A few days ago while doing some neck exercises given to me by a physical therapist to prevent pain from bone spurs in a neck vertebra, instead of stopping at 50 repetitions as I usually do, I continued to 51 by mistake. That triggered the thought that 51 is 3 x 17 which made me think of playing darts where occasionally landing a dart in the triple 17 ring is desirable.
I started playing darts about 1985 or so. I was working at GE Information Systems in Rockville, MD at the time and commuting there from Herndon, VA. At GE I became friends with a Brit named Dave there who organized weekly lunch outings to area ethnic restaurants. Dave left GE about a year after I met him and started working at Sprint International in Reston, VA. Few recognize the name Sprint International. It's what we left of Telenet which used to run one of the largest packet switched networks in the world.
Since Dave lived in MD and was commuting to Northern VA, we had commutes which were close to the opposites of one another. He and I missed chatting and we figured out that McLean, VA would be roughly halfway if we wanted to meet for a beer after work. He found a great little place called McKeever's Pub which had a great atmosphere as well as featuring a couple dart boards and we began meeting once a week there.
Dave was quite skilled at darts. With practice I became a mediocre player but only for about an hour when the beer I consumed balanced out the residual caffeine from my workday which tended to leave me too jittery to have much accuracy. At some point, my skills started waning as the caffeine lost the battle and I relaxed too much.
The strange train of thought which began with my 51st repetition next left me wondering what happened to the owners of McKeever's Pub. I had heard a rumor that it it had closed about 10 years ago which made me nostalgic for the many evenings spent there chatting with friends and trying not to embarrass myself at darts. It turns out the rumor of the pub closing was true and I discovered that one of the patrons had loved the place so much that he bought up the furnishings and recreated it in his basement. Those of us who enjoyed the McKeever's Pub welcoming atmosphere and excellent food there can understand the impulse to keep it alive. I discovered that the owners had opened a vineyard and restaurant on their farm in Leesburg, VA. It's called EagleTree Restaurant and Winery and judging by the menus I looked at, it sounds amazing.
I hope everyone finds a happy place to meet friends to unwind after work. I've had a few since McKeever's including Old Dominion Brewpub, Dogfish Head Alehouse, and Leesburg Public House.
