Derby Day

Laundry, even though it meant an extra trip to town; and, as always, it feels great to have everything clean. Stopped at the library, stopped at the pub and Scott had made an excellent mushroom soup. I didn't know it was Derby Day, and also the day of the great fight, in fact didn't care. Got my pint and talked with three firemen who were all quite funny, and we had the place to ourselves. Cory and Lindsey were behind the bar and he was showing her how to make a Mint Julep which would be the drink of the day. The rest of us watched. Then Cory gave me the drink. One of the firemen took a picture for his daughter, of my drink, to remember the day. We're only two hours from the track, and people around here consider it necessary to visit at least once, like Mecca, in their life. Hell, I was at Florida State for two years and I never went to a football game. I always worked in the scene shop on Saturdays, because it was quiet, but I had to drive all the way around town to avoid the goddamn stadium on my way home. There was a good deli, on the round-about route, which more than balanced the equation. Developed a taste for cured pork. The rest is history, as they say, two crows and a belt buckle. Everything I need at Kroger for a pork stir-fry with jasmine rice, an inexpensive but huge Ravenswood old-vine zin. Back roads home and the beauty of spring is enough to make me weep. The greens are so soft and the colors are amazing. Isolated fruit trees where houses used to be, daffodils rampant. The intensity subsides a bit, gaining elevation. The ridge is two weeks behind the river bottoms. When I get to the bottom of the driveway I have to stop and pee, and the sounds and smells are almost overwhelming. The creek is running full, birds and squirrels, a light breeze, the newly thawed ground, the rotting leaves. Sensory enjambment. When I get to the house I pour a drink and roll a smoke, go out and sit on the back porch. A familiar reverie.The fox comes through the woodshed and settles twenty feet away. She's big pregnant. I roll her a couple of apples, and as she eats them, we watch each other. When she leaves I go inside, put on some blues, Skip James, and make dinner. Either No-Mind or All-Mind, I caramelized a large onion and a red bell pepper, with some sweet and some hot chilies. Partially froze the loin chops so I could cut them, brined the pieces while I did everything else, then stir-fried them quickly in hot oil. It all came together. The rice from Louisiana is incredible now, the pecan rice, the jasmine rice; they're so delicate. I got up in the middle of the night recently, and I was hungry; there was a bowl of pecan rice in the fridge, so I nuked it, with a large pat of butter, lots of salt and pepper, then splashed on some cream. This could make you religious. The Crusades were just an attempt to rescue falafel from the infidels. Or zero, don't forget zero, or how purified water cured so many diseases.