Red Smoke, Green Parrot & Donall

Yesterday, my wife and I were out running some errands. We were both fairly hungry, and prior to going out, Marcheline had asked me where we should go to eat.

I suggested a place that I had heard about called "Red Smoke"

Now, there's a small back-story to this.. I had first heard about this place back in July or August and had suggested going there. My wife immediately allowed that it sounded great, and agreed that we should go 'sometime'.

Over the ensuing months, whenever some occasion popped up where I was asked to suggest a place where we might go and eat, I would dutifully say, "Hey! Why don't we go and try that 'Red Smoke' place?", and my wife would reply, "Well... I want to try it, but, I don't want to go 'dressed like this'."

(What'the!?! - we go to all sorts of places 'dressed like this' ... what's the deal??) - but... I wouldn't make an issue out of it. I figured she just didn't feel like going there, and left it that... although, it was weird, because my wife generally says precisely what she thinks and/or feels, doesn't very often beat around the bush, and certainly never comes up with weird cheesy cop-out excuses for not doing something; she just says, "I don't want to do that" and that's that. But, there's a first time for everything, I figured, so I let it be.

So.. back to yesterday, I suggested "Red Smoke", and she readily agreed!! (This took place at the house, before we left.) Over the next hour or two, while we were out and about, she would ask me again and again where I thought we should eat, I would reply, "I thought we were going to 'Red Smoke'?", and she would mumble something like, "Oh, yeah... that's right...". Soon, the question began being, "Where is this Red Smoke place, again?", or, "How far away is this place?".

I was getting a vibe that she wanted to worm out of the whole 'Red Smoke' thing and go someplace else that was either: a). Closer, or: b). More familiar. In any case, I was definitely getting a sense that 'Red Smoke' was simply out of the question. She had been resisting going to this place pretty much every time I brought it up, and she was resisting it now... and it just didn't seem cool to force her to try something that she didn't want to try (But she wants to try EVERYTHING - so what was the deal??!!)

I finally said, "Forget it. Let's just go someplace else. It is fairly clear that you just don't want to go there... so you suggest someplace. I made my suggestion. Now its your turn."

She mulled it over for a while, then, apparently coming to a decision, she shrugged and said, "Let's go to 'Red Smoke'"

I said, "Now you want to go??!!"

She said, "Yeah.. let's go."

So... we went!

When we pulled up in front of the place, which was a storefront, 'get yer food at the counter and go find a table' 'spit and sawdust' kind of place, she breathed a huge sigh of relief and said, "Ohhhhh.... I thought this place was some kind of new fancy restaurant! I was afraid that I would look like a complete jackass walking in there in jeans!"

I had never even considered that the place was that kind of a restaurant... so I had never even attempted to disabuse her of that notion!...

"So THAT'S why you never wanted to come here 'DRESSED LIKE THIS'!!" I said, turning to her, and cracking up!!

"Yeah! You said 'This new restaurant just opened up, and I thought it was a fancy sit-down restaurant... it never crossed my mind that it was a take-out joint!"

We both got a kick out how badly we had communicated over this issue... for months!!

Man, we weren't even close to speaking the same language!!

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We went out to get our Yule Tree today, and on the way there, while sitting at a traffic light, we observed a motor vehicle accident happen right in front of us. It looked like a bad one, a broadside, and at fairly high speed... one of the cars lifted up on two wheels, but at the balancing point it fell back down onto its wheels, bounced a few times, then came to rest after getting blown from the center of the intersection to the curb. Once the smoke cleared and we had a chance to assess what had happened, it turned out that everyone was basically unhurt, so we continued on our way; but it gave us a good start. Why don't people learn to drive more carefully during such times?? Instead, they seem to drive like lunatics, and people get needlessly hurt and killed. Grrrr!

We name our trees each year, and this year's tree is named 'Donall'. He is a braw beautiful tree, and we will be happily decorating him tommorrow night (Monday).

Donall Being Escorted into Thistlebright Cottage by One Happy Bear!!

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When we got home, we were unloading the vehicle and carrying stuff into the cottage and all the while we both kept hearing a really strange bird cry. We had both heard the same call numerous times over the past months, but could never identify the creator of the sound; until today! We both stopped and began visually searching the trees for the source of the call, and finally Marcheline spotted this guy sitting on one of the branches of a tree in our backyard;



He has apparently run away from home, has woken up from a drunken binge, and now seems to think that he is a mourning dove. He was following a flock of them from tree to tree, squawking and screeching and squalling at them.

The doves were unavailable for comment as of presstime.

I'm worried about the wee bugger. Its getting cold out, and I'm not sure that he's very well equipped to survive.

Neither of us are very sure of what we can do, though... particularly since he was last seen heading southeast at 40 knots at an altitude of 185 feet.