It is risen

I got me a fresh sheet of virtual paper and I roll it into the carriage...

I think I’ve been sick of typing. I’ve even found it difficult to effectively do e-mail, and that is one of the few ways to reliably get ahold of me. The FaceBook, 2-3 sentences and I’m out, has been de rigeur around here.

It was a really harsh winter around La cerise de chateau, maison du fumeur de detente. So right now forsythia is like the breath of the atman made manifest on earth.

I had a really, tremendously, bad bout of infection that started just before Thanksgiving. For the most part I missed all the holidays. On Thanksgiving itself I was too sick to even walk next door. About a week of 104 fevers. Since then it’s been a long, slow, road back.

I popped into UBU’s one of the very first good days, that was a good thing, getting out, into town, having lunch. Now I have have to pop back and give him back the books I bought as well as a few additional. I find myself in the market to get rid of, in some cases sell, books. That is something I’ve never been good at at all. It feels pretty free to be in a place where I can let a book go deliberately as opposed to losing it.

I’m ready to let more things go.
I have started sorting out anything I don’t have a pretty legitimate claim on to be sent back. I’m watching the hoarders and I don’t want to be there or leave that for someone else to deal with. Keep the precious and let the chaff blow away. That’s the new mantra. There will be a porch sale this year.

Heat wave causes brain freeze

I am in the middle of writing something interesting, but yesterdays heat wave made everything come to a shuddering halt. Even the classic chocolate malt that I got to try to make myself not a stupid, bitchy, zomboid would not initially digest and just slooshed around inside me for a couple hours adding to my misery. By the time I got it relatively cool in here I was braindead.
Today I will try to write at work, where there is AC and everything is it’s own seperate entity because it’s not stuck together with hot moisture and where I can be soothed by cool, papery whispers, of air tendrils.

“Everybody got problems buddy, I got mine”

I woke up at about 4am (to pee I suppose). When I went back to bed I looked out the window and the whole sky was lit up in pale orange. I’m supposing it was the almost full moon through water vapour overcast. But it was simply divine. And eerie.
I really miss staying up all night and wish I still could. Much like when I was a toddler I resent having to sleep and try to do it as little as possible. I try to stick at no more than 7 hours. I prefer 6. It’s a conflict because I am so in love with my dreams. I dream lots and very vividly. It’s like surrealist movies all night every night. I spent the ages of 11 to 13 sleeping 14 hours a day because my dreams were so much more compelling than (alleged) reality.

I really miss being a creature of the night. Watching the sky revolve, the stars wheeling through their cycle, seeing moonrise and moonset. All the magical, slithery changes things undergo when shadow and light play over them. And those completely unexpected and rare events like purple rain or pale orange snow. That first tinge of dawn which relaxes the primitive watcher at the back of the brain. The gorgeous fears of the darkness. The idea that anything, anything at all could be out there just outside of your field of vision.
“I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear my trousers rolled”

Triumph of the fat girl

“Oh my god aren’t you freezing?”
“Are you going out like that?”
“It’s so cold in here, aren’t you cold?”
“You’re kidding. You’re walking home in a sweater?”
“arrrgghh I’m fucking freezing.”
“hurry up and get the door open”
“Don’t you think we should let the car warm up for awhile?”

Or as Mom used to say - “put a sweater on, I’m cold”

To which I say “HA bitches, just wait till the food runs out too”.

Aaaahhhh

Semantics

Did I mention that my favourite word, and smell, is petrichor?
I could go for some of that right now.

Did I mention it is freaking hot?

Add your own caption. I decided to forego the obvious

Goofy

I love drinking the rain off of the lilacs

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As I live in America, and therefore it was a national holiday (which we don't have enough of, look at those countries with all those Bank Holidays), I, of course, rather than take my day to myself, invited people over for food.
A lot of my life is centered around food, in my house I'm the only one who cooks. It also happens that I'm a fairly superlative cook. I'm not just saying that to brag, its pretty widely believed to be true. Sometimes, you just have a talent and thats that.
There's not really any arrogance necessary because you didn't actually have much to do with it other than develop it or deny it.
I tend to think of barbecuing as a really good way to prove your skills. Cooking over an unregulated heat source you have to adjust your timing, attentiveness and be really flexible. You must also have good prep work and theories. One of my theories is marinade the shit out of things. I like to push the envelope on marination. Because I love Jerry and Sylvia Anderson I think of it as Super-marionation. I try to keep the meat in sauce as long as I can before the guests, were they to ask how long it sat in there, would refuse the food from knowing.
My current favourites are my recipes for teriyaki flank steak, and my version of Tandoori chicken. The Tandoori is really an imitation which involves lots of onions, yoghurt (I make my own), Garam Masala, Hing, Sea-salt, and paprika for colour. I would use cochineal but its a little harder to find. Uncle Bunny suggested a little saffron, he may just have something there.
I also specialise in what I call poverty cooking, which is to take any ingredients at hand and make them into something good. So I cleaned out the fridge for side dishes.
I was only going to have one or two people over, but there was a lot of food and I just knew the usual supects would be sitting at home without having things to do and that can be annoying and/or depressing when you think everyone else is doing something fun. So I invited a crew.
The food was awesome, and not just mine. Uncle Bunny brought a fabulous Bread Salad Fatoush and an amazing fruit shortcake for which he made ginger scones as the shortcake. Uncle Bunny has the magic pastry touch that I don't have. My huge failing as a cook is that I cannot make pie crust, biscuits and scones. I'm contemplating taking a class in pastry offered by one of my favourite customers at the market where I work part-time. I must ferret out the secret of the flaky.
There was an impressive thunderstorm and a nice time was had by all. Since in the last few years I've pretty much abandoned the backyard for the porch, we were able to kick back and enjoy the weather without getting scorched or soaked.
I imagine to myself that the people that go by in their cars, watching me wield my BBQ mop with such adroitness, are really wishing they could come too.
They're too shy or conditioned to ask I suppose, I'd think it potentially could be an interesting way to meet some new folk.
Maybe they have a great BBQ chef in their own life already. I hope so.