Yesterday Betsy came down to the beach and we went for a long walk along the shoreline. It was a beautiful day with great waves for the surfers and lots of folks enjoying their summer outing in the warm water along the shore. B has been taking these walks in the sand for awhile now. She got in shape before I started and now we are able to do this together. So off we went and did the three miles in about an hour.

Later in the day we packed everything up and headed to Norfolk for the Grace Potter and the Nocturnals performance at NorVa. We had never been here so it was a small adventure. We tried to get our tickets at Will Call but they were not there yet. A helpful employee did tell us we might be able to get them around back at the Jewish Mother Restaurant. Well, they didn’t have them either but a helpful employee there told us that if we had dinner at the Jewish Mother we could get into NorVA 15 minutes earlier than the general public and be “up front”.

So we had a nice dinner. I ordered prime rib but it turns out there wasn’t any or there was some but it was unavailable for cooking or they had not completed the rituals associated with the sacrifice of the cow.   So I ordered another kind of steak because I was really starting to feel the need for protein. Because it was becoming more apparent to me that there is not much seating associated with NorVa. It’s more of a survival of the fittest affair where you go in and lean against a large railing for two or three hours in the hope of seeing your favorite entertainer.

After thinking about it for several minutes I decided that there was not another human being on this earth who I was prepared to do this for and so B and I sat away from the torture railing at a table and drank diet coke and talked. It was nice. Until the first band showed up. Because it’s not enough to make your guests stand for several hours waiting for something to happen. You must also inflict upon them the worst band you can find in the hopes that they will attempt to drown themselves in alcohol which you conveniently provide.

Now this is the interesting part. Because, in order to get your alcohol, you must relinquish your spot on the horizontal pole for a few minutes. I watched a couple of guys go off to the men’s room and their girlfriends just became larger after they went off. They moved apart just enough so that there wasn’t room for anybody else and they actually spread their shoulders wider. You can actually do this. Try it now! See?

It was just the worst kind of territorial behavior and the bang-bang-(louder)-bang band was playing in the background. B just kept praying that each song would be their last but they went on until 9 pm when Grace Potter and the Nocturnals were supposed to play. Someone in the band thanked Grace and the rest for their support which just has to be a lie. So then we had a 20 or 30 minute wait while they set up the stage for the main act. I went over to the line of folks who had been patiently waiting and exhibiting various territorial behaviors to keep other people out for several hours and actually found a small key hole between a girl and a guy where we could see parts of the band. So we stood there and Grace and the Nocturnals came out, sounding like they were not from the same planet as the previous band. Very professional and sounded so good. Grace looked awesome and I was in heaven. I wanted to see her and try to determine how tall she is. Maybe she’s 5’7″? It’s hard to tell when you are looking down on the stage between two people.  But then, I am a little bit in love with Grace so you take what you can get (up to a certain point because the love of my life is here too).

So then the girl on our left decided to step in front of B and against the railing to watch the concert. That was the end of our stay there.  But I really can’t complain too much because she came with a guy who was actually sitting on a stool because he was most likely hurt in a war defending our country. At least that was the way I interpreted the metal leg he wore. And when she did this he put his hand on her butt so at least he was happy.  On the other side of the hall there were privileged folks who had probably paid a lot of money for private seating in a good location. So we couldn’t go over there.

We went downstairs and stood at the back.  B is not very tall so she didn’t see much and after a few more songs we decided to head back to Richmond because of the hurricane.  Grace and the rest are good but on this night they went off into some things that I’m sure they enjoy but are unfamiliar to folks like me who buy their CD’s and actually enjoy those songs. I would say some of what they did was pretentious but they are great musicians and no doubt a lot of folks would not agree with this assessment. B says that bands tend to do this and she had her own band, The Colonists,  for many years so I believe her.  They get tired of playing the same songs thousands of times. And I “would probably do the same thing” she said.

So we drove back to Richmond. We won’t be going back to NorVa anytime soon. It’s time for this old geezer to just buy the best seat he can afford and hope that his restless legs don’t kick in after the first performance. This actually happened at the Kennedy Center a few years ago as the orchestra played and there was absolutely no way to stand up and walk down that long line of seated guests. It was awful and I would have been very happy with survival of the fittest seating on that night.

It was raining fish and chips as we tried to find our way out of Norfolk. B was leading in her car because I’m basically comatose after 9 pm. I didn’t talk any restless legs medicine on this night, however, and there was a chance I could make it back to Richmond in one piece. It stopped raining, thankfully, as we reached the tunnel under the James River and the rest of the journey home was dry roads and pretty good visibility. B has this habit of slowing down below the speed limit which is annoying but otherwise it went well. I wasn’t sure we would make it after all the events of the past few days. But we did and it’s good to be home, safe and sound in the house B said sounded like it was going to blow up a couple of days ago during the earthquake. Well, at least it’s not 13 stories up in the air and the Atlantic Ocean with all its mystery and romance cannot be seen swaying back and forth outside my bedroom window.

At least, not yet.