Flying

Winging back from Germany, somewhere over the Atlantic.

Sorry for the light blogging, but the past two months have been a tad hectic. Work carried me to Germany for two weeks. Now I have added to my frequent flyer miles by attending two more trainning classes plus normal work. Yikes.

On the good side, managed to do some reading which I have been an infrequent acquaintance of for some weeks.

I surprised myself by buying a John Grisham novel called Playing For Pizza. A humorous story of an American quaterback finding redemption and happiness in all places Italy. I think I gained five pounds by just reading Grisham describe all the culinary feasts that await in Italy. He even managed to squeeze in some opera also.

Another surprisingly good book is called American Patriot by Robert Coram. What drew me to buying this book was who it was about: Colonel George E. 'Bud' Day. It is hard to summarize a life lived with such gusto and courage, from the hard scrabble life in the Depression to leading an elite unit of flyers doing an impossible mission over Route Pak One to almost making it to a Marine fire base in South VietNam to fighting the Clinton Administration when they cut off prescriptions for veterans over 65, Brokaw's Greatest Generation, and finally doing battle with a man who made the Hanoi Hilton POWs's life even more miserable. That is Bud Day's life, which is far from over. Along the way, many things almost forgotten but that should be remembered about America and its citizens are chronicled. We also get to know Bud's friends from childhood to now, including one Sen. John McCain with whom Day has a bond forged in the hell that was the Hanoi Hilton. I will let McCain have the last word on Bud:

"He's one of those people for whom everything is black or white. It's wonderful to go through life like that. I wish I could." (p. 373)