Last evening's Christmas movie was 2016's Sound of Christmas ─ it proved to be very good. I enjoyed that the Christmas music that was played instrumentally by various characters was traditional and hymnal ─ and I particularly enjoyed that there was no forced pop or "Country" music specially composed for the movie (I rarely enjoy any of that ─ I am unable to relate to it because it has nothing to do with my past, and nostalgia is what counts in Christmas movies).
Lead actress Lindy Booth seems such a sweet young woman; yet although I am certain I have seen her act before, I cannot remember any of her appearances.
I was concerned that actress Jennifer Gibson's character was going to be basically a haridan, but I didn't want that ─ the actress was exceptionally effective at gaining my total sympathy. I felt deeply for her ─ she did not deserve the ignorant neglect that the romantic lead's character kept exercising.
In fact, I would like to see Jennifer Gibson in a lead role ─ but again, playing a good woman, and not some sort of witch. I want to like her.
Actress Farrah Aviva was appealing as the male lead character's tuned-in assistant, and Micah Kalisch was also excellent as his teen daughter.
I am doing my best not to say too much about the actual story of the movie. All I want to actually say is that, yes, I did enjoy it, and it did have some emotional impact. Heck, after I had drunk two cans of strong (8% alcohol) malt and had my supper, I opened a third can of malt to finish up with ─ I try not to do that.
If you are curious enough to want to try out the movie, three sources online are MoviesJoy, or SFlix, or Soap2day. Just be sure to have a decent ad blocker on your preferred browser.
I cannot recall with certainty now, but I do believe that I was to bed nearer to 10 p.m. than to 11 p.m. My cellphone alarm was set for 4 a.m., for I planned to get out for the 5.625-mile round trip hike in the predawn to do some light grocery shopping at Real Canadian Superstore ─ today is Canada's Thanksgiving holiday, so it was going to be like a second consecutive Sunday where walking was concerned.
Well, something went amiss with me after some initial sleep.
After being awake awhile, I made use of the bathroom, and then returned to bed. A time check revealed it to be around 1:50 a.m., if I am remembering aright.
But the sleep would not come. I suppose that I was comfortable enough ─ I just could not fall asleep. I was never even to approach that semi-conscious state where one's thoughts are dream-like bizarre because they are not consciously formed.
After a long while in which I hoped that it was near enough to 4 p.m. that I could rise, I found that it was only about an hour after my earlier pee break ─ in other words, I was only about halfway to when I wanted to be getting up. I had as much time remaining as I had already endured.
So I continued trying to sleep with the same result; and maybe 10 minutes prior to when my alarm was set to chime, I rose. Oddly, I did not feel too terribly underslept.
Incidentally, when I took that bathroom break in the earliest a.m., I saw that my wife's bedroom door was shut tight, so she had come home following her latter half day of work at the Thai restaurant where she is employed part-time.
I did not know it then, but she had been scheduled to work the full day today (the restaurant opens at 11 a.m.).
Anyway, I wanted to get away by maybe 5:45 a.m. so that I could stop early into my hike to have some exercise at an elementary school playground. My destination store opens at 7 a.m., and I like to arrive by or soon after opening.
It actually seemed like I was going to succeed in that early escape; but somehow, I dawdled such that once I was on my way, it was something like 5:52 a.m.
There was no time for my usual exercising regimen of six sets of pull-ups and chin-ups, but maybe I could at least have three sets.
The night sky seemed heavily overcast, and the temperature was unexpectedly mild. I was to find that even walking relatively slowly, I was risking overheating.
As I approached the front of the elementary school from the side nearest to from whence I had come, I suddenly heard a low male voice in the near distance. And in the dark, approaching the school from the opposite side of its front, I barely detected moving shadow ─ it seemed to me to be at least two people.
A pair of dog walkers, maybe? Or just some prowling street people?
Whomever they were, they were going in the direction of the playground where I had intended my exercise ─ I was being robbed of my opportunity by these infernal interlopers.
So I had no other option but to accept defeat and continue the long walk to the store, doing my best to take a leisurely pace to avoid arriving too early.
I was in a foul frame of mind for the longest time due to those people.
Cutting this narrative short, I did nonetheless arrive at the store excessively early, but it was still primarily the gloom of dark, so I took a slow walk right around the building.
I yet had a bit of wait with some other people at the doors; but once inside the store, it afforded me the chance to get my shopping over with before many people were actually shopping. Even so, when I left for home, the sky was remarkably light with day's advent.
I was probably back home by 8:15 a.m. ─ certainly before 8:30 a.m.
I didn't waste much time in returning to bed, for no one else was up and I knew that I ought to be acquiring some proper sleep if it was possible.
Maybe I was abed an hour before recognizing that my younger brother was then up and watching T.V. downstairs. My wife was also up, and had been busy cooking in the kitchen. As yet I did not realize that she was doing so because she would very soon be leaving for work for the day.
That sudden departure by her was something of a shock for me because it was so unexpected ─ she must only have gotten the assignment last evening, and thus we never had a chance to speak of it.
Oh, well.
When my brother invited me to put our Android TV Box to work, I led things off with a documentary on YouTube ─ the feature was three hours long, but I figured that we could watch half of it and then catch the remaining half tomorrow.
Alas, I just could not 'get into' the documentary: Meet the Mormons: Inside a Fundamentalist Community | Complete Series | ENDEVR Documentary.
Rockland Ranch is a community unlike any other. In the middle of the Utah desert, 14 Fundamentalist Mormon families have made a unique home for themselves, a safe haven where they are free to practice a way of life that’s met with both fascination and suspicion. Living in contemporary ‘cave’ houses that have been carved into the side of an enormous sandstone rock, half of the men here are polygamists - they are married to multiple wives.
With unprecedented access to this extraordinary and normally closed community, this new 4 part series offers an intimate and revealing insight into the everyday lives of modern polygamous families. From the dos and don’ts of courtship and appropriate ways to behave around your “sister wife”, to the management of sleeping arrangements and the protocols of special occasions such as Valentine’s Day, the series explores how the families navigate the practical and emotional challenges of plural marriage and examines the values and beliefs that lie behind it.
Filmed over a year, life at the Ranch plays out with narratives as rich as any drama. From the home birth of a 17th child and the courting of a new wife to a father's decision on whether his teenage daughter is ready to embark on the road to marriage. And when a dying man asks his brother to marry his two widows, both families are faced with life-changing decisions.
Framing all this is the political battle for the community’s right to live in peace. The mainstream Mormon Church has been keen to distance itself from polygamy since it officially renounced the practice almost 130 years ago. Those who continue to enter into multiple marriages are shunned by conventional congregations. Now, as lawmakers debate whether polygamy should be considered a crime, the families are faced with the daunting prospect of taking a stand to defend their lifestyle at the risk of being prosecuted.
At a time when the entire concept of a traditional, nuclear family is being redefined, the series asks if something can be learned from plural marriage and aims to encourage reflection on our attitudes toward love, relationships, family, and faith
It was not that I could not find myself interested; rather, I found myself resenting with great strength the men practicing polygamy in this Rockland Ranch. Here I am, a 73-year-old man with no children, and these pricks are seemingly bent on 'replenishing' the planet all by themselves.
As far as I am concerned, they are the epitome of selfishness ─ even if I say this out of considerable jealousy.
No more than 24 minutes into the video, I cancelled out of it. My brother was perfectly okay about that action.
Note that fairly early into the 1960s he and I were both baptized as Mormons; but we stopped attending in 1964, I believe it was ─ maybe the Summertime, or even the Spring. So it is not as if we are anti-Mormon.
I don't have time to get into this ─ it is almost 9 p.m., and I am going to be getting up at 1:30 a.m. to start readying for a five-mile+ walk. I have to soon get to bed. I did have an afternoon nap, but I would like to try and have at least as much as four hours in bed before 1:30 a.m.
After the YouTube video, we watched three other videos that were reasonably short. And then I tuned in an episode of Kevin Can F**k Himself ─ season two's episode three ("Ghost").
I always enjoy these episodes, but either it ─ or me ─ was lacking. I suspect that it may well have been me, for I also did not much enjoy the episode of the old sitcom Happiness that I thereafter tuned in. (All episodes of the two short seasons are available on YouTube's BEAST channel.)
By the way, it began to rain into the latter morning and continued deep into the afternoon. Consequently, I am unsure what is in store when I head off towards 2 a.m. for that walk later.
I will be in bed before my wife is home. But my brother showed up unexpectedly early (6:49 p.m.) from his daily socializing, so I feel obligated to bid him a goodnight before getting to bed.
I guess this has not really been much of a day of thanksgiving. Maybe I will feel more mindful / spiritual once I am on that walk later.
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