Yesterday afternoon I joined Marilyn Stevens and Paul Hastings at a local brewery to listen to Paul and his four-person band band play some oldies-but-goodies…

 

Paul on piano/vocals

Lead Singer guitar/harmonica

 

Behind Paul, drummer/vocals

 

Electric guitar, vocals

 

The gathering audience very early on…

 

Marilyn Stevens, my newest friend/author

 

I didn’t get to meet the band members, so I will have to ask Marilyn their names.

 

Marilyn drove to the end of  Calle Esteban Salas to pick up Nancy (one of the neighbors I had been briefly introduced to by Diane, another neighbor) and then she came back by my driveway and picked me up.  She also had her littlest dog Luna along because there was thunder and lightning and Luna is afraid of that, so Marilyn didn’t want to leave her alone at home.

 

She had given her some calming meds, but Luna prefers their vehicle and being near Paul and Marilyn, and she feels more secure in there, so she came along.  After the thunder stopped  — which happened quite soon — Marilyn tried walking her into the event (there were two very large dogs also in attendance, an Irish wolfhound and a labradoodle, I think) but she was decidedly happier in the vehicle, so Marilyn let her return to it to go to sleep.

 

The event got underway at three. When we arrived, the place was pretty empty, but not long after, it began to fill with what appeared to be an audience of mostly immigrants from the States. The conversations that I heard around me were mostly in English.  So this brewery appears to be a local gathering spot for gringos. By the time we headed out at a little after 5 p.m., the place was only starting to thin out a little.  Most of the time it was packed with people.

 

Other than Nancy, Marilyn and Paul, the only person I knew (who arrived later) was Marilyn’s next door neighbor, who I just had met the previous week with Jon’s lunch bunch at the Grecia Futbol Club. But there were two men there who looked so familiar that I kept wondering if I had known them decades ago back in the States.

 

As our time there was about to end, I introduced myself to one of the gentlemen. His name is Kevin. He’s from Colorado, not Washington, but we had a brief conversation.  Very nice guy.  I told him I believe he has a doppelganger in Washington State.  (He has no relatives there, so if he does have a lookalike, it isn’t because they’re related.)

 

Being a wallflower, I didn’t mix and mingle except with “those that brung me” and with Marilyn’s neighbor a wee bit.  I did buy a chorizo and limonada at the place, so I interacted with those vendors, but that was just about all. The chorizo was fabulous, and so was the limonada.

 

It became quite the happening place.  Before long, the audience was pretty much shoulder to shoulder. All sitting places were taken and one couple danced a few times in the small amount of space that was still available to move at all.  I very much enjoyed hearing the band and watching the activity.

 

Then, since outings usually drain me, I came home and went almost immediately to bed.  Which is why you’re receiving this report at 3:09 in the morning the next day!  I’m pretty much all slept out and didn’t want to stay in bed until daybreak, so I got up, made myself a cup of cocoa, and sat down to write this.

 

I think that’s pretty much all I did yesterday, other than write the previous blog post, which I have also just releases now.

 

Have a great day!