Echoes From the Loafers’ Club Meeting

The cherry pie is so good, I hid a slice.

You work here. Aren’t you being a little selfish?

No, I’m being a piece-keeper.

Driving by the Bruces

I have two wonderful neighbors — both named Bruce — who live across the road from each other. Whenever I pass their driveways, thoughts occur to me, such as: Everything is never hunky-dory. There are few things that last longer than a temporary measure instituted by a government. I’d see more of the world if it were closer to home.

The cafe chronicles

The table of infinite knowledge gathered its members.

One of the group had lost a considerable amount of weight. His pants had become so big for him, it took him 10 minutes to sit down. The weather had been tougher than the steak special.

Even though he looked good in gravy, he ordered a cut of pork and drumsticks. Bacon and legs.

Sax-Zim Bog pasties

I spoke at the Sax-Zim Bog Winter Birding Festival in Meadowlands, Minnesota. It was a frigid, feathered, February frolic. Meadowlands, population 134, is located in St. Louis County, about 45 minutes from both Duluth and Virginia. Sax-Zim Bog is a birding hotspot and a well known wintering area for owls. I stayed with wonderful friends, David and Helen Abramson, who are as good as people get. My car’s thermometer read -27 degrees as I headed out to go birding. A friend told me that his cellphone’s weather app showed -31. Apparently, that wasn’t cold enough for me, as I birded the shore of Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world and a giant ice cube maker. Superior is the coldest, deepest and highest in elevation of any of the Great Lakes. It doesn’t often freeze over completely — the last time was 1996. Lake Superior could hold more water than found in all the other Great Lakes combined. Lake Superior is the size of South Carolina. A drop of water entering Lake Superior stays, on average, 191 years before leaving.

I devoured a pasty (PASS-tee) in Meadowlands. I have a fondness for the Cornish pasty that originated as a portable meal for Cornwall’s miners who worked in dark, damp, underground mines. The traditional pasty had a filling of meat and potatoes at one end and apples and spices at the other. It was a main course and dessert in one. The crimp along the edge wasn’t meant to be eaten. It was a convenient handle that was useful when there was little clean water to wash hands before eating. It was grasped for eating and then thrown away. One end of the pasty was marked so that the miner wouldn’t eat the dessert first. The miners reheated the pasties on shovels held over the candles that were worn on their hats. A pasty differs greatly from the sandwiches I typically make for myself. When I was a boy, I made a cheese (Velveeta) and/or sausage sandwich and stuffed it into my pocket. That added vitamin-enriched pocket lint to my diet. I cut the sandwich in half. I never cut one diagonally. That made too many sharp points. I could put an eye out. There are enough sharp points in the world without adding more.

Enjoying the day

Cold can devour patience with a ruthless carelessness. Dressing for it takes time. I put them on to go outside. Then I took them off when I came back into the house. I needed to put them on again to go back outside. I rebooted.

The wind was so strong that a friend, Greg Recknor, said that he needed to park his vehicle in a certain direction in order to open its door.

As Yoda said, “Do or do not, there is no try.”

I enjoy the weather without even trying. It’s my day.

Nature notes

“How do birds keep their feet from freezing?” Even insulated footwear doesn’t always keep our feet warm, but avian feet are primarily made up of tendons, ligaments and bone. There isn’t much muscle, nerves and blood. Feet covered with scales are less susceptible to freezing. The proximity of veins and arteries creates a heat exchange in their legs. Birds are able to constrict the muscles in their legs to pump warmer arterial blood into their feet. A bird can stand on one foot, heating the other foot in the warm downy feathers of its body. Birds don’t need to keep their feet as warm as we do ours. Above freezing will suffice.

Meeting adjourned

Be happy you are grateful. Be grateful you are happy. Be kind.