Posting daily at 1pm central about all kinds of things. One day it's dating, the next it's TV commercials. I hope you're entertained. Professional photos on SmugMug – https://benwilder.smugmug.com
This installation of 5-Photo Friday is a glimpse at what I saw when I walked around the family property. Just a moment in time, lasting only an hour at the most and I got to see some cool things. Check them out…
The dragonfly. Plotting its next move and getting a tan at the same time.
Roly Poly. Nothing more Florida than an armadillo, right?
Bananas. A golden silk orb weaver, and a big one at that! Harmless to humans but still an intimidating sight to behold.
The line is out. But which line and when is it actually in, not out? Pickleball rules can be deceiving.
Stacks. Pieces of an old patio waiting to be useful again.
Just a few favorite photos from a random day in July. Check back every Friday for more galleries of shots, hope to see you soon…
I just got a text from my brother with some bad news. I don’t think the Iron Sheik hacked my brother’s phone to send me a fake message… so could it be true that the legend Hulk Hogan is gone? I Googled it and sure enough there are a lot of posts from every outlet spreading the news. First we lose Theo Huxtable and now this? Not shaping up to be a great week for any of us who grew up in the 80s… in other words, everyone over the age of 40.
When I was a kid my dad took my brother and I to a WWF match. It was a Saturday night (I remember that because my dad said we still had to go to church in the morning 😇) and the highlight, of course, was seeing Hulk Hogan wrestle. I also remember seeing the Ultimate Warrior and the Honky Tonk Man that night, too. I can’t remember if Ultimate Warrior or Hulk Hogan wrestled against Honky Tonk Man, but I know for sure there was a smashed guitar by the end of the match. I even snagged a piece of it that I held on to as memorabilia for many years. Where IS that splintered piece of wood, anyway?
That was just one tiny spec of a highlight in Hulk Hogan’s very long wrestling career. From drinking eggs to saying his prayers, the leg drop, Hulkamania running wild, or Hulk himself running out to defend a lesser wrestler, he was a legend and the hero of every boy in the 80s. Although, I’ll just be totally honest, for some reason I really liked The Iron Sheik, too. Maybe because he was the outcast, the outsider, the villain. Every hero has a villain to deal with, right? There was Andre the Giant, too, a notorious villain of Hulk’s. Over the years Hulk had many opponents who tried to take him down but with a 2-count fist pump to save a match and then a twirl of the hand to his ear, we were all in his corner.
I’m sorry to hear the news but deep down I know Hulkamania lives on. Even when he was ‘bad guy’ Hollywood Hogan, we all still knew the ‘good guy’ was behind it all. The words of his theme song come to mind…
I am a real American Fight for the rights of every man. I am a real American Fight for what’s right, fight for your life.
Upon his entrance to Heaven and he hears “Well done thou good and faithful servant,” I wonder if there’ll be an angel lifting up Hulk’s arm with a victory in his final match of life. Everyone’s gonna miss you, brother.
It was to be doggy date night. Myself, Piper, Asia, Quincy, and Hazel. Quincy puts himself to bed every night around 8pm so first up, we (me, Piper, Asia, Hazel) watched the original Adventures in Babysitting starring Elisabeth Shue. Naturally, last night we followed it up with the 2016 remake starring Sabrina Carpenter. Why do people think remakes are ever a good idea? Some movies just need to be left alone. Shawshank Redemption. Forrest Gump. The Notebook. I wouldn’t have put Adventures in Babysitting in that category until today. Disney, hands off of the 80s movie. Step back and slowly move away.
I’ll just get right to it. The movie was bland, predictable, and there was nothing endearing about any of the characters except for little derby girl AJ Anderson. You know how people hurt themselves just to make sure they’re still alive? I almost punched myself halfway through the movie. One, to make sure I still have feelings and two, to punish myself for willingly watching it. The modern retelling of the story showcases two babysitters. How original. I knew pretty early into the movie that I already couldn’t care less about what happened to either babysitter. But I tried. I really did try. It’s kind of sad when the best movie moments were just a copy & paste from the original, as specific as having their own “Babysitting Blues” moment… except it was a rap. Even lines like “Next time ask for $10 more per hour” was a quick edit of the original where the line was to ask for an extra $1 an hour. The final cheap copy was in the final few moments of the movie. In the original, each person says it was the best night of their life, culminating in a tender moment where Chris Parker (E. Shue) pauses and says, “Mine, too.” In that line, she affirmed everything the kids were feeling, brought them up to her level of coolness, and the group was forever bonded in that moment and we, as the audience, felt it. The updated version was so disjointed and when it was S. Carpenter’s turn to proclaim it has her best night ever as the babysitter, the moment hadn’t built up so her delivery was just another line in a forgettable scene that could’ve been, should’ve been, the perfect touch to end the movie. Instead, I should’ve punched myself because I felt nothing. Dead inside.
In closing, there was no “Babysitting Blues” hilarity in the update. Just a rap battle where the two babysitters roasted each other and did nothing to have us like any of them any more than we already did… or didn’t. The rhyming of the rap was fine, I’ll give them that. But the blues in the first movie was simply great for the improvisational feel, the music and musicians, the humor, and no one on stage taking themselves too seriously.
When Adventures in Babysitting was released I was around 9 years old. I would’ve been on the side that needed to be babysat. Fast forward a few decades and now I’m on the side that would need a sitter for my kids (if I had any). So my perspective on the movie is way different than back in 1987 when it debuted in theaters so I thought I’d watch it on Disney+. Also, is there a better time to watch a movie about being a responsible and mature chaperone than when I’m doing some sitting myself? Not humans, though. I’m dog sitting for the week so last night was the second night of watching movies with the pups.
It’s a fun movie. Very family friendly now that Disney cleaned it up a bit; Instead of “homo” in a derogatory manner they dub over it with something like “loser” and most curse words are swapped out for something less harsh.
It’s probably what you remember or what you’d expect from an 80s adventure movie. A group of young kids getting into mishaps for the entire night while hoping to not get caught by the parents. The situation keeps spiraling downward and just when you think all hope is lost, the turning point. Classic 80s-style odyssey and I laughed out loud more than a few times.
There’s also the remake from 2016, which I haven’t seen, so we might be queuing that up for tonight’s flick. For this one, we’re giving it two paws up for the adventure, laughs, the scene with Elisabeth Shue and the whole gang singing the Babysitting Blues, and the fun throwback to 80s culture.
Pizza, corny jokes, and a goodbye hug. Sounds like a decent date, right? Well, it was decent. It’s hard to go wrong with pizza. The deal breaker among a lot of people, though, is toppings. Pineapple or no?
We kept in touch in the following days but the rest of the story is that we both agreed there wasn’t a vibe. She brought it up first. I won’t fake like I initiated that conversation. I’m happy to have gone on a date with a kind woman and maybe that’s all it was meant to be: A glimpse of hope and this, coming after a first half of the year that included a handful of cancelled dates and missed opportunities.
My stock is rising and I’m almost sure I’ll have a better dating life the second half of this year. Heck, it’s already going better than January-through-June did even if there isn’t going to be a second date.
Out of the Wilderness 