1. Upon arrival at Josh and Adrienne's and then after partying with Debbie until 2:00 a.m. I'd been up and at 'em for close to 20 hours since rising and shining at the Ramada Inn Monday morning.
This morning, I slept in until 11:00.
2. I haven't written much about the license plates for our new car. Debbie bought the Camry in New York and registered it in Idaho, the exact right thing to do. This was back in early July. The Toyota dealer in Blauvelt, NY sent the paperwork to the Idaho motor vehicles people and the Idaho agency were to send our new license plates to Kellogg. Debbie and I agreed either I would put the plates in the box of clothes I would ship to Valley Cottage or I would carry them in my backpack to New York.
July came and went. No plates.
August came and went. No plates.
Every day, right up until Saturday, Sept. 11th, the last day I was in Kellogg for mail delivery, I dashed to the mail box, like a kid rushing to the tree on Christmas morning, hoping the plates arrived.
No plates.
Today, Debbie said we were going to drive down to Blauvelt. Somehow she had overpaid for the registration and a small refund check awaited us.
So, we headed south to Blauvelt, picked up the check, and headed to AAA in Nanuet so I could buy a road toll tag (transponder), allowing us to blow through the EZ Pass toll areas without paying cash.
As we left AAA, in a flash of her reliable genius, Debbie proclaimed we were going to the District 96 Beer Factory next for a couple of matinee ales.
We got settled in at our table on the patio and I checked my phone for messages.
Christy had texted me.
OMG!
The license plates arrived in Kellogg!
Yeehaw! We'll catch up to our plates when we arrive home -- in the meantime, we have a document affixed to our rear car window that assures the world that our Camry is registered, we have a license plate number, and that the plates are on order.
So, now if my box of clothes arrives on Wednesday (it was supposed to arrive on Tuesday), we will be set to hit the road and start our leisurely crawl back to Idaho.
3. By the way, the beers at District 96 were awesome. Having drunk the smooth juicy high-powered quad IPA Nuclear Option the night before, I decided, today, to drink lighter beer. I was just a little bit conflicted. When we leave New York, we'll be leaving behind the great Hazy IPAs available here, so shouldn't I order the hazy every chance I get?, but I wanted to see if District 96 brewed great beer in other styles.
They do!
Boy howdy do they. I ordered a half liter of El Hefe, their creamy easy drinking Hefeweizen, featuring just the right notes of clove and banana. It was, to me, brewed in a way that made it a close cousin to a saison.
Next I tried District 96's Circle Back, their crisp, beautifully balanced pilsner. It was light, refreshing, and most pleasing. As a bonus, it paired very well with the fries and side of truffle aioli dip sauce we ordered.
Back at Josh and Adrienne's, we ate the perfectly grilled burgers Josh cooked and I loved the apple and blueberry crisp Adrienne baked, topped with a splash of heavy whipping cream (not whipped).
I ended the day by tuning in to Bill Davie's Tree House Concert #59. Bill opened with "Comfort", a gem that goes back to around 1985-6. If there is such a thing as a test of time, "Comfort" passes it with honors. It's a great song about looking back at being young and aimless and "immortal in a limited way" and where, as youth, comfort lies. Bill sang an even earlier song about wanting to go electric and also performed songs from more recent recordings.
At the poetry break, Bill read poems by Richard Hugo, William Stafford, Jack Gilbert, and Mary Oliver -- and maybe others -- what he called a "greatest hits" collection and, honestly, I wondered if he could have chosen a more powerful set of poetry. The poems were earthquakes and their tremors continued to shake inside of me for hours after the concert ended.
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