As my children are both in high school now, our time spent together doing things usually revolves around traveling to and from their various activities. After many years spent in the try it pool, it is kinda nice that the two have sorta refined/evolved their interests into that which they are most interested in.
However, since I have one FFA/4-H livestock judging, cattle showing, young business professional competing, shotgun shooting basketball player, and one football, basketball, track, and competitive shotgun and small bore marksman, let's just say that I have to really focus on scheduling just being family time.
Last night was to be one of those nights. The stars aligned in such a way this week that I foresaw Saturday night as being one of those nights. A movie night! And not just any movie night, I had a code for a free Pizza Gut pizza and free wings. Now, we don't eat out a lot, but during the great hospital stay foray courtesy of Rambling Ron (my dad) I ended up with a free pizza thanks to a sweet girl who apparently thought two hours was far too long for us to wait for a pizza (Like it was her fault there is a labor shortage...).
I also had a copy of Godzilla Vs. Kong.
Now here's the thing, My hubs, children, and I are all from vastly different generations, but we all have got one thing in common, we adore creature features of the giant monster kind.
The hubs is old enough that he enjoyed the actual Creature Features weekly along with the old Godzilla and King Kong flicks. Me, I am from the Jurassic Park, let's remake all the old movies cause we have kick ass computer animation now (Matthew Broderick's Godzilla movie anyone?) time of tv, and the kids, well let's just say that Pacific Rim is one of their favorite movies.
Probably Unnecessary Nostalgic Side note: When I watched Them! with my dad as a kid, I just knew that I could make one of those giant ants my friend and ride it around, I knew this because of Anty on Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. Many a good daydream sprouted from that brain train!
So there you have it, a multi-generational gathering of monster movie lovers was imminent. After returning home from Bobo's sporting clay match clear on the other side of Spokane, being stuck in a traffic jam on the freeway for over an hour because a motorcyclist and a car fought a tragic duel; we all finally convened on our rather large and comfy couch.
Pizza, wings, popcorn, and licorice in situ, we all turned our collective attention towards Godzilla and Kong. Each one of us has opinions on such things, and let me tell ya the movie had more Kat-family commentary than your average cable news show. Opinions flowed like parmesan cheese and peppers on to a slice of pan pizza, and my face broke into multiple contented smiles as I took in the scene.
One of the kittens was sitting regally just behind my hub's head, looking a bit like one of Godzilla's spikes atop the Hawaiian's large form. Our German Shepherd couldn't figure out why we were all residing at once in her couch domain, and kept moving around the living room like a nanny with an untreated case of anxiety. The cowboy corgi was doing her best dead goldfish impression on a pillow one of my friends made me for my birthday last year, and I only managed to wear half of my pizza by the first Kong and Godzilla fight, so things were going good.
We are not even going to get into what Baba Yaga got up too during the flick, she could whip both monsters and Mechagodzilla easily. I don't know what kind of energy was imbued into that kitten creature when it was hatched, but to this day I have never yet witnessed another animal in possession of so much, well, just extra.
We were post first round of comestibles, the movie itself was building to the ultimate battle, when my daughter suddenly blurted, Mom! Look out the window!"
To the left of our large grey couch is a massive picture window that looks out over the back pasture. Standing right past my shoulder no more than ten feet from where I sat was one of the gangly monsters which inhabit our woods,
A moose.
In the twilight her black brown shadowy form was enhanced as she picked her long legs up and down in a dance of anticipation and irritation. Moose are such funny looking, awkward creatures, all composed of rounded edges and stark angles. I love them.
We have large water troughs in all our pastures and I could see that one of them was Mama's destination, for at that point I could see she had a baby monster in tow. Baby moose are quite possibly the cutest ugly things one planet. Little M trotted up to Mama and plopped to his knees on the lawn, oblivious to the audience who was enthralled by his existential antics. His Quasimodo-like hump flapped back and forth as he crawled around our yard on his knees chomping large mouthfuls of sweet green grass.
Mama, not to be outdone in the ooh and ahh department gracefully leapt over two fences to get to the water trough and noisily slurped water everywhere like a mighty dowager drinking punch at a ton fete. All of us, human, canine, and cat alike, watched the scene in complete jaw-dropped delight.
And normally I would apologize for my lackluster pictures, but as I was covered in a corgi, two cats, and a nice soft blanket, they were the best I could do, there was no way I was going to jump up and wreck the scene.
That's kinda my point with this post I suppose, life is full of so many wonderous, random scenes. Whether they come from movies, experiences while observing them, or things that interrupt them, all of it is rather glorious.
Which of course is why I call myself an existential enthusiast after all.😉
