“Remoted” – Day 517 (Sunday)

The annual family cookout was today. For two months I had been looking forward to attending, but in recent days, I wasn’t feeling like being with a big group, even if it was family. On Friday, I told my aunt hosting the cookout that I probably wouldn't be there, but I’d play it by ear.

After a night of being awakened multiple times by knucklehead neighbors talking loudly in the street, running cars with radios blasting, slamming car doors, and dropping a storage tub of breakables, Winston and I slept late this morning. We're usually up by 6:30, but this morning it was 9:00 when we finally got up. I felt pretty good and decided to go to the cookout, and to bake mini honey corn muffins to bring. That seemed simple enough.

The half-baked, and
the few edible.

The little paper muffin cups were lined up in a cake pan, filled to the recommended height (2/3 full) with the batter, and set to bake for the stated 11 to 13 minutes. When the time was done, they were cooled, and the centers collapsed on most of them. While moving them onto a foil tray I wouldn’t need to take home, it became apparent that most of the muffins had not fully baked. So gross. 

I think it’s because the baking pan used was not individual muffin cups, so there was no heat moving around each little muffin. The paper cups were crowded into the cake pan and the bake time should have been the longer time for a loaf. Of 24 muffins, about seven were baked enough to eat, and this would not work. Lesson learned. Most of the mini still batter muffins were tossed ino the trash.

Early in the drive, practically just out of my street, Earth, Wind, and Fire’s “Serpentine Fire” came on the radio. The sunroof was open and the radio turned up super loud for maximum enjoyment. A stop was made at Market Basket on the way down Route 113 and honey BBQ chicken tenders were procured for the cookout in lieu of the inedible honey corn mini muffins.

I crossed the big green bridge in Tyngsboro that takes traffic over the Merrimack River. Fun fact I just learned – the Tyngsboro Bridge is the second oldest steel rib through arch bridge in the state, and with a span of 547 feet, is the longest span of any steel rib through arch bridge in Massachusetts. On the other side of the bridge is a church, and like I always do, I read the message on the sign out front. Today it said, “Who did you forgive?” which made me tear up and choke up. When I could speak again, I said out loud to my brother and the Universe, “John, I forgive you.”

The weather as beautiful – sunny and not as hot as the past couple days. At my aunt’s house, people sat in the shade provided by four or five canopies set up in the yard. An inflatable pool was set up for the little ones, and corn hole boards entertained all ages and athletic abilities. It was great to relax in a big yard and catch up with cousins, some of whom I hadn’t seen for many years. When I left my house, I thought I would be at the cookout for a couple hours at most, but vacation time ruled, and it was five hours before I left. In a first, I took exactly zero photos at the cookout, which I will probably regret.

Back at home, two hours past Winston’s usual dinner time, I could hear him barking from the driveway through the open windows. It’s possibly the first time he’s been all alone for that many hours, and I hope he didn’t bark all day. He greeted me with leaps and licks, so at least he wasn’t mad. Or maybe he was buttering me up, knowing who controls the food distribution chain in our little operation.