A weekend without the one-man-band is withdrawal. So instead view holiday lights that are never turned off, especially those fit-for-NYE, all-night disco balls!
— And then it came to pass, there was to be three weekends without a Sunday Jeff Loven performance at Dick’s because of the timing of the holidays. Thus it was the Night Before Christmas (actually a week before) and it would have to last until well into January, for this local hiatus, the first consecutive weekends missed at Dick’s in more than a decade by the singer-guitarist. And on this (holy) night he doubled up on same-wording, street-rod lingo for names of the toy cars by two different designers given away on two of his three nightly trivia contests. They had just the right similar, manly tone, (pete and repeat)?
— And it also came to pass, as each then went home to his own “country” after bar closing, that there still were houses that had their Christmas tree lights on not all YEAR long, like the song by that Redneck country woman, but all NIGHT long. Looking wonderful into the wee hours.
— Behind the bar at Pudge’s saloon and eatery, there sits a full-blown Nativity stable, a dozen pieces in all (that includes the animals), not exactly the kind of Xmas merriment you’d expect to find at a tavern.
— In a front yard in Bayport, there are several disco balls that smack of New Year’s Eve — compounded by a couple more in the center of town — and the display of a neighbor one house down made reference to another holiday classic, Snoopy riding his doghouse, complete with rotating propellers.
— I wanted to buy a gift to reward such holiday cheer, but I was fearful that the “virtual” gift card I saw advertised might not exist at all.
— And out and about immediately after Christmas, in the proper colors for the season, were patrons with both red and green hair. They should get a gift for being so bold.
— A pair of bell ringers were challenging each other to push themselves beyond their limits, as it was late at night. One said to the other, can you ring that thing a little more often?!? So much for holiday cheer. For that, they should have been standing outside Stone Tap, which has a couple of beer kegs (I’m assuming they’re empty) flanking their door and filled with holiday greenery. The ones who placed them there (did they indulge first?) might want to heed the signs every few miles, to the point of annoyance, along Interstate 94 that are hawking the benefits of having holiday cheer while still sober.
— A woman I met at the bar said that the next day, she actually was going home to Pennsylvania (and we assume some homemade pumpkin pie).
— Just prior, she might have come back to one of two very-late-in-the-season ugly sweater contests at local haunts. They were on the 22nd and 23rd. Last chance to dress down before you dress up?
— I wished one of my bartender friends, Happy Hanukkha, and then added two things: (1) If I am not Jewish, can I get away with saying that? and (2) I am actually a Closet Jew, but hadn’t told anyone — but isn’t that status the reason for being in the closet?
— But now on to that other staple of the season — football victories. A woman came into Pudge’s over the weekend shortly before closing and asked the bartender, “have you seen two drunk guys wearing Viking jerseys?” There’s lots of competition for that answer. Like when I was two houses down from my house on Cherry Circle North and saw a guy, who appeared to be staggering, make an apparent attempt to thumb a ride. Hitchhiking through a small cul-de-sac?
— But the Viking-Packer contest was not the only game in town. Ohio State football was on tap at Buffalo Wild Wings, and flanking a woman friend were two men who just couldn’t stop talking about the Buckeyes, (which is unusual for Wisconsin!) And she herself was wearing a Disney theme park sweatshirt, (wouldn’t you think Florida Gators?) Then while away for the holidays, my traveling partner, who is a Viking fan through and through, also found herself flanked, by a pair of enemy Packers backers, one of whom noted the initial NFL had a team in the enemy state, that being the Duluth nearly-dozen (I believe they were officially called the Bulldogs). Separate, but related: OSU vs. Wisconsin was on the tube at 4 p.m. (or wait, that was basketball). The football game was advertised as being at 8 p.m. (or wait, that was Eastern time). So the actual gametime, in Central time, was 7 p.m. (in media sports schedules, is using Central time going the way of the metric system?) The producers of a recent Carol Burnett remembrance might think so, as they had the star of their show note in her trademark farewell that it was going through a certain hour before they’d have to say “so long,” but this was actually off an hour because it took into account Eastern time.