The beach movie report, 2017

With three weeks in the beach house, we were, of course, able to take in more movies than usual.  We also watched multiple UFC events, so the area with the big TV was a hopping place.

As you can tell from this photo, we watched films of every sort.

Click the image to see a larger version.

These films are in no particular order.

The one box that glare obscures is season one of Killjoys.  We made it through all of that season and half of the second (box for it in the lower right).

As you can tell from our consumption of 15 TV episodes and 34 movies, we clearly devoted a noticeable part of our evenings to viewing.  That's a tradition I'm happy with.

The most surprising film of the batch is War On Everyone, which is foul-mouthed, politically incorrect, extremely violent, and ultimately both hard to predict and laugh-out-loud funny.  If you have the right sense of humor, I recommend it highly--but don't blame me if it offends you.

I could happily watch two movies a day most days, given the chance.

Home for a little while

I'm home from the beach and must unpack, settle in, process the mail, and so on.

The problem is, I leave Monday morning for Austin, so I also have to pack for a very different sort of trip.

And, I'm tired.

So, it's to bed for me.

The last night at the beach

is always odd, a time of mixed feelings, of increased appreciation of this place and of sad realization that it's time to return to the real world.  It's also a period of change.  Some folks have already left, while others, including me, hang on until the morning mandatory departure.  We return the house to its original state, in the process undoing all the little customizations that play key roles in our traditions.  We skip the late second movie due to the early morning wake-up time.  We load cars and empty cupboards.  We make ready to leave this lovely part of the world.

Beach life is fleeting life.

The mighty fall

The mighty BobCakes, that is, because today our beach team took down both the massive chocolate BobCake

Click an image to see a larger version.

and the second of the CaBobCakes.

Beach life is dessert destruction life.

National Hot Dog Day extends to the beach

Of course it does!  Why would it not?  In keeping with this day of tube steak celebration, my lunch from my favorite local sandwich shop was their "Two Dogs Done Right."

Click an image to see a larger version.  

The dish was definitely messy, but it was also quite tasty.

The beach trip is winding to a close, and so, too, are the BobCakes.  The main BobCake is still standing, but it is now far the worse for wear.

The second CaBobCake is going down more gracefully, but it is nonetheless going down.

Beach life is food life.

Apes and dogs

Kyle and I headed today to the only cinema in the area to catch War for the Planet of the Apes, the latest (and pretty good) installment in this franchise.  The theater is a hot mess, but it's the only one in easy driving distance, so we visit it at least a couple of times each beach vacation.

On the way, we stopped for lunch at a drive-through hot dog stand, where we each enjoyed a bottle of water and two of these creations.

Click the image to see a larger version.

Meet the pimento cheese bacon hot dog, truly a feast of rare beauty.

Beach life is animal life.

Today's BobCake update shows that we are not making very good progress against the mighty cakes of Bob.  The BobCake is resisting us,

while the second and final CaBobCake slowly succumbs to our attacks.

Beach life is dessert life.

Cloudy day

Every minute of today that I was outside, clouds in every shade of gray covered our world.  The air was a bit cooler than usual, and we had a very slight breeze.  From time to time, it gently rained.

We still managed to get in our usual two-mile walk, lunch out, and lunch errands, plus some splashing in the pool and other common beach activities.

Beach days are sometimes cloudy days, but I love them, too.

The beach, 6:45 p.m.

Two shots, one in each direction, from the same spot on the beach.

Looking east.

Click an image to see a larger version.

Looking west.

I do love this place.  Being able to go to the beach and see no one who isn't with you reminds me of my teen years, when I loved Florida and thought it was the most beautiful place on Earth.

In more news of the beach, the BobCake is small but strong and seemingly impervious to our attempts to consume its final chunk.

The second CaBobCake, however, is now considerably smaller.

Will the BobCakes survive another day?

Tune in tomorrow to find out.

Keeping it simple at the beach

Saturdays are when people check out of or into their houses, so traffic is at its worst. Because we're staying in the house, we kept to ourselves and avoided the roads, going out only to pick up some take-out Chinese for dinner. It was a quiet day indeed, exactly what I like.

In news of the BobCakes, the big fella is definitely showing the signs of our continued assault.

Click an image to see a larger version.

I do believe we will polish it off fairly soon.

The second CaBobCake managed to avoid detection for a while, but now we've cut into it, so its days are numbered.

Beach life is cake life.

Stress monkey checks in, CaBobCake #1 checks out

Last night's sleep bombarded me with the largest and most powerful set of stress dreams of the trip so far.  I'm choosing to view this as positive, as a sign that my mind is finally cutting loose some of the stress, but it could also be no more than another sign that my stress management skills suck way worse than I had realized.  Stress monkey is still on my back.

In news of the BobCakes, the first CaBobCake fell to our army of eaters.

Click an image to see a larger version.

The BobCake itself, however, is standing proud despite an ongoing onslaught.

I think it's possible we've reached the halfway mark, but I'm not certain.  We clearly need to consume a huge amount more chocolate.

I have to confess that I am not doing my part.  Today, for example, I specialized in ice cream and had none of either BobCake.

Tomorrow, perhaps I will rejoin the attack on the cake fortresses.

In which I'm still sleepy, the meaty mess hits the beach, and the BobCake still abides

During normal work weeks, I sleep very little.  I simply can't afford the time in bed.  Here on vacation, I am sleeping about eight hours each night and napping every few days, yet I am sleepy almost all of the time.  Some of this fatigue is due to more exercise; though I'm not doing much, I am walking a couple of miles in the heat each day, and I'm usually in the pool twice a day.  Some of it, though, seems to be just part of the process of trying to shed the stress of my normal life.  I shouldn't be surprised at how much stress I need to get rid of, but I keep being caught off-guard by how pervasive it is.  Clearly, I need to learn to manage my stress better.

Beach life is sleepy life.

Dinner tonight found our group splintering, with some going out, some foraging on their own, and some eating my meaty mess entree.

Click an image to see a larger version.

Kyle pointed out that without context it's hard to appreciate just how large that bowl of meaty goodness is, so he volunteered to be in the blog with it.

Yeah, the bowl is huge and brimming with meat, pasta, and cheese.

In BobNews, the first of the CaBobCakes is nearing its end.

The BobCake itself, however, abides despite our best efforts to consume it.

We may need to throw a BobCake eating party for our beach neighbors just to give ourselves a fighting chance against it.

And so endeth the news of the beach.

The BobCake abides

Over 24 hours have passed since our first brave eater cut into the massive slab that is the BobCake. Many more cuts has the BobCake endured, and yet it abides.

Click an image to see a larger version.

For the BobCake is mighty, and it laughs at our paltry efforts to consume it.

The merely mortal CaBobCake (number one) also abides, but it is smaller now and showing weakness.

By tomorrow, perhaps it will have summoned its sibling.

We shall see.

BobFood

One of our many beach traditions is to have our friend and (former) deli owner, Bob, prepare a dinner for us. Even though he and his wife, Rose, are now retired from that business, he still agreed to cater a meal for us tonight.

Click an image to see a larger version.

The beach crowd this week is huge, but Bob still made more food than we could eat in one sitting. The meal included grilled cheese sandwiches (delicious!), hot dogs with optional chili, burgers, cheeseburgers (great!) with optional bacon, buns, salad, two homemade dressings, tuna, salmon, and tile fish.

The meal was delicious, and everyone ate their fill (and then some).

For dessert, Bob made us three cakes:  two carrot cakes (CaBobCakes, and here's one),

and one incredibly dense chocolate cake, the legendary (at least among us), BobCake.

To our surprise, Bob said that he managed to put two more pounds of chocolate in this year's BobCake than in last year's.  That's not two pounds of chocolate, mind you; that's two additional pounds of chocolate beyond the insane amount in last year's BobCake.  As you can see in the photo. the frosting sometimes breaks in what one of my nephews called a shingle of chocolate; the description was apt.

Beach life is dessert life.

Doing nothing, enjoying it just fine

Sleep. Walk. Splash. Eat. Read. Splash. Eat. Watch.

Simple verbs, simple actions, simple days.

Beach time is good time.

Beach beauties

The moon tonight, distorted by the camera into a mini-sun illuminating the fading day.

Click an image to see a larger version.

The ocean and, closer, the deck and the pool, a minute later, the clouds smothering the sky.

Sarah's caramel cake, which tasted even better than it looks.

Beach life, like most life, is full of beauty of all kinds, but here it's easier to pause to notice the loveliness.

Sunset, with thunderclouds and occasional lightning

The picture does not do it justice, but do click on the photo for a better view.

The storm never hit us, but the threatening clouds demanded our attention.  Lucky for us, for they were beautiful.

Busy doing nothing

I'm accomplishing very little here at the beach, but I manage to be quite busy nonetheless.  Sleeping, reading, walking, lunching, splashing in the pool, sitting in the hot tub, watching movies, and eating fill the days.  Each day, I feel a bit more rested, but I'm not up to fully rested yet.

Another good reason to go to sleep.

Beach time is chillin' time

It's amazing how little you can do and fill a day. I'm working at mastering that technique, and so far, I'm doing quite well.

I am definitely enjoying the break.

I love being here.

Grilling at the beach

It's the Fourth of July, so we must obey the traditions.

I listened to Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers sing one of my favorite songs of his, "Fourth of July."  I do love that one.

We grilled burgers and dogs because, America.  Being at the beach, though, I had to resort to charcoal.

Click an image to see a larger version.

I might have over-filled the Weber with charcoal because, damn, it was hot, hot enough to take off hand hair.

The burgers just fit

and turned out delicious but with a bit too much carbon; that was totally my fault. Yeah, that's 18 burgers on that grill.

Later, Kyle split a hot dog and added pimento cheese and bacon.

Oh, heck, yeah, that looked good.

Some even went to the grill much later and made s'mores.

I did not, but they're not a dessert I enjoy. Others did seem to like them.

On a serious note, our country is the most divided it's been in my life. Each side in the great political debate spends all of its time attacking the other side and nearly none of its time listening to those other viewpoints. This saddens me, because down this road, nothing good happens.

So, my wish for our country on its birthday is that we all pause to realize that we have more in common than not, that we are all Americans, and that if we can all come together to find solutions to our toughest problems, we can indeed remain a nation united.

What passes for a busy day at the beach

Sleep late.

Stroll and chat for two miles.

Pool.

Shower.

Lunch.

Grocery shopping.

Read.

Poker.

Nap.

Read.

Hot tub.

Pool.

And off to dinner.

Beach life is simple life.