Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"I once described some of my involvements as 'Schrodinger involvements' -- although long periods of time may elapse between things 'happening', they're situations where we haven't said 'this has ended', and therefore, each time we see each other, it's like opening the box and seeing whether our dynamic is platonic or sexual." -- moominmuppet, 2006-02-16

I've been distracted by such things as comparison shopping for a water heater, finding how many plumbers who show up on "Search for _____ in Baltimore" web sites don't actually include Baltimore in their service areas, actually making it to both rehearsals this week, and trying to synchronize the different copies of my web site in preparation for actually moving it, that once again I've neglected to alert folks to upcoming performances. Whoops.

On Saturday, 6 May 2006, Thrir Venstri Foetr (Three Left Feet) will be performing at the Fairie Festival at Spoutwood Farm, in Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, a rather large and joyous event. We'll be performing at noon, and again at 4:00 PM [note correction if you're reading this for the second time]. $10 adults, $5 children under 12.

Google found me an NPR "audio postcard" about the festival, from 2002.

(Note that Three Left Feet will also be performing at the Maryland Fairie Festival two weeks later, on Saturday, 20 May 2006. I'll post more info about that next week.)

On Sunday, 7 May 2006, The Homespun Ceilidh Band will be performing (in more of an "ambiance and atmosphere" capacity than a concert) at Children's Day at Riversdale House Museum in Riverdale Park^[1], Maryland, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. The event is described thus on the mansion's calendar of events page:

Come out and play! Dance 'round the Maypole, roll hoops and walk on stilts at Riversdale's first annual Children's Day Festival. Enjoy early 19th century amusements such as graces, marbles and corn husk doll making on the beautifully landscaped grounds. Performances by Horn's Punch & Judy Show run throughout the afternoon. Learn to juggle, go on a scavenger hunt and get a prize, and dress up in children's period costumes. Meet some wild animals under the supervision of Park Rangers, and enjoy the music of John Ward's "Homespun Ceilidh Band". Refreshments and children's delights will be sold. Admission at the gate: $1 children, $2 seniors, $3 adults, includes entrance to the mansion.

(The Homespun Ceilidh Band is also performing the following weekend, at the Green Man Festival in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Saturday, 13 May 2006. I'll post more info about that soon.)

[1] For far-flung friends who find that name familiar but not quite right: yes, Riverdale Park is the town formerly known simply as Riverdale (the town that outlawed trick-or-treat). Apparently they wanted to sound more high-falutin', but I think it just makes it sound cheesey. And for everyone else: yes, the mansion uh, "house museum" has an 's' in its name while the city named for it does not. That wasn't a typo.

Aaaaaaand ... as of 10:55 the plumbers are gone. Now I just wait for forty gallons of water to come up to showering / dishwashing temperature.

Apparently either a message was incompletely transmitted, or was communicated but not entirely believed. On the phone to a call center in Florida to get an estimate and then to order the water heater, I said my basement door was 21 inches across and asked how wide the new heater was. The short model is 21.75 inches and the tall model is 19.25 inches. The local plumbing company that the big-box chain contracted installation out to hedged their bets and sent one of each, telling the two guys in the truck that there might be a problem with fit but not being very specific. At least they did believe that the customer might actually have some idea how to use a tape measure and did send the tall heater along. Apparently not having enough vertical space is a more common problem than really narrow doorways, because at various steps in this shopping process folks wanted to convince me to get the short version.

"Wow. That's a really narrow staircase."

"Yup."

"You said you measured it?"

"Yup."

"We're gonna need the tall one."

A couple minutes later: "The hand truck won't fit. We're going to have to carry this down."

While they worked, we talked about old houses, energy prices, and the travelling salesman problem (and their frustration with trying to get their dispatcher to make more efficient assigments, to save on gasoline). And music, of course.

And apparently water pressure at the tap is influenced as much by the plumbing inside the house as by geography and the city water supply. They admired my copper pipes and how quickly the water heater tank filled, saying that they'd probably originally been galvanized steel and some previous owner had had a very expensive upgrade done. (They also talked about coming back to houses they'd just installed copper pipes in, to find the copper stolen and the basement flooded, saying that was a major reason for using PVC pipe in bad neighbourhoods. When the previous owner of this house moved out and let me stay here for really cheap rent while he tried to sell it -- before my mother bought it -- he said I was doing him as much of a favour as he was doing for me, because he feared that the house would be stripped of its copper pipes and carved woodwork if left vacant.)

Okay, I'm gonna go see whether the water is hot yet. I really need a shower.