Stream of Consciousness Stuff…

This morning I awoke at 6:05 a.m., a much more civil hour than yesterday.  Two cups of coffee later, I’ve read a number of posts on Facebook, viewed a bit of email (most of which was junk), and wandered into the back yard to check the status of the wood in the smoker.

To my surprise, hot embers remain in the smoker, so I won’t be cleaning out the firebox and disposing of the ashes just yet.  Maybe later today, maybe tomorrow.

Backyard6222013 As I went outdoors, I thought to myself how nice the yard looks this morning; lush and green and inviting.  One of the crepe myrtle trees is beginning to blossom, its lavender blooms just beginning to fill out the right side of the tree.  In a month or two, the entire thing will be a mass of color, as will its twin on the right side of the yard.  The two red crepe myrtles in the front yard will, similarly, be flush with color.  The three tomato plants given to me by my neighbor are doing well, but soon I’ll need to transplant them from the too-small plastic buckets into some larger and more suitable for large plants.  It may be pointless, as we’re still aiming to get the house on the market soon, but perhaps a new owner will appreciate tomatoes as much as we do.

CNNTriviaBack indoors, I read the latest news from CNN.  It’s sometimes hard to find news on CNN Online; most of its “headline news” would be more appropriate for a supermarket tabloid.  “Why we love the mob” is a bizarre headline for a “news” website, as is “Network drops her,” along with a photo of Paula Deen.

Or maybe I’m the only one who thinks the potential of a leak at the Hanford nuclear site has more real “news” value.  And maybe my assessment is wrong that the horrendous floods going on in Alberta, Canada are more important than our love for the mob or Paula Deen’s departure from The Food Network.   Oh, well, I am not being paid to make those calls.  Maybe no one is being paid; maybe an algorithm has been programmed to sync the news headlines with the intellectual capacity of the lowest common denominator of the masses.

If my wife were up by now, I would entreat her to go to have breakfast at Tejano BBQ & More, a hole in the wall near our house where we’ve never eaten.  I stopped in one afternoon just to look at the menu and was hooked immediately: tacos de barbacoa, tacos de lengua, sausage…the list goes on.  It smelled wonderful.  The staff who greeted me at the counter were not upset that I did not order; they were very nice and friendly and invited me to come back.  I think it’s a family-owned and family-operated place. And I LOVE that they open at 6:00 a.m.!  But, they are closed Sunday.  I want to go today!

My wife’s birthday is coming up in less than a week and we’ve decided to celebrate it by taking a little road trip.  We had planned to drive to Abilene and have dinner at Perini Ranch in the nearby community of Buffalo Gap (we’ve been before and loved the mesquite-grilled ribeye), but recent reviews suggest the prices have risen and the quality has fallen.  So, instead, we’re heading to Fredericksburg, a small town (roughly 10,000 people) in the Texas hill country.  It is a community rich in German heritage and has become quite the tourist destination; lots of bed and breakfast inns, small-town shops line the downtown streets, and plenty of arts and crafts and musical events, etc.  We will stay one night in Fredericksburg, maybe more and may wander down to San Antonio.  My wife has her eyes on visiting one or two places in the area that have been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, the Guy Fieri food program.

Well, it’s now nearing 8:00 a.m. and my wife is still not up.  I suspect she may have been awake again in the middle of the night, so it may be awhile yet.  I imagine I may have to wait from Tejano BBQ & More.  Oh, well, I can cope with that, I suppose.  Onward to other stuff this morning.

About John Swinburn

"Love not what you are but what you may become."― Miguel de Cervantes
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