Bananagrams!

I have to start with some things I left out yesterday. First is another big change – they cut down all the trees around the parking area, making it look much bigger. It doesn’t make much difference in the house, since only one very small window (in our bedroom) faces in that direction, but it is very disconcerting when you drive in. The same folks who cleared out the parking area seem to have taken on the beach path as well. No trees are gone, but it has been cut back and groomed very nicely – no bushwhacking this year.

Also last night after I finished my typing it was time for some pepper. I was the one who suggested that we play, which might make you think that I would win, but alas, as usual, not so. We played three games, and there are three of us, so statistically speaking… but no. We had one regular game, and one unbelievably long game (there are only 15 cards on the table – how long can it take for one person to run out?) and one incredibly short game in which Dave won decisively. There was one very good run in one of the games where Tim decided to pick on me but I was able to counter every one of his cards. It would make a very fine story if I had then won the game, but…

Also a note about the weather, which was hot and sunny at home, but cool and cloudy here, and somewhat foggy, both last night and this morning.

Onward, then. I started this morning with a nice walk. There was a -.9 tide at 7:15, but I didn’t get out until 8:30 or so. Since the tide was on its way in and I have already been to the carriage road, and the walk between hug point and arcadia beach is very boring, I decided to drive to the arcadia beach parking lot and walk from there to The Rock With A Hole In It. On the way there, and especially on the way back, I was struck by how much I take these amazing rock formations for granted (not for granite – I know they’re basalt). We call it a rock, but it’s huge, big enough to have grass growing on the top. And there are many of them, and many places where holes have grown in them – makes you think about how long something like that takes, and how short our time is.

The other thing I thought about was starfish, and where they go. Faithful readers may recall that the starfish population last year was very small – not a good year for starfish, as we say. This year is a bumper year – they are everywhere in giant masses, and they are huge. So it makes me wonder – how fast do they grow? I always have thought of them as slow-growing, but if they are, where were the great big ones last year? And if they are not slow-growing, I have to revise my whole thinking about the relationship between how fast things move and how fast they grow. Maybe it’s time for some starfish research.

I made it to the Rock WAHIT, and climbed around inside of it for a while, thinking about geologic time and starfish time. The tide was not low enough to walk all the way through it or around behind it, so I took a few pictures and moved on. On the walk back I stopped by two houses that had interested me on the way there. One has fallen down partway – it looks almost like it cracked in half, and then the whole front wall fell off of one half so you can see in. It has a nice rock fireplace and looks like it was very comfy. The other half is leaning at an angle, so I didn’t see much of it. It’s kind of sad. Right next door (on the way home I drove by and found the driveway for both houses – it’s the same driveway) is a very neat two story house that is still occupied. It has walls of windows on both stories facing the ocean and looks like it would be very interesting inside. What makes these houses unique is that they are the only two houses on a very long stretch of beach that is often inaccessible during higher tides. I wonder how they got there and why there aren’t any houses near them.

When I got back we relaxed for a while (Tim was still relaxing horizontally in his bed with his eyes closed), and then it was time to head off to Bill’s for lunch. The tyranny of Bill’s is that they open at 11:30, and if you get there much after that not only is there no parking in the public lot but there are no tables at Bill’s. We went in a little early and visited the store that use to be the explorastore but now isn’t even though it mostly has the same stuff, then got to Bill’s promptly at 11:29. Of course this is Bill’s so they didn’t open until a little after 11:30, but we got our table and had our beers (stout for Dave, root for Tim, and the fabulously named dunkelweizen for me) and onion rings and burgers. Then we walked around town a little. Not much new there although there is a store selling items purported to be from shipwrecks, including beach glass with a “certificate of authenticity”. Oddly, there’s not much beach glass on the beaches here. Maybe it is too cold. We bought Tim a bathing suit, because we found out on Saturday that he didn’t have one. At the toy store we bought a new farkle set because the old one is in the trailer (at least we hope it is) and a bananagram set. I am excited about playing bananagrams because I am good at it and Dave and Tim are not. It will keep me going through all the losses at pepper.

When we got home it was time for Dave and Tim to take the bow and arrows down to the beach. Dave took up archery a couple of months ago, and he and Tim like to go in the side yard and shoot. The problem is that our side yard is very small, so the target can’t be that far away. Since our cove is completely cut off at high tide, they were able to set up the target very far away and then shoot arrows in its general direction. Neither of them actually hit the target, but they had fun trying, and they also got some good exercise running back and forth to pick up the arrows. When they were done shooting they decided to play a little baseball – one pitching and one hitting. Meanwhile, I tried to dig a hole, but ran into too many small rocks, so I filled the hole in and was just lying on the sand enjoying the sunshine – because it had cleared up while we were in town for lunch. Suddenly there was yelling, and then the ball was falling from a great height and hitting me in the calf – just above where I scraped myself on some barnacles this morning. So now I am the walking wounded. I tried to convince Tim that he had to carry me up the stairs to the house, but it didn’t work. So I went and scrambled around on the rocks for a while. Dave and Tim decided to go up to the house, but I stayed down to see if I could get my feet used to the cold water. I could, but it wasn’t much fun while they were going numb! Once they were numb it was very fun, hopping around in the waves for a while.

After I came up Dave and I hung out on the warm sunny deck for a while, then we all had showers and read and napped in the living room. I am reading a very interesting book called “Voodoo Vintners”, about biodynamic grape growing in Oregon. Wow, there are many people out there who don’t get science. On the other hand, there are some interesting questions raised about how things work.

Dinner was at 7 at the Bistro, and once we finished having the fight with Tim about not wearing jeans or sneakers with holes and duct tape, it was a very pleasant evening. Crab-stuffed shrimp for me, veal scallopini for Dave (accompanied by a very nice Evesham Wood chardonnay) and pork tenderloin for Tim. We all had dessert, too. My berry pie (I heard it called both blackberry and marionberry, but not someberry) was ok, although the crust wasn’t very good. Dave had the hazelnut torte (shortbread crust, yummy) and Tm had the chocolate pie with pecan-caramel crust that is possibly the best thing n the whole menu. He was kind enough to share a bite with each of us.

Back home, and ready to try out our new games. Let me start by saying that I did not sparkle at farkle. In fact, it was much like one of those games of Trouble where you can’t get a six out of the pop-o-matic to save your life – I couldn’t get the 500 needed to start scoring. In general, it was a very low-scoring game, except for Tim who had a run of fantastic rolls. You play to 10,000, and Tim beat us all by more than 5,000 points – almost 8,000 in my case. Fortunately after farkle it was time for bananagrams, a game at which I RULE. You might think because I love words I’d be good at those scrambled word games. I totally am not – but bananagrams is exactly how my mind works. We played twice, and even though in the second game Dave appeared to have the edge with words like “taxation” and “voters” and many early peels, in the end it was me, me all the way. Not that I’m gloating or anything.

I haven’t mentioned the helicopters yet. Last year – at Thanksgiving, I think – Dave and Tim got remote control helicopters. Tim’s is smaller and quieter and zippier, while Dave’s larger one is radio controlled (Tim’s is line-of-sight , so when he goes behind the chair it is all over). After their humiliating defeats at banangrams, they got out the helicopters and entertained themselves by flying them around my head while I worked on this blog. Tim is pretty good, but Dave sometimes turns the wrong way by accident, making his helicopter a little more dangerous to have hovering by your ear. The helicopters are very cool.

Tim built the fire tonight mostly all by himself except for Dave standing over him telling him how to do it and making fun of his inability to use matches. Now it’s crackling away nicely in the fireplace, and the waves are making their wave noises down on the beach, and it’s time to sign off for another night.

Confidential to BOS: I am so pleased you got the slug reference in last night’s blog. It was in there just for you.