Pretend you’re standing in a desert wishing you had some water. Then pretend you’re in Milwaukee. And so it was with great trepidation that I actually ventured onto my northwest condo balcony to catch a few hopeful rays. Accompanied by a pot of succulents that made it through the winter inside my unit, here’s hoping the pot finds peace and contentment in those few rays sent forth between showers, showers and more showers.
Outside my building, to the south, a lusty stand of flowering crabs is doing what flowering crabs do best. Clothed in white blossoms, they have burst upon the scene where guests park their cars. Our maintenance guy, Dennis, is chomping at the bit, eager to get started on his landscape projects. Can you blame him?
This morning I visited a book designer, Kevin Gardner, to talk about shaping a small book compiled from weekly columns (City Mouse) that I write for my hometown Iowa newspaper whose readers number about 1,000. That’s not a mega number, but there is comfort in knowing that what I write is being read. In selecting a dozen or so columns, I avoided those that might offend, i.e., subjects addressing Iowa’s stand against same-sex marriages. My hometown is staunchly Republican of the uber-right kind, plus they describe their community as “faith based.” That said, I have my own kind of faith, based on informing readers that not everyone thinks as they think. It’s been great working with a female publisher/editor who lets me run with my column. The book will be shipped to Iowa in time for their annual Heritage Days gathering and I’m thinking any sales of same will help their food bank efforts. At $2.00 a crack, the book (Saddle Oxfords) is affordable, still there is always the possibility that only one person will shell out two bucks and then pass it around for others to read. But I have faith that won’t happen. Pray for me.
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| Chicken gizzards with onions. Photo courtesy of Stu Spivack. |
I’m still recovering from my trip to Kansas City where I tasted deep-fried chicken livers and deep-friend chicken gizzards that resembled rubber tubing. On the other hand, I had some marvelous meals in the city’s numerous outdoor cafes. K.C. has a superb art museum, so put it on your list of must-sees-before-you-die. You can ride for seven hours out of Chicago, on the Southwest Chief, and you’re there! Try it you’ll like it. Don’t try the chicken liver/gizzard platter.
My two brothers live in K.C., and are both dedicated hippies with long white ponytails.
Mike survived the hell of Vietnam; Dennis survived Korea, and all four of the Moriarty
kids (that’s us) survived all kinds of things since leaving rural Iowa in the early ’50s. We learned how to “duck and roll,” wondered over moon walks, watched Nixon sink, and cringed over the demise of the Kennedy clan. Our heroes were Wonder Woman, Tarzan, Mad Comics and Roy Rogers
My granddaughter just graduated with honors from Case Western Reserve Law School, and she’s spending the summer with me, preparing to take the New York state bar exams. Her place to study will be at Marquette’s Law Library, nice and quiet and smoke free. When she completes the final bumps in the road, she’ll return to her home in New Zealand, seeking work as a reward at the end of her long, long trail. For her, it’s really just the beginning….
