Summer(ish) continues with clear dry days, but with the caveat that the temps are beginning to decrease and the breezes are kicking up. Pleasant and pretty! It’s amazing how early the sun goes down behind Squaxin Island now. Every day to the next, the difference is noticeable, and that distinctive tilt of the September sun seems to always be directed right at my eyes.
Yesterday was our annual neighborhood potluck (and road committee meeting—we are all responsible for maintaining our single-lane winding private road to all of our houses, so there are always issues to address each year). I’d mentioned in my previous post that many of us had some anxiety about how this event might go (with the host not providing any food and at the site of former bad godawful behavior from his Airbnb guests). Well, it turned out GREAT! I think it was a wonderful success! As I suspected, there were quite a few no-shows, and that probably contributed to how enjoyable it was. Otherwise, it might have been difficult to accommodate everyone. But his place is charming and it was nice to hang out on his deck, all casual and friendly. And the food was good, too. People brought chili and cornbread, chicken wings, and various snacks/appetizers. Wine flowed (of course).
I was a little concerned about how my chocolate chip cookies turned out. The batter was dry and crumbly, and that just didn’t seem right (even though I followed the recipe perfectly—eggs and butter aren’t shown in the picture below). They were difficult to spoon-drop onto the cookie sheets because they just wouldn’t hold together. BUT, I have to say, they ended up just fine and tasted really good!
I did under-cook them a little, because my preference is “chewy” and they really were! And they held together after they were baked, which I was worried about.
Afterwards, we went a couple of lots down to our neighbors’ place where they had their camping trailer for the weekend. (He has been a valuable new crew member for the Miss Squire Shop with John at the Hydroplane Museum). We sat outside under their canopy of HUGE trees and drank a little more wine (and water) and listened to a bunch of old rock music on their astounding little Bose speaker. We kept coming up with tunes to play that we hadn’t heard for a long time, like Boston, Scorpions, The Cure, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Moody Blues, Steppenwolf, etc. It took us all back! So often, we could name a place where we were back when, either seeing the band(s) in concert, or hearing them at a party, or just dancing alone to them in our living room or bedroom. In fact, some dancing may have happened last night! What a ball! Yeah, kind of dragging a bit today…
Sitting out beneath the trees:
So here’s a sad (and infuriating) ditty. A friend’s grandson started high school this week and his mom posted on Facebook about it. On their first day of school, they were on lockdown because there were reports that someone had brought a gun to school. (Ultimately, nothing happened, but they were on lockdown for hours). One of the commenters on the mom’s FB post said this: “Sad, but it does prepare them for life.”
Bet you’re screaming as loud as I am.
“Teaching kids about frogs isn’t grooming them to be amphibians.”
