Interesting evening

Thursday was Loren's 50th birthday, and Gillian arranged a surprise party for him.  Evidently he has been working long hours lately, and was supposed to work that evening, but figured out that there was something up so managed to cut himself loose.  Gillian had managed to book Times Changed Blues Club for a private party between 7:00 and 9:00.  As it was a private party, Jessica and Samantha were able to attend, with the strict understanding that they would be out of the building by 9:00.  Of course they had already planned to tell everyone at school that they had spent the evening in a bar.  Probably weren't going to add that they had been with their parents.  It was a very nice party with all of the things you would expect in a Manitoba social, although I'm not sure if a cake was part of the expectations of a social.  And it wasn't a Jeanne's cake either, but very nice.  Jeremy made a speech, and did a good job.

That venue has been around for ever.  I've often driven past and wondered what it was like, and how it managed to survive as a business.  Especially with the kerfuffle about having the building declared as a heritage site.  Even while we were there it was obviously under renovation.  I was genuinely surprised at how small the actual room was.  The walls were covered with posters of, what we assumed were previous events there. David took a good look at them and said that some of the people in the pictures had been dead for quite awhile, and expressed surprise that the club had been around that long.  But my memory says that it's been there for as long as I can remember.  There was certainly nothing fancy about it.  Plank tables and beat up wooden chairs, but everything contributed to a very specific atmosphere.

But now we're back to reality--laundry yesterday and garbage and recycling tomorrow.