Changes in the Hood

You might think nothing ever happens in a small town, but you would be wrong.  Why, just last week someone came and cut down that fallen tree that’s been down since July.  The leaves have fallen off my favorite tree.  The corn has been harvested all over the neighborhood.  (And now, from far away, you can see the yellow house which will soon have another landmark – the shed the neighbors want to build – standing glaringly across the valley.)  The old building is all the way down, and much of the roof and timbers has been carted away.   In little old Mount Horeb, the Chinese restaurant has been torn down and someone is building a new fitness center, as if we needed another (this will be the third one).  What we NEED is a Chinese restaurant, but nobody asked us about that.  Did we say change is good?  It’s only good if we say it is. The old Kwik Trip is gone and the new one is open in the next-door lot; where the old store stood they are digging holes for new gas pumps.  Meal-wise, I improvised a curried squash stew that was good over coconut rice.  We will be using squash in our Thanksgiving cooking this week as well.  Last night, I made some of Isa’s “Punk Rock” chickpea sauce over mashed potatoes, gluten-free and onion-free (I substituted mushrooms and it was delicious).  At least we eat well….   …. and at least one thing doesn’t change: a hawk screaming overhead on my weekend walk down the road.  Last weekend, that is, as this weekend and next are reserved for people in orange blasting from dawn to dusk.  I wear orange to get the newspaper and I still don’t feel safe.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

About these ads