Monday in a Vinyard

Right now, the weather is dreary, my eyes hurt like hell and my whole body feels sore. I'm sitting my classroom, waiting while my students take their final exams and wondering what I'm going to do with the rest of life. Originally the plan was to play World of Warcraft while they are taking the exam but I forgot that Tuesdays are generally the day when they upgradeso all the realms are down all morning. That put quite a crimp in my otherwise smooth plans for the morning.

The alternative is now to quietly write whatever comes to mind while my eyes burn under the flourescent lights. They burn for a good reason. Sunburn. Well that wasn't the good part of the reason. The good part is that they burned because I was outside all day helping my neighbor prune is vineyard. I'd never done anything like that before. Most of my experience winemaking as you know involved science experiments in 2 gallon buckets in my kitchen in Minneapolis or opening large kit wine containers for large batches. It never involved the actual grape itself, unless you count the time I used grapes from target to make wine that was barely tolerable.

Back to a lovely Monday spent toiling in a vineyard pulling vines. It was back-breaking work and not just because I am out of shape. I think the work would have made anyone hurt after a while. The wonderful part of the day was the shared conversations and listening to Barnaby talk about grapes. In the humid heat we discussed the what possibilities may lie in men's studies, not the assumption that it is reasserting men as the center but really looking at how society constructs masculinity from the perspective that it disadvantages them because the archetype of masculinity is one that is unattainable. We talked about how to raise or talk to the men in our lives in ways that bring them to an understanding of how they both collude and are harmed by the oppression that women face. It was day of light and weighty issues, the humming of bees provided a soundtrack that cannot be duplicated and honestly I don't think could ever be shared with others in way that the impact could be felt. I think the vines took it all in and who knows what they think of all of the mundane humanity they were privy too.

We started around 930am and finished around 630pm. By the time I got home my legs were cramping and my lower back was screaming for a hot shower and some chocolate cake. OK possibly only my stomach was screaming for cake, but the hot shower my whole body could agree on. Sleep didn't come easy for me, I was thinking about what I should be doing with y life and how it was all going to work itself out eventually but possibley not in the way I wanted it too because I wasn't working at anything just letting the world work around me. What did I want to do in this life before I leave it. What contributions can I make that leave a lasting mark. My teaching I suppose, even though it doesn't make me as happy as the hobbies in my life do. I pondered how I could link my loves together and still be able to do the things I need and want to do. If money were no object this would be a no-brainer, but it is and so I must use my brain to figure out a solution.

Barnaby and I tossed about ideas for building my beer label, getting my beer out to the masses but staying small and contained. I don't know the first thing about running a business or about financing an endeavor or about the kinds of equipment I would need to make large batches of beer. I guess I would be happy to be able to supply a few local bars with my beer on an as needed basis. All of these ideas and many more blanket his vineyard, like the pruned vines we left on the ground.