First Picnic of the Year

Humble meal: leftover cabbage curry with yogurt; mandarin orange; bottled water. Awful if I would have had to eat it in the car, but  this checkered weather (one day gray, next day brilliant; typical March) delivered today a wonderful sun-filled 70-degree experience, and into the city park I went, the only picnicker around, and enjoyed my lunch and looked forward to all the picnics of 2015. Okay, I admit I was looking for mushrooms too.

Taking My Self to Lunch

I only wanted to get the heck out of the clinic for bone scans and blood draws and after fleeing what I call the "Casino" (where you bet your life) I wanted to live it up, so I stopped at a Cracker Barrel on the way home and bought myself a double order of trout plus fixin's and coffee. I sat across from myself and said, "You've really accomplished a lot this past year. You took some chances and I am proud of you. You helped people out. You saw your family and friends often. You passionately loved. You've taken blows and punches to the gut quite gracefully, or if it was proper to fight, you fought. The mistakes were okay. It's all good. How lucky you are to be healthy and not dead yet like some folks. The best is yet to come. Shucks, I even like you a lot, and other people do too. You know, if I was you I'd be pretty happy."

I recommend that you take your Self to lunch soon. Or to a candlelight dinner. Tell yourself how good-looking you are and how much you love your Self. (Don't hesitate: It's the only Self you've got.) There's only one catch: Your Self has to pay the check.

VFW: Entertainer with Squeezebox

Lunch today at the VFW, a benefit, featuring homemade Italian sausage, peppers and onions, and mostaccioli pasta -- & sprinkle on that Parmesan. Diners were serenaded by this concertina player. He isn't blind, he just wears shades. He told me the concertina was made in Louisiana by a Cajun, and for such a small instrument it had surprisingly deep sound. This guy sang, too: "Never on Sunday," and "That's Amore," and I had a wonderful lunch hour today. Yeah, I ate everything on the plate, plus I drank the beer.