Perhaps the title should be, “Surprise, it’s October!” I’m not quite sure how that could possibly be. This time last year we were house hunting and now we are suddenly creeping up on the first anniversary of being in our home. The chilly wind and rain has begun and home is the only place that I want to be today. It’s funny how that natural instinct to nest overcomes me in fall and winter.

My priorities are shifting from outside (landscaping and gardening) to inside (efficient heating and a couch worth lounging on). We spent most of the weekend canning and we still have more tomatoes to put up. Lach started a new flickr set dedicated to our adventures in canning and there are still photos to be added. So far, we’ve done dilled green tomatoes (with various peppers and some green beans), a variation on my great grandmothers chow chow, herbed red tomatoes and yesterday we added salsa verde (with green tomatoes instead of tomatillos) to the list. It’s really been a lot of fun to get more comfortable with the process. Next up, is my grandmother’s soup that I have been raving about since July. If I can’t taste it for myself, the next best thing I can do is try to replicate it. In fact, I think we might fix it tonight. I just sent my honey on a mission to find okra!

I can’t wait to see the media coverage from Oxford for the debate tonight. That’s about as close as you can get to where I grew up without hitting the backroads. It’s the first debate and I keep thinking of all the other firsts that happened there for me- from my first date to the movie theater to my first M.I.P. ticket at the Billiards Club (now “Nighttown“). Many of my friends first jobs were there as well and some of them are still in the area. Growing up, Oxford was the closest resemblance to a town that we had nearby with the closest restaurants, movie theater and shopping mall. It’s where we had our senior prom and where we spent most of our Saturday nights. My cousin is a junior at Ole Miss but she’ll be out of town tonight, while the Rebels battle the Florida Gators. She’s been calling me all week bitching about the preparations going into everything. Campus is practically shut down, parking has been closed off and many of the students are having to take shuttle buses to get to their classes because of it.

I wish that I’d known about the debate sooner. We could have rented my mom’s house out to Anderson Cooper, or perhaps mom’s longtime crush- Tom Brokaw. She practically howled on the phone (from Montana) when she read online that Brokaw was going to be in O-town. It’s strange to me to think of all of the media that is descending onto my old stomping grounds today. I wonder who will be having a McAlister’s sandwich and a huge sweet tea, that I so often crave. I wonder if anyone will accidentally find themselves on the hill that we used to jump, before they put up a stop sign in attempts to stop us. I wonder if any of my friends will be watching from the grove, where I went to some of my first live concerts. I wonder how many chicken-on-a-sticks have been cooked up at the corner Chevron, perfect after a long night of drinking on the square. I wonder if you can still smoke on the balcony at Square Books. That’s another place very special to my heart. I used to go there with a good friend, devouring real coffee, Marlboros and intellectual conversation. It’s also the place from which I brought home a shiny little book on Seattle, a mythical land that spoke to me from afar.

It’s a strange feeling that tonight I will sit in my home in Seattle simultaneously looking back to the past and forward to the future.

A constant staple throughout my childhood (and into adult life) has been my Grandma’s vegetable soup. Every year, she cans massive amounts of it to last through the winter. This year, my cousin is helping out with the job and she sent me these photos.

Click to Embiggen

I can’t even explain the emotional impression that seeing those jars has left on me. At first sight, I could smell the tomatoes boiling in the summer heat and taste hot cornbread melting in my mouth. I craved the taste of black eyed peas and it instantly brought tears to my eyes and a knot to my throat. Read the rest of this entry »

Shouldn’t every day be Earth Day instead of one designated 24 hour period in a year? It’s a pretty bleak picture when you think about global warming, contaminants in our water and soil, and the rising costs of food and energy.

I was just recently contemplating how I was raised in very sustainable household. We had a full acre of garden space and canned soup and vegetables for the winter. The herd of goats tended the pasture. We carefully gathered eggs from the chicken coup to avoid the hens and snakes *shivers*. Everyone was involved in the meat packing (as gruesome as it sometimes was) and we’d always have a freezer full of deer, turkey, quail and a few less appealing items. None of this was considered radical or eco-anything… it was just our way of life in the poorest state in the nation. Why buy peppers for 3-4 bucks when the seeds cost 29 cents?

I have to be grateful for the life experiences that I had because learning to sustain on very little fostered a humble compassion for those who live in poverty. In a way, I can also thank my upbringing for the incredible pleasure that I find in small luxuries like wine, fine cheeses and microbrews… among many other things. Read the rest of this entry »

Ouch, my head is aching… I think my brain is trying to push through my ears. I’ve got a mental overload going from the backlog of projects at work. It could be so much worse but there’s always a backlog after being out for a period of time… especially when you have to get sick right before a leave of absence. At least, after 3 years of begging pleading my case, I’ve finally been offered the opportunity to train an assistant. It would be helpful if I could pick that person but unfortunately that’s not the case as she’s basically being loaned from another department. At this point, I’ll take what I can get and hope for the best. My work is interesting but really anyone who is talented enough to use an exacto knife would do me some good. I haven’t been in the role of teacher for a long time though so that may take some time to sort through. Hell, I haven’t even had anyone around in ages who speaks graphicnese. So, maybe that’s a good place to start- language and exacto. I guess that’s where we all started at some point. It’s just hard for me to revert my mind to that point after a decade of the biz.

On a more personal note, my beautiful wife will likely be soaking up the vibrancy of India for a few more weeks than planned. She was afraid of how I might take the news but I know that she is the better judge at what she needs to accomplish there and I trust her judgment. Yes, I will continue to miss her and cradle her pillow at night but I would never tell her that she couldn’t stay if she felt she should. I’m still thrilled and in awe that she’s been given this unique opportunity. And the photos she’s taken… they continue to wow me to no end.

Maybe I can even use the extra time to actually do the things around the house that I had intended to do before I ended up on a bumpy plane to MS. I’m still bummed that I didn’t get to visit Syd while I was there but the trip was cut so short that I only ended up on the south side of the state for one night. As always, the visit flew by very fast but even more so since I lost two days thanks to the head infection. I’m just so ready for Friday to get here and give me some time to rest. I covered approximately 4000 miles by air and another 700 miles by land in those five days. So, I suppose I should be a little motion sick.

I haven’t had much of a chance to get online since I’ve been in Mississippi but I have made it just fine. After a few days of antibiotics, my body sure feels a thousand percent better. Forty pounds of crawfish that we went through last night didn’t hurt either- perfect southern remedy for clearing the sinuses. It feels good to be back home and put my arms around my family. I think that’s the hardest part about being so far away when tragedy strikes. The first instinct is to be there…NOW, even though that’s not always realistic.

I miss Lach so much but it helps to know that she is enjoying her trip so much and that’s she’s well taken care of. I wasn’t able to sleep much last night because I was craving her embrace. It’s hard to be apart this long and the lines of communication to be so fragile. I hope to hear her voice soon and soothe that need to connect.

It amazes me to think about the complexities of past and present…of family and home and how it all perfectly grows into the root system that holds us up. There was a time when I loathed being from the south but as I’ve grown, I’m quite grateful for these clay banks and muddy waters.

There have been so many things that have caught my interest lately but I have not been able to write about them. Mostly obscure things- per my usual strange set of interests… the origins of the peace sign, retro digital cameras, Seattle banning bottled water and a host of other random topics.

But, instead, today I find myself caught right in the middle of one week ago and one week ahead… Read the rest of this entry »

Much of our nation will be going to the polls today and the rest of us will be watching closely. This is by far the most exciting and important election in my lifetime. So much is at stake and I think we, as a country, are starving for new leadership. It’s even more invigorating to know that there is a real chance that for the first time in our 219 year history that the leader of the free world might reach beyond the scope of an old white male.

______________________________________________

And down on the bayou, the Zulu and Rex parades are already dancing through the streets this morning. Every year at carnival time I can’t help but get a little homesick. When I went to school on the coast, we actually got out of school for the week of Mardi Gras. It’s been many years since I’ve been there but I can feel the spirit, even thousands of miles away. It doesn’t hurt that I’m watching the live feed of St. Charles right now. I can practically smell the king cake and taste the frothy hurricanes looking at these floats go by. Maybe I can refrain from screaming “Throw me sumthin’, mista!”

______________________________________________

There’s some expected-to-be-good music being released today. I’ve been most anxiously awaiting Jack Johnson’s Sleep Through the Static and Sheryl Crow’s Detours. I will see if I can refrain from downloading before the day is up but somehow I doubt I’ll make it.