We suppose it was inevitable. The brutal schedule. The blistering pace. After two-and-a-half weeks on the road, family concerns, and the death by a thousand cuts of setting up and tearing down equipment, finding interviewees, searching for a hotel, and trying to eat in something resembling a healthy lifestyle. . . all those in aggregate, not any one thing. . . have taken their toll on this old body and soul.

Today, it became painfully obvious that taking on such a large project as this film has put us under tremendous stress — mostly self-inflicted — and it came to a head today. Now, I’m not going to share anything too terribly graphic for the sake of our more sensitive readers. . . but. . . when we say it all came to a head today, we mean that in the high school prom sense of the phrase.

When all the planning and preparations become too much to bear, what happens hours before you pick up your date? A great big zit appears just hours before that photo — you know that photo — the one that will last a lifetime in both your family’s scrapbooks. Stress acne. We’ve all had them. And the timing couldn’t be worse. It won’t peak until hours after the prom is over; it just sits there and glows like some radiation-induced tumor in the middle of your forehead, on the tip of your nose, or on your chin. It might as well be rotating like a lighthouse beacon warning all who come near to steer clear.

Of course, it’s just a warning shot fired across the bow by your body, telling you to slow down. So, after giving it something less than a valiant effort today, we gave in and took it to the hotel and slept it off for a few hours. No film. No interviews. No equipment management and battery recharging. Just sleep. And with it, the peak has passed. The orbital glow of a rapidly growing stress zit finally fizzled with a fszzzt! and not a pop. And our body, once again, has shown us the wisdom of resting one day a week. Cuz. . . sometimes ya just gotta chill.

— LSS