Gin & tonic weather

In the old days, this was gin & tonic weather, and I'd frequently spend a Sunday afternoon at a bar's outdoor  patio, sipping and people watching, and occasionally listening to jazz. It was a great way to spend a warm day off from writing. And in NW in the 80s, where everybody in the bar scene pretty much knew everybody else, many writers and artists and musicians among them, and even more wit and senses of humor, I'd run into folks I knew and tables would be joined together and repartee started. I met my late good friend
Ger Moran at such an outdoor patio. Connections with the opposite sex were occasionally made, including a pretty funny one with a theater director new to town. These Sundays were never boring. Never.

You don't want to forget these experiences. That was the major argument I had with my counselors in treatment: they wanted me to dismiss the drinking life as "the bad old days" but I refused to forget or regret the really good times I had. Yes, they are in the past. But goddamn, they were fun while they lasted!