Today’s headline refers to the fact that my eldest child today turns twenty-one.

All told, it’s not the best year to turn twenty-one if you’re of the mind to go out and visit interesting drinking establishments and such (especially when your dad knows so many brewery people). We’d talked for quite a while about the “Stumbling Tour of Scott’s Addition™”, though as things stand, the taprooms are barely starting to open, and usually only with limited outside seating, and it’s looking like rain for the weekend.

I feel bad for the kid, I really do.

Instead, we’re going to have an evening at home with family (and the kid’s paramour), requested take-out chinese food, and a variety of fine brews and spirits I’ve picked up along the way. Also, Dungeons and Dragons, also at the request of the kid. She deserves a happy birthday; she’s shaping up to be a fine upstanding citizen, and I am proud, even if I sometimes struggle to express it.

While out adventuring with my mask firmly in place (it’s required here in the Commonwealth, though I see too many people in non-compliance) Thursday, to get the usual cat food and a couple of grocery items (and said spirits), I took advantage of Phase 2 opening and had my first pint in an actual taproom in months, a frosty vessel of Valiant Knight IPA at Castleburg, chatting with beertender Leslie from a socially responsible distance, catching up on small things and enjoying being in the comapny of a friend for half an hour, before I grabbed some beer to go and headed home.

It was nice.

It was especially nice, because the office has been requiring lots of thought and evaluation and interpersonal issues, as well as briefing to senior executives to get acquisitions approved. Today looked entirely too much like I should maybe have a law degree, which wasn’t comfortable, and I think my boss and I are going to throw some things over the fence to the lawyers and folks with the checkbooks anyway. There might be some interesting developments on the horizon as well, but I know very little; certainly not enough to talk about. In any case, it was nice to chat with a friend over a beer in a familiar (if somewhat more thinly furnished) environment after dealing with all that and pushing myself through six miles on the bike in the neighborhood in half an hour; which is fast for me on my relatively large and hefty off-road vehicle.

The weekend ahead? I dunno. We’ll do some birthday things, some of the standard errand stuff, and I’m likely on Sunday to check out yet another newish brewery (Crazy Rooster), have a pint on the patio and meet a thus-far online only friend who runs a local craft beer social media group (and who’s also a hell of a guitar player), which might be nice. I also took Monday off because I have too much leave in the coffers (no traveling gigs at all, dammit), and I don’t want it to go to waste.

Also, happy Juneteenth, which is definitely a thing we should be celebrating.

Anyway, tunes. The playlist from Spotify is all over the place this week; little bit of Prog, little bit of folk, plus some classic rock, the welcome return of Zappa, and the always jarring appearance of a track featuring yours truly on bass. One day I’ll get used to that:

1. “Journeyman” – Jethro Tull
2. “Lappi (Lapland)” Pt I: “Erämaajärvi” – Nightwish
3. “Camarillo Brillo” – Frank Zappa & The Mothers
4. “I’m Going to Hogwarts” – Lauren Fairweather
5. “From The Beginning (Live)” – Keith Emerson, Greg Lake
6. “Chronophobia” – Bad Religion
7. “Rivendell” – Rush
8. “Niffler Swing” – The Blibbering Humdingers
9. “Making Friends” – Bishop Allen
10. “Sharp Dressed Man” – ZZ Top
11. “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” – Tom Lehrer
12. “Spirit and the Stone” – Jeff and Maya Bonhoff
13. “Let It Go (live)” – The Clarks
14. “The Last Song on the Album” – Devo Spice
15. “Angel Standing By” – Jewel