Copper, Cold, Crow, and Celebration

I decided to get in the mood for my trip west so I went to the Weather Channel web site and typed in Copper Mountain. Did I get a shock and a surprise! I could not believe the number I saw. It was September 18 - still summer north of the equator, time for 70/80 degree highs and 50/60 degree lows. Did some meteorologist wannabe get confused and post what he thought was the day of the month? Or, did someone know I was logging on and put this number up to try to play with my mind?

19. Yes, it was 19 degrees at my chosen Feast site Monday morning. I and the number 19 are close friends - my telephone number and box number end in 19 - but I and 19 degrees are not friends. Not only is it 19 degrees, there is also snow in the forecast. Freezing cold and snow. Somehow that does not synch with my previous Feast experiences - white sand, hot temperatures, and the H₂O is liquid and blue-green, not white and frozen. And I do not drive in snow. Where do you find chains, or should I just buy a team of huskies and mush those rascals through the mountain passes? Decisions, decisions. But if I were going south, I know Hurricane Wipe-em-out would be brewing in the Gulf. So what’s a few feet of snow? And the song says,

Please come to Denver with the snowfall
We'll move up into the mountains so far that we can't be found
And throw "I love you" echoes down the canyon
And then lie awake at night till they come back around
Please come to Denver
She said "no, Boy, would you come home to me"…

(from Please Come to Boston, sung by Dave Loggins)

But it is truly time to celebrate! For the first time in 18 years, the Clemson Tigers have triumphed over arch-nemesis and master trickster (Do I even dare mention the word “puntrooskie”?), Booby (yeah, that’s right) Bowden, in Tallahassee. And we have now beaten them three out of the last four years. HOORAY! Truly, the Tigers were the better team. It would not have been an exciting game except for FSU scoring points on two missed blocking assignments on kicks.

But the win presents a problem. It looks like I now have to serve crow to two good friends. (http://ebonypage.blogspot.com/) How is crow best served? Is it better cold or braised and basted? Should I serve anything else, or is best by itself? Do I pluck the feathers first (for the Seminoles headdress, I guess)? But isn’t crow unclean? How do I serve it without touching it? Isn’t it good to have this problem? We’ll probably get creamed by the Tarheels this week. Oh, well.