The rich gravy of time

I should be out for a bike ride now through the morning mist, or a jog with the ever-vibrating Sophie. Something to work off the two donuts and three cups of coffee with which I started my day after Brandy left the house at 5:45. Instead, Sophie is curled up on the bed, quietly devouring . . . something (when ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise), and I am listening to the Reverend Al Sharpton doing a fair impression of giving a coherent interview on NPR.

After a few cups of coffee, it's tough to digest much of anything, especially text, and I have a lot of pages left on my plate before shule commences on the 23rd. A remaining few chapters in two volumes of Eagleton; "Merry Wives," "Henry IV part II," and four volumes worth of Norton introductions, to say nothing of my Mandarin workbook.

Why isn't this done already, you may ask? With just what sort of crust have I been sopping up the rich gravy of time which seemed to brim higher on my plate than that of any other? What sort of tale do the telltale crumbs trailing me tell?

Well, for one thing, Sophie and I did some exploring up around Pilot Mt., half an hour out of Winston Salem. We failed to find a fabled blueberry patch, but we encountered some misty, storybook views, and several groups of Army recruits learning to rappel from beautiful layer-cake cliff shelves. Conversation ceased as my trusty beagle and I rounded the trail and came into view. Stout young lads, they were, hard of muscle and eye. To a man, they regarded us as if we were a) Intruding, and b) Gay as a whistle. I considered remarking that I had enjoyed paying my share of their salaries last year, and looked forward to continuing doing so in future, but decided instead to just continue on 'round the bend, as it were, getting me and my baby blue Speed Racer t-shirt out of range--er, sight-- as quickly as possible.

Also, I’ve been trying my hand at home coffee roasting. The story of how I came into possession of 13 lbs of unroasted green coffee beans is a long and odd one, which I’ll relate another time. Suffice to say that I’ve been stinking up the kitchen roasting fresh, dark coffee one cookie sheet and wok at a time. If my public demands it, perhaps I’ll show you in a future post how to wok this way.

Not content just to enjoy my windfall of magic wake-up beans, I decided to take a break from my old habit of buying on eBay, and give selling a try. Anyone interested in 3 lbs of assorted ready-to-roast Arabica coffee beans has about 24 hours left. No reserve! Bid often, bid high!