The Ruins Part Two

Ok, I finished the book “The Ruins” by Scott Smith. It was so predictable and monotonous by the end that I just wanted it to be over.

If you are planning to read it, don’t finish this post because it’s a spoiler.

The whole premise of the book, as I said last night, is a carnivorous vine that eats people and then blooms these beautiful flowers. The vine thinks, reasons, can talk, etc.

One by one all the people die until the last chick commits suicide. Three days later, of course, the rescue team arrives and the whole thing starts over again.

The people were forced to stay on the hill by Mayans carrying weapons. Apparently once you step foot on the hill where the vine is, you are not allowed to leave it.

What bothered me is if the vine can reason, talk, set traps, etc., then there had to be a brain somewhere. The people barely tried to reason it out and spent no time trying to kill the thing. Basically, they give up and hoped for a rescue. The vine didn’t have to fight to kill them because they didn’t fight. Each of them passively waited for their turn to die.

The flap says the book is scary – I gotta say, the reviewers must not have read it. Newspaper stories are scarier.

Foggy and Fuzzie

One of the supervisors stopped by my desk a few minutes ago. I asked her how she was, she said she was in a fog. She said its preferable to be fuzzy-minded then clear-minded because then she can’t see how bad things really are. It made me smile in a grimacing sort of way.

It is the way so many of us go through life – always hoping that whatever out there that is bad will slither on by if we fail to see it clearly, acknowledge it, or make eye contact.

Sometimes I suppose it does pass on by – other times we finally focus and it isn’t as bad as we thought it would be. Its the times that its worse then we thought it would be that keeps us cowering in the fog.

Sometimes the problem comes up and slaps you square in the face or head butts you in the stomach to get your attention. The solutions to such problems are elusive – sometimes the cure is worse then the disease. I hate those kind of problems because they are often embarrassing and call attention to me when I’d prefer to stay in the background being a wallflower.

Boredom

Time has slowed to a crawl. I have three hours left and it seems to be ticking by very slowly. I’m looking at the clock every few seconds wondering why the minutes button isn’t changing. Really is making me nuts.

Every time I get interested in something on tv, the woman with the remote changes the channel. Twice I’ve said something but she ignores me. I’m not going to make a big deal about it because I told her at three that she could watch whatever she wanted. Still, it is annoying as hell.

The other pod has “Caveman” on which I can’t even bear to watch. How could anyone enjoy something so dumb? Surely there are other things we could be watching.

I tried two other books from the library: “Sleeping with Fear” by Kay Hooper and “Death Dance” by Linda Fairstein but neither could hold my interest past a few pages.

“Deeper”

Desperate not to be too bored, I grabbed a book from our library called “Deeper” by Jeff Long. Luckily, I only got three chapters in before I decided not to read it.

The book sounds like it might be interesting but I can’t read religious centered books if they deal with Satan, devils or devil worshippers. These type of books give me horrific nightmares. Even the movie “Devil’s Advocate” gave me nightmares for weeks. I even watched it again years later to see if it had just been my mood but it wasn’t.

This books is about an underground city made by Satan. Humans tried to kill the weird beings that lived in the city with a virus of some sort. They thought, erroneously of course, that they had succeeded in killing Satan himself.

Now, years later, the underground city is a hot tourist spot. Slowly the many different groups get slaughtered plus children start to disappear from the surface. That is pretty much where I stopped.

It is the sequel to “The Descent” so that didn’t help that I haven’t read it…but I do believe I would have stopped reading it as well. I just can’t do nightmares.

Chinese Proverb

The other night I was pretty down about the way things in my life were going. I didn’t publish the post because I didn’t want to bring others down and knew it was a temporary thing.

Basically, I was meditating on the following Chinese proverb: “If we don’t change the direction were going, we’re likely to end up where we’re headed.”

So if I’m not satisfied with any area of my life – but change nothing – then I’ll end up exactly where I am now in 20 years. I don’t want to be in the same rut – I’m not talking physically but more mentally, emotionally, spiritually and financially.

When I was in my twenties, I decided that by the age of 45 I wanted to be a published author, have a nice house with a pool, be successful, and financially set. Well, 45 is almost here and I’m not doing so well meeting this master plan.

I made choices that steered me on the path I am on now. I’m not unhappy with where I am now but I do feel that unless I make another plan – I will be unhappy when I reach 65…you know?

It doesn’t matter if the plan is never fulfilled – it is more of a guideline. I start the plan with the words “when I’m 65 years old I will…”

My main problem is that I don’t know what or where I want to be at 65. I don’t know if I want to be retired or working – living in Iowa or Florida – have a house, condo or mobile home – have three or four grandkids….

I envy my sister – she has four kids which could give her 12 or more grandkids. My son says two kids but I can’t just have two grandkids. If that is all he’ll give me then I may have to adopt some kids. Personally, I’d love to have a dozen or more but can’t see that happening.

Fire Pod – Not Today

In a surprise move the day shift sat Dan over at the firepod. Evenings are probably going to keep him there so I will be able to escape that horror tonight. We all have to have 40 hrs a month back there so figured it was someone else’s turn. They said maybe I’d have to be there tomorrow.

Tuesday’s 12 Hrs

I brought a plethora of food with me today yet I’m sitting here hungry. Had potato salad for breakfast and chips/salsa for lunch. Am already looking forward to the roast and mashed potatoes I brought for supper. I have ten hours to go till the end of this day.

Just had a darling elderly woman who couldn’t figure out how to work her cell phone. She wanted me to call it to see if it rang. It took four times of calling before she answered – she couldn’t figure out which button to push to answer the call. On the fourth try she got the right one.

I told her a few basics but told her she should go to her provider’s shop to have a salesman explain it all to her. She said she felt stupid asking but I told her I had to get instructions when I got my new phone so she felt better.

Had an elderly man who called 911 to see if a human answered. He had been calling other organizations and they all are automated so he was worried he wouldn’t be able to talk to a real, live person if he called us.

The Ruins

Well folks, so far I’m not scared or find the book the least bit tense. It is a big vine that is a carnivore so tries to eat all the people. Sorry, its been done before and I don’t find it very believable. Granted, I still have about 100 pages to go but so far, I’m not all that impressed.

That isn’t to say the descriptions of the jungle and stuff isn’t interesting – I think the writer does a great job of describing that. The story is alright – I’m not saying it is bad – I’m just saying it isn’t scary, tense or electrifying as promised on the front flap. The vine can’t cross salty dirt so I’d take a bath in the stuff and walk out of there.

But anyway, I will be done with it tomorrow and I can give a more complete review. I was kind of hoping it would be some cool monster but guess that is too much to ask for.