Blue Ridge Parkway

During my travels this week I arrived in Asheville about 6:00 PM Wednesday, checked into my hotel and ran for the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a nice warm evening and I thought a pleasant 45 MPH ride would clear the cobwebs. As I pulled onto the parkway I saw an antique Jaguar XKE go by; nice day for a top down excursion. After I realized the top doesn't go down on my VW wagon I drove north for about 5 miles, saw the detour sign and realized I was being routed to Hickory. DANG. Doubled back and went South to Mount Pisgah, beautiful scenery although driving into a setting sun gave me a bit of a headache. I followed Penelope (the British lady inside my GPS) to go home.............that's what I usually call my hotel du jour. Penelope thought it would be humorous to route me on a one lane dirt road for about ten miles. Fortunately there were enough people in the woods to keep the cross-eyed banjo pickers at a distance; and yet also enough room between hikers to pull over and take a long overdue leak. Nice ride through some countryside that still hasn't seen spring budding.

And now for your entertainment: Edith Piaf

I liked that, did you get the connection? Since I gave up Lent for alcohol.........I mean the other way around, here is your Lent joke for today:

An Irishman walks into a bar in Ireland orders three pints of Guinness and sits in the back of the room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finishes them, he comes back to the bar and orders three more.

The bartender asks him, "You know, a pint goes flat after I draw it; wouldn't you rather I draw fresh pints for you one at a time?" The fellow replies: "Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is now in America and the other, in Australia. When we all left home, we promised we'd drink this way to remember the days when we drank together."

The bartender admits that this is a nice custom, and leaves it there. The fellow becomes a regular in the bar, and always drinks the same way: He orders three pints and drinks them in turn.

One day, he comes in and orders two pints. All the regulars notice and fall silent, speculating about what might have happened to one of the absent brothers. When the fellow goes back to the bar for a second round, the bartender says, "I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your great loss." The fellow looks confused for a moment and then a light dawns in his eye and says: "Oh, no, everyone's fine. You see, it's just that I've given up beer for Lent."

Since you haven't laughed enough this week I hope you will enjoy this from Jimmy Kimmel:

Off to WV, KY and OH next week for open houses, home late Friday/early Saturday, so heads up local MENSA branch: I'll miss my meeting next Friday morning.