Short post this week, because Nutcracker.
Got some cool news this week from Second Son, AKA McNugget. Their family is growing. We’ll know more in a couple of weeks, but they think they’re due in July.
Makes me think about my parents. My Dad only ever met his first grandchild. My Mom (who would have turned 99 earlier this month) only met three. I wonder if things would have been different if they’d lived longer than they did.
Would Diana and I have stayed in Columbus? Would we have maybe moved my parents up there with us? Mom was kind of exploring the idea, to the point of looking up senior living centers.
They were both in their early 70s when they died, though not in the best of health. Would any of that have changed?
There’s my what-if machine going nuts again. Better I should just bask in the glow of a growing family. This makes seven grandchildren for us. Life is good.
It’s Showtime
It’s a hectic week. I spent Wednesday afternoon trying to repair one of our fog machines. We need fog for the opening of Act 2, so we’ve got a couple of 55-gallon drums with water heater elements. We fill them with water, then when we need the fog, we drop about twenty pounds of dry ice in each one. The fog drifts out through a system of dryer vent hoses and gives us a nice layer of fog for the scene.
Except one of the drums developed a decent-sized leak way down low in a really awkward place. I suggested we get it welded, but that didn’t happen in time, so I had to hunt up some Flex-Seal.
Then once I got the stuff, I discovered that the hole I was trying to fix was about an inch long and a quarter inch wide. I didn’t have anything to lay over the hole for support, so I ended up spraying several layers over it. It seemed to flow into place pretty well.
Turns out it worked alright for the first show. I was concerned because the water gets pretty warm – about 110 degrees – and forty gallons of water is about 300 pounds, so I wasn’t sure how well the Flex-Seal would hold, but I was happy in the end.
I was even happier when one of the bosses called to me before the show and handed me a box. We got a bunch of new-to-us costumes and props a few years ago and part of that was new Drosselmeyer gear, including a huge cape and a top hat. But mice had chewed up the top hat, so it was no good. I’d mentioned a few times that I’d like a top hat, and lo and behold, that’s what she handed me.
I think it’s a great addition to the costume.
Michigan Football
That explosion you heard Wednesday afternoon was Michigan’s top-15 recruiting class blowing up over the news of Sherrone Moore’s for-cause firing. Moore was released Wednesday after the university found “credible evidence…that Coach Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.” The for-cause aspect means he won’t be getting a $12.3 million buyout.
I’m speechless at this point (Wednesday night).
He’s thrown away a 10-year marriage and destroyed his reputation and integrity. Aside from the buyout, he’s trashed a $6.1 million annual salary and all kinds of perks that come with being the head coach of a premier B1G football program.
For what?
That’s rhetorical, of course.
There are people calling for AD Warde Manuel to be fired because of yet another scandal involving the football program. I’m not seeing how he could have prevented anything that happened though, and I think he and the school have responded appropriately to what they’ve learned in all cases. When you hire someone, you don’t expect them to hack into school computer systems or violate morals clauses in their contracts.
(Overheard: I love Jim Harbaugh, but my God, the dude has a Forrest Gump-level gullible streak when it comes to character evaluation.)
It’ll be interesting to see how this all shakes out. Early Signing Day was just last week, and we picked up what looked like a great recruiting class at the time. How many of those recruits will stay? How many of our current players will stay? I hope QB Bryce Underwood will stay, because the school put together a tremendous NIL deal to land him. Will he stay? Will others? Players are going to have to put a lot of thought into their future. The regular transfer portal opens 2 January. But when there’s a coaching change, a special 15-day window opens five days after a new coach is hired.
We went 9-3 this season with a lot of really young players. I had high hopes for next year, but now I’m not so sure.
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