1. I got right on it this morning and closed my Virginia E-ZPass account, packed the transponder in aluminum foil, went to the Post Office and mailed it to Clifton Forge, VA along with a package to Molly, and, while I was at it, dropped off my suit at the dry cleaners and picked up a few items at Yoke's. I'll miss that little transponder affixed to the windshield under the rear view mirror in the Sube. It not only served its purpose of allowing us to whiz through toll booths without having to pay cash on the spot, it also was a reminder to me of all the fun traveling we did from 2014-2017: we drove several times to New Jersey and New York; we drove through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana on our way to Chicago -- well, one year we only went as far as Battle Ground, IN for the Indiana Fiddle Gathering and a family reunion; and I loved the trip we took to Virginia to visit Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg before coming home by way of the Maryland Eastern Shore. The memories remain even if the transponder is gone, but the transponder triggered those memories daily whenever I've piled into the Sube to do one thing or another.
2. This afternoon, I flipped on ESPN to watch the semi-final match between Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro. Both men are magnificent players and I keenly anticipated, with no predictions, how their match would play out. It turned out to be a mournful match. Nadal, who had been pushed hard in his last three matches, and especially hard against Dominic Thiem in the quarterfinals, was afflicted by a flare up of tendinitis in his right knee, forcing him to retire from the match. As you will soon read, I didn't watch the other semi-final match between Novak Djokovic and Kie Nishikori, but checked the score from time to time and learned that del Potro will face Djokovic in the the finals, a match up I am eager to see play out between these two powerful players.
3. Why didn't I watch the other tennis match? Well, Shawn and Teresa were unable to come to Beer Club because of family obligations, so the Deke and I had a Beer Club session of our own. We split two bottles of Imperial Stout, starting with a deep and very tasty brew from Coldfire Brewing in Eugene. Now, had our late afternoon Beer Club meeting on the back deck ended here, we would have said this was one of the best Imperial Stouts we had tasted for a while.
But, I cracked open a bottle of Fremont Brewing's The Last Nail and it might be the best Imperial Stout we have ever drunk. Aged for many months in bourbon barrels, it is a thick, black stout with a forward taste of black licorice and then, wait for it, on the back end rewarded us with a nearly unbearably delicious hit of cinnamon. I honestly hated to take another sip of this beer because consuming it was making it disappear! We moaned and yummed our way through this bottle and followed it up with some cheese I'd purchased at Murray's at Fred Meyer and then the Deke fixed us each an elk patty and some pickled red onions for dinner.
I decided after drinking The Last Nail that I wanted that taste to end my session of beer drinking, so I retired to the tv room, listened to some wrap up talk among the experts about the US Open and watched the last half of the Seattle Storm's blowout of the Washington Mystics in the first game of the WNBA finals. It's disappointing that Elena Delle Donne is playing injured for the Mystics. She's a superb basketball player and it's painful to see her having to play at less than full speed. Tonight it looked like the Mystics are doomed, but we'll see what happens in Game 2 on Sunday -- a game I doubt I'll see much of because of the US Open Tennis final.
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