The Play and Nastia and Keishon oh boy*

 *Say it like you're in the Wizard of OZ and you're entering the dark forest, Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my

Somehow Nastia has gotten involved with a group of kids, yes they are kids because they are all younger then her. This has been a trend with her since she and David broke up. She gets involved with guys, Taj who are younger than her and I am going to guess not a challenge to her. Not because they are dumb, but because they are younger and of course boys mature slower than girls and yes I did occasionally pay attention in class. On top of that Nastia's maturity has always lagged behind her physical age. It comes from growing up in an orphanage. Nastia has succeed in using her extensive charm and her looks to avoid doing things that a normal person her age would have to do. She has me wrapped around her little finger I'm sure you all know. I know it and most of the time I don't care and that is the problem, I'm her enabler. I wish I wasn't and sometimes I break out long enough to tell her she has to do things, but most of the time I hear Teri telling me I am doing her no favor. 

Now this play thing I have only slightly talked about. It was one of those things in my life that was on the periphery of the periphery. So far away I couldn't see what was coming. Every so often Nastia would say she is going to hang out with Keishon and watch them rehearse the play. Now it's the middle of COVID and no one is putting on plays. So I'd tell her to be careful and wear a mask and I don't want you going and all that. I never thought that they would put on the play and I never thought I'd end up going. I was told, if I remember correctly the play was based on another play called Into the woods. I'm only vaguely familiar with the first. Nastia tells me she would like me to come to the play. It is going to be put on on three nights. I tell her I can't go to all three nights, but I will go to Friday nights. It's a long time away and it doesn't impact me now (bad habit I have of scheduling things in the future and not worrying about them until they smack me in the face) So I'm going to this play on Friday night during a lull in COVID  in the northeast(for all you future people COVID ravaged the northeast and the south stood all tall and got political saying they would never have this problem and the cure can't be worse than the disease and they didn't follow the rules the way the northeast did and now they are paying a very heavy and unnecessary toll)  

The weather forecast said it would rain on Friday. When I got up that morning it was raining. By afternoon it had cleared and I thought I guess I'm going to a play tonight. At four-thirty I'm getting ready to print out all of my weekend work when a bunch of faxes come in and I spend the next hour entering all of the data, well most of it. I got to be around ten after six and I knew I needed to get out of there. I get in my car and traffic is starting to resemble rush hour, but not quite as heavy as I remember it. It seems like a bad dream all that heavy traffic and the hour sometimes more it took me to drive home. Now it's twenty minutes at eighty miles an hour. I get home, grab a folding chair feed the dogs so Nastia (I'm wrapped around her little finger) doesn't get yelled at by her mother. I get in my car. GPS says that Dutch Gardens is on New Hempstead road and my mom said it is behind the courthouse. I go there and there are no sign for Dutch Gardens. It is also five minutes after curtain (there is no curtin, I'm using it as a whatcha call it, an expression) GPS wants me to go to north Main Street, so I go. I half expected to at this point I'd drive onto railroad tracks if GPS said to, it doesn't, but it takes me to the parking lot for Hospice. So I drive back to New Hempstead road and drive past the courthouse up to where another park is. It lightly starts to sprinkle. I turn around and go into the jail parking lot, I figure why not. NO park, no signs anywhere. I end up back at the courthouse town office building. I park near some stairs going toward where I figure the courthouse is. I'm so sure I'm in the wrong place I leave the chair and Nastia's blanket in the car. I walk up the steps and a little sign and I mean little points you in the general direction of Dutch Gardens. I start to get the feeling the town doesn't want to let anyone know about their little secret treasure. I get the chair and blanket and it is very dark walking the path. In the close distance (is there such a thing) I see a small gathering of people and some lights. I open my chair and sit

in the back. I text Nastia I'm here and she doesn't answer. The rain gets heavier and I write in my phone 'The rain is too heavy, I'm going.' I don't send the text yet. I get up and I stand watching the play. I decide to move under a tree. It's safe right, (yeah I know it's the worst place to be when there is lightning) I dry under the tree. An animated women in the back near me (during COVID that's about twenty feet or so away, she's jumping around making sure no one needs an umbrella and she laughs at all the jokes and she leads the clapping. I think she is the director and the only one older then Nastia) offers me an umbrella, I decline. I reopen my chair and sit down. The rain gets heavy and I can't really hear and I didn't see the start so I am a little lost. The actors and actress are for the most part good. At a shortened intermission Nastia comes over and gets the blanket I bought. We talk a bit. she is sitting up close but alone. I feel sorry for her. The play runs about a little under two hours and at the end Nastia comes over again and I ask if she is ready to go. I've had it and I haven't had dinner. She wants to say goodbye to Keishan, (she later admits she would like to date him, all nineteen, maybe twenty years of him) but she sees he is with his Albany College friends and so she doesn't I again feel sorry that she doesn't feel comfortable enough to just go over. ON the flip side I can leave. we go towards the car and Nastia keeps heading toward where north Main street would be. I tell her I didn't find that spot. I parked way over in the courthouse parking lot and yes somewhere on North Main street there is an entrance to Dutch Gardens Park. I get french fries and a soda from McDonalds for a light late dinner and we are home by 9:15. I warm shower and a relaxing evening watching a now returned cable TV (out for three days) caps off he evening.

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Tropical storm Isaias and the pool

 What kind of name did they come up with for this last storm? I can't pronounce it. I'm used to storms and hurricanes with names like Andrew, Mary. I remember back when all storms were named after women. Then they started using men's names, it seemed so weird, now Isaias. It reminds me of Isis, which all of you future people hopefully have no idea what they are or were and that's a good thing*

Our pool has had a rough year. It started last year when the pool water wouldn't clear up. Then the pool wasn't covered until late in October and leaves got into the pool. I figured we (I) were going to empty

the water out of the pool anyway, what's a few leaves. This past spring I clean the leaves and water off the pool cover, then empty the pool of all the water, it goes surprisingly well and the pool looks amazing. One morning, not long after I wake up to the water in the pool down about six inches. It turns out a hose has a break in it. I repair it, then the motor on the pump jams, I think it has seized and I buy another motor. Of course the pool has to sit while the motor makes it way via UPS to our door and the water turns green. Teri and I dump chemicals on top of chemicals into the water to clear it up. This past week it starts to clear up and the water finally turns from green to a foggy light blue. Then Isaias hits. I'm at work and Teri calls to tell me a large branch has fallen into the pool. I joke to my co-workers that is going to be a six inch long branch. It turns out it is one of our neighbors, Ann's pine trees and it is a monster. It crashes through our fence, misses everything in the yard and settles for right up against the side of the pool. We call Allstate and they tell us we have a five-hundred dollar deductible so get an estimate and call them. Weeeeeell it's just after a storm and all good tree cutters are taking trees off of

houses and such. I'm told to call back in three weeks. Teri says to go out and get a chainsaw, that is until she discovers that you can't buy one for twenty dollars. Home Depot had one for about $120.00 and she thought that was too much. I guess it was a good idea I didn't go to the mower repair place that has all kinds of really great chainsaw for much bigger prices. I've gotten to the point in our relationship that if Teri is going to complain about a purchase, I'm either going to not purchase it or I'm going to not tell her and hide it from her for the rest of her or my life. So if you find a storage key on my key ring after I'm gone that is where I hide all of my toys and stuff I never told Teri about. My compromise is to buy long saw blades for my electric saw and cut up as much of the tree as I can. I start Thursday night and by dark and a little after the pine tree is well on it's way to being cut up. The pool is running and the water has pine needles and small branches in it that do clog the filter, but as of Saturday it is swimmable. The most annoying thing about the tree was it was loaded with small pinecones and I kept stepping on them. It got to the point I stopped cutting up the tree to sweep them off the deck. 

*ISIL- Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL; /ˈaɪsəl, ˈaɪsɪl/), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS; /ˈaɪsɪs/),^[86] officially known as the Islamic State (IS) and also known by its Arabic-language acronym Daesh (Arabic: داعش‎, romanized: Dāʿish, IPA: [ˈdaːʕɪʃ]),^[87][88] is a militant group and a former unrecognised proto-state^[89] that follows a fundamentalist, Salafi jihadist doctrine of Sunni Islam.^[90] ISIL gained global prominence in early 2014 when it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in its Western Iraq offensive,^[91] followed by its capture of Mosul^[92] and the Sinjar massacre.^[93]

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