LANKY FORGETS TO GO HOME

After our cruise last evening we walked over to a restaurant called Ray's. The tables were full, so we found two seats at the bar, (where, incidentally, the Yankees -Rays baseball game was on the telly).

A guy sitting next to Regina soon proved entertaining. He was about our age, tallish and lanky, with angular features. He laughed easily, and was clearly the kind of guy who makes friends easily.

We never got his name, so let's call him Lanky. He got to talking with Regina and told her, among other things, that he used to drink pretty heavily, but was done with all that. He did have a couple glasses of wine, but seemed to be employing the moderation he claimed to have adopted.

He then ordered a dinner to go for he and his wife. It sat there on the bar for a while as Lanky chatted with old friends and made new ones. When Regina asked him if it might be getting cold, he said, "aw, we got a microwave." This became his motto as events proceeded.

It happened there was a large group of fellows across the u- shaped bar from Lanky who all worked for some mining equipment company and had just been to some kind of workshop. They were celebrating the end of the workshop with shots of whiskey and tequila. Pretty soon one of them rang a bell hanging over the bar, which by tradition announces you are buying a drink for everyone.  

Lanky was among the first to claim his free drink and pretty soon was bantering across the bar with the mining guys. Then another mining guy rang the bell, and Lanky happily accepted That second generous offer.  

Not too much later, Lanky himself rang the bell, so he was buying yet another round and not forgetting himself.

When Regina and I left, Lanky was over amid the mining guys, wrapping an arm around their shoulders and posing for selfies with them. The styrofoam boxes with his dinner were still sitting there on the bar and it didn't look like they were heading for Lanky's microwave any time soon.