Plane, For science, Twice pickled, Vince, Marvels Sucks, Blah Bowl

On Friday our area became a traffic nightmare when a small private jet crashed on I-75. The two pilots died but somehow one crew member and two passengers got out. It shut down the interstate in both directions for nearly a day. Luckily with where I live I did not need to get into that mess.

After work I went over to the restaurant where the bartender said there was a woman normally there for happy hour that she told about me. Well apparently she wasn’t there. There were two older women there who relocated right next to me at the bar. One of them definitely had her face worked over, a look that I don’t find appealing. So I just wound up drinking a few beers there and grabbing dinner.

While I was finishing up I got a text from my buddy Rich who did have to deal with plane crash traffic. He asked if I wanted to go hang at a bar as he was going to wait until the traffic situation lessened. Despite currently sitting at a bar I told him I would meet him at Foxboro’s on the other side of the parking lot. I had another beer with a side order of fried pickles. They tasted good at first but I stopped about halfway through, my gluttony meter had pegged out.

When I went home I decided to do a science experiment. I wanted to live stream again from my phone to see if it again generated higher than average stream traffic. The big difference is I did this from my office so I could monitor the stream with my computer which would allow me to take care of spammers more efficiently. Once again I got way more views than normal. I did have a few people in chat that I had to hammer. I also enlisted a couple long term subscribers on my channel to become moderators which allows them to delete messages as well. Despite drinking while I was out earlier I put down another three or four Cayman Jacks on stream.

I set an alarm Saturday morning to get up to play pickleball with the group I normally play Sundays with. A new couple was there this time whom were both good, raising the challenge difficulty which is good for me. I played pretty well. My pickleball game has definitely gotten significantly better since I moved here last March.

Saturday afternoon after grabbing groceries I shot a quick video of installing some new accessories on my Veteran Patton, a set of new pads. The pads looks better and provide me with some more comfort while riding, a win/win.

Late afternoon I hopped on my Sherman S and went rolling. I rode from my house to the Greenway, the beach and then finally stopping at DD on the way back for some evening coffee since I knew I wasn’t having dinner until later. On the ride home I also buzzed through the pickleball courts, curious how many would be there around 6PM on a Saturday night. The answer was, not many. I guess some people do have lives outside of pickleball.

I went to Carrabas Saturday night. I normally wait to go until after 8PM, otherwise the place is a madhouse. Waiting this long meant I could easily grab a seat at the bar as there were only a handful of other people there.

I asked Helen the bartender if she knew how to make a Rusty Nail. My buddy Larry out in LA had mentioned this drink to me and I told him I would give it a shot. I am not a hard liquor drinker normally. I have had a number of bad experiences with it over the years, many of which wound up with my head in a toilet bowl. The Rusty Nail was ok but one of them was enough. It definitely will not supplant Cayman Jack as my alcoholic beverage of choice.

I was up early again on Sunday to play another round of pickleball with much of the same people. I had to lean pretty heavily on Advil to get me through the session as I had a very physically active prior week and was feeling it.

Sunday afternoon I finished up watching the Marvels, a movie I heard absolutely awful reviews for but since I could watch it for free on Disney I decided to see it for myself. I wish I hadn’t. It was easily the worst and stupidest Marvel movie I had ever seen. I was literally shaking my head as I forced myself to finish the film. Don’t bother seeing it, unless you are self masochist. I would give it a D, if not an F.

Mid-afternoon I decided to go out on yet another ride. Mentally I haven’t been feeling great so I thought a shot of wheel inspired clarity would be a good thing. I followed much the same route as the day before except this time I stopped at the Cabana, a local popular hangout that I have been to a number of times, including with both of my ex’s from last year.

As I pulled up on the wheel with my various body armor I got a lot of comments/questions about the wheel which I am accustomed to. Once I got settled in I grabbed a Miller Lite and sat at the outside chair rail. To my right was an older man that I decided to engage in conversation. I later found out his name was Vince.

Vince and I talked for at least 45 minutes with most of it being him sharing some of his interesting life experiences. At 84 years old he has a bunch of them. The funniest one to me was him describing when he was 76 years old he got involved with a 38 year old woman. As you can imagine the relationship had a strong financial component to it. When he described some of the situations that came up both he and I started laughing out loud, a lot. I listened to three Miller Lite’s worth of stories from Vince. He had more he could share but I told him I will hear more of them the next time I see him. Despite being 84 Vince is still working, he said he was too bored otherwise.

I cruised down to the beach once again and just sat on the bench chilling out before reversing back for home. I once again stopped at DD and had a phone conversation with Gladys as I finished my coffee. This weekend I found myself more appreciative of being able to get out on a wheel than normal. The 20 mile ride yesterday was filled with all sorts of diverse moments.

So I had very little interest in the Super Bowl. When the Chiefs first got there I was really happy for Andy Reid but now that they have been there four out of the last five years my happiness for him has dwindled. Over the weekend I tried to see if any of my friends were interested in coming over to watch the game with me. They either had other plans or just preferred to watch at home. Over my time when I was married to Alison and most of the years I was with Cindy we would host small Super Bowl parties at the house. Even when there was not a party I don’t recall ever watching the game alone over the last 25 years. This year was that year.

Sure I could have gone to a bar I guess to insert myself around other people but I found little motivation to do so. So I laid there and watched the game with Elsa, who of course slept through most of it.

The game, while close did not hold my interest. My preference would have been for the 49ers to win but the fact that the Chiefs pulled it out again in overtime didn’t really matter to me either. I found myself almost annoyed the game went into overtime, pushing the arrival of my head to my pillow later than I would have liked.

Speaking of pillows, my sleep has been less than ideal lately. Thankfully I’m not in one of those modes where I wake up and my brain keeps me awake for hours on time. Instead I just find myself waking up often. Sometimes it is to pee but most of the time it’s for unclear reasons. The end result is my feeling like I am not getting deep, restful sleep. With my state of mind not being what I would prefer, scatter gun sleep does not help things.