How we start summer in the country

Now that all danger of frost is gone (not that it is ever truly gone up here), what did we do with that beautiful hot day yesterday? BH, Son & I split, hauled, and stacked seven cords of wood that we will burn next winter. We did it the modern way, with a nice hydraulic splitter (thank you, Honda) that we rented for the day.

I apparently passed my picking up sticks apprenticeship because I was allowed to run the splitter. The fun part was watching the sharp thingie snap the wood in two. The not-fun part was wrestling massive blocks of wood up on to the splitter. I’m moving very slowly today. My back, legs and arms have all gone on strike in protest of yesterday’s activities. But we got it done. I feel like a pioneer.

Woke up at 5 am – BH and I both thought we heard someone crying, but it wasn’t in our house. Then a thunderstorm struck. Maybe it was the spirits awake in anticipation of the storm.

Watched X-Men III on Saturday. I really enjoyed it except for one nagging thing. In the scene where the guy in the funny hat moved the bridge – was anyone else annoyed by the time shift that was unaccounted for? The scene starts in bright sunshine and daylight. It wasn’t even sunset. And it did not seem like the moving of the bridge itself took hours, but “suddenly” by the time the bad guys invade Alcatraz, it’s night time. In one shot, looking back on the bridge, the car all have their headlights on, which they didn’t earlier. The drivers of the cars had fled or fallen off. Did Funny Hat’s minions all say, “Wow, for safety reasons and better lighting, we should turn the headlights on”? Or maybe one of the mutants had special Headlight Power.

That bugged me. But I liked the rest of the movie a lot, and I am notoriously fussy about movies so that’s saying something.

Picnic with friends and relatives today. I’ll be the one sitting very, very still.

18 Replies to “How we start summer in the country”

  1. I too was bothered by the sudden nightfall. I was also bothered by the fact that Magneto (or Funny Hat as you call him) didn’t just shape some metal into a boat or something. I guess it was more exciting to have him rip the Golden Gate Bridge off it’s pylons.

  2. In one of the scenes where the bridge is being ripped up, you see tourists on a hill above it, getting their picture taken. It looks like the sun has already moved a bit below the hills by then, so the first shot of the cars with the headlights on did make me think, hmmm, but then I allowed for the lower sun and that Magneto might not have moved it quickly.
    The two nitpicks I had were:
    a) Magneto could levitate, but what of all the other mutants and humans on the bridge when we saw him slam the bridge down on Alcatraz?
    b) Earlier scene, when the army goes into the woods–their new guns were plastic (which was coolness), but night vision goggles by their nature have to have some metal in them.

    Anyway, glad you passed your pick-up sticks test! Take it easy today!

  3. Haven’t seen the movie, though my kids told me the highlights. About the headlights thing, don’t most cars have lights that automatically turn on when you start the engine? So if the cars were still running …

  4. stick woman.

    You pick up sticks a lot. Maybe you could make some sort of sculpture with your smaller sticks or..something exciting.

  5. The movie was flawed left and right, but to the average joe it was good. And by the way, Funny hat’s name is Magneto, not that it matters or anything.

  6. try watching the movie with the biggest comic book buff you know, and enduring 2 hours worth of ‘that doesnt happen, thats not right’ amd ‘in the comic book…’ though we both thoroughly enjoyed the movie, we did have a few laughs at stupid editing mistakes like the sudden time change and other little tid-bits of errors

  7. I think I’ll be experincing that when I see it this week.. esp. cause he’s already seen it once, so he knows what’s wrong and right. What are we gonna do with our boy?

  8. What was particularly ridiculous about his thought-blocking helmet in this go-round was that one mind-reader was out of the picture and the other was, theoretically, with him.

    Did you stay through the credits? That’s key!

  9. I was bothered by the time-shift thing as well.
    In the novelization (a rare case where it’s better than the movie), Magneto also arranges the cars and turns on their headlights for visibility and whatnot, so it’s acknowledged there as a deliberate thing.

  10. Silly Movie People

    My boyfriend and I get so bugged by movie glitches! We’ll leave and talk about them more than what the movie was actually about.
    He usually talks about the physics of everything and how “that isn’t possible!” I’m the book buff, so I’ll constantly be like, “No, didn’t happen!”

  11. I noticed that, and I also was bugged by a few other things–why kill off so many characters? Yes, yes, things must have a steep price, and they probably won’t stay dead anyway, but it felt rather like the lives of major characters were held very cheaply. Add to that other characters barely showing up, and if I think too hard about it, I really, really disliked the lack of characterization.

    However, if I make myself not connect with it too deeply (which makes me sad, because I connected with the previous two quite deeply and watch them every few months), then it was a fun enough romp of a movie.

    And I do not envy you your family wood-splitting time, which was a major pasttime for me and my siblings. Dad ran the splitter, we chucked wood. Our furnace (for the whole house) growing up was wood, with a little coal hopper for the dead of winter to keep the fire going all night. Dad is a farmer, and had a lot of connections with other farmers who wanted trees cleared, so that was how we spent a large part of our off-school time when I was a kid. Mainly, some good memories with my siblings and my dad–working together with your family is a great way of spending family time while accomplishing something too–but I also remember my sister throwing a log onto the woodpile from the back of the truck and saying, “Heads up!” (or down, as the case may be), and at that very moment I stood up, wondering what she said–only to get thunked in the side of my head with a cord of hedgewood. Ow.

  12. I noticed the sudden timechange, too, and all I can think about for the headlights is that they’re all new cars which have lights that turn on at dusk. And maybe it really took a heck of a long time to move that big ol’ bridge.

  13. The time shift bothered me too – I assumed the headlines were a result of the power flying around, since it always seems like something goes strange with electricity when mutants are around.

    What really bothered me:
    1. If the room they were keeping Leech in was safe from mutant powers, Kitty shoudl have not been able to enter the room – theoretically, she would have gotten stuck between the walls. So she could enter it but not leave it.

    2. Why did Wolverines’s pants stay on if his shirt and skin shredded off? For gods sake, why did his pants not fall off?!!

    (um, sorry, got carried away)

    (I am one of many (I am sure) strangers that read your journal, and stumbled across it doing some “good authors” research for my bookstore customers and friends’ children. Since I don’t live that far from you, I find your weather comments to be enjoyable to read)

  14. Explanation

    Natural air and climate change, a natural eclipse blended with a clever directional technique to suggest the ending of the world, or the struggle between good and evil. Magneto has a vast array or mutant allies at his disposal, how can you say for definite one does not have weather changing capabilities? Storm does doesn’t she? If Magneto were going to strike it makes sense he would use these talents to stage a night time attack. If you want the writer and director to spend four hours extra telling you of every little obvious event you shall have a very boring film viewing session shan’t you? I find it hard to believe people go to see this film accepting mutants and battles with x ray vision and crashing through brick walls but they cannot accept this.

  15. If you’re saving all your meal receipts, ask your accountant about using the per-diem figure instead (much easier for you and him). You’ll make his day.

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