Treevanglists

 

I’ll give you a quick catch-up on life outside of weekend hiking and the Monday to Friday, 8-5 remote work… our exciting social life, which has been very closely tied to Ann’s vocation, although I’m interested in saving the planet, too, so it works for both of us.

If you’re a regular reader, you may recall that last month’s Green Drinks was at the Mule Tavern in South Tacoma. This month, it was at Dahlman Cellars, a wine shop less than a block from where we used to live on 2^nd Street. The keynote speaker was Sarah Sutton, co-founder and CEO of Environment and Culture Partners. Sarah’s main thing is helping museums adopt sustainable practices. She’s written a couple of books about this.

As a keynote speaker, she gave a brief talk and then had us play Tringo, a combination of trivia and bingo. She would ask a question and the answer may be on our Bingo card. And to be kind, after people had an opportunity to shout out the answer, she told us the correct answer anyway so people like myself weren’t looking at a blank card all night. It was a fun way to convey information and get people to pay attention. To learn more about her work, you can go to her website at www.ecprs.org. She gave away five or six bottles of wine as prizes, but I didn’t hit the bingo. As to the wine, I didn’t have any, but everyone else there was drinking wine by the glass, and I didn’t hear any complaints, so it must have been excellent. And the newly elected mayor was in attendance. I don't think he had even been sworn in yet, as the election was the day before. 

The following Saturday morning, we went to a tree planting event in Tacoma. You meet a lot of nice people at a tree planting event, and I have yet to meet a jerk at one. You might think, “Of course not, they are volunteers,” but any pastor can tell you there are a lot of people who do volunteer work who are still a bit difficult to be around. But I think tree planting volunteers are special not just because they are willing to do hard manual labor, outside in bad weather and get dirty, but perhaps more because they have faith in the future. You don’t plant trees if you think we’re all doomed anyway. You plant trees because you believe we’re here to stay, and the people of tomorrow will need more trees.

The following week on a Wednesday night we met Ann’s coworkers for a happy hour at the Redd Dog (https://theredddog.com/ ). Que flashback scene: On the drive out here from Missouri, you may recall that stayed at an historic downtown hotel in Spokane called the Montvale (https://montvalespokane.com/) , which we chose because it was amazingly dog-friendly, not too expensive and looked way less dangerous than the Motel 6. We dined downstairs at the Griffin Tavern, https://thegriffintavern.com/. Their big thing was a beer wall. I’d never experienced one before, and as we arrived in Tacoma, I said to Ann, “I wonder if there’s a beer wall in this town?”

Back up tothe  present day: The Redd Dog has a beer wall! How this works: you give the waitress a credit card, and she gives you a beer card. There is a wall full of taps of many types of craft beer. There’s even some cider and wine. You grab a glass, scan your card by the tap, and fill your glass. Or don’t fill it. You’re only buying what you pour.

It’s genius marketing. The beer very much feels like it’s free, because you get up whenever you want, get a glass and pour your own beer, much like you would at a party or at home. Note: Although it feels free, it isn’t free. I’m not sure how it all added up, but I recall one beer that I had was 65 cents an ounce. That means you’re paying over $10 for your pint.

Redd Dog was dog-friendly, and there were many dogs there, including Mary, of course. One of Ann’s coworkers was fostering a little dog that seemed nervous in this highly social setting, and she gave Mary a warning bark. Mary spent most of the rest of the evening under the table to give her some space. 

On Thursday night, we went to the State of the Urban Forest, put on by the Tacoma Tree Foundation.

Tickets were $15. It was a program that lasted a bit over an hour in a Conference room downtown. The room seated around 150 or so, and the event sold out. People here care about their trees.