(Jon-Without, Grace, Kathy and Vic spent the afternoon over a nice glass of wine and a surf-and-turf repast at Big Pink. The surf part was composed of Maine lobster and Wyoming Pure contributed the beefy delights).

There was a moment this morning that conveys the challenges coming with a New Year. There are several of them, as we are only now beginning to realize. The Chairman told us to knock off critical thinking for a few days and see of the spirit of love and generosity that goes with the season helps us over the fact that our government now passes multi-trillion dollar funding bills that no one has read. They were even so overcome with the spirit of generosity with other people’s money that the Omni-Bus (“all the buses” crashed together) wasn’t even ready for signature by the President.

See if you can follow along. The 4,155 page bill was advertised as essential to cement the priorities of the majority that was just voted out of the majority in the House of Representatives. The Omni-Bus will run through the rest of this fiscal year, which is to say that any changes to the priorities in Fiscal-23 can’t be talked about until we start arguing about the priorities in the FY-24 Bill. There is another election that year, we understand. It might be fun.

So, we were told that passage was so essential that whatever was in it could not actually be examined. And because it was not actually ready to be signed, there was time to formulate a “Continuing Resolution” bill our Chief Executive did have time to sign, which thankfully will enable us to distribute newly-printed cash until the end of the month. So, it would seem that some of the provisions in the original absolutely essential bill could have been discussed.

Like that wonderful new hiking trail in Georgia named after a renowned First Lady. Everyone likes hiking, right? It was initially reported as a worthy $500K dollar project. This morning, with a couple minutes to actually find the provision in the vast heap of paper, it was reported as $3.6 Million. That is the same sort of uncertainty as the total amount contained in the bill, which some have reported as not being $1.7 Trillion dollars, but actually $2.5 Trillion. We don’t know precisely, which is sort of a recent change to how our deliberative legislative process works.

But no matter. It was like trying to get organized to confront the brisk chill that embraces the balcony. Our hands reached out to take down one of the Christmas woolen garments we have been wearing for weeks. One features jolly Santas in rich colors. Another one has an image of a merry elf cruising in the inky darkness of space. There was some discussion about whether to continue the spirit or just put on a gray cardigan and get ready for a brand new year.

Accodingly, we are seated in gray raiment and ready for whatever they are going to do when they get around to it in what is rumored to be a brand new year. There was talk about what to do about it. There was talk about getting the cook book project back on the front burner. We had been working on that with Jinny, our 83-year-old girlfriend before she passed from this world to start energizing another one.

Her background brought something fun to entertaining. In her married life, she had served as an Attache’s wife, accustomed to getting a noon-time call from her spouse that he had invited an assortment of foreign diplomats over for drinks that afternoon, and could she have some nice snacks to go along with drinks? And what essential elements of information (EEI’s) would be useful for the report that would be filed after the event was complete.

The topic this morning was what to do with the lobster that survived with the ends of steak to be served as “left-overs” today.

There was some animated discussion about doing something slow-cooked with minimal preparation time. Splash had a suggestion for something he called “Mississippi Pot Roast.” He claims it is the perfect dish to make in the slow cooker with a chuck roast, gravy, and pepperoncini peppers. “Five minutes prep time!” he declared. “Then into the crock-pot on ‘low’ for eight hours. The tender, tangy shredded beef is delicious with mashed potatoes for tonight’s dinner. If we have leftovers or a tail-gate coming up, we can pile the shreds onto hoagie rolls for a meal you can carry right into the New Year.”

“Recipe?” asked Melissa. She has been led down this path before with assertive males lleging improbable things. “In my experience in the kitchen, claiming ‘five minutes’ prep is not enough to actually get your coat off. Removal of the ingredients from the ‘fridge, alignment of chopping devices and fry pans. Precision dicing to maximize aromatic infusion takes at least fifteen.”

Splash smiled. “That can be streamlined into something I call a Continuing Breakfast, and can be done in five minutes, tops.”

That discussion alone took fifteen and nothing had moved in the living room or kitchen. So, in a way, the Day After is launching in exactly the same precision manner as the Federal Budget. Gray cardigans and a surf and turf breakfast. We think there is a possibility that the New Year is going to be great. It just might take a little longer than what they are telling us at the moment, you know?

Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com