Fraught Day

I’m a firm believer that every fantastic life experience must be paid for in the interest of karmic balance. I was therefore rightfully fearful of returning to work yesterday after the absolute peak experience of the past cruise vacation week. If anything I underestimated the price that would be exacted. My excellent boss warmly greeted me back and then said he was going home since he didn’t feel well and I would be in charge of the opening session of contract negotiations with the union.

This type of activity is not conducive to catching up with the mountain of work that kindly waited for my return. On top of that I had to arrange for several house repairs based on the home inspection the buyers conducted on our house while we were riding the waves. Oh, and the slightly important issue of finding a place to live since we will be effectively homeless at the end of June. Luckily I had the safety net of the news I revealed yesterday to deal with (and induce actually unrehearsed smiling) what was a Monday to trump all Mondays. The day flew by as it is wont to do when there is more work than time to accomplish it in. It didn’t help with what I thought was some allergic reaction to the clouds of pollen in the air transitioning into a fairly nasty summer cold. I guess all that “washee washee” hand sanitizing on the cruise ship went for naught.

I was really excited to see the new Mad Max movie that came out but I should have paid closer attention to the schedule because I confused the time with another movie my wife wanted to see, Hot Pursuit, which we ended up going to see last night. Cringeworthy is too kind a description for this abysmal effort by two very likable stars. Vergara continues to struggle translating her small screen success to the movies and Witherspoon at least had the class to look properly embarrassed by this effort.

A female buddy movie can work – as ably demonstrated by last year’s The Heat but a comedy at least has to be a little funny and I didn’t laugh until the credits were rolling and they showed the inevitable out takes. Do not spend any money on this; it is a complete waste of time.

Catching up with some of the books I’ve finished over the past couple weeks which I neglected to report on; during the start of the cruise I finished my re-reading of the Lord of the Rings trilogy which I hadn’t touched since my teenaged years but remembered more fondly than almost any other book from that time. Time hasn’t been kind to my imagination because I found myself repeatedly frustrated by Tolkien’s tangential wandering. What seemed so amazing to a young version of me didn’t carry the same magic any more. I stuck with the books and felt better during the second and third books but finished with the firm belief that these should be read at the age I first did and then left to occupy an august position in the pantheon without further examination. I almost feel disappointed in myself for not enjoying the re-reading more.

During the cruise I blitzed through the latest John Sanford book Gathering Prey which featured old stalwart Lucas Davenport. Davenport’s adopted daughter Letty plays a central role in this book which continues a trend from the last few as Sanford seems to be preparing to send Davenport out to pasture. Sanford presents his usual relentless plot as Davenport tracks down a band of Manson Family like killers rampaging through the mid-west. As usual, I found it incredibly hard to put the book down as the plot wound towards the inevitable excitement of the concluding confrontation.