Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Tim Wright

I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of a former Westridge colleague and friend, Tim Wright.  Tim directed almost all of Westridge School’s plays and musicals and helped direct the transition from the Braun Center to the then new Performing Arts Center.  Tim had worked as a stand-up comedian until a serious altercation with a drunken audience member put an early end to that career choice.  Tim wrote a number of movie scripts, directed a few films and also wrote several plays.  Tim and I saw each other almost on a daily basis when I was teaching at Westridge and we would frequently trade jokes, many of which could not be told in polite company.  At one point we had planned to work together on an English adaptation of one of García Lorca’s play, but that project got shelved.  When I last visited Westridge on November 14, I discovered that Tim had been hospitalized having been diagnosed with cancer.  His passing yesterday was unexpected and the only consolation is that he did not have to suffer a long illness.  The many posts on Facebook are an indicator of how many lives he touched.

Yesterday morning we headed for the Central Market to replenish our supply of fruits, vegetables, herbs, pine nuts, ham and cheese.  The most expensive item were the pine nuts, which cost 10 Euros.  The good news is we now have a supply of them that will last until the end of July.  The list of fruits and vegetables that we needed was quite long – lettuce, tomatoes, a red pepper, a green pepper, cucumbers, green beans, garlic, oranges, apples and bananas – and the total for all those goodies was eight Euros.  The blue rolling cart was filled to the brim when we made our way home.  When everything had been put away, I left for the gym.

Today was a workout day and for the first time I expanded my routine by doing a number of exercises using rubber resistance and a Fitball.  I also did a number of exercises using the machines.  My workout lasted a full fifty minutes and it started and ended with ten minutes of cardio.  I have been tracking the distances I walk on a daily basis and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that last week I walked 45.9 miles and that on Saturday last I walked more than 8 miles.

We ate lunch at home since Susan had an Aqua Fitness class at 3:30.  Susan made a salad and sliced up the remaining breast from the roast chicken we had bought on Sunday.  It was very tasty.  Susan left soon after lunch for her class and that was when I worked on yesterday’s blog.  Later in the afternoon I passed by Miguel’s office because a package had arrived for me.  It turns out that it was the blood pressure monitor that I had ordered from Amazon here in Spain.  The monitor I use at home is quite large and that was why I did not take it with me to Spain.  The new one is a wrist model and works perfectly.

There was no topic for last night’s CIVAC meeting and since it was the eve of a holiday there were not many in attendance.  I showed Juan Luis an effect with ESP cards hoping that I had reconstructed an effect that had us puzzled last July.  As it turns out, I had come up with a good effect, but it was not the one we were trying to reconstruct.  Pepe arrived a little after 9:00 having just returned from a day in Barcelona.  At 9:30 we left in search of a sandwich and a beer.

After several changes of direction we ended up a new spot called Shaley where instead of sandwiches we feasted on a variety of tapas.  As best as I can recall we had tortilla española, pulpo, croquetas de pollo, patatas bravas, and a plate of jamón y queso.  The conversation at the table was lively and by the time we paid our bill it was close to 11:30.  Pepe, Juan Luis, Paquito and Gioco were talking about having a nightcap, but I was done in so I took my leave and went home.

When I got there Susan was already in bed deeply engrossed in the novel she is currently reading.  I gave Rachel a call on FaceTime and the three of us spent a good fifteen minutes schmoozing.  She was in the process of cleaning the coffee roaster and is going to try her hand at roasting coffee tomorrow.  It was little after midnight when we finally went to bed.