Bacon Day

Betsy, the creator of Bacon Day

Here at the world headquarters of the Community Resource Center we have declared Wednesdays to be Bacon Day.

By the way, it has come to my attention that I do not include information on the important work we do every day at CRC on this blog nearly enough so I will intersperse important information in this blog about Bacon Day.

Betsy actually thought this up. Who doesn’t like bacon? she asked. Just the thought of Bacon Day makes her smile.  So for the inaugural Bacon Day last week we decided to make the classic bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches. I borrowed Mark’s electric skillet that his mother gave him

Kim

when he moved into his first apartment, oh, about 40 years ago and which still works perfectly fine because they made things better back in the day.

Important information: CRC just facilitated the donation of an entire office suite including cubicles, desks, filing cabinets and chairs to New Horizon, which assists people with developmental disabilities to become part of a productive workforce.  Because of the donation, New Horizons can take the dollars they would have spent to outfit an office and redirect them to their programs.

Of course, the proper bacon, egg and cheese sandwich must include very good bread, toasted, and then liberally buttered. There must also be an ample amount of butter in the skillet to fry the eggs. Not a sandwich for dieters. And because I had cooked an entire package of bacon, there was extra bacon to snack on. Just to balance out the caloric excess of the whole enterprise, Betsy brought clementines.

Important information: The Mental Health Cooperative is opening a new Crisis Stabilization Unit and Intensive Intervention Center, which will serve a combined population of 3,000 people in need. CRC helped furnish those two centers. Horn tooting! Horn tooting! “We appreciate everything you (CRC) do for us (MHC),” wrote Della Baker of MHC.  “You do it well and are as excited to give, as we are to receive. Thank you all again for the good work you do for the non-profits of Nashville.”

So tomorrow is once again Bacon Day and I am bringing the ultimate, ultimate bacon treat: Pig candy!

Important information: The recipe!  You take your favorite bacon. Heat up your oven to 350 degrees. Take the  bacon and coat it with dark brown sugar. Put some foil on a cookie sheet with a rim and then put a rack on top if you have one. Put the bacon on the rack and bake it for about 20 minutes. That’s it! If you don’t have a rack, then you might have to turn it over once. Oh, and CRC distributes more than $1.5 million in new and gently used goods to more than 90 nonprofit agencies in Middle Tennessee every year.

Free birds

One of the greatest travesties of the devastating May 2010 floods was the loss of our beloved flamingos. Betsy and I found their poor shattered bodies washed up against the chain-link fence. The funeral mass was held at Christ Cathedral and was attended by hundreds of mourners, including Mayor Karl Dean, then-Gov. Phil Bredesen, Dolly Parton, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.

Oh. I believe that might have been an exaggeration. Actually, a lie. But that’s what should have happened. In actuality, they were scooped up by a bulldozer, along with everything else in the House of Toxic Poo, and packed off to an undisclosed landfill.

How could we go on? Pink flamingos don’t just grow on trees or from the pages of the Oriental Trading Company. Everyone knows of their rarity. Betsy and I were resigned to a flamingo-less life. Until our beloved accountant, Ceanne, somehow, somewhere, found two replacements. They spent most of 2010-2011 grazing in Ceanne’s backyard while we reconstructed the interior of the building. I understand they were great pets and grew very close to Ceanne. However, I believe Ceanne was ready for them to move once the building was done. Flamingos make extremely annoying noises for such delicate birds.

So, one day a few weeks ago the birds came home to roost. Free birds. Actual free birds because Ceanne provided them to us at no charge. Free to stand majestically in front of CRC. Free to observe the constant stream of concrete trucks that fill up at the concrete plant across the street. Free to watch that strange lady who power walks up and down Visco Drive every day around 11 a.m.  Now that they’re home, hopefully they’ll tell the annoying UPS delivery man that if you stick a notice on the door that you are trying to deliver a package and then watch it immediately fall off, that the Chicks WILL NOT SEE IT.

We’re expecting a lot from these birds. They follow in the footsteps of greatness.