One week to my birthday!

The cold weather remains. Once more the hot water pipe to the kitchen sink is frozen. There is a huge puddle on the basement floor from the defrosting freezer because whoever poured the cement for the cellar didn’t make it slope adequately toward the drain. I have had to mop in an attempt to get the water to flow in the right direction. The birds emptied the feeder in minutes this morning. I blame it mostly on a blue jay and on a hairy woodpecker who has somehow muscled his way into the neighbourhood.

Last night Hubby and I and about 500 other people (who came out in spite of the frigid temperature) attended the screening of Paul Gr0ss’ film PasschendaeIe at Centennial Theatre. The director/actor/producer introduced it and then took questions afterwards. He is an extremely engaging and interesting fellow, as well as incredibly good looking (although I detected his hairline moving northward, with just a touch of distinguished gray at the temples). The film itself is quite moving, very realistic (except for a few inaccuracies which I would not have noticed if Buddy Boy hadn’t mentioned them to me earlier, such as the soldiers carrying their rifles upright in the rain, which means the water would have entered the barrels and rendered them unusable) and portrays the horrors of war without flinching. The actual story, the love story, I found a little insipid. But it was a vehicle to show the carnage of war, and as the director said from the stage, quoting someone else, “Every war movie is an anti-war movie.”

I just have one thing to say to Americans as they get ready to inaugurate their new president. This man is only human. People are expecting so much from him that I fear he will either disappoint by proving his failings as a member of our species, or crack under the pressure. Please, be nice to this guy. Sure, he’s a mean sight better than what came before, but he’s just a guy! There, I’ve said it.

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