Sourdough part 1

 The Sourdough Chronicles

While the world burns (I am not going down that rabbit hole) I thought that I would distract myself with something I have promised myself to get into this year: sourdough!

So I ordered some starter, did a little reading, and kept promising myself I would get into it next week.

Then, something weird happened: One of the animal rescues named a black fluffy puppy 
"Sourdough." That grabbed my attention, but I waited, and the puppy was still there a week later. Fine, I had the sourdough starter started, and I would call and see if Sourdough the puppy was still available, but before I could call, they posted again that he was still available.

Sourdough is 20 pounds (and still underweight) at 3 months of age. He will be a big dog. Just what we were thinking of, a guardian doggy for our kids and yard (chase those deer).

Sourdough and his siblings, Cibatta and Rye, had a rough start to life. Their mom wandered onto someone's property, gave birth to puppies and disappeared after a few weeks. When they were noticed and brought into the shelter, they were completely hungry and unsocialized, being protective over food and even water. 

One of the shelter's rules is to have a meet and great with any current dogs you own. That worked well as my Pippy was just happy and excited, and didn't seem to mind when we brought him home. That was Thursday. The kids cuddled the puppy and argued all the way home over the name. Mary favored "Oreo" I l liked it when she mispronounced it "Woereo." Egon favored "Batman." I think we settled on "Bruce." The "fish are friends and not food "Bruce, or Bruce Wayne, or Bruce Almighty....

The first day, the puppy connected strongly with Marian, being calm and happy in her presence. By Friday afternoon, Bruce would also be connected with Egon. He has started to raise his tail and follow Pippy around. But he is still skiddish about adults, carefully avoiding them, and ducking from head scratches.

Today we tried the leash. He jumped around and tried to twist out of it, but after the short 20-minute session began to accept it.

So far, he has made 3 piddles, 1 poo, and 1 barf in the house. Most of the time he has turned around and ate it. Mike thinks its a bad sign. I know it is just normal puppy. He has learned where the water and food is, and all he has to do to go out is go stand by the door.

And in the other style of sourdough....I started bulking up it's feeding so I would have enough starter to make things out of. When I came back to it yesterday, (I have 2 jars going) 1 jar had its cloth lid pushed off and dough all down the sides, the other one just had remnants of starter stuck to the cover. 

This morning I made some wonderful sourdough pancakes, and have started some french bread. at about 7 pm I can continue making the french bread, after letting it ripen all day.

Frozen

 Ice is only a temporary state of matter

crystalline structures

hard, yet

so fragile

locked in the way they see things

afraid to lose the only form they know

but fear does not stop change

and flow will return again

Spring

 it was noisy falling off the roof

in large sheets

like thunder

temporarily eclipsing the sun

but now it is under my feet and melting

 America has the feel of friends walking around a hospice, refusing to say the words "Death or Die."

A year ago, we had a fully functioning American government. Now we have a well-equipped terrorist organization.

Yet business plans must be made

so people have a chance at getting paid

We do not know how not to wake up, go to work, pay our bills, attempt to chill out and repeat

But we will find out as your $600 cart of groceries shrinks

As bills pile up and sit unpaid

and credit card debt spirals

 Today I had an interesting moment that made me realize just how deep into the apocalypse we already are.

I was at a lake place in Minnesota, and many of the plants are yellow, there is garbage all about, but signs that people are trying to make a life.

I look into the lake. The water is crystal clear, but all the water plants are growing algae, and the bottom of the lake has patches of algae. 

Its the end of September, but it's been like 80 degrees all week.

Then I realize the lake issues are seen on other lakes around here. The plant growth and yellowing are all around. Some of this is seasonal, but much of it isn't.

Doing Laundry

 When I die doing laundry

(Don't laugh

I've seen my fate

that's how I die)

Put in my obituary that I died how I lived

(doing laundry)

and when the youngest grandchildren ask

"Where is grandma?"

you may answer

"In the eternal laundry room

in the sky"

 If it was just geo-politics

it would not be the end of the world

just the end of an era

we have been through rough patches where the old ways have fallen away

and the world feels as if it's spinning apart

and it is, we've hit another patch

in all of history we have managed to persist through those patches

but

we have also reached another point 

a point where the oceans can not hold any more carbon

the fishes are dying

the air can not hold any more carbon

the birds are dying

the polar ice caps are melting in February

instead of enjoying the bounties of the earth

we have raped her

most of us didn't mean to

its our culture

a culture built to require cars

 to get food

shipped twice across the world

before it makes it to your supermarket in cute little packaging

all that convenience so we can work for the men

who pay for the politicians

who make it profitable to

pump more oil

pump and drill

pump and drill

but orgasms never come

unless they jack off to their balance sheets