1843 Weekend

Monday, June 9, 2008

I drove home from Rochester on Friday (round trip = $97 in gas!), and then left for NJ on Saturday. Ostensibly I was going to Spring Caravan, but in reality it was to see The Man. He's been working like 16 hour days, big project, and trying to fit in tournament practice, and I knew if it was left to him I wouldn't see him again until the project was over (damn nerd). So Spring Caravan was an excuse. "Hey, I'll be there, driving down Saturday morning, and back home Saturday evening, unless you can get Saturday evening free, and then I'll stay over." He agreed he needed the break. If he hadn't been able to meet me, I doubt that I'd have gone at all.

As proof of my intent, there were five dancers I would have liked to have seen, and I got there too late for two of them, and left to meet the Man for dinner before the others were on, and it didn't bother me at all.

I met him in the bar at a hotel up the road, where we could watch the race. The minute Big Brown came out of the gate, the Man was yelling at the jockey. Horses have different styles, and BB is an end sprinter. The jockey pushed BB into third place behind two steady runners and held him there, and it was a long race, which means he ran BB out before the end sprint. He should have held him back, so he'd be able to pour it on at the end. Bad bad. You don't use up your horse before the sprint.

He went back to the office at 2pm on Sunday, I stopped back at Spring Caravan for an hour, again missing some local dancers, and then I drove a half hour further south to Daughter's to pick up a Waterford lamp. I wanted the floor lamp that matches this lamp, too, I even ordered both two years ago, but it seemed like they were never available, possibly because the crystal shades tend to break in shipping. It looks like they're not even making the floor model any more, and I think this one may be discontinued. (BTW, ignore the web site price.)

I'm not surprised the shades proved fragile. The box had shaped foam padding holding the heavy metal base tightly, but the shade was in a box inside the outer box, floating free in the smaller box in plastic peanuts - but not enough peanuts to keep the shade from sliding around in there. Most of the other lamps have the crystal on the base and fabric shades, and it looks like this packing was designed for them, not this lamp.

The Waterford warehouse is only about 20 minutes from Daughter's house, so Hercules picked it up for me, rather than having it shipped up here. Much safer.

I am very tired, but I've calmed down from the Rochester trip. The Man and I didn't talk about it, but just being with him helped to put it all in perspective. It all seems so unimportant now.
.