{"id":7558,"date":"2022-01-05T07:54:33","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T15:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/?p=7558"},"modified":"2022-01-05T07:54:37","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T15:54:37","slug":"a-choice-cut-on-new-years-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/meditations\/a-choice-cut-on-new-years-day\/","title":{"rendered":"A Choice Cut on New Year&#8217;s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-7558\" data-postid=\"7558\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-7558 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n\n\n<p>A freezing chill gripped the air\u201422 degrees to be exact. It was just after dawn on the first day of 2022. I was walking the neighborhood and somewhat following a salmon-bearing creek that flowed through the city until it emptied into the Willamette River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Traces of snow remained on the ground. My mood flirted between melancholy and listlessness, but still I was outside trying to make something interesting happen. Nothing happens unless you move forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I came upon a culvert, stopped, looked down to the creek and beheld something so glorious, so unexpected, so magically Oregon: a log jam of at least a dozen choice cuts of grade A Oregon beaverwood. In the big city! They were all fresh, too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>O joy! Thank you Mother Nature. Thank you upstream Oregon beavers. You must have had one helluva party last night. Hungover for sure you bucktoothed revelers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I simply had to start 2022 with a choice cut to add to my collection. I knew it would be a harbinger of great things to come. I clambered down the bank to the water&#8217;s edge using willows as handrails. Oh what a selection! Which one to choose! Should I take them all?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No. Only one. Don&#8217;t get greedy. Leave some for the other beaverwood connoisseurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sure, the other beaverwood connoisseurs out there. How many are there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It occurred to me that I was probably the only person in North America who was retrieving a choice cut of beaverwood to begin the New Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why not? It&#8217;s better than watching a college football ball game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I found my prize; a two-foot hunk about as thick as my upper leg. It would look fantastic displayed in the window sill, along with another beauty from a nearby river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walking home, I cradled it like a football. I passed a couple of other walkers and they shot me mystified looks. Oh well, just another urban freak, some nut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Happy New Year!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A freezing chill gripped the air\u201422 degrees to be exact. It was just after dawn on the first day of 2022. I was walking the neighborhood and somewhat following a salmon-bearing creek that flowed through the city until it emptied into the Willamette River. Traces of snow remained on the ground. My mood flirted between [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7558"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7561,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7558\/revisions\/7561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}