That Which Is Accompanying Happy Hour Today

Cherries.  Lots of 'em.  They made an interesting counterpoint to our beer today... and they were/are good.

I have a couple o' few memories of cherries-past.  There's this:

I brake for Cherries!

We did indeed brake for cherries.  This particular photo was taken during the Great Northern US Tour of 2000, wherein The Family Sam and YrHmblScrb set off from the Seattle area headed to the east coast across the top of these United States, mostly via US2 (we covered the western leg in its entirety).  This pic was shot somewhere in Washington state and we spent the evening after dinner consuming mass quantities of cherries around the fire at our camp site, whereupon Sam (SN2), daughter-in-law Alisa, and Granddaughters Numbers One and Two (in that branch o' the fambly) and I indulged in the usual, customary, and reasonable cherry-pit spitting contest.  A good time was had by all.

And then there's the non-illustrated cherry story from 1987 or there 'bouts, wherein The Second Mrs. Pennington, our neighbor The Lovely Miss Lynch (Kim), and I sat out on our patio in Birmingham (a Dee-troit suburb) and consumed mass quantities (gallons) of cherries and waaaay too damned much wine, to the effect of five or six bottles between the three of us.  Kim had just returned from a trip up to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where cherries were in season.  She brought back a HUGE amount of same and we ate every single one of 'em while drinking the wine... a nice Bordeaux if memory serves.  Miss Lynch weaved her way home... which, being next door wasn't all THAT far... shortly before dawn; TSMP and I stumbled off to bed around the same time.  I think.  

We could only HOPE the bright red contents in the toilet bowl on the following morning was just wine mixed with cherry residue and not blood.  I'm thinkin' that was a pretty good bet in hindsight, but I wasn't so damned sure at the time.