Kaimusailing

I was out of cheese and ham. This meant a grocery trip and then of course, visit the American Legion. Cuddily said she would be there after baking fresh fish that she got from her neighbor fisherman.
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The forecast looked good for the bike and I set off to the grocers. A steady pace still left me hot and sweaty. The air conditioning of the store felt like a shock. After picking up my groceries I biked to the Legion and struggled against a strong breeze.
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The Legion was closed. The note on the door said staff shortage. I texted Cuddily that they were closed and waited for Teri to arrive. We had a phone conversation with Cuddily who invited us for wine.
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She had two small plates with fish and green beans. Just a nice taste. We were having our usual conversation when I noticed it looked a little darker outside. I stepped out and saw Cuddily’s runabout was jostling at its moorings. After adjusting the dock lines I saw an ominous cloud to the West. Back inside, the wunderground website had a severe thunderstorm warning and radar of the storm coming at us.
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It looked like I had time for one more glass of pinot noir. Teri departed. I went outside one more time and it looked like time to go. As soon as I set off the wind picked up some more. It must have been a microburst because it stopped me in my tracks and blew me and the bike over. My Somers Cove Marina ballcap blew off and away. I returned to the safety of Cuddily’s garage.
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A sailboat in the parking area blew over. A boat on a trailer took off. Debris was flying by. The rain came. I had left SUNSPLASH with the companionway hatch open among other things left out in the cockpit. Gonna be a mess.
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The next day was taking steps to dry out stuff on the boat and in the cockpit. Tool boxes, power tools, an open cockpit locker, my towel that I left out to dry in the sun, it was a soggy mess.
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I made another batch of the sausage mushroom marinara sauce and had some with garden rotini for dinner. I put 3 portions in the fridge and got ready to watch the much anticipated presidential debate.
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Although many of my friends and acquaintances think I’m very political, I am not. I do not like the extremes. Usually the extremes do not come up with something that helps everyone, more likely it helps their own little group. I like to see compromise and that doesn’t happen if extremists are involved. There is no wiggle room. As I watched the debate I realized it would not make much effect on those who have already made their mind up. Biden has a speech impediment which holds him back in a debate. Trump casts out obvious lies that undermine the possibility that anyone would switch sides to support him. It will be interesting to see how the aftermath turns out.
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The weekend started with the Tour de France starting in Florence, Italy, a culinary mecca. The tour will end in 3 weeks at Nice, France, not the usual sprint down the Champs de Elysees in Paris. The Wimbledon tennis tournament will start on Monday. Qualifying matches have already been played. I am interested in both contests, tennis and cycling.
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The heat wave hit us hard with temps in the nineties. The daytime temperature in SUNSPLASH’s cabin was 98 three days in a row. Thunderstorms would spring up unexpectedly, sometimes violent. I didn’t go out much in the heat. The heat came from strong steady SSW winds which also brought the humidity up. A front came through and we had merciful cooling of about 5-10 degrees.
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I was able to go out to the grocers and then to the Legion. The Legion is considered a private club and is allowed to have slot machines for gambling. The machines have been silent for a while due to annual maintenance. Now they are busy collecting gambler’s money again.
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That was a couple days ago. The Legion escapade left me with a late breakfast, a slow start. Cuddily had wanted to go to Pocomoke and I did too. We didn’t go. It was a day of rest and respite. When I am free like this I like to reflect on things. I found a USB adapter laying around and it is perfect to get my blue tooth speaker powered up again. It is a very cheap Chinese unit. It will run for several minutes on battery, but it will run forever when on the USB charger cable. Unfortunately that cable is the only one that will work with my S23 phone, so the phone gets charged or I get music. I was worried about what would happen if this USB cable failed. I resolved to purchase one or two extras.
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We had to go to Pocomoke. I had to call Teri, as Cuddily’s phone was inadvertaently blocked on Teri’s phone. I am the phone surrogate that phones Teri to call Cuddily. It’s complicated. Now was my chance to get a full tank of propane and a case of bottled water. I prepared the tank (removed the illegal adapter) and brought it to the head of the dock. It was barely possible on the bike. I continued to the old Red Shell Shanty, which is now the Boater’s Lounge. There were boaters inside using the internet and computing.
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I was reviewing some Wimbledon clips and also fantastic news that Mark Cavendish, a spectacular bike rider from the Isle of Man, had won the 5th stage of this year’s Tour de France. He had been tied with Eddie Merxx at 34 wins, no one else has ever been close. Inspirational. The Cuddilymobile arrived and I quickly left the air conditioned lounge for our trip to Pocomoke.
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Cuddily and Teri sat in the front. The farm fields sped past and then we were on route 13 heading South. There is a shortcut, 3 minutes faster, and featuring chicken and fruit farms. We decided to visit Walmart and then Harbor Freight Tools.
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I needed those USB cables, but Walmart also carries CoQ10 gummies, I snapped up these items, paid, and wandered out to the car. I didn’t expect the ladies to be done before me. I had a propane tank exchange which required a wait out in the sun, not too hot today. The ladies came out and a worker, the propane guy came and swapped the tanks.
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Cuddily drove up, I stowed in her trunk, Teri got in after offering me the front seat. I sat behind her. Something was wrong. Teri was furtively searching for her credit card. She had a proper female luggage that carries none of the hardware store items that a man would carry, but it carries twice that, or even more, of stuff that a man can’t comprehend. It was not there, or anywhere. Cuddily was allowed to search Teri’s stuff. I didn’t even try. I observed, guiltily. Gosh, spelled that right.
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The search continued back into the store after searching around the propane area where we had been. No sign of the credit card. What color is it? Can’t understand her response. I went to Customer Service to reserve a place in line while Teri searched around the register where she had checked out.
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Cuddily had very explicit details about the sales transaction and what Teri did with her purse and handling the card out of the reader. We searched. We gave up our space in the customer service line. We regrouped, I continued to wait in line. We 3 were there, giving the impression of a long line. A second customer service employee came out and opened another service register. The line now went quickly and we learned there were no credit cards turned in. Teri had conversed with her checkout clerk, her card had not been left behind.
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We were frustrated and it was mid afternoon. Time for lunch? I offered to treat if Cuddily would take us near the Virginia border, to Don’s, a fixture on RT13. Good advice. They make excellent Orange Crush drinks. I could have two, I wasn’t the driver.
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Teri was holding up something dark, a rectangle with a tear off strip, the same strip that Cuddily had said was still on her credit card, “you have to remove that and sign it or it isn’t good”, it was her credit card. I asked if it was. She looked at it for a while and said yes, don’t tell Cuddily. Guess who came back from the rest room just then.
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We had food that was not what it was like a couple years ago. I liked Don’s very much back then. They had seared ahi tuna on the menu as an appetizer. They make exceptional Orange Crush drinks and still do. The tuna is not on the menu. Maybe a burger would be good there, not the stuff we had. I had the rockfish basket, with fries and hushpuppies. Way over cooked. Fried to a crisp. It seems to happen a lot around here.
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So, yet another restaurant has fallen. Kitchen talent is in short supply, especially in season. Quality depends of the ingredients and the chef. We are centered in the Seafood Capital of the World and it’s hard to get crab cakes and most of the fish is frozen and from foreign fish farms.
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On our shopping trip we bought out Cysco’s stock of Saddlebred Pinot Noir, only 5 bottles, and another 2 ½ lb bag of frozen shrimp. Shrimp from foreign fish farms. There was one leg of lamb, no ground lamb, several frozen ducks, beef brisket on sale for less than 5 bucks a pound. If I was having a barbecue with a dozen or more people the brisket would be in my shopping basket. I picked up a box of Barefoot Pinot Noir, 3 liters. It was significantly cheaper than Black Box, why not try it.
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We had homemade crabcakes and corn on the cob. The back fin crab meat was $38/lb. We had 2 lbs of our own crab meat in the freezer that remained frozen. Cuddily wanted the crabcakes to be as good as possible, so she bought the crabmeat at the store. I was allowed to sautee the cakes. She had planned to air fry them, but had never tried that, do you have a cast iron skillet? Yes, it was medium sized, maybe 10”, 5 crab cakes could be fit in it. I seasoned the pan and started the sautee with 50/50 Irish butter and EVOO. The cakes came out perfect. I would have made the cakes with less breaking up of the meat. I might get my chance to make them someday.
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Cuddily planned a holiday meal with shrimp cocktail, peel and eat Old Bay shrimp, corn on the cob, guacamole and chips, and a wine tasting experience. We were comparing the Saddlebred and Black Box pinot noirs. The Black Box is very smooth but the Saddlebred has a bit of citrus fruit or currant that makes it a little bit special. Later I compared the Barefoot boxed pinot noir and it is equal to the Black Box. These are good inexpensive wines.
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The next big dinner was grilled brats with onion and peppers, more guac, and of course more corn on the cob. The temperature outside was 96, feels like 113. I had ridden the bike doing intervals on the way over. On the bike might be the best way to cope with very hot weather.
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The image is of the sunset near the Legion.