Wine Time

Fifteen months ago, we went on a driving vacation through Provence. We devoted one entire day to wine - visits to wineries and co-ops, driving the Cotes du Rhone trail, and buying up a few cases. Since I was six months pregnant, my tasting was limited to small sips, and my purchases leaned heavily on attractiveness of the label. I have been waiting a very long time to start enjoying our French wine. Tonight was my night. Our wine shipment arrived today! Woohoo! I promptly located a French Rosé to chill for tonight, and after La Bimba was down for the count, we opened up that first bottle. I took my glass out onto our back deck and thought many deep thoughts while sipping away. Mainly, though, I enjoyed the silence. It was 10pm, and I heard crickets, a gull crying, and the hum of the electrical transformer at the streetlight box, but very little else. The restaurants downtown close up around 9pm, so there was no nightlife noise. Very occasionally, I'd hear a car. When a couple walked down the street bordering our back yard, they were either silent or keeping their voices very low. When a business man walked down the same street, he walked silently, no cell phone or Bluetooth in sight. Just quiet and calm. The house lights from across the Bay reflect onto the water, a red light blinks down at the marina, and peace reigns. I am having trouble getting used to the quietness here. The calm. Internally, I am still on Naples chaos time. And Naples dinner time. Last week, we almost got caught out by showing up for dinner around 8:35, which seemed perfectly reasonable to us. We hadn't even gotten our food yet when the servers started doing nightly cleanup. On the plus side, I've found that this early night stuff means I get to sleep earlier. Considering La Bimba wakes up at the same time every day with absolutely no regard for what time I might have gone to sleep (used to be midnight or later), I am really enjoying this early finish to the evening. Except that now I have wine to enjoy on the back deck for the later hours.