Meat and Beer

This morning I was checking over my cigar collection and realized it is out of control.  (Or maybe I’m out of control.)  I made a spreadsheet of each cigar label, length, and ring gauge, and by the time I finished, I was in awe of my own collection.  Seventy-three different cigar choices totaling almost six-hundred cigars.  Even though some are better than others, there is not a bad stick in the humidor.  And I’m not finished.  More are on the way.  During an average year I smoke about 3 to 5 stogies outside of the Annual Wild Game Feed, so I guess I have a few too many.  Nah!  There’s no such thing as too many cigars.  I guess I could say the same thing about food, beer, and friends.  And these are all things adding to the fun of the Wild Game Feed.

A few years ago a friend and I were discussing the Annual Wild Game Feed at Irvine Lake.  We talked about the cigars we didn’t get around to smoking, the friends we didn’t have time to greet, the food we were too full to eat, and the beer we had to leave in the kegs.  It was a great discussion since it involved excesses in each category.  Too many cigars, friends, food, and beer.  Oh, I forgot about the prizes we didn’t win.  How could it get any better?  Maybe toss into the mix some games and exhibits?  Yep, they got’em.

After about 3 hours of discussing the Feed we realized we needed to go back to our lives for a while and finish this talk at a later time.  I ended the conversation with my usual goodbye phrase of “See you at the Feed,” but he replied, “Meat and Beer!”  I like that.  Soon it became a phrase he and I use with each other to say both “Hello” and “Goodbye.”

This year the 49^th Annual Wild Game Feed at Irvine Lake will be on Friday, September 15, 2017, and once again there will be too much to take in (figuratively as well as literally).  As usual I can hardly wait to indulge in the excesses of meat and beer, friends, cigars, and prizes.  I’ll leave the games to others more physically fit.  But for me, I’ll spend most of my time in or near my shelter eating and drinking and smoking and talking to anyone who stops by.  Life is good at the Feed.

See you at the Feed.

Meat and Beer!