Winged Returns and Old Friend

Great news abounds out in California as Wingman returned for a break from his Farewell Tour. My granddaughter was extremely pleased with that development. I could hear her squealing in delight to have her dad back. This will also free up certain Panamanians to return to their rightful East Coast environs so we can get around to buying that house on Thursday.

A Very Happy Granddaughter Greeting Wingman

One of the things I’ll miss will be my daily lunch time video call to my wife who’s usually engaged with our granddaughter’s breakfast. While it will be infinitely better to have my wife finally sitting across the table from me in the flesh, I’ll miss seeing the granddaughter’s initial efforts with solid food. Yesterday she downed an entire bowl of oatmeal/apple sauce. I will get to see her up close and personal this weekend when both she and the daughter fly east as Wingman heads out yet again.

My Normal Lunch

Granddaughter Showing her Mom that She Finished a Whole Bowl

Anyone who’s read this blog for any amount of time knows I have scant patience for the politicos I’m required to work with. It wasn’t a great way to start off the work week to be trapped with them for three hours but my wife adamantly counseled me that I need to be more tolerant of these type situations. The MBTA started a new express train service between Worcester and Boston yesterday and we were “encouraged” to be on the inaugural trip. I did have a good time hanging with the excellent boss but there were several thousand other things I’d rather be doing than riding to Boston and back. A US congressman, the lieutenant governor, and the mayor of Worcester stopped by to chat during the trip which added to the enjoyment (tongue firmly in cheek).

Excellent Boss Outside Fenway Park Yesterday

In Her "Office"

Getting Some Needed Reading Material

Out for a Walk with Gramma and Stylin!

I punished myself further later in the day by taking in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. This was just a bad movie. I liked some of the feminist empowering message but I’m not sure you want Seth Rogen as a spokesman for that message. I counted three laugh out loud moments but you expect and deserve more from a comedy. Zac Effron continues to engage in the process of making a caricature of himself but Chloë Grace Moretz was the biggest disappointment. I was a huge fan when she blazed onto the screen as Hit Girl in Kick Ass but she’s totally unbelievable here as the female lead, even with Frazier Crane for a dad. I’m sure the intent was to demonstrate the unfair labeling of male college partying versus female but they forgot to make it funny. Pass on this.

I was remiss yesterday in not noting and honoring the passing of a local policeman, killed int eh line of duty. Auburn police officer Ronald Tarrantino was gunned down during a routine traffic stop on a road I used to travel into work on regularly. The cowardly piece of trash who killed him was justifiably killed later that day when he tried to ambush more police. Tarrantino's life, now being explored by the media stands as an excellent example of quiet excellence that in truth we're surrounded by. The killer is an excellent example of the broken Taxachusetts criminal justice system with more than 80 arrests and still free to rob us of Tarrantino.

R.I.P.

I wrote last week about my literary dilemma after reaching the end of the Joe Pickett novels. I decided to go back to an old “Friend” in the form of Lawrence Block, he of Matthew Scudder fame, with the book Hitman. After blitzkrieging and thoroughly enjoying my way through the Scudder novels I felt I owed it to myself to sample some more of his other work. I chose another series of books featured the character Keller, a hired killer. As soon as I started I knew I’d enjoy the view from the other side of the law because Block is such a singular writer. It would take a good writer to make a killer into a sympathetic character but that’s exactly what happens. While the book did seem more like a collection of short stories, I couldn’t put it down. I blew through the book at true Scuderrian pace and have already started on the second.

Here are some of Block’s excellent words from Hitman as Keller cogitates on an upcoming hit:  “It struck Keller that there ought to be some sort of solution that didn’t involve lowering the population. But he knew he was the person least likely to come up with it. If you had a medical problem, the treatment you got depended on the sort of person you went to. You didn’t expect a surgeon to manipulate your spine, or prescribe herbs and enemas, or kneel down and pray for you. Whatever the problem was, the first thing the surgeon would do was look around for something to cut. That’s how he’d been trained, that’s how he saw the world, that’s what he did. Keller, too, was predisposed to a surgical approach. While others might push counseling or 12-step programs, Keller reached for a scalpel. But sometimes it was difficult to tell where to make the incision.”