A few years ago, our driveway lamp post started falling apart. We get some crazy wind here in Fairfield, CT and once the lamp started having issues, it quickly got worse. There were broken glass pieces and the top wouldn’t stay on and the bulb would never stand up straight but I’m fairly certain that issue predates our residence in this home.
My origin story and my Native Mode is the furthest thing from Handy Man so I just kept kind of piecing the lamp back together in the most mailing-it-in way possible which was ok, I guess. However, our recent night winds (Seriously. I don’t know how we didn’t wake up in Oz.) were fairly drastic and the top of our lamp landed in our driveway hard enough that I wasn’t able sit the bent metal top back properly on top of the post as it had been mangled too out of shape. And thus, despite my best efforts to NOT become knowledgable about lamp posts, I was required to go into learning mode.
As with most things these days, there wasn’t a wealth of options for lamp posts in the physical stores. Even as big as Home Depot is, there were only a few choices and none of them really fit the bill. I should mention that I do use a slightly larger LIFX smart bulb for our driveway lamp and many of the lamps available wouldn’t be able to accommodate my smart bulb.
That said, I was hopeful for the Baytown II Lamp as it had a couple of things going for it. I loved the idea that it was solar. Any time I have to deal with our home’s electric situation, I’m often left asking, “Why did they do this?” and I know next to nothing about dealing with electricity. So, the idea that I could ignore the wires that run out to the lamp post and just let the Sun handle it? That excited me to no end. However, since the solar lamp post doesn’t use wired electricity, that negates the power switch we have inside our home. I would have been fine with that because, as I mentioned, I use a smart bulb and I control all of our outdoor light thru our various Amazon Echos, I didn’t think the lack of a power switch would be an issue. However, you can’t use a standard bulb with this lamp. You have to use the one that comes with the lamp post as that is the only bulb that will fit. Still, I thought it was worth the try and maybe I’d figure something out.
Sadly, the final straw was that, although I turned the lamp on to the High setting (as opposed to Low or Off), the bulb in the lamp just didn’t have enough power to light up our driveway. In fairness to the Baytown II, it probably isn’t supposed to. I’m guessing maybe it’s more of a next to the door on the house kind of light. I’m not sure. What I do know is that my best life lessons come from the mistakes I’ve made and so this is one of those.
So, I went online and ordered the Bel Air Lighting Catalina which is a more traditional lamp post in that is hard wired and, I believe, can take whatever bulb I put in it. Home Depot says I’ll have it by Monday. In theory, when the time comes, I’ll let you know how that went.
Last night, the Mrs and I didn’t really have anything pressing to watch and the 96th annual Academy Awards happened to be on AND ABC was nice enough to start the ceremony and hour earlier which was great! It’s never made a heck of a lot of sense to me that they have a 4 hour long awards show where the most exciting of the awards a handed out after my bedtime. I could be mistake but I think Best Picture was handed out somewhere around 10:30pm ET and that was pretty good. Big fan. On the whole, I’d say the award show was pretty good and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.
Also, big kudos the Amazing Mr. Jimmy Kimmel for an excellent job hosting the show. Hi monologue was great. The bits he showed up for mid show were very amusing and I loved that Jimmy capped it off by reading Trump’s complaining social media post towards the end of the show. Jimmy is awesome! My only complaint about Mr. Kimmel hosting the Oscars is that he doesn’t work on his own show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, for the week prior to the awards. The first thing I tend to watch on YouTube in the morning is Jimmy’s monologue from his late night show so I have greatly missed his take on things for the last week. That said, Jimmy Kimmel Live will be back on the air tonight and I am THRILLED to have him back.
As for the actual awards themselves, I don’t believe I’ve seen many of the contending movies this year but that’s pretty typical for me. Here’s my breakdown for the films for Best Picture.
Oppenheimer – I’m certain this is a great movie. I’ve watched most of Christopher Nolan’s films several times. The exception is Dunkirk. I never saw that movie. I don’t know why. The rest of Mr. Nolan’s movies, I’ve seen countless times and I’m a huge fan of the repeated viewings. As for Oppenheimer, I think we broke up watching that movie over 5 or 6 nights. And to be honest, I didn’t always know what was going on. But I got the gist. And it was visually exciting to watch and the sound was incredible. It doesn’t surprise me that Oppenheimer won Best Picture.
American Fiction – The start of the description that comes up when you google this movie is Monk is a frustrated novelist who’s fed up with the establishment that profits from Black entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. So uh….yeah. Doesn’t exactly sound like a fun movie and I don’t know how much of it is relatable as I am not… a novelist. That said, the film does have some talented actors doing apparently some of their best work and generally, movies that find their way into the Best Film category are not awful. So, I’ll probably see this eventually.
Anatomy Of A Fall – I think it was during the Best Actress nominations that whoever nominated Sandra Huller for this film said that she still didn’t know the character Sandra played had killed her husband. If there’s one kind of film that I absolutely hate, it’s the kind of film where the movie is over and there wasn’t an absolutely a solid conclusion to the film. I can’t imagine I will ever watch this movie.
Barbie – I saw this movie a bunch of times and loved it. I’m not surprised this movie didn’t take home a ton of awards last night as it is a fantastic combination of successful box office, fun and a joy to watch. I imagine I will see this film again and again.
The Holdovers – I think Paul Giamatti’s awesome. Big Fan! And while this certainly wasn’t a fun movie per se, having seen Sideways, the last film Alexander Payne directed with Mr. Giamatti, I felt I was more prepared for a film that was a bit tragic in tone. Regardless of what I thought this film might be, I did enjoy it and I was very moved by Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s acceptance speech. I imagine Miss Randolph’s publicist appreciated it as well. 😀
Killers Of The Flower Moon – I don’t know. First off, I haven’t seen it. On the one side, you’ve got the exceptional talent of Scorsese, De Niro and DiCaprio all doing their finest work I assume. On the other side, you have a movie that I believe is another epic tale on how my people once again royally screwed over the Native Americans? Probably a great movie. Not sure if I’m going to see it.
Maestro – Bradley Cooper has proven he is an exceptional talent and he did a fine job with his A Star Is Born remake. I’m not opposed to watching this but it’s not like I’m looking forward to it either. This might sound stupid but if I don’t watch this motion picture it’s because it is my understanding that most of the film is presented in the 4×3 or square aspect ration. I cannot stand that.
Past Lives – A romantic drama about 2 young Koreans falling in love. I would need to hear INCREDIBLE things about this movie from people I trust before I even consider dedicating my time to this film. Nothing agains Koreans. Nothing agains love. I just don’t think this movie is going to tick any of my boxes.
Poor Things – Once again, I just don’t know. However, here’s why I might take a look at this one. First off, it’s on Hulu. I have Hulu. So, we’re off to a good start. Second, this film looks weird. I am genuinely attracted to weird movies. I think it’s because, often with weird movies, you don’t know what’s happening and/or you don’t know where it’s going. A perfect recent example of this is the movie Beekeeper. Have you seen Beekeeper? It’s not “good” in the traditional sense but that movie is preposterous and I could not wait to see how it was going to end. Not that I imagine Poor Things is anything Beekeeper. Poor Things appears to be a maybe reimagining of Frankenstein? I’m probably going to watch it so I don’t want to know too much about it. Plus, I’m a big fan of Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe. And it did win of boatload of awards last night. I imagine I will check this movie out.
The Zone Of Interest – Nope. I cannot even imagine what anyone can say to me to see this movie. Color me non progressive but between Diary of Ann Frank and Schindlers List, I feel confident that I have met my limit for viewing “entertainment” about the holocaust. Not to mention that, in googling the director, Jonathan Glazer, I discovered he was the director of the 2013 film Under The Skin. My review of that film? Oooffff! As this movie did win Best International Feature Film last night, I assume it’s good on some level. Odds are though that I have a better chance of seeing Past Lives before I check this movie out.
Big Dave Novak 