Good Times

After spending the latter part of last week speaking at the ESCAPe Conference in Pipestem, WV, I left the resort at OhmyGodit'searly o'clock in order to catch the redeye to Boston. Spent the two-hour trip to the airport alternating between dozing and chatting with the conference keynote speaker, JR Martinez:

Nice guy, inspirational story.

Turns out, J.R. is a fellow Louisiana native, and like me, he grew up with kids making fun of his funny, girly-sounding middle name.

Got picked up at Logan by the Anarchangel and lovely wife Melody, who whisked me off to his father's house nearby for a good, old-fashioned traditional Irish breakfast. And folks, if you want to know the epitome of Bahston Irish, you can throw up any picture of the Byrne clan as an exemplar. I spent a pleasant several hours there listening to Chris and his extended family bicker, bitch, cuss, hug, laugh, eat and hug some more…

… all at the top of their lungs.

I think I have finally found a people that are as loud and long-winded as I. Seriously, if I wasn't reasonably sure that my forebears were Scots/German/Choctaw, I'd swear I had some Irish blood in me.

After getting me hooked on Irish tea, Chris and Melody ushered me to the car for the long ride to TOTWTYTR's place, but not before Chris' dad wrapped me up in a bear hug and told me "if ever I was in feckin' Bahston again, I feckin' well bettah stop by foah feckin' breakfast."

Like I said, warm and friendly people.

That evening, TOTWTYTR and I hied forth to Folcari's Italian ristorante in Saugus, MA  for a blog dinner organized by our humble host, Jay G. In attendance were:

TOTWTYTR and Ambulance Driver (Duhr!)

Jay G.

Christina

Yankeefried and Mrs. Yankeefried

Sci Fi and Mrs. Sci Fi

Weer'dbeard and Mrs. Weer'dbeard

Ross and Shootin' Buddy

Medic Matthew

Daniel in Brookline

Wally

The next day, TOTWTYTR, Weer'dbeard, Shootin' Buddy and I turned some money into smoke and noise at Harvard Gun Club. Got to play with a number of TOTWTYTR's Smith & Wesson autos and his AR15, as well as Weer'd's scandium-framed 1911, SKS and FN FAL.

Weer'd airing out his S&W 1911.

 

Me giving it a whirl. Scandium frame and low-profile grips were a little too light for my tastes.

 

Shootin' Buddy airing out Weer'dbeard's Kahr PM45. She ain't fast, but she's deadly.

Tonight, we'll be stopping for dinner with Calvin's Mom, Dino Doc and Carteach0 and various spouses and significant others, and then it's on to EMS Today in Baltimore.

Should have some more free ice cream over the next few days.

 

 

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