A weekend at Barney's....

The good news is, jail time was never really in question at all. Unless of course you want to go all libertarian on my azz, and count the discussions at the bar with the hookers and the ride home in the cruiser. But you wouldn't hold any of that against a kid now, would you?

As I mentioned last week, Dad's got his best friend in Hospital after a massive stroke. With all that going on, I figured he could use some company for the weekend. So with that I wandered down to South Bedrock, for an afternoon and evening of comforting my old man. I could have kept on driving and went all the way South to see Al to be honest! As this became a lot closer to "Southern Comforting" than anything else.

Occasionally, I've been known to forget how it is that I come by my natural talent for alcohol consumption but, no worries!

One nearly empty bar at the house, six different bars in town, three unique bands, running in to five of his buddies and the ride home in the cruiser, all to give me a solid reminder this weekend from, "The Sponge!" Oh and one other thing came from all of this mess. One seriously weak and wounded liver, belonging to yours truly.

It's been.... well... NEVER .... since Dad and I tied one on like this and honestly, judging from the Sunday morning appearances of us both, it just might be a while before we try anything even remotely close to this again. One can hope!

The old man needed a bender so, a bender was had. Seriously good times from what I can remember. Great discussions, as we waltzed down memory lane. Remembering good times and honest discussions about the bad ones. Pulling up a few memories that had us both in stitches or, both saluting a lost friend over the passage of time. All in all like I said, great discussion with my old man. What I can't remember was, who's idea the 7:00pm Schnitzel stop was. THAT guy was a genius! I can't even begin to imagine pulling some of the crap we did over that intoxicating 13 hours, on a completely empty gut.

Dad's one of the last of his core group and the realization of his own mortality, hit him pretty hard when Bob went down last Monday. We had a pretty good discussion about that too, as Dad started to realize that this was just something else that we had in common. You see, Dad and I are closer now than we ever have been but we're still not that close. Something that this weekend may just help to get us through. The look on his face as he came to terms with the fact that I too have gone through all of this, spoke a thousand words of care to me, even though he actually said nothing at all at the time. We would talk about it later though and the rolls had reversed ever so slightly. It was Dad trying to make sure I didn't go down the dark and gloomy path, that is the loss of a friend.

"Celebrate the time you have, don't mourn the loss forever!" Barney said.

The realization that I could see in his eyes as he said it, was enough to tell me that the trip down was well worth it. My old man is going to be alright and I'm pretty sure, he's saying the same thing about me.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....