Winter Fatigue

The Queen in Residence

I think I’ve been away from my January tropical beach hang out long enough to be officially tired of winter. My son very snarkily reminded me of my emailed January photos which almost resulted in assassination squads waiting at the airport upon my return. However, I’ve done my time. Today we’re facing our third Nor’easter in less than two weeks and this one is bringing an unneeded additional 15-20 inches of snow. I can now say, without fear of contradiction (except from those maniacal skier types – you know who you are) that winter officially sucks.

According to the internet the typical symptoms of winter fatigue are:  Trouble sleeping, poor appetite, weight loss, and agitation or anxiety. So I don’t even have that, well except for the agitation. This too will pass as any good New Englander will tell you, the march of seasons is upon us. Less optimistic news out of New Jersey last night as the FBR is down with a serious cold. My daughter had to come back from work to administer to her and reported she is getting old enough to negotiate some perks. She texted me the following:  “Her royal highness insists on laying in our bed to watch tv.” I responded with a remark that I recalled similar entitled behavior from a certain individual three decades ago. I received no answer to that.

Dinner Sleep with Mom

Across Generations

The FBR seems to take her colds very seriously, doing nothing in half measures. She actually fell asleep in my daughter’s arms last night instead of finishing dinner- simply unheard of when she’s healthy. My daughter sent me a picture of the FBR eating spaghetti in fabulously chaotic fashion. I couldn’t resist posting a similar picture from more than thirty years ago next to each other. I’m sure part of the FBR’s recovery will involve reading with her mom. A couple friends posted this photo on Facebook – truer words were never written.

This One Was Quite the Little Reader

Keene Friend bunked at our house last night to ride out the storm. I introduced him to the psychotic musings of Ash Williams as portrayed by Bruce Campbell in Ash Vs. the Evil Dead. We laughed together at the grisly excesses while I learned Keene Friend had never seen the seminal film - Army of Darkness. I’ll remedy that shortcoming on our next snow day. After that he accompanied me to the movies to see a Wrinkle in Time.

I was disappointed in a movie I should have loved. This ought to have been marketed as strictly a children’s film because they will overlook a lot of its obvious shortcomings. The filmmakers also underuse Gugu Mbatha-Raw which should be grounds for criminal charges. A young girl is bullied at school because her physicist dad disappeared four years earlier. It turns out her dad has been teleporting himself around the universe until captured by an evil entity called, “It”. I know. It falls to the young daughter and her precocious brother to rescue their dad with the assistance of some gaudily dressed celestial beings. A forty foot tall Oprah is one of them struggling to appear regal with all the silly accoutrement she’s adorned with. I hate to pick on a kid but the lead actress fails with no screen presence whatsoever. The other child actors, especially the younger brother, were fantastic but this was the gal’s film to carry and she shows hardly any emotion throughout. Maybe this is what a millennial ideal is supposed to act like but there were times I found myself shaking my head at the screen. My major problem with the movie is that is takes itself entirely too seriously, as if the filmmakers were so impressed with themselves that we viewers were expected to follow along without question. Again, great flick for very young children but a huge miss for an adult audience.