There are worse problems I know

It was a beautiful day today.  The weather was perfect.  As you can see above Fell's Point in Baltimore calls my name on days like these.  My day started out kind of normal.  I got up. I stretched out the old man morning pains.   I put the Delilah the Wonder Lab out about ten times this morning which means twenty trips to the back door.

I took some time this morning for some house work.  I cleaned two bathroom and vacuumed dog hair from the carpets.  If you have a black lab you already know this is a daily requirement. I had planned to do some laundry today also and few other things around the house but by 11:00 and trip number twenty to the back door the weather got the best of me.  I decided today was calling me for a trip to Fell's Point for lunch.

Larry at Woody's Wine Bar Spring 2012

I usually go down to Fell's Point the first really warm day in the spring and go to Woody's Rum Bar.  I don't go for the rum, although I do like a little rum.  I go there because it's a small cafe on a third story balcony overlooking Baltimore's harbor with a perfect spot to people watch and they serve a perfect portion of wine along with my lunch.  It's the perfect way to start my spring.  I have even written a blog or two here about early spring afternoons at Woody's.  This year I was side tracked a little.  I was still recuperating from my spinal surgery through the spring and was not allowed to drive or to drink any kind of alcohol.    I finally had my chance last week to make a trip to Woody's  I was waiting for my glass of wine, a fish taco, and lots of people watching from my perch on the rooftop.   To my dismay Woody's was not serving single servings of wine any longer.  They were serving $40 bottles of wine which is way over my budget for lunch and also way to much for me to drink while driving.  So I asked the waitress about this.  She told me there did serve wine by can now for single servings.  She said it was the size of two glasses.  Wine by can?   Let's just say this did not really appeal to me and just leave it there.  My response to her was "Show me the beer menu".  I ended up with a beer and a rather boring and tasteless burger because not only didn't they have wine but they were temporarily out of the fish tacos also. So I made a note to myself scribble Woody's off my list of favorite places.

I returned to Fell's Point today, one week later. The first thing to happen is my air conditioning in the car was not working.  My car is two years old.  The A/C simply can not be broken.  But it was.  No matter what I did all that happened was hot air blew in my face.  So I had to roll down the windows and deal with the heat.   I was hoping for the perfect experience I missed last week once I arrived in Fell's Point, a glass of wine, a light lunch, and some time to relax along the water front and enjoy the view.  Where better to this, now that Woody's is scratched off my list, than the Waterfront Hotel, aka WTF Hotel.  It is know to have some of the best food in Fell's Point.  Baltimore Magazine and The City Paper give it awards every year.  And I have enjoyed it in the past.  I parked my car in the square in Fells Point and paid the meter. (Please keep this in mind dear reader as it plays a roll in the end of my story).  I entered WTF Hotel and placed my order: a glass of wine and a Maryland Crab Cake.  .  I found a seat with a view of the street and the harbor.  Things were looking up.  UNTIL.....

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They served my wine in a stemless glass!  I have whined and posted rants on Facebook in the past about my disdain for restaurants and bar who serve me white wine in a stemless glass.  It's a huge pet peeve of mine.  I can accept, if I must, red wine in a stemless glass.  But not white wine. EVER!  The wine gets warm from my hand.  It's difficult to pick up and hold.  And it makes me unhappy.

Next they served me my crab cake.  For an award winning restaurant I was expecting a text book perfect Maryland Crab Cake.  But no that is not what I was served.  I was served "their take" on a Maryland Crab Cake made with smoked crab meat.  So there I sat with my stemless wine glass and my wine getting warmer each time I touched it and a smoked crab cake.  Let's just say I made another one of those notes to myself to scratch the WTF Hotel off my list also.

I did not finish the wine.  I picked at the crab cake.  I paid my bill and decided to try and salvage the afternoon  by going to Max's Tap House.  Max's has over two hundred beers daily.

Max's did not disappoint.  They had one of my favorites.  Susquehanna Brewing's So Wheat.  It was a perfect Hefewizen for my hot afternoon. So I left Fell's Point to head home in my non air conditioned car feeling somewhat satisfied.  It was not quite the experience I had hope for but there are far worse problems in the world.

I got back to my and what do I see on the wind shield?  A parking ticket.  I looked at my phone for the time.  3:00.  I looked at my parking permit inside the window.  Expires 2:58.  I was pissed.  Did the cop stand there and wait for two minutes to post my ticket?  Was it really worth even coming to Fell's Point any more?  Ugh!   I picked up the ticket to examine it.  It was not for expired parking.  So I guess I owe the police an apology for my nasty thoughts.  It was for expired license tags!  My tags expired July 31.  Today is August 4.  I was mad at myself now instead of the police. I drove my car to the MVA express near my house and went in to pay for new tags;  Before going in I looked at the ticket again.  And there it was.  The wonderful and kindly but fat fingered policeman had keyed my license number incorrectly on the computerized ticket.  My tag has three letters in the middle of the plate and he or she had keyed two of them wrong.  So there is no way I can pay the ticket on line because my tag number is not in the system from the ticket.  Not a bad ending all things considered.  Someone else with the license tag number on my ticket will have a bad day in about a month when they get a notice for not paying their fine.  I was saved a $35 fine but still had to pay $135 for my tag renewal.

These are all insignificant first world problems I know.  I have a cousin who is battling leukemia.  I have a best friend who's brother is battling cancer.  I have a prayer list a mile long for friends who are ill, or having financial problems.  A stemless wine glass and a crappy crab cake really don't hold up as major problems in the long run.  I do count my blessings every day.  Now if only Fell's Point could pull it's act together!






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Fell's Point, Man Boobs, and my Grandmother. Or Musing on a perfect spring afternoon

I stepped on the scales at the beginning of this week and screamed.  My weight is way out of control.  I have also not been feeling well.  Lots of weird but not serious symptoms for someone my age, so I am not too concerned about them.  But I also know that I have to take them seriously.  Healthier foods were my first thought.  Then as I was drinking my third Diet Dr.Pepper of the day I started to think about all of the health warning about artificial sweeteners.  So I started out the week with some positive plans.  I was going to eat healthier foods and cut out the diet soda's.  So far the diet soda's are not bothering me too much.  Yes, the absence of caffeine has been noticed but I can handle it.  And eating more fish and chicken is not a bad thing.  Fish and chicken are good.  So it's been all positive so far.  I have woken up each morning feeling a little better.  No headaches, and a little more energy are good things.  I have also been limiting my alcohol intake. Once again this is a good thing.  I know this.  I have allowed myself a glass of wine in the evening.  I do have a love affair with wine.  Anyone who knows me already knows this.  After a few days I decided today to get out of the house and enjoy this wonderful spring weather.  My grandmother would have called this glorious weather.  She loved that word.  She used it often.  When she would be sitting in her little apartment with no air conditioning, we did not have air conditioning when I was young, she would open her window in the afternoon and let the air blow through.  She would call it a glorious breeze.  Feel that glorious breeze.  I can hear her saying that right now.   So I took one glorious afternoon away from the house and headed out for some adventures.

It's been a very long cold winter this year.  Spring is finally here.  It was 92 degrees today, which is more like summer in reality.  We had snow just three weeks ago.  But today was "glorious".  I left the house with my two constant companions, my cell phone and my camera.  I had no plans.  I was just going where the moment led me.   I ended up in Fell's Point, a wonderful area of restaurants and bars in Baltimore.  The tourists go to the Inner Harbor, but people from Baltimore head to Fell's Point.  Keeping with my plan of being healthier I decided to not over indulge in a fatty lunch of bacon cheeseburgers and fries with a beer on the side.  I ended up at one of my favorite places, Woody's Rum Bar.  I have been here many times, but have never tried the rum.  I always save that for another day.  Today I sat on the third story balcony overlooking the harbor, ordered fish taco's from menu and a glass of Pinot Grigio, and took in the sights all around me.  Woody's is a great spot for people watching.  The people on the street below have no idea you are watching them so why not take advantage of the it.

I saw this young girl today just below me on Thames Street.  She was with her boyfriend, fiancee, whatever. He was busy taking many photos of her and she was loving the attention.  For each photo she would stop, swing her hair over one shoulder, then tip her head sideways in the direction of her hair swing and pose for the photo.  It was the same smile, the same hair swing, and same head pose for each photo.  He walked around her and got her from every angle with different backgrounds, but in the end it was the same smile, same pose, same hair swing.  As I watched them a man closer to my age started to cross the street.  He was older, had his shirt opened due the heat, and was exposing his man boobs,or moobs as I like to call them,  as he walked.   He walked directly behind a car pulling out of a parking place.  He kept walking refusing to move out of the cars way.  It was obvious the driver could not see him.  As the car came within inches of hitting him he pounded on the trunk of the car and started to scream at the driver.  The driver pulled out of the space and the man hit the passenger window with his fist and offered some words I will not repeat here.   I looked back at the girl and the young man who were still taking photos of her same pose.  I am sure in the back ground of one of their photos is the man with moobs screaming at a car

So what did I learn from all of this?  First of all I am glad I am not young and vacuous thinking I am original and making the perfect pose for a photo, over and over and over.  I am also glad that I am not old with moobs.  I am glad I have the memory of my grandmother having a glorious day sitting in her apartment enjoying the breeze.  She sat behind her window many days watching the people come and go. And she talked about it everyday.  It's kind of like me writing a blog I guess.  She would have shaken her head at the girl posing for photos, and she would have laughed at the man with moobs yelling at the car.  She would have passed on the glass of wine, but I know she would have loved being with me on the balcony today watching the people below.