Ready And Waiting

I don't buy a lot of alcohol these days. I buy some, generally as needed for larger gatherings. I don't keep any around as a rule anymore, though I used to. When I was newly old enough to drink, I habitually bought beer and hard alcohol, never drinking to excess but drinking a little most days. My intention was to develop a working knowledge of the various types and brands, so I tried never to buy the same thing twice.

A remaining trace of my old buying habits is at my parents' house. There are still a number of bottles that I bought when I still lived there. This is some four or five years ago at least. They don't touch it, and I'm there so seldom that I have no more than a few drinks there in a year. I'd say that it's all getting better with age, but the sorts of liquor that we're talking about are already as good as they can get right on the store's shelf.

Perhaps the bottles are aided by their concealed position amid numerous bottles of my parents' wine. I do have to search for them when I want any. It's true also that some of them are unlikely to draw any interest. One is a local vodka made from prickly pear fruit. Others are meant to be part of a mixed drink with liquors I no longer have there. Still others are, as I said, simply not top shelf material. I would myself prefer something better.

I'd like to take them with me, and I contemplate it every time I'm back. I just never can see how to make it work. It seems like they would perhaps be touchy about such things at the airport. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but they seem to be touchy about most things. In any case, I never have the room in my bags. I guess I like it fine that I always have a supply here anyway. Sooner or later, I'll finally finish them, and then will feel all right about buying new bottles of the same out in California. That should only take about ten years.