Where’s the Beef?

Every football season, hockey season, and baseball season arrives with the handy dandy steadfast fantasy draft. Along with every fantasy draft arrives the equally steadfast, Meat Monster that takes over our house. Walking downstairs and spying the four feet by six feet dry erase board on wheels in my living room alerted me that a date had been slated for the latest fantasy draft. It’s March, which means it’s baseball season coming. Or not coming due to the pandemic. That won’t stop the Meat Monster from arriving though. There are always pounds and pounds of meat jockeying for space in our refrigerators and freezers. Yes, plural. Eleven guys, with at least half of them topping 6 feet, along with a kid and a wife and some extra buddies that smell the bbq and show up even if they are not picking guys.

Except that pandemic.  That nasty bugger has led to stores full of people and empty of perishables and non. That includes meat. Meat is required for any fantasy draft. Pandemic be damned.

Enter the Meat Market where the Meat Monster finds its most comfortable habitat. Everyday stores are empty but are people going to really stock up on meat market quality meat? Pulling up to the small establishment in the next town led to a sinking feeling. The parking lot was overflowing. The number system in the freezing temperature room was overloaded. His heart sank that there would indeed be pizza this year’s draft. The blasphemy!

Oh, but you cannot and should not discount the power of the Southside Irish. Tuesday is St. Patrick’s Day. There is corned beef to be had. No pandemic is going to stop the celebration of all things green today. Even if those celebratory moments are few in collective numbers. Luckily the corned beef rush was the reason for overcrowded lot.

So the Meat Monster is alive and well. He’s grown in fact. Not only does the fantasy draft get brisket and ribs this week. The aforementioned kid and wife also get burgers, hot dogs, and steak.

Now we just need to find a store that still has rolls.