Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Odds and Ends

Fine wines for a great cause
My secondary mission this past weekend was to attend a wine tasting in my old home town. The primary mission was, of course, to see Madame Mère de le Vieux Sergent, that is, my Mom.

Now my Mom once asked me "Why don't I have a nickname on your blog like everyone else?" I answered, rather lamely, that I didn't really know, seemed like "Mom" was a pretty good title. But now I realize that my mother should have a clever moniker here on the blog.

Having thought long and hard on that topic, whilst motoring back from The Granite State on Sunday last, it struck me that as Napoléon's mother was referred to as Madame Mère de l'Empereur, roughly "Mrs. The Emperor's Mom," so, I thought, why not Madame Mère de le Vieux Sergent, roughly "Mrs. The Old Sarge's Mom" for my Mom? We'll go with the short version, Madame Mère. As did Napoléon. Pun intended.

So there you go. I hope one of Madame Mère's friends will pass that along to her. Of course, I'll tell her myself next time I talk to her. POCIR.

Now about that wine tasting.

Saturday dawned cloudy and somewhat gloomy, but by the time we went into the hills to get to Eugene and Vicki's domicile, the venue for the wine tasting, the weather had turned glorious and we now had a gorgeous late summer / early fall day. The sun was shining and there was nary a cloud in the sky. A bit breezy mind you, but not bad at all.

We sampled ten different wines, about half were domestic and were quite good. We had one (maybe two?) wines from New Zealand and three from Italy. All were quite tasty, some more than others. I liked all ten (you in the back, quit giggling!) some more than others. But those two wines depicted in the opening photo were both quite good, for more than one reason.

Chateau La Paws, our leader Jim (he is a distributor of fine adult beverages, a good man to know!) told us, donates part of the cost of each bottle they sell to local animal shelters. Bear in mind, the chardonnay was probably about the 6th or 7th wine we had sampled, my wits were not gone, they just weren't quite as sharp as they could have been. That's why I'll give you a link to their website so that you might examine it at your leisure.

There were about fifteen people there and we all had brought something to nosh upon. All of those offerings were quite tasty, all in all it was a rather refined and relaxing afternoon. Good food, good beverages and great people to hang out with. I sorely needed that!

Now there are a couple of other things I wanted to share today.

The first concerns my moniker, The Old AF Sarge. Now a colleague of mine from the place of gainful employment mentioned to me the other day that every time he sees the phrase "The Old AF Sarge" he always reads it as "The Old Fart Sarge." I assured him that I was not offended as that moniker fits me very well.

I really am getting to be an old fart.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the National Football League. That organization is beginning to bug me nearly as much as politics. Watching the games last year was so painful that I quit altogether. Admittedly I did watch the playoffs...


Yeah, playoffs.

I tried to watch the games last weekend, but the officiating and the announcers seem to get worse every year. People tell me, "Just mute the sound!" No. I like hearing the signals on the field and the crowd noise. So I guess I just have to stomach the putrid announcing and the often pi$$ poor officiating. Yup, throw a flag, that'll make the game more interesting. Bah!

I tried watching a game Sunday, the announcers were jabbering about some effing nonsense when they realized that they had actually missed a penalty call on the field. I mean they completely missed it. Thanks fellas. Effing nitwits.

The guys on Sunday night football are tolerable. Fortunately the a$$ clown that works with them is only present before the game and at half time. I find other things to do when he's talking. If you don't know who I mean, don't ask. Guy was good when he stuck to his area of expertise, which is sports. When he colors outside the lines, he is just another progressive windbag.

So yeah, not wasting a lot of time watching the NFL this year. I am watching more college football, though not a lot. I blame credit Buck. He always preferred the NCAA version of the sport. Egads, next thing you know I'll start watching hockey!

I used to watch it way back in the late 60s, early 70s. Then it became a boxing match on skates. For a long time I'd only watch Olympic hockey. Now there's a game of skill and finesse. Don't see a lot of fights in Olympic hockey. I think.

One last thing, I had a dream the other day which involved me having to choose one, and only one, football game which I could watch. That would be one game every year. The only game. What did I choose?

Army - Navy. That's a no brainer for me.

Oh well, so it goes. I have an aircraft post in the mill, not sure when it will see the light of day, perhaps soon. Think delta winged.

18 comments:

  1. I haven't watched a Pro Football game in at least 10 years. With a few exceptions (thrown in because I'm sure there are, but I don't know any), the player's are a bunch of horribly overpaid, ignorant Thugs. College football is rapidly becoming the same, and as exhibited recently in a HS game down here, UIL football has begun it's descent. A pox on all of them.
    On a positive note, sounds like the wine tasting was fun. Just outside of 30 days until vacation. We'll be travelling with our winemaker friends and visiting wineries in the Hunter Valley and Marlborough. Looking forward to it.

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    1. That HS football incident was all over the sports radio on my way north. Despicable.

      Sounds like an excellent vacation!

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    2. You are correct about the apparent decline in morality of our college teams. Down here, we used to kid FSU about not stopping at a 7-11 when the team manager forgot the ski masks. Now, the local papers are full of stuff from all of the teams in the SEC and others. Too bad. I still watch the Gators, though.

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    3. The SEC sometimes seems like prep school for the pros.

      With all that entails.

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  2. Ah, wine tasting. A friend of mine once noted that you can avoid all that hoity-toity stuff by taking note of the bottle closure. Screw caps denote tolerable wine, corks excellent wine. And let's not forget Fred Sanford's gift to the world, Champipple.

    You might enjoy this series: https://youtu.be/0z6kV-RIZM0

    Ditto football. Funny (to me at least) hockey story. About a decade ago I asked my dad why he didn't watch hockey anymore. He gave me a puzzled look and noted that he's never watched or been a fan. I told him that I distinctly remember him watching hockey back in the 60's. He didn't remember ever watching the game, but noted that when you have two channels to watch, hockey might occasionally be the better choice. It was a different world.

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    1. I am going to have to watch the whole series. I was hooked in the first two minutes.

      I remember the two channel thing, my grandparent's farm had two channels. One was very snowy, the other I could never see a thing on but my grandfather insisted it was an actual channel and not just random static.

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    2. I knew there was a reason PA has a backstage pass.

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  3. " Bear in mine "? You have A) an animal shelter, and B), you accept bears?

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    1. Urp. Fixed it. Editor has been sacked.

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    2. Well, in the olden days, miners used canaries to warn of noxious fumes. Nowadays in the the great coal mines of Rhode Island, miners use bears because the growls can be heard further providing better warning. During the transition period from canaries to bears, the Obama administration mandated signs to inform the miners which protective animal was actually in use at the time. Hence "Bear in Mine". I swear it's true, I read it on the internet.

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    3. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

      I had no ideer...

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  4. Football, for the most part, has become one of my least favorite sports, after boxing.
    Thanks to the pros, every kid football player's role model is some kind of showboat or @$$#)o( [please pardon the French].
    I don't see any kids really having fun playing the game any longer.

    GS and I used to (before I stopped drinking) make an annual pilgrimage to the "Wine Country" so we could stock our cellar (sic).
    It was mostly about a short vacation and eating at really good restaurants.

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    1. I am all about the short vacation and eating at really good restaurants.

      Your French is always welcome here Skip. :)

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  5. Good on them for the donations! :-) And visits to the family are always good for the soul!!!

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  6. You are right about the commentators. No matter which team you are attracted to, they seem to be contrary. This is ESPECIALLY true of the CBS guys at the Gator games. Could I be biased? Even though my new Samsung TV is supposed to have a microphone that spys on my every move, they don't seem to hear my rantings - only Jeanie does (no one lives next door).

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    1. Most of the commentators drive me batshit crazy. Not to put too fine a point on it.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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