Musings & Thoughts for Saturday, February 25, 2023, or: Weekend Update, Part I – My Plans for Saturday Night

Playing Regiments in Attack Mode Again – Back to Grasleben

It’s early evening here in Lithia, Florida on Saturday, February 25, 2023. I am uncharacteristically late with my blog posting, but I decided to take a mental health break and relax – if you can call playing a war game “relaxing” – for a while as I played a Regiments session.

It took a while; I switched back to playing Attack skirmishes instead of the Mobile Defense ones I’ve been playing since late December, and because offensive operations tend to be more challenging and therefore bloodier, my force (the trusty 1^st Brigade of the U.S. 3^rd Armored Division, aka the “Spearhead Division”) suffered heavy casualties even though I was fighting the Soviets and East Germans in the familiar Grasleben battleground.

I still won, even though the Warsaw Pact forces launched several successful counterattacks close to the end of the game session and inflicted heavy losses on my vulnerable M106 mortar platoon and my anti-aircraft units. That fiasco, I admit, was my fault; I got cocky and concentrated most of my tank and mechanized infantry platoons in front of the last two Warsaw Pact Objective Zones, thinking rather foolishly that I had destroyed most of the Pact units in the Grasleben sector and that victory was within my grasp.

Alas, no. The enemy still had some reconnaissance platoons and one platoon with T-64 main battle tanks, so while I was focused on capturing OZs Golf and Hotel, the Soviets found my flanks wide open and captured OZ Bravo, destroying two anti-aircraft units and decimating one of my two M3 Cavalry Fighting Vehicle sections before I was able to send a few platoons of tanks and M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles to retake Bravo and destroy the remnants of the Pact forces.

I did enjoy the mental challenge of that simulated battle, but I should have managed my resources a bit better.

Saturday Night at the Movies

It’s Saturday night, and since I can watch stuff out on the family room TV set, I think I’ll watch The Fabelmans on Blu-ray.

Last night I watched the three short behind-the-scenes featurettes that accompany The Fabelmans, but I started watching them around 9 or 9:30 PM, so it was already too late to watch the two-and-a-half-hour-long movie. I would have fallen asleep on the couch, and even though that’s not an uncomfortable place to sleep, I prefer to avoid that and rest in what, for now, is still my room.

So, my plan for tonight is to eat dinner early (preferably by 7 PM) and then watch The Fabelmans.

My Plan B movie, if I have a last-minute change of heart (which is a more common occurrence with me than you might think) is director Andrew Davis’ The Fugitive (one of my favorite movies, which celebrates its 30^th anniversary this year). We’ll see, though. I’ve watched The Fugitive many times, starting with its theatrical release in 1993, then on VHS the year after that, and, in the 200s, on DVD. I have it on Blu-ray now, so if I end up not watching The Fabelmans, I’ll watch it again.

I should be getting ready to go eat soon, so I’ll close for now. Until next time, Dear Reader, stay safe and healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.