This morning Colorado Springs awoke to empty streets, quiet skies, and a beautiful sunrise glowing pink on Pikes Peak. Ok, so the streets weren't entirely empty, and there were still planes in the sky, but Pikes Peak was absolutely breathtaking. The mountains remind us that no matter what happens when all is said and done, they'll still be here tomorrow. I just wish I had a better camera.
What I'm watching today
1917 (2019, Google Play streaming) - Is this the best war movie ever made? That's debatable. Is this the best depiction of the Hellish landscape and bleak reality of the First World War ever made? If there is another, I don't know it. A few years ago I listened to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast's six-part series "Blueprint for Armageddon," a 24-hour deep dive into World War I from the lead-up to Archduke Ferdinand's assassination to the final minute and last bullets fired in the war. In that series, Carlin describes, in a way that only he can, a level of death and an inhumanity that are unfathomable. 1917 takes that inhumanity and paints a visual picture of just how capable of utter annihilation humans really are. Saving Private Ryan gives its audience a taste of this horror for 30 shocking minutes. 1917 immerses the audience in it for almost two hours. It's exhausting. It's depressing. And it's powerful. Even if this film wasn't good (which it is), it would still be important. As it stands, it is as good as Saving Private Ryan, it's as powerful as Glory (albeit for different reasons), and it's as important as any other depiction of the horrors of war. If early 20th Century world history were actually taught in schools today, this film would be shown in history classrooms throughout the US. But sadly World War I is oftentimes reduced to nothing more than a trivia question about Archduke Franz Ferdinand.What I'm doing today
Styling - I predicted that I would probably need to learn how to cut hair a few days ago. Yesterday my wife managed to give our daughter a trim, and today it was my turn to cut the 7yo's hair. It turned out...just ok. It was trial by fire, and if I could have gotten the kid to sit still, it would have been...pretty ok. It's a $5 haircut, not a $2 haircut, but a $5 haircut. At the very least he can see now because the hair is out of his eyes. And it exceeded my own expectations, because I fully expected to make a mess of the whole thing and then resort to just buzzing it all off with the clippers. But I didn't need to do that. This time. However, the 3yo is starting to look like a mop, so he's next. Though I'm thinking we'll just start putting his hair up in a ponytail.
Odd jobbing - I did a bunch of little things around the house today. No big projects to speak of, so here's a bulleted list:
- Cleaned off the workbench in the garage. It was starting to turn into a dumping ground for items that don't have a proper place anywhere else in the house.
- Since the shelves went back up in the garage yesterday, I hauled all the boxes of miscellaneous things up from the basement and put them back up on the shelves where they belong.
- I installed an old TV that was just sitting around collecting dust on the wall in the garage. The idea is to use it for music and YouTube videos when working on projects in the garage.
- The China cabinet was starting to get cluttered with the kids' arts and crafts materials, puzzles, Play-Do, and other miscellaneous junk that isn't China. I organized all that stuff.
- Speaking of puzzles, the 7yo, 3yo, and I went through about two dozen kid puzzles (24 and 48 pieces) that had just been dumped haphazardly into a plastic container. We assembled all of the puzzles, located as many missing pieces as we could, and tossed those puzzles that were too far gone to be fun anymore.
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