vacation recap part 3

I realize that vacation recaps aren't particularly interesting to anyone but myself. But sometimes you need to de-brief, if you will, in order to properly hold on to an experience.

Over the course of the weekend we had a pleasant amount of down time. The ladies sewed or read, baked cookies, and gabbed, the children played, read books, built forts, devised puppet shows, or stared into the fireplace (which contained a constant blaze). We men manned the tunes, the bar, and the blaze, chatted with the ladies, and played with the children. In the evenings after the kids went to bed the adults played cards or Scrabble, roasted marshmallows, drank drinks, and yapped about this or that. One evening we got into a heated and generally fruitless theological discussion (both the heat and the fruitlessness were the fault of myself and the two amarettos I drank immediatly beforehand). After the womenfolk retired Stephen and I would smoke pipes on the freezing cold back porch.

With all of this down time I was able to read a handful of short stories from an anthology I brought along with me. Here is what I read followed by a brief description and a yay or nay recommendation.

The Hansomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - This was one of my favorites from the weekend. It is about a small fishing town and what happens to them when a larger-than-life dead man washes ashore.

Charlie Tries Speed Reading by William Hollinger - Another favorite. It is a story of a man's attempt at improving himself by learning to speed read and what he learns about improving himself in the process. It is written in a funny way that employs the tricks of speed reading in its formatting.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson - I originally read this one in high school and still remembered the shocking ending. Reading it now, thirteen or so years later, proved much better than when I read it then. There is fine craftsmanship in the suspense building that was lost on my younger self.

Before the Law by Franz Kafka - The best part about it was that it was short (less than a page). I suppose it was profound in a Kafkaesque way but Kafka ain't my thang.

A Woman on a Roof by Doris Lessing - I liked this one in the same way I liked Updike's A & P. The characters' feelings, motivations, and actions are irrational and immature, but you completely understand it and root for the guy. But A & P is better.

To Hell With Dying by Alice Walker - This one is about a man who keeps dying but gets revived by the love of a neighboring family. It is mostly sad and not all that entertaining.

Sunday, during the day, we spent a good amount of time trying to fly (and subsequently repair) Noble's remote control airplane. They are tricky buggers. Real airplanes have flaps and fins that control the up and down and left and right. The engine is just responsible for speed. Entry level remote control airplanes don't have flaps or fins. The twin engines control speed, up/down, and right/left. All that is to say - the plane crashed a lot. But a good time was had by all. We also took the kids to the barn and explored around a bit. It was still pretty cold there on Sunday but the sun was out all day so we stayed warm.