This tired old blogger has been absent. Excuses. Always the same. But I’ll get back to it. Gotta keep all the plates spinning. Or the balls in the air if you prefer.
Brit and I are in Chicago for a weekend of fun and adventures. Truly my favorite city in the US. Just a great walking city with lovely architecture — old and new. Great pubs and restaurants and the lake the the river. Just finished my morning workout while Brit sleeps in a bit.
Friday night we hit the Guinness Brewery for a quick stout and then down the block to the Bushmills ‘Origins of Whisky‘ immersion experience. It was pretty cool. Good whiskeys and a little history about the distillery and some good visuals and sounds of the Irish countryside. Ireland has a chip on it’s shoulder in terms of whiskey — they really seem to want to be as widely acknowledged and respected as their Scottish brethren. Alas, Scotland is far superior in tradition, breadth of offerings and flavors. But still a great experience.
Next we slow walked down Kenzie and stopped at Babette’s Bar and Boeuf for a lovely dinner at the downstairs bar. Amazing atmosphere and quality drinks and fare. Then we walked on back to the hotel and watched a movie for 30 seconds and slept.
Saturday we met Nick and Jesse for drinks at The Smith. We gave over the best part of the afternoon to Kolsch beer and Old Fashioned’s before heading out to West Loop for an Italian dinner. Now we are at the airport and heading home to pick up the hound and ease back to normality — such as it is for us.
We met a lovely couple at the Guinness Brewery – Steve and Katie. They were just coming back from the whisky tasting and we were just heading that way. Nice locals. Steve was a former rugby player, so you know they are rock solid.
it’s impossible to capture everything that has happened in the past 2 months, so I won’ try. Will just vow to do better as I have done so many times before.
But life is busy and priorities evolve. I’ve spent a good bit of time at Black Dog Ridge. Cut and chopped a lot of firewood and took care of a few smallish things that needed done. I’m reading Don Quixote and The Jungle by Upton Sinclair — so that is taking a lot of my time. And still trying to get long walks with the dog, time with Brit and the family. I am also working (slowly) on a screen play and even more slowly on a re-write and re-release of ‘Silicon Valley to Southern Africa‘. I’ve been writing some poetry. Bad poetry to be sure, but it pleases me so I continue on.
And there’s always work-work. My job. We went live at UMass Memorial on January 1 with Workday. We consolidated 3 different hospital legacy ERP systems into a single instance in a full-suite implementation. On time and under budget. No small thing. It was a heavy lift but we got’er done and I am proud of that. Then of course the chaos of 60 days of hyper-care which we are now starting to wind down. But it’s been a good project. I will be coming up on 3 years at UMass which officially makes it my longest consulting gig.
Anyway, competing priorities and so Martinitime.net sometimes get pushed aside. And the constant shuttling back and forth between Ohio, West Virginia and Boston — with occasional fun trips to Pittsburg, Florida, DC etc.
We are nearly ready to file to establish the Namib Futures Articles of Incorporation. We had a board meeting and finalized those documents along with the governance documents. So it will be exciting to have that charity up and running. We also had an MYO board meeting and are busy planning our 20-year reunion in August. That will be an emotional event for me for sure.
I was at The French Goat one night in Lewisburg when this couple walks in and says “we’re between parties and have to be somewhere in 15 minutes“. They ordered a martini and a Manhattan, escargot, lamb stew and truffle fries. We chatted for 20 minutes while they gulped their food and they were off.
The Goat is an exceptional restaurant where we normally take 90 minutes or more for our meal. But these folks were friendly with the owner and the staff and knew they wanted good food fast rather than fast food. So it worked for them and no judgment from my side.
Brittany and I went to Wonderball at the Columbus Museum of Modern Art a few weeks ago. Good time. The next morning, on my way home, I stopped at Waffle House. So from one end of the socio-economic spectrum to the other. Both great experiences, although I’d probably choose Waffle House between the two. Brittany refuses to step inside WF, so that’s a solo excursion for me.
Here’s one of the many peculiarities that come with my view of the world.
I was at Black Dog Ridge a couple of weeks ago. Wearing Carhart work pants and no shirt, sitting in front of the fireplace in Appalachia watching the movie ‘Hidden Figures’ and crying like a baby. It’s a great story of persistence and success, but ultimately sad of course. I’ve always had a very deep sensitivity for those who suffer so much more than I ever had to. And so many persevere where I probably would have crumbled under the weight of oppression. We, as in white humans, made their life so difficult. And yet they somehow moved beyond us. If they ever forgave us, they shouldn’t have. But they figured out how to work around the arbitrary obstacles we put in place–the barriers that we erected to limit their trajectory out of mean-spiritedness.
Eric, Lars and Allen visited me in West Virginia one weekend. We cut a little firewood, ate delicious meals, played cards, drank whisky, cut some more firewood and did a little shooting over at Rich’s range. I am a pathetically poor trap shooter. Seems I would randomly hit a trap once in a while, but it evades me. I was a decent shot when I was younger. But I guess if you don’t do something for 30 years……..
Lars brought a veritable arsenal to the range. I just shot trap. I’m not a fan of handguns or unnecessary firepower so took a pass on those other guns. It’s a nuanced view and I don’t judge others as long as they are responsible.
I’ve been extended at UMass now until at least end of April. There is a rumor I will be asked to stick around for another year and oversee the systems integration for the hospital they are acquiring. So that would be good. A little job security and all.
You have to be always drunk. That’s all there is to it—it’s the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk.
But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk.
And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything that is speaking. . .ask what time it is and wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you: “It is time to be drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish.”
Charles Baudelaire
No other news of note.
Humbly Submitted.
The Martini Tales 