Potpourri

You know, when potpourri first started to show up on store shelves, I just knew the collapse of the capitalist system was near. I mean people had so much money they were purchasing other people's yard clippings!
Look at where we are now.
But this is not about that. The state of the US economy I mean.
Potpourri, if Websters French-English dictionary isn't lying to me, and at times I'm not quite sure it isn't, literally means a pot of rotten or decomposing something. So I suppose if you left a pot of spaghetti on the stove for about a month, it too would qualify as potpourri. Not that The Flat Tire condones or recommends leaving spaghetti on the stove for a month.
How it got from a pot of spoiled food to a fragrant mix of foliage, I won't even try to guess. How it got from a mix of fragrant foliage to just a mix of things seems bit more obvious.
Anyways, that is what this is all about. A mix of things that is.
So, I'm sitting here, actually using my laptop on my lap cause I had a pretty long day. I'm eating these wheat/corn/rice chex things only they are done local style with furukake on it:



The green stuff you see is the furukake, Japanese style dried seaweed for those not in the know. Yes, I know how it sounds, but it's actually quite tasty. So good in fact that The Dog is enjoying them with me. Usually you put the stuff on rice but then again, here we put furukake on everything including popcorn.
Don't make a face. Again, it works.
You should try it.
Another thing Japanese that we do here is to put kadomatsu in front of the front door of your home for the New Year. Kadomatsu is basically three stalks of bamboo wrapped with cord and garnished with pine needles:



The theory is that bad things will get trapped in open part of the bamboo and when you toss the thing away(actually, you are supposed to burn it) the bad stuff goes away too and you will have a prosperous new year.
Well, it sort of is prosperous for a bunch of us make these things every year for local distribution. At first it was a sort of crafty thing to do, then it sort of just took off and became sort of side job.
We just got done with a small order; that's why I'm sitting here kinda beat.
It's okay though, for I officially start my vacation today. That means I have a chance at putting on some cycling mileage tomorrow.
Then again, maybe not:



Red skies at night, sailor's delight, red skies at morning, sailor's warning.
That was what the sunrise looked like this morning.
Forecast for tomorrow is rain.
There is some truth in the rhyme. It has to do with weather patterns and the amount of dust in the atmosphere or something. You can read about it here.
Either way, I'm glad for the time off.
Maybe I can get back to loading some songs on my mp3 player. I got up past E but I didn't put on any Erasure.
I find that strange for I used to like Erasure, now they just don't suit my mood.
I did rediscover Delirium, known for the Sarah McLaughlin song Silence, and I am really digging Devo again.
If it doesn't rain tomorrow, I can go out and torture myself and listen to some tunes. I just hope I don't run into these guys:



Why anyone would pay to take one of those things through the park is beyond me.
Though they look pretty cool if you just had to run to the store to pick up some cheese bread.