Last Update (for awhile)

At the beginning of October I felt a need to write and started posting to this blog.  Recently I have gotten busy with other stuff and have not felt the need to write.  So it will probably be awhile until I post again.

Napoleon (updated 12/9)

Last week, we saw the movie "Napoleon" at the local movie theater.  Normally, I try not to give away too much about the movie or book I am reviewing.  Unfortunately, I cover a lot of the movie in this review.  If you are planning to see this movie, you might want to put off reading this review.  Some random thoughts about the movie:

Several notes first: 1) When I write a movie or book review, I first write up my impressions.  The idea is to convey what I thought, without being influenced by other reviews.  Then I go out and read the other reviews from critics.  I often make minor updates to my review.  This time, I was very surprised about many of the reviews of this film.  My update after reading the reviews is much larger than usual.

2) My knowledge of Napoleon and French history is pretty pitiful.  I know the basics, but not much more.  So it's hard for me to judge the accuracy of this film.

3) This film has many bloody battle scenes.  I was especially surprised/disturbed at the violence against horses.  If this kind of thing bothers you, you might want to steer clear of this film.

4) I thought this movie missed several key aspects of Napoleon's life.  Reading one review, I found out that there is a 4 hour "director's cut" to be released later.  Maybe the key aspects will be included in the longer version.

Napoleon is portrayed as ruthless, unemotional, and unsympathetic.  Like I mentioned before, my knowledge of this history is incomplete at best, however I suspect this portrayal is fairly accurate.  Often people who are brilliant and highly successful in their field are not especially sympathetic figures.  On the other hand, these types of people are often very interesting.  Unfortunately, Napoleon didn't seem interesting in this movie.  

Beforehand, I knew that Napoleon was a brilliant military strategist.  The film showed a series of famous battles, but did not give much detail on the tactics employed.  Maybe the 4 hour directors cut will give more detail on this topic.

During this time, there was great upheaval in French society.  Not much of this upheaval was shown, yet the upheaval had a large bearing on Napoleon's rise to power.  I would like to have seen more on the social and political changes.

Napoleon was madly in love with his first wife, Josephine.  After years of unsuccessful attempts to provide Napoleon with a heir, they divorced and Napoleon married a second wife who gave him a son. There are several sex scenes between Napoleon and Josephine.  Sadly I found the scenes pretty boring.

 Early in their marriage, Josephine has an affair while Napoleon was on the battlefield.  Napoleon learns of the affair and leaves the battlefield and travels hundreds of miles to confront Josephine.  The viewer is left with the feeling that Napoleon has lead a pious life and is properly outraged.    

Upon my reading of Napoleon's wikipedia page, I find that he had 4 illegitimate children, each from a different mistress.  None of these affairs were shown in the movie.  Wouldn't it be more fair and accurate to show the affairs on both sides?  I'm disappointed in this omission.

While I felt that the movie was incomplete and the portrayal of Napoleon was unsympathetic and uninteresting, I did actually enjoy the movie.  The sets and costume design were elaborate and very well done.  Assuming that the movie is generally accurate, I did learn a great deal about Napoleon and his times.  

I think I am in the minority of people who enjoyed the film.  A couple of review titles:

The Observer - "Joaquin Phoenix borders on catatonic in 'Napoleon': the result is a colossal bore that is never passionate, exciting, sexy or entertaining - save for exploding horses with their guts blown all over the landscape."

The Spectator  -"A bit too short: Napoleon Reviewed, Joaquin Phoenix plays Napoleon as a man-child in Ridley Scott's hurried and confusing biopic".

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I did read one interesting review.  This was from "Foreign Policy" - "What Ridley Scott's Napoleon gets wrong about War: the film's ideas have poisoned military thinking for centuries".  First of all, I find the title of the review very deceiving.  I thought the author was saying that this film will "poison military thinking" for centuries.  In reality, the author is saying that movies and literature have been "poison(ing) military thinking" for centuries and this film is contributing to that.  

The author points out that literature portrays the outcome of wars to be determined by decisive battles.  He gives examples of countries going to war assuming that a quick decisive battle will occur and the war will be over.  The author suggests that wars are more often determined by "attrition of soldiers and material".  Decisive battles are important, since they do force attrition of both soldiers and material.  However, production of war supplies, supply lines, technology and relative sizes of the armies are better determinant's of the war's outcome than decisive battles.

Anyway, this review is not actually a criticism of "Napoleon", rather a criticism of all of the war movies and literature that have focussed on decisive battles.

Update - 12/9/23 - I spoke about the movie with Barbara this morning and she had some interesting comments:

This movie should be a mini-series.   Both of us were left wanting for more.  We wanted to know more about the social upheaval and the political changes occurring in France.  We wanted to know more about his military genius.  The movie is already 2.5 hours long.  It could easily extend into a whole season of episodes just to cover these issues.  Also, there is a brief scene where he is in Egypt.  The movie did not really explain why he was in Egypt or what happened there and why did he leave.  I imagine a whole episode could be devoted to this time.

One of the reviews I listed above says that the movie was a bore except for the "exploding horse" scenes.  Imagine if you are a director of a film and you are worried about the movie being dull.  You say to yourself, "I know how to add excitement to this movie, lets add exploding horses!"  Sigh ...

The Pioneers & The Wager

 Recently, I have read two historical non-fiction books back to back.   It feels like I should combine the two reviews.  Not sure why.  Maybe because they both occurred in the 1700's?  Maybe because both books were recommended by my Brother and Sister-In-Law?  Both books are written by well known authors of historical non-fiction?

The first book is "The Pioneers" by David McCullough.  Its about settlers in Ohio after the Northwest Territory was opened to settlement shortly after the revolutionary war.  This book was a surprise to me.  Normally when I read a book about pioneers, it revolves around the arduous trek to get to the settlements.  Instead, the trek seemed fairly uneventful.  The book concentrated more about the history after the pioneers reached Ohio.  

Another common theme of books about pioneers is problems with the local Native American tribes.  Once again these troubles rarely occurred on the trek to Ohio, instead the troubles happened with Indian raids on settled areas in Ohio.  In this book the troubles were minor and settled mid-way through the book.  

The original legislation for the Northwest Territories include two interesting conditions.  One was that slavery was not allowed in any state formed.  Secondly an emphasis on public education funded by state taxes.  Both of these themes were considered radical in the late 1700s.  There were fights about these topics when Ohio gained statehood, however the citizens strongly supported both and they went into the state constitution.  After a few years, they founded a college in order to provide higher education to the populice.

My general impression of pioneers is that they are a relatively rough and uncultured population.  Most settlers had to do a little of everything.  That was not the case of many of the settlers in Ohio.  A number had graduated from Princeton and some from Harvard.  Note they were hardy people enjoying the journey and adventure of founding a civilization in the wilderness. Many had specialized skills, carpenters, surveyors, metal workers, etc.  There were even scientists, who gathered local plants or created collections from the local wildlife.  They shared books and had dinners where they discussed national  or international issues.  There was even a shipbuilder who built various crafts to navigate the Ohio river in order to transport people and goods.

I have always enjoyed books written by David McCullough.  And this book was no exception.

The second book is "The Wager" by David Grann.  Grann wrote "The Killers of the Flower Moon".  I enjoyed the book and the movie and I was looking forward to reading this book.  This book documented a British naval expedition in the early 1700's.  This book was exactly what I expected.  Describing a grueling voyage, the book is exhilarating and just never let up.

"The Wager" is the name of the a ship. It was named after Sir Charles Wager, the head of the British admiralty at the time.  This ship was part of a secret mission during the Imperial War with Spain.  

We meet several main characters on the ship.  All are interesting, vivid, relatable figures. Some are involved for the whole story, from the preparation of the ship before she sails, until the end of the book.  Some come and go during key phases of the story.  

At the end of the book, several of the shipmates arrived back in Britain to massive controversy.  Heavily publicized court cases were held to investigate the conflicting stories.  The British public followed the cases closely.  There are no real villains.  Just characters that made different decisions and took different paths during the voyage and its aftermath.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to just about anyone.

Blog Update

 Note to Readers:

I think I have deleted all of the dead links on the right hand column.

I have added a section for Summary Posts.  These are posts describing on-going issues.  Rather than creating a new post for each update, I have added updates to the bottom of the post.  The post on Charlie is still open, I expect to make more updates over the next few weeks to months.  The post on our second car is now closed.  We have received the car and I don't expect to make any more updates.  Although that could change.

I left the section on reviews.  These are reviews that I have written over the years on books I have read or movies we have seen.  I have not added the recent reviews.  Still unsure what I am going to do with this section.  

You may have also noticed that the formatting of the posts is all over the place.  The problem is that I like to write the first draft in Google Documents.  Then copy and paste the draft into the Blogger editor.  Finally, I will insert photos.  Unfortunately, when I insert photos, it often changes the rest of the formatting drastically.

That Damn Car Summary

Like Charlie's post below, I am starting a single post and will add to it as new developments occur on our quest to buy a second car.  This post will describe the debacles with our second car.  Depending on how you count them, I think there have been 3 debacles and maybe one more to come.  

Spring/Summer 2022:  At the time, we had a 2004 Subaru Forrester as our second car.  We were very happy with it.  It was an older car, but had run great for many years.  It was a car that we could take out in to the woods, put a muddy dog in and drive through the snow to Mt Bachelor.  It worked very well for us.

One day in May, I had volunteered at the Pole/Pedal/Paddle event.  I was stationed at Mt Bachelor.  As I started driving home the car started to run very roughly.  It was pretty bad at idle, the whole car would shake.  It was still noticeable at speed, but not quite as bad.

Debacle #1

For years, we used Subuguru as our mechanic.   Generally we were pleased with the service, however a year or so previously the owner had sold the business to his daughter and son-in-law.  It appeared to us that the business was starting to suffer, but we took our car to them anyway.  

Subuguru had our car for 1.5 weeks or so.  They called us and told us the car was running fine again.  They weren't sure why.  The had run a bunch of diagnostics and tried different things and the car started running again.  The last thing they tried was flushing the oil a second time.  They couldn't figure out why that fixed it.  They told us to bring it back if rough idle started again.  Fat chance of that.  $591

Within a week, it was running rough again.  This time Barbara found a mechanic who had 30+ years of experience working on cars including Subarus.  He kept the car 2-3 weeks.  He called and said that he could not find the problem.  He said we needed to find a rebuilt engine.  Rebuilt turbo engines are expensive and hard to find.  Non-turbo engines are easier to find, however we would need to re-do the transmission and the differential since they are both tuned for turbo engines.  It would cost 4+ thousand dollars and the car would not be worth that much.  The mechanic suggested that we could sell the car for a few hundred dollars for parts.  We thanked him and took the car back.  $351

We then took the car to the Subaru dealer.  Their mechanics networked with Subaru mechanics across the world!  A week later they called us and said they had fixed the problem.  They needed to replace the spark plugs and the alternator.  A few days later, they called and said that it did not work.  A week later, they called and said that they could not find the problem and we needed to replace the engine with a rebuilt engine.  They said that they could not re-use the spark plugs and would need to charge us for them and the labor to install them.  Really, we have to pay for new spark plugs that they put in a dead engine?  $851

Debacle #2

We decided to sell the car as is.  We advertised it at $1000.  An 18 year old kid and his friends wanted to buy it and work on it.  He offered $800.  We thought we would only get a few hundred dollars and were thrilled with the offer.  We signed over the title to him.  He called the next day and said he wanted a bill of sale.  He had the paperwork and just needed us to the sign.  We said sure, bring the paperwork over.  When he came over he said that he had fixed the car the previous evening!  A timing spring was out of place.

Debacle #3

The used car prices have been so high we decided to wait before buying a second car.  We had read that the used car prices were going to drop in the near future.  As an aside, I recently (early November) found an article that said that user car prices were going to fall by an average of 88% over the next 6 months.  I looked closer at the article and found that it was published 6 months ago.  The prices have still not fallen much.  Recently, I saw a 2004 Subaru Forrester advertised for $7K!  Sigh ...

It had been very inconvenient for Barbara and I to share one car.  We finally decided to look for a second car in late September of 2023.   We found a great deal and were really excited about the car and then it fell through at the last moment.  This debacle has been described in more detail in my October 6th post here. and my October 10th post here.

About a month later, in early November, we decided to look again. We had adjusted our target and found a used car that we are very happy with.  This experience can be found in my post from November 5th here.

November 8th Update: We had been told that the car would be available to us today.  We didn't hear anything this morning.  I began to worry that they found something major wrong with the car.  I am worried that the deal will fall through and we will have to start all over again.  

Around noon, we got a text from the Sales Manager.  They want to do some more servicing on the car.  It would take 2-3 more days.  He pointed out that they were going to do $4K of service on a $13K car.  What??  They charged us $15K for this $13K car!  Hopefully, just a typo in his text.  Though I am still worried that they will find something major wrong in this car.  There is no basis for this worry, I am just afraid of another debacle.  We'll see in 2-3 days.

Meanwhile, someone in Florida started charging things on Ben's debit card.  They cleared out his bank account.  The bank has agreed to refund the money to Ben, just not yet.  Also Ben's phone has broken.  So we need to loan Ben money to get his phone replaced and to fix his car.  Not sure how much that will be.  Also we need to pay for his gas while using our car.  His new debit card has not arrived yet.  And finally, we realized that we will need to park our new car a block away from the house.  Our HOA does not allow owners to park their cars on the street.  Ben's broken down car is in the garage and the outback is in the driveway.  Sigh ...

November 10th Update: We got the car yesterday afternoon!  Today, I drove it to disc golf and took my mom for a ride up to Mt Bachelor.  It ran well and everything seemed to work fine.  I am a happy camper!  Well, except for the fact that I don't camp.  

Anyway, I don't expect to update this post any more.

November 23 Update: Last week, Ben got his car back from the mechanic.  It is in much worse shape than expected.  The repair bills would be higher than the car is worth.  Ben does not have the money to buy another car.  We're not sure what to do now.  It has been a tense week, so we have put the decision off for the moment.  Anyway, we will be sharing our cars with Ben for the foreseeable future.

Charlie’s Lymphoma

 Charlie has been diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer.  I want to document the twists and turns of his therapy in one post.  I will try to remember every event  up till now and then as more events occur, I want to update this post, rather than add new posts.

Summer 2023 - In the past, I have taken Charlie on 6 mile hikes and he has done well.  He slowed down over the last mile or so, but handled the hikes well.  This summer, Charlie did not want to go more than 2.5-3 miles.  Several times he would just stop on the trail or would turn and start to head back to the car.  I attributed this behavior to his age.  We think he is roughly 10 years old.  Although, the vet has him as 9 years old.

Early October 2023 - Charlie developed a rash on his rear hindquarters and a rash around his private parts.  Barbara took extra effort to dry these parts and apply antifungal cream.

Mid October 2023 - The rash on his hindquarters went away after a week or so.  The rash on his private parts did not, in fact it seemed to get worse.

Charlie needed to go to the vet for some shots, so Barbara arranged for the vet to look at the rash on his private parts.  The vet said he had lymphoma, took some blood tests and asked us to return the following week to review the test results.

Ben and Barrbara returned the following Tuesday. I got a COVID vaccine on Monday afternoon and felt quite sick on Tueday, so I stayed home. The blood tests confirmed the lymphoma and if untreated, Charlie had 4-6 weeks left.  If treated with steroids, he had 2-3 months.  Chemotherapy could provide him with up to a year.  A full chemo would cost 8-10K.   There were other options for less aggressive chemo.  We immediately started him on steriods.

The steroid therapy started with 2 pills a day, one in the morning and one in the evening.  Charlie immediately responded.  The swelling in his lymph nodes almost disappeared.  He had much more energy, I took him for a walk and he was still going strong after 5.5 miles.  It was a remarkable improvement.

A week later, the steroids were tapered off to 1 pill a day.  The cancer in the lymph nodes came back quickly.  His energy quickly dropped.  After a few days, we called the vet and got approval to bump his dosage back up to 2 pills a day.

After returning to 2 pills a day, the swelling in his lymph nodes eased up, his energy returned, not as good as the beginning of the steroid therapy, but much better.

Early November 2023 - We had a follow up visit with our vet, we also decided to schedule a visit with the oncology vet to discuss alternatives.  We did not plan to go with the full 8-10K Chemo, but were interested to learn about other treatments.

At the visit with our vet, Charlie was doing fairly well.  The vet suggested that we continue with the 2 dose steroid therapy until something changed.  The vet was happy that we were seeing an oncologist.

Over the weekend, Charlie’s condition deteriorated.  His lymph nodes swelled up again.  He also developed trouble breathing.  He was gasping and making rasping noises while breathing.  He seemed generally distressed.  We became very worried.

November 7, 2023 - The oncology vet examined Charlie and concluded that the cancer was progressing quickly.  She described 5 levels of therapy.  It was very confusing.  It should be noted that Ben, Barbara and I were quite anxious and not in the best frame of mind to absorb the information.

The lowest level was $500 and the top levels were at least $3k and up.  She advised adding the lowest level therapy with one of the 4 higher levels.  We decided this was too expensive for us, paid for the office visit and returned home.  We had already spent around $1K on various vet visits and the steroids.

After returning home, Charlie continued to display distress.  He also refused food.  We have never seen him refuse to eat.  After a very emotional discussion, we decided it was time to put Charlie down.  Ben volunteered to call our vet to schedule an appointment that afternoon.  Our vet was not set up to put Charlie down and it would be a day or so before this could be arranged.  Our vet suggested that Ben call our oncology vet who was better set up for this.

Ben spoke with the oncology vet.  She felt that it was too early to put Charlie down.  She also encouraged us to revisit the lowest level of therapy and offered to cut the cost in half to $250.  We agreed to this.

Barbara was feeling too emotional to return to the oncology vet’s office in the afternoon.  So Ben and I returned with Charlie.  The staff took him off and applied the therapy.  (I don’t know if it was an infusion or pills.)  They wanted to observe him for over an hour to determine whether there were any side effects.  After almost 2 hours, Charlie was returned to us.  He seemed in good spirits.

Charlie improved pretty quickly over the late afternoon and evening.  He ate his entire dinner and seemed to want more.  His breathing returned to normal.  Looks good.

A very long and emotional day.  The outcome would have been completely different if our regular vet had been set up to put down Charlie this afternoon.

Update - November 8, 2023 - I published the above post a little too quickly. Just after I finished it, Charlie started rasping when breathing. (Rasping does not seem to capture his breathing, but I can't think of a better word. When he breaths, it actually sounds like he is snoring. I am sure that there is a better word to describe this, but I can't think of it.). The rasping is much better than before, but a bit is still there.

This morning I took Charlie for a walk along the Deschutes River Trail. It was great. We got there, got past the parking lot and I let him off the leash. He ran forward, sniffed, explored and pee'd. He just seemed to really enjoy being there. I kept the walk to about 1.5 miles because I didn't want to over tire him. On the ride back home. I took the long scenic route. We have set up one of the back seats for him. We have covered it with towels. He loves to sit there and watch the scenery, the cars and the people. He especially likes to look at other dogs. I am really glad that I was able to give him this experience. And it filled me with joy to see him enjoy it.

Update - November 13, 2023 - For the last few days, Charlie has been doing great! On Friday, Ben took Charlie down to the river. Charlie chased his toy into the river, mostly splashing in shallow water, but some swimming as well. Plus a walk down the trail along the river. On Saturday, we took Charlie the Veteran's Day Parade. He enjoyed being out and meeting so many new people. He did not enjoy the roar of the motorcycles as they went past, but that is nothing new. We also stopped by a fund raiser at the Historical Museum. That was also fun. Today, Barbara took him to AlpenGlow Park. He enjoyed the agility course, especially the treats he got for doing the obstacles. Just like old times.

We know this will not last, but we're enjoying it while we can.

Update - November 16, 2023 - Charlie has done well this week, but we sense that he is slowing down. We're afraid that he is about to go into a regression again.

He had good walks on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday I took him on a walk on the Deschutes River Trail. After about half a mile, he just stopped. I went up to him and petted him and gave him some encouraging words. He barked, then turned and headed back to the car. It isn't that unusual for him. I have wondered if he heard something or maybe smelled another animal (coyote, cougar, whatever) and decided to turn back. This time I wonder.

He has also been acting a little restless. He can't seem to get comfortable. He usually barks when he is excited or wants food or wants to to go outside. Recently he has been barking for no apparent reason. I wonder if he is not feeling well and wants someone to help the pain go away. Maybe I'm imagining things? Who knows?

Charlie's current treatment works well the first time, but less well each time after. So far his first treatment has lasted 8 days. It regularly costs $500, we got a discount to $250. We have really enjoyed the last week+ with him. Are we willing to pay another $250 or $500 for another 4-6 days? What an awful/painful decision!

Update - November 23, 2023 - Charlie has slowly regressed over the last week. His energy level has gone down. The last couple of hikes have been only 1.5 miles long. On one of them, he just stopped after .75 miles and after a few minutes turned and headed back to the car. On the other one, he was panting after three quarters of a mile and we turned back. He is having more trouble jumping. In the past he always jumped easily up onto our bed. We have placed a low chair by the bed, so he can jump up to the chair and then up to the bed. He also has trouble jumping into the car, we have had to lift him up into the car. Finally, his breathing is starting to turn raspy again.

On Monday, the oncology vet called us to see how he was doing. After hearing Charlie's status, the vet said that the return of his symptoms was quicker than she expected. It was a sign that the Lymphoma is particularly aggressive. She did not expect Charlie to last much longer. She said to watch out for when he refuses to eat or drink.

Since Monday, it seems that his regression has slowed. His condition is not much worse today (Thursday) than Monday. His appetite and thirst still seem pretty healthy. We're appreciating every day.

Update - November 27, 2023 - The last few days, Charlie has not regressed too much more. Seems to be just holding steady. Last night, Ben took him to a trivia game and Charlie did great! Plenty of pets and treats from Ben. Lots of attention. He loved it. Who knew that he loved trivia? In our defense, we've had him for 6 years and not once did he ask to go to a trivia game.

On the other hand Charlie had a rough morning. He was very sluggish. Did not want to eat his breakfast. Just wanted to lay around. After an hour or so, he went and ate a bit of his breakfast. I took him for a walk and he only went about a third of a mile and turned around and headed back to the car. He had to be lifted into the car and did not seem interested in looking out the window, just wanted to curl up on the seat.

I dropped him off at home and went for a hike through town. When I got back, he had finished his breakfast and had eaten some lunch. Still pretty lethargic. By mid-afternoon he seemed to be doing pretty well. He has more energy and gobbled down his dinner in a couple of minutes!

Who knows what is going on with him. Things seemed pretty dire this morning and much better by this evening. Maybe he had too much fun at the trivia game last night, or.maybe all of the pizza crusts that other people were giving him caught up with him. Who knows?

Update - December 4, 2023 - We lost Charlie last Wednesday. I would like to share a few of my many favorite memories of Charlie.

Charlie and I loved our hikes in the woods. Our favorite walks were along the Deschutes River Trail south of town. Often we would come across other people walking their dogs. Charlie would love to run up to meet the dogs. After a proper introduction, he would turn to the owners. Charlie would meet the owners and get pets. The whole time, his tail would be wagging like crazy. Charlie often would start yowling in appreciation. It was great to see the joy he got from the interaction. It was also great to see the joy that Charlie brought the owners. Just about every time they would have a wide grin on their faces as I walked up.

I'm not sure why, but about halfway through the hikes, he would find a stick and take it back towards the car. He would run ahead and stop and play with the stick. Sometimes, he would toss it in the air. He was very possessive with his stick. If he saw other dogs approaching, he would hide the stick in the brush and then go meet the other dogs. After they had passed, he would retrieve his stick from the brush and continue on our hike.

He also loved to swim in the river during the hikes. As we got to a beach along the river, Charlie would run to a spot upriver from us. As long as we were willing to throw his toy into the river, he would swim out and fetch the toy and return it to us. Sometimes, he would hide the toy in the brush and sit and watch us search for the toy. Often after fetching the toy, he would roll in the dirt becoming a muddy mess. It was such a pleasure to play these games with him.

Charlie loved to play in the snow. We used to go up to a fire road off of Skyliner. It was high enough in elevation that it would have more snow than in town. The actual road had enough traffic that it would be hard packed snow. It was easy for us to walk up the road on the hard packed snow, however Charlie loved to run off to either side of the road so that he could jump and play in the deeper, softer snow. We loved those walks.

I miss him so much ...

Update December 9, 2023 - A few more stories:

Barbara and I have talked about when to get another dog. We decided to delay it a bit. Think about what kind of dog we want to get next. Charlie was a high energy dog who needed significant exercise. We were not always up to providing that level of exercise and we felt guilty about it. We are thinking about maybe getting a less energetic dog. Anyway, we want some time to think about it. A few days after Charlie passed, Barbara went out to do some errands. She comes back and says that she spent most of her time at the shelter, looking at dogs. Maybe we're going to get a new dog sooner than I think! :-)

Yesterday, we got his ashes back from the vet. I have been thinking a lot about him since then. Barbara had a very vivid dream about him last night. She woke up thinking she had heard Charlie barking. We like to think his spirit came back with the ashes and is infusing us with pleasant memories of Charlie.

Just after he passed, I was talking with a friend. I mentioned that I hurt less than yesterday and would hurt even less the following day. What was I thinking? I know that grief does not work that way! I will feel a little better and than something will trigger me and I will feel worse. The hurt does not lessen every day that passes. Over time, I will hurt less, but there will certainly be peaks and valleys in between. Sheesh!

Second Car!

Sunday afternoon we bought a second car.  A 2013 Honda CRV.  It still has to be detailed and go through the shop to be serviced, so we won't get to pick it up until Wednesday or so.  But we're pretty excited about it.  The picture above is not actually our car, but a stock photo of a 2013 Honda CRV.  

We went to the dealer more interested in some of the older cars.  They had a 2006 hybrid Toyota Highlander for a very good price.  It was a nice car.  The hybrid V6 got very good gas milage in the city and good milage on the highway.  But there were some flaws that we couldn't get over.  When the engine started it make a clunking noise.  Not a good sign on a 17 year old car with 225K miles on it.  While we liked the gas mileage from the hybrid, we were concerned about the life of the battery.  It is very expensive to replace a hybrid's battery.  We also looked at a 2008 Toyota RAV4.  It had a nice V6 engine and ran well.  But the car just felt old.  It handled like an older car and the interior looked dated.

Finally, we test drove several Honda CRV's.  They ranged from 2010 to 2013.  All of them had 4 cylinder engines, that did not have the power of the Highlander or the RAV4.  But the cars felt sold and handled much more like a modern car.  The biggest differences we found were the lack of some of the modern safety features.   They do have a rear camera which is a nice feature, but lack collision detection, blind spot detection, etc.  All of the these features are standard on new SUVs.  We settled on a nice 2013 CRV.  The mileage is a little higher at 120K, but the features are a little nicer (headed seats, sun roof, etc) than the other CRVs.

The salesman told us that used SUV in good shape and available for less than $15K are very desired right now.  We looked at 3-4 used CRVs and they all had only been on the dealership lot a week or so.  The one that we bought had only been a trade-in two days earlier.  Since it came in on a Friday, it had not been in the shop or detailed yet.  It should be available for us on Wednesday.  

We got home and Ben informed us that his car had broken down and he needs to borrow a car on Wednesday and Thursday nights for a job of his.  We were so excited about getting a second car on Wednesday and then found out that we would only have a second car for a few hours and then be back down to one car until Ben's car gets fixed!  Sigh, hopefully, it will be relatively quick.

Monday Update:  Ben can't get his car into the shop for another 2 weeks!  He called around and other shops are booked out for 2+ months!  He also informed us that he has some appointments Tuesday afternoon and later in the week.  Thus, Barbara and I were sharing one car up until yesterday.  Now, we have 1/2 a car (sharing the other half with Ben).  On Wednesday when our new car is available, it goes back to sharing 1 car.  This continues until Ben's car is fixed, 2.5 weeks?  3 weeks?  

Killers of the Flower Moon by Martin Scorsese

 

Barbara and I went to see this movie in the theater Wednesday

afternoon.  I had read the book years ago and enjoyed the book,

but just vaguely remembered the plot.  This is an important

story of how white people mistreated native americans to

gain personal wealth.  The movie is often brutal, however we

both enjoyed the film.

As we were leaving our home, Ben asked what movie we were

seeing.  He then asked if we knew how long the movie was,

that some theaters were putting an intermission in the middle

of the movie.  He was right about the length of the film.  We

watched the end credits and it finished just short of 4 hours after

the film began.  It should be noted that there were 30 minutes

of previews, still it is a long film!

I was surprised that the theater was close to empty. 

Maybe 15-20 people.  We have seen 4 movies this year in

theaters.  Avatar 2, Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon,

all had very low attendance.  It is true that we prefer to go to

movies mid-week in the afternoon.  We also wait a week or two

after the movie opens.  However, in the past there have always

been larger crowds during these types of movies.  The one

exception this year was Barbie, there were probably 100-150

people watching that movie, mid-week in the afternoon.  I worry

that they will quit showing serious dramas in the future.  It will be

all superhero movies or action movies with little plot or character

development.  

A brief synopsis of the movie:  The Osage tribe was relegated to

poor farmland in Oklahoma.  By poor, I mean land that is

not good for farming.  Then a large oil field was discovered and

changed everything.  The area became the richest per capita in

the US.  White people moved into the area to tap into the great

wealth.  This movie is a story of one white family who married into

Osage families and systematically murdered Osage people to

expand their wealth.

I thought the acting was incredible.  Robert De Nero and Leonardo

DiCaprio were great in major parts.  I had never heard of Lily

Gladstone, she was amazing in a major role playing a member of

the Osage nation.  "Martin Scorsese filmed in Oklahoma and cast

Osage and other Indigenous actors. The Osages were involved at

every level of production including costumes, sets and the depiction

of customs and language."

Smaller roles were played by Jesse Plemons, John LIthgow and

Brendan Frazier.  All were incredible.  In the credits, Sturgill

Simpson, Charlie Musselwhite, Jack White and Jason Isbell

were listed.  I did not notice these musicians during the movie,

though Jason Isbell is probably the only one I would recognize.

Barbara and I really enjoyed the movie.  Some parts were pretty

brutal, watching innocent Osage natives getting murdered was not

fun.  However, we were so engrossed in the movie that we did not

notice the length of the film.  I expect it to get a number of Oscar

nominations.

Jodi Picoult Books

 

I was disappointed that all three books use a common plot device

(traveling to another country without their partner, good guy

partner versus bad boy partner).  It would get old if every book

she writes uses this same plot device. However I did enjoy reading

her books, but not enough to read a bunch of her books in a row. 

I’ll probably pick up another book in 6 months or so.  Below are

some things that I enjoyed about her books.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------

In each of her books, the locale and employment are very different

and Picoult clearly does extensive research.  The first book occurs

at the start of the COVID pandemic.  The “good guy” partner is a

resident at a hospital in New York.  Picolt goes into detail about his

experiences in the hospital during the initial stages of COVID. 

Meanwhile the main character (Diane) ends up on a quarantined

island in the Galapagos.  The author gives extensive detail about

the island and the locals on the island.  The “bad boy” is a local

native.

In the second book, the “good guy” is a Theoretical Physicist

Professor in Boston.  Picoult writes about multiple universes and

different physics theories.  As mentioned in the last post, the main

character (Dawn) is a death doula.  In college, Dawn was a graduate

student in Egyptology.  She travels to Egypt and participates in an

excavation with previous co-workers.  In each case, Picoult goes

into great detail on their careers.  The “bad boy” is also an

Egyptologist.

In the third book, Picoult writes about Alex’s movie star lifestyle,

Cassie’s Anthropology Professor’s life and Will’s native Lakota

life.  Actually Will is half Lakota and half white, which provides

more depth to his character.  Picoult also provides details of the

Lakota rites and rituals.

—---------------------------------------------------------------

In the first book, I found two themes that were very relatable to

me.  Diane was proud of the fact that she had such compatible life

plans as her partner.  Both were in their late twenties and both were

working towards career goals.  Diane was working for an Art auction

house and was close to a big promotion. He was close to finishing his

residency at a major New York hospital.  They had common plans

for having children and moving to a posh suburb of New York.  They

also had a lifelong bucket list.

During my working life, I was always working hard on my

immediate goals.  I wasn’t really focussed on promotions, but

I was always working on some project that had both personal

and group goals.  It was endless, as soon as one project was done,

another one took its place.

In the first book, Diane was stranded on a quarantined island. 

The island was pretty much shut down, very little communications

with the outside world, no easily available internet, the only food

supply was locally grown or raised.  She had no way to work

towards her career or life goals.  Diane was forced to slow down her

life, spending the day on a beach or hiking on some trail to the

interior of the island.  She found that she enjoyed her new

lifestyle and questioned her obsession with her life goals

and marking off items on her bucket list.

I have similar experiences with retirement.  I have some goals for

the house, but there are no deadlines.  It's really not a big deal if I

don’t get to any of them.  I am currently thinking about trying to

maximize my time doing things I enjoy rather than trying to meet

project or life goals.  Hence my desire to spend more time skiing,

hiking and kayaking.  A key step towards this is getting a second

car.  As it turns out, Barbara wants to get more exercise and make

more social contact.  Towards this end, she is also motivated to

get a second car.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The second theme I could relate to was my relationship with my

Mother.  In the first book, Diane’s mom was not present through

much of her childhood.  The mother was a professional

photojournalist.  She was alway in war zones or disaster areas,

rather than home raising her children.  Diane always resented this.

When her mom developed Alzheimer’s disease, Diane arranged

for her to be in a nice assisted care facility and then largely ignored

her mom.  At the end of the mom’s life the main character had a

change of heart and worked to build a better relationship with her

mom.

When my mother developed Alzheimer’s disease, I arranged for

my mom to be in a local retirement home.  Since she’s been there,

I have visited just about every week.  Sadly, I have always treated

it as a necessary chore.  

Recently my mother’s illness has progressed to a point where she

feels isolated, lonely and anxious.  Several times in the last few

weeks, I have gotten phone calls from her, almost begging me to

come visit her.  Her short term memory is so bad that she thinks it's

been months since I visited her.  Last Friday, my brother,

sister-in-law, Barbara, Ben and I visited her.  She really enjoyed the

visit.  However 3 days later on Monday, I got a call rom her saying

that it had been such a long time since I had seen her and

when was I coming to visit again.

Visits with her have become frustrating for her.  Due to her lack

of short term memory, she doesn’t have much to talk about. 

Furthermore, when she has something to say, she has trouble finding

the words.  Plus, she is not able to operate her TV or her laptop. 

This leaves her with little entertainment.

I am now thinking that I should provide more ways to enrich her

life.  We used to take her to movies or plays.  Now she gets restless

pretty quickly.  However, maybe I could take her to local landmarks

or parks.  Barbara has suggested that maybe we bring her to the

house once a week for dinner.  She would probably enjoy short walks

with Charlie.