We are barreling toward the holidays, starting next week and going full-tilt until January 2.  Between the week-long Thanksgiving break most schools are on starting Monday, then the various and sundry holiday special events — including December 7, the end of the Medicare enrollment period — the inundation never ends until the last balloon is popped and it’s 2024…and the election campaign takes off.  Can the End Times be far off?  One could only hope.

I have three theatre events coming up: the District 8 Thespians, which is for Miami high school students, on Saturday the 18th.  There hundreds of aspiring actors, directors, designers, and playwrights will gather to share their enthusiasm for the wicked stage.  I’ve already read and adjudicated 31 short plays (up to 30 pages), and the scope is amazing.  Then I will sit in on an evaluation of students applying for scholarships. This will be my first time doing that, so I have some things to learn.  Then a week from now, I’ll be working with my friend and director Jerry on a production of “The Christmas Commercial Conspiracy” for the Miami 1-Acts Festival at the Main Street Players in Miami Lakes. That’s a two-day event; my play is one of eight.  At the same time, theatre students at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey, will produce “Any Second Now,” a short play about characters waiting to be cast in plays by anxious and brooding playwrights.

Speaking of anxious and brooding playwrights, I’ve started yet another play: “You, Me, and the Turkey Baster.”  I hope to have something to show for it by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, we brace ourselves for the crush of holiday consumerism — a good sign that Bidenomics is working — and the end of pumpkin spice everything.  And now that the no-named tropical storm has moved off, it’s time for the wildlife to enjoy the sunshine.

“Iguana see clearly now, the rain is gone…”