From the porch to Monte Cristo

This past Saturday, although it was rainy in the morning, I did sit out on the deck again for a while. Instead of sitting on the unsheltered side of the deck -- known on brighter days as the sunny side -- I sat on the sheltered side -- known on brighter days as the shady side. I sat in this rocker:

As you can see, lots of stuff stuck under the shelter for the winter. I would like to buy another rocker just like this one, so two people could sit and rock and talk together. There also was, at one time, a matching bench in the hardware store where I bought this rocker and the potting bench next to it. But I wonder if they still have any of this line of furniture, or can order some, or if special ordered how much it would cost. I will have to find all that out as warmer weather draws near -- no fear of that right now, it seems!

I'm excited about this summer. Lots of my family are going to visit, and I hope we can sit out on a deck made beautiful by my flower-growing efforts. Of course, the amount of time I will spend anticipating the visit exceeds the amount of time people will actually be visiting by a factor of about 32. Oh, well.

I always remember a line from The Last Remake of Beau Geste; the commander of their French Foreign Legion tells the legionnaires: "Life is as brief as butterfly's fart." It's kind of along the same lines as Keats' "Ode on Melancholy," but not quite as lyrical. Mortality, etc.

Another good line is when Marty Feldman claims that his character and the character "Beau," played by Michael York, are identical twins, "Only, somehow, Beau was more identical than I was."

My favorite Michael York movie is the double feature The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. Some great 70's eye candy in that movie: Michael York, yes, and Richard Chamberlain, and Oliver Reed. Powerhouse actors such as Charlton Heston and Christoper Lee, and lovely women Raquel Welch and Faye Dunaway. Let me also mention Frank Finlay and Geraldine Chaplin. I can't remember if I saw the movie then read the Dumas novel (just The Three Musketeers; it is the movies that split it in two) and then more Dumas novels (The Count of Monte Cristo, The Man in the Iron Mask), which were also made into TV movies, both starring the justifiably ubiquitous Richard Chamberlain.