Leaving

I always get this rush from leaving. Even if it’s a good place, and this is.

It takes a while to get my shit together and pull out. My stove is set up in a garage-barn where Possum put it when he fixed it (turns out a little spider next can cause a big stove problem) up on a little table thing. I can’t remember the last time I could stand up and cook on my own stove like this. It’s been great, and I’ve cooked a lot. There’s a half empty egg carton, some onions, olive oil, and other assorted food stuff scattered over my kitchen bag on the table, and there are jars that I left on the stove to cool last night after I canned a bunch of this last round of soup. I think this is my finest soup creation yet.

Last night we were all standing in here eating soup, good dark chocolate, and cheese from the Mennonite store. It was yummy, and there was electricity that came from some unknown and unthought of place, so the whole building was just magically, casually lit up.

When I go to put the scattered food into my food drawer it’s catastrophic. Things don’t fit. Jars that were covered in frozen condensation are now dripping and everything is swimming in little puddles of water. I pull the drawer out to empty and dry it, and give Possum some berries and deer meat and soup before I put it all back together. There’s a lot of food that I’ve picked up when things were on sale, or canned for later, and then forgotten. Once it drifts down past the top (visual) layer of stuff in the drawer I forget about it. This is a shitty way to keep an organized food drawer, or even to feed yourself, but it makes for some great surprise re-discoveries.

Once the foods all together we check in Possums van, where I’ve mostly been hanging out. My iPod’s in there, and he gives me a short wave radio, a swiss army tool, and sage that he gathered in Missouri. We fill up my leaky tire, and check the rest. Then there’s hugs all around (Bro’s very huggy) and I’m on the road again.

Heading east. This is the worst direction. Nothing good ever comes out of driving east, except that there are some great people out this way that I want to see.