Town Run

Mid-winter, you take these whenever they fall. Above freezing long enough yesterday to melt the snow, then falling temps and the driveway is clear and frozen. I get the laundry together, make a string of water jugs and head down to the truck. Laundry, library, Kroger (three juices, tonic water (I drink a lot of straight tonic water), milk, cream, cans of tomato soup, cheese, eggs) and get right back home. Drive up, unload, have a coffee with B, split some wood, get the truck back down the hill and walk up as the first snowflakes fall. On my game. Not snowing hard so I make four carries out of the hollow, then it starts coming down hard. Very cold again and the snow is powder, I'll brush it off tomorrow with a whisk broom I carry as part of my winter kit. Sound is quickly dampened, a few birds out, foraging. Perfect conditions, frozen ground, cold temps, virgin snow. It's a beautiful sight from every window, I make the rounds. Cookstove is cranking, so I make an elk meat and egg noodle casserole, mushrooms, onions, garlic, with a thick layer of cheese on top that I finish in the oven. Comfort food. Should last several days. This is a dish that I would have fed Wittgenstein, since he expected the same dish at every meal when he stayed with someone. Lumberjacks in the north woods require 4,000 calories a day. I'm not prone to headaches, but the most common one I have is the one telling me I need to eat and this is generally a winter thing. The treatment, which I've codified, is to take a heaping tablespoon of peanut butter, orally, and make a small quick chowder. The fish lady at Kroger has promised to get me some salted cod, but for now I just use one of those small cans of minced clams. I forgot potatoes today, goddamn it, and I need onions. Left in such a hurry this morning, the window of opportunity, that I didn't make a list. Bad form. Still, I feel fine about the day, even better than that. The house smelled of dirty socks and I needed some things, the driveway was doable, and I have a house guest coming next weekend. Like when those planets line up. Point being that I knew enough to drop whatever I was doing (chasing dust bunnies behind the sofa) and get my ass to town. I need to haul wood from the hollow, but I really need to get to town. The decision tree. For instance, I had saved one of the Ridge Zins, that Glenn had brought, when he was filming, and now I can drink that with Diana. Considering the menu, want B, in his actual persona, Brian, to be here, to help carry the conversation while I'm cooking. We're a tag team on this, maybe World Class, I kid you not. We cover a lot of different bases. And choose to live a similar life. We talk about that, occasionally, how strange it is that we would even know each other. We both knew Howard McCord, that was probably the first link. We were both letterpress printers and we had both published him. But there was something else, a similar view of the world, a link, someone to talk with. I view good conversation above all other activities. I might qualify that. Conversation is really important, if you're going to sling the rest of those arrows, and I like to be prepared. I'll be the first to admit I wasn't prepared. B had warned me, what if the winter hits you like a brick wall. What do you do then? I didn't exactly ignore it completely, but almost. Now, I'm having second thoughts. I suppose I could burn the table and chairs. That might gain me a day or two, I wonder if that would be enough. At this point I'd take any advantage; the world, between you and me, is brutal, my thumb aches, I'd really just like to sleep.