I went out yesterday! The weather was beautiful, and I needed food, so I decided to walk to Aldi. I haven’t done that since last summer. I even walked home, a different route than I went. My path was close to a circle as I have to walk around the reservoir.
There’s only one thing that stops me from doing this more often. On the way there I have to walk down this.
On the way home I walk up these.
Then these
For some reason only one of the pictures I took yesterday came out. These are from August 2019. I don’t know why I took them, so it looks like I walked uphill both ways. I was not barefoot and there was no snow. The tough part is walking up those stairs with all my groceries. I have a wheeled bag but of course have to carry it while climbing. I need to get in better shape. I stopped and rested for a minute on the benches provided on the route home flight. I also used that time to get directions. I know the other route better.
There were very few people wearing masks. My zip code has a high infection rate. People need to be more careful. In the store people were masked. The exciting news is that for the first time since COVID-19 there were shopping carts readily available and for the first time ever they were in the store, not the parking lot. Before COVID-19 the shopping carts were chained to each other in the parking lot, and you needed to deposit a quarter to release them. They stopped requiring the quarters and most of the carts subsequently disappeared. I would have to hunt the lot looking for someone packing their car and grab theirs. They replenished their supply and put them in the store! The problem was that for the first time in ages I forgot to bring a quarter, just in case. That worked out for the best as someone left their cart right by the sidewalk, so I picked it up on my way into the store and collected the deposit when I returned it to the corral. I like when my shopping is subsidized by lazy people. Perhaps even more exciting for the first time ever they had shaved beef. That means I can make Philly cheesesteaks! The Aldi hero rolls aren’t as good as Stop & Shop’s, but I still bought a pack. That’s tonight’s dinner. My special variation on the classic cheesesteak is to include diced garlic that is sauteed in the same oil that I make the steaks. Last time I made a burger I did something similar. I embedded the garlic into both sides of the burger. If you want to make something better add garlic.
When I got home I picked up the mail and found a treat. A few weeks ago, I met Amy and Chuck on Jim Infantino’s zoom afterparty. They make Peepers Puppets. The ran afoul of my aura which magically makes people send me things. It’s my aura, not me. I don’t take any action to instigate the gifts. It’s my mutant power, it’s a gift, and a curse. Except it’s not a curse. What is a Peepers Puppet? Here’s the thank you video I sent them.
I finished programming next week’s Gord’s Gold and have even started on the week after that. My mutant power aura was boosted by my contributing to the Folk DJ List. Now I not only get music from people I know but from strangers. Most of that doesn’t interest me, most music is by definition mediocre, and I won’t play anything mediocre. I have one hour a week to fill; everything I play must excite me. Going through the submissions counts as work, but when I find a gem it’s worth it. This week I found Lizzy Plotkin & Natalie Spears. I immediately programed them into next week’s show. I was excited to be out ahead of the curve, except I’m not, I’m way behind. This is what it says on their website, “#1 album, #1 artist, #1,2,5,6,20 song on the Folk Alliance International Folk Charts for the month of February!” That’s the chart I contribute to. I wondered of Lizzy were related to my friend Ben from Oliver the Crow. You figure that two extremely gifted Appalachian fiddlers named Plotkin would be related. While that is excellent logic if fails on one key point, Ben’s last name is Plotnick. Those names are close enough that they still should be related! I mean they are almost anagrams of each other. They both play in duos. Except for Lizzy they are both from Canada. Oh wait. That might be pushing it. I never considered it likely that Natalie Spears is related to Britney.
The deadline for submitting Gord’s Gold is Sunday night. I have been uploading it on Saturday night, really Sunday morning, after 1AM. Maybe this week I’ll finish it today. That will require the street party going on outside my window to end. It could be worse, they are playing good Latin music, not rap. It won’t work as background sounds on the radio but it’s fine for hearing in my apartment at a reasonable hour; it’s 6:24 PM.
Now it’s time to make my cheesesteaks. Then I’m watching Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas do a livestream. You might think that gifted cellist Natalie Haas and gifted fiddler Brittany Haas would be related. You’d be right, they are sisters. Brittany Haas is NOT related to Britney Spears, it doesn’t work that way, but if she married Natalie Spears and took Natalie’s last name she’d be Brittany Spears, though still not related to Britney. I wonder if I just made sure that I’ll never be friends with any of these people other than Brittany and Ben who are already stuck with me. Is it wrong that I want to show more of this side of me on the radio? I feel that not being silly is dishonest. Making nonsense is when I’m happiest with myself. I was going to start preheating the oven now so I could be finished with dinner before the livestream. Then I saw that I’d have to buy a ticket. I’m poor and can’t afford it, but you should. Alasdair and Natalie are great.
Wise Madness 