Well, dear readers, today I will soon be the mixmaster and therefore I shall write these here notes in a hurry because I’m overtired and I must be awake and alert whilst mixing it up. I have to say, yesterday was one infuriating half-day. My helper, who was supposed to arrive at nine-thirty, did not arrive at nine-thirty, or ten. I began boxing everything myself, and texted her, left her a phone message, and e-mailed her. By eleven I hadn’t heard, and I was done. I had to fill out forms, prepare all the big dealer orders and get everything into the car (we’re talking about a LOT of heavy boxes here). Before I started lugging I checked the cell phone and saw that she’d texted back at 10:15 saying she’d slept through her alarm, was moving slowly, had the stomach flu (same basic problem last time this happened), but would be here shortly. I have no idea why the text came in more than an hour after she sent it and it was just there – I didn’t even get a notification. I texted back that she didn’t have to come and that perhaps it was time for me to find someone new, and I left a backup message on her voice mail because my cell was behaving erratically (more about that in a minute). Well, short story long, I never heard from her. Not a peep. Not a whisper. Maybe because I said it was perhaps time to find another helper and that I felt she would never do this with her other employer she didn’t feel the need to respond, but I find that incredibly irresponsible. Minimally, she has six months’ worth of invoices that I have to get back, and she was in the middle of doing some online work that I feel I’ve paid for (and then some). I texted her one last time at about nine in the evening, but have still not heard a peep. I hope she’s okay and presumably she’ll get back to me at some point about the invoices that have to be returned. It’s very disconcerting to me when this stuff happens – I’ve been very good to this person and offered help when she was in desperate need of help. I’ve been supportive, I’ve been a friend, so I’m just not getting this at all. Hopefully, it will all come clear today because the longer this silence goes on the more irritating it will get. If I have to, I’ll simply go to the theater where she’s doing a show (only minutes from me) and we can discuss it there. All I want is a helper who’s reliable and on time and responsible. I’m not paying chump change – it’s only two or three hours of work on any given day, so if you break up what I pay by hours it’s really excellent money. Anyway, I guess I’m now on the prowl for a new helper, who I’ll have to train and start from scratch – this is the fourth helper in a year. I think most will remember who the first helper was, but that wasn’t possible to continue, then Cason came on and did a great job, but lived too far and got too busy. Then I found a gal who I thought was going to be fantastic, but she ended up being a complete flake, and then, because this person was so needy when this job came up, I thought for sure she was going to be perfect. And most of the time she was. But over the last four weeks, what happened today happened one other time, and there have been multiple occasions where we’ve had a definite time booked and that morning I’ve gotten a text saying she was tired or whatever and let’s just do it the next day. And just taking for granted that I would go along with it, which I always tried to do despite the inconvenience of it. In any case, I did all the lugging and shipping and filling out forms by myself and got it all done, pulling a few muscles in my back as I did so.
Once all that was over, Cason came by and we went to lunch at the Hamburger Hamlet, where we were met by Mr. Barry Pearl. We had a fine old time and that made me forget the morning, sort of. Cason’s gotten a terrific job back in Prescott, so this was our farewell lunch, although he’ll keep in touch and will be back in LA occasionally. Then we came back to the home environment and Cason went on his merry way while Barry and I talked about this little project we’re involved in. Then he left, and I went and picked up one package and a few items of mail. Then I got a call on the cell phone. It didn’t ring, but the person left a voicemail and then the phone vibrated, which I heard, and I saw the readout that a call had come in. I tried to listen to the voicemail, but it wouldn’t connect. About ten minutes later I walked outside for better reception and went to listen to the voice mail – only the voicemail had completely disappeared – not a trace of the message and the call disappeared from the recents list. So, I called ATT and explained what’s been going on (difficulty sending texts from home, etc.) and she didn’t really have a clew, other than to finally admit that the 3G towers that are within a three-mile radius of my home have not been operating well for about three weeks, but that they were being worked on. That explained a lot, actually. She then switched me to an Apple guy and we did the usual troubleshooting things, but nothing was really fixing it. He suggested I might have a bad SIM card and to go to my nearby ATT store and get a new one. I went over there, but the gal said it was the towers and that everyone in the neighborhood was having these sorts of issues. She said she’d be happy to give me a new SIM card but that it was pointless. She suggested I actually shut off the 3G and use E, the 2G network. She showed me how to do it and it did seem to help. Whenever I’m away from this area, I’ll switch back to 3G. So part of the day was annoying, part of it was fun, and part of it was annoying. After that, I was quite ready to sit on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on the DVR entitled The Bride Wore Black, un film de Francois Truffaut, based on the novel by Cornell Woolrich. I don’t find it a great film, but I enjoyed it after all these years, and it does have a great score by Bernard Herrmann. The high definition broadcast was nothing to write home about, and yet I wrote home anyway.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I will be the mixmaster all too soon and this seesaw day has me exhausted and ready for bed.
Today, I shall be mixing it up – that is, I will be with my engineer John and we will be remixing the new Kritzerland project – I’m very excited to hear what he’s done so far, technically, and we’ll be finessing that today and tomorrow (if necessary). After we finish, I’m sure I will both jog and eat something light, but fun.
Tomorrow will be more mixing it up, unless we finish everything today. If I haven’t heard from the helper by tomorrow, then I’ll just show up at her theater to find out what’s what.
On Saturday night, I’ll be making the trek to Orange County to see a production of Carousel. Other than that, I don’t really have all that much planned, but must write the blurb for our new release and get ready to announce it, hopefully on Monday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, mix it up, do a jog, eat, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your all-time favorite lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I prepare to be the mixmaster, at least that’s the plan, Stan.