IronOnline Bash 01

Friday, July 13, 2001

It was overcast and downright cold early Friday morning as I pulled up at Gayle's bakery to snag our 20 loaves of Capitola sourdough baguettes, which I later discovered -- too late -- to be sweet baguettes. (Ugh, garlic bread is *never* left over when made with the inviting texture of sourdough, and we had a least 5 loaves at the end of the day Saturday! Grrrr... but it's a small one, overall.)

My schedule for the day:
Grocery store for cold goods @ 7
Gayles @ 8
Gym @ 8:30
Kitchen @ 9
Pick up Doc at the bus depot @ 9:55
Kitchen all day
Drop off food at Erik's deli walk-in by 5
Movie @ 5:30
Sha Na Na @ 8:30
Food, for sure

When I hit the gym around 8:30, Doc's wife, Cathy, was on the phone with a cryptic message from Doc: He's stuck somewhere. We talked a bit more about the upcoming weekend, but about Doc, that's the gist of the message and there's no more. I re-assure her that we'll sort it out and he'll call when he gets in, and head out for the kitchen.

While I'm unloading the truck (and by this point I've added 20 loaves of bread, the grocery items and the last of my pots and pans; I really cannot see out of any windows and need to learn quickly to use the mirrors), Dan Martin of Garage Gym fame and John Boley and sons pull up to help. Bill Frazee's kicking in like a trooper, and we begin organizing the ingredients and start formulating a plan. On tap: pinto beans (which I forgot to pre-soak in the excitement of Thursday's dinner with Doc and Dan), Stella's pasta salad, my mom's potato salad, garlic bread, bbq sauce, tri-tip marinade and a garbanzo bean salad that eventually stole the show.

Dan pretty quickly stepped in as the kitchen leader, Susan Rench (whom you may remember as Tom I's first car-pushing convert -- she's a bold one) arrived and quickly became Dan's number 2. Anna and Walt (from the gym) lent hands also and I shoved off for the bus depot in the first of three attempts to track the tattoo doc.

It felt sort of funny to be cruising around town in the sunshine while my pals were slaving in the kitchen, but with Doc on the bus for 28 hours at this point, finding him was a clear priority -- especially now that Dan and Susan were on the job. I'll skim over my bus depot experience, and only say that it was my first close-up experience to two heroin junkies, bent in half and tripping. I've seen this in movies, but never up close and real. I stood in line waiting to track Doc's bus, tears in my eyes. It was probably the saddest thing I've ever seen. Such a tremendous waste of life.

We'll never finish this day if I don't skim a bit.

A few hours and a couple of kitchen-to-depot trips later Doc stepped out of his front-row seat from the US Greyhound and we were again kitchen-bound. This time I walked back in to see Doc Ken up to his elbows in potato salad (the entire kitchen crew tells me he washed thoroughly but doesn't remember if he removed his rings first -- and no one was willing to check his pockets to see). Dave walks in looking for me and Doc; Richard and Alice from Pittsburgh are there, and Len and Jamie from Florida. Dan and Kenny have fixed the bbq sauce after a quick trip to Safeway for Tabasco, the salads are nearly done and it's looking like we'll finish early. Yep! 4pm and we're heading for the chiller!

Hitting the gym, Friday, 4:30pm, about an hour before the film starts and things are happening. Og's here. And Doc Ray, in the same building. Guy's trotting down the stairs like he owns the place, and Henrik's playing tour guide to Bill Keyes. OH WOW. It's really happened. You're really here! We've cooked the food -- it worked! -- and things are going to fall into place as planned. UNBELIEVABLE!

Friday night was intentionally planned to be casual. Folks were tired from travel, or perhaps weren't even in town yet. Casual turned out to be perfect -- the film was great fun. We laughed along with the laugh track of The Beverly Hillbillies as Granny tried to cure Dave's barbell bloat. Don't Make Waves was cute -- it's a fun film -- and everyone groaned when Dave lost his girlfriend. And a full-house cheer went up when he came thru the window to save the day. Kim Allyn yelled, "Draper!" (at least I'm pretty sure it was him) and it took down the house.

By the time we sorted out some keys, credit card snafus and housing, we missed the last song of ShaNaNa by a parking-lot length, so walked down to the wharf for a fresh fish dinner at Riva's Fish House. The walk down the Boardwalk to the Wharf was a surreal one: Dave and me, Doc Ray, Dave (Og) and Fay strolling among the crowds like old friends.

Which we are, you know.

Laree

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