Restoration

Holidays, time to slow down and get a little perspective on life. This past week or so I've gotten to know my kids again, and had good extended visits with friends. Another week and I'll be downright relaxed. But then, it will be hair-straight back as we embark on yet another fundraiser, this time to restore the bathrooms at the Arts Centre. We've now received several small grants, and one significant one, to bring the two washrooms up to code and make one entirely wheelchair accessible. I, for one, am looking forward to hands-free paper towel holders. Only one event to go - the "Feast of Impropriety." It truly will be a feast, prepared by a well-known local chef, and we will be talking about bathrooms the whole time. Perhaps a little bathroom humour would be appropriate. Sunday, January 30 is the date, and tickets will be $100. A charitable tax receipt can be given for $50 of each ticket. All Johns get a free gift... can you imagine what that would be?

Flood!

Is this amazing wonderful historical building trying to tell us something? While we're desperately trying to find funding bodies willing to help us renovate the sorely inefficient bathrooms, the heating system has been staging its own drama. Today we arrived to a flooded lower level, damaging a great deal of items in the studio space, plus ceiling, floor and walls (interesting how paint will stretch into those large sacs!) However, cool heads have come and gone in the past few hours and we seem to be over the shock of it all. The building wants some attention. Not just physically, perhaps. Sure, we catch drips and patch walls, improve, renovate and replace where necessary, but that's not our focus. We've been discussing how the Arts Centre fits into the City's offerings as far as cultural services, and hoping to become one of the budget items on their books. Arts service is our focus. It's time to look at things differently, what we offer, what we can offer, how we can offer it. Efficiency is the word of the day.