Prior to leaving last evening on a walk to purchase 1½ dozen cans of Cariboo Malt (8% alcohol) at Green Timbers Liquor Store, I drank a can of same while watching an episode of Cybill ─ episode two ("The Love of Her Life") of season four.
I wholeheartedly admit that actress Cybill Shepherd was a superb actress in the series; but despite how they were lauded, in my estimation her legs were her weakest physical feature. They did not appeal to me whatsoever.
Note that my younger brother had already shown up ─ at 8 p.m. in fact. I was just about to watch Cybill on T.V. via our Android TV Box, only to witness him crossing in front of the living room window as he evidently returned home via busing after rendezvousing with a drinking friend of his in another township.
That he would show up as early as 8 p.m. despite getting a ride with my wife to his destination well past 3 p.m. betokened to me that he must have fast gotten plastered. On these occasions when he buses, it is common for him to not arrive home for another two hours or even more.
Needless to say, I was bummed, for I wanted to watch the show and have a beer, and then leave on the four-mile round trip hike once it was well past sunset.
I was forced to repair here to my bedside computer where I watched the episode and had the beer, leaving my besotted brother downstairs ─ he had tuned in on T.V. an NHL hockey game.
Incidentally, I watched the episode at this link at OK.ru.
When my show was done, I hastily readied, for I had seen that my brother was passed out. And so it was that I got on my way unseen by him.
I accomplished my mission; and I was only seriously beset with lameness of my left leg within the last ¾ or so of a mile from my return home. But I had walked with considerable leisure.
My brother was conscious once I was back, and my wife had by then gotten home following her full day of work at the Thai restaurant where she is employed part-time. However, she and I never exchanged a word. She spent most of her time sequestered in her bedroom; and I had my back to her anytime she came downstairs as I watched T.V.
My brother had given me the green light to put our Android TV Box to work, so I tuned in A Touch of Frost ─ episode one "Benefit of the Doubt (Part One)" of season or series eight.
And once it was done, my brother was okay with a sitcom, so I tuned in W1A ─ the finale episode six of season or series three. I found the episode to be an annoying cliffhanger. Did character Ian Fletcher finally make a choice of the two female co-workers (Anna and Lucy) who fancied him?
And did rather dense ever-trying-to-please Will Humphries finally have lovely Izzy make the decision to lay out her newly realized feelings for him?
I see that there are a couple of very short 'webisodes' that I might as well download to soon watch with my brother.
But enough of last night. I will only add that I drank two cans of Cariboo Malt and a can of Bumper Crop cider (7% alcohol), and I do not believe that I made it to bed until around 3:45 a.m.
I felt rather rough this morning. I rose around 8:15 a.m., I think. My wife was up before my brother, so I thought that she had another full day of work ahead of her.
But that was not to be. She just wanted to get away and do some early grocery shopping. Even so, we exchanged initial good mornings, and then goodbyes when she left here at 3:40 p.m. to work the latter part of today ─ she and I had no other conversation.
It really is quite sad. She was once my very best friend.
There was to never be any Sun today; and it often rained over the first half of the day.
As for morning T.V. with my brother once he was up, I am going to skip out on that discussion, for nothing now stands out and I am coming up ... well, blank.
It was not long after my wife left for work that some anxiousness set in such that I suspended work on this post. My eldest stepson was working a 12-hour day shift that would end at 6 p.m., so I decided to cram in a Christmas movie and have some drinks before he got home. An overcast day would make watching T.V. in the latter afternoon a comfortable experience ─ it becomes almost unpleasant trying to watch any T.V. on sunny days in the latter afternoon because our living room window faces directly west and sunshine floods the room. Our white vertical blinds are nearly useless at preventing the glare.
My Sabbath fast would be in effect as of sundown, so I wanted liberty to enjoy those drinks and also be able to have some supper without cutting too close to the desired onset of that fast.
My Christmas movie choice proved to be ideal ─ 2017's Miss Christmas. It had me teary-eyed through the majority of the film, featuring all of the elements I best like in such movies.
Initially I was not fussy about lead actress Brooke D'Orsay, but I quickly warmed right up to her and her Christmas-spirited character. I think that it was her enormous full-faced smile that may have first put me off, but I actually came to see it as a quality attraction.
I cannot say that I was familiar with Brooke from anything I have ever seen before, but her character's co-worker and friend as played by actress Fiona Vroom was definitely a familiar sight. Whatever it has been that I have seen the actress in before has left me feeling strong attraction for her.
One thing I like best about Christmas movies is the sweet kid of a single parent angle, and that was certainly the case with this movie. Young actor Luke Roessler's character was adorable from the first scene when he recognized the title character (Brooke) ─ a Christmas T.V. personality of sorts ─ in his town and unrestrainedly ran to her to embrace her with a huge hug even though they had never met.
The young actor was only 10 years old when this movie was filmed, so he's now 17, and probably would not play someone anywhere near as endearing. But in this movie, it was of course his character's single father who was to become Brooke's love interest.
I also want to mention supporting actress Erin Boyes, who played the sister of that male lead character. At first I was not particularly drawn to the actress on a physical level, but I came to recognize that she was actually rather appealing and worthy of lead character roles ─ I know I would like to see more of her.
I kept hoping that this movie would not pull the "misunderstanding" ploy in which the two main characters would find themselves on the verge of a 'forever' breakup, but it was there, and Brooke's character left the small town to return to the "Big City" of Chicago.
Naturally there would be the romantic reconciliation towards the movie's conclusion.
One element that bugged me in the movie was how the massive evergreen tree was never viewed by anyone as a living entity that should be allowed to live ─ even the family who owned it never seemed to have that sentiment. All that seemed important were the two sets of initials carved into it by the seniors in that family, the mother having apparently died the previous year.
Why was I the only one who saw the majestic tree as deserving of life, and not to be a one-time spectacle for crowds in Chicago to admire after it had gotten sawn down and transported to that city to be its honorary Christmas tree in a city centre plaza?
Fortunately this was not to happen because a compromise was reached whereby the tree was decorated where it stood. But this made no sense, for Brooke's main argument for taking the tree to Chicago was how it brought so much fulfilling joy to the people in the city ─ and everywhere else where the watching of the Chicago Christmas tree lighting ceremony had become a cherished tradition.
The people of Chicago were hardly going to be tripping on out to this small town to get their traditional Chicago Christmas tree fix met. Or had there been some other compromise that I failed to take note of? After all, even if the lighting of this tree where it stood was televised to Chicago and everywhere else, there was nothing in the city itself for the people to adoringly behold over the Christmas season.
So did I miss something? Was there a substitute tree that was taken to Chicago from somewhere else?
I had drunk two cans of Cariboo Malt and one of Bumper Crop Crisp Apple cider, so quite possibly I failed to notice this crucial detail in the movie, but that was not my impression.
Regardless, the movie gave me some needed uplift, as did the drink.
I had tuned it in via the Stremio app that I have downloaded into our Android TV Box, so I did not need to find an online source for it. It is presently available on YouTube at this link, but it is inaccessible to me here in Canada.
Alas, my evening later went foul. And I do not understand how. How could I have become so emptied of the emotion and good feeling engendered by that movie?
Not wanting involvement with my brother once he had returned home from his daily socializing, I had shut myself up into my bedroom and feigned having retired; and I remained in that mode after my wife later came home following work.
But I was resolute and determined in my descent, and was not finally to get to bed until well past 11 p.m. ─ I do not know the exact time, but it was likely at minimum 11:15 p.m. It would have been utterly foolish to set my cellphone alarm for 1:30 a.m. to get me up for intended five-mile+ walk, so I settled upon 2:30 a.m. instead.
I need more from life than what I am having to live as my present lot is. There is nothing much incentivizing its continuance.