They did the Mash!

 

We had a nice morning--slept in, read the paper, took our time waking up! The birds were very entertaining. I was trying to get a better picture of Oreo, one that I didn't take through the sliding glass door. I eased over to the window with the camera, slid the door open a little more, tried to open the screen as quietly as I could, and when I got the camera up to take his picture, he flew off. He did that to me twice! Still, it's fun to see him, and I've always wondered why the orange on orioles is the exact same color as an orange? AND, they love to eat oranges! How weird is that?

I did a mile on the treadmill today. So far I'm sticking with it, although it's only been 4 days.

In the afternoon, while Ken was out tackling the big lawn tractor (Ken won) and making the yard look beautiful, I was inside doing a little spring cleaning. There is still plenty to be done, but at least I've got it started! I was looking for something interesting to have on the TV in the background, and ChillerTV came through for me with "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." I love the black and white monster movies from the '40's and '50's! (Some were even earlier--I think the first Mummy movie was from the '30's.) By the '60's, most were in color, but there's something about the B&W ones that I just love. Of course, they're cheesy, and the special effects were extremely low tech. These were way before CGI!

But there's a charm to these old monster movies that we rarely see today. There's usually something that makes you feel a bit of sympathy for the monsters, whether it's the Creature getting harpooned, the Mummy's undying love for Ankhsunamun, or King Kong being exploited by the money-grubbing entrepreneurs who kidnapped him from his island (where he lived quite happily, thank you very much).

Besides, these old movies remind me of staying up late on weekends and watching the Creature Feature with Cousin Shane and/or Cousin Greg. I've loved scary movies since I was a kid, and most of my favorites are pre-slasher era movies. ("Psycho" is probably my all-time favorite.) They're just plain fun, and I still love staying up late and watching scary movies with the lights turned out.

We're not watching a movie that old tonight, but it seems like a good night for a scary one, so we're watching the "Rose Red" miniseries. It aired a few years ago, so I'm looking forward to watching this fairly good ghost story again. We might even have to turn off all the lights.

BWAH-hah-hah-hah!

Tags: The Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Mummy, King Kong, Rose Red, scary movies