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| 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.
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| Inside the Palace Theater |
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| 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 Café which was a lot of fun.
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| Soon to be Birthday Girl |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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:
