Reacher Fix Patriots Fixed

The other book I finished during my travels to the left coast was A Wanted Man by Lee Child.  This is of course the latest installment of the Jack Reacher legend and certainly lived up to his lofty standards, at least for this reader.  This is turning out to be the longest trip in Reacher’s career as her agonizingly tries to reach Virginia.  This is the third book set on the trip and the body count is soaring.  A group of Syrian terrorists make the mistake of messing with Reacher this time and killing a friend of his, big mistake.  I was trying to take my time reading this because I so thoroughly enjoy these stories but Child almost forces you to rush through it, just to see what his hero is going to do next with seemingly impossible situations.  If nothing else, Child has made it even more difficult for Tom Cruise to live “up” to this man mountain of a character.  If Cruise does pull it off, he’ll deserve an Oscar.  The book is also interesting because I believe you see in it the genesis of why the FBI is so interested in finding Reacher, a tangent being explored by fellow author Diane Capri.  Reacher has definitely achieved Travis McGee status in my pantheon of literary bad asses and there is no loftier praise that could be offered.  Thank God Child is good at churning out these adventures regularly so I won’t have to wait years for my next Reacher fix.

My daughter advises that I should start separating paragraphs in the blog because she finds herself losing her place in some of the more extensive blog postings I’ve been inflicting on readers lately.  Since she is my sensei in all things blog related, I consider myself counseled. 

The Patriots woke up from their slumber in the second half and delivered a vintage butt kicking to the Buffalo Bills yesterday.  I’m beginning to like this team more and more because it is not the “pretty boy” version of recent years (a reputation I do not think was ever really deserved) and has a real edge.  The Patriots imposed their will on the Bills yesterday.  The defense beat the hell out of their opponents physically and they wilted under the pounding.  Buffalo was running their mouths and prancing in the first half (something I hate) but by the middle of the third quarter they were yapping through swollen lips.  On both sides of the line the Patriots just flat wore out the other team, nice.

I paid the price for my lack of physical activity yesterday with a serious case of insomnia, not falling asleep until well after 2am. The combination of the west coast jet lag effect and my couch potato status yesterday due to the Pats game and the divine Red Zone channel meant I was not in the least bit tired.  I did watch a Dirty Harry movie last night to spot some of the places we visited last week – very cool. 

Nice