Too Much Dateline NBC

Just finished a second cup of coffee and I complimented Tara on how good it was. More often than not I’m the one who makes it, but once in a while she jumps in. I think I’m still a little scarred from an incident a few years ago when I caught her slipping a mysterious substance into the grounds and was convinced she was trying to poison me.

Too much Dateline NBC, yo.

What happened was, we were getting ready to go to bed one evening. “I’ll get the coffeemaker set up for tomorrow,” she said. “Meet you in the bedroom in a minute!”

Halfway there I realized I’d forgotten something, so I turned around and went back into the kitchen, where I discovered my wife furtively adding something to the coffee grounds. When she saw me, she tried to hide what she was doing, which didn’t look at all suspicious.

“Arsenic?” I asked.
“Salt,” she replied.

It turns out she had been adding salt to the coffee grounds because she’d heard doing so makes the coffee less bitter. She thought I’d object for some reason and wanted to do this on the sly to prove some kind of point, but the only point she ended up proving that night was that she could get away with murder if she really wanted to.

We both still add a dash of salt to the coffee grounds. What do you know? It really does make the coffee taste less bitter.

A Really Brisk Hike

Saturday, we decided to go take a hike. We did this in spite of the weather: increasing clouds, temperatures falling into the 30s, and winds gusting to 50+ mph.

We South Dakotans are hardy folk.

Actually, it wasn’t too bad where we went. We chose Little Elk Creek in Piedmont, which parallels a creek (bet you never would have guessed!) in a steeply forested canyon. This served as a nice wind break. It was chilly but picturesque; we ended up doing about four miles.

Afterward, we drove to Sturgis for a bite to eat at the Loud American Roadhouse. Can I just say the contrast between yesterday and early August, during Rally, was amazing? It always surprises me what a sleepy little town Sturgis is for 50 weeks out of the year. The other two, it’s madness and chaos. But in a really fun way. The food hit the spot (and the Bloody Mary bar really hit the spot).

We drove home through Vanocker Canyon, a 17-mile trek from Sturgis to Nemo that is renowned for its fall colors. This time of year everything was covered in snow already, but it was a really gorgeous drive anyway.

By the time we got back to Rapid, it was just beginning to snow.

Can You Hear the Sound of Hysteria?

What had already been a pretty full day wasn’t over yet. We’d bought tickets for  a local production of Green Day’s punk rock opera, American Idiot, at the Firehouse Brewing Theater. Had a couple of drinks and an appetizer first, and then headed upstairs for the show.

This was our first time in the theater there, and it was a lot of fun. Nice little space, and the show was a blast. All the actors and actresses were quite good! When Green Day’s album came out in 2005 (can’t believe it’s been that long already!), I was smitten. It spoke to me strongly, touching on so many topics that bothered me at the time: a shitty president, a hopeless war, mind-numbing reality television, a drug-addled society.

Thank god everything is different today.

I played the album (though it was a CD at the time, of course) all the time for about a year. Knew it by heart. It was great hearing all those songs again, with the added bonus of an actual acted-out narrative, too (though the music still took center stage, and rightfully so). Going to have to pick this one up on vinyl.

Anyway. It was a fun time, and it felt good to support the local arts. We’ll be on the lookout for more shows in the future.

It was snowing pretty good when we left, but the roads were just wet, not slippery. It’s going to be cold the next several days—highs only in the 20s today, and even lower on Tuesday—so we are hunkering down. Except for going to work, of course. Today we are staying home to carve pumpkins, build a fire, and watch The Shining. Our annual almost-Halloween tradition.

Stay warm!