Late as usual.   *heavy sigh*  All kinds of cluttery little life things going on that seem to suck time out of my allotted space and then there’s the time-stress-springboard.  Of course you know what that is!

Once those cluttery little things suck away any extra minute you might have had during the day (it also jumpstarts itself into tomorrow’s time to get a head start), the time-stress-springboard shoots you into the future of your day, robbing more of your precious time.

The worst of it is, there is no rewind or reverse, you’re just stuck where you landed and the minutes keep getting stolen until it turns into hours out of your day.

Never happened to you?  Great!  It happens to me every day.

*****

The Winery at Pahrump which is where the grapes grow is the Pahrump Valley Winery but the fine dining establishment is Symphony’s Restaurant.

Carmen and Danielle Bates and Sylvia Hart came out to celebrate my birthday with a tour of the winery and wine tasting and a meal.

The girl’s hit my house first on a Monday and we settled in for some gabbing and they started drinking wine.  Moi used to lush it up a lot but that kind of went by the wayside, I was saving my lips for the wine tasting fest later.

The whole time thing was the only flaw in the adventure.  We thought the tour had some meat in it and would take awhile.  Not.

They said the tour started at 3:30 so we arrived to find ourselves having to scurry to catch up to the 15ish or so people following the host to — a whole 20 yards away — the edge of a vineyard.  It really wasn’t much of a tour but it was interesting.

They grow rose bushes along the edge of the vineyard, if the roses get bugs, the vineyard has bugs.  The first three crops of grape vines they planted were destroyed by rabbits.  See…I told you I hated those little rat bastards in previous posts.  They sneak in and just chew up stems and vines just to wreak havoc on plants and don’t even eat most of them.

Interesting side note, the website says the first vines were trampled by wild horses.

Carmen said the rabbits have to continually chew or their teeth will curl and grow up into their mouth or something like that.

Our hostess/tour guide:

The vines – the 2nd one is a semi-closeup of the teensy grapes that are beginning…yes…you have to look close.

Mama Carmen and daughter Danielle:

Note the rosebushes behind the duo above.  The whole setting is one of tranquility and calm, like a walk through gardens.

The tour was really kind of ho hum.  Our guide did tell us how many quarts or gallons or something they got off of the vines we were looking at and they have another vineyard somewhere behind the area the restaurant sets in but hell if I can remember.  It’s not a lot, like 200 cases per season or something like that.  There’s a wine stomping fest in October, the Bates family is expected to return for that, Sylvia too, if possible.

We were led inside the Winery and Symphony’s Restaurant building by our guide.  Entering the building takes you right into a gift shop on the left — everything wine type of gift shop and I know you’re thinking, “No Shit!” — and on the right is a bar where you can taste up to 7 wines free as you wait for your reservation or tables to open in the restaurant.

We were led through that area to a hallway that is quite spacious, the right leg goes to Symphony’s, straight ahead takes you into the calm and quiet of a nicely cooled wine area with bottles displayed on the walls and some news about wines, the left goes to the restrooms and a banquet type of seating area.

We went to the wine area, from inside that room you can approach a glass door that is off limits but will allow you to see the barrels the wines are kept in. I can’t remember the details of the barrels but they are reused up to a certain point.

This is the room:

All the walls are adorned with wine, even the one that has the door going back to where the barrels are.

The barrel room:

So…off we went to the wine tasting bar. Bellagio’s high limit brush and wine drinking bud, Carmen. And daughter Danielle as they lined up to mark the wines they would sample.

We tasted wine, we looked at the gift shop, we were starving and dinner wasn’t going to be served for another half hour or so — that sent us back out to the garden type setting by the rosebushes and vines.

Our girl Sylvia was a bit tipsy by now, wine at home, wine tasting, no food, and she started roaming the area, left her cell phone inside somewhere charging, we lost her for a little while but she was out walking the area…or so she said.

Back in 1993 I went to the Mississippi coast to deal poker, this was then:

The picture above has nothing to do with the Winery except that I looked at myself in the following picture and went, “Holy hell!  I have aged!”

Everything ages and changes, but why me, Lord?  LMAO!  An appointment coming up to see about those droopy eyelids.

The food was great…when we finally got in to eat…and so was the company. We told tales of old about poker and laughed our butts off.  I drank some wine, had some wonderful teramisu for desert and then it was off to home.

If you’re ever in the neighborhood, be sure to have dinner at Symphony’s Restaurant.  The truck driving duo and a few of my friends and I have been there to dine, the  atmosphere is relaxing, the food is great, and most of the staff is above and beyond.

The desert is filled with some really neat places and really neat people.  Some of them even drive 70 miles to see you!