Making It Up As I Go Along #541

A delayed update.  I’m on the right day for updating but skipped one in between.  I normally don’t miss… and those rare times I do I usually double up and do two in a shorter period of time in order to counter the extra time off… but things were busy with family and work and Easter so this time I ended basically taking a week off.  And when so much goes on over such a short period, my updates get clouded by overload.  Too much to focus on one part.  So here’s the breakdown of the time.

Two Birthdays and an Easter

So much went on these past few weeks.  So much to feel good about really.  In sports, the last two softball games we play are decisive wins where we give up only 8 runs in two games combined while scoring 22.  4 against per game, in slow pitch, is really something.  And it’s a season you don’t like seeing come to an end.

More snow came as well.  Just when Spring is due to start, 20 cm of snow comes on in and the family all delay their flights to town by a day.  Still, even though we’re all ready for summer weather, it made for a scenic, wintery trip to Fiddler’s Lake resort (45 minutes north of Montreal).  Post card beautiful kind of beats spring melt and runoff for such an occasion.  And the fresh snow gives a fine treat of boiled maple syrup popsicles. 

Then there was family time.  Mom and dad arrive mid afternoon Wednesday.  And after some time catching up at home, it’s off to the airport again to get Edena and the girls for a birthday surprise for dad.  Despite the one day delay in the reunion, it goes off without a hitch and marks the start of six days of family love. 

Fiddler’s Lake brings hot tubs and saunas with evening games of cards.  While home has us running out for a few shopping trips.  Wandering the Market downtown.  TV events where we all gather together to watch Republic of Doyle and Murdoch Mysteries. 

The BBQ gets lit up for the first time in 2013… after cleaning out the mouse debris.  Next  winter will have the BBQ brought in doors.  And birthday supper is a taste of summer with fine BBQ steak and veggies and a tasty cake from the market to top it off. 

And Paula and Eddie bring the girls over for a night of Lebanese food.  Ten of us gathered round the house.  No drama.  No complaints.  Just all enjoying the gathering.

After the crew all leave, I’m back to work for one night before being back off on my regular schedule.  House cleaning should have happened.  It really didn’t.  Some tidying has taken place.  Winter jackets and gloves have been tucked away for the season.  But sweeping and vacuuming is still due.  Next block off.

Easter has me meeting up again with Paula and Eddie.  This time I venture over there for a Saturday night meal and gathering.  Maria, Paula’s oldest, having shared her disappointment with her mom that it’s just me coming… “no girls”.  My nieces seem to have made an impact.

Through it all, who has time to keep up with a blog?  Dad can sit and write anywhere it seems.  He’ll plunk down in the living room, jotting thoughts into a notebook while three people are sat around him, chatting and carrying on.  I have a hard time doing any writing even when someone else is in the house. 

And this morning I wake to an e-mail from home.  With the revealed surprise of Easter treats having been left in the spare room.  My parent’s room.  A modified Easter egg hunt taking place alone, with input from thousands of kilometres away.

SATURDAY…

--- Straight into night shift alone.  Covering the team in front of us rotation wise… so no day shifts at all this week.

--- It’s a pretty quiet Saturday night.

SUNDAY…

--- Ball before work.  We win 13-5.

--- Straight to work from the game with just a stop for some Wendy’s for supper.  Feeling pretty sore tonight though.  Slept funny on my neck a night or two ago.  It sort of has tightness from the neck down into my right shoulder.  Plus my left knee is tender tonight.  Feeling old at work.

MONDAY…

--- Back to my shift and with Keith in with me again for night # 3.  Neck and shoulder still not perfect but better.  Knee is fine again.  Snow starts up around 11:00 tonight and gets pretty blustery.

--- Due to the forecasted storm, mom, dad and Edena and the girls all delay flights to Wednesday.  I’m taking Tuesday off anyway.  I’m in the frame of mind for it now anyway.  And 3 straight night shifts is enough.

TUESDAY…

--- Snow day… but not as bad as forecast.  The family would have made it had they flown.

--- Hour and a half shoveling the driveway this evening.  Pretty heavy snow… so a solid workout that my previously tender shoulder and neck didn’t appreciate.

WEDNESDAY…

--- Get mom and dad for their 2:10 flight.  Back to the house for an hour and then I make my excuses to get Edena and the girls on airport run #2.  Dad thinks it’s the dentist instead… so the girls coming through the door an hour and a half later is a complete surprise to him.

--- Chinese food and some groceries bought… then a little TV with the family.

THURSDAY…

--- Edena and I go rent the van in the morning.  Then it’s a few more groceries and we all drive to Fiddler’s Lake resort in the afternoon (2 hours away in northern Quebec).  The all season tires on the van don’t appreciate going up the hill from reception to our log chalet.  We get stuck in a snow bank and, after getting help getting out, need two runs to get up the hill.

--- Hot tubs and sauna time in the evening.  Supper and cards after that.  Then some quiet time before bed.

FRIDAY…

--- More hot tub and sauna time and supper in Saint Sauveur in the evening.  Gio’s is good eats.

SATURDAY…

--- Leave at 11:00 and get back to Ottawa in time to pick up some Lebanese for supper and have Paula, Eddie and the kids come over for a visit.

SUNDAY…

--- Mom cooks while we take dad to Mountain Equipment Co-Op.  Get him walking poles for his birthday and I exchange my wallet with a hole for a new one… but leave some cards in it… oops.

--- Ball for me while the rest stay home.  We win the last indoor game of the year 9-3 against a good team.  Ends us in 2^nd place for the season.

Republic of Doyle watched as a family in the evening.

MONDAY…

--- Downtown for some shopping and lunch in the Market.  Get some meat and a cake while there and it’s birthday BBQ steak for supper with the family.

--- Do some bedroom furniture shopping between downtown and supper.

TUESDAY…

--- I’m 41 now.  Odd feeling.  My bedroom furniture comes today.  New bed frame and headboard, side tables and a chest of drawers.  Plus mom and dad give me a blanket box for my birthday.  The bedroom is now all decked out.  A little shopping for an hour after and a little lounging around the house before bringing the family to the airport.

--- Quiet night alone gearing up for one night shift tomorrow.

WEDNESDAY…

--- Night shift alone.  Keith off sick.  Fairly normal night.

THURSDAY…

--- Up around 11:30 in the morning.  Head to Mountain Equipment Co-op for a little shopping and to pick up some ID stuff I left there last week by accident.  Then it’s some milk at the store, gas in the tank, and throw a few things in the mail before returning home.  Sunny and 10 today makes me wish it was more like this when the family was in town.

FRIDAY…

--- Quiet good Friday around the house.  Clean out the driveway of some more snow… let it melt on the asphalt. 

SATURDAY…

--- Over to Paula and Eddie’s for supper.  A nice time hanging with family and catch a bit of hockey on TV before going to beat the hockey crowd home.  I have to drive right by the stadium going home from Paula’s… and doing that while 18,000 are leaving at the same time makes for a mess.

Making It Up As I Go Along #540

Movies

I watched a bad movie this week.  Not that I should expect anything but bad from a movie titled “All Superheroes Must Die”.  But I went into it think it may be some fun silliness.  After all, there’s nothing quite like a good bad movie.  Those movies that you know from the start are badly acted with massive holes in the plot but that certain level of camp that keeps you into it non-the-less.

A few examples of good bad…

Troll 2. 

A movie with laughable dialogue, horrid acting, nary a Troll and absolutely no relation to the original Troll.  But it’s wonderful to watch… especially with a crowd of people.  Laughs throughout and even mistakes to leave you searching for the next one in a Where’s Waldo sense of things. 

Over the Top.

Arm wrestling truck drivers.  One of which drinks motor oil before his match.  The high class boy meeting his low key, down and out father… and coming together on the road as Kenny Loggins sings us along the way.

Rocky 4.

The Soviets are bad.  America is good.  Drago kills Apollo after James Brown welcomes the Russian Bull to “America”.  Bridget Nielson brings the venom and good ol’ Rock trains for his Christmas Day Moscow fight in the middle of frozen Siberia.  Who knew that fifteen rounds of boxing could turn the most hostile crowd of communists in the world into Rocky capitalist believers?  But it all happens in good mood cheesiness.

All Superheroes Must Die is just plain bad.  It’s as if a high school project for theatre class somehow made it’s way into the public eye.  Just bad.  Really bad.

Some movies are given unfair advantages over others.  They gain greater promotion and have more marketing dollars to spend.  My number one example of this comes with two Canadian films from little more than ten years ago.  In the fall of 2001, Rare Birds gained limited release.  In the winter of 2002, Men With Brooms was launched nationwide.  Most anyone you would talk to has never heard of Rare Birds.  While Men With Brooms is seen again and again on TV, at least hitting the airwaves once a winter.

Rare Birds is original.  It’s filled with Quirkiness.  Has incredible scenery.   Brings Andy Jones comedy out for all to see and develops a sweet love story between William Hurt and Molly Parker.

Men With Brooms is painful.  Paul Gross and Leslie Nielsen ham it up in an unrealistic world of curling.  Ironically, Molly Parker is also in this one.  She even won a Genie award for her role in it.  And even though Rare Birds gained more award nominations and wins, it’s Men With Brooms that everyone knows.

In a movie, Subtitles are always better than dubbed language.  I tried watching Life is Beautiful in English and couldn’t finish it.  It left me longing for Roberto Benigni’s natural tongue as only he could make a Nazi concentration camp into some whimsical world of games… all for the sake of sheltering his son’s innocence. 

Benigni is also brilliant in Night on Earth.  This is another of my favourite movies.  Telling five stories of cab drivers from around the world, all on the same night.  LA, New York, Rome, Paris, and Helsinki are all represented.  Benigni’s adventure driving around a priest is hilarious.  But it is always the last story… that of Helsinki… that sticks with me the most. 

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is another subtitled movie that wowed me.  I remember sitting in the cinema, shaking my head in amazement as I watched sword fighters running through the tops of bamboo trees.  It’s an unrealistic moment in film.  Much as Men With Brooms shows unrealistic curling.  But here, it works.  And that scene has stayed with me ever since.

There are many scenes within movies that leave you wanting more.  I suppose this is why clip shows and movie montages are so popular.  Sometimes it’s the dialogue of the moment that creates the scene.  Sometimes it’s the actions going on at the moment.  And other times, it’s the cinematography that steals the show.

Unforgiven’s scene is when Clint Eastwood finds out that Morgan Freeman’s character has been killed.  The whole scene leading up to and carrying through that moment does it.  For him to so simply sum up the idea that “It’s a hell of a thing to kill a man”.  To see the upstart “kid” lose all his swagger and show his true self.  And to finally see Eastwood taking the whisky bottle (the bottle he’s refused on countless occasions prior to this one) and giving in to that dark soul he has constantly tried to say he’s no longer like.

Shawshank Redemption’s scene is the final scene of the movie.  With Morgan Freeman’s dialogue explaining the thoughts going through ones mind as he comes to the end of a journey, hopeful of once again seeing his friend.

Where Shawshank Redemption’s magic is at the end of the movie, Star Wars’ comes at the very beginning.  The orchestral music blaring out through the cosmos as we first see a small ship hurrying away, blasting lasers in desperation.  Followed by the mass of a Star Destroyer… as it engulfs the screen from above us.  That moment alone tells you “You’re in for a ride like nothing you’ve ever been on before.”

Many scenes are known by the dialogue of that moment. 

There is Jaws’ “You’re going to need a bigger boat”.

No Country For Old Men’s “Friendo”

Goldfinger’s “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die”

Braveheart’s bellow of “Freedom”

And Titanic’s “I’m the King of the World”.

Movies take up a large part of our lives.  Virtually everybody loves movies.  I know only one person who seems to care less about movies.  All other people enjoy a good movie or, in some cases, a good bad movie.  We discuss favourite actors and actresses.  We debate the greatest movies ever made.  And we pull for certain ones to win at the award shows while we curse others that gain, what we see as, unwarranted acclaim. 

We have favourite movies to watch over the holidays.  Others that we put on to cheer us up.  While others still are as a warm blanket after a long hard day.

Even the name of my blog comes from the movies.  Coming to be from a moment’s dialogue by John Cleese in The Life of Brian.  When he belittles the horribly inadequate prophet that is Brian as he meanders through a story simply in the hopes of blending in and avoiding Roman detection.  Cleese’s character disgustedly exclaims how “he’s making it up as he goes along!”

So, not withstanding the horribleness of All Superheroes Must Die and the stupidity of Men With Brooms, let’s be thankful for the world of movies.

FRIDAY…

--- Two hour meeting at work.  It goes pretty good over all.  We’ll see how it plays out as far as the running of the section in the coming months.

SATURDAY…

--- Pretty regular shift at work. 

SUNDAY…

--- Ball is a loss.  First round of the playoffs doesn’t go great… a bit sloppy in the field as a team.  Oh well.

--- Night shift goes fine.

MONDAY…

--- Stomach is a little off at work.  Not sure what it was that I ate but much of the evening is filled with lead belly.

TUESDAY…

--- Lazy house day.  Too bad, cause it’s pretty nice out… but I’m tired after the block of work and just lay low.

WEDNESDAY…

--- Half hour walk.  The snow is getting pretty granular.  So the walking is often slip sliding in its manner.

--- Take a half hour after the walk to widen the driveway.  Chip out some ice that’s left and add about six inches of width.

THURSDAY…

--- Groceries and around the house.  Getting colder again and windy… so not wanting to do a walk.

--- Get the call from work.  No day shifts for me this coming block.  I’ll work nights three days in a row before taking some time off with he folks coming to visit Tuesday.

FRIDAY…

--- Movies.  Brassed Off is an old favourite that I hadn’t seen in a while but come across on TV five minutes in.  So I’m stuck right there for that one.  And, after it’s over, I catch the final twenty minutes of Friday Night Lights as well.  My favourite anything of Tim McGraw is the job he does in that movie. 

Making It Up As I Go Along #539

Pebble in Space

Once part of a mass

A moon orbiting a planet

A small part of a bigger whole

Overlooking an alien world

On full moon nights

After a billion years a collision

A meteor divots the still moon surface

The force of impact blasts

Firing thousands of pieces out

Scattering them on solar breezes

So goes the pebble

Shot out from its home

Rocky neighbours

A billion years nearby

Within moments vanished into blackness

The pebble tumbles

Weightless and alone in darkness

For a million years this way

Alone in the void

Stars so far

As if standing still.

The loneliest thing in existence

A small pebble drifting through space

Strolling the cosmos

Yet how many more do this?

In never ending space

Trillions of pebbles all alone

In the void

Dinosaurs come into existence

The pebble floats on

Extinction

Yet still the pebble

Generations beginning and ending

Eternity going by

And nothing changes for the pebble.

Continents drift

Great land masses shifting fractions of inches

A hundred years don’t make a foot

Yet in all the time of the pebble

Great seas open up

Land a mere speck on the horizon.

People come about

First wandering plains

Hiding in caves

Grunting and baring teeth

While the pebble drifts on

Landscapes become crafted

Wooden vessels explore the sea

Afraid to sail to close

To the edge

Of a flattened world

A little change for the pebble

A speck of blue becoming bigger

Standing out from other stars

The pebble is drawn to it

Slowly tumbling nearer

The blue speck larger

A planet not a star

Two billion years of travel

And the pebble drifts along

Passing a moon

Much like what it left behind

It passes by the orb

As Apollo begins its descent

Neil Armstrong about to walk

As the pebble meanders

Drawn to the blue

And tonight I lay out under the stars

Laying atop soft grasses

Contemplating the universe

Sharing wonder with friends

Pointing at passing planes

Watching for star like satellites

And two billion years after it began

With it’s journey coming to an end

The pebble picks up speed

Enveloped no longer by blackness

That blue speck now enormous

With a flash it’s gone

As I find myself 

wishing upon a falling star

THURSDAY…

--- Alone at work and it’s the busiest I’ve been in probably a year or more.  Went at it constant until 1:30 in the afternoon.  And only really get about a half hour of slow at that time.

FRIDAY…

--- Alone again.  Not as busy as yesterday.

SATURDAY…

--- Night shift is fairly quiet.  Bring some Wendy’s to work and plug away through the evening.

SUNDAY…

--- Softball before work.  We win again and end up moving to 4^th in the standings… jumping up from 7^th going into the day. 

--- Work is quiet.

MONDAY…

--- Lazy day in the house.  Not a lot of sleep this morning so I lay pretty low.

TUESDAY…

--- Half hour walk in the woods.  It’s about five degrees today, so it’s nice.  Work some at the computer and my iTunes catalogue… getting things up to date.

WEDNESDAY…

--- Another half hour out and about the woods.  Some more time around the house as well.  No ulcers for me… all mellow like.