Solo

Well, I went to see "Solo" last evening.  Overall, I would have to say the movie was better than I was expecting... by just a  hair.  Alden Ehrenreich playing Han Solo was not the problem.  His performance is actually one of the bright spots.  What hurt was the story.  The most obvious flaw?  The girlfriend.  Walking out of the theater, I pointed this out to my friends and... everybody agreed.  Instead of taking a minor piece of Star Wars lore, the Kessel Run, the girlfriend stole all of the focus.  If they'd cut her out, or made her a co-conspirator, and cut out the romance, this film would have been fifteen minutes shorter and much better.  Interestingly enough, the scenes between Solo and a flirting Lando Calrissian work better than the scenes between Solo and his girlfriend.  Oh, and for those interested, (tiny spoiler) there is a brief shower scene with Solo and Chewbacca, what a shame it isn't longer.

And I do believe that today the G6 + 1 are meeting, the +1 being the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  Whereas Solo would have been much better had he been flying solo, the United States parting ways with the rest of the free world and going it alone is not.  Solo is cute and cocky while the Idiot Jerk is?  Arrogant, selfish and self-centered.  We have a president who wants to be the Ugly American.  Who would want to emulate him?  Crazy conservatives.  They're going to raise their children to be arrogant, selfish and self-centered.  When those children grow up, they're going to look at their aging parents and say "go away.  You're costing me too much money."  Of course, crazy conservatives don't know this.  It is beyond their ken.
Anyway, I did do 11.2 miles on the bike yesterday.  Fun.  And no leg cramps.  Tomorrow I'll do another ride.  After this weekend, my schedule has me off for 3 Sundays in a row.  That's when I'll take the bike out on the road.  Sunday mornings are great.  No traffic to worry about.

...Action...

Sunday, and some of you are sleeping in.  Not me.  I got a 6.25 mile ride in.  I'm happy with that since my last ride was 13 days ago.  One thing I'm going to start is Training Sessions rather than ride.  Even though you may want to think that has something to do with our pixie from Hell Attorney General, it has more to do with building leg strength.  Tomorrow will be my first shot.  I've chosen a 30 minutes workout.  We shall see how it goes.
Outside we have overcast skies - showers and possible thunderstorms are on the way.  The high temp is supposed to top off at around 66 F.  Now ain't that ducky?
My vacation is now 8 days away.  I can not wait.
Oh, and we are now in hurricane season.  True most of the whopper storms don't get here until the fall, but we've already had Albert... or was it Alberto?  Don't quite remember.  Evidently everything that has sustained winds of over 39 mph is being named.  I suspect the weather pattern we are in now might be an bi-product of Albert... or Alberto.  We're supposed to be getting stronger storms this year... global warming, you know?  That thing Conservatives desperately want to deny.  I mean, portions of the coastline becoming uninhabitable?  Preposterous.
Sad to see that "Solo" is slowly failing tat the box office.  This is a painful lesson for Disney.  There is not an unquenchable appetite for all things Star Wars.  From what I've read, however, this film had problems from the start.  Two directors that weren't meeting expectations were fired and Ron Howard was brought in..... Ron Howard.  Now, I like some of his films.  "A Beautiful Mind" was very, very good.  However, when I think of possible directors for high paced, science fiction, adventure films his name does not dance gracefully to the tip of my tongue.  And Alden Ehrenreich, who was good in "Hail Caesar," was apparently miscast.  Not every actor is an action / adventure hero.  That's a shame.

 Still, I'm fairly certain I'll go see it either Wednesday or Thursday evening.