I will need to antedate this post because it is already 11:23 p.m., and I will not be able to complete it before midnight and the arrival of Monday, December 27 (2021).
Bev's presence did not prove to be as joyous as I anticipated ─ she and my brother spent far too much time watching NFL games. In fact, today their viewing commenced at 10:30 a.m. and continued until dusk when my brother finally drove her home. She lives a little over two miles from us, and has to work tomorrow ─ my brother will pick her up around 10 a.m. and drive her to work, I expect.
Bev's health is poor. She only lives a half mile or so from her place of part-time employment, but in recent weeks my brother has been picking her up and driving her to work ─ usually Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. However, I think she has since graduated to some extra time.
Last evening on Christmas Day, she foiled my movie choices once she and my brother were done with football. I now do not clearly recall if I even got in the first movie (via our Android TV Box) that I had planned before she proclaimed that she hoped we could watch something really old.
This was no great problem, for I already had Wikipedia's list of Christmas films chronologically set up in a browser on my computer, so I referred to it and settled on the 1947 movie The Bishop's Wife.
It proved to be quite a decent choice, for even my brother seemed to find it of interest. He and I would otherwise be unlikely to ever be tuning in a Cary Grant or David Niven feature.
Loretta Young ─ the "Bishop's wife" ─ didn't have any sexual appeal initially; but speaking for myself, I came to wholly understand how a male angel (as portrayed by Cary Grant) could fall ─ or grow to find himself ─ in love with her.
Unfortunately, Bev had gone outside to smoke a cigarette late into the movie, and then upon coming back into the house, she went directly upstairs to my brother's bedroom and apparently 'crashed' for the night. She does not handle the white wine well that is her preferred drink, but I did not suspect that she was already at this extreme.
My brother seemed to be caught off guard by this as well.
And so we were on our own.
Just prior to tuning in The Bishop's Wife, I had gotten Merry In-Laws begun, but Bev had then opined her desire for an older movie, so I cancelled out. Now with the older movie finished, I tuned Merry In-Laws back in. (You can find a far more comprehensive description of the movie at ChannelGuideMag.com.)
Perhaps I am failing on recollection, but I cannot remember watching any other movies that evening with my brother. We had sat up until the dawning (at midnight) of Christmas Day the night before; and this time we did the same for Boxing Day's arrival. Nevertheless, I have the impression that it was around 1 a.m. before I got to bed last night.
I had notions of hiking off early this morning to participate in the Boxing Day sale at the nearest outlet of Staples perhaps 1½ miles from here ─ if I was able to rouse early enough. Well, I found myself awake no later than 7 a.m. this morning, so I dutifully rose.
Alas, by the time I had some coffee and had dressed, it was 8 a.m. once I had set off. I walked maybe a half block at most in the powdery two or three inches of snow and the definitely frigid air, and then I lost all resolve and returned home. Already, I had seen as many as five different people abroad (I crave privacy and anonymity), and there was also some traffic on the streets despite conditions.
I was additionally lured by the image of watching some early Christmas fare and having some drinks before anyone else was yet up here at home. It appealed to me to try and get emotional from a movie or two ─ and 'lit' on some drink ─ and then return to bed for a restorative nap.
My endurance proved greater than expected.
My wife had failed to show up yesterday, but the snowy weather justified this failure. The party she was at was probably a drive of 15 or even 20 miles from here; and no doubt, she was most likely well into drink.
Well, she showed up late this morning just when I was contemplating that return to bed. I had already surrendered the T.V. to my brother and was here upstairs at my computer.
I do not wish to belabour this matter, but apart from some involvement with her when she voiced to me that she was lacking a couple of those special holiday gift envelopes or packs that people use when they present a bottle of liquor or wine as a present, she and I had not communicated.
I helped her out, and she was able to make a presentation to my brother and to Bev. She also had a bottle for me. I have no idea if she also had anything for her two sons, but it seems logical that she might have.
Anon, she wordlessly retired to our bedroom to catch up on some lost sleep, and I soon enough did the same in this room where I keep my computer. The room is immediately adjacent to what had been the bedroom shared by my wife and I, but we have been sleeping separately ever since I fell ill in early October and eventually ended up in a hospital for just over 11 days with "COVID pneumonia".
I am 'unvaccinated', but my wife has been, due to her part-time employment in the restaurant industry. I still wonder if perhaps I became ill as a result of sharing a bed with her ─ the so-called 'vaccine' shedding.
Anyway, following my nap early this afternoon, I found that my wife was also up from hers. I had it planned to have a bath, so I alerted her to my intention in case she needed to use the bathroom ─ she was busy doing some sort of sorting on what had been our common bed.
Then I had my bath ... and emerged from the bathroom to find that not only was my wife gone, but Bev was just about to leave ─ my brother was already out in his van. Bev has to work tomorrow.
I had a farewell embrace with Bev, and then I was alone ─ apart from one or the other of my two stepsons, who basically spend all of their time in their den area.
I felt too sober ─ and I was longing for the 'feel good' and poignantly painful emotions of some more Christmas movies. Thus, I tuned in a movie called Holidaze that I have found identified as having been released anywhere from 2012 to 2014.
The movie did turn out to be quite involving, but initially I almost tuned out of it. For one thing, it seemed like it was only going to be a Thanksgiving movie. And I am not any kind of Jennie Garth fan. Even so, she looked entirely different from the actress I was aware of; and I even found myself becoming quite attracted to her.
Just as the movie concluded, my brother returned home. It was maybe 6:40 p.m., and a full hour earlier than I would normally have expected him to be showing up when he has been to Bev's home.
Apparently he must have been drinking this afternoon while watching football with her. After he came into the house, he got himself a drink and settled into his favourite chair in the living room, and then imperiously growled at me, "Put on something interesting!"
He added that he was done with anything to do with Christmas.
Well, screw that ─ I had no intention of spending the evening with 'back to normal' T.V. shows. And so I shut down the Android TV Box and switched the T.V. over to its basic cable package, announcing to my brother, "Watch what you like."
And I left him. He is unable to operate the Android TV Box, so he was going to have to make do with the basic cable programming.
I came upstairs and located a source here on my computer for the movie All I Want Is Christmas, and I became rather inebriated while watching and enjoying this delightful feature. (According to Wikipedia, the movie is also called Switchmas.)
I soon enough saw that my brother had passed out in his chair.
Ultimately, once my movie was done, I took a nap, hoping to sleep quite long so that I could rise after my brother had retired for the night. I did nap rather nicely, but I roused around 10:40 p.m. and he was still downstairs watching T.V.
I pondered on how to spend my time, and then decided to seek some further sleep. However, soon after getting back to bed, I became aware that my brother was shutting things down for the night, turning off the outdoor Christmas lights.
It was around 11 p.m.
He resorted to his bedroom, and I rose and emerged from this room. I turned the Christmas lights back on, but I did not access any more drink. Instead, I fixed myself a mug of hot coffee, and then got to work on this post.
It is presently after 1:30 a.m., and I have not brushed my teeth in a couple of days. I am going to do that right after publishing this post, but I recall another old movie that I have watched but not mentioned ─ I viewed it in two sittings on Christmas Day. The first sitting was with my brother until he had to leave late that morning to go and pick up Bev to bring her here; I later watched the remainder of the movie here on my computer that afternoon while they were watching football.
The movie was the 1946 film Never Say Goodbye.
I never before realized just how big ─ that is, tall ─ actor Forrest Tucker was. He didn't show up in the movie until its final 50 or so minutes, but he was worth waiting for ─ he dwarfed actor Errol Flynn.
I do not have the time to discuss the movie, but I do want to express that I found actress Eleanor Parker to be most beautiful!
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