Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Ash Wednesday

The smell of the myrrh used to hold the ashes on your forehead, the grit you feel as they are applied, and the very certain knowledge that they will both vanish from this earth- just as you will- is so powerful and inspiring to me!

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Time to Take Renee' to Salt Lick!

  Here in the Hill Country its rainy, windy, and 41 degrees! Yesterday was 80! My wife loves Salt Lick BBQ, me not so much even though we've been eating there since the early 70's when it was only open a few days a week and would sometimes close early not because they ran out of BBQ but because nobody would come in! Not the case anymore, in fact you need a day like today to get in without a long wait!
  When they started they actually cooked on a pit like the one above, now its just for show- its all on big rotisserie ovens hidden from sight! But today was the first time they ever told me I couldn't have my brisket cut from the fatty end! Most people want lean so it shouldn't be a problem, and even as slow as it was( about 50 people there at 2pm) you'd wouldn't have a brisket sliced on both ends for very long! You normally cut a brisket from the lean end so the juice doesn't run out. So I had a chopped beef sandwich.
  That and my wifes two meat senior plate, two iced teas, and a bowl of cobbler was $50.
  Her smiles were worth twice that much!
   

Sunday, February 09, 2020

I Really Remember Only Two Birthdays-

my wife's and my daughters. Not that I don't have other family and friends I love and care about, alive and gone- I very much do so- that's just the way my mind is. For all the photographs I've driven those same people crazy taking, I don't even carry a photograph of my daughter or wife. So today that same daughter posted a picture on a group chat ( which I don't do either- chat, group or otherwise) of her and her MoMo ( my mother) remembering her birthday today! It touched me, in a way its hard to explain. Kind of like understanding why, when I was a young kid, we would drive for hours to some remote cemetery- on the only day my father took off, to hoe weeds from rocky ground around and over graves of distant relatives- many of whom passed even before my father was born.
 Its comforting to know the tradition continues, even though my father never got to meet his granddaughter.