I haven't written in a very long time. Probably because I failed miserably at my own 40 day challenge. Well, that and I've realized I don't have much- if anything profound to say. I have lots to write about but none of it is particularly edifying or inspiring. It's just stuff. Random thoughts about peculiar things that get overlooked in ordinary, day-to-day events. Talking about events.... what about Harold Camping and his prediction of earthquakes and rapture? I haven't been able to stop singing "I'm still standing" when I find myself awake and aware. Today I am so tired that watching movies and sitting in front of my computer seem like arduous tasks. Simply trying to put a cogent thought together is difficult. Cogent thoughts? I would settle for connecting thoughts.
Lately I have been thinking about the odd moments of my life that I remember. For instance, I watched one of my favorite movies this morning, October Sky. I am a sucker for a true story. Not that I believe every true story put on film hasn't had some exaggerated and outright fabricated detail added for emphasis. For instance, I don't really believe that Michael Oher needed Leigh Ann Tuohy to tell him the purpose of playing an offensive position in football. I do believe he needed the Tuohy's love and support to make it though. Anyway, while watching October Sky, I remembered traveling to Florida with my grandparents and being there during the first lunar landing. I remember going to Cape Canaveral and being given a cardboard model of the lunar landing module or some such. I was so disappointed because I wanted the nice young man in uniform that greeted us at the gate to see me as a beautiful young woman, not a little girl. Ah, the disappointments of life. Memories are tricky things though. Maybe it was as we entered Florida that I was given that 'toy.' There was a time that you had to go through check in lines to go from one state to another. Agricultural checks, I think. I don't really recall much more than how handsome that young man was and how disappointed I was that he saw me as the child I was. All things considered if I could have a "do-over" I would take it and keep the model safe and intact. I bet it would be ripe for trip to the Antiques Roadshow now. Oh well, back to October Sky.
There is a scene in the movie where everyone in the small coal mining town is out waiting for Sputnik to be seen soaring overhead. I remember being at a place called Twin Sisters Ranch, near Lake Berryessa on a camping/hunting trip my father and step-mom. We were around the campfire and waiting to see someone orbiting the earth. I just don't remember who it was, but I think they were US. Twin Sisters ranch reminded me of the Zodiac murders because one of the attacks took place out at Lake Berryessa. That was an interesting time to grow up in the San Francisco Bay Area. When your parents are divorced you get to live in multiple areas. Lucky me. The Zodiac, Charles Manson and his followers, all with ties the small towns I grew up in. Maybe my memories aren't so ordinary. Didn't everyone's step-dad literally ride shotgun on the school bus after the Zodiac threatened to "pick off" the kids on their ride to or from school?
Speaking of school, I used to cut through a large, undeveloped field to get to my grandmother's house after school. It was quicker and safer to walk that way. Imagine that. There used to be a time in Richmond, California where it was safer for a young teenage girl to walk through acres of vacant land than it was for her to walk along the busy roadway. Years before I used to "trick-or-treating" through the surrounding neighborhoods for hours. There was a corner store that had a walk-up window of sorts. We went there and bought penny candy after school and for Halloween each year the owner opened it and gave away bamboo flutes with Chinese characters painted on them.
Random thoughts jumping over one another in a sort of leap frogging memory chain. I need a nap in the worst way. My doggie kept me up all night with his pacing. He's uncomfortable with some ear infections. I need to get some sleep or watch another movie. Who knows what chain of thoughts I could come up with if I watched something else.
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