Posted 7/21/2003 09:19:00 AM by Ocean Guy
Bigwig is NOT a Rabbit

Back from a long road weekend taking a circuitous route to Raleigh. Not only is Bigwig a funny guy, he is a southern gentleman and he passed my 15 year old daughter's evaluation of coolness, "He's a pretty cool guy," so she said.

It's probably a good thing that we had a young chaperone, otherwise the afternoon may have continued incoherently into the evening. Please don't think either of us is a lush, but it was a relaxing afternoon. I was surprised to learn the Big man is a liquor snob... How wrong I was to think he might be a beer snob. Some other time we may have to delve into the finer points of Single Malts and some guy, Evan Williams, but for an initial meeting of two bloggers I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

The Raleigh Ale House is an acceptable knock-off of the Florida Chain, although Bigwig did tell me the Raleigh business was sued by the other over the name. However, their stock of specialty Beer seemed to be rather low. Bigwig must have heard, "We're out of that," at least half a dozen times. Still he managed to find something to sample.

One line that I remember from my time as an exchange pilot with the Royal Navy, was appropriate for the occasion. I was the helicopter pilot on one of the Brit's smaller warships. Since alcohol is allowed on Her Majesty's Ships, the Captain of the ship had to set the guidelines for its use. His words, in one of the Ship's official documents were, "Alcohol is a social lubricant, and shall be used as such." Beer was a fine lubricant over lunch.

I think we decided that it was more difficult for bloggers disguise their true character in their blogs, that our blog personalities were closer to our real selves than what may have been perceived in chat rooms. Still it was very nice to meet face-to-face and see the real person behind all that Hraka. In particular it was nice of to him to point out to my daughter how easy and acceptable it is to meet internet friends!… She appreciated both the humor and the wisdom of his subtle caution. As for the solutions to the rest of the world's problems, they'll just have to wait until our next meeting.