Bowling Dinner

COVID over the last two years has caused a lot of loss. Our family has been very lucky and escaped the worst of it. The most we've endured is the girls and Teri having to take a COVID test when they were told they'd been exposed or came down with cold-like symptoms. All three have taken the test and they've come back negative, thank God. Tests and shots are plentiful these days. At the beginning of the pandemic before shots and tests were available, it was scary. This is the second time we have tried for normal. The first time we thought it was over, all the smart people had gotten their shots and the dumb ones were getting sick and dying while still proclaiming it was all a hoax, That time all the smart people doned their masks again, except for the stupid politians, like Ron DeSantis who thought they could score political points over the common good of the nation. Pardon me for a moment, I have to step off my soap box and it’s a little more difficult these days….Ok, where was I… ah yes I wanted to talk about the bowling dinner, wait, wait, don't go, I’m also going to talk about drugs. Yes, I wait for you to gather back around… ready, ok.

This past Wednesday was the first bowling dinner in two years. Last year on the last day of bowling everyone gathered around some tables at the bowling alley and trophies were handed out. It wasn’t great, but you know COVID was making a comeback. This year with consistent rumors of new variants it was a little bit of a surprise when we were informed we were having a bowling dinner. We didn’t even have a Christmas buffett. So Nastia and I picked up Jessie and arrived at La Terraza in New City just before six. Nastia and Jessie said they’d meet me inside and when they did they smelled like, well lets just say it’s legal now in New York, I think. I haven’t purchased a drink at a bar in many years. I’m waiting at the bar to get a screw driver, you know a simple vodka and orange juice. I’m fingering a ten and a five thinking which I should give the bartender when he gives me my drink. I decide on the ten, I figure less hassle, he’ll give me change. I hand him the ten and turn my back to talk with Nastia. The bartender lets me know he needs more money. So like an ass-hole I can sometimes be, I said loud and clear, “I guess you can tell what generation I’m from” and handed him five more. I take my drink and talk about the cost of drinks with a fellow bowler, who will laler buy me a drink. Very nice of him.

Nastia, wants a shot of 43, a liquor I introduced her to last year and she forgot her ID. I go to the bar to tell the bartender she only looks 12, but is really 23. He picks that time to be an ass-hole back to me and he gives me a speech about how he is not going to risk the alcohol license of this establishment, blah, blah, blah. I was past the jerk moment I caused, I guess he wasn’t. I paid for the alcohol and that was it for ordering from him. All future drinks came from the waitress who was so nice, I left her a tip at the table. Dinner was buffett style so you got to choose from all the different meals offered, which was really nice, I liked that. A salad and fried calamari with cookies for dessert rounded out the meal. Trophys and some money was handed out. A volunteer was requested, so I put up Nastia's hand. She pick out fifty-fifty tickets from the league to win envelops with varying degrees of money. Nastia picked one for $80,.00 for her and then picked one for $100.00 for me. That was awful nice of her. It was a nice night that was over by 9 PM. Nastia wanted to stay out with some of the younger people in the league, I didn’t, but we stayed for a very little while. Jessie was dropped home and it was a nice night.