It is a beautiful California night. I got home from work, cooked a light dinner (soup and sandwich), and then went out for a rambling, zig-zag, hour walk, threading in and out of neighborhoods. It was just cool enough to be crisp inside the velvet blackness of the night. The neon lights at the Maple Leaf plaza looks very cool as I walked past the Sushi Boat, the Final Score, Yaz, the Pho place and Ringer Hut. Classic California night.
The day was fairly chaotic at work this morning - I got into the office early, got on the phone, and then basically spent the next five hours glued to the telephone in a series of meetings and impromptu calls that stacked up one after another. By the time I slipped out to lunch it had been a full day. It quieted down in the afternoon and I managed to get quite a bit accomplished. With the end of the project that almost broke me, it feels nice to be slipping back into the normal rhythms. I still have a lot of work, I am constantly busy, but it is an achievable busy - I go home at the end of the day with the sense of having actual done something.
After my walk, as I settled in for the evening, I watched a pretty amusing movie that I had not seen before - “The Last of the High Kings” with Jared Leto in an Irish coming of age story. Sweet, poignant and funny, I would recommend it if you have not seen it. I went through a phase a few years back where I was hooked on either Irish movies or movies with an Irish theme. Let me see if I can list my top ten favorite Irish movies...
Positions One, Two and Three are a solid lock with the Barrytown Trilogy.
(1) The Commitments
(2) The Van
(3) The Snapper
Then, hats off to just a solid performance by Gabriel Byrne in:
(4) Into the West
Then, let me stack a couple others up:
(5) The Wind In The Barley
(6) Some Mothers Son
(7) The Playboys
(8) Michael Collins
(9) Millions
(10) The Last of the High Kings
And, three more classics:
(11) The Fighting Prince of Donegal
(12) Darby O'Gill and the Little People
(13) The Quiet Man
There are many, many others that are excellent. The Irish Film Board turns out some excellent work, some truly great independent (non-Hollywood) films.
I spoke with my mother on the telephone Sunday and she is doing much better. She is still feeling the after effects of the acute pancreatitis, but is mentally alert and very much herself. I will be heading back to South Dakota on the 20th for ten days of Thanksgiving vacation (returning to California on the 30th), so I am looking forward to the visit. One of the things I plan on doing while there is to sit down and have a heart to heart with my parents on the issues and challenges of aging - we have had several of those conversations over the years, but I think another one would be a good idea. I think it is important that the wishes of the individuals be expressed and understood while they are hale and hearty.
So, this week is going to fly by at work, as will the next, since I have seven working days left before I take off on vacation and it usually takes two or three days at least to get everything coordinated. Most likely I will take my personal laptop with my on vacation (either the Mac or the PC - yes, I have two laptops - three if I count my work laptop). Though the ranch is basically “off the grid” - dial up only, no AT&T cell phone coverage, I often take the laptop so I can process photos, write, and play games. When I am there is something pops up work related that I have to deal with, I usually drive into Winner, SD and get a hotel room, specifically for the internet connection. LOL - someday they will have broadband at the ranch - that day just isn’t there yet.
Tonight, for the rest of the night, after having a great telephone call with a dear friend, my plan is to read and relax and hopefully fall into a deep and restful sleep. I did dream last night but, given the chaos of the morning, the substance of those dreams has fallen away. Perhaps I will remember tonight’s dreams better.
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