January 13, 2017
Dear Everyone:
After years of complaining about
The Great Drought, Californians have
something new to complain about:
Rain. We’ve had quite
a lot of rain in the past week or so.
Some might even think a little too much all at once.
Last Tuesday night, my entire patio was under water.
Normally, when it rains, the outer part of the patio, by the fence, gets
wet; but the part closest to the door and the outdoor storage closet, is
under the upstairs balcony and therefore covered.
Sometimes it gets a bit damp, but that’s all.
But on Tuesday, the rain was coming down so forcefully that the water
couldn’t drain away quickly enough.
Gradually, it backed up right to the patio door.
It wasn’t high enough to threaten to get into the living room,
but it was still pretty impressive.
Nevertheless, today the sun is shining.
Everything is drying out.
The reservoirs are happily filling up.
All’s well with the world.
In the meantime, I’ve been playing ring-around-the-pharmacy.
Since Company decided to change how it pays for health care, and decided
to try it all out on the over-65 crowd first, I’ve had to change
insurance companies. And
since the new insurance company that covers prescriptions doesn’t do
business with the national drug store chain that I’ve been using for the
last five years, that meant moving to another national chain, this time
in the major grocery store that I typically use for my weekly shopping.
So far, so good.
I made certain that all the prescriptions were up-to-date and had them
all refilled so that I would have a plentiful supply for the changeover.
I even printed out a special listing of all the prescription
drugs that I currently take, along with the previous drug store’s
Rx
number, and the name and contact information of each doctor that
prescribed each drug.
Nevertheless, the new Pharmacy Technician (i.e., clerk) indicated that
they had to write all the information down themselves and
fax the
previous store to get the prescriptions transferred.
OK, fine.
Except that a week later, the new store claimed that they never heard
back from the old store. I
drove down to the old store.
They insisted that they had received the request and faxed all the
necessary information days and
days ago! Back to the
new store. Pharmacist on the
phone with the old store and so on…
Eventually, we got it all straightened out.
The new store refilled all the prescriptions, even though only
one was due.
Bottom line: I now have
enough drugs to float a battleship.
However, none of them are what you might call “fun” drugs.
No painkillers to sell on the black market.
Just diuretics, beta blockers, ace inhibitors, blood thinners and
the inevitable cholesterol-lowering stuff.
So that’s OK, too.
In other news…
“Jeannie” and I did find the time to take in a movie during the
Christmas Rush And General Insanity also known as late December.
When George Lucas first conceived of
Star Wars, he borrowed freely
from the
Arthurian Legend, with the young unknown-even-to-himself-prince
who finds a magical sword and charges off to rescue the
damsel-in-distress, etc.
Over the centuries, other stories attached themselves to the Arthurian
one, notably the Quest for the
Holy Grail.
Knights were forever searching for the Grail and running into
interesting adventures along the way.
Now it all comes full circle again.
Roque One is a story in
and of itself, but which attaches to the
Star Wars ideology just like
the Grail stories did.
Back in 1977, when
Luke Skywalker first asked, “You know about the
Rebellion against the Empire?” the audience assumed that the Empire had
been around for centuries, like the
Roman Empire, or the
Ming Dynasty.
Five movies later, we realized that the Empire had barely existed
for a generation; just enough time for the twins, Luke and
Leia, to grow
up and, like typical teenagers, make Daddy’s life difficult.
Now we get to see a little bit of what was transpiring on the other side
of the equation. The
barely-out-of-its-diapers Empire is struggling to build a super weapon,
which will become known as the “Death Star”, while dealing with
cantankerous “little people” who just don’t understand how much better
the Empire is than whatever they had before.
Meanwhile, the equally-fledgling
Rebel Alliance is trying to figure out
how to counter the new Emperor.
There is a reluctant engineer, forced to help create the ultimate
Doomsday Machine, but who cleverly slips in a deliberate flaw.
If only the Rebels can get to it and send the information on to
The Good Guys.
Enter the Heroes like young
Jyn, daughter to the engineer, Rebel officer
Cassian and the usual motley crew of mercenaries, extraterrestrial
warrior-wannabes, and mechanical assistants with attitude.
Also included are characters from the original movie, played by
much younger actors with CGI-enhanced help.
Let’s face it: After
40 years, even if the previous actors were still around, they would be
much too “seasoned” (read: “old”) to play the same characters all over
again.
Lots of general running around set to music by a
new composer, desperate
attempts to grab “the Grail” and pass it along to the next set of
adventurers, culminating in a final reference to the
new title of the
original movie. And you
thought Camelot was hard to follow.
At least this one manages to avoid the
Romantic Triangle.
This time.
Regrettably, it is eminently skippable.
Love, as always,
Pete
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