IT Immersion

I am SO Missing These TWo

Yes, I’ve been off the net for the better part of the last couple days, you are most welcome. If you’ve been following events you know I’ve been dealing with Cali-Girl separation syndrome brought on by the departure of my daughter and the First Blog Reader. There was also that small issue of moving into a new house and divesting ourselves of our former abode. 

A lot has transpired in that arena since I last wrote. Yesterday the landlord came to check out the former dwelling and we got very high marks on how we left the house. I think we may have overachieved in the cleaning department but that’s what all those years in the military and serial rental housing will do to you. They gave us the deposit check back on the spot.

The Man Cave

My wife and I, over the course of moving our household fifteen times during our marriage, have a well-established hierarchy of tasks. I take the lead in getting things moved where brute force and ignorance are required attributes. Once things are move into the new location the lioness raises her head and relegates me to tasks more suitable given my complete lack of fashion sense. She’s spent the last couple days performing miracles at transforming the new house into a home. She’s already got the entire first floor unpacked and is making her way through several permutations on how the furniture is to be configured. My input is neither desired nor sought.

Kitchen  Mounted

I have spent the last couple days down in the future man cave. She figures I cannot damage this place too much and casual visitors will not see what is wrought down there. Visitors who will journey down there will have all been vetted. I reconstructed my movie rack and you can hardly tell where my dis-assembly efforts to fit it in took place. The big event yesterday was spending four hours with the Geek Squad who arrived to mount three televisions to the wall. Once again, my wife did not trust my carpentry skills for the job (good call there).

And the MBR

The Geek Squad guy was this absolutely dedicated young man who quickly became my best friend when he explained what I needed to activate all the speakers set into the wall of the man cave. While he was excavating into the walls I rushed down to Best Buy to purchase the needed components. He got all three TVs into the wall but ran out of time for the sound system. Earlier today he called back, said he had a cancellation, and was headed back to finish the job on his own initiative; like I said – my new best friend.

Helping Mom Shop

I Prefer These

Pardon Me While I Tally This Up

Big news out on the West Coast where Wingman finally made his way home after the finish of the US phase of his band’s farewell tour. I know there are two very happy young ladies in a certain Glendale home today. I know how agonizing it was for him to be away as my granddaughter acquired new abilities seemingly daily. He’s got a few well-earned weeks at home before the overseas portion of the tour gets underway.

Both my wife and I have been over-achieving in the physical labor sector over the past week so I’ve cajoled her into taking in a movie each of the past two nights for a needed break. On Tuesday night I finally saw Independence Day: Resurgence. The original almost defines a successful summer blockbuster requiring no thought and a completely impossible plot that is somehow rendered believable. The believability comes in large part due to the actors involved. I was excited to see this with the advance of CGI since the original and know they’d have to go bigger. They certainly tried as the aliens return for a second round with an immensely dangerous new array of capabilities. A lot of the original cast was back although, with the exception of Goldblum, without the same survivability quotient. There was almost non-stop action but it was basically the same story without the same investment from the audience. The young generation of actors certainly didn’t have the same appeal as their predecessors (definitely missing Will Smith) and the returning ones just looked old. All that being said, I enjoyed the ride.

Last night’s movie was a more somber affair, The Free State of Jones. I thought, going in, due to the trailer that there would be a lot more action than there was. As a matter of the fact the trailer contains virtually all of the action scenes. Matthew McConaughey was in full immersion for his role which meant he was perpetually grimy and delivered world weary stares at the horizon. They probably could have trimmed ten to fifteen minutes from the movie by halving his “stare” time. This was a very good story though with a very talented cast which doesn’t overdo the sentimentality which must have been tempting.  Gugu Mbatha-Raw continues to defy the odds of never being bad as she once again is fantastic as the female lead. More importantly the story actually happened when a bunch of Confederate deserters and runaway slaves teamed up to rebel against the Confederacy during the height of the Civil War. All too often Civil War films depict all Southerners as unrepentant racists while the truth must have been less well defined. Here we see that collusion, along with the price paid after the war.  A flawed, but enjoyable movie.