{"id":6434,"date":"2013-10-23T18:34:12","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T18:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/?p=6434"},"modified":"2013-10-23T18:38:23","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T18:38:23","slug":"ticket-to-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/ticket-to-ride\/","title":{"rendered":"Ticket to Ride"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2013-10-22_17-27-11_553\"
\nThe government is back at work, just like it never left, and the Fish and Wildlife crew were occupying the cocktail nook in force. Jon-without was standing next to Old Jim, who was sitting at the stool I normally occupy at the Willow.<\/p>\n

Some young guy- business suit- was sitting in Jim\u2019s usual place. I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Sotto vocce, I said \u201cWhat the hell? I sense a Disturbance in the Force.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s OK,\u201d said Jon-without. \u201cJim doesn\u2019t mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam is a fine fellow,\u201d growled Jim, and then he introduced me to the young man in the suit and defused the potentially explosive situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will move,\u201d Adam said apologetically. \u201cI hate to take the seat of a Regular. I didn\u2019t know I was walking into Cheers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some assholes in that bar,\u201d I said. \u201cNorm, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, it was that postal guy. The know it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCliff Claven,\u201d said Adam. \u201cI have been here since 3:30. They cancelled a meeting and I had a choice of trying to get an earlier plane or start drinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDrink early,\u201d said Jon-without.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrink often,\u201d said Jim.<\/p>\n

Then the conversation drifted on to why we liked Coach better than Woody Harrleson, and how Shelley Long screwed the pooch by leaving early. \u201cKirstie Alley ate the set,\u201d said Adam.<\/p>\n

\"2013-10-22_17-24-46_999-2\"
\nI noted that both Adam and Jon were drinking martinis and briefly considered doing the same, though Jasper decided the matter by firmly planting . The discussion transitioned to the pluses and minuses of the miracle elixir, and whether or not Jon should have another, since the Lovely Bea was going to pick him up to go to the grocery store, and she was going to call and advise him of the plan at five.<\/p>\n

I looked at my phone. It was five-fifteen. \u201cOh, you mean Bea time. She will be calling sometime before six.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it is before that. I am parked at one of the two parking meters next to the bar. It is a one hour meter and I have been here since four-thirty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you have to feed the meter pretty quick. Are you going to try to have another drink before she gets here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it might be the wise thing,\u201d he said, and gestured toward Tex to get another of those perfect vodka martinis with four olives. As it turned out, Adam was from Hartford, CT, and had a traveling job that coincided with Jon\u2019s hometown of Plattsburgh, NY, where his Dad had retired after an Air Force career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is quite a coincidence. There is not much else around there, not since the base closed after BRAC 90.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did a fire-sale for all those SAC bases after the Cold War ended,\u201d I said. \u201cWe lost three bases in Michigan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPlattsburgh was on Lake Champlain, right where the stop signs turn into \u201cArret\u201d in Quebec.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam said: \u201cWalking from the plant I visit there down to the lake you can feel the temperature drop ten degrees.\u201d He simulated a shiver.<\/p>\n

Jon\u2019s new iPhone 5S went off, and he pressed his finger on the print reader to unlock it and answer. It was the Lovely Bea, running just a little late, and sure enough just a minute or two past when Jon\u2019s meter was going to expire. He got up to go feed the infernal contraption and returned a couple minutes later holding an official looking strip of paper.<\/p>\n

\"2013-10-23-3\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got me,\u201d he said. \u201cThose Arlington meter-readers are something fierce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are a cunning bunch,\u201d I said, and we exchanged stories of the ingenuity, tenacity and guile of the enforcement community until Bea arrived. She had a drink, but clearly wanted to accomplish the mission. When they called for the check, Old Jim and I decided to do the same thing and leave the bar to Adam and his business partner, a Punjabi man of about the same age.<\/p>\n

They had decided that more martinis were the answer, and were attempting to soak up the alcohol with sirloin tips in some sort of elegant sauce.<\/p>\n

\"2013-10-23-4\"<\/p>\n

We left Willow fairly early, and I was astonished to note that we had not talked about a single one of the elephants in the room. It felt pretty therapeutic, and I actually whistled on the way up the block to the car.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
\nwww.vicsocotra.com
\nTwitter: @jayare303<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government is back at work, just like it never left, and the Fish and Wildlife crew were occupying the cocktail nook in force. Jon-without was standing next to Old Jim, who was sitting at the stool I normally occupy at the Willow. Some young guy- business suit- was sitting in Jim\u2019s usual place. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6434"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6436,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6434\/revisions\/6436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}