Graying Skies, Warmer Day Ahead and Some Nostalgia

Greece, 1974?

Surfer Dude, Hawaii, 1968

Hanging Hard Right, Makaha, Hawaii, 1968

As you can see from the photos, I am getting tired of the same old pictures out my window here at the lake.  So, I decided to liven it up with some color, a bit of nostalgia, and youth.

Up at 6:20. to dark but now, 7;10, the sky is turning gray, with a touch of lavender.  I walked outside hoping the moon was still up but the skies were too cloudy.  The last two nights, the full moon and clear skies have been amazing, reflecting on the lake, bright and shiny.  I can only remember a night or two during the winter when its been this way, usually on very, very cold nights.  The temperature is supposed to drop tonight and tomorrow, the highs in the low 20's.

Yesterday, we went into Lakewood, as has become our routine, Evie to the YMCA and me to the Yoga Studio.  We had about 12 participants at the Eight Limbs Studio, pretty good for a Wednesday, perhaps because it was restorative yoga.  My favorite pose: lying on your back and using a strap, form a large loop, then put one end of the loop around the back of your head and  the other end around the ball of your foot. You then extend your foot, so it straight and the head balances the weight of the foot so you have hardly a pull on either the head or leg and it really stretches your ham strings though I had trouble with keeping the leg straight because my loop was not quite big enough.  I continue to enjoy it but I had trouble yesterday with mindfulness as my mind wandered and I kept thinking about how much longer till we were finished, my typical problem.

Around 4:00 I went off to see the film EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY LOUD.  Evie wanted to get things done at home so I went alone, as it was the last day at the theater.  I had read the book, loved it, and wanted to see what they did with the book, as it would be very difficult to remain faithful to the text. Most of the reviews of the film panned it, but I was blown away by the young boy who plays Oskar(Thomas Horn), perhaps the best performance I have ever witnessed by a young person.  The film itself was enjoyable enough (perhaps because of my interest in the book), faithful for the most par, a bit long, melodramatic, and thus boring towards the middle, as he continues his search for lock.  Viola Davis and Max Van Sydow play the neighbors, Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock the parents.  It was beautifully filmed, though it left lots out of the book and added a few scenes which seemed to work. It's difficult to say how others might like the film because I had read the book, so I knew where it was going, and had no trouble following the story.  Either Oskar annoys you with his phobias, ticks, tambourine, and outbursts, or you put up with it because he's so talented and rises above the script.