A Rocky Afternoon and 240 Shrimp

Shortly after moving out of my parents' house to Vallejo, my dad's younger sister and husband decided Vallejo was "where it's at" and bought a house in a new development at the north end of town. It was a beautiful house which required work to make it livable.  With their two sons not available, one living on his own far from home and the other still in school, it would mean they would have to do the work themselves.  Fortunately they could rely on their nephew for help if the need ever came up. It didn't take too long for one of those requests to come up.

As with all new houses, landscaping would be "a thing" and if you could get it done yourself it would be done economically. Get help and it would be done faster. With that said, my aunt and uncle decided to have a truckload of ornamental rock unloaded in their driveway. I did not have any plans other than to take it easy after working the week, so I volunteered with no expectations of reimbursement.

It was me and my Uncle Ed with gloves, shovels and buckets tackling on the mountain of rocks.

Aunt Sally brought cold refreshments so we wouldn't get dehydrated. During the breaks my aunt showed me pictures of a venture she and my dad was involved in at the time....reclaiming some property the family had in China. She even showed me pictures with one being of a female cousin which I think she wanted to set me up with. I politely declined.  The venture never gained traction after my brothers and I showed no interest.

I lost track of how many trips we made from the mountain of rocks to the front yard, but surprisingly we were able to lay out rock for the entire front yard in one day. This also surprised my parents and my my cousins. It did leave an impression on my aunt and uncle so much that they insisted on taking me out to dinner. It was to be Sizzler's for the meal.

One of the things a restaurant might fear is army of guys like me after a long day of shoveling rocks. While my aunt and uncle ordered a simple meal of steak, I decided to go with the "all you can eat" (AYCE) shrimp platter. I would wash it down with unlimited refills of ice tea. My initial plate had about twenty breaded and deep fried shrimp, toast, vegetables and a potato. Of course it wouldn't be AYCE with just one plate. My aunt and uncle just stared at me as I ordered plate after plate of the "twenty shrimp to a plate refills". When it was all over I had polished off 240 shrimp with the breading and eight glasses of iced tea. Bear in mind that I like my ice tea sweet. I emptied two packets of sugar for each glass of tea consumed. I waddled out of Sizzlers stuffed.

The following Monday at work I described the feat to coworkers. They tried later to beat the amount, but they couldn't come close. I can't say I'm proud of what was done, but it was an accomplishment I'm sure will go down in the family records.