2004-09-21 - 10:58 a.m.
It’s been a busy few weeks and I am pretty worn out. I’m not complaining. It’s good to be busy. I’ve been doing a ton of great stuff. It’s a blessing.
It seems that the past 2.5 weeks have been non-stop. Some of the highlights include:
-Going to see The Lion King at the Opera House in Boston. My lovely wife and I and several friends had dinner at a great brew pub called “Rock Bottom” and then headed over to see The Lion King. It was great. The costumes blew me away. Especially the giraffes. The Opera house was very nice too. It was just renovated and it was very comfortable. Before going in, my wife bought the program and the soundtrack CD. The damn vendor tried to rip her off $5.00 when giving her change. I was standing non-chalantley on the side watching the whole thing and I guess he didn’t realize who I was. Anyhow, I called him on it and he quickly gave my wife her correct change. I let it go as an honest mistake, but now thinking about it, I think I should have said something to the manager. It was a definite rip off and this guy was doing it to all the tourists.
-Go Patriots! A few days later my uncle, father-in-law and I went to the season opener for the New England Patriots. What a great game! The Pats got lucky with a few plays and it was a nail bitter down to last few seconds. I love going to see the Patriots. Football in autumn in New England is the best. There is nothing like it. We parked out by the pro shop and watched Toby Keith’s pre-game show.
- Wasted away in Margaretville: The next night, my wife, I and the gang headed out to Fenway Park to see Jimmy Buffett. We were a bit let down that he wasn’t playing his standard venue at “The Tweeter Center” in Mansfield MA. The parking lots there are set up perfectly for tailgating and any Parrot head will tell you, it’s the tailgating that’s the best part of a Buffett show. We ended up having dinner and beer at the Boston Beer Works. It was great. I had the mako shark and washed it down with a few pints of their pumpkin ale. Despite the lack of tailgating, I think this was by far one of the best Buffett shows I have seen in the 10 years I have been going. He was great. The seats were fantastic and everyone had a wonderful time. My wife had her picture taken standing next to the Green Monster, and she scooped up some dirt. I’ll frame both and hang it over the bar downstairs. I picked up a “License to Chill” Hawaiian shirt to add my ever growing collection.
-A few days later we had to go up to the North Shore for a memorial service my wife’s aunt. She passed a few years ago of brain cancer. It was quite sudden and quite the shock for everyone. I only knew her briefly, and we did not get along at all. However, when my wife’s aunt s found out she was sick, she didn’t let us know, but she did come up from FL to make amends and visit with us. I look back on the whole thing…when she was sick and her coming up to visit…well, now in retrospect I am grateful we made peace with each other before she passed. Bless you Sandra. I left a shell on your stone. I found it on the beach in Boca when visiting Aaron. He misses you deeply.
- NASCAR. Yup Nas-fucking-Car. My wife loves it. This amazes me. She’s very well educated, and quite a classy lady in her own special way. It amazes me how she just simply loves NASCAR racing. Go figure... She’s even got a room dedicated to Dale Earnhardt. Well, I do have a corner of the room for a few Patriots’ mementos. But everyone knows the room is “The Race Room” and it’s filled with every conceivable Dale Earnhardt trinket. And let me tell you folks who are not familiar with NASCAR, these guys will put their name and logo on ANYTHING. For example: Hanging in a corner of the room is an officially licensed roll of Dale Earnhardt Caution Tape. I shit you not.
Anyhow, my wife loves NASCAR and we go up to Loudon NH 2x a year to see 43 cars drive really fast and turn left. I get it into somewhat. My wife loves it and since she goes to Buffett shows and comes to playoff game parties I try my best to have a good time, share the day withe her and I usually have a lot of fun.
I’ll tell you this. Of all the events and concerts we go to, I have to admit the crowd at the NASCAR races have been the absolute best. I know they have a reputation for pulling in redneck hillbillies by the hundreds of thousands, but the crowd up at Loudon NH is absolutely fantastic. I’ve never seen a fight. Everyone is in a great mood. I’ve been going there for 6 years with my lovely wife and I am always blown away by this. There are100, 000 people there. Drunk. Some have been tailgating for several days. Traffic is a mess. Fans are arguing passionately about their favorite drivers and I’ll tell you: I’ve met some of the nicest people there. Maybe for some of you, that’s no big surprise, but for me I am always amazed that their isn’t mass redneck rioting.
This is turning out much too long and I need to at least “give the illusion” of productivity here at the office. So I’ll leave for now….
Hell. Maybe someday I will actually let others in Dairyland know I have a diary. Maybe I will even “shoot the moon” and purchase the “Gold” features so folks can tell me what a prick I am in a comments board…but for now it’s ok. If you happen to read this drop me an e-mail and say “hi”.
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