Checking In

[cjlasky7]

It's been seven months since my last post? Really? Wow.

I have no excuse for my absenteeism. Yes, I've been busy at work, preoccupied with my health and hip deep in various household projects, but that doesn't mean I couldn't spare a minute to say hi. I guess it comes down to: I don't think anybody would be intetested in the details of my banal, domesticated tickytack life. (Hell, I'm not interested in the details half the time.) But maybe that doesn't matter. Maybe I need to talk about my banal, domesticated, tickytack life with you guys so I don't live in the echo chamber inside my head.

So what's been happening?

My job is my job. No change there.

The one truly positive development is that I've lost 20 pounds! I've bern carrying that extra weight for a couple of decades, and it's probably been a contributing factor to my elevated blood pressure. I'm on statins to bring the BP down and I'm hoping that the combination of weight loss and medication will bring me down to normal.

(There has been no recurrence of my deep vein thrombosis. But I will be on medication for that forever.)

BTW, my wife has lost 65 pounds! (Makes me look like an amateur.) The stress on her back and her ankles has disappeared. We go on extended walks together almost every night. It's kind of romantic--if passing the taco truck outside our local Walgreens can be romantic.

The Boy is in good health. He's 15 now, in his sophomore year at his Catholic high school. His soccer team made it to the city finals again! And they lost. Again.

He is....a teenager. He's hanging with his buds rather than mom and dad. (My wife refuses to accept this development.) He barely squeezes out two words when we ask him a question. If not properly motivated, he will sleep until dusk. He subsists on Doritos, peanut butter, chicken nuggets and Subway sandwiches.

He is also struggling with certain school subjects, which is new to him. I sometimes worry if he can handle the stress of the honors program and I wonder if we're pushing him too hard...or not hard enough. He's taller than both of us now, but there's still a lot of the quiet little kid in there. I want to protect him, stop him from making the same mistakes I did. But I know he's going to make mistakes
no matter what I do.

What else? We finished renovating the basement--it's basically my wife's GirlCave(tm)--and we had the entire first floor painted. The paint job is so beautiful my wife doesn't want to re-hang the pictures that were on the wall. (I'm going to have to wait her out on that one.)

I've been watching a lot of movies on our DVR, but nothing I felt worthy of a post. (The last movie I saw in the theaters was Deadpool and Wolverine--a massive disappointment.) I'm not particularly excited by the current and upcoming slate of movies. When is the Fantastic Four movie out? May? July?

I did venture out of my cubbyhole for two concerts recently: ELO at MSG (my first time at the Garden in decades), and last night, Beat at Kings Theater in Brooklyn. Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Steve Vai and Danny Carey (the drummer from Tool) playing the 1980s King Crimson songbook. Now that concert was worthy of a post! Let's see if I actually write it. (Watch this space.)

Until then, take care everybody.

Comments

[shadowkat]

Oh hello. I was wondering what became of you. I missed you, regardless of whether or not anyone else did. Nice to hear from you and the post was more captivating than you might think.

Congrats on the mutual weight loss. I'm betting the stress of dealing with a teenager probably had something to do with it. ;-)

if passing the taco truck outside our local Walgreens can be romantic.

Do you live in my neighborhood? I have a green taco truck outside my local Wallgreens too, and on some days a Bengali Street Food Truck. Unless you have both? You probably don't live in my neighborhood.

I've been watching a lot of movies on our DVR, but nothing I felt worthy of a post. (The last movie I saw in the theaters was Deadpool and Wolverine--a massive disappointment.) I'm not particularly excited by the current and upcoming slate of movies. When is the Fantastic Four movie out? May? July?

Agreed on the movies. Nothing is grabbing me. But you are ahead of me, the last movie I saw in theaters was with you - Oppenheimer. I was just reading a critical piece - can't remember where - that stated how the crop of movies this year was going to make for an interesting Oscar race, since there were no clear standouts. It stated Anora - was a definite in. Anora is the film, Chidi (co-worker) keeps trying to convince me to see whenever I talk to him. (Eh, it doesn't appeal. An exotic dancer hooks up with a Russian mafia playboy in Brighton Beach, NY - hijinks ensue.)

I also saw Wolverine + Deadpool on Disney + (in which I confirmed my view that a little Wolverine and a little Deadpool can go a looong way. It's what both characters have in common, outside of a healing factor.) I understand the mixed reviews.) But, I too found it to be disappointing. I think it went a touch too far with the meta-narrative, and was overly impressed with its own cleverness. Also, too many of the same jokes, to the point of overkill.

I think Fantastic Four is summer of 2025. Not positive. It should be before the release of Thunderbolts (which had to get reshot) and Secret Wars. Apparently Marvel is building up to releasing films based on its flagship characters (who have the biggest audience) - nice of it to wait until two to three years post buying Fox to do so. Fantastic Four will be first followed by the X-men, most likely by 2027. The X-men is their top rated property with the biggest audience. I can tell they are working up to both - in what's happening with the comics. Kevin Fiege is more involved on the comics side than previously - and pushed to get a new writing team on the comics, and to re-allign them with his vision for the MCU. I'm starting to wonder if they will through the X-men into another universe, that doesn't have Captain America, etc in it. I hope not - the X-men interacting with the Avengers is a lot more interesting.

Back to movies in general - my brother suggested seeing either Conclave (a story of political intrigue about the Cardinals selection of the next Pope) and SNL ( a Saturday Night Live biopic). But we opted for a hike instead (back in October).

Never heard of ELO...what do they sing? Nor have I heard of Beat. Although kind of cool that they played King Crimson.

[cjlasky7]

I'm betting the stress of dealing with a teenager probably had something to do with it.

If anything, dealing with a teenager makes you want to eat MORE.

I'm very proud of my wife. She lost the weight the hard way--no surgery, no drugs--just counting calories and an exercise regimen.

ELO, aka the Electric Light Orchestra. Famed for incorporating full symphonic arrangements into pop music (a la late period Beatles). Top forty hits included: Strange Magic, Evil Woman, Roll Over Beethoven, Don't Bring Me Down, Telephone Line, Mr. Blue Sky and many, many others.

ELO was one of my favorite groups when I was a teenager. Yes, I knew they were a little corny, but everything in their prime period (1973-1980) was pure delicious ear candy.

This was ELO's farewell tour. Jeff Lynne (singer/songwriter/guitarist) is in his late 70s, and he can't quite hit the tough notes anymore, but his backup band picked up any slack. They played the hits in full panoramic ELO style. When they started up the band's first single (1971's "10538 Overture"), I swear there was a tear in my eye.

I'll do a deep dive into the Brooklyn concert in my next post....

[shadowkat]

Congrats again to your wife. Has she retired yet? You mentioned she was planning to in another post - but I thought she was too young?

Ah, I remember Electric Light Orchestra, didn't recognize the acronym. Also familiar with those songs. Not a fav, never owned anything by them, but I did hear them in the 70s and 80s on the radio, etc.

[cjlasky7]

My wife was hoping to get early retirement with full pension because of her health problems. After the weight loss she's now too healthy for early retirement.

So it's four more years. We have a joke: she holds up four fingers, then puts down one for each year, until one is left.

Guess which one.

[shadowkat]

Counting down myself. So more or less doing the same thing. And yes, it's also four more years. Assuming of course I make it that long, I may go out in two.