2024: A Glance Back

It was a year of loss and gain.  Wars and terrorism continue to plague mostly innocent civilians, including a horrendous Christmas market attack in Europe, and, only 3 hours into the new year, another similar one in New Orleans.  One of the biggest losses for the world in general is probably seeing Trump 6 days from the White House, winning the US election and leaving much of the civilized world aghast at what is to come.  There is no doubt that 2025 will be an interesting year, if more than a bit depressing.  It will be another year of horrible climate news, as lives and property continue to take a beating from nature's warnings that we seem not to heed.  Though there are few complaints here at the Homestead, places we love and care about are suffering badly.  The UK really took a series of hits from the climate this year, as did the US, Spain, South America, and many other locations.  California had record fires yet again, and the year turned out to be the world's warmest on record.  What is Trump's answer to all this?  Drill baby, drill.  Pump even more oil out of the ground and send it into the atmosphere.  Many times I am glad to be an old duffer; sitting around and watching the planet die will not occupy me for too many more years, at least.

 

Between Deb and I we lost 3 family members this year.  My dad passed away in March, Deb's sister during the summer, and a well-like uncle, my mother's brother, died this autumn.  I have one remaining aunt, and my mother and brother surviving me (and two lovely nieces).  Deb has one older sister still chugging along.  And while my overall health has been okay and I continue to stay fit, my bout with kidney stones really knocked me for a loop.  Hope that never happens again.  And Deb's health has hit a few bumps in the road as well.  Most telling is her inability to hike up mountains, due to some mystery condition yet to be determined.

 

R to L: Dad, Mom, Stephen, Mapman.  Probably late 1970s.  Taken at the Miller house on Lake Ramsay. 

 

R to L:  My grandfather Whitehead, born in Newcastle.  He lived till 96.  Uncle Jimmy, died at 33 in a car accident.   Recently deceased Uncle Bill.  An unknown spirit hovers behind Uncle Bill.  Don't remember noticing that before.  This was Jimmy's wedding to Ida (1974?). 

 

2024 was farewell to Deb's oldest sister, Sharon.  Left of her is Lois, Deb's mom, and Deb.
 

And now from the front.  Likely taken in the mid to late 90s (?).   We were on a local winery tour.

But we continued to travel!  After six long years we finally returned to New Mexico, and enjoyed one fine hike in the Manzano Mountains.  More visits are in the planning stages.  We undertook two road trips (not counting two trips to Sudbury), one to the deep south and one to the west.  Our first trip to New Orleans saw us visit four new states together, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.  We hit the state highpoint in those states, as well as visited some major archaeological sights.  In addition we had time to see some New Orleans attractions.  We flew to New Orleans and rented a car, thus creating a road trip as well as a visit to a major new city.  Our western trip saw us conclude a trip began in 2023.  We had to abort that trip when Deb took a bad fall in Oklahoma, with an already broken wrist.  But 2024 allowed us to complete the journey, which saw the Texas highpoint also summited.  Our return to New Mexico was taken as a good omen.

 

Our road trip from New Orleans took us to Montgomery, AL, the true beginning of the civil rights movement in the US.  This statue commemorates Rosa Parks' famous bus ride. 

 

The GPS route of my climb atop Guadalupe Mountain.  It is the highest point in Texas, and one of the biggest hikes I have ever undertaken.
 

Aside from returning to New Mexico again in 2025, we hope to get back to London UK and Vienna at least one more time in the near future, and possibly undertake a visit to a major new (for us) European city, such as Berlin.  We have access to direct flights from Detroit to several other seductive sounding cities as well. 

 

Meanwhile there are two movies to mention, both of them SF.  The Quatermass Experiment is a 2005 tv bit of flotsam from the UK that should never have been made.  Why follow a 1950s SF story so closely in 2005?  The story of Britain's first manned mission to outer space makes no sense today.  We've been there for nearly 70 years now, and this creaky rehash of a strange life form overtaking the mission and causing havoc on board and back home, works only as a 1950s story.  If it's supposed to be the 1950s, then we were fooled.  Quatermass stories are a favourite of mine, and I much rather would have had a new story rather than this dated rehash.  David Tenant and Adrian Dunbar do there best, but the actor that plays Quatermass (Jason Flemyng) is flat and hardly credible as the great man.  Probably best avoided.

Showing on Prime.

 

Turning to Arrival, from 2016, we come across a major SF film that had somehow escaped our view until now.  It is showing on Paramount, to which we recently subscribed.  This, my friends, is one of the top first contact movies ever made, and is possibly the best one.  When 12 gigantic starships land on Earth at different locations, the world is turned upside down.  Directed by Denis Villenueve from a story by Ted Chiang, this one pushed all the right buttons for great SF viewing.  Louis Banks is played by Amy Adams, a linguist tasked by the US military to communicate with the giant and mysterious heptapods.  While I have read better novels of first contact throughout my Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery series, it is hard to find a better film on the subject.  Watch as Louise learns how to deal with the present by learning an alien language that allows her to see into her future actions.  A totally remarkable and unmissable film, and worth more than a single viewing.

Streaming on MGM.

 

Wishing anyone who stops by here a very prosperous and Happy 2025!  Good luck with that--I think you will need it.

 

Mapman Mike 

Detective Anna

One of the best TV series is a made in Russia supernatural detective series called Detective Anna.  From 2016, there are 56 episodes, consisting of a 26 2-part series.  That season ended in a bit of a cliffhanger.  Today I was browsing Prime and saw a second season!  I have been on the lookout for such a thing for many years now, so it must have been added to their lineup relatively recently.  Season 2 is from 2021, and consists of 40 fifty minute episodes, or 20 two part ones.  Wasting no time, we watched the first 2 episodes today.  Good stuff!  Resuming a series with original characters after five years can be quite a tough challenge, but the writer brilliantly takes up the story 5 years later!  Anna has trained in Paris to become a doctor.  Her friend and lover the detective mysterious went underground for five years, and she thought he was dead.  It all takes place in a provincial city some distance from Petersburg, around the turn of the 19th C.  The costumes are unbelievably good, as are most stories.  The acting is first rate.  The series is subtitled.  So happy to see this series back for more!

In more good news, I got my 1980s Schwinn 18 speed bicycle back from the shop today.  It underwent a complete tune up, with new tires, tubes, cables, and it received a top to bottom cleaning.  A shout out to Flow Cafe and Bikes in Amherstburg!!  Here are a few pics of the little beauty.

 

The top photo is from the bike shop; the middle one was taken once we got it home; the last one shows a detail of the handlebars.  More coming later. 

 

In travel news, we have planned our next voyage.  Last year we finally returned to travel, something we used to do several times per year.  Last Spring we undertook a road trip from Detroit to Little Rock, exploring some state high points and some Native American archaeological sites.  In the autumn we attempted a return to the mountains of New Mexico, getting as far as SW Oklahoma before having to cancel due to Deb's hiking accident.  For our upcoming trip, it is still mostly a road trip, and the focus is again on state high points and archaeology.  In mid-March we will fly into New Orleans, our first airport experience since late 2019.  We will fly home a week later.  In between we will drive to two major archaeological sites in the deep south, as well as tackling up to four more state high points.  We are excited, but also a bit nervous about being in crowded conditions.  Last autumn, after attending a crowded film festival for three days, we both came down with terrific colds, which lasted about 9 days.  So airports and flying do not exactly excite us.  Had we driven down there the trip would have to have been at least 4-5 days longer.  A full report will be made as soon as we are home, probably on the Road Trips blog.

There are two movies to report, both of them Deb's choices.  First came a documentary on Angela Carter.  Angela Carter: Of Wolves and Women is a one hour BBC production from 2018, and includes interviews with Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie, among others.  She died in her 50s from lung cancer.  I've only read one of her books, but have seen two films based on her writings.  We are both interested in reading more of her stuff now.

 

We watched this documentary on Youtube.

Penda's Fen is from 1974, and is also a BBC production.  This is a very strange little film about a teenage boy who can't seem to find himself just yet.  He is a loner, a misfit, deeply religious (his father is a parson), and incapable of action of any sort when it is needed.  On his 18th birthday his parents inform him that he is adopted.  While the news could have shattered the boy, it actually makes him stronger, as he comes to realize that he now has no idea of his genetic makeup, and thus of his possibilities in life.  He is intelligent and imaginative, and in love with the music of Elgar.  He has troubling dreams of demons and angels, and hallucinations of same.  In one scene he imagines that he meets an elderly Elgar, and learns first hand the secret of the composer's Enigma Variations.  Like the boy, the film can't seem to really find itself, and wanders around in the muck a lot of the time.  Is it a horror story?  A rite of passage?  A critique of the underpinnings of English society?  A search for truth in religion? To some it might seem profound, but to seasoned viewers it just seems lost in the search for truth.  The boy's father, the parson, turns out to be the most interesting character in the film, a man who is far from being religious in the traditional sense.  The boy himself is not very likeable, as he does not have a defining character yet.  Definitely worth a look.

 

We watched this little oddity on Youtube. 

 

I forgot to mention that we have had two days in a row where we exceeded 60 F.  In Canada, in winter.  We have flowers ready to bloom.  Cooler weather will begin returning tomorrow, but nothing very scary.  We had about 9 days of very cold air in January, and then it was gone.  The winter that wasn't.  However, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were buried alive last week, with over a meter of snow in many places.  Yikes!

 

Mapman Mike