i leave for OCF tomorrow. i’ve got my list completely filled, except for soap, which i intend to use to take a shower this evening, and then put in the box. i’ve got a 6-pack of beer in the fridge, and a 5-gallon bottle of water, and my small flip-top box to put in the car, first thing tomorrow, and i hope to leave as close to 07:00 as possible, because i still need to water my plants, and their light doesn’t switch on until 07:00.

once again, i’m putting in my 12’x24′ aluminet shade cloth, to loan to the company, because now that we have moved the fence, the backstage area is going to be bigger, and we will be able to use it this year. the weather-guessers say that it’s not going to be as hot this year, but it’s still going to be between 85° and 90°, which is plenty hot enough. and because of the fact that macque isn’t going this year, there’s no advanced mosquito advisory, but, if moving the fence a few weeks ago is any indication, it’s going to be a mild year for mosquitos.

the show — Peter Pan — is surprisingly together, for a change. our last rehearsal, last thursday, was largely off-book, which is astounding! usually when we have our final dress rehearsal at the fair, there are still a few people who have scripts in their hands, but this year, it is not to be! we’re playing up the “men dressed as women, women dressed as men” aspect of the show this year: peter pan is played by a woman, mr. smee is played by a woman, nana is played by a man, the crocodile, the lost boys, and the shadow are all being played by the same woman (amy funbuttons), wednesday WENDY is being played by a man — and, yes, there is a crossover with wendy and wednesday, from the addams family…

this year, the band doesn’t have a drummer. sasha, the last remaining drummer from the cirque de flambé days, has finally decided that he has too much trouble walking around the uneven surfaces of the fair — i remember when sasha did the traditional cossack dance, when we were at fairhaven, 40 years ago — so he’s not going to be there. the fremont philharmonic is once again being represented by “Father Guido’s Righteous Hand” — five people, and a massively cut-down arrangement of pretty much everything. we’re playing the same preshow, so that we don’t have to figure out what we can and cannot play on the fly.