Boat and birds

Boat alone

NorthEast

East

SouthEast

SouthEast

With the clear skies and sun comes a lot more heat. A LOT more for the deck, since it faces east and catches the sun until noon. So mornings require sunglasses, and a quick adaption to the temperature it's going to be all day. I'm not used to so much light and heat in the morning - for about 5 minutes - I'm a quick learner. Coffee and a smoke on the deck, then some a/c inside with my laptop, I can make mornings like this work. I do make this morning work - I'm logged into a new server we have a ways north of me in Ohio, setting it up once it's been put in the rack. TFS's router in the living room now gives me 54mbit/s wireless, good enough for SSH and VNC.

Not a lot of time for lollygagging around though. I have to get to the Post Office to mail the thing I got for JG home since it's just easier that way, and restock snacks and beverage supplies. The Labour Day long weekend is coming up, and I've seen some "Closed on Monday" signs around, so I don't want to wait for the weekend for any of this. Plus, TFS will have the weekend off, and we don't want to be going to a mall store for much.

We need to plan for a gin supply for the weekend. North Carolina is one of 18 US Alcoholic Beverage Control states with a state monopoly on the sale of all alcoholic beverages, a left-over of the Temperance Movement of the early 1900s. In both Tennessee and North Carolina I bought beer in gas stations. I never tried in Bristol, but here in Carolina Beach and the rest of the state all hard liquor is sold through Alcoholic Beverage Commission (ABC) stores that feel reminiscent of the old ALCB (Alberta Liquor Control Board) stores: tidy rows of bottles surrounded by walls full of other tidy bottles, with more variety than in all but the largest (privately-run) stores here, prices a couple bucks lower, and staff that look like government workers, which they are. I was once an ALCB employee, so the one in near the beach-house felt charmingly retro, with clerks behind a counter waiting your payment, and a show of ID.

Both states card everyone for alcohol sales. Doesn't matter how old or decrepit you look, keep some picture ID handy if you want to buy liquor in any form. The clerk here is quite entertained by my Alberta driver's licence, and I have to tell her I live north of Montana to give her an idea of where such an exotic place could be that issues D/Ls that she's never seen before ever.

TFS is delayed by traffic backed up before she's even got to "the bridge." I have a vague idea of which one - I know there's one between her work and here, but there a few bridges around, and roads that I know when I need to. No matter, it's Friday night, the warmest it's been so far here, I have snacks and a secured supply of gin before the ABC closes on Monday (and for all I know Sunday, so I am extra-careful). And, I finally hooked up my portable drive with all my music to my laptop. Speakers are nothing special, but I have 7500 tracks to accompany the surf.

TFS arrives, finally, we libate and snack and talk and soak up the beach life. The last beach fireworks of the season are tonight at 9, which isn't far off. We take our drinks out onto the walkway and watch them, with other people on our and other walkways, a couple miles down the beach. We then retire to the deck for more beverages and snacks until we decide to try a Tiki Bar at the southern end of the beach. But drat, it closes at 10 and it's already well past that. So we spill out onto the night streets. The SeaWitch is close by, but it's Live Band Night, and we decide to press on.