Everything Under Control Situation Normal

I witnessed a road rage incident while heading home last night. An SUV in front of me was delayed somewhat by the driver of an old Nissan Sentra who was backing into a parking space.

The driver of the SUV laid on his horn and the driver of the Nissan Sentra must have done something offensive ( I couldn’t see because the SUV was blocking my view) because the SUV’s driver jumped out of his vehicle and angrily charged at the Nissan. His wife jumped out of the passenger side a few minutes later in complete hysterics.

A few seconds later there was a loud boom. The Nissan no longer had a driver’s side window. Most of it was on the Nissan driver’s lap. I heard the Nissan driver cry out, “Are you crazy? Get back in your car! Get the fuck back in your car!”

And the SUV’s driver did. He got back in and drove away, a police cruiser in hot pursuit. I guess he didn’t realize there was a police car a few cars behind us.

Anyway, what the hell is wrong with people?

I spent my entire day in a complete state of defeat. More snow, more digging, more loss of power and more uncertainty as to what I will do in the coming days. I’m not good at adapting to chaos. I’m better than I was years ago but I’m still not there.

I saw this movie when I was a kid.

For some reason it was televised often back then. Probably because it flopped in theaters and they needed to recoup some of the cash they put into it.

Robert Zemekis co-wrote and directed it and Steven Spielberg executive produced it. In order to bankroll the movie Spielberg had an agreement with Universal Pictures that if Zemekis was doing a crap job that he would step in and direct it. Spielberg was already SPIELBERG having already directed such hit films like Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

It was Zemekis’ directorial debut. Zemekis went on to direct Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Forrest Gump, among others. He’s a big deal.

I remember being so fond of the film in my youth that I will probably hate it when I see it as an adult.

“At present, out of the world’s nearly 200 constitutions, three still include a right to bear arms: Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States; of these three, only the last does not include explicit restrictive conditions.”

I think we will never see the kind of gun control in the United States that will make it impossible to carry out a mass shooting. If it didn’t happen after Columbine, or Sandy Hook, it won’t happen after Stoneman Douglas HS.

Maybe two or three generations from now Americans will work on repealing the Second Amendment or add “explicit restrictive conditions” that will hinder the madman from carrying out bloodshed.

I just don’t think that a country who recently elected a neophyte as president is capable enough to make changes that will prevent mass shootings.

But, but, I am very impressed by the voices that came out of the most recent tragedy. I can listen to some of them all day. Maybe what they are is the rumble that precedes a great wall’s crumbling. Maybe they will make the process go much faster than the previous voices. I’m optimistic yet guardedly so.

I cannot remember last year’s Best Picture winner without Googling it. I haven’t Googled it because I want to remember on my own.

I know it’s a film about a young black man’s sexuality and I know that Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty thought La La Land won. I know there was a point during the year when I wanted to see it but didn’t. I guess I didn’t make the time for it. I did make the time for La La Land which I thought was brilliant.

I keep thinking that the movie was called Get Out but I know it wasn’t. I didn’t see Get Out either.

Also, I can count on two hands the Best Picture winners in my lifetime that have moved me and I can see over and over and over again.

1971 – The French Connection

1972 – The Godfather

1974 – The Godfather Part II

1976 – Rocky

1977 –  Annie Hall

1979 – Kramer vs Kramer

1988 – Rainman

1993 – Schindler’s List

2006 – The Departed

2014 – Birdman

The others were great, are worth a viewing or two, but didn’t rock my world.

I love playing the sore loser on social media. It’s entertaining and I’m big on entertaining on social media.

The truth is I’m a big baseball fan and my team is the New York Yankees. I’m more of a baseball fan than a Yankees’ fan because it’s for the betterment of the game and for my well-being.

With that said, after following the Yankees all season, I think this team is the real deal. This year was their 1995. They were testing the waters and did more than anyone expected. And with the freeing of some payroll, they are poise to make moves that might result in playoff runs for the foreseeable future and maybe a few championships.

My National League team is the Los Angeles Dodgers. I was born in Brooklyn and Brooklyn has always held a special place in my heart. About twenty years ago I read a few books about the Brooklyn Dodgers. I fell in love. What a great team, what a great organization. The old Brooklyn team was a neighborhood team. Some of the players literally lived in and around the Ebbets Field neighborhood amongst the fans. They were gritty and blue collar and not at all like the business-like New York Yankees. It was why it hurt so much when they headed out west.

I’ll root for the Dodgers this year as I did in 1988 against the A’s. I didn’t root for them in ‘77, 78 and ‘81 because they went against my Yankees and I’m not mental, ya know.