hot dog

Pittsburgh vantage, originally uploaded by gurdonark.

Today I drive to the Big Picnic. I am not really the "big picnic" type, as social functions involving lots of people are not my forte'. Notwithstanding the addings and subtractings of "forte", though, I will be a picnicker be today. Count me among the insufficiently appreciative blessed.

I can give a huge shout-out to that common friend of the casual outdoor diner, the "hot dog". When I was a boy, I played baseball once or twice a week, for teams with names like "Meyers Bread" and "Clark County Bank". The baseball "stadium" had two fields--a field for the younger children and a field for the teenage children.
Aside from the two fields, there was also a cinderblock concession stand.

The parents who ran that concession could darn well make a hot dog. Their chili dog was perfect--the amazing blend of heavy mustard, a deep, rich, chili, and hours spent being kept warm in little paper packaging. It was like those soul-restoring green waters.
I used to have one or two each time.

Nowadays I don't use chili, but instead have developed a passion for sauerkraut. I'm not very big on other condiments, and in parrticular cannot imagine why anyone over age 5 would put mayonaisse on a hotdog (though on a hamburger my sole objection to mayonaisse is dietetic).

I like that hot dogs are populist food--one can learn to be a great hot dog cook even if one is not, in general, a great cook. I like that a "gourmet" hot dog bun may only be a couple of dimes more expensive than a standard-issue, and yet taste fifty times better.
Wheat buns add to the flavor. Sesame seeds add to the flavor. No doubt an egg bun or a 7-grain bun or a schwarzbrot bun would merely add to the flavor.

A hot dog with heavy sauerkraut, baked potato chips, some carrot sticks, well-peeled, some celery on the side. Simple, powerful, tasty redeeming.

I am going to the Big Picnic today, and I hope to have a hot dog.

big picnic

Today we drove to Flower Mound for the Big Picnic. Hundreds of participants in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters programs, both big and little, attended the event at the Circle R ranch. The wooden maze was interesting--although the score to beat was 4 minutes, it took us 28 minutes.

We dined on hot dogs, and were given free visors that said "Fierce". We pitched horse shoes inexpertly. My little brother expertly climbed one of those rock-climbing walls.

We headed over to nearby Lewisville Lake. Westlake Park had a little walking trail to the shore fishing which passed by thistle and showy evening primrose in bloom. A great egret fished on the shore not far from where we were fishing. The only bite I got managed to pull off my hook. We tried another spot at another part of the park, and then called it a day.

We then went to his home, where we played can-jo music. I taught him how to play "She's Lost Control", while he taught me how to play "Ode to Joy". We also played Zelda and the Ocarina of Time, in which game I am receiving a kind of tutorial.

I slept most of the afternoon, and then spent the evening doing some hobby things. It's been a tiring and yet good day.