Random Thoughts on Friday

Sorry for the lack of local travel type entries right now.  We have had to cancel some travel plans for the summer.  Not to get too personal but we have a very sweet small animal that is sick, and we are doing what we can to take care of him.

I've been to the movies a little lately.  Did you see Mr. Peabody and Sherman?  That was my favorite cartoon as a kid.  I was so happy to see that a movie was made about it!  I love time machines, and I love the thought of going back in time to watch history.  I really liked this film!

On the opposite end of the spectrum.....  I saw the horror film Oculus!  I liked this movie too, for different reasons.  This is a great ghost story.  Very well done- well written, and intense.  Usually, the supernatural type movies don't give me a good scare like a thrasher film, but this one did!

I have been watching some old TV shows recently too, since I am not getting out of the house as much.  I mentioned before that we have been on a huge frontier life kick after our trip to South Dakota.  Frontier living, Native Americans, and the few decades right after the Civil War are some of our favorite topics right now.

So-we are almost finished watching the entire run of Little House on the Prairie!  Alison Arngrim, Victor French, Matthew Laborteaux... and really all of the others are just great on that show.  The stories are good and well written, and the characters are likable.  Some of them are very dark and almost have a horror feel to them too!  I know it gets a lot of attention for being a good show the family can watch, but it has a real grit to it too.  It is dusty and desperate... and shows deal with substance abuse, robbery, death and murder too.

WE have also started watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman too.  That show came around a good time after Little House.  It does have a much more polished feel to it (I have a tough time believing that the perfectly made up Jane Seymour and Joe Lando could exist in that rough of a time, and still look so flawless).

AND, I know this has been said before but I am not big on placing modern values on the people of the 1870s and 1880s.  Those were different times and it is very easy for people now (or even people in the 90s) to pass judgment on those characters.

THEN AGAIN- there are some folks in Jane Seymour's world that would have never shown up in Walnut Grove.  Dr. Quinn's main rival is the town pimp (played by the very believable William Shockley who kicks major backside as Hank)!  I can't see Hank and his girls setting up shop next to Oleson's Mercantile (surely there is some fan fiction out there where the these two worlds have mingled).

Oh, we have also watched some old Bonanza episodes too, which has added to some strange conversations-

During an episode of Bonanza-
Me:  Hey, haven't we watched this episode before?
My wife:  No, you are thinking about Little House.  Or maybe it was Dr. Quinn.
Me:  I can't remember.