Saturday, September 3, 2016.
Black-Letter Day. Black Ham.
For many months, this has been a red-letter day on the Cool Water Ranch's calendar. But when, five days later, I sit down to recount what happened, I find myself with. . . almost nothing to say.
The day begins in Paula's music room. She and I and Mike are all singers in NPAS. We have formed a trio to perform "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" in the upcoming NPAS Country and Western concert in October. I wrote our director to say that we needed more real Western music on the program. As in Roy Rogers and The Sons of the Pioneers. I suggested that we add Tumbleweeds to the show. She told me to go ahead and form a group to do it. She tells us that she wants to hear a lot of harmonizing, and easy on the solos.
At Paula's, we work on the song for two hours. Paula and Mike have the advantage of being skilled musicians. I bring only one quality to the stage: this is one of my favorite songs, and I know it by heart. But I'm not accustomed to singing it in harmony. I'm having a problem with the closing note, but I think we're okay with the rest of it. And we have another rehearsal next week.
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Root-beer-glazed ham.[/caption]
Last night, I baked a root-beer glazed ham, my signature dish. It's our family's part of the pot-luck catering for a party this afternoon at her brother Lee's house. It's a family event, with all of MA's brothers and sisters coming in from all over America. One of the two guests of honor is here and having a fine time with her many cousins.
Lee and his wife put on great parties, and this one is engaging enough, with enough good food and drink, that almost everybody stays for over six hours. It's not the kind of party we thought was going to take place today, but everybody seems to be happy. And the food was great.
But it's a very peculiar day, really.
