And Now For Something Completely Different

I finally managed to capture the cat jumping from the ladder to the top of the trailer. I have watched him going both ways, but I have finally managed to capture him in the act.

I decided I wanted to see Top Gun: Maverick so I checked out the local theater, Studio City Stadium Cinemas. I did get the senior price and was surprised to find that it cost me $8.00 for admission. For a large popcorn and a large diet Coke, and 5% sales tax , the cost was $16.28. It seemed reasonable so I stayed around and watched the new release of Jurassic World: Dominion. I noticed that the two big blockbusters of the summer were retreads. Top Gun was mostly a retread, with cameos by F-35 fighters and a putative SR-72, but most of the action focused on a strike by F-18’s on a pesudo-Iranian Uranium enrichment site. Of course, Maverick and Rooster (Goose’s Son) escape in an old F-14 and land back on the carrier.

Jurassic World was a replay of the Jurassic Park franchise. Humans’ vs assorted dinosaurs with various despicable humans greedily assisting with their own demise.

My question is thus: Why are the two biggest hits of 2022 retreads of the 1980’s? Where are the new, attractive, engaging stories of today? My guess is that forcing the progressive storytelling into the traditional roles doesn’t work.

Another option is that this is an example of Idiocracy in action. My father’s generation, raised during the Great Depression, also known as the Greatest Generation, knew how to do stuff. I was a Baby Boomer and learned a lot from him about how to identify a woman, the differences between the (2 – XX &XY chromosomes) sexes. In the ’60’s and ’70’s the U.S. travelled to the moon with hardware that that was laughably simple by today’s standards, but was understood and operated by Boomers, supervised by their seniors. Top Gun was released in 1986 and Jurassic Park was released in 1993. The Star Wars trilogy were released in 1977, 1980, and 1983. In the last 10 years what has been released? Nothing but sensitive remakes, remakes with female leads, but what new original movies are there? My take on it is that the Millennial generation, that has supplanted the Boomers, have in general been captured by the leftist ideology that has infested colleges & universities. The focus on race and gender ideology, the lessening of structure in the social sciences has dumbed down the background knowledge of an entire generation.

I’m finally seeing the definitive results of my solar power usage on my electric bill from Rocky Mountain Electric Company. Note that the peak in Feb and Mar bills of over $300.00 were due to temps about freezing and relying on supplemental electric heat. April and May were relying on solar during the day. The June number reflects basically full-time solar use.

Jon was scheduled to fly in Friday evening but was diverted to Colorado Springs due to winds. He managed to get to Denver later that night but he missed the evening flight to Casper.

He arrived on Saturday, and we took off to the Shirey’s to camp for a day and showed Jon the sights of (forested) Wyoming. For what it’s worth, I think I picked up a bit of food-poisoning and felt out of it until we got back Sunday afternoon.

Over the weekend, I got a surprise email that my reefer had come in to Sonny’s RV and was ready for pickup.

Meanwhile about 10:00 am the walls started going up.

Notice the headers above the windows in the above picture. Two4-foot windows in the MBR, a 3-foot window kitchen, a Patio Door and finally another 4-foot bedroom window.

This is most of the outside walls in. Note the clouds filling in over the mountains to the south. Shortly after this picture the thunderstorm blew in with 40-50 kt winds and we scrambled to collect tools and quit early for the day.

Starting Tuesday, the day started with only the mildest breezes and without a cloud in the sky.

We first finished up the remaining walls.

We then started sheathing the wall with chipboard.

And finally, after working, we drove into town and stumbled across this near the intersection of 2nd Ave and Wyoming Blvd.

They are rebuilding an old restaurant into a Chili’s. Coming soon, I won’t need to drive to Cheyenne for my fix.