Anecdotes - and Catching Up

I'm back from a mostly-internetless weekend where I saw a bunch of old friends and saw God Street Wine in concert twice.  Two quick stories from the weekend while I catch up on the goings on, and work on a GSW trip report:

1) Ice Cream Store in Rumson, New Jersey (very very wealthy town):

I went out for ice cream with Lee and his wife on Sunday night.  We ran into a huge line at Crazees (big biz!) and eventually I obtained a cherry vanilla cone with brownie bites.  As we stepped outside to sit down and eat our ice cream, we encountered a woman presiding over a cute King Charles Cavalier Spaniel as well as her three daughters who were running back and forth into the store. The girls looked to be about 6, 8 and 10 years old.  The dog tried to lick one of the girls' cones while she wasn't looking, but the mom chided the pup, "No, Caymus, you'll get your own."  Dad then brought out a soft serve vanilla cup for the dog and placed it on the ground.  I couldn't resist, asking, "Won't that make the dog sick?"  "Oh no - she eats a lot of French cheese,"  the woman replied, and immediately another woman sitting on the other side asked the same question, wondering if it would upset the dogs stomach.  All I know is that I'm pretty sure I'm not giving MY dog a full serving of ice cream unless I feel like mopping up diarrhea.  Boom!  See - you didn't think I could work diarrhea into a blog post first thing on Tuesday morning did you?

So the mom puts the cup of ice cream on the ground, and says "Here you go, Caymus" (by the way - CAYMUS!!!!)  Caymus takes two licks and then WALKS AWAY! I couldn't believe it - I was in awe.  This pooch must have quite a life.  Immediately, all three little girls spout, "I'LL EAT IT!" and one of the girls, the youngest, promptly drops her ice cream cup right on the ground, face down, but immediately implements the 5 second rule, scooping it off the ground and re-engages it without a spoon.   Great stuff.

2) I had a little Amtrak trouble yesterday coming home from NYC to Boston.  When our train (the regional - aka LOCAL) pulled into Old Saybrook, there was an Acela Express waiting there already on the adjacent track.  "Uh oh," I said out loud, and the conductor immediately explained that there was a "serious situation" with storm damage to the tracks ahead which was currently being diagnosed, but that we "be here a while."  I got off the train, found out that the Express had already been there for 90 minutes, and realized that they'd get the go-ahead before us.  I politely negotiated my way onto the Express, after asking the conductor if the train was crowded, and if I could hop on. "Are you gonna pay the difference in fairs?"  He asked me.  "Nope."  I replied.  He shrugged and smiled and said "ok - we're trying to be accommodating - but don't go talking in a loud voice telling everyone on that other train that you're coming over here."   It ended up taking me 7 hours to get from NYC to Boston, even on the "Express,"  and then I had to take a bus back to Concord.  As the bus pulled into the station, I got totally soaked by a raging rain storm as I ran to my car, and my wife called to tell me that the power was out!  

Anyway, the power is back, and I'm catching up on the weekend's reading...

-KD