Thoughts From The Road

Sorry I've been so absent over the last week. Deadline has a way of doing that to me... when I get home, or when I wake up, for that matter, the last thing I want to do is stare at a computer. But the new issue is out. Check it out. It's hardly our most consequential issue, but by all accounts a good read.

But I'm back now. Yesterday was my second straight week running 10 miles, and while it physically hurt a bit more than last week--I suspect the achy quads came from Wednesday's softball game--it didn't feel nearly as long, and the cooler weathe kept me from sweating quite as profusely. I would have been done in much the same time--probably quite a bit faster--if it weren't for taking that bathroom break at First and Calvery Presbyterian Church. Seriously. Sometimes there's just nothing for it but to take a pit stop, and at 8 a.m. there are very few businesses open. First time I've been in a church in months...

But yeah, 10 miles. My feet are sore today--I suspect I'll need new shoes soon, which I really can't afford. I had my first two online donors, you can see their names on the sidebar at right. If you want your name added to the list ( :) ) just click on the top link at right, or click here.

Yesterday, after our run, the Mrs. and I spent about nine hours reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It's our tradition for me to read these books aloud while she cross-stitches or grades papers or something. We got almost exactly halfway--we plan on bulldozing our way through the rest today. My early impressions, without giving anything important away: the first half has been slow, if not exactly disappointing. Please refrain from leaving your predictions in the comments (not that I get much in the way of comments here, anyway ;) I don't want to hear them.

Finally, I know I promised impressions on the other book I was reading, The Road. I finished it early last week. It's a very quick read, and once you get used to Cormac McCarthy's stunted prose--no punctuation other than periods and the odd comma--an easy one. Ever since I read Stephen King's The Stand at the age of 15, I've sort of relished the post-apocalyptic drama. I mean, all that America out there and only a handful of us around to explore it? There's just something about it that fascinates me. Of course, King used a virus to destroy mankind, and viruses don't leave inches of gray ash on the ground and block out the sun. The Road focuses solely on the travels of an unnamed father and son some years after some presumably nuclear event. There's no real plot, just walking and hiding from the rest of civilzation, most of which has gone feral. You know the man is sick, and that he has a gut-wrenching choice to make: Let the boy go on or end it all, much as his wife did years earlier. I won't tell you how it ends, but I do suggest you read this book. So does Oprah, for what that's worth. The speed-readers among you will have it done in a day.

Too long already, yes? I've got a Potter of coffee to make. Get it? Witty I am. Wit-TY.

Finally, my buddy Nathan in N.C. has started his own blog, The Drinking Bird. Great read, especially for the ornotho-philes (can some Latin guru tell me if that's wrong?) among you. Nathan is funnier than I am and less prone to rambling. Good thing.


Peace.

M