Moon Walk

Hello World,     Well, after all of (what seems like) the interminable build-up to the big occasion, it certainly doesn't take long for Christmas to be in our rear-view mirror, and suddenly Epiphany is upon us, of all things. Stores have been awash with Valentines displays since last week, and supermarkets are pushing anything that can be chewed, chugged, or chomped for the Super Bowl on February 4th. Then Ash Wednesday will be here before we know it on February 14, with Easter following 7 weeks later on April 1st. (On the Eastern Orthodox side of things, that would be April 8th instead.) Of course, merchants don't seem to know what to do with themselves once the retail behemoth of Christmas is out of the picture, so next I'm expecting to see racks crammed with swimsuits, and bins full of beach balls and air mattresses, I shouldn't wonder. Suntan lotion, anyone?     Speaking of the jolly yuletide season, it reminds me of holiday decorations doing their part to make things merry and bright along the highways and byways of the winter wonderland all around us. Driving back and forth to work, I was confronted with a plethora of vehicles sporting reindeer antlers and fuzzy red noses, and I don't mind saying, a welcome cheery sight in the midst of ordinary traffic on all sides. But it was in the parking lot at the Renaissance Hotel that we spotted our one and only traveler direct from Santa's Workshop at the North Pole. Instead of antlers and nose, it was very impishly tricked out with what were obviously elf ears coming out of the windows, and a jaunty elf hat attached to the grille. Too funny!     In other winter news, just about anybody who is just about anywhere felt the impact of Winter Storm Grayson hammering out a dangerous swath of snow, frigid temperatures, and ferocious winds, from the deep south all the way up to Canada, leaving whole states powerless and immobilized in its devastating wake. There were 6 inches of snow in Charleston, South Carolina, with no plows to move it off the streets, or salt to melt the resulting ice from its arctic chill. Around here, the snow wasn't excessively deep, but strong winds blew it into drifts everywhere, and the cold was unbearable. Our drafty old place was no match for Grayson's furious gusts, and our windowsills were coated with snow where it blew in under the storm windows all over the house. We had actual accumulations inside the vestibule of the back door, where a part of the trim had come separated from the porch, making a rather sizable drift across the door mat and up against the wall. I only found this out when I opened the kitchen door, but was quickly joined by a hastily organized expedition of Ernest Shackleton (A/K/A our irrepressible kitty, Mittens) and her hardy band of intrepid explorers (Shadow and Zorro) who pounced on the territory as their own, and needing no further enticements. (Which was just as well, since I couldn't see the Royal Academy of Sciences providing any funding for this particular mission.) These kittens had all been born under our porch in the spring, and trapped over the summer, so they had no experience whatsoever with cold weather or snow, unlike our other strays over the years, who had lived outdoors through the worst of winter, and wanted no part of it ever again. The adventurers seemed to take the cold in their stride, but snow was a strange and unknown quantity, and their feelings about it were all too obvious from the way they shook it off their paws with a mixture of distaste and alarm. After their fill of exploration, they eventually retreated back to their afghan-covered radiators for a snooze. But I still think Ernest Shackleton would have been proud.     Well, you know it's pretty much the middle of January when even Bill and I finally get around to seeing the biggest movie in a vast array of galaxies, which originally opened way back on December 14 - the new Star Wars movie, "The Last Jedi."  Like many of us "of a certain age," I saw the earliest film in this series - then simply known as "Star Wars" in 1977 (now referred to as Episode 4 and called "A New Hope" in the new scheme of the franchise) - and had a pretty good grasp of the narrative between the first three that came out. Things started to get a little shakier by the time the next 3 came along - which were supposed to have taken place BEFORE the first three, thanks not, so that was no help at all. And since then, it's just been an outer space free-for-all that has been impossible to comprehend, even for someone who has actually seen them all. Admittedly, I got thrown off track by a couple of non-official "Star-Wars-type" releases ("Clone Wars" and "Rogue One") along the way, but even still, I thought I was at least in the virtual ballpark, and could hold my own with the droids and wookies. Not so fast!  If nothing else, "The Last Jedi" proved that I am woefully out of touch with the dreaded Empire and rebel forces, and may never catch up at this rate. It was nice to see it in glorious IMAX and 3-D, and it prided itself on having something for first-time viewers and long-term fans alike, but it lost me right at the start, and I never got back on board the whole way through. Having said that, it's still entertaining throughout and never lags - and the special effects are so amazing that we all take them completely for granted nowadays. I see that they're coming out with a new one in 2019, and apparently I'm going to need a refresher course in the whole Jedi mythology before tackling that next one. "Luke - I am your tutor!" Elle