Today is cold at 46°. The air is perfectly still, the sky blue and the sun shining but to no avail. They are merely props to make the day a pretty one. Tonight could get as low as the 30’s. I had the window open in my bedroom last night, and I woke up with Fern and Gracie huddled beside me to stay warm. I came downstairs and turned on the heat as the house was really cold. Fern is now asleep warmed by the sun coming through the front door and Gracie is having her morning nap on the couch. It’s a typical morning.

Many of us are of the duck and cover generation. We grew up in the 1950’s and 1960’s when the world seemed always on the brink of war. Our movies were filled with monsters grown out of control because of A-bomb testing. We had aliens bent on the destruction of our planet. We knew, though, that all would be right in the end because we were the good guys. I was never scared by those movies. I knew the monsters could never be real, and I didn’t think a UFO had us in its sights.

Today the syfy channel is presenting the Earth may not survive movies. The first one had the Earth off its orbit, and it took a hydrogen bomb in the Marianas Trench to right the orbit and save us all. New York City is now in danger of being destroyed by tornadoes and in a later movie a UFO will crash in Puget Sound and spawn more killer tornadoes. The weather is our movie enemy, and we are far less prepared to defeat it. It didn’t take much to kill a bunch of giant ants, a few bombs and lots of bullets, but the heroes of those movies, the brave soldiers, are now out-matched. Our new heroes are scientists at first ignored by soldiers who need a flesh and bone enemy, but who prove their worth to even the most hardened generals.

I figure all these movies, even the B&W 50’s films, are art in some strange way imitating life.