Crazy

It seems intuitively obvious, but these are crazy times in which we live. COVID-19 is having an impact on our daily lives that may have repercussions far beyond the near-term. Unemployment has jumped, restaurants are closed to diners, as are all ‘non essential’ businesses like the Addison Farms Vineyard tasting room. That description, non-essential, really depends on your perspective though, doesn’t it? This pandemic is nothing to take lightly. It is highly communicable, dangerous, and can be lethal, especially in the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. We are doing our part to ‘social-distance’ and hope for a quick decline in transmission.

The weather so far in 2020 has also been a little crazy. We are going to have an early bud break. I have not been in the vineyard today [rain], but yesterday, the Sangiovese was almost showing some greenery. I suspect that tomorrow as we walk through the vines, we will see the shoots starting. That is at least two weeks too early, though we are not nearly as early as we saw in 2012.

And talk about losing one’s mind… Dianne and I rescued a Chiweenie-mix puppy last week. He is nine weeks old. He came to us via the really awesome folks at Day One Animal Rescue in Marion, NC. We have named him Ranger, and here is the convoluted path we took to arrive at that name. The subject of my 4 December post titled ‘Our little guy’ was named Enzo. He was named for Enzo Ferrari; I love cars and motorsports, so that was the origin of his name.

For our new addition, we wanted to have that car connection. I wanted to call him Dino [Enzo Ferrari’s son], but Dianne just didn’t feel it. So we thought about Ferrari connections, and we came up with Enzo’s nemesis, Henry Ford II, and with the fairly recent Ford v Ferrari movie, it made sense. From there, we had three strong options: Henry, Ford, and Deuce, HFII’s nickname. I really liked Deuce, but Dianne was less enthralled. We had settled on Henry on his first day with us, but I just could not get used to it, so Papa [Dianne’s dad] suggested Ranger, partly because of the Ford connection but also because his face looks like he is wearing a mask ala The Lone Ranger. And so he is called.