Rain...

I would love us to get some rain here in Savannah. It's been several weeks, and we haven't had any. Prior to the Labor Day weekend, we had a few handymen here working away. For months there had been some leaking on the screened in porch from the neighbors' deck above, and gradually it got worse. A call was made and one of the workmen came by. Over the backdoor of the porch there was a rather lush vine of Confederate Jasmine that had assumed a life of its' own. It had grown up and over the neighbors railing, and upon closer inspection was discovered to have taken up additional root in the gutter acting as the drainage for their deck. Believe that to be the chief source of the leak. Chris (the handyman) also said that there were some considerable cracks in a couple of boards up there. So the following day he came with new boards, and proceeded to hack the hell out of the ivy. I know ivy is resilient, but it's rather brown at the moment and could use with a nice strong downpour to pull it out of apparent shock. If I could perform a rain dance, I would. Gladly. The constant reports by the weather folk here of 'a 30% chance of scattered thunderstorms' has gotten old (but I do know it's typical of the area and the time of year). Hopefully, something will fall soon.

We had a couple other guys here at the same time to fix a frustrating problem with the clothes dryer. Since I got here at the end of November, 2008, it took maybe three tries (if you were lucky) to dry one load of clothes. Very time consuming, and hard on the power bill. Had a couple of loads that just weren't drying at all, and when I opened the door steam came roiling out. Not good. I pulled the dryer out to inspect the vent hose and it came off the pipe to the wall vent. A stream of water poured out. Definitely not good. So the same call about the leaky porch included the drying problem. They had to cut a huge piece out of the laundry closet wall and replace the pipe to the outside, but...WOO HOO...now we have dry clothes after one cycle. Call Ripley's. They also had to cut into the ceiling of the storage closet on the porch, which was sporting a hole thought to have been created by vermin of some sort (rats, squirrels, etc.). Never got a confirmation as to whether or not they found any nests when they opened things up, but now the hole is defunct. Thankfully, all of the repair charges were paid by the condos.

That's probably the most excitement that's happened here recently. The great things I've been waiting for are about to arrive, so all is right with the world. The writing portion of my brain has been churning, so my book is back in the creation phase. It's really not that surprising. Autumn is right around the corner. It is my favorite and most productive time of the year. The air cools, the leaves change, and Halloween happens. Gotta love the fall.

One of the few...

There aren't a whole heck of a lot of the movies that come out these days that I give to hoots about seeing. I really want to see "HP & The Half-Blood Prince", but I'm afraid that I missed it in theaters...bummer. The Harry Potter series are really the only flicks I'll make the effort for cause I'm a big geek that way. Dig seeing them on the big screen. Guess I'll have to make do with the DVD when it comes out. There is another film that I've been wanting to see, and last night...well...I saw it.

The highly anticipated "Wolverine", starring the very fetching Hugh Jackman, wasn't bad. Wasn't great either. True, I'm not as well versed in the details of the Marvel Universe as some, but I know enough to know that certain things were 'off'. First, I'll say that the argument regarding Hugh Jackman's size (meaning his height, people...) was raised and let go during the first installment of the X-Men trilogy. It was for me anyway. (Wolverine is about 5' 3" in the comics...who'd you get to play him then? Danny Devito? That conjures a disturbing image, to say the least.) Jackman has done a fine job as Wolverine. Moving on to a couple of others in the film.

Liev Schreiber as 'Sabretooth'. Schreiber is a good actor. The first time I recall seeing him was in a quirky indie-film starring Parker Posey..."Party Girl". Since then he's done a number of things, including a remake of 'The Manchurian Candidate' (which I haven't seen...why they remade it in the first place is beyond me...it's a classic). I had my doubts about him playing Sabretooth. Didn't know if he would achieve the 'crazy' aspect, and he's really too small. (Yes, I know - Jackman too big/Schreiber too small...doo dah, doo dah). He did kind of come off as an unhinged killer, but there was something missing for me. Not entirely sure what it is, but...something.

The other thing that was very noticeable was 'Gambit's' lack of a creole accent. Either the actor wasn't pushed to do it, or he couldn't do it well enough. That's about all I have to say about him.

There were several mutants who I didn't know. Some were more obvious than others. Then there was the subject of Weapon XI. 'Dead Pool' (played by Ryan Reynolds...I know a lot of ladies out there think he's "hot", but he doesn't do it for me...) is made into a 'fighting machine' with a collection of attributes taken from other mutants. I know next to nothing about Dead Pool, so I turned to the Marvel Encyclopedia sitting next to me (A.K.A. Glenn) and he didn't really know what the deal was either. Looks like it might have been injected into the film, and not pulled from the comics. Don't know, but that's the theory over here.

Overall? Wasn't great, wasn't bad. Had a nice smattering of eye candy throughout, which is always welcome. The story was...okay. Didn't entirely follow the comic books, but movies rarely follow the original work to the letter. Is there a sequell? I haven't heard that there will be, but I suspect there might be. If for some reason they decide to move in that direction, I hope they make a great film and not a passable film. I'll just say that I'm glad I waited until the DVD on 'Wolverine'.