Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, May 30, 2018

  • It was time for us to throw away an old recliner, it was tattered and stained and no one in their right mind would accept it even if given to them. Instead of taking it to the dump or arranging disposal, I thought it would be fun to disassemble it with the kids and fit it in our city provided trash receptacle. It was fun cutting the fabric and tearing it away, doing something you aren’t supposed to do. When it came to the wooden frame, I thought it would be a nice time to introduce the kids to their grandfather’s handsaw and teach them proper woodcutting. My seventh-grade woodshop teacher, Homer Hensley, would have been proud.
  • Does anyone have any opinions on having a ceiling fan in the master bath?
  • I didn’t realize it until watching Netflix’s ‘The Crown’, but King George VI’s funeral had three British queens in attendance. His mother, Queen Mary The Queen, his wife/widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and his eldest daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
  • And little did I know that Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Phillip, was born in Greece.
  • I’m always thrown when watching a film or television series which takes place in England and the characters reference the use of miles or inches. My ignorance makes me feel like they should only use metric terms like kilometers and centimeters.
  • I bet the majority of people who make fun of accents only speak one language.
  • The First Lady hasn’t been seen in public for twenty days. Usually, people of her stature makes at least a very brief public appearance just waving to the crowd. I’m not criticizing her, it’s just a concerned observation.
  • I’m looking forward to the series finale of ‘The American’s’ tonight, it’s been a great ride.
  • Pompeii news –
    • A man managed to escape the first eruptive fury of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, only to be crushed beneath a block of stone hurled by an explosive volcanic cloud, new excavations at the site suggest. Archeologists working at the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, Italy, found the man’s remains almost 2,000 years after he died.

  • Please Don’t Roast Marshmallows Over the Erupting Hawaii Volcano, USGS Warns
  • CIA report says North Korea won’t denuclearize, but might open a burger joint
  • Homeless Jesus statue stops runaway truck in Canada
  • I’m impressed.

https://twitter.com/Hassel_Chris/status/1001513610005434368?s=09

Posted in Personal | 11 Comments

Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, May 29, 2018

  • WifeGeeding and I were talking about playing a prank on a friend, nothing we thought was mean-spirited but DaughterGeeding interjected, “Mom, don’t! It’s called being a role model.”
  • WifeGeeding took DaughterGeeding to watch a local production of “Pollyanna” so I took BoyGeeding to watch the Solo: A Star Wars Story, which he loved. Here are some spoiler-free thoughts:
    • Going into it, I didn’t think Alden Ehrenreich could pull off a convincing Han Solo, but he won me over.
    • I don’t think anyone should compare it to The Last Jedi. Disney is doing two different things with the backstory films and the new stuff with the new characters. With The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, they are capturing the attention of a new generation and taking chances with cannon. With Rouge One and Solo, they glorify the older films and give us that old school grit. While The Last Jedi had all of the ingredients of a Star Wars movie, I feel like it trampled on canon and took characters in questionable directions. Solo, on the other hand, seems to honor canon in a way that was noticeable, but not in your face. Sure, The Last Jedi was a movie of epic scale and visual achievement and took some brave or controversial steps, but the story and character behaviors didn’t mesh within the Star Wars universe for me. Solo, on the other hand, was an underdog film which exceeded my expectations and impressed me with the way it handled some key character moments. I don’t think it deserves the negativity surrounding it. Ron Howard, from what I heard, rescued it and rewrote or reshot 80% of it when he took over, so bravo to him.
    • It hasn’t been reported anywhere, but I swear I spotted the back of Harrison Ford’s head in one scene and I think it’s a cameo.
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is my favorite of the Indy movies, and it just happened to come on television the other day and I started to watch it from the start. To my surprise, it caught the kids’ attention right away and they were hooked and watched the whole thing. A lot of times I’ll turn on something hoping it they will watch it with me and usually they end up going to another room to play or start focusing on something else like a book or toy. That’s a high compliment to Stephen Speilberg and George Lucus, especially when you consider all the current slate of movies and their special effects to keep our attention.
    • Since I watched The Last Crusade immediately after Solo I was able to spot some a few key connections between the two films. One, in particular, was an opening chase scene in Solo and the Venice boat chase scene and the in The Last Crusade.
    • The Last Crusade starts with a younger version of Harrison Ford in a train chase scene. In Solo, a younger version of Harrison Ford is in a train chase scene.
  • Why does Indiana Jones wear a leather jacket in the jungle and the dessert?
  • On Sunday, NRA president Lt. Col. Oliver North spoke at Ed Young’s Fellowship Church in Grapevine.
  • GIF – Two dogs playing tetherball
  • The CBS Evening News had a story by Michelle Miller about RFK Jr. wanting to reopen the investigation of his father’s death. I found that interesting because Miller’s father was the first doctor to attend to RFK at the site of the assassination, though that fact and connection wasn’t mentioned in this new story.
  • I had no intention of watching Netflix’s The Crown but after watching one episode with WifeGeeding, I’m hooked. It also caused me to look up an item or two about the Queen and the Royal Family and I got stuck in a research wormhole. One of which was this tidbit with President Ronald Reagan.
    • Another 1982 visit began a little awkwardly however, when Mr. Reagan insisted his wife, Nancy, walk in front of him. Royal protocol required that she walk behind, next to the queen’s spouse. Finally, they all walked in line together.
  • Last night one of the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ puzzles was “WKRP in Cincinnati”. It wasn’t college night, but all the contestants were born in the Nineties and didn’t have a clue what it was referencing. The look on some of their faces trying to understand what “WKRP” was hilarious.
  • I really enjoyed HBO’s documentary on Senator John McCain. It’s not a criticism, but I always thought it was a bit ironic of him representing Arizona, a landlocked state known for being a desert. Afterall, he comes from a strong Naval family, his father and grandfather were Admirals. There’s nothing wrong with a man adopting his wife’s home state.
  • It’s about time for us to replace the over-the-range microwave. Any suggestions? I’m used to the most basic function of setting a time and not using any features. But now, I see some have sensor cooking controls and a steam cooking feature.
  • We took the kids to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and found a cool wooden mirror installation which uses a camera sensor and different shades of small wooden blocks.

 

Posted in Personal | 12 Comments

I think about this old article from 2013 each Memorial Day

Capt. Aaron R. Blanchard, a 32-year-old Army pilot, had been in Afghanistan for only a few days when an enemy rocket killed him and another soldier last month as they dashed toward their helicopter. Now he was heading home.

But before he left the mortuary here, he would need to be properly dressed. And so Staff Sgt. Miguel Deynes labored meticulously, almost lovingly, over every crease and fold, every ribbon and badge, of the dress uniform that would clothe Captain Blanchard in his final resting place.

“It’s more than an honor,” Sergeant Deynes said. “It’s a blessing to dress that soldier for the last time.”

Once the body is ready, the mortuary staff prepares dress uniforms for each, even if the coffin is closed at the funeral with the uniform laid on top of the remains, and even if the body is to be cremated.

The sergeant starched and pressed a white shirt, ironed a crease into the pants, steamed wrinkles out of the jacket and then rolled a lint remover over all of it, twice.

Gently, he laid the pieces onto a padded table. Black socks protruded from the pants and white gloves from the sleeves. The funeral would be a closed coffin, but it all still had to look right.

“They are not going to see it,” he said. “I do it for myself.”

A week later, Captain Blanchard’s remains were flown to his home state, Washington, where he was buried in a military cemetery near Spokane.

Before his funeral, his mother spent time alone with her son but did not open his coffin. But later that night, she said, her husband and two other sons did, wanting to say one last farewell.

Inside, they saw a uniform, white gloves crossed, buttons gleaming, perfect in every detail.

Full New York Times Article

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