Salutations™!!

First I want to say that I am not bashing this town. I love this town. But, I equate it to being a parent to 3B. I support him in all that he does and don’t allow others to talk badly about him but I’ll be the first to point out when he’s done something stupid. That’s what I think happened yesterday. Now to give the story on that…

Photo ©awawisconsin

Yesterday was, obviously, the 4th of July. Independence Day. I know it’s a day for cookouts and family and friend gatherings and all that stuff. We did it. The BCPF and I went over to my ‘Rents’ place and had hot dogs with the fam. It was good. But, it was a daytime activity. We hung out for a while and then we went home. Watched a few things on Netflix and decided we needed to go out and grab some food and maybe have a drink or two.  It’s Saturday night after all. SATURDAY NIGHT!!

We noticed the streets were dead. No one was out. We went first to Twin City Diner. Closed. Across the street, Quiet Pint was closed. 1st Street Draught House, closed. We drove out to Silo Bistro and Bar. Closed. We saw people sitting at Pane e Vino and breathed a sigh of relief. We pulled in and got out of Nigel and started toward the entrance. A lovely lady that I am familiar with came out and told us in a very nice way that they were closed. I asked why? She said that most locally owned places wanted their employees to have the night off. I replied quite gruffly that that was stupid. So, I do want to apologize to Nicole for being an a-hole. She was being quite polite and I was out of line. So, to her, I apologize profusely.

So what are all the employees going to do? I don’t see everyone of them running to a cookout like some smart arse suggested. There’s nowhere to go! If this was a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, I could understand this. But Friday and Saturdays are money-making days/nights. It’s a drinking holiday. It’s a birthday celebration. People go out for birthdays. I think it’s stupid to be closed. If you’re in business to provide service and make some money, you are open. You can’t make money if the lights aren’t on. You can say, “well it’s not about the money.” BULLSHITE!! It’s always about the money. You don’t go into business just because you love what you do. You go INTO the business of what you love to do. But, making money is the main motivator and if you say differently, you’re full of it. I had money to spend and other than Lowe’s Foods, no one got any of it. “Have you not worked in retail or restaurants during the fourth? It’s dead,” someone said. Yes, because you take all the options away when you don’t open.

I do know that a few of my favorite places, Finnigan’s Wake (Official Emerald Isle of The Less Desirables), Small Batch Beer (Presenting Sponsor of The Beer Dads Podcast) and maybe a few others around there were open. But, the bad part is that is squarely ground zero for Heavy Rebel Weekend and I stay as far away from that as possible. It’s great for them to have it but it isn’t my scene and not my crowd. I don’t want to be around that any more than Eugene wants to be around The World Cup. I mean, Finnigan’s is open on Christmas and Thanksgiving evenings. Like Opie says, “when you’re tired of your family, you have a place to go.” I wasn’t tired of my family but we had done our thing. And, I know it’s not just me. There are others looking for something to do that doesn’t require standing out in the open air getting eaten up by mosquitoes or other pests, grilling stuff and drinking half flat beer out of a keg pump and in Solo cups or something as ridiculous and mundane as Bud-anything. I find it hard to believe that I am the only one. Happy birthday ‘Merica, but you’ve made this town boring on your birthday.

I know this all may sound selfish but the most heck I got out of it was from the biggest “all about me and screw everyone else” person I know. So, I must have done something right. Again, I reiterate, I love this town, but yesterday, you let me down, WSNC.

It wasn’t a bad night, though, The BCPF and I went to Lowe’s Foods and got a rotisserie chicken, some many-layered salad something (she was kind enough to get rid of the onions for me) and some olives. I had vodka and dry vermouth at home, so I made my own dirty martinis and they were good. I enjoyed them. We watched more stuff on Netflix and enjoyed each others’ company. We always do, it would have just been better had we found a non-Heavy-Rebel-Weekend restaurant to share that with. Rant over. Soap box back in the corner.

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

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“There are lots of emotions that go with the Fourth of July.” – Dan Harmon