Watch Out!

Oy - For the next few months (as many as four) I'll be doing much of the work of three supervisors at my office, as we look to replace a weekend supervisor and as our day shift supervisor is on maternity leave. This is keeping me mighty mighty busy and this week has been particularly tough! So forgive me if my blogging drops off again... not that I've been particularly reliable the past couple of months anyway.

But two things I'll mention tonight - first, C made me promise to write about last Monday on my blog. Last summer C started taking tae kwon do lessons, but they never really grabbed him and after his first 10-week trial he asked if he had to keep them up. We had no problem with giving it up so long as he agreed to find another activity, and that eventually led us to swimming lessons at the Y. This has been a big success... he loves swimming and is taking to it greatly. He has a lesson every Monday, late afternoon, which is followed by an open swim time when The Momma joins him in the pool. He's been after me to join them since he started in the fall.

I always work Monday evenings and it's one of the tougher days for me to take off, but last week I had Monday off as it was our company's New Year's holiday so I was able to go swimming with them at last. We had a great time, followed by a nice dinner at Pizzeria Uno's. Next week I also expect to get Martin Luther King Day off so if he has class that day I'll be able to go again; we'll also look to find some weekend open swims he and I can go to occasionally.

The other interesting topic I wanted to mention is the "Watch Out!" movie.

C watched part of "The Island" with me a couple of weeks ago, which it likely doesn't spoil much to say involves the ethical concerns of cloning. C kept asking me if this was a "Watch out!" movie... I kept saying I wasn't sure what he meant, but he finally was able to explain it to me.

"You know how some movies are telling us to watch out what we do in the future?"

Ahhh, Bach!! I love it, I think this is a great name for this type of movie... the cautionary tale, such as it is. So on the one hand we have the classic "What if?" science fiction movie, like "War of the Worlds", "The Abyss", or "Logan's Run"... on the other we have the "Watch out!" science fiction movies like "War Games", "Blade Runner" and "The Island". Of course, many movies will fit both categories!

Way to go, kid, I love it!

Happy Holidays!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, spending Saturday, Christmas Eve, at my parents' home in western MA as is our custom. It's always a very pleasant evening to gather with most of the immediate family and enjoy a holiday dinner and exchange presents... I think we may end up with more gifts Christmas Eve than on Christmas morning itself! But the highlight of course is spending the family time, and we're very lucky to be blessed with a great family at that.

This gets us home usually fairly late Christmas Eve; this year was actually earlier than most years, we got home around 10:30pm Saturday night. Fortunately we're all night owls and with no travel or visitor plans for Christmas day there was no need to worry about when we got to bed. Our street has a tradition of leaving small gifts at each others' doors on Christmas Eve each year, anything from a bag of home-made cookies to a bottle of wine may show up on our steps before we get home! For ourselves we leave a Christmas tree ornament and some cookies, so once getting home from the grandparents C and I grabbed up our own "Santa" bag and hit the neighborhood to leave our own gift bags at each house.

As mentioned last year (hear the exciting story again here!), C is "in" on the Santa story, and he actually enjoys Christmas even more now as he himself loves playing Santa. His original thought of putting out the gifts after The Momma & I went to bed for the night didn't last long, as he was too excited to wait! After finishing the neighborhood rounds and grabbing something to eat he took charge of filling the stockings and putting the Santa gifts under the tree.

The Momma & I woke up a little after 11am on Christmas morning; the living room looking every bit of Christmas except for one missing element: a child! C of course was still sound asleep. We let him be for a while as we sorted through the gifts from the night before, then woke him up a little before noon to have our own family holiday. (Yup, that's life with us... the parents anxiously waiting on the child to wake up so we could enjoy Christmas morning!)

C's "big" gift this year was a Nintendo DS videogame system, and a couple of games, which of course he loved. He also got a bunch of modelling clay and tools (something new he's really getting into), a couple of magic sets (something else he's really getting interested in!), two seasons' worth of the old TV show "MASH" on DVD, and about 70 new Pokemon figures for his collection (thank you, eBay!). He was delighted with it all.

The Momma & I both got some great gifts this year as well. The highlight for me was probably the new book, "Belushi", a photo-filled, large-format biography about John Belushi authored by his wife, Judith Belushi Pisano. I've only read through the first chapter but the book is very nice, and the introductions, one from Judy and one from Dan Aykroyd, easily brought a tear to my eye. I'm looking forward to reading it through and checking out the wealth of personal photographs Judy has included.

So another year is essentially passed... on Saturday we'll be spending New Year's Eve with some old friends in New Hampshire, that should be fun and fairly relaxing. Then it's on to planning 2006... The Momma & I have already agreed, incidentally, to "officially" move our January 4th wedding anniversary to February to allow some time for the budget to recover from the holidays. Here's hoping your holidays were just as good... and Happy New Year!

Death - And a Reminder

Richard Pryor died today.

Now, I've never considered myself a Richard Pryor fan, per se, but I've usually laughed with or at him, I've enjoyed his work, and I've respected him. I liked - and hated - him in "Superman III". But never felt a huge personal connection with the man.

But he was "our" generation. Though (and selfishly I'll say) happily still OLDER than me, in general I consider him a "contemporary". He was part of OUR generation's entertainment and pop culture.

Yet, he's dead at 65. Sure, many reasons why that may not be a surpise... but, a cultural contemporary dead at 65. Somehow, this one bothers me, more than perhaps I think it should.... more than even the death of Jimmy Doohan, De Kelley or the Great Bird of the Galaxy, all of whom I've felt a closer bond with (and two of whom I've met personally, all of whom I've met).

Not closely as much as John Belushi. Or John Candy.

But....

Shit, getting older brings some keen sense of mortality with it, doesn't it? I mean, 65... I can see that now pretty easily.

Pryor had a tough life and pushed past the edge a few times. But still, this feels a bit personal.

Shit.

Herbert's NOT Rolling Over....

Finally watched the latest version of "War of the Worlds", and surpringly (to myself) I'm putting myself in the group that LIKED it! I very much appreciate the homage to the original Wells (H.G., not Orson!) story here and liked that this BIG movie was told on the small scale of a single family's viewpoint. I've seen some of the criticisms and certainly don't disagree with all of them... the cellar scene was too long, the Robbins character was too weird, the just-too-smaltzy ending when Robbie re-appears (but not as bad as I'd expected from some hints I'd heard)... but overall this was probably the most honest version of the story yet made and appropriately scary!

Nice homages also to the Pal version (still a favorite as well), especially the classic climactic shot of the dying alian's arm emerging from the crashed war machine. (I also really liked the vines dying on the Minuteman statue, great touch.) The effects also were awesome, and the DTS soundtrack on the DVD one of the best-sounding movies I've heard in my living room. Kudos!

Happy Thanksgiving, America

Halloween was fun - Like father, like son!

C sure is an interesting kid, he's decided his favorite show now is "MASH"... it's one of my all-time favorites too but I wouldn't expect an 8-year-old to so readily take an interest in a show dealing with some sometimes heavy morale and ethical questions (especially in the later episodes), but he loves it and there's certainly some life lessons to be learned by watching it together.

It also has been fun watching these episodes again myself, it reminds me of just how good the show really was, and how well it holds up... frankly, better than "Star Trek", which has always been my favorite show of course. Certainly current events make "MASH" sometimes very apropos and poignant again now as well.

So Whaddaya Say, Is It the New Bluesmobile or What?

Yup, been a while... but hey, at least there's some news! Since the end of September I've been working on an eBay car purchase, which was finally consummated about two weeks ago. Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, allow me to present the new Bismobile!




It's probably no surprise that I went looking for a new ride after my kvetching over several Saab repairs this spring and summer. Yet ironically, it's our VAN that we're retiring... though the Saab has been a money pit in the worst way, it's still the more reliable and safe vehicle at this point. Our '95 Ford conversion van, which has been an absolute soldier and family member for us since we bought it used in early '98, has earned a peaceful retirement though after seven years and over 100,000 miles with us (and 10 years and 155,000 miles overall). So we've turned in the plates on it, and this month we'll be cleaning it out and donating it to a worthy charity. It still runs strong, but the brakes and suspension are weakening, and the oil pan and the radiator is starting to corrode through (both of which will be big ticket repairs on an old engine).

So behold the Bismobile, a '91 Ford LTD Crown Victoria police special. She's got 66,000 original miles, and has been owned solely by the Santa Cruz, CA Fire Department these past 15 years. Once (eventually) a little black paint is added she'll instantly be a replica Bluesmobile Mark II - the Bluesmobile from "Blues Brothers 2000", the second BB film from 1998.

She drives great, has a new stereo CD/mp3 player installed (hopefully next year I'll upgrade the factory speakers but it'll do for now), and cruises beautifully.



Many readers of this blog are aware that some years ago... okay, quite a few years ago - alright, a long time ago on an interstate far, far away! - my Blues Brother Jake & I ran a '74 Dodge Monaco (original generation) Bluesmobile and achieved some serious notoriety with her. Those freewheeling days may be largely behind me now, but this car does parallel the Blues Brothers in the movie as in the 1998 film Elwood also dealt with growing up and accepting responsibility for family. C loves the car and we put together a great "Buster Blues" outfit for him for Halloween, which we'll probably find other occasional uses for as well!



I had fun keeping this quiet from many of those who know me for several weeks (a few others I let in on it early though!), so I could surprise them with this updated "blast from our past". Certainly the most fun was pulling up to The Hey's house last weekend and surprising him... I also presented him with a new Blues Brothers hat for himself as a birthday present. It was fun to spend an afternoon cruising again and hopefully from time to time we'll manage a few road trips!

How PC is PC?

Every now and then I realize that as worrisome as things are in America and in the world right now, there was a time when things were worse... a time when there was no debate over a government's actions, for instance, or over the extent our liberties could be restricted in times of trial.

For instance, last weekend we rented a DVD of the 1943 theatrical serial films "Batman"... back in the before-TV generation, a good old-fashioned episodic (20-30 minutes each) serial that you'd see in the theaters before the main feature. This was made in the middle of World War II. In the second episode the camera is panning down a deserted street, past shop windows featuring signs written in Japanese, to where a criminal hide-out is. The narrator explains (slight paraphrasing from memory but pretty close to verbatim) -

"This is a section of town that could easily have been lifted right out of another country and put here... Little Tokyo. This street was bustling until a wise government rounded up all the shifty-eyed Japs."

Needless to say I had to stop the DVD and go into a history lesson with C. Yay, wise government. Thanks for rounding up your citizens and putting them in concentration camps! And yay Hollywood for playing along. Gives new respect for the "liberal media" and the "conservative right" administration at least trying to meet in the middle... though the conservatives would be wise to pay attention to the past.