Pins and Needles

I had an acupuncture appointment this morning.  I’ve been going for a while now for neck and upper back stiffness and soreness, and it helps quite a bit.  Today I mentioned that I thought my blog motivation chi might be blocked. He stuck in a few extra needles and VOILA!

We’ve had some fun since my last post, because we are fun people.  The Wigs were in town a few weeks ago and we went up to the city to have dinner with them at Chapeau. Phillipe, the effusive owner, greeted us and made a fine wine recommendation, overriding the standard Zin order I usually place. That was at the behest of The Wig, a former restaurant professional. The Wigs also generously picked up the tab.

This was the start of their SF culinary tour, which I believe was curated by their two SF resident kids. The night after Chapeau they visited Copra, snagging a difficult reservation.  They had to dine at 5:30, but it was two thumbs up. The next night was Osito. Mrs. Wig described it as “Chateaubriandish”, harking back to a Paris meal we shared in 2014 and which I described in my 07/15/14 post. At the time Chateaubriand was named #27 in the top 50 world restaurants, but we came away unimpressed. I was told that you don’t get a menu at Osito until you’re leaving. How droll! I guess that leads to a lot of “I ate what for an appetizer?”

Since we only got to spend one evening with the Wigs, it just left us craving more. Therefore, we accepted their invite to St. John’s next month.  We’ll be joining them along with Wig’s older brother and his wife. I am expected to provide a running social commentary, which will likely lead to no further invites. We’ll also drop in on my in-laws in West Palm Beach for several days. I especially look forward to the plane ride.

Our 30-year-old freezer finally croaked, so I became the chicken man, but not the one blown up in Philly in Springsteen’s Atlantic City. The wife had just made a Costco run so we had a ton of goods to distribute.  I cooked about 10 chicken breasts for our lunches, and we ate some of the seafood for dinner, but we gave away about $400 dollars worth of chicken. I was just glad that it did not go to waste. My wife was Johnny on the spot and got us a good deal on a new Costco freezer that has already been delivered.

I won some dough in my regular season NFL pool, but it looks like I’m sunk as far as the playoffs.  We had #2 over for enchiladas for the Niners/Packers game. Our team did not look dominant, but they got it done.  They’ll most likely have to face the Ravens again, if they get past the Lions. Ouch!

I went up to the city last week to see one of my pals from the old days.  We worked together at a place I’ve referred to as The Edge a few times in this blog.  It’s a treatment center for emotionally disturbed kids where I met my wife. My pal lives in VT but both his kids live in SF, so he and his wife are out a lot. We had an extensive chat about the old days, recalling many of the kids we worked with, who are now well into their forties. We have a lot in common. We’re tall, good-looking, graybeard empty nesters that write fantastic holiday letters and formerly had excellent jump shots. It was a great visit traveling down memory lane. I expect we’ll be seeing more of each other, so I’ll have to work on a blog name for him to add to the roster from my 3/30/13 post.

Isn’t It Old Age?

I’ve been having a bit of badinage with my brother and 4M about some headlines.  Norman Lear passed away recently at 101 and a follow up article listed his cause of death as heart failure. Really?? I guess that makes sense since the thing had been beating non-stop for over a century.

This headline showed up today. I polled the boys to get their take as to the cause of death. 

Bro: Covid

4M: Excited delirium

DJ: Accidental overdose

In other death news, with Hutch gone, only Starsky remains.

On to non-lethal topics

Say it ain’t so, Serena

To clarify, they reconciled briefly.

Lisa will be starring in a remake of The Joker.

I really don’t want to know.

Stunner

I wish them all the happiness in the world for the few years I expect them to remain together.

Thank you.  Thank you very much.

Srečno novo leto

That is Happy New Year in Slovenian.  Slovenia is the destination, along with Turkey, for the village international trip this fall. We expect to have most of the crew that was on the Greece trip. Besides for the connection with Melania, we chose Slovenia because The Hotelier is of Slovenian descent and speaks the language.  We brought it up to him recently at a gathering.  We reassured him that we were not expecting him to be our tour guide, translator etc.  That was a bunch a bullshit and the rest of us are now working on a uniform design for him to wear throughout that leg of the trip. We think that a bellboy style cap would top things off nicely.

The Wig is coming to town next week, so I’m trying to brace myself. I swam extra laps today and plan to stretch every day until he arrives.  You need flexibility to deal with the Wig. I was taken aback during one of our recent conversations, when he confessed that he had not read my last three or four posts. I did not think he was one of my ten acquaintances, like my brother and sister, who need to be force fed the blog via email. I was talking to SB1 about that recently. He said that only 10 email addresses was a ridiculous limitation. I gave him my user ID and password and he is going to look into it. If DJ’s Detritus disappears into the ether, you’ll know why.

The kids have all flown the coop to their own corners of the country. We had a great time having them home, but we need to get into a 1990s/2000s mode to deal with all the commotion. After SB1 and bride headed east, we took the girls into the city. It was a rainy day, but we did not melt. We walked up the first several blocks of Clement.  I pointed out the Plough and Stars.  The Wolv and I spent a lot of time there and that is where we ended up after my bachelor party dinner at Capp’s, which is unfortunately gone. We ended up at 540 Rogues, formerly known as the 540 Club, which is a classic SF dive bar.  The new owners, former bartenders there, spiffed it up a tad, but not too much. After a beer there, we went to Kingdom of Dumpling on Taraval.  We ordered a few things and asked the waitress if that was enough. No, she said.  We ordered more. We could have done with a few less items, but we ate it all.

The big event of this Christmas season was the wonderful gathering my wife put together a week ago at the bench with SB2’s memorial plaque. About 50 friends and family participated, braving the rain, each putting a flower on the bench for a beautiful arrangement. Afterward we had everyone over for food and drinks at the mansion on Gull. The party went on for hours and I even stayed up until the last of our older friends left.  Only the young villagers, now in their 30s, remained.  They had originally planned to go out to a bar, but then it dawned on them: “Hey, there’s free booze and food right here at DJ’s”.

I went up to the levee on New Year’s Day to check the bench. The flowers were still in place and the sun was shining.