Little Apples Are Often Dry

Rich and I spent another excellent evening with alcohol in our bloodstreams and smoke in our minds...and with plans to get together each week as the Swait departure nears. It's wyrd to think of being gone, but also oh so natural: I'm already wandering the streets of Gainesville and breathing the chewy air half my waking moments.

Of course, there's the small matter of the kiddo first...

Kimberly and I spent some of Thursday afternoon at Gritman Hospital filling out paperwork and getting a tour of the facilities, which consist of (hopefully) only three rooms. Hannah Hauser was our nurse and we were glad to be with someone we were comfortable with. That night I had a beer with Brant Hauser and discovered that his li'l pixie had, while working for a looney bin back east, assisted in a seven-man putdown of a wacko.

I use wacko in the "really wild" sense, not just the loony sense. Apparently Hannah believed this old woman (fighting off six men succesfully) to be demon-possessed, and not only her. I'm very willing to believe it.

This is the bridge over the Meander:

Anyway, Rich and I enjoyed a little brandy he'd provided, very nice, and I contributed a little manzanilla sherry, very wierd. Manzanilla is dry and clear, but I mean, this stuff was DRY. And PALE. Just a touch of apple to it, but mostly just DRY. And PALE. Interesting was the word for it...I think I like it. In Rich's words: "It's not offensive." Right. I got it at the Moscow Wine Company, now that port et al. is no longer a state monopoly. Osborne's Manzanilla, for $11. I didn't dislike it...and it's not often one finds something of anything that's both exotic and subtle.

'Cause exotic usually means Carmen Miranda hats.

Rich and I were discussing the Spanish Reconquista, dates, etc., and here's a bit of verse Rich and I composed with smoke in our brains....yes, that's right, we used the actual smoke in our actual brains (the first line is original):

A Busy Year For Spain

In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
It also was the year Th'inquisitor kicked out the Jew.
Oh, and they slew the Caliphs too.


Thank you....thank you very much!

Comments