Been a long time...

It's not good form for a blogger to be "gone" for ten weeks, which is about how long it's been since my last post on July 12. Apologies to everyone.

The reason's simple: the rest of life -- or rather, a very specific portion of it -- grabbed center stage and kept it. Shortly after my last post, my 96-year-old mother had a fall in her retirement center apartment, and has been in skilled nursing ever since, declining slowly but pretty steadily ever since. Compounding that was a large and sudden crisis over the quality of care she was receiving, during the first week of which we pulled her out, and she was living in my home with me as sole caregiver. Those of you who have directly cared for a frail parent or loved one of your own know just how all-consuming that sort of activity can be.

Things are better now, with her nursing home staff bending over backwards to do everything quickly and right, which is how I can begin keeping this journal again today.

I have two things on my mind (well, OK, not just two, but you know what I mean).

First, if you haven't yet bought your tickets for our upcoming production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's delightful Cinderella, opening next Saturday evening at the Montgomery, use the link here to do it! Among other pleasures, such as some really wonderful music, Cinderella will be a great chance for you to hear some of the fine new performers who have been attracted to our company by the inclusion of some classic Broadway shows to our repertoire this year. (Of course, our not-so-secret agenda is to get some of them interested thereby in our beloved G&S core repertoire, too).

Second, if you're a Lyric volunteer and you have a couple of hours to give to help finish up some technical details in preparation for opening, please contact us through the volunteer page on the Lyric website.