Good Afternoon Folks,
Felis Anos!
Been gone a while from this medium. As I have said in the past, it seems my heart is not in it much anymore. I started doing this because my friends Bob and Cindy Henry had a blog and Cindy urged me to do one. Their blog, "Henry's in the Hole," has long since been defunct. I kind of miss it. It was far more interesting than mine. As a matter of fact, I miss them too. Haven't seen or spoken to them in a few months.
That seems to be the way of the world with friends and acquaintances. You let some go over time, or time gets away from you and it doesn't seem worth the expenditure of effort. Other times those folks just move on to others, or as I have stated before, other "friends" are important only in certain contexts. When those contexts are not relevant, neither, it would seem, are the relationships. And of course there is that other corollary mentioned a while back as well, the hierarchy of "friendships." That is when you prioritize by importance to you, some being the higher when in the presence of others. Since I limit myself to few friends most of these "attributes" mentioned I do not practice, but many of my "few" friends do. Of course, I am single and much more isolated from them. You know "out of sight, out of mind." Since, in many cases I have been the one to make the contact I have decided in this new year, I will no longer "plead for friendship." If I do not hear from these "friends," so be it.
Enough of this . . . on to the next items to be Curmudgeonly about:
Am hoping for a good New Year since Christmas pretty much "sucked!" Firstly, on the way to southern California for the holiday I was run off the road by a semi-truck at Sunset Point, North of Phoenix. I was towed into the Subaru dealer in Prescott. Luckily I have Subaru Road Assistance so that cost me nothing. However unluckily, Tim's Subaru pretty much gouged me on the replacement of two tires that had been blown being forced off the road. Nice way to start a trip.
Upon my arrival I found out that my daughter and one grandson were ill and I could not visit them. But further by the next day the other two, plus my son-in-law were all sick. Finally, was able to visit them a couple of days later and took the grandsons to a movie. Christmas Day I came down with the vomiting and diarrhea that they all had. I spent all of the day secluded in the upstairs bedroom when not in the bathroom. I left California the day after the day after Christmas. However, my sister, who I stay with there, and her husband came down with illness. I felt guilty for bringing this home to them and probably other members of my family who spent the holiday at her house.
I was glad to get back to Flagstaff even if there is not enough snow to go XC skiing. The last business of the old year is to post my ranking of films that I saw in 2013, along with my rating of the performances. They are as follows: (I saw 75 movies in theaters. That is the basis.)
Best Films:
1. 12 Years a Slave
2. Gravity
3. Nebraska
4. Saving Mr. Banks
5. The Butler
6. Captain Phillips
7. All is Lost
8. Tie between Philomena and Mandella
9. The Hobbit
10. Quartet
Honorable Mention: Dallas Buyer's Club, Much Ado about Nothing, Mud, Star Trek, 42, and World War Z.
Best Actors: Bruce Dern, Nebraska, Robert Redford, All is Lost, & Indris Elba, Mandella
Best Actresses: Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks, Judi Dench, Phillomena, Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Supporting Actor: Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips, Jerod Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyongo, 12 Years a Slave
Director: Alphoso Cuaron, Gravity, Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave, & Alexander Payne, Nebraska
These are my selections with the understanding that there is every year a number of worthy films released in limited theaters before the first of the new year and do not come into general release until January. One that looks particularly notable is August:Osage County. I look forward to seeing it and I know the awards folks have already nominated from that film.
Cheers to all for New Year!
