I made it back to the yard today, unloaded the one piece that's staying here, and promptly checked into the hotel.
After a much needed shower I headed over to the Appleby's next door for a few adult beverages and some dinner. Geez, I'd only been away from there for about a month but things had really changed.
I know the bartender but didn't recognize about half of the rest of the staff, including the manager. I knew the old manager quite well and was disappointed to see she wasn't there. The bartender informed me that she had transferred to another location.
The bartender wanted to see my current knitting projects, after commenting on the the hat I was wearing (which I had knit). She really liked what I was working on and asked me if I would knit her a hat to go with her coat. It so happens that I have some yarn that matches her coat pretty well so I told her I would knit her a hat to go with it and would have it ready the next time I stop in.
As soon as I finish the black hat I am doing for myself I'll knit one for her. What the hell, I do it mostly to give myself something to do so it's not like it's a great burden. Besides, I had no idea what I was going to do with that particular yarn anyway. If it earns me a kiss or at least a lady's good will it's worth it.
She did harp on me a bit tonight about my beer drinking. It seems she thinks I drink too much beer. I explained to her that I have an extremely high tolerance to it and didn't feel any ill effects from it at all. She did admit that I didn't appear the least bit drunk from it and decided to let the subject drop. It takes a hell of a lot of beer to get me drunk. She's way too damn young to be giving me advice anyway.
I'm going to relax here in this hotel tonight and start making my way to PA tomorrow. It's only about 8 or 9 hours to there from here so I should have a fairly easy day tomorrow. I should have my hat finished some time tomorrow night and I will start on hers. The scarf that matches mine can wait a day or two.