Romeo Lunch 7-20-11

The Romeos met for lunch today at the Boston Yacht Club in Marblehead, MA courtesy of Paul Girard who is a member there. The Romeos present were Paul Girard, Brother Tim Paul, Joe Loducca, Mark Ryan, Jim Terlizzi, Ed DeSchuytner and Mike Zapantis. You can see some photos of the group at the link below ….. https://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/Romeo72011#

Ed and I arrived early and went directly upstairs and sat on the sunny deck. The sun was bright and it was hot but we enjoyed the view. The harbor was busy with sailors of all types. There were some beginners getting instruction and the seasoned sailor with the large yacht leaving harbor.

I told Ed that I did some sailing as a kid in high school out of Marblehead Harbor. A friend had a small 21 foot sloop that we refurbished with new fiberglass, paint a sails. It took several months of hard work several nights a week working on the boat in Graves Boat Yard on the hill. Those were the days of living free with practically no worries. We would sail up and down the local shore lines and coves. It was great fun. There were a lot of college kids and the rich and famous having parties on large sailing yachts. Even though we were paupers from the city, the sailing community was a big family and we would sometimes get invited to a yacht party nearby our mooring. The joys of young dreamers.

The rest of the Romeos arrived shortly and we went inside with the cool AC. The waitress took our beverage orders and told us about today’s specials on the Lunch Menu. The drinks came and they were Sam Adams Summer Ale, margaritas, water and soda. The lunch menu had an assortment of club sandwiches including Philly Cheese Steak, Chicken Salad, Burgers, Lobster Roll, and Haddock.

The food was served quickly and we chowed down. Later we ordered coffee, cappuccino and desserts to share. As we ate, the conversation bounced around the table and we talked about some items in the news. The economy and the different plans to raise the Debt Ceiling were discussed with several differences of opinion like what is now happening in Congress.

Brother Tim talked about grading the AP exams. He spends 8 days during the summer with a team grading hundreds of questions. Before the teacher teams start scoring, they are given a rubric and have to agree on a 10 point scale for each question. Its sounds like a lot of hard work.

We then talked about catching gophers. I recently caught a family of four, one each night using apples for bait in a Haveahart Trap. I bought the trap at Aubuchon Hardware for $54.00 and it was well worth it. I tried all the other methods with no luck. Joe Loduca said he heard that Cayenne Pepper was a good solution. It is supposed to keep gophers away. He said that his gopher must have been Mexican since he ate all the pepper.

Others said they used fox urine and moth balls. I spread a box of moth balls around my house to first get rid of the gophers and now have a Hazardous Waste Site. After catching the family of gophers, I transported them one at a time each day to a town forest 5 miles away. Now I just heard that sometimes gophers will find their way back even if moved more than 20 miles away. I hope my gophers can’t read maps.

Joe Loduca also said that a beaver had built a dam near his house where the stopped up water eventually flooded a nearby road. He reported it to the conservation commission and they said that the beaver is protected by law and they could do nothing. Miraculously, the dam disappeared over the winter, piece by piece. Joe said that he knows nothing about it.

Mike and Paul talked about the new state teacher evaluation system. They were on the other side of the table and I didn’t hear the entire idea. Ed, Jim and Mike talked about painting their houses. Even though they have painted their house previously, they were now leery about standing on a forty foot ladder and would rather have a professional do it.

Ed said he was painting the peak of his house once and got stung by some wasps. He was holding on to the peak of the roof and they flew up his shirt sleeve and began stinging. He was afraid to let go but eventually did and luckily caught his balance without falling. Jim said he was done with painting in his old age and recently hired a painter to paint the rooms inside his house. I talked about using a spray gun to paint which kept on getting clogged. I later gave up and used a brush.

As the time passed quickly we then decided to meet next month, August 24 at Michaels in Newburyport. Jim will send out email notices when it is confirmed. At that time, Greg Cantone the sales rep from Pearson may join us to talk about old times.

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