My schedule is like lasagna for the next several weeks, with alternating layers of home and P’town surrouding a layer of Manhattan. Today marked the start of my second full week on the Cape.
1) You know how I am about arriving on time (read: ridiculously early), especially for travel. With the heat, I chose to wait in the severely air-conditioned lobby of ye Myrriotte Long Wharf rather than broil on the dock for the privilege of being first in line. It was a wise move — and I still got to sit at my own banquette.
2) After walking one block down Comical Street from the ferry I saw a slim Man Younger Than I wearing a strapless red sundress with matching lipstick, sunglasses, and a white Handmaid’s Tale bonnet. There could be no clearer sign that it’s almost Fourth of July.
3) Arriving at Casa Gizmo (née Hochmina-sur-Mer), it was very clear that Gizmo was most eager to see his Uncle Robert. So I abandoned my luggage after I shucked my shoes and hustled upstairs for hugs and kisses. Gizmo just loves me — and he obeyed when I said “No speak!”
3a) Gizmo, for the uninitiated, is a tiny brown toy poodle, the apple of his daddy’s eye.
4) Boston reached 100 degrees for the first time in ten years today, and while it’s still hot on the Cape, it didn’t get that hot. We lunched at ye Rysse’s Grylle, and its being such a dark room (with wonderful windows overlooking the bay) helped lower the temperature.
5) Personal administrivia took up the afternoon, as well as a NAP, thank God, after a poor night’s sleep. And I awoke just in time for the cocktail hour, what a happy coincidence.
6) We dined at 8:15 at the Pilgrim House, where I’d never been — and their seafood risotto is much better than at that other place I went to a couple weeks ago. Also their French 75s are superb. L’hiccup.
7) All through dinner we kept waiting for the rain to fall in torrents — and kept imagining it was actually starting! But it was always something else: the air vent, a bright reflection on a shiny chair, windows that only looked rain-spotted, etc.
8) But we did get caught in the rain on the way home, after we all delayed talking with an acquaintance on Comical Street (as always happens). Whoosh, what a gullywasher! I know the Pina Colada Song was a hit back in the day, but I still haven’t met anyone who truly likes getting caught in the rain.
9) The next few days are likely to be quite damp, but I truly don’t mind, as I have a lot to do and to read. All those books I’m in the middle of I left at home, and Everybody Behaves Badly will soon be commenced.