Chicago in August? Really?

So we're off to the Windy City. Supposed to be the hottest day of the year on Monday. Oh well. It's been hell on wheels to get ready. The damn garden. Watered everything deeply and schlepped the pots around to the front where the automatic sprinkler will take care of their needs.

The neighbor is going to do the petunias and the morning glories, but I worry about my gorgeous geraniums, carried over the winter, fed and pruned and now absolutely glorious. The tomatoes are ripening and have been offered to the neighbors along the with basil and herbs.

In an act of insane frugality, we decided to take our own road food, and thus made lists, got out the cooler, trips to the store, culminated in the roasting of a chicken this p.m., in which everything but the breast was eaten, the breast being saved with slices of tomato for tomorrow's chicken sandwich. With chips, fruit, cookies and drinks. Lunch for Sunday as well as breakfast.

I have to tell you that the food cost about $17.00 and I think 4 meals would have set us back three times that much. So we're off amid picnic baskets, coolers, hostess presents, maps, guides, my god, a trek along the Silk Road would require fewer supplies.

Observing and recording details of the trip will be necessary, as my new book will include some road trips. Florida to Boston, Boston to Chicago, and Chicago to Reno. Maybe I should call it On the Road. Oooops, that's been taken.

I'm having a hard time figuring out who the villian is. No good to have faceless men like the eeek-can't-remember-her-name-now books, Mary somebody, where the villians are always 2 steps behind a couple fleeing across Europe. Not bad books, but isn't it better when the bad guy is a known quantity.

So Manny Ramirez is gone. I like Manny. He seemed to belong to himself. Always did cotton to anyone who was a bit of a rebel. Anyway, Satan is the hero of Paradise Lost, and a tragic hero is the best kind.

So it goes. Until next week. And if you see some wilted geraniums, for Pete's sake dump some water on them.

Grapeshot