Dumpster

Confusion reigns supreme. I saw our dumpster go by, but I couldn't get outside quick enough to stop them. Fulgent morning, the light almost painful. Phantasmal. Day three of the clean up, they should finish tomorrow and I can go home. Haven't wanted to leave the museum with 6 dehumidifiers and 20 squirrel-cage fans running full blast. Dumpster finally arrived and a crew of four were steady carrying 'contaminated' stuff out of the basement, which is very cool because most of it was junk and needed throwing away. K came in today, reorganized and cleaned the kitchen and back room. I read about Etruscan art for a while, kept checking on the crew, finally ended up in the kitchen, washing some things. It's estimated that Sargent did over 800 portraits. Imagine. I was explaining to K that to make a good elderberry wine, you need to make a gallon of elder flower (called elder blow) wine in the spring, then use that to top the elderberry wine in the fall, because the berries don't have any nose. You lose a fair amount of volume went you rack the wine off the lees during fermentation. Nice to use the flower wine to top it up. We made 12 gallons one year in Mississippi (and many gallons of other sundry beverages) of elderberry, with the flower wine, and with a zinfandel concentrate we got from California. Best wine I ever made, silky and huge. The only wine to serve with opossum and sweet potatoes. We made a sherry, with green tomatoes, brown rice, lemons, and pineapple juice that was quite good. Don't eat sushi while you're using a keyboard. A run to the liquor store, after work, then over to the pub for an Irish and to admire the case D made for them to store the Irish in. Nice, looks old, looks original. I'm liking this having another person at the museum, one who wants to work. We needed another person. Speaking of persons, went over to the pub this afternoon, to help D unload the display case, and there was a goth person there, with a lot of metal dangling, the word meretricious popped into my head. In the sense of gaudy, not particularly in the sense of attracting attention in a vulgar manner. Some people, they do disport themselves. Maybe not merely recognition they seek. I don't know. I call as little attention to myself as possible. Maybe not, I'm not sure. I was called on to docent, after the event on Saturday night. Six interested people, all bright, almost all of them vested in a fast-track sophistication. It was fun, I'd had a couple of beers, during the performance, and I was understated and remarkably lucid. Terry, now on the board, stayed for part, and he enjoyed it. Today K mentioned we should offer that service, docenting a small group through, after hours. I'll do the docenting, it's like being on stage, without the anxiety. I enjoy it, and I'm good, because I research everything, as a matter of course. Picked up sushi at Kroger, got back, started writing you, and had a small brown rice emergency. Lost the 'm' there for a few minutes, but Kim had explained to me how to take the keys off the keyboard, clean and lubricate them. I'm on top of this. The reports back, from the group I docented, were glowing, I was evidently quite amusing or something. Word back through K, staying in the carriage house that Clay and Sara once owned; and there was a reunion, or something, that was the group; and that I was like one of the best docents ever. I'm proud of that, like a runner with his time. I throw a few things away, into the dumpster; life, the universe, and all that, and still come out ahead. It's looking good for the home team. We get rid of shit, and don't have to do it ourselves.