3 December 2009

A normal day off yesterday. Up early for devotions, then Cherie and I hit the pool at Haslett to swim. I did a warmup of 500 meters freestyle, then 3 x 50 meters backstroke. Then I worked on butterfly—my area of focus right now since I'm just learning it. 2 x 50 meters and then 2 x 25 meters with backstroke on the return 25 meters. My second 25 meters on the way back I suddenly felt like I was going to blow chow so I got out of the pool to rest. I decided to throw in the towel then and there, since I'd also swum the day before anyway. I love butterfly. Fun, but difficult stroke.

After that I came home and worked on finances; almost blew a gasket with Cablespeed since they did not credit me for a payment I made 3 months ago—their error! Cherie and I went to see the movie "The Blind Side," with Tim Lambert, very good movie, the best I've seen in a long, long time.

The Blind Side manages to hit a lot of themes very well without being preachy about it: racism, the gap between rich and poor, the value of the individual, the importance of family, the soul-destroying nature of the projects, the place of faith in the life of southern culture, etc.

Sandra Bullock is fantastic as the peripatetic mom who decides to take in Michael Oher on a whim and then sticks with him when she realizes that he is homeless. Tim McGraw is laid back and great as her husband. Their son (don't know his name) almost steals the show as a fast-talking motor-mouth who gladly accepts Michael as his older brother.

My favorite line from the movie is when a relative gets their Christmas card and calls up and says, "I've already had 5 beers so I'm just going to come out and ask you, 'Did you know you have a big colored boy in your Christmas picture?'"