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09/05/20: Chuck Comes Out For Quick Visit

Chuck came out Saturday 09/05/20 for a quick visit over the Labor Day holiday. He actually arrived early Friday morning (6:15 am), but we didn't get to see him until Saturday.

He had decided to drive because he didn't want to fly with all of the continuing concern over the COVID-19 pandemic that was still in force. But, he loves to drive. He planned to stop and sleep if he got tired. He said that only happened in about the last couple of hours of his trip, so he just pressed on.

As soon as he got in, he tumbled into bed as he had driving 18 hours straight through from the Chicago area. He got up late that afternoon just before Marissa, Gary, and Mia got home from work.

They all had a nice catch up visit, and then went to have an outside dinner in Dover. He came over to our house for lunch on Saturday, and spent the day with us.

Sue had made a wonderful quiche, and it was such a beautiful day that we just sat outside in the sun chatting and eating.

It did start to cool off as the sun began to fade as it arched west over the house, so we decided to head for the screen porch. Actually, Chuck and I sat in there while Sue headed off to get fresh ears of corn for dinner.

It wasn't long after she got back that I opened our special bottle of wine for the night: a 2018 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon. My real estate agent, Arthur Pappas, had given it to me at the 'end of an era' 09/01/20 closing.

What a wonderful wine! It was smooth right out of the bottle, and matured softly through the evening as the three of us sipped it. What you'd expect from a store price of around $90 - gad knows what a restaurant would charge: maybe $225 or more.... And it went great with the dinner that I cooked, a dry brined steak seared over a bed of rosemary, and then slow oven baked (a Tim Ferris 4 Hour Chef recipe).

After dinner, it was so nice out that we sat out around the fire pit until it got chilly. We finished off the evening having some great 'Peach Puddle Pie' that Sue had made — topped with ice cream for sure!

Chuck spent Sunday with Marissa and family as Labor Day, Monday, they would all be going up to their grandfather's house in York, and Chuck would be back with us.

Tuesday after having a wonderful avocado, black bean, and salsa over scrambled egg brunch, we all headed over to Butternut Farm to pick apples. Chuck had never been apple picking - just where would you do that in Chicago other than the supermarket as was all I knew until Sue took me for the first time back in 2011 or so.... Anyway, Butternut was just beautiful, and we all had a great time picking apples.

When we got back, we just relaxed out in the screen porch until it was time to pop open the wine for the night: what turned out to be a wonderful 2018 bottle of William Hill Cabernet. Certainly not as smooth as the Caymus, but a really nice wine.

And, it went terrific with the dinner of squash peeled pappardelle style with garlic, cilantro, parsley, and some other terrific herbs - again, a Tim Ferris 4 Hour Chef recipe, though I did some minor modifications.

It was tough watching him drive off back to Marissa's where he was staying at 8:15pm. He was trying to catch them before they went to bed, as they'd be off to work Wednesday morning long before he got up to head back home.

As it turned out, however, he got tangled up with a bunch of business calls early that morning, and just decided to stay over another day to avoid getting such a late start home. He was off early Thursday morning, texting somewhere along the way after stopping to eat the sandwich that Sue had made for him to take with him on the drive.


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Chuck's picture (below) is much better - nice eye for composition! Obviously didn't get that from me....


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More interesting than my shot, eh?


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