Left to my own devices

In the early morning hours of August 31, 1997, Diana Spencer (aka Diana, Princess of Wales) succumbed to injuries received in an automobile accident a few hours earlier. This all occurred in Paris, France, so here in the United States -- specifically, Central Standard Time, where I reside -- it was during the evening of August 30. Regardless, it was twenty-five years ago that the world lost one of its most high-profile royals. The last such occasion was probably the death of Grace Kelly (Princess Grace of Monaco). That was in 1982 and, while I've watched a few of her movies, I've no memory of when she died.

Not long ago, I watched the 1993 film, The Remains of the Day . Based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, it's a Merchant Ivory Production about life at a British estate, pre-WWII. It stars Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, as the butler and housekeeper, respectively. There is the most subtle element of potentially romantic feelings between the two, but Hopkins's character is far too repressed to ever be able to acknowledge them. Today is the 25th anniversary of my father's passing. There's rarely a week that goes by where I don't think of him -- what his life would have been like had it not been cut short by cancer, how our father-son relationship would have evolved as I'd grown more into adulthood, what he would've thought of everything that's happened since August of 1997, etc. I've also come to realize that he's one of the reasons I tend to be drawn to emotionally unavailable men in fiction and, sometimes, in real life.

"And look at the view from your balcony  the sunset is searing the sky  and how proudly you are pointing out to me  London through your eyes"  - Pet Shop Boys, The view from your balcony Those who know me know I'm an Anglophile. From novels by Agatha Christie, Peter Lovesey, P.D. James and Ruth Rendell, to television shows such as Inspector Morse, Fawlty Towers, Doctor Who, Black Adder , and Midsomer Murders , to following Instagram accounts that are nothing more than photos of various British locales, from a young age I've been a fan of (nearly) all things English. Heck, I even used to regularly watch Prime Minister's Question Time on C-SPAN during my teenage years, and listened to the book-on-tape of Margaret Thatcher's The Downing Street Years memoir. You can imagine my exuberance when, in late spring, some friends asked if we'd like to join them on a trip to England this summer. I was able to get the time off of work for it, as was Ashley. The final r...

Years ago, my mom, maternal grandmother ("Gummy") and I were sitting around, talking, and the subject of what the favorite time of our lives was came up in conversation. I don't remember what mom's answer was, but Gummy (born in 1928) said, "Probably 1938/1939. that period right in there." She went on to say that she thought most people would, posed with the same question, give an answer that would fall somewhere in their childhood. That often seems to be the knee-jerk, default response most folks have about when they thought things were best. You know, the 'good old days.' What I liked then, and appreciate now, about Gummy's reasoning was its honesty. She acknowledged the personal nature of her response. Of course she thought the world was better when she was ten. Everyone's life is different, but for many, being a kid, unburdened by the responsibilities of adulthood, can come with a unique level of happiness, even if it may only be appare...

May 27th saw the debut of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+. For the uninitiated, it is about the fallen Jedi master, and what he gets up to between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope . If that doesn't mean anything to you, then you probably won't get much from this blog post. If you're curious, however, keep reading. Just know that there are spoilers ahead. We're now five episodes into what has been presented to us as a six episodes limited series. The finale drops tomorrow, hence the timing this particular entry. I've very mixed feelings about the show, and  some strong opinions about it, as well as the overall direction of the Star Wars franchise in recent years. The end of Obi-Wan 's fifth episode left us on a fairly major cliffhanger, with several plot threads dangling. I have doubts as to how well they can wrap it all up, coupled with a theory as to whether or not Episode VI is truly the last one. Again, spoilers.

Yesterday was Fathers Day. Dad had already been on my mind, as 2022 marks twenty-five years since his death. We tend to apply greater significance to various (sometimes random) measures of time. I suppose that a quarter-of-a-century counts as such a marker. Lewis passed away from cancer in August of 1997. I last saw him that June. It wasn't supposed to be the final occasion our paths crossed in life, but sometimes that's how things work out. Dad had received his pancreatic cancer diagnosis in October of 1996. I learned of it that November, and began visiting with him regularly soon after. He lived in Springfield, but would travel -- with his wife and two-year-old son in tow - to Champaign and stay with my grandmother about every two weeks. That is where we would meet, talking about a variety of topics before the time ran out.

Almost five years ago, I wrote about all of the music concerts I'd been to over the years (well, going back to the late-1990s, which is when I began going to live shows in general). Given my penchant for lists, of course I ranked the experiences. It was fun revisiting those times and, because I've been to nine more music events since that blog post, so figured it was time for an update. 2019 saw Ashley & I attend seven(!) concerts. We were really on a roll. The last one we went to was The Ocean Blue at Lincoln Hall in early November of that year. Then, of course, the pandemic happened in early 2020, and the world shut down. It was only at the very end of last month that Ashley & I ventured out to a concert venue again and enjoyed a live performance ( Suzanne Vega ). In total, I've gone to nine more shows since the last time I wrote about concert experiences, so there is an updated list, for anyone who cares. The 29 concerts I've been to, ranked.