Mazo Manor - S2E01 - Taking Care Of Business

"Mazo Manor" is inspired by the Meerkat Manor TV show. (You have to admit that there's a striking resemblance between the FOMB and the FKMP, at least in the pictures.) I'm the production crew, who occasionally goes to the beach and then writes a dramatized, and somewhat anonymized, documentary of what's going on. At the conclusion of the last season, I was unsure if I'd want to continue. I'm not that great at writing drama. You guys seem to endure it though, so a second season is here!

It's been a long winter for all of the Mazokats. Except for a party here and there, picking up trash on a rainy spring day (which I didn't write about this time), and trying a few new things, the cold months were spent planning. I exchanged a few phone calls with Gaia regarding the Nude Recreation Week festivities. I emailed the Contenders, and have their cooperation for the festivities. (Although they didn't let me in their group.) I also tried a phone call with Kingpin, but it didn't work so well and we resorted to writing letters. This was done so we could both speak in turn. Most of his letters were promoting the conflicts between the Elders and the Diligents. Most of my letters were trying to resolve such conflicts, and to arrange an agreement for advertising. Kingpin has a wonderful and unique form of advertising that almost every Mazokat will see. This advertising could be better than what the Diligents can provide, but Kingpin turned down my offer and was bitter over the other things I said in my letter. It worked out though -- I'm partnering with the Diligents and things seem good so far.

On Memorial Day, I made my first trip to the beach. I was alone, it was cloudy and cool, and I was going for business. There were no mosquitoes (!), and there wasn't a very big crowd. Nonetheless, families with kids were about. Kingpin and most of the Elders were (surprisingly) not at the beach. It was easy to spot the two people I was planning to meet -- Gaia and CatHerder (a new character this season).

They were both dressed since it really wasn't that warm, so I kept my pants on also. The shirt was off so that I could work on my tan. It was cloudy, and my stay would be two hours at most, so I should be safe. My skin forgot what the sun was, and today would make a good slow re-introduction.

We sat as a group and chatted for about an hour. There were almost no canoes floating down the river, and not many people made it to the water. Some kids took off running from the back of the beach all the way to the water, then stopped right before entering. Once they carefully stuck a foot in, they decided it was too cold!

Several people braved the water and hung out on the island. CatHerder couldn't believe that people were going there, outside of the traditional nude bathing area. They are the ones that draw complaints, risk getting in trouble, and partly get the beach in trouble. My opinion is that it's a neat area to walk to, and the grass is greener over there. Despite that, I only rarely make the trip over. The DNR has full power to put up signs to close that piece of land, like they have with a lot of other areas around there.

Just as Gaia and CatHerder were driving out, Kingpin arrived on his bike. As he walked by, I said "I hear yesterday was the day be here." He replied with "Both weather and people." He didn't seem upset, but he didn't stop to talk either. Perhaps he was just tolerating me.

The sun came out, so I took the hint to finally take off my pants. I didn't want to stand out too much by being one of the few wearing clothing. If only the rest of society had problems such as this...

Even though Kingpin and I didn't make a deal for advertising, I felt that I should give him the payment anyway. His reasons were beyond what I was expecting, but I understand them now. He doesn't accept money. Instead he has a charity fund set up for the local humane society. My donation was quite generous compared to the funds he's raised thus far. I took it over to him and said "I don't expect anything in return." Hopefully he picked up that there were no hard feelings from the letters, and that I didn't want to be seen as rude by NOT donating to his charity.

If that didn't work, I spent the rest of the time talking to one of his female friends. (Someone else started talking to him that he hadn't seen in quite a while.) Anyway, she thought it was really cool that we were bringing back the summer festivities in full force. Good, I thought, convince Kingpin of that later on. He's the one that doesn't really care.

I returned to my chair just in time to overhear the Contenders calling out a name I recognized. I approached them, and shook hands with the contact I had online. We talked about gaming details and about the upcoming festivities. It was cool to meet him in person! (Note that this wasn't Champ from before. Champ didn't appear to be there today.) I also learned more about the Contenders. They really are a professional group, and play in big (nude) tournaments all around the midwest and the nationals out East somewhere (possibly here?) All-in-all, I think it's impressive!

After that, I called it a day. I noticed that I was a bit pink, and wondered how that happened since it was cloudy almost the whole time and cool. I ended up being sunburnt! It wasn't a bad sunburn, but it was probably enough to make me peel during Eastover. Great -- that's exactly what I was trying to avoid....

Exiting the beach, I walked past the family that included the kids I mentioned above. They had quite the setup! They built up a table and chairs, a gazebo to shade their dining room, and a grill as a kitchen. Whatever they were cooking smelled good, but I didn't want to intrude. I smiled as I walked by.

Remember that mysterious car way back in episode 1? A picture of it has been posted -- make sure to read the caption!

NEXT EPISODE