Well….the latest and last Star Wars movie showed up on Plex yesterday and I just had to watch it last night…finally, a Star Wars that lived up to the first three in the series…it kept me interested all the way through and there was a chemistry between the three leads that has been missing in most of the other movies and that was a fun to see…and there were a couple of pretty cool easter eggs that I laughed at…during a scene where the leads were walking through a bar, there was one to Doctor Who when one of the patrons in the bar was a Sontarun…and near the end of the movie, they fixed one of the big mistakes from the original movie where Chewy was the only one of the leads who didn’t get a medal in the last scene…when Leia dies near the end, one of her aides hands the medal she got to Chewy and I thought that was pretty cool….all in all, a fitting conclusion to the Star Wars saga…and well worth watching if you’re a fan…
Category Archives: Misc
That Peloton commercial…
Well…you know, people must really have time on their hands when you look at the volume of comments and memes that have followed the airing of the Peloton holiday commercial where a husband gives his wife a Peloton for Christmas. Lots of commenters have gone straight to the “yeah, she spent the entire year to lose 4 pounds” meme and that it is some kind of spousal abuse when a husband gets his fit, 116 pound wife an exercise machine and she appears to be afraid when she starts to use it…and then shows the year’s worth of selfies to her husband to prove that she was really using it? But, I don’t buy into that interpretation at all…no one is going to spend 2500 bucks on any piece of exercise equipment as a present unless the sig other has made it clear that one is wanted…and I’ve lived through the fear of starting to change your life and add exercise when I started my daily rides some 20 years ago….so, a little apprehension is not unusual…especially when your performance is out there on Peloton’s site for all to see. The thing that irks me about all of the Peloton commercials is that every damn person in them lives in at least a million dollar house, apartment, or condo…which makes sense for a 2,500 dollar bike but still irks me. Where are the wood paneled basements where most of these machines end up? And every damn person in these commercials appears to be fit already so what were they doing to be fit before and what makes them want to abandon that for riding indoors and not going anywhere? As I said before, with the volume of comments and bitching about this commercial, lots of people have time on their hands, I know I do or I wouldn’t be writing about this…at least it gave me a topic that is not the idiot trump and that is welcome…
RIP Rick Ocasek
Well…another one of those that I just hate to do…Rick Ocasek of the Cars died yesterday at the age of 75…I know that as we age, this is going to happen more and more often, but it doesn’t make it any easier to take…I really liked the Cars from their first album when I heard “Let the good times roll” and it became the soundtrack of any time that I had to myself when my kids were little and school and work and kids got to be a bit much and I had to get away…and the pair of songs from “Heartbeat City”, “Moving in stereo” and “All mixed up” just spoke to me where I was emotionally at the time…and “Drive’s” protagonist saying “Who’s going to tell you when it’s too late? Who’s going to tell you things aren’t so great? Can’t go on, thinking nothing’s wrong…who’s going to drive you home, tonight?” just ached with the realization that a friend has done everything he can do and needs to let go….I still listen to the Cars in almost every playlist that I have and the fact that both Ben Orr and now Rick Ocasek are gone is going to make it a little more empty when I hear them…RIP Rick…
RIP Peter Fonda…
Well…as I get older and time passes, more and more people who have been part of my time on this planet are dying and yesterday we had another one go…Peter Fonda. I still remember the first time I saw Easy Rider and how foreign it seemed to a 16 year old from Ada…but I loved the movie and the idea of freedom that it proposed…and the exposure of the festering hatred of anything “other” that still plagues the south was so clearly rendered in the movie that I began to recognize it in my own little corner of the world. I think I’ve probably seen that film at least 20 times over the years and will still watch it for the music and nostalgia that it brings to me every time now that I am not the 16 year old kid seeing it for the first time. So, RIP Peter…
House 8
Well….after doing another 4 hours on the house today, I can finally say that I can see progress…I did decide to do a color change on the garage door and the porch roof that came out better than the yellow I started with….and it looks more modern…I am going to leave the entry doors yellow for now but the trim around them will be the new brown that I chose for the rest of it…got the garage door and it’s surrounding trim done today and will attack the rest of the trim on the front of the garage tomorrow if my body will take it…I did get some work done on the yard in front of the house today with using the new string trimmer to clean it up some…and I whacked my left ankle a few times, too, leaving it bloody but it was worth it….even used the trimmer to take the grass down since I can’t get the mowers running…after cleaning up the weeds, I took to edging the front sidewalks since the grass had overgrown the sidewalk by 6 inches a side and looked pretty sketchy with lots of debris that I had to sweep up…and I got the weeds beside the house taken down and will need to take the spade to remove the moss that has overgrown the patio blocks…I can’t wait to get the water on and take the power washer to it…now I just need to get started on the interior so I can get the condemnation lifted as soon as the windows are done…man, I’m beat…but I know that once the rest of the hard stuff is done, it will be a cruise from there…I hope….
House 7
Well…there has been some progress on the house this week but I made a couple of mistakes that will have to be fixed…it has been so long since I worked on an old house that I forgot some of the basics of painting old wood that will need to be fixed tomorrow…tried to paint some old wood in the colors that were always on the house but forgot that you really can’t do light colors on old wood and have it look good…painted the garage door and the ceiling of the porch in light yellow and I just don’t like it…so I’ll use that paint as primer and repaint them tomorrow in the brown that I am using for the trim…and that will go well with the brown on the new windows and I think it will look pretty classy…just forgot that I can do whatever colors I want since the decisions are mine and it doesn’t need to look like it always has…should have the new roof on the house by the end of the week or early next week…laid out 6 grand Thursday for the down and that makes 7 grand so far with the thousand down on the new fence….I think I’ll get to the interior this week and get rid of all of the loose paint and get some sanding done so I can paint later in the week…need to get an extender for the paint roller since there are places over the stairs that I can’t reach and you can’t put a ladder there safely…going to just take the light fixtures out of the closets since I can’t find pull chain ones that meet code…I’ll just cover the boxes with covers and put a couple of battery powered led lights in there…then put the original fixtures back in once he approves it and leaves me the hell alone…should have the new windows in sometime in August and I need to have everything else done by then so I can get the water turned back on…so, it’s go time for me…
I’m tired of cretins speaking for us…
Well…something has been bugging the hell out of me lately and I thought I’d bitch a little about it…it seems that every damn time that they interview a white guy on tv, they invariably talk to an idiot trump supporter who spews the hate, misogyny, racism and lies that are normal for that group of cretins…but, the problem there is that all of us white guys aren’t like that…but we never get interviewed because being a nice guy who is accepting of everyone and who thinks that trump and his cronies are systematically destroying this country is not news to them and doesn’t fit the narrative that has taken hold in almost every damn news organization in this country. I, for one, don’t want to be lumped in with the haters…but people think with stereotypes… sometimes good, sometimes bad and I’m afraid that with the constant air time that these folks get, it is almost a given that I’ll be tarred with that brush…the same one that says that all Muslims are terrorists, that all Latinos are here illegally, and all Jews are stingy….not sure what to do about it other than continue to think and treat everyone with respect…and try to change people’s minds on person at a time….
House 6
Well…finally made some visible progress on the house yesterday and got the garage door painted after spending a couple of hours removing the flaking paint…the color I chose may be a little too yellow but that is the original color of the house and I am taking it back to those colors….I also got the chainsaw work done…after having the chain come off the first one and having no tools to put it back on, I had to run all the way back to the south end to get a replacement to finish the job…I did get the last section of fence removed and most of the stumps cut out but I still need to chop the rest of them out since they grew right next to the retaining wall and were too close to get the saw in to cut them…so, I’ll get a hatchet next week and finish it up…the fence guys won’t be there for 6 weeks or so so I have plenty of time to get that done…I did buy a new string trimmer to use at the house for 39 bucks and with the problems I’m having keeping the gas mowers running, I may buy an electric since they are cheap at 89 bucks…and the lawn is so small that, even with a small electric, it can be cut in less than a half hour…I’m taking the day off today after beating the heck out of myself yesterday but will be back at scraping more paint tomorrow and filling the voids on the ceiling of the front porch so I can paint that Friday…and then I can start on the interior next week while I wait for the roof and windows to be done…which should be completed by the end of August and then I can get the water turned back on….and then take the power washer to everything and clean things up…still on track to have it ready for move in at the end of my lease…or earlier….
House 5
Well…the house made it a busy day today with lots of running around to get ready to start painting…I did have to take the sawzall back to HF since the blade release lever broke but I didn’t really need it anymore after cutting the pipes so maybe that was not a bad thing…tomorrow is going to be chainsaw day getting rid of the stumps in the fence line but I don’t think that will take all day so I’ll probably get into exterior prep for painting after I get that done…I did get everything I need for painting from HF and I bought a small wet/dry vac that will help with interior clean up when I get to that…I will need to use that on my trunk tomorrow since the cement bag leaked all over my trunk and I do need to clean that out….went out and got the exterior paint, too, only needed two gallons but even with cheap Glidden paint, it was still over 60 bucks for that and another 60 for all of the paint brushes, tape, wire brushes, gloves, and the rest so the bucks are adding up fast. One thing that irritated me some is the contractor who I selected to do the roof and windows appears to have decided to not do the job so I will need to start the bidding process over again to try to find someone who will meet that cost…I wonder if that is a thing now…that contractors are so flighty that they do a quote and then just ignore your e-mails? That took me two weeks last time but I don’t have the time to do that again…will have to think about that over the next few days and figure out what I need to do….
House 4…
Well…have been so damn exhausted all day today that I had to take the day off from working on the house…I did get the fence contract signed and delivered and will be sending the check tomorrow….and I’ve made the decision on who to use for the roofing and windows and will get that contract signed Monday and that makes all the heavy lifting almost done…and for a better price than I expected so that makes me happy. I do still need to rent a chainsaw to prep the ground for the new fence but I’m not going to do it in the dangerous heat tomorrow…there is plenty of time since the fence is about 4 weeks out…the roof should get done next week, though, so I need to get the last of the cleanup done so I can put the trash in the dumpster that they will have there for the roofing material that is being taken off……so, I’m taking the weekend off to rest and recover and try to get some sleep…these days of 4-5 hours of sleep are killing me…and only having one brat for food for the entire day is not good either….