2017 Life Logs, Day 353: A Christmas Celtic Sojourn
Date: Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 51, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Routine dental cleaning, talking on the phone with Justin, preparing more holiday/thank you cards to send, and then a trip to New Bedford for dinner and the theatre with Bruce and Jane Woodin. That was my day. New Bedford is about a 45-mile trip across the bridge, but the trip tonight was most certainly worth it. We had a wonderful seafood dinner at Elisabeth’s in Fairhaven, across the harbor from New Bedford, and then went to the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center in New Bedford to see the 15th Annual ‘A Christmas Celtic Sojourn’. The traditional Celtic singing, dancing, and music were all superb, but I think the young children from the Harney Academy of Irish Dance stole the show.
They all looked to be in the five to seven year-old range and they can dance an Irish jig as good any. So adorable. This program is presented by WGBH in Boston. Brian O’Donovan is the natural host and producer of the show as he is also the host of WGBH’s weekly Celtic music program by the same name, A Celtic Sojourn. He grew up in West Cork, Ireland, in a small town, and after graduating from university, he came to Boston for a three-week visit. He is still there twenty-nine years later. Thanks, Bruce and Jane, for inviting me to tag along tonight. It was absolutely delightful.
My conversation with Justin today brought the news that the solar system we purchased will not be installed before Christmas. We have to wait one more week. Today’s installation date has been changed to Friday, December 29. So now we are hoping for solar power for the new year. They have had electricity since the first of December, but it is on-again, off-again. Sometimes it is only off for a few hours, but other times it is off for a day or two. When electricity is off, they have been able to use their little 250-watt solar system to keep the fridge going while the sun is shining, but when the sun goes down they just don’t open the refrigerator until the next morning. Not a perfect solution, but it is working for now. Justin spent his morning at Maximo Solar trying to pin down a realistic installation date, and hopefully we now have that. We just have to wait and trust. The good news from Puerto Rico today is that more and more Christmas packages are arriving. Hurray for the US Postal Service!
