Maybe it’s a touch of cabin fever after all these weeks of snow and cold. Maybe it’s a bit of early onset eccentricity. Maybe it’s just that my wife loves grilled burgers and I love my wife. Maybe the “why” doesn’t really matter all that much. Maybe it’s about the what.

The “what” in this case is that Randa brought home a package of fresh ground beef Saturday afternoon. Her story, and she’s sticking to it, was that she planned to grill us some burgers on the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine. I had a different idea.

When I looked at that package, it suddenly didn’t matter to me that it was several degrees below freezing or that we have a foot of snow on the ground. What mattered was that we had fresh ground beef on the counter and hickory charcoal in the garage.

Randa formed up seasoned patties while I got the grill going. Thirty minutes later, there were eight burgers sizzling over a bed of white coals. The heat from the grill melted snow on the sidewalk beneath it. Whenever I opened the hood to flip the burgers, smoke roiled out, just like summer time. I finished up by melting cheese slices on half of the patties; Randa doesn’t like cheese on her burgers.

In concession to the weather and our general wimpiness, we chose to sit on the couch in the living room instead of lawn chairs on the patio. But we sure enjoyed the grilled burgers. That was even more fun than complaining about the weather. There are a lot of things we can enjoy in this world once convenience and conventionality are no longer the controlling factors.

You know, I think I’m going to have to clear the snow off the croquet court for next weekend… time to quit whining and start shining!

H. Arnett
2/10/14