Burning Love

It was a rainy Monday afternoon............

And with not much to do, as we sat and read most of the rainy Monday morning, we went to the movies!

We saw Elvis, in IMAX. 

It was kind of on our list, and we figgered this would have to be the last week it would be in theaters (I think it's also playing on Apple TV - for a cost). 

I love(d) early Elvis. My friend Jon can tell you of the velvet Elvis painting I had hanging outside my apartment in Columbus (which someone stole).  It was more for kitsch than art, clearly.  

I had a prop-up Elvis from his 50,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong on my desk at work for years. 

And I was checking out his CDs from the liberry and playing them to death. It was a phase, but one that should not be ignored. The man was a fucking talent. 

Still, I wasn't sure about the movie, but there wasn't a whole lot else out there.  Bullettrain?  Top Gun?  fuck. no.  I'm not funding Scientology. 

I'm not 100% what I thought of the movie. It's Baz Luhrmann, so you know it's gonna be excessive. And for the first 15 minutes, honestly, if you were epileptic it would not end well for you. 

It's visual. It's fictional (to a degree). It's busy It's long!  I mean, it is Luhrmann. It's bit over the top. But it's not bad.  It's not perfect. It's not great.  It's good. 

The movie is highly fictionalized and if truth be told would be called Col. Tom Parker if they thought it would sell more tickets. 

Tom Hanks is the problem with this movie. While heavy into prosthetics as Parker, you never don't know it's not Tom Hanks (yeah - that's a lot of negatives). The actor is distracting from the character. 

The guy who plays Elvis?  Ehhh. He's ok. Though for a few moments in the concert sections - especially the 1968 Comeback Special and during "Suspicious Minds" in his Vegas show, it is a little uncanny. The rest is more an homage than an impersonation. 

Credits and all are very Moulin Rouge-y and Great Gatsby-like. The quick shots and cutaways happen less and less as the movie goes on. It's unrelenting in the first portion. 

As it is mostly out of the theaters - there were only four of us there - you might just want to watch it on cable. 

2022 Movie Count / Goal: 09 of 15

Song by: Elvis Presley

Tusk

It's becoming more and more official - there is less and less for 710 and myself to explore in DC that we have not done before. 

Yes, museums change exhibits, but we've been to most - if not all of them. 

Then the other things: Supreme Court - check.  Liberry of Congress - check. Capitol, OEOB, White House - check x3. National Archives?  Yeah. All of the war memorials and presidential ones too.

We've even done Walter Reed's museum of medical oddities. 

This isn't a bad thing. And normally we are fine just walking and exploring. It's just hard to do at 94 degrees and in a heavy plastic boot (though in our last day, I did make it 8 miles of walking in that thing). 

The one things we had not done was the National Zoo. I wanted to go, but mostly just for the pandas. Well, only for the pandas. 

I find zoos to be D-pressing. 

Caged animals just seems cruel to me. And the DC one was no different. Yeah, I get some animals it keeps them safe from being extinct or poached. The above elephant was extremely regal. Those tusks were impressive and no doubt would have been stolen from him if out in the wild. 

The teeny size of the Zebra enclosure was horrific to me. Then I got to see that it abutted the cheetah one, while slightly bigger, could NEVER let a cheetah remotely get to their running speed. Add to that, the cat hung at the back fence, right next to where the zebra was housed. 

The orangutans at least had the ability to climb towers and swing part way across the park to another enclosure - though we didn't actually get to see that. 

But we did get to see the pandas. 

This exhibit wasn't nearly as crowded as one might think, but the entire zoo wasn't either at first. I get that they're giant pandas, but they still seemed huge to me. 

This guy was impressive too. 

This is what I truly expected to see for most of the animals on a day in the 90s. Sleeping. These two lions took advantage of the sun and just napped. 

I was thinking that maybe it best if this lady didn't actually frequent zoos. 

The zoo might have been the last Smithsonian thing we had left to do in DC - and we did the Cooper Hewitt one in NYC a few years back. 

Granted, we'll be back. We love DC. But now we can just take our time and wander even more than we have. 

Song by: Fleetwood Mac

My Music Monday

It isn't a surprise or stretch that the National and Bon Iver have teamed up for a song. 

National guitarist Aaron Dessner used his Covid time to produce and co-write music with / for Michael Stipe and two Taylor Swift albums (plus two of her re-recordings of earlier albums).  

With the latter, Dessner teamed up Swift and Iver for a song - whose title alludes me, but I remember it surprisingly not sucking and making Swift sound cooler than she actually probably is.

While I enjoy Matt Berninger, with "Weird Goodbyes", I'm not sure the song would work without Bon Iver.  In somewhat true National style, the song is one beat and doesn't really expand upon that, but use the repetition to their advantage. 

Honestly, upon first listen, the song didn't kick in with me until the second half. And it is growing on me. 

Back to Black

If you have not yet been to the the National Museum of African American History & Culture you should. 

It has been open for a few years, but we've never made the time to go - though to be fair, we usually let crowds die down a bit, and then, well........Covid 19 - then Delta, the Omnicron and now AB5.  

This trip, we were able to snag timed tickets (they're free, just timed). 

Honestly, we did not make a dent in this visit. Museum Fatigue is a legitimate medical condition. And at the 90 minute mark (and it wasn't even our first museum of the day!), we kind of hit a wall......and we weren't even 25% done with expanse of the newest (?) Smithsonian. 

The plan was to start at the top floor (4) and work our way down. But 4 was so packed with so much, one floor took over 90 minutes. Even if we had the energy, there wasn't enough time to do the other three in the time the museum was open. 

I won't lie - it was weird being there. Great, but weird. 

We felt like interlopers. I think we were interlopers. We were. For sure. 

I doesn't mean we didn't get something out of the experience. I didn't mean our liberalism made us feel comfortable being there - quite the contrary. There is a white guilt that is invoked here - and rightfully so. How would it not? 

Granted, I don't think any MAGA folk are coming to visit this museum unless it were to painfully point out their prejudices and for hate mongering. You gotta figure there are the few who'd walk through the doors to posture their faux-superior status. At least we didn't have to encounter that. 

We are all informed on a daily basis the injustices the Black community faces. It's painful when you can seemingly do so little to affect change. It's painful to see it in front of you in room after room after room. 

Of course we did not see a lot, but one of the more interesting things, to me, of what we did see, was a film loop of Black Americans talking about their skin tone and the prejudices or bias they get from it - not just from the White community, but in and amongst their own race.  710 and I talked about it over dinner later that night and both brought up the same part of it, and one fraction of that part. It both hit us separately and together.  Just unknowingly at the time. 

I'm actually looking forward to our return to DC - whenever that may be - so we have the opportunity to visit another floor. 

This one will take time. 

Song by: Amy Winehouse

I Can't Hear You

It was National Dog Day yesterday. Just an FYI if you forgot and have a time machine to go back and make things right. 

But cats are important too. I believe their 'day' is just around the corner.

Shep meets me at the gate many days per week. I open said gate and let him into my car. 

We go for a 50 yard drive into the garage - and he is THRILLED 

Lately I let him sit in the front seat. He is mesmerized by this view. 

Sophie and her crossed paws gets me every time. 

Georgia is becoming very friendly with me. She's adorable. 

How I know Shep is Dad #2's dog. 

MEOW!

Sophie is now deaf. I suspected a while back, but we confirmed it - with our own scientific testing - and the poor girl can't hear.  It bums me out. 

She goes through the house YELLING at the top of her lungs. But when she sees you, it's a soft of silent meow. I still talk to her. I still call for her, though I know she can't hear me. I hope the look on my face is reassuring to her and that she isn't too too scared at the loss of one of her senses. 

Song by: Donnie Iris 

Wishing

I had very few things I wanted to do in DC.  One, actually.  I don't ask for much. 

Stop snickering.  i don't. 

Laurie Anderson had an exhibit at the Hirschhorn (who knew it had two, well three, H's in its name?). So we trekked out there. Actually, we took the Metro and then trekked. I'm pretty good in the boot, but it is hot here and the shin portion isn't really that comfortable after a while. 

Bummer of all bummers - Anderson's exhibt closed the prior week. 

Sure sure, we saw some good art - though I'm not sure Sam Gilliam's was it. Yayoi Kusama had an exhibit there, and we went, but much of it was already shown in Cleveland over four years ago. 

On leaving, we did go out to their sculpture garden - which is nice, even if it has too many Henry Moore pieces. 

But they had an interactive art project:  the Wishing Tree. 

One writes down their wish or hope and ties it to a branch of the tree.  Simple.  Though they give you nothing upon which to write and golf pencils in which do it. 

Mine wish came early and quick. I scribbled it down and tied it to the tree. 

Yes, I'm petty - but I want what I want. 

710 sees it and goes, - and I'm paraphrasing - "so you didn't wish for the love of your husband?". 

My reply was, "I already have that........don't I?               DON"T I ????"  

And while of course I love 710, I'd be ok without that affection for a while, if that entire family went to jail. 

Song by: A Flock of Seagulls

Travelin' Man

We are taking some time off from work. Well deserved, I might add. 

While on the way to the beach, we are taking a few days in DC. That's been a thing for the last few years. 

It's a little different this year. DC is a walking town and well.................I'm a little slower this year walking around in that boot. 

The journey was long and fraught with small foibles that annoyed me. Things like, I couldn't find my wallet before I left, so my nose was out of joint before we even left the house. 

There were a few other things too, but I'm trying to chalk it up to 'eh - this is how it goes sometimes'.  An edible and three beers didn't hurt matter. The sub-par cookies n creme in a bowl was disappointing. 

It's just a day. Not the week. 

It wasn't all bad (though the parking garage - ugggggh).  Dinner was decent. 

Tomorrow will bring more fun........but in an ortho boot.  And btw..........?   P.  U.   when you take that off after 14 hours. 

Song by: Ricky Nelson

Have Love Will Travel

In the mornings, I usually pack my gym bag with fruit.  Cherries. Blueberries. Grapes and a Banana.

I usually don't have all of them, but a combo of 2-3. Sometimes all. 

All but the banana go in my bag. The second I put a banana in any enclosed area, it goes over-ripe in a matter of minutes it seems. Add to that, a locker!, and well, I may as well toss it. 

Two days ago I did take one IN my gym bag. And left it there, as I forgot to fish it out to actually eat. I found it on my way home and oddly it was in decent shape. Not brown. Not squishy. Alrighty!

Knowing if I brought into the house, I'd forget to take it the next morning, I left it on top of my car. Of course, I'd see it and grab it to go. 

Except I didn't. 

After workout, I got to my office and went, "oh crap!".  Of course, I figured it was some crow's meal after it hit the pavement and got run over by an number of other commuters. 

Fast forward 12 hours (or more), and I get home from work and exit my car.  

There is the nanner. Exactly where I left it 24 hours earlier. 

Apparently I am a very safe driver. Or that sucker held on for dear life. 

It now sits in the kitchen, awaiting to be eaten this morning.  

Song by: the Sonics 

Landscape

I think (?) you all know we had our backyard completely redone last year. I'm not one much for landscaping or vision of, so 710 was in charge. 

The yard, 8 months before we purchased, was a partial victim to a microburst in 2019. A tree was uprooted, taking a bit of the yard with it, and went crashing down demolishing a fence and a future neighbor's car. 

As the then owners were divorcing and ridding themselves of the memory of each other and / in the house, fixing that mess (well they did the fence and I'm guessing got the neighbors a new car, courtesy of insurance) wasn't at the top of their list. 

The backyard, this year, is quite oasis-y. It took a full year for the grass to be what it is, and the plants to come into their own - even with the severely harsh winter we had. We spend a lot of time outside and Shep love rolling in the grass and being out back. 

The front yard however, was still in need of some love. Our landscaper, not out of the goodness of his heart - I don't think, offered a free design of what he though it should be. 710 tweaked things here and there, and I think I got a say in some plant or two, but over the course of three days, they ripped out a bunch of overgrown crap and carved out, planted and mulched our front beds and trees. 

There you have before and after pics..............from the doorbell camera. 

Yeah yeah, we have to power wash moss off the front step, but it's looking better, though things needs to mature a little.   .....myself included. 

Ripping things out near the house has opened up the house......a lot.  So much so that the lower shutters which have been in the basement before we moved in now much be hung. It looks silly now. Before, bushes covered that flaw. Naturally, the lower shutters (unhung) and the upper ones are completely different colours. 

Bother. 

And we're sure all have been painted over hundreds of times over 102 years. Do I care if they're stripped and all repainted?  Will someone walking by at 75 yards away notice?  I don't.  They won't.  But I do believe it will tug at 710.  But it will give us the kick to paint the front door, which isn't red and it isn't orange. It needs to be one or the other...............but not orange. 

So, once that is done, perhaps you'll get front facing before and after shots 

I'm not promising you anything, Whoopi. 

Song by: Florence + the Machine

My Music Monday

It's iTunes Roulette. 

.....and the winner is..............U2 with the title track of their 1984 album, the Unforgettable Fire. 

In my opinion, this is their last good album. Oh, people fawn over the follow-up disk to this, the Joshua Tree, but that was the beginning of the end for them for me. 

I will give the band this:  now and again, they had some great songs after Joshua Tree, but they didn't have great albums. 

But I loved - and love - "the Unforgettable Fire", the song. The album is when they started to become a little self-righteous.  I remember where on campus I went to purchase the album on the release date. I remember the first play and the first time I saw the video on MTV. 

It's still a great song.

Dreaming

There used to be a time when I had vivid dreams and remembered them. And some I wrote down here for your enjoyment or horror. It's been a while for that. It turns out they were probably medication related. I'm no longer taking that medication. 

It still will be. 

A night or two ago I had a dream - or several - of which I remembered snippets.  One part was the furniture we ordered in the Winter finally arrived.  They don't call 'em 'dreams' for nothing. 

During an IM exchange last night, Morty texted something completely non-related, and I flashed on him and myself (and others, though I don't know who now) - and us having the bestest beach house ever, and 'we' were 'all' on vacation. I'm sure there was more to it, but I cannot remember. It's just a germ of a thought of what played in my head the night before. 

That I type that, now I remember trying to get into a restaurant named Tower 7 - which does actually exist. 

Maybe Morty is going on vaca with me.  That works for me. 

Song by: O.M.D.

Georgia

Weird week with the foot and all. But I still got pics. 

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.......

Queen of the Sofa #1

Bailey done got her hair did. 

And Georgia keeps coming over to visit me.  Yay me!

In Flight. 

Post daycare greeting ala snot comb over

Queen of the Sofa #2

Song by: Vance Joy

Reaction

Well, good news. I have no fracture. 

Sure sure...........our selection of footwear would seem to tell you otherwise. Maybe I'm just not a slave to fashion. 

And I'm not, but even I wouldn't wear this boot if I did not have to. 

It seems I have a Stress Reaction, but not a fracture. It's like a severe bone bruise. And it definitely is due to running. 

I will be able to run again, in a few weeks. Possibly sooner, but the doc - who is the Browns' team physician - suggested I don't run as long. 

The doc is great. He spent a lot of time with me, not just in the exam room, but to talk about the right and wrong things when it comes to the run. 

But the boot came out. and is on.  One it shall remain for the next week. We will reassess in a few weeks. 

It's a little awkward and I'm a little clumsy' walking in it. But they never mentioned driving in it - or that it would be difficult.  And it is. 

The boot is ultra-wide. It's hard to press on the gas pedal and not hit the brake at the same time. There is also no sense of touch so, I can't tell how much I'm pressing down, or if!  I was getting on the freeway at 35 mph.  People behind me were not happy.  Nor was I. 

I can still work out, but it seems all cardio is out for a week. 

I am not 100% pain free, but it's minimized quite a bit once I slapped this boot on. 

Onward and upward. 

Song by: Rebbie Jackson

Lost Cause

Oh no........Liz Cheney lost her primary.   

Oh........noooooooooo.   

Now do the 'oh nos' but with the intended flat affect. 

I appreciate the tenacity Cheney has been doing regarding January 6th hearings. But you do know that a few months of work she was supposed to be doing ANYWAY does not absolve her of being a truly horrible fucking woman, right? 

Granted Cheney shouldn't have to be one of two (three?) republicunts who are against, oh staging a coup and being ok with taking, lying and hiding classified nuclear documents, yet here we are. 

Yes she is doing her job, the one all of her colleagues clearly are not, but she's not really going above and beyond here. This IS the expectation. It just seems like she's above it all because Jim "Sure, Go Ahead and Sexually Abuse Students on my Watch" Jordan & Co are so low it only seems like she's a good person. 

She might be a 'better' person, but let's be honest - there is not a Cheney alive who is 'good'. 

Lord, there are reports saying she might run for President, to stop BLOTUS. IF she finishes this Jan 6th thing before she has to leave office, she can stop him there. Indict the motherfucker.  I mean, if you want to run to stop Ron DeSantis, there's that too. 

If she wants to fuck over the GOP like they've done her, then run as an independent. She could bleed off enough votes to become the Ralph Nader of Wyoming. Maybe the GOP loses enough to her - where she can't possibly win - that the Democrat takes the victory. 

My friend Peter - who has lots of time on his hands and equally hates the Dem as much as he does the GOP - has dozens of FB posts per day. So much so, that I lovingly call it - to his face -  Peter's House of Discontent TM.    Peter has it in his head that the Dems suck so much that they'd give Cheney the chair of the Department of Defense. 

I don't see that happening. Even if Pappy Joe tried such a thing, confirmation from the Senate would never happen. 

OMG - I just thought:  wouldn't it suck if Liz was the first female president? 

So no, I don't feel bad for Liz. First off, Mary Ingalls could have 'seen' the loss coming. Nate Silver, not so much (probably), but Mary, yes. 

Don't blame the loss on her though. That was all McConnell and McCarthy. They eat their own. And it worked / works. No one else  - other than Adam Kinzinger - has remotely stepped out of line due to this. Double down and go down with the ship. 

Except the won't. They've been this evil for the last four years and no sign of any wear and tear. Horrible. 

Song by: Billie Ellish

Pain

My alluding to having an ankle problem during my 12 of 12 is a real thing.  I knew it would be and knew I had to see someone. 

I'm still waiting. There was only a day's difference between my regular ortho guy and a stranger. I opted to wait - so I'll see him on Thursday.

The ache is now pain. The limp is significant.  The normal looking foot is swollen. 

Bother. 

I actually had to take the shuttle to my parking garage yesterday. I had to reassess the folks who take it, as I thought they were just too lazy to make the four minute walk. 

Irony was, I waited so long for the shuttle, I still could have walked faster. And I could have, but it was the pain. 

Ice helps. Kind of. The above picture elevation seems to help the most. 

I guess we'll see what Thursday brings, but I'm betting on a boot. 

Care to take wagers? 

Song by: Jimmy Eat World

7

It's hard to believe, but Shep turns seven today.

He is such an integral part of the family it's ridiculous. As you already know, he and his sister hogs 1/7th of each week's blog posts. 

Between the pandemic and us being only semi-social anyway, this guy takes front and center on how we craft our non-work lives. We tell him weekly that he'd never have found a better home. 

And I'm not sure he would have. 

The word 'spoiled' comes to mine. 

He loves car rides so much that he literally meets me in the drive when I get home, gets in, and then we pull into the garage. He bolts from the car to see 710 - whom he saw only 47 seconds earlier - as if Shep has been on a big long trip. 

And we do. Every weekend, it's a trip - somewhere........for him. While I've known that I've needed to lose weight, I'd hate to see how much more would have needed ot come off had we not hiked both weekend days for the last seven years - rain or shine, snow, wind.....you name it. 

I love that he and 710 are so connected. They really are made for each other. That either of them let me play in their reindeer games is enough for me. Actually, we have similar, but different, relationships with Shep. He plays us both like fiddles. 

While we love the "new" house, we really love it for him. We have a fraction of land that we did at the other place, but it's fenced in and the grass is much nicer  He loves spending time out there doing nothing - though will chase the squirrel that runs along the fence, or will join in neighborhood canine conversations over that fence. We are thrilled we can give it to him. 

He is his dad's boy. He's not thrilled with other adult males who aren't my brother-in-law.  I'd say we'd work on it, but we still aren't really socializing with people at home. 

Anyway, it doesn't seem like seven years - well, almost six since we got him. 

Happy Birthday to him. I'd say he'll get a special treat, but that is kind of every day. 

Song by: Prince & the New Power Generation

My Music Monday

And Shuffle #10 stopped at a Cardigans song - one I had posted years back. So we went another 10 - and you get R.E.M. , but one I had not posted. so........yay you. 

"Bang and Blame" is old. Well.......now it is. It's pushing 30 years old and came off their Monster album, which tried to have a semi-glam rock feel. I'm not sure the band actually managed that 

I have to say it has aged well. It doesn't sound like 1994 at all. It would be the second to last disk that drummer Bill Berry would appear. 

I'm sure much to many's annoyance, I would go to a Columbus gay bar, Trends, several evenings per week with a former friend. We would play pool and drink (not necessarily in that order) and I'd feed the jukebox money. As I am not wont to pick the Mariah chart toppers or anything Whitney, Taylor Dayne or the likes (it was the '90s people!) I'd put on things I wanted to hear...........and "Bang and Blame" alway made the cut, along with U2's "Lemon". 

....and I have just now added it to my running play list. 

Treason

Sorry for the related image. You know I try not to have physical pictures of BLOTUS. 

It's still too early for me to unpack all that has gone on with that twat-bag, between Mar-a-Lago and taking the Fifth. 

If this were written for a television streaming service - with no changes, except for names and a gender here and there - no one in their right mind would think it was anything abut hyper-fiction. 

That's right. Not even real fiction. But storytelling on steroids. 

It is all so incredibly fucked up beyond belief that I cannot wrangle my thoughts to put anything down coherently. 

Maybe I never will be able to, but it definitely will not be today. 

If the events of the last few days just keep him from being able to run in 2024, I'd like to say that would be enough for me. 

It's a whopper of a lie I'm telling myself, but to mix my metaphors:  I'll burn that bridge when I get to it. 

Song by: Lindsey Buckingham

12 of 12

 So I'm doing my 148th 12 of 12.

Normally it is 12 pictures taken on the 12th of the month. Since I only post once per day, you get my images the following day. All pictures taken with my iPhone. Click images to enlarge, if you choose.

Created by Chad Darnell and picked up from, what I can tell, any number of random bloggers who then link back to him and vice versa. Chad is no longer doing this, nor is successor coordinating the linking of other 12 of 12'ers anymore. Erik is back and I think he's picking up 12 of 12 again.

04:39.  Ankle Trouble. 

Running is out for the moment. I now own a $19 seemingly useless brace. 

05:14. Peloton. 

Good ride. So-so instructor. 

05:51.  Arm and Shoulder Day. 

07:57.  It's early, but so far, financially, not a good month for my department. 

08:58. Mid-morning snack. 

10:47. Budget Season. 

3 hour training on a new budget system. 

12:47.  Lunch walk. 

13:04.  Busy Day. 

Not just for me. I swear I never saw / heard so much activity at the Emergency Department. 

My office sits over it. 

15:41.  Calling it. 

I left "early".  I ran errands before........

17:20.  .....Beer Time. 

I met a friend for a drink. Two. Mine as a Raspberry Saison. 

First one was ok. The second one, I wasn't feeling. 

19:02.  Dinner. 

Pizza. On Friday, you have to order ahead or it's a 2-3 HOUR wait. I ordered at 16:00 to pick up at 19:00. 

19:12.  Lots to say. 

Best I can tell, it's a Jewish, yoga (pants) enthusiast from Indiana. 

I suppose it could be worse? 

Rumour Has It

I doubt any of you follow Cleveland sports. Hell, I live here and I barely do. 

Cleveland Browns, the football team for those who don't know, have rarely kept a quarterback for a full season. Each one a trainwreck in their own way. 

Our newest QB is, without a doubt, the biggest of our fuck-ups........and he hasn't even played a game yet - and quite honestly, might never. 

With full prior knowledge, the owners and coach signed some dick name Deshaun Watson. At the time of his draft, he had 22 (!!!!!) sexual harassment and / or rape charges filed against him.  He's 26 - so if he started raping women at birth, that's slightly less than one per year. 

Since he got drafted, at least two more women have come forward. 

Now the owners of the team are married. I get that Jimmy Haslam is probably the Robert Kraft of the AFC, so he probably thinks some poor woman who works at Massage Envy deserves what she gets.  But Dee, his wife, clearly picked the almighty dollar over 24 women. 

Oh - and they drafted him knowing there would be suspensions of games, where he'd get paid but not play. They took that "risk" figuring it would be a possible year of doing nothing and it was still worth a year of his - get this - $230 MILLION dollar contract. 

Now, why would Watson stop doing what he's doing?  He's not only gotten away with it, he's been rewarded for it. The NFL LOVES this behavior.  They are more than willing to talk about 'good conduct', but words and deeds are different.  That is why the NFL has hired and rehired murders, dog fighters, rapists, spousal abusers, alcoholics and drug users. 

You just can't kneel.  

But that brings me to Colin Kaepernick. 

The man was blackballed for kneeling during the National Anthem in support of BLM. That's the short version.  

With the prospect of Watson being out for 2022-23, the Browns need a starting quarterback. I guess, 2nd, 3rd and 4th string players are there for their looks and to give locker room blowjobs? 

Rumour has it that Kaepernick is being considered for the interim position. 

Me? Personally?  I LOVE it. 

I think the town will revolt over such a might-be selection. 

Fans will abide having a serial rapist on a team, but would riot at the thought of a black man standing up for the black population by peacefully kneeling.  Because, THAT is disrespect. 

I own zero Browns gear. Never have owned a thing. If Kaepernick came, I'd be the first in line to plunk down $243 for a jersey*.

*I just assume that's what team gear would cost. 

Song by: Adele

The Sound Of...

A year or two back, both Mike and I picked Sound of Metal as our selections for Best Sound Editing and Sound Mixing in our annual movie guessing game. 

We both won that round. But neither of us had actually seen the movie. At least now, I have. We (710 and I, not Mike and I) had it bookmarked on Prime to view and we watched it on Saturday. 

I liked it. I didn't love love it. 

The 15 second elevator ride description: a musician loses his hearing and had to adapt at being deaf.  Wait. I guess that is the 6 second ride. 

Riz Ahmed does a great job about a man in his prime who is a drummer in a metal band. Even in the first scene you see / hear he is noticing that change. How he deals with it is realistic and not. Yes, to the anger, scariness and trying to reject it. No, to some of the timelines. 

While I need to mention he is recovering drug addict, it factors more into how he finds a community of deaf people who are all trying to remain sober. And how he fits in to this community of folks who all either lip read or sign. Ahmed's Ruben does neither of these things, as he is very newly deaf. 

The main counselor is very well played.  Ruben's girlfriend is a bit milquetoast. Had she been played by the woman who played Claire on Six Feet Under, the character could have been amazing. 

I will give the screenwriter(s) and director this - they don't fall into many (if any) clichés, which would have been the easy thing to do. 

You totally get why the movie won two Oscars for sound. It's done very well here.  

It is a decent two hours. I'm glad we saw it. 

2022 Movie Count / Goal: 08 of 15

Song by: Jann Arden

Road to Nowhere

While in quest to be thinner and more desirable to no one, I went back to "spinning". 

I have a bike, though it needs some decent amount of tune-up before it would even be street legal. But having Shep makes it harder for 710 and I to go out biking. Maybe next year we will try. 

In the meantime, I got on a stationary bike on Sunday and rode 10 miles. 

The gym has Lifecycles. In any gym I've been to, I have never been a fan. For the last few weeks I've been trying their recumbent bikes, but you know, it's just blah. Maybe I'm getting a workout, but I don't feel it. 

But my current gym has six Peloton bikes in a separate room. I've never been on one and honestly, I had no desire to pay for a Peleoon membership on top of my gym one. In the 4.5 months I've been there I have seen two people use them. 

My sister said, "maybe it's part of your membership already".  Maybe. As it turns out it was / is - and she's the one who had to tell me because she did the research. 

On a running break day, I went, "eh, why not".  So I did. 

Honestly, it took me as long to set up the account and pair my audio as it took to do my first ride. I kept trying to pair my phone and not my headphones, so it kept failing.  DUH. 

Then there was the workout / instructor selection.  I limited it to a 30 minute ride - as it had been a while - and tried to find a decent play list.  Out of frustration, I just selected one. 

The workout was in German.

My friends Jon and Meredity laughed and laughed at this.  Rightfully so. 

You'd think I would have stopped it and found something more up my alley than the warm tones of the Germanic people.  You'd think wrong. 

It turns if you're somewhat intelligent and speak little to no German, you can still figure it all out. I could see that during the ride my resistance should be at X and my speed should be at Y. At worst, come the end of the workout, I can count from 5 to 1 in another language. 

The ride was doable and sweaty. 30 minutes was a good intro and I think I can progress fro there on m non-running days. It's good to mix it up, I think. 

During my ride, it was difficult not to think back to spin classes and how much better some of the instructors - especially my fave, Andy.  I had such a man-crush on him, I'd have made-out* with him in a heartbeat. But he really was the hardest and best instructor at my former gym. 

I kid you not, when I walk out of the Peloton room and there doing fucking chin-ups is Andy. 

I'd say ' what are the odds ' but number of gyms divided by number of men in the 216 with the open earlier than x amount of gyms by y number of hours probably takes it to a high probability. 

I'd say we 'caught up', but I'm 99.97% sure he has not idea what my name is. He is nice and pleasant to look at, and talk to, but whatever lust I had for him no longer existed.  

It's called 'growth' people! Sheesh!

*'made-out' is for the PG-13 crowd, FYI. 

Song by: Talking Heads

Have You Never Been Mellow?

The death of Olivia Newton-John has messed with my blog posts. I actually worked ahead to have a free day or two of writing, but alas, Olivia is fucking with the universe upon her death. 

I can't say I was a fan. I wasn't not one either. She was just there. Kind of always. 

If you were a person - gal, guy, neither or both - of the 70s, you could not escape her. I'm not even talking 1981's Physical, which dominated that year in terms of charting. At the time - probably no longer - she had the longest run at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100, with I'm thinking 11 or 14 weeks for the title track. 

Before that though, going back to 1972, she had her first (?) (Morty will know) U.S. hit with Bob Dylan's "If Not For You".  Yes.  Newton-John does Dylan.  Somewhere, Meredity just passed out. 

She had serious output for like 5 years running -  "If You Love Me Let Me Know", "Please Mr. Please", "Let Me Be There", "Have You Never Been Mellow", "Deeper Than the Night", "A Little More Love" - and I'm sure more.  Yes, that doesn't even get into the Physical, Grease or Xanadu disks. 

ONJ also covered Paul Simon, Spencer Davis Group, Beach Boys, Beatles, Don McLean and just about any other artist from the late 60s and early 70s. 

I admit to having Totally Hot and her single "Twist of Fate" which was a My Music Monday post for a Guilty Pleasure theme, five years ago. The blog image actually comes from that video, though you could just as easily mistaken it for a Knots Landing promo and thinking this was a more mod Donna Mills. 

There are so many gays that love the kitschiness of Xanadu. Their FB feeds were FLOODED with it yesterday. I don't get it - but I didn't see it either. ELO, ONJ and Rollerskating and Gene Kelly?  Sure, on paper it sounds like it would sweep the Oscars, but...............

And to keep that thread going for newer readers:  I've never seen Grease either. 

I mean, what, Stockard Channing was a 38 year old high school student?  Travolta pretends to like girls?  Jeff Conaway?  It was the last 70s, there was no escaping the music on the radio, I didn't (and don't) need to see the film. I saw Becky and Slusser (that bastard owes me $20!) act out most of the disk thing on a drunken night at the latter's house. I doubt the movie cast did better. 

So I get it, and I don't, when so many social media posts say, "I'm devastated.......".   ONJ was never a go-to for me. She wasn't a gay beacon of anything to / for me. Sure it's sad, but it's hard to be devastated about someone in their 70s dying, and they've had cancer for 40 years.  I get I'm more of a realist / fatalist than most, so I can put the art /artist in one section and the reality of life and death in another. 

I get it. I'm cold and heartless. But I'm not. Olivia was a presence of my youth, but no so much so that I followed her career. For a while, it was just unavoidable,

I'll leave you with, a cover of ONJ's "Have You Never Been Mellow" by the group Pet.  It hails from a disk called the Spirit of '73, which celebrated songs from that year by women (redone by women), but it was to bring awareness to the fragility of Roe v Wade from that same time. 

Song by: Olivia Newton-John