1. The Fitness Center in Smelterville was closed both Sunday and Monday, so I was eager to get back to the rehab gym this morning. My workout was really good. I increased the intensity of one of the machines, increased the size of the hand weights I use, and the results were good when I weighed myself. My blood pressure was up a bit, but once I worked out and returned home, I got a good reading.
2. Debbie and I went to CdA together today. After I was done at the gym, we made a quick stop at Fred Meyer and then had a superb light lunch at Daft Badger. I had a cup of chili that included brisket, ground beef, kidney beans, and perfect seasoning alongside a Mediterranean salad with among other things, artichoke hearts, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, and a terrific vinaigrette. I enjoyed eating a robustly flavorful lunch that didn't make me feel uncomfortably full, but simply satisfied.
3. Debbie fixed us a superb dinner of roasted green peppers, baked sweet potato, and baked salmon. We had some leftover yogurt, sour cream, and garlic sauce from Monday's dinner and I used it to lightly dress my piece of salmon and the sweet potato. Later on, we were fortunate to have the women's basketball game of the day (week? month? season?) on the television and saw Caitlin Clark sink a three pointer from about 40 feet, from the fringe of the half court logo, with just the slightest tick of the clock remaining to catapult Iowa to a 76-73 victory over Michigan State.
A little later in the evening, I turned my attention back to James Gray and watched his second directorial effort, The Yards.
It was an intense story about a young man played by Mark Wahlberg returning from prison to his neighborhood in Queens, hoping to leave criminal life behind him and find legitimate work.
That doesn't happen.
Ignorant of his uncle's and longtime friend's corrupt activities in the New York City world of subway train repair and maintenance, he gets sucked into being a watch out man while his friend and a gang of young men carry out the sabotaging of a competitor's maintenance work on trains in the Sunnyside Yards in Queens.
While what transpires that night is at the center of the movie's story, this is also a movie about family love and loyalty, neighborhood friendships and loyalty and betrayal, and the way criminal conspiracies can fold in on themselves, pitting members of the conspiracy in violent conflict with one another.
I won't say how it all works out. I experienced this movie as violent and tense. It frightened me at times. I enjoyed that the cast included, along with Mark Wahlberg, stellar actors: James Caan, Ellen Burstyn, Faye Dunaway, Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron, and Steve Lawrence.
In the two James Gray movies I've watched this week, Little Odessa and The Yards, I've found his explorations of street life, family life, corruption, and crime in neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn to be dark, compelling, and, at times, enthralling.
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