A Milestone Passed

It was an early morning to venture out, but Dad had an important appointment to make that required blood work to processed first. Not only was it the last time we’d see the fellow who treated him for cancer, Dr. Chalasni, it was the official two year checkup after finishing chemotherapy.

While we are sad to see her move on to bigger and better things in another state, the results were negative for reoccurrence which is something to celebrate. At the two year remission mark, the odds of this type of lymphoma coming back drops dramatically. Now Dad only needs to go back every six months instead of every three months.

It is amazing how much his battle with cancer along with all the complications consumed so much time and energy. Most of the past two and a half years are a blur to me, ironically confirmed when I visited the optometrist later in the morning. The last time I’d been there was before Dad wrecked the Subaru which was the beginning of the travails.

So it is nice to be able to record this good news, especially after a hard month dealing with problems associated with his vent tube being removed from his stomach. Multiple runs to the ER and clinics made it seem like the bad old days were back for awhile. Thankfully that is now healing and the old man is once again mowing the yard with a push mower.

That’s a far cry from the skeletal figure that looked a moment away from death’s door two years ago.

Man of Steel (2013) Review

Rebooting a film franchise is always divisive, however this bold reinterpretation of Superman’s origin may qualify as one of the most controversial in cinema history. Big, brashly violent, and unabashedly emotional this is definitely not the Christopher Reeve’s superhero that so many have fond memories of. Instead it is a science fiction story about what it would be like to be a perpetual stranger in a strange land while trying to find your own unique identity.

See the title above? You won’t see that until the movie ends. Nothing is allowed to get in the way of this freight train of a story that hurtles through the two and half hours the movie runs. Contained within is a densely packed journey of discovery alternating with loss combined with all the repercussions of finding out alien life exists and may not be friendly.

Don’t expect much comic relief in this very serious take on the first comic book superhero. It stands in stark contrast to the relatively cheery 1970’s Superman film series.

Like Richard Donner’s classic from 1978, the movie begins on the dying world of Krypton somewhere far off in space. Hans Zimmer’s masterful soundtrack thrums away before giving way to a heartbeat of a baby being born. Amidst the decay of a spent people, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife Lara (Ayelet Zurer) have done something not allowed in hundreds of years: they have had a baby by natural childbirth rather than artificial engineering.

Musings Before the Storm

With the “Super Tuesday” caucuses nearly upon us, I’ve been thinking about a few things while cutting out nearly three hundred ballots with a pair of scissors while preparing to convene one site here in Minnesota. Political volunteerism is far less glamorous than TV or movies make it out to be, what can I say?

The debate last night on CNN was stormy, uncivil, and the last before Tuesday’s big event. Rubio won it handily, to my surprise. More shocking was watching Ted Cruz not only fail at debating, but have a melt down while arguing with Trump. The pressure is clearly on and the tag team attacks on The Donald were unlike anything seen so far.

It is questionable whether or not this influences the upcoming vote, though it may allow Rubio a chance at Minnesota. He’s got more than a few supporters keeping quiet, I suspect. As it was, I’d expected Trump to win the state by a narrower margin than his previous wins with Marco coming in a close second. Now I really don’t know what to think.

Of course, predicting elections is more like gambling in a lottery than a science. The odds are always against you.

Impediments

So far February has been a troublesome month mainly due to transportation issues. An excellent example being how the borrowed pickup truck refused to start this morning, thereby forcing a rescheduling of Dad’s quarterly cancer checkup. Aiding and abetting all the annoyances has been the job of the winter weather. Aching bones are not conducive to rest or ambulation, I’m finding.

Limiting long range trips to medical or repair work has resulted in my not getting out to church in weeks. Again, the winter weather has exacerbated the situation since the driveway is a challenge for most drivers that I’d call on.

Still, one must trudge on despite all loose gravel, deep snow, and slippery ice in life.

Using scrap wood and old MDF shelves going unused, I’ve been rebuilding the old TV stand a bit at a time into something that better houses the HDTV, receiver, and disc players while making more room for the center speaker of the surround system. Having no workshop, there is only so much I can do while it is cold, so final finishing will have to wait until much warmer weather allowing windows to be open.

Feeling a little dizzy and generally unwell today, so the truck not starting early this morning may not be such a horrible thing after all. It has been charged and started, albeit after eating up all the travel and blood work time that was allotted. Wanted to get the rebuild of the TV stand done today – not going to happen.

Hopefully, notes will be taken for the next movie review this week as there are hopes of getting those rolling again.

A Short Comment on Last Night’s Debate

Updated: Yep, it cost him big time as my late friend Al would have said. Rubio’s support went over to Jeb, prolonging that campaign just a bit longer. All it took to stop Marcomentum was Christie, though neither did well looking at totals with 77% reported in.

Original post follows:

New Hampshire’s caucuses are the big moment for Marco Rubio to break out after his surprisingly strong showing in Iowa. Thanks to his wretched performance last night he may have blown that opportunity, though voters are always unpredictable.

Chris Christie has been dinging Rubio for using canned sound bites that are very rehearsed and not at all extemporaneous. When he went after the Florida senator, the response was exactly what the governor was mocking. Pundits have noted that Rubio is robotic in his responses and he sounded just like a vinyl record being stuck during that exchange.

Occasionally politics will present truly surreal moments that make one question the nature of reality. Now I’m wondering if Life Model Decoys developed by SHIELD are real.

Iowa Caucus or Iowa Circus?

Once again the first in the nation caucuses held in Iowa have concluded without leaving any definite conclusion as to who the eventual nominees will be. For those of us who follow politics, the relief from the sheer overflow of punditry and prognostications is large, to say the least. So much hot air, so much speculation, so much money spent… and rarely does the GOP winner go on to win the whole shebang.

Frankly, the Democratic Party results are more fascinating than that of the Republican record setting attendance. I’ll get back to that in a moment.

I live near the border of Iowa, so the results were of interest to me, especially from Winneshiek County. Trump beat Cruz 274 to 251 votes while Sanders beat Clinton 56 to 54 delegates in the Iowa Democrats very twisted methods of counting. Oddly, there is no secret ballot and the process is very peer pressure driven with little accountability.

Yet Another Deer Collision

Well, tonight went downhill quickly. My father hit another deer and the Ford Freestyle looks like it may be a goner. Unfortunately, the insurance policy wasn’t comprehensive so our options will be limited. We’ll know more tomorrow, but being without wheels with the closest town being twelve miles away is going to be a problem.

We never catch a break.