Fish, Wizards and Dogs

Fish, Wizards and Dogs

I suppose you could say with some certainty that nothing really lasts forever and you'd be a hundred percent accurate in your statement. But, in your heart of hearts you always hope that some things would last forever. Or even just a shade this side of forever. Or maybe through next Tuesday? Even some dumb little things.

Let me give you an example.

As I've written about in the past, on most Fridays my wife and I eat lunch at a local restaurant which is only a short walk from our house. We can get there in 7 to 10 minutes, depending on how long a stride we take and how energetic we feel at the time. I usually walk, as I'm home during the lunch hour and my wife usually drives from work and meets me there. We go there, at least I go there, for the fish. Like a lot of restaurants, this one serves a fish special on Fridays. I guess that's a holdover from the old days when the Catholics had meatless Fridays. I happen to like fish so I'm happy for the holdover if that's what it is. Anyway, this restaurant serves your basic cornmeal battered whitefish fillets, french fries, slaw, roll/butter. And, over the years that we've been eating there, I've grown accustomed to the good fish that the restaurant serves. Do I eat their fish every week? No. You get jaded after a while, so I break it up with a club sandwich occasionally or maybe a roast beef sandwich of which they make a pretty decent one.

But fish is the primary draw for me.

But recently, sadly, it hasn't been quite the meal I remember. Last Friday, for example, the fish was definitely sub-par. I guess you could be generous and say it was edible. But it wasn't the juicy-centered, flaky, crunchy-coated yummy piece of fish it used to be. It was bad enough that I asked to have one of the fillets replaced. It was thin, tough and more resembled a piece of fish jerky. Overcooked? Definitely. Way, way, way over cooked. Perhaps a poorer fillet than what they normally serve? I think so. I was immediately given two new fresh fillets to replace the objectionable one when the owner saw my hand motions indicating a problem. And, to sadly tell the truth, the two replacements weren't all that much better. One, which was OK at best I ate. The other I left.

My wife and I are Friday regulars there and are treated like family. Our drink orders are brought without our having to state what we want, we know most of the wait staff's names and the owner's also. We're on friendly terms with everyone and we genuinely like going there. But recently... There is that less-than-optimal fish to contemplate. And last Friday wasn't the first time. I've decided to have a chat with the owner the next time this happens. I am generally known as an easily satisfied man. Most things are fine with me. If things are a little better or sometimes a little worse – I don't generally worry. But... if I am noticing a deterioration in the quality of the fish, I'll bet others are too. And I surely don't want the place to go downhill.

Like I said earlier, they're almost family!

So maybe they got a bad batch from the supplier. Maybe the oil in the fryer needed changed. Maybe it was a new fry cook or that particular day the fry cook was not 100 percent and left the fish in too long. Maybe a lot of stuff. So that's why I won't worry too much about it. But I think we might patronize another restaurant next Friday. No offense old friend, but I want a little time to recuperate from the “fish jerky”.

In a week or two I'm sure we'll go back. I'll pay attention to the fish on other patron's plates on my way to my table and make a decision then whether to try it again.

But how many chances do you give a place before it starts becoming not your favorite Friday place?

Stand by for more news later on this alarming story.

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I went to see the latest Harry Potter movie on Saturday night. I am happy to report that the movie was GREAT and it met all my expectations for the culmination of the series. Now I know there are those of you out there that are not Harry Potter fans and could give a flying whatever about the end of the series. So go ahead and skip on down to the next topic. That's OK. I need to talk to my wizard-loving friends for a minute. I'll meet you down below shortly.

My wife, my son and I have been “on board” with the young wizard from the first get go, have read all the books and seen all the movies. We anticipated the release of each book and each movie and happily read and watched them as appropriate. So I guess you could call us fans. So be it. Fan or not, the movie was, as I said earlier, great! The only negative I could communicate to you would be that that this is the last one. No more Hogwarts, no more Harry, Ron, Hermione. No more Hagrid, Dumbledore, Snape and all the other fascinating characters from the fertile imagination of J.K. Rowling and the awesome abilities of the actors who have portrayed them. No more watching the principal characters grow from bright children through their awkward teen years into fascinating young adults.

We're surely going to miss them. And, from the box-office returns, so are a lot of other folks!

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Took a drive on Sunday down to Wheeling, West Virginia to visit Wheeling Island Casino and Racetrack. Over the past few years we've grown to enjoy going to the greyhound races there and trying to guess which of the marvelous dogs were going to be the fastest in each race. I like to think that, with the help of the racing form and all the statistics that are displayed there, I can calculate what the winners will be a majority of the time. Sometimes my calculations seem to be “on the money” and I'll pocket a dollar or two. But, sadly, the majority of the time the pups in the races have ideas of their own and decide to finish the race in wildly different order than I anticipated. I guess that's one of the draws. Man against dog or something like that. As I always say, at least you don't have to factor in a jockey on the back of the dogs! They do their thing all alone.

As usual when the wife and I go there, one of us is usually “up” at the end of the races and the other one is “down”. Sunday was my turn to be down. Not terribly down, but definitely down. She played all the races on her original $10 and cashed out $14. Four hours of fun and she got paid for it! We shared the afternoon with two of our friends from where I work, so it was even more fun than it usually was. We ate at the casino buffet after the dog races and were pleasantly surprised at the increase in quality of the food there. They'd redecorated and obviously upped the food budget. We then paid our obligatory visit to Mr. and Mrs. One-Armed-Bandit. They were more than happy to see us and to closely examine the color of our money. We thoroughly enjoy playing the slot machines but almost never come out ahead. Sunday was no different. We wandered through the maze of blinking, shiny machines, each of which was singing that familiar slot machine tune. We tried out a number of them. Some were tight and kept about everything we gave them. Others were a bit more generous and teased us a bit with smaller jackpots. In the end we bid them farewell along with the dollars we'd allocated to our fun. I'm again always thankful that we don't have any addiction to the activity and are quite content to walk away when our budget for the day has been met.

A quiet drive back home capped the festivities for the weekend.

So now it's time to get heavily involved in last-minute planning for our 4-day escape to Canada. Stay tuned for developments!