paw paw

paw paw
Originally uploaded by grumpnet

got my first taste of the paw paw -- also known as the west virginia banana -- right off the tree this weekend.

(i'd had them processed in ice cream, a seasonal treat from ellen's on capitol street, but that doesn't really count.)

kristina's dad brought them down from parkersburg, where they'd been growing off the woods near their home on the little kanawha river.

folk wisdom says they're not ripe until after the first frost, but the fruits that dad brought were already softening.

the skin and meat were not unlike that of a really ripe mango. the center was a core of large, brown seeds, not unlike those of pumpkins, so you had to cut off thin slabs of the stuff to get a taste.

kris' mom said the indians would just squeeze the skin and suck down the yummy fruit inside. i don't think ours were quite that ripe.

but finally, the taste ...

it was very mild, kind of a cross between a banana and a mango without too much tang. it wasn't too bad.

we have a few more here that we'll let sit a while. maybe they'll ripen enough that i can squeeze out the fruit and eat them indian-style.

distractions

if i've learned nothing this weekend, it's being reminded that i can only do one thing at a time.

two weeks of home renovations coincided with the arrival of cable internet after a most final divorce from the soon-to-be-departed verizon. (which literally began with a pulled plug -- this one by a passing cement truck that the global telecommunications company took its sweet time to repair.)

a mere hour after the scheduled installation, a man from the window company was headed our way to price a new, more energy efficient front window.

this was to be followed by a day of painting and the arrival of our cat from her "grandparents" in parkersburg.

needless to say, it didn't exactly work out as planned.

after half an hour of no signal, the cable guy had to replace a splicer in the basement, which made the modem work fine -- when plugged in to the desktop pc.

a simple switch of the ethernet cable to the wireless router gave us ... no internet on either the desktop or the laptop.

i was confident a few clicks on the laptop would solve the problem, but by then, the window man arrived.

he was deliberate, frank and helpful. he was also, he feared, possibly infected with the swine flu, which made the missus totally forget about his other qualities.

we doused half the house with lysol products within minutes of his departure.

(meantime, we're still eager for the window estimate.)

kris then went into preparations for her mom and dad's arrival, while i was of no help at all as i grew obsessed with the problem of the non-internet sharing wireless network.

i punted two hours later, when she came back from the grocery store and i was still futzing with the computer.

i figured it was in my best interest to become more involved in the pressing concern of hosting her parents instead of having internet i wouldn't be using for at least a day.

(the curtness of responses and silent focus on cleaning sort of clued me into that.)

the rest of the evening worked out fine with a smart steak and shrimp stir fry with garlic fried brown rice. (it helped that her dad and i got to share a couple of beverages and antagonize our respective spouses. it certainly helped lighten the mood.)

a good night's sleep followed.

the morning dawned cold and rainy and i was determined to make good with a trip to the home improvement store for paint and supplies.

(side trips to the target store for paper goods and a pet placemat and staples for a new printer and usb cable for a possible wiring fix for the router was included.)

this also took longer than anticipated.

by the time i was breaking out tarps for the painting, it was time to head out for a memorial service for a retired colleague from the paper.

it was late afternoon/early evening before the first slash of paint crossed our new closet shelves. by the time they were all covered with primer, it was time for dinner.

the initial thought was after dinner, given it took five hours from the start of the project on the top shelves, i could put a coat of paint on the shelves and reach the end long enough for all the paint to have set for the recommended four-hour drying time.

of course, i discover not only a long bead of paint where i started that was not brushed down and, in fact, still wet, but also on the shelf beneath, there were corners and edges that were unpainted.

i gave up.

i brushed down the bead and filled in the trim areas and figured i'd resume in the morning.

which left me awake and staring at the computer with its own puzzle left unsolved.

after fighting logic and wiring for half an hour, i decided to start from scratch, re-set the router to its factory settings and create a whole new wireless network.

i'll be damned if it didn't work.

so after two good days spent trying to cram a fourth, unexpected project into a simple schedule of painting, dinner with in-laws and paying respects to a friend, i learn yet again -- keep first things first.