sun-bow over homemade pizza oven highlights the week
“… to restart the New Year,” I said to Nazy.
“I always wondered why it started on January 1,” Nazy replied. “The Persian New Year starts on the first day of spring — a day that means something.”
“We should start our year on January 20,” I replied. “That also means something. Especially this year.”
“It’s only a few days away.”
“… and finally Twitter has silenced the loser in the White House. I think he’s cornered. The only things he has left are the nuclear codes.”
“Some have said that this latest incitement will ‘besmirch his legacy’.”
“Really? There is too much ‘smirch’ on it already: good people on both sides, children in cages, allies abandoned, Putin’s butt burnished, Covid ignored. No one will be able to see the newest smirch. I just want to reboot 2021.”
As things work themselves out in Washington, Nazy and I continue to take advantage of the conveniently-placed Pacific Ocean. This week, we saw a sun bow as we were heading down the ‘1000 steps’ to the beach.
As noted last week, the elaborate labyrinth that we constructed from drift wood and 439 rocks at Loon Point Beach had been dismantled by the tide. During our walk, Nazy and I spotted the remains near Hendry Beach.
Construction projects loom large when Mitra and Stefan visit. This year, they brought an instruction manual for an..
“… outdoor, earthen pizza oven,” Mitra exclaimed. “We can build it as a family project. We’ll make bricks from dirt in the backyard.”
“Dirt bricks?” I asked.
“We will fire them after we’re done…”
“And before we cook pizza,” I thought.
It was a big project that involved multiple work streams (I was on the Fire Circle, Nazy on the Cooking Circle. Cinderblocks and bricks were acquired to build the foundation. The finishing bricks were to be made from a wet mixture of dirt (in Tom and Melika’s yard) and sand..
“… can we just go to the beach with buckets and get some?” Mitra asked.
“I don’t think so,” I replied, well aware of how much work the city does to pump the sand back onto the beach after big storms. “But Home Depot has sand.” I concluded.
The biggest problem was finding a way to support the dome as the homemade bricks were affixed. Stefan fashioned a supporting framework from newspapers, twigs and masking tape.
“Now I’m worried,” I thought. “If he had used duct tape, I would have been far more confident.”
With Design and Acquisition Circle work complete, the Construction Circle jumped into action.
Brick material — sand, water and dirt — was mixed in giant buckets and then hand-shaped into blocks that were placed over the (somewhat haphazard) scaffolding that defined the dome. The blocks were smoothed out by hand and hand-directed trowel. And… then all attention turned to the Fire Circle.
“The wood has to be dry?” I asked.
I was, of course, speaking in jest. I brought several largish logs that had been stored by our fireplace for the last 7 years. They had been waiting for a cold day in Santa Barbara. They were dry, but…
“These are logs, Dan.” Stefan said. “We need kindling… and some paper to get this started.”
We used to have bundles of newspapers, but in the internet age, our mews came on the computer and I wasn’t willing to use my computer to start a pizza oven. I suggested brown paper bags, but Stefan wanted…
“Toilet paper?” I asked.
“It starts easily.”
“Of course,” Tom replied. “I’ll just get the key to our storage room, I’ll also have to find the combination of the safe.”
“Stefan doesn’t know how hard it was to find that toilet paper,” I thought.
The idea was to get a hot fire going inside the dome. We needed a fire so hot that the framework would burn and the interior, homemade, bricks would glaze. The toilet paper ignited quickly and several twigs began to burn. Some of the twigs were not quite seasoned, so we generated a lot of smoke. (So much smoke that the neighbors asked if we wanted them to call the fire brigade.)
Almost immediately, smoke began to seep through small leaks in the dome’s facade. We raced to fill the leaks with fresh bricks.But the smoke kept pouring out And then… the dome collapsed.
I sent a txt to the Pizza Circle requesting home delivery from Rusty’s Pizza. Over a (Rusty) dinner, we discussed ‘Plan B’ — which included chicken wire, duct tape and much more sand.
A final note about the invasion of the Capitol: it was violent and it was incited from the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. It was facilitated by fawning supporters of a uniquely corrupt administration. It was transmitted all over the world and relatives from countries that have personal warlord experience immediately called with reasonable questions…
“… do you live in a Biden Area or a Trump Area?”
Trump lost. The election was a repudiation of Trump. I know that there are things on the internet that claim to ‘prove’ something otherwise. Remember there are things on the internet that ‘prove’ Elvis is still alive, that the Moon Landing was faked, that 9/11 never occurred. Newsflash: A factual error on the internet is not unusual. Trump lost. And, as Mitch McConnell said “It wasn’t even close.” Mitch McConnell said.
For last week's letter, please click here
Morning in America … coming