Hello Everyone. This is going to be a quick one this week as I’ve been taking it real easy for the last few days here in D.C. It’s nice to be home and I’ve been enjoying spending time with family and friends and while I haven’t been completely unproductive, I must admit that I’ve been pretty lazy this week – and fully intend to be in the coming week as well. It’s nice to have some down time and I know that when I leave here next month, it’s going to be pretty full-on through the fall of 2022. While I have been getting to the gym pretty much every morning, my afternoons have been quiet and naps have been common. I’ve been enjoying reading my books with a cup of tea and the simple pleasure of home life. My evenings have been pretty busy, though, so let me tell you what I’ve been up to this week.
Last Wednesday night, I went over to my friends Don and Molly’s house for their weekly jam session. Don plays the guitar, and my other friends round out the band with Joe on bass, James on keyboard and Pete on the drums. It was great to see these guys as they are some of my oldest and best friends and to listen to their musical endeavors. We enjoyed a few beers together and Molly cooked us up some fresh-baked cookies. It was a nice way to spend the evening.
On Thursday, my folks and I headed downtown to Fords Theatre to catch an afternoon matinee performance of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. We have been going to this production every year it’s been possible for over 30 years, and while last year they did a radio show during the pandemic which was better than nothing, it was great to see them back at the historic theatre this year. The show was shortened and modified quite a bit into a 75 minute production with minimal sets and props, and there were no children in the cast for safety reasons. That being said, many of the cast members were returning performers from years past and they all did a wonderful job with the show. I do hope that it will return to the full production in the future, but this was enjoyable under the circumstances. After the show we went for a late lunch down the street at the Old Ebbitt Grill, the oldest saloon in the city. This has also been a part of our holiday tradition for many years and is one of our favorite Washington D.C. institutions. The food was great and it rounded out the day quite nicely. Back at home we played a few rounds of Lattice Hawaii, one of our old pandemic lock-down favorite board games.
Friday we headed out to Rockville in the evening for dinner at Miller’s Ale House followed by the Rockville Civic Ballet’s performance of A Nutcracker. We used to go to see the Washington Ballet perform this show at The Warner Theatre, but were disappointed by the Americanization of the production the last time we went and decided to give this one a shot instead. The tickets were dramatically cheaper, with senior tickets going for just $13 and regular seats were $17. We were very pleasantly surprised by the whole show and especially the costumes and set design. It was clear they had put a lot of work into making it the best they could. While many of the younger dancers were trying hard and just fun to watch, some of the older dancers were really good. It was quite apparent, however, that there was a serious lack of male participation in their company, and they had brought in a few men who probably didn’t have much ballet experience and may have been fathers or even grandfathers of some of the dancers. Three of these men were at least in their sixties, and were definitely trying their best with what they had. I have to give them a tremendous amount of credit for going on stage and doing their best and I think everyone was really supportive of them and enjoyed watching them give it their all. All-in-all, it was a fine show, especially for the price we paid, and we all really had a good time.
On Saturday I joined my friend Carolina for an afternoon theatre festival at the Bethesda Writers’ Center put on by the 4615 Theatre Company. This was more a collection of amateur, experimental, Fringe Festival type performances, but it was a wonderful group of people and we all enjoyed the afternoon. There were also games and live music and it was a good time for sure. Since it was done at 4 and my folks were out for the evening, I decided to make my way down to the U St. Corridor to catch a show at The Black Cat. I had never been to this venue before and really wanted to check it out while I was home. I stopped at The Blaguard in Adams Morgan for a few beers and then got a delicious tiki drink at Archipelago before heading down 14th Street to the show. The band was called Bully, a hard rock band out of Nashville led by guitarist and singer Alicia Bognanno . They were really good and I enjoyed the show and the venue. I followed it up with a true D.C. treat – a chili half-smoke sausage from Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street. It was a pretty busy day, but a good one as well.
On Sunday, my folks and I headed north just past Frederick, Maryland for an afternoon of craft beer and live music at Springfield Manor. This was a new-to-us brewery and there is also a winery, distillery, inn and events venue on the property. The place is beautiful and everyone there was really friendly. We enjoyed some delicious beers, some great music and some good conversation. It was a nice afternoon and great to be out there with my folks.
Monday afternoon, I headed down to George Washington Medical Center to get my Covid booster shot, which was very easy to schedule and I was in and out in less than 15 minutes. Since we were down that way, I decided that we should stop at Stachowski’s in Georgetown for one of their tremendous Grinder sandwiches. This is quite a sandwich and we can split one between the three of us. We took it home, had a delightful lunch and then I took some Motrin and crawled into bed to let the booster do its work. I didn’t feel great when I woke up, but as I got up and moved around a little bit it seemed to pass. We had a quiet evening and popped in the Christmas classic Miracle on 34th St. to start our holiday movie watching season on a good note. I coupled that with a huge, steaming cup of hot chocolate and it was a cozy and wonderful evening with the family. All told, the side effects from my shot were pretty mild, but I did have some pretty intense dreams on Monday night (of course maybe it was the hot chocolate that was responsible for that instead). I definitely recommend everyone talk to their doctor and if they recommend a booster, go ahead and get one. With all the travel I’ve done in my life, I have vaccines for everything there’s a vaccine for and none of them have ever caused me any difficulty, including these ones.
I didn’t plan much for yesterday, just in case I had a bad reaction to the shot, but I woke up feeling pretty good and headed straight for the gym. I spent the afternoon working on Shadow Catcher, cleaning her out and doing some minor repairs and reorganization. I plan on getting rid of anything that I haven’t used in the last 6 months, with a few exceptions for my cowboy hat and deep winter clothes, and leaving here in January considerably lighter and with more room than I did in June. I have so much storage space in there that it’s tempting to take everything I can imagine needing, but it really leaves things cluttered and I can’t find stuff when I need it. It was nice to have some time to work in there, and I plan on doing this slowly, but surely and not waiting until the days before my departure.
Today we did some holiday decorating around the house, got the tree up and the lights ready for outside. It’s starting to look festive around here and I appreciate it. I know my folks wouldn’t decorate it nearly as much if I wasn’t here, but I am and it’s going to look really nice for the holidays. We also went down to Virginia this afternoon to pick up our holiday beer selection to make sure we have plenty available for the weeks ahead. Now I’m trying to get this newsletter done and then I think I’ll go back to the Wednesday jam session again this evening and see the guys.
It’s been a nice, quiet week here, but I’ve still been keeping busy to some extent. I want to see all my friends while I’m home and still spend some quality time with my folks. I also need to clean up my computer and this website while I’m home and I’m slowly getting caught up on my work as well. The week ahead will be more of the same – holiday shows and parties and trying to make the most of the Christmas season and my time at home. I don’t know quite what this week will have in store, but it’s going to bring us right up to a few days before Christmas. I hope you’re all enjoying your holiday season wherever you are and be sure you take some time for yourselves and your own self-care during this busy time of year. Have a great week, and I’ll see you all right back here, same time next week. Thanks for reading.
-Mike