Got up to drizzle this morning. And rain Saturday night, too, so Sunday had been humid and Monday is kinda fall-like.
We did a bbq over the weekend. Invited a bunch of artists to eat meat and bring sides and cross-pollinate. Writers, painters, lawyers, strippers, musicians, etc. Brisket, pulled pork, chicken, and one bacon explosion. (The other bacon explosion went home with my bass player to taunt the rest of the Stackable Clowns for missing the party.)
Lotsa fun. I enjoy doing this, because there are so many multi-hyphens involved when people start talking about their art. And the breadth and depth we’ve got is amazing. Plus, strangers get to connect with one another outside this and become dangerous combinations.
This is the summer thing, out at the farm. In the winter, we do the Wine and Chocolate Party at a friend’s house and get many other people together (Often, lots of overlap, but scheduling plays into it, as does geography, since that party is as far northeast as I am normally southeast.)
This morning, up early and haul the rented tables and chairs back to the place in Fife where we rent them.
When I first moved to Seattle in 1997, I lived in Federal Way, which is south almost to Tacoma, where I-5 and 18 intersect. I lived there until 2001, when I moved to Fairwood (a suburb east of Renton, up on the hill). Sold that place in ’14 and moved to the farm in ’15.
I don’t get down to Federal Way anymore. Like, ever. Special trip, because about a half-hour drive if no traffic, and there’s not really any there there. Just long strips of genericas that go on kinda forever. Fife, on the other hand, has gone to hell over the last however long since that used to be in my backyard. FedWay has gentrified hard, and Fife has turned into weekly hotels, homeless folks, and boarded up businesses. Sad, really, but life.
On the way, we skipped I-5 and went down 99, also know as Pacific Highway. (Not 101, but a spiritual descendant, of sorts.) You pass through Milton and there is a dive bar (Milton Lodge Bar and Grill) on the east side of the road, in the middle of nowhere. Back 20+ years ago, it was a restaurant/bar that didn’t mind us coming in for dinner on a Monday night and gaming over in the corner after we ate, because it was otherwise kinda dead.
Hadn’t been back in 20+ years, because we found better places to game. (More central to everyone.)
Drove by it on the way down and it was open. And new name. Looked them up and they do breakfast, so more diner/bar and less dive. On the way back, we stopped in.
Interior has been redone, but there is a sign on the door. “No gang patches or colors allowed.” so we knew it wasn’t that gentrified. Still, nice inside. Group of old farts drinking at a table. Woman tending bar was on her second day working there, so still learning everything, but way friendly.
Lots of food for the price. Pretty good, too. If it was closer or on my way anywhere, I’d probably add it as a regular stop, but hell of a haul for a dive burger.
But, the whole point of life is to have adventures. We had a 7-year-old and her twin 5-year-old sisters at the bbq and they had grand adventures with the various trails I maintain through the trees. Had to explain Anti-Stodgy to a couple of folks, because they knew the life, but never quantified it as a term.
So Monday. Fed and home. Back yard mostly clean, save for the pavilions. Smiling. Skipped shooting, but that’s “one thing too many right now” and I’m okay with it. Winding slowly up with non-fiction, because exhausted on a couple of dimensions and need to work into it.
Finished one Five-WuXia-Band story last week and got hung in the middle of the second. Put it aside and started a novel. Thrillerish/Action Adventure. A full Chace Haig novel, which seems to be what writer-brain wanted to write, so I’m running with it. I think I was too many ancient China things at once with the rpg design, so breaking it up into digestible pieces. Gonna work on that for a bit.
Also gotta write the next Milestone Indie Publishing Newsletter. The work never stops, but that just means I stay focused and stay on top of things.
How’s your Monday?
shade and sweet water,
blaze
West of the Mountains, WA