Weekly Dose of Mark

Saturday, March 25, 2023 • 03/25/23

 

The gathering at Freelance Fandango was a lot of fun. Nori Kimura was the first to show up. His birthday was last week, but he is still celebrating. Happy birthday, Nori. Stan Brown and Corey Macourek texted me that they were running late. Haley Waddington showed up as well. Yichao Zhang texted me the night before that she couldn’t make it. Yichao was intimidated by a crazy bus rider last week. Yichao’s wife didn’t want her to take the bus. I wonder if I can get her and Richard to take the bus together, as I know they live in the same neighborhood. But making that suggestion would break my New Year’s Resolution. For show and tell, Stan brought in a collection of Al Hirschfeld’s caricatures. This was the second collection Al Hirschfeld, and his archivist was putting together when he died. In total, two books cover his fantastic work over decades of broadway performances. He would hide his daughter’s name, “Nina,” in his works. I did not know that he would write a number by his signature indicating how many times he hid her name in his work. Stan also told us the story of why he did it. When Hirschfeld’s daughter was born, he worked her name into that day’s drawing. He did that for the next few days. When he stopped, he got a slew of letters if something was wrong. So he kept up the habit of adding her name to prevent people from worrying.

 

 

After Fandango, we took Nori out to lunch at Pho Bak Café. It was Nori’s choice. He said he wanted to go where we wanted to go. But we insisted since it was his birthday, he should pick where we ate. We also told him not to worry about the cost; it was on us. I had the brisket Pho. I went with a large, but a small would have done me fine. It was a big bowl. Stan and the chicken, and I think nearly everybody else had the combination of beef, tripe, and tendon.

 

Krista and I drove to Seattle to get her teeth cleaned. We didn’t have time to schedule a visit with friends for our visit as she had a meeting in the afternoon. We did have a few minutes to stop off at Uwajimaya to pick up a couple of new KitKat flavors to share at Fandango, a variety of rice crackers whose selection changes every time we visit, and some other Japanese seaweed staples that have been in short supply in our local Asian markets. We had a very late lunch with some takeout items from Uwajimaya—dumplings for Krista and Nigiri sushi for me. We split a crab roll.

 

Later that same day, I hosted Epic Sketch Time online. I’d mangled the gathering last week and was very happy to see the regulars, Bill and Katie, attend. I actually got some drawing done. That is after I spent fifteen minutes figuring out why my microphone wasn’t working. I checked all the cables, the settings on the computer, and the settings on the app. It was a sign of my senility that I discovered I’d forgotten the "on" switch. There was some laughter at my expense, which is an excellent way to start any gathering. The hour flew by.

 

Wednesday marked the third month in a room where the Grand Cinema was kind enough to host my friends and me as we drew a live model. We’re promoting this even as The Grand Drawing Room. In attendance were RR Anderson, his wife Darcy, James Stowe, Allen Gladfelter, Yichau 

Zhang, her husband, three others besides myself, and model Sara Servin. Sara Cosplayed as Ayato from Genshin. I’m not familiar with either the video game or the character. But I could tell Sara spent some time putting together the highly detailed costume. She’s modeled like this for a drawing group that meets every Wednesday in Kent before the pandemic. Those drawing sessions have not started back up. Stan Brown would often be called upon to be the host. Stan could not make it on Wednesday, which was a slight bummer. Another minor bummer was my forgetting to take the Weird Cabal binders to the car. I’d set them to one side of the room to be out of the way of returning the tables and chairs to storage. I called the next day to confirm they were still there before I fetched them. 

 

Some of the meals Krista made this week were General Tsous Chicken, Mustard Glazed Salmon, Pork Chops, and some Shrimp sandwiches. Most of these were done in batches large enough so that leftovers could be used the next day. We’ve been shopping this week. The freezer and pantry are brimming. We even have frozen leftovers and deserts waiting. When the pandemic hit, we went a full month between shopping excursions, and our supplies were barely pressed. We could quickly go for two months with the provisions we have on hand. I might have to ask Krista for us to do something like the next couple of months so that we can empty the garage freezer. It requires defrosting this summer.

 

I spoke to my brother Randy this week. He told me about a film festival in Seattle that I would have loved to attend. The website for it is makebelieveseattle.com. As it is, all my socializing has left me too tired to drive to Seattle and attend. Randy asked me what I thought about the trailer for “Renfield.” I told him I thought the movie would be a seven on a scale of 1 to 10. I was looking forward to seeing an over-the-top performance of Nick Cage as Dracula. I forgot to mention that my friend James Stowe just completed a poster for the Grand’s upcoming showing of “Vampire’s Kiss,” another Nick Cage vampire performance. Randy called me during a Ganzaga football game that was not going well. I told him the only sport near and dear to my heart was sumo and that tomorrow would be the last day of the Basho. Krista and I were rooting for the Rikishi, who had to win twice again the same opponent that day if he wanted to win the Emperor’s Cup. I said goodnight as I could smell the pork chops that were nearly ready in the kitchen.

 

I also spoke to Aunt Christine briefly. We just wanted to make sure she and her dog were doing okay. The weather in Alturas is colder than it is here. She was thinking about going grocery shopping. But, like us, she has plenty in the pantry in case she doesn’t like the look of the roads. 

 

Alley News

 

The weather is still on the cool and damp side. This week my neighbor Pat and I only got rained on once during our walks. Krista joined me for a walk most days. A couple of days, I went for a walk twice, once with Krista and once with Pat. I’ve not shown enough willpower in the evenings to constrain my dinner portion. I hope a couple of extra walks will keep my weight even. Pat is improving his Pokemon Go skills. He’s learning more of the tricks of the game. 

I said to him, “I think I created a monster.” 

“Which one?” he asked, thinking I meant a Pokemon.

 

The alley has been very quiet. It has yet to start on the post-winter yard clean-up. The frequent winds have left branches scattered about. Thankfully it remains cold enough that the grass has remained dormant. There’s no need to get out the mowers. It was dry and clear enough today that I pruned English Ivy off another panel on the front fence. This time I could fit it all into one of the yard waste containers. I wanted to keep the other container free for Krista next in case she decides to go outside and clean out the raised beds.

 

Here are some of the dreams I remembered:

 

March 20

#IDreamt a colleague rented an Air BNB for a work trip. It was odd in that it had no interior walls. I was jet-lagged and wanted to sleep. But he wanted to show me videos of his dog on his phone.

 

March 21

IDreamt I was watching a Jonah Hill movie in which he was a drug dealing kingpin who made a deal with law enforcement in exchange for protection and medical expenses. The latter of which was increasing due to injury and chronic illness.

 

March 22

#IDreamt students of a rural university in England would put on the town’s fête. One of the attractions would be a fortune-telling pig called Mr. Richards. The students would go all out with prosthetic makeup.

 

March 23

#IDreamt one of the characters in my dream, decided to recycle a dream used by a previous character. This, in turn, saved them a lot of dream energy so they could play a more featured role in the dreamscape.

 

March 24

#IDreamt I was visiting a farm in Australia. There was a slight cold snap that morning. This might explain why several budgies were burrowing under my denim jacket.

 

March 25

#IDreamt people could learn a new language by chewing gum. A new term arose, ‘Babe,’ which referred to a new language consisting of languages available through the gum.

 

29. March 18

The Faculty (1998) Rating: 7

I don’t recall watching this in the theater. In rewatching it, I find it hilarious how many of the actors were at good points in their careers when they did this movie, and many of the student actors went on to become famous actors in their own right. Some of those careers were downright stellar. The premise of an alien invasion occurring on a high school campus works historically with all of the other student-cried-wolf movies. I wish I didn’t wait so long to watch it. The film is slightly dated, with bulky computer screens, a lack of cell phones, and other things. But it was fun to rewatch it again.

 

30. March 22

Piranha 3D (2010) Rating: 7

It’s always fun to watch a remake and see what different choices will be made to make the story more titillating. In this case, it’s boobs, fun bags, ta-tas, and hooters. And to exploit everything film can do to shove them in your face, let’s add 3D. It’s time to open a can of crass carnivorous critters from a crack in a creepy cave.

 

31. March 25, 23

Shivers (1975) Rating: 6

It’s been as least thirty years since I last viewed this film. Back went I first watched it, I was still a teenager, a gore-hound on a relentless quest in the video store to rent every horror movie I could find on the off chance of seeing some significant practical special effects. Shiver’s budget in that regard was low, but it compensated with sexploitation- very awkward sexploitation. The actors looked incredibly embarrassed as they pawed at each other. The social commentary on the perception of modern living is as strong as a slap to the face. You get to feel a little smug at the dated elements in the film. I couldn’t help but think that Door-Dash would now replace the lavish meal delivery in the movie. And true fright fans will quickly recognize scenes that would be homaged in future horror films.

 

More next week,

Mark

Weekly Dose of Mark,

Saturday, March 18, 2023 • 03/18/23

 

There was quite a turnout at Freelance Fandango this week. In attendance were Yichao Zhang, Nori Kimura, Haley Waddington, Corey Macourek, Anique Zimmer, and myself. There was a children’s drawing on the whiteboard. We decided to critique it. And then, after guessing as to what some of the elements were, we decided to take turns embellishing it. We were all quite happy with the result. Somebody realized I was drawing beakers falling from a plane. Everybody groaned when I said they realized I was drawing a chem trail. Yichao is a fantastic illustrator. She brought in some of her ink drawings for show and tell. Corey brought in proof for his “Ghost in the Shell” poster. I brought in the Manga my brother brought back from Japan last week. Each week we try a new Kit Kat flavor. But this time, Haley brought in a couple of flavors, and we had leftovers from last week. We sampled: Lemon Crisp, Bitter Extra Chocolate Bean, Chocolate Mouse Cake, and Melon. Stan Brown wasn’t able to attend because he still had Covid. He could tell from the photos we posted online that he missed a perfect time.

 

I completely messed up on Tuesday. Krista called me to watch Sumo at 4:25. I had an alarm on my phone set for 4:25 and thought it was going off to remind me about Sumo. So I turned it off without looking at the label on the alarm, which would have told me to open the room for Epic Sketch Time. It was only after Sumo was over I realized my mistake. Krista apologized, even though it wasn’t my fault. I mentioned earlier in the day that we’d have to watch Sumo in the evening because I had Epic Scheduled. But, like many sports fans, we forgot our schedule in the excitement for the match. I spent the next half an hour emailing and texting apologies to those who’d waited patiently for me to get my act together. Bill Morse tried to reach me on my phone. But its battery was low, and I’d left it in my office to recharge.

 

I suffered a setback on my project. The file I was working on became corrupted, and I could not open it up. Macs have a system called “Time Machine,” You can go back an hour, a day, or a week and open an earlier version of your file. Unlucky for me, Time Machine was not running. I’ll have to look into why it was turned off. I was lucky in that I did save an earlier version of the file, so not all of my work was lost. But I did spend the rest of the week getting back to the stage in the project when I’d start to apply color. It took three days because I spent half of one day failing to access an older file version via Time Machine. The plus

 

Yichao Zhang had her first art show at the Asia Pacific Cultural Center. I didn’t think I’d get a chance to go because it was the third day in a row Krista had to travel to her office in Olympia to work. And the odds of her getting home early were low. But came home early, she did. So when my phone alarm went off, and I looked at the label expecting it to be a reminder for me to pick her up, I was excited to see it was a reminder to see Zhang’s show. So I went off to the show expecting it to be some light snacks and drinks and found that there was an impromptu presentation as well. Plus, I was called upon to mention Freelance Fandango and The Grand Drawing Room. I also met Ron Snowden, a watercolor artist, who teaches there on Mondays. He said he might come to the live drawing sessions. I bought a couple of prints from Yichao. I’ll pick them up from her on Monday. I will have to tell her that her work is underpriced. She is a truly exceptional artist. After the show, I followed Krista’s instructions and brought home some takeout from Zen Sushi Burrito. We usually order shrimp bowls with extra Yam-Yam sauce.

 

I had too many things to go to this Friday. Lynn De Dino had her Tripod slideshow as 7. Travis Bundy was selling prints at Friday Night Fright’s presentation of “Maximum Overdrive.” I spent my evening with Corey Macourek at the Grand Cinema presentation of “Ghost in the Shell.” Corey did the movie poster on 3D paper. His prints sold well, and he made back his investment, which is saying something as the cost for production on these prints were three times as much as normal. 3D paper is expensive stuff. I love this anime and haven’t seen it in the theater. I think the last I saw it was when it was released in 1995. Two years ago, I was starving for social contact, and now there is an overabundance of things to do with friends on Friday night. My level of carousing is very low-key compared to the average Friday night carouser. Watch me paint the town red with my choices for a fun time: art shows, slide shows, anime, and horror movies.

 

Alley News

           

Pat Smith and I have gone walking nearly every day this week. I mentioned earlier that Krista spent most of this week in Olympia. She and I did manage to get at least one walk-in together. But this was a busy week for her work-wise. Pat is enjoying learning the ins and outs of playing Pokemon Go. There was a special Pokemon event today. When Pat called, Krista shooed me out the door. She was decompressing with a book. Pat and I drove over the Wapato Park. There are a lot of Pokestops and Pokegyms over there. Today’s event encouraged players to catch Pokemon called ‘slowpokes.’ I was telling Pat about ‘shinies’ when he caught one. He would go on to catch five; I only caught one. When we got home, there was still more play to be had to evaluate, exchange, and determine which ones to evolve. A couple of new features popped up in the game that I’d never experienced before. If I’d known about them, I would have changed our strategy as we walked around the park. The park parking lot was full, so we had to park on the street outside the park. It was warm, sixty degrees. I didn’t bother with a coat. Pat and I even saw a turtle sunning itself on a log poking out of the lake.

 

Here are some of this week’s dreams:

 

March 12

#IDreamt of two people who pinned their hopes on the t~shirt designs they created. The designs were well crafted. But I know from firsthand experience it’s hard to sell shirts.

 

March 13

#IDreamt bank robbers put a bomb around my neck and sent me to the bank. I refused to go in, so the bomb detonated. I didn’t die, but I was carrying my head around.

 

March 14

#IDreamt My wife and I lived in Japan. Instead of getting older, we got younger.

 

March 15

#IDreamt I was washed up on a beach with many others. The shock wore off as we made our way inland, and I recognized a friend. I thought we might be heading toward our houses, but the others disappeared when they rested.

 

March 16

#IDreamt I was going to drive to Yakima to deliver a board game to a friend but realized I could save a lot of time by mailing it instead.

 

March 17

#IDreamt that nearly all US Military bases were built underneath dragons’ nesting areas. Partly because of their consistent flight patterns and partly because nobody wants to mess with dragons.

 

I watched some movies this week:

 

26. March 13

Crimes of the Future (2022) Rating: 7

I like how Cronenberg explores questions about society, how it changes, and what changes it. The imagery can be disturbing, just like the questions.

 

27. March 16

Bird Box (2018) Rating: 7

I’ve put off watching this movie for four years. I don’t know why I waited so long. This film arrived in the theaters before the Covid pandemic hit. The premise of danger outside the home and fear of contacting others might have hit too close to home. It’s a solid horror movie, and I like that it doesn’t look for an easy out with the creatures.

 

28. March 16

The Darkness (2016) Rating: 6

Sacred Native American ground is tread upon by an innocent child. So a family goes home with something in tow. Some good creepy elements but nothing that would end a good date night badly.

 

More next week,

Mark

Weekly Dose of Mark

Sunday, March 12, 2023 • 03/12/23

It was just Corey Macourek and me at Freelance Fandango on Monday. Stan Brown came down with Covid. We hope it’s a lighter case. When I spoke to Stan later in the week, he still suffered from symptoms. Corey and I looked over his plans for his “Ghost in the Shell” poster. He had three different comps. I told him which one was my favorite. I think he had additional input besides mine but he did go with the one I favored. Since it was just the two of us, we decided to go out early and try a taco restaurant neither of us had been to before. We agreed it was not as good as the last taco restaurant we tried. We decided we should try another place in the future.

Two new faces showed up at Epic Sketch Time on Tuesday. I’d posted on my Facebook page about the event and asked folks to send me a direct message if they wanted a link. So there were five of us in attendance, and we all had our own projects going. The hour went by so quickly. The whole week went by so quickly.

Thursday was a lot of fun as my younger brother Stan came to town. He’d just returned from a ski trip to Japan. We spent the afternoon at the LeMay car museum. It was Stan’s first time and my third visit. I was drawn to all of the cars I’ve seen in movies. I took several pictures but wished I’d taken more. I took one of Stan’s next to the model of Porsche, on which he learned how to use a stickshift. We sent the picture to our older brother Cliff. It was his porche whose gears were tortured by Stan. We also looked for other cars that had special places in our memories. We left at 5, giving us enough time to pick up Krista and head to El Gaucho. Earlier that day, I’d gone to Costco. You can pick up gift cards for restaurants there and save a few dollars. El Goucho’s food is incredible. It’s the type of play where you must have reservations in advance. It’s also as dark as a cave. We were given pen lights to read the menu. Stan and I decided to get a couple’s dinner that provided a bit of a sideshow. I think one of the reasons it’s so dark is that the table performances by the staff have extra flare- literally. The meal was fantastic, and we left stuffed. I’d been doing long walks and exercise routines so that I could enjoy all of the extra calories. Stan gave me a souvenir from Japan. I’d asked for him to bring back a Manga digest. Most Manga in Japan is published in digests containing episodes of several story titles. They are about the size of an old fashion phone book. The paper is colored pulp using black and white art. Stan gave me two of them, one a weekly and one a monthly. I’m looking forward to showing them off at the next Freelance Fandango. About 400 kanji are used for newspaper publication in Japan. The Manga is a great way to learn these kanji as they usually have the phonetic alphabet printed smaller to the side of them to help younger readers learn. I look forward to when I can read these Manga. I didn’t bring back any Manga with me from when I stayed in Japan. I’ve since been given a few items in used bookstores from the era by understanding friends. Stan also gave me some Manga when he was last in Japan during college. And my friend Joe Manfredini brought me back some when he last visited.

I had a bit of a scare on Saturday. I sent a letter to my friend Charlie who has troubleshot my Mac before. It’s what he does for a living. I’m hoping he can give me an evaluation of my Mac. It took three start-up attempts before my ancient Mac started up. It’s running now, but I’d like to know what I can do to ensure I don’t lose a bunch of stuff, like my projects from the last ten years or my financial records.

Sunday began with a rush. I woke Krista telling her that her sister Rebecca texted me to look for a woman in yellow with magenta hair. My sleepy brain was figuring out this cryptic message when I remembered that the sumo tournament had started that day. We love to people watch as you can see both the wrestlers, they are called Rikishi, and the audience. This startled Krista, fully awake. She’d set the alarm so as not to miss the morning show. However, she hit the snooze button and fell back to sleep. So it was a mad dash downstairs to catch opening day. We then enjoyed some biscuit breakfast sandwiches.

I drove up to Seattle to my older brother Cliff’s house. Some forty years ago, Tennison Reed was a foreign exchange stunt who stayed with us. He’s kept in touch with the family over the years with occasional visits from various family members to his country and trips back to the states for him. I missed all the previous encounters, so I was thrilled to see him again after all these years. I’m so glad that he prospered. I met his son, who now works at his company. Also in attendance were Cliff’s wife, Lori, their kids, Melina and David. David brought his girlfriend and their new puppy. The puppy is a golden retriever, which isn’t too much of a surprise. There has always been a golden retriever in their house. Back to the attendees. My parents, my oldest brother Randy and his wife Evi, My older brother Scott, his daughter Brianna, Kat, and her significant other Nick. Cliff prepped a big spaghetti with meatballs dinner. He made meatballs without cheese for Krista. But Krista sent me hugs for everyone. She felt a little off this morning and didn’t want to risk it being something she brought back from going to work on Friday. I wish I had taken my selfie stick. The photos I took without it were a little amateurish looking. But I did manage to capture some of the fun events. I should have only put two meatballs on my plate instead of three. I went home feeling a warm glow. I might have been all of the lovely family and friends, or it might have been the spicy meatballs.

Alley News

Krista’s work and desire not to get wet on walks have kept her from going for a walk every day. As a result, I’ve been outside longer and walking slower. On those days, I’ve been walking with my neighbor Pat Smith. The reason is Pat is learning Pokemon Go and has yet to master the skill of walking and playing simultaneously. I don’t claim to be skilled at the game, but I’ve been helping him with the basics. He is already up to level 20.

I had some dreams this week.

March 6

#IDreamt I found a sea turtle hatching bed in WA. Most of the beaches here are rocky. But climate change is messing things up. The dream was turning into a musical when the alarm went off.

March 7

#IDreamt if you had a loved one who died long ago and thought about them all the time, then there was a good chance that those memories would form a new entity. It would often become a ghost, but not always.

March 8

IDreamt I went back to school at the Japanese High School I attended. In return for my scholarship, one of my tasks was to muck out the animal stalls, which we set up in the hallways for some reason.

March 9

#IDreamt some of the old Greek legends were still sound. Daedalus was keeping a low profile. He didn’t want Mercury to know where he was. It had something to do with a disagreement they had in 1808.

March 10

#IDreamt I was staying at a French Aristocrat’s house during the time of ‘the terror.’ I tried to convince him to leave the country, but he was too engrossed in playing mind games with an acquaintance.

I watch two Marvel series, “Loki” and “Moon Knight.” Krista watched the first episode of “Loki” with me, but she couldn’t get into it. I found the series improved with each episode. And I liked “Moon Knight” as well. I haven’t read any of The Moon Knight comics, so I was going in with no expectations.

24. March 10

Gilda (1946) Rating: 7

I watched it with my wife on a DVD from Netflix. It turned out both my wife nor I had never seen this film. I’m glad we did. Some plot points and songs in this movie became staples over the years. And if you ever want to learn where the inspiration for Jessica Rabbit from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” came from, this movie is a must-see.

25. March 10

The Maus (2017) Rating: 5

I expected this to be a creature feature and got something more than I bargained for. This is a horror of PTSD manifested. War crimes are monstrous. I watched this film on Netflix.

More next week,

Mark

Weekly Dose of Mark

Saturday, March 4th 2023 • 03/04/23

 

Freelance Fandango was Stan, Nori, and me. Stan brought in his collection of Gahan Wilson books for me to enjoy. I loved looking at all of them. He also returned the Bill Peet autobiography. I thanked him for that as well. Nori did not bring in his camera. But he did mention that he took it out with him this morning and took several photos of birds. The camera can be noisy. This is why he only took a few photos of a Barred Owl over the weekend. He didn’t want to disturb it too much. I told Nori that I was very intimidated by the size of his camera. I scheduled the room for the next month through to April. But another group beat us to next Monday so we will have to gather at an outside table for part of the time we are there. John Draper caught me as I was leaving. I’d forgotten that he’d called and asked me to linger to help him figure out how to create a second Instagram account. Normally I would be against him creating yet another account as he has a hard time growing his audience. But this was to be an anonymous account where he posts or reposts his postings while he is high. Normally his kids and I get these postings, and then he forgets that he’s ever made them. This will be a location for him to do those posts. Hopefully, when he is high, he will remember to log off from his public account and into this one before he posts whatever cat meme catches his interest.

 

I had to take a detour driving home. Our street was blocked off. Telephone poles along our street are being replaced. As I drove the detour, I smelled a stench. When Pat Smith called and asked me for a walk, we walked over to investigate the work crew. There were several trucks, including a fire truck, besides the usual equipment. One of the trucks was marked incident response. There were a lot of workmen on the scene. We asked one if there was a gas leak, and he confirmed that there had been one, but it was being dealt with quickly. Pat and I walked another block and met a young man returning to his house. His wife called and said the house had a bad smell about it. He noted it in the air, and we told him what was happening with the gas leak the next block over. He was relieved as he was concerned he would have to move his wife and baby out of the house. Pat and I continued our walk. It started to hail on us after I bought some lottery tickets at the corner convenience store. We were crossing a street corner that had a roundabout when a car nearly drove over us. The driver was impatient with the line in front of him and was driving around them in the oncoming lane and did not see us crossing the street. It was a near thing; we almost got hit. The other cars honked at the fool while we yelled and waved at him. The crew stayed working on the street all night, and it wasn’t until late the following day that they finished up and moved to their next location.

 

I nearly forgot to mention that Pat downloaded Pokemon Go onto his phone. Our walks have slowed as we stopped to talk to new neighbors, and I’m teaching him how to catch Pokemon. I think he’s starting to get into it. “I spent all last night tossing balls at critters and not catching any of them.” He complained. I tried to comfort him that maybe there was a glitch in the programming. I asked if he had turned it off and started it up again. He said he had and handed the phone to me. I tossed a ball at a Pokemon and caught it. “You fixed it,” I told him.

 

Wednesday, I spent taking my Dad to various medical offices. The first trip was to the Urologist, who sent a scope up and took a look at his bladder. Aside from being ninety-two years old, his bladder and everything is just fine. We then went to the optometrist, where they repaired a new pair of glasses. The frame and screw popped out of them when they were dropped. They fixed it for free in five minutes. We then went to the hearing aid clinic. Dad’s hearing aid can use a Bluetooth connection to connect to the television so the speakers won’t blast my mom. Dad said it worked in the morning but not in the evening. The tech turned them off and then back on again. She gave Dad a splitter for the box at home. As a reward for being his chauffeur, Dad took me to a Japanese restaurant where I ordered a couple of Bentos featuring tempura and sushi. Dad has been going to the gym. He showed me the muscles in his arms. He’s definitely getting toned. My father was a very fit man when he was young, a gymnast whose hunky muscles appealed to my father. I always saw him as a strong man. The hearing aids worked with the television just fine before we even tried to do additional troubleshooting. Mom was back from her day out when we got back. Krista had me take them six chocolate chip cookies. Only three were left when Dad and I rolled back in the door. Dad called out from his chair, “Bring me a cookie!” Which I did. I think he had fears that they might not last until dinner. It turns out he already had a splitter for the box attached to the tv. The speaker didn’t have a port for it, and not one for the cable that came with the box. After hugs and kisses, I drove home and had some leftover spaghetti for dinner with Krista.

 

Friday night, I went to the Grand Cinema and hung out with Mark Brill as he sold the poster he created for “Assault on Precinct 13.” I helped as folks were also buying past posters out of the binder. I had a bit of a scare halfway through the film. I couldn’t feel my left arm. I thought perhaps I might have had a stroke and would have to ask Mark to drive me to the emergency room. The Grand Cinema has very tight seats. It turns out my wedged arm merely fell asleep. After moving it around, all my sensations and dexterity returned.

 

This week's dreams:

 

Feb 29

IDreamt I was hired to do sketching at the future site of a casino in Clallam County. Fearing the worst, I took camping gear. Good thing I did, as the client was a survivalist with an odd sense of humor.

 

Feb 30

#IDreamt I was the lead on a soap opera during the 1950s. The cameramen thought it would be funny if they caught me secretly shot me devouring a Cornish Hen when I was supposed to be off camera.

 

March 1

#IDreamt I got funding to open an apartment building for down-on-their-luck creatives who were trying to get back on their feet. There were supporters and nay-sayers. And one very shabby building.

 

March 2

#IDreamt It was the ’90s, and I was the IT guy for a Canadian traveling circus. Most of the performers went by nicknames taken from the comic “Alpha Flight.”

 

 

March 3

#IDreamt I believed myself to be the cause of a giant whirlpool on a small lake. I managed to stop it by turning a valve on shore. Several small boats and canoes bobbed to the surface.

 

March 4

#IDreamt, my jailers released me onto a Mutant Reservation. I was nearly ostracized again when I told them I’d been charged as an AI freedom fighter. It turned out there was an android prison on the reservation.

 

This week’s movies:

 

23. March 3

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) Rating: 6

It's been four decades since I last watched this violent exploitation film. It has a rapidly increasing body count. As a child of the seventies, nothing looks out of place in it. Kudos to the child actress portraying Kathy. I watched at the Grand Cinemas with Mark Brill, who created a Weird Elephant movie poster for the event.

 

More next week,

Mark