it verbatum, but close enough to convey the intent.)

It amazed me to see that the pool at the base of the wall was if not full, nearly so, of people of all ages wading. (the water wasn't really deep enough for swimming.) What amazed me even more was that these were not people who were just in the area on a hot Kansas nearly summer evening and couldn't resist the pull of the cool water. These people were there specifically to play in the water. They came in their swimsuits, brought their lawn chairs and beer, and had multiple young children in tow. Of course, once the children were in the water they were not carefully supervised. And I don't want to be a snob or seem to be stereotyping, but these also were pretty obviously not people who were staying in the hotel.

I haven't checked with the hotel to see if they relaxed their rules and just couldn't afford to remove the posted signs, but I doubt if that is the case.

Two things bother me about this. First, I am always bothered by the attitude that "the rules don't apply to me" or "the rules apply to me but they are inconvenient or contrary to my wishes, so I will just ignore them". Second, if the behavior on Saturday night was standard, it is just a matter of time before some young child drowns in that pool and the Hyatt gets hit with a lawsuit.

This came on the heels of two people speeding past Kristy and me through Eastborough earlier in the day and neither of them getting stopped and ticketed. That so rarely happens - the Eastborough policeman must have been on his break.

Well, the play was wonderful and I have a new favorite song - "You Walk With Me". But more about that later.

Getting From Point A to Point B

Wichita is a city, but not a large one. At least half of it is in Western Kansas (By my standards, anything west of Broadway in Wichita is Western Kansas.) so it stands to reason that it is flat, uninterrupted by many bodies of water, and pretty much on a grid. This may be unexciting but does make it fairly easy to navigate. If your path is obstructed you just go a few blocks out of your way and go around the obstacle.

But sometimes the sun, moon, and stars are in a diabolical allignment and the above evasive manuever does not work. This morning was one of those times for me.

I realize that living on the west side of town and working on the east side (a very strong distinction in the culture of the city) is my own fault, so I am partially to blame for the predicament in which I found myself.

My usual route from home to work is to take 37th Street North from my neighborhood all the way across town to the east until I reach Oliver Street. What happens after that is not really relevant. This is a pretty direct route and avoids the congestion on the interestates. The one drawback to this route is that there is a train track just on the east side of Broadway, but I am usually able to use the above mentioned tactics to handle that.

This morning, as I approached Broadway I saw there was a train. When I got closer I could see that, although it was moving along, it was pretty long. I decided to turn right on Broadway, go down to either Central Ave. (the street my office is on) or First Street, which is one way going east and goes under the train tracks.

As I traveled down Broadway, I noticed that there was not only the moving train which was blocking 37th Street, but another stationary train was blocking all the intersections of Broadway with east bound streets until 21st Street. So I thought I had made a pretty good decision.

I got to Central and realized there was THIRD train coming which could quite possibly block Central so I went down to First Street, turned left and headed east only to find that First Street was closed for construction at St. Francis. So thinks I "I can go south on St. Francis to Douglas which also has an underpass and head East on that to Hydraulic, head back north on Hydraulic to Central and scoot on east to my office." (The advantage of a city on a grid.)

Imagine my surprise when, after going under the train tracks at Douglas, I found that Douglas was also closed before I got to Hydraulic. There were tents set up in the street and it appeared that either there was some kind of "festival" or troops had been moved into town.

If I knew where to lodge a complaint I would. I am sorry I work on the east and live on the west. I am sorry that I don't take the highway because the traffic backs up so badly on it I might as well walk. I am sorry that I can't get onto I235 at Broadway anyway when there is a train because I cannot make a left turn onto Boradway unless I run the indefinite red light there for east bound traffic when there is a train. I am sorry I refuse to cut across the parking lot which has potholes rivaling the Badlands. But do all the shortfalls on my part really mean that I should be almost prohibited from getting to my job? Is it really smart to close off a main street for a festival when all the other main streets are closed for either construction or trains? I might as well be in Virginia trying to get through the tunnel.

Well, I have sounded off and I don't feel the least bit better! I am still pissed.