Valley Day

I’m a firm believer in the peak and valley concept of karmic retribution.  You have to pay for the peaks of life by journeying through a few valleys.  So after a definitely tall summit over the Mother’s Day weekend I anticipated a fairly challenging descent Monday; because well, it’s Monday.  Yesterday really overachieved in its attempt to define itself as the first day of the work week.

The low light of the day was not one but two public hearings where the “Voices of Inappropriate Worth” were allowed full voice.  There are some very minor changes coming up for the summer so the head politicos decided to hold an informational public hearing.  The meetings were swarmed with the usual culprits and “activists” which Worcester is infested with.

They didn’t want to talk about the changes but about what they wanted for their own personal convenience.  Many of them clamored they wanted the system “back the way it used to be”.  They made claims that we were losing customers left and right because of our ineptitude in serving their personal needs.  I told the head politico that he should point out to them that ridership was up nearly 8% since we made the changes but courage is not one of the politico’s strongest suits.

The meeting was run by one of the planners who quickly lost control to the “Voices” because he’s entirely too polite.  This is probably why the politicos don’t want the operations guys running the meeting.  God forbid we damage the feelings of these lampreys of the social order.  Almost the exact same group showed up for both meetings so nothing productive was accomplished at either other than severely impacting the politico’s pucker factor.

Bruins Beard Week 4
Some More Hellenic Seasoning

The day continued on a downward slope when I learned the house up in Keene that I had found on Zillow and hoped against hope would still be available in the fall was taken off the market.  I then  returned home too late from the meetings to attack the latest mulch mountain sitting in the driveway and saw the Bruins impale themselves up in Montreal.  They’ll be a game 7 in Boston tomorrow which will determine the fate of the beard. At least Jack Bauer was around last night to start the journey up out of the gorge.  He didn’t kill anybody and even discarded his man purse late in the show which was kind of shocking on both fronts.

When I finished my last book on the Kindle I was surprised to find the new John Sandford book, Field of Prey, had automatically downloaded.  I ordered it months ago and it was released last week.  This book continues the story of one of my ultimate literary heroes – Lucas Davenport. He’s a high ranking Minnesota state police investigator who is on the trail of a serial killer who’s discovered when his cistern body disposal site is discovered by some horny teenagers.

Sandford gets back to what makes Davenport such a compelling character as he’s doing the investigating instead of directing others.  He’s like a force of nature and since Sanford also provides a point of view from the killers’ side you can see his relentless approach from both sides.  There’s a neat little twist about three quarters of the way through which added to the drama.  I usually love Sandford’s work but this was one of his best in years.  I typically read while on the stationary bike in the morning and a couple times with this book I lost track of time and more than doubled my usual time because I didn’t want to put it down.  So the workouts were better if it did make for a fairly frantic morning commute.