Kaimusailing

I awoke with a mild hangover and the events of the night before began to array themselves before me. The Bob fire was of course a bonfire and I remember adding a huge tree trunk to it, but the trunk was decayed and not all that heavy. I still felt sore. I found out that I was expected to go back up to Eve's house and help her build a puppy pen for her 9 Labrador pups, all black except for the yellow/golden one. I had to stall as long as I could, make coffee and some sort of breakfast. Run to the men's room. Ask if I needed to bring any tools. Nothing. I biked.
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Eve had invited the entire Arts Council to a garden party at her house. Unfortunately the night before she fell in the dark and ended up sleeping on her cozy settee in her studio/porch right near her beloved pups. Cuddily and Teri and I were there to wrap things up and we made sure she had her phone nearby in case she needed anything overnight. We were all within 5 minutes of her, and we left.
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When I got to her house I parked my bike and found her hosing a circular carpet that was from the puppies' playpen. They eat and poop and sleep and it has to be cleaned up regularly. I was hobbling around like an old fogy and she was too. She told me what she wanted to do, but she is an artist and I am a numbers person. Draw it, here's a pen, but I already have a pen, use this one, you'll really like it. She scowled. She drew. I began to understand what she wanted to do.
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I knew if I screwed this one up I would really get it. I'm not good at sizing up the down side. We worked together with some thankful breaks. It could have been done much quicker, but let's not screw it up this time. Cuddily and Teri arrived and we were on hold for a while. I wanted to get back to work, but we had to be civil, with each other, and with guests.
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The Arts Council arrived. Cuddily and Teri left to take care of some of their own chores. I had a glass of pinot noir, almost the last of a 3 liter box from Black Box. Dionne, one of the ladies, had a glass of pinot grigio which caught an alcoholic fly. She said she'd try my pinot noir and I left to rinse her glass out and bring the almost empty box of wine to the table outside near the grill and under the trees. The conversation was intense, there was a psychoanalyst at the table as well as prospective clients. It was time to feed the puppies their milk and crushed puppy chow gruel. I didn't know that, I thought we were going inside due to the persistent flies.
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Inside I had a comfortable seat right next to the puppy playpen. The puppies have become more active. Four bundt pans with gruel were placed in the playpen and the puppies, mostly, knew what to do, lick it up and whimper puppy noises. One seemed to want his mommy, but he was directed to join the others, and they all got a good dose of puppy chow and milk. We had to clear up the mess, these puppies do not hesitate to foul their nest.
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Dionne seemed anxious to leave and she left her cell phone and half glass of wine. Off she went. The others dawdled a bit, but it was time to get on, the puppy show was over, Eve needed rest. I was the one to close the main gate on my way out.
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I biked back to the marina to get my wallet, then biked to the grocers to take advantage of their unbelievable $.99/lb chicken thigh deal. Yeah, that was a bait and switch. I ended up just getting cycling exercise and headed to the Shanty for a burger and a couple of Orange Crushes.
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News came in from Hawaii about my heart attacked older brother, he was coming out of it OK, still in the hospital, but conversing and stable. Other messages came in, like from a network of family and friends, all around the globe, different time zones, all different. The best message was from my remaining younger brother who we hadn't contacted, but he was right there on the Big Island and told me the good news that our older brother was going to make it.
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The next day when I compared Wordl solutions with my older daughter in Oxford, she replied that they were planning their Hawaii vacation. I took a look at airfares from Salisbury, MD to Hawaii and was shocked that it would run around $2000 round trip. That and other obligations mean I will have to raid the retirement cookie jar. Just how much do I need?
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I had a pound of jumbo frozen raw shrimp in my little fridge's freezer and I planned to make peel and eat shrimp cocktail. The sauce was Food Lion's own. I will get Heinz next time. First I had to see if the shrimp were still frozen, if not I would cook the whole pound, if frozen, a half. They were still frozen so I counted them out and returned half to the little freezer. It looks like they are 16 count. Quite large. I started a medium size pot of water to boil and a large bowl of cold water. In go the shrimp into the boiling water, 4 minutes, drain, and submerge in the cold water. What a quick and easy lunch snack. The shrimp were $6.99/lb.
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I was out of wine again and hit the nearby liquor store for another 3 liters of Black Box. I had spent the day lazing around. Kind of a duplicate of the day before. Another peel and eat shrimp cocktail. Correspondence with the world wide web of relatives and friends about my brother's condition and plans to go visit him, inflict more stress upon him. I don't like flying anymore, but like many other things, the anticipation is worse than the actuality. There are a lot of things that can go wrong these days with air travel, not including the jet crashing. Don't fly over Ukraine.
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Storm clouds of the rain laden kind were building and our fairly clear day that clouded up now was going to give us a thunder shower. I wasn't planning to go out again, yet I felt like a cooped up hen in the cabin. The night before had been 15-20 knot winds buffeting the marina and Sunsplash was bouncing around like she was at sea. I woke at 2 AM and did my Wordle game, crossword puzzle, eventually getting to sleep after the sun rose, planets not all visible, just Venus, waking after 9 AM. Slow morning but nice breakfast and then later the shrimp snack.
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I dozed off after alerting Cornelia Marie that when she gets up early for work tomorrow she might be able to see the array of planets in the pre-dawn sky. The forecast was for a clear morning, perfect. I awoke and it was raining, 6 o'clock. What? It's not supposed to be rainy. Then I realized I had only napped a bit. It was evening and I was hungry. I made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich on sourdough with tomato and once again burned it. I'm trying.
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I slept well and was up at 5 AM, not feeling like getting up, but forcing myself to look for the planets. No go. I have binoculars, but it looks like the Eastern sky is very bright and only Venus was visible. Wish I had just slept.
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After breakfast I made sure the pizza bowls and utensils were clean and ready. I decided to simplify the dough making procedure. Instead of dividing the dough into small bowls, one each for each ball of dough that makes one pie, I left the big dough ball intact in its mixing bowl. I took a quick ride to the grocers and when I got back the dough was starting to foam over the sides of the bowl. I punch it down with a large spoon. Soon I have to prep onion, mushrooms, and the mozzarella. I pack a heavy duty grocery shopping bag with the cutting board, four pizza pans, the bowl of dough with a small plate over the top, zip lok bags of sliced mushrooms, sliced mozzarella, and diced onion, a bag of fresh basil, two canisters of italian herbs and garlic powder, a large spoon, small jar of tomato puree, pizza knife, 1.5 liters of cabernet, and the wine glass. I bike to the Shanty and unpack onto a table. I put the pizza oven and propane tank in a dock cart and bring them to a nearby picnic table. I biked back to Sunsplash to get a barbecue lighter and a roll of paper towels. Cuddily met me asking if she could help move anything. It was all moved.
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I lit the oven and began preparing the first pie. This dough was difficult it was so strong. It had a strong tendency to spring back, so If you spread the dough out to fill the pan, it shrinks back, it takes several tries to get it to stay spread out. The first pie is fresh basil and italian herbs with mozzarella with onions on top. The oven is now putting out a well done pie in about 8 minutes. We alternate making pies. There are only three of us. There are 15 slices left over. I get my share for breakfast and lunch or snacks. I pack everything up and go out for a bike ride at dusk.
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When I return I have to use the pedestrian gate and put in the code to open the gate. A group of 8 or ten local kids on bikes are milling around the marina entrance. Four of them push there way in and say they are on a boat in the marina. I am sure they are not. I bike around inside the marina and find the kids hanging out in a covered area not normally used at night. There are no lights on in that area. I try to get them to show me their boat, then say I've got to go, and pedal off on my way by the Shanty to pick up my bag of things.
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There is an employee at the shanty, checking the padlock on the door, and I ask if he's security, he says yes. I mention the kids that entered with me and I told him where they were, they are not doing anything wrong, seem ok, and I talked to them, so I don't expect them to cause any harm. I mention pizza night and offer him a slice of pizza. He eagerly gobbles the cold slice. I'm off on my way.
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Pizza for breakfast. Pizza for lunch. Pizza for dinner. Pizza pizza pizza. Actually, I had 3 slices and that's it for my share. Eve texted me to put back the chair I moved during the Bob fire. I biked up and snuck into her yard. The chair was not that heavy, but awkward, I brought it back to the outdoor patio table. Inside the house the puppies were loose in her rear enclosed porch. My they are growing quickly. She has me help her roll up a large painting of hers for her sister. We hang out a bit, then her sister calls to go shopping. I grab another pound of shrimp and bike back to the marina. Shrimp in the freezer.
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The image is of the yellow lab puppy snuggled with her litter mates.