Well, I just had yet another terrifying experience on my way back home this morning from my jog because of a loose dog. The people here in Provence don’t seem to see the need to keep their dogs on a leash — or for that matter, gated on their property. There is this really vicious dog who occasionally wanders into the rustic road I walk to go into and out of town. On my morning run, I go into town through the woods on The White Path, but come back to the mas on this road. The dog was there, teeth bared, snapping and snarling at me. He was close enough to his gate that I took my chances and skirted a wide circle around him. He kept after me as I went. I had a feeling that, if I just kept moving, he’d eventually leave me alone. I know he’s just protecting his property, but he should be doing that on the other side of the gate, not in the road. Two days ago, a similar incident happened with some random people walking their very large dog on the same road. I was walking into town when I encountered them. The dog freaked out. I could see in his eyes he was fixed on Trog. He started snapping and snarling at me, then he charged past me, turned, and started all over, tentatively lunging at me. Never once did these people grab his chain collar.

I love dogs, but this is fucked up. I guess it’s over the hills and through the woods for me from now on if I want to go into town.

I’m about 1/3 through the Lee Child’s book, One Shot, and I can’t continue. While I greatly admire Child’s plotting and police procedural knowledge, he does something so completely obnoxious I want to punch him. I kid you not: He constantly inserts the sentence, “Reacher said nothing.” (Jack Reacher is his hero.) This little sentence appears up to five times on a page. It appears intermittently with “Helen Rodin said nothing.” (another character in the book) and simply “He said nothing.” Over and over and over.

And over and over and over. In Chapter 4 alone, it appears 22 times.

A handful of people on Amazon mention it, too, and agree that it’s maddening. One guys says it’s so bad you could create a drinking game out of it. I just can’t believe more people didn’t say something about it in their reviews. There must be some kind of ultra-forgiving cupcake mentality when it comes to these books. But I’m personally pissed at Child and his publisher for this. It’s not only obnoxious, but it’s unprofessional.

The good news is that The Frenchman called and he’ll be home in two hours. Whee! I’m off to shower.