Berry Season

(skip this top part if you are only interested in the berry picking...)
It is hot.  I mean very hot!  In the early a.m. before the sun gets too strong I work in the garden and do my outside chores.  This includes soaking the garden plants and weeding and plucking off the dead parts of the tomatoes and etc… I have my system of collecting rainwater and, so far this year, have not had to use any well water for the garden.  That is about to change as we have not had significant rain fall since last week.  My six day supply will be gone tonight.  It will take a good downpour for at least an hour for the three rain barrels to fill and that won’t be happening for the next couple of days.  This evening I will fill one of the barrels from the well.

It takes a lot for me to hide in the air conditioning but this summer I am happy to have the cool, electric breeze.  The only thing better would be a swimming pool but I don’t have one of those so I have to find alternative, indoor activities so I can stay in the ‘cool’.  My journal is one.  House chores is another.  Watching TV and reading fill a couple of hours but I hate watching the TV.  This morning I finished the outdoor stuff and instead of hiding in the A/C I took the bike and headed out for a ride through the state park.  I packed my backpack, a banana, a yogurt, some ice in a baggy and headed down the road. 

My destinations were vague.  My first stop was in Fort Montgomery at the motorcycle shop where I drooled over the bling.  They had a nice used BMW Roadster (a 2012 with under 2K miles) which they took on trade for a ‘Multi Strada’.  (must be nice to have bucks!) Tempting, but too much money for a bike in my opinion.  If it had been a clean ‘California’, a little bit older and a lot cheaper, I probably would have been riding a different bike this afternoon.  I did find out there is a group of retired guys who meet at the shop every day and go for a ride together.  Sounds like something I should try out next week. 

I left the bike shop and took Firefighter's Memorial Drive through the military academy at West Point and then 293 to the parkway.  Nice back woods road with no traffic.  Speed can be a problem as there is a lot of wild life but I was in a slow-goin’ mood and the cool breeze made me feel wonderful.  After that, on the Long Mountain Pkwy, I didn’t even mind the idiots who were tailgating me –and I was doing seventy!  I left them when I took the turn off to old route 17 heading to Tuxedo-another old four lane highway that is long legged and relaxed.  I stopped for gas in Tuxedo and turned around.  I was getting tired and the heat was coming off the asphalt in waves.  I retraced my steps back towards home. 

When I got to the ‘goat path’ (the name given the approach road for the Bear Mountain Bridge from the Annesville Circle) I took advantage of the fact that there were few cars sharing the road and I could do it the way it should be done.  This twisting, curving road is a bikers dream.  If you don’t have at least one nerve jangling moment where you think you might not make it out alive then you didn’t ride it right.  Call me an idiot, I don’t care!  Anyway, when you are almost down to the Annesville Circle there is an old historic toll house.  I turned into the gravel parking lot outside the toll house and parked under a tree. 

I know from hiking there with Benny that there are the most magnificent berry patches right out back of the house, hidden in the woods.  The berries are protected by gobs of poison ivy and their own prickly thorns.  But if you know how to pick them and how to avoid the ivy you can eat your fill.  I unlocked my top case and took out my lunch.  I sliced up the banana and stirred it into the yogurt.  I walked into the patch and as I ate the yogurt I picked the sweet raspberries and plopped them into the cup.  Eat, pick, stir, repeat.  Un-fu*king believable.  The berries were so ripe that they were sticky with their own sugar.  They melted like chocolate on my fingers.  When I was done with the yogurt I went back to the bike and took out the bag of ice, which was three quarters melted.  I drank the icy water out of the bag and then proceeded to fill the bag with more berries.  When it was filled up I put it back into the insulated lunch box and into the top case.  I brought them home to eat later. 

Back in the house, my shower was great.  I have some DVD’s from the library and some primo left-overs in the refrigerator for diner.  I have my hand picked dessert and tonight’s Shabbat service (with my friends) to look forward to.  The heat is tough.  But today was good.  I am one lucky Fu*ker.

Thanksgiving

Saturday, November 26, 2011

I picked up Jake at the Central Valley bus stop on Wednesday night. His bus was a little bit late so I cruised the mall and ended up buying a couple of pair of casual shoes for myself. I really needed them. I look like a bum lately and wear my work boots most of the time. Lizzy was shocked that I did it as I never shop for myself. That is the kind of shopping that she likes to do…It is totally uncharacteristic of me. The reason I bought two pair was that there was a sale and the second pair was half price. Matt and I wear the same size so I gave him one pair.

Matthew and Bailey have been with us for two days now. They got in on Thursday morning at 5 am and though I didn’t hear the car pull up in the driveway I was dozing on the couch and I had the chance to just say hi! and watch them disappear (zombie-like) up the stairs to bed. After driving 12 hours straight from Asheville I didn’t want them to come in to an ‘empty’ house. Since Lizzy was sleeping soundly I did the ‘welcoming committee’ thing then I curled back up on the couch downstairs wrapped in three afghans until it was time for her to get up.

Ben is getting primed to head off to live in Colorado. The thought of his departure is difficult for me to process. I understand his need to get out there on his own…it’s just, well, I will content myself to savor these last few weeks with him still living with me.

The thanksgiving dinner was a qualified success. Turkey, pies, stuffing, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes, string beans and asparagus and, for the vegetarians-Tofurky! It looked like a little bowling ball covered in sweetish sauce. It was the comic conversation piece of the meal. I, myself, am not fond of turkey let alone fake turkey. Jake and Bailey tasted it. Not me. My pumpkin pie (made with last years frozen pumpkin) was great tasting but had a poor consistency. I should have blended the filling more and used cream (which we didn’t have in the house) instead of 2% milk. The addition of a couple of extra egg yokes helped marginally. Still I have tasted much better. With every one of my sons in attendance, with Bailey and her child-to-be, my wonderful wife, and the dog and the cat…I have never experienced a more satisfying hour at a table. “God bless us-everyone”.