I noticed the other day that our Christmas cactus was in bloom. (Schlumbergera is the scientific name - no, I don't know what that means but did you know these are native to the coastal mountains of southeastern Brazil? Nor did I.) I think it might be competing with the Italian lamp which The Missus Herself bought in Germany at the Base Exchange. (Either Bitburg or Spangdahlem, I forget which. We were about two weeks away from returning Stateside and were down there for a girls softball tourney. The Nuke and The WSO were both playing. It was a lovely day. (I think they won, again I don't remember as I am old and semi-decrepit.)
After I took that pic and then e-mailed it to myself (long story, don't ask) I found the following photo which I had taken a month or so ago. The subject struck my fancy and as we were stopped in traffic anyway, I couldn't resist taking the picture.
Can you ever guess why? (Yes, The Missus Herself commented upon my lack of compassion for my spelling-challenged fellow man. Says I'm, a heartless barbarian she does. Well, admittedly I can be. At times. Especially in traffic.)
The WSO has been out at NAS Fallon for a few days visiting Big Time who's there with his Air Wing. (Okay, it's not really "his" Air Wing. Someday though, someday. While I'm not positive, I think Lex's SNO is now in the same wing. Small world, I do know that he was out there at the same time as The WSO was, The Hobbit told me so. And we all know Hobbitses cannot tell fibs. Right Scott?)
While there, The WSO regaled me with tales of her attendance at Fallon's O-Club (I guess she's no longer banned from said establishment. The place where she was awarded her callsign, long ago when she was a Gypsy.)
So I posted her pics to the Book of Face, one of them sparked a lusty discussion of her choice of beverage the first night there. I reproduce the photo in question and the discussion.
Sorry for the smallness of the following. Can't fix it, Lord knows I tried...
She did have the presence of mind to get this photo as well...
She really is Daddy's girl...
We ALL learn from our mistakes. The last time I remember having a Coors light was when I was in College and Dad was stationed at Columbus. The age was 18 at the time. He asked me to bring him as much Coors light as I could carry in my Chevy Vega when I came home for Christmas. I got all the way to the Louisiana line before asking my self "What's the drinking age in Louisiana and Mississippi?". Not knowing the answer, the airspeed on the Vega immediately dropped from Mach 1 (aka > 55 MPH) down to a respectable more respectable number. And the journey went from 19 hours non stop to about 21. Such is the tale of my Smokey and the Bandit past.
ReplyDeleteHahaha! Great story.
DeleteWhen I first hit the ground in Colorado (Lowry AFB) I was all atwitter to try "Coors, the Banquet Beer." Didn't like it, not at all. Then a bunch of us went to see The Eiger Sanction with Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy. They were drinking Olympia in the movie. Hhmm, let's try that one, they have it here. Yup, we all started drinking Oly the rest of the time there. Liked it much better than Coors.
Never did develop a taste for that Rocky Mountain spring water concoction, the regular or the light variety.
Then again, I'm not a beer snob, if you offer me a Coors (even Light), I'll drink it. Just to be sociable.
Oly was my beverage of choice for a number of years,
DeleteThe stubby bottles, as I remember, had dots printed on the backs of the labels.
We'd peel the label to see how many dots there were.
Four dots bought the next round.
I feel slighted somehow. We got Oly in cans.
DeleteNever a Coors fan even being from Colorado. Denver once had a brewery, Tivoli, that was my preference. Went out of business but the original building is now a student center. Living in Western WA became a fan of Rainier beer. Made with pure recycled Seattle sewage water, or so it is said. Light beer? No, no, not ever.
ReplyDeleteAbout the only light beer I actually enjoy is Bud Light. I don't care for Budweiser itself, never have, but I do like the Anheuser-Busch company (for a number of reasons) and felt "bad" (long story) for not liking Bud. One day a buddy offered me a Bud Light (free beer is a perennial favorite) and I pronounced it "not bad."
DeleteNormally I prefer darker beers and ales. I do have rather a "thing" for a well made IPA. While I'm not a beer snob, I do have my preferences. (I will ALWAYS ask for a Guinness. Though as The WSO discovered, it's not a brew one can drink a lot of at one sitting.)
Every lite beer I tried (many, many years ago) had an aftertaste that I did not like.I don't remember the last time I had one of the main domestic beers. I will, like you Sarge, ask for a Guinness first. Lately, I use the phrase... I like my beer dark and my spirits straight.
DeleteI like that phrase.
DeleteA lot.
SNO. I've wondered what became of him. He's probably rotated out of his squadron in Guam by now. Maybe he'll hold court at Shakespeare's someday when he's in town!
ReplyDeleteYup, Guam is in his wake and he's back in Sandy Eggo.
DeleteNicely played...LOL
ReplyDelete:)
DeleteHaven't much experience with native beers, despite my 70 years. Turned 21 at Fort Devens, where I got totally smashed on Canadian Club & water while playing drums for the Regimental Ball. The ball coincided with my 21st birthday and the band all bought me drinks . . . 'nuff said? Not long after, I shipped out to Vietnam where we had Bud, for awhile, then it was San Miguel or Tiger or 33. I grew to appreciate San Miguel. In Japan, it was Sapporo and their free brewery tours with beer tastings afterwards. In Berlin . . . I really did try to like the local king of beers, Schultheiss but never developed a taste for it. Mostly, I drank Berliner Kindle. (The two are merged now.) Back in the world? . . . I used to like Michelob but now prefer Sam Adams . . . most flavors. Although this is all mostly moot. I can only have alcohol 'bout once a year nowadays. Meds, doncha know.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, meds. I get that.
DeleteI do like Crown, San Miguel, Sapporo, and Tsingtao from Asia. Almost any German beer will do. Had some French beer brewed in Alsace which was surprisingly not that good. But it was cheap, so we drank a lot of it. (Hhmm, there's a post in there somewhere...)
Love Sam Adams. My two local favorites are Smutty Nose (NH) and Shipyard out of Portland, Maine.
Hobbitses are very honest, that is why they can be conned by elveses and Wizards into taking all the risks. I believe that the truck's vanity plate was spelled wrong?
ReplyDelete:)
DeleteOh! Eqipment! The variant MASS spelling! So the shortage after the big fire at the Amherst U factory is still on.
ReplyDeleteIt threw me at first too.
DeleteYup, "eqipment." Perhaps that is the orcish spelling of the word?
Mass. is where orcs come from, isn't it?
DeleteHhmm, you may be on to something.
DeleteDifferently, not necessarily wrong. :)
ReplyDeleteYou're right Ron. Our spelling habits should be more "diverse."
Delete(Hee, hee, hee.)
I was trying to figure out what EOIP me(a)nt. Trying to view the interwebs over the phone, donchaknow.
ReplyDeleteRemember the Hamm's commercial with the bear and the jeep and the guy putting the pull tab into the full can of beer? Legend has it that thousands of people choked on pull tabs after that, prompting the "new" style cans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc2xsxlNlRc
You can find anything on the interwebs. Olde people can't always see it on a phone though.
I try to avoid doing the internet over the phone thing. That screen is just too small for these tired old eyes...
DeleteAs to the beer commercial, I remember people dropping the tab into the beer, didn't seem all that smart to me.
Thousands choked? How many were also mauled by bears trying to pal around with them? I'll bet there were a few.
The internet, time travel on the cheap. I love it!
Heh, that guy looks a little unsure about the bear a couple of times.
DeleteHahaha! He did didn't he?
Delete