Hey there, Dear Reader. It’s late morning here in New Hometown, Florida on Saturday, June 12, 2021. Currently, the temperature is 85˚F (30˚C) under light rain. With humidity at 54% and the wind blowing from the west at 4 MPH (7 KM/H), the heat index is 94˚F (34˚C). Today’s forecast: We can expect scattered rain showers throughout the day, and the high will be 91˚F (33˚C). Tonight, rain will continue, but it will be light. The low will be76˚F (24˚C).
When I went to bed sometime after 11 PM, I’d planned to write a post about how I went to see Raiders of the Lost Ark with my mom 40 years ago. It was a great bonding experience, especially because I’d saved some money to invite her to the movies for the first time, and we both became Indiana Jones fans by the time we emerged from the movie theater after the end credits rolled and the house lights went back up.
Alas. I woke up at the ungodly hour of 3:51 AM, and try as I might, I couldn’t go back to sleep. So, as I type this, I have been awake for nearly seven hours, and I’m sore (I had a really bad, painful leg cramp at one point), grumpy, and tired, I don’t know how I am even able to cobble together a coherent sentence, let alone a blog post.
Nevertheless, let’s push on, shall we?
Not with the original planned post. I’m too tired, and if I am going to write any story about my mom, I want to have my wits (and long-term memory) with me. Maybe I will be up to it later. If not, that’ll be tomorrow’s post.
Well, as you know, yesterday I decided to redeem a bunch of my Amazon Visa Rewards points to purchase Apocalypse Now: Final Cut, a six-disc box set that presents Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 mashup of Joseph Conrad’s 1902 novella Heart of Darkness and America’s lost crusade in Vietnam in three iterations:
- Apocalypse Now (1979), the original theatrical release edition
- Apocalypse Now Redux (2001), an extended version with 49 minutes of footage restored after being cut in 1979 for the film’s theatrical release
- Apocalypse Now: Final Cut (2019), a slightly pared-down version that cuts an entire scene that was re-inserted in Redux, and reduces the runtime of another sequence from that 2001 cut. Reportedly, Apocalypse Now: Final Cut is the director’s preferred version
So, basically, I am getting one film, three cuts; Apocalypse Now: Final Cut – which was a 40th Anniversary release in 2019 – includes 2 4K UHD Blu-ray discs and four standard Blu-ray discs, with the three versions of this psychological war drama, as well as a Huey helicopter’s worth of extras.
Some of those I already have on the previous Apocalypse Now: Full Disclosure box set, including Eleanor Coppola’s 1991 “making of” documentary, Hearts of Darkness. Other extras are new, including a Tribeca Film Festival Q&A with Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Soderbergh.
As of 7:41 AM, my package was last scanned at a carrier facility some 13 miles away from the house. It should be Out for Delivery soon, though, and it’s slated to arrive by 10 PM tonight.
I also bought a history book, The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History, but that shipped out from Columbia, SC earlier this morning, so it is going to arrive tomorrow.
I suppose this is not the most exciting blog post I’ve written, but it will have to do. As I said earlier, I had something else planned, but unfortunately, fate and a too-early-rising put a spanner in the works and the plan was changed. If I feel better later, I will write that story about Raiders, Mom, and me.
If not, you’ll see it tomorrow.[1]
[1] Assuming, of course, that I get a good night’s rest,
A Certain Point of View, Too 
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