My best buddy Don called me  earlier in the week and asked me if Nancy & I would come visit this weekend so I can clean their 2nd floor gutters!

   Well!       I never!
   So we went up for a visit, I got their huge extension ladder up against their house, scampered up to the top in my bare feet, and there were like 5 or maybe even as many as 7 oak leaves in the gutter that I could reach and similar inconsequential numbers across the full rest of the length of the house, so I tossed down the ones I could reach for effect (because everybody was watching), and carefully climbed back down. And that was that.

   I guess they thought it would take much longer than it did because there wasn't much else planned for the afternoon. We didn't do hardly anything else the rest of the visit except eat and sit around and talk and....
   It was really good to see them, even if it was a pretty funny pretext for a visit.
   Oh yeah, Nancy reminded me of  this part, too: Don had also asked me to bring back his Kill-O-Watt meter that I borrowed months and months ago. I couldn't find it. I spent nearly half an hour searching everywhere it might possible be including looking at every single outlet on the first floor and in the basement of our house. No luck.

   Sorry Don, I guess this visit was a total bust.  

   But my lovely wife did get this nice picture of their pumpkins:

   I've been really slacking in the "work" department recently, so I was so proud of myself for getting up this morning and practically immediately sitting down at my desk and getting right to the business at hand, that is, until I got a call from Henry wondering why I wasn't at this morning's regularly scheduled Hats Off Performers Guild meeting.
   Oh well.

   Today's big excitement for me was Chris Yerlig's slide show of his recent performance tour of deaf schools in the Dominican Republic! He's decided to raise $45,000 to build one of them a new school because their old one was so old and beat up that it got condemned and they can't use it any more.
   So the Guild decided that we'd be glad to throw our lot in with him and do a benefit performance for such a good cause. We usually do a group benefit of some sort each year, but we haven't done one yet this year so this came at a good time.



 Wednesday - Friday, November 4-6, 2009

   So, Nancy & I took another little vacation up at Pete's cabin in Island Pond VT. Just because we could! It seems like we're doing this like once a month now since this past summer. It's just so peaceful and beautiful there. Pete's cabin is a little over 3 hours drive; it's off the grid: no electricity, no phone, no internet, cold and cold running water, propane stove and fridge, wood heat, loooooong winding uphill driveway, 70+ acres that's mostly woods with a few fields, a gorgeous waterfall, a beaver pond, etc. And we have the place all to ourselves because Pete's living in Michigan these days.
   There are a couple of drawbacks: I did say it's 3 hours away, right? And the other one is that while we were there it SNOWED two out of three days... nothing drastic, mind you, but snow in the beginning of November should be against the law. It was cold there! No nude sunbathing this time. We had that woodstove cranking the whole time we were there.


   So on Thursday, while Nancy went to the Island Pond Library to try and get some work done, I chopped wood! There were a bunch of big unsplit logs in the wood shed that I tried to split last month when we were there, but the first one I tried was just too tough to split with Pete's ax or splitting maul and I couldn't find any splitting wedges in the barn so I gave up.
   This time, I bought some splitting wedges for Pete and brought them up with us so I could split that stuff this time. It was really easy with the right tools. Actually, most of it split really easily with Pete's splitting maul --- I guess I just picked one of the toughest pieces last time. At any rate, I actually enjoyed the manual labor and the satisfaction of seeing the woodpile grow. 

 

 

   Spent the morning trolling for 1 or 2 new-looking railroad ties to finish my retaining wall that I've been doggedly working on since October 4th. I had a lead on some in Brattleboro MA, but couldn't find them, so I looked at every railroad crossing on the map in three towns but to no avail. Then, right when my time was up and I really had to go home now, just sitting by the side of the road nowhere near the tracks, I found one. It looked a little short, but when I got home it was exactly the right length to finish the top layer! All I have to do now is nail them all down and Phase 1 of my Backyard Reclaimation Project (BRP) (excuse me) will be done.

   This afternoon, a small mistake caught up with me big time: I put the wrong time for a performance in my datebook. So this afternoon when I arrived at the Lincoln Primary School in Brookline MA for a repeat performance, I thought I was 20 minutes early (plenty of time!) but it turns out I was actually 40 minutes late (very bad).

   I've NEVER written the wrong date in my datebook; this was so weird. I've been wracking my brains and still haven't figured out how at happened.

   At any rate, I ended up doing 10 minutes of really faced-paced tricks on stage while the kids' parents were showing up to take them home. 

   I owe them a free show.

   This evening went much better. Nancy & I went to a comedy benefit for the Cancer Connection called "Laughs for Linda" at the Bluebonnet Diner in Northampton MA. A kind of a bizarre place for comedy, but an excellent show. Our comedian friend Ann Podolske's long-time partner Linda recently died of cancer so some good people put together this show in her honor.

   Two of the comedians on the bill cancelled at the last moment, so our other comedian friend Jennifer Myszkowski very ably filled in the opening slot with only five minutes notice.

    In was also a pleasure to see another friendly face on stage, and that was Holly Givins.

  We've been watching these three women for at least the past 6 years at a local open comedy mike, and I must say it's been a joy and a pleasure to see all three of them getting better and better. (I forget the name of the emcee but he teaches stand-up comedy at Greenfield Community College. He was pretty funny, too.)

    Our sympathies to Ann for her huge loss; thanks for the laughter!

 

 

   My long-time friend Dave Caputo has two big parties a year at his home/business in Holyoke MA, and tonight it was his annual birthday party bash "The Scorpion Bowl" (he's a Scorpio) that's held annually on the second Saturday in November. Dave runs an "integrated print and web design" company called Positronic Design out of his home, and he invites his clients and his friends to his parties --- so not only are there a LOT of people there, but there's a lot of different kinds of people there, too: stoned 20-something hippes rubbing elbows with overweight 60-something bald guys sucking down beers; musicians and artists talking with CPAs; massage therapists chatting it up with drummers; young girls showing lots of flesh gossiping with grey-haired women completely covered from the neck down; pro wrestling fans yakking with peace-nics; poets discussing politics with car racing fanatics; Republicans, Democrats, and Independents of all kinds; black, white, yellow, and red people of all sexual persuasions; lots and lots of variety.

   Dave's house is a big old 3-story brick structure with a full basement, and there was stuff going on on every single level: the basement hosts live music (Eric Olssen from Unit 7 and the Doug Hewitt Band) and an open bar (Paper City Dam Ale); the first floor is where he runs his business, so there were often people gathered around computer screens looking at cool stuff, plus "fan dancing" (that's dancing with streams of gauzy fabric in front of a blowing fan) on a makeshift stage in the dining room; a great spread of food was on the big table in the 2nd floor kitchen; and the 3rd floor was for the couch potatoes and other such riffraff; not to mention the constantly manned grill (thanks Mike!) in the front yard churning out burgers and dogs on demand, and plenty of people hang out outside on both porches. 

   Besides the live music, other cultural components included an terrific art show by Geoff Kostecki and Rob Leverett in two locations, as well as an on-going traditional flint knapping demonstration (arrowhead making) by Cherocraft in one of the 1st floor offices.

   Except for a brief period sometime around 11:30 when I got to drive my lovely wife home (because she was a sleepy muffin!), I was at the party from around 8:00pm until 3:00am... and let me tell you, there was never a dull moment: There was always something to do, always interesting people to talk to, always good food to nosh on, and always a good time.

   So THANK YOU DAVE for another great party!

 

 

  "Got up.

   Got out of bed.

   Dragged a brush across my head."

   It was that kind of morning. Stayed up way late, had to get up way early. Didn't really wake up from my dreams until I stepped into the shower. Ten minutes later I was on the road to Amherst MA to bring some FUN to the kids at the Pioneer Valley Co-Housing Retreat. 

   I've done this event several times over the years. Our performers guild meets at PVCH most of the time because several of our members live there. And not quite every year, but fairly often, they book me as part of the kids program. When I got there this year, my liaison told me, "Last year the kids said, 'Where's TREVOR?', so we booked you this year." (Kids are some of my best booking agents.) 

     So the grass was still pretty wet from the rain, but we still had FUN indoors with about a dozen kids playing all sorts of great games like Elbow Tag, Smaug's Jewels, Red Handed, Geography, Buzz Fizz, and four different versions of Everybody's It! I got there a little early and ran a little late, but nobody seemed to mind... we were all too busy having FUN!

 

   This afternoon, my lovely wife and I decided to go for a little hike in Williamsburg MA. First we went to Petticoat Hill just north of the center of town. It's an absolutely wonderful Trustees of the Reservations property that we like a lot. Unfortunately, it was very leafy and very wet which made it very slippery, and since it's also rather steep we decided about 2 minutes in that it just plain wasn't a good idea today.

   So we buzzed down to the southern end of town --- Haydenville, or as Ralmon Black calls it: "the capitol of Williamsburg" (it is, after all, where town hall is so it must be the capitol, right?) --- and walked on our other favorite trail in town (the blue dotted line at left) that goes along the east side of the Mill River from Haydenville to Leeds .

   Right now, it's a lovely secluded path through the woods, but some time in the next year or so it's going to be paved and attached to the northern end of the rail trail in Northampton. It will still be a lovely secluded path through the woods, but it will be paved and therefore used significantly more. I'm rather excited that the bike path system is being expanded so much, but I'll be a little sad to lose the privacy of this wonderful trail that I've been walking on since 1982.

   When they finish all the parts that are currently in the works, you'll be able to bike east-west from Williamsburg through Northampton, Hadley, and Amherst, all the way to Belchertown; and north-south from Northampton through Easthampton to the center Southampton. Several connectors are currently under construction, and a few others are in the end of the planning stage and will begin construction soon. When they are all done, it will be the biggest cluster of interconnected rail trails in the country!

   But today, we just had a really nice walk in the woods along a ridge looking down over a rushing stream the entire way. Ah, Bliss!

 

 

   For most of a month now, I've been moving piles of dirt from various places around the Valley to my backyard in order to backfill the huge retaining wall I've built there. Well today, finally, I found this How-To video:

    

 

 

 

   I also found this one, which is titled:

   

   It was simply wonderful to sit down at the dinner table with all our housemates this evening at our very first House Meal together. Nancy & I are delighted with all our new housemates: Joanne, Ilai and his 7-year-old daughter Ilani, Rachel, and Corrin. Each in their own way adds their own bit of specialness to our home.

   Dinner tonight was a group affair. The menu included a satisfying guacamole appetizer made by Rachel and served with blue corn chips; a hearty split pea soup made by Nancy; a yummy salad of mixed greens and sweet diced beets made by Corrin and served with her homemade dressing; and a dessert buffet by Joanne consisting of vanilla ice cream and a wide variety of traditional ice cream toppings, as well as chocolate covered orange peels brought home from work by Corrin. Delightfully individualized name tags made by Ilani were in front of each place setting to indicate who was to sit where (which was also decided by Ilani). I did all the set up work. And Ilai did a bang-up job at clean up. Between the 7 of us, everything worked wonderfully.

   And then, after supper we all sat around the table talking about anything and everything for quite a while until one-by-one we each drifted off to other things. And a good time was had by all.

   Thank you, housemates, for a wonderful evening!

 

 

   Once again, that comedian extraordinaire Jennifer Myszkowski (pictured right) hosted another evening of women's comedy (with one token male) at the PACE Theatre in Easthampton MA.

  On the bill tonight were Alana Eisner, Sarah Blodgett, Mehran, and Carolyn Castiglia. Every single one of them were, as Jennifer says, "HILARIOUS" but Mehran and Carolyn Castiglia got the most constant laughs --- like continuous non-stop laughter that you're just plain hopeless to stop.

 

 

   November is my slowest month of the year business-wise. It's been an entire week since my last gig, and it was great to be at Mya & Kaylyn Bailey's 7th birthday party in Brattleboro VT this afternoon.

   Despite the fact that it's late November, it was warm enough that we were able to be outside today. YAY! They had chairs  for the kids set up in their yard, with a special little table and chairs set up for the birthday girls. There were close to 20 kids there, including the twins' older brother Dillon who's party I've done several times in the past. 

   Due the unusually warm weather, I was thrilled to be able to perform my most popular show: "The Outdoor Special" complete with Project: Ribbon Dancer afterwards. The kids laughed and laughed all the way through the stilt portion of the show; everyone had a blast with all the parachute games we played after that; and there were a mighty lot of happy kids joyously waving ribbon dancers around in the air by the time we were finished.

   Special thanks to the moms who helped with the craft project, and to Mr. Bailey for his help with the set up and for his friendly interaction both before and after, and to Mrs Bailey for hiring me again. Yipee!

   And, of course, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to those two gigglecopters: Mya and Kaylyn!

 

 

   Since the mid-80's, my kids and I have been going to my sister Laura's for Thanksgiving. It started when she lived in Pennsylvania and just invited us down one year. She extended the invite again the next year and it just became a family tradition.  And now, several others have joined the tradition in recent years, including my brother Lee and his three kids, and several teen-college-age girls that are close friends of the family.

   Three years ago (I think), my sister and her husband and their five boys moved to Maine --- just as far away as where they lived in Pennsylvania, just in the opposite direction. 

    So Monday afternoon I packed up my truck and drove the 5-1/2 hours north. Most of the regular things happened (I like that.) including playing music together, reading, lots of good food (PIE!), long conversations, visits to the greenhouses to pick fresh produce, several visits to their HUGE hog Charlotte (she's a redhead!) (click here, then scroll to the very bottom of the page to see 3 good photos of her from last Thanksgiving), reading books, naps, long walks around the farm, and our now traditional post-Thanksgiving dinner hike up French's Mountain (photo below), oh, and lots of good food (PIE!), among other things.

   Thanksgiving morning, my west coast coast brother Ian sent me the photo below.  From left to right, that's my big sister Jane, Aunt Gertrude, my mom (who turns 82 on Friday!), Grampa Dole, my big brother Ross, and Gramma Dole. My Pop must have taken this photo because he's not in it and he's the original shutterbug in the family. And I'm not in it because I don't exist for another 28 months!

 

   One thing I like about workng at the Grand Summit Hotel at Mount Snow is the look on people's faces when they first walk in the main entrance and see me on stilts in the front lobby. It's just priceless! If it's not actually during show time, I always be sure to greet them with a cheerful "Welcome to the Grand Summit Hotel!" Sometimes I wonder if the newcomers might think it's always like this!

   So I did a 4:00 show and a 7:00 show in front of the fireplace in the main lobby of the hotel today. I always make sure I get there early enough to stiltwalk in the lobby 30-45 minutes before show time. That way, I catch everyone walking through and can both entertain them for a few moments right then as well as let them know that I'll be doing a show for the kids later. This tactic produced the entire audience for my first show today (which is, of course, one of the main reasons why I keep doing it).

   One family of five actually attended both shows today... and the kids only gave away the punchline of one of my jokes in the second show! I learned afterwards that the parents had carefully coached the three kids ahead of time not to give anything away because it might spoil things for those who haven't seen the show already. Thank you, parents! I only wish there were more like you. And it turns out this family lives only two towns away from me here in the Pioneer Valley of Western MA in Southampton --- a beautiful secluded little town near Northampton (but not actually south of Northampton).

   I also got to meet the new entertainment boss at the hotel, Lucy Imperatore. I was glad to get a chance to chat with her and get to know her a little bit. I've been entertaining there for so long that most of the "old time" staff know me. In fact, Lucy told me, "You probably know what's going on here better than I do." I think that probably only goes so far as the entertainment there but in that area, yes, I probably do. It's a pretty seamless operation, and I've been involved with it for over 10 years now. 

 

 

 

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trevor@trevorthegamesman.com

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