Be Prepared

Posted on 15/05/2014 by Grumpa Joe

Fifteen year old Alex Halprin throws a tizzy fit about going to visit his uncle in Illinois. He and his mother quarrel often, and this time his mother gives in. His parents and young sister leave for the weekend to drive the hundred and forty miles to Warren, Illinois near Galena. Alex looks forward to a lazy weekend of video games. He settles into his room when a loud crashing noise and a sudden shock to the house causes it to collapse around him and catches fire.

Alex’s life changed dramatically because a volcano explodes in Yellowstone Park some thousand miles to the west and destroys his town of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and everything in between. This scenario plays out in the book titled “Ashfall” by Mike Mullen. I mentioned it in my post “He Scared The Crap Out Of Me.” The whole scenario of what happens when a super volcano like the one lurking below Lake Yellowstone in Yellowstone Park explodes, fascinates me so I downloaded the book to my Kindle and couldn’t stop reading.

 

Yellowstone diagram

 

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If ever there is a case for keeping the Second Amendment alive and well along with our private firearms this is the reason. When the country, literally the entire country, is under emergency management, we will need our guns and ammo to protect ourselves from our neighbors, looters, and the government.  Picture the moment when all power is out, two feet of ash covers the landscape and prevents all forms of transportation from happening, there is no communication of any kind, daylight turns into darkness for weeks, and survivors are looking for food, water, and shelter.  Mike Mullins paints a fairly bleak picture about how society will react. Small towns will fare better, as will enterprising self-sufficient farmers. Big city folks are in trouble. In the story, Alex and his friend Darla finally come upon a FEMA camp and think they are safe, wrong. The camp is nothing more than a guarded fenced area with meager rations, nonexistent sleeping quarters, primitive pit toilets inhabited by thousands of starving people.

Mullins convinced me that I should prepare for the worst and stock emergency provisions for my family. Oh yeah, I have to buy a gun and plenty of ammunition too.

Filed under: Book Review, children's writers, family, Government | Tagged: , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Mind Numbing State

Posted on 27/03/2014 by Grumpa Joe

My story begins long after Obama begins to transform America, and his successor Hillary completes his father’s dream during her first term. She finalizes America into the totally mind numbing state of socialism predicted by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged. Moving forward Hillary initiates a new movement she believes is smarter and stronger than socialism, she calls it factionalism. It is her premise that all members of society fit into one of five factions of personality. They are: 1.  Abnegation for the selfless who renounce or reject all things. 2. Amity for the peaceful who believe all relationships are friendly. 3. Candor for those people who are honest and open in expression. 4. Dauntless for the brave, fearless, and determined.  5. Erudite for the intelligent who show great knowledge or learning.

Hillary’s term ends before she has completed the factional transformation, and her successor continues with the plan. The successor uncovers a bug in the philosophy of factionalism, i.e. what happens to people who don’t fit in any of the five factions, she labels them divergent. They can think outside the box and reject being pigeon-holed into any of the factions. A Divergent is dangerous to Factionalism. There is only one way to deal with a Divergent, and that is to kill him.

IMG_1244

The narrative above is my attempt to presage the real story of “Divergent” written by Veronica Roth as a children’s story. Divergent is the current movie rage that had me on the edge of my seat throughout. It also started my mind spinning into the possibilities of reaching that point in civilization where such a scenario becomes real. The setting is Chicago, and the scene of the abandoned buildings on either side of a dry Chicago River bed gave it real meaning. This story theme reminded me of Hunger Games and its spin on what the world will become in the future. Each film is entertaining, but Hunger Games seemed more entertaining than Divergent. Perhaps it is because Divergent tells the story of a plebe seeking entry into Dauntless through a rigorous and brutal training program. Whereas, the Hunger Games was a more adventure filled, problem solving competition with no punches barred. Each film has merit and each tells a good story. Both are worth watching.

Normally, Peggy and I don’t go for the sci-fi, fantasy, and comic book themed stories of the future, but this one had both of us riveted.

 

Filed under: children's writers, Conservative, family, Government, Movie Review, Society | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Deep Thought

Posted on 05/02/2014 by Grumpa Joe

Peg and I spent a beautiful day at the movie house and saw a wonderful film, “Saving Mr. Banks.” The only Oscar nomination it has received is for Music. That is too bad because the story is true and heart warming. Unfortunately, not all heart warming films become Oscar nominated films.  The story covers the twenty year quest by Walt Disney to get the author of Mary Poppins to agree to let him make it into a movie. What I found most fascinating were the flashbacks into the author’s early childhood, and the influence her early life had on the characters in the story. In one scene Mrs. Travers arrives in Hollywood and stays at the Hollywood Inn Hotel. Disney sets her up with a suite and fills it with stuffed dolls of his cartoon characters and food baskets galore. She spots some pears in a basket and viciously throws them out of the window into the swimming pool below. In a much later flashback we learn that as a child she was happily bringing pears to her father when she learns of his death.

Emma Thompson plays the role of Pamela “P.L.” Travers a pseudonym for Helen Goth. Thompson portrays Mrs. Travers expertly and convincingly. She is a complicated woman who is very possessive and protective of the characters in Mary Poppins. We learn that she is so because she based many of them on people from her life. She feels the slightest Disney depiction away from her invention is character assassination.

Disney makes a heroic effort to convince Mrs. Travers to allow him to make the film, he promises her that he will not destroy her characters nor the context of the story. His motive for making the movie is a promise he made to his daughters. The promise is already twenty years old when this story takes place. I wonder if I would be so diligent as to spend twenty years trying to make good on a promise to my daughter. It takes a lot of persistence and doggedness to last that long.

The characters in this movie got into my head and now I want to read the book to get a deeper insight into all of them. So many times we are left to our own imagination to fill in scenes between the lines. For example, I learned by reading that Mrs. Travers’ father played by Colin Farrell died from alcoholism. The film did portray him as a drinker, but I wondered if it was an addiction or because he was using alcohol to kill pain from some other malady. Maybe that is just me, but I thought the film did not make that detail clear enough. Perhaps it isn’t even relevant to the story, but it left me wanting.

Throughout the story, Mrs. Travers maintains a cool unattached persona, but by the end she lets her hair down and befriends her driver Ralph played by Paul Giamatti. She actually let him call her Pam instead of the cold Mrs. Travers she demanded to that point.

Tom Hanks portrays Walt Disney and even though he isn’t a 100 percent carbon copy of the man in likeness he makes it work. By the end of the first few scenes I believed he was Walt Disney.

We enjoyed the story and discussed it over dinner and again over breakfast this morning. One major revelation came out of our discussion, Peg never saw Mary Poppins. When it came out her life and kids were beyond watching a film like Mary Poppins. Today, I will find a copy of the movie and we will watch it together. I give the film four stars.

Filed under: children's writers, family, Movie Review, Warm and Fuzzy | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

The Return of Aga Bam-bi

Posted on 06/07/2013 by Grumpa Joe

The garden looked better this day than it had in a long time. A cover of dark grey clouds hovered over the 2013 Monet Vision, and a light mist of rain fell giving the new plants the drink they longed for. Grumpa Joe admired his work from the dry warm comfort of the sun-room. Coffee cup in hand he walked to the kitchen to survey the area between the pond and the border garden. A flurry of sparrows and finches fought for space on Grandma Peggy’s bird feeder. She had filled it in the morning and by now it was nearly empty. He looked down to assess the amount of feed falling to the ground under the feeder. There was a large round spot of bright yellow-tan seed directly under the feeder bowl. “I wonder if Peggy is spilling feed on the ground for the critters?”  Then he spotted the furry body of Aga Bam-bi. “He blends so well with the ground, I can’t believe I nearly missed him.”

Aga Bam-bi hunched on the ground at the edge of the seed circle. His nose twitching as he chewed the seed. His ears continuously turning and twisting in all directions listening for danger. Grumpa Joe lightly tapped the window with a fingernail. Aga Bam-bi froze.

He is bigger and fatter than Grumpa Joe remembered him from a year ago. He wondered where Aga Bam-bi was for the last twelve months. “He hasn’t found the petunias yet, that is good, but I’m sure he will,” muttered Grumpa under his breath.

Deep inside the briar patch within the wetland Ali Bug-Bunee sat in conference with his cell. A full year had passed since the cell expelled Aga Bam-bi. The cell had remained in sleeper status during that time.  The cell had been busy multiplying, and Ali faced a small crowd of cell members. Many of the newest members were still shedding their baby fur.

Ali began, “The Nature Spy Alliance(NSA) has informed me that Aga Bam-Bi found his way back to the garden. It is time to use Bam-Bi as a distraction while we execute our plan to devastate the petunias under the cover of darkness. Grumpa Joe does not know we are waiting to attack him. He will think it is Aga who is destroying his Vision. Put your ears at attention and repeat after me, “I solemnly swear to be active only in the darkness under the threat of being fed to the hawks.” They all fluffed their tails and wagged their ears in unison at the completion of the oath.

Petunias. Esperanto: Petunoj. Français : Pétun...

Petunias. Esperanto: Petunoj. Français : Pétunias. Русский: Петунии (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Grumpa Joe finished planting the last six petunia plants near the window where he spotted Aga two days ago. “I’m taking my chances with this critter, but he has stayed away from the feeder for a while, and I feel confident that he won’t eat them.” As Grumpa Joe patted the final plant into place, he spotted Aga in the far corner of the garden eating clover flowers.

Grumpa Joe slept in on Saturday and shuffled to the kitchen for his coffee. He raised the shade on the window and looked out at his fresh planting. “What the he. . .? Peg, come here. Look what that damn rabbit has done to the petunias I planted yesterday. He has eaten them to the ground.”

“Now, now dear, he is only a poor little creature who lives a very hard life in nature,” said Peggy.

“That’s it, I’m taking some serious action today.”

“What ‘ll you do?

“I’m building an IED.”

“You aren’t going to blow the poor thing up are you?”

“No, no, I meant an Improvised Entrapment Device(IED). I’ll catch him and take him for a ride.”

The striped squirrels working for the NSA were listening to Grumpa Joe from under the stoop. Chip made a mad dash across the patio and through the Cranesbill into the wetland to report to Ali.

“Excellent work Chip, you have done well. Grumpa Joe doesn’t suspect a thing. Aga will get the blame and we will fill our bellies with petunia flowers until they are all gone. If we are lucky, Joe will trap Aga with his IED and we will be rid of him too.”

to be continued. . .

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Filed under: children's writers, Garden, Satire, Wabbit Wars, Writer | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Are You a “I Hate Guns” Liberal?

Posted on 14/02/2013 by Grumpa Joe

Here is a liberal solution to protecting yourself from the evil of guns. Promise not to wet yourself laughing.

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