Shopping for wine can be fun ...

... and educational. Well, mostly fun. Still, in my last trip to the big Total Wine store down in Winston I learned something. As you may know, the Yadkin Valley is trying to get a start in the wine industry. Wilkes County even has its own vineyard and winery at Windy Gap. There are others around the state. I always try to buy a bottle of the local wine to support the industry while it is getting on its feet.

There is, however, a serious problem. I bought six bottles of wine, most of them highly rated either by Wine Spectator or by the staff, who know their stuff. The best clearly was a bottle of Fabula Rosso from Italy which had been given a 93 by Wine Spectator. Hard to beat that, especiailly when you consider that it only cost $12. Four of the others were even cheaper.

And that's the problem. The North Carolina Windy Gap Merlot I bought cost $16 and has not a chance of being even half as good. It may be good, and Windy Gap is one of the better wineries around here, but not for $16. Not when you can get excellent wines from Chile, Italy, Australia, South Africa, wherever, for much less money.

I don't see how the economics for this enterprize are going to work. Unless there are a lot of dolts like me willing to buy merely OK wine for more money than it is worth in order to support my neighbors.

A bit more on Wilkesboro bus....

.... it's called the Mountaineer Express. You need three dollars exactly in cash (green or silver). For the full schedule and other info click here. If you can, give it a try.

Today I got to ride the bus to work...

... for the first time. Appalachian State up in Boone runs its own little bus ride line in the High Country. Last week it started running a line from Greensboro to Boone and back. So after talking big about how I would love to be able to save gas by riding a bus or a train to work I thought it was time to put my money where my mouth (or blog) was. To the tune of $6 round trip, which is about what the gas for the same trip would cost (it is 70 miles and takes about 2.5 gals).

So I got up early this morning, walked over to the tennis courts at the Community College, and waited for the bus. On time to the minute the bus showed up - a nice big bus with comfy seats. I was one of three passengers. 50 minutes later the bus left me out on campus and I walked to the Bagelry for breakfast. Then I stumbled off to work.

In the evening I left my office at five and walked over to the Boone Saloon, where I had my beer and tapas. Admired the waitress, and saw Bill H. of all people (a very long story about a face from the past). The lively, maniacal glint in his eyes hasn't dimmed a bit after all these years.

At 6:30 walked out back of the saloon to the bus station. Right on time the same bus with a different driver showed up. This time I was the only passenger. I felt like it was my own personal bus and driver. Off we went across the ridges, through Deep Gap and down the mountain. In the evening light, dark and moltan, I could see the mountains all around me. i love the mountains and the foothills. Of all the times in a week I head up and down that way, I never have the luxury to look around while I drive. It was relaxing, and I could read all the way home.

So - it won't work most days because of my schedule, but once or twice a week I can take the bus. If anyone else out there making the same trip is reading this, I would certainly recommend it. Save gas, relax, and take it easy on the bus.

MFH and I saw 'Wordplay' last night ...

... it's an entertaining documentary movie about crossword puzzles and the strange people addicted to them. It was the cap of a beautiful afternoon. First we drove down to the Total Wine Store. Then off to the Nawab Indian restaurant, our favorite, for dinner. The Nawab has good food, a bit exotic for one from Wilkesboro, efficient polite service, huge portions and reasonable prices. Then acroos the street we dashed to spend some time in the big Borders Bookstore where I bought Fouad Ajami's latest book on America and Iraq. He's one of my favorite authors. Also got a good historical atlas.

Finally, we went downtown to the corner of 4th and Cherry to the Stevens Center to see 'Wordply'. If you haven't been to the Stevens Center your enjoyment of local culture has been sadly neglected and you should get over there as soon as possible. It is also surrounded by restaurants and bars that stay open late into the night, including a Mellow Mushroom!

As for the movie, we both thoroughly enjoyed it. It's hard to believe but the final crossword puzzle championship bout had as much drama and excitement as a prize fight. The film makers couldn't have done better if they'd written the script. It was also fun. Carmen (MFH's real name) commented that it has been a very long time since she has heard so much good natured laughter.

Best of all we learned that Merle Regle, crossword pussle creator extraordinaire, hangs out in our neighborhood down in that port city that shall remained unnamed. And we got to see him create a crossword puzzle starting from scratch. Then we got to watch famous people, like Jon Stewart, try to solve it.

What more can you say about a movie that has Jon Stewart, Bill Clintan, and the Indigo Girls in it? It is a crime that it will only show on about three screens in the entire state, for limited runs, and will never make it to the High Country. Check it out when it comes out on DVD.

Now that I am back from that big port city to the south ....

... I have to start thinking about my classes next week. Ugh. Found out that one of the books I want, 1066: The Year of the Three Battles is no longer available in the States and odering it from England results in a surcharge to the students. So on to plan B. If I had a plan B.

Last night I came up to Boone, the lovely city of the High Country. After working for awhile in my office I found Young Tim who was actually at home. His home is a little cabin (aka a shack) that his granddad built about 50 yrs ago. We tried to eat dinner at Peppers, but the hostess seated us at the worst table in the place and told us we would have to wait if we wanted another spot - even though there were tables and booths empty. Than we waited for about 10 minutes with no service.

Several hours later, as we finished our dinner at Dos Amigos Mexican place, and after several cervezas, I decided to sleep over at the cabin. It is on a creek just around a curve from the urban sprawl of Boone. Traffic is heavy on the road going by, but inside the cabin it is quiet and surprisingly cool. As I lay on the futon I could hear the little creek bubbling away about 6 feet from the cabin. It's a rustic little shack - about the size of a loft apartment. Rough wooden beams overhead, plain white walls and small logs with the bark still on framing the windows. A great little get away place, as a real-estate agent might say.

Got off to work this morning while Young Tim took off to Winston for the Bob Dylan concert.
Wish I could have gone with him.

I thought I would miss my weekly visit to Mellow Mushroom while here in the port city ....

... but I was wrong. MFH wanted to get together with Joey Sobrino and his sister Emily. My sister in law decided to come along and suggested ... Mellow Mushroom. Joey said fine, they have good beer! (a man after my own heart) Emily Sobrina was so well dressed we first thought she was going with some other group.

So off we went. Same menu, different line up of local beers on draught. The funniest thing is that the Mellow Mushroom in north port city is Yuppy haven.... very trendy.

So Clovis and Maeread may have had to go to Mellow Mushroom Boone without Uncle Oscar, but I made it to a Mellow Mushroom!

We tried to see 'Pirtates of the Caribbean' today....

.... but it didn't work out the way we planned. MFH, her sister, and myself made it to the Big Mall and into the Regal Cinema just fine and sat down to enjoy the movie. Started off just fine, we got as far as the scene where Captain Jack Sparrow's hearty first mate is signing the commodore up for duty on the Black Pearl when.... the lights pop on, the screen goes blank, and an alarm starts bleeping. Then a smooth female fake recorded voice comes on telling us a fire has been reported in the building and we should immediately exit. So everyone dutifully files out through the outside wall of the Mall. Then everyone files quietly around the wall to the main entrance and files back into the Mall to try to get their money back. True American grit in the face of danger. Chaos reigns. More people move out of the Mall while more people are moving into the Mall.

Inside a huge mass of people are milling around in front of the boxoffice. There are a few very young teenage girls manning the ticket booths, but seem to be doing nothing more than talking seriously to the first people in the line - which does not move. There are no adults in charge. No one attempts to direct the mob or to tell them what is going on. Finally a pair of the teenage girls who work for the cinema come out and start telling everyone that if they keep their tickets they will be honored for the next three months.

Outside MFH has struck up a conversation with another couple who had just gotten seated in their movie when the alarm went off. We were more than halfway through ours.

About that time the fire trucks began to arrive - they were bright lime yellow. Out hops the shortest fireman I have ever seen who goes into the building by himself while all his buddies remain on the truck. We decide it is time to leave. As we drive away from the Big Mall, we see more firetrucks and ambulances pulling up.

We have no idea what really happened, but it certainly spoiled our nice matinee at the movies, lost a lot of business for the Mall, and cost the tax payers of the Port City a bundle to mobilize so many fire trucks and rescue teams.

Biking, a topic that occurred to me recently....

... and I wrote a lot about it for my Matins. So I am going to copy it out here:

I wonder how many miles I've put on my old Trek mountain bike? I wish now I'd taken the time to hook up the nice odometer MFH gave me years ago. But, in some ways it is just as well to keep it simple and low tech. Biking has meant a lot to me since I started it while in St Paul, my favorite city. It was certainly a great city for biking, at least when the weather allowed it. I think I was in the best shape though when I was biking up in Fosco -- all those hills and mountain slopes. I didn't realize how much I would enjoy that. I went to the bike shop in Boone the first year I lived in Fosco and bought the Trek for about $240. This was about 14 years ago so that was more money than it is now. I knew that if I spent the money, I would force myself to bike because I will not waste money no myself.

And so I did. At first I discovered that it was fun and made me feel better. Then as work became crazier and the infighting more intense, I began to realize it was keeping me sane. Or at least I wasn't getting any crazier.

The highlight of my biking in Fosco? The day I bike up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, looked down into the valley and all the ridges piled up beyond it, and realized I was supposed to be in a nasty department meeting that was taking place at that exact moment.

Pure bliss.

Once upon a time there was a little black cat who had a crush on Charlie Rose...

When we first got Ben and her sister Mosby we also got a big scratching post. It had a nice rug covered platform on the top that they both loved to lay on and watch the world. For a long while we had it in front of the TV for no good reason. Late at night we would often watch the Charlie Rose talk show - after all, Charlie is a good son of North Carolina.

Then we began to notice a strange thing. Little Ben, the silliest kitten that ever walked the earth, would climb up on the perch as soon as Charlie Rose's theme music came on. She would intently stare at Charlie and his coffee cup. One night he was interviewing George Bush. Every second the camera was focused on Charlie, Ben stared at him. As soon as the camera switched to George, Ben's head turned and she started watching something, anything, else. But when the camera went back to Charlie, Ben's head swiveled back to stare at him.

After a month or so of this, fickle Ben dumped him, and has paid no more attention to Charlie since. We have never been able to figure out what the attraction was. Unless it was the coffee cup.

MFH teaches piano every Thursday night at the Catholic Church to two young ladies (sisters of Luci, who I wrote about when she turned 3). When she got to the church tonight there was a big package UPS had left on the ground in front of the church doors. Stephanie, the five year old, looked it over very carefully. Then she turned and asked "Is it for God?"

It is simply amazing what I sometimes learn...
... from the folks on Mediev-L, a list server for Medievalists. Here is one about an animal you won't be seeing here in Wilkes. Or if you do, let us know ASAP.

In modern Arabic, fanak is (according to the Wehr-Cohen Dictionary) the English fennec (really the same word), “a very small nocturnal fox, Fennecus zerda, inhabiting deserts of N Africa and Arabia, having pale fur and enormous ears” (Collins English Dictionary).

Cute fellow:

http://www.naturalworlds.org/wolf/canids/Fennecus_zerda.htm