Random Thoughts: August 2020 Edition

When I was in High School my least favorite class was Physical Education.  It was so hard getting an "A" in that class!!!  And one of my least favorite segments was badminton.  Maybe it was the quality of the birdies, but they never flew right.  -_-;;  Pickleball is gaining popularity in Utah.  Don't know how long the sport has been around, but there are community pickleball courts popping up here and there, and people are always playing.  It's hard getting an open court in the afternoon/evening.

So I went onto Amazon and found out there are several sport travel nets that can be purchased that don't need to be staked into the ground.  They're free standing.  You can play a few games with these nets such as pickelball, badminton, and volleyball.  I got one of these nets.  Recently bought a pickelball set and some birdies for a badminton set I got over a decade ago.  Last weekend I set it all up and honestly had a lot of fun!  Didn't play with any rules, and didn't keep track of points.  It was fun hitting the balls and birdies back and forth.  Maybe badminton is the sort of sport one needs to grow into. :P  Pickelball is pretty fun, too.

With that said I actually took a tennis class when I was a kid.  Wasn't too bad!  Wasn't all that great, either!  But it was fun, and I enjoyed going to the lessons.  My favorite memory, though, has nothing to do with tennis.  When my group did well our teacher awarded us with cans of Pepsi.  So now whenever I drink Pepsi I think of tennis.  (I prefer Coke, but like both).  But it's funny how the taste of Pepsi always brings me back to when I was a kid, hot Summer heat, hitting tennis balls, and finishing the afternoon with the ice cold drink.

My car is thirteen years old.  It's been a good, dear little car.  Dependable.  Kept my family safe when a tire blew while traveling 80 miles an hour in the middle of the Utah desert.  It's now starting to show its age.  A few days ago it struggled to start.  This has now happened a few times. Maybe it's the starter.  Maybe it's the battery, which I haven't had to replace once all these years, so it's probably that.  Hopefully.  Cars baffle me.  It's now just a maintenance game.  I'm lucky to have it, so counting my blessings.  It's been a good little car. 

Went on a drive with my Mom, Grandma, and Aunt a couple days ago.  We decided to explore Midway a little more this time.  The city reminds me of a super miniature Solvang, since there's a Scandinavian theme with some of the buildings and art.  We wandered down streets and ended up in this residential neighborhood with the most interesting homes.  Many of these homes had murals and dutch style painted embellishments.  They were honestly really cool, and something I've never seen before.  Some of the murals were really amazing.

I'm missing travel so much I'm honestly romanticizing airports, including layovers.  Layovers are no fun, trying to nap in uncomfortable seats by the gate, but I'm actually missing airports and layovers.  How weird is that?  I don't miss flying in the cramped coach section, because I always end up with the middle seat.  Packed sardines in the sky.  I think I'm missing the wonder of going places.

Have a great weekend!

It's Friday!! :D

Midway, mini movie review

 

Rating: B+

Even though I've grown up watching World War II documentaries, I don't know much about what happened in the Pacific during this war.  It's a shame, as I have a Great-grandfather who served in the Navy during both World Wars, and my Grandpa R's brother was a POW under the Japanese.  I don't know much about either.  When my Dad was a Marine he served on the USS Midway aircraft cruiser, named to honor the battle. He wanted to fly planes, but bad eyesight is a family thing, so when he was on the Midway he ate in this room where he could listen to the planes land.  One day he had to do something and missed his routine lunch and an airplane crash, spreading fire in the room where he ate.  His life was saved that day, and that's what I think of whenever I hear "Midway."

As for the movie, Midway shows the escalating conflict between the US and Japan, the tensions, attack on Pearl Harbor, and then the subsequent attacks in the Pacific and beyond.  If you know history, you know how this story goes.

So much historical focus is on mainland Europe and England during this time.  Conflict with Germany and Italy. The holocaust. D-Day. The air raids in London and elsewhere.  The Narnia kids getting sent to the countryside (fiction, but still showing an aspect of the times).  Just that part of the war seems so overwhelmingly massive.  Then throw in the Pacific, Japan, China, and then you realize why this really was a World War.  And it's amazing humanity survived.  We forget.

I've read some reviews that says the dialogue is cheesy and whatnot, but I don't mind it.  As tragic as this time was, I still love the outfits.  The music!  The start of swing dance.  It was a time of rationing. Sacrifice. Human vigor and determination.

There's a lot of characters.  People come and go.  It's war.  And there are moving parts everywhere changing, contributing.  Portraying this one aspect of WWII is a huge undertaking, and yet, even with everything going on, it's easy to follow along and get involved with some of the characters.  And what's nice about this movie is that it focuses on so many real people who actually fought and served. 

War is awful, yes, but we shouldn't forget the past. Learn from the mistakes. Grow from the strength of others. Understand. The battle of Midway was only 77 years ago.  It hasn't even been a century!  And yet I wonder what my Great-grandfather and Great-uncle would think of the fact that my siblings and I love visiting Tokyo and are learning Japanese.  They would think it unbelievable!!

We can't forget.

And it was nice that in the showing I attended there were so many ages.  I thought I was going to be the youngest, but there were high-schoolers there as well.  And everyone in the theater was getting into it, holding their breath at times.  And at the end there was some clapping.  I found myself quite emotional and glad to become more fully aware of this time in history.

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sequences of war violence and related images, language and smoking.