what may or may not be hard reality

No rain. But an almost fall-like chill has come into the air, which bothers me, because *summer isn't over yet*, dammit! I can't imagine what it would be like living in a place that has actual draught. I mean, we've been without rain for a month, and people are sort of looking to the sky hoping it's gonna be covered by big dark clouds. Where having really gorgeous weather like this is a fairly rare occurrence in our summers. And we've got the huge lake and the river, and it's been raining plenty upstream, so we're fine. Still, I want *rain*. Bah. *hopes for today*

Watched Xena - 6x15 - To Helicon And Back yesterday. It was completely different from what I expected, and still made me cry. Yet another step closer to Friend In Need. Ack. I made a promise to myself when the Season 6 box arrived on my doorstep, that I would not watch Friend In Need until I'd seen every other Xena ep there was. And I had a bunch of Season 1 to get through, too, so I figured I had a ways to go, yet. But Season 1 went so very fast, and then I was left with those 5 episodes in Season 6 I'd missed over a summer when it was on while I was out of town. The Abyss, Dangerous Prey, To Helicon And Back and Soul Possession were the only things standing between me and the very end of the series. And now there's only Soul Possession left. Ack! I can't wait to see Friend In Need, but I don't want the series to be over (and, you know, that Other Thing, Of Which We Shall Not Speak)!

Anyway, I loved To Helicon And Back, violent with consequences, defining of characters and relationships. Sad. Like One Against An Army and A Good Day. I almost wished I hadn't watched the video commentary immediately afterwards, because Lucy, Renée, Rob and Michael Hurst are laughing so much at little technical finesses I wasn't quite ready to deal with yet, being still in the 'OMG, *sob*, what a powerful episode...' mode. At least they sobered up, just a few times towards the end. And for once Lucy said something about appreciating getting to play the emotional dialogue real-time with Renée, while they were shooting simultaneous close-ups of them both, because that made it so much better when when they could play it off each other and wouldn't have to worry about other takes and stuff. It was sweet. Usually Renée's the one remarking on such things, while Lucy's whooping over some cool stunt in the background. And my little fangirl heart was all adoring. Of course Michael has to go mess with the emotional and tear-inducing end of the ep, "Wait for it... wait... *there*! Can you see that? The *tree* is bleeding...!" And they all break down in fits of laughter, when 43 minutes earlier I was on the verge of tears at the same scene. *grumble*

Have you seen this ep, Ria? It's Craig Parker playing the bad guy... As Michael put it: 'He played that, on LotR... that silly-looking elf with the blonde hair and the dark eyebrows that they forgot to dye on his first day of shooting, so he had to go through the entire movie looking weird...' *snigger*

Went off to a lake to go swimming in the afternoon, my first time this summer. Icky and cold, yet supposedly very warm to be Vänern. Still, it was rather hot outside so it was nice, after all. And the beach was pretty, far off in the woods, and not over-populated. Just need to get some sort of chair thingy for the beach, because my fic came out totally illegible from trying to write lying down on the sand.

Watched some Relic Hunter in the evening. Damn, I've missed that show. Why isn't it out on DVD? I don't want a 'best of' box, I want the full seasons!