No Car, Yes Beer

The dog woke me up at 6 to go out. I need to talk to Doug about the order of operations for waking up. 

Correct Order Of Operations, according to me:

1. Wake up
2. Let dog outside
3. Go to bathroom
4. Let dog back in
5. If it is after 5am, feed dog
6. Go back to bed if you want to. up to you. i usually do.

Instead, what he does now, which is unacceptable order of operations:

1. Wake up
2. Go into bathroom
3. Results in dog coming to guest room to find Christine and harass her and whine and jump up and down until she gets up and lets dog outside
4. Christine really needs to pee, but someone is in the bathroom
5. Christine feeds dog
6. Christine lets dog back into the house
7. Christine finally gets to go to the bathroom
8. Christine hears Doug say "oh hey wanna go outside? oh, someone fed you?"

After having the dog wake me up at 6 and going through the unacceptable routine, I went back to bed. Six? On a Saturday? On a rainyass Saturday. 

No thanks. 

I snuggled back into bed as Doug decided to be up for the day. I could smell the coffee he brewed, and then heard Geoff come upstairs. He's got class on Saturday morning at 9am but he was up and ready, made breakfast (I could smell the bagel toasting). I fell back asleep around 7:30 after almost deciding to give in and get up. Happily got those extra snoozes, and got up in time for Doug to head over to the farmers' market again for more tomatoes and apricots, peaches and zukes. It was pouring, I was not interested in going with.

I drank my coffee and snuggled with the dog. Played my phone games, and when Doug got back we got ready to go pick up the new car. 

The insurance policy showed we're all set. The office said they have the plates, come on over. You can pay on a card or with a bank check. 

It was too late to get a bank check, so we were going to put it on our credit card and pay it off immediately (my new game at getting travel points. ha!) 

When we got there, the person Doug had been working with was not there, so we had to wait. And then he told us there is a 3% surcharge on credit or debit cards. Which would be like ... 300 or some shit bucks. 

So Doug said "hey, we'll come back next week with a bank check, I'm not paying a fee to a bank for you to process this charge."

Doug was a little pissed because if the guy, I don't know, TOLD him this in advance, we'd have been prepared. We had plenty of time to go to the bank. So he was angry, and told me he thought that the guy should have offered us some sort of waiver or services at the garage but I was kind of like.... no. That's not how this works. He can't eat the fee that the bank imposes on him. It would have been nice if he told you in advance or if it said something on your bill of sale/receipt (which, he doesn't have because the guy hasn't handed it to us). Maybe he did tell you and you didn't hear it. It would not be the first time. But you can't expect him to waive a fee that he doesn't get to keep. 

I was nonplussed, no worries ... it isn't like we're in an emergency situation where we have to have the car today. We'll get the car Monday or Tuesday. No worries. 

We were super close to one of our favorite breweries, so we decided to go by. Doug said there was a Makers Market today (fancy name for a craft fair, and he obviously checked the webpage so he knew what the haps were) and we should go support the crafters and the craft beer. Cool cool. 

The rain was obviously keeping the crowds down, we got to chat with people and I bought some stickers and some cards. There was a wonderful assortment of crafts from candles to baked goods, a wonderful collection of ceramics, someone who makes jewelry out of watch faces. We talked to a man who makes jewelry out of rocks, and he shapes and carves things into anything you want. He had a small collection of already shaped animals that were really sweet. I want to order a bunch of hummingbirds for my good Guster friends before we go to Maine in August. The stickers are part of that gift. 

We had fun shopping and looking and walking around, talking to the vendors. One of the vendors makes shaving butter and grooming gifts for men, and he told me they don't get a lot of attention at these kinds of fairs but he keeps going out. 

I said I totally understand that, I also noted that a lot of his products appeared to be geared toward Black men, which is super cool, but at a brewery like this, beardos are plentiful but they are on white guys. Can he appeal to the white dudes while also appealing to the Black dudes. I also noted that 20 years ago at a craft fair like this, there were hardly any black owned businesses and it seemed that every other one here was just that. Gorgeous products, homemade products. Black Women Owned. 

He is the only black man, but sticking with it, in years to come, he's paving the way for other makers like him and he should hang in there. We had such a good talk. I took his business card and told him I'd share it with my office's annual holiday fair organizers to see if he can be brought into our gathering. We have a lot of people in-house that I'm sure he'll appeal to!

We came inside to get another beer and there was a guy playing guitar, and he was pretty great. We pulled up seats at a table and he crushed some Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry, Madonna (of all things), threw in some John Denver, spun things around with Dolly Parton and Tom Petty. He took a break between songs, and I, of course, asked if he wanted to keep the 90s vibe going and if he knew Guster or Barenaked Ladies. He told me he doesn't know any BNL but "I think I can do I Spy."

"Um dude - that is a deep cut, and wow." I said dropping 5 bucks in his bucket, and he smiled. He went into it (I did record it, not sure how to share it since my google drive is almost full?) and it was wonderful. Doug handed me another 5 bucks and said "worth it." 

So I walked back over and put more money in. He thanked me for the request and the tip, and was laughing wonderfully. Dude. Amazing. 

I was walking to order a couple more beers and a guy stopped me. He said "did you request that? Holy shit. Guster! I grew up in Massachusetts and they were so much a part of my life!"

Oh honey, yes. Let me talk to you about how I love Guster. He said he hadn't kept up with them after Easy Wonderful, and I encouraged him to Youtube things like Audiotree and WFUV - listen to the acoustic versions and studio versions of the newer stuff off Evermotion and Look Alive. Find the video of Come Downstairs from Red Rocks. Dig back in and come on home. 

One of the staff people at the bar is also a huge Guster fan, and I also found out that not just do we love Pokemon Go, we also love Guster, and, My Brother My Brother and Me (see previous post about Faster car). 

My people. It felt so nice to have chats like this!

So while we didn't bring home a car, we had a good time, a good day. 

pictured, David Sparrow playing music at the brewery and some stickers and cards I picked up from the makers. Digits below.

Exercise: my fitbit didn't record it but we had decent movement today around the brewery market, and at the grocery store. I won't count today as one of my 10 minute movement days.

Blood glucose:
11am: 134
5pm: 173
10:30pm: 145

Food:
Coffee
water
bowl of leftover chorizo kale stew
several handfuls of pepitas 
3 beers at the brewery
dinner: grilled sausages, tomatoes, onions, mozzarella cheese, zucchini
2 home beers