2022 Life Logs, Day 171: Dining-in at the Goldstones on Juneteenth
Date: Monday, June 20, 2022
Weather: Sunny, Still on the Cool Side; High 69, Low 57 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I had hoped to sneak out of the house at 8:30 am to drive to Yarmouth to pick up Sam, Jonah, and Jeremy, a fellow Scout who lives in their neighborhood. While I was still in bed, however, I heard Ollie start coughing, and soon after he was up. He was feeling okay but had decided that he would stay home alone for the couple of hours that I would be gone getting his brothers. I got him settled in and then off I went. I arrived at the camp at the appointed time of 9:30, but it was well after 10 am before they had finished cleaning up the camp. Then we packed up, got the three bikes on the bike rack, and took off for home. We went straight to my house to check on Ollie and Shadow. They were fine. And I left Sam there so he could cut my neighbor Andrew’s grass for Ollie. It was obvious that Ollie shouldn’t be doing that.
I took Jonah, Jeremy, and all the gear home, made a stop at the grocery store, and then returned to my house to pick up Sam and Ollie. We knew Heather and Jed would not be home until almost midnight and since it was a school night, the boys needed to be home. I knew all of this ahead of time, so I had arranged for my dining-in group to come to Heather and Jed’s for dinner. It was my turn to host and rather than cancel or change the date, I figured we could pull it off. We did it, but it did take all three boys and me. Ollie and Sam unpacked the van which had deck chairs, a table, and half my kitchen. Later Sam helped set up things on the deck. Since Ollie had a cold, he stayed out of the kitchen, but he could read recipes to me, step by step, from the living room. It was decided that I would be in charge of the salmon and Sam would be in charge of the grilled potatoes. People started arriving at 4 pm. I had not even had time to braid my hair in the morning and had planned to at least comb my hair and get on nicer clothes before everyone arrived. That didn’t happen. But I excused myself to get dressed and just twisted and banded yesterday’s braid, added a scrunchie, and I was ready.
The dinner was wonderful. We had prepared to eat outside, but as the sun sunk lower in the sky, the wind kicked up, and we decided to move inside. Bruce and Jane provided the appetizers–leek pizzas with mushrooms, artichokes, and pine nuts. Delicious. Alaskan Coho salmon was the entree and Sam’s marinated and grilled potatoes were a real hit. Midge added a tray of colorful roasted veggies, Terry and Olivia brought the salad, and Peter and Karen topped off the evening with Karen’s crunchy ice cream cake—vanilla ice cream mixed with chocolate coated Rice Krispies. Yummy and a special treat for the Goldpebbles as well as the grown-up kids in attendance!
It was almost 8:30 pm by the time everyone left and time for the boys to get ready for bed. Lights out for Jonah and Ollie is 9 pm and Sam stays up and reads for another hour or so. The boys talked to Heather and Jed before bedtime, and we found out their ETA was 11:15 pm. It took most of the that time for me to clean up the kitchen and finish the laundry loads I had started earlier. Then when Heather and Jed did get home, Jed drove me home in the van with all my gear. He brought me up-to-date on the results of the survey and sea trial and the news was not good. There are issues that need to be addressed, so there will not be a closing on Monday. The owner is in Ireland and will be home on Thursday. Heather and Jed will get the written survey by then and the negotiations will begin. Depending, Eider might or might not be the boat for Heather and Jed. We just must wait and see if the owner is willing to fix the issues or reduce the price of the boat enough to make it worth while for Heather and Jed to take on the fixes. Heather was very disappointed. But things might still work out. Fingers crossed.
