Ponderings and the End of the World

I follow quite a few blogs.

I read quite a few books.

This weekend sent me into a bit of a tailspin with bad news and bad reads.

One of the blogs I follow Confessions of a CF Husband - his wife's cancer is not being helped by her chemo and it may have spread.

A little girl named Ashley is back in the hospital with organ rejection.

I read a book called The Road, by Cormac McCarthy . The eldest daughter is reading it in her English 12 class. It's won awards, including The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It's been an Oprah Book Club book. It's awful. It's depressing. It's about the end of the world as we know it.

I do not like reading about decapitated and gutted newborn babies being roasted on a spit. I kept reading this book and thinking, "Don't high school students have enough to be depressed about without having to be forced to read about the end of the world and being carried into further depression with each page they turn?" But what can one expect from the author of No Country for Old Men, I suppose. The book has been turned into a movie, to be released in November. I'm sure it will win a bunch of awards just as Old Country did, but I won't be watching it. Even if Viggo Mortensen is starring in it.

Pause.

NO, not even if Viggo is in it.

So, I'm off to go and enjoy the bit of sun that's out there hiding behind the clouds. The Youngest and I will find some cheer in our beautiful world where we can vote and buy food at the grocery store. I hope if you're reading this, you will take a moment to say a prayer for someone who needs it and then take a moment to find something to be thankful for.

And vote if you're Canadian.

Online Shopping

A couple of days ago, I was perusing the Chapters.Indigo online store. Christmas shopping. I'm a keener.

Having a 6 year old daughter, the title "My Princess Treasury" sounded promising. I clicked on the link to investigate the latest crappy Disney book. As a scrolled down the page, I glanced at a heading,

"May We Also Recommend".

Now, call me naive, but if one was looking at Princess books, one might make the quantum leap of thought that one would be interested in exploring OTHER titles catering to the 6 year old girls market. One might. But not if you run the "May We Also Recommend" section of the Chapters.Indigo online store.

Most fortunately for my 6 year old daughter, I did not purchase the book that Chapters.Indigo thinks a person who is looking at MY PRINCESS TREASURY might also want to buy.

Hence, my lucky child will not find the following under the Christmas tree this year.


Guidelines for Postrelease Mitigation Technology in the Chemical Process Industry.

I don't even know what that title means.

The second recommendation was equally as impressive.

Glow in the Dark Aliens.

Sadly, the website didn't have a picture of that book. I totally might have bought it if I knew what it looked like. In my experience, children who love pink princess treasury books also LOVE creepy glowing aliens.

To be completely fair, I gave Chapters.Indigo the benefit of the doubt. Anyone could have a bad day, and I thought, perhaps the person pushing buttons behind the screen had inadvertently spilled his coffee across his keyboard, so I refreshed the screen.

And then it recommended I buy a book on Jesus.

I felt rather insulted.

But they finally got it right this morning. When I went online to find the picture of that chemical book, I put in the title of My Princess Treasury.

Evidently, the guy that spilled coffee on his keyboard was fired and they got someone who truly understands the concept of "May We Also Recommend".

That new hire (who I'm sure is a mother of a 6 year old girl) recommended I purchase this.

Christmas Drinks.

Which totally makes sense. Because if you're going to be forced to read yet another poorly written Disney book about Princesses, you're going to need a drink to go with it.

Give that girl a raise.

Bits and Pieces

There are no less than 38 single socks in my sock bin. I find it odd that I've counted them, and find it odder still that I cannot throw any of them out. I think I'm suffering from the phobia, "lostasockaphobia" - the fear that if you throw out a sock that has been missing its mate for 4 years, its mate will show up the next day.

I think 2 year olds should sleep past 6:15am.

I'm not a morning person.

The thought of a steaming cup of coffee in my hands is the only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning, not the thought of lovingly picking up a 2 year old out of her crib. Some days I feel guilty about that. Not this morning.

I'm reading a book about how to become a writer, and it's really poorly written. I'm not just saying that. She lost me at the part where I'm supposed to lie down on the floor, cross my hands across my breast like the Lily Maid of Astolat, meditate for 20 minutes, then get up and write. "It really works." Uh, huh....

I have no idea who the Lily Maid of Astolat is, but I'm guessing I don't have the look or breast size to pull it off.

I recently finished reading, "A Thing of Beauty", by one of my favourite authors, A.J. Cronin. He writes the most brilliant descriptions of people. One of my favourites from this book -

"The drinks were brought by a strapping young woman with bare red arms and round full breasts which swung under her blouse like young coconuts."

You can't help but stop and visualize that. Come on, admit it, you just did.