RECORD STORE TALES #1179: Spring Dinner With Aaron

The clocks have changed and we have beaten winter once again!  Though it was the harshest winter for weather since the 1990s, it was the easiest winter for my mental health in decades.  And I have you to thank for supporting me through it.  Though winter’s not completely over, the darkness that pervaded my evenings is.  We’re due for one or two more big storms, but nothing like what we endured in February.

Spring is so close I can taste it.

Coinciding with the clock change, another sign of spring has emerged:  that being Aaron of the KMA!  Aaron was in town on Sunday, so we met up with him and his lovely wife Cindy for a dinner at my favourite local establishment, Borealis.  Shop local, buy local!  So that is what we did.  Aaron was curious about the “local” aspect.  “Does Kitchener have a lot of wild boar?” he asked, only partly joking.  All the food comes from Ontario.  Aaron and Cindy had the wild trout, while I had mushroom rigatoni and Jen had prime rib.  All-Ontario menu!  They did serve some foreign spirits such as Absinthe, but we didn’t look too deep into the liquor menu.

Of course there were gifts!  I gave Aaron his own copy of Live In Ontario by Max the Axe, and he gifted me a Def Leppard tour shirt (with Journey), a Jacob Moon album I needed, and the new 40th Anniversary edition of Stay Hungry by Twisted Sister.

Dinner was incredible, and we received special service from “Cousin” Luigi, whom we have not seen since before the pandemic.  I have been wanting to take Aaron to Borealis for years, so it was a happy circumstance that we had Luigi.  We didn’t want to eat upstairs due to Jen’s health conditions, so they opened up the entire downstairs dining room just for us.  We had the whole room to ourselves.

And Luigi made sure Jen never ran out of drinks.

A delightful night, and two wonderful reunions in one.