Fireside ChatNature, like us is sometimes caught Friday, October 13, 2000 We were treated to a company lunch today, in honor of our new guy, Bob, who starts fulltime on Monday -- but he didn't get to go to lunch with us; he's been working halfdays, and today was his last at his old job. The lunch was also in honor of Chip finding the fix that stops our server from toppling over at any random moment (so no more office sleepovers for me). We tried to go to a new place at Redmond Towne Center, a mock diner called Ruby's, but it's so insanely popular that the wait would have been too long. It did look like a cute place. So we opted for Cuccina, Cuccina! instead. I've had their food before, but I don't think I've ever eaten in the actual restaurant. The tortellini with prosciutto, peas, and cream was grand!
It turned out that Jack's daughter H---- wasn't coming up this weekend, so I could leave directly from work and head north. The traffic wasn't too bad -- the other direction was backed up from folks going to the Mariners baseball game. How can such a limited number of people (the stadium isn't that big, surely?) make hash of the traffic flow? The weather didn't bode well for camping, and that was the plan for this weekend. The Bellingham Science Fiction and Fantasy Club had scheduled another campout as a recruiting effort. I scanned the skies dubiously as I drove; they alternated between mist, rain, and clouds. Jack had suggested that I drive to the campground and meet him there, but his place was really on the way so I stopped at his house first. Sure enough, he was still there. He was up in his room, on the phone with his ex-wife. Daughter A---- was still in Olympia, but her mom hadn't seen her since Thursday morning! Jack didn't want to arrange for a Greyhound ticket until her whereabouts were known. He had chili "starter" cooking in the crockpot; this would be transformed into good chili tomorrow. He proposed that we just drive out to Larrabee State Park for the evening, since he didn't want to go get the motor home north of town, and drive it down there in the dark and rain. We packed the materials he wanted to bring into the back of the Volvo -- an ice chest with beverages, his guitar, and stuff like that.
It's a short drive, five miles or so, from Bellingham to the park, along Chuckanut Drive, an old historic, scenic highway. I found the drive slightly stressful, because I couldn't see for shit! This was due to the rain, mist, twisty road, and weaselly cars shining their brights in my eyes. We made it, though, and drove to the campsite. We found some folks there, gathered around a fire. There was a stupendous pile of wood! John, a new guy, had brought it -- he gets it cheap in Canada. It was great to have the luxury of burning as much as we wanted, with no concern for making it last the evening. Those bundles of logs from the grocery store might as well be made of gold, as much as you have to pay for them. Jacqueline arrived, with an awning which we set up over the picnic table. This helped the rain and drizzle situation a bit, but I did put up my umbrella when I was sitting near the fire. Jack enjoyed a few beverages, but I was driving, so that was ok. He played his guitar. The rain trailed off by the end of the evening. We gave Don and Hans (another new guy) a ride back to town, even though Don lives no where near Jack's house (but I didn't pout much). Hans lives just a few blocks from Jack, so he agreed to come by in the morning and travel back to Larabee with us.
At home, Jack kept exclaiming that he was drunk! But he didn't really act that way. He said the room was almost spinning for him, but it couldn't have been bed-spinning -- it was recliner-spinning!
|
