The Road

Having enjoyed the movie No Country For Old Men as much as I did, I decided to check out Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

It's the story of a father and son walking through a postapocalyptic America. It is quite a moving book. As the description on the back states this is "an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of". What would you do in a lawless society? Would you turn into a savage? Stick to a moral compass? Hopefully we will never had to make those types of decisions.

With few flashbacks to the pre apocalyptic world, the story concentrates on the moment by moment journey of the father and his young son as they work their way to the coast unaware of what will be there. McCarthy paints a dreary landscape with swirling and ever-present ash. The lack of sustenance coupled with human savagery, at times, is almost unbearable.

You follow along not knowing what the coast has in store for these two characters. What you're left with an example of love that has no bounds.

Weekend highligts

The weekend did not start off on the right foot. The plan was to take the girls to a concert Friday night; and they were pumped. They got all glammed up and were ready to rock. Then K called me at 4:30 saying she had to pick up the 7 yr old who was running a fever, and she is never sick. A shot of Tylenol and she was back on it. We decided to take our time getting to the show, not wanting to wear the girls out before the show started (doors at 6, show at 7, 5 bands). It was only $10 at the door, no advance tickets, no problem. BIG problem. We got there around 7:30 and had trouble finding an entrance into the parking lot, as they were only letting cars out. I found a way in and then found out the concert had sold out.

Now I was faced with the task of telling the three ladies in the car that it was a no-go. They took it better than I thought, as long as we found something else to do. There weren’t any movies appropriate for kids and we ended up at a bowling alley. It cost $35 for two adults & two kids to bowl one game!!! I had no idea it went up in price like that. So once you add in the beverages for everyone we had spent $50. But the girls had a great time on their night out.

This weekend was all about the girls. Saturday night was sleepover night. They both had friends over, so it was even more evident that I was the male minority in my own home. They made homemade pizzas with K, stayed up watching movies and did whatever 9 and 7 year old girls do. I don’t even pretend to know. Little man 4 had a rough time of it since he didn’t understand why the girls wanted nothing to do with him. A tough lesson to learn but he’ll get used to it.

Sunday was recovery day and we did absolutely nothing. Nothing.

I finished 1776 and I have to say, it is a great historical book. I’m not sure I can read too many like that. It works like a sedative on me. George Washington was quite the indecisive leader during that year and it’s almost surprising that we didn’t end up having bangers and mash as our national meal. Good book, if you want to learn about Washington and his generals.

Now I’ve picked up The Road by Cormac McCarthy about a father and song in a post-apocalyptic America who have no one but themselves. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book in which the character dialogue is not in quotations, but I’ve enjoyed the 20 or so pages I’ve read so far.

Another snoozer in the roundy round series. I watched a total of 5 laps of Nascar. And by the way, rumor has it that AJ Allmendinger was ‘replaced short term’ in his Toyota ride in Nascar. Glad he decided to chase the money in Nascar instead of a championship in Champcar…