Beautiful morning on the back porch and rear deck. Great place to welcome the new day to Hickory and to begin tuning up your mental and emotional worlds.
Then a morning dog-walk. Much fanfare as I gird both my loins and my lions. Then we’re off. I call Hickory “The Friendly City”, and today it shows its true colors. I meet the new dog on the block, a tiny puppy that barks and growls “ferociously”, his owner grins at us as she works on her front yard. Then the goat-keeper has comments for me about the “goat-nappers” currently at work around around here. Roxie’s owner waves me a “great day” as Roxie comes charging out. He’s an old guy, fought in some of the big sea battles in WWII in the Pacific. The gal across the street from him is catching some rays, and she smile and waves.
Then off to the YMCA and yoga lessons. Nine women are here today, I am the only man. Our guide takes pity on us as we groan and grunt through the easy class of stretching, breathing and trying to balance. (This is a “beginner’s” class.)
Now to Hatch Restaurant and Bar. Great Bhan-mi sandwiches with pulled pork. We put a little bit of beans from a meal a couple of nights ago on the plate and eat one-half of the sandwich. The other half of the luscious sandwich, still heavy with pork, shaved carrot drenched in goodie juice and enveloped in cilantro will be out meal for tonight before we head off for the play.
The world has become so dry we have to sprinkle the yards and garden and especially the back yard where the green green grass is pushing up through the straw.
Finally, after supper with a bit of Riesling to augment the Bhan-mi sandwich and a salad, we’re off to the Hickory Community Theatre to see “Cage aux Folles”. It was a stupendous production, lasting some two and a half hours with amazing singing and excellent acting and full of mood swings, catastrophes falling on top of each other, surprises leaping out of surprises – well, it all ended with a kiss. So I guess that was good. Only thing bad about the play is they wouldn’t permit photographs.
So – another day in Hickory comes to an end.
