Two windy cold fronts blew through yesterday, as promised. One in the late afternoon and one last night. It's much colder today and feels more Fall-like than was yesterday's Summer reprise. This morning during Kooper's and my walk through the neighborhood there were flags down and plant pots blown over and leaves bundled up into corners where they ended up when the winds finally stopped. Cowering from the blasts. All huddled together.
Last night Kate and I walked downtown (as in Old Town Alexandria) and had fish and chips and beer (me) and shrimp and hard cider (Kate) at Murphy's Grand Irish Pub on King Street. Good food. Nice pub-like atmosphere (they even have pub trivia in their upstairs room each Tuesday!). Music started about 8:30 or so but by then we were in our seats at the local theater watching the new James Bond movie. Not one of the better James Bond movies. I won't spoil the plot because there isn't one. Just bouncing from one action scene to the next. One tense confrontation to the next. No thread to tie it all together. But the theater was packed and I'm sure the movie will make mega-millions.
The Old Town Theater is quaint. It's privately owned. You queue up and buy your ticket. You're also obligated to buy a drink with your ticket (call it a cover charge). I got another beer. I ordered a hot dog, too. They bring the cooked food, of which there is a good variety, to your seat after the movie starts. The way it works is, you find your seat and then write the seat number on the food receipt. You give them the receipt back. Then they cook the food and deliver it right to you during the show! The owner comes into the theater if things are running late (like last night when people were still lined up for the show at the scheduled start time). He announces how things are going and when the show should start and reminds us all that about now you'd be seeing advertisements and previews at the cineplex. Not here. Here you can talk to your friends and neighbors. Then just the movie.
Afterwards we walked home. Between the cold fronts. Still warm then. The wind picked up later as the second front went through. We had to take down the wind chimes in the patio. They were singing so hard in the wind. Happy to be free and doing what they are meant to be doing I guess. Maybe that's the definition of freedom. Doing what you're meant to be doing. Being who you are meant to be. Like the wind. Like the chimes.
