Oil change

Today was Ladies' Day at the Quik-e-lube, so I went to do my duty and have an oil change, surprisingly on schedule. I forgot to take something to read with me, so I stopped and got a Harmon Homes for my region. In the 3 years I've been here, this publication has grown from a Time Magazine into a Vogue Fall Fashions. Page after page of brick and vinyl-sided boom boxes, all with cathedral ceilings, granite counters and 4 bed, 5 bath. Someone in Amercia likes cleaning bathrooms more than I do. I don't mind the toilet so much as the area around it... And they're all in former cornfields, with , since we are an Italo-American region, Tuscany names. So as I was engrossed in these excesses, I forgot to notice that my oil change was taking an inordinately long time. That's when I saw that all the employees were gathered around my engine, peering in with flashlights. It seems they had lost my oil cap. They even got down in the pit to look for it. I am a very patient person. I will never get in the self-checkout line, nor will I chivvy the young men at the Quik-e-lube. In our area of very high unemployment, I am just glad when a person has a job. After all, my son finished college at 19 with a triple major in philosophy, math and computer science, and is completely unemployable here. He also went to baking school, and is a very good pastry cook. I wish he worked at the Quik-e-lube. So I didn't fuss the guys, until I found out they had called the auto parts store and were going to send someone over to get another oil cap. "No charge!" they said, brightly. "We'll have you out of here in half an hour, or so." So I told them they could keep the car, fix it when they felt like it, and I would walk home. So I did. After I had been walking about 5 minutes, I heard someone pounding along behind me. It was, of course, one of the Quik-e-lubers. They had found my gas cap, would I please come back and get my car. I did, and since it was Ladies' Day, there was $3.00 off my purchase.

Tonight's menu: Pork taginia with leeks, mint and orange
Couscous
Chickpea salad with poached eggs
Winter fruit

garlic mustard

Ever since I was elected to the Forest Board, I have come to realize that my fellow members are obsessed by the proliferation of garlic mustard. This is an invasive alien that loves rich woods and squeezes out nicer plants, especially Virginia bluebells, which we are crazy about in our Forest. Spraying has been mooted, but this is a really knotheaded idea, suggested by those who have the lawn man come every week and want their yards to look like the 15th hole at Augusta. So I have been spending about 15 minutes a day pulling it up. It is a biennial and comes up really easily. I like doing this. It is quite satisfying, like digging clams on a mudflat, and you don't get wet to the hip. I do wonder about alien plants, though. If this one is so well- suited to its new environment, why isn't its original home, which I suppose is Europe, covered with garlic mustard?

Tonight's menu: Swiss steak (made with chuck steaks--they're not so livery as round) Buttered noodles with fried croutons
Broccoli and cauliflower flowerets roasted with crushed coriander, garlic and olive oil
The end of the pumpkin pie