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| The Crew Gathered on Deckzilla Last Evening |
We had a group of old friends showing up
at the house for a party yesterday afternoon so I awoke to the usual list of “honey
do’s” which were added to the task of finishing the backyard patio I’ve been engaged
with for the past week. I was behind schedule since I lost one evening to
overcoming Buddy’s downstairs assault on our collective olfactory senses. I had
exhausted the local Home Depot of their supply of pea stone and as I journeyed
south I found the Auburn store was likewise bereft. I finally located the motherlode
at the Home Depot in Oxford and this made the much longer drive home in a
seriously overloaded Camry all the more interesting.
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| The Finished Patio |
I moved the stone into the backyard in
the usual laborious process highlighted with that hazy hot, humid weather that
is my least favorite of summer varieties. I felt bad because one of the cadets
I had trained way back in the early 1990s had contacted me and asked me to stop
by his house yesterday morning since another one of those cadets was stopping
by. Apparently I still have some cache with that group – if only for shock
value. The cadet who invited me is now a lieutenant colonel so that is a very
aged cache. With the patio work my wife had decreed had to be finished by party
time along with the usual assortment of pre-game requirements I wasn’t gallivanting
off to socialize.
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| Sitting Next to My Excellent Boss |
The patio was finished a little after
noon time and I accomplished the rest of the exponential list with twenty minutes
to spare. I was a little gassed by party time but the assemblage of friends had
the usual mitigatory effect. It was a very nice gathering including my former
Most Excellent Boss and his wife. We’d all been through the “wars” together over
the past decade and he wanted to know what the criminal elements at work had
been up to over the past few months. It was the perfect kind of gathering where
old friends can poke merciless fun at each other without risk of hurt feelings.
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| Post Dinner Joke Telling |
Everybody brought some food and after
searing some dead animal flesh on the grill we sat down to dinner on deckzilla.
My wife found a suggestion on Pinterest about a natural mosquito barrier that
combined mouthwash, Epsom salt, and stale beer. She’d sprayed the entire area
with the concoction and it did seem to the pesky skeeters at bay. Japanese beetles
however seemed immune to the barrier and regularly dive bombed the group during
dessert; nothing to rob the fun of the day though. There might have been a few
beers involved.
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| The Queen and her Court |
Everyone was gone by 9:30pm and I fell
into a comatose state in the Man Cave supposedly watching the Red Sox out on
the west coast. At least I think there was a game on. I awoke this morning to
perform my part of the social contract I have with my wife. She prepares all
the food for these parties while I am the cleanup crew. A morning FaceTime call
with the First Blog Reader shook whatever remaining cobwebs remained from a
very full Saturday. She demonstrated her new milk drinking glass and her
undying devotion to Elmo. We then called my Favorite Son who looked none the worse
for wear after hosting a similar party with his friends yesterday.
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