5 posts tagged “rain”
The wife and I open the door with the little jingly bell on it, hop over the raised doorway lip (truely wicked) and stroll into the local boozeria.
She is quickly dazzled by naughty labeled wines and lost to the brightly neon corner of the shop to giggle.
I press on, to the furthest darkest back corner.
Man-country, where they keep the whiskeys and bourbon.
Old Charter is a new addition for this shop. (I've read it's part of the Buffalo Trace Distillery, Lexington, KY.)
They have a puzzling variety of vintage; 1 year, 3 year, 5 year, 8 year, 10 year and 12 year.
Not to be overcome with indecision, I grasp the 12 year (90 proof) and emerge back to the fluorescent light of the cash register.
On the way, I do the wife a favor and grab a big ol' tear-drop bottle of Rain vodka. Lovely container, organic contents.
The kind of vodka that doesn't need to hide behind flavorings, mixers, or additives.
The wife won't buy it for herself, because it makes her feel guilty to buy anything but Popov.
On the other hand, I have every incentive to buy her good vodka because well...
The old man behind the counter is restocking the hip/boot size bottles and doesn't notice my arrival.
I clear my throat.
Nothing.
I set the bottles down again, jingling them together a bit. Clink, clink, nothing.
Right about here, lizard-brain is telling me to just side-step back on out through the door to the car with my prizes.
The wife walks up.
Just then, old man turns around and jumps with a start, "Will that be all then?"
Yeah, she was wearing one of her boobie shirts.
Old man's still got the radar.
Wife looks at the receipt in the car, "Did you really need the 12 year?"
"Well yeah. I've never had Old Charter before."
"So?" she says
"Here's the thing, if I started off by trying the younger stuff, each bottle would have been cheaper, true, but might have been more expensive overall."
"Huh?" she says.
"Look, if I try the one year, and it sucks, I would think, well, maybe the three year would be better, so then I buy that, and if it sucks, I might think, well maybe the five year is better and so on, until I end up buying the twelve year old anyway. So, this way, I start off with the twelve year old. If it sucks, I don't need to try any of the others because this is as good as it's going to get. If I do like it, I can always downgrade until I find the one that's too young, then go back up just one notch from then on."
"You way over-analyze your booze, but thanks for the vodka."
"Anytime. Anytime."
Hedged Bets
Lift your covers up woman
Rise out of bed.
Sneak down the dark hall
Mind the floorboards that creak.
Slip to night out your back-door
Take a small light to see
Find our place in the bushes
Where we used to meet
It's been some time since there was a once in my while,
it's been a long line since there was happy in the smile.
Ain't nothing so cool as a hot summer rain
It soaks and it soothes and it puddles the pain
Your miles stretched out ahead of my years
Forget about your day now
The titles that you wear
You were none of those to me there
They all unzipped and fell
Remember what you became then
With leaves in your hair
Listen to what the night brings
The past in your head
It's been some time since there was a once in my while,
it's been a long line since there was happy in the smile.
Ain't nothing so cool as a hot summer rain
It soaks and it soothes and it puddles the pain
Your miles stretched out ahead of my years
Ain't nobody meeting you tonight
Not like I did
You can see into your house
through a closed window and to a warm bed
This is what you have now
And this shrub's just a hedge
No rendezvous for wary lovers this night
But for the yowl of a lonely tomcat
It's been some time since there was a once in my while,
it's been a long line since there was happy in the smile.
Ain't nothing so cool as a hot summer rain
It soaks and it soothes and it puddles the pain
Your miles stretched out ahead of my years
Nothing like a Mudhoney dirge beat with an I-could-care-less wail for a rainy day.
Nothing against rainy days.
It's better than snow.
And I like rainy days.
Truely.
That's why I moved to Seattle, on whim, oh so many years and another life ago.
It rarely rained, as in less than 7 days a year, in my hometown.
Rainy days there were a celebration and that carried with me.
But now I've moved away again, and the rain only serves to remind me of then.
I like sad songs too.
So long as they don't carry me too far to the edge.
Actually, I like the edge.
That's the allure of the rain and the sad songs.
It takes me there, without pushing me over.
I've never seen what lies below.
Rather, I've peeked, but never leaped to confirm..
I have no desire to fall.
But just there, the precipice at the edge, that's home.
Rainy day, Mudhoney in ear, and inebriation in head.
Dragon's Milk Ale from the New Holland Brewing Company High Gravity Series, Holland, Michigan.
19 degree Plato and 9% alcohol by volume. Volume being 1 pint - 6 fl.oz.
Barrel-aged in reclaimed bourbon oak casks.
Good stuff.
Today I am grateful that on the last day of November, 2006, I can still see my lawn.
It's usually been white with snowpack for a month by now.
It was raining, but still I was out and about on the deck at my bistro table with a warm mug of cheer
staring at my lawn, not so lush, but greenish, and definately, most certainly, not as white and pure
as the driven snow.
...to do what I want, any old time."
The weather has been gray, cold, windy, wet, and generally miserable.
I'm totally digging it this year.
It's been something I've just suffered through our first three years here.
Didn't used to be that way though and I'm getting back to that.
I grew up in one of the hotter corners of the desert... and embraced it.
It was a test of wills for me.
Any given 128 degree day, you could find me on one city park volleyball court or another, coaxing friends out from under shade-trees and into the dangerous direct sunlight for endless games until the sun relinquished and retreated beyond the horizon.
I went away to college in the coldest part of the state, with the highest altitude, over 7000 feet.
Again, I embraced the elements and any given blizzard would find me coaxing friends from out of the warm apartment, dorm, or bar to get out in the snow and go sledding or snowball fight, or just tramp through the stuff to get more liquor from the store when the roads were impassable.
After college, I got married and the wife and I moved to Seattle. One of the consistently wetter larger cities.
While there for 4 1/2 years, we put a grand total of less than a thousand miles on our truck. We took mass transit buses, alot, walking to and standing at exposed bus-stops. We walked or took the bus everywhere, regardless of light or heavy rain (the Seattle-based equivalent of "rain or shine".) She played in an outdoor soccer league. We were always out somewhere, and the elements didn't bother us. It only snowed a significant amount twice in the city while we were there, and both times caught us out walking around and we trudged through it. We coaxed our friends to come out with us and ignore the precipitation.
Seems I might finally be getting back to that here.
I will dictate my life to the weather; not the other way around.
