Working Man's Special

"I been a working man dang near all my life

I'll be working as long as my two hands are fit to use

I'll drink my beer in a tavern

Sing a little bit of the working man blues" -Merle Haggard

Mixing business with pleasure can be painful. Especially the morning after. Luckily time and a few bumps along the way have taught me to excercise moderation. No easy feat when visiting Fog City. Nor is it very easy to spend a boat load of cash. Upon entry into the city at the Golden Gate Bridge your pockets begin to empty as you start spending like a granny hellbent on doubling her pension on the slots at the Mirage.

San Francisco, doubtless, is impressive and worth the monetary abuse once or twice a month. Quite possibly the best part of a night trip to the city is pulling across the bay just as the sun sets, a golden hue emblazzoned on the terraced buildings that line the hillsides. Almost Meditteranean.

The pleasure end of the included getting to the bottom of a bottle of Saumur and checking out Joey Bulldozer's new band Agatha! at a small venue in the mission. On the other side of the coin was knowing that I was sacrificing priceless hours of sleep. Harvest hours are erratic at best, working anywhere in the neighborhood of 8-14 hour shifts

Agatha!

***

Dark thirty. Roughly four hours after hitting the hay I begrudgingly drag my limp body out of the sack. Janet groans and rolls over and I throw on a headlamp to prowl my room for all the electronic devices and keys I will need throughout the day. Fresh socks, a clean tee and a scramble to track down my sunglasses. The California sun is unforgiving on a daily basis.

A small pinot noir pick this morning on a warm Old Sonoma Mountain Rd vineyard. One acre coming in at a big under a ton. Vicente's crew was a bit amazed they woke up at dark thirty too and drove over an hour for such a small fruitload.

"I guess we'll just go home and slip back under the covers" remarked Vicente the crew leader with a toothy smile.

I smiled back shrugging my shoulders "I'd put more fruit on those vines if I could."

Cente's crew is one of our best. As they pick their scissors reverberate like a pair of barber's clippers, their vines licked clean like a dog's bowl.

After dropping the fruit at Vinify it was bussiness as per usual. Moving, irrigating and grabbing a bite to eat when I could. Today a bit of smoked eel sushi for lunch.

What I really need right now is a working man's special, a 12 oz draught of Genessee and a shot of Grand Canadian sitting on a barstool at my favorite watering hole Annacones, right alongside my beloved Buffalo crew. Now that would be sweet music for these working man bones.