So Long, and Thanks For the Fish!

Son John leaves for college in a couple of weeks, so Wednesday evening we had a farewell party for him and his peeps before they spread out around the country. It was also a bit of a make up party for the headliner band from the graduation party that got shut down. A good time was had by all. The lead singer, Ciara Emauele, has a great voice. Look for her on American Idol one of these years. The band rocked. One of the songs they played was Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall." It was a bit ironic as the song came out about the time I graduated from high school. I guess what goes around, comes around.

Young son Alex's 3rd grade class had a 50's/60's poetry reading. As the kids shouted out after each poem was performed: "Cool, groovy, peace." They finished with a rendition of "If I Had a Hammer." Talk about your throw back tunes. A very nice event. Alex is 9th in from the left in an old long sleeve tie die tee-shirt of mine. I used it for skiing for the last 15 years or so. The sleeves were too long for Alex, so I cut them off. The sacrifices we make for our kids. He loves the shirt, so it has new life.

Our riding leader, Tony was off to Hawks Cove in the Florida Keys for the weekend for his builders association group's annual fishing tournament. So, Saturday morning it was buddy John, Ironman Carrie and me out for a 35 mile ride. Without Tony as our natural lead, we each took turns at the front. However, not being out on a group ride in many weeks, my group riding skills were a bit rusty. We also got to sharpen our tire changing skills by failing to find the sliver of glass that lay hidden under a small flap in Carrie's tire. Three tube changes later and we were on our way.

That night Salome, son John & I got together for dinner on Hollywood Beach with John's classmate, Catherine Ettman, and her parents. The restaurant was an open to the beach. Very lovely, reminding me of restaurants on the Greek Islands. Then, the skies filled with rain clouds and the rain came down for hours. The food was delicious and the conversation interesting. A good thing, because we ended up there for hours waiting for the rain to stop. The rain and lightening made for an even more interesting view of the beach. However, it did make for a late evening. Not intended, as I was scheduled to do an early morning 15 mile run with John on Sunday.

I manage to get up at 5 AM and get to John's by 5:40. The 15 miles were not too bad, but have I mentioned that it has gotten pretty darn humid down here? I can't wait until we get to Seattle for the marathon. The humidity has got to be less than the 90% + we've been experiencing. John's I.T. band started acting up for the second week, so he tells me to go ahead around mile 11. I go off and make sure to not look back and make him feel bad. Little did I know he was stalking me and goes shooting by me around mile 13. The sand bagger.

Later that day, I get a call from Tony saying he's coming back with 30 pounds of fresh Dolphin (the fish, not the mammal). Tony asks me to invite enough people over to eat 30 pounds of fresh fish. Normally, you don't get a positive response to a same day party invitation. But when the last minute invite starts with "Tony's bringing 30 pounds of fresh Dolphin for the grill," you get a much better acceptance rate. So, we ended the weekend with a great fish grill. A couple of bottles of red, many bottles of white, and lots of good company. It was nice having a party for the adults after having to act as supervisor for the last couple of high school parties. We may be older, but we still like to have a good time. Thanks to Tony for the fish and the grill work. Any time you've got the fish, we'll fire up the grill.