The last Brewer tailgate of the Year

The Brewers home season ended today. The regular season ends for the Brewers next weekend. For our attendance purposes, the season ended on Friday. There was one last tailgate, one last game, and one last post-game celebration to be had.

Thankfully it wasn't a standard evening.

We got there as early as we could in order to maximize the entertainment value of the evening. We got the fire started and curled up in front of it with beer, chit-chatting until it was time for food. The past couple times we grilled we had issues with the fire. Whether it was the charcoal, the fluid, or something we were doing, probably the latter, the fire had a habit of going out. It did so on Friday, a couple of times. As I'd forgotten matches, restarting the fire took a little more risk than it should have. I think my arm hair is mostly intact. Eventually the fire stumbled towards warm and we used the trick we've used the past few times: put food on the grill and let the food juices stimulate the fire. A couple pounds of wings got things slightly going. Some baked potatoes wrapped in foil started warming as well. We had some food related hopes.

The weather was also a concern. Rain had been predicted. Checking in on the radar showed distressing news: there was a band of rain heading for us. With a bit of luck it wouldn't hit until we were already ready to go in or it wouldn't last long. Yeah, no.

Wings had been consumed and the sweet corn was ready to be eaten as well. As I bit into the buttery goodness, the rain started. I'd hoped for a couple minutes of light rain in order to enjoy the corn properly but the rain quickly grew heavier. I ate it quickly, was thankful it was still good, and quickly got sick of being this wet. Burgers were thrown on the grill and I went in the car. My official excuse was that I didn't want my beer to get watered down. Moppy soon hopped into the back seat. He chose this for two reasons: drinking beer in the driver's seat would just be wrong and the windows of the car had started to fog up and he figured that looked bad enough without him sitting in the front seat too.

It poured. The potatoes and burgers managed to get done eventually, almost accidentally. It didn't help that we were parked in an area near a storm drain so it was like being in the middle of a stream. Empty cans and other assorted litter swirled past the car. So much for getting in on time.

By the time the rain had settled down, the game was off and running already. By then we were both stuffed having taken in about a pound of wings, two baked potatoes, an ear of corn, and two hamburgers each, along with assorted beers. There was still some picking up to do before we started the three beer walk and filled up even further.

In the midst of all this, the lights in the parking lot went out. I dunno if they always do and we never noticed because it's generally not that dark when we head to the stadium or what but it added an extra element to the evening, especially after we noticed the lightning in the distance.

In the end, we made it inside relatively dry. The Brewers won. We played some bad Frisbee in celebration. I was full for all the next morning. Woof.