The Taking of the President

Started off a cloudy and humid day at work. What a difference from the weekend! When I arrived, the carts were already close to full. It only took me about a half-hour to gather them, rather than the entire five hours. It helped that we were dead during most of the morning. I did have to take people when it started to pick up a little around 12:30, and I gathered baskets twice. Other than that, I spent the whole day shelving three carts filled with returned items. Got most of them done, too. I had absolutely no problems getting in or out - stopped to pick up milk on the way home.

When I got in, I went right into writing. Leia, and then Luke, ask Benton Kenobi about the Force and the Swords. The Force gives the Swords and the crystals that make them their power. The Jedi had once protected the Guardians, right up until 20 years before. Vader ordered most of the remaining ones killed after his last dig went wrong. Only Ben and old Professor Yoda Chiang remain.

I got off around 5:30. I had the leftovers from yesterday for dinner, then cleaned the bathroom. Some parts were worse than others. Thankfully, it didn't take me that long to finish. (My bathroom isn't that big.)

Ran Air Force One while I worked. President James Marshall (Harrison Ford) has just announced a policy of being tough on terrorists. A group of Russian radicals (lead by Gary Oldman) who don't like that policy one bit manage to get on the plane and take almost everyone on board hostages, including Marshall's wife and daughter. The radicals want Marshall to free a Russian radical general who is being detained in the US. Meanwhile, the vice-president (Glenn Close) has to figure out how to deal with trouble on the ground, including when people find out that the president is among those missing on the ship. But Marshall is tougher than anyone wants to believe, and there's no way he's going to let anyone hurt his family or his country.

While I will say I enjoyed the cat-and-mouse games of The Fugitive a bit more, this wasn't bad. I actually wish Ford and Oldman had gotten to interact a bit more - Oldman's killed off a bit too early. It's also very noisy and very tense. If you're a fan of thrillers or patriotic-tinged action movies or love the cast, you can do far worse than this one.

And I decided to skip the fireworks. The sun did come out later, but it got hot and humid. After all the running around I've done lately, I wasn't up to it.