I find myself in unfamiliar territory.
Tomorrow I go an actual vacation. My free time is usually spent traveling to Panama
which technically qualifies as a vacation but tomorrow is different. My wife
has never been to Europe and although I misspent two years of my youth there
early in my Army career I haven’t been back for over twenty years. Tomorrow
night we board a red eye flight to Switzerland and will spend the next ten days
running around central Europe playing tourist. My Favorite Panamanian is
extremely excited about the trip and has already spent two weeks packing and re-packing.
We’re going the guided tour route to maximize what we’ll see. You can expect a
full report upon my return.
 |
| FBR in Charm Mode |
I finally got around to getting the second
of the two shots needed for the shingles vaccine and it was every bit as much
fun as the first. My wife woke up last night and asked why I was bundled up in
a thick quilt, I explained through chattering teeth that I was dealing with the
side effects which include a mild fever. The cotton candy feeling in the head
is finally starting to abate and I should be good to go for the trip tomorrow.
It was not the smartest thing in the world to get this done two days before a
trip.
We’ve had fleeting glances of the
granddaughters over the past few days and they seem to be up to their usual
tricks, charming everyone within sight. The FBR was particularly telling in
this department with a newly acquired haircut and the usual overabundance of
personality. I caught up with them just before bedtime the other night and the
FBR was using many of the same tricks her mother employed more than three
decades ago to avoid bed time.
Yesterday I finished off my re-read of the Wheel of Time series, the epic fantasy series penned by Robert Jordan. All of the books are huge, over a thousand pages each, but they were every bit as addictive as the first time I read them. It was like meeting up with old friends, never a bad thing.
I’ve been to the movies a couple times
over the past few days. I went alone to see Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
which is out of the usual since I usually require someone along to absorb some of
the scares. This was a nice little movie based on a series of children’s horror
books. A group of friends accidently start a deathly chain of events when they infiltrate
the patented haunted house in their small town. The filmmakers did an excellent
job of melding the wide ranging stories into the overall framework of the plot.
There were some very unsettling monsters that had me tempted to watch through
my fingers, a childhood trait. If nothing else they certainly set themselves up
for a sequel which would be welcome if it is done as well as this one was.
Date night saw us back at the cinema
to see Where’d you Go Bernadette? This is a perfect part for the peerless Cate
Blanchette and she owns the movie as a lovable, but deeply conflicted recluse.
She’s a former architect, a generational level talent who gave everything up to
retreat to Seattle. She’s totally dependent on a mysterious facilitator from
India from whom she orders online virtually everything she needs in life. She’s
devoted to her daughter but in concerted conflict with an overbearing neighbor before
she runs away one step in front of a commitment effort. I loved the arc as she
realizes her own failings and begins to heal herself despite a boob of a
husband. Blanchette exudes heart and you can help but root for her despite her character’s
obvious social shortcomings. The reasons behind her retreat from life are gradually
revealed over the course of the movie which only lends depth to Bernadette – now
one my favorite characters so far in this year’s movies.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RECURRING
CHARACTERS
BRS
- Blog Reader the Sequel
- second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog
Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA –
Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law; Wingman – my son in law; Keene
Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene,
NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great Aunt = my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since
grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to
attract women; Pittsburgh College
Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which
grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two
close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3rd musquetera
(musketeer); Riggins - also known as
the Grandpuppy, son's dog, surrogate grandchild while awaiting arrival of the
BRS; PanaGals – female
relatives/friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin
Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we
have lived & their spouses; Neighborhood
Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of
course); First Friday – celebrations
to mark the First Friday of the Week; Deckzilla
Dude – senior citizen carpenter/contractor; Voices of Inappropriate Worth - members of public who come to every
Worcester public meeting to complain, all are on public assistance along with
demeanor issues
No comments:
Post a Comment