Grandpa's Day 2024 Pt 1

Friday was the 41st anniversary of Grandpa's Day,  a day trip I took with my Grandpa only two weeks before he died.  To celebrate,  I took a much needed day off of work. 

Late in the morning Lisa and I drove down to Kenosha for lunch, taking the scenic route down Hwy 32. We ate at the Union Park Tavern, at the recommendation of a co-worker.

I will say that there sides were grand.  The jalapeño poppers featured red jalapeños and had a delicious kick to them. 

The potato wedges were on point,  and Lisa enjoyed the cheesy hashbrowns. 

The restaurant bucked tradition and in place of rye bread provided a thick slab of Italian bread.  I found this to be an abomination,  but it was much to my wife's liking. 

The fish tho . . . this was my 3rd fish fry in Kenosha and I just don't think they've got the knack for it. The batter was light and had almost no crisp to it,  the cod itself was average, and the seasoning was meh.

Sigh. 

Oh, and look at this egregious error in the 'newsletter' they have at each table:

"Wayne Cochran"????????? Do you mean the late, great EDDIE Cochran sir?????

Still a nice lunch.

Afterwards we drove home and enjoyed a nice nap before being awoken by Lulu constructing a new garbage cart for our kitchen. 

Then Lisa headed to work and I stopped by the cemetery to pay my respects and say another thank you for that great day we had together so long ago. 

The Shootist

 

For the first time in over a year I finished reading a book, and my word did I pick a good one. 

The Shootist is a novel by Glendon Swarthout, and served as the basis for the movie of the same name that became John Wayne's final role on film. It's about John Barnard Books, a middle aged gunfighter who travels to El Paso to see a surgeon he trusts. That doctor verifies what he already knew, that he is dying of prostate cancer. Taking up a room in the boarding house of a widow and her troubled teenage son, Books determines that the illness will not best him; instead, he intends to leave the world as he lived it, with a gun in his hand. 

From the start Swarthout charms you with the poetry of his language, the wonderful descriptions of people and places, and insightful glimpes into the inner workings of the main characters. This was once voted as one of the greatrest Westerns of the 20th century, and they weren't wrong. 

I can't say I love the ending, which is much darker than the film. But I cannot say it was the wrong choice, as it fits perfetctly into the tale. 

Grade: A+

The Bear

 

I did not want to watch The Bear. I watch very little TV in recent years, and I had zero interest in investing time in a new show I knew I wouldn't watch again. But alas, Junie occupied the living room and I had little choice. 

I wound up binging the entire first season. 

By now I'm sure you've heard the premise: a rising star in the restaurant world returns to Chicago to run the family sandwich shop after the death of his brother, and the conflict between the two culinary worlds stretches the bonds of both family and friends. 

It's great. Fast paced, emotional, funny, well acted, it's got it all. Now I did think a couple episodes were clearly filler, a surprising disappointment in a mere ten episode arc, and the finale was a deus ex machina of the highest order. 

Still, welllllllll worth tuning it. 

Grade: A+