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Praetorium Honoris

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Long Weekend, Still Too Short

(Source)
As mentioned the other day The Missus Herself and Your Humble Scribe ventured forth from Little Rhody down to the surface of the sun, er, I mean the DC area, this past weekend. Yes, it was freaking hot down there, but as juvat is wont to say, at least it was humid. Hot and humid though it may have been, we had a great time. Well, at least I did. I'm sure The Missus Herself might have her own opinions as to the highlights of the excursion, but for me it was all about meeting up with my fellow Lexicans. (A name I still don't really care for, I preferred "Lexian" but was outvoted.)

Anyhoo...

This weekend was also my first time flying Southwest Airlines. I was attracted by the competitive fares but the deal was sealed with the phrase, "No Bag Fees." Yes, I was a bit leery of the "no assigned seats" thing, but if you check in 24 hours in advance, you should have no problem. We didn't. I've been told that you can go the auto-check in route for an extra 25 bucks, but I'm all about the cheapness.

So, After Action Report for the weekend - Arrived Friday morning at DCA, hit a nice Korean BBQ restaurant in Annandale after stopping by The Nuke's to pick up some stuff for the trip up to Annapolis where we would be spending most of the weekend. (The Nuke's place is undergoing renovations, why didn't we fly into BWI? I don't know...)

Most of Friday was spent goofing off, well, I goofed off, the ladies did stuff and...

Oh, wait...

Yes, there is an announcement to be made, The Nuke is getting married in October. We were staying at the son-in-law select's place (select when given after a rank indicates that one has been selected for the rank, just haven't put it on yet) in Annapolis. The lad is an aviator nearing the end of his career in the Navy. Started life as an NFO in Prowlers, became an F/A-18 pilot, then moved on to Growlers.

Call sign is Tuttle. Research a particular episode of M*A*S*H for the reference. No, I haven't watched that one in a while, so I don't remember most of it. At any rate, I started calling him Tuttle, which The Nuke did not care for. So I have stopped. For now.

Yes, Big Time still calls him Tuttle, it's an aviator thing.

On Saturday we hit Red Robin, for the burgers which were in it. Unfortunately I had to do a mall stroll afterwards, the ladies insisted and I can but obey.

Eventually it was time to head back to Alexandria and Murphy's, the lead in photo and the place for the Gathering of my tribe on Saturday eve. I was surprised that I had not melted yet given the massive amounts of heat and humidity oppressing me. The Nuke assured me, "It was a lot worse a couple of weeks ago." Worse? How could it possibly have been worse?

Then I remembered, I spent some time in Mississippi back in '87. The Nuke told me, "Yeah, Dad, it was Mississippi Gulf Coast hot."

Dang.

But in the summer, when you get lots of heat and humidity, all that energy has to go somewhere. Into the atmosphere is where it goes. As we set off for Alexandria on Saturday afternoon to rendezvous with the other Lexicans at 1700, it was just a bit before 1545. Plenty of time (normally) to get from Annapolis to Alexandria on a Saturday.

Nope.

The Heavens let loose on us twice in the space of a half an hour. Towering thunder boomers dumped mass quantities of water upon us, slowing traffic to a pace where a snail would be competitive. Once things cleared out weather-wise, they balled up people-wise. Apparently there was a convention of horrible drivers in town last weekend, and...

What's that? That occurs every day?

Well then, never mind.

Upon arrival at Murphy's I noted that the venue has an upstairs and a downstairs, what to do, what to do. Then I saw a sign for the upstairs: "A Celebration of Carol's Life." Thinking it odd that someone had misspelled Lex's name (Carroll LeFon), we headed aloft. To discover a crowd of people who I did not know and a photo projected on the wall of a nice looking lady who, I assumed, was the late Carol. So we headed below, entered the downstairs bar and lo' and behold, there was my Tribe. The Hobbit and Kat were holding court with perhaps 15 to 20 of my Tribe.

The place was crowded, it was loud, but it was fun. A number of Guinness were consumed and a taste of Jameson's was had. All in all it was, as I mentioned the other day, a damned fine craic. (I'll leave the looking up of that fine Irish word to those who need to.)

Home at a reasonable hour after some frozen custard, my first time, certainly not my last. To bed we went, The Nuke suggested an early go on Sunday in order to hit a very nice breakfast place in Annapolis, The Missus Herself and I suggested that a quiet morning of sleeping late would be just the thing. So we stayed in, coffee and cold pizza for me, fine fare for those into such things.

Sunday afternoon was a neighborhood party near Tuttle's abode. Though it was hot enough to melt steel and turn the asphalt to liquid, we went. A taco truck was involved, that's all I'm going to say.

"Sarge, we need a man to lead an expedition to the surface of the Sun, interested?"

"Are you kidding, we'll die before we get within..."

"There's a taco truck."

"When do we leave? Are we going at night? How about in the winter, the sun isn't as hot then, right?"

I daresay I nearly melted. But I hung in there long enough to get my tacos. It was worth it. Damned good Mexican-style tacos. Yum.

Then off to the airport, somewhat dried off from standing around in the Sahara (with a taco truck mind you). Plane was on time, on time until a line of storms formed to the west kludging up air traffic up and down the entire East Coast.

We boarded too damned early, then taxied out after about 30 minutes where we sat in the conga line of aircraft awaiting their turn to slip the surly bonds (oh, they were damned surly that day) and carry us back to Little Rhody.

Eventually it was "home again, home again" at far too close to midnight for a fellow planning to work a normal shift on Monday.

Arriving at PVD, the pilot announced, "We're here. Finally." He got a cheer for that he did, though rather a weak one, we were all a bit shagged.

Went to work a couple of hours late but it was worth it.

A lovely weekend, a fine weekend.

Though shorter than I would have wished.

I think I'll talk about battleships tomorrow.

Hey, juvat started it.



38 comments:

  1. Why is it that good times always are too short? Hmmmm..... that calls for a study perhaps funded by the feds, they've certainly spent money on far more trivial things have't they? From the looks of Murphy's Pub multi-visits would be needed to thoroughly, repeat, thoroughly conduct research on said study.

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    1. Though we didn't eat there, I saw a lot of the food they were serving, it looked good.

      Multiple expeditions would be necessary indeed.

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  2. Hey Old AFSarge;

    It is good to meet the tribe and sounds like you had a good time and I didn't know that you would go through hell for taco's, lOL Murphy's looks like a cool place to visit a lot and of course you can blame Juvat for stuff, he is good for it.

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    1. There is much I would suffer for a good taco.

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    2. Yeah, sure, blame juvat. I held you down and poured Guinness and Jameson's down your gullet. Whilst simultaneously keeping BOTH Tuna and Beans under control. Fortunately, LUSH was on her best behavior or I'd have been all out of hands and feet. You can have that captain of the ship (1 each...sinking). I'm headed back down to the rowing deck. :-)

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    3. Hahaha!

      BTW, thanks for that. ;)

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  3. Done, and well done. Sorry I missed it.
    I'm going to San Diego in the morning.

    naaaaah naaah.

    No, I really didn't write that, darned cats.....shooooo!

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  4. Yes indeed a good time! Although I don't recall the rain. Must have been a localized thing, special for special people :)

    /
    L.J.

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    1. I think it was all between Annapolis and DC, seemed pretty dry on the Alex side of the Potomac.

      I hear that some dude in Bladensburg was building an ark.

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  5. You should've come visit, I live 14 miles from old Sol's environs meself......

    A man's life can send ripples far from his physical space. The Aviator proved it. Glad you had a good time with the tribe. Like minds are tough to find, when they are intelligent and inquisitive and... Finding those people in a world of average is amazing.

    When creatures melt, they turn into a puddle of butter. We read that lab report in first grade, Little ______ Sambo proved it. So you'd have been good for a bowl of popcorn had you melted down....

    SO.... you liked the national airline of Texas, eh? Spreading joy and happiness far and wide, it's what we do down this way.... ;)

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    1. They should call it Texas Airlines. It's that good.

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    2. Well...It was better when hot pants were still in fashion. I still don't like the stampede for seats though.

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    3. I didn't see any stampedes, you take your position based on what group you're in (A1..A60, B1..B60, thru C1 to whatever). When it's you're turn, you file onto the plane and take your seat. It was all very orderly.

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  6. "Mexican-style tacos"! Are there other kinds?
    I'm sorry, sometimes I can't resist. Juvat, please explain to Sarge (off-line) about tacos. Oh, and once there with him, explain about salsa not coming out of a jar. Harsh, I know.
    I'm glad you had a great time and the announcement is received with great pleasure. Thanks for sharing with this family of yours and us all. What fun to have all of that to look forward to. Start saving now Sarge. It will come in handy on "the day".

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  7. Nothings worse than a whining yankee complaining about the heatmidity. Yeesh, y'all complain when it gets cold, y'all complain when it gets hot, y'all probably complain about y'alls porridge all day long, too!

    And contrary to the doom and gloom meteorologists who have been telling us we'll die of increased temperatures because of anthropomorphic climate change even though they can't predict the weather correctly for 12 hours ahead of current time, this August in North Central Florida (yes, it's a thing. NE FL is Jacksonville, NW FL is Tallahassee, the Panhandle we try not to acknowledge as Florida except for the military bases (you drive west from Tallahassee to Pensacola. 4 hours of nooooooothiiiiiiiinggggggg but swamps, trees, boring scenery and friggin hills (for Florida, y'all from the Appalachians or Rockies probably don't even see them...,) Central FL is Orlando/Ratworld, WCFL is Tampa Bay Area, ECFL is the Space Coast, SWFL is Fort Myers et al, SEFL is Cuba Libra and Broward County (the first, YAY!, the second (hwack-ptooie) is MassaYorksey South, killit-killitwithfire!!!,) and SSFL are the Keys... What was I talking about? Oh, yeah...

    So even though the current meteorologists (shouldn't they be studying meteors?) are saying "HOTTEST AUGUST EVAH!!!" yeah, no. That was back in the mid-eighties when most of August was 100 degrees +/-, mostly over 100. We've actually been in a cooling cycle. Dumb-bunnies... Stupid... yankees... Climate carpetbaggers...
    (
    What was I talking about again?

    uh...

    As to flying, the unfriendly skies sound so unfriendly. But knowing about yankees and seeing them drive down here (grrrrrrr,) I can't imagine trying long-distance driving up there.

    Glad The Nuke is trying true love again. Was wondering what was up due to varied cryptic mentions over the last few years after the last not-in-favorite went away. Keep us appraised of her plans, small, big, bankrupt a 3rd world country...

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    1. If you can't complain about the weather...

      TMI vis-a-vis Florida. All I know is that it's big, it's kinda flat, and Floridians seem to make the news for strangeness rather more than one would expect. I mean for pure, unadulterated weirdness they even beat California.

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    2. I prefer grilling to steaming, both in cooking as well as sightseeing. However, I prefer either to freezing. Ergo...Central Texas. A little bit of one or the other just to reinforce why we decided.

      Don't get me started on Californians.

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    3. I was born and raised in Vermont, I am optimized for cold weather.

      Given enough beer, I can handle heat and humidity. Learned that skill in Louisiana.

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    4. "Don't get me started on Californians."
      Hey, whoa! Wait! I was conceived in Hanford, near Lemore, but born in Klamath Falls OR with the help of my mom and dad, both from TEXAS! Of course I've habitated in WA, OR, CA, MO, TX, Kyushu, Itazuke - yaay! and Ubon RTAB - booo! Now ECFL, so nice.
      Beans forgot that Daytona Beach was here first, before the Space Coast. Thank you NASCAR! Next launch Thursday 0945, will watch from the deck, with black coffee and cheers.

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    5. Small world, The WSO and her tribe live in Hanford!

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    6. At least Daytona gets breezes off the ocean. We'uns heah in Gainesville are basically on a high spot surrounded by oak hammocks and semi-swampland. So, no breezes and humid, very humid.

      Haven't forgotten Daytona and the Beach thereof. I miss living where trains actually run. Henry Flagler would be very proud of the FECRR. What's really funny is that Gainesville was basically founded as a railroads crossroads location, then it got uppity and chased the rails out. Jerks...

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    7. Dave,
      Please forgive me for my lack of clarity. When I refer to Californians, I don't define them as the Americans who live in California. I use that term to refer to the Communists who live there and believe they know better than anyone else about how to run every one else's life. They have immigrated and infested portions of Texas, and are making encroachments around me, which is a concern. However, I've still got a Brother and two Aunt/Uncle units who still reside there who I still have faith in. I know there are Americans still residing there and hope/pray they can restore their state. Optimism is waning though.

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    8. It's getting worse out there by the day--

      "The words “felon,” “offender,” “convict,” “addict” and “juvenile delinquent” will become part of the past in official San Francisco parlance under new “person first” language guidelines adopted by the Board of Supervisors.

      Going forward, what was once called a convicted felon or an offender released from jail will be a “formerly incarcerated person,” or a “justice-involved” person or simply a “returning resident.”"

      SF Chronicle link (possible paywall)

      https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-Board-of-Supervisors-sanitizes-language-of-14292255.php

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    9. Sanfranciscograd is run by drooling idiots.

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    10. So true Sarge. We used to go to "the City" as high schoolers and park on the streets and see the latest "cinerama" movie, listen to George Wright play the pipe organ at the Fox (started after the movie at midnight), walk around some and then drive home to San Mateo. Never gave security a thought. Maybe I was just stupid, but we knew to avoid the one bad place "4th and Howard" - now the center of high tech and big bucks.

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    11. They are following a plan, just not the one they think they're following. Useful idiots as Lenin termed them.

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  8. If you're ever in the DFW area, would be pleased to make your acquaintance. I'll buy--

    https://www.fuzzystacoshop.com/menu/#tacos

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  9. OK, I tried to get delivery from fuzzytacoshop (it's right up my call-sign), but they refused to acknowledge that zip 32176 existed!
    There are a few good places for "tex-mex" here in ECFL, courtesy of some "visiting amigos". BTW, here's my method for he real stuff

    https://davesdailys.blogspot.com/2009/04/fulfilling-my-promise-ole.html

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  10. So the Nuke will be starting on her nuclear family! Congrats to her, him, and all of you and yours! I take it you've been sitting on that info for a while, if only because it usually takes more than 2 months to plan anything other than an elopement! My best to Nuke and Tuttle.

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    1. Thanks Tuna, it's been in the works for a while.

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  11. one of the 'benefits' of the Hispanic migrations around the country have been the proliferation of 'Mexican' restaurants in many places where they have not been before. So here in NC we have a few pretty decent ones - not Tex-Mex, necessarily, but reasonable substitutes. Tacos Carne Asada are especially good, and most places don't make guacamole with a blender and (horrors!) mayo. But still can't get decent nachos with real cheese instead of liquid cheese poured on top of chips, which to me is just queso dip already applied. And while I still prefer good Texas BBQ brisket and sausage, there is some excellent pulled pork here .

    And please add my congrats to the Nuke and future hubby.

    As far as previous discussions of melting in the heat, I still wonder what I was thinking when I brought my NH Yankee wife to Dallas in mid July back in the late 70's. It was 108 degrees at 2030 hours, and when we walked out of DFW airport and got blasted by the hot air, she looked up and around. She was looking for the heat lamps someone must have left on! When she realized it was just the ambient temperature, she looked at me and said, "I hope you are not harboring any illusions about me ever living here!" So NC is kind of a compromise for us - and a very nice one!

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    1. North Carolina is God's country, that's for sure.

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