The Miami Valley was certainly alive with the sound of music, on Thursday night, and Schuster Center was the place to be where several hundred high school theatre students were celebrated for their talents and efforts. Seeing young people and the performing arts combined and acknowledged is always exciting. There were many outstanding individual and corporate performances.

I manned the Volunteer Ushers and the upper right balcony which hosted the high school students who came and went due to their performed numbers down on the stage. The students were enthusiastic and extremely well-behaved throughout the entire evening. In fact, when the production was over, they left the upper backing spotless and with only a few plastic water bottles and napkins.

This morning is cold at 49 degrees and the house is quite chilly. It has been determined that the day will reach 73 degrees by the afternoon, but that doesn’t placate the current shivering. I have windows open throughout the house and do not wish to go around shutting them in order to turn on the heat. I will be gone a majority of the day and by the time I return home to change clothes to return downtown to Victoria Theatre, it will not matter how cool the house is.

I am currently listening to a Ken Burns podcast featuring Erik Larson on America’s history from crisis to Civil War, and an Audible book, AMERICA IN THE GUILDED AGE AND PROGRESSIVE ERA by Edward T. O’Donnell. Professor O’Donnell said of history, “One central idea I try to communicate in my courses is that history is the study of choices. It follows no predetermined script. History is determined by the choices made by people both famous and unknown.”

It is time to move on with my day and I am glad I have things to do, but more importantly, that I can do them.

Make it a great day!