A Dilly Day

It did not bode well.  I was bringing Sheila out of her stall and into the milking room with a rope looped around her neck as usual.  I got tired of playing "chase me" with her and so the leash is mandatory.  Up on the stand, rope off, and before I could get her bowl filled and her head in the stocks, the latch on the door let loose and Sheila was out like a shot.  She wouldn't come back and Tessie wouldn't come in.  That meant a hike up the hill and around the perimeter trying to catch a recalcitrant goat.  In the meantime, Cindy did come in and ate about a third of her breakfast, three times more than yesterday.  Goats can drop an alarming amount of weight in a very short time and her ribs were sticking out, so I was just happy she would eat anything.  The two stinkpots finally were caught and the morning's mission was accomplished.  I could only hope the rest of the day would go better.

The plan was this:  we would make a quick run into town, pick up cigarettes, stop at Walmart and get a new set of clippers so I can cut Bessie's hair, and get some fresh dill.  Easy-peasy.  Or not.  The cig store was closed.  We did find clippers, but no luck finding dill at Walmart.  Drive to the other side of town.  Grocery Outlet had lots of fresh herbs, but no dill.  Got cigs.  Had to take a long ride the back way to Pleasant Valley to avoid road work we'd passed on the main route.  Finally found a tiny packet of fresh dill at my "local" market.  One packet would have to do, as it was the only one there.

That quick trip for three items had taken over four hours.  What had been planned as an afternoon snack had become dinner.  Cheesecake conjures up a sweet dessert, but this is a savory smoked salmon cheesecake with green onions and capers and, wait for it, fresh dill.  Linda had looked at the photo on the recipe and said, "Oh, and you use fresh dill for garnish."  This tiny sprig was all that was left from the packet, but, by golly, presentation is everything.

Every night we've said we were going to go out at night to look for the Perseid meteor shower.  We didn't.  The trek to town had worn us out and we went to bed early last night, which meant we were both up early this morning.  I was disinclined to stand out in the chilly predawn.  Linda took a quick look just to say she had, but had almost the same luck seeing a shooting star as I'd had looking for dill.  (But the cheesecake was worth it.)