Slept late today: about 6am. Sweet.
Father’s day not withstanding, I had a pretty normal Sunday. After breakfast I got out to the market for the bulk of my weeks groceries. The difference this week was my purchasing very few vegetables. On Tuesday I pick up my first load of fresh, organic vegetables from the CSA (community supported agriculture) farm I joined this year. I expect to get mostly greens but I hear there may be strawberries too. Not the gigantic overgrown, under tasty variety in the supermarkets but real strawberries that are sweet and a little rough on the outside. Actually, I bought a quart of these delights at a farm stand Sunday. My daughter and her friend bought homemade ice cream and I bought the strawberries and some homemade heirloom tomato ketchup. I don’t normally use ketchup because it’s loaded with sugar or high fructose corn syrup. This stuff had sugar as the 5th ingredient. I can eat that.
Back to the morning though, after shopping and getting some laundry going, I had a 2.5 hour conference call for an organization I’m a member of. These are always a bit tedious but they need doing and I’m happy to be able to do this service. My lunch is usually at 11:15-ish but today it had to wait. More of that lovely cheese. The last of it in fact.
The afternoon had me processing more laundry. As the day was growing boring, the kid (after much pushing and some threats) and I made our way out the door with the intent of taking a walk around a local Audubon sanctuary:Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary. Rain threatened but we were prepared. As we drove down our street, a young mother and her child were using a stick against something on the ground. I thought they were trying to right a turtle but as we got closer we could see they were trying, gently, to move a bird out of the street and onto the grass. My daughter bounded out of the car and scooped the bird into her hands. I’m not sure how the mother felt about this but the kid seemed amazed. The plan, which begin as soon as we saw what we had, was to take the bird (a baby robin) to the Tufts Veterinary School in North Grafton. It’s a place we’ve taken all manner of distressed wild beastie. So, a quick stop at home for a box, some water and bedding and we were off. One stop to pick up mid kid’s friend and we were on our way.
Most people probably don’t know that within less than an hour of downtown Boston, there are many rural areas. This outpul for Tufts is one of them. As it was Sunday and father’s day, the place was almost deserted. Just one other “client”, a young woman with a cat needing a drain removed.
We stepped right up to the desk and told them what we had. She called it a “wildlife emergency”. 30 seconds later a vet in training came from out back and thanked us for bringing the bird in. She then asked us to wait while the bird was evaluated. About 5 minutes later she was back with the prognosis: Nothing wrong, just lost. She suggested we return the bird to a safe location near where it was found and hope for the best. Nothing broken was good news. I hope handling the bird didn’t affect the chances that it’s mother would find it. In any case, we left the bird under a tree.
By now it was 5pm and I was getting hungry. The plan was dinner out: Sushi and Sake for me. We didn’t pull it all together and out the door until about 6:30. I’ve been going to a local Japanese restaurant, Oga’s in Natick, since they opened a few father’s day back. I used to love this place but now, well, it’s just not special. They changed the menu and not for the better. They used to have a Chef’s Deluxe Sushi plate. Unique and special creations which, I suspect, are still available if you order ala carte but in truth, I don’t know what to order when it comes to sushi. I just don’t know the names of most things. I seem to recall the deluxe plate was about $35. The menu replacement was cheaper at $25 but it wasn’t special. Good? Yes, but I can get good sushi almost anywhere. So, I was disappointed, but not disappointed enough to spill the truth to the owner when he asked about our meal on the way out. I copped out and said “fine”, which, for me is the same as saying mediocre. If it had been really good, I would have praised the experience. Instead, Oga got “fine”. Not good. Not honest. I need to fix that. I’ll send them a friendly note, after that, it’s up to them. There are lots of sushi places around here. Oga’s might still be the best but my experience is that if they slip up, someone will step in.
As father’s days is one of two days I consume alcohol, I did not drive myself this evening. My wife drove so I could have a large sake. I do enjoy this with my sushi and I figure if there are any bugs in the raw fish the alcohol will kill ‘em. Please don’t tell me it’s not so. I recently read that the 5 second rule has been proven false. Don’t ruin this too.
Drive home was uneventful. We looked for the bird under the tree. It was gone. I only hope it did not disappear into the gut of one of our many neighborhood cats.
The rest of the evening was uneventful. Processed some more laundry. I fell asleep for about 10 minutes sitting in front of my (non-work) computer. Sad.
Later…
Filed by misterimpatient at 1:53 pm under I'm not fat today, Patter