Remarkably Bright Creatures

Good Monday morning!  We are starting the new week with temps in the mid 40s (F).  Things are supposed to heat up a bit and by this afternoon we should be in the mid 60s (F).  That's not bad for this time of year.  There is a heat wave that's going to be moving east that's threatening to ratchet up the temps quite a bit, but that's not until next week, and how high they'll go is anybody's guess.

Since yesterday was Sunday, it was a full work day for me.  Boy was it slow.  We did have a customer come in wanting to pay for an install, but he also wanted us to give him a $700 credit from a promotion that expired a week ago.  I told him no, he would need to come back and talk to the associate who, he claimed, told him we would give him the discount.  That was wrong of me.  I should have called management and let them give him the bad news.  You have no idea how often these incidents happen.  They are a constant.  This customer will come back in on Wednesday when the associate is working, and they'll give him the expired promotion.  Last week we had a customer who had an $8000 install and he told us that he'd pay for it then and there, but only if we gave him $700.  There was no promotion going on.  I told him "no," and he insisted on talking to management.  The manager gave him $200 off.  These people are breaking the system and management is going to let them break it in order to get the reduced sale.

I watched Remarkably Bright Creatures last evening.  It's on Netflix.  I liked it a lot.  Sally Field, who going to be 80 (something) does a remarkably good job portraying a mother still coming to terms with tragedy.  Lewis Pullman does a good job a portraying a man realizing that not all dreams come true, and why EELS are important.  It's quite touching at times.  And, of course, there is Marcellus, the octopus.

And there was a very good opinion piece in the Guardian this morning on the Republican party.  Sydney Blumenthal makes some very good points about why the GOP refuses to stand up to him.  My opinion is that in their heart of hearts, every Republican Senator and Congressman is as cowardly as the Orange Anus.  They are both loud and spineless as they bend their knees to the power they've always wanted.  They will parrot and amplify every lie because it's so easy to do.  The truth is that they simply don't care about either America, or it's people.  Like Orangie, it's all about themselves.

Does anyone know if the ceasefire with Iran is on?  Or is it off?  Because it's Monday, I suppose that it is still on.  TACO doesn't happen until Tuesday.  Either way, gas prices are going to go higher.  This is a given.  Not that anyone in the GOP objects, that would mean opposing their glorious leader.  In the meantime, Iran is going to continue to troll the hell out of him.

Chart this

I see I forgot to title yesterday's entry... shit.  Oh, well, what can I say, I'm on vacation.  Today is my 2nd legal day off from work and I'm loving it.  Took the dogs for another walk at Adams Ricci Park.  They loved it!  Made an eye appointment for this afternoon for an exam - the Optometrist I go to is covered by my Major Medical but my regular eye insurance doesn't cover him for exams so this afternoon I'll be visiting Lenscrafters.
Bought myself a muscle chart so I can learn the names of all of the muscles that I don't know.  It's pretty nifty.  I hung on the wall in the weight / computer / PC game room.

So... it looks like my brother and his wife are buying a farm.....  She's a hoarder in training so this is going to give her a very large barn to fill up with shit.
And I see everybody is still talking about North Korea and the Idiot Jerk in the White House.   Doesn't anybody realize this is exactly where he wants to be, in the spotlight.  He doesn't really care what turds he spits out of his mouth, as long as people talk about him... well, he thinks that just ducky dandy.  His problem is that he doesn't understand that he's moving in the wrong direction if ever wants to get his Sally Field moment.  In fact, I don't a moment like this was ever in the cards for the Idiot Jerk in the White House:

Vietnam was bad for the Republicans.  Iraq was even worse.  If something goes wrong in North Korea... well, as a political party, their goose will be cooked.

 

Doris shines!

I went to see "Hello, My Name is Doris," last night, mostly because of the reviews Sally Field has been getting.  She deserves the raves.  I like to say it's the money shots that actually make the movie, and she has four in which she's going for the gold.  She plays a sixty-something spinster who develops a crush on a thirty-something art director who transfers into her New York office from the LA office.  Notice how I say crush?  There's a difference between falling in love and having a crush on someone.  A crush tends to radicalize your behavior, takes you into that realm where the illogical becomes norm, where the extraordinary becomes possible.  Max Greenfield, who plays John Fremont, the handsome man who steals her eye, is there for two reasons:  to look pretty, and for Sally to play off of, and the two of them do that very well.  They mesh in an odd way which works, and as a result there are perfect moments when the age difference disappears.

The script is not the best, however, and there are a lot of minor characters who are amusing, and interesting, and unfortunately, for the most part unimportant.  Had more time been spent on Doris and John, this film would have gone from being good to being great.  There should have been more scenes like the restaurant scene, and the one in which they walk side by side as he's pushing his bicycle.

I will say I was surprised by how often the LGBT community gets a mention.  There's a gay man in her office who talks about marriage equality and takes a date he met on Grindr to a Thanksgiving dinner.  Sally has a conversation with a teacher who only teaches LGBT students.  She also joins a Lesbian knitting group on a rooftop.  In fact, for a while I suspected her love interest would end up coming out.  This didn't happen, in case you're wonder.

Honestly, it would not surprise me to see Sally Field getting mentioned a lot during award season, since it's that sort of money shot performance.  Doris is a nice person.  You like her, you really do like her, and as a result Doris shines.