Red River Shore

The snow is falling and the storm has hit Townsend.

Jess is on the couch, IMing a friend, and I'm in the armchair, listening to the new Dylan and drinking a Duvel from a pewter mug.

And the snow it does fall.

*

I nearly broke Billy's heart yesterday by misreading my check and thinking they'd given us a Christmas bonus. He's dropped over two grand into his broken down old Dodge neon over the past few months, and is short on Christmas money. But I was misreading info about Afflac, which we both pay in for.

He told his girl that, driving home last night, he could barely see the road at various points. His heating coil had given out.

"I can't take this anymore," she told him.

"You can't take it?" Billy said to me. "It's me who can't see shit!!!"

*

What else am I doing? Making turkey stock. I drove around with the bones of the bird in a garbage bag yesterday, and asked that the legs and wings be left on. I reached into the bag for a wing for lunch, and had to fight to get it out. When it finally gave, it popped and sprayed a glob of liquid turkey fat across my glasses. That's yesterday, in short.

And oh yeah, I electrocuted myself. But I'm okay. End of story.

*

There are three distinct scars on my hand from where Billy squeezed it during our armwrestling contest.

*

And oh yeah, aside from the stock, I'm cooking up a leg of lamb for dinner. I bought that, along with some pork neck bones.

I rubbed the lamb in a dry spice rub and I'm slow cooking it. Should be ready by seven. My purchases were all guy-oriented, since the original plan was for Jess to stay with a friend in Watertown if the weather got bad. She got out early enough, and was able to make it to Townsend before travel would have become dangerous.

*

So here we sit, listening and enjoying the quiet (the Dufflebag is with his father), watching the snow fall down, white, but with a faint shadow of Christmas lights.