Postcards from the weekend

by chuckofish

Another rainy, overcast weekend filled with busy-ness. When did February become such a busy month?

Among other things, the bud had the Pinewood Derby…

He got the “Spirit of Scouting” medal…

…but his car came in 4th out of 12 in the race, so he missed out on a podium trophy by three-tenths of a second. C’es la vie.

Meanwhile the movers came to daughter #2’s house two days earlier than previously arranged, so they had a last-minute scramble to finish packing the night before.

This gives them more time to drive to Illinois, so it’ll work out.

They left on Sunday and will arrive on Monday, in plenty of time to close on their house on Tuesday.

The OM and I are poised to drive over to help them unpack as soon as we hear when the movers are actually going to arrive (probably Wednesday) with all their stuff. Prayers for traveling mercies all around.

This week our Sunday School class on the Doctrines of Grace (TULIP) focused on Irresistible Grace–“the point at which the things determined beforehand in the mind and counsel of God pass over into time.” Or to put it simply: “He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 1:6) I love this class!

After church the OM went to the Blues hockey game and the rest of us all went to see The Wizard of Oz (1939) on the big screen. (Check out Fathom’s Big Screen Classics series here.) As you know, it is one of my top 5 favorite movies, so I jumped at the opportunity. Wow, to see this great movie as it was meant to be seen was fantastic. The art direction is A++++ and on the big screen you can see every detail. The incidental music is awesome and Judy Garland is perfection. In fact, everyone in it is great.

The bud’s favorite part was the tornado in Kansas and Lottie’s fave was Glinda. We all agreed that Toto reminded us of Mr. Smith through the whole movie. I hope we can talk about it further sometime–they had to rush off to Lacrosse practice!

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite ancestors, John Wesley Prowers, the Colorado cattle king who was an early inductee into the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum Hall of Fame in 1963.

I like to celebrate by watching a really good cowboy movie. This year we watched Red River (1948), one of the best and a favorite of mine. As Roger Ebert wrote, “….’Red River’ is one of the greatest of all Westerns when it stays with its central story about an older man and a younger one, and the first cattle drive down the Chisholm Trail. It is only in its few scenes involving women that it goes wrong.” I have to agree.

John Wayne and Montgomery Clift are perfect as father and (adopted) son. Every time I see it I am so impressed with both of them. And Walter Brennan gives one of his best performances.

I also watched Kevin James’ Irregardless stand-up special on Prime Video. I think he’s funny and he seems really normal. No bad language or vulgarity. No politics. Probably having an old lady like me like your comedy routine is the kiss of death, but oh well.

So it was quite a weekend. What did you do? What did you learn? There’s no place like home!