Okay, so I missed last week and I could tell, from the flood of emails and DMs I received, that you were concerned about what I was up to.
Okay, in all seriousness, last weekend was NASCAR’s Championship weekend, so I was pre-occupied with seeing Ben Rhodes, Daniel Hemric and Kyle Larson win their championships. Maybe an overview of all three champions should be the next edition of John Milner’s Track Talk (although I have semi-started a column on the 2022 Busch Clash being at the L.A. Coliseum). King’s also held their Open House on Saturday and I was doing my best to assist with that.
This weekend has gotten even crazier. I decided to take Friday off because my sister and nephew came down. They left on Saturday morning so I have totally confused as to what day it is. (And with no NASCAR races to give me any kind of compass, it is even more confusing.)
With no NASCAR to watch (we’ve even stopped watching NASCAR Race Hub on weekday evenings), what’s a family to do (especially since I don’t want to be sitting in front of CNN like my folks are most nights)? As it turns out, Crave TV freed up a lot of their content recently which meant that the Friends Reunion Special was available. So, as Kyle Larson was celebrating his Cup Series win, my folks and I were watching Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Chandler, Monica and Joey (or rather the actors who portrayed them) reunite.
Spoiler alert: While the Friends reunion was fun, it was awfully disjointed. I mean, one minute they’re on their old set, the next minute they’re in some park in front of a studio audience, the next minute they’re playing a trivia game (which was fun by the way), then Justin Bieber is taking part in a Friends-inspired fashion show and a performance of Smelly Cat with some singer I’m sure is famous but I didn’t who it was. For the love of God, pick a lane, people! I would have also preferred them to have “reunited” with an actual “What are the characters up to now?” episode. However, that would have required some original creativity and, it’s the 21st Century, and that’s not going to happen. (They did have the creators kind of explain it away, mind you.)
All that aside, however, my folks decided they felt like watching Friends again, from the beginning. I had been watching the show for my fourth or fifth time and was up to about Season 3. However, if it meant I could spend an hour of so watching something with my folks instead of just sitting down on the computer all night, I was okay with returning to Season 1, Episode 1.
It reminded me that the show’s greatest moment was the cold open of Season 1, Episode 3 when Ross recounts how their childhood dog, Chi Chi, went to live on a farm owned by … THE MILNERS! (Personal note: while my family did live out in the country back in the early 1980s, we didn’t have a farm. We did have a dog show up for a while, but his name wasn’t Chi Chi and he got hit by a car.)
I’ve also gotten back on a reading kick lately. I finished up Robby Krieger’s Set the Night on Fire autobiography. It’s a pretty good book. Robby writes with no ego and admits that, much like previous Doors books, he may not have gotten everything right. He also admits to his own demons, health issues and drug use. While obviously Jim Morrison was the charismatic lead singer of the Doors, Robby also discusses his relationships with John and Ray, as well as his family, and his life and career pre- and post-Doors. I’m not sure how much interest people who aren’t Doors fans would be but for fans of the band and the guitarist, it’s definitely worth a read.
I have also been reading Antony Beevor’s Stalingrad (about the World War II battle) and Loren D. Estleman’s The Eagle and the Viper about an assassin sent to kill Napoleon. Both are really good. The Eagle and the Viper, especially, is one of those books you start reading and really can’t put down. (I mean, obviously, I was able to put it down long enough to write this blog.)
With Remembrance Day past (and I hope everyone took the moment to honour and pay respects to those who served our country), we can now look forward to Christmas. I have a few ideas on both the giving and receiving side so I have to craft my Shopping List. I also need to consider my Christmas card. Back in the day, I used to send cards out by the dozens but now I can just post it on my social media – and here on the side as well.
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