Wonky Tree
So anyway, today was about a thousand degrees warmer than it was last year (i'm not exaggerating, i'm using hyperbole. Plus, wind chill - duh) so we got to stroll about the pricker vine* infested Christmas tree field in pleasant sun warmed comfort. The whole day rocked, really, with the weather. Plus, i took my Big Desktop of Heaviness and Mass to work, along with our svelte notebook and connected them and played multiplayer games with the kids. I dominated. Yeah, totally unfair, but it's nice to dominate something, however unbalanced the playing field.
Um... oh yeah. Last year our tree was incredibly weird. It was sprawly and random, with oddness exuding from its pine oil fragranced pores. I'd like to believe i was not the only one who fell in love with that tree. Karen said we can make it a tradition to get a... how does she put it... reject baby. Reject baby? That can't be right, but it's something like that. So this year we got one with a silly long twig bewhiskered trunk with an unruly coif of branches spewing enthusiastically into a vague cone shape. We like it. But they still asked for full price, seven bucks, so that's okay. I said with ironic overtones: "I found the perfect tree!" The Carhart wearing tree seller feller chuckled quietly and said "I found the perfect customer!" Dang it, i'm starting to write all pretentiously weird like Pynchon. Oh man, that Gravity's Rainbow is not an easy read.
*what are those things? They untie your laces, drag at your cuffs, and hurt with little flames of agony when you try to pull them away from a tree trunk area! I still have a thorn embedded in my right index finger.
Gravity’s Rainbow sucks. Let me know when you give up (like me). Andrew said he emailed you some helpful info. Did you find it helpful or just dumb, like the book?
(Just a tad of bitterness over here.)
-- Linda (Email) - 25 November '06 - 00:17Juanito, you’re reading Gravity’s Rainbow? That’s interesting. I tried it back around the time I got out of high school and was simply not ready for it. But I have a copy on my shelf and I’ve been thinking recently about giving Pynchon another try, even before you mentioned this. He has a new book out, you know… It’s called Against The Day, something to do with young balloonists on the eve of World War I. I also have another one of his books, Vineland, that I haven’t read yet. How deep into Gravity’s Rainbow are you and what kind of pace are you aiming to set? I just might pick it up myself and read along with you. We can correspond about it and stuff.
-- Dave Blakeslee (URL) - 25 November '06 - 12:57I have no idea how far i am into the book – i’d say maybe page 85, based on this synopsis. Turns out, i’m reading really slowly – usually i devour books. This one is denser than a cheese log though, and not exactly fun to read. Andrew (Linda’s hub) said he hated it and loved it, and i’m finding myself agreeing. I’m afraid that if i read something lighter – a cracker to the analogical cheese log – i’d just quit reading Pynchon all together. I really like saltines. I could eat a whole sleeve of them plain.
At least the batteries in my Palm Pilot won’t be taking their usual thrashing over the next couple of weeks.
-- juanito (Email) (URL) - 25 November '06 - 16:06