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.