Memorial Day
We hung out our flag again this year: With the black ribbon until noon and without it for the rest of the day. It was a special feeling to honor not only the veterans who had died but also the first responders who gave their lives and the people who died from the virus. The flag at Waltonwood has been on half mast for ten weeks now, for all the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic, two of them close friends.
On Sunday before Memorial Day we planned to get together with friends from the cottage four doors down in the gazebo next to the pond. We did it a few weeks ago and it was frightfully cold, but we had a good time. Sunday morning was sunny and warm but close to three o’ clock it started raining and we heard thunder. So instead, we got together at our friends’ house, keeping distance and bringing our own glasses and wine. We had a wonderful time. After all, God created us to be communal beings. To live in isolation, whether outwardly or inwardly, can lead to despair. I’m thinking of the single men and women in their apartments in the main building: isolation has taken ten weeks now, and the end is not in sight. We hope to be”free” again at the end of the third phase in North Carolina, when everything is safe. Sigh.
I want you to know that I am spacing the pictures to the format of every post as it appears on my Mac computer. If you look at it on your tablet or phone, they may look out of place.
Lockdown dreadlocks gone: A totally different dog!
A friend came to pick up Lani 
last week and took her to the groomer’s – the first time in four months. She had developed dreadlocks I could not get out. So she needed a total shave. That must have been a harrowing experience for her, because it took two days before she was her old self again. And at night I gave her a blankie in her basket because she was shivering. We can’t wait until some of her hair has grown back and she will look like a doodle again.
Love’s Labour’s Won
was the 1599 sequel to the play Love’s Labour’s Lost, both written by William Shakespeare. It was performed only once, while an Alien invasion began and was quickly ended by Shakespeare himself….Nonetheless, Shakespeare seemed to have rewritten the play at some point.
I saw the analogy between Shakespeare’s play and my movie, hence the above title. The movie played for 10 days in LA to qualify for academy awards – It became a finalist in the live shorts category but I don’t know that for certain. It played around the country causing disruptions wherever it played. At the time of the San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre in 1984 it was pulled. There were some copyright issues with the sound track of Casablanca which were never resolved… as I understand it. In the 90s – this I do know to be true – HBO was interested in it for awhile but then nothing happened – possibly due to the the copyright issues. It has appeared and disappeared from youtube for this reason. We were living in Hawai’i at the time and the movie was the farthest thing from my mind.
A few weeks ago I thought, Oh, let me try one more time and look if my movie has reappeared. After a while I found the information about the movie. After a second try I connected with the actor who had played the lead. No additional news from him. But then, I found it on YouTube! It was released again five years ago, without sound! It’s not a movie I would recommend to anyone, but the most important thing is that I played a role in it and that I now have two actual screen shots! I am holding the baby in the first one, am talking to him in the second, all the time watching the movie Casablanca. Oh, how fun to actually see myself at that age! I reached my goal and that’s enough about myself.
It’s a Wonderful Life!
Until next time,
Ronny