Sunday, February 5, 2017

New Hampshire Fun Backed Down

Outside the Palace Theater
For all those Facebook commentators who thought I was making another of my patented thunder runs up and descending on  Keene Friend on Friday night – you forgot to read the fine print. I did indeed head north into New Hampshire but my destination was further east as we linked up with the Favorite Son and ABFA at the ABFA’s parents’ house for Friday night dinner before a play in Manchester. Buddy accompanied us and was soon joined by his nephew Riggins so we saw very little of the ABFA’s parents’’ cat.
Inside the Palace Theater


My Soon to be Absent Date
This was a great opportunity to hang out with them before my wife heads south for the winter. My son and his wife surprised my Favorite Panamanian with an early birthday cake before we made our way to Manchester and the Palace Theater. I’d never been there before but any place with a bar named Penuche’s right next door is a winner in my book. I thought Keene had the only Penuche’s. We went to see Smoky Joe’s CafĂ© which was a lot of fun.
Soon to be Birthday Girl

The Palace
Some very talented, off-Broadway level actors belted out thirty nine rock and roll and rhythm and blues songs written by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. While I didn’t recognize all of them there were some classics that brought back a lot of memories like Love Potion #9, On Broadway, Hound Dog, and Stand by Me. The best part was sharing the experience with the wonderful people I found myself with, there’s just no substitution for family. It was kind of a frigid walk to the theater but it helped when you can laugh most of the time because of the company  we were with.
No Longer a Pup
For the first time ever we spent the night at the ABFA’s parent’s house in Hudson which meant we got to wake up and hang out with everyone again. The ABFA’s mom and I took the dogs out for a walk while the more somnambulant family members slept in. Riggins knocked over the ABFA’s mom right when she was in the middle of cleaning up his donations. Luckily she was spared any injury but Riggins has certainly passed out of the puppy stage in terms of size and strength.
Floor Halfway Up
We were getting ready to leave for home when I received a call from Deckzilla Dude who showed up unexpectedly to start work on the first floor flooring. We used the Neighborhood Mafioso to get him into the house so he wouldn't be delayed. When we got home we walked into a cloud of saw dust and other vapors as he was tearing up the plywood subfloor in the kitchen. He had an assistant who jammed him wrist early in the process so I got to help out more than they planned. This was great because I hate standing around watching other people work.
End of the Day
In the whole “be careful what you wish for” category I was tearing out the last piece of subflooring in the coat closet when I could almost hear the muscle I pulled in my lower back give way. I was contorted in a weird angle and I guess the middle aged body wasn’t constructed to perform these kind of gyrations. It only hurts when I move so I don’t think it’s too bad. I, of course, refused to acknowledge that I was hurt, male pride being what it is. I stalk had seventeen boxes of flooring to move into the house from the garage and I think my wife realized I was hurt when I agreed to let her help me. That was a lot of fun.
Staged for Monday
Everything’s ready now for the floor to start going down on Monday. The new island cabinets arrived on Friday and will be ready for the granite guy to measure on Friday morning. Today should be a fairly restful day, well except when I leap to my feet to cheer for multiple Patriots’ touchdowns as they win the super bowl again. My daughter finally took some time out of packing to post some more photos of the soon to be most beautiful resident of New Jersey.










Today’s morale photo injection:





No comments:

Post a Comment