[NJARC] A wonderful time at the holiday dinner (diner) last night

[John Dilks K2TQN]

Hi gang,

The Sarnoff Center is almost a two hour ride for me, so I planned my 
timing all day so I could get there before 6 PM.  I had Sherry primed 
that we needed to get out to the house by 3:30, which we did.  On the 
way up, we diverted to the Hess station on Route 38 in Mount Holly 
for our annual purchase of Hess trucks for our littlest 
grandchildren.  Traffic was heavy and I thought we were running late 
after that.

I tried a new way to 295 from 206 and shaved 10 minuets off the 
trip.  This helped.

Arriving at the center at about 5:30 I was at first pleased to get a 
"prized" parking space out front, usually reserved for the early 
birds.  Then looking around I noticed that the other parking area 
appeared empty.  Then I noticed the lights were off inside the 
building where we enter.  Not to be deterred, we exited the car and 
walked to the entrance door - which we found locked.

Now I began to wonder if we were the first ones there and that I had 
my times messed up?  Back at the car I dug out my cell phone and 
called Ray Chase.   (I figured he wouldn't be home and would be 
arriving at any moment.)  He answered.

After a short conversation Ray suggested that I take Sherry to dinner 
on the way home.

So we stopped at Mastori's Diner in Bordentown.  There must have been 
200 cars in the lot, they were busy.  But we got in - in about ten 
minutes and had dinner. The trip home after was uneventful and 
quiet.  We arrived home at about 9:30, which was the earliest we ever 
got home from a NJARC meeting.

The hardest part of it all was that I attracted all kinds of 
attention every where I went.  I'm not quite sure why?  Everybody 
said hello to me and acted as if they wanted to be my friend.  Little 
old ladies stared at me, the younger ones smiled.  Men said hello and 
asked me how's business?  Strange?

Bah Humbug and ho-ho-ho!
John and Sherry