Weekend came and went as usual. The space/time/weekend continuum continues to baffle and astound my regular guy brain. I’ll never quite understand how five days feels like 10, while two days feel like an afternoon nap. And yet despite that glaring disturbance in the force I’m still 50-years old with a sizable 401-K, a nearly 28 year old home, and three adult children. Where’s the disconnect, universe?
Anybody else out there feeling they’re getting ripped off on time here?
Friday I did my usual, which is come home and get the house cleaned. Afterwards I enjoyed a couple hazy IPAs from Founders Brewing and watched the 1986 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2. It was the one with Dennis Hopper as the Texas Ranger hunting down Leatherface and his family for murdering his nephew and nearly murdering his niece from the original(his nephew was the annoying guy in the wheelchair, while his niece was the lone survivor.)
The last and only time I watched this flick was the summer of 1988 at 14 years old. I have to say, I feel everyone dropped the ball when reviewing this gem. As a teen I found it violent and gory, and there was a decent amount of humor strewn throughout, but Tobe Hooper made quite possibly one of the best horror comedies of the 80s with TCM 2. Not only that, the Tom Savini special effects are spot-on and the set design was about perfect. This movie was perverse and wonderful in all the right ways. 10/10. Anyone complaining it wasn’t as “scary” as the first movie completely missed the point. You couldn’t make something as scary as the first movie. It was one of a kind, and a moment in cinematic history that cannot be replicated. So instead of making the scariest movie ever you just have Dennis Hopper walking through murder catacombs double fisting two chainsaws in each hand singing “Bringing In The Sheaves”.
Saturday morning the wife and I headed down to Indianapolis to see our oldest. They’ve been in their apartment for two weeks now, and are now officially employed with The Hi Fi, a concert venue in Fountain Square. You think to yourself, “Hey, don’t they have a college degree with a major in English? And didn’t they want to work at a library?” Well, yes to both questions. But until that happens ya gotsta pay dem bills, yo. The Hi Fi job came via our oldest’s old boss at the box office at Depauw where they worked for her entire four years in college. They worked the ticket office there, and before that our kid worked at the ticket office at the Wagon Wheel Theater in our hometown for nearly 5 years. So they’ve got box office experience. Add in 4 summers of being the office manager at the Tippy Boat Co scheduling boat rentals and boat repairs and they’re kind of perfect for the job.
Her old boss works at the Hi Fi and put in a good word for her which went a long way. They really liked the two people they had interviewed with, and found out they were wanting to create a new supervisor position that will pay more than the box office position, and they thought our oldest would be perfect for that spot. So it all worked out pretty great.
Anyways, we headed down to see them and to drop off a desk my wife bought for them. Once we got the desk situated we headed out for some lunch. We hit Traxx BBQ in McCordsville, IN, which is about 23 minutes from our oldest’s apartment. The BBQ place shares a building with Scarlet Lane Brewing, a local brewery that loves beer and loves horror. They have Halloween decorations up year-long, and on that particular Saturday it was the 2nd annual Scaretastic Book Fair. Remember the Scholastic Book Fairs when we were kids? The things where they’d set up all those giant book cases on wheels in the elementary school library and you could go down and buy books? Well this was that, but the adult version with horror books(and beer). And also national horror book authors who came with their own books to sell. They were selling at their own tables and signing books as well.
Let me tell you, it was pretty damn awesome. Not only was the food incredible(we all got sandwiches as opposed to the family style meal), but we perused the happenings on the brewery side. It looked like it was a smashing success as crowds of people were everywhere with stacks of books and chatting with authors. It was kind of a beautiful thing.
Afterwards we left and hit up Meijer to pick up a few things for the oldest, then dropped them off at their place and headed back home. Saturday night it was just the two of us, so I made a pizza and we binged Grey’s Anatomy. I’m not a fan though I’ll sit and watch it, but my wife recently started watching. Or maybe it’s been two or three months since she started it. She’s already in season 8(there’s like 20 seasons), so unless I think of something quick to watch that’s what we’re watching.
I also watched this docu-series on Netflix called American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders about a journalist who was investigating this massive fraud case involving the Reagan Administration who wound up mysteriously dead by suicide. It was nuts. I try not to go down those conspiracy rabbit holes, but when you see something that compelling it’s hard not to.
Sunday was spent preparing food for a birthday celebration for our son and his girlfriend. Both were born on March 2nd, our son was celebrating his 19th, while his girlfriend was celebrating her 18th. Both officially adults. My parents and our 20-year old showed up and we had a nice dinner with shredded beef sandwiches, crabmeat salad, walking taco salad, and loaded potato skins(his girlfriend’s request.)
Getting things ready in the morning I spun some Sunday jazz. The wife and I are seeing the great Herbie Hancock live later this month in Indianapolis, so I’m trying to get her up to speed with his work. We listened to Takin’ Off and Maiden Voyage yesterday morning, then I felt like listening to some Grant Green so I spun his debut album Grant’s First Stand. Great smoking set with his trio consisting of Baby Face Willette on organ(definite Jimmy Smith vibes) and Ben Dixon on drums. This album does not get enough love. It’s perfection.
Reading back, for a weekend that seemed to just fly by as usual we got it pretty well packed full of stuff. Good stuff, too. Not that bad stuff that I was starting to get used to ever since last September. I’m heading to Fort Wayne this Wednesday so my 20-year old can shave my head for me and give me a manicure. I’m helping her get all the points she needs so she can graduate from school. If she buckles down she can graduate in June, otherwise it will be July. July’s not bad. But I’ll do my part to help out. It’ll be nice to see her, and get my head shaved.
That’s where I’m at. How are you?
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