We actually ended up starting the annual acknowledgement of the entropy odometer yesterday evening due to a certain someone having to go to work later today but that trip to Neomonde for an amazing Mediterranean dinner was definitely an enjoyable appetizer especially after being up until the wee hours of the morning putting the final touches on the evidence for the upcoming hearing in front of the State Property Tax Commission.
The morning started out as it usually does collecting and delivering kids for school along with a waggly furry-heiney of a puppy that *LOVES* the breeze from an open window.
Surprisingly, I was able to throw a strike past Alexander’s encyclopaedic knowledge of all things Disney and Pixar. When he asked how old I was, I gave him the clue that to know that answer, all he had to think of was Doc Hudson (from “Cars”) in the “Fabulous Hudson Hornet” paint scheme. I figured he’d catch me out instantly but he didn’t until I showed him the picture much later. It’s not often you can slide one past him so I tend to enjoy it when I can! 🙂
On the way back from a quick stop at Wegman’s, I got a lovely surprise that was the first phone call of the day from my lovely neighbours who were on their way to Boston for a wedding. That bit of thoughtfulness really set the tone for the day!
As Katie was doing the school thing with Mistletoe snoozing in her crate, I had the opportunity to engage in a bit of mischief on Adorama’s website. A few weeks prior during Enloe’s last game that featured the band playing in the stands, the D810 gave me a bit of a scare with memory card errors on the SD card slot. OK, it was more than a “bit of a scare” but fortunately I was able to finish the shoot on the CF card slot and the subsequent inspection didn’t show any obvious damage or debris in the card slot.
Since then, the D810 seems to have returned to it’s normally reliable ways making me think it was a bit of dirt on the contacts that has since gone away. However, with well over 278,466 shutter clicks on a camera I bought on 13 Dec 2014, that “боже мой!” (“bozhe moi!” or “my God!”) moment, and Nikon demanding I upgrade with $500 being contributed by them…the decision to finally order the D850 and supporting kit such as the MB-D18 vertical grip and new cards and EN-EL15b batteries was not a hard one!
That afternoon was a delightful melange of seeing all sorts of wonderful birthday wishes come through on Facebook, dreaming of the D850 finally in my hands after many years of drooling over its specs (more on that in the first impressions review to come later), a bit of playing with the decidedly larger and much more energetic bundle of fur that is Mistletoe, and retrieving the boys from school whilst we wait for Julia to finish work for the day.
By the time I got back to the garage after collecting the boys from school, Alexander was sound asleep and Grandma Carol had rung me so we ended up staying in the Traverse where I could regale her with the somewhat infamous tale involving dreadful lactose intolerance and a lunch lady in Texas who still probably has nightmares of my first day of fourth grade at Ft Sam Houston. I’ll save that bit of confession for another time… 😉
Nick comes back out of the house all done up in his Dairy Queen uniform and it’s time for a quick trip up the Rogers Lane to deliver him for the evening.
Dinner that night was at “El Tapatio” just up the street and it was clear from the start they had truly missed us. The last time we’d had anything from there was takeout the year before for my birthday! But it was lovely being able to sit and relax and enjoy “pollo borracho” (“drunken chicken”) and a big jar of frozen margarita even with the brain freeze every now and then.
You might have noticed that I purposefully stayed away from cheese up to this point. The lactose intolerance is still present but it’s nowhere near as severe as it used to be but I’ve learned through the years exactly how much I can get away with and how often.
The reason is that capping off this evening was a trip back up the hill that is New Bern Av to terrorise Nicholas whilst he’s on duty at Dairy Queen. As you can imagine, it’s not a place I’m going to be ordering from very often but about every three or four months or so, I’ll find myself in the mood for a Peanut Buster Parfait.
That rare treat has a very special significance for me. Many years ago, there would be days where my father would have had an absolutely wretched time during the day on the Army’s time at Ft Sam Houston and he really wasn’t in the mood that anyone would really want to experience for an extended period of time. Bam Bam was aces at picking up on when it was going to be a rough evening so we’d take off for the on-post bowling alley for a few hours and invariably end up at the Dairy Queen near Starlight Terrace in northeast San Antonio.
There we would order two of her favourite treat…the Peanut Buster Parfait. But they had to be built to her exacting standards…75-80% fudge which leaves very little room for the soft serve. Not only was it the perfect proportion to avoid the worst effects of the lactose intolerance, it was also the perfect fudge delivery vehicle! To this day, if I’m going to order one…that’s the way I’m going to want it made for the wonderful memories and the fair bit easier time I’ll have vis-a-vis the digestive tract! 🙂
Even though Nicholas has been working at DQ for over a year, I’ve only had one Peanut Buster Parfait in all that time and I had him bring it out with him after his duty shift had ended. The only other times I’d had anything from there was either taking him through drive-through after a rehearsal or having a bit of something he brought home with him.
There’s a reason for that! I have vivid memories of my father coming to “visit” at the steakhouse I used to work at in the Volusia Mall across the street from the Daytona International Speedway. Truth be told, I’ve had more than a few memories of him at restaurants in general and let’s just say that they were rarely the quiet and relaxing experiences that I prefer.
If you think some of the lyrics of Billy Joel’s song “Big Man on Mulberry Street” and how it can translate into a outwardly facing persona at a restaurant, then you’re on the right track. When you grow up dirt poor as the son of a farmer as he did and you’ve finally “made it”, the tendency is to overcompensate and “leave a big tip with every receipt”, sometimes kind of loudly and “in yer face”. It was kind of hard not to notice him and when *YOUR* modus operandi is to be try to be as unnoticed as much as possible, it could be more than a little uncomfortable.
Nick has experienced this as well and I can truly imagine what must have been going through his head when he learned we were going to finish our evening on the DQ patio that evening. OK, I’m going to be honest here, I know exactly what he was thinking: he was figuring I’d put on the kind of show that he has been dreading for all of these past months. And I’ll admit I did little to dissuade him from assuming the experience from his side would be far worse than they actually turned out to be. I’m such a stinker! 😉
Long story short (OK, too late!)…we wander into the DQ round 2100 or so and Nicholas is manning the cash register to take the order. That was when the night’s final surprise came…Nick’s boss came over and not only comped my Peanut Buster which he didn’t have to do, he insisted on personally making it to my preferred specifications and it was *PERFECT*. That act of kindness was a fitting cap to what had been a truly excellent day all round.
As I was waiting at home for Nick to finish his shift, I was reckoning over the day and honestly couldn’t find one thing that had gone wrong. Those sorts of days don’t come often so I try to notice them when they do!
And it comes to this…I may not be necessarily worthy of the attention and love and caring from friends and family but I do appreciate it, even when I may not say so as often as I should. These are the moments that make me feel like the most fortunate person in the world and after over a year of pandemic-inspired lockdowns, fantastic days like this are definitely ones to be treasured!
Thank you to all who helped make this birthday one of the best ones I’ve had in recent memory. Your caring, kindness, and generosity mean far more to me than you may ever know for the gift of the heart and love is truly the most precious of all. 🙂