Seeing and Calling

Damned ticks in serious number. Just a small walk, staying on the driveway, which I had to curtail because I felt them crawling on me. Pain in the ass. Come home, strip down, bag the clothes, then pick eight or ten off the easily accessible areas, legs, arms, then using the two-mirror system, get a couple off my back. If one is embedded, I touch it with a match, the rest I put in a small dish of alcohol I keep on my desk. Tick Management Techniques. The trade-off for a mild winter. I might go into town tomorrow, to see the local show, "Cream Of The Crop", at the museum. It's always interesting and hanging it is a nightmare, I hung five of them, so I'm interested in the various problems and solutions. 70 or 80 pieces juried from 300. This show, and the other bi-annual "Ohio Craftsman" are not thematic, which makes them difficult to organize. No time-line or technique that's being displayed, just stuff. I did go into town as it was already hot by noon and I had to shut down Black Dell. The museum is air-conditioned and TR was there, we walked around and looked at the show. Handsome, Charlotte does a nice job laying out exhibits, Emily (my replacement) did a great job of hanging. Opening is tonight and the party will be a bit livelier than the museum usually hosts because there will be a great many younger people. Art people. I won't be there. Stop at Kroger, get an artichoke for dinner, I'll steam it, then let it sit until cool, with a pesto mayo I scored at the pub. The pesto mayo is why I got the artichoke. On a field trip, checking out goat diaries, in Castroville, California, it was artichokes as far as the eye could see, and amazing sight. We bought three dozen to take back to Colorado and ate them for weeks. On the way home I stopped at the Buckeye Diary Barn for a large vanilla shake, I always stop there, trying to regain some weight. Winter weight loss is a problem for me, that I'm sure the rest of the world doesn't want to hear about. I burn so many calories, in winter, I get tired of chewing. I have a pemmican, made from jerky and pig leaf-lard, with an admixture of dried fruits, that would probably take you across the Pacific. Jerky has gotten quite expensive, so when Kroger has a sale on small beef roasts (buy one, get one free) I always get them, and turn them into jerky. Almost freeze the roasts, then slice thinly, soak briefly in a mixture of balsamic and soy sauce, then dehydrate, store in jars. Reconstituted, mid-winter, it makes a great stew. In survival mode, a can of baby potatoes, a can of carrots, and some onions. I thicken it with flour cooked in bacon fat. When it's below zero, you don't need to be sophisticated. I don't even wash my bowl. because the drain is frozen, just wipe it out with bread. A doctor friend recommends I step-up my level of hygiene. I buy a cheap, fairly rough toilet paper from the Dollar Store because it's strong enough to wipe off kitchen utensils, and I've been known to dry it, after use, and reuse it. If I don't use a paper towel two or three times, I feel like I'm slacking. Usually, if you use a paper towel, you only soil one side, so if you refold it, inside out, and let it dry, it's perfectly good to go again. In my essay Against Spills, there's a section where I talk about drying and saving even very soiled paper towels, to use, in emergencies, to sop up some stupid mistake. My last serious mistake involved the blender and it was a fucking mess, thank god I had my reserve of soiled but dried paper towels. I keep a stack of them. I manage to fuck-up fairly often. I suspect we all do.