Loneliness or Freedom

This week was as hectic and wonderful as anticipated–it’s just always funny that for as much as we love our visitors, there’s something soothing about being alone again, when we can resume our customary habits and rhythms. Take a breath in silence. Even our dogs seem to be introverts; after several days of dealing with additional people in the house, Santino decided he’d had enough of being misinterpreted and peed on the rug at the top of the stairs last night. And the girls both had loose stools for a day or two.

A day of normalcy, though, and all is right in their world again. In the light of this week’s quote… it really is funny how habits of quietude play heavily into our personal sense of freedom, while for others the amount of time we spend alone would be oppressive.

Despite all the visitors, my phone says I still averaged 5,595 steps per day this week. That count is only slightly down from last week, and it seems to be newly reliable that our average step count should fall between 5 – 6,000. I’m not unhappy with that, but will see about pushing it out farther over time. The bonus for taking our walks at night: We get to track satellites and other objects we wouldn’t normally see during the day. Tonight we both witnessed a decent meteor as we were just a few houses away from home. Too often one or the other of us misses them because they are evanescent, so this one felt special. Then I discovered we’re in the midst of the Perseid shower for this year. If we’re lucky, and the scientists have predicted correctly, this year’s show should be brighter than usual, and should peak the nights of August 12-13.

The other thing we managed this week: seeing Valerian in 3D at the theater. We’re particular Luc Besson fans (loved 5th Element and Lucy), and later in the week watched The Family as an interesting genre counterpoint by the same director. What’s so hopeful and lovely about his films is the reliable under-story about the importance of love and honor and connection with one another. In Valerian, this was layered with standard space opera themes along the lines of what we get in Star Trek–that inter-racial, inter-galactic relationships lift everyone to a higher level. The nice twist was that it was a human who was at the core of the rot that drives the plot. And yet, I had to agree with Carrie Vaughn’s assessment that the pair leading the caper were too callow to be believable as the best team to solve such a priority problem. Still, I’m sure we’ll be buying the BluRay when it comes out because the world-building and visual effects in the film were unbelievable. Special kudos for whoever came up with the concept of visiting a different dimension, and what that would look like for occupants of our dimension. That scenario has long fascinated me and seeing it in film was a heckuva lot of fun.

On the editing front: nothing. This week may be better, but we are also looking forward to seeing the Roger Waters concert, so we’re not fully back in our home comfort zone, either.

As always, though, I’ll be back next week to report on my progress, and will encourage you to visit the other ROW80ers to see how they’re doing with their goals.