Saturday, September 22, 2018

Lucky 13...

...for Karen and me...yes, the poor woman has endured 13 years of marriage to yours truly, so that merited a fave cookbook, flowers, a cake, and some champagne to wash it down.

Remember, marriage is kinda like playing cards...at first all you need is two hearts and a diamond...
...but later on you wish for a club...



...and a spade...











Thankfully we haven't arrived at that phase yet, and all is still well.  Right, honey?  I said, right??

Took a couple of days off of work for the big event...and along with anniversary type celebrations, I thought I might get some hickory golf in...
...but that was how my first day off began...torrential downpour, which eventually subsided and gave way to an 86 degree steambath in the afternoon...and then 50 mph gale force winds blew in the 2nd day...and today began with temps down in the 40's...this must be Michigan where each day is its own isolated and unrelated weather system.

But today is a glorious fall day...
...ok, not quite that glorious...but still it's a lovely autumn day...crisp temperatures and bright sunshine, so off to the links I went...unfortunately my cleek staged a minor rebellion and refused to behave from the tee...I was forced to banish it to an unused section of my Sunday bag, and once again I was reduced to playing "simple golf"...mashie, niblick, putter.

Wasn't all bad...
...that ball mark about 2 feet from the cup was where my tee shot landed on the par 3 number 2 hole...and while I should have carded a birdie, I "settled" for a par.

The rest was downhill from there.

My younger brother passed back in 2003 when he was only 43, but Phil was a fabulous athlete in his day and golf was his best sport.

He didn't work at it; he was just a natural who could hit the ball a country mile and he putted like Jack Nicklaus.  It was beautiful to watch and maddening to play against because he was just so effortlessly good.

When he played 18, if he came in at 5 or 6 over par it was a tough day on the course for him.

If Phil is in heaven, today he had to be laughing his ass off at his older brother.

Oh well...as the last scene in Gone With The Wind opines...
...tomorrow is another day...I'll tee it up, try again and hope for better.

Karen and I spent a little time in downtown Holland yesterday...
 ...ate at the Windmill Restaurant for some authentic Dutch fare...y'know, a hamburger and a chicken sandwich...
...and spotted some children performing an ancient rite no longer practiced in much of our modern day society, may God have mercy on our souls.

And because the autumn winds have been steadily blowing, I think most of the acorns have finally fallen...our yard is absolutely covered with them now...
...and we've been gathering a few to save for later...
...we'll feed them to the deer that still frequent our backyard...
...when food is a little bit harder to come by than it is now.

I've got about 2500 words on PMT: The Amateur now and I'm liking the story so far...these typically come in around 17,000 to 18,000 words so I've got a ways to go...should be at 5,000 words before the weekend's out.

But right now it's a beautiful sunny day and I need to get outside and soak up some of that fall sunshine, so...

later, mcm fans...

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Sunday, September 16, 2018

Back From...

...the brink...ugly weekend with major hardware issues, but today's a new day and things are finally back together...thanks to God's grace and good men like Dave Roderick, Kevin Fisher and Scott Bailey...great job guys...dodged a mortar shell.

Have I mentioned I'm too old for this kind of excitement?  My achin' back...

Prior to all the chaos that took up all of Saturday and much of Sunday, Karen and I watched a great but often overlooked William Holden flick...
This is not your typical 1950's war movie, most of which were of the rah-rah-the-good-guys-win variety.

Don't get me wrong; it's not unpatriotic, it's simply a thoughtful and intelligent look at one extraordinary man's service in the war and his justifiably cynical view of his situation.

He'd done his part in WWII, served honorably, been discharged and gotten on with his life...married, kids, a law practice in Denver...but when the Korean "police action / war" began he was called up to active duty as a jet pilot.

And the actual film footage of those jets taking off from the deck of a carrier pitching and rolling in the middle of the ocean is stunning.  At one point the admiral wonders aloud, "Where do we get such men?"  Where, indeed...

We follow our hero, Lt. Brubaker, as he deals with the dangers and stress of his job as a Navy pilot.  He's admirable, dedicated, conflicted, and - spoiler alert - ultimately doomed.

In the end we see him dying in a muddy irrigation ditch after his jet is hit by flak and you want to cry at the pointlessness of it all.

No wonder this movie was not a blockbuster...no feel good glorious and triumphant return to his happy home, just a healthy if unwelcome dose of reality.

If for no other reasons, you should see this movie to watch the great William Holden give a stellar performance - and to marvel at the skill and bravery of those Navy pilots who risked their all every time they strapped themselves into the cockpit.

Switching gears a bit, I've decided on my next writing project...it's back to the Papa's Model T series...
...this one's going to be Papa's Model T: The Amateur

My motivation is an email I received from Bryson, a  young fan who inquired if there were anymore PMT books...when I told him there were just the five, he responded his grandpa has a Model T, they're fun, and he'd like it if I would write more of the PMT books.

So what the heck...this next one's for you, Bryson and thank you for your input.

Got some pics of life on the road which means it's time for...
Rodger's Ramblings...             









This past week found him in the Memphis, Tennessee area which oddly, is home to one of the 10 biggest pyramids in the world...
There's a story about this pyramid, including accusations of someone placing a crystal skull in the peak and causing it to be cursed...yeah, makes sense...but for a time it was nicknamed the temple of doom bc it sat idle for years until the Bass Pro guys stepped up.
Now it's one of their major attractions and houses - besides all the Bass Pro items - an indoor swamp, hotel and bowling alley...though I don't think those three are necessarily related...hope not anyway.

Rodger was also trucking through the Missouri area and reports the cotton is in full bloom now...
Remember, as CCR opined musically, when those cotton balls get rotten you can't pick very much cotton...no, really...CCR wouldn't lie to us...

Thanks to work, no golf this weekend...drat...
...pretty sure this was the weekend I was going to break par...

later, mcm fans...

* Crass Commercialism Corner *

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Monday, September 3, 2018

A Rainy...

...Labor Day...no hickory golf today...could be worse, I suppose...

Karen went north on Friday for a family wedding...
...a niece was getting married, and they did so in their barn.

Ok, probably like to some of you, that idea didn't sound so wonderful to me but as the above pic hints at, it was really quite nice.

I mean, you have to be "country folk" to get it, but from the above and all the other pics Karen showed me upon her return Sunday it was a tastefully done and visually appealing venue.  It made perfect sense for who they are and of course we wish them all the happiness in the years ahead.

While Karen was up there she stayed at her uncle's old farmhouse - it's the one he grew up in as a kid, one of 12 siblings...
yep, needs some paint...
...in his later years he bought the place after his parents passed on, and much of the time it now sits empty and unused...so he graciously allowed Karen and a couple of her kids to stay there over the weekend.

It was in that setting Karen spied this visitor on one of the rocking chairs on the front porch:
...and yes, praying mantis will bite if provoked but they're not venomous...their strike is twice as fast as an eyeblink so their prey - other insects mostly, though they have been known to kill and devour mice, small turtles, even baby snakes - have little chance if they wander within range of their razor sharp mandibles.

That's one handsome critter.

While Karen was away I watched a couple of William Holden movies...Sunset Boulevard and Stalag 17.

Both of those were significant films for him, and while he won an Oscar in 1953 for Stalag 17, 1950's Sunset Boulevard was by far the better movie.

It's one of the few films that - if  you want to round out your cinematic education and experience the significant moments in Hollywood movie making - you must see somewhere along your journey.

The story line is simple - a young down on his luck writer stumbles onto the neglected grounds of a fading Hollywood icon of the silent film era.

As he later describes her, she is "still waving at a parade that has passed her by".  She was one of the biggest stars of the 1920s; now she is a forgotten relic of the past.

He needs a job; she "employs" him to touch up an awful script she's written over the last two decades that will be her glorious return to the spotlight.

In short order he has moved in and becomes a "kept man".  She falls in love with him while he feels imprisoned within her grasping neediness and the fading luxury of her once glorious mansion.

You know it can't end well and of course it doesn't...
...but the acting is superb and the story is rich with irony because the star of the film is none other than Gloria Swanson - she one of the biggest luminaries in the silent film era, when she was making $18,000 per week and terrorizing directors with her constant demands.

When the movie was made, she was indeed a forgotten, 50 year old actress from another era ("I am big," she asserts, "It's the pictures that got small"), and she did in fact make a glorious return to the silver screen in Sunset Boulevard.

The movie was scandalous and outrageously popular and filled with cameos of Hollywood greats - Cecil B Demille, Buster Keaton, even Hedda Hopper, famed gossip columnist.

It's both delicious fun and heart rending drama with one of the most famous movie endings of all time - "Alright Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup..."

Do the right thing and see this movie - if nothing else you can impress your friends by regaling them with the details of a landmark movie of which they've never even heard.

Don't participate in the unmitigated arrogance of the present, that stands on the shoulders of greatness from the past, but mistakes them for cheap vinyl flooring.

later, mcm fans...

* Crass Commercialism Corner *

In the "so convenient you can't stand it" department, you can purchase my books here and on Amazon.com!

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