Full Load

Pointing Out the Jersey Sights Between Wingman Feet

I once again learned the important lesson of not lighting a fire underneath my wife (it’s an expression not a criminal confession). It has consequences. I wrote yesterday that I told her she couldn’t buy any more plants until she planted the ones crowded out on Deckzilla. I underestimated (yet again) the motivation engendered by restricting shopping. I returned home last night to find most of the plants in the ground and a very harried uncle who made the mistake of volunteering to help in the effort. She marched me out on Deckzilla and told me I had to clear an area along the back of the house and also questioned why I hadn’t purchased the additional dirt needed behind the recently completed terrace on the back hill. Yep, an important lesson – re-learned.

The Load

I journeyed to Home Depot again to get the needed dirt. While I was there I also decided to pick up the stone needed for the hillside staircase. By the time I finished loading the cart I realized I may have over consumed. I was able to get the thing moving, barely, and luckily it was fairly flat terrain back to the car. The young checkout clerk snarkily commented to one of his compatriots that I was going to be sore today (remarkably – I’m not). That only motivated me to act as if it was no big thing. I was able to get the stack of stones and 600 pounds of dirt into the car but I seriously tested the shocks on my wife’s car with the load. I don’t think I want to go that heavy again. It was definitely an adventure driving back. I felt I was steering a battleship.

The FaceTime Queen

Daughter (seated on floor in middle) Making New Friends in Jersey 

I was rushing to get the cat unloaded back home ahead of a rapidly approaching thunderstorm. I had just finished the unloading when the First Blog Reader called, apparently in the middle of a meltdown. For some untold reason seeing my wife and I seems to have a calming effect on her. Some things in life are just hard to figure out. She’s very insistent that both of us are visible on the screen and whenever one isn’t she yells a loud “Pa” for me or “Ab-Lay-La” for my wife. I had to leave the call to spread the dirt ahead of the aforementioned storm and my granddaughter demanded my wife take the IPad out onto the deck so she could observe. At one point I was doing some form of dance on the hillside to entertain her. I’m sure the neighbors appreciated that performance.

I went out to see a late night movie by myself because King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is probably going to ease out of theaters soon and for some reason my wife wasn’t interested in seeing it. Guy Ritchie directing an Arthurian story was bound to be fun and it was on certain levels. This is the first time we see Arthur growing up as a London pimp and crime lord but Ritchie does crime lords so well. His pell-mell editing style was a little forced in this type story but I still found the movie very entertaining but I think you have to be kind of geek to truly enjoy it, which, of course, I readily admit to. This is the first thing Charlie Hunnam has done that I liked him in. He genuinely surprised me while, almost equally startling, Jude Law disappoints. He plays the evil Vortigen and seems almost disinterested at times in a part where he could have chewed up a lot of scenery. The movie is all over the place but you expect that from Ritchie as he tries to find his voice in every movie. I don’t think he ever truly finds it here but I enjoyed his search.

That Pesky Slide Static