Trekking Catchup

Boy, Do I Miss Having These Two Around!

What with all the very proper recognition of the Favorite Son’s birthday yesterday there were some other items that needed notation. The continued proximity of the Neighborhood Mafioso continues to be a dangerous combination when paired with my wife. They are both dedicated shoppers and whenever they get together that becomes problematic for at least two bank accounts. A case in point would be a couple nights ago when the Mafioso showed up for some evening tea with my wife.

Must Get to Cat

Thinking only tactically and not strategically, I used this as an excuse to beat feet down to the man cave to allow them full feminine expression. I was bathing in the sound waves of the surround sound when I was summarily summoned back upstairs. It seems that in the intervening period they were discussing the need for a new living room carpet. That discussion led to a phone call to Target.com. I was not asked, opinion wise, what I thought as if I would be brave enough to venture one. So we have this new carpet enroute, scheduled to show up tomorrow. A wise military leader once said – only fight battles you can win.

Maybe I can Entice Him Closer

On a sad note Wingman leaves his California abode once again for the first phase of the international portion of his band’s farewell tour. I know this departure will be even tougher on him because of the past few weeks he spent with his daughter. Parents will remember that precious time when the baby starts evolving into a real person. That’s going on with the First Blog Reader right now and she’s boasting personality in large measure, seemingly something new each day. Wingman knows he’s going to be missing out as this daily transformation continues unabated without him. I’m pretty sure my daughter is going to miss him as well.

I'll Miss You Too Dad

He should venture out to see Star Trek Beyond to salve his wounded spirits. My wife and I took it in last night and it is special. I was fortunate to see Gene Roddenberry make a presentation live when I was in college. He laid out his vision of the Star Trek universe and I think this is one of the few films that honors that vision. This is a film about the possibility of human endeavor. While it is anti-military in tone – I loved it. Any real Soldier would love to see the military become obsolete. 

This was a return to some of the best features of the original series. While there was almost non-stop, amped up action this is a character driven movie. The large cast is each given a chance to shine as the plot has the survivors of yet another Enterprise disaster strewn about a planet. Faced with impossible odds the crew figures it out, of course, in time to save the universe. The scarily deadly female assassin from Kingsman, Sofia Boutella, has legs this time out and plays a stranded ally, while stealing every scene she’s in. In addition to the action the goofy humor the original Star Trek was so good at is liberally sprinkled throughout. You finally have a sense of comradery and they let the Kirk character grow up as well. This is definitely the best of the new series. Go see it as soon as possible.

I polished off two books over the past few days. They came as a package deal from Amazon. I wrote earlier about finding a new author in L.T. Ryan with the Jack Noble character. In the second book, A Deadly Distance, Jack spends most of the book getting his ass kicked which definitely puts him a peg below Reacher status but I still found the book entertaining. Jack is now a member of a secret government agency tasked with running down the nation’s deadliest enemies. They stumble onto a child kidnapping ring which turns out to be lot more dangerous than initially thought. I’m going to continue with the Noble series but I hope Ryan figures out a way to give poor Noble a break. The poor guy gets hammered at every turn and has his romantic aspirations similarly pummeled. I’ll be back for #3 though.

The second book was Back to War, by C.G. Cooper, which was highly entertaining. It’s the first book in yet another series called the Corps Justice Series. The plot has a highly decorated ex-Marine whose fiancé is brutally murdered in front of his eyes. He just happened to inherit a highly specialized security firm which is a perfect weapon to hunt down his attackers. Cooper shows a real understanding of military culture and I reminded a number of times of the W.E.B. Griffin’s awesome Men at War series. This was a first novel for Cooper so the writing was a little choppy but I enjoyed it immensely and rushed through to get to the conclusion. I’m already on to the second book in the series.