Carolinas and convertibles

Two days ago, I was driving a convertible in 65-degree weather. Today, I’m back to shoveling a foot of snow. In case you weren’t aware of it, life’s very unfair.

My Carolina fun extended through two catering events in Augusta, and I didn’t sleep past 6:30 a.m. once while on “vacation.” But I had a lot of fun.

We knocked out the first event catering all right. Karen had four people with experience and then 4-5 older (like my parents) people with no experience working in kitchens like that. The four of us who were experienced go-getters were ready to strangle the others.

Zippy, for example, can't hear a thing. She'd be working on whatever mundane task you gave her and then have, for example, the coffee pot behind her go bonkers, but she wouldn't notice. Nor would she hear one of the experienced four scream "Quick! Unplug the coffee pot!" from across the kitchen.

Some of the other old ladies wanted something to do in advance and I told them to fill up a third of the glasses with ice all the way to the top and they would be the waters. First, someone balked, saying that when it melted, it would overflow. She was clearly not a physics major.

Then, someone else said we shouldn't do it because it would melt. I said that was OK, reminding her we were only filling the water glasses with ice, not the teas. She got defiant, saying we couldn't fill them so early because it would dilute the drinks.

I pretty much screamed "It's OK to water down WATER!" or something like that. 

Oh man, but no one died and we had tons and tons of food left over.

I think we had a little over 25 percent of the chicken left. We’d divvied it up into four carrying things and one was completely untouched, plus there was enough for several meals for us.

The salad wasn’t even half used. Lots and lots of food left, and the North Augusta (or maybe Augusta) food bank really got a windfall.

The second event, on Thursday, was much more low-key. I did have a highlight, of sorts, when I had to call work and had a discussion on promoting a work day. Myself and the other contact person had both invited the air force base last time around, so when the other contact asked me “what we should do” about the air force base, I assumed she meant by contacting them and said she could if she wanted.

That is not what she meant. She told me that the public affairs officer, who’s 24, had been arrested for solicitation last month. I had no clue.

I got this news while in the kitchen preparing the meal and I pretty much went, “WHAT?” Holy cow, my tax dollar at work.

But anyway, that event also went fine (lots of compliments on my soup, which was essentially the Outback Steakhouse Walkabout Soup recipe) and Zippy and I headed up to Charlotte to see Charles and Mary Lynn.

That was the first total relaxation of the trip, I think, or it would have been had my cell phone alarm not gone off at 5:50 the next morning. This baffled me, as it was off. But whatever.

Zippy, who is not prone to mornings, slept until 11:30 – I’d been up since 6:30, working on Hope Village stuff – and we all headed off to lunch.

I tell you, there is no lack of good food in the Carolinas. Much of it, this time, I cooked, but the stuff that was served to me was fabulous, too.

Charles had a softball thing on Saturday, so Zippy went to that and we dined out one last time before heading back to Augusta, where we ate one more meal (the chicken) before going to bed.

I had no idea the lousy time change was that weekend, so my 6:30 flight really was a killer. We woke up at 4, which my body felt like was 3, which is 2 in Central time. So by the time I got home, I pretty much was dead, except I also had a foot of crusty snow to shovel.

After an hour or so of that, a neighbor saw me and offered me the use of her husband, who had a snow blower. Done. I crashed, woke up at 6:30 p.m., and then went into work to grab some stuff, including my Netflixes.

So now it’s back to work full-time, and I don’t mind at all. My next “break” is late April, when I head to DC for a few days to take the oral assessment again. After that, it will be full speed ahead through the spring, summer and fall rebuild.

Onward.