Goin' Out To Cally – Part 47, Coveting Thy Neighbor’s Pool

When my family moved to Florida in 1971, my parents found a house in a new subdivision in the Shore Acres area of St. Petersburg. The house was one of the first to be constructed and was located on a small canal. As other houses started to spring up more and more people moved into our neighborhood. At night and on weekends we would play in the skeletal homes in various phases of construction.

We’d take our toy guns and make believe we were part of the army, like in the television shows Combat and Rat Patrol. We would collect the round metal discs that are punched out of electrical boxes and make believe they were money. We had a lot of fun as our neighborhood was built up around us.

When all of the construction was complete we ended up being in a neighborhood in which we would normally never afford to live. Soon after the houses became occupied, pools were put in and docks were built. Every house had a boat and some of the pools were screened in. Our back yard, on the other hand, consisted of the same thing that existed when we moved in… grass and a seawall. No pool, no dock, no boat.

One day, we complained to my dad about this. “Why can’t we have a pool?” we whined. My dad looked down at us with the eyes that showed he meant business and he said “Every single one of your friends has a pool. Go use theirs!”

Notice that EVERYONE has a pool and a dock but OUR house.

But dad didn’t understand. Sure everyone had a pool, but only SOME of them were really cool pools. Our next door neighbors, the Pearsons, had one of the best. It wasn’t screened in, but it had a really good diving board and was built so close to the house that, when the parents weren’t home, we would climb up onto the roof and jump into the pool.

That was fun!

Whenever all of the neighborhood kids wanted to go swimming, we immediately knew we wanted to go over to the Pearsons to play with their son Paul so we could swim in their cool pool. We’d get in our bathing suits, put on our flip flops, grab our goggles and put our towels around our necks and head over to Paul’s house. We’d knock on the door and Paul would open it to find us covered in swimming accoutrements. Without a word Paul would roll his eyes and sigh and say “I’ll meet you in back.”

We’d jump up and down and run around to the back yard, diving into the pool. We’d swim for hours, until the skin on our hands and feet were raw from getting in and out of the pool and running on the cement deck.

So, when Sunday offered to hit the pool at the San Francisco hotel, I felt very confident. I grew up on a pool… well, in my neighbor’s pools. If there was anyplace where I could recover my masculinity from the debacle of attempting stomach crunches for the first time, in chlorine water was where it would be.

Plus, I was going to get to see Sunday in a bathing suit. That was a bonus. Considering Sunday’s selection of tight fitting silky lingerie, I could only imagine what her style would be for swimwear… and imagine I did!

Would it be a revealing two piece, one showing a lot of cleavage? Or a thong? Or some combination of both?

I heard the door open and turned to see Sunday wearing a bathing suit I had never imagined.

********

Part 47, (Text, Audio) - Part 46, (Text, Audio)
Part 45, (Text, Audio) - Part 44, (Text, Audio) - Part 43, (Text, Audio)
Part 42, (Text, Audio) - Part 41, (Text, Audio) Part 40, (Text, Audio)
Part 39, (Text, Audio) - Part 38, (Text, Audio) - Part 37, (Text, Audio)
Part 36, (Text, Audio) - Part 35, (Text, Audio) - Part 34, (Text, Audio)
Part 33, (Text, Audio) - Part 32, (Text, Audio) - Part 31, (Text, Audio)
Part 30, (Text, Audio) - Part 29, (Text, Audio) - Part 28, (Text, Audio)
Part 27, (Text, Audio) - Part 26, (Text, Audio) - Part 25, (Text, Audio)
Part 24, (Text, Audio) - Part 23, (Text, Audio) - Part 22, (Text, Audio)
Part 21, (Text, Audio) - Part 20, (Text, Audio) - Part 19, (Text, Audio)
Part 18, (Text, Audio) - Part 17, (Text, Audio) - Part 16, (Text, Audio)
Part 15, (Text, Audio) - Part 14, (Text, Audio) - Part 13, (Text, Audio)
Part 12 (Text, Audio) - Part 11 (Text, Audio) - Part 10 (Text, Audio)
Part 09, (Text, Audio) - Part 08, (Text, Audio) - Part 07 (Text, Audio)
Part 06 (Text, Audio) - Part 05 (Text, Audio) - Part 04 (Text, Audio)
Part 03 (Text, Audio) - Part 02 (Text, Audio) - Part 01 (Text, Audio)

Derailed (2005)

Derailed is a good old-fashioned film noir crime suspense drama about a man, Charles Schine, played by the charming Clive Owen, who's in an uninspiring marriage and faltering under the stress of his daughter's illness. During one of his daily commutes on the train he unintentionally strikes a friendship with the beautiful Lucinda Harris, played by Jennifer Aniston, who is also in a rather lifeless marital existence.

Over the following days their daily travel to work turns from friendship to infatuation. When the infatuation turns to lust the two of them struggle to maintain their vows, yet finally succumb to their emotions and sneak away to a run down hotel to engage in ill-advised adultery.

Before their morally challenged act can be fully consummated, they are attacked by an evil man named Laroche, played by Vincent Cassel, who beats Owen unconscious. Owen awakes to find Aniston bruised and raped. It appears their little tryst has turned tragic. Things don't get any better for Owen who finds himself being stalked by Laroche, who demands more and more money, holding Owen's affair as leverage over his tenuous home life.

The pressure and violence Laroche perpetrates on Owen grows until Owen is forced to sacrifice everything to either save his family or save himself.

Derailed works on a lot of levels. The script is finely tuned and keeps you guessing throughout. The blackmail and following actions are believable within the context of the story and the performances by Owen, Aniston and Cassel are all extremely good.

I was first introduced to Owen when BMW, along with David Fincher, had decided to promote their new line of cars by hiring famous directors to shoot short films that involved their cars. Owen starred as The Driver in all of the BMW shorts, directed by such well known helmsman as John Woo, Tony Scott, Joe Carnahan, Ang Lee, John Frankenheimer and Guy Ritchie.

Owen, who also starred in Spike Lee's Inside Man, should be a bigger star than he is right now. He's handsome, charming and can act. I hope the rest of the world discovers this wonderful talent.

Aniston continues to expand her creative wings in a post-Friends era by taking on a sexy femme fatale whose motives are darker than we've seen her show before. And Cassel, who was recently in Ocean's Twelve, is frightening as the unpredictable and ultra-violent Laroche. When he's on the screen, you pay attention.

The $22 million Derailed was a modest hit in the United States, grossing $36 million and continues to generate money worldwide. If you like a classic noir-ish film about lust, blackmail and violence Derailed fits the bill.

Cally Writing Is Finished

Today during lunch I finished writing my the last entry for my trip to Cally. It was a fun ride. I hope everyone has enjoyed it as much as I do. I'll continue to post the entries through their completion over the next few weeks.

Now I can start working on some screenplays I've been thinking about.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)

Everyone has heard about the demise of Enron on the news and names such as Kenneth Lay and Jeff Skilling have become synonymous with the greed of the late 90's, but few people actually understand what it was that Enron did wrong. The sharp documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room takes us on a journey of enlightenment and corruption, of greed and excess as we see the rise and fall of Enron from two truly talented people, Lay and Skilling. Unfortunately, both men appear to have put the accomplishment of their dreams above ethics or morality.

What was Enron? A company that came up with idea to sell energy as a commodity. For Enron to be able to manage the energy business landscape they had to acquire gas companies, oil companies and electric companies. This was such an innovative idea that Enron, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Arthur Anderson auditing agreed to allow Enron to put in their financials projected incomes from the emerging markets. How does that work? Well, if they were to build an power plant in India, lets say, and they estimated it would generate $10 billion over 10 years, they would simply show that as income, even though they actually hadn't earned the money yet. In the end, the cost of electricity in India was too costly for the average person in India to afford, so the facility lost money, but on the books, it would show $10 billion.

As the company grew and entered other markets, they simply projected and announced income that was not actually being generated. Through this process the lines between right and wrong started to blur. Greed seeped into the company. Mismanagement and conflict of duties became acceptable as long as the value of the company grew. And this money was so enticing that every level of the industry, the levels that were supposed to provide logical checks and balances, fell prey to greed.

Faces of Enron Greed: Lay, Skilling, Fastow and Pai.

For example, Andrew Fastow, the Chief Financial Officer of Enron, created a company that would sell stocks to banks for mutual fund usage... well, it only sold one stock, Enron. So, the CFO that controls Enron's value was making money by selling this one and only stock. All of the major banks went along because they were going to make money buying/selling Enron stocks through the CFO's company as well.

Arthur Anderson was getting paid $1 million a week to audit Enron, so they kept looking the other way as not to kill the golden goose. When all of the other areas of Enron's business began to falter, they company started falsely inflating the cost of power in California by shutting down power companies for "maintenance." Remember the rolling power outages in California that eventually cost Gray Davis the governorship and allowed Arnold Schwarzenegger to take over the state? They were a direct outcome of Enron's unethical abuse of managing the power infrastructure.

The demise of Enron truly began when a Fortune reporter asked Enron leadership a simple question... "How does Enron make money?" When she couldn't get a straight answer the house of cards began to collapse.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is an intriguing documentary that shows how an environment of corruption only breeds more corruption. Lay and Skilling are not evil men, but their actions, or inactions, allowed many lives to be destroyed and that, as a whole, is evil.

The documentary also reminded me just how false the "boom" of the 90's really was. Enron, Worldcom and Global Crossings were all cooking their books, so to speak. The internet boom was truly virtual, using falsely validated business models which eventually disintegrated under the weight of financial folly and went bust. The 90's boom that made so many people rich was truly "virtual" and something to which we should avoid trying to achieve in the future.

As for Enron, check out this film if you can. It is an excellent story of real dreams turned into a nightmarish reality.

Goin' Out To Cally – Part 46, Satan’s Crunches

Tim and Beth were heading into downtown San Francisco to visit Beth’s friend. They asked if we wanted to join them, but we rolled over and said “no.” In reality, we needed a break from each other. The tension had grown into a definite us versus them mentality. Tim and Beth were very frustrated with Sunday and me and we felt the same way with them.

A part of me was also frustrated with Sunday, but I also felt responsible for her being on the trip in the first place, so I was in a no-win situation. I decided to put my relaxed “let’s see what happens” attitude to the test and just focused on making it through the rest of the trip.

The sound of Sunday fumbling around in the bathroom finally pulled me from my sleep. We knew that the hotel checkout was at 11 a.m. and Sunday and I wanted to try out the exercise room and pool. Sunday appeared from the bathroom wearing a comfortable outfit designed for working out.

“You coming?” she asked.

“Sure,” I said as I hopped out of the bed into the bathroom. After a quick teeth brushing and face cleaning, I threw on a pair of shorts and t-shirt and was ready to sweat my butt off. My senior year in college I had taken a weight lifting class and was very familiar with the latest equipment and effective exercise techniques.

As we walked into the hotel exercise room we could not help but be completely disappointed. It was only slightly larger than a walk in closet and consisted of a single, four station pulley-system weight machine. Sunday and I just sighed and did whatever exercises we could figure out.

It was at this time that Sunday introduced me to something I had never experienced before… the abdominal crunch. I had done plenty of full sit-ups, but not the half sit-up crunch before. Sunday lay on the bench and showed me how to do it. It looked simple enough… I mean, you just start to do a sit up and quit when the hard part starts. That’s easy!

I lay down next to her and she placed her hand on my stomach. “Pull up from here, not from your neck,” she said. I shrugged off her comments with a “yeah, yeah, get out of my way so I can master this crunch thingy” attitude. I started up and back down. Easy. Up and back down. Easy. Up and back down. Okay, a little harder that time. Up and back down. Hey, that burns! Up and back down. I think I’m hemorrhaging. Up and back down. I think my spleen exploded.

At this point I was frantic. Sunday had just reeled off a quick set of twenty and here I was on crunch number seven seeing a light at the end of a tunnel and my dead relatives waiting to greet me. I was a complete wuss!

I was not to be outdone doing exercise by… by a girl! Yes, in a moment of sheer panic I had reverted back to third grade. I was a boy and she was a girl and I was supposed to be stronger than a girl, period, end of sentence.

Up and back down. My face was turning purple. Up and back down. The veins in my neck popped so far out from the strain that the collar of my t-shirt was getting tight.

How was this possible? Just a few months ago in weight class I was lifting two hundred and fifty pounds over my head with ease. But now, in San Francisco, on a pansy little pulley machine I can’t do a half sit-up in front of a girl?

I collapsed when I reached ten and lay motionless on the floor waiting for the fire raging in my stomach muscles to subside.

Sunday hopped up and looked at me with sympathetic eyes.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” she asked.

“A little… maybe,” I lied.

She chuckled, knowing I was lying through my teeth and pulled me up to a standing position.

“Wanna go swimming? We have time,” she asked as she checked her watch.

What I wanted to do was collapse on the floor and try to recapture my masculinity. But the idea of seeing Sunday in a bathing suit… well, I decided to suffer in silence.

“Sure!” I replied. “I love to swim. I pretty good, actually.”

Having seen me struggle to complete ten half sit-ups, better known as Satan’s crunches, Sunday found it difficult to believe I possessed any physical prowess what so ever.

“Really?” she asked with such disbelief that I found myself insulted at the same time.

The third grade boy inside of me was determined to kick her little girl ass in the pool. I’d show her just what sort of manly man she was dealing with.

********

Part 46, (Text, Audio)
Part 45, (Text, Audio) - Part 44, (Text, Audio) - Part 43, (Text, Audio)
Part 42, (Text, Audio) - Part 41, (Text, Audio) Part 40, (Text, Audio)
Part 39, (Text, Audio) - Part 38, (Text, Audio) - Part 37, (Text, Audio)
Part 36, (Text, Audio) - Part 35, (Text, Audio) - Part 34, (Text, Audio)
Part 33, (Text, Audio) - Part 32, (Text, Audio) - Part 31, (Text, Audio)
Part 30, (Text, Audio) - Part 29, (Text, Audio) - Part 28, (Text, Audio)
Part 27, (Text, Audio) - Part 26, (Text, Audio) - Part 25, (Text, Audio)
Part 24, (Text, Audio) - Part 23, (Text, Audio) - Part 22, (Text, Audio)
Part 21, (Text, Audio) - Part 20, (Text, Audio) - Part 19, (Text, Audio)
Part 18, (Text, Audio) - Part 17, (Text, Audio) - Part 16, (Text, Audio)
Part 15, (Text, Audio) - Part 14, (Text, Audio) - Part 13, (Text, Audio)
Part 12 (Text, Audio) - Part 11 (Text, Audio) - Part 10 (Text, Audio)
Part 09, (Text, Audio) - Part 08, (Text, Audio) - Part 07 (Text, Audio)
Part 06 (Text, Audio) - Part 05 (Text, Audio) - Part 04 (Text, Audio)
Part 03 (Text, Audio) - Part 02 (Text, Audio) - Part 01 (Text, Audio)

Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

The second films of most trilogies suffer from middle child syndrome... they're usually not as interesting as the first film and not as satisfying as the third film. In trilogy-speak, I call this sequelitis.

Very few middle children of trilogies overcome sequelitis. Films like Back to the Future II, Matrix II and, unfortunately, Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest suffer greatly from sequelitis, which leaves an audience with unfulfilled expectations and a growing sense of wanting more when the end credits begin to roll.

In reality, every film of a trilogy should be able to stand on it's own. Some middle children succeed at this, such as Empire Strikes Back (the best Star Wars film ever), Superman II and Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, but most do not. Why? Because the filmmakers often write the second and third films at the same time to cash in on the success of the first film and, because it's cheaper to shoot the two films at the same time then not. Because they are written at the same time and because they are filmed at the same time, the two films end up being one long story.

In Pirates II, we find our heroes, Elizabeth Swann (Kiera Knightley) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) arrested on the day of their wedding due to their exploits at the end of Pirates I which freed Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). Things get overly complicated as everyone gets involved with hunts for a compass, a key, a chest and a heart, with each character attempting to leverage their goals to help themselves.

Depp continues to shine as Sparrow and I thought the writers did a good job of not making him a caricature of himself, as often happens when a unique character is seen for the second time. Bloom and Knightley relive their roles as well, but I thought Knightley's character, in particular, was underwritten or miswritten at times. The effects of the film are interesting, but are a little on the gross side. The pacing of the film is problematic at times as it struggles to wrap it's overly complicated plot into over two hours long.

Pirates II is entertaining, yet unfulfilling without the third film, which is a problem, as people are paying to see this film... and not getting their money's worth. If you've got over two hours to escape back into the world of Pirates, then you'll enjoy the ride, but be warned that it is simply one-half of a two-part story.

*************

BTW - I saw this film at my sister Loretta's surprise 50th birthday party. Her husband, Bob, rented out the theater, which was awesome! After the film we were served with chicken and fries and their daughter, Meghan, put together a wonderful presentation on Loretta's life.

Anytime we can get the family together, we're happy. Thanks Bob! And Happy 50th Rett!

DC's 13th

Here are some pics from DC's 13th birthday celebration at the Melting Pot.

Everyone sitting around the table.

My wife had some of her grandmother's
pearls restrung to a necklace for DC.

Here I am helping DC get the new necklace on.

DC blowing out the candle on the
tray of edibly delicious desserts.

All Star Pics

Here are some pics from Gabe's all star games.

Here's the wind up...

...and the pitch.

Gabe made a great hit, but flied out to deep left field.

Gabe shakes hands with the home plate Umpire before
their third and final game.

Gabe behind the plate.

All of the pics were taken by my wife. Here's a great,
classic baseball image with Gabe catching
against a Palm Harbor batter.

Ramsey's Visit

I've been meaning to post some pics, so I'll catch up on them this weekend.

When Katie, Brian, Sarah and Luke were down from Atlanta, we all got together for dinner at Charles and Betty's house.

The newly engaged Christina with her Uncle Pete.

Uncle Pete, Katie and cute Luke.

We always love when Katie, Brian and family come down. We're very grateful because they always find time to come down to our neck of the woods. We can't wait to see them at their home in Georgia when we visit them in a few weeks.

Goin' Out To Cally – Part 45, Cashing In On Immortality

After the long and nauseous drive up the Pacific Coast Highway, we arrived in the great city of San Francisco around dinner time. It was hard to appreciate the city for all of its beauty and landmarks because we could only see the street lights and buildings illuminating the night sky. For us, having been on the road twelve nights, it looked like just another city on our long trek.

Unfortunately, during the course of this trip, from the moment we had to try and get all of Sunday’s luggage into the back of the Acura to the infinite waiting on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, tensions between the four travelers had been building everyday. As with the tides when a tropical storm approaches, the waves of tension on this trip would ebb and flow, but never completely dissipated. Instead, each day the tension from one day would build upon the next, like a storm surge of frustration and irritation ready to crash on the shore. And like an approaching hurricane, there was little I could do to get out of its destructive path.

When we reached the hotel we were surprised to find it was relatively close to the Hard Rock Café in San Francisco. After a quick check in and a quicker unpacking, we headed off to San Fran’s version of the famed restaurant chain.

As we sat down at our table, I spied more musical memorabilia on the walls and display cases and I realized at that moment that one of the drivers for me to get into acting and filmmaking was because I, like the previous owners of the collectibles that surrounded our table, wanted a certain level of immortality on this planet. For them it was music. For me, it was movies.

Movies last forever. If you have a great performance or write a great scene or direct a memorable film, that performance, that scene, that movie is on the public record forever. And your name is attached to it. Just as I rediscover works of Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn decades later, so too could others of your work if you were so lucky. Through that rediscovery lies a taste of immortality.

I wondered to myself if I would ever have anything worth being shown in a display case along with other giants in the entertainment industry. At once my exuberant youthful hope made it seem completely within the realm of possibility and yet the insecurity of not quite knowing what would make me so special as to be able to earn such an honor battled within my psyche.

In the end, I realized that my growing and evolving faith would play a pivotal role. I knew that if I were to achieve any greatness, that it would take powers greater than my own to reach such a level of achievement. I had a strong faith in the Lord and would put my career aspirations in his hands.

As our dinner neared completion I looked into my wallet and discovered I was almost out of money. Tim and I had an agreement that I would pay my portion of whatever hotel room and food charges he put on his credit cards on the trip. So, I didn’t need a lot of cash to make the journey, but what little cash I had was quickly diminishing.

Sunday, it appeared, was in the same boat as me. During out entire journey she was equally frugal in her financial decisions.

When it came time to pay our food bill, Tim’s credit card was declined. The waiter asked, “Are you staying at a hotel?”

“Yes.” Tim replied.

“That explains it. When you register with a credit card they max it out to make sure you can pay for whatever charges you acquire during your stay,” the waiter explained.

Well, that was both helpful and troublesome. It explained the credit card issue, but didn’t explain how we were going to pay for the meal. I reached into my thin, light wallet ready to pitch in when Sunday opened up her purse and pulled out a large wad of cash.

Tim, Beth and I stared in disbelief. “Here. I don’t know what I owe you for the trip, but this should cover it,” Sunday said as she offered over all of her money.

“You don’t have to give us everything,” Beth said.

“It’s okay,” Sunday replied, “I still have some.”

Tim and Beth reluctantly took the cash and paid the bill.

As we drove back to the hotel I thought of how hard it would have been for me to have all of that money on hand for the entire trip and NOT spend it! That concept just seemed impossible to me at the time. I envied her financial control. If I had that much cash on me I would have been buying everything from Bedrock City t-shirts to Mickey Mouse ears.

And it reminded me that just when I think I’ve gotten Sunday figured out, she always has one more surprise up her sleeve.

And so ended the thirteenth night on our trip to Cally.

********

Part 45, (Text, Audio) - Part 44, (Text, Audio) - Part 43, (Text, Audio)
Part 42, (Text, Audio) - Part 41, (Text, Audio) Part 40, (Text, Audio)
Part 39, (Text, Audio) - Part 38, (Text, Audio) - Part 37, (Text, Audio)
Part 36, (Text, Audio) - Part 35, (Text, Audio) - Part 34, (Text, Audio)
Part 33, (Text, Audio) - Part 32, (Text, Audio) - Part 31, (Text, Audio)
Part 30, (Text, Audio) - Part 29, (Text, Audio) - Part 28, (Text, Audio)
Part 27, (Text, Audio) - Part 26, (Text, Audio) - Part 25, (Text, Audio)
Part 24, (Text, Audio) - Part 23, (Text, Audio) - Part 22, (Text, Audio)
Part 21, (Text, Audio) - Part 20, (Text, Audio) - Part 19, (Text, Audio)
Part 18, (Text, Audio) - Part 17, (Text, Audio) - Part 16, (Text, Audio)
Part 15, (Text, Audio) - Part 14, (Text, Audio) - Part 13, (Text, Audio)
Part 12 (Text, Audio) - Part 11 (Text, Audio) - Part 10 (Text, Audio)
Part 09, (Text, Audio) - Part 08, (Text, Audio) - Part 07 (Text, Audio)
Part 06 (Text, Audio) - Part 05 (Text, Audio) - Part 04 (Text, Audio)
Part 03 (Text, Audio) - Part 02 (Text, Audio) - Part 01 (Text, Audio)

And I Thought I Was Nuts...

So, I'm nearing the end of my self imposed year long daily blog entry experiment called Surviving in Safety Harbor. Granted, it's been tough to create a daily entry for 365 1/4 days, but very rewarding as well.

If you think writing a blog entry everyday for a year is hard, check out the people at 365 Films, who's goal is to create a short film everyday for a year.

Their "constitution" consists of two articles:

"Article 1: We will be shooting, editing and distributing one new film, everday, for a year.
Article 2: These will be professional, structured, created pieces of cinema that tell a story or explore an issue."

And I thought I was nuts. I can't imagine how difficult it will be to come up with 365 film ideas, implement them, shoot them, edit them and distribute them daily... they must not have jobs.

You can read more about their progress on their website, www.365films.com.

Goin' Out To Cally – Part 44, Touching The Pacific

Sunday awoke the next morning acting like our revealing conversation the night before had never occurred. Apparently she had ripped a page right out of my relationship moron handbook. Having authored the book, I played along.

We packed the Acura and said fond goodbyes to Paul and Anne, thanking them profusely for their tremendous hospitality. We followed their hand drawn directions and quickly found the interstate.

Weaving up the Pacific Coast Highway.

The thing about driving on highways in Los Angeles is that speed limits aren’t really important. Apparently, since traffic often comes to a standstill on these six to ten lane interstates, if the roads are clear and the traffic moving, all bets are off. As the Acura neared eighty miles per hour, we still found cars zooming passed us.

There are two ways to get to San Francisco, the interstate, which takes you about four to six hours, or you can take the historic Pacific Coast Highway, which travels up the coast of California, but it adds an additional two hours to the trip. Having never been in California and never knowing if we would ever return, we decided to offer up the two extra hours to the travel gods and take the journey up the coast.

The Pacific Coast Highway is a winding multi-lane road that weaves up and over and around the natural landscape that looks over the Pacific Ocean. For the first few hours the mountains and the view were breathtaking. Every turn seemed to offer a unique and exciting view.

The sun beginning to set on the highway.

After about three hours, however, the back and forward motion of the car, along with the speeding up and slowing down, had caused everyone in the car, including the driver, to grow increasingly nauseous. We cracked the windows and let in the cool evening air in an attempt to subdue the waves of gastric discomfort rising in all of us.

After another hour of weaving and swaying and slowing and speeding, we decided to take a breather and do something none of us had ever done… touch the Pacific Ocean. We pulled the car over near a scenic overlook and walked down to the beach. As the sun began to set we cautiously approached the water as it rippled onto the beach. None of us were dressed for a swim, so we took off our sneakers and tip-toed toward the water.

In near unison we all bent down and placed our hands in the salty ocean water. As the water quickly wrapped around my feet and my toes sunk into the dark sand I was shocked to discover the water to be so cold.

Near the beach, the sun dips below the Pacific.

I smiled to myself as I thought back to swimming in the Gulf of Mexico on the west coast of Florida and fighting the waves of the Atlantic Ocean in Daytona Beach. My mind then imagined how the explorers Lewis and Clark felt when they had finally reached the end of this great land and felt the cold surf of the Pacific Ocean. There was something monumental in being able to touch one of the world’s oceans.

After that rather quick respite from the to and fro of the drive up the Pacific Coast Highway, we re-entered the blue hatchback and drove into the night, heading toward the great city of San Francisco.

********

Part 44, (Text, Audio) - Part 43, (Text, Audio)
Part 42, (Text, Audio) - Part 41, (Text, Audio) Part 40, (Text, Audio)
Part 39, (Text, Audio) - Part 38, (Text, Audio) - Part 37, (Text, Audio)
Part 36, (Text, Audio) - Part 35, (Text, Audio) - Part 34, (Text, Audio)
Part 33, (Text, Audio) - Part 32, (Text, Audio) - Part 31, (Text, Audio)
Part 30, (Text, Audio) - Part 29, (Text, Audio) - Part 28, (Text, Audio)
Part 27, (Text, Audio) - Part 26, (Text, Audio) - Part 25, (Text, Audio)
Part 24, (Text, Audio) - Part 23, (Text, Audio) - Part 22, (Text, Audio)
Part 21, (Text, Audio) - Part 20, (Text, Audio) - Part 19, (Text, Audio)
Part 18, (Text, Audio) - Part 17, (Text, Audio) - Part 16, (Text, Audio)
Part 15, (Text, Audio) - Part 14, (Text, Audio) - Part 13, (Text, Audio)
Part 12 (Text, Audio) - Part 11 (Text, Audio) - Part 10 (Text, Audio)
Part 09, (Text, Audio) - Part 08, (Text, Audio) - Part 07 (Text, Audio)
Part 06 (Text, Audio) - Part 05 (Text, Audio) - Part 04 (Text, Audio)
Part 03 (Text, Audio) - Part 02 (Text, Audio) - Part 01 (Text, Audio)

Happy Birthday Dorothea!

My daughter, Dorothea, enters the uncharted, dangerous waters of teenhood today. She's officially 13.

I can so easily remember holding her in my arms as an infant, rocking her to sleep. Now, she's a beautiful young woman with a Koehler face and a Bauer sense of humor.

She shares my love of acting and my love of movies. We're so blessed as she is very caring and considerate.

She's more special than I can sculpt in words.

Happy 13th birthday, Dorothea. You'll do great things in this world.

Goin' Out To Cally – Part 43, Between The Hard Rock And A Hard Place

We had decided when we started our journey to California to make the Hard Rock Café a mini-home away from home. We knew that there would be Hard Rocks in Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco, so we made a point to use the visit to the Los Angeles version for Tim’s twenty-sixth birthday.

We arrived at the Los Angeles Hard Rock and were disappointed to see that this location resembled more of a loud singles bar than it did a musical museum that served above average fare.

There weren’t a lot of seating options available so we decided to sit around a small, high table with bar chairs. The music was loud and conversation was difficult. At one point Sunday went over to the bar to get a drink and was immediately hit on by a tan, blonde hunk of a man about 100 times more handsome than I could ever imagine myself to be.

As she smiled, flipped her hair and flirted with the hunk I found myself experiencing an emotion I was ill prepared to face… jealousy. I remember vividly being stunned that I was growing upset that Sunday was flirting with someone else. Funny that I could immediately spot her flirting with someone across a crowded bar, but was unable to comprehend when she was flirting with me.

I turned away and thought to myself… why am I jealous? I was growing to despise this person just hours earlier, yet here I was fighting the green monster because Golden Boy was making moves.

For some reason, over the past week or so I had grown to possess a latent fondness or attraction for Sunday. I had battled my insecurities for the entire trip, but was also flattered by her attention.

As Tim and Beth held hands and leaned close to each other in order to talk, I found myself realizing the definition of being a third wheel. Tim and Beth were having fun, Sunday was having fun and I was sadly jealous over someone with which I had no right to feel jealous.

That feeling of jealously quickly turned to shame. How pathetic was I… not only to feel this way, but to be so insecure as to allow myself to feel this way.

Eventually Sunday rejoined our table as the food arrived. Embarrassed, I hid my feelings and, instead, complained about how much better the Dallas Hard Rock was than its Los Angeles cousin. Unable to compete with the loud conversations in the bar trying to yell over the louder music, we ended up just sitting quietly and eating. Sunday downed a few more drinks and, together, we all toasted Tim on his numerically unique birthday.

On the way out to the car it was to nobody’s surprise that Sunday was lagging behind. Tim and Beth continued ahead of us while Sunday, feeling more open and aggressive with a few drinks in her, starting yelling at me.

I asked, “What are you mad at me for?”

She grabbed my arm and turned me toward her. “You haven’t made one single move on me this whole trip!”

“What?” I asked with utter confusion.

“I’ve been flirting with you and hitting on you and you haven’t tried to kiss me or anything!” she exclaimed.

My mind was suddenly inundated with conflicting thoughts. Should I remind her that she’s dating David, our mutual friend?

No. Why? Because I’m actually flattered she was hitting on me all this time and, for how little this moment of clarity would actually last and I wanted it to exist as long as possible.

Should I tell her that I’m a relationship moron?

No, she’s apparently figured that out already.

What should I do? Comfort her? She’d have to stop yelling at me first.

Try and kiss her? No, that’d be wrong. Not only would it be betraying my friendship with David, it would also be taking advantage of Sunday while slightly inebriated.

By the time we caught up to Tim and Beth at the car, Sunday had confessed her attraction to me and explained, in detail, how offended she was that I had not attempted to make a single pass at her or tried any inappropriate touching on her person what-so-ever.

As her emotional venting came to climax, I realized that, not only had any opportunity of intimacy with Sunday evaporated this evening, but I could sense that it had ended for the trip as a whole.

For better or worse or somewhere in the massive gray area in between, we would remain only friends. As the smoke cleared I knew it was for the better.

The ride back to Paul and Anne’s house was uncomfortably quiet. I spent the time silently trying to understand this unexpectedly odd and emotionally tumultuous night.

As so ended the twelfth day on our trip to Cally.

********

Part 43, (Text, Audio)
Part 42, (Text, Audio) - Part 41, (Text, Audio) Part 40, (Text, Audio)
Part 39, (Text, Audio) - Part 38, (Text, Audio) - Part 37, (Text, Audio)
Part 36, (Text, Audio) - Part 35, (Text, Audio) - Part 34, (Text, Audio)
Part 33, (Text, Audio) - Part 32, (Text, Audio) - Part 31, (Text, Audio)
Part 30, (Text, Audio) - Part 29, (Text, Audio) - Part 28, (Text, Audio)
Part 27, (Text, Audio) - Part 26, (Text, Audio) - Part 25, (Text, Audio)
Part 24, (Text, Audio) - Part 23, (Text, Audio) - Part 22, (Text, Audio)
Part 21, (Text, Audio) - Part 20, (Text, Audio) - Part 19, (Text, Audio)
Part 18, (Text, Audio) - Part 17, (Text, Audio) - Part 16, (Text, Audio)
Part 15, (Text, Audio) - Part 14, (Text, Audio) - Part 13, (Text, Audio)
Part 12 (Text, Audio) - Part 11 (Text, Audio) - Part 10 (Text, Audio)
Part 09, (Text, Audio) - Part 08, (Text, Audio) - Part 07 (Text, Audio)
Part 06 (Text, Audio) - Part 05 (Text, Audio) - Part 04 (Text, Audio)
Part 03 (Text, Audio) - Part 02 (Text, Audio) - Part 01 (Text, Audio)

Happy Independence Day!

Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to live in a country where we can so openly praise Your name. For allowing us to live with the freedoms to which you have graced this country.

May this country continue to glorify you in our actions and continue to lead by Your example.

Thank you for this independence from tyranny and freedom that comes with Your salvation.

X-Men : The Last Stand (2006)

The mutants in the X-Men world are facing a mandatory inoculation that will cure them of their mutations, thereby turning them back to average human beings. The mutation-suppressing cure is actually generated from another mutant who's own mutation disables the mutant genes in others.

This cure sets into motion the forces of good mutants (X-Men) vs. the bad mutants (Magneto and followers). Thrown into the mix is the apparent resurrection of Jean Grey, who sacrificed herself at the end of X-Men 2 to save her friends, and everything is different. This time, however, Jean is not what she appeared to be the last time we saw her. She is the strongest mutant on the planet and her powers now go unchecked.

The film is most likely the last in the X-Men series, as many of the main characters are impacted during the course of the film.


And, as a final song in the X-Men trilogy, the war that unfolds is much more violent and explicit than the previous X-Men outings. It is an intense ride and a satisfying conclusion to the series, for X-Men and action movie fans alike.

The Perfect Stranger (2005)

What would it be like to have dinner with someone claiming to be Jesus Christ? That's the premise of the very entertaining film called The Perfect Stranger. The film, written and starring Jefferson Moore as The Stranger, plays a man who claims to be Jesus Christ and invites a lawyer, performed by Pamela Brumley, to dinner.

Brumley reluctantly attends the dinner and is very skeptical of The Stranger's intentions, yet he offers enough insight to keep her interested. As the conversation continues, his knowledge of her and his arguments of theological issues brings her closer to the belief that she is actually having dinner with Jesus Christ. Is the man truly Jesus Christ or an imposter? As the story unfolds, you find out.

Watching the film makes you wonder how wonderful it would be actually have dinner with Jesus Christ. What would you say? What would you ask? What would he say to you? You'll find your mind racing with many questions, discussions, conversations, etc.

Considering how personal such a question as "what would it be like to have dinner with Jesus Christ" can be, the film is exceedingly satisfying. The acting is wonderful and the screenplay, adapted from the book by David Gregory, covers so much ground, yet it all unfolds so naturally that the screenplay never appears preach or overly wordy.

The Perfect Stranger is an intriguing, touching and pleasantly satisfying family Christian film. Find an evening and spend it with your family watching this film. It's a dinner you won't soon forget.