No Pearls in Mussels – #SoCS

Maddie wanted to sit. I wanted a beer. We compromised.

Once again, it’s time for Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday. I know where I’m going with this, but it’s going to take a while to get to the prompt:

“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is ‘precious.’ Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!”

If we were having a beer, you’d be late, and headed for trouble.

“You’ve already ordered food? How long have you been here?”

“Not that long, but when I got here, three people were eating mussels. I couldn’t resist.”

“Easiest sale I ever made. Can I get you a glass of Bourbon?”

“No, thanks, Cheryl. I think I’m going to have a glass of red wine today.”

“One splash of Meiomi coming up. Seltzer on the side?”

“Yes please.”

“You old school guys make me feel good with your ‘yes pleases’ and ‘no thank yous’ – It’s like manners still exist.”

“In a world of ‘no problem,’ I’ll take old fashioned manners every time, Cheryl.”

“Well, pardon my manners for not sharing, but I know you prefer mussels in red wine.”

“That’s true, and I have to go to a family thing later, so I’m not eating today.”

“A ‘family thing’ sounds ominous. It’s not that piano player again, is it.”

“Lord no. I am never going to hear that woman play again. Hey, you pushed a mussel off the plate.”

“Damn, get back here.”

“You’re not going to eat that, are you?”

“Sure, that was less than three seconds.”

“I’m not sure the three-second rule applies in a bar. Is that precious mussel worth more than your health?”

“Cheryl wipes the bar down after every customer. Besides, the mussel is still in the shell.”

“The rag she uses to wipe the bar might be older than she is. Is there no limit with you?”

“Of course. Just the other day, I tossed a piece of sausage that fell off my pizza in the microwave.”

“What’s the big deal with that? I mean, I actually might have picked that up.”

“I was at work.”

“So?”

“You work alone. I work with thirty people. I’m talking about a microwave in a communal kitchen.”

“Still, your coworkers are human beings, how bad can it be?”

“Last week, I found a leaf in it.”

“Hopefully it didn’t fall off a serving of roadkill.”

“I don’t want to think about how it got there.”

“I take it everyone doesn’t clean up after themselves.”

“Not hardly. Every now and then, someone tosses the platter in the dishwasher.”

“What about the inside of the oven?”

“Every now and then we buy a new one.”

“Wouldn’t it be more cost effective to just clean the one you have.”

“It would be, if someone would be willing to clean it. We can’t even get people to change a roll of paper towels.”

“I see. You guys operate under the ‘let someone else do it‘ school of thought.”

“We do, and too often the ‘someone’ is me.”

“Here’s your wine, and your seltzer. And don’t talk to me about walking in behind Messers Knownothing and Donothing.”

“Who was on last night, Cheryl?”

“Your buddy.”

“Skippy?”

“Yes, well, Brad. But he didn’t wash the beer glasses. He didn’t restock the wine rack or the cooler and he didn’t wipe down the wine glasses.”

“Well, you are a little OCD about those wine glasses.”

“When someone is paying eight dollars for a glass of wine, I don’t think they want to be looking through spots.”

“See, that’s your problem, Cheryl…”

“…Dude, I’ve been munching away on these mussels, waiting for you to make a mistake. You just did.”

“Huh? Wha…”

“My problem? This is MY PROBLEM?”

“See, I told you. Bad move.”

“Cheryl, I just meant that…”

“…That I have a problem because I want my customers to have clean glasses. Is that what you meant?”

“No, of course not. I just meant to thank you for remembering that I like a glass of seltzer with my wine.”

“He especially likes it without any flies.”

“What?”

“Brad gave him a glass of seltzer that had a fly in it.”

“Sheesh, now I know why he calls him Skippy. Are you finished with the mussels, Dan?”

“Yep, these are all empty.”

“I’ll take the plates.”

“Thanks Cheryl. Can you bring me another Corona, when you get a chance?”

“Certainly.”

“Phew, that was close. I thought she was going to toss me out of here.”

“Make sure you leave her a nice tip.”

“Good idea. Wait, since when am I paying?”

“I think since you said OCD.”

Today’s gallery is a mix of pics from the past few days. Earlier this week, for Linda’s other challenge, Cheryl was playing with her photo-editor. She takes great pictures, wraps them in sweet words and offers a little music. Check it out here.

Ready to start working my way up to the top of that vent.

This wall had so many things that had to be cut around.

Siding around the octagonal vent required some interesting cuts.

The main wall is done. Moving onto the extension. I’ll be leaving room for trim at the edges.

It’s a wrap! This wall has been a challenge, but I’m ready to move on to a different wall.

Putting the siding against the sloping roof line requires constant checking for level.

This is our local diner. I almost used this for the doors of Atonement.

“Ah, you know good stuff is coming out of this kitchen.”

Fish & Chips at the diner.

This is the diner on the postcard from Atonement. Sadly, it has been closed for over a year.

Another look at the old cemetery in Hartford.

It didn’t take very long for Rusty to find me.

Itty-bitty bunny. This little guy is really small.

“Hi MuMu”

Maddie’s makes wonderful pancakes. Of course, they’re better with bacon.

I guess the new post lamp is bright enough.

“Did you say something?”

We had wind in the 25-35 mph range. Maddie loves to sniff the wind.

It was a little cold with the wind blowing so hard.