In short, this last week, with the exception of Thursday, was "Bite your ass" cold in Key West! This morning, Sunday, January 10th it was 46 degrees when I took my dogs for a walk at 9am! As I've stated before, this is not in my contract! A kid on a bike passed me singing a song that went "You gotta freeze to breath..." We're looking at a high of 53 today. Uuuggghh. Around the end of the week we're back to normal however, but this has certainly been a cold year thus far!
Last evening I didn't feel like cooking, as everything was frozen. So I started to think where I could grab a bite to eat. Around the corner is The Bottle Cap Lounge, however, I was up for something more quiet.I started thinking of places I could go and then, on this cold evening, I thought of the perfect place, Finnigan's Wake. An Irish pub named after the James Joyce story about Tim Finnigan who supposedly died, but woke up at his wake when someone knocked over the whiskey on him. Perfect! So I hopped on the bike and off I went to Finnigan's Wake. When I got there they had an Irish woman playing guitar and singing like a canary. Fiona Molloy was her name and she had a great command of the bar ant the undivided attention of it's patrons. Just what the doctor ordered! I ordered a Murphy's Stout on "Draught", to utilize the Irish and Commonwealth spelling of the word we spell "Draft".
I love all of the Irish Stouts. Beamish, Murphy's, and of course, Guinness. Murphy's is from my maternal grandparent's home county of Cork, so it has a melancholy attachment for me, when available. Both of my mother's parents were off the boat from County Cork in Ireland, Connolly and Flynn being the family names of my grandfather and grandmother.
A marvelous evening was had with Ms. Molloy playing all sorts of Irish and American, songs, plus a song from Newfoundland, as well as Germany (Lilly Marlene!!!... in German, French, and English!). One Irish song she brought up fans to sing verses she fed them about a woman who sits and fits... needless to say it ended up on the boarder of profane with the entire pub laughing their butts off! Ms. Malloy finished off her evening with "God Bless America" and there really wasn't a dry eye in the house. Thank you Fiona Molloy!!!!
The ride home was bitterly cold with a temperature of 49 around midnight or so, but with a belly full of beef and potatoes and stout and a heart resonating from a great performance, who could complain?
A real mind scramble also happened this week! Tim Garrity, my friend from all the way back, calls me and asks if I got the package he sent. Make a long story short, it was in my mailbox.Back when we were nineteen or so.. this wasn't last week... Tim was in the Navy and asked me to send him his guitar to San Diego. I bought him a strap to go with it... kinda cool in that it had a pouch for picks in it! So I sent that along with it.
Well, the package Tim sent was the strap I sent him 30+ years ago, as my dogs ate one of my straps recently!!! Holy Smokes!!! I truly was at a complete loss for words. It certainly warmed me up a good deal!
The week is supposed to climb gradually in temps and by Thursday we should be back to normal.
Bobby DeVito is sick, so unfortunately there will be no Sunday Afternoon Blues at Captain Tony's. Get well Bobby!!!!!
Ms. Sheila Sharkey Griffith was kind enough to invite me to go and play on the Trop Rock Cruise "Puerto Los Somewhere Cruise", leaving out of Tampa this week! Wow! Nice! Regretfully, I had to decline because of my own scheduling however. Big Bummer! Nevertheless, Thanks Sheila!!!!
However, hopefully with warmer weather heading this way and more, next weekend holds a lot of promise of great things to come!
All The Best From Key West!!!
Chris
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