Mornin' Moanin's...

[DDT (12)]

Nope, I ain't hurtin' or nuthin'... just fretting about the weather forecast... Tis the day before my scheduled departure for Clinton, TN, on the way to the FCR with SmokinJoe and cast of characters. I still have a couple of chores to perform, but the list of items remaining is still quite manageable and rather easy to conquer. Nope, I'm mostly frettin' about weather... more specifically rain potential...

They are calling for a rather good chance of precip tomorrow... here and there... Of course, the trick to all of this is figuring out when the falling moisture will hit a particular place and when I might go through there... and seeing if I can time my passage for when it ain't there... Sometimes it just ain't easy being me...

I'm still going to change the oil 'n filter in CALI today... and I'm still going to pack a bag, lay out my leather jacket and chaps, heavy gloves, etc. Gotta be prepared in case a weather window opens... I'll also be crossing my fingers... Would you mind helping a brother out and crossing yours, too?

OK, now that I got that off my chest, I can divert my focus to other pressing matters... like breakfast. I suspicion we'll be cooking here this fine morning (my cousin Nick from NC is visiting me)... but maybe not... no way to know this early on, ya see. One thang is fer dang sure... we will be eating something someplace sometime someway somehow. I suspect you somehow suspected that yer own self, right?

Well, we sorta didn't go out last night, but then again we sorta did. We decided to just run up to The Hill Top Grill a scant quarter mile away to grab a sammich, then return home. When we got up there, I asked the girl-person who greeted us if we could sit out on the deck... no problem. I then asked if there were ashtrays out there. "We prefer you don't smoke out there, but if you sit near the edge, you can flick yer ashes over the side... Nick suggested Aw Shucks (nearby oyster bar and grill), so we walked out...

Aw shucks was not heavily populated, but there were a few specimens of wildlife present, nonetheless...  Nothing really outstanding or worthy of special mention or anything, but still just enough to provide a suitable backdrop for some beer and wings consumption... which, of course, we did.

The infamous Mike Ashcraft, was there... He and my SO, Napper, get along... ummm... not like oil and water, more like gasoline and matches... He was subdued, mild-mannered, even borderline gentlemanly, if you can envision that... Yeah, surprised me too... Maybe it was ona counta his dad was also there... I know my behavior was always better whenever my dad was nearby... I wonder if the now middle-aged antagonist received a lot of 'time outs' when he was a kid?

We remained perched upon our respective stools until the worker gal-persons were well along in their cleaning-up phase that always precedes the locking of the doors... Timing, as they say, is everything, and Nick and I both, being veterans of many bar room campaigns, have become rather adept at recognizing when our welcome is startin' to wear thin... We skedaddled outa there with rather exquisite timing, if I do say so myself, and all was well.

Bill (the owner) had made a couple of cameo appearances to chat-up the various customers including us, and he naturally shared a witty anecdote now and then interspersed with a pithy political observation or two along the way... Actually, I think he does a credible job of customer relations, so I mean this more as a compliment than anything else.

A lady of suspense sat a couple of vacant stools over from Nick. She was not a spring chicken by any means, but had a nice figure... nuthin' wrong with her face either, but any opportunities she may have had for becoming a model have long since passed...

Anyway, there was nothing at all wrong with her that a light switch couldn't satisfactorily remedy... Plus, she was wearing a dress... that generously displayed her best feature... her legs... knees and a generous portion of her thighs... Nick did not miss any of those important details, and he proved that by pointing them out to me...

Well, somewhere in the progression of usual and predictable events that evening she up and bought a beer for the two guys sitting one stool over from her (not us, the two to her left in the other direction). Not a single word had passed between them and her up until then, not even a smile or glance or nuthin' whatsoever. Hmmm, that's peculiar we thought, so we pondered the significance of that gesture... and possible messages being sent, then we compared notes.

Now I'm like most guys, I suppose... Figurin' out what a woman-person might be thinkin' or what she might mean by a certain action is difficult in the extreme. I strained my thinker muscle hard trying to fathom the depths of this seemingly innocuous behavior, knowing full well there is nothing ever innocuous, random, or simple where they-persons are concerned...

Heck, it's as difficult for me as tryin' to interpret political 'data' and the endless supply of polls and studies with which we are continuously bombarded... For example... Just this very day I saw the results of a study that concluded four out of five people have at some point suffered from diarrhea. Does that then mean that one out of five actually enjoyed it?

Now Freud might make sumthin' big outa all this, like maybe I got some sorta issues with my mother or upbringing or sumpin' like 'at, but I really don't see any of that... I think it's more like what comes natural for us guys... You know, we don't need a reason, we just need a place for kah-noodlin' and that sorta thang...

Anyhow, my thought was that she was sending the guys on her right, namely us, a message that we ain't got a chance. Nick, on the other hand, saw it a little differently... Maybe he's the one with issues, but I wouldn't know nuthin' 'bout none of that...

His notion was that maybe the fact both of them displayed visible signs of being married (wedding bands), that she was there to discretely meet one of them, only the other guy was impedin' progress... and she was signaling her growing impatience...

Plausible theory, I suppose, but it seemed a bit far-fetched to me... sorta smacked of a right wing conspiracy kinda thing, too, and we're a long way from the nation's capitol... I wonder if NSA was reading our minds or listening in to our conversation...hmmmm... I guess we'll know if we get a summons for an audit from the IRS...

Anywho, we both turned out to be wrong. After the guys left, she cleared her tab and departed, as well. We learned from our bartender-person that she's actually a traveling saleswoman-person who occasionally drops in... always alone, never speaks to anyone but the drink mixer, and then leaves, alone, after a while. She'd bought the semi-anonymous round, we were informed, because she overheard the two saying nice things about their wives... Seems she'd never heard a guy do that before...

Maybe Nick and I both have issues... Reckon we could get group rates if we went to the same shrink fer a coupla sessions on the couch? Just thinkin'...

DDT

[Super Santa]

Always enjoy your meandering mind, Bruce. 

Not sure if the 'moanin's' is an apt title, but it is yours so we will stick with it.  After all, you are the author.

[Michael K (Az.)]

AAah hahaha! Thanks Bruce! Hey, by the way, I got to meet up and ride with oss a coupla weeks back! He said you told him I was good folks. You slip a cog or sumpthin?

[Otus]

Their crossed.

[GiG]

Maybe Nick and I both have issues... Reckon we could get group rates if we went to the same shrink fer a coupla sessions on the couch? Just thinkin'...

Bruce, that would be a sight to see... the two of y'all on the same shrink couch...
Wonder, who's ridin' bitch? 

Try and have fun at Miss Reba's without us, we'll be thinkin of ya... wish we were goin....