Flame Tree
21 October 2021 | Somers Cove, Crisfield, MD
Cap'n Chef Andy | Cool Autumn
The day after trying to start the atomic 4 with no good results I ended up going to the grocers. But Eve contacted me and said why don’t I come up to her place and help her with her engine warning light and put away my pizza junk. She would take me to the grocers.
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I biked up after a shower in the marina. I brought a 10mm socket, which I knew she didn’t have in her socket set, and popped the hood on her huge SUV. The procedure was to disconnect both terminals of the battery, hold them together, then wait 5 minutes, then see if the warning light was cleared. It did.
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We went to the grocers for some of my items, then went to the County Liquor Dispensary for Triple Sec, then to Cornelia Marie’s porch for a power cable package and an epoxy hardener package, then back up Cove Street to Eve’s.
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She had a guest and I acquainted with him and his large dog. Eve started a large pot of what was to become a spaghetti sauce. She had pieces of italian sausage sauteing in a soup pot and added the same italian spices I used on the pizzas. I prepped some vegetables, a lot of garlic, some sweet red peppers, onion from her garden, and she sliced mushrooms into the pot.
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I went outside and enjoyed another Labatt’s beer from Canada, but soon switched to Cabernet from Black Box. Guest went inside and mixed the sausage in the pot. He came back and we talked about nothing. I went inside and we poured into the pot two jars of homemade marinara sauce, rinsed out with cabernet, and a pile of minced garlic. A jar of canned tomatoes from Eve’s yard went in. She squeezed them right in front of me. I can’t forget the look on her face. It seemed the sauce was all primed up, but I tasted it and said, balsamic vinegar?
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I sprinkled the sauce with the balsamic vinegar and mixed it up, tasted it, wow, good move. It continued to cook. Outside Cuddily showed up. She was upset. Buster’s sister emailed her about how could she have hurt him so. Obviously the sister heard only one side of the story.
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Diana showed up with her dog. She was going on to an event at the Elks Club, well go ahead, don’t stay here with us, the peons. She stayed a while. Karen arrived with her dog. The dogs got into their own social event, sniffing, running around, the male dogs trying to be the top dog, the females wagging their tails and being happy. The humans organized a wine drink, I had red, most of the others had white.
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It was a day where the winds were low, the low sun illuminated everything as it got lower in the sky. I took a photo of a tree whose bark seemed to be glowing red. Up in the sky the vultures were soaring and swooping down through the trees. I guess we’ll just have to put up with the weather I said.
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The next day I procrastinated. I should be hustle and bustle about starting the engine, but I needed another can of starter spray. Eve texted me about going to Pocomoke to Lowe’s and I replied I wanted to go. I could get my can of starter spray and maybe some other items.
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I didn’t bike to her house, I rode the loop from the marina to the intersection of Ape Hole Road to Ashbury Church, and then into Crisfield, jog at Somerset, down Cove Street to Eve’s house. I was early and stayed outside, resting a bit. She came out after a while, surprised I was there. I was ten minutes early. We got on our way to Pocomoke.
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I had left my shopping list back on the boat, but I tried to reconstruct it, and not having notepaper to write it down, I wrote it in the phone on a memo app. How crazy it is, Pocomoke is about 20 miles away and is the closest Lowe’s to Crisfield. Crazy to drive that far to get a gallon of windshield washer fluid and a pair of safety goggles. We stopped at Vessey Farms to look at apples and squash. We stopped at Sysco, wholesale foods, to buy two Black Boxes of Malbec, a pint of nice looking olive oil, a pound of thin sliced Black Forest ham, and a loaf of bread, not my usual. At Lowe’s I bought a can of starter spray and carburetor cleaner. Eve got her safety goggles and something else. We were getting light headed, no lunch yet, and it was getting late, like 3 or so.
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We stopped at Don’s, an upscale bar and bistro on the main drag. We could eat outside with her dog leashed to a chair. Crushes and burgers. Black and blue burgers with blue cheese and mine with sauteed onions and mushrooms. Two crushes for me. We were sated, sitting overlooking a pond with a fountain with a rainbow generated by the low sun and the fountain’s spray.
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We continued on to Crisfield with our purchases and Eve drove quite quickly, her puppy was missing dinner time. Feed the dog, pour a cabernet, sit in the art studio and listen to obnoxious vehicles drive up and down Cove Street. I returned to the marina as the sun had set and the moonrise was even obscured there where it is usually wide open sky to see it. A haze blocked the horizon.
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The image is of the tree illuminated by the low red rays of the sun.