Today while I was avoiding Maddie, I parked myself in the man cave. It’s part way up the stairs outside, with its own separate entrance. It’s not exactly far from the front door, but it’s far enough to allow for some real alone time.

A little entertainment would be good, I thought. So I turned on the television, but since I don’t spend much time out there, I wasn’t sure how to make it work. I remembered, though, that I could watch Netflix through the XBox. Once I signed in, I scrolled through dozens of movie titles. Nothing appealed to me. I just wasn’t inspired. There are so many movies I haven’t seen, but still I couldn’t find anything I was interested in watching. Eventually, though, I had to make a decision. There’s nothing else to do out there in the man cave, and I didn’t want to go back in the house, so I scrolled back to the only movie that had whispered my name.

And that movie was, of all things, Inglourious Basterds. I’m not really into violent movies, and I knew it would be violent because it’s Quentin Tarantino. That’s what he does. But for some reason, I settled on a movie about killing Nazis.

And weirdly the revenge fantasy involving Jews sticking it to some big bad Nazis did the trick. I closed my eyes a few times to avoid the goriest stuff. I’m good at that. And without the super gross parts, it was a great movie.

Perhaps in this time of frustration with my own life, and after the recent horrifying events in Paris, a little catharsis was healthy. It was pretty satisfying to watch (SPOILER ALERT) the massive fire, a rainfall of bullets, and an explosion, followed by the swastika branding of the movie’s main bad guy. Take that, you big BLEEP.

Eventually, though, I had to return to life. First of all, there’s no bathroom in the man cave. Plus I was getting hungry. So I sneaked in the kitchen door, and there was Maddie, signed into the desktop computer. Dang it! I had removed every other possibility of screen time, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that particular option. And, of course, Maddie probably didn’t take long to figure that out. Oh, well, I thought. I got nothing. No fight in me. Because I knew, if I had attempted to do anything about it, a fight would have ensued. What was I going to do, wrestle her for it? I suppose I could have tried, but not only is that not right, it would have been a losing battle. That kid is strong and determined.

So I just moved along. She asked for her computer. I didn’t actually know where it was, but I wouldn’t have given it to her anyway. And I wasn’t in the mood for chatting. I retreated to my bedroom, where I slid right back into my despair, I’m afraid.

Oh, well. I got to escape for a couple hours or so. I got to forget about my own problems. I got to watch the bad guys really get what they deserved in a most glorious fashion. And I loved it.