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partyhenge
Saturday, August 27 2016
Late this morning, after it had aired out for many hours, I went into the laboratory to queue up some podcasts for a cleaning jihad I had to begin. Amazingly, the fleas were jumping on me just as they had done before last night's fogging operation. Evidently they had survived. I don't know how that was possible; the fogger was brand new and supposedly could fog up a 1200 square foot room. The laboratory is less than 800 square feet. [Oh, I see the problem; the fogger packaging said "1200 square feet" but that was only if all the foggers were used. Each individual one is only for 375 square feet.]
The cleaning jihad was for an party Gretchen and I would be hosting this afternoon. Gretchen had been cooking and baking for days, and she was still doing food prep right up until the party began. Mostly all I had to do was wipe down some surfaces and do some vacuuming, though I also set up plastic chairs in the lawn and did my best to improve the water quality on the kiddie pool. It had a fair number of mosquito larvæ in it, along with all sorts of tree debris and various drowned insects. I didn't want to have to replace the water, so instead I used a mesh to scoop out all the crap I could. I didn't take too much effort to make the water look clean. And I think I managed to eliminate all the mosquito larvæ as well.
People began arriving at 3:00pm, and something like 30 people showed up. It was most of the usual suspects (and a fair number of dogs), including a really old, fat pit bull named Tyson. Nancy also brought Bruce & Jack, and Julianna & Lee brought Lulu. Later, when Maresa and Mark showed up with Lydia, it was to be Lydia's first experience meeting Neville. I found the canine politics of that meeting really fascinating. It was clear from the start that Ramona was going to be jealous of any special attention Lydia payed to Neville, and Lydia apparently either sensed this or Ramona communicated it to her somehow. In any case, Lydia made a point of never looking in Neville's direction, acting as though there was nothing of any interest where he was. This seemed to satisfy Ramona, and everything was cool. Later in the party, of course, these unwritten rules broke down and Lydia got a chance to pay a little attention to Neville. For his part, Neville was delighted by all the dogs who kept showing up, especially Lulu. He excitedly led her into the nearby woods to show her around. Meanwhile Jack was causing a number of problems. He kept getting wet in the kiddie pool and then charging into the house and only then shaking. And at some point he discovered the urine-soaked pine needles I'd buried this morning shallowly in the garden. He must've liked that smell, because he dug some up and then repeatedly rolled in it. I'm sure by the time Nancy got him home, he smelled like homeless guy.
A number of people had never been to our house before, including Wacky Peter's wife (or is it girlfriend?) Alison, and a tall woman and her short little elfin boyfriend. I took them all up on the solar deck (which the ladies climbed despite their long summer dresses). We all smoked a reefer up there, the second pot sub-party (for me, at least) of the party. And then I took them all down to the greenhouse, staring in the basement (which Alison referred to as "the grotto"). By this point I was pretty drunk, fairly stoned, and very talkative. My jokes seemed to be landing well, and I felt like I was the center of attention. Still, when I walked up to the circle of plastic chairs in the yard and announced that it looked like "partyhenge," nobody seemed to think it was all that hilarious.
The food spread was beautiful and went over great. By the end of the party, early all of it had been eaten, which was kind of sad because usually we have more leftovers after a party like that. The thing we scored on instead was alcohol, mostly in the form of beer. (Though we'd managed to drink all the wine that was brought.)
The party was over by 8:30pm, which was kind of early for one of our afternoon parties.
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