2 February 2024
Happy Groundhog Day! To us Southerners, it’s always been a strange observance since we don’t have groundhogs in the South and winter is pretty much over with by the end of February. I never can figure out what the prognostication is if he sees his shadow. Here in South Florida it means 12 more months of summer.
Tuesday’s Herceptin infusion is the first infusion I’ve had that was free from the effects of Taxol. That allows me to see solely what effect Herceptin will have on me. The day after the infusion I was good. Thursday I was dragging a bit and today I’m really dragging. Fatigue is the most common complaint from Herceptin and I have that in spades. I’m curious as to how long I’ll have the effects and when I’ll start feeling more energetic.
AAA Modern Air came by this morning for my semiannual service on the AC. The technician said the capacitor was showing it was about to fail and he replaced it with the discounted price (with the service agreement) of $236. Apparently, the capacitor provides the energy to kick the motor over and if it fails, it puts undue stress on the motor and can cause it to fail.
It seems like there’s a lot of outgo these days with the Jeep headlamp, the capacitor of the AC – who knows what is next.
Movie night with Chris on Wednesday was Casablanca. I think it’s my favorite movie of all time and I can almost give you the dialog word for word. It has that je ne sais quoi about it where men wore double breasted suits with broad lapels and women dressed to the nines and you were courteous to your enemies even when disagreeing with them. It has some of the best “one lines” in all moviedom.
There are several favorite scenes in the movie for me. You don’t even see Rick, played by Humphrey Bogart, until several minutes into the film and then you don’t see his face for a few seconds. At one point Paul Henreid, who plays Victor Laszlo, is so outraged at German officers singing a German patriotic song, he insists the band at Rick’s to play La Marseillaise. So much for the Vichy regime. Then when Rick shoots Conrad Veidt, who plays Major Strasser, at the airport to prevent Victor and Ilsa, played by Ingrid Bergman from getting on the plane, Claude Rains says the famous line “Round up the usual suspects.” Rains plays the Chief Inspector of the Prefect of Police Louis Renault.
Added to that all star cast are Sydney Greenstreet as Signor Ferrari (there seems to be a lot of car names in this film – Ferrari, Renault) Peter Lorre as Signor Ugarte, S.Z. Sakall as Carl the Waiter, and of course, it wouldn’t be Casablanca without Dooley Wilson who plays Sam. The theme of “As Times Goes By” plays throughout the film. By the way, Ilsa never says “Play it again, Sam.” She simply says “Play it Sam. Play As Time Goes By.”
Click on some of the names above and see how many famous films they’ve been in and how many you remember.
One of the last scenes in the movie is where Ilsa finds out she is staying with Sam but getting on the plane with Victor. It’s considered one of the best scenes in film history. Wikipedia reports at the last moment, Rick makes Ilsa board the plane to Lisbon with Laszlo, telling her that she would regret it if she stayed, “Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.”
Every time I watch this movie, I see something new. I can watch this movie over and over and over again.
Today was clean the pool filter day. After cleaning it (I was exhausted) I could no longer thread the steel rod into the bottom. I’ve called Pools ‘n More and they are sending someone out on Monday to see if it can be repaired. If not, it’ll need to be entirely replaced.
Stay tuned!