Sunday with Grilling

I had to get going early and rush the blog writing. I was tapped to grill hot dogs for First United Methodist Church in Beaverton next to the fountain and the Farmer’s market. I was up with my phone alarm at 7AM. I am retired, and I have no need for alarms. I usually just rise when I feel it is time to start my morning. Often, the sunrise wakes me, but then I go back to sleep.

Coffee and a slightly aging berry and cheese Danish was breakfast. I had purchased the Danish from La Provence Boulangerie & Patisserie at Orenco Station, an unequaled bakery, and even older, it was still better than most. I ate those while banging out another blog entry on my Apple. With limited time, I stayed to the events and skipped any boiler pieces and commentary. I was still over 800 words as time was running out. I published it all, overflowing my time limit by fifteen minutes. It was a conservative every-thing-breaks planning time limit. As my grill was already moved to the church, my only concern was that the grill still worked, the gas tanks were there, and folks actually had hot dogs to cook. Any of these failures would require at least an hour to recover. You, dear reader, may think I am overthinking this, but I have seen these challenges at church events. The only fix is to be early and have enough time to overcome the issues.

I cleaned up and dressed in Air Force Ones and my usual LL Bean pants, but now I have added a white dress shirt, pride tie, and sweater vest. I also have my blue-striped cooking apron and brought a bright orange Zbar’s apron that came in a gift box (I think it was from the Smiths) for Z. Z agreed to help cook.

When I arrived after nine, the Praise Band was practicing in the sanctuary. Z (Dondrea brings Z to church, usually early, as Dondrea is the worship leader) was frustrated in her attempt to make coffee because the filters were missing. We found the grill and tanks, and I dragged them outside and connected everything. Lemonade was made so the church members would get a chance to decaffeinate with lemonade.

The moving process knocked about the splash and grill plates. I put them back and lighted the grill, and everything worked. Now, I was just too early. Z and I saw that the church service was going by unusually fast. I lit the grill and set it on to the maximum to burn off any oils from previous food.

We found the pack of hot dogs, two packs of 24, and opened one. We also had two packs of Polish dogs, 12 to a pack. I turned down the grill, and we started the process. Z learned that you just roll the dogs. Z also learned that reaching over a very hot grill with metal could get hot fast! She used a long-handled flipper after that. We pushed the dogs to get grill marks on each side and some small burn marks here and there. We did not cinder anything or drop any.

We got the Polish dogs and started rolling them. Soon, those were cooked. Pastor Ken had spent some time covering the attempted assassination of former President Trump and America’s painful history of assassinations. There are so many assassins that Off-Broadway did a musical of the presidential assassins: Assassins. The church service finished later than we expected.

Z and I grabbed the hot dogs already cooked and returned them to the grill.  We sent them to the now crowd hot. Z got the next batch of hot dogs (we did not cook the second pack of Polish Dogs as there was plenty already). The grill was now cooler, and Z did not experience hot-handed moments; it was more comfortable cooking. Z rolled the dogs until the grill marks and a few burn marks made them extra delicious, and soon we were done. I turned off the grill and left it open to cool. I detached the gas tank and moved it inside (a tempting theft target, and it best not to have them where crazy people could find them).

I had a hot dog and enjoyed chatting with Ashley, Andrew, Dondrea, and Z as we sat together. We had dinner and games the day before. The grill would be returned after it cooled down. I cannot lift it due to restrictions from my brain surgery, and my balance issues are best not tested by lifting a heavy gas grill anyway.

I returned home, changed into cooler clothing, and rested. That evening, I woke up and started preparing for my Dungeons and Dragons 5E game. My character turned good and to the domain of light, which meant all new abilities and spells. I had to learn them. I thought I had a handle on it, but I still had to look up some things.

The game was that evening, and soon, Air Volvo, still with a check engine light, carried me to Matt’s. Matt grilled hamburgers and served salad with them. Matt had used his 3D dungeon-building skills to make a spectacular play area. We are now on the 14th level, and soon, we will face powerful demons represented by figures six inches tall. We are at the level where really scary-looking things are placed on the gaming table.

My character has a very high armor class and is a cleric of light and, thus, was mostly blasting things. We had to withdraw once (I was unconscious). We regrouped and got some help and went back and used better tactics for an all-out demon-filled dungeon fight. We found more bad demonic company; I will not cover the details as this is published material. We fought all evening and finally won.

I returned home in Air Volvo after talking to Scott about tactics and options. There are only four players in our group (five being the usual number), and we are not organized for dungeon crawls. We will see if we can make some improvements.

I was tired from a long day. After a shower, I read and fell asleep in bed. Thanks for reading!