Wow Josh pretty vicious to be so judgmental of someone you never met who graciously welcomed you into our friendly genuine group who are some of the nicest folks in a city known for its preponderance of miserable folks.
Before I say anything stupid or risk getting banned again, please let me ask you just one simple question. Did you find that anyone in our group was anything but kind gracious and passionate about sharing their best possible wine with the group. I saw the lineup helped folks make their choices arranged the planning of the event with a little help from Tom and decided upon the locale.
I hope you enjoyed the excellent {but not expensive} food, the great company, and some wonderful mostly fully mature Grand Cru Burgs. I am assuming there was no lack of good conversation, or an undersupply of wine. So I would hope that myself being absent was merely a minor distraction or a funny joke to the gang, which is fine as I certainly can take it. I have been in sales all my life and now do sales training part time. I have a thick skin, but also will not take crap from anyone as you can see from the brawl in the three ring circus that the offline curmudgeon thread evolved into.
Now that I have defended my self mildly I will provide what happened that sadly caused me to miss an event that I had been wanting to arrange for quite a while.
My Christmas season has been full of joy for future plans I have for a business that sounds quite lucraitve as well as my photogrphy business that is starting off beautifully and my pursuit of buying a gorgeous home on the river in Mt Pleasant South Carolina, and amazing place.
So that is the good, the bad is I have been having a very tough time here is Ct this year with all sorts of miserable angry drunk and often violent people around me when going about my usual routine at my regular hang out spots. The drivers around here literally were daily trying to run me off the road they were driving so agressively. This is no walk in the park but I have lived in this state all my life so i begrudingly accept it for now, but once I move down south the whole scene is different . Most folks down there are happy and friendly even to total strangers. I know I travel down south to Myrtle Beach Savannah Atlanta and Charleston alot.
In spite of a typical rough year the banning put me in a foul mood, and ruined some plans to sell a few cases of wine, and the ability to communicate with friends on the board.
Although there were plenty of reasons that I would have liked to have stayed home I DO NOT LET LIFE BRING ME DOWN. So I was planning on going anyway as I knew seeing good friends and drinking some Grand Cru Burgs would cheer me up.
However that afternoon a huge Monkey Wrench was thrown at me. I noticed while completing a car purchase on a new Honda CRV that the parking lot at the car dealer in a decent sized busy area was a sheet of ice, and this freezing rain was continuing for hours. My town would have been far worse as i live in a tiny country hick town with hilly curvy roads and about 4000 people. There are no doubt more horses cows pigs and chickens combined than people, and no doubt way more deer than humans. Considering all that there is almost no chance that I would have gotten home without either getting stuck or sliding off the road. Even for a DRC vertical free of charge would i take a serious risk to total one of my precious cars that i spend too much on.
In summation I would imagine a great time was had by all. Personally i was home alone and sad for having had mother nature ruin what I am sure was a great evening. Sorry to have missed it and let down the group, I was especially looking forward to your extremely generous wine contribution. Was looking forward to meeting. Too bad I missed some wonderful Burgs I have never tried. Oh well there will always be other events and as very few folks i know drink much burgundy I think I will have to arrange another one in 5 or 6 months. Perhaps our paths will cross in the future and if not I wish you a happy New year and the best of luck in all your endeavors !