Musings & Thoughts for Saturday, May 6, 2023, or: Weekend Update, Part the First

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” ― Anais Nin

It’s Saturday, Yeah, But I Think I’ll Work Today

It’s early afternoon in Lithia, Florida, on Saturday, May 6, 2023. For me, it has been a long day; I woke up at four in the morning, and despite my best efforts, I couldn’t go back to sleep. I’m 100% certain that the New Story was calling for me to give it at least a little work, even though I try to not work on weekends. (Not because I have an active social life, cos I don’t, but to not burn out on a writing project, which has happened a few times to me in the past.) 

As it happens, I read through the last three chapters of “The New Story” (not its real title, mind you), and even though the first scene of Chapter Six looks decent, I had to double back to the fourth chapter and fill in a “plot hole” before I move on to the next scene of the newer chapter. Ideally, I shouldn’t be messing with that either today or tomorrow; it’s the weekend, for Chrissake! But…since my social calendar is empty – and it has been so since late summer of 2020 – and I can’t think of anything better to kill time, I’ll probably be working on Chapter Six, Scene Two after I take a quick shower and put on a fresh change of clothes.

“It was as if each of them sensed vaguely that the Saturday afternoons of youth are few, and precious, and this feeling which neither of them could have defined or described made every moment of this time together too short, too quickly gone, yet clearer and more sharply edged than any other.” ― Grace Metalious, Peyton Place

I don’t have much personal news to share; life here is pretty much a case of Sierra Squared, Delta Squared. In a nutshell, I nominally work on The New Story Monday through Friday, then I (supposedly) take the weekend off to either play games on my computer, read a book, listen to music, or watch a movie or – rarely now – a TV show. I don’t hang out with anyone – no one to hang out with, really – nor am dating anyone these days. It’s almost like I’m back in high school or college, only this time, I’m not in my familiar South Florida. I’m neither depressed not happy about this – in that infelicitous phrase that is so au currant these days, it is what it is.

Do Not Fall into Temptation…Unless it Involves Cool Star Wars Stuff

Luke Skywalker: I’ll not leave you here. I’ve got to save you.

Anakin Skywalker: You already have, Luke.

I did succumb to temptation this morning and pre-ordered a pricey Star Wars The Black Series collectible from Hasbro Pulse: a three-figure set of 6-inch scale action figures of Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, and Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi as they appear in the “Force Ghosts” scene of Return of the Jedi (as reimagined by George Lucas for the 2004 reissue of the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD and its subsequent Blu-ray releases from 2011 onward.  

This was a spur-of-the-moment purchase, but because it’s a pre-order it should not be a big drain on my bank account. Hasbro will release this in mid-August, and I already scheduled the payment (it’s almost $100, but fuck it…I don’t go anywhere fun, except maybe in my dreams), so….

I initially thought that The Force Ghosts would be, in essence, a diorama along the lines of the similarly-named Power of the Force Cinema Scene box set (for the 3.75-inch scale figures that I used to collect in my Miami life), complete with the suspended bridge over which Anakin, Yoda, and Ben materialize in front of Luke Skywalker in the closing scene of Return of the Jedi. Well, according to the photos on the Hasbro Pulse site, the Force Ghosts come in a box-like package with retro (1983-like) “Kenner” branding (but no Ewok rope suspension bridge). Eh, I can live with that. At least I got that 40^th Anniversary (of Return of the Jedi, which was released less than a month before I graduated from South Miami High School) itch scratched.

Aside from that, no hay novedad, as I sometimes say in Spanish.

I do need to go take a shower, change into a fresh change of clothes, and maybe go watch TV for a bit before returning to work on my manuscript. So, until next time, Dear Reader, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.