Fast forward to February

by Pat Laster

During the month of January when SWAMP TOUR replaced my usual visits with you—by the way, one reader asked me to continue doing serials; do I hear any reaction to that?--I have been busy around Couchwood and have been working on both A Compendium of Journal Jottings and the purported sequel to A Journey of Choice, whose working title is, well, The Sequel.
Collegian-grandson Billy was here—he has two homes now-- until mid-month and actually filled three trash bags of stuff from the organized chaos I call his room. During that time, he decided he’d like to have stew. “What is stew?” he’d asked earlier.
“Chunks of meat, potatoes, carrots and onions, thickened,” I answered. Schwan’s steak bites were deemed OK for the meat. I bought the other ingredients, including a package of brown gravy mix. (Never having liked nor prepared gravy, I cheated.)
Pulling out the crockpot-- a wedding gift way back in 1960--I prepared the meal. We had never eaten stew in the twenty-one years he’d lived with me. In fact, I don’t remember EVER making stew, period.
When Billy saw the carrots and onions, he turned up his nose. Guess who got to eat the entire recipe? (Over the span of a week, of course.) The gravy had thinned since I had to add water so it was more like chunky soup. His loss.
On a quick trip back from college to retrieve a package he’d ordered, I discovered that he was planning to make stir-fry for a college friend using chicken he’d taken from here, compliments of Schwan’s deliveryman, Turner. I provided half a red and half a green pepper and a small bottle of olive oil.
When I asked later how it went, he said it didn’t happen, but he had used the peppers another way. I will be glad to find out HOW.
I also have begun the arduous task of repainting the kitchen, one two-door cupboard at a time. The dark brown cabinets require at least two coats of beige paint.
I took off the hardware and carried the doors to the shed porch where I sanded and then painted them on an old drop-in sink unit, then let them dry on a pair of sawhorses Dad left when he quit carpentering.
I brought the small paint tray and two brushes inside, then, to cover the brown frame (two coats) and the yellow insides, which required only one coat. Oh, yes, I maneuvered the two heavy shelves off metal brackets and lugged them to the shed, too.
All the while, the items—both canned food and glass serving dishes were resting in plastic baskets on the countertop and covered against sanding grit. A worn-out store-bought quilt protected the space underneath the cupboard where I worked.
At this writing, one door is inside ready to be rehung, but the other needs yet a third re-sanding/re-painting for some reason. Let’s hope they rehang well.
Also, at this writing, a bouquet of early daffodils, a sprig of spirea, several branches of yellow-bell and japonica grace the dining table.
Surely we’ll get snow before this time next month.

c 2012 by Pat Laster dba lovepat press