Crossed Up

Yesterday was one of those days you just want to eliminate something or somebody.  I spent the better part of the day dealing with insurance companies regarding my recent accident.  My insurance company, USAA, is great but everything has to be done telephonically.  Their adjuster did come by the office today and did his thing with my injured steed.  It was kind of sad because I guess I had been purposely avoiding looking too closely – over 5K worth of damage.

Today’s phone trees make it next to impossible to actually talk to a live person.  I called Liberty Mutual, the evil other driver’s company, several times trying to reach the guy I was told to contact.  I finally gave up and just took my chances with some random adjustor who would answer a phone. 

They actually had the gall to state that they hadn’t arrived at a decision yet as to culpability.  This despite the fact that their driver hit me while I had the right of way; she had a stop sign while I did not.  I’ll give them a couple of days to do the right thing before it becomes exponentially more expensive for them.  As much as I complain about the nanny State that is the People’s Republic of Taxachusetts, the state government does not like insurance companies not stepping up when they should and lawyers can get expensive.

Last night was date night and after consulting with my daughter (guru for all things cinematic), decided to go to the Clint Eastwood movie, Trouble with the Curve.  She opined that this was a much better movie than the other choice, Alex Cross.  When I ordered the tickets the manager said they no longer had that movie despite my assurances it had been on their web site in the morning when I planned the date.  He showed me the web site and there was a different movie listed but I’m sure I saw the Eastwood movie.  The manager and I teamed up to convince my wife she would like Alex Cross, because I did not want to drive all the way into Worcester.

I had heard terrible things about this movie but actually it was all right.  I’ve never seen any of his “Medea” work so I guess I wasn’t prejudging him but Tyler Perry was very good in this.  He has real screen presence and was a very credible actor in a role that Morgan Freeman started out with.  Freeman would be too old for this setting and Perry was, once again, very good. 

The film maker, not so much; the music was consistently inappropriate and overstated and the editing was abysmal.  Ed Burns was very good but didn’t seem to have the needed chemistry with Perry that his role called for and I thought it was more his fault than Perry’s.  Matthew Fox, as a buff assassin, definitely left his Jack days behind him with a mesmerizing performance as the psychotic killer.  There were enough jarring “moments” in this to make it a very solid movie.  A pleasant surprise and my wife even liked it.  Sometimes lowered expectations can set you up for a pleasant surprise.

Front Yard Yesterday