Future of Mankind...

Curling up on the couch last night, I decided I would read a book. What else is there to do on a freezing Saturday night?!

I read "The Road", a Pulitzer Prize winner & Nat'l Bestseller by Cormac McCarthy whose chilly tones rang depressingly reminiscent of a 'Denizovichian' gulag winter or the survival(?) of Golding's "Pincher Martin". I generally reserve reading material of this sort to the 100 degree-getting a tan- heatstroke temp of July, when a fresh dose of bitter cold theme can hopefully cool down one's mind and body!

It was an easy read and naturally (like always) there were times when I yearned for more detail, but as I reflect back today, I'm glad the detail was sparse. I'm assuming that in my mad reading rush and tired state of mind that my thoughtless 'Eh' upon finishing it was based on my struggle to keep my eyes open, and I tiredly clicked off the TV remote, the light, and pulled the covers over my head. It was so morose and hopeless...

Details. I love details. While there were enough to prevent me from putting it down--I HAD to read this, I was anxious to finish this eery thing; perhaps the desolate sparseness of detail was what led to my vivid, full-blown imaginative horror in the middle of the night as I woke with disturbed waves dreadfully washing over my mind:
'On the mattress lay a man with his legs gone to the hip and the stumps of them blackened and burnt. The smell was hideous.'
Many pages later the small boy asks his dad:
'They're going to eat them, aren't they?'

While I won't give you any further comments on humanity's resiliance (that's the depressing part here) or the aspect of overall despair, I guess that the writer stirred up enough of my thoughts to leave an impression....I don't want any more scanty details of the basement scene playing through my dreams. Dear God, that was horrible. Is this our future?

Egad. Flight to Falconhurst

I think I began the whole blogging thing last year during our horrid ice storm--the one that devastated the countryside and wiped out power for over a week. Our house was amazingly only hit for an hour or so which is a miracle in itself...
School was released early today, due to the oncoming freezing rain on top of the 4" of snow from Tuesday--and that lovely 1 degree temp--dear God it's cold! Brig has (carefully) left for work at 2:45 am this week, then helps deliver packages in his little brown outfit during the day. Last night he come home at 7:00pm; tonite was 8:00pm, but he'd called me at four to meet him downtown with his YakTrax, since he couldn't stand up anymore!

I'd just helped Bill spread out some salt on the slick sidewalk while we discussed tallying up the 'stupid' marks of the last few days. Honestly, people! Just STAY HOME! Do you really need to get out in the ice to get a coke? And slow your a$$es down! I swear no one understands the word 'slow'--I remember living in Minnesota and those massive white drifts--people seemed to have brains up there. Well, and chains on tires too. Sorta like the YakTraxs for cars, huh?

I stood a while and drank a coffee at the gas station, mentally adding up my own tally marks as I watched a few (heavy, diabetic, unhealthy, acne-encrusted, bovine, sluggish, etc) customers try to add up the cost of a candy bar and huge pop; I told Bill that just having 'my presence + his' added up to 'a whole-lotta genius' standing at the counter at the moment! (Well, given the incoming company!) Ah.
Ok...on to other topics...

Wamego Ks may ‘be on the map’ soon, as one of my son’s classmates will be featured on American Idol. While I have known (guessed) this for a couple months, I didn’t say a word to anyone—but now its legally safe to type this up and I will look forward to watching some of these episodes since I know the girl. I’d watched Kelly C. win, then watched the season with Bo Bice, Anwar, and Constantine (mainly because I LOVE long hair and if I’d of ever had twins, Constantine was one of my favorite names [along with the name Augustin]), however I gave up watching the last few seasons out of boredom and since I was watching something else…of which escapes me now. Guess that 'genius' has run out!

I supposed I could type up something about old relationships but I'd have to be in a depressed mood, (God, what does that say about my relationships!!??) and I'm more in a blah mood instead. Dan had posted a Mandingo poster on his blog, which tickled me and caused a guffaw (thank you!) because I had been thinking about relationships and how mine either never get started, never work, or are way too young. So that 10 year age difference is no big deal for an older guy/younger gal—I had an interested party (not a gal!) that was 13 years younger, but there was no hot/heavy Mandingo thing going on because I was frankly a big chicken. WAIT! He was WHITE! I was referring to the sexual aspect there, not the color thing! Perhaps I should just shut up.

I remember reading that book (NATURALLY at a house while I was babysitting where I obtained all kinds of mature information!) back in the late 70’s—my brother will wonder whose house?…suffice it to say ‘the lady that made her son and husband pee sitting down in her bathroom’… anyway, I bet if I searched the bookshelf clear to the back there probably exists a Falconhurst paperback! Not something I'd want to read on a cold snowy evening. Alone.

Whoa--just heard that Wamego has officially closed school tomorrow. I shall draw...