February desert visit

We had a lovely desert visit even though it was just for one night. Thankfully the weather cooperated and it wasn’t as cold as last time, and even though the wind kept me up at night, it abated enough by the morning that we were able to get some things done outside on Sunday before we left late in the afternoon. We won’t be able to go back for about six weeks - not until end of March - due to back to back birthday parties. I imagine things will be very different then. Hopefully no more night temperatures in the 30s and hopefully day temperatures in the 70s and 80s. We have such a tiny window to enjoy good functional weather out there that I feel a certain urgency about it. The H thinks we’ll be able to visit all summer but I’m not so sure. With no power those three digit days could be pretty unbearable; I can definitely hang better than he can, since coming from NY where the temperature doesn’t drop at night on the hottest days I’ve had many miserable hot nights and am used to it. My band also may be locked into Knott’s every weekend this summer again, so there’s that, too. 

We spent a decent amount of time chatting with our contractor. The jury is out as to if he will be able to get anything more done for us before he leaves again in April, which is coming up fast. He seemed to say he’d have time, but then would tell us he’s got several other jobs waiting on him, too, which made me skeptical. Time is running out. I know the reality is he just doesn’t know himself if he’ll have time so he doesn’t want to promise anything. It would be such a bummer if April came and went and we still have no windows or insulation. Just those two things and basic plywood walls would change everything for us - again, we could move things in permanently and stop living in a construction zone. Here I am trying to cook breakfast next to buckets of nails and boxes of tubes of caulk - it’s just a mess. My tolerance for these conditions is going to run out soon.

We were able to get all of the hammocks hung and it was everything I’d hoped - the boys loved swinging in them (broke the straps on two of them of course, so we’ll definitely have to upgrade the straps and carabiners) and I think it looks great, just having this little fire pit oasis in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully next time it’ll be warm enough to hang out there at night. 

My Soviet wall sink arrived from Ukraine and we hung it on the outhouse. It’s funny how a simple little device like this can bring you such joy and make life feel so luxurious. Just having an easy solution for hand washing - a difficult thing with no running water - makes such a difference. My hands have never been so clean in the desert.

The visit was much needed. Last week my business partner in my online registration system - the person who I bought it with and who has been the tech guy running it since 2018 - told me abruptly that he wants out, and is in fact stepping down from all dance-related activities, including running my scholarship program and putting together talks at my event (in addition to leaving me with no operable registration system months before I have to open). After freaking out and heavily researching for about 48 hours, today I have two zoom meetings set up with two dancers who have started up their own systems to see if I want to use them, and I’m fairly confident at least one will meet my needs. Replacing him on my system probably isn’t practical - as much as I love my system and think it’s perfect, it’s very old and clunky, and I can’t imagine who would want to take that on and run it for free. Most tech people would rather build their own and make some money off of it for all the work involved. So I just have to retire it and start over. Oh, and add yet another cost to my already bloated budget. It just never ends. I know I can’t be too resentful - this guy did a ton of thankless work for free just out of the goodness of his heart, and he has every right to throw up his hands and say he’s done with it at any time. The pandemic seriously damaged any hope we had of making our system sellable to other events, so there’s no incentive for him to continue work on it. I get it. But boy was I panicked. And at this moment I still don’t know what I’m going to do, and the idea of starting from scratch with a new and untested system on my 25th anniversary fills me with terror. This plus the hotel issues and I’m already dreading this year. Let’s hope the zoom meetings today bring me a little peace of mind.