Horrifying But Welcome

A discussion like this is best held for Fridays since there’s always the opportunity to drown the scarier moments in afternoon/evening adult beverages. It looks more and more like it’s going to be Trump versus Clinton for the presidential election and that is scarier than any of the versions of the Exorcist I’ve seen. People who know my history with that film can appreciate that last statement. While Clinton is the ultimate party hack, the last few days have shown just how scared the Republican establishment is threatened by Trump.

Heir Apparent to Linda Blair

That could be a welcome development, not Trump (for God’s sake), but the concept of “the people” running roughshod over a political party’s power. I also believe that’s behind Bernie Sander’s surprisingly strong challenge. People, including myself, have watched the encroaching power of the political parties that is found nowhere in the Constitution. It’s been allocated to the parties by their elected functionaries and in many cases now has the power of law. That’s a problem, especially given the resurgence of financial support from the moneyed elite. It’s led to the dysfunctional form of congressional government we are now in thrall to. It would be nice to think that this is the opening battle of a campaign by the American people to take back their inherent rights in the political process. I’ve always been an optimist.

Back in the solitary Worcester life I finished off the latest puzzle which Buddy is ecstatic about. He groans dramatically whenever I sat down to work on it. Apparently the lack of attention he receives during my puzzle time is a serious issue for him. He almost caught one of the rabbits that haunt our late night back yard last night. It’s probably not a good idea to go into the freeze mode when you’re still inside a charging black lab’s chain range. Luckily, for him, he figured that out just in time to zig zag away. Buddy was extraordinarily proud of himself for protecting me from this dangerous threat. He sat down in front of his box of treats when we came inside and refused to move until I recognized his extraordinary heroism with an extra treat.

Curbside Gals

The Curbside girls celebrated one of their birthdays yesterday and if photos are to be believed (and why wouldn’t they?) a good time was had by all, including the First Blog Reader. I actually forgot to send the photos to myself to post on the blog today. Between meetings I ran back home and rectified that heinous omission. It’s just hard to start the day without my daily granddaughter fix. My solitude will take a serious beating in the immediate future as First Friday celebrations loom as does the Saturday afternoon arrival of my Favorite Son.

California Aquatics and Winter Revisited Vicariously

Pool Time With Mom

I was extremely entertained by the photos/videos my daughter sent of her adventures yesterday in L.A. with the visiting NYC curbside delegation and her usual sidekicks Wingman and the First Blog Reader. They stopped off at a brewery that my granddaughter is becoming a regular at so we know she bred true in terms of her grandfather’s gene pool. This was followed by her first ever trip to a swimming pool. The pool looks to be on top of a downtown L.A. hotel with great views. My granddaughter didn’t appear to be a huge fan of the water so at last there’s something I can work on with her. It was great to see them all together reuniting from their hallowed days of joint New York City residence. Nothing can beat hang time with friends. It’s the Curbside Aunt’s birthday today so she’ll get the best present I can think of, time with the First Blog Reader.

At The Brewery with Wingman

The Gang

Aunt Curbside

Yeah, This is Where I Hang

Can't Believe How Fast She's Growing

Yesterday was a prototypical New England March day in Worcester. I woke up to a fairly warm, rainy morning which changed to brilliant sunshine by noon with plummeting temperatures. By the evening we were firmly back into sub-freezing temperatures. I consider this as the feeble winter’s last gasp as the calendar is rapidly running out of opportunities. I’m becoming a fan of March lately as it signals the return to USA of a certain Panamanian. While that’s still weeks away this year’s separation was a little easier in that I now have an I-Pad and we video chat each day. I was extremely jealous when she called yesterday from the laughing cousin’s (one of my favorite people in the world) house, was sipping a beer, and recounting their afternoon spent lounging in a nearby river.

I'm Guessing a Good Time Was Had

I made it three movie nights in a row yesterday seeing Triple 9s. A very gritty crime film set in Atlanta featuring one of the best casts I’ve seen in a while. That could be part of the problem because while everybody was good, Kate Winslet and Woody Harrelson always left me wanting to see more of their scenes. I didn’t even recognize Winslet who played a Russian crime lord, of all things, and was more menacing than I’ve ever seen her. I had a bad night for actor recognition because it took me almost half the movie to realize Aaron Paul and Casey Affleck were different characters. That goes straight to the editing and the lighting which were challenging at times.

The plot revolves around corrupt cops brought into an elite robbery team which is held in thrall by the Russian mob. There’s circles within circles as each of the cops, on both sides of the law, are dealing with their own demons. I ended up liking the movie a lot when I figured out who everybody was but again, that was more of a struggle than it should have been. There were some great action scenes, expertly staged and a climax that was singing with tension. It’s not Heat but a very enjoyable crime drama.

Since this winter was so balmy, at least by last year’s standard, I had to experience the chill vicariously which I certainly did with the latest in CJ Box’s Joe Picket series, Winterkill. This one has Wyoming game warden Picket up against looneys coming at him from all directions. He’s trying to solve a brutal murder while simultaneously worrying about his foster daughter being kidnapped by her mother from hell who’s holed up in a clan of anti-government militia. You add in a psychopathic Federal bureaucrat and there’s a recipe for a very entertaining plot. It all takes place in devastating snow storms which Box does a fantastic job of describing. I even felt cold reading some of the scenes.

My sister, who put me on to Box, has been warning me about the arrival of her favorite character in the series, Nate Romanowski, and he finally shows up here. A former special ops soldier who now trains falcons, he provides a perfect foil for the straight laced Pickett. He’s cut from the same cloth as Mr. Jack Reacher, need I say more. I look forward to more time with both Pickett and Romanowski. 

Inputting Day

Okay, lots of pictures today so I’ll try and keep the words to a minimum (you are welcome). I called it inputting day because I finally got around to entering all the movie codes I found during my movie collection re-organization. While several had expired, most, even those past expiration day, worked. My daughter instructed me earlier in the year on how to do this and she would have been proud of me when my account crashed and I was able to re-create it without her or her brother’s help, that’s called progress. When the dust cleared I now have digital access to over 160 of my movies, although I did cringe when I entered some of the codes (what was I thinking when I bought this movie type thing). That’s less than 10% of all the movies I have but it’s a start.

The Stack of Codes

My wife is still complaining about the intense heat Panama is experiencing. Why this is a surprise each year when she returns continues to elude me. She and her sister, one of the venerated PanaGals, spent the afternoon lounging in one of the nearby rivers, one of my personal favorite activities when visiting Panama.

A Face I Really Miss

Soaking with her Sister

Beating the Heat

Speaking of Panama the construction company sent some more photos of the progress on our Las Lajas condo. As you can see they’re a lot sexier than the ones I recently took.

My daughter sent a huge bevy of photos of the First Blog Reader, including some that reached back to our recent trip to Panama and Kasazul.

I Love this Picture of her with Wingman

Quality reading Time with her Curbside Aunt

With her Mom and Great Grandparents in Panama

With her Uncle/Godfather

Dressing up to Party

Hanging with Grandpa

I wandered down to the movies again last night and saw The Gods of Egypt, which was a glorious mess of a movie. It purports to show ancient Egypt at a time when the actual Gods lived amongst the people; granted they were all ten feet tall, bled gold, and spoke with a variety of European accents. I say a mess because this movie is totally incomprehensible at times with a leaden plot and wooden actors. Some films (Sin City and 300 to name a couple) embrace total immersion in CGI and make it work. Whoever made this did not. By trying to do too much they ended up not doing enough, if that even begins to make sense.

With an all-CGI movie you have to care about the characters and outside of the sprightly human duo, all the “gods” were just kind of there. Gerard Butler as the bad god chewed up his usual amount of scenery but his Scottish brogue was so thick at times as to be unintelligible. Coster-Waldau as the hero doesn’t connect with his plucky human sidekick or the audience. I think this was supposed to be his big “coming out” film but he fails at almost every turn. So a disaster of a movie but visually stunning, at least we see who’d win a fight between Jaime Lannister and King Leonidas.

In other movie news we lost one of my favorite character actors of all time with the passing of George Kennedy. He was good in virtually everything he did but I'll remember him as the bully turned storyteller in Cool Hand Luck, Chris in the reboot of the Magnificent Seven movies, and the victimized compatriot of Leslie Nielson in the Naked Gun movies. Rest in Peace Dragline, Luke's waiting for you.

R.I.P.

Sort of Soaring

Yesterday was Monday and the last day before Super Tuesday which imposed the tidal wave of political adverts that were nearly impossible to avoid. I’m not sure how this advertising can have any genuine effect this deep into the campaign. I discussed this with my brother in law over the past weekend and the rise of both Trump and Sanders can be clearly labeled as a revolt of the voters against the current dysfunctional government. I just wish at least part of that revolt wasn’t so revolting.

Yes, Grandpa, I'm ready for my Closeup

In decidedly more pleasant news I think (stress on the hypothetical nature of my success) that I’ve successfully downloaded a video of the First Blog Reader laughing in the hands of Wingman. I hope you’re able to see it because it was purely medicinal yesterday laboring through that worst of all days – Monday. My granddaughter had a big day yesterday as she met one of her mother’s closest friends, an original member of the Curbside Girls, who was visiting L.A. Just from the pictures I can tell my granddaughter was suitably impressed with the innate quality in the aunt she was presented with.

Greeting her Curbside Aunt

We were scoured by the wind yesterday despite some unseasonably warm temperatures. I couldn’t find the plastic container (old laundry detergent box) I use in the back yard. While some of the earlier wind storms had moved it around this morning it was simply gone. I hope wherever it ends up it’s used with caution because it’s what I stored the plastic bags from cleaning up after Buddy’s backyard donations. Luckily yesterday was also rubbish day so it was empty. It probably blew away because it lacked the prodigious weight of Buddy’s daily contributions.

And Uncle

I’ve got three movies on tap this week and last night I saw the first – Eddie the Eagle. I kind of remembered the Eddie phenomena from the 1988 Olympics in Calgary and thought this was going to be an over the top biopic aimed at the heartstrings (that’s not a compliment). It was but that became forgivable due to the performances involved, especially Taron Egerton. I’m still not sure what to make of this actor, despite loving what he did in Kingsman, but this is another fantastic performance. He plays the bumbling dreamer with just the right amount of heart to make him completely lovable.

The pointed jabs at the British class system also find their mark. It was interesting to see the underdog played into a hero at the dawn of social media. Hugh Jackman tags along but this is clearly Egerton’s movie which is impressive in itself. For a young actor to dominate against such a seasoned pro says volumes about his talent, as well as Jackman’s lack of ego. So, not a great movie but significantly better than I expected/feared going in. As with any movie it could have used a little more screen time for Christopher Walken who was criminally underused.

So here’s the video, if it does work, prepare to be enthralled: