Stellar Moh Gray Day

What I've Got to Look Forward to

In deference to my semi-elder (but not old) sister I feel compelled to reveal the results of last week’s skin biopsy.  An overly cheerful doctor reported it as cancerous from which means I have another date for Mohs Surgery to remove some skin from my nose.  I’ve always felt my nose was a bit too large but this is kind of drastic.  The surgery isn’t scheduled until January so, as my son put it, it can’t be that serious.  The doctor kept asking why the Army sent all us fair skin types to sunny places – as if we had a choice in the matter.  At least I’ll get a new scar to add to my collection and I’ve got a few weeks to think about an appropriately exciting lie about how I sustained the what is sure to be heroic wound. The downside about the whole thing is the increased wifely supervision this will certainly entail.  Invest in sun screen futures and don't be surprised if you see me wearing a burka next year mowing the lawn.

Worcester Veteran's Day Parade Went Right By My Office Yesterday

I received a number of very nice Veteran’s Day messages yesterday thanking me for my service.  I was touched that people took the time to do so.  My daughter in law, the fabulous ABFA, even posted a picture from her wedding reception (complete with Wing Man at his post) that I’d never seen before.  She kind of rocks.  My wife also surprised me yesterday.  She’d been slaving in a friend’s flower garden when she called to inform me she was taking me out to lunch.  If nothing else I learned how to follow orders in the military.  It was a good day that went a long way in distracted me from overthinking the whole nose business.

The ABFA Picture

Pre-Lunch Wife

We’re now three days out from my annual birthday pub crawl in my hometown of Keene.  My son, daughter, and Wing Man will accompany as we wander through the various taverns in that fine town on Saturday afternoon.  If you live in or near Keene and would care to offer your opinions on the state of the world, please feel free to join us.  Use the code word – “McGee” and I will even buy you a beer.  The only price attached would be hanging out with us while you consume it.  If I know you and you want the semi-schedule we’ll be following please send me a message.

Christopher Nolan certainly sends a message with Interstellar which was date night’s objective last night.  I’m a fairly jaded movie goer so when a film makes me sit up in wonder it’s pretty special.  The movie is set in the near future with the world on the brink of total disaster and becoming unlivable.  Matthew McConaughey plays an astronaut given the mission to travel to some potential new worlds to locate a new home world for the human race.  It’s a long movie but well worth the escape into space.

As with all of the Nolan’s work there are levels within levels.  How he makes quantum physics and time distortion interesting is almost as incomprehensible as the theories themselves.  Yet he does through the medium of the truly outstanding actors and the central plot line of the love between a father and a daughter.  The last part of the movie is what 2001: a Space Odyssey should have been.  Instead of Kubrick’s over the top visual blitzkrieg Nolan takes some even more complex issues and provides enough clues for the audience to make sense of it.  I was dazzled, which is kind of cool, because it doesn’t happen all that often any more.

Yet another of John D MacDonald’s masterpieces fell victim to my voracious reconnection with Travis McGee yesterday.  Pale Gray for Guilt has evil land developers (a favorite theme of MacDonald’s) killing one of Trav’s best friends.  Big Mistake.  There’s a lot less action in this one as McGee and the stalwart Meyers concoct a big con game to take care of the friend’s widow.  McGee wants to hit them where it hurts which means taking away their money.  This is quintessential MacDonald with his themes of Florida being despoiled and McGee as his knight errant confronting the forces of evil.   

The words, as always, draw you in.  The following passage is McGee cogitating on his soon to be deceased friend’s wife’s reaction to him:  “And, as before, the chemistry was slightly off, as it so often is with the friend who knew the husband before the husband met the wife.  It can be a kind of jealousy, I guess, because it is a reminder of years she didn’t share, and of an acceptance of the husband’s friendship, which was in no way her decision.  She seemed to relate to me with a flavor of challenge.  Prove yourself to me, McGee.  But you can’t, McGee, because you’re not housebroken.  Your life isn’t real.  You drift around and you have your fun and games.  You make my husband feel wistful about the debts he has and the girls he hasn’t. When you come near my nest, just by being here, you remind my man of the gaudy grasshopper years, and somehow you turn me into some kind of guard, or attendant, or burden.  With some of the wives of old friends I have been able to quench that initial antagonism.  They soon find out that I am aware of what every single unwed person knows- that the world is always a little out of focus when there is no one who gives the final total damn about whether you live or die.  It is the price you pay for being a rambler, and if you don’t read the price tag, you are a dull one indeed.”