Saturday, December 28, 2013

I miss you, Norine.

Cooking a steak on the engine block of your car. (Road Trip!)
Baking cookies on your dashboard in the Summer heat.
I'm not so prolific in my cooking skills to include a vehicle or it's parts in the process of preparation. I have, however, exploded cans of soda pop in my car while at work a few times. More on the destructive side of the creation spectrum. It was below freezing, the soda got angry. What can I say? Winter in Northern Colorado almost caused me to explode a few times too.

There are parts of Colorado I really miss. I lived there for almost 4 years, so one might assume there would be a slight nostalgia hidden away somewhere. Maybe a memory or two that stand out as pleasant. Like driving down Eisenhower Blvd in Loveland during the Valentine's season. With a name like that, who could resist making the Hallmark holiday the city's favorite time of year? The street's light poles were affixed with giant cut-out hearts reading little messages like "all my love, Christine". But the city's pride was their re-mailing program. The post office would become a USPS sub-station for Valentine's day cards. Tens of volunteers would hand stamp a unique cachet on the postage before routing the card to it's final destination: your loved one, anywhere, USA.

Then there was Fall. The pumpkins grew to the circumference of a coffee table and the weight of a 7 year old boy. We would contest to see who could guess the largest pumpkin's weight. I never won anything. But, wouldn't you know! I guessed a weight. I think I got a 10 dollar bill. I think I spent it on soda. I think it exploded in the car.

And then there were the Rocky Mountain Oysters. And Esh's. And the Tuesday business meetings at PF Chang's. the sweet and sour soup. the rides in a green lotus with a thick, solitary yellow stripe down the middle. CSU colors. And the roundabouts. And my 94 year old friend, Norine Powell. I guess you could say I have some good memories. Cheers to making new ones.

I praise the Lord I have breath in me to do so.

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