This was the best thing I did all week.
I had a dull one. This post will be more rambling and pointless than usual.
Tried for Elton John tickets at MSG, but the King Of Queens was looking for mortgage level prices online. Like ya – don’t love ya.
Upstate as usual this weekend and did my usual wandering to my usual lunch spots and usual coffee spots and usual stores. Pine Plains Platter in nearby Pine Plains serves excellent food. If you order breakfast it will usually get to you by lunch time. Today, I didn’t have the patience to wait.
I was in town, lunch time, for the Millerhurst fund raiser, to replace the cattle and barn lost in the fire, hosted by Stissing House. That would all have been great if it was not on at 6 this evening and I was in Stissing at noon. The BBQ lunch is at a community center somewhere.
Stissing House, situated right on the crossroads in town, is another Historic Inn, built in 1782. It retains all its rustic charm , and has a number of smaller rooms with a private feel and a wood burning fire. Damn fine coffee and eggs Benedict. Go hungry if you’re getting brunch.
One of my fondest memories of Stissing, is my wife’s chair leg slipping through a crack in the wooden floor slats, at the back room dinner table. She toppled over on top of the large Ficus in the corner. Wifey was not nearly as amused as I was. I was very amused.
Speaking of which, very proud to report that Weekend Warrior Wifey, qualified for the AON/USHJA National finals in Las Vegas this week. Being the excellent lawyer she is, she convinced the airline to let her horse fly with her as an Emotional Support Animal. I would guess coach.
Stissing Mountain, right off town, is a medium difficulty one mile up hill hike, to the 85 foot fire tower, built as part of a work program in 1933. From the tower top you can see across 5 states. Amazing views every season and definitely worth the trip. Even with a couple of whining British kids. I did manage to lose myself and the 3 English guests on my way down in August. I can get lost in a carpark.
I tracked down the chicken BBQ fundraiser, right by the mountain at the town community center. It was genuinely heartwarming to see the hundreds of people from the community come together like this. I talked to the family were so obviously delighted with it all.
They were out of chicken but I bought a sweatshirt and bid on a weird wooden pinball machine in the silent auction I’ve no place for. Generously, most all local businesses had contributed to the silent auction.
Dutchess Distillery was within a mile of the BBQ. The location is unique in that it’s built on top of the site Dutch Schulz did his prohibition booze making, in rooms layered underneath. Despite multiple raids by the law, his illegal distillery was never discovered.
The car in front of me had a deer run in to the side of it as I drove home in the dark. Flashlight in hand, I got out to check on them. The audi passenger, in an impressive fur, was very grateful for my help. I checked for the deer in the ditch as they wanted to bring it to the vet if injured. I’d have called a neighbor for the seasonal twenty-two in the head solution. It had run off unscathe, the car was undamaged, all nerves were settled. Deer are the dumbest creatures in creation. Upstate living.
As you may have gathered, there’s not much to see in Pine Plains.
I did win my wooden pinball machine in the silent auction. Psyched.
David Bowie – Putting out the fire with gasoline today. A song I definitely relate to – judgements made, can never bend….
Binge Watching Stuff:
Julia Roberts has always been overrated. She has that clown slash of a mouth and her nostrils move distractingly when she talks or weeps and she’s a drop of the hat weeper.
Venting out of the way, Homecoming on Amazon, is smart, captivating viewing with a very unique look. It’s directed by the creator of Mr. Robot (robot season 1 required viewing). The show centers around an experimental treatment center for troops with PTSD. Homecoming is a perfectly paced 5 hours/10 episodes.
Flaring snot holes and all, Roberts turns in an awards worthy performance in a worthwhile show.
Book Stuff:
Obviously, my being an Irish National I have an enormous interest in British Royalty. It’s hard to describe the excitement I felt, just this year, as some other royal ginger douche approached his wedding day to some D List actress. Did you see his dress, simple yet magnificent. Oh the drama . Will her Daddy come for the wedding, does his Daddy still dream of being a tampon when sexting Camilla. Poor little rich kids.
With that healthy douse of cynicism I approached Ninety Nine Glimpses Of Princess Margaret , life excerpts of an actual royal bitch and deceased thorn in the side of the British monarchy. The Countess Of Snowden turned up in raging form for the third Patrick Melrose Book and I’d heard a glowing NYT podcast review of Ninety Nine. The obnoxious Princess, the next Disney franchise? My interest was peaked.
The book has a gossipy, insiders sensibility. Hilarious to read of this extreme snob draw in her loyal subjects in pretend closeness only to shit all over them. Excellent use of the crown . And I learned of Horoscopes bullshit beginnings, how they basically run on the stopped clock methodology of predictions. No one remembers the wrong prophecies.
Old Margaret capatalized on her position of inherited power to make all the cloying snobs around her miserable. Respect that. It’s a fast, well written, critically lauded read.
I did think of one really good band named after a city, Rio Speedwagon. 
Tooleing Around America 
Participation trophy
Hooray we’re all snowflakes
Plus you voted for Il Duce
I’m surec
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I wonder who those whining British kids could be?🤔😂
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Alfie / you’re a post behind!
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