Kaimusailing

I texted that this year seems to be a lot about troubles. It seems everyone I know has faced difficult times with illness, death, and a feeling of being overwhelmed by it all. Crisfield seems to have taken a step backwards, or continuing its decline in population and business. The town that has nothing has even less now. But it's not just Crisfield, it seems like the whole world is reeling from troubles.
.
It felt like my whole world was going down and I had to do something about it. I shaved, said hello at the showers, shopped for bread and water, then, later, wine, then, later biked to the Legion, out in the chilly air, with the NW wind making me work, I hate that, but it's nice to arrive at your destination, go inside where it's warm, order a warm red wine and commiserate. And on your way back the wind is at your back. I'm especially careful while riding the bike at night in dark clothing at not normal bike speeds. It's like motorcycle riding, you're on your own out there. But the streets here are eerily, (how did that get through), empty, they are damp with some sort of dew or light rain, and I am on my own with my thoughts and ideas, being careful, wary, like a ghetto street rider, hey, that could be a blog post title, but I arrive at the gate to the marina and enter the code.
.
When I crashed my bike it was in the marina in conditions similar to now, so I was extremely careful as to how I flew about, fortunately there were no crashes.
.
The next day I remembered I had purchased a steak at the grocers. It was a ribeye steak that was marked down due to due date, great, it won't be around for long. I left the steak out to come to room temperature, seasoned it. Later I cut it in half and refrigerated a half. The other half was pan fried in olive oil 2:30 a side, set aside, and red wine cleaned the pan, reduced, and made a nice sauce.
.
I left it for the requisite 15 minutes but then sliced it up to make a steak sandwich. The half steak was too much for one sandwich, so I will be forced to have two steak sandwiches.
.
The news was that Eve had a fender bender while out of town and would probably be substantially delayed. The year of troubles.
.
We had a smart phone messaging issue between two smart phones running the same Samsung Messages. I could receive and send to everyone except the problem phone. We ended up bickering about who was at fault. What I did on my end after going through all and any suggestions by the "experts" on the internet was to install Google Messages and make it my default message app. Then my message got through. Ureka. But then I switched back to Samsung Messages as the default app and those messages got through, too. It turns out he had spam blockage of many phone numbers and I guess somehow my number got in there. If you run into this problem, why not try switching message apps as a test. I do have a problem with those message apps that require facebook login. I stay away from facebook. It looks like they get hacked, my old account got hacked way back when, and they want you to link everything to that, Good Luck.
.
Eve returned driving a rental and expecting her giant SUV to be declared "totaled". We had a cook out on her grill and a bonfire. Conditions were perfect for the roaring fire, no wind to blow sparks throughout the neighborhood, and there has been damp weather keeping the combustibles less so.
.
The next day was chilly raw rainy windy, and the NY Jets game wasn't on air here. I retreated from the Boater's Lounge back to SUNSPLASH and followed the game audio online while viewing the laughable NFL Gamecast of it. They have that feature so screwed up, the graphic depiction of progress up and down the field is backwards, passes are graphically shown going the wrong way. I understand they might want to put out a terrible free product so that we all go out and sign up for a paid product, like NFL+. Anyway, in this game, a brutal defensive struggle, the Jets won 16-9 but lost their stellar rookie running back, Breece Hall, a front runner for offensive rookie of the year. He is lost for the season. Next up will be the Jets old nemesis, the Patriots.
.
The next day was supposed to be nice, but it was another gloomy morning.
.
The next next day was supposed to be not gloomy, but it was gloomy.
.
OK, it started out gloomy, but I had remnants of Denver Steak and Irish Soda Bread for breakfast. That made all the difference. The night before I was on the phone with Cuddily, who had made the Irish Soda Bread, she needed some analysis and so did I, it feels good when you make someone else feel good, and I texted later, we can bill each other.
.
I was pondering what to do with the metal coffee cans that had piled up. They're great for storing loose small items, especially if you paint a label on them, instead of Food Lions Colombian Coffee, but now I had too many of them. I repaired the damaged electric can opener, but these cans were too tough, and I knew the hand held manual can opener couldn't do better. I wanted to cut them up and trash them. I was interrupted by a text from Eve about making a shopping trip to Lowe's, I presume that meant Pocomoke City, maybe the closest civilization to us.
.
I was involved with a Wordle tournament online and worked hard to secure a large enough lead that #2 competitor kind of bailed out and the tournament sat with no activity. I wasn't going to do any more unless they did something, so it was like a strange stalemate. But #3 made a move, and I responded, maybe too much again, activity stopped again. I had enough time to shower and put on some sweat pants and a sailing shirt.
.
We drove up 413 toward civilization and then took the country road to Pocomoke. fields of harvested corn, baled fields, shorn. Reaped. We ended up going to Lowe's Home Improvement Store for a few items. We did not do the usual, stop at Don's and have some crush drinks, this was a rental car and you don't do anything like that with a rental car. We shopped for ingredients for shrimp scampi and doubled back for wine at the drive through liquor store. She ordered a bottle of something that might be called "Buttercup", or something like that, Chardonnay, while I purchased a magnum of Barefoot Malbec. One bottle was very cold, the other was red and at room temperature.
.
It was not awkward with her back at her place. She and I both enjoyed a glass of wine or two, but she was hell bent of prepping stuff for this great meal. I offered to help, but it's like a police situation, she's got a very sharp knife. Maybe I will go work on her TV, though I thought the Amazon Firestick was a dead duck, I would go work on it for my own safety. I did get to see her chop garlic, I retreated to the TV.
.
The TV had been put on the floor so she could revamp the cabinets, and the cabinets looked very nice. I put the TV back up on its shelf and looked at the wiring. OK, she just put it down on the floor, all was intact. I found the remotes and tried to get the firestick to respond with either her original remote, or the replacement that I had ordered from online. They didn't look the same and neither worked even though I followed all the advice from the YouTube Experts.
.
I was able to somehow get my phone to connect with the firestick using its android app, and I still don't know the details of how it happened. All of a sudden I had control of the firestick and I was surprised that I could find myself watching the Rich Eisen Show, he is a watchable sort. I replenished my wine in the kitchen and observed Eve cooking and on the phone, crooked in her neck. She said she heard something from the living room, did I get it to work, I nodded, and with my replenished wine, returned to find another channel to watch. This was a SailGP event, and it must be old because there is a Japan team in it with Nathan Outerridge in charge of its crew, I love watching this stuff.
.
I have to replenish my wine again, it is so good, Barefoot Malbec. But I have counseled others, it all comes from within, you can be way off key from the get go, you have to find your inner peace.
.
I think we went outside where she played with her lovely black lab bitch and I sat admiring the trees in the late afternoon light. When we were out shopping she said how the colors in the trees were especially vibrant and now I could see trees with all their bright shiny leaves in that light. I thought about autumn leaves up North, my old days, canoeing down the Battenkill in Vermont with my kids, hills emblazened, trees red orange and gold, Eve was done with the sloppy spitball game with her playful dog.
.
She had the whole dinner arranged in her kitchen, the pasta was boiling, the shrimp were done, the salad was getting its dressing, the poor baguette had been halved, stuffed with bruschette, toasted with parmesan on top, the shrimp went into the pasta with chopped parsley, this woman was magic, I should have taken a video, I could carry plates and respond to simple commands.
.
Normally a dinner like this is with more participants. It's like I might cook a ham and cheese toasty sandwich for myself, but making food for yourself and one other person is a statement. I understand the sentiment, when you cook for others, the statement you make with your food. This was a personal meal with Miss Kryptonite and Kaptain Andy. Great meal, all the stars lined up for this one. I'm a veteran of other meals at other places, other venues, chefs, cooks, but none of them were artists. She gets a gold star for this one.
.
I am going to gain weight.
.
I was going to post the photo of this dinner, but I also have a nice shot of the nuclear bonfire of a couple days ago, so I am posting that one.