Monday, September 9, 2013

Apparently My Life Is One Big WTF Moment After Another



I realize bloggers tend to exaggerate or embellish, so I'm here to say that I really try not to do this. Mostly.

This is relevant because something completely surreal occurred today and it's going to sound like I'm totally making it up.

I woke up to a metric shit-ton of racket outside, and proceeded to find a Hollywood movie set in the woods outside my house.

I've mentioned that we live in The Hundred Acre Wood, and it's pretty isolated here. And when I say isolated, I mean there's a few houses in my immediate area, but everyone's house is on a plot that has a good deal of land around it so we're looking at trees, instead of into each others windows.

Also, it's very quiet. And we like it that way.

We have nothing but woods for miles behind our home. The only thing back there is a hunting camp owned by a sweet elderly couple. There's very little activity except when it's hunting season.

In the past few months there's been more going on with utility companies running lines, some heavy equipment doing who knows what back there. But still, it's fairly quiet.

So imagine my surprise upon waking up and getting ready to log into my computer for work, I heard what sounded like a parade of loud truck engines outside my house.

It turned out it that it was in fact, a parade of loud truck engines right outside my house. They were all idling there, waiting to turn onto the little dirt road next to our property that leads to the hunting camp.

This was highly unusual. I figured they were doing some upkeep work there or having a family function. Or something.

So I listened to to all and sundry going in and out for an hour before the doorbell rang. A relative of the family who owns the camp stopped by to let me know a movie was being filmed. “Oh, like a college thing?” I asked. No, an actual real movie, he says. And they'll be back there for a FEW WEEKS.

For serious.

Okay, well I figured Mr. RelativeToTheFamily was embellishing a bit, and we're talking some “movie” that someone was “filming”, probably being done with the help of friends and family in the hopes of breaking into Hollyweird. It can't possibly take weeks, right?

The Relative mentioned the director's name and what the film was about, and even said to stop by if I wanted to visit. I thanked him, said I work from home and I might stop by later just for fun, and went back to work.

Then I watched a long, loud line of cars, trucks, golf carts, ATVs, equipment, etc. head back into the woods. Dog was going out of his mind barking at everyone and everything. Taking him out for doggy business was getting to be incredibly difficult since all he wanted to do was protect the homestead from these intruders.

So I got that itch in my brain that maybe I should look up this “director” on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).

Well imagine my surprise when I see that he actually has a number of proper films under his belt, and lo and behold, there's the movie he's filming now, BEHIND OUR FRIGGIN HOUSE.

With actual, Hollywood actors. We're not talking Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, but definitely recognizable actors.

Yay us.

I've been trying to work and take conference calls during all this hoo-ha, and it's been a challenge. Of course, I'm also peeking out the windows trying to see what's going on. Granted there's a good deal of woods out there obscuring the view, but I can see what looks like set building and lots of people running around.

Now I'm wondering what I'm going to do if they're filming and Dog has to go outside. The only way to get him to go is to walk him around the entire property. He's gonna stand there and bark his face off at the crew. What happens if they're filming at night? Are we going to be able to sleep with all this activity? There's strange people milling about everywhere now, which is kinda creepy.

I'm intrigued and annoyed at the same time. I'll have to see what happens tomorrow.

I'm thinking by the end of this I'll be quite happy for Hollywood to go on home.