Today is a big day for a lot of
reasons, not the least of which is that it marks the birthday of Keene Friend,
one of the finest human beings currently drawing breath. He’s one of those guys
that the female of the species have always been drawn to and men look forward
to hanging out with. He’s always been there for me and my family. My “kids” have
always called him “Uncle” because he truly is the brother I never had. After
some running around this morning we’re going to run up to New Hampshire to hang
out with him and slay a birthday cake.
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| Birthday Boy |
Last night we had the distinct
pleasure of picking up the latest wave of Panamanian invaders after fighting
our way through some tough Boston traffic. One of my wife’s best friends from
her childhood along with her son and his girlfriend did a much better job at
clearing customs than their predecessors of a few weeks ago. We got back to the
house for a very fun dinner my wife had prepped ahead of time. It’s nice to
finally have another guy in the house after all the estrogen prior waves of
visitors involved; added bonus – he’s a beer drinker! Buddy immediately set
about charming them and by the end of the night had them firmly in his camp.
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| My Wife With Our Latest Visitors and Demon Eyed Buddy |
My wife had that special glow in her
eyes reserved for when she’s happily surrounded by old friends. The next door Mafioso
even made a late night appearance to sample my wife’s latest culinary triumph,
a pumpkin cheesecake. I, of course, stayed as far away from that as possible.
It’s fun to have a full house again. We’ll leave shortly to drop them off in
Connecticut for a train ride into New York City where they’ll spend the next
few days. This allows us the freedom to run up to Keene for the above mentioned
festivities.
When I finished my latest book a
couple days ago I opened my kindle up and found that Lee Child had published
another Jack Reacher book, Make Me (perfect title for those of us familiar
with Reacher). I performed my usual headlong, frenzied reading of Jack’s latest
adventure. He steps off a train in the middle of wheat fields simply because he
wanted to know the origin of the town’s name. Since its Reacher he’s soon embroiled
with a mysterious organization that tries to scare him off. Big mistake. The bodies
start to pile up immediately.
Child takes Reacher is a slightly different
direction this time, making him slightly vulnerable at times. He gets tagged in
the head in an early fight which comprises some of his prodigious lethality. He
teams up with an-ex FBI agent, female, of course, to track down a missing colleague.
This leads him across the country from Chicago, to Arizona, Los Angeles, San
Francisco before returning to the wheat field for a typically riveting climatic
confrontation. A great read, if, as usual, I did it too quickly. Reacher is
impossible to put down, on a number of levels.
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