Slight Detour: Monday Rot and Stuff

We have a beauty coming today.

Bright stars sparkling in the morning darkness.

Grass and leaves coated with icy snow.

Crunch, crunch, crunch with every step taken in the fields.

Dry, cold air.

And, soon-to-be blue skies forming a pinkish enhancement to white-capped mountains.

It doesn't get any prettier than this.

School buses are rolling past our home again after a week's worth of holiday break.

It's truly a beautiful Monday in the neighborhood.

I've already started my Cyber Monday activities. Soon, I'll be preserving one more batch of berry jelly.

Can't get enough of that stuff.

In my early-morning reading, I learned about the word of the year as Oxford Press sees it. You can read below.

Just how rotten is it anywho?

Oxford University Press’s word of the year is “brain rot,” a phrase commonly used on social media to describe the deterioration of a person’s mental state brought on by overconsumption of trivial online content.

“Brain rot” triumphed over other contenders including “lore,” “demure,” “romantasy” and “dynamic pricing.”

---from New York Times newsletter

My first thought after reading this is that I've never even heard "brain rot," let alone used it.

I guess that's not true anymore because of the sentence above.

Another on the list is new to me also: romantasy. I've heard of what it actually means (romantic fantasies as a book genre), but have never heard or used the term in my wanderings.

As for "dynamic pricing," do ya suppose it will come into play today as people surf for specials in their cyber shopping.

I've noticed what I think might be called dynamic pricing while shopping for hamburger at the grocery store. The pricing appears to be dynamic in that some weeks a package of hamburger costs nearly $20. while other times it dips down almost to $10.

As for the word of the year, it does truly seem like there might be a brain rot epidemic. Of course, in our current world, it's all in the perspective as to who is suffering from this degradation of the thinking process.

"Knowledge" seems to be a free-for-all out there where anything goes, and when it all comes down to it, none of us are probably exempt from brain rot, according to others, of course.

One person's brain rot is another person's brilliance or genius.

And, at least, I have found ways to use the word of the year, so I guess I'm off to a good start on this Monday morning.

On our Saturday road trip, Bill and I stopped at the Bread Basket Bakery north of Bonners Ferry.

Bill had already ordered his treat when I entered the store after taking some pictures.

I looked at the display case, thought long and hard about all the sweet possibilities, and finally decided upon a peach fritter.

The clerk was amazed.

"Your husband ordered exactly the same thing," she said.

That amazed me too.

We each took a bathroom break before returning to the car.

When I climbed inside the car, I noticed a wad of wet paper towels on the console and thought it a bit strange until Bill explained its presence.

"These (fritters) are kinda messy," he said, noting that he had thought ahead with the wet towels.

That information sparked the memory of the last time I had purchased a peach fritter from the bakery this past summer.

I had stopped for baked goodies before driving on to Spar Lake south of Troy, Mont., where Bill and Willie had taken the kayaks for a day of fishing.

We had agreed that I would show up for a while, and we would enjoy a lunch break from their fishing.

So, the sweet goodies from the Bread Basket were meant as a surprise for the guys.

I had purchased three fritters, but only two arrived at Spar Lake.

Shortly after heading east on HWY 2, unable to resist the temptation, I pulled a fritter from the bag and took a bite.

The first bite was fine and tasty.

The second bite and every succeeding bite turned out to be a disaster.

You see, these fritters will get back at you once you start biting into them.

With the second bite, a little fruit goes into your mouth while a lot of fruit and its sauce spurts out either side of the fritter.

With that second bite, I immediately had sticky sauce and fruit dribbling from my hand. A big glob of peaches that had shot out one side of the fritter landed in my lap.

Try to drive and clean up that kind of mess at the same time.

It doesn't work, and it's especially concerning when you have a line of cars behind you while going 60 mph down a highway.

I licked my fingers and only got sticky fingers in return.

Those sticky fingers then grabbed the steering wheel and deposited more sticky stuff seemingly all over its surface. Never mind the glob of fruit and sauce that had landed my lap.

Finally, I saw a wide spot off the road and escaped the unsuspecting drivers behind me who had no idea of a potential fritter hazard ahead.

It took me at least five minutes, with water from a water bottle to clean the steering wheel, my lap and to remove the last of the sticky stuff from my hand.

So, yes, on Saturday, that proactive wad of wet towels that Bill had brought from the restroom had a purpose, and it became quickly obvious to me that Bill had encountered a similar fritter malfunction some time in his past also.

We both agreed that fruit fritters from the Bread Basket Bakery are much too tasty to eat while driving cuz you end up having to gulp them down to protect yourself from the mess when peaches or apples start shooting out the side.

It's best to buy your fritter at the bakery and plan to eat it at your own pace with a fork and a plate at a table before returning to your car.

BTW: the wet towels got plenty of use on Saturday as we drove down the road and ate our fritters at a much faster rate than we had wished.