Mom said, "Don't fry bacon naked". I can only wonder about the source of this
advice, but some things are best left out of my imagination. And just cuz she said it, I had to do
it. She was right, don't fry bacon
naked... and now Mom is probably sizzling because I mentioned her.
I don't write about Mom much. She thinks anything on the web is forever and an invasion of
privacy. Mostly I leave her be, but
sometimes I poke her because it's kind of funny when she gets all perturbed
about things. Happy birthday Mom :)
Also happy birthday to Richard, Timmy, Riley, Franz, Craig,
John, Mary, Jessie, Nick... and whoever else is right about now, especially anybody
I've forgotten. Seems like everybody
was born around this time of year.
Now that Mom is hot and bothered, let me say she's the only
thing that's hot around here. March
coming "in like a lion and out like a lamb" is a blatant lie this
year. It's actually snowing, and snowing
a lot today and I'm just sick, sick, sick of it!!
In the spirit of naked bacon frying, the bad weather
inspired me to get spring water and I was surprised to see that they were
tapping maple trees this late in the year.
Apparently trees know better than me to hope for warm weather. I snapped a couple of photos in the pre-snow
icy rain then did the other most contrary thing I could think of which was to
try out new cars while the snow started to fall. (A+ for German engineering in snow.)
I gave up my contrariness and went home to my puppy foot
warmer and blankies and looked up the Maple Fest.
I watched their slide show and thought "OMG is this
Ohio!" The kind of Ohio I
completely take for granted and mostly ignore, but I have to say that it feels
happy and comfortable.
When I used to ride the school bus everyday, we went past
Nash's farm at the top of the hill. I
always knew when spring was coming because old man Nash tapped his trees in the
front yard. I loved those trees. They burned a beautiful yellow, orange, red every fall
and they were also the first signs of spring.
Developers knocked them down to build McMansions. (sob)
Maybe I assume too much when I figure people outside Ohio
know about tapping trees? Maple trees
hibernate in the winter. When the trees
sense spring coming, the sap inside starts to "run". A tap is hammered carefully into the tree,
just past the bark, so that the running sap is caught in the end of the tap and
funneled into a bucket, or these days, into tubing that feeds into a big
plastic bladder.
