Hmmm...tried to attached a photo showing our thaw in progress, but I guess that file was too large so all you get is Reggie in the shadows (we have sun!).
Getting back to bourbon, although I'm really not a bourbon guy, I decided to go for the bourbon flight at Jazz Standard the other night. They offered five 1oz. pours of various bourbons. They included Basil Hayden's, Blanton's, Bulleit 10 yr, Jefferson's Small Batch and Bookers. All for the tidy sum of $34.00.
"...your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride." - Anthony Bourdain
Getting back to bourbon, although I'm really not a bourbon guy, I decided to go for the bourbon flight at Jazz Standard the other night. They offered five 1oz. pours of various bourbons. They included Basil Hayden's, Blanton's, Bulleit 10 yr, Jefferson's Small Batch and Bookers. All for the tidy sum of $34.00.
Did you have a favorite? That JSB is good stuff, but my house brand is Maker's Mark due to the fact that I'm a MM Ambassador and it fits my budget.
Did you have a favorite? That JSB is good stuff, but my house brand is Maker's Mark due to the fact that I'm a MM Ambassador and it fits my budget.
To be honest, Jason, there was a slight differencein the coloration of each but as far as taste goes I was unable to detect any great differences as I sipped one after the other. Yes, there were subtle differences but not enough to say that one was much better than the others. I've had the Bulleit a few times so I'm familiar with it. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you gave me a second pour of any of them I would have been happy.
"...your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride." - Anthony Bourdain
Hmmm...tried to attached a photo showing our thaw in progress, but I guess that file was too large so all you get is Reggie in the shadows (we have sun!).
So, it turns out, this was like the best photo I ever took of Reggie - when I blow it up - it is remarkable. And so perhaps the best photo I have of Reggie, one that I can remember him by, I owe to JMJ. I had to put my best bud down on Sunday, it was sudden, it was fast, and I can guarantee you I feel light years better than I did about losing JMJ. I don't even miss Reggie, or at least, yet. I am just so grateful to have had him in my life. We had an understanding. I got him when I was 28 (!) and he stuck by me for 17 years! I wanted him always to go like lightening and he did, but I do feel some remorse.
I'm not crazy about coming on here because I simply have not kept up with a lot of people who really and truly mean a lot to me. I spent a decade with you and you regulars know who you are and any participation I have on here is so hit and miss - paying homage to some and completely missing others with whom I have had history. I just wanted to say that there are many of you here who have meant a lot to me and whom I care about but I just can't keep on a place like this. I limit my internet "stuff" because I am easily overwhelmed (blah blah blah) but just wanted to try to acknowledge that I wish you all well.
I wasn't going to post this, wait a few days to write, but then there is this weirdness about JC going down. Can't find the announcement though. god bless (no worries, don't believe in god, per se, but bless y'alls anyway. you can live with that, right?)
Thanks for that, Uli. I am really and truly doing fine. The two animal passings I have gone through as an adult - you know animals within my care - have left me more with a feeling of gratitude to have had these absolutely Amazing creature friends - bona fide friends and companions in the profoundest sense - in my life than with grief and I'd been wondering what is wrong with me that this seems too easy for me and then I remembered that, no, I am capable of feeling grief because I was positively stricken for quite some time - knowing that it was nothing compared to those who actually knew him and had him in their lives - when I found out about JMJ. Crying and crying and crying.
I have a neighbor who has been mourning the loss of his 16 year old dog - poor guy - for like 18 months and I felt like he was trying to elbow in on a reason to feel grief and advising me to go into it "the sooner the better" and telling my life would be changed in a 1,000 ways and it made me question myself again, but, no, he was describing the grief that he still feels and that is a terrible thing for him, poor guy, but it's got nothing to do with me and my bond with Reggie, which is private and beyond his understanding just as his bond with his dog is beyond mine. My life now is really the same except without my cuddle bunny to look straight into my eyes, but I honor him and the genuine strength he gave me by going on and doing the best I can in life. He is not my mother or my father or sister or brother. That will overwhelm me should any pass before me and it is likely that at least two of them will; but Reggie was so goddamn cool that he supports me. I hated putting him down and there is no way for me not to wish I'd picked up on things and maybe found a way to keep him around longer, but that's not how things worked out and it sucks, but that animal knows that I loved him with my whole soul and it seemed like all of that was returned by him for 17 years so I can't ask for anything more but try to be a better person for having that kind of experience in my life. That's how I feel when animals die, like I want to be a better person. Isn't that weird? Perhaps it's because there is by nature such an uncomplicated honesty in our relationship with animals that is impossible to share with complicated humans. Humans always keep us guessing. Animals really don't.
tippy, I understand where you're coming from. You sound like you feel a little bit guilty for not feeling differently but I don't see why.
To have a beloved pet for 17 years is victory. I've even felt that way about people who died in my family. We lost a bunch of loved ones way too young and when I finally lost someone who lived into her 80s and died saying that she was ready and had a good life it was so very different. It was still sad but the sense of tragedy wasn't there.
Living a long, happy life is all anyone can hope for. Pets included.
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Originally Posted by Jimmy Cantiello
