Friday, May 14, 2010

Graduation and Friends

“24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not."
H.L. Mencken

Yesterday was a momentous occasion. A few friends actually got together to share a few pints of liquid gold at a local watering hole.

Now, you are thinking, “what’s the big deal?” So, you went out and a beer with some friends. Well, I have to say that when I say, “momentous”, I do mean momentous.

You see, this group of friends and so called, gentlemen are elusive. To get all of us in the same room around the same table after work takes planning. It is not just a quick email or call saying, “Meet me for a drink.” This type of activity takes weeks of planning and re-planning to find one day out of the whole year where we can actually have a beer together.

On this particular date that was set, I counted over 25 emails from 7 individuals. The date changed 2 to 3 times and the time fluctuated until we settled on, May 13, 2010 at 5:45PM at Taco Mac. This date was set and put into our planners 2 weeks ago. Jeff, Jay, Bob, Lou, Todd and myself were, “go to go” while Tim could not make it due to travel.

However, as the weeks ended the 6 friends that were to meet at 5:45PM at Taco Mac became, four. Two friends could not make it leaving Bob, Jay, Todd and me to share in a few suds and catch up.

I have found it is best to over invite to a gathering with the anticipation that 20-30% of the invites will drop off for one reason or another.

So, the four of us met at Taco Mac. Bob had been working on his Brewinversity diploma from Taco Mac and was 3 suds away from graduation. When completed Bob would have drunk 125 beers in almost a 4-year period just at Taco Mac. Running some rough numbers that is: 32 beers a year for a total of $960.00 in hard earned money to accomplish this feat.

During our time Bob, since he was the beer aficionado of Taco Mac order beers for us. Kona Fire Run Pale Ale, Hop Devil, Albeit and Hercules. We all drank and saluted Bob in his 125th beer which was the Hercules at 8.5% alcohol. We also raised one to Lou and Jeff in their absence.
We had a great time talking about the normal stuff guys talk about. Marathon’s, training, the next race, convincing Todd to run Chicago, our kids. Just the normal stuff.

After a quick bite to eat and finishing our beers we took off for home. Age does creep up on you especially when you arrive at a bar and leave a bar and the sun is still shining.

This is one event that we need to schedule more often. It is good to hang with good friends for a while with no worries of work or family life.

This morning was rough. Though the beers were limited the alcohol level left me a little foggy waking up. I had an appointment with Ann Marie to swim and do a short run. Tomorrow is AM’s first tri of the season down at the Peachtree City International.

We swam only 1000 meters and ran for 20 minutes. Though it was short, I did not mind it. The structure of only running 20 minutes kept me in check to build back slowly.

We finished the short burst workouts and stretched and talked for a while about almost the same things the men discussed last night. A little more about kids and family, but that is expected when you have a friend that has certain things in common.

Sarah and I are grateful to have friends that share the same common bounds of family, friends and competitiveness.

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