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To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die. |
Monday, September 4, 2000
One year ago: The Swimming Hole
Two years ago: Pep, Vim and Verve
Three years ago: Fire for Fire
Don't miss the beginning of the month, which started last Friday.
* * * * * * * *
I let Jack sleep late this morning. He needed it, after a long day yesterday! Then I pounced on him.
We'd talked about going to see a movie, and finally settled on the new Highlander movie. I was interested, and surprisingly Jack was, too!
We had time for lunch first. Jack suggested Pho, pronounced "fuh." The linked description was very accurate, though we didn't try the beef tendon. It's a fragrant, light beef broth, with noodles, your choice of meat, basil and other herbs. You add the herbs, lime juice, bean sprouts, and hot peppers, all to suit your own taste. (I must remember that I'm really not so fond of bean sprouts.) This place topped it off with cream puffs for dessert!
* * * * * * * *
Our next stop in the used CD and video store. Jack was looking for anime tapes. "Hi, Dad!" Jack's older daughter A----, who ran away early this year (after being gone and back multiple times last year), came over and gave him a hug. "I'm glad to know you're alive!" said Jack. She had her hair partly shaved (but grown out an inch), with sprouts of longer hair sticking out at odd angles. Her mascara was smeared below her eyes -- is this just a style now? We walked out to the sidewalk, and I stepped away to give them a bit of privacy. She talked about how she's got a place she'll be living soon, in Olympia, but this part didn't make much sense to me. She didn't want to stay and talk, but said she needed to go catch her bus. Jack gave her a dollar for bus fare, and she skipped down the block to wait with her friends. There was nothing for us to do, so we walked away. She called out a few times, "Bye, Dad! I love you!" and waved at us.
Well! This was a shock for Jack. How many times did we walk the streets in this neighborhood, looking for her? We walked around the corner and sat on a bench for a few minutes. Jack choked down his emotion, which made me even sadder. Did he want to go to the movie anyway? I thought perhaps we should just skip it. "No," he said. "It wouldn't make any difference." He felt we should just do what we were going to do.
We walked on to the comics store, where Jack bought two big volumes of the Cerebus series, then we walked to the Metro theaters. We sat in the coffee shop there for a few minutes. I sampled one volume. I'm sure I'll like this stuff when I sit down and read it all.
* * * * * * * *
Highlander: Endgame. I enjoyed the original movie, and in some ways I liked the TV series even more. I watched it for several years, until the station that was syndicating it kept moving it around. I didn't even know this movie was coming out until very recently. That Adrian Paul was in it was a big selling point for me.
This new movie is more for fans than for general audiences, even more than Star Trek movies, to use a parallel example. I liked the fight scenes, and seeing familiar characters, but the "bad guy" wasn't very convincing. Oh, well...
I drove home and sent Jack on his way
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