While my slumber was achieved late and disturbed frequently, the day itself went smoothly and at times productively. It was a pleasant Christmas Eve.
I.
Ms. S. and I stayed up late to watch an episode of ‘The X-files’ … but it turned out to be the first of a two-parter (okay for me, as I’d seen it … cliff-hanger for Ms. S.). We got Mulder’s ‘sister’ ‘back’ … air/scare quotes for both of those. We introduced the alien bounty hunter.
Anyway, when I crawled into bed I couldn’t fall asleep. No significant recent caffeine or alcohol. It was weird. The rain was constant and loud. The neighbors upstairs were still awake at nearly 3am. And then one of the cats, A, decided to become active.
She scratched the bed, I chased her out, eventually I put a towel before the door and shut it, and then she pawed at the towel and door and carpet, then I opened the door again and eventually she scratched at the bed posts. Finally I moved to the spare bed, not the optimal solution, as she tends not to cause noise in that room. I slept fitfully and put off feeding the cats until 6:30 (5:30 being the scheduled norm).
II.
Mid-day I scheduled my Tuesday baking. I’m taking a couple desserts, and I decided on a simple chocolate meringue pie along with some cookies and something cake-like. I also have some dough to prepare and take with us.
I still have some gift wrapping and such to do, but I figured post-midnight, last-minute might be best for me, as I have a productive routine then.
And before noon I also managed to continue some of the writing I began Sunday afternoon relating to hierarchies, inheritance, composition, and Kant. It was the latter part — dealing with the ‘Categories’ in the 1st Critique — that I fleshed out a bit today.
A minimally happy Ms. S. went for an afternoon walk and run after 2pm, and I knew she wouldn’t be back until after 4. Once left I pulled out the box of Christmas lights and contemplated how I was going to set them up around the window outside. I’d have to plug them in inside, as we have no outside outlet. Furthermore I’d have to find the best way to attach them to the vinyl siding … it looked like a no-go. But then I took another look at the windowsill inside and realized that there was enough wood or painted sheetrock surface all around for me to get the thumbtacks inserted firmly, and so I decided instead just to encircle the window from the inside, which only took ten to twenty minutes, some of which was spent readjusting lights and making sure the tacks were inserted and spaced properly. Using construction paper I bought specifically for the purpose I cut out enough different colored letters for a ‘Merry Christmas’ message and then made a few paper snowflakes … it made me feel like I was back in kindergarten oh so long ago. Everything was taped up before Ms. S. returned.
And when she did I lit them up and was greeted by her pleasantly surprised smile when she walked it. It isn’ a fancy lighting display, but it’s homey and ours.
III.
We had our evening rotation, beginning with the second part — “Endgame” — of that ‘X-Files’ two-parter.
Then I subjected Ms. S. to 1995’s ‘Judge Dredd’ after that episode and after we baked some cookies for her to take to work and share with all those who actually have to work the 25th. She at least gets to come home at 8am and sleep for a while before we head to her parents’ place in the afternoon. Back to ‘Dredd’ … I watched it years and years ago, and then, perhaps, once again sometime in the mid-2000s. It’s thoroughly bad and misguided, probably even worse now than I when I last watched it, but I did notice things I’d entirely forgotten or ignored before, such as the early focus on trying to make Rob Schneider’s character our POV figure as he returns from prison, is processed, and sent on his way to his new living quarters.
It’s a surprisingly down-to-earth thing, direct and efficient, even given the actor’s or character’s obnoxiousness; but it’s quickly undermined by a transition into senseless violence for the sake of introducing Stallone’s Dredd. And from there the movie goes even further downhill, shifting into formula and self-parody. “Court’s adjourned,” Stallone gives us toward the end … it’s a movie from a bygone era. It’s only a couple years after Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger’s ‘Total Recall,’ but everything about it is signficantly cheaper looking. It’s a truism that much science fiction set in the so-called future is actually about social issues ‘now,’ but everything about Dredd’s world, set in the “3rd Millennium,” is passé and seemingly taken straight from fears about 1970s and 1980s New York. Its only pretention to high-class stealing would be having the poor down below and the wealthy living in cleaner, greener surroundings higher up as in 1927’s ‘Metropolis.’
But that’s all quite a stretch.
It’s a waste of Max von Sydow … but almost everything Max does is a waste of Max. And here he’s no Ming.
So afterward there was just enough time before Ms. S. had to prepare for work for us to fit in a couple short episodes, and so the next ‘X-Files’ (“Fearful Symmetry” [the invisible elephant, the ‘zoo’ in ‘Idaho,’ the alien animal abductions]) and ‘Relic Hunter’ (“The Myth of the Maze” … ooh, in ‘Greece’) it was!
Now I have sanitizer to apply, sugar to dissolve and bring to a simmer, and bottles to fill.
Happy Holidays!
