Days Off

Kicked back, reading, listening to NPR. Library calls, holding some books for me. The call of the grail. I needed water for a bath, can't harvest rainwater this time of year and there is no rain. Need to haul some water from the museum. Need some drinking water from Kroger. Need food. Very tired when I got off work yesterday, after a hectic morning cleaning up flying squirrel mess, then getting the show finished and cleaning up the gallery. Didn't do my shopping. I'm going to start doing my weekend shopping on Thursday morning, before work, so that I make sure it gets done. Most of the day in town because the AC is free, stopped at the library, and went to the tobacco store, stopped back and dumped my stuff at the museum, then went over to the pub where John joined me for a late lunch and a pint. Back at the museum, I just needed to take off my shoes and read for a couple of hours, watching cooking shows in the background. Prime entertainment for me. I jotted down a few notes, got my list together, and went to Kroger. In the remaindered meat bin there was a beautiful beef shank, two cross-sections an inch-and-a-half thick; meaty, with a huge core of marrow. $3.28. I started a fire in the grill, to roast some parsnips and baby turnips, seared the shanks, then put them on the hot-plate to simmer in chicken stock. Tossed the vegetables in olive oil, salt and pepper, some fresh thyme, put them on the Weber but off the heat. I went out and turned the vegetables, but mostly I read for two hours; then I took the shanks out of the liquid, set them aside to rest, thickened the cooking liquid into gravy. Ambrosia. really. If you were raised in an area where gravy was considered a beverage. Which I was. Something so smooth and deliberate. God it was good.