Winter Sports

So as you may or may not know, we have some pretty interesting winters in Nova Scotia, weather changing from minute to minute almost and this winter is certainly no exception. With this winter supposedly going to be one of the worst in the last 50 years, things are starting to take shape and are bringing about some interesting situations.

I received a digital video camera for Christmas and decided to put it into action the other morning at 5 am when some genius decided if he floored his gas log and hard enough he could defeat the mighty sheet of ice cover the entire expanse of our driveway and parking lot.

This "genius" decided that his best route out of out parking lot, which incidentally has two entrances / exits, was up the sharp incline of sheer ice over an ice encrusted speed bump onto another incline.

After about 20 minutes of fighting inches, the whole while flooring the gas and squealing on ice, he backed down and lost a few feet each time slipping ever closer to parked cars.

Finally after about 30 minutes of this he made it out but not before waking up the whole side of the building and I also obtained 5 minutes of footage of his idiocy.

Not days later while getting ready to head out for a bite we scanned the driveway to get our bearings on the weather and witnessed several cars sliding down the driveway heading for our car, four , to be exact. Fortunately for Shelagh's mother, they were able to spread a half ton of salt on the parking lot to resolve the issue.

It was your pretty standard, come around the corner and it's sheer ice to your surprise, type of scenario, that didn't go horribly wrong. The one thing that did make me laugh my ass off was this guy in a 1/4 ton truck.

Although I witnessed his generous act of helping the original slider get out of her predicament, he used less than stellar judgment when trying to make it up a hill of ice, especially after witnessing a 2 ton salt truck with studded tires slide 20 feet backwards, another true genius, good at heart but clearly not thinking with all cylinders firing.

The one time I truly worried is when a big van came around the corner and slid a very close to the top of the chain that ended with Shelagh's mom's car being severely crushed.

Everyone got out of it with their vehicles intact with no harm done but it will make a great You-Tube once I figure out how do download my footage to the computer lol

I'm sure I'll have more stories, as the mess that we call winter, takes shape, who knows, in a couple months, I may be living in an isolated winter land so I guess I best get used to these crazy winter sports.

Trying

I've never been much of a journal person, even though I wish I was, I seem to have a really hard time writing things down. I work mostly internally, figuring, sorting and storing everything in my own flawed brain, which rarely remembers all that is needed to be.

It seems as if my posts have become a lot less frequent but at least, I guess , I'm trying. I do have several journals at home as well, most of them jump months and sometimes years from page to page. I guess I've always tried to record my thoughts, I'm just not that successful at it.

I was hoping to use this blog to polish those skills but alas there are so many more important things going on in my life. I'd imagine thought if I died tomorrow, I'd probably of wished I had written more down. For me it's one of the few ways for the world to know who I was after I leave the physical realm and I wish I was better at it.

Currently my life is in kind of a state of suspension, we are planning to make huge changes in our lives and for me I have a hard time committing to anything that could be disrupted by these major life changes. On one hand I want to do everything that needs to be done in anticipation but at the same time it might all be for nothing if those changes don't take place as soon as expected. I also don't want to put everything on hold for that same reason. I suppose I'll just do what I always do, adapt and make due.

On the entertainment front,I did manage to watch a few movies since my last post, Vacancy, Disturbia and The Quiet Earth.

I thought Vacancy was a pretty damn good psychological thriller. As with most films there is a few minutes of slower character bonding at the beginning but once the action starts I found myself consciously telling myself to breath. The intensity is literally gut wrenching and the whole film is supported by little more than a half a dozen characters. I thought this movie was pure exhilaration with a couple unexpected twists.

One thing I was very impressed with was the directors ability to add lots of violence and disturbing subject matter yet managed to keep to all incredibly tasteful, you never actually saw the brutality but you knew it was happening. I truly appreciate this much more than blood and gore.

I enjoyed this movie, much to my surprise, I didn't think it was going to be very good but it turned out to be a movie I will probably watch again in the future.

I give "Vacancy" a 2 of 3.

Disturbia was really good as well, well made, good depth in the characters and a pretty decent retelling of an old story. This movie almost had a feel of an old Hitchcock film with a modern teen / early adult feel and flavor. The soundtrack was pretty solid as well.

This movie is about a troubled teen under house arrest who through sheer boredom, soon suspects one of his neighbors of ill deeds. Sure, we head straight for the "we don't trust the cooped up troubled teen cliche" , although, in my opinion, he had a damn good reason to be troubled.

Anyway the movie plays out as you would expect and was a tiny bit predictable as far as the "lets solve the mystery" way but I would definitely watch this movie again, it kept a steady pace and went straight for the jugular, no subtlety here.

I give "Disturbia" a 2 of 3.

The most recent film I watched was a 1985, Cinepro production, The Quiet Earth . Let me first state that I am a huge fan of Disaster flicks so I tend to go easier on them but we all know there are many disaster films that are that are just that. Pretty much any disaster flick made for TV blew big time, a prime example would be Category Six, which royally sucked, sorry Dennis Quaid I really like your work but what were you thinking?

The Quiet Earth definitely delivered. I really enjoyed this flick, it was a bit similar to I am legend, except it was good, sorry Will.

The acting was superior and there was so much subtlety I will enjoy watching it again and thinking about all the social and psychological aspects that are infused in the movie. Don't worry they don't ruin the movie or expect you to make huge leaps and connections to enjoy the movie and some things aren't quite so subtle.

It's a movie about a man who had some part in creating a government project that ended up wiping out most of humanity and threatened to finish off the remainders if British Actor, Bruno Lawrence can't stop it. There is a really cool twist on why he survived so I won't reveal it but I think if you have any interest in the doomsday / disaster flick genre, good movies or good acting, you will enjoy this film. The special effects were most certainly "1985" but did not detract from the film.

I give "The Quiet Earth" a 3 of 3.

All in all I enjoyed all these films to one degree or another and it seems a good movie is hard to come by as of late.

Well, I need to get some boring household stuff done, so I should be off but I will try to get back more often and Blog.