Rich, Green, and Bloated

Sounds like a headline for a sleazy Elvis movie, but the title of the post today refers to this weekend's events.

Though this blog originates in Ohio City, we traverse the city of Cleveland and beyond, and on Saturday we drove out to the ridiculous world of Bratenahl, with mansions built back when there was no income tax. We went out to nose around the Gwinn Mansion, built 100 years ago for William Mather, one of the barons of Cleveland's gloried, grimy industrial age. The house is actually somewhat cozy, if you can say that about a place with no fewer than 12 bathrooms. No one has flushed a john here for 50 years, as that's when the widow bit the dust and none of the kids or grandkids wanted to live on these glorious 5 acres with a stunning view of Lake Erie. Oh, did I mention there are 30 acres across the street that also go with the house?

Well, I guess we are lucky to have visited because a young (24 years old) couple has purchased the place and it will no longer be open to the public after September 1st. This will disappoint anyone who likes to look into medicine cabinets because this place has the widow's medicine cabinet preserved as it was in 1957. But, purely for archiving and historical purposes, I have taken several pictures that you can see here (also the amazing gardens, the house itself, the seawall that has more concrete than Euclid Avenue--probably literally now that I think of the state of Euclid Avenue).

After this tour of excess, we drove back to the glorious West Side Market and then our little worker's cottage in the OC (we have two bathrooms, thank you very much, and one crummy medicine cabinet that you can snoop in next time you visit).

In the afternoon/evening we went to the Great Lakes Burning River Fest, down in Wendy Park on Whiskey Island. This is an environmental event where you can drink beer and eat good food at reasonable prices. They also had some decent (and not so decent) bands. It was pleasantly busy but not crazy-crowded, and we had a lovely time with friends J, M, and S who are just the best friends anybody could hope to have. We wandered around and soaked in some sun, paid a bit of attention to the folks who were earnestly trying to make an environmental point or sell some goods. I am not sure they had much success with our group, but S did have an amusing confrontation with a dork who was arguing that we should not vote on the taxes for the Medical Mart. Thankfully she is energetic and smart enough to keep us in the loop on this kind of stuff. We left with S as J and M floated off into the sunset for a cruise on a sailboat.

Midday today we had a Brunch Club event at the Parkview Nite Club. The eight of us who showed had a good time at event deuce of the Brunch Club. I must admit that I preferred our first brunch at the Touch Supper Club with the excellent DJ, cheap eats, and bloody mary bar, but the Parkview serves up a decent mess as well. The waitress was a bit too busy texting and not doing enough pouring/delivering grub, but it could have been worse. S and L worked out the pinball machine, and the rest of us did some excellent chair and jaw workouts, as my Mom would have said "chipping our teeth." Not sure what the next spot is for the brunch club, but the South Side and Lucky's are two good possibilities (look out Tremont, here we come), but right now I am still too bloated from brunch to think about another one.

Elsewhere, the Indians are tanking, the Browns actually won a game, and the weather is warm as August should be. Soon enough the leaves will start to turn, the ACs will go silent, and the schools will be abuzz with kids wondering what ever happened to the summer. Just wait until they get older and work all year, when they realize the game for adults is to cram a bit of that summer into every weekend moment--the eating, the naps, the laughing, the lying on the cool grass, the dreading of the coming work.

We're all kids to some extent, and we're sometimes green with envy for things we do not have, just as kids are, not always realizing the richness of what we have: a good place to live, great places to eat and drink, and friends who make the weekends a shiny summer all year long