blastall

saturday at 4pm, crank up the civic. miss amy all gussied up and riding shotgun, we head east for a wedding at willow pond. callie and mike are tying the knot at 5. it has been a full day. 7 to work. 9 to borders to meet dd for hot cocoa and a chat about his new venture. if his plan works, he will help some local business folks grow and he may make a buck or two for himself. 10:10 head back to the house with click and clack dispensing wisdom on the radio. honey wanna go to the farmers market at timberlane? i hear they may have some animals to see from the humane society. sure. the market in the pavilion at timberlane is in a saturday duel with the market in the park downtown. produce, arts, crafts, music, food. try to make you think of a slower and simpler time before the invention of kettle korn. only one giant animal at timberlane. it was probably a dog but it was the size of a small camel. you would qualify to adopt this lovable creature, if you lived on a veldt. eastside of the pavilion--3 or 4--"farmers" with a variety of goods. miss amy says she would rather get her tomatoes at tomatoland on thomasville road. a place of permanent fixtures and reliabilty. westside of the pavilion--3 or 4--"merchants" selling used crap. books, jewels, plates...it ain't flying off the tables. we head south to the market in the park. my heart is broken. the kettle korn guy is nowhere to be found. why did they even open up? a quick trip around the market. the farmers have the same produce and the same prices as just seen at timberlane. conscious parallelism? not likely. just no fair trade in tally today. two forlorn looking cats in cages with a much better chance of being adopted than the THING at timberlane. at the west end of the park there is tango music from a cd. this should be good. one guy in designer jeans is dancing with two ladies. one at a time. one can dance and the other needs to see mr. murray before she goes public again. not quite hungry yet, we head to southwood to scope out lady k's new house and to see if we can locate wb's townhouse. lady k's was easy to find but wb's was only spotted cause he parked in the street and not in his garage or in the alley. we don't stop. he is a single guy--it is saturday--it is 11:30--he might be busy--nah--he ain't that lucky. but just in case, we still don't stop. we decide to eat at hopkins eatery on north monroe st. there are two hopkins in tally and the other is on market st. the food is the same but the diners are not. market st. is a photo-op for YUPPIE WORLD MAGAZINE. no. monroe st has a greater mix of humanity--tattoos--bones in the nose --but even so--they still mostly have cellphones. we dine on the patio and it is nicely done by a company that is advertised in the window. i eat a guac. it is a very tasty sandwich with guacamole, turkey and other stuff on warm zebra bread from tasty pastry. a big bag of jalapeno and aged cheddar chips with all you can drink diet coke. a large heath cookie bar for dessert. miss amy has her usual mediterranean tuna salad and a drink. the price for our feast among the pierced and painted was about $17.00. the show would run you about $20. the meal is a bargain. amy needs some mascarpone cheese for her sunday dinner so we go to the midtown manor to visit luna's italian foods. they have the cheese and give us a free sample of gelato. it is really good. the bad news--they close at 5. no moonlight gelato at luna's. they need to rename the place--dayo's italian foods. you want to liven up midtown, don't lock up before dinner. at 4:30 we circle the courthouse in monticello--25 miles east of tally and head north. 9 tenths of a mile and the wedding sign points the way down a paved road. soon another wedding sign and a turn down a not so paved road. drive awhile in a mixed-use area. giant new french provincial on the right. small vintage airstream on the left. at the next wedding sign we turn right down a road that can only dream of pavement. it is swampy. i'm starting to hear banjo music. check the door locks. then we see it--willow pond. a pastoral place for a wedding. as i park the car, we can see the crowd down by the pond and surrounding a gazebo. grooms fans to the left and the brides to the right. kids are fishing while they await the real action. i love weddings and this one is neat. the bride gets a ride to the scene in a horse drawn buggy. she is escorted over the willow pond bridge to meet her soon to be hubby at the gazebo. the ceremony is short and sweet. the kids can't keep from grinning. here is the best part: as mike and callie head back over the bridge, they do so to the strains of the original version of ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST. these kids got humor. after almost 39 years with miss amy, i do believe that humor will help keep you together better than anything else. if you don't think i'm right, just ask amy. she has me to laugh at.