A Movie, a Super Blue Blood Moon, and Rising Prices

We saw another movie this week. There aren't many westerns made anymore, so any time a new one comes out, I go to see it. I'm a big fan of Wes Studi, so when I saw that he was playing a vital role in Hostiles, I knew I had to watch it. The "stars" of the movie are actually Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike. Now, right there is where I started having problems with the movie. Why is it that we have to import actors (Bale is from Wales while Pike is from England) to play American roles in American movies. Now, I have nothing against either of these actors, but there are numerous American actors who are every bit as qualified to play these parts.

The premise of the movie is that Captain Blocker (Bale), who hates Indians, is assigned the task of escorting Cheyenne Chief Yellow Hawk (Studi) and his family to Montana, so the chief, who has advanced cancer, can die in his homeland and be buried there. Along the way, they pick up Rosalie Quaid (Pike), who watched as her husband and 3 children were killed by a raiding Comanche war party in the year 1892. Well, the Comanches were totally defeated and confined to reservations in the mid 1870's pretty far east of the route this party was traveling, but I suppose there could have been some renegades who broke away and committed such raids. I'll give the writers the benefit of the doubt on this one. So, along the way, the Cheyennes, their military escort, and Ms. Quaid undergo numerous trials and tribulations that bring about new understanding and respect for one another. Kumbaya. Actually, it isn't a bad movie.

Did you happen to catch the super blue blood moon last Wednesday morning? It's really quite a rare event. A super moon occurs when the moon is close to the earth in its orbit, which makes it about 14% brighter. A blue moon occurs when 2 full moons appear in the same month. And a blood moon occurs when the moon is in the earth's orbit, causing a red tint as a result of this eclipse.

Now, when you have good cameras and good telescopes, this is what a blood moon looks like:

Blood moon

Notice the clear red tint on the moon. Now, when you are El Cheapo, head of the cheap camera cartel along the border, your pictures of the super blue blood moon look like the images below.

Bright super moon before the eclipse began

In this photo, the eclipse has just begun. You can see a small bite taken out of the top left of the moon.

This photo was taken 5 or 10 minutes later. Yo can clearly see more of the moon is missing. There is a bit of reddish glow around the moon, but my equipment is not sufficient to pick up the red tint on the missing part of the moon.

And the moon is almost entirely gone now, about 15 minutes later.

Seems that everyone these days wants some of our money. Our community just increased maintenance rates by about 5%. This is the first increase in several years, so I can live with that. Next, I have a cancer and dread disease policy, and it increased just a little bit. Then Donna's medical insurance took a substantial jump. You know, these insurance companies are just barely making it these days, just like the companies producing all those low-priced medicines that they practically give away. I know they need help; I'm happy to do what I can. 😖 Finally, our local newspaper jumped its monthly subscription rate from $19.99 to $29.00. That is essentially a 50% increase for a not so good paper. That was the last straw. I cancelled the paper; wish I could cancel my insurance, but I'm not that stupid. Now I have to find ways to rearrange the budget to pay these other increases. When we retired, inflation was the economic factor I feared the most. So far, things have been pretty good, but right now, prices do seem to be jumping at the same time. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Weather has been good for the most part. Daily highs are in the 60's and 70's, which is great for walking and hiking, while nightly lows are usually just above freezing. We can't seem to get any rain, though, and I'm fearful of drought conditions as things begin to warm. Area lakes continue to shrink as well.

PS. Send water and money ASAP!