A Redbud Crawfish Boil

On Saturday, the stars aligned, and Redbud Circle pulled together a genuine crawfish boil.  Here, plans do not turn into events unless there's enough consensus of maybe, one devoted to the cause who steps in that direction and some luck.  There is no guarantee that the stepper, the partial believer, the hopeful or the ride catcher will see the semi-planned, semi-hoped-for event happen.  This crawfish boil was in fact a monumental event in light of this - it required coordination, effort and money - the three things that Redbud peoples do not consider the best recipe for anything at all fun.  It had to almost fall together and this was right on the line.

Richard had placed a live, real boiling pot in Mark's driveway the night before.  Next morning, the day of "The First Annual Redbud Crawfish Boil",  Mark hit HEB early.  I woke up late and lied there and thought, "This is going to be a long day."  Myles was at Upstage putting together sets for Jacob's next play.  Larry was working on his fence.

I walked to Mark's.  Larry popped over after Andi asked him what was up with the boil.  We decided it was on - rain or shine.  That was that.

Larry, Mark and I began going over the stuff we needed.  The key missing piece to the boil was crawfish.  Myles had a "contact" for crawfish.  I wasn't sure if Myles was in "go mode".  Larry thought he was.  In fact Larry said, "You can Trust In Myles".  Mark said, "That's it, Trust In Myles!  It'll make memories."  I said, "Okay.  I'm just saying that we might want a backup plan, just in case."  Mark said, "Trust In Myles!"  Larry said, "You can Trust in Myles".  I said, "Well, I'm not going to knock a friend believing in a friend.  But I don't really mean it that way, just think a backup plan would just...  I mean we could call around and if...  Okay, worst comes to worst, we'll have potatoes, corn, sausage and all that."  Mark said, "First Annual Redbud Potato Boil!"

In the end, Myles, prodded by Richard, drove to Manvel, off a tip I got from the cashier at Specs, to get crawfish.  To the tunes of Jerry Jeff Walker, on the thrice blown driveway at Mark's, with water stolen from Beefcake, alongside a keg of Shiner Bock - the boil began.  Larry, sporting a navy blue apron, was chief chef.  I was assistant.

In the end of ends, a momma with a baby in a baby carriage fitted with a rifle (it was only a huge pellet gun) showed up.  I hugged the mom and said she was going to fit right in.  She lent me the gun to shoot the street light out.  The boil turned out great - especially, in my opinion, the corn.  I think, including children, we had a good 20 people.

In the aftermath, strange sightings of eggs were found in Larry's backyard and at Mark's... and in the street... which made me think that next year, if this is truly "annual" that this will be the kickoff for the "Redbud Annual Easter Egg Hunt" which will be preceded by Larry's telling of the "Annual Easter Bunny Joke" which will always be exactly the same joke each year, come rain or shine.

In the post analysis

1. Mark should not drop the keg because it flattens the beer
2. The keg needs to be better secured so it doesn't roll around in the back of the car so it doesn't get flat
3. We should not put WD40 in the keg pump because the flatter the beer got, the more it tasted like WD40... but that was three days later
4. We should still, and always, "Trust In Myles".  I do.
5. Execute Operation X properly instead of pellet gun shortcuts
6. Get a half keg and bottles so the beer doesn't get flat
7. Invite more people
8. Maybe buy a separate pump for the keg - a decent one, or at least buy a couple o-rings as I think that was the problem.