Time to Be Productive

Photo taken at a ceramics store on Burnet Road on Saturday.

I have to make it quick this morning, limiting the time that I allow myself to write a few paragraphs and sip coffee. It's funny but retired people also take their weekends off sometimes. Yesterday I was particularly lazy. I dawdled over coffee and writing and then watched the Australian Open Men's Final off my DVR while making sure I didn't find out the result. I drank more coffee and ate migas FFP made.

Then I had a workout for a little over an hour, starting a new book on the bike. (No, I'm on page 609 of Ulysses, no where near the end, but I wanted to read this one so I could loan it to my dad to read.) The book is Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. My sister gave it to me for Christmas. It seems fantastic from what I got read.

Anyway, when I got home from the gym and showered it was after 1PM. FFP and a friend of ours had picked The Savages to see. My friend said something like "I want to see a light comedy that is uplifting at the end. But given the choices my short list is The Savages and Let There Be Blood." FFP had picked The Savages in spite of a desire to go to an Alamo. So by 2:50 we were watching previews at the Arbor. There seemed to be lots of violent, horror and fantasy in the previews. I leaned over to my friend and said: "I don't think I'll see that. Aren't aging parents scary enough?" I thought, from the reviews, that The Savages would be all depressing with a dysfunctional parent wreaking havoc on children in old age revealing all their flaws and wounds. It was all that but managed to have this vaguely uplifting finish that was either really silly, just tagged on at the insistence of the producers or a failed attempt to bring closure where little is ever found. I ended up liking the movie and liking the characters played by Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman in spite of the fact that they are types of characters I love to hate in real life. (She: pathological liar; He: Self-important academic. I love academics but only if they see the humor in it.) I guess what I admired was the set decoration and the direction and how everything added up for you just like you were peeking in on these people's lives.

Anyway, enough with the movie review. I should have seen this movie in the Austin Film Festival and for some reason I didn't. So, having spent time on it yesterday, I spent the evening eating take out Chinese and drinking wine and then watching Suddam Hussein's FBI interrogator on 60 Minutes. And then watching Talk Radio on DVD. (It is a fantastic story. I never heard of the guys in it until I read a movie review. It was pretty good. Especially the costumes.) And working the Sunday New York Times Magazine crossword. (Almost finished it.) And reading a little bit of the paper otherwise and falling asleep.

My day slipped away. I 'took it off' I guess as much as a dilettante can. (Reading and watching movies being my job, you know.)

Today has to be different. I have to get a quick workout and take care of business for my dad. His handicapped placard needs to be renewed. He needs errands run and I'm going to accompany him to a doctor's visit. I have to be more productive than I was yesterday. But it was Sunday.

Of course, now I've spent more time on this entry than I intended. Well, onward, dear readers. Get on with your days, too, now.