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The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

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Hot air and ill-informed banter

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The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Beach, Day Two

Beach, Day Two

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It rained most of the day yesterday, but got nice after 4pm, so we managed to get a little beach time in:

We also made a friend, who has named Pinchy 2 (Pinchy the first was from a previous adventure):

On the way to the store this morning, I saw a pretty amazing sunrise:

I did some various things and then hit the beach for a bit, but I left after an hour or so because I could tell I was starting to burn even though I had sunscreen on and I started to detect the faint aroma of bacon.

It’s very nice and relaxing. I picked up some shrimp from a local guy and peeled and deveined them this morning, so I made up a shrimp po-boy on a fresh baguette, had some cole slaw, and now I am going to relax indoors until the heat of the day passes because I don’t want to get horribly sunburned on my first real day at the beach.

I could get used to this vacation thing. I like the whole making drinks, cooking, relaxing, and not really having anything to do except whatever I want.

Reader Interactions

79Comments

  4. 4.

    Yarrow

    Sounds amazing. Enjoy. Your version of being on the beach is how I used to do it too. Go out early but be back in by 9:30 a.m. Stay inside during the heat of the day, then go back out after 4:00 p.m. or so. You still get to enjoy it, but you don’t get fried to a crisp.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    Did I miss Beach, Day One?

    So happy for you, Cole! I love the water, which I’m sure you could never guess from my nym, and that beach is gorgeous. Say hey to Pinchy 2 for me!

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    I am watering my lawn today. MomSense, I will see your yellow grass and raise you – mine is brown and brittle. But hopefully not for long. Whose dumb idea was grass, anyway? We should all have beautiful, lush, resilient ground cover.

  10. 10.

    p.a.

    No wonder Misquamicut is so crowded; the nutmeggers don’t go to their own state’s effing beaches? Where the people?

  11. 11.

    Yarrow

    @WaterGirl:

    Whose dumb idea was grass, anyway?

    If you haven’t read Michael Pollan’s Second Nature, you should. He covers the history of lawns in the US and how we ended up with them. It’s a great book in general and particularly good for gardeners.

  13. 13.

    No Drought No More

    Cole: Did you leave the stove on? Are you sure? I didn’t think so.

    That’s what someone would ask if they wanted to fuck with your beautiful vacation..

  14. 14.

    ChrisS

    @Yarrow:
    The British have that right. The vast majority of yards are small and mostly pavers/stone and plantings/vegetables/fruits.

    Every year I take inspiration and convert a little more lawn to other scapes.

  15. 15.

    pamelabrown53

    Mmmmm. Fresh shrimp. When my boys were young (they’re now 42 and 35) we took them to Padre Island where we bought some shrimp right off the boat. After pealing and deveining, I stir fried them in a little A-1 sauce. Sounds gross, right? Well, that’s what was on hand. Anyway, my sons grew up telling everyone the best shrimp they ever had was A-1 shrimp. (My guess is the shrimp were so amazing, even the A-1 couldn’t ruin them).
    Thanks for sharing the pix, John. Have a wonderful and rejuvenating vacation.

  17. 17.

    WaterGirl

    @Yarrow: Reviews for that book are full of praise! I will have to get a sample on my iPad first, but I will likely buy it. Thanks for the recommendation!

  18. 18.

    Damned at Random

    Can’t get my brain around “nice and relaxing” and “saw an amazing sunrise.” How are these in a single post?

  19. 19.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I’m no naturalist, but even I can recognize that Pinchy is a blue crab! Where are you vacationing again?

    I learned in Baltimore how to eat these guys barehanded. The Chesapeake Bay area is full of crab places where you sit at a table with nothing but brown paper on it (a disposable tablecloth), a roll of paper towels, and a little paring knife and a little wooden mallet for each person. Then they dump a dozen blue crabs on the table in front of you, no silverware, no plate.

    The pros disdain the mallet and knife.

    So I apologize to Pinchy for the fact that his appearance is triggering a series of images in my mind which he would probably find kind of barbaric. And now I kind of want a bowl of Maryland Crab Soup.

  20. 20.

    Yarrow

    @WaterGirl: I hope you enjoy it! I like all of Michael Pollan’s books, but it was the first one of his I read and as a gardener myself I fell in love with it.

  21. 21.

    Yarrow

    @Damned at Random: Isn’t this the guy that woke up at 3:15 a.m., then woke up his girlfriend and hustled everyone into the car to start their drive to the beach? Not getting up until sunrise is sleeping in.

  25. 25.

    MomSense

    @WaterGirl:

    I’m supposed to keep the visible part of the yard grass but I think I may have to drop several bushels of wildflower seeds on my way to the back yard. Oops.

  27. 27.

    Yarrow

    @Ohio Mom: Not to mention his parents who live next door or just behind him or across the street or something. I think he’s got “stove on or off” covered.

    The boys look like they’re having a great time. I remember how much I enjoyed the beach as a kid. Just playing in the water, making sand castles and forts. Endless fun.

  28. 28.

    Greg Ferguson

    Cole, you deserve the opportunity to make your own paradise, just as you like it, for a few days. Bless ABC from here – we love what she is doing for/to you….<3

  30. 30.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I think the only way your beach vacation could be made better is to have some short guy in a tux asking you if you want the cracked crab or the lobster for lunch.

  33. 33.

    Yarrow

    @MomSense: One thing I’ve heard that people who live in strict HOA neighborhoods do is very gradually expand outward from the house the beds by the house. Reclaim the lawn bit by bit. They’ve found if they do it slowly the HOA doesn’t notice and eventually they’ve got very little grass and lawn left.

    @WereBear: I am glad to see people focusing on natives all across the country. It’s good for pollinators, easier on water bills, better for the environment as they don’t need the fertilizing and potential runoff that non-natives do. It just makes sense.

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    We’re not bad people
    We’re not dirty, we’re not mean
    We love everybody
    But we do what we please
    When the weather’s fine
    We go fishing
    Or go swimming in the sea
    We’re always happy
    Life’s for living
    Yeah that’s our philosophy

    – Mungo Jerry, In the Summertime

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Yarrow:

    Huge Michael Pollan fan here, although I haven’t read this one yet. My first, and (perhaps for that reason) favourite, is The Botany of Desire. Just a fascinating read.

  39. 39.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @The Lodger:

    You should probably point out that they boil the crabs before dumping them on the table.

    Oh, you went to one of those fancy-schmancy “boil them first” places?

    Yeah, I should have mentioned that. And always boiled in Old Bay Seasoning.

    But on the other hand, if you go to somebody’s home to eat crabs, or you decide to do a crab boil yourself, then you’re going to be starting out with a bushel basket full of very much live crabs. Traditionally purchased at the side of the road from a guy with a hand-lettered sign and missing half his teeth.

  42. 42.

    Yarrow

    @SiubhanDuinne: That’s a lot of people’s favorite, or Omnivore’s Dilemma. I think Second Nature is mine because I read it before he was quite so well known and just fell in love with his writing. I kind of felt like those people who were fans of the band before the become famous, or something.

  47. 47.

    Another Scott

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: When I moved to NoVA in the late ’80s I was astounded to hear ads everywhere for restaurants for “get your bucket of blue crabs for $10!!11” It seemed clear to me that they were being overharvested and the population was in danger of collapse.

    Sure enough, in the ’90s the surrounding jurisdictions finally figured out that they were being over-fished.

    They seem to be recovering so maybe they’ll be around for a while. (But I note that I haven’t heard those types of ads any more, either.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  49. 49.

    pamelabrown53

    @WereBear: @43.
    Agree. HOA’s are the “devil”,along with their Architectural Review Boards.
    In the past year “the Star Chamber” (!) inexplicably decided that the best way to spend our association fees was to purchase and replace everyone’s mailbox so they’d be identical. My “free” replacement doesn’t begin to equal the quality of my old one: The paint is wearing off on the inside, the flag is a challenge to keep up, the post isn’t deep enough…plus they gave us cheesy stick on numbers that are already pealing. So much for upgrading the neighborhood. This is what happens in a county that is 2/3 republican: conformity at all costs with no clue.

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Yarrow:

    Understandable. I foolishly gave both Second Nature and A Place of My Own a pass when they first came out, as I was, and am, neither a gardener nor a homeowner — they simply didn’t speak to me at that time (I’ve since read APoMO).

    I’ve always kind of liked the fact that Pollan is Michael J. Fox’s brother-in-law :-)

  52. 52.

    Jim Parene

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: They take their Blueclaws seriously, in Maryland.
    I dated a woman in Baltimore . If ever I wanted to stir things up at her family gatherings, I would state that I loved my Crabcakes with hot mustard and bacon wraps. I’d stand back and let the debates begin. Usually, hilarity would ensue.

  54. 54.

    Quinerly

    Cole, where are you? You look like you are on my beach. Don’t make Poco come looking for you. It rained most of yesterday for us. He’s rested, relaxed and ready to go. Fess up.

  56. 56.

    Fair Economist

    *Looks* like fun, but I grew up vacationing on the Gulf of Mexico and I know that Atlantic water is too cold to be fun. What did you have to bribe those kids with to pretend like they’re having fun? I figure it’s like the fashion beachwear issues – which are actually shot in February, and even in SoCal the models have to sprint to the warming stations between photos.

  57. 57.

    enplaned

    That should be Cole slaw, no?

    For safety sake, suggest a wading pool of SPF200 by the door. Then roll in it before you leave the premises.

  58. 58.

    Honus

    Having followed your exploits for the last several years, I’m really surprised you didn’t plan a vacation to hatteras or ocracoke this week.

  59. 59.

    tybee

    @Fair Economist:

    I know that Atlantic water is too cold to be fun.

    today, water temp here on the atlantic is 83.1 degrees

    although i will admit that as a teen, visiting Ipswich, the water at Cranes beach was way too cold in July be amusing.

  60. 60.

    WaterGirl

    @Yarrow: You know, that approach used to work for my cocker spaniel. Bring the big bag of food into the house, she pays no attention to it. Very slowly, over maybe an hour or two, she just happens to end up closer and closer to the big bag of food. You don’t notice a thing – no big leap for the bag! – and before you know it you catch her quietly munching out of a bottom corner of the bag.

  61. 61.

    sukabi

    @tybee: you guys don’t know cold until you’ve jumped in the Pacific off washington, Oregon, or northern California in August…after it’s had time to warm up.

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie: Nope, no change of heart. I think I confused Anne Laurie by writing to her about exchanging email addresses with you at the same time t that Ohio Mom and MomSense were doing the same thing.

    Anne Laurie ended up sending me and Ohio Mom a message to share our email addresses, so I wrote back to Anne Laurie to let her know of the mixup, and she asked me for the thread where we talked about talking over email, so I sent her a link to the comment where you said “of course”, but I haven’t heard anything further from Anne Laurie. Was trying to be patient before sending her an email reminder.

  63. 63.

    WaterGirl

    @WereBear: @pamelabrown53: I want to know how many presidents of home owner associations are republicans. I would guess much higher than 50% because they seem to want to control other people’s choices, just like good republicans do.

  64. 64.

    HinTN

    @Fair Economist: Not true! The Atlantic this time of year is delicious. At least in North Carolina, which is our preferred beach destination.

    @Cole

    I could get used to this vacation thing.

    a yep

  65. 65.

    tybee

    @sukabi: i went in the water in august at some little place in Big Sur and it was definitely not warm. all the locals had on wet suits.

  67. 67.

    sukabi

    @tybee: yep. If you’re going to be in the ocean on the west coast for any length of time, (more than 5 minutes) you’d better have a wetsuit. It’s COLD.

  71. 71.

    dexwood

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    My Baltimore family, with many relatives on the Bay, called it steaming. Crabs were never covered in water, just enough in the bottom to get a good steam working overtime.

    Damn, I’d murder for an East Coast beach and a table filled with steamed crabs and cold beer. Tingley Beach here is just not the same.

  72. 72.

    RedDirtGirl

    Cole’s transformation makes me think of Ron Swanson meeting Lucy Lawless’s character on Parks & Rec.

  73. 73.

    Quinerly

    @dexwood:
    You and your bride should visit me sometimes when I’m in NC. And, yes, I gots crab pots and I know how to catch them and steam them….it is sad when they are scratching the side of the steampot.

  74. 74.

    frosty

    @The Lodger: Steamed, not boiled! And covered in Old Bay. One of my California friends looked at the pile and said
    “Don’t they wash the mud off?”
    ,

  76. 76.

    debbie

    @Quinerly:

    The first time I went home for the holidays while in school in Boston, I brought lobsters with me. I still remember hearing the scritching from inside the box underneath my seat on the plane.

  77. 77.

    maurinsky

    @sukabi:

    I put my feet into the Pacific in Oregon, and it was WAY colder than any New England beach I’ve been to.

    I prefer to go to Rhode Island for beach days – the CT shoreline is a sound beach, it’s nice for the kids, not too cold, but I want cold and big waves. My favorite beach is a pain in the ass to get to (Napatree Point in Watch Hill), but worth it – the pain in the assfullness of it keeps people away,

  79. 79.

    Nancy

    @WaterGirl: Been trying to convince my husband of that for years. Elfin Creeping Thyme thrives in full sun, then find something for the shade and no more watering/mowing.

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