The town meeting was really short.  The dozen people that showed up started right in on complaining that we weren’t doing enough, and it quickly became we weren’t doing anything; they were upset over the gas rationing; they were mad that Fram’s couldn’t get more food or beer; they were just plain angry about everything.  They refused to shut up and it got very frustrating for us.  It ended in a shouting match from the audience, so the Board members packed up their notes, and went back to their offices.  Can’t say I blame them.  I went home, very discouraged.  I hope Carolyn has better luck on Sunday.

The weather is surprisingly beautiful: blue skies and sunny, temp got up to 58*, so I walked, and walked, for an hour, trying to burn off my frustration.

I needed to do something more.  I’m tired of simple dinners; I wanted to make something!  The nice thing about pasty’s is they don’t take much to make, but the bad thing is they still make a lot.  I made a large batch of pastry dough and set it aside to rest.  I peeled and diced one large potato, two small carrots, and a couple of onions, all still raw from the garden, holding well in the cold pantry.  I didn’t have any rutabaga, but I did still have turnips.  I browned the burger I thawed yesterday, and mixed everything together, with a handful of dried herbs, also from the garden, and added some salt and pepper.  I divided up the pastry dough into eighteen balls and rolled them out, a few at a time.  The veggie mix went in the center, then rolled and pinched the sides… no, they weren’t pretty, but they held.

Eighteen golden brown pasty’s were lined up on cooling racks on my work island.  I set four of them aside for me, then wrapped the rest up in a towel, rack and all, and set it in a card board tote.  I added a case of ramen noodles for Jacob, one of the roasts from the outside freezer, a bottle of wine, and a box of .308’s, then drove over to Jason’s.  They were delighted with my surprise visit. I could tell they both were trying hard to ration what they had, so the extra food was well received.  We had a nice, but short visit; the sun was getting low, and even though it was only 4:40 it would be dark soon.  I needed to get back.