MOONDANCE ALEXANDERI watched a neat little movie yesterday

MOONDANCE ALEXANDER

I watched a neat little movie yesterday called "Moondance Alexander," which I got from my Blockbuster Online rental account (I get one movie a week). It was dated 2007 but I don't remember if it ever was in theaters or not. It's the story of a young teenage girl named, natch, Moondance Alexander, played nicely by Kay Panabaker, who finds an obviously-neglected horse that she calls Checkers and takes him home with her. She and her widowed mother live in a country town and although they have a pretty large bit of property for being in town, she must put Checkers in her mother's art studio. She is disappointed when the actual owner is located.

Moondance has a part-time job making deliveries for a local saddlery store and on making a delivery the next day, she literally stumbles upon the farm where Checkers is located. She goes to check on him and meets his gruff owner, Dante, played by Don Johnson. She negotiates a trade with Dante whereby she will clean out his horse stalls in return for riding Checkers -- originally Tinkerbell, but renamed with Dante's okay to Checkers after all.

Moondance has been the victim of snobbery and cruelty of older teenage girls at her high school and as she gets into riding Checkers, later on with Dante, she finds that a couple of them are serious horse-riders, too. Dante has been down on his luck but agrees to train Moondance and Checkers to jump, although he's a pinto and pintos aren't supposed to be able to jump.

I won't have away the ending but I will say that it is based on a true story. It was rated "G", which is refreshing, although I know that -- unfortunately -- a lot of people won't watch "G" movies. I thought it was a cute film and was great for whiling away the afternoon. I have always thought Don Johnson to be handsome, and although he has aged like the rest of us, it was nice to see him in this movie. Young Kay may have a nice future in films.

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I heard from my Dell saleslady, Linda, last night and today, and she answered some questions I had (there is plenty of RAM for the Vista program; J.D. or Jeff should be able to easily set up the computer -- don't call Geek Squad, as they are way too expensive). I appreciate her continued assistance.

I saw an ad for the Video Professor on the NW Newschannel last night and I noticed he had a disk instructing how to use Vista. I didn't get a chance to write down the phone number so I will keep watching for it because I want to order that disk. I will check online, too, to see if I can find a phone number for the company.

I have a few other online orders to place today so hope to get to that shortly.

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There was news that my friend in Brisbane, Les, has been moved from ICU to a ward. We, his friends, are all very happy about that! I don't know how long it takes to heal from a neck fracture so I have no idea when he will be going home. I do hope he will accept assistance when he gets there. In the meantime, we have sent him flowers through my new friend (and his old one), Mary. I don't remember how long Les and I have been corresponding but it seems like we started in 2000. He has certainly been interesting to exchange e-mails with -- I have learned a lot about Australia through him.

HUNTING FOR A MISSING FRIENDI have recently written about my

HUNTING FOR A MISSING FRIEND

I have recently written about my Australian friend, Les, who has Parkinson's. Recently, none of his friends, including me, had heard from him, and I began getting e-mails from the others expressing concern and wondering if anyone had received any word of him or knew where he was. The most recent e-mail, which one of them got last week, was mostly indecipherable.

Yesterday, one of the friends, a lady named Mary, wrote me and said she was going to try to call Australia, particularly his doctor's office, to see if he could be located. As the day progressed, we also heard that another friend, Peter, from the UK, had tried calling Les's house and gotten no answer. Mary and I corresponded over the course of the day and she reported in as she also was unsuccessful in reaching Les's clinic over time.

At last, she reached a person at Les's old doctor's office and was referred to a new doctor, who referred her to a Brisbane hospital. There she learned that Les is in ICU and she wasn't given any more information, which was as she expected. She did ask if she could leave a message and she was told that he probably wasn't conscious. It certainly doesn't sound good, but we are trying to stay positive.

I told Mary, who is unemployed, as is her husband, that I would pay for the calls to Australia. I am still determined to do so, if she will let me. I will see what she does on that. For various reasons, I feel unable to call, myself. I am hoping that other friends will perhaps be able to check in and see how he is doing and let the rest of us know from time to time.

Many prayers are going up for Les. If you are a praying person, I know yours would be welcome, too.

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I learned today that my grandsons in Bend, Michael, 9 1/2, and Alex, 7 1/2, are flying with their other grandmother, Merre, to Florida. I am so glad last night's thunderstorms cleared up, although I saw a forecast last evening for rain in Miami today. (I'm not sure where they will be landing, though.) More prayers, this time for traveling mercies, from me.