My blogging opportunities are considerably reduced of late. Within the past week, I have missed out on posting on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, and now yesterday.
I had thought yesterday to have my first alcohol-free day since December 23, but early in the evening I felt some need to introduce a couple or so ounces of amber or golden rum into my system as I watched some T.V.
My wife has been home much of late. I think, though, that she will be going to work this afternoon (she usually has a 4 p.m. start when she starts in an afternoon). Whatever the case, she will be going somewhere, whether to work or not, and will not be back this evening.
I am happy to report that today we received the $1,000 represented by the so-called BC Recovery Benefit which we applied for online on the afternoon of December 21. I had gotten a notification by E-mail on Christmas Eve that we had been approved, and that the money would be directly deposited into our joint chequing account "within 5 business days".
So that has been handily done.
I believe that it was in my last post that I made reference to a blow-up I had with my younger brother on Boxing Day evening. He and his girlfriend Bev had gone out that afternoon, leaving me to pass time as best I could on my own, for my wife was not present. Of course, her two adult sons likely were, but I don't 'hang out' with the lads.
I always feels terribly anxious when I am into alcoholic and social withdrawal due to past intensive social drinking, so I was nursing drinks that day. Late in the afternoon, I used our Android TV Box to tune in a Christmas movie on T.V. ─ my selection was 2011's Love's Christmas Journey.
I had seen in that Wikipedia article that it was an especially long movie ─ supposedly, 240 minutes (or exactly four hours). Yet anytime I found a link for it through the 'apps' I have downloaded into our Amazon TV Box, the feature was always listed as only being something under 1½ hours.
So I started watching it. But after 15 minutes, it was so very clear that what I was experiencing was a badly condensed version of the original. Nothing made sense. Events were happening deep into their developments, with no explanation of how they had come to pass. And characters were appearing from out of nowhere with no introduction as to who they were.
It was all dreadfully confusing. Do not ever bother yourself with this movie if you see that it is a short version and not the full feature of over 2½ hours' duration.
I finally cancelled out of the useless mess, and came to my computer to search for a potential online source.
Then I discovered that the full movie was on YouTube ─ or at least, a 2 hour and 46 minute version, which was more than double anything I had thus far discovered.
So I returned to our T.V. and used the YouTube 'app' in the Android TV Box to locate the movie, and I began watching it from the start.
Then about a half hour into the movie, my brother and Bev returned, and it was clear from their bantering as they came into the house that they were drunk.
My brother no sooner had come into the living room that he immediately retrieved the remote, bitching about the volume. This set me right off. It was not bad enough that they were going to interrupt my movie with their ongoing bickering as a result of being utterly disinterested in the movie, but I would not even have a hope of properly hearing it.
Furious, I jumped up and turned the Android TV Box right off and switched the T.V. over to its basic cable package, and stormed upstairs here to my computer to watch the movie in peace.
My brother tried to defuse the situation, citing his "sensitive ears", but I wasn't interested in his excuses. And since he cannot operate the Android TV Box, he and Bev were to have quite little entertainment to choose from.
I felt somewhat bad for her (she was not in the room at the time of the flare-up), and even for my brother who was going to have to confess to her his limitations insofar as T.V. entertainment were concerned.
I still had better than two hours of the movie left. However, I managed to largely enjoy it as I continued to have some beer.
Originally I was in such a state here in this room that it was my design to retire early ─ that is, right after the movie. That would serve him!
But I was to relent as the time passed. And of course, the wholesomeness of the movie also helped to put me onto a better track.
Incidentally, Wikipedia was wrong about the length of the movie. IMDB.com lists it as being 172 minutes (i.e., two hours and 42 minutes), and that was the length of the YouTube feature that I had located to watch. Nothing at all seemed to be missing at any time, unlike with the sub-1½-hour version of the movie I originally tried watching.
Unfortunately, the YouTube copy was so murky or blurred that I almost chose not to bother with it, but I stuck with it and managed to overcome my initial aversion.
I also want to explain that the movie was actually in two parts, as I was to discover at its halfway point. It was actually two shorter movies back to back, with the second one starting at the midway point with its own opening title and credits.
While I was reviewing that IMDB.com article on the movie, I noticed a trivia item as follows: "Ed Asher is nowhere in cast list but portrays Nick ... AKA Santa".
This irked me so much that I actually created an IMDB.com account just to add a rebuttal that may or may not get approved. As I stated in my rebuttal, I have no idea who "Ed Asher" is; but if it was Ed Asner whom was intended, then there was good reason that he was not listed in the credits as Nick / Santa.
It was Ernest Borgnine ─ who was indeed listed in the credits ─ who had that role.
I guess I'm going to have to watch all of the other movies in the Love Comes Softly franchise. I never realized that there ever was such a series of stories.
The little girl in the movie was played by then child actress Jada Facer who had her 19th birthday this year (March 18). The cute little girl is now a very lovely young woman:
Anyway, following the movie, I did return downstairs and rejoined my brother and Bev. They were practically starved for something worthwhile to watch, so I tuned in Battle of the Bulbs for them. I had already watched it a week or so earlier.
Alas, however, Bev was on her last legs, and anon my brother had to escort her up to his bedroom so she could crash for the night.
He and I watched T.V. until maybe 1:30 a.m. before he gave it up and joined Bev. But not stupid ol' me. I submitted to my addiction and was not to make my way to bed until nearly 5 a.m.
I have some exercise I want to get at, and my evening is already advancing. When my brother left for the afternoon today, he said that he was going to pick up Bev to take her shopping. Reportedly she wants to buy a ham and have the makings of a New Year's dinner ─ which she intends to be preparing here with my brother.
In other words, I will not be faced with just the two options of either retiring early New Year's Eve, or else waiting up for my drunken brother to come home from wherever he will have been drinking and then sit up with him.
Bev can be wonderful company, and I always look forward very much to those rare occasions when she is due to spend a night or two here in our home.
Okay, I must get at that exercising now so that I can have some supper and be prepared to get to bed as soon as I notice my brother returning home. After all, it's not New Year's Eve yet.
And happily, this is the first time since I began drinking on Christmas Eve that I am not feeling especially lonely nor anxious. Even so, if this post had not been in my way, I would have tuned in a Christmas movie and had some drinks to go with it.
Today, I will be retiring 'dry' on this otherwise mainly wet day.
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