The Answer Man

I had planned on watching DVDs while I decorated our Christmas tree. In fact, I had also planned on watching some new DVDs, while I sat in front of the fireplace and sipped hot chocolate, coffee, and tea throughout the day on December 25th. But that was not meant to be, because my television/VCR combo died on Sunday, December 20th, during one of my numerous snow shovelling breaks when I attempted to play Dolly Parton's Heartsong video, which I had purchased in Dollywood a decade ago. I figured that video was perfect for the holiday season. Nothing. Dead television and dead VCR. Plus, Dolly Parton's video was stuck in the machine. Needless to say, having a dead television also meant having no DVD player.

Since I no longer have cable television, other than the basic channels, yesterday I was going through some severe movie withdrawal. So I decided that Ponzo and I would watch a movie on my computer. When I looked at my Netflix queue, I noticed that one of my listed movies, The Answer Man, was available to be played instantly. You might say that fate made the selection for me. While I cannot speak for Ponzo, who probably prefers watching Rebel rolling over on YouTube, I highly recommend The Answer Man, starring Jeff Daniels as Arlen Faber, a reclusive author, because the movie is witty and tugs at one's heart strings. And it made me laugh.

I related to the character Arlen Faber when he could not get up because of his back pain, and he went to see a chiropractor afterwards. Only Mother Nature was my chiropractor. But I know how Arlen felt. You see, one night in mid-February 2007, I went to bed in a lot of pain and woke up the next morning unable to move at all, because the pain was excruciating. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would say the pain was at least a 10. Making a long story short, I laughed when Arlen crawled to the chiropractor's office because it reminded me that I had found myself walking on my knees around my house, when I was finally able to crawl out of bed. A couple of days later, when I was able to walk, taking baby steps, my worst fear was realized when I fell on my icy driveway. What was I doing? I was checking the work of the backhoe, which had removed most of the ice from my driveway earlier. Flat on my back and fearing that I would be unable to move at all, I recall wondering how long it would be before someone came driving down the road and noticed me lying in my driveway. Slowly, I got up the courage to attempt to move and discovered a miracle had taken place, for I got up. Pain-free! What were the odds of that happening?! Anyway, I gave The Answer Man five stars on Netflix--something which I very rarely do.