Better Brief Than Belated

OK, since the second job commenced, blogging has become a more difficult enterprise.

But now that the second job has taken hold - no longer needing to decompress, I can clock out at 10:15 and crash out by 11. Exhaustion is now my natural state. I leave for one job, stop long enough to eat dinner and placate a lonely cat with a ten-minute porch journey, then shuttle off to a steady flow of wine seekers.

Dry country
I've given up beer. So have my children, and their children's children .... for one month. Till early August, my old friend and I are on hiatus. Depending on our estrangement's effect on my gut and bullfrog chin, we could part even longer.

The first week passed with surprisingly ease. Aside from a few vivid hallucinations at first, I barely noticed its absence. Believe it or not, I was not dogged by images of beers parachuting onto the front porch. I just went about my life. When digging for mustard last night, I was surprised to find a few errant bottles - usually, those soldiers would have been long dead.

The three cases of high-end beer that serve as my "cellar" won't go anywhere. Time away from the hop has given me a chance to become more intimate with the grape. Tempranillo, malbec and a Patagonian blend are all new friends.

So far this week, I've managed to ignore even my new friends. That won't last, not in a business where people want to know how the new wines taste. We'll probably get reacquainted tonight thanks to the Anciano tempranillo waiting for me - c'mon, aged 10 years in oak barrels, all of 10 bucks a bottle, why wait when I can get more?


Oh Doctor, please help me ...
For the first time in four years, I have a cholesterol count - bad cholesterol ran high thanks to all the alcohol, but good cholesterol evened it out thanks to all the salmon, avocados and almonds.

Within five minutes, the new doc established himself as the best I've ever had. He had a great demeanor, cracked jokes and lightened the mood when it was absolutely necessary. But I had a recent health problem in need of care. Thanks to an episode of Family Guy, I had already diagnosed the problem and he concurred (I'll leave it to you to figure out which one).

More importantly, I have a regular doctor. This appointment was a lark - when I called, they had nothing before November. Two days later, a cancellation got me in the door.

Not that anything prepared me for the doctor's candor and humor. He pulled no punches, paid compliments where I actually demonstrated good health and was overbearing when discussing the occasional appearance of nicotine in my life - he gave the "occasionally is still too much in my estimation" speech, but in a friendly way.

It's been a long time since I could claim a primary care physician that I actually liked. In our paranoid society, it's too simple to view a doctor as someone eager to bill insurance - a former doc told me I had a deviated septum which required surgery; a second opinion confirmed my nose was fine and the other doc engaged in quackery.

I'm not going to worry about that with the new doc, though. He told me enough to let me know he was on the level, and I don't mean the level of the dirt-level con artists who proceeded him.