Today we take a small break from the gas fiasco that rules our daily lives to go to the local brewery for my daughter's birthday celebration. The brewery, which is also without hot water, hasn't been making new beer (unless it has been sanitizing with boiled water, which is entirely possible), so everyone is helping to drink up the current supply. Soon, very soon, the brewery will be right in the construction zone, too, because there are tell-tale white paint marks running down the road.
We bring in pizza and cake and get family together: girlfriends, boyfriends, sisters, moms, cousins from out of town. It's not bad for a rag-tag group. At one point ten of us are crowded around the long table I put together when I arrive at opening time to secure our spot by the window. Even though it's a holiday weekend, and even though most of the streets around us are blocked for gas pipeline deconstruction, there are still enough patrons here so that vying for a good spot is nearly a full-contact sport.
Football is on the big screen, but the Patriots are off today, and no one we care to watch is playing at the moment. We tell stories, laugh, and celebrate the birthday girl. The wonderful weather we expect today (sunny in the high 70's) never arrives. By the time we are ready to leave, it's drizzling and chilly out, so I am glad I drove down the hill to get here. I drive up the hill, searching for the blocked streets, but I am able to drive over the metal plates on my road, squeeze by parked machinery, and then back into my driveway. That makes two out six nights I've parked close to home.
Okay, so it's only a small break from gas mayhem, but it's a break, just the same. Best of all, we get to celebrate my daughter and her birthday, and we get to pretend life is normal for a little while.
