Fat Friday

     Happy Fat Friday! Or Vendredi Gras as the French would call the day if the French celebrated Thanksgiving. A friend told me on Thanksgiving that he was looking forward the day after: his favorite Friday of the year. A day of no obligations. Meals ready to eat. Just add heat.
     I agreed with him, but as the day progresses, I find I'm doing things here, there and everywhere. I did sleep in an hour. That was a good start. I went to the guest house to stoke the fire. I don't believe in astrology, but I was born under a fire sign so tending a fire is a pleasure. I noticed the bin of burnable trash and decided to reduce that to ash The cardboard boxes burn well, but the junk mail requires poking. Fuel, heat and air, those are the three elements of fire. A judicious poker being the honorary fourth.
    I had bought a new shop vac a few weeks ago, but hated to open the box. These things usually require assembly. But what the heck. If it looked too complicated, I'd just shove it back in the box for another day. But the only requirement was to remove a twist tie from the cord. I plugged it in just to assess the noise level and suction. Not bad, and succulent. I carried it over to the garage, where we would use it mostly for vacuuming out our cars which were sitting right there. Again, I "what the hecked" and vacuumed out the front and back seats. Teresa's car is never dirty. Mine leads a harder life.
     As I was burning trash earlier, I had noticed a postcard from Stephan, a guy I met in Ireland. He seems to travel constantly and sends me postcards. I rescued the card, a nice picture of Edinburgh, and resolved to send Stephan a card even though I haven't been anywhere postcardable. I also owed a note to our hosts for Thanksgiving dinner.
    While I had been vacuuming the cars earlier, I remembered I wanted to fire up the snowblower before I needed it. It always starts easily even with the pull cord, except for the first time after it's been sitting all summer. Sure enough, it wouldn't start. There are four different steps. I did them all four times. I pulled the plug. It had spark. The fuel tank looked low. I got the extension cord to use the electric start. Bang! she started. When it it's ten below with a foot of snow on the driveway. Future Joe will thank me for taking care of this.
     Thank goodness for days like this with no obligations. I get so much done.

I cleaned the beach, assembled the chair, and distilled this gin.