Neighborly Celebration

After running around all week surrendering to the details involved in obtaining both the new house and loan to pay for it, I was ready for some celebratory festivities. Granted, I’m usually ready to celebrate Friday even if the life changing events of the past week hadn’t transpired. Although she was loath to admit it my wife felt the same way and deigned to join me at Brew City for observation of the First Friday of the Week.

The Ladies of the Worcester Chapter of the Panamanian Mafia Last Night

This was followed by a planned dinner with the Panamanian Mafia and the next door Mafiosos. The simple truth about our decision to live here boils down to the people we spent last evening with. There is no substitute for time spent with good friends. My celebratory mode may have been a little more engaged than I thought because I had way more beer than planned, as if “planning” was even a consideration.

Dinner is Served

The mafiosos prepared a fabulous dinner while the guys observed and opined from a nearby table. There was the obligatory extolling of the virtues of our granddaughter. The youngest member of the Panamanian mafia, a prescient 5^th grader, actually commented after a couple hours that my wife was finally talked about something other than our granddaughter. I think she was a little out of sorts because she was used to be the youngest and therefore focus of the ladies. The break didn’t last long as my wife soon had a FaceTime call going with the First Blog Reader.

At Some Point in th Evening the Ladies Started Trying on a Bunch of Clothes
My Wife Threatened me with Summary Execution if i posted this Photo
I like to Live Dangerously

The celebration continues today with a thunder run up to Keene for some time with the Keene Friend and the Cantankerous One. My wife has a stack of gift cars from both Christmas and her birthday that are literally burning a hole through her wallet. The fears that TJ Maxx would go into receivership during her absence will be firmly vanquished. I know there’s a lot of work ahead once we close on the house in late May but now’s a perfect opportunity to enjoy the impending ride.

I continued my march through the incredible Joe Pickett series of books by CJ Box, Force of Nature, the 12^th in the series. I think this was my favorite so far, which has happened twelve consecutive times now. This one was special because it was devoted to the back story of Joe’s intriguing friend Nate Romanowski. Nate is targeted for elimination by a mysterious figure from his clandestine past. Nate has to rise and meet the challenge and bodies are soon stacking up on both sides. Joe is completely out of his depth in this confrontation between highly trained special operators but his devotion to his friend Nate mandates he pitch in. The book is almost equally split between Joe’s and Nate’s separate plot lines that eventually converge for a thrilling conclusion. I’ve already started on book 13.

Here are some of Box’s words from Force of Nature as Joe finds himself in a predicament with one of those special operators:  “They were twenty yards from the bank of the river. There was so little current this high up in the mountains it barely made a sound, just a muffled gurgle as it muscled around exposed river rocks. The muzzles of both guns were pressed into him, one at the base of his skull and the other in the small of his back. Joe felt dead inside and his feet seemed to propel him forward of their own accord. He thought, there is no way they’ll let me go. He thought about what he could do to get away. If he were in a movie, he’d spin and drop kick the weapons away and head butt Hinkle into submission. Or simply break and run, juking and jiving, while Hinkle fired and missed. But this was real and there were two guns pressed against him. He didn’t know how to drop kick. And Hinkle was trained and skillful and wouldn’t miss.”

Morning Dad!

Time to Roll Out of Bed!

And Have our Morning Coffee

Well, Obviously