Orkin, Crawl Fish & Darwinian Fire

Our bedroom clock was flashing so I didn’t have a good pulse on the actual time. Downstairs I soon learned that it was 720am. Without checking, I knew it was chilly. There was light frost covering a few neighboring rooftops. I started coffee then went to my PC. Cold alright, only 38 degrees. It was sunny, though. Thing is, it wasn’t expected to warm much beyond 67 degrees. And there weren’t any summery conditions expected until possibly Tuesday. Oh well.

I played around online for quite a while finally heading out for a run around 845am. It was chilly enough that I wore long running pants and my jacket. Even though it was chilly, the late spring sunshine felt terrific. A few houses from home, I encountered Mindy and the pug out on a walk. I stopped and walked back with them.

Mindy and I headed out on the deck with coffee. We loosely discussed the day’s plans, which was to include a 10am visit from the Orkin man. We had plans to attend Ben & Ryan’s crawl fish boil around 3pm. I also suggested we make a run to Strader’s to get more flowers for two additional pots: the one hoisted on the ash tree stump, and then another by Mindy’s stone patio.

While awaiting the Orkin man, I finally got around to sinking several cannas bulbs and then the last two zinnias, which have been sunning on the deck for the last week or so. Keith, our new Orkin guy, showed up a little after 10am. He’s a pleasant fellow, and seemed knowledgeable. Treated inside and out, including the garage. We’ve seen only one ant since Greg was out a few Saturday’s ago. And we believe that one came in on someone’s shoe.

Mindy and I showered and headed out to run errands sometime early afternoon. Out first stop was Strader’s where we bought another $50 worth of flowers. Oh, and Mindy picked up a hanging basket of flowers for Ryan, too. From there, we headed to the Sam’s Club & Giant Eagle on Hilliard-Rome. Traffic was tight. Mindy agreed to pick-up brownies for Connie McVey from Sam’s Club. Only problem was, they had only one tray when she really wanted three. She picked up a giant platter of cookies in lieu of tray’s two and three. Problem solved.

Next, we headed across the street to Giant Eagle where we picked up two six-packs of beer along with a bag of ice. I think we got some Founder’s Session IPA and then some Lagunita’s Sumpin Sumpin. We planned to take that and more to Ben & Ryan’s.

We bypassed our own home and instead drove directly to the McVey’s where Mindy dropped off the brownies and cookies. Finally at home, we changed into attire more suitable for hanging around outside at Ben & Ryan’s. As long as the sun was out it was beautiful. We packed a cooler, walked the dog, then left for Ben & Ryan’s. We took Fisher all the way to Hilliard-Rome. Got stopped by a train at the tracks next 84 Lumber.

Arrived at Ben & Ryan’s near 330-340pm. Haven’t hung with the two of them for quite a while. Maybe four or five others there too, and they were expecting more. Ben suggested I visit his finished basement where he keeps tow beer taps. Said he had Magic Hat #9 and Harpoon IPA on tap. Sweet! Even though we brought two coolers of beer, I took him up on the draught Harpoon. Very good stuff!

It wasn’t too much longer before we headed out to the driveway & garage, which he had set up nicely for a party. It was time to dig into the boiled crawl fish he had shipped directly in from Louisiana. Also had a tub of sweet corn, red skin potatoes, and real andouille sausage. And fittingly, he had some Bayou music playing in the background. My first experience eating crawl fish. They were tasty but also a lot of work. The other fixins were just as tasty. I think I had 6 crawl fish, not a lot compared to a few others who heaped their plates high with a mound of them.

I met one of Ben’s neighbor’s who’s a grandpa. We talked for quite a while. In fact, he talked my ear off about things I cared little about. He reminded me much of Sean Meehan. It must’ve been his mannerisms and dialect. He rambled on and on about golf and Tiger Woods, and then about his daughter marrying a guy from Haiti. If memory serves me well, he was a West HD grad, class of 74 . He followed me around for a while talking about this and that.

I showed Mindy Ben & Ryan’s yard. I was most impressed with the old oak porch swing he hung from a 6X6 treated lumber structure. Told Mindy we need one of those for our backyard. We hung out with Ben & Ryan and friends for quite a while. Mindy talked at length with AJ, who owns a tattoo shop. She’s thinking about getting a new tattoo on her ankle – a poppie. But really, tattoos are so yesterday.

I arrived prepared to stay late into the evening, but Mindy suggested we head home around 8pm. She needed to drive. I’d had several beers and was feeling no pain - instead only shame.  We weren’t home long before Mindy suggested we head to the McVey’s. She suggested we walk, too. Good idea. We walked the pug before we headed that way.

I still had quite the beer buzz when we arrived at the McVey’s. I was a little uncomfortable because most of the guests were colleges aged kids there to watch Jordan’s band perform and not old enough to drink. Still, Darwin and his brother-in-law were drinking. Mindy brought along four or five more beers in Bella’s labeled lunch bag. How cool is that?

We hung with the McVey’s until dark. And Darwin had a rip roarin’ fire going. In fact, their fire ring is really nice. Connie expressed having second thoughts about skipping a beach vacation, and even suggested we each look for a beach house in the Outer Banks and then compare notes. The one we rented last summer wasn’t available the week we all have off, but she seemed convinced we could find one similar and for a reasonable price.

As the evening wore on, Connie suggested that she would drive the two of us home, but we wouldn’t have any of that. We opted to walk instead. It’s not really that far. The only real problem I had was that I needed to pee. I waited until we got home. Yikes! By then I thought I might explode!

Mindy pretty much headed straight to bed while I attacked the fridge looking for something good to eat. I joined her in bed a few minutes later asking if we could watch SNL. I don’t think I lasted any more than 5 minutes.