Multiconstruct

Watching baseball, Yankees/Tigers play off baseball. The kid is pitching and he bunched out Granderson and Verlander was just grinning. Didn’t need any patience to enjoy that half inning. I feel like tonight is our best chance, I’m worried about our five spot, not confident with Fister coming up again or the new guy. Maybe an ensemble. The bullpen is  tough and deep. But i would be content if tonight was the night and the next game is a rested Verlander against the next team.

Well, back for a day of work after a long weekend road trip. Busy day and still a lot i didn’t get to. Cooked dinner, spanish rice and peas and carrots which i did with fresh grated ginger and black walnuts, salt and pepper of course. I was a little headachey i think from the 11 hour drive home from the homeland and then dozing in front of last nights game, but rocked through my day nonetheless. So it feels good even as Granderson makes a beautiful catch and we don’t get a couple of runs.

Went for a somewhat whirlwind trip to the homeland.  Took a half day on Friday for working the Saturday after my vacation. John is teasing my live blogging baseball. “the reader will have known who won but i don’t”, beautiful. John was a fun traveling companion especially doing all the driving. Smokey sat up front, she likes to scan for cows so she can bark like crazy at them. She has a pretty good eye for them, and can smell them from a distance depending on the wind. She was good company up in the big front seat of dad’s truck. Hard to think about having to get rid of it.

We stayed with Brenda and its nice to see her doing well. She hopes to make it down for her CNA test in Missouri around Thanksgiving. I am going to get an heirloom turkey. I’ve only had bobtail white, you too i bet. Not that they’re not a nice turkey, I’d just like to try something else. Didn’t order one quick enough last year. More salt in the brine Brenda requests, last year must have been a little tough. “Probably just from it being able to walk around” was John’s take.

We got in late late Friday so I was a little out of sorts but John brought dark roast Panamanian. Yemeni today at a light middle it loses something when it gets darker but it needs something. John has been a great roaster and taught me some tricks and is leaving his roaster so i don’t have to figure one out.

Brenda and I went to the market and I was really impressed. It had grown a lot and the pavilion was full. There was a nice selection with some good buys and some stuff I can’t get at home (black walnuts for example). The pineapple bread was crumbly and expensive but the cider was cheap and excellent. Got some beautiful red peppers 2 for a dollar and some this and that’s. Brenda picked up some ground chuck from Dannies and I made burgers for supper with fresh tomato. Forgot to bring pickles but Brenda had some store bought ones.

Called Chad Osborne and he happened to have plans with Chad Olson and was meeting another friend at the Red Coat in Royal Oak. It was fun and enjoyed a white ale and some good company. I had a cuban which was good but not exceptional. We went out for another round after and it was nice to reconnect and Chad and I had a good catch up conversation as Chad napped on the drive home.

Sunday Brenda made us breakfast scrambled eggs (local free range) with cheddar and feta, fried potatoes with the red pepper, and biscuits and hamburger gravy. Good stuff.

Earlier Saturday we went to a nuclear power protest at the statue of Custer that stands downtown in Monroe. There were better then 30 people and a lot of people driving by honked. One person rolled down a window and yelled “go fuck yourselves” which hasn’t happened to me in a long time. No death threats though. Some people like having a job so i’m not bitter.

There was a singer songwriter and some people made speeches and a lot of plants were representing. Detroit and Toledo folks too, Mike Keegan I think was the only one from Monroe. It was part of an international day of action being Oct 1 and all. Mike Leonardi mentioned in his speech that the Trapp Brothers drove up from Missouri for the event and we had organized protests and been pushed over on tripods (not true john was doing support for the tripod guy that got pushed over and was maced and randomly snatched up before he could handcuff himself to the police car had been his plan), jumped off the Martin Luther King bridge, and chained myself to that very statue of Custer (actually it was just handcuffs). Saw Jesse Deerinwater which was a bonus as last we’d heard she was in KY.

The protest then caravaned down to Promenade Park on the Toledo waterfront. There were bands (someone out of flint the insurgents or something, very political but fun and sincere and not too cheesy) and speakers (we left during Kucinich, hohum a politician). It was mostly nice seeing people although i liked the occupy toledo kids. especially the one who can’t keep her hands off dogs.

After that we went to Costco so John could get the dog food he likes. They don’t have one in Columbia. I picked up a few things and it wasn’t as overwhelming as that type of thing can be. I owe it more to sleep deprivation and protesting all day outside more then the horror of the big box. Toledo waterfront is beautiful, there are some cool statues and the new bridge is a sight.

Couldn’t believe I jumped into the Maumee off the old Cherry Street Bridge. The water was cold, I didn’t even check the temperature just asked someone who’d done it how late in the year he went. We got picked up by a sail boat to avoid unpleasant conversations with the police and fire department and such about the wisdom of such things. The boat could only get so close being a sail boat coming up on a bridge (hadn’t thought that through) and we had to swim quite a ways out to get picked up. Joe got cold and was having trouble swimming. I held him up and swam him the rest of the way in. John Schwartz was crewing and I can’t remember who else pulled Joe in and when it came time for me to climb out I realized I couldn’t move my legs. Only been cold like that a couple of other times but don’t want to get started on knocking your core temp out of whack. I’ve got way to many stories and though dreary it wasn’t too cold.

We had a big family dinner on Sunday at Bob and Pam’s. Pam made pot roast which was excellent and Betty made this killer squash/yam casserole with ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and a little clove I think. Brenda made deviled eggs (with the free range, she gets little ones for a dollar a dozen) which sparked a conversation what mom put in them (mayonnaise, yellow mustard, salt and pepper was the majority opinion with a little paprika on top). I make mine more daring but they were good. Bobby and Julie brought an apple pie from a local orchard that was killer (it was the walnuts). Sparked a conversation about Smuckers and I’ll try to get Brenda to bring down a blueberry one for Thanksgiving. You should come, looks like there is going to be a feast (i got extra guests last year by posting the menu).

The star of the show was Mr. Nolan Lagrange all of six weeks old. He holds his head up which is about all you can reasonably expect. Struck me as a serious sort, thoughtful, to the extent all of those little neuronal firings are organized into such a thing. Had good conversation with Bobby about consciousness development and I am glad he and Julie are watching.

Its nice to see everyone doing well. Shane came by and had pictures from his hunt in South Africa. i want to see his stuff when its stuffed. All the meat goes to market. They give discounts on shooting stuff they need for the market. Charge by the critter. He forgoed a giraffe for example for some big thing with horns.

The drive home was a little trying. Hadn’t recovered from the drive up. Enjoyed some WJR. They got some welfare reform so they had the Great Lakes State social services director talking about throwing 11,000 families off welfare for their own good because people get dependent on a check don’t bother learning how to read. lazy shit heels. The next guest was a Yupper congressman talking about oil companies already paying their fair share. All this without irony.

Also caught an hour of Terri Gross interviewing a big wig in the New Apostolic Reformation. A lot of stuff on spiritual warfare and getting control of the guvmint. Scary stuff, very middle ages.

But finally made it home. Bases loaded in the 8th Yankees at bat ahead four to one. Al Albuquerque to the rescue. Leland plays the match up. Nite faithful reader, go Tiges!