Odds 'n evens...

I suppose it is good news that I've managed to bike into the store for the past six mornings, including yesterday, where the trek first took me to the Lodge, where a part of the ham group has begun meeting for Friday morning breakfasts.

The situation reminded me of any number of jokes involving schisms within small, and typically religious groups, but the driving factor here is apparently a balance between some folks not wanting to go downtown for breakfast, and others having a yen for the better food, service, and prices available downtown.

Since getting downtown on a bicycle from here is a strictly one-way proposition (involving a long, uphill climb back), I visited with the Lodge contingent yesterday, in what may turn out to be my last "ham breakfast" for a while.

I got a couple of small jobs yesterday, and was reminded of just how sweet life can be without a store when I managed to bag nearly 1900 words while sitting in front of my laptop for a couple of hours at the table in the store's, um, bathroom. (I'll go to any extreme for a relatively quiet work environment!)

Then again, I need to somehow survive the cash flow situation over the next couple of weeks. Our troublesome tenant in Houston has not paid his August rent, and if he doesn't pay for September, I'll really be in a pickle, but I'm not concentrating on that.

What's really hurt recently is a surprise from the Colorado state tax folks that caused me to call the local office to ask for an explanation (what'd I do?), only to be yelled at by the guy who answered the phone. Now, I realize that this could be due either to (a) the guy having a bad day or (b) being an opening gambit to deal with overly aggressive riffraff, but even with that realization, it served to scrape a lot of luster off an otherwise mediocre day.

It occurs to me now that we should have shut down all of the store's functions as of yesterday. As I look around, there are no money orders to sell and no stamps, and not really enough time to order any. Plus, I'm getting silly dealing with people shedding tears (in some cases, of the crocodile kind) at the "news" of our demise.

Time to go pack some stuff for the journey home.

Cheers...

Couldn't help myself...

After closing the store today, Galina and I went downtown to seek out a new place that supposedly serves a fantastic fish taco.

Personally, I had never heard of a fish taco, but I was looking forward to the experience.

As it turned out, we went to the wrong place, but the place we did go to also served a dish of the same name, and Galina and I split a serving. It was good, but not anything in particular to crow about.

I had an ulterior motive in wanting to go downtown. Downtown, one is simply that much closer to the mountains, and I wanted to go down the road to the East Fork turnoff and see if there were any mushrooms within striking distance of the forest service road.

It rained on and off heading out of town but when we finally got to the turnoff, most of the clouds had moved off to the side. Galina drove about a mile or two down the road, but I could spot no mushrooms. On the way back, I had her stop about a hundred yards short of a parking area so I could wander through the woods.

I immediately found a handful of large Suillus mushrooms that had been slightly nibbled by something small with teeth, along with several gilled mushrooms that I tend to avoid as I don't really have much experience with them. As I headed for the parking area and our Ford, I noticed a reddish mushroom peeking out from the pine needles. I assumed it was a Russula, which is - or can be - very common in this neck of the woods.

Instead, I grabbed a handful of something I think I handled at the Central Market the day before heading for Colorado: a lobster mushroom (Hypomyces lactifluorum). I seem to recall this item was on sale for something like $40 per pound at the store. Obviously, they're edible, and as I looked around, I figured I was looking at at least $40 worth of fungus.

If, indeed, it is what I think it is. Here's a shot of the specimens I collected:



More on lobster mushrooms, from Tom Volk's site:

So I know you're going to ask "Is it edible?" well that's a complicated question. The Hypomyces part is known to be edible, but what about the host? Could the Hypomyces parasitize a poisonous mushroom? Apparently Hypomyces is a pretty good taxonomist, only parasitizing Russula or Lactarius species. According to Clark Rogerson and Gary Samuels, "In large populations of Hypomyces lactifluorum where the host can be determined with some confidence, the host has proven to be Russula brevipes; but associated nonparasitized hosts often belong to the Lactarius piperatus complex." Russula brevipes is a known edible, so it's not too surprising that the complex of these two species is edible. However Lactarius piperatus has an exceedingly hot flavor that renders it inedible for most people-- but that hotness is neutralized by the parasite Hypomyces, making it very delicious. It is conceivable that Hypomyces lactifluorum could parasitize a poisonous mushroom and cause problems for the mushroom eater. However, the lobster mushroom has been eaten for hundreds of years without any known problems. If you eat this mushroom you're taking a very, very slim chance of there being a problem, in my opinion.

See also MushroomExpert.com.

Galina and I will be eating dinner with the kids over at Ramon's in about an hour. I'm looking forward to it.

Cheers...