chili cook-off

I spent Thursday night with friends. We were supposed to listen to an orchestra play in a cemetery, but the event was rained out so our organizer hosted us and fed us Indian food instead while we listened to a playlist of the music we meant to hear live. I spent the afternoon beforehand running errands, stopping at the thrift shop to browse records. Last year I passed on a collection of "cocktail classics" because I hadn't been using my player as much then, now vinyls and mp3s have become more valuable encodings. I didn't find it, nor expect to, but did find a Cat Stevens 8-track, which I passed on because I don't even own a player.

The weather yesterday was more conducive to being outside, where I spent most of the day. I trimmed the herbs out front then used the mower to mulch the cuttings, which I spread around the base of the plants. I made chili then walked over to the library for an Oktoberfest event. The executive director expressed remorse over the low turnout to the brewers serving next to me, especially after how well attended were other cultural events they'd hosted this year. I offered impromptu feedback in support of that multi-cultural series hoping to attend it again next year, to which she replied that she felt it's important to celebrate German heritage as well as Black heritage, which she claimed the news dictates be celebrated singularly. I finished my beer and finessed a pretzel for the dogs on my way out.

This morning I went back to the library to check messages on my way to a chili cook-off at the firehouse, where I met a neighbor. Both vegan, we found ourselves standing quietly before a crowd of contestants encouraging us to try their offerings con carne, rationalizing that we were there for the house. We adapted to voting on different criteria than taste alone, and I thought about entering next year. We bought raffle tickets and chatted over a beer that was included with the price of admission. We split ways, then I picked up the dogs to join a hike with another group of neighbors. We walked about five miles total out and back then napped. I left the dogs in bed to rejoin the neighbors for Uno night around a fire in their backyard. I passed a slug in mine on the way home.