Musings & Thoughts for Tuesday, July 20, 2021, or: Coping with Yesterday

Hi, there, Dear Reader. It is midday here in New Hometown, Florida, on Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The present temperature is 88˚F (31˚C) under sunny skies. With humidity at 54% and the wind blowing from the southeast at 4 MPH (6 KM/H), the heat index is 98˚F (36˚C). Today’s forecast calls for scattered rain showers and a high of 93˚F (34˚C). Tonight, we can expect scattered rain showers to continue. The low will be 74˚F (24˚C). The Air Quality Index (AQI) is 25 or Good.

Well, I made it through yesterday without falling into a depressive state because it was the sixth anniversary of my mother’s death. Yes, I grieved her passing; I think I do so – consciously or not – every day, especially when I compare and contrast life here in New Hometown to my previous one in Miami. And, yes, I wrote another commemorative blog post about her death. Like it or not, July 19, 2015 was a defining, life-altering date for me, and it would have so even if:

• My mom’s plan to for me keep our townhouse as my inheritance and permanent home had worked out
• My half-sister and I were not at each other’s throats due to our different personalities and states of mental health
• I had a steady source of income and financial security free of the limits imposed on me by the Social Security Administration

Basically, even if I were financially well-off, happy, and in my own house rather than in the home of someone who took it upon herself to take me in (and it was  her idea, not mine), my mother’s demise would have defined the remainder of my life. Her absence would still weigh heavily on my mind even if my wishes of being independent – or at least in a happy relationship – had come true.

I’m not going to write an entire post about this subject; suffice it to say that the bond between my mother and me was strong (certainly stronger than that between Mom and my half-sister[1]) and that any setback I experience here in this house triggers the “But life was so much better when Mom was around” thoughts. Every time that something good happens to me (which is a rarity these days), I wish I could share the news with her. I mean, now that I’m involuntarily single, who can I share good news to in person, right?

Apropos of good news, remember that I mentioned a while back that Kenneth Shapiro, the writer-director of Great Voices Sing John Denver wanted to add my review of the movie to the official Great Voices Sing John Denver website?

Well, it took the webmaster of the site some time to do so, and I thought that Shapiro probably forgot. After all, I am not a well-known film critic on the same exalted level of Robert Roeper, Peter Travis, or my personal inspiration, the late Roger Ebert. I’m just a boring middle-aged Star Wars fan and storyteller. But on Monday I went to the Great Voices website,  looked at the Awards and Laurels page, and saw this….

I thought that if Shapiro were serious about adding my review to the website, it would be tucked away off in a corner where it could be seen. Or maybe the site manager would have just pulled a quote and created a “blurb.” You know, something along the lines of:

“I recommend this award-winning film to anyone who enjoys great music…., it will appeal a great deal to either fans of John Denver or are familiar with the artists recruited by Milt and Rosemary Okun, Elisa Justice, and Lee Holdridge.”

But no. The folks at the Great Voices Film Company appreciated my review and gave it a prominent place on the Awards and Laurels page. And, of course, my very human reaction was, “Wow! They like me! They really like me!”[2]

So, yeah, I made it though yesterday without shedding a tear or being a grump. Seeing my review on the Great Voices Film Company site – and my name, while we are at it – made my day.

I still wish my mom had seen it, though.

Well, other than to say that today I will be getting my Blu-ray set of Star Trek: Discovery’s third season – it is now on an Amazon Prime delivery van and Out for Delivery – and that I’m probably going to watch parts of it tonight, I don’t have much in the way of news. I hope that the rain showers don’t mutate into thunderstorms. I don’t mind rain by itself, but I’m not fond of lightning strikes.

So, Dear Reader, I’ll just stop here and say, “Ciao for now!” Stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.

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[1] A fact of life that I think is the principal source of Vicky’s antipathy toward me.

[2] I never saw the Oscar broadcast where Sally Field said this after she won the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance in Places in the Heart. But I do know the quote.