Is that a burning bush in front of me?

Yesterday I was approached by someone whose wisdom and counsel that I have respected for many years.  He asked me to consider volunteering for something specific that I will not pass along at this time.  I will not identify this individual; I will confirm that he was a great member of my support network when I was struggling with those dark days earlier this year from February thru early April.

His approaching me reminded me of one of the early Bible stories that I learned when I was a child.  That story concerns Moses, when he went to investigate a burning bush that would not burn up.  It was a strange sight, and his going over to it set in course a chain of events that would affect the lives of the people from which he came.  God told Moses to return to Egypt, and to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt.

Let's stop for a moment and consider a few things.

Moses was brought up in the court of Pharaoh, and had a position of power within Egypt.  He was enjoying the good life, until one day he saw an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew, and Moses killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand.  Moses had committed an act of murder.  He had killed someone.

Once Moses learned that his crime was known to others, he became a fugitive.  I re-read the account in Exodus earlier this evening and what Moses did was not only known to two Hebrews who were arguing, Pharaoh knew about it too.  Pharoah, or rather, the person was then Pharoah, wanted to kill Moses.  We can infer from this that murder was a capital offense in Egypt at the time, and Moses knew what the punishment was.  He didn't run at first, thinking that maybe he had gotten away with it.  He fled once he became aware that he was a wanted man.  The crime of murder angers a lot of people today, as it did back then.  Moses went on the lam, and entered into fugitive flight.  He found a new life in Midian, married, and started raising a family.  We don't know if he struggled with guilt for all those years, but we do know that when God told Moses to return to Egypt, that God later assured Moses, after he agreed to go back, that those who wanted to kill him were dead.

Anyway, being approached yesterday, for some reason, reminded me of this story.  To be quite honest, I feel that I am more qualified to be the recipient of the help that I'm being asked to give.  No, I am not a fugitive in any criminal sense, but I am feeling the need of wanting the events from February/March/early April to be behind me once and for all.  I have the sense that I am healing from this, and that it will be easier to recover from the adverse circumstances that preceded my arrival in Arizona.

Yes, I am reluctant to say yes to this.  For one, I wasn't sure if I really had a future in Tucson.  I even went so far as to approach hiring managers in Colorado, and the one position that I phone-interviewed for won't be offered to me until October, if at all, and as I write this I do have something lined up here in Tucson that begins in October.  I guess I can infer that the Good Lord is going to keep me here in Tucson, even if the circumstances right now are not as good as they were two years ago.

Secondly, this isn't something I can say yes to right away.  My present assignment has with it a need to put in some long hours at times.  The effort that I am supporting is damned important to my employer and it's something that I'm actually enjoying being a part of.  I plan to ride this train until its course is run, and my gut is telling me it's going to be a few more weeks.  After that, I can return to a previous assignment as that last Friday my old supervisor told me he wanted me back and to give him a call once I'm done doing what I'm doing right now.  I said that I would like to take a vacation between jobs and he has no problem with that.

Third, the individual who approached me is well familiar with my current situation, and he knows that I can't give an answer right away.  I personally think that I'm going to need three weeks to mull this over, and to assess if I have the amount of time availalbe for this.

But it is funny in a way, of how this emerged yesterday.

One question that I have asked myself a lot lately is, have I made a difference?  I mean, I came to Arizona in early 1999, knowing it was what I had to do at the time, but not sure if I understood in the 100% sense of why I was being brought to Arizona.  Those close friends who I have shared this with, and this includes the person who approached me, have told me that I have indeed made a difference.   I mean, I'm sure that I have in some ways, but did I make a difference as to where it really counted?  Should I even know if I have?

A few other observations.

I have survived an armed robbery, an earthquake with fatalities, one traffic accident, and a front wheel coming off at 70 miles per hour.

By all rights I shouldn't even be here.

I have also had two biopsies for cancer, the most recent one being last month.  Both came back negative.  For some reason I am still here.  I sometimes ask myself why.

I mean, what is there left for me to do?

I've gotten to meet the members of Bachman-Turner Overdrive and April Wine, who are among the people that I most wanted to meet.  I've walked where Caesar once walked and I've had one night in a luxury suite at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

And more importantly, I have been blessed with the greatest collection of family and friends that anyone could ever hope to have.

What is there left for me to do?

I was thinking about this as recently as a few days ago, and before that I was wondering if maybe I shouldn't be taking up some volunteer work of some kind.  I went so far as to explore one local charity, only to discover that I could not make the type of time/talent commitment that they were looking for.  I was giving some thought to something else, but then shelved that too as I returned to that one question about what's there that's left for me to do.

I'm sure that there are some things left to do while I'm still kicking.  Even before yesterday, I was soul-searching about some other things on my mind, and trying to figure out what's ahead, as if I can really do that.

Now I've been approached, and that has now entered the mix of what's on my mind.  And in the process, I am thinking about that strange sight that Moses once saw, and wondering........

......is that a burning bush that's in front of me?

Beef Ribs! Yeah!

Temperatures in Tucson have broken the triple digit barrier.  One weather forecast said this would happen by Memorial Day and another had it yesterday or maybe it was today.  Anyway, it's hot out, and I'm not hanging out in the man cave (the garage, that is) as much as I used to.

I am making some more frequent use of the BBQ grill.  Safeway keeps having beef ribs marked down, and I keep buying them.  I think this is going to be the fifth consecutive Sunday where I've had them on the grill.  Thing of it is, is that the ribs have been previously frozen, so re-freezing them really isn't an option.  So what do you do?

If you live in Tucson, you fire up the grill.

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One advantage to living in southern Arizona is that you can fire up the grill at practically any time of year that you want to.  I don't view barbecuing as a summer activity, so to speak.  If I feel like firing it up on Christmas Day, then I'll fire it up on Christmas Day.

That must run in the family.  I've seen my dad fire up the grill on Christmas Day.  Hey, why not?  Who says a Christmas dinner has to be turkey?  Why can't it be ribs, or salmon, or tri-tip?

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My beef ribs recipe evolved over several years, and I think it's still evolving.  There was a period of time ten years ago when I was "done" with the recipe.  I would season the things overnight with a rub recipe that I stole from the Weber website.  They called it a Kansas City rub.  I don't think it was a true Kansas City rub as that other KC rub mixes call for brown sugar and this one didn't.

However, the Weber KC rub was mighty tasty!  A friend of mine from Texas who so much liked the way I did beef ribs once offered to buy them for me if I would just only cook them.  That's a real compliment when you stop to think about it.  I think when a Texas native compliments you on your BBQ skills, that's just as good as a manager in a Japanese company telling you in a written letter that the test procedure you sent his company was "completely correct and easy to follow".  I still have that letter, and I should fish it out sometime and frame it.

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Getting back to beef ribs, one change I made was in the cooking time.  I used to slow-cook them for ninety minutes but I recently changed that to two hours.  I have not noticed any change to them except that the meat is more tender.

Also, I've been using maple chips for smoking.  I very much believe in the use of smoking chips whenever I'm slow-cooking something.  In the past I've used hickory, mesquite, applewood, or a random combination of two woods.  I've soaked them in cheap red wine for two hours, and every twenty minutes while the ribs were cooking I'd chuck some of those chips onto the coals and then put the lid to my Weber kettle back on.

Then a few moments later, that smoke starts coming out of the top vent.  It smells good.  It smells really good.

It's probably not legal for something to smell that good.

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I recently discovered somewhere, and I can't remember where, some maple chips.  Maple?  Hey, what the hey.  Maple's used for curing bacon.  Why not ribs?

I didn't want to mask the flavor so I used water instead of wine for the maple chips.  I was pleased with the results too.  That was "recipe" for what I was soaking the chips in, but one week later that changed too.

I had had, for over twenty years, this 1.75 liter bottle of dark Bacardi rum.  It had been taking up space for all this time, and the problem, or maybe it's not a problem, is that I wasn't drinking it.  I mean, I might have a shot of tequila if it's a premium reposado, but Bacardi is not tequila and I don't think it was intended for shots in the first place.

So, what to do?

I started soaking my chips in a mixture of water and Bacardi.  I liked the results!  The smell that the Bacardi imparted to the chips while they were soaking is probably also not legal.

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That bottle of Bacardi was finally emptied last week, and was carried off for recycling shortly thereafter.

Now I don't have any rum.

Should I now pick up a bottle of Myers spiced rum?  Or should I pick up some Captain Morgan?

If I pick up the Captain Morgan, then I'm going to have to hold one of my legs at an angle  If someone sees me doing that, they might think that I'm weird.  I might be weird for all that I know, but I don't think I should go out in public and confirm that for anyone.

Well.....Todd knows about rum.  He knows how to make some killer drinks.  I think he's using some premium brand of rum that I never heard of before.  Whatever it is, it's great stuff.

My problem is, is that I'm not one to consume rum on a regular basis.  I might remember on New Year's Eve to make myself a Cuba Libre, but even then I don't always remember to make one on New Year's Eve.

I'll hold off on buying some rum for now.

I do know that I won't get a 1.75 liter bottle of it next time.

I might not live long enough to see it emptied, and I might get to the grave a little early if I do try to empty it quickly.

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Getting this back to beef ribs, and to smoking chips, but not leaving the topic of spirits, did you know that Jack Daniels is in the smoking chip business too?

I have two bags of JD chips, from oak barrels that they used to age their whiskey in.  Some barrels get shipped off to Scotland where one of the distilleries uses them to age their whiskey.  (Or is that "whisky" in Scotland?).  Other barrels get chopped up and sold to BBQ enthusiasts such as myself.

If you're going to use the JD chips, you absolutely postively should never soak them in wine.  I don't think soaking them in wine is legal, and if it isn't illegal then it should be.

Soak them in water.  You don't want to mask that smoky flavor that it will impart to the meat that you're cooking.

If you don't believe me, then use these JD chips on a tri-tip sometime.  It'll be a tri-tip that you'll remmeber.

Ask Ken & Gillian and their children.

I'll bet that they remember that tri-tip I made for them a few years back when they were down here!

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I forgot to mention that whenever you're slow-cooking ribs on the grill, you should have a drip pan underneath them.  This drip pan should have some cheap beer poured into it.  The beer will steam the meat, and impart some flavor to it.  Try this sometime.

DO NOT USE a premium imported beer for this!  Use some Budweiser instead.

The Budweiser folks will not be insulted by using Budweiser for cooking.  They don't care what you use Bud for.

But if you're going to use Moosehead or some microbrew for cooking, then you've either got more money than you have sense. or you probably shouldn't be allowed to play with matches even if you're going to use those matches on charcoal briquets.

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I just realized that I should point out that what I've told you about cooking beef ribs assumes that you're using charcoal like I do.

I have nothing against gas grills; you can get some good steaks or burgers off of those.

But me, I'm a purist when it comes to BBQ, and it ain't BBQ if you ain't using charcoal.

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Is it legal for me to use the word "ain't"?

Dang if I know.  Ain't like I'm going to care much about it anyway.

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Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat!