And Nothing To Watch But Flying Shark Movies

For years I’ve been tolerating the same problems with my apartment.  Now someone else would move out but my options are limited with a fixed income, no big bank account, no car.  Also this location is convenient, a short walk to downtown and also on the bus route if I need to travel some distance.

Recently I had to spend a few days outside the city at a motel in a semi-civilized area.  There was more for me to do downtown, places I could go and hang out like the library, but to get to downtown that was a one hour – two mile walk usually in the energy-sapping heat.  And the motel location wasn’t a good spot to catch a bus.  My landlord didn't mention he would reimburse me for travel (taxi cab) and meal expenses outside those I could make at home (apartment kitchen was unusable).  (Yes, I kept all my receipts for my out of pocket expenses.)  I made sure that he was paying for the motel room.

The motel was OK, standard.  At home I don't have cable TV, just OTA (off the air) channels, but that selection is better than the motel cable channels.  I'm not into seeing someone on the hunting channel shooting a pheasant with an arrow.  The wounded animal is flipped up on its back, legs twitching in the air, while the Great Nimrod smiles.

The motel cable selection did include the Syfy channel.  This channel was once called Sci Fi but they had to get cool and artsy and call it Syfy even thought it still shows the same low budget crap.  I don't pronounce Syfy as sci-fi but as sif-ee like in syphilis.

Of course I'm stuck with the one weekend when Syfy was foisting a Sharknado movie marathon.  For those of you not blessed with such knowledge sharknado – shark tornado – is a sci fi concept with freak storms picking up hungry sharks and dropping them on land where they attack and eat people.  The other variation is flying sharks ripping off body parts while zipping by.

There are four movies based on this premise.  Such potential for variety.  How did just four movies cover all the possibilities?

Usually I enjoy bad movies, amused by their outrageousness, but with my situation I wasn't in the mood.

To take a break from such entertainment abnormality I made sure each morning to go downstairs for the complimentary breakfast.  I would sit at one table by myself, alone.  Around me were summer vacationers, couples and families.  People with traditional lives.

Normalcy.



(From Ray X X-Rayer #123.)