Of Star Trek and Christmas by Konnie Enos

I woke up yesterday (Tuesday, October 27) and picked up my phone, mostly to check the time. For some reason it opened on a news screen but that was quickly covered by something trying to sell me a subscription to a newspaper.

I do not remember which one it was, because I quickly closed the screen. What I do remember was the picture and name on that article I barely saw.

It was a picture of Walter Koenig, and his name was in the headline.

Well, having not read that article, and the subject being a star from the original Star Trek, I went searching for anything mentioning him.

It did not take long to find out that he had passed.

Of the cast of the original show only George Takei was the only one younger than Walter (by about 8 months). With his passing George Takei and William Shatner are the only original cast members still alive. Also, Shatner isn’t the oldest of that original cast, but he is the oldest one still alive. (Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, and Grace Lee Whitney, who played Janice Rand, were all older than Shatner.)

I could go on and on about the cast of the original Star Trek. Obviously, I’m a fan and have been since I was a young girl. I have a vague recollection of watching in prime time. But I have a clear memory of watching it after school everyday starting at the age of about 8.

Anyway, I was still absorbing the fact that Koenig had passed so recently (Sunday) when my daughter brought her little guy to me so he could sleep curled up to a warm body and she could do her regular morning tasks.

Upon being presented with another human being to share this news with I, of course, said, “Walter Koenig passed away.”

Folks, do you know what my daughter responded?

“I have no idea who that is.”

My own child had no clue who I was talking about. Though to her credit she did now who Chekov was. (Yes, I did explain that Walter Koenig played Chekov in the original show.)

Though it got me to thinking.

My husband barely remembers that the show existed and only because I am such a fan. My youngest is a Star Trek fan and is familiar with the later shows but he doesn’t have much knowledge of the actors, just the roles.

I know my youngest daughter isn’t a Star Trek fan even is she is familiar with the entire series. I also know my oldest son isn’t a Trek fan, he much prefers Star Wars.

Don’t worry dear Star Wars fans. I’ve been a fan of that series since I watched the very first released movie (part 4, I believe) in the theaters as a teenager back in 1977. So not nearly as long as I’ve been a Star Trek fan, but close enough.

I will not comment on the sci-fi show/movie preferences of my oldest two mostly because I’ve never known them to watch/read sci-fi.

So, there I was, wanting to share the information about Koenig passing and unable to commiserate with my spouse or children.

Of course, I called Bonnie, and of course, she heard the news before I even did.

On the plus side, she agreed my two oldest are not into sci-fi at all.

And we did get to talk for a few minutes but not very long. Apparently, I choose to call her at almost the same time her alarm went off letting her know she needed to get ready to go to her doctor’s appointment.

Which of course brought me to another issue.

None of these conversations lasted long enough, nor were interesting enough, to generate more details for my little story. I also did not meet our agreed upon word count for our posts. (Which is to say more than 2 double spaced pages.)

Which left me pondering what else I might be able to do a full post on instead of the events of yesterday morning.

The only other thing on my mind is the fact this is the very last week of October and believe it or not, I have not shopped for a single Christmas present for anybody yet. That’s right folks, I have not done my Christmas shopping for the year yet. In fact, I haven’t gotten birthday presents for my son-in-law or husband yet either. (Their birthdays are within the first 2 weeks after Christmas.)

Since my goal for finishing shopping by Thanksgiving, I’m way behind. And what reminded me of the fact that I’m late is my son and daughter were already discussing what needed to be done to put up our decorations.

Yes, I’m not ready for that either.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

 

Of Family Togetherness and Making Choices by Konnie Enos

I live with my husband and two of our five children. Being all adults, we have drifted into being more like roommates. We live in the same place, but don’t spend much time together, not even for family meals.

Part of the issue is we all eat at different times. For dinner it is usually just me, him, and our daughter. Our son usually wakes up for the day an hour or two later. If he is awake, it isn’t unusual for him to dish up and go back to his room to continue whatever he is doing.

Recently, to counteract this separation, we’ve been attempting to have both family game night and family movie night.

Movie night is sort of easy. Me, my son and daughter discuss our options and choose what the three of us would like to watch. Then we decide on a time when we are all home and awake.

All home is the easy part since we are most often here. We do leave the house, but our schedule is rather routine, just work (husband), doctor’s appointments, shopping, and church. All awake is the big issue because our son is often awake while the rest of us are sleeping. He has to plan several days in advance to switch it up so that he is awake at an appropriate time for everyone else.

For movie night we’ve chosen after church on Sunday but before dinner. Which is early for my son but fits in everyone’s schedule. Picking what to watch is harder. Personally, I’d go older movies, the ones I watched growing up, but I also like some newer things too. And there is always the fact that I love Star Trek and Star Wars. My kids all have different tastes, and my son (the one still living here) does not like Star Wars. My daughter ( also the one still living here) does like Harry Potter but is not the huge fan her big sister is. That and my son and I aren’t really fans, though I will watch them.

All this is to say that there was some discussion before we manage to agree on anything. So far we’ve watched two of the newer versions of Star Trek.

My kids weren’t sure I’d watch them because they are remakes, and I generally hate remakes. They are never as good. But the newer movies are not technically remakes. They are a remake of an old story. The new Star Trek movies are set in an alternate timeline, much like the original series episode Mirror, Mirror. I rather enjoy watching the interactions of the “original” characters in this new timeline.

My kids have now chosen the original Star Trek moving and I think we well be working our way through them in order. I’m not exactly sure what we will move onto when we have finished them all but there are a lot of them, so it’ll take a while.

Though one drawback is that while my husband does watch, he simply cannot follow the story. So far he’s ended up disturbing out enjoyment by asking questions about what is happening in the movie. Last time we ended up pausing the movie and I chewed him out because I could not hear the movie if he was talking.

My children, being neurodiverse, are sound sensitive therefore the volume is keep barely audible for a normal person like me. My husband, who can’t follow it anyway, can barely hear it with his hearing aids on.

One would think game night would be easier, but it isn’t. The biggest issue is that my husband will not generally play games, which presents the issue of what board games are fun with just three people playing. (We do have several two people games, but that leaves out one person.) And that’s not getting into the issue of what we each like to play. That has been a bigger discussion than what to watch.

I want board games, but my kids are opposed the ones I have, as in the type of games I grew up with. Though my daughter’s biggest objection to Monopoly is that it’s time consuming.

Our first attempt was playing a couple of rounds of Clue. My son likes to keep his score card on tech and talked my daughter and I into it. I gave up halfway through the first round and went and found a pencil. Three is barely enough to make Clue fun.

This last time, we settled on Uno, partly because my husband has played that. Wouldn’t you know it, he ghosted us soon as we mentioned playing. (He hid in our bedroom.)

I’m not sure what we’ll do next time, but I’m holding out for Apples to Apples. My husband might be clueless, but he’ll play it.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.