Thai-ing one On

Here it is, Presidents’ Day, so we survived the Valentine weekend. There was no snow this weekend and it helped in getting visitors into town and into the stores. All the hotels were booked this weekend. Tamara and I worked the two stores on Saturday (and Tuesday through Sunday), as we normally do each week this time of year. After closing at 5pm on Saturday we went to a wedding of another business owner in town, Michael, who also moved here from California shortly before we did nearly four years ago. He is a photographer who bought a building which used to house a local bar, The Portal, and turned it into a photography studio and retail store that sells items from Southeast Asia. Michael likes Southeast Asia and the women from there. The woman he married on Saturday is from Thailand. I guess you could say Michael finally Thai-ed the knot.

After closing the store on Friday, another friend of mine, Bob, who owns Switzerland of America Jeep Rentals, and I went to O’Brien’s Pub for a couple of beers. Bob is the husband of Brandy, who was mentioned earlier as being our teammate in the spelling bee. Bob and I sat at the bar and tried not to end up spilling beers. We had the Stone Brewery Pale Ale. Stone Brewery is in our former state of California, so we are familiar with its beers, such as Arrogant Bastard. Tamara and I even went to a beer tasting dinner years ago at one of our favorite brew pubs in Long Beach, Belmont Brewing Company, that featured a selection of Stone Brewery beers. Yummy dinner, yummier beers! Anyway, Bob and I had a couple of twenty ouncers. It was some kickass beer and the alcohol content was a bit high. High alcohol content and high altitudes here in the San Juan Mountains make for some quick highs. I tell people that drinking beer at this altitude has saved me a lot of money since I don’t have to drink as much to get a good buzz. Another good thing about living here in this one-mile square town of Ouray is that we walk almost everywhere. That eliminates the drinking and driving combination. Of course, drinking and then walking home to our house on Oak Street can be a challenge – both because of the altitude and the uphill climb of Oak Street. It tends to sober one up just a bit.