“Gravity” brought us back to earth October 12, 2013
Posted by makingyourdashcount in death, faith, Life Journey, mourning, movies, Sarah, space.Tags: AMC, Bullock, children, Coke Freestyle, death, Gravity, loss, Movies, religion, Space
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Warning ….Mild spoilers:
Last night my hubby and I plopped down $32 to see Gravity in 3D at the local IMAX theater. You have no idea how absurd that even is. I am a $5 matinee kind of girl; I paid as he gave me a “you’ve got to be kidding” glance that surmised that I was crazy. We then went and plunked down another $6 for a large soda, but at least it was a Coke Freestyle machine so I could make my favorite concoction (equal proportions Sprite 0, Fanta Free fruit punch, and soda water. YUM)
We settled in the IMAX seating. The screen at the AMC was smaller than the screen at our local science museum, COSI, so I was a bit disappointed in that. For the most part the movie was gripping. The 3D effects were natural; it was nice not having contrived images to make wearing ridiculous glasses bearable. You don’t need corny effects for space.
The plot was a bit contrived, but.. it’s a space disaster movie, so …whatever. Sometimes it nice to suspend reality and let the vines grow around the movie theater seat. So suspended we were, through the action scenes involving rogue satellite parts and shattering spacecraft. The scientist that my husband is exclaimed that Bullock’s character better hold onto something when she reached for the fire extinguisher the first time! We were suspended. And then Sandra Bullock’s character, Ryan Stone, started talking about her 4 year old daughter who died unexpectedly in an accident. I can’t quote the lines exactly ( or at all) but she talked about her daughter’s tangle of hair, a tangle that a brush couldn’t go through. At that point, I looked at John and saw his emotion. Our daughter, Sarah, whom we lost at 16 quite unexpectedly, had a tangle of hair that even at 16 she frequently gave up on! Then Stone’s daughter’s name, Sarah, was uttered. My husband and I held hands through the rest of that scene, as one.
It was unexpected and (unfortunately) took us out of suspended reality because we identified with this mom. We knew Sarah. We knew where Ryan Stone was, because in so many ways, we are there, too. Loss of a child is sometimes treated sappily in movies and on TV. but this was really spot on. I identified with Stone wanting to believe in heaven, who wouldn’t? But Stone suspended her own secular humanist reality by wanting that for her daughter- a point that was interesting in a movie with so much religious imagery. In so many ways we connected with this character. Our empathy was with Stone; our tears were for our Sarah.
I’ve read some critiques that the movie Gravity is really a chic flick in spacesuits. Perhaps. I would prefer to think that it’s an action flick with some humanity. All in all, it was a good night out. Was it worth $16/ each? It is “just a movie,” but it really was a fast paced 90 minutes that really should be seen in 3-D. Read the reviews and decide for yourselves. I am glad that we went. I mean, it is Sandra Bullock.
Oh yeah, George Clooney’s in it, too.
Molting Cats April 1, 2006
Posted by makingyourdashcount in Fun Stuff, Sarah.1 comment so far
Cats must spend a great deal of time caring for their coat, since their lives depend on it. Preening and bathing and other fur care operations, however, cannot prevent the coat from wearing out. Because a cat’s fur is lifeless, incapable of being repaired, worn fur must be replaced. This process of replacement is termed molting.This is particularly true in purebred long hair animals. The old, worn coat is loosened in the follicles (sockets) by the growth of new intruding fur, which eventually push them out. Molting occurs in regular patterns over a long haired cat’s body. The adaptiveness of such patterns can be illustrated by the Spotted Persian, which retain key tufts of fur used for sensory detection until other fur is replaced. The majority of adult long hair purebred cats molt once or twice a year, and the temporal pattern, not unexpectedly, is related to the wear rate on the fur. This is especially evident in older eastern European breeds.
Molting is timed to meet various needs. For example, in temperate-zone cats require more insulation in the winter than in the summer. The number is changed in the process of molting; winter growth may contain more than half again as much fur as in the summer. Since the coat, which carry the colors of the animal, are "dead," a cat cannot totally change its colors without changing its coat (although its appearance can change substantially just from wear). Therefore a male cat usually molts prior to the breeding season. Molting takes from 5 to 12 weeks, but some may require two years or more to completely replace their coat.
Some cats, such as Siamese and Himalayan, are "synchronous molters" — they change their coat all at once in a period as short as two weeks, but sometimes stretching over a month.
APRIL FOOLS
Sarah would have loved this. I can hear her laughing now. I originally wrote this in response to our cat's semi-annual fur shed. I sent this to gullible family members who totally fell for it. Living life one practical joke at a time.
See the Siberian Post on 3/23 for a REAL article about shedding.
Making your Dash Count 