So from the moment that the US began the invasion of Iraq, I thought that it was wrong! To me, it was obvious from everything that I read that the country was deeply divided between the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds and that the lynch pin holding everything together was brutal regime of Saddam Hussein, so that once the pin was removed the country would explore just like a grenade!....
Last night with music from the Hank Mobley Quintet playing in the background, I finished Daniel Woodrell's great novel Winter's Bone. While the book is not classified as a mystery, the plot of the novel centers around a big one. Where's Jessup? Jessup is the meth cooking father of the book's central character, 16 year-old, Ree Dolly. Ree has a big problem, if her Pa doesn't appear for a court date, Ree and her two brother's, and Ma could lose their family home, which Jessup posted as collateral to make his bail. So Ree sets out, braving the bitter Ozark winter, searching the hills for her father. But many of the tight-lipped inter-related folks, who live in the hills, live on the wrong side of the law, and would rather fight than give up their secrets. But Ree needs to push on, for her home and the ones who are in her care, but will she be able to live with the answer??....
Through the years one of my favorite mystery series has been Parnell Hall's Stanley Hasting mysteries. Looking at my Goodreads bookshelf I see, that there are 18 books in the series. and I have read all but one of them!! (Note to self read Caper- damn I thought I did??) That is not the case with Hall's Puzzle Lady series, there are 15 books in that series, of which I have read 3.(1,8,&15) No. 15 is NYPD Puzzle and it is book 11 for 2014....
Today is Trooping the Colour Day in the United Kingdom, as well as, the Official Birthday of the Queen from Wikipedia....
Trooping the Colour is a ceremony performed by regiments of the British and Commonwealth armies. It has been a tradition of British infantry regiments since the 17th century, although the roots go back much earlier. On battlefields, a regiment's colours, or flags, were used as rallying points. Consequently, regiments would have their ensigns slowly march with their colours between the soldiers' ranks to enable soldiers to recognise their regiments' colours.
It's also the day that the Continental Congress founded the First Continental Army. Coincidence?
Art Work by John Mayall
This week has been a topsy-turvy week, Monday it was in the 80s and then was cloudy all day yesterday (Tuesday) it looked like it was going to rain and the temperatures were in the 60s! Today (Thursday) it was supposed to be back into the 80s. so last night (Wednesday) I decide that I better run then or face another hot day running! So of course today turned out a lot like yesterday, but I’m still glad that I ran last night!! I decided to run on of my oldest routes, a slightly up and down run going up and down the highest point in Riverside on Pancoast Avenue. On my last run I ran with on of the younger blues musicians, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who by the way is celebrating his birthday today. Happy Birthday Kenny Wayne, so last night I decided to run with someone older than me, by almost two decades!! That would be “the godfather of the British Blues” John Mayall, who turned 80 last November, and his latest release A Special Life. Anyway the run was a good one, while I didn’t set any land speed records I did feel fairly strong throughout the run, well except when I was going up the steepest parts of Pancoast!! The only good thing is that I do get to go down hill for a good part of the last mile!! The splits weren’t too bad. First mile 10:20 – Second 10:28, Third 11:04 – the uphill battle, 4 – 10:42 Total Time – 42:34 and when compared to Monday’s 44:54 it even looks better!!
Art Work by John Mayall
Art Work by John Mayall
Reposted – Feb 17,2024 – ten years later….I was 62 ar the time of the run!
This week has been a topsy-turvy week. Monday it was in the 80s and then was cloudy all day. Yesterday (Tuesday) it looked like it was going to rain and the temperatures were in the 60s! Today (Thursday) it was supposed to be back into the 80s. So last night (Wednesday) I decided that I better run then or face another hot day running! So of course today turned out a lot like yesterday. However, I’m still glad that I ran last night!! I decided to run on of my oldest routes, a slightly up and down run going up and down the highest point in Riverside on Pancoast Avenue.
I will admit that I was never a big Uriah Heep fan. I knew of them, and I have probably heard some of their music along the way, but none of it has made it into my music library. But I did notice yesterday, as I was looking through the new prog rock releases, that the Heep's new album Outsider, was released. So I wasted time, unless you count the time between 1969 and now as wasted because I have not sought out Uriah Heep, going to Spotify to listen to it. Anyway, I really liked the album and maybe I'll consider a portion of the aforementioned time wasted!
Some writers take many pages to hook you and reel you into the story. In the latest Joe Pickett novel, C.J. Box does it in the first paragraph of the book!! When Nate Romanowski pushes a drift boat in to the Bighorn River and sets sail down river toward the mansion of the man he is going to kill!! Now if this is the first book of the series, you may just like Box's descriptive prose, but if you've read a few of the books or in my case all but one of the fourteen books in the series, you said to yourself "Nate is going to murder someone!" Whoa, this is not going to end well! See Nate is the shadowy friend of Joe and his family, and always seems to arrive on the scene when Joe needs him the most, but he is also on the run from the Feds. Can this be why?? So starts Book 10 for 2014, Stone Cold from C J Box....
