I am sitting with coffee and my laptop scrolling through the NYTimes front page when I overhear a woman in her sixties say, “Well we didn’t drink very much of this last night, guess we should get busy before it goes flat.” I glance over my shoulder and sure enough she is pouring herself a glass of champagne. I laugh and ask what the occasion is. Apparently they had a party last night and hardly touched the bottle, so rather than let it go flat, after all it is bottle of Louis Valbray blah, blah, blah, it was decided that a 7AM drunk was in order. When offered a glass I of course could not refuse. I had a broken car and had just missed my flight home for the holiday, so what the hell. I wasn’t going to see my girl, wasn’t going to see my family, wasn’t going to ski, and in a few hours was going to shell out $600 + dollars to get my car back, so pour away!

The tow truck driver showed up during my second glass and I sent him off with the address of the mechanic. I went back in to the venu and proceeded to finish off a third glass, but by the time the fourth was poured my head was dizzy and I had gone from tipsy to nearly drunk. Drinking on an empty stomach at 7AM will make anyone but the most hardened professional into a cheap date. Patty the cheery grandmother gave me full custody after her second glass so I tucked what was left of the Louis blah, blah, blah under my arm and wandered back to the Murphy digs around 8:30 for some breakfast. Following breakfast, yup you guessed it, I took a nap!

At around 2PM the phone rang and the boys at the shop had my car ready. Tom had left his bike for me to ride, so I hopped on it. With mildly dragging brakes, no grips, and a nasty headwind filled with desert dust, I embarked on my 45 min. ride to the shop in flip-flops and a green polo shirt.