Blog 8-3 and 8/4

8-3

Once again, I'm at the cabin, and though I got here a full hour earlier than last Wednesday, before too long, I had finished editing my audiobook (didn't get a single chapter recorded on mine before starting on Abbie's, and only got the introduction and title done on hers), and the sun was getting low in the sky.  

As I was driving here, there's a long stretch of road where the highway goes in between two farms, and at a certain time of year (namely, right now), the grasshoppers tend to swarm or flock or congest that part of the road, often splattering themselves all over the windshield (and sometimes jumping right into the car with me, if I have the windows down).  Well, today there was something else I hit on the drive down, some kind of tiny swarm of little bugs that covered the front of my car and smearing the windshield with an orange goo that was bad enough I stopped at the next town and wiped down my glass with all the napkins I had in the car.

When I got to the cabin, I looked at the front of the car, and you can see the little spots where I hit thousands of these little bugs.  Sadly, I have it on pretty good authority that one of those now-deceased bugs would've become President of the United States had he lived.  SadFaceEmoji.

Big and I recorded a Dunesteef episode on Monday (did I blog about that?), and so that was what I chose to focus on this trip (I also recorded some lines for the last of the HorrorAddicts stories I was asked to do--easy work, for the most part, and fun).

From the library, I watched THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER for the first time in thirty-two years (was it '90 or '89 when it came out?).  I had never really liked it, except for the clever gimmick of the Russian characters speaking Russian, then transitioning to English for the rest of the film.  But in the intervening years, I read the book (and the subsequent three books), and my understanding expanded.  

This poster is great...but it's the WRONG COLOR!!!!!!!!!

I quite enjoyed the film, actually, especially Connery, who was typically compelling, and wonderfully brilliant.  Heck, Alec Baldwin, who I simply could not take seriously in dramatic roles for, jeez, this whole century, is charismatic and charmingly understated throughout.  John McTiernan directed it, who directed one of the three (maybe two) best action movies of the Eighties, and now I can't think of the last time I saw his name on a movie.  I wonder if he's retired, or has made too many enemies, or is still in director jail for LAST ACTION HERO or something* (I started listening to the audio commentary before I fell asleep, and it was great to hear him criticizing the decisions he made throughout the movie, saying stuff like, "I didn't really achieve what I set out to in this scene," and "I hope what they did makes sense to the audience, but I'm not sure I did it right").

Arcove or Exercise: Exercise

8-4

So, Big and I "got together" on Monday, and finally recorded that last (story) episode of the Dunesteef.  I had been putting it off for more than a year, but he pinned me down and it got done.  It was a long time in coming, but now that it was recorded, I chose to focus on editing it today, so Big could get it up as soon as he could.  At one point, he quoted (or perhaps misquoted) "Beast of Burden" by the Rolling Stones, and I decided to put that in there as the outro music, since I happened to have that song on my laptop anyway.  It's a really solid track from a band I never particularly appreciated, but there's a downbeatness to it, which I thought served the goodbyes well.

I got my exercise bike down, for only the second time, and focused on riding on it, even turning the difficulty up to the second-highest setting.  I read some of a new Houdini book while riding it, and kept saying, "Okay, one more mile then I can stop."  To my surprise, I got pretty sweaty with it, and my legs were a bit wobbly when I finally got off, which I'm sure means I did something good.

There were kids driving around on four-wheelers at the cabin (like there usually are on weekends, but not on Wednesdays and Thursdays), and they were so noisy that I left the computer and investigated what they were yelling about.  There were three deer in the woods in front of our cabin, a mother and two fawn.  The kids were pretty ecstatic about the discovery.

And a moment later, I thought, "Have I become so jaded by seeing them literally every week that I am no longer able to observe them with joy and wonder?"  So I went out on the deck and watched them.  All three deer looked up at me with mild curiosity, but did not run away.  I wondered what they were thinking, and if deer could ever be so accustomed to people that they would approach and let you feed them.  Hmmm.

I drove back, and didn't record a podcast for the first time in living memory.  I did record one with Marshal, though, when I got home.  I guess I'll have something to edit for next week's trip.

Arcove or Exercise: Both

*Oh, I forgot, McTiernan also directed the disastrous THE THIRTEENTH WARRIOR and the somehow even more disastrous ROLLERBALL.  Guess that makes three strikes.