Freddie P's Blog

May 12, 2008 @ 08:59

This is my friend Bruce Mallory. He’s a magician with a barbeque.

How is it that some guys have the touch and others guys don’t. I have to admit, that for every half dozen steaks that I barbeque, maybe one of them turns out exactly the way I want it.

Bruce bats .1000, and it doesn’t matter where the meat comes from. On Saturday night we had our first barbeque of the season at the trailer and Bruce took control of the Broil King and he was given steaks from three different places, and all three we exceptional.

Bruce isn’t one of these guys who keeps flipping a steak, he get the barbeque really hot and then leaves them alone, flipping them once and testing them with his thumb, never does he have to cut into the steak.

It really is an art. It’s a talent, it’s a gift and he’s got it.

Saturday night followed a hard day of work about the tin palace. There was stuff to move out of the shed, lots of leaves to rake and other small jobs that add to one big effort.

It’s the same thing every year. I had up there for the first weekend having convinced myself that’s there’s not really that much involved to open up, but once you get going, you realize that people who own cottages must have a bitch of a time.

I arrived at the trailer late Friday afternoon and it was good to see my buddy Brian Collins with his usual collection of fishing buddies. They love to fish – almost as much as they love to drink beer and eat. Brian also likes to make frequent references to “the big guy”, which is exactly what you think it is.

Dan Duran was there. He forgot to bring beer and Bailey’s again. But he’s got a lot on his mind these days.

And what’s left of my good friend Darren was there as well. Darren dropped about 30 pounds over the winter and he’s a new man. Long and lean and extremely conscious of what he puts in his mouth these days. He eats a lot of berries.

It was also a bitter sweet weekend for the group.

Out beloved park managers Shawn and Brenda have decided to move on and that can be upsetting. Good managers are like your favourite pair of jeans.

You like the way they fit and they’re very comfortable. That’s the way Shawn and Brenda were and we’re going to miss them.

A few years ago we had a terrorist named Jim running the park, and you’ve always afraid there could be more than one of him on earth.

Surely there can’t be.