Vegetables are gross.

Ok, I'm trying to be good, recycling as much as is possible here, trying to remember my re-usable grocery bag, and composting. Since the young lady who was picking up our vegetable waste for her own composting project has moved and the folks at the community garden never picked up the slack, I've started taking it home and have started a trench composting project in anticipation of starting a garden next year.
I would just like to say that in twenty years as a soldier and a cop (also drove ambulance for a bit in there) I have NEVER smelled anything as bad as what comes out of that can.

Whhhhooooooohooooooooo, Ruidoso Rocks!!!

Just in case anyone’s been wondering, Joan Jett is still smokin’ hot and rocks better and harder than anyone half her age. Took the crew to her concert tonight and it was amazing. From fifty yards I thought she still looked great, then we rushed the stage and…damn. And the sound was fantastic; none of the bullshit sounds-great-on-the-album-but-not-live, if anything she (and the Blackhearts) sounded better live. It was the best concert I’ve been to in a long damned time.
The only complaints have to be about the length, too short at just over one hour, and the crowd was completely lame. I tried to lead my section into at least getting out of their chairs but only three of my crew followed me…and my daughters cringed. My son didn’t even want to go, said he doesn’t like Joan…I’m having a DNA test first thing Monday, not liking Meatloaf was one thing, but this is bullshit.
Of course, everyone fucking stood up when they did I Love Rock n Roll, she must get sick of that.
Anyway, great night. Joan and Co. rocked like it was 1982 & I got damned close to her; LindZ caught two picks, one tossed by Joan and one by her guitarist and gave me the latter; I almost got in a fight over our seats, which were occupied when we got there; got whisked into WPS (best damned country bar in the USA) ahead of about 30 people like we were rock stars, then one of us got kicked out, so the rest bailed too; then spent the rest of the night back at the Café listening to Renee chew Brett’s ass for God knows what and John gloat ‘cause Crystal was drunker than him for the first time in at least three years.
Tomorrow’s gonna suck.

One Winter's Night on US 75 South.

He stood to one side, watching, as the man strained against the medics, his eyes wide and shocky as they struggled to hold square-foot patches of gauze against his side.
Later, he would come to know that this look was for the dying, this life would be lost before the ambulance even moved. Though he was still young and didn’t recognize the look, he knew upon examining the car and noting the line of blood and shit that ran from the front along the driver’s side to the back fender that this man would die.
A few minutes later he would learn that the man had been picking up his dead dog from the road when he had been hit.

Oily Food

Americans put almost as much fossil fuel into our refrigerators as our cars. We're consuming about 400 gallons of oil a year per citizen-about 17 percent of our nation's energy use- for agriculture, a close second to our vehicular use. Tractors, combines, harvesters, irrigation, sprayers, tillers, balers, and other equipment all use petroleum. Even bigger gas guzzlers on the farm are not the machines, by so-called inputs. Synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides use oil and natural gas as their starting materials, and in their manufacturing. More than a quarter of all farming energy goes into synthetic fertilizers.
But getting the crop from seed to harvest takes only one-fifth of the total oil used for our food. The lion's share is consumed during the trip from the farm to your plate. Each food item in a typical U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles. In addition to direct transport, other fuel-thirsty steps include processing (drying, milling, cutting, sorting, baking), packaging, warehousing, and refrigeration. Energy calories consumed by production, packaging, and shipping far outweigh the energy calories we receive from the food.
A quick way improve food-related fuel economy would be to buy a quart of motor oil and drink it. More palatable options are available. If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week. That's not gallons, but barrels. Small changes in buying habits can make big differences. Becoming a less energy-dependent nation may just need to start with a good breakfast.

Sidebar by Steven L. Hopp from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

I don't wanna wear a red shirt!

Don't you just hate it when you're working, driving, whatever, and you have this really good idea for a blog topic and then can't remember it later? I even thought at the time that I should pause to write it down, but then told myself that it was a good enough idea that I'd surely remember it. I don't.

I thought briefly that it might have to do with Star Trek, since that was a fun topic of conversation at work today; as in, "If this was Star Trek, Macie and Zack would be wearing red shirts." Zack understands the meaning of this since I've been telling him that for over a year now, even though he has since evolved more into the wacky neighbor you love to hate character from any given sitcom. Macie on the other hand, did not understand, and had to be sent to Brett (blue shirt) for an explanation.

I, of course, as the captain, wear a gold shirt even though I now look more like the Kirk of Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan, than the TV show Kirk, even though in the movies pretty much everyone wore red shirts...but, that's beside the point. The point is that I don't remember what the hell I was going to write about, even though I thought it was pretty good.

I once read an interview with a songwriter in which he was asked if he kept a notebook next to his bed to write down ideas he might have at night or as awoke. He stated that he did not, as he believed that any idea that he couldn't remember in the morning couldn't have been that good.

I sure wish I could remember who he was.

Mmmmm, Fried Stuff....Make Homeresquely Appropriate Groan Now

I remember the first time I ever had the miracle of fried cheese sticks, it was at a now-defunct restaurant in Oklahoma City named Pumps, more than twenty years ago. It was served with a sweet mustard sauce and it stands out as one of my first culinary "awakenings." Simple mozzarella, battered and deep fried, the crunch of the shell, the molten cheese, the sweet twang of the mustard, how had I lived without it for all of my (then) seventeen years?
Since then only one fried cheese dish has matched that experience, that of Hot Dog on a Stick, the wonderfully kitsch stands found in malls across the US.
Which brings me to the corn dog. My God, I do love a good corn dog, and Hot Dog on a Stick has the best I've ever had. As I order my heart quickens, my saliva glands are working overtime; is it knowing that I'm about to get a great corn dog or that the dog is being hand dipped in batter and fried to order by an always beautiful girl wearing a beguilingly retro uniform of jockey hat and hot pants, as her twin strokes away at a vat of fresh lemonade with a long handled plunger. I'll leave that question to smarter people with degrees in psychology, but it's a damned good corn dog.
Locally, if you want a good corn dog you can do no better than at The Quarters. A dive bar of Loverboyesque-mullet proportions, The Quarters (conveniently located on the same block as our place) has a liberal shot pouring policy (at least for friendly neighborhood cooks and waiters) and a really good corn dog. Sweet corn breading, crunchy on the outside with just the right amount of give on the inside, wrapped around a good, plump dog. None of the show you get at Hot Dog on a Stick, but when you consider that you don't have to drive half a day to get it, and you can have a cold Corona as well, a pretty darned good pinch hitter.

Your Wine Guru

I'm no sommelier, but here is a great wine buy. Little Penguin's shiraz is very drinkable and creates a very enjoyable buzz for under $10 a bottle.
It also pairs quite well with Marie Callender's beef pot pie.
Next wine blog: Which white wine to pair with ramen.