Meanwhile, 34 Years Ago

Wife and I 34 Years Ago Today

I glanced at the calendar today and realized it was 34 years ago today that I officially tied the knot with my Favorite Panamanian. We were married in a civil ceremony so I could get on the on-base family housing list and we’d have a place to live after the church wedding in March. The civil ceremony took place barely two months after we met, which is another story already well told. My wife, good catholic girl that she is/was, refused to recognize the power of the civil ceremony to authorize any activity other than the housing list; this despite my cogent legal arguments to the contrary. So, as of today, I’ve been married for 34 years. We’ll have to wait until March until my wife recognizes that.

After Ceremony Dinner

Family Pic

More Recent - She's Obviously Aged Better than Me

I don’t enjoy gambling and never play the lottery or buy scratch tickets; just not my thing. I will confess that I’ve bought Powerball tickets over the past week, caught up in the illusion of being a billionaire. I felt I couldn’t’ forgive myself if I hadn’t bought one. It would have felt like tempting fate. Of course, I didn’t win but I can accept it with equanimity since at least I gave it a shot. I’ll have to shelve all the planned purchases (C’mon you know you were doing the same thing).

R.I.P. Mr Rickman

Hans Gruber finally landed from that epic fall from Nakatomi Tower last night. Gifted actor Allen Rickman succumbed and we’re all the poorer for the loss; talk about range. While most people will remember him from the Harry Potter movies, he’ll always be the nefarious villain in the first Die Hard movie or the wandering husband in Love Actually for me. One of those actors you sensed would be a good guy away from the whole stardom hoopla.

Wait Till They Get a Load of Me

I have the unenviable task of escorting the Wonder Pooch to his first appointment with a new vet here in Worcester. There will be shots involved. He’s usually very good about doctor visits so more to report on those hijinks tomorrow.

I finished the first in a series of books I had promoted down my throat by the omnipresent Amazon marketing department. Since I was looking for my next author and hopefully Amazon would relent in posting this recommendation to my Facebook account each day I started with Fallout by Lars Emmerich. I probably wouldn’t have ventured if I realized ahead of time that the hero of the series is actually a heroine, deceptively advertised as Sam Jameson. I’m so glad I did because Samantha is one kick ass hero who racks up a serious body count as a Homeland Security agent. She heads over to Budapest to recover a fallen agent and is soon embroiled in a far reaching conspiracy originating back home. I really liked the almost non-stop action. I kept thinking this would be a perfect vehicle for a great female action hero in the movies. I’m fortunate Amazon has now achieved the ability to read my mind. If you like action, go check out Emmerich and the doughty Samantha Jameson. Here’ an example of what you’ll get.

“Sam rolled her body onto the floor, twisted onto her back, and curled into a tight somersault, coming to rest on her knees on the floorboard in front of the passenger sweat. Her fingers slapped at the mat, searching. Her left hand found it. Her fingers closed around the grip. She felt its gorgeous weight as she lifted it, aimed it towards the sound of the guard’s gunfire. How many rounds had he shot? She hadn’t been counting. Silence. The man stopped shooting. Sam heard the click of a magazine release, then the clatter of an empty clip hitting the ground. Dumbass. She rose, aimed, and fired. She wasn’t a great left handed shot, but she wasn’t terrible, either. A nontrivial portion of the man’s head disappeared in a cloud of red mist.”

It wouldn’t be a complete posting with the infusion of beauty from California: