green again

An unusually warm St. Patrick's Day was a welcome surprise as our family tradition of corned beef and cabbage supper was enjoyed before hand with a quiet stroll through the woods. A sure sign of spring was the flooded little depression in "the circle of trees". And it was great seeing a little green coming out of the ground too.

Some traditions begin out of necessity. Our family had always had corned beef and cabbage served with boiled potatoes and carrots at the truckstop every March 17th. Gramps particularly liked it because the beef was tender enough to gum, and he could basically suck up the cabbage leaves. Gramps had no teeth. When I was a wee lad, he had a couple of stubs in the front of his mouth that were removed about the time I entered college. He refused dentures. So he gummed everything the last 8 years or so of his life.

Where was I? Oh yeah, so when we closed the truckstop I asked my mom where I would get corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day (since my wife won't touch the stuff); mom relented and now we've had it every year for the last 13 years. Mom does it up right, with shamrocks and gold glitter.....I suppose it satisfies that 50% of Irish blood in me. Mom insists on cooking a couple of former truckstop meals including the famous chili, vegetable beef soup, and swiss steak. Knowing that I'm a bachelor for the next 10 days, mom called and said she'd fix swiss steak for me later this week.....I think she believes I can't take care of myself. That may be proven true in a few days, I've already become a movie junkie and stayed up too late.