Visit with Mom and Dad

My dad's birthday is July 4th. I lost him 21 years ago. He and my mom are buried in Watsonville. I decided today to go visit their grave. I was there in 2012 during the parade for the Giants winning the World Series. I bought a flag celebrating that and have intended to take it to them. They, especially my dad, were real Giants fans. Sadly they are not physically here to share in the Giants current success. 2 World titles in 3 years would have made dad real happy. But today they got to share a little more in the recent success of the team they loved. One thing I always do when I visit is to weed around the grave and to pour water over it to really clean it. I learned this from Hikitsuchi sensei. He would do this when he would visit Osensei's grave in Tanabe. And I went with him a couple of times to his son's grave. Kazushii, I believe, died an unexpected and early death.

I tend to have conversations with them when I am there. I remember reading local hoops legend and basketball Hall of Famer Chris Mullin would sit in his hot tub at night, pick out a star, and talk with his dad who had passed away. I thought one of the best parts of the 'Man of Steel' film is how he is in touch with both his earthly dad, Jonathan Kent, and his Kryptonian father, Jor-el. Even though definitely of this earth, my dad was a super dad. He was a member of the highly decorated 442 infantry during World War II.
He was a great track star and basketball player in his day for Hollister High. I miss him and my mom very much.

And since we mentioned the Giants, they are really struggling as we speak. Sometimes winning a championship and becoming a champion are not as easy as being one. Injuries, mistakes, all seem to be surfacing tis year. So hopefully the pitching will come around, everybody will get healthy, and we will make a run as we did last year. Time will tell.

'Man of Steel' has been out a couple of weeks now. So if you don't want me to spoil it for you, read no further. I feel it is by far the best of the Superman films. We get quite a bit more of the planet Krypton than in past Superman movies and shows. And with the excellent 'Smallville' tv show we now realize the importance of his development during those days. DC comics has recently redone Superman and its other characters with the new 52. Some of that I like some not. But a lot of the new look that I like is in the film. Henry Cavill is an excellent Clark/Superman. Of course his emblem is an 'S'. But starting with the first Christopher Reeve film it began to be also the Kryptonian crest for the house of 'El'. And now we find that it stands for hope. Good touch. Also Clark would have struggled to find himself and would have traveled and interacted extensively with people to find out where he fit into our world. This is more convincing than his showing up at the Daily Planet and being hired as a reporter. Amy Adams is a great Lois Lane. So catch it while it is in the theaters. It is worth the 3D price....