Summertime, Picknicktime

Annabelle instigated it and I got running once it started. She suggested we have a group picknick on Saturday. The weather would be good and it was Summertime, no? I had to skim off my perpetual layer of grumpiness, that like mold or duckweed clouds my better judgment. So I stayed quiet as she talked me into it. I could feel the change coming over me, the moment, the promise. I started calling people I knew.
It is tiring to be so --- out. That is what I call the social mode I get into. I am still amazed by it; its' novelty is yet fresh, even after many, many witnessings. Who is that person, I wonder? I expected the overwhelming tiredness from all the expenditure of charismatic energy. It didn't come that evening. Sometimes, I get in trouble with it. It leaves me a little manic, my mouth running like a broken water main and the fix-it guy lost for a solution. I may turn to alcohol and that might lead to God knows what. I have learned to be careful once I get going.
Since Tuggs driver doesn't have a phone, we had to inform him, in person that His Tuggishness was expected at the picknick the next day. I rode my bike there, to the marina under the bridge, late, as one keeps running into people one has to talk to. It can take hours to go a few blocks in this small town. It is our version of traffic congestion, though it is infinitely more pleasant.
We pegged the picknick at exactly two-ish, at Marthas' Beach and I got to wondering if I had invited too many people. What if everybody showed? Yikes, the town would empty and there would be nobody to sell crap to tourists.
I have learned a few things about social gatherings. I no longer worry if there will be enough food and if anybody will show up. Or what are we gonna do? All that worrying is in the past. Now I mostly worry about behaving myself. People figure out on their own what is what.
For me the highlight of the day was watching Tugg snag piece of bread and nonchalantly trot over to a gravel plot to bury it. Of course, I ate too much and it was hot and I was dehydrated. I drank a lot of water, a rare event as I hate water. I found, to my surprise, it tasted good and I could drink a lot, without the normal havingtodoitity that I so rebel against.
It was a full summer day.