2000

Dear Uncle Stonebender

By Guy W. Thomas

January 1st, 2000.

Dear Uncle Stonebender,

Another day another millinnium, Y2K didn't live up to its press surprise, surprise.

How was your holiday? Xmas was pretty much a non-event for me. Carol and I had already agreed not to exchange gifts (the new house was our present to each other). We had also asked our families not to give us presents because we weren't going to be able to afford presents this year. I just bought presents for my niece and two nephews. It sounds shallow, I know, but I really missed getting a present.

I did get a real kick out of getting to know my niece, Katelyn. She's my baby sister's (Cheryl) daughter. At three years old, she's developing quite a personality. At Xmas dinner, she pulled a stool up next to me and "talked" to me for a good hour. She showed me photos and her drawings. I only understood every third word or so, but it was great fun for Uncle Guy-Guy.

I really did want to have fabulous plans for New Years Eve but prices out here were ridiculous! Did you go out? Carol, Betty and I (plus Linda [my other sister], Cheryl [not my sister] and Chuck) went to see _Galaxy Quest_. You know that Star Trek-ish farse with Tim Allen? After the movie, we ate chinese and brought in the new year watching a Twilight Zone Marathon on the Sci-Fi Channel. I was in bed by 1:30am.

I've been getting a great deal of pain in my coccyx for a little over a month now. This isn't completely unusual for me a week or so out of a year. However, Its never been this bad for this long. So I went to the doctor and after some X-rays discovered I apperantly don't have two of the three bones that make up the coccyx! The doctors are at a loss. An infection of the bone is one cause of bone loss, but I don't have any other indicators. My doctor's only guesses so far is a possible side effect of my disability or I never had the two bones. Either way, we don't know if the loss is the cause of my pain.

Lately, I can only sit up for a half hour or so at a streach. Then I need to recline or go to bed. I haven't been able to do much of anything for days. My doctor prescribed some pain meds which are helping some. It figures I get something "unusual".

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February 21st, 2000.

Dear Uncle Stonebender,

I turned 42 to. Birthdays haven't been a good time for me, the last few years. I didn't do anything special really. Betty and I went to the Emeryville UA 10. We watched _Pitch Black_ and _Boiler Room_. Later, Carol joined us to see a third movie, _Hanging up_. I haven't watched three movies in one day since college. Of the three movies, I probably enjoyed, surprise, surprise, _Pitch Black_ the most.

_Pitch Black_ was by no means a good movie, but I had been expecting a horror/slasher type film. The director of _Pitch Black_ was at least trying for something more. Many of the stereo typical characters didn't act stereo typically. The end was a bit of a surprise. The film had a very stylistic look to it and one of the actors, the "bad guy", turned in a very interesting performance. I hesitate to recommend the film to anyone, since it really is at its core a silly film. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

Coincidentally, the bad guy in _Pitch Black_ showed up in the next movie I saw, _Boiler Room_. Unlike the earlier movie, I had expected to like this one. I think it's supposed to be a Gen-X'ers Wall Street. Except for a few individual scenes, the movie was quite a mess. The third movie we saw, _Hanging Up_, wasn't my choice. Carol and Betty wanted to see it, and you may as well know I'm a movie slut. I'll see anything on film. So I sat through another Nora Ephrom. film . We had dinner at Black Angus and that was my birthday.