Monday, August 20, 2007

Monday moanin'

Catching up, in the time-honored tradition of the southern-boy turned Detroit Free Press columnist, the late great Bob Talbert...

Good moanin' - actually got caught up on sleep and fluids this weekend. I had gotten quite dehydrated, just by not being intentional about water and other liquid intake. Not a good thing for this boy, so I am starting Monday feeling a bit better than I have in a while. Made for some scary times over the last two weekends, though...made me very weak, sluggish. When I'm near 90% on the sloth scale, that ain't a good thing. So it's good to be past that.

Good moanin' - the joy of living on the rural edge of a small city is that fresh produce is a short jaunt away. I went to The Andersons in Maumee, and picked up unbelievably fresh bi-color sweet corn, huge tomatoes, cukes, and asparagus, and we had a summer feast that absolutely couldn't be beat! Summer sweet corn here in the corn belt is one of life's great summer pleasures... small, sweet kernels bursting with flavor. Hosannas and alleluias rise up from the plains...

One of the truly sinful pleasures of the summer is what we call tomato bread, although the process has grown over the years. Our version now starts with Cole's frozen garlic bread, a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese, a thin slice of Krakus Polish ham, another sprinkle of mozzarella, then a layer of thinly-sliced beefsteak tomatoes, with a layer of mozzarella and liberal sprinkles of Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning. Bake for 10 minutes, until the garlic bread is done and the cheese is brown and bubbly. Is it healthy? Not hardly. Is it one more proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy, on occasion? You betcha!

Good moanin' - I can't remember if I posted this, but I will be headed to Kansas City September 13-16 for a very happy event. My dear friend Norma, who started seminary at St. Paul School of Theology in KC with me way back in 1997, has found love and companionship and all good things with a man from the town where she's ministering. She and he will be married on September 15th, and (as all of Norma's parents and siblings are gone) she has asked me to give her away. I'm honored to be asked, and it will be a great time to visit old friends (although it will be tough to shoehorn visits around the wedding events). So I am looking forward to that! (After all, I'm almost out of my Oklahoma Joe's BBQ "Night of the Living BBQ" sauce...)

Moanin' - all the rain we prayed for in June and July has evidently piled up and has been deluging the Great Lakes for two weeks. We got about an inch of rain yesterday, and at 11:00 we are at almost 2 inches for today. Needless to say, it's not doing my brother-in-law's work schedule any good (he is a groundskeeper for a country club), and there's a bazillion acres of corn that need to be harvested, if things ever dry out enough to get into the fields...

Moanin' - we will try to get Sue's car fixed this week. I'm still not convinced that it's worth putting nearly $1000 into - but it's probably cheaper to do that than try to get another car, with problems we don't even know about. Being behind the 8-ball financially may be spiritually enlightening, but it sure sucks, sometimes. It would be much nicer to sell the condo, scrap the two cars, and start over with something new (or less heavily used). But the market here sucks - there are about 8 condos in our neighborhood for sale already, and Ohio is now #2 in mortgage defaults in the nation (behind Florida). So our goal is to try to just ride out the storm, for however long that takes...

This week will be a busy one, as I will have three trips with the DeMolay youth - their stated meeting in Van Wert on Thursday, a visit to Fort Wayne on Friday, and a trip to Columbus all day Saturday. Fun times...

For now, it's back to the rock-pile, making little digital rocks out of big ones. That's a whole 'nuther topic, but we'll leave it on an upbeat note for now!

3 comments:

Erin said...

Nice to see you looking after your whole self :)
Have a blast at that wedding...

Peter said...

Just love your ketchup posts, Steve man!

Scott M. Frey said...

since moving southward in 1998, I have missed The Anderson's! There is one in Lima but it's not the same, andI am 45 mins from that one where I live now, lol. So, I grew a TON of tomatoes, yum!