Further Reflections On My Trip and Return

One thing that amazed me is how many people ignore the view out the airplane window.  Do they fly so often that it now fails to amaze them?  I can understand if it is night time, or there are lots of clouds (though I enjoyed the cloud formations we flew above on Saturday morning), but on a clear, sunny day?  I'm glued to the window, watching the miniature world scroll by.  Farms, towns, factories, suburbs, vast stretches of apparently empty space.  It's all interesting to me.  I don't get to fly all that often, and the perspective gained by viewing our civilization from a distance can be heady stuff.  Our world really is pretty small, no matter how big it feels from down here.  What we do to the land matters, it shows up even from a distance. 

Though I like flying, and I like seeing new things, I don't like being away from my base of operations that much.  It unsettles me.  I guess I haven't found a good way to take it with me yet.  Ever since I got back, this song has been playing in my head, and refuses to be exorcised, no matter what.
Traveling Wilburys: Inside Out

The weeds in Alabama could probably rival the plants in Australia for vindictiveness and danger. Most of the vines I had to remove from in and on my mother's azalea hedges had HUGE thorns.  They are carnivorous, actively seeking the slight bit of bare skin between my long pruning gloves and my shirt sleeve.  I have multitudinous scratches and puncture wounds on my elbows.  I also ran afoul of the top of the chain link fence.  I was grateful over and over again for the tetanus shot I got shortly after the tornadoes.  At least I knew I was protected from disease.  Much antibiotic cream and cortisone cream have helped the scratches start to heal.  I also have bruises all over me.  Branches that argued with me, things that poked me through the sheet we used to transport our clippings to the curb, the abominable fence, my own pruners, these are the things that bruised me.  Stumps of old shrubs bruised my knees when I tried to kneel on them to reach the roots of some weeds. Also, I don't know if it is the bending and lifting I did while at Mom's or the vigorous workouts I've done since I got home, but my leg muscles are sore.  Something has worked them hard!

As hard as my sister and I worked every day, I still missed being really active.  I missed my walks and my elliptical time.  I listen to music and just move it when I am walking or using the elliptical.  Gets my blood pumping, and gets my heart rate up.  All that yard work was not aerobic.  Didn't benefit my heart or lungs much.  (In fact, being up close and personal with so much pollen was not so good for my allergies.  I am still living on antihistamines and eye drops.)
I also missed my regular clothes.  I had only yard work clothes at Mom's, except for the outfit I wore on the plane to and from.  None of my yard work clothes is the right size any more.  Most are about two sizes too big.  I felt really odd wearing those clothes every day.  (Although it was a bit of an ego boost, knowing how tight those clothes USED to be!)

REALLY missed my singing.  I just get lost in my songs and in the challenge of making my voice do what it needs to do to function properly.  Just couldn't do that at Mom's.  (Sister's snide comments didn't help, either.)  Voice lesson today was a challenge because I went so long without practice, and haven't really had time to practice much since I got home.  Once I found my groove, though, things went pretty well.

Since I got home, we have been OD-ing on the Pacific Rim Blu-Ray.  Lots of really neat extras on that set of discs, and we've been working our way through all of them.  I really love that movie.  It's just NEAT!!  (Added bonus, Ron Perlman is in it, and his daughter Blake  composed and performed a song for the closing credits .)

Matt framed our art posters that we bought at Dallas ComiCon Fan Days.  They look good in our hall.  Finally have art that really reflects our lifelong interests.

A Hellboy as an adolescent painting, and Gipsy Danger fighting a Kaiju by Devin Kraft of Cheshire Cat Art.  We met him at the con, and gave Ron Perlman a smaller print of the Hellboy painting as a token of our esteem.  (We thought it was cute.)






Here is a picture of a frog on the back wall of Mom's house.  May be a little blurry, it's zoomed in.

Here's the front of Mom's house after we got done taming the azaleas.


















When I got home, my Boot Campaign boots were waiting for me.  These boots are sold as a fundraiser for a program that gives aid to servicemen and women returning from overseas.  I bought them to support the cause, and to reward myself for a 30 pound weight loss since I started this effort in January.

Speaking of my weight loss, here are some before and after photos to give a little perspective on how much difference 30 pounds makes.

This is me at 168 pounds.

And this is me at 138 pounds.  BIG difference, eh?  Biggest difference is in how I feel and in the numbers on my health records.  BP lower, Cholesterol lower, everything looking good!









Guess that's about all for this outing.  I have wandered around in the wilderness long enough.  Hope you enjoyed the trip.

Fighting Monsters

One reason Pacific Rim seems to resonate so around here may be that we have monsters attacking us regularly.
Our monsters don't have bodies, they aren't trying to wipe us out to prepare the way for a new civilization, (at least, we don't think so), but they are just as deadly as any kaiju.
I tend to think of the storms that regularly threaten Oklahoma as monsters.  High damaging winds their foul breath, tornadoes for teeth and claws, they lay waste to our homes with no regard for us at all.  All we can do is hunker down and wait them out, or try to get out of their way.  Just like the people in Pacific Rim do when the kaiju attack. 
Jaegers might not be so effective against tornadoes, since tornadoes routinely throw objects around that one would assume were stationary.  The one in '99 even pulled pavement up off the streets it crossed.  Some houses were so thoroughly gone that even the slabs were no longer there.  I am sure that happened in a few cases this time as well. 
Still, the movie makes us all feel better because it shows humans fighting back against the monsters.  We do this with technology and warnings, but if something like the Jaegers could defend us against tornadoes, you can bet someone here would find a way to build some. 
Every time we have seen Pacific Rim at the Warren IMAX, the theater is either full almost immediately, or fills up fairly quickly after we are seated.  Everyone cheers when the Kaiju are defeated.  I don't think you'll find too many kaiju fans among the denizens of Moore, OK.  We have known too much destruction to cheer for monsters.  Yet, the tornadoes have their groupies.  Storm chasers, who seek to collect data and understand the storms, much like Newt.  They really admire the power of these storms, but don't really care to actually be IN one.  Not when they meet it face to face.

We also have our very serious scientists, like Hermann, who work both for the government and for private companies, studying the data from every possible angle, trying to find a way to understand these storms better in order to defeat them. Would that they were as easy to defeat as the kaiju.  Oh, I know, the kaiju almost destroyed the earth, but they could be traced to a single source.  Our monsters often seem to come out of almost nowhere.  They can strike anywhere, though they have their favorite haunts.  (Perhaps they hate country music, and that's why they target Oklahoma so much.  After all, LOTS of country stars have come out of here, and Toby Keith grew up in Moore.  Played football at Moore High School.)

There are even a few like Hannibal Chau here, who profit off what the monster leaves behind.  There are those who salvage destroyed homes, seeking the re-useable materials that they can sell.  Often they have permission from the city and the property owners, sometimes they do not.  We also have fly-by-night contractors who come out of the woodwork after storms trying to get people who don't need it to replace roofs or build shelters. Now, all of us need shelters, but it is better by far to sit on the waiting list of a reputable company that has been here for the long haul than to go with some jerk who shows up at your door with a slick sales pitch.

There is no real equivalent to Stacker Pentecost and his Rangers here.  Closest we can come are our professional storm chasers and meteorologists who keep eyes on the storms and give us enough warning to get under cover.  For most of us, Gary England is the one we trust to give us the best information.  We've all been through a LOT of storms with Gary, he knows what he's looking at, and rarely loses his cool.  Val Castor is the storm chaser to trust.  He's been through a lot of big ones, too.  I believe he would LOVE to have something like a Jaeger to meet those storms with.  He'd fight them to the death, no question.  He's seen too much of the damage they can do.  He and his crew stop to help people when they come along behind the tornadoes.  They make sure to do what they can until the local authorities show up.  Most of the storm chasers do, actually.  The ones who are dangerous are the ones treating these monsters like a tourist attraction.  "Tornado tours" are very popular, alas, and the number of vehicles out chasing makes it dangerous for the ones who are SUPPOSED to be out there giving warnings and collecting needed data.  Traffic jams on narrow country roads with tornadoes spawning are very, very dangerous.

Back to the movie.  It was so very satisfying every time one of the Jaegers smashed the kaiju around.  Helped us purge a little of the frustration we have with our own monster fight.  This story touches us in a very vulnerable place right now.  We are still recovering from our last kaiju attack.  Evidence of it is visible as you enter and leave the theater.  We really needed something like this movie to entertain us and also help us psychologically fight back. 
Mr. Del Toro, your beautifully crafted masterpiece is very much loved by many of us here.  We needed it, and now is the perfect time for it.  I know you never really thought about our storms as monsters when you were working on it, but for us, it strikes a chord that resonates very deeply.  Thank you so much for making this film.  Thanks for getting it to us now, because it has helped a lot.  In my case, anyway.  I have my own Gipsy Danger figure standing watch over my desk as I type.  Reminds me of our fighting spirit here in Oklahoma.  We get the snot kicked out of us, and yet we stand up, dust ourselves off, and rebuild, and keep fighting.  We always will. 
This film speaks to the frightened child in each of us and says that yes, we can fight the monsters, and we may take some pretty bad hits, but we CAN win.  We have to keep trying.
If you live in Oklahoma and you have not seen Pacific Rim yet, you need to.  See how it makes you feel.  Bet it makes you feel good.  

Here is Gipsy, standing watch for me. 

Friday Night In A Suburb Of The Big Town - Pacific Rim Review

Greetings from Moore, OK.  Tidy little suburb of Oklahoma City that tornadoes try (and fail) to erase, home of one of the best public libraries in the whole universe, and home of the absolutely fabulous Moore Warren Theatre and IMAX Theatre. 
It was the IMAX theatre that got our attention this Friday Night.  (By the way, for those of you NOT from the 405, Friday Night In The Big Town is a favorite phrase of our local weather forecasting god, Gary England. )  Matt and I went to see Pacific Rim at the Warren IMAX.  It is absolutely gobsmackingly astounding.  This is one of the most fun movies I've seen in a long time.  Takes you back to the monster movies of yesteryear, when the good guys fought hard, came close to losing, but mustered the strength to go on. 
I HAD to see this movie.  Not just because I started watching Gigantor

(See picture right) when I was a little kid, but because Ron Perlman is in  it, and he is someone whose skill as an actor (and sense of humor) I admire. 
He plays a Kaiju parts dealer (on the black market, of course)  in the film.  For a girl who grew up loving giant robots, and who fell in love with Perlman's acting abilities in Beauty and the Beast, this movie is most definitely a MUST SEE. 

I loved the Jaegers.  They were such lovely tributes to the Mecha characters that had come before, while also being very new and unique.  My favorite, of course, was Gypsy Danger. A classic and beautiful design. The story was well developed enough to let you care about the characters and their world, but not overblown.  The movie was above all else, fun.  Perlman's character provides a lot of that fun, and so so do the two scientists.  Watching giant robots fight giant monsters is most of the fun, though.  The Jaegers are impressive.  The detail that Guillermo Del Toro puts in all his movies served this one best of all.  Pacific Rim is a feast for the eyes and the imagination.  There is more detail here than you will ever see in one viewing.  I wish I could afford to see it in 3-D IMAX again. 

It was a visceral experience.  Sounds you could feel, and I kept fighting the urge to duck objects flying toward me during the battle scenes.
If you want to feel like a kid again, to enjoy a movie just for the fun of it, you NEED to go see Pacific Rim. 

When we saw it this evening, so did a BUNCH more people.  There were all ages and all walks of life in there to see this movie.  And one of the most polite crowds you'll find anywhere.  (Hey, we are in Moore, OK, and  even the folks who drive up from Texas are nice when they're here.)  This town seems to do that to people.  Makes everyone feel closer and less like strangers.  Especially lately, and especially at the theater, where you can look across and see the wreckage of the hospital that the tornado ate.  The buildings are down now, it's just a big rubble pile that is being systematically sorted through and taken away, but still.  It is jarring.  There are few trees on that side of town anymore.  There are a few of what I call "Tornado trees" still standing.  They are broken off , few branches left, but still defiantly leafing out all over the ends of their truncated branches.  Still alive and daring the world to do something about it.  Kind of like the Jaegers at one point in this film.

There is a tornado tree at the right of this picture, taken 3 days ago at Veteran's Memorial Park here in Moore.  (By the way, go to parks.livepositively.com  and vote for Veteran's Memorial Park in Moore, so that we have a chance to win a $100,000.00 grant to help rebuild the park!  Voting ends July 15.)

That is about all for tonight.  It was one of the best and most entertaining Friday nights I've had for a LONG time.  It was kind of nice to see something besides weather bashing humanity around, and nice that humanity could actually fight back.  'Cause when the monsters came smashing through our town, there wasn't any way to fight.  I think this movie was very satisfying to many of us just because of that.  Thanks, Mr. Del Toro.  We needed this.

Some Observations

Can't think of a coherent topic today, so little pieces of things I have gleaned over the last few days:



Every inanimate object in this house that gets in my way, acts up, or otherwise thwarts me is of illegitimate parentage.  (At least that's what I tell the world when said objects thwart me.) 
Though, sometimes these objects and the circumstances surrounding the thwarting of my purpose are said to be fornicating. 

I hate rolly-pollys.  Pill bugs, woodlice, whatever you call them.  They came in the house somehow and died in their hundreds along the baseboards on the north wall of our bedroom.  I spent several minutes this morning removing the corpses.  I have also now sprayed the exterior and interior surfaces at the base of that wall.  I better NOT see any more rolly pollys.  (Chemical warfare is on! I have my chem gear, bugs.  Do YOU?!)

While losing weight is very good, and important for my health; when my favorite pants are TOO BIG, it isn't so much fun.  These were nice trouser jeans that I got on sale, and I really liked them.  Now I can't wear them, and I can't find replacements. Also, replacing clothing that no longer fits is getting expensive.  Matt has lost enough to be back in his smaller set of slacks, but if he loses as much as he intends to, we're going to go broke buying clothes.  A lot of my stuff will still fit all right, but his slacks most definitely will not. (I don't even want to think about how much it will cost to get new brassieres.  I will have to custom order because of band size vs cup size.  Been there before.  Not cheap or easy.)

The cords on vacuum cleaners, extension cords, and garden hoses will tie themselves in knots the minute you unwind them, no matter how carefully and correctly they were wound up after the last use.  It's some kind of law that you must stop and unsnarl them from themselves every time you go to use them.  The same is true of ear bud cords.  I am looking forward to the day I can get Blue Tooth headphones.

Now that I'm older, I notice it more when I don't eat.  Used to be able to eat a couple of lettuce leaves for lunch when dieting and not have it really bother me.  Not so anymore.  The stomach rebels, and I get light headed.  So I keep fruit and low fat cheese and crackers in the house.  I also feel the effects of alcohol much more strongly on an almost empty stomach.  (No surprise there!) 

When one of your friends has a great experience, it can make you really happy, too.  Glad to share vicariously in a friend's OzComiCon adventure, mostly because she is so over the moon about it.  It is great to know that someone I really like and care about is having such a great experience.  Great to see other fellow fans being supportive and happy for her, too.  No griping and jealousy.  Renews my faith in human nature.  (And my faith in my own judgement about people. Especially regarding a certain actor.)

Though I have been kind of superstitious in the past, I haven't seriously had "lucky" clothes or items.  Not until now.  I now have a lucky shirt.  (2 actually).  Both have the same artwork on them.  One of Michael Ornstein's paintings called "Blue Sweater."  I really like the art, and every time I wear one of those shirts, good things happen.  So when I need a little boost, or I want to maybe send a friend a little good luck, I wear one of the shirts.  Has worked every time so far! :-)  I am going to have to order a third one soon.  I'm going to need a smaller size! 

Two adults can generate more laundry than you would believe.  There are only two of us here,  yet I end up doing seven or eight loads of laundry every week.  (Well, I do have to separate things that need special care, and we do have towels at least every other week.)

My throat will be perfectly clear all day until I start to do voice practice.  Then every little bit of phlegm in the universe comes to visit.  Very glad I only sing for fun.  Would hate to depend upon this capricious voice for my livelihood.   Singing is done for the love of it.  For the soaring, ringing beauty of great music.  To share with others when appropriate, but not for money.  For money, I do something I also love and believe in passionately.  I help keep our public library open and running smoothly.  Getting people access to the information they need to make decisions, or just finding a good book to read for fun, or a DVD to watch is important.  Freedom for ALL to access ANY information they need is important.  Helps keep a democracy going.  Helps people keep learning and growing their whole lives long.

Things are still shocking me as regards the tornado damage.  Intellectually I know they are tearing down what was left of the hospital.  Still knocks me for a loop every time I drive down there.  My landmarks in that part of town are just GONE.  Still grateful that our large retail areas are intact.  City could not have taken that big of a sales tax hit.
 Extremely grateful to Bill Warren for building his theater so well.  It is a beacon across the darkened parking lot and the highway from the book drop when I have to go empty it some Thursday nights.  Always cheers me up to see the Warren over there with its old school movie palace design.  So glad I am going to get to go see Pacific Rim on Friday evening in the IMAX theater at the Warren. 

Got to see Pacific Rim.  Not JUST because Ron Perlman is in it,  and I happen to love his acting,(Okay, I love HIM, too) but because it is about giant robots.  I LOVED Gigantor as a young child.  Always wanted my own giant robot.  In this movie, humans control giant robots to fight giant monsters.  All that excitement AND Ron Perlman!  You can't ask for better than that for a great summer movie. 

That is about all the random observations that I can come up with for now.  I happen to know there is a load of laundry waiting to be folded and put away, so I'll be on my way.
Thanks for reading. 
As Ever,
Katie