Disillusioned…

Hello everyone, I’m sorry it’s been awhile since my last post. With so much going on in our world there are times when things shift and priorities can change. I love writing this blog and it makes me happy to share all the things I find and do and eat with all of you. However sometimes the strangest little thing can make one wonder about the reasons for doing the things we do and this is something that happened to me.

I was shopping at my favorite health food store, sort of browsing but I did have a few things in mind. I know right now it’s safer to make a list and get in and out as quickly as possible, but I hadn’t been in the store for months so I was looking for new things to try. I walked over to the dairy case where they had every type of milks available, from cows and goats to soy and oats. The cheese selection was incredible and then I glanced through the butter section. I always like to take a look through the butter as there so many brands of varying types to chose from. One of my favorites comes from the Amish and it’s a 2 pound roll. I was so happy when I found it one day at Wegmans, I use too have to venture into Pennsylvania for it. As I scanned the shelf my eyes were drawn to a small little tub of butter. It was organic and cultured but couldn’t have been bigger than 6 ounces. Then I glanced at the price, it was $18.69! Doing some quick math ( well quick for me) I realized that came out to almost $50 a pound. In that moment something clicked in my head and everything I was doing seemed pointless. I looked into my cart and there were items that I didn’t need and others that were more expensive than they should be, so I started putting things back on the shelf. I wasn’t sure why but the $50 a pound butter suddenly took all the fun out of food. Why would it be so expensive? Do the cows sleep on waterbeds and get massages from magical fairies every night? I don’t want to begrudge any farmer from making a living, we all know how hard it is for them, but this seemed like the dark side of food to me. For days afterward I didn’t feel like writing about food or anything. Sure some of it might have been caused by the Covid quarantine and not being able to explore any new restaurants. Like most of us I also tired of cooking every meal, every day, month after month. I knew then I had to do what any sensible person would, I needed to take a road trip and be alone with my thoughts! So I made the plan to drive to Arizona to see my friends and family. Two days before I was to leave, Arizona became one of the states with the highest spikes in Covid infections. I figured I had lived through the New York spikes so I decided to go for it.

When you’re planning a road trip during the age of Covid there’s a few things you should keep in mind. You should have plenty of PPE (personal protection equipment) I bought boxes of masks, gloves, cleaning supplies and enough hand sanitizer to float an armada. I wanted to limit my exposure so I also brought my own food and drinks that I kept in a cooler. I’m lucky enough to have a large network of family and friends along the route so I made plans to stay with each of them for a night. We’d be keeping social distancing rules and I’d wear a mask in their presence. I packed a small tent and a sleeping bag just incase the sleeping arraignments didn’t work as planned. ( I’m an old boy scout, so I do believe in being prepared). I wanted to limit my exposure at the gas pump so I planned on driving three , twelve hour days, stopping every four hours. This is much longer driving periods than I usually like to do but the goal was Arizona as quickly as possible.

5am on departure day and I pulled out of the driveway on my way to Nyack Hot Bagels, because it’s proper etiquette to bring a gift of some kind when staying at a persons house and I can’t think of a better one, plus the bagel store is open that early! Nyack Hot Bagels in my opinion have the best water bagels in Rockland and maybe even beyond. Their store is now equipped with Covid protection or you can call ahead for curbside pickup. At 5am the store was empty and all employees wore masks behind the plastic counter shield. I left feeling very safe and sane and hit the road just as the sky began to show signs of a new dawn. Little did I know that was the last time I would see anyone wearing a mask for a very long time!

By 8:15 that morning my bladder was telling me it was time to pull over but I was trying to keep to my 4 hour schedule so I pushed on. I made it to West Virginia and found a small convenience store for gas and the rest room. The store had three customers so I decided to pump the gas first. I put on my mask and just as I was finishing filling up the elastic popped off and the mask fell into an oily puddle. Providence shined on me as no one was in the store. I briskly walked in and made a bee line for the bathroom. There was no one in the bathroom and no one in the store. It felt odd not having a mask on in public but upon leaving I noticed the clerk had one on around his neck as he stood behind a plastic shield. I doused myself in hand sanitizer and drove on not thinking much about the mask thing. Four hours later I found myself in Virginia at another remote gas station as I felt these were being used less by travelers. I looked around and no one had on a mask. I began feeling self conscious wearing a mask. It’s funny how not conforming to social norms can make one feel uncomfortable. I struggled with myself not wanting to not wear a mask but at the same time not wanting to be singled out as a paranoid New Yorker or some such thing. I then came up with a plan that I used the rest of the way to Arizona that worked out really well for me. I drove down a dirt road and found a tree. I know being a man has certain advantages but I do know women who will also go outside if they have to. This simple strategy helped to alleviate my mask wearing anxiety and kept me outside of buildings and on schedule all the way to Knoxville .

On day two of this thought collecting road trip I was going to drive from Knoxville to Dallas about a 13 hour trip. When I woke up my nose was stuffed and it felt like I might be catching a cold. Trust me this is not something you want to be feeling during these times. I kept popping the vitamin C and drinking a lot of fluids which meant having to find more trees. Around Memphis I decided to call my friends in Dallas and let them know I was going to look for another place to sleep just to be on the safe side. I searched my Air BNB app and found the perfect spot. A private room with a private bath and a private entrance, it was the first time this person was doing Air BNB so I would be the first person to rent the space! It was also on the westside of Fort Worth so I’d miss all the morning traffic, this was exactly what I was looking for. I sent three texts and finally about an hour outside of Dallas the lady responded and said she had accepted my request but there was some glitch on the payment so she was checking into it and I should just come over and we’d figure it out. I was entering the thirteenth hour of driving so I wasn’t thinking to clearly as I hadn’t gotten a reply from Air BNB confirming my reservation and I chalked it up to the first time renter making a clerical error. As I pulled into her driveway she came out to meet me with a look of despair on her face. She proceeded to tell me that someone else had rented the spot and she approved them thinking it was me. So there I was road weary, bleary eyed and an hour past my friends house. I opened the app one more time and finally found a shared space loft bed for only $25 about 10 minutes away. I could have looked for a hotel room but I had seen reports that many hotels were caught not changing sheets or sanitizing rooms between guest so I felt this was the safer option. It was a townhouse in a nice gated community close to the highway. When I walked in there was a man in the kitchen who greeted me and he wasn’t wearing a mask. I had put mine on and walked upstairs to the loft. I knew there wasn’t going to be much privacy but I wasn’t expecting a person living in the shared space, especially not in the time of Covid! This was the first person outside of family I had seen in close quarters in four months. Needless to say I was so uncomfortable given the state of things in Texas at this time . I laid out my sleeping bag and fell asleep around 8pm. I woke up at 2:30am and that little voice in my head said, “it’s time to go”. Amazingly I wasn’t tired and over the years I’ve become aware that listening to that little voice has served me well, so I showered and got on the road by 3am. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this, but a lot of musicians and artist say strange and amazing things come to them in the wee hours of the morning. This morning would be no exception.

• 

• 

If you’ve ever driven through Texas then you know there’s huge stretches of highway with almost nothing between them. When you do it at 3am it becomes a whole new world. It’s just you, the headlights and the hum of your tires on the road. Inevitably your mind will start to wander and for me this was a good thing because it was the main reason I took this road trip. My little voice knew what it was doing again and before long I was thinking about butter. I know I couldn’t believe it either, there’s a million other things I could be thinking about, but butter is actually amazing stuff. It takes 21 pounds of milk to make 1 pound of butter, it’s made from the cream that rises to the top after milking the cow. You can use butter to make, sauces or gravy or frosting. It enhances the flavors of meats and fish, vegetables, potatoes and pastas. In baking, butter is a must for many things like pie crust, pastries, cookies and candy. Even popcorn without butter is basically blah no matter how much salt and spices you toss into it . Virtually everything butter touches it makes better.

To make this amazing product of goodness it has to go through a huge transformation. If churned by hand the process takes about 30 minutes. A plunger is used to beat and pummel the cream over and over again. Eventually the cream will start to separate and turn into whipping cream, which in itself is a good thing, but the process still isn’t finished. More churning and more pounding is required before the cream forms the butter and leaves behind butter milk.

It’s now 4:30am and I figure I’ve done all the thinking about butter that one can. Then that little voice chimes in again and says,”Don’t you get it? This is what is happening to you and most of humanity at this very moment. You’re being churned and pummeled. The virus, the quarantine, the anger the hatred the fear are all part of major changes coming to you and your planet. You can chose to replace them with peace, love and understanding. You’re all here to help each other in some form or another, and once all the churring is done, just like butter you’ll each make every life you touch better.”

Maybe that little voice in my head is right. Maybe this is our chance to make a better planet. To be better people and to look for the good in each other before we look for our differences. I know for me these last four months have helped put a lot of things into perspective. I’ve seen what matters to me most and things that I thought were important I know I can live without. I can see a new world unfolding before my eyes and if we all stay focused and vigilant, it can be an amazing place. So embrace the churning and be prepared for the changes that come after. Until next time Boone Appétit!