Thursday, February 16th

Yes, I know there was no entry yesterday. Blame the windstorm that took down a tree that knocked out the power for twelve hours.

Tuesday evening turned out to be the best Valentine’s Day I’ve had in a long time. (Not that I normally even acknowledge it.) I had great fun channelling Dorothy Parker and, along with the other readers, I was presented with a long stemmed red rose and an honorarium of $50. Nice.

I could, of course, put that money into minimally reducing the line of credit, but it would be such a ridiculously small drop in the ocean of debt. Better by far, methinks, to use it to purchase the latest Lee Child (which lingered through my birthday and Christmas on my Amazon wish list). That would cheer me up more than a sad deposit on the line of credit.

Good news on the new(er) Echo front. Took it to the garage on Tuesday to have new snow tires put on and a general look see. (Seems ridiculous to be putting snow tires on a car when I’ll only have to go back in a couple of months to have them removed, but this winter does seem to be a revival of the awful winter of 08/09 and if it is, there could very well be more snow.) Turns out that the eleven-year-old Echo does indeed need some work. The left rear brake pad is quite urgent, the other things not so much. But the overall consensus was that the car is in good shape and was, for the price I paid, a sweet deal. Phew.

Here’s a funny thing. The day after I bought my new(er) dark blue Echo, I found myself driving to a rehearsal behind a seemingly identical dark blue Echo. And then I started seeing this other dark blue Echo everywhere, so often it was difficult to believe it was always the same car. I mentioned this to a friend who suggested making a note of the licence plate number next time I saw it. Which I did. Next time I saw a dark blue Echo I checked and it had a different plate number. And the next time. And the next time. Last night, when I arrived at the pub for the Wednesday burger and beer special, I spotted two other identical Echoes in the carpark. I do not remember ever seeing a dark blue Echo on the island before. (Not that I was looking for one.) I didn’t know until I saw the listing for this car that there had ever been such a thing as a dark blue Echo. I cannot believe how many of these cars there are. So much for everyone knowing where I am. (Some time ago there was another light blue Echo on the island, but I haven’t seen it for years.) This will keep them guessing.

Other than that there is little to report and even less I feel an urgent need to say today.

Rehearsals are going well. I think we can safely say we are off book and cooking. (I just have to make sure I keep Peckham and Kensington separate in my mind –another slip up yesterday – and Charlie has to keep track of Jack Winston, Enrique Nunez and Davey Egan in their proper place.) The play is going to be fucking great!