Making the Best of a Crisis

Brugger, Allison, and Old Dude around the firepit. There might have been some wine.

I received the sad news from my daughter on Friday that her mom had been hospitalized with what might be a life-threatening situation. She flew down on Friday, was met by her mom's best friend/housemate, and together they headed for the hospital. Allison spent most of the day there, as well as a fair portion of Saturday. I was in Martinsville for my customary looking-after-my-mom weekend; but on the way home, I swung by the hospital, picked Allison up, and brought her back to Casa de Rodan. I had originally plotted a grand Thai chicken dinner for Ms. B. and me, so I picked up a few extra ingredients, and we were all good to go for a feast. Brugger arrived for dinner, and we commenced to the feasting.

For Ms. B., the sparks are flying.

As the song from Godspell goes, "We all need help to feel fine — let's have some wine!" So, we availed ourselves to some of the stock from my shelves, and things did go as swimmingly as one might hope under the circumstances. Some levity prevailed as we went out to the back yard and built a fire in the firepit, as this is something of a tradition when the kidlet ventures home. Quite coincidentally, she was here in March 2016; March 2018; and now March 2019. She's of a mind at this point that just taking the time in March and popping down here is probably a good idea if only for tradition's sake.

She headed back to the hospital this morning, and it appears that Peg has been transferred out of CICU. I take that as a hopeful sign, and I certainly will hope for the very best.

For me, it was a day for fellowship with a bunch of Old Farts on the geocaching trail. It proved relaxing and successful.

Exorcising the Kidlet

Ms. B. and Kidlet looking mysterious. Or something.

The circumstances weren't exactly welcome, but my daughter's visit was. Due to a serious situation here in Greensboro (the details of which I'll skip for discretion's sake), Allison came down from New York City and spent a few days at Casa de Rodan with the old man and, for a portion of that time, with Ms. Brugger. She also got to spend some much-needed quality time with her mom. While there was some distress about the situation at hand, we did manage to enjoy ourselves immensely, with movies, popcorn, fine wine, and first-rate vittles.

She arrived early afternoon on Saturday, and the first order of business was dealing with the business that brought her here. Not a fun part of the day, to be sure, but with evening came some nice mellow time, including dinner at Sushi Republic and a showing of The Exorcist, which is apparently one of her favorite filums (mine too). We accompanied the movie with popcorn and a fine Bordeaux, and afterward, a pleasant bit of reminiscing about certain childhoods spent in certain houses.

Come Sunday, we decided to continue with more things Pazuzu and watched Exorcist II: The Heretic, whose outright weirdness has always appealed to me, far more than to the world at large, which clearly does not so much approve. Certainly, it's many steps down from its predecessor, but if nothing else, its stylish cinematography and wonderful score by Ennio Morricone make it a rather creepy treat. After a necessary interlude with more personal business, we settled in front of the TV screen once again, this time for Exorcist III, the second best entry in the series, and another of my favorite horror movies (though with some caveats). For dinner, we hied our asses over to Ms. Brugger's for pizza (store-bought but doctored-up bigly) and a bit more of the fine wine.

On Monday, Allison stayed with her mom, but on Tuesday, she was back here, and what should we do but watch Exorcist: The Beginning, which I can't utterly poo-poo, though it is inferior even to Exorcist II. It's marginally better than Exorcist: Dominion, from which it was actually derived, but we did not sit through the latter, as time was too short, and I really had no interest in looking at it again anyway.

So Wednesday morning, while I was at work, I got a message from the kidlet, which went more or less as follows:

Kidlet: "So I walked to/from Jay's gas station to get allergy meds. I forgot allergy meds. Can you stop and get Claritin on the way home?"

Dad: "How you walk for allergy meds and not get allergy meds?!"

Kidlet: "I got snacks."

Dad: "Yes, I will stop for allergy meds but when I get home, I may only have snacks."

Kidlet: "Daaaad!"

"I am the god of hellfire!" Or something.

Wednesday evening saw both Brugger and Allison at my house, where Ms. B. prepared a fabulous dish of lamb and couscous, topped with cucumbers, grape tomatoes, and tzatziki. Rather than plop ourselves in front of the television screen, we went out into the suddenly all-too-warm evening air and made ourselves even warmer by way of the fire pit. Fortunately, the temperature cooled down enough so we didn't sweat our asses off, but good lord... until yesterday morning, I've been wearing my heavy coat, and as of today, I'm running the fucking air conditioning. I so miss having real seasons, like we used to.

With our local issues under control, at least for the time being, this morning, I dropped Allison off at PTI, and she winged her way back to NYC — hopefully not for the next two years without a visit, as her last trip here was almost exactly two years ago, in Spring 2016. I really hope she didn't forget her allergy meds, though, because I'm not much inclined to run up to the city to drop them off.

Kidlets!

A misty nighttime view from Casa de Rodan

Women wearing weird oxygen masks

Just Divine

Had to make my usual visit to Martinsville to look after Mum on Friday and first part of the day Saturday, but I was able to get back yesterday afternoon so Ms. B., Kidlet, and I could head out to hit a couple of wineries and enjoy a very pleasant day in the Yadkin River Valley. Our first destination was Divine Llama, which Ms. B. and I have visited a few times in the past. They only have a couple of dry reds — a reserve Merlot and a Cabernet Franc — but they're both exceedingly good for NC wine, and even a couple of their whites weren't too ugly on my palate. Their oaked Chardonel was actually smooth and buttery enough to make me consider having a glass of it. That is all kinds of different, my friends. Now, Ms. B. is all about  stainless steel–aged, crisp-and-citrusy, non-oaky white wine, but everyone is entitled to at least a few minor shortcomings. Alas, there were no llamas in evidence this visit; just a lot of bumbly bees and a few children. (Parents, cut that the fuck out. Wineries are for adults.)

From there, we went over to nearby Cellar 4201, which is a decent enough place, with more choices of dry reds. However, their tastings are way overpriced — $9 for seven wines (with a very small quantity of each wine — about half an ounce) in a stemless glass, or $15 for the same seven in a stemmed glass, which you get to keep. Please! Now, I certainly prefer a glass with a stem, but good lord, you wouldn't even get a half glass of wine for your $15, and the last thing I need is another tasting glass to bring home. For comparable wine tastings, most Yadkin Valley wineries charge you from $5 to $10 for up to ten wines, and more often than not, you get to keep the glass anyway. I confess this little bit of gouging irked me, but it wasn't hard to make the best of things, what with the company and everything. Bottom line is, with so many wineries in the area that offer you a better deal (and some with better quality wine), I am not much inclined to make 4201 a destination to revisit in the near future.

Upon departing the vineyards, our trio headed to Little Tokyo restaurant in High Point for sushi, which certainly proved a high point of the evening. Great food, and a nice two-for-one deal on sake for Saturday evening. One of the better venues for not-terribly-dead fish in the Triad.

Today, there was caching. Fun, happy caching. Sadly, Kidlet will be leaving us tomorrow. It has been a fine two weeks having her close at hand. Well, mostly. I mean, you can see a bit of scariness in the visages down below. Rough stuff, my friends, rough stuff.

Wining and Sciencing

Kidlet came into town from New York City last week, and she's staying with me this weekend. She wanted to see the Greensboro Natural Science Center, as she hadn't been there since she was a wee youngster and it was a single building with just a few displays — and except for hunting geocaches on or around its premises, I've never been. It's now an extensive, multi-million-dollar complex, with lots of live animal displays, dinosaurs, rocks & minerals, aquariums, and a treetop rope course (which Allison did not care to do, but I'm quite sure I want to give it a go). We spent a good couple of hours seeing the sights, the highlight surely being the pair of tigers who have a nice big area to roam and mingle with guests — well, almost. We were also quite taken with the pair of fishing cats, a passel of penguins, a bunch of otters, and stingrays of all sizes, which you can pet as they glide past through the pool. There's a huge octopus, which we were told only rarely makes an appearance, but it was kind enough to treat us to a brief appearance when it came out from its cover of rocks to check out the passersby. Bet he would have made for some serious tako-su at any of the nearby Japanese restaurants (octopus is one of my favorites, by the way).

Out in the zoo area, there were several dinosaur-sized tortoises; a number of playful gibbons in the trees; some shy lemurs gathered together in a hovel and grooving on a pict; and a peacock strutting around the pedestrian walkways, which made me wonder whether we had stumbled onto the NBC lot by mistake.

Afterward, we headed over to Stonefield Cellars Winery in the Stokesdale area — by way of a few geocaches — which made for a most pleasant afternoon, the weather kindly cooperating with sunshine and balmy temperatures. We shared a bottle of their Synchronicity red blend, which is one of their many excellent red selections. It was nice to see that Stonefield has a new winery cat, named Fizzgig (from The Dark Crystal). Some time ago, their original winery cat, Noah — a beautiful bengal cat — passed away. Fizzgig — whom Allison referred to as Francis — proved himself affable company while one is drinking wine in the great outdoors.

Then, finally, we made our way back into town and met Ms. Brugger, Jenny Chapman, and Doug Cox at Casa Vallarta Mexican Restaurant for dinner. Fair Mexican fare, excellent company. Today, the kid is preparing us a nice lunch. I hope to survive to tell the tale.

Brought to you in living color.

Droolie in his dreams

Fishing cats, sans fish

Fizzgig, a.k.a. Francis

Dad and Kidlet