MR - Ladyhawke

 

Ladyhawke starring Matthew Broderick and Michelle Pfeiffer

Bruce reminded us of this movie after the solar eclipse.  (Spoiler alert!)  A solar eclipse is pivotal in the climax of the story.  But then you might have guessed that from the DVD cover.  It is set in the 1300's when a wicked bishop who loved the heroine cast a spell on the lovers.  If he couldn't have her, then no one would.  She was to be a hawk in the day and her lover was to be a wolf at night.  Always so close, always so far away.  Matthew Broderick was the go between and did a good job.  The actor who was the handsome love interest had little to redeem his work beyond being handsome.  His horse, however, was magnificent.  Even though the eclipse was what brought them together, it wasn't portrayed very well.  Especially, it lasted much longer than they ever do.  Oh, well.....  All in all, it was a pretty fun way to spend an evening.  

Oh, one more thing.  The music was terrible.  Whoever decided that 1980's rock was appropriate for a movie set in the 1300's must have had been high on something.

MR - Wish

 

Wish, the newest Disney animated film

This was not what we expected.  Actually we didn't really know what to expect.  The music was really forgettable but the story seemed familiar.  And we discovered that the fun of the whole movie was that this was the 100th anniversary tribute to Walt's animation movies.  Every single previous movie was somehow mentioned in this movie.   The whole entire thing was one big Easter egg--everything from the 7 dwarfs to the latest one.   So it was worth the watch.  It would have been even more fun to pick out all the movies, but we needed the extras to start to do that.

Another Eclipse April 8

We have planned for this eclipse since our trip to Nashville in 2017 for that one.   It is an incredible experience!   Wayne invited his whole family to come, but only Karen, Bruce and Barbara were able to be here.  Gordon and his two children travelled from Benton Harbor to be with us as well.  

Our first plan was to leave here at 11:00 and go to Bowling Green where they were having a big party--that's an hour away.  But by 10:00 the highways were clogged so we rushed through lunch and headed down asap.  We had to travel surface roads all the way.   And then we decided the light clouds were too much in Bowling Green so we went another 20 miles to Findlay.   After we got through Toledo, the roads were much better but still it took 3 1/2 hours for a 1 1/2 drive.   We got there just in time and found a small park with a family watching outside there home.   

I must say it didn't disappoint!  We got almost 4 minutes of total eclipse.  The corona was spectacular as was the bead of light (sun flares) around it.   We cheered and gasped.   Then it was gone and we felt so blessed to have seen two total eclipses in the past decade.   The next one will be when we are in our 90s and probably won't be here for that one (August 12, 2045, one day before Wayne's 98th birthday!).   We noted this time that the horizon looked like a sunrise.  We hadn't see that before but the little park gave us a great view.   And the birds started singing again when it was over--as if to say, it was morning again.   

The drive home was bad, but it took 15 minutes less.   We kind of ate snacks on the way.   And we were tired.   It was nice to have seen it and nice to be home again safe and sound.  Our guests, left the next day.

Bruce, Barbara, Karen and Wayne

Donna and Bruce

Bruce, Barbara, Wayne, Donna, Gordon, Charlie, Karen, Cali

She Choose Poorly

 Bonus points if you know where I'm plagiarizing the title from.  Anyway, a duck decided that the planter box on our deck was a good place to build her nest.  Wrong!!  This time we decided that we weren't going to wait for the inevitable disaster that would happen and we forcibly evicted her and her egg.  Oh, well.... at least we won't have to worry about it tomorrow.

 A close-up in case you couldn't see the egg in the other photo.

Back to Kirtland

Originally, our trip to Kirtland wasn't on anyone's mind until the announcement that the Church had purchased the Kirtland Temple from the Community of Christ and that revised tours (free of charge) would begin on March 25th.  That, plus Donna's desire to see the rehabed Joseph and Emma home led to our decision to race over there and back.  We even planned to eat two picnic meals while we were there.  Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate.  The temperature was 37F when we arrived and we had driven through two snow squalls on our way to Kirtland.  In fact, it continued to snow off and on all day.  The sweet senior missionaries let us eat lunch in the visitor center conference room and then warned us that we needed to get on the waiting list if we wanted to see the temple.  For reasons no one understood, they had been inundated by many more visitors than they had anticipated.  So, while Bruce and Barbara visited the Whitney store we drove up to the temple and got on the waiting list for later in the afternoon.  It worked out perfectly to pick them up and visit the J & E Home before our scheduled visit.  And it was all worth it.  We enjoyed hearing about the temple from our perspective.  For example, it was the first time that Brigham Young's contribution was mentioned.  And they took us to the third floor, well everyone but Donna who didn't want to tackle the very steep staircase.  She had a very interesting visit with one of the missionaries while the rest of us went upstairs.  So all in all, it was a very pleasant day, in spite of the snow.