Catching up

[Murfreesboro]

My daughter wants nothing to do with that series, either.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

She's a smart young woman.

[Murfreesboro]

Yes, she is. And it puzzles both of us that the "creatives" in Hollywood would take a sure-fire winner like Scooby-Doo, with a built in fan base, and produce something that the devoted fans don't want to see. They did.the.same thing with the Star Wars franchise.

[Andybev01]

Let us not forget the horror that was Scrappy-Doo...

[Murfreesboro]

Lol. I don't think my daughter dislikes Scrappy-Doo, but she's very aware that many fans dislike him.

[Andybev01]

He is to scooby doo what cousin oliver was to the brady bunch.

[Murfreesboro]

I feel like I may be the only person breathing who never watched the Brady Bunch. I was a little too old for it. Truth be told, I was too old for Scooby-Doo, too. My husband, who is five years younger than I am, was not.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I've been busy lately with various projects, and the kids going back to school. I hope that you have both been well.

I can't believe what I'm reading here, and in another thread, you guys are hilarious.

I could sit here and give you my opinion on Scrappy, but you would be here reading for a week. By the way, I like cousin Oliver.

Murf, you haven't watched Halloween 3, or the Brady Bunch, seriously? Man, I don't even know what to say about that, I think that you should at least watch A very Brady Christmas, and the Brady Bunch movies from the 90s. I think they are good movies. You should also try to watch Halloween 3 this year, it's not the best movie, but I think that everybody that loves Halloween should watch it at least once because it's a classic for the season.

Regarding American Horror Story, Mike was a big fan of the show, and I watched until the most recent season, but I don't think that you would like it, as there is some disturbing sexual content that you should probably avoid.

Andy, how the Hell have you not watched the Monster Squad until now? No wonder you didn't get my Wolfman's got nards joke. Well, better late than never. Welcome to the club!

[Murfreesboro]

I remember when the Brady movies were made because I think Shelley Long played the mom, and I was a Cheers fan back in the day (though I'll always maintain that Cheers was at its best during the first season, when nobody watched it, and before they made Sam stupid). I don't really regret not watching the TV series. There is enough cultural reference that I think I get the gist of it.

Same thing for me with Friends. I tried watching that one at first but just couldn't get into it. I mean, it had its moments. But it was basically about a bunch of 20 somethings living like they were in a college dorm, and I had never lived like that, so it just didn't connect with me. It was another one for which I was too old, I guess. During that era of my life, Frasier really hit me where I lived. Seinfeld was really funny but ultimately too dark for me. Its appeal was more intellectual, I think. Frasier had heart as well as brain.

I watched the series finale of all three of those shows. The Frasier finale was so perfect it almost hurt, the best finale I've ever seen for a sitcom. I doubt it will ever be surpassed. The Friends finale the same week was very imperfect, I thought, and forced Ross and Rachel together in a way that I found very unsatisfying. Seinfeld, a few years earlier, was interesting to me. At one level it was absurd, leaving the group of them, including the woman, in a jail cell together. But symbolically, I thought it was right. They started bickering with each other just as they had done in the diner, and it hit me all of a sudden that if the jail cell could be the diner, then the diner was also a jail cell. And that cast the whole series in a fascinating light for me. A series famously about nothing, a nihilistic comedy, and the people in that world were imprisoned, whether in jail or out of it. Food for thought.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Hey, NO SPOILERS!

I'm just joking, I've already seen those series finales.

Also, yes, Shelley Long played the mother in the Brady Bunch movies, and she was pretty good in them.

The kids have been in their new school for a few days now, Sam absolutely loves it, she told us that she already made some new friends and that she likes her new teachers, and it's nice to be around people that get her. My wife and I were happy to hear that. However, Phoebe said that she doesn't like her teacher, and she's still complaining about the uniform, but aside from that she thinks that the school is fine. They are each supposed to pick 2 extracurricular activities for the year, Phoebe chose swimming and, obviously, gymnastics, while Sam only picked swimming so far, but she she still has another week to choose another activity. Phoebe said that there's a older girl on her gymnastics team that also goes to this school, so at least she already has a friend here.

They said that their school also had a 20 minute assembly to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11, they said it was fine. Of course, being the anniversary today, we had a moment of silence at the restaurant, bakery, and cafe. I wasn't at the diner today, but they told me that they would do the same. Tonight my wife and I decided that it was time to show our kids the full uncensored footage from that day.

Sitting there rewatching it brought up some very strong memories of that day for my wife and I, and we both told the kids about our experience that day. Of course, the interesting thing about watching the footage with the kids was their reactions, and they both had very different reactions to it. I watched their faces while they stared at the chaos unfold in front of them on the screen, Sam was very emotional about it, and she cried throughout the footage. While Phoebe looked angry during most of it, she sat there frowning and I noticed that her expression didn't change once until the first tower collapsed, at first she went wide-eyed, then her emotion intensified, and she looked like she wanted to punch the tv screen.

We asked them how they were feeling after they watched it, Sam had so many questions, mainly about why those people attacked us, but also why did some people jump out of the towers? Why didn't they wait to be rescued? We could tell that she was shaken by that footage in particular, and we told her that some of those people were desperate, and felt there was no other option but to jump because they didn't think that rescue teams would be able to get to them in time.

Phoebe confirmed what I already knew, and that was that she was angry about it. She said that we should have done the same thing to them, and that we should have killed every single one of them. My wife and I looked at each other before telling her about the aftermath of the attacks, and the war that resulted from it. She didn't have much else to say, but she had a angry look on her face for the rest of the night. We also watched 2 new documentaries about the attacks, and they were fine.

To be honest, we didn't think that either of them would have such intense reactions to it, especially Sam, at 12 we thought that she was old enough to handle it, but she's a very sensitive person and my wife had to comfort her after, and in a way we wish that we didn't show her the footage yet, but we also know that she needed to watch it because this is the world that we live in, and she should be aware of that. As for Phoebe, we aren't really sure if the footage actually had a effect on her, aside from making her angrier, because even though she's only 9, she already has a intense personality, and she already knows about the evil in the world, so we know that she was more than capable of handling the footage, and she will be fine.

So, how did you guys spend the day?

[Murfreesboro]

That's a very interesting account of your daughters' differing reactions. Certainly it highlights the difference in their personalities, and honestly, I think both reactions are valid and understandable.

My husband told me there was no one ceremony or recognition of the day at his school beyond the flags being at half staff. However, he said the history teachers did focus on it in their classes.

I wasn't going to mention this, since I spoke of the death of a beloved cat in May. However, we lost another one yesterday, and it, too, was unexpected. Despite his being treated with flea drops and occasional Dawn baths, he'd been swarmed with fleas this summer. I was fighting them on him all summer. Back in June he'd been sickly, losing his appetite, etc, but I worked heroically with him and he appeared to recover completely. When the same thing happened this week, I had confidence I could do that again, but we lost this battle yesterday morning. Of course I feel guilt ridden about not having taken him to the vet, but we couldn't afford it after racking up a $3000 bill In late May which we're still struggling to pay off. And I really thought the issue was just the fleas, but now I'm wondering if he had an underlying condition, like diabetes or cancer. I should have thought how weird it was that the flea meds weren't working for him the way they were for the others. Anyway, our Friday was taken up with yet another cat burial. It's odd that we lost both him and the other one this summer, because they were born the same spring and looked like twins (cow kitties). They were not from the same litter, but they were related. The mother of one was the grandmother of the other. It's been a tough summer in that way.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I'm sorry to hear about your cat Murf. There's absolutely no reason for you to feel guilty though, your previous treatment for him was successful, so there was a good possibility that it would help him again. I'm sure he was comforted by having you by his side, and he knew that he was loved.

[Murfreesboro]

He was an exceptionally loving kitty who did indeed know that he was loved. My daughter is taking it hard. I think she was closer to him than we were, although I was the one who fed and attempted to treat him. But my husband and I were closer to the outdoor kitty who died in May. I'm just so sorry I wasn't able to do enough, for either of them.

We now have four cats. One is a cantankerous 13 yr old Tom we call Shadow. Another is Callie, the approximately 7 yr old who was the mother of the one we buried yesterday. She was a yard kitty from a stray mama, and she got pregnant at 6 mos. She had 3 kittens, but the only survivor was Bilbo, who died yesterday. About a month after Bilbo's birth, Callie's mama gave birth to Bijou, the one who died in May. I did not mean to become attached to any of these cats, but Callie was so beautiful that it was impossible not to love her. And then she came to me for help the day she birthed, which was May 3, 2020. So my heart melted. When I started seeing Bijou running around in our yard, along with his two siblings, I started feeding all of them. Eventually they peeled away, all except Bijou, who kept coming around. He would sometimes disappear for several days, and once, maybe 3 yrs ago, he vanished fir 6 weeks. We called for him and visited shelters. We thought he was gone for good, and then, one night, he started mewing at me from beneath a bush in the front yard. He never left again for more than a day or two. He usually came indoors for breakfast but otherwise was an outdoor kitty unless the weather was wretched. He won our hearts because he had clearly chosen us as his people.

Callie has seemed subdued today. She knows Bilbo is dead. I made sure to show her. She is not entirely alone, though. My daughter's cat, Ewok (Wacca) is her sister.

[Murfreesboro]

I just realized I said above that we have four cats now. Obviously I miscounted. We now have three. Shadow, Callie, and Ewok. Shadow is a gray tabby. Callie is the most beautiful calico cat who ever lived. Ewok, her sister, is a tortoise shell.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

That's the worst part about having pets, because you know that eventually they are going to pass away. But the loving home that you gave them brought happiness into their lives, and they did the same for you.

Also, the cats that are still with you have some great names.

We only have 1 cat, and 1 dog. I know that eventually our cat is going pass away, she's over 10 years old at this point, she's still healthy but she's really starting to get slow and sluggish. My wife named her Circe because she's fascinated by Greek mythology, and while the main reason that she picked the name Phoebe for our second daughter was because of her favorite character on the show Friends, she also picked it because the name is from Greek mythology.

By the way, last night Sam had a nightmare about being trapped in a burning building. I guess that we shouldn't have let her watch that footage yet. My wife and I still think that it was important for her to watch it and know that history. She was fine today though, and hasn't mentioned it again, so hopefully she won't have any more nightmares about it.