Suzy Says

You never know what you’ll find on the Hooterville back roads…

One of the conditions of the new job was getting tested for TB, a new experience for me. They inject something under your skin, and two days later, you go in, they look at the spot for .000001 of a second, and tell you that you don’t have it. More than an hour of driving for a millisecond of looking!

On my way to the mini appointment, I came around a sunny curve in the road and found a flock of wild turkeys. The tom was in the middle of the road with his tail feathers spread wide and gleaming in the sun, while his less splendid wives and girlfriends milled around, partly crossing the road and then retreating. Honking at these silly geese turkeys is not effective, and I had the rare and delightful feeling of being slightly superior in intelligence.

By the time the chickens turkeys had crossed the road, there was quite an audience of paused cars with drivers watching the floor show. I have to admit to being totally delighted by the whole thing, and I smiled all the way to town.

One of the good things about breaking up with my work family (and, so far, the only good thing), is that we are now real life friends instead, so I can do things like meet a former co-worker and current friend for a glass of wine overlooking the ocean:

While waiting for him to turn up, I took the opportunity to snap a picture of the iconic Hooverville bridge from a different angle:

The august New York Times just wrote an article about the preservation of this bridge, which is the last wooden bridge on historic Highway One. I couldn’t help wondering where the writer stayed and what he thought of my little town. You can take the girl out of the jobette, but you can’t take the jobette out of the girl.

When my friend arrived, we had a wonderful time catching up with each other. He always has the funniest stories, and his family has so much drama in it that they should have their own reality show.

He noticed the label on a bottle of wine that a couple had brought with them and asked the bartender to open for them. It was Silver Oak, and my friend asked whether it was Napa or Sonoma. Napa, 2004, they replied, adding that it was their 22nd anniversary and a friend had given it to them. My friend replied that the bottle probably cost upward of $150, which surprised them, and gently suggested that they decant it before dinner. They were even more surprised when he looked it up on his phone and discovered that if you can find a bottle, it will run you about $225.

They decanted it.