Of Tomatoes and Rain

It was a travel day for me. The "usual", meaning back over to Turkey. I realized before heading through security in Portland that I had forgotten to grab a book at home for the journey. I have been stockpiling books for awhile, so I have a decent assortment at home, but when you forget, they do little good. Luckily, one of my favorite pre-flight pastimes is to hit Powell's PDX store. While they are puny compared to the downtown store, they books are similarly tagged with employee recommendations and tips, and I don't think I have ever picked a dud by going with them. Today I scanned there "Jet Bets" section. I was in for pager turner. I am about three fourths of the way through Thomas L. Friedman's "The World Is Flat", and while extremely insightful about the world's current economy and being well written, it isn't a thriller. I looked up and down the books and came to Barry Eisler's "Rain Fall". The employee tag said it was a "cool-hit man story", so I snapped it up. They were right. The story was good, the characters deep and believable, and there was always something going on. Whenever the John Rain thought he solved a problem, he would learn more to the story and find he was back in the thick of things. I thought this 363 page book would last the round trip, but I finished it while on approach into Munich. And I also watched two movies. That now poses a bit of a problem. I had no book for the flight here, or now, back. I do know of a bookstore here that has some English titles, so I might hit that. However, Eisler's followup, "Hard Rain", is now on my Amazon Wish List.

Now that United is charging for beer and wine on the international flights (*cough* bastards), it really cut down on what I like to drink. Water, obviously is still my first choice. I try to stay away from soda and other sugar water as after 24 hours in a plane with no toothbrush, your teeth get 'sweaters' on them if you drink that. Apple juice and orange juice are nearly as bad. So, I was bold today and tried tomato juice. It wasn't V8. They didn't have that. It was just pure tomato juice. It has one third that calories as a can of Coke, so it must have a lot less sugar, and it doesn't taste that bad. Nice to know I found another liquid choice.