Guentzel.Org

The Object of Desire

One of my favorite lines from a movie is in “Ghostbusters” starring Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd (among others).

At one point in the movie, a secretary (played by Annie Potts) is trying to impress one of the Ghostbusters named Egon (played by Harold Ramis). She goes on about how much and how often she reads. Egon seems unimpressed and says “Print is dead.”

Given the advancement of the digital age, I (reluctantly) have to admit that books are losing their relevance. The internet has digital content that is dizzying in it’s abundance and vast in variety.

So, it’s good to know that the Harry Potter series has exceeded expectations for print. The sixth book came out this weekend and it was a hot commodity in my house the past 2 days.

Kayla ordered her copy from Borders.com with a gift card while Susan ordered hers from Amazon.com months in advance. The official date of release was supposed to be July 16th (Saturday). As luck would have it, Kayla received her book on Friday.

Now, both Susan and Kayla are Harry Potter addicts. They have read every book with much interest ever since the first one came out. When I came from the mailbox with the box in my hand, Susan’s eyes widened as she’s been counting down the days before her copy arrived. She was so disappointed to realize that it wasn’t her copy.

To her credit, Susan did not commandeer the book (as much as she might have wanted to), but she made a deal with Kayla. Since there was only one copy of the book in the house, Kayla could read it starting at about 7ish and when she got tired, Susan would start reading it. They would read the book in shifts.

As it worked out, Kayla read until about 11:30pm. As instructed, I woke Susan up and she read the book…well…she finished it. It took 6 hours of reading, but my bride finished the book (to her great satisfaction). Kayla finished it today. Amazing. Susan’s came in the mail last night.

The only thing I have to report is that I went to a poker game last night in extreme south Austin (Circle C Ranch for those who know the Austin area). As normal, my friends and I played pretty late and I started the long drive home around 1:15am. I was extremely careful on the way back to Round Rock because it was Saturday night (Sunday morning) and I didn’t want to have an encounter with one of the many saloon patrons that might be leaving Austin.

I was careful up until I got about a quarter mile from my subdivision entry. Unfortunately, I had a great discussion with one of Round Rock’s Finest. They let me know that 65 miles per hour in a 50 miles per hour zone is unacceptable. What nice guys.

I suppose it’s my lot in life to memorize the Defensive Driving test.