It is dificult to be thankful in the face of such loss. But alas I have survived a very serious roll over car crash where a hit and run car slammed into my hatchback yaris head on. You have not lived until yo uhave been in a roll over, it is quite the inspiring event.

Driving casually, going to have a lovely day in uptown New Orleans. A red batmobile slammed into us and did not stop. I do not know what the man could have possibly been driving that he kept going after broadsiding us.

I have no idea if they will find him, but as soon as the insurance either gives me the finger or gives me a new car I will be posting the license plate number here for all to see. To go out there into the world and smite he who almost took our lives.

I feel the loss of the car, perhaps the only car I have ever enjoyed driving. And after what insurance companies have done here in Louisiana, I am rather skeptic that I will get what I have been paying for. If you ask me I think the money I pay the insurance company should all be put in the trunk of my car and I use it when I need it.

If all goes well, I will get a new one, the very same thing I had before. Afterall, that one was just a year old.

The Patience of Odin

Legend says that Great Father hung for perhaps millennia upon the World Tree, with only a bag of runes to keep him company. Sacrificing one eye for higher knowledge, for infinite intellect; Odin spent his time waiting and pondering the existence in this universe. Upon the branches of Yggdrasil, the Father of the Gods witness the eternal wheel that is Ragnarok; where Gamr consumes the sun and moon itself.

For to Him time moves so slowly, that the future is the same as the past all under the eternal clock that is the present. For Odin there are no hands of time, no bindings of age or reason, the minutes reach an absolute zero that mortals can never know.

That is how I feel as I wait for my honey to bloom into the nectar of the gods. As the instant world gratifies around me I sit and stare at the eternal drink, hoping to sip it one day. Will this be the Mead of Suttungr? The Mead of Poetry, its white milk pushing the boundaries of senses and sense? Suffocating in Intelligence?

I do not know, I cannot know, for mead is beyond rushing, beyond perhaps time itself. While we wither and decay, die slowly by the kiss of Hela, mead only becomes better with time. Like Merlin, our golden ambrosia ages backwards, improving in all its senses as we step upon step into the grave.

I sit up, spending way too much time looking at my mead, and wonder what to do with the fermenting time. So what does everyone else do to pass the time between honey and mead?

Meading of the Minds

Now my life is about mead- mostly. That magical drink that came at the beginning of time. If none of you know it is fermented honey, turning it into a rather sweet wine. Mead is incredibly easy to ferment and it is a recipe that consists only of the the following- more or less...

*2.5 pounds of honey
*1 lemon juice
*1/4 pound of raisins
*(spring) water to fill a gallon glass jug.
* yeast of your choice (champagne yeast appears to be the best)
*stopper
*airlock.

Combine ingredients, mix well in warm water, put lemon and raisins. Prep yeast, and pitch in at room temperature, intall airlock. Let stay until fruits fall (should be about a month) siphon off into a secondary vessel and let age for a bit. Though it is not the simple, it is easier to make than beer, wine, or heavens liquor.

Mead came before beer or wine, simply because Honey provided sugar without the need of agriculture. Easiest fermented beverage to make. Charles, the owner of 'La Casa Cigar Shoppe' right by my house, got bitten by the along with myself and we are both bubbling mead at the back of his shoppe. Yes, damn New Orleans for not having good cellars and suitable storage space for such time and space- consuming hobbies.

There is a primeval connection in making mead, of connecting back through the centuries. I find it comforting to be doing something that man has been doing for so long. And as I say to everone, DO try this at home.

For more info, because my recipe was quite basic go to Gotmead.com