JZ barely woke up at 10:30. He partied until 5:00 AM and forgot we were due for a trip to Marco. His dad landed in the hospital so I doubt we would have left town anyway. It was actually Alaine that called, wanting some work done on the Quizno’s computer. I was a little put of last time by Corey’s statement not to “make it any worse than it is”. She said she’d buy lunch, making me glad she owns a restaurant and not a (insert bad joke here). Hey, this was 2005.
Instead JZ and I went to Homestead, or actually the farm area called Redlands. It is all agricultural reserve which has so far kept it fairly rural. The healthy young farm girls can be seen, but never approached. There is always a mother hen type around in case anyone gets too friendly. JZ had his big shirt on and kept eyeing up the fat broads. We never chase the same women, which is nice. On the way we stopped at the Flea Market where I bought my original cell phone. To change the number, I have to buy another phone (we stopped by the stand and talked to the owner, a very handsome Venezuelan guy in his late twenties, probably gets more babes than I did).JZ is dismayed how commercialized Redlands has become. I warned people ten years ago the worst effect of the Internetwork [the proper name of the Internet] would be the raising of prices to the highest known level. Now they want $5 for a dozen ears of corn, where a few years ago the price had been stable for decades at five ears for one dollar. Now they want exactly the same price as the supermarket. saying this corn is fresher.
None of this stopped JZ from raiding the local fields (again). He knows all these different plants, where to me if it grows in a garden, I don’t want to mess with it. He got himself several bags of tomatoes, corn, squash and a few items I didn’t see because I stayed in the truck. It was a cold and blustery day. The roads were still choked with Miami traffic and the place no longer has any rural character except where it is something on display for the tourists. I talked him in to taking a bunch of side roads. We even found that airport I got lost at in 2000, with the untra-lites and the blimp airship.
In a surprise upgrade to the future, JZ bought a toaster oven. He is now well into the 1960s. Still no cell phone or microwave or anything. We went to Blockbusters and he finally sees that the newer movies are not longer being released in VHS. That, more than anything, will get him to finally buy a DVD player. We stopped at the Amish store, where there were three gorgeous girls, all fresh-faced and slim, working behind the counters. If you look just over the shoulder of the man beside JZ, you can see just part of the face of one of these babes, which is the only thing I truly regret about getting old. JZ ate a bucket of soft ice cream, an activity that is bygone in my life now.
Author's note 2015-04-02: I did manage [to eat] a half-bucket in 2012. But once every seven years is okay and any dieter can tell you rum raisin doesn't count.
We bought chocolate and coffee and chicken breasts and went back to his condo. It really was cold today with the high wind. We rented I, Robot, which I found to be very well done. Asimov would have been proud. The scripting was clever and mature yet managed to avoid any Star-Trek style pseudo-cleverness. You know, the instant recall of quotations from ancient Greek writings, that kind of bull. The plot was quite good, incorporating lots of dropped hints and humor if you paid attention. I identified with the robot. My favorite lines are where the human calls the robot useless because it can’t compose a symphony or paint a masterpiece.
The robot replies, "Can you?"
Author's note 2015-04-02: I often misquote this as "Neither can you." In 2005, I knew as much about robots as my critics do today--nothing. By 2015, FOX has blocked this link. So the thought police have caught up to the Internet. This type of blocking is not copyright enforcement, it is censorship plain and simple. What does Fox hope to gain by blocking a clip from a movie that today sells for $2.99? Except a reputation that they are a lot worse thing to have around than an uncreative robot.
