Not since second grade have I heard a voice calling out "Patricia, please be still." But that is what I heard when I attempted to do an MRI this week. I got through that one but bailed on the additional two. I have to find an wide open MRI before I can do it. Too claustrophobic for me and it seems like you are gliding into a crematorium. And having to wear a mask makes it that much worse. All of this because my brain is wired a bit differently and they are not sure if this is a problem or not. Enough about that.
Enjoying hearing REBECCA read on audio. Also reading LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND, a very good book but the title is too hard to remember. It could be MAKE THE WORLD GO AWAY, WHEN THE WORLD GOES AWAY, a million other choices. Book titles are hard. I think the best ones are very short. It is one very scary book.
Still enjoying BORGEN, CRIMINAL-GERMANY, not a lot else though. The BLY MANOR show is too dense in characters and too short on scares. I think the offerings are beginning to be lesser works although I am looking forward to QUEEN'S GAMBIT beginning Friday.
Signed up for ONE- DAY UNIVERSITY. You get a lecture on a different topic every day for $7.95 a month. Looking forward to learning something that is not political.
So what's up with you.
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Only had one MRI and I fell asleep during it. That was about 5years ago. I have been moderately sick all weekend. Not sure what is going on. Started Friday night with constant yawning and stretching hour after hour. Slept well but felt crappy all day Saturday. Felt better today but I have my apartment at sauna temps. On top of that my allergies have been bad. So not much reading done. Last week I finished reading The Ministry For the Future a SF novel dealing with climate change. It's by Kim Stanley Robinson. Finishing up The Book of Atlantis Black by Betsy Bonner. About a woman trying to make sense of her sister's suicide. Rewatched for the fist tine in 30 years At Play in the Fields starring John Lithgow, Tom Berenger, Tom Waits and Kathy Bates. Hard to believe it has never been released on disc. Also watched The Trial of the Chicago 7. Pretty good but with one mistake. Thwey have some Fleetwood Mac Type of band playing in the park that day when actually Detroit's MC5 was the only band to play. Other than that nitpick it was pretty good. On cable Fargo, John Oliver, Bill Maher, The Next Day.
I was OK in the MRI machine, but I can definitely see where it is claustrophobic.
We watched some movies and things this week:
Since MYSTERY ROAD's second series is on, we decided to first go back and watch the original 2013 movie (same title) that introduced the character played by Aaron Pederson. Well done, and some gorgeous night shots, but kind of a downer. The series was better. Not sure we will watch the second movie, at least until after we watch series two of the show. (Acorn)
THE BOYS IN THE BAND (2020; Netflix). Saw the original movie 50 years ago. We had friends who were huge fans and repeated some of the juicier lines ad nauseum. I expected this to be dated (it was set in the original 1968) and tried to view it as a period piece, and after a while I was able to sort of enjoy it. The self-hating was even obvious in 1970, but this time Jim Parsons' character seemed even more awful. I get the gimmick casting of only gay men, but if you watch the original it was about half and half (four or five of the originals died of AIDS, including Leonard Frey).
THE WAY I SEE IT (MSNBC). This was the highlight of the week, the documentary about former White House photographer Pete Souza, first hired by Ronald Reagan in his 20s, but memorably Obama's official photographer for eight years. He has written a book and given talks about how awful Trump is (the book is called SHADE). Quite moving in parts. It definitely makes you miss a real President, with all his flaws.
DAVID BYRNE'S AMERICAN UTOPIA (HBO). Spike Lee filmed this during it's short Broadway run before the pandemic (it is supposed to return next September). It was no STOP MAKING SENSE, but we enjoyed it.
Favorite series of the week: DERRY GIRLS, because we all need to laugh now. Still undecided about watching the Chicago 7 movie. Jackie is thumbs down on the chess show,
I'm not a fan of MRI machines, either. I count the minutes until the procedure is over.
Western NY is in a rainy pattern. Diane and I are focusing on home projects. Our plumber installed our new bath tub and our tile guy will be finishing off the upstairs bathroom renovation all this week.
The Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills play an unusual 5 P.M. Monday football game today. Hopefully, there were be a break in the rain so they can get the game in.
Plenty of Early Voting happening here! Stay safe!
MRIs don't bother me but they freak Kitty out. She needs a heavy dose of Prozac or similar drug for the procedure and even then I have to be in the room to help calm her down.
To my shame, I have never read REBECCA. I keep telling myself that I'll read it real soon, but real soon never comes about. I have that problem with a number of books I know I should have read long ago.
The weather here has been great, although it was a bit chilly and windy yesterday morning when we went to he beach. Because of the temperature and because it's October, there were far fewer people there. The waves were mesmerizing and the company was great. Afterwards we all went to Christina's for Chinese food and to help her organize her desk and to paint her front door.
Jack's soccer season is upon us. His team has a few first-timers and the team is somewhat pitiful. They lost last week's game, 9-0. Jack was goalie for the first half and let five goals get past him. This past Friday, they lost, 20-1 -- Jack scored their only goal. For them, it doesn't matter if they lose; then purpose is to run around and have fun, which they do.
Since our family celebrates animals, yesterday was Duncan's sixth anniversary. He's a little rat of a dog but extremely lovable and friendly. Erin keeps buying him doggie sweaters so he can be fashionable. And Nugget is now an 8-month-old puppy. She has gotten very large but is intimidated by other animals and people. In Jessie's house the cats still rule. In our house Willow expects us to honor and revere her in the way to which she wants to be accustomed.
For some reason, my reading has been mainly short stories, as it has been for the past several weeks. I'm still reading some Best of the Year science fiction collections and have also gone back to reading THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FITION rom the beginning; I just finished 1953 (still in the Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas era) and I'm truly enjoying the literate style of the magazine.
Television viewing remains mostly POIROT and VERA. We did watch the first season of TO THE LAKE, a Russian apocalyptic series with some (too many, perhaps) shifts in characterization and much more nudity and sex than I would expect from a Russian program. There are also some overhead shots -- a LOT of overhead shots. It's as if they had just invented the technique. Watched the first two episodes of BLY MANOR, which I enjoyed and Kitty thought could use some heavy editing.
Our little core group is still happy and healthy. I'm somewhat concerned about Christina, The high school where she works now has the highest number of Corona-positive cases in the state. Their latest football game had to be cancelled because the other team could not field enough players due to the virus. Another local high school matchup had to be cancelled also.
Early voting starts today and I'm going to throw the old bastard out on his ear, making life easier for all of us.
I hope you have an easy week ahead, Patti. Stay safe.
Sorry to hear you are not feeling well, Steve. Probably pandemic fatigue and allergies.
Looking forward to that doc, Jeff. I have it taped. I couldn't get into the Byrne doc but I will try it again. Love Derry Girls.
George, we saw your weather on the news here. They said the line will fizzle out before it gets here, but Western NY is getting wet. But then, we had two days of it last week.
Jackie added TO THE LAKE to our list, along with several other things. Generally, we seem to end up watching 3-5 different shows a night (the 5 would be including half hour shows - Derry Girls, Srugim, Schitt's Creek, Rita, The Windsors). When we get to the end of a series - or if it is a two part episode - we will watch two in a row, but otherwise no. I don't look at the television before the 5:00 news.
Speaking of two part episodes, we watched the first of series two of REBECKA MARTINSSON, the Swedish series, that returned after a three year hiatus with a new lead actress. The interesting part to us was, the coroner in the series is played by Ville Virtanen, the Finnish star of BORDERTOWN.
I am very much looking forward to the new series of BORGEN, whenever it gets here.
Forgot to mention I really enjoyed American Utopia but I am a lontime David Byrne fan, seeing Talking Heads every time they played Detroit and most of Byrne's later solo tours including the American Utopia one two summers ago.
I've almost finished the second season of COUNTERPART on Prime. I am hoping they end the series on not give a cliffhanger to a non-existent 3rd season.
Starting reading a Stephen Blackmoore fantasy novel, FIRE SEASON. I always enjoyed his L.A. crime blog that he stopped doing several years ago. Blackmoore's intro says he started writing the novel at about the time of the fire that destroyed Paradise, CA in 2018 and killed 85 people. California wildfires continue to grow and burn and the novel's industrial fire in Los Angeles seems way to believable.
Family is doing well but I need to get Boy #2 out and about somewhere. Going out is a difficult task when he dislikes outdoor activities and COVID keeps us from going anywhere else. Good thing he likes the three cats in the house.
Not much going on here. We got our ballots a few days ago, and will drop them at the library when we go to pick up a couple of books.
I've had several MRIs and I absolutely hate them. How Jeff could sleep through that awful BRAAAK, BRAAAK noise is beyond me. I'm claustrophobic, so it's a terror. Last time I found an open one and it was so much better. For 35 years they have never found a cause for my seizure disorder. Now they just shrug and renew my meds.
Reading a few short stories, but may not have anything written up for Wednesday, as I'm very lazy lately, and very tired.
@ Jerry: don't know how you can do all these activities when we're all supposed to be staying home sheltering in place. We go to grocery store and other necessary errands one day a week and otherwise it's stay home!
@ George: why should rain stop the football game? They are supposed to play in all weather.
Rick, we stay within our family group on the few occasions we go out. Our girls are tested quite often because of their jobs and each of us follows the guidelines strictly. Jack's elementary school is doing a great job with the guidelines and the school has had only one positive test so far. And as for soccer, the kids appear to be healthy and do not interact as much as possible -- there is a risk, but it's minimal and a kid like Jack needs to release his energy somewhere. For the vast amount of each week, it's just me, Kitty, the damncat, and the TV sheltering in place.
Rick, it was Steve who said he fell asleep in the MRI machine, not me.
I found an open MRI although it will be a long drive and a long wait. Not until nearly Thanksgiving. But since I am not so eager to keep exposing myself to people, it's okay with me.
Every state has different rules. Sheltering in place is long gone here and is perhaps why are numbers are going up. Everything is open, including movie theaters, gyms, restaurants. Whitmer was defeated by Trump's buddies in Lansing and now they are accusing Whitmer of trying to get Trump murdered because she had the numbers 86 45 on her desk.
Very hard for kids to have a normal life. Kevin (my grandson) would just as soon interact with friends online as in person. He does play tennis and guitar though. So a little interaction for him there. He goes to school twice a week and is online the other days.
Rick, the NFL will stop a game if there's lightning.
Jeff, Western NY is in a semi-drought so this week's rain is very welcome!
Patti--oddly/fortunately enough for me, the only MRI I've had was an open one. Utterly non-problematic, given my mild claustrophobia. I wonder what they'll have to do with the pin in my wrist these years. I can only imagine how much better the experience of open is.
https://www.pifmagazine.com/2000/10/doctor-jack-o-lantern/ has been "colonized" above by the link to the older version of THE END OF EVERYTHING post...
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