Crises Avoided

Walking down the hill into the park, I see a large raft floating 50 yards off the beach. The people manning the raft seem to be having difficulties keeping their large red cylindrical things in place. I rush down to help.
I find Katie Hendrickson, Katie Dolan, and Andrew Oestrich struggling to get all of their waterproof percussion instruments back onto the raft in time for the show. It seems they were planning on having a floating drum corps competition, until the wind and wave height picked up.
I help tow the raft back ashore while chasing an errant timpani. We finally have collected all the drums and the raft is safely moored. The Katies and Andrew decide that we need more people to man the raft and help during the competition. They tell everyone on the beach to run out into the waves and fall over if they want to be selected. A good fifty people do so, resulting in large splashes and shouts of laughter. I am disappointed - I helped with the raft, I should get to be in the drum corps. I point this out to Andrew and the Katies agree. Relieved, I help them select the people who will be of most use on a red percussion raft.

Everyone has fled the park, and my sister and Arin Ewing and I are trying to find the cause. We walk past empty playgrounds and hotdog carts. We see something flitting through the trees. Frightened, we hide in an abandoned playhouse, but the monster can smell us. It enters as we exit the back way, and I catch sight of it. It is only a mountain lion! I am no longer afraid. I tell it to lay down right there in the playhouse, and it does. I scratch it on the head, but am still wary because if it gets temperamental. It seems to be happy and harmless, so I decide to disguise it so that no one is afraid. Running through my options, I skip past the viking costume as that would be just as frightening. I finally settle on a gauzy material that is draped over the head and strapped on, like a lampshade Bedouin.
We continue on, the threat to our welfare negated.

Vegetables Are Superior to Books

We visit the library to do some research. It is actually more of a museum gift shop, with all sorts of useless things on display, but still we manage to check out some of the things we need. Two-year-old cousin Joey insists that we purchase a book on the viking raiders and their boats, but it is a work of art, practically, and I do not have enough money to buy something like that, especially for a two-year-old. I make him put it back, placating him by telling him we will buy some bell peppers later.
I am riding my tricycle out of the library parking lot at night, when I see Holly, heading into the library, probably to do research on the same project. I ask if she wants to come buy bell peppers with us, but she declines. I shrug my shoulders in a "your funeral" manner and pedal away.
It is daytime now. Having procured our bell peppers, we are having a picnic under some overarching rock formations on the mud flats. We eat hurriedly, as the tide will soon come back in.