Fast Friday

After surviving nearly 3000 miles in 8 states without any particularly close calls for the Momster, it was nice to be welcomed back by St. Mary’s County drivers again. When I grew up and took driver’s training, we were taught that a double yellow line was not to be crossed. That is, black tires should not touch yellow paint. Ah, I was wrong again. Once again, in SMC traffic “laws” are treated as suggestions to be followed only if convenient. At the end of our main street, it “T’s” into Millstone landing which eventually meets Rte. 235 at the demon infested lights there (where they are alive and well, I can report). Anyway, our main road butts into Millstone at the top of a little hill with just enough slope that a car can sort of “hide” there and suddenly appear during your execution of the right hand turn. To avoid this, despite wanting to turn right, I always cozy up to the protective yellow line to get as much view down the hill as I am able. Well, such a stupid driver as I am, that forces anybody who wants to turn left onto Esperanza from Millstone to actually go way out of their way and turn left completely into their right lane. A much preferred path is to begin the left turn a couple of car lengths before the road, and get all four wheels actually on “my” side of the line, crossing all four tires on yellow paint. I have had to brake hard approaching the intersection to allow them to execute this turn. Another version is when you’re sitting at a major(ish) intersection wanting to turn left anxiously waiting for the light to turn. I always position myself well within the protective barrier of the double yellow line on my left, and back from the broad white line in front of me. When the green arrow releases the river of steel wanting to turn left in front of me, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve held my breath figuring “this is it!” as cars come within inches of my left front, sometimes getting a glare. Sigh…

On a more pleasant note, I happened on a little Scotch tasting last night. It was conducted by Gordon Wright, a near legendary distiller of single malt scotch whiskeys, who started “Alchemist” He was a charming host, and gave a very understandable little talk on the processes involved and why there is such a variation in single malts. What barrels are used for aging, the amount of peat smoke in the malting of the barley, barrel aging, and even the air (which I am not sure I believe) all result in the wide range of tastes and “nose”. I am not particularly a single malt guy, but I did find one I very much liked, called Bruichladdich (I believe roughly pronounced “broo laddie”. Prices can be pretty steep, but on the other hand, a bottle will last quite a while (with some restraint on the owners part), so maybe the cost per drink might be competitive with wine. We also tasted some very nice Armagnac, Calvados, and a Rum which was different than anything I’ve ever tasted. So much to learn, so little time..

And, this weekend is the annual Oyster Festival, home of the National Oyster Shucking Championships as well as the expanding “cook off”. It appears that the weather will supply typical oyster festival conditions, which usually results in rain and wind. But, oysters are a cold season food anyway, so come on out to the St. Mary’s County Fairgrounds and have a great time. Oysters any way you like them, and plenty of cold beer (I think including Guinness) to wash everything down. I’ll be in the main beer stand in the mornings and timing shuckers in the afternoon. After that I don’t know if I’ll

DFD