A new day, a new beer to look forward to, and a fond farewell

Just got word today of the new collaboration beer from two of my favorite local breweries, THREE FLOYDS and HALF ACRE. Looks like it will be called INVASION, looks like it's a Helles Bock. Mmmmmmmm. Helles Bock. Artwork looks amazing! We know nothing more!! But, we are quivering with anticipation! More info to come from Lincoln at Three Floyds and Gabriel at Half Acre -- you will know as soon as we know, dear reader. Watch this space!

On a more personal note, last week I said goodbye to an old friend--one I hadn't seen for a long time. Victoria Miller, "the Vic" to all who knew and loved her, made her transition to the non-physical about a week ago, at the age of 90. She lived a full and fantastic life. Vic was in community theater in our town, and my mom did costumes and make-up for them, back when my parents were still married. Vic opened a gift shop, and my mother went to work for her. Around this same time -- I was seven, almost eight -- my mother and I ran away from home. We left my father at the beginning of the summer (I remember it was the last day of second grade) and when we came home around the end of June, my dad had moved out -- I later learned Mom had served him with divorce papers while we were away. We stayed at many different friends and families' homes during our time away, including on the couch in the office of Vic's gift shop. Not long after that, my mother began dating one of Vic's sons.

Thus began a more than ten-year period in which the Miller family was my second family, and "the Vic" was my second grandmother. She was a true bon vivant, she loved good food, good wine, good scotch, and most of all, her good friends and family. She really loved life for all of her 90 years. She had the wonderful gift of being truly interested and invested in whomever she might encounter, and looking back, I have become acutely aware of what she and her family meant to me. So Au Revoir, Victoria. Clink a glass of good wine for me on that deck in heaven. I'll put a picture of Vic on the side of the blog. Long may she wave!