raining in the afternoon

and too cold to even stand out on the front porch very long....oh well, don't really need to go outside for anything.....some football on TV today I guess...might watch some later to take me on into the evening....will try to stay up and watch the ball drop I guess, but don't know if I will make it.....I did last year because I found some rock and roll show on one of the oddball channels, like VH1C or something.....might as well stay awake, since around here they let anybody shoot off skyrockets in their back yard or whatever, so there's lots of noise at midnight.....

raining at bedtime

so I slept like a log, thank goodness ....had not slept well the night before. The paper is saying that the first week of the new year is going to be 6 to 9 degrees colder than normal....so it's going to be in the 20's at night for a while. So I should drive the Jeep every other day probably, even if I don't have anyplace to go, judging from my vehicle experience last Winter.....I made fajita quesadillas last night, doing the fajita part in my old skillet, and using the new large one that Dan sent me to melt the cheese once they were folded over in the tortilla, if you see what I mean. It was very tasty, and gave me a mexican food fix. As a news update, the neighbor who stabbed his girlfriend to death on Christmas was himself found dead in an abandoned Burger King in Naples, Florida.

wow

the 12 string is a whole 'nuther ball of wax altogether.....takes a light touch....and the sucker is huge, bigger than a six string dreadnought? Or maybe that's just my impression....don't know if I have the tuning correct yet, but it sounds pretty awesome....the herringbone purling looks nice...no shipping damage I can see.....

just lie down on the sofa

and maybe bend my back the right way.....tweaked it somehow carrying in the groceries? I don't know what happens sometimes.....got a lot at the store, should last awhile....the stuff for New Year's, and also fixings for fajitas and tacos, for some variety. Cold and overcast weather-wise....waiting for the UPS truck, their online tracker says my guitar was loaded for delivery around 7:30 this morning in Spartanburg.....

crime report

There were all kinds of police cars and ambulances this morning over on Academy, the block with the old mill store which is now United Way.....from what I can gather, the guy Leon who lived in the green cottage near the old mill parking lot stabbed his girlfriend to death on Christmas day, and the body was just found today....Leon is long gone I guess, considered armed and dangerous.....all I know about him is that he had this hot-rod Maverick, an old Ford V8 with loud exhaust.....this would be three backyards west and over the fence north from my house, I think....yesterday I had read about the eight or so domestic violence arrests in Laurens County over the holiday weekend, and thought about what a season to be jolly.....and it gets worse looks like ......peace on earth and goodwill to men......

29.0, clear, calm

that was at sunrise....a little wind has come up since then.....last night I finished up the last of the ham I had sliced, with brown rice and broccoli spears. I've still got a big chunk of ham with the bone part wrapped up in foil, for the black-eyed peas, etc....I noticed yesterday that they still have those bargain price hams at the market, but I'm too tired of ham to buy another one.....I should make fajitas, to use the new iron skillet......or string beef tacos, haven't done those in ages either....

by two in the afternoon

it was warm enough to take a relatively comfortable walk.....some kids with shiny new bikes riding around the park.....

clear, cold, monday

went to the grocery store to get bread, and at 10:30 in the morning it's still dang chilly. But it's sunny and warm in the living room, thank goodness....Wednesday, senior discount day, I'll do a bigger shopping and get the black-eyed peas, a sweet onion, a bell pepper, collard greens, corn bread mix....and then I'll be all set for New Year's ....I'll fix it in the crock pot with the ham and bone....I don't do the sugar tomato sauce for myself, though I used to do it for the folks....

never going to make it

through the Clemson bowl game....it doesn't even start for an hour, and I'm already falling asleep on the sofa....I'll read about it in the morning maybe.......

out in the piney woods

The Jeep cranked over OK, so I went out through the National Forest land along the 72. Went down a forest service road for a while, a gravel road.....got to the train tracks and turned around and came back out to the highway.....I like just going along through the forest like that, peaceful out in the sticks......well, peaceful here in town too this holiday weekend, hardly see anybody around, not much traffic on the streets.....like everybody's conked out....or they went to Nashville to watch Clemson, or something......broke a string on my white Strat....I know I've got more strings around somewhere, but danged if I can remember where I put them......

30.6F at sunrise

fixed nutmeg french toast with ham, coffee, orange juice....walked for the paper....mostly clear, just a few clouds to the south-east.....I should fire up the Jeep and drive it some I guess....

iron skillet frittata

for supper....I did go for a walk in the middle of the day, and walked dang fast to keep from freezing....there was a little bit of sun, but it was still cold.....I guess there is some college bowl football on today, but I haven't watched any.....Clemson is on Sunday in Nashville....just a sleepy gray day here pretty much.....

day after Christmas morning

fog and freezing.....but they say the sun will come out sometime today. Stayed up to watch the Chargers, but went ahead and went to bed when they sent in the second-string quarterback....that tells you the game is good as over.....

Christmas morning

pouring rain, but warmer....I drove to get the newspaper.....Lakers and Cavs are on in the afternoon, and later there's Chargers and Titans.....last night on BBC they had old Christmas episodes of Blackadder, Keeping Up Appearances, and Are You Being Served.....pretty funny stuff....I had ham-scramble, grits, and wheat toast with apple jelly for holiday breakfast.....hope everyone has a good Christmas day.

north wind

I usually go for a walk sometime in the middle of the day, but with that cold wind blowing and me with a runny nose already, I'm just going to stay inside where it's warm, rather than risking more of a head cold.....

.4 above freezing

I like it when the church bells in downtown Clinton play Christmas carols.....I found my red holiday sweater in the Jeep, and washed it yesterday, so I've got it on now....used to always wear it to work on Christmas Eve.....there's some holly in the back yard, and mistletoe on the oak out front....that's the extent of my seasonal decoration.....

continues cold

27F at sunrise....chilly morning walk.....had to use the booster to start the Jeep and go for groceries....hadn't started it since Sunday....got a package from Caroline, so now I have two presents to open Christmas morning....no tree to put them under, but what the heck. Reading the local paper, it looks like it's mandatory to go hog wild with Christmas morning breakfast...some strange recipes provided....I might just do ham and eggs and grits? The scalloped potatoes came out fine, lots left....a couple more meals anyway......whatever storm is coming from the West is going to bring rain here Friday they are saying, won't be cold enough for snow under the latest computer models.....

got it in the oven

even put pimento cheese on top....

got warm enough

to sit out on the front porch for a bit in the afternoon....walked the mill park earlier....got to keep walking to avoid "walking-disorder"......finished off the pizza today, had wurst, kraut, and a mash last night....it's 2:40.....guess I could go ahead and do escalloped potatoes with ham and alfredo sauce.....creamed corn for the veggie side maybe....I've got onion and garlic.....

frosty

aches and pains....too many decades on this planet.....my right shoulder was hurting there for a while, but something popped in it the other morning, so it stopped bothering me. It also helps to switch boots every so often....a different stride seems to work the muscles and joints with some variation, which is a good thing. In the paper, an article about walking and age says that "the inability to walk the relatively short distance of four blocks" is being used to define the onset of "walking-disorder"......and if your walking is disordered, then all sorts of other health problems and hazards follow, etc....Another decade to that point? I don't know.....

Tomorrow will be 0m 1s longer.

Because today is the shortest day....happy solstice! 24F on my sunrise walk.....it helps to breath through the muffler, keeps your nose warm....I had pizza for lunch and dinner yesterday, that was different, haven't done that in a long time. Still pizza left for lunch today, I guess.

sunny,blue skies, below freezing

but it looks nice.....with all the shopping hype, I feel like I should go out and buy something....but I can't think of anything I need, or even want in particular.....I guess I could go buy a pizza....I haven't done that yet in Carolina....I imagine they are about the same as in California...then I could eat pizza and watch football....there are probably pizza coupons somewhere in all these Sunday newspaper ads....

I thought the sun was coming out

so I went for a walk, but it was actually mostly overcast and windy... I was bundled up pretty well, so I didn't freeze.....going to watch the Fresno State bowl game....

31 with the windchill

but I guess it stopped raining sometime during the night.....my front porch chairs had blown into the yard next door sometime during all that.....looks like another day to just hunker down and try to stay warm....Asheville had a record snowfall, but it didn't get this far south to speak of.....

think I'll take a nap

the snow is a no show here and now....just cold, wind, rain.....tornado warnings to the south, winter storm warnings to the north... wet betwixt and between.....

well

everyone was saying they would rather have a white Christmas than have the snow this weekend, so the forecasters are now calling for the snow next Thursday.....quel bizarre....

fired up the old metabolism

it looked like I could get a walk in around one in the afternoon....but out there in the cold wind I bet I was burning big calories just keeping moving to keep from chilling out in a negative fashion....had a grilled ham and pimento cheese half-sandwich for lunch....that ham fries up really tasty.....

28.7F at 7:45 AM

so it was a cold walk this morning.....and for Friday morning the forecast is for an inch of snow! Have to wait and see about that.....had ham and yams and peas last night, am thinking banger and a mash with pease tonight.....I put some of the raisin sauce from the ham on the yams....Don't think I need to drive anywhere today.... I've got the battery booster plugged in on the laundry porch, keep a charge on that in case I need it like I did last year when starting the Jeep in 20 degree weather...it's a week 'til Christmas?

took a neighborhood walk

varied my route a little bit....it was calling for mostly sunny and mid-fifties today, but really it's mid-forties and mostly cloudy......I bought yams, peas, sauerkraut, and cream style corn this morning....got to get my roughage.....and 12 grain bread.....my Gas Authority bill came and I paid it online through the bank.....50 bucks for 11-15 to 12-15....not too bad, since we had a real cold snap in there with twenties at night....the next two will be higher.....but, if all goes well, by April I can start collecting Social Security, which will just about cover my monthly expenses......that's the plan anyway.....

35F

on the early morning walk today...but there is a little sunshine.....the ham came out tasty, I had grits and snap beans with it last night....today is grocery day, so I'll get sweet potato and other potato and some green vegetables of some sort.....and I could use a loaf of bread.....we'll see what else looks good.....

let's see now....

after two hours you uncover the ham, and baste it with the drippings....and leave it uncovered and go ahead in put in the meat thermometer, not touching the bone.....by now the whole house smells like Christmas already, 10 days early....oh well....

downright balmy

compared to the way it has been lately....59F on the early morning walk....warm foggy air is coming over from the gulf coast states.....I need to vacuum the carpet sometime soon.....and I think that around 2:30 this afternoon I'll put the ham in the oven with the ginger ale, so I can have something other than meatloaf for dinner.....with all that ham, I'll have to make scalloped potatoes some time.....and it is a bone-in ham, so I can keep the hambone with some meat on it to simmer with the black-eyed peas on the rapidly approaching New Year.....

lots of fog, a little warmer

I can go out and walk for some exercise today....it was just too cold and wet over the weekend to do that....and I might go to the library, though the books aren't due until tomorrow.....

Chargers

I think this is maybe the second Charger game they have had on here on Sunday....and they are up at the half....stopped raining here around three in the afternoon, but remains chilly....I've gone out on the porch a couple of times, and just turned around and came back inside....so the only walk today was early in the morning for the paper.....

fog, drizzle

34 degrees, heavier rain headed this way on the radar.....nutmeg french toast for breakfast.....

eight at night

rain and 33 degrees, so it's liquid, not frozen....Celtics and Bulls just started, but I doubt if I'll stay awake through that....

gloves and muffler

Got them out of the drawer this morning, 'cause it was another nippy walk.....I didn't drive anywhere yesterday, but I think I'll go over to the store today for laundry soap and whatever else, partly just to fire up the Jeep and keep it's juices flowing in the sub-freezing conditions....slept better last night, I think because I stayed up later watching an old western movie....my back feels better today too, at least right now.... they are saying rain and maybe sleet starting this afternoon and going on into Sunday morning......

evening

I heated up leftover creamed spinach, and meat-loaf with BBQ sauce, and biscuits. My back has been bothering me today....can't think of what I did different yesterday to tweak it....

37.7

Well, it's around two in the afternoon, and it's still too cold to take a comfortable walk, so I'll give it up for the day. I was just reading about the 140 sq. kilometre iceberg heading for Australia....the Aussies were hiring a boat to go out and have a big keg party on it, since it's Summer Down Under....but it got too hot and the berg started melting and breaking up, so they decided the idea was maybe dangerous.....

the puddles were frozen

this morning....about 28F when I went for the paper....it's about the time I usually go for another walk, but it's only 32F still.....so maybe this afternoon....

mid-20's

tonight in the Upstate, mid teens in the NC mountains...

more on meat-loaf

I had never made a meat loaf and pimento cheese spread sandwich before, but I imagined it would be tasty....well, yup...that worked.....one slice of toasted wheat berry bread, about an inch of cold meat loaf, two bread-and-butter pickle slices, and half of the toast spread with pimento.....I am replete.....(plus a hand full of original Fritos and a glass of mountain burgundy)

sunny, blue skies

but the windchill is keeping it nippy outside....I'm going to drive over to WalMart for more Blue Goo, and I want to look at those Lodge frying pans again....the meat loaf worked, and it made a lot, so it will be a while before I get around to cooking the ham....looking ahead, I'm sure there will be some ham left by New Year's, to put in with the black-eyed peas....

high winds

continue today. Down in Cross Hill, some mobile homes were blown over or off their foundations by 85 mph straight line winds in that storm before dawn. Not too bad out here and now....took a walk right before lunch and it wasn't very cold....I'm going to make meat-loaf with ground beef, pork sausage, mushroom soup, an egg, cornbread stuffing, and whatever seems right....I have a loaf pan I've been using since the dawn of time, or right around then....and baked potato and creamed spinach? mmmm......

5:25 AM

the storm siren sounds...so I looked at the radar and the worst of it was almost here.... the lights flickered a couple of times, but stayed on....and after 10 minutes or so it was past and I went back to bed until 6:30, while the house warmed up.....they are still saying chance of mixed rain and sleet or snow this coming weekend.....calm now, and I'll head out for groceries in a bit.....

sizzlin' skillet

sliced potato, apple wedges, pork chop with BBQ sauce.....I've got a big cast iron frying pan that I got for a dollar at a church lady sale, and you can do a lot with that. But I might look over at WalMart again and see if they have those large cast iron Lodge skillets still....they were 12 bucks....then I could do even fancier cooking, with two nice pans.....still raining, I'm hoping there's a good NBA game on tonight, like there was last night.....

it's been pouring

for hours....going to keep going on into Wednesday, maybe....

It's a bargain to live in Upstate

this from a Forbes survey, cited in the paper this morning....stable housing market is the big factor.....36F on my morning walk.....as I was going down Pitts, the guy driving the leaf vacuum truck stopped to talk....he said he had grown up right down the block....he told me that where the barber shop is now there used to be a pretty rowdy beer bar....that makes sense, the place looks like an old bar, with a big gravel and grass parking area around it.....and a couple of blocks from the mill would have been a good place for a beer joint.....the storm that was out West is headed this way, it looks pretty close on the radar, already crossed over from Georgia, so another walk this morning is iffy....

soup and cheese toast for lunch

I've been punching keys trying to get yahoo and google to believe that I'm in the Eastern time zone, EST not PST .....

went out to the store

because I was out of bread....also got some nuts and enough for a couple of dinners, before I do another weekly shopping Wednesday....it is cold outside, mid-30's .....I was thinking of taking the mill walk after I got back from the store, but I'm going to wait until the afternoon, see if it is any warmer then.....I got a good deal on some pork chops, so today I'll fix a chop with lima beans and mac-n-cheese.....I still have the mac-n-cheese because I didn't use it with the ham after all....instead I used up the corn bread, with red eye gravy on it. A googled source said red eye gravy was pan drippings from frying country ham, mixed with water or coffee..."poor man gravy"....coffee sounds kinda strange....I just used water and a little tabasco....that worked.....

never did get up to 48

I think maybe it got to a high of 45.....and the weather lady had a nice simple forecast.."it's going to be freezing everywhere"....

stayed up late

watching Clemson get beat by Georgia Tech.....but slept pretty well. Sunday french toast and sausage breakfast, then 28 degree walk to get the newspaper. That'll wake you up good....looking for a high of 48 today.....

Red Devils state champs!

Clinton 35, Myrtle Beach 26, FINAL. Red Devils returned a kick- off 97 yards in the last three minutes to seal the deal. So the last seed takes 5 in a row away from home to take the whole enchilada.....

parade pix

are up on flikr.....use the slideshoe option while singing "Jingle Bell Hop" for the best effect....

on the radar

it looks like it's snowing across the county line around Newberry, but the flurry isn't moving in this direction.....it's not cold enough for snow to stick anyway.....in an hour or so I'll walk the two blocks to the parade route on Broad Street, see how that turns out.....

country ham, black-eyed peas, cornbread

was for supper....never did warm up today....USA will play England in the World Cup next June? Hardly seems like four years have gone by since the last go-around....the various ethnic groups at the swap meet got really excited about the futbol.....I've got a channel on Dish that doesn't show anything else, as far as I know....

friday

39 degrees, overcast.....80 percent chance it will rain on the parade Saturday, but maybe not on the big football game in Columbia....the Clinton game I mean....and it's going to be cold too, maybe cold enough for snow in places.....but I have lots of turkey stew, that can keep you warm....it came out pretty tasty.....

morning after

Well, streams and creeks did leave their banks....and the Reedy River rose up in downtown Greenville, but didn't do much damage really.....the weather service said one tree down SSE of Laurens was reported "by a trained observer"......and the 3.11 " of rain at GSP was a Dec. 2 record....which all brings us to the "Something else to worry about" department.....namely, the article on the front page of today's paper about all the old mill company dams around the Upstate that could fail in a heavy rain, but are not maintained or even monitored by anybody. In the old days, when you built a mill you needed a water supply, so you damned up a creek or a small river....something on your own property that you could do whatever you wanted to with.....and now the mill companies are long gone, but the old dams remain....until they fail, causing damage and maybe death downstream......our local mill has a pond, but no dam I can see....and it's pretty well fenced off so kids can't go drown in the pond I guess....speaking of the mill, it's sunny out now, so I'll go take a walk over that way.....got a turkey stew in the slow cooker.....

streams and creeks will come out of their banks

they worded that pretty plainly.....been pouring all day, but the heaviest part will be rolling through in the next two or three hours, as I read it. I had a turkey salad sandwich for lunch, and I've got country ham slice, mac and cheese bake, and lima beans for supper. Damn, the tornado siren is going off.....

no more walks today

I don't think....chilly blowing rain, heavy at times.....and one thing mentioned mixed rain and snow by the weekend? Hope it doesn't rain on our Christmas parade, I want to remember the camera and get some pix this year....like when the parade stops for a train to go through....so for this cold weather I'm going to use up some turkey in a stew....I've got onion, and a bell pepper, a can of black beans, a can of corn, a jar of salsa......and maybe chicken broth and rice could go in with that and diced turkey.....slow cook all day, maybe Thursday.....

raining, flash flood watch

But on the radar it looks like there's a break coming up, so I'm waiting to take my walk to get the paper. It's morning rush hour, such as it is in Clinton....and it's been raining, so of course you can hear sirens.....somebody got in a wreak I bet, because people always speed up in the rain instead of slowing down. Never have figured out why. I'm just a couple of blocks from where the ambulance dispatches, so I notice when it does.

frosty

28.7 F the hour after sunrise.....but no clouds, so the sun is shining in right now.....a bigger storm front coming Wednesday, bigger than Monday's......and then there is going to be a cold spell, freezing overnight for a while.....I need to go get orange juice, and apple juice....and apples too I guess.....stayed up later than usual watching some old movie, so I slept real well, but had a dream marathon it seems to me, and too many dreams make me wake up tired....can't win for losing.....

whew

after five days of turkey dinner, the gravy, stuffing, and peas are all gone. But there is still lots of turkey to deal with....one dinner could be a turkey drumstick, black-eyed peas, and cornbread. Maybe that tomorrow.....and I was trying to remember turkey and noodles....a casserole? I can google it.....

well, the rain got here

in the afternoon....not too cold or windy, so I've been sitting out on the front porch just watching it come down pretty steady.....

storm front

to the north-west, part of it at Athens now, and looking like it might be heading this way....so I'm trying to figure if it will start raining if I go for another walk......they say rain today, clear Tuesday, rain the next day after that....

warmer today

42F at 7:30 AM......sun coming through the south window of the living room right now....I'm going over to the drug store for a couple of things.....had french toast and sausage for breakfast.....microwaved a plate of turkey dinner last night....going to be the same thing this evening I guess.....I bet turkey enchilada would work.....

beyond freezing

29.5 F, clear, calm....bit brisk on my sun-up walk.....Clinton will play Myrtle Beach Dec. 5th for the AAA division state football championship....go Red Devils! That's the same day Clemson plays Georgia Tech for the ACC championship. So it's pigskin heaven in the Upstate, pretty much. I saw in the paper this morning an article about it being whale watching season off the Carolina coast.....hadn't thought of that, being only familiar with the whale watching season off the California coast.....It's WB's birthday, so I'm going to drive over to Ora for a few minutes I guess, and then at noon it's Clemson vs. South Carolina on ESPN. Lunch will be turkey, as will dinner. Bourbon gravy is pretty tasty.

freezing

on my walk at 7:30.....32 degrees, clear and bright, not much wind. I just put a 12.86 lb. bird in the oven.....I put a box of cornbread stuffing mixed with the leftover creamed onions in it, and stuck the thermometer into the stuffing, when the stuffing gets to 165, it should be done.....will take roughly four hours? The bird has a pop-up timer, too. I won't stuff myself as much as yesterday, but I will have meals for a while involving turkey in some form.....recipe in the paper for Thai-style turkey curry....hmm..it calls for coconut milk, and other strange things...probably won't try that one....

Thanksgiving evening

Had a very nice afternoon at Cindy and Matt's house, with their kids and her parents there, and Uncle Ed's sister also.....they have a great old house, and we had the whole nine yards traditional Thanksgiving dinner.....seems like we ate for hours....back home now and can hardly move....a good day.

39 in the fog

the cream sauce came out on the thin side, but maybe it will all cook down some in the oven....I suppose some times I should read a recipe and measure things, instead of just faking it by memory of the way I did it five or six years ago.....

Happy Thanksgiving

to all.....was clear and crisp just after dawn, but now fog has rolled in.....maybe it will be burning off before I drive over to Laurens......have a good one!

sun did come out

got warm enough to sit out on the porch for a while.....if it's like this tomorrow, it will be a pleasant holiday, weather-wise.....

sun might burn through

later, but so far it's another gray day, 50 outside. Just got back from a walk, got some things in the dryer.....thinking of a grilled corn beef, swiss cheese, and kraut on rye for lunch. Last night I just made a swiss cheese omelette, with a toasted biscuit. I used some oregano in the omelette.....It looks like everything public shuts down for the four day weekend, the schools and the city anyway.......this Friday and Saturday you can buy a gun without any sales tax; some strange state law......

http://tinglesscifihed.blogspot.com/

Happy Holidays....

drizzle

drizzle when I went to the library and the store....more drizzle on the park walk, but not enough to worry about......did find some books to read, nothing in the mail but ads.....almost every time I do get mail, there is something trying to sell me life insurance.....what's the point in that? Money doesn't matter when you're dead, I don't think.....

not as cold this morning

low clouds, no wind......in a little bit I'm going to the library and the grocery store.....Cindy invited me to Laurens for Thanksgiving.....Aunt Addie and Uncle Ed will be there.....so I'll put off cooking my turkey until Friday, I guess.....I told Cindy I would bring creamed onions, if I can find the pearl onions....I'm pretty sure I saw them the other day at BI-LO. They are saying it will be in the 60's on Thanksgiving....in the 50's today.....possibility of snow flurries in the mountains over the weekend......

cold chopped chicken liver

on a biscuit, with some pickle slices on the side. For supper, beef stew from a can. It's for sure stew weather, still cold and damp out. I did walk over by the park, pretty well bundled up, multiple layers......took a little nap after lunch.....

cars had their wipers on

sort of a blowing mist and light drizzle on my morning walk.....high of 51 predicted for today....I think it rained most of the night...don't think I need to drive anywhere today.....library books are due tomorrow, Tuesday, I'm pretty sure.....

after dark

it's still raining and cold out.....I still have chicken livers, so I cooked up some more of those with biscuits and more green beans, and made better pan gravy this time.....I bought some of that Wondra sauce and gravy flour, and whisked it in hot water before mixing it with the leavings in the frying pan.....I'm practicing for turkey day....didn't do much of anything today, no games on I was interested in....took a nap, read a book.....

you live and you learn

"In this country, there are only three companies which print U.S. Postage Stamps, and one of them is in Clinton." Raining pretty good here before noon Sunday, chilly outside. Spent more at the grocery store than I had planned, since they had the kind of olive oil I like two for one, so I stocked up on that....and they had a pound of store brand swiss chess for only thirty cents more than a half pound of Kraft....couldn't resist.....so I had to get rye bread too, for grilled swiss on rye....

storm on the way

I can see it on the radar, so I'm going out to the store now and maybe get back before it gets here...I just need a couple of things, if I can remember what they were.....I'll figure it out, I guess.....sausage scramble with sourdough toast for breakfast, black coffee, orange juice .....45 degrees outside....

clouding up to the west

Clinton beat Union County last night, so the Red Devils advance to play against Daniel for the Upper State AAA title.....if they win that they play the low country winner for the state championship. Wofford plays Furman today in football, and it's even televised....but it's on the same time as Clemson and Virginia, so I don't think Wofford-Furman will have a huge viewership. If Clemson wins today and Dec. 5th, they get into the Orange Bowl, or something. I might take a walk over into downtown, somebody had stuff out in the hardware store parking lot, a yard sale....I saw that when I went for the paper....could check it out.....last night I had the leftover short ribs, and tonight it's going to get cold and damp they say, so soup sounds like a good idea.

bright, windy

was 40 at 7:30 on the newspaper walk. Around 9:30 I went on the mill walk, and it was 52 still. Probably not going to get much above 60 today. Clinton Red Devils play in the Upstate semi-final in their football division, over in Union county tonight. Panthers lost late last night, and are probably out of play off contention.....Chargers still have a chance? Saturday on Thanksgiving weekend is Football Day, when Clemson plays Carolina....I'm looking forward to turkey and cold stuffing on a dinner roll while watching the big game....sort of a tradition for me.....

chicken livers, dirty rice, green beans

I rolled the chicken livers in cajun fish fry, to spice them up a bit to go with the leftover dirty rice....made a little pan gravy to go over it all....now I'm stuffed, and sitting waiting for the evening news to come on.....maybe I can watch some college B-ball until the Carolina Panthers and the Dolphins come on later....and maybe I can stay awake through that game....but since it doesn't start until 8 our time, I'll probably be falling asleep by half-time.....the weather ended up pretty nice in the afternoon, 65 or so.......

fog

100% humidity.....but it's not too cold, no wind. The short ribs of beef braised in apple juice and topped with sauerkraut were very tasty....there's easily enough left for another dinner....the hybrid cooking method of microwaving the meat first and then crock-potting it for only four or five hours instead of all day worked perfectly......the Greenville paper had a recipe in yesterday for corn pudding....I enjoyed some of that at one of the Ora covered dish dinners, and so now I'll try making it sometime....probably after Thanksgiving.....well, about time for a walk....

that's that

did my Thanksgiving shopping....WalMart advertised turkeys for 40 cents a pound, but I went to BiLo anyway, where I usually shop....got a 12 pounder for six bucks....and with the turkey purchase and my regular grocery shopping, I get 20 cents a gallon off the next time I fill up at Shell....which is only every six weeks or so.....and I got all the other stuff for turkey dinner, plus a disposable roasting pan, and a whisk for gravy....I didn't have one of those anymore....and I got some chicken livers, and some short ribs of beef to braise with sauerkraut....and enough meals to last 'til turkey day, after which I'll go on a turkey diet for a while.....low 50s, windy, cloudy, probably going to rain by the afternoon......

more tuesday

Went for a walk and later had some lunch.....a corned beef burger with grilled onions and pickles....the grocery store ad comes with the Tuesday junk mail, and they have turkeys with your card and a $25 purchase for 49 cents a pound.....I'm not good at math, but isn't that five bucks for ten pounds? And if you buy the turkey on this deal, you get another 10 cents a gallon off at Shell. Damn, how can I afford NOT to buy the turkey, even if it will take me 'til Christmas to eat it all? I imagine I can find $25 of other stuff I can use....I'm thinking roasted turkey with apple and raisin corn bread stuffing, bourbon gravy, petit pois....and maybe dinner rolls....I can always use those later.....mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce I don't really need, for one person the whole nine yards is sorta overkill....

change in the weather

the few sunny days are gone, and it's cloudy with north winds....might start raining this afternoon....yesterday they had cars parked so you couldn't get into the McDonalds parking lot....that's because they are tearing it down to build a "new concept" replacement. No more golden arches over the building....it will be brick faced and designed to fit in with the "historical" character of downtown....it will have dual drive-thrus! Cool. No more kiddy playland either, those were an insurance nightmare.....

bubbly bouncy pop

I turned on the station that's indie and college new music.....it's all bright and cheery and bouncing along.....what world do these people live in? I must be out of touch with reality again, dammit....happens from time to time I suppose....or maybe I just tuned in during the perky pop hour?

another pleasant morning

more or less.....the guy who fixed things at the Resort had shown me the trick of just turning the stopper on the sewer line outside the bathroom upside down and just leaving it sitting there instead of screwed in....that way if the line backs up, it can't back all the way up into the house....well, when I brought the trashcan back in from the street this morning, I noticed that the stopper had in fact floated up, so I looked and the line was backed up. So I used this kind of plunger I got a while back that you pump up and down real fast and it sends resonant shock waves into whatever is plugging the plumbing....it worked. But I also went to the store and bought a bottle of that stuff for cleaning the line to the street. It had been over a year since I had used any of that, I think. I also picked up all the sticks the hurricane had blown out of the trees, and put them out at the curb for the city to pick up. They usually do that on Tuesdays, on my street.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjtingle/

It was beautiful driving in all the Fall colors.....I didn't get as far as the national forest, I just went to the Horseshoe Falls area of the state park, about ten miles from the house.....see pix per usual....it's nice out there....saw one other car parked, but didn't see any other people.....warm enough today to open up some windows and let the air in.....the Charger game is at 4:15 Eastern time, I think....they don't list it in the local TV sports, but I might get it on that NFL channel, I'll have to check.....anyway, have a good Sunday.....

peaceful Sunday morning

nice outside....just been sitting and reading the paper, listening to the radio some....maybe I'll go drive through the woods later, over in the national forest land around Whitmere or somewhere like that......

oh boy

those ribs sure were tasty.....Carolina is hanging in there pretty well with Florida....Clemson looked good, except for the PAT....what's with that?

last night

while I had on the Celtics and the Hawks, the remote stopped working, so this morning I went to the store and got batteries, and they had Progresso soup 2 for 1 so I got clam chowder and chicken pot pie.....and I also got ribs to bake with a yam during the football this afternoon.....and country sausage was on sale too, so I can have sausage and french toast for Sunday breakfast, and then use some sausage with the dirty rice mix I got....that will be good for a couple of meals itself....very nice here this morning, clear and warm....so I'm going to walk by the old mill, and then I need to vacuum and mop also......

in the afternoon

it's mostly sunny and 68....so I can sit on the porch in some comfort....walked the park a while ago, had some lunch....might take a nap.....

sunny and warm?

That's what the weather lady was saying for today, but right here right now it's still windy and overcast.....I guess it is some degrees warmer.....

walked the park

after lunch.....still relatively nasty outdoors, but they are saying it will warm up to the 70's for the weekend.....I'll believe that when I see it....can't seem to get into reading today....I'll pick up a book and then just put it back down....happens sometimes.....

stocking cap and wind breaker

on the morning walk, windy, chilly, cloudy....but not raining .....did rain more during the night....I think it said 88 trees had fallen down in Greenville County during this storm ......record rainfall for the date at GSP airport, etc....yesterday I fixed a hot toddy with dark rum and apple juice in the microwave....that works. Conch Republic rum.....the lady at the ABC said the Conch Republic was one of those little island countries down in the West Indies.....well, not quite. The back of the bottle says the Conch Republic is what Key West called itself when it seceded from the Union back in the 1980's some time.....I think it's a Bacardi product, but is about half the price of the Bacardi branded stuff.....anyway, had a poached egg on sourdough toast for breakfast, and lunch is going to be a homemade hamburger.....a homemade hamburger always seems to be better than any fast food hamburger.......

Had to take a walk

got tired of sitting inside, so I put on a stocking cap and a wind breaker and went ahead in the 52 degree light blowing drizzle, with gusts to 35 mph....felt good. It's raining a little harder now, a couple of hours after the walk, still blowing....I went and rounded up the front porch chairs, and they blew away again....had the last of the corn soup for lunch, with a slice of sourdough toast. Oatmeal with raisins and bran flakes for breakfast.....haven't decided on dinner yet, a couple of choices.....

still stormy

the chairs blew off the front porch in the night....not walking weather this morning, but it's all moving to the north and east they say.....maybe it will be nicer in the afternoon sometime....I drove to the gas station and got the Greenville paper, and the weekly Clinton paper, which usually doesn't have too much of interest in it, but today it had a front page article about the Confucius Institute opening at PC.....they put up an eight foot tall statue of Confucius..."The statue is the largest of the Chinese philosopher in the country..." Is this all a front for Commie propaganda? They want to start teaching Chinese in grade school.....on Dish I get CCTV, ChiComTelevision (well, they call it Chinese Cultural TeleVision)....it's got lots of good shows....like the one where they went up in the mountains to this place where the local specialty food is giant noodles....I mean these noodles were two feet wide and twelve feet long.....one of those suckers feeds an extended family for a week, or something like that.....

Ida stayed home

anyway, even if there wasn't a hurricane.....no where to go much....no newspaper walk this morning, too much rain and some wind....I'll drive to the store later and get a paper when I get bread and orange juice, and whatever.....

hurricane clouds today

and the rain from Ida through Tuesday, is what the computers are modeling.....so it's going to be wetter rather than colder for a couple of days, with the air moving from the south....I can stay inside and eat soup.....

that will cures what ails you

I had a little bit of sniffles and sneeze....so I wanted swap-meet soup:E-Z elote sopa....one can whole kernel corn, one can red enchilada sauce, one can green enchilada sauce, one can chicken broth, 1/4 cup diced onion, olive oil, parmesan cheese, Fritos.....you could remember cilantro and garlic, but I didn't.....In a large sauce pan heat olive oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pan....saute diced onion briefly, add drained corn and roast briefly, add enchilada sauces and chicken broth, bring to boil, reduce heat to medium low, simmer for two or three hours, checking every once in a while and stirring.....maybe 45 minutes before you want to eat, uncover, reduce heat to low, and add perhaps 1/2 cup grated cheese and one handful of Fritos, about as much as a small bag of those....stir well to blend in the cheese, and let simmer down until the smell fills the house and you just have to go ahead and eat. The corn should be fully tender cooked, and the Fritos about like the tortilla in tortilla soup. Made my nose run, and put a fire in my belly, which is what I was after. Looks like enough for two or three more meals, I bet.

in 1900

the population of the United States was 3.9 million.....anyway, I did go to the store, and this afternoon will try sopa elote, with no fat low sodium chicken stock.....for lunch I went crazy and spent $2.18 at Burger King for the double cheeseburger they kept showing during football yesterday, with a one dollar "value drink".....I got Dr. Pepper.....I was the only customer in there.....next door at the Waffle House, there were half a dozen cars maybe....this was 10:30 on a Sunday morning.....it's warm enough right now to have some windows open, let some air in.....

population

San Diego County has a population of 3 million.....South Carolina has a population of 4.5 million....gives you some perspective......Sunday morning, Clemson did win that game, but I went to bed before it was over.....tequila french toast for breakfast.....I used up all the eggs, so I think I will go to the store this morning, and look for stuff to make chicken soup or something like that too.....was 10 degrees warmer this morning than yesterday morning at the same time.....I can get some cash at the store also, there's one dollar in my wallet.....

OK

for the food part today, I'm thinking Grits Machaca con huevos.....

Gamecocks and Razorbacks

S. Carolina is down by 10 late in the 4th....oh well.....watching with Robin Trower playing through the stereo, so I don't have to hear the commercials....looks like Arkansas is about to score again....Clemson is on tonight, or this might be all the football I can take today.....

dobro sitar style

In Guitar Player this guy described the technique for making a dobro sound like a sitar....it's really cool! Once you figure out which plectrum and which slide to use, you can get all that sitar buzzing and sympathetic string thing going.....amusement for hours......at least for me, anyway....34 degrees this morning, so it was a ski jacket walk on the dawn patrol....still in the 40s now, but I might get in another walk before the Carolina game at 12:30 or whenever it is exactly....maybe I'll walk through downtown rather than around the park, for a change.....

in the afternoon

it did warm up to around 60, so I took the park walk, and then sat out on the porch for a while....

looks beautiful outside

but it's only 55 and windy....I think I'll just stay inside for right now. It was 37 on my morning walk, with frost in the shady places. I had that pot-roast sandwich for lunch, it was excellent....I don't remember where it was that they used to have pot-roast sandwich on the menu all the time...maybe it was that place near Palomar Hospital, that I went into a few times, when somebody was in the hospital....eating apples instead of bananas, I've lost about four pounds.....

The Book of Air and Shadows

was the first Michael Gruber book I read a couple of months ago, and this week I picked up another one....The Forgery of Venus. The first one was a very involving and somehow scary work....this one is full blaze mindwrenching....a printed drug? Anyway, I can only read a few pages at a time, and then put it down and try to think of something else....it ought to last a while that way, I guess....I also got some David Gemmell paperbacks....he's good too.....late afternoon, listening to the Rewind station, the one that plays tunes from the cassette era.....

Sun came up

as usual....blue sky, bright, 40 degrees on my first walk.....I've got to work on that pot-roast, so I'll have it for supper tonight....and cold pot-roast with bread-and-butter pickle slices and a little mayo sounds like a tasty lunch sandwich.....yesterday's lunch was a cold biscuit sandwich with canned corn beef, sharp cheddar cheese, the pickle slices....but no mayo (actually I buy some kind of generic low fat spread)...oh, and a handful of Fritos....I've been wondering if you could substitute Fritos in tortilla soup.....anyway, nice looking Fall day, upper 60's expected, but patchy frost and lows in the mid 30's for Friday morning. Coos Bay has a high surf warning, but I don't think Caroline goes surfing much.....

old mill village bathrooms

were apparently entered off the back porch.....according to a little piece I was reading in the Clinton paper....and some of the sheds in the backyards started off as outhouses? I knew the bathroom and laundry porch at my house had been remodeled somewhere along the line....there are some houses in the village that look like the same model as mine, but they don't have the laundry part enclosed, just roofed over....and you still have to go out the kitchen door and onto the back porch to get to the bathroom I guess. I bet it was cold in the bathroom in the Winter, since the house was heated only by the two coal burning fireplaces.....the Company supplied coal.....well, I went to the grocery store and the gas station already, and the mail has been....just ads....so I guess I'll go for a walk.....still cool enough to need a jacket this morning, high of 62 predicted for the day.....they had apples two bags for one, so I've got lots of apples.....I think I'll do the dish again with fried apples wedges and sweet potato slices.....

lovely afternoon

I got some good library books, and walked by the park, and had leftover pork-rice for a hot lunch....looking at heated up pot-roast over biscuit for supper.....had a good session with the guitar today, some days I can get it working, and some days I just give up....took a few random outside pix.....see at the usual place, if you like.....

I didn't feel hungry at dinnertime

yesterday, so I just ate an apple and a chunk of cheese later on before going to bed. This morning I'm going to the library and the drug store. It was 39 point something when I went for the paper....clear sky, sunshine.....maybe CVS will have cashews on sale, they do have them quite often....I miss the raw nuts from Bate's.....

it did warm up to about 65

so I went for my walk after lunch....after that I think I fell asleep sitting up on the sofa for a bit....anyway, later I was out sitting on the front porch, and cousin Emily came walking by....I had seen her with Aunt Becky at Uncle Bill's services....she lives just two blocks away apparently, there is a brick fourplex right near the Post Office, and her work provides her an apartment there for six days, and then she lives with the kids at Thornwell for eight days, etc....she is a housekeeper or house-mother, what ever they call it....works at the orphanage....she was just out walking for exercise, like I do I guess....it's a nice neighborhood for that anyway.....

cold, cloudy, sharp north wind

so the walk to get the paper was brisk, to say the least.....maybe it will warm up enough by the afternoon to be comfortable on the mill park walk, or I can just bundle up more, I guess....the Panthers won yesterday, with their defense mostly.....and it looks like the Yanks are on their way to buying another championship.....the pot-roast came out good, and it's good weather for it. I've got library books due tomorrow, so I could sit and read for an hour or so and probably finish them up.....

time change days

are always slightly disjointed.....but this is "real" time, right....the sun is directly overhead at noon, as it should be. Breakfast was french toast and the last of the spam.....lunch was cold fried chicken and raisin slaw....the whole house smells like the simmering pot roast.....

raining when I went to sleep

and raining when I woke up.....and I got a good 8 hours sleep, I think....but it stopped raining by the time I'd had breakfast, so I could do my walk and get the Sunday paper. I put the chuck roast and veggies in the crock pot already, so that will be for dinner tonight. I used the last of the orange juice this morning, so I'll go to the store for more of that, and maybe some cole slaw for a lunch side.....boy the wind is kicking up.....I should turn the calendar I guess....November already....

Gamecocks not looking good

and it's about 9 at night and almost 70 outside....it smells like an aquarium....swamp water blowing through the air? I think maybe 50 trick-or-treaters this year.....so far....

warm fog

lots of moist air moving up from the Gulf....60 when I got up.....on my walk, they already had the center of town blocked off for the festival....food vendors were setting up....last year I got some hash, I think.....the food prices are pretty reasonable at this thing usually.....might get rained on, though.....Clinton football advances to the regionals, and there is baseball and football and trickortreat and the festival all going on tonight.....

around noon

and it's starting to burn off pretty good.....foggy earlier, low clouds anyway....they say it might be damp for trick-or-treat tomorrow.....and for the downtown Fall Festival.....not too bad out on the front porch, probably around 60, some sunshine.....I stayed up until 11:30 watching the World Series, so now I feel like taking a nap, maybe.....

nice morning

going to be in the 70's in the afternoon.....walked in the park around 10 in the morning, not too hot, not too cold.....blue sky and a little breeze, clean fresh air.....what do you want from life? In the food category, yesterday I fixed a pork chop with BBQ sauce and oregano, mac-and-cheese, and fried cabbage. So today it's looking like salmon, the rest of the mac&cheese, and use up the leftover creamed spinach. Today's luncheon menu features cold fried chicken, bread and butter, and bread and butter pickle slices. Don't think I need to drive anywhere today.....went into the corner thrift store on the way back from the park, but didn't see anything to buy. So, right now I'm going to go sit out on the front porch and eat an apple, and watch the squirrel family put things inside the oak tree, fixing up their apartment.....

replete

a half sandwich on 12 grain bread with Spam and cheddar cheese and mayo, plus two bread-and-butter pickle slices.....those were the real kicker.....and a hand full of Fritos and a glass of burgandy. I walked over by the mill....nice outside today....and I spent a whole bunch of money at the grocery store seems like, but hopefully I ended up with a bunch of dinners. Got a good looking hunk of chuck roast, which I'll put with a can of mushroom soup and a can of mixed vegetables in the croak pot one day this weekend probably.....got a little tube of biscuits to go with the resulting pot roast.....got some salmon, looked at the catfish but the packages were too big for me.....bought some candy in case of trick-or-treaters.....they are having the festival a couple of blocks away that night, so maybe a lot of customers or maybe not.....I had thought it had said in the paper that they were going to put up a statue to the middle-named Clinton dude the town is named after, but it is just a "monument".....looks like a head-stone to me....like the poor guy is buried there by the train tracks.....

flash flood watch

but Clinton is actually on high ground...."clinton" as a word has a meaning of a town built on a hill...if you can believe everything you read on Google.....I've got dinner simmering, smells good....

good soaking rain

so I'm staying in cranking Classic Vinyl and messing with guitars....had my last slice of bread grilled with cheese, onion, and fried Spam for lunch....with the last kosher dill pickle spear in the jar, and a glass of wine. The fridge is almost empty.....good thing tomorrow is grocery day....I do have something left for this evening....I'm going to dice up a piece of pork with onion and saute that in olive oil, and then add a package of long grain and wild rice mix with it's seasoning packet, and have that with creamed spinach....and what's probably the last glass of wine in the box. So I need to get bread, wine, onion, peanut butter (Peter Pan two for one at BILO)....and something else I wrote down but have already forgotten....the BILO flyer that came in the mail this morning had catfish nuggets too....might get some of those.....pickles! that was the other thing of course....and the Spam is almost gone too, so I'll see if they have any deli counter sliced lunch meat bargains.....

change

They changed the CNN site, and Yahoo is changing it's format....old people don't like change....things don't work like they used to.....grumble.....well, the rain is almost here, I can see it on the radar....going to get up to 60 today maybe.....whoop-de-do.....staying in the living room with the electric heater on and the ceiling fan on in reverse does seem to work.....the rest of the house is cold, but there's nobody in the rest of the house......I looked at the prices of electric blankets, and then just got another swap-meet blanket out of the closet and put it on the bed....that worked well enough last night. Monday's supper was medallion of pork with skillet potatoes and fried green apple. I had two chicken wings I was going to use, but they smelled funny, so I threw them out.

news from the Resort

Remi, my old next door neighbor called, to tell me that our friend Norman had passed about a week ago....and then last night his next door neighbor on the other side passed also, down at Palomar. Remi and Trish were down there all night with Linda, who lived with Jerry. Jerry is the other one who died. He was 64, and Norm was 68. Remi just found my phone number today, or he would have called sooner about Norm. Remi is 58, and trying to get SS Disability, he has had pieces taken out of his lungs....at least I think he got that done finally....these folk were all in our group that used to do BBQ or pot-luck pretty regularly, etc....

zone heating

It stays warm here sitting on the sofa with the electric oil-filled radiator going, and I can leave the thermostat turned way down. I keep meaning to go over to WalMart and look for an electric blanket too. Maybe later this morning I'll go walk by the mill park.....it's 50 outside, with a north wind.....rain predicted for Tuesday.....

sunday evening

Driving up towards Greenville through the forest part was really nice, with all the trees turning yellow and red.....the part where it's like a freeway in a city was just plain freaky to me after not having done anything like that for months.....since when Brian was here last Spring....damn I'm glad I don't live in a mess like that....cars, lanes, lights, signs....

only one day

I read that there have to be at least three warm days for it to count as Indian Summer, and this morning isn't exactly warm, so maybe it's just back to Fall. Sure are lots of acorns falling, the sidewalks are like walking on crunchy marbles......I had french toast topped with fried Spam for breakfast......over in the middle of town they put up a statue of Henry Clinton Young, whom the town is named after. Named after his middle name? It's some regional thing I guess.....half the people around here go by their middle names for some reason.....there will be a ceremony to dedicate the statue on Halloween? That's when they are having the Fall Festival this year, with fun for all ages.....

ugh

fast food wasn't such a good idea....been belching for hours.....

frustration report

My wifi starting flickering on and off, and then quit altogether.....the phone company says they can't help me, that it's something wrong with my laptop.....I don't know about that....I can still connect at a hotspot, so why is it my computer? But, plugging in the ethernet cable that I finally found out in a box on the back porch, the thing works faster than ever....but I have this yellow cord going across the carpet.....on to food and weather.....I got two blackjack tacos at Taco Bell....a little bit spicy, cheap, orange and black for Halloween? My only fast food in the last couple of months.....$1.94 total. And the weather has turned nice today after pouring rain right before sunrise as the front passed through.....it's warm after the first frost, so is that the definition of Indian Summer? Something like that I think....

friday

90 percent chance of rain later into the evening.....looking stormy outside already.....walked to the store and bought the eggs I forgot the other day, spending an extra 70 cents instead of firing up the Jeep and driving over to the supermarket.....last night I finished up the stuffing, with snap beans and chicken wings. Tonight will be strip steak with mushrooms, and a green salad with that balsamic type dressing......Sunday I'm going to drive up to the services for Uncle Bill Brockman, his obituary was in the Greenville paper today. He got Aunt Edith situated in a Home a little while ago.....

cloud running squirrel

I was just leaving on my walk when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a squirrel running along the top of a cloud...."That can't be right", I thought.....so I looked again and what I was seeing was a squirrel running along a cable line, and from where I was standing that line was even with the tops of the clouds in the East.....the whole thing was back-lit by the sunrise....didn't have a camera with me, wouldn't have been quick enough to catch the image anyway.....well, it should warm up a little in an hour or so, and I'll look at mowing the yard.....maybe I'll just look at it, maybe I'll actually get it done.....

grocery store

They had the big cans of coffee on sale for $6...one of those last three months maybe.....and they had a bag of salad greens for 88 cents....and all kinds of good stuff.....99 cents for the mushrooms that they needed to move today.....so I spent $30 and I've got meals until next Wednesday at least....this dang change in the weather always gets into my back....cold and damp is worse for a bad back than hot and humid.....looks like the LA baseball teams are going to get knocked out of the playoffs, and it will end up Philadelphia against New York....boring.....

warmed up nicely this afternoon

it's getting close to 70. So maybe tomorrow I'll get the mower out one more time....with the heating season starting, the mowing season is about over ......I walked around the park before lunch, and had some mail in the box when I got back....the usual Tuesday ads, and the property tax bill for 2009. It's not due until January, but I went ahead and wrote a check for $211.38 right now anyway, and will drop it off at the Post Office as I go by on my walk in the morning. I've been sitting out on the front porch for a while, getting warm and almost nodding off.....The other day I walked over through downtown....Sunday I guess....and in the city lot behind the building where you can pay utilities if you want to, they have this AMC Matador Barcelona sitting there....it's pretty cheery....with a 360 and trick dual pipes....if you pay five bucks you can get into a raffle for it, with the draw on Halloween I think.....the sucker isn't even locked...I opened the door and sat in it and popped the hood and looked at the motor....and didn't see any body else the whole time.....this town is cool, I love it.....anyway, should I put in the $5? What would I do with another car....have to pay more insurance.....but that 360 is a badass motor, since they let you take all the smog stuff off in SC........

two degrees warmer this morning

thank goodness for small favors. There was another article in the paper about living to be 100. Who wants to live to be 100? Not me. I think that if you've been around people in the 80's or 90's, then you would have doubts about living into those years yourself. What's the point? Anyway, the sooner I kick the bucket, the better chance I have of not outliving my money. There was also something in the paper about acorns.....red oaks have small round acorns, so I guess the oaks around here are red oaks. They are for sure different than the Lake Wohlford oaks, which have bigger longer acorns, and different shaped leaves. Or leafs. Whatever. Last night my veggie side was sugar snap peas, frozen from Bird's-Eye....those are tasty, and they were on sale for one dollar.

55.5 degrees F

By 1 in the afternoon it had warmed up enough to be comfortable taking a walk around the park....had grilled cheese sandwich and fritos for lunch, with a glass of wine....a variation from the chili dogs....played guitar for maybe one hour around noon, jamming with the radio from outer space....now I could take a nap, or read some......

freezing

It's 32 this morning, so it was a brisk walk at daybreak today.....and it hasn't warmed up any since then....

radiational cooling

the weather lady is telling me...."Last night was cold, but tonight...." it's going to be 35 maybe....but it's going to warm up later in the week.....

frost advisory

for Sunday night-Monday morning......high clouds right now Sunday morning....chilly, expecting north winds.....for Sunday breakfast I had spam and egg scramble with tabasco sauce and 12 grain toast with butter and apple jelly, and two mugs of black coffee....and orange juice.....already looked through the Sunday paper......

enough

enough football....I'll never stay awake through the Carolina game.....the channel 7 news said lows overnight in the 30's, and chance of snow showers in the mountains.....I would vote for an indian summer right now rather than an early winter, but democracy probably has nothing to do with it....

the weather lady said cold but dry

well, it's cold but wet.....Clinton lost, but Laurens won for the first time in 9 games, going back into last season.....I will make a great leap of faith and watch the Clemson game on TV.....and tonight Carolina plays Alabama on ESPN....I wonder if that will be on the West Coast too? I couldn't believe that last night when two Angels just stood there and let a bloop hit just drop right between them....they deserved to lose. And the Philles took out Martinez when the Dodgers had no runs, and their bullpen hit batters and walked people, and they lost. There we have the sports and weather.....nothing much in the food department, except I bought some chicken wings, because there is still a lot of that apple cornbread stuffing left, and some fried chicken would be good with that, I think....

stayed gray all day

only got up to 59F.....so I had another comfort food supper.....Spam and beans on toast, with a glass of mountain burgundy......always reminds me of those cloudy days in London during the Blitz.....well, the Dodgers are on TV shortly, maybe they can win a game......

severe weather alert

dense fog warning....visibility one-quarter mile.....good thing I don't have to drive anywhere....it's a chilly fog with a little north wind in it.....pretty cool going to get the paper.....

cold, gray

When I got out of bed it was 50 inside, and 46 outside....it's still 46 outside later in the morning.....but it's OK inside, since I went ahead and turned on the heater for the first time this "heating season".....I guess that season must have started anyway.....it said in the paper that if you heat with natural gas, which I do, then your bill for the heating season would be something like $185 less than last heating season.....any savings sounds good to me.....natural gas has gone down in price because demand is less because the economy went in the tank ......gas for the car is cheaper too, I filled up the other day at $2.15 a gallon......with the cold weather, I'm going to have a "comfort food" day I think....I'm looking at a chili dog with onion and cheese for lunch, and a piece of pork steak with cornbread stuffing and lima beans for dinner.....you can jazz up a box of stuffing mix with onion or mushrooms or whatever, and get your "starch" side that way....and for the single person it's probably enough for three suppers or so.....microwaves up real nice as a leftover....and it's dang cheap per serving.....anyway, that's about it for the food and weather I guess.....hmm, the mail truck just drove by, didn't stop here.....

Bear Paw slippers

were still under the bed from last time it was cold....had to find them, and a sweater....I guess it's that wind 10 mph from the northeast that's causing a chill.....that and the cold drizzle.....just not really very pleasant outside...oh well, have a cuppa tea!

rain, wind

Went to the grocery store, and also went to WalMart for the Blue Goo....and they had bitters there, which I hadn't been able to find anywhere else around here....it's raining, so I walked around the perimeter inside the superstore, that's probably a mile at least....they sure haves lots of stuff....there were six aisles of Halloween.....at the grocery store, I bought chili dog fixings.....a package of franks for 50 cents? I couldn't resist.....

Tuesday evening

no baseball games tonight, or anything else on TV worth watching, so I've been reading a library book.....looking at the radar online, it's stormy out West, with flood and high wind warnings, etc....here, after a calm day today, Laurens County is under flood watch also....for tonight and Wednesday.....

sunny, warmer, nice day

But they say it's going back to rain again for the rest of the week, or something....got cold during the night.....was foggy earlier today, but burned off pretty quick....went to the library.....took two walks, since I didn't get any walk on that rainy Monday holiday.....watched the Phillies and Rockies last night, and, like the one guy was saying when they interviewed him, it sure ain't over until the fat lady sings.....you can get the other guys down to the last out and the last strike, and still lose the game, the series, the season.....well, it's something to keep me awake....otherwise I fall asleep after dinner on the sofa, and then wake up and go to bed and can't get to sleep.....does that make any sense? Probably about as much as anything else in this life.....

cold north wind

and it rained pretty much all day.....things got a good soaking around here......still have leftover pasta and the last of the bag of spinach for dinner .....uneventful Columbus Day, by and large....

rain, holiday, monday

Too wet to walk for the paper....guess I'll drive.

California Angels A-OK!

I was putting some chicken in the oven in the 9th inning, and didn't actually see the go-ahead run, but I heard it.....and a few minutes later Carolina hung on in the last two minutes and beat the Redskins.....and right now NASCAR is on from Fontana.....do I need to "get a life"?.....whatever....besides baked chicken drumsticks I had left-over mac-and-cheese, and cream style corn for an excellent dinner.....happy as a clam at high-tide......somebody has to send me the menu from the wedding feast? Blessings to all involved.......

Freeway series?

I watched the Dodgers sweep the Cards yesterday.....will the Angels sweep the Sox today? Not supposed to rain today, but 90 percent chance for Columbus Day and beyond....here they count the rain year from January to January, rather than from June to June like in California....so Clinton is at 34 in. right now, shooting for 40. I'm about out of orange juice and oatmeal, so I'm headed to the store shortly.....I can buy more popcorn too, to watch the baseball game. Hope it's a perfect day down San Diego way for ya'all!

edible fruit

the "olive" of the tea olive is used in Chinese cooking.....tea olive jam is a big seller....and the blossoms are used to make a scented tea......with a window open in my sitting room, the aroma comes in with the breeze.....I went on the mill walk a while ago, worked up a little sweat in the humidity........

Osmanthus fragrans

Aha, the newspaper gardening section had an article this morning about the fragrant punch of the Chinese Tea Olive shrub.....I bet that is what I have next door......it rained some in the night, and might rain more later today....right now it's broken clouds, warm wind, and sort of muggy in the low 70's......last night I fixed crisp fish fingers with oregano, mac-and-cheese, and fresh spinach greens. The Gamecocks play Kentucky at 12:30 on Fox South HD, which I have on Dish it looks like.....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjtingle/

look at my last two photos, per above.....as I put in the comments, this bush has a beautiful smell this time of year, blossoming perversely in the Fall? I think it might be a "tea bush"....but I'm not sure if you can actually make tea to drink from it.......

overcast

not as crisp as yesterday morning.....just got done paying my car insurance to Allstate online, and put the new card in my wallet.....they send you the renewal a month before it's due.....and under "discounts" it says I got $13.73 off my premium because "Good Payer-Future Effective Date"....is that because I paid a month early last time too? I pay when I get the renewal, rather than wait for the actual bill, so it's over and done with for another six months.....sounds like something you could put on your tombstone...."Good Payer-Future Effective Date".....I used to think another good thing would be "Moves Well Without The Ball".....but I can hardly move at all anymore, basketball-wise......

crisp, brisk walk

right after sun-up.....that'll wake you up and get you going.....I just put some stuff in the washing machine, and I've got to clean in odd corners and things.....I bought honey wheat bread this time, which makes tasty toast with the poached egg on it.....the shell pasta with turkey sausage came out pretty good....I'll be eating that for a while, looks like.....in the stores, they've just gone ahead and put the Christmas stuff out right along with the Halloween stuff.....what's with that?

3:30 in the afternoon

and it's 82 degrees.....blue sky, breezy.....Fall has retreated, at least for the moment.....I've had some pasta I've been meaning to use up, so I bought some sauce and some Italian turkey sausage...what's an Italian turkey say? And some spinach for a salad.....

just after sunrise

woke up to thunder and lots of rain, but looking at the radar the storm front from the west and north appears to be past Clinton pretty much, so I'm going to wait a few minutes and then see if it's dry enough to walk and get the paper.....just finishing my cup of tea.....had a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast......

every once in a while

I walk down to the thrift store on the corner, to see what's new.....and today I found a pair of Old Navy stone-washed boot cut blue jeans that fit just right for two bucks! Can't beat that deal with a stick......

prize winning

Well, the people who made digital photography possible won the Nobel for physics.....makes sense to me.....

fog, around 60 degrees

modern marvels.....the light bulb I bought for the bathroom is one of those new CFL's that's inside a bulb that looks like an old fashioned bulb. I put it in and turned it on, and it seemed pretty dim, and I was starting to feel ripped off....but after 20 or 30 seconds it got brighter, ending up about like an old 60 watt bulb I guess....but it really only draws 14 W? They had them a dollar off, so it was the same price as a two-pack of antique bulbs, but will last ten times as long as one of them? You do the math, it's too complicated for me. Anyway, it's Tuesday morning, and I slept like a rock last night, which is a good thing.....I should do some chores, I suppose.....like maybe the front yard and the kitchen floor.....

no walk this morning

drove to the grocery store and got a newspaper there, along with a 9 volt for a smoke detector, a light bulb for the bathroom, apple juice, apple jelly (marmalade all gone).......and a couple of other things.....for the second time, I forgot tea bags, but I still have four or five left I think....it's damp and chilly and windy outside.....had quite a lot of rain already....oh well, I wandered around in the grocery store, maybe I can count that as exercise, or maybe I'll get a chance later to walk around the neighborhood some today if the weather lets up......

yup

the rain came up from Georgia all right.....might last a few days.....

sunday afternoon

it's clouding over, it says 74 degrees, but it doesn't feel that warm to me....80 percent chance of rain this evening......I've got various choices of leftovers for food.....not going anywhere.....

technical difficulties

well, I thought I would watch University of South Carolina play South Carolina State University, but the power went out in Columbia? So they showed Old Miss and Vanderbilt instead.....I'm just going to go to bed.....

the Parade of Power

that's the tractor parade....it was at 11, and I went home after that....I went over to the squeal deal around nine and stayed for a couple of hours....ran into Cindy with little Adie and Ed, and wandered around with them....they had some nice old cars and trucks.....and down by the tractors a guy was running a one-lung engine similar to that one WB had for a while, except this one had a muffler so it wasn't as loud.....they had a pickle eating contest....one poor kid looked like he was about to get sick.....and they had arts and crafts booths and lots of carnival food and BBQ which I didn't buy any of because the prices were pretty high for what you got, I thought.....I stopped by Wendy's on the way home and got a double cheeseburger and a chocolate frosty for $2.16.....a can of Coke was two bucks at the Squealing......they have bands and fireworks tonight in the park, but I think I'll just watch the Gamecocks football at home instead of going back over to Laurens. By the time I left, it had burned off and was warming up....and the crowd was getting thicker....my oven baked back ribs came out really good the other day, and I have plenty of them left for more meals.....

70, overcast

Started off on a walk over by the mill, but turned left instead of right, and went towards the train tracks....there's a pawn shop over there with some guitars and amps....and lots of guns....his sign out on the highway says "we buy gold".....and there was somebody with a yard sale a couple of doors down from the pawn shop....but I didn't see anything I wanted at either place....so I went past the auto parts and the wreaking yard and all and circled around back towards the house....the front yard could use a trim, but I'm too lazy today to get into that....

like a school lunch

I had chunky peanut butter and pimento cheese on rye toast, and an apple, and a handful of Fritos, with a glass of burgandy....well, I guess it depends on where you went to school....continues much the same as yesterday, clear and crisp.....I put a blanket on the bed last night, to go with the usual comforter.....I've got to remember to get someone to do a service on the heating unit I suppose, to make sure it is up to efficiency....before it starts getting really cold around here.....I turned the calendar to October, it's a picture of pumpkins....yesterday I cooked sirloin tips in onion and mushroom gravy, with cut greens beans and onion for the veggie....put the tips and gravy over long grain and wild rice, Uncle Ben's ......either today or Friday I'll do the baby back ribs in the oven.....with maybe mac-and-cheese and fried apples? I've got lots of apples...

absolutely marvelous

Very nice Fall weather....clear and blue with just a little breeze, cool and crisp....just right for walking.....I'm watching Ken Burns National Parks this week in the evening.....kinda makes you want to go camping, but, on the other hand....what's wrong with the nature in my own backyard? I do have to check out going up into the mountains from here sometime.....over the last two weeks, I've spent over $50 at BI-LO, so I get 5 cents a gallon off at the Shell station next to the shopping center....such a deal! Just swipe your card and watch the pump price go down.....haven't tried that yet.....I did get dental floss, shaving gel, bags of apples two for one, sweet onion, a russet potato, sirloin tips, orange juice, Stouffer's mac and cheese two for one, and a few other things, including a whole slab of baby back ribs for $9.54.....the Squealing Square thing is coming up this weekend, but I found it sort of expensive last year....so I'm going to just do my own ribs for a BBQ fix.....I'll probably go over there and look around Saturday.....this is the last of September?

twenty degrees cooler

Down from 68 yesterday to 46 this morning.....the denim shorts and sandals are replaced by blue jeans and boots for the morning walk.....I need to do laundry and vacuum .....the Raid ant traps sure took care of that problem.....don't see one ant anywhere, even on the outside trash can.....

outer space bass

they sure are playing the re-mastered Beatles a lot.....which is cool, because some of the songs do sound better, I think.....they used to have to turn down the bass in the old days when they mixed a record, because the deep grooves that carried the low frequencies on a wax recording could make the needle jump up in the air and skip.....so now they can put the bass guitar up front in the mix more, since we moderns don't have to worry about that particular little quirk anymore....also on the Beatles.....I just read that Lucy in the Sky passed away, at age 46......

Fall has fell?

68, breezy, leaves blowing around....mowed the back lawn because it was plenty cool enough for that kind of thing.....when the wind blows, all these sticks fall out of the pecan trees, so you have to pick them up before you can run the mower....but you can just take them out to the curb, and the city comes along and picks them up...I think they pick them up on Tuesday on my street....I should get more organized about picking up the pecans this year, at least get a rake and a basket, or something......

PBS

I hope everyone is watching the series on the National Parks that Ken Burns is doing on public television.....

it's trying to burn off

but more clouds keep coming down from the north-west....off the mountains more or less.....the Hose lost again.....Furman won that underwater game......Clemson lost again....I went to the store for more bread, and also got Hot and Spicy V8, generic mayo substitute, and ant traps. I'm in an ant war, looks like. These things that say they get the queen have worked for me in the past....the ants at the Resort were notorious.....these seem to be the grease ants, not the sugar ants....I got a one dollar avocado the other day, and had ham-avo-egg scramble on toast for breakfast....this avocado is better than the last one I tried....I've got rye bread, deli ham, swiss cheese, and sauerkraut....that makes a pretty good sandwich.....I think that might be a Rachel, if it's a Ruben with corned beef? But today will be ham and avocado, since kraut keeps better than avocado....life is so complicated, la-de-da-de-da (Kinks).....

pretty strange

Furman is on TV right now playing Western Carolina....they started an hour late because of the weather, but are now under way.....but the fans all are smarter than the football players, because they all went home....or to some place warm and dry anyway....it looks like something from the Twilight Zone....scary.....and they say a bank of fog is coming down the mountain, to add to the rain for sheer perversity......I think the whole state of W. Carolina must be in the Twilight Zone anyway, I can't find it on any map.....I think maybe I'll try to find something else to watch, this is just too bizarre......there's a big glop of rain on the radar that's just about to reach Clinton too.....but they are calling for a clear Sunday......

in the morning

it was 62 on my walk, with a north wind and some moments of blowing mist....some cars had their windshield wipers on.....raining and windy right now, 85 percent chance of rain for the day....when I went to fix breakfast, there were ants in the kitchen....they were not in the food, just in the trash and in the sink drain.....so now I should go mop up dead ants, and the kitchen floor in general....once again, Clinton won, and Laurens lost. In one high school game they stopped play in the third quarter for lightning, and after an hour made the result official. In another game, they quit at half-time I guess and are going to try to play the second half today. I didn't drive anywhere yesterday, can't think of anywhere I need to drive today either.....Furman is on TV today, PC goes to The Citadel .......the Clemson game is not telecast.....this might be good weather for chili.....

friday night

Getting close to my bedtime, it's raining steady, but no thunder right here....I guess the high school football games are getting wet tonight, some of them anyway.....I had banger and mash for dinner, with kraut.....IFC is starting the old Prisoner shows from 1967 again.....I think I've seen them all .....I suppose you can buy the whole thing on DVD somewhere.....I wonder if anybody ever shows The Man from UNCLE? Maybe Hollywood will make the movie, they do that with plenty of other old bizarre stuff....how about Dobie Gillis, the Movie....anyway, bedtime.

got a good night's sleep

after staying up later than usual, watching the football game from down the road in Columbia....they had 74,000 people there for the Gamecocks beating Ole'Miss.....I saw the end of the Chargers game last Sunday, and they said there were 66,000 there for that.....college football really is big business, I guess. Sunny and mostly clear here this morning, humid.....next week is predicted to be "Fall-like".....going to be cooling off, I guess they mean.....

sunny, humid

Expected high around 86 in the afternoon.....I went to the library....they are trying to find the money to build a Clinton branch of the library, right now it's in a storefront next to Fred's Discount.....and they are looking for money to finish the new high school.....they passed a $48 million bond issue a few years ago for that, but the school is still a year away from being finished, and the money has run out? There was smokehouse ham at the deli counter yesterday, half-price, so I have lunch meat for a while....and cheese was two for one, so I have both swiss and New York Sharp for ham and cheese on rye.....for dinner I have asparagus and a four oz. piece of strip steak....portion control is the key.....mushrooms were not on special this time, so I'll cook the steak with onion instead......

cloudy, breezy, was some drizzle

about 74 right now.....how about that new theme park in Atlanta, Six Flags Under Water....take a deep breath and hold your nose when you swoop down to the lower parts on the roller coaster.....and out West, Moorpark is burning? Always something.....they are going to put an exhibit in the city building about the history of the mill and the mill village.....you can donate items if you have something interesting from the era.....Ralph Nader is coming to speak at PC....I went grocery shopping.....I pretty much only bought things that were on sale....plenty of food in the house for a while, I think......

rainy night in Georgia

I watched a streaming video on CNN.com of the floods around Atlanta.....pretty scary....what's worse, a flood or a wildfire? Today in Clinton they are saying only 25 percent chance of rain.....clouded over right now, I think I'll go walk over by the mill while it's cool ......

to the north and west

where the tropical moisture is hitting the mountains, they've had 10 inches of rain in the last three days, something like that.....hasn't been raining right here, not much anyway.....they had 20 inches around Atlanta, and roads have washed out, etc....didn't do much today...well, I trimmed up out front, with the weedeater and the lawnmower, while it was still cool and foggy in the morning....looks better.....even though it stayed overcast all day, it's sultry......maybe that's because it stayed overcast all day......

you may need to move to higher ground

well, that's on ch.13, which is from Asheville.....one river near Hendersonville is over flood stage....and it's going to keep raining Monday and Tuesday....Tuesday is when Fall begins....not raining here right now.....I ate plenty earlier in the day, so I just had a sandwich instead of fixing any dinner.....Panthers lost.....the Hose lost too yesterday.....#21 Occidental lost also, to #14 Linfield....never heard of that place before....Oxy opens conference play next week.....that's weather, food, and sports, folks!

Ora Homecoming

I just got back from the Ora ARP Homecoming, which was very enjoyable....just a regular Sunday service, and then lots of people and the usual tons of food in the community hall, overflowing into the fellowship room above.....at lunch I was sitting with A.Y. Bryson's son and daughter, and his widow....she remembered W.B. of course....and some Hunters were at that table, and Flemings and Blakeleys and others.....it was interesting.....it was raining outside during the lunch.....they had old scrapbooks with articles from the Advertiser about births, weddings, etc....found quite a bit about the family in there.....Dave's birth notice, a Mamie and Wylie wedding article, things like that......they were giving out copies of the church cookbook, the same one......anyway, it was fun....

utter failure

It sounded simple enough....sit down and watch the Clemson game....well, that didn't happen....they stopped play because lightning was within five miles of the stadium....they sounded a siren and everyone went under cover, or whatever.....the people with the tubas were still sitting in the stands, and they were brass tubas it looked like, not the plastic kind like in the Rose Parade....I wouldn't want to have yards of brass wrapped around me in a lightning situation, I don't think.....anyway, about an hour later they started up again, and played a few plays, and then stopped again.....and the TV station finally gave up and started showing some other game....it was a wierd game anyway....Clemson did win, but there only ever two touchdowns, half a dozen interceptions and fumbles, and a dozen or something field goals....all in all, a croak......but I did finally finish off the enchilada pie, and watch an episode of Top Gear I hadn't seen before....

Saturday sports section

reveals that Clinton won, and Laurens lost again.....and reminds us that Clemson plays Boston College at noon on ch. 13. So I'll go to the store in the morning, for bread, olive oil, orange juice....and maybe popcorn to eat while watching football....it should be a nice overcast-raining afternoon, perfect for football on TV......I bought some Puritan khakis at Walmart yesterday....10 bucks.....always the low price.....should work OK with the blue blazer and my one decent dress shirt, to go to the Ora ARP thing Sunday morning. A blazer is called a blazer because the captain of H.M.S. Blazer designed it and outfitted his crew with them in 1837, because Queen Victoria was coming to inspect his ship. She liked them so much she said the whole navy should wear them, hence navy blue blazers are regarded as being spiffy to this very day.....amazing what you can find out online, ain't it?

lots of rain

I think it rained all night....it was raining when I got up, and on through breakfast....I took my walk to get the paper about half an hour later that usual, waiting for it to let up. An walk in the nice fresh air right after the rain is enjoyable. I noticed that Coos Bay, Oakland, Goleta, and Escondido all have U.S. Weather Service excessive heat warnings in effect on into next week....well, for any inland areas mostly....here the temps are running below normal for this time of year I think....it's good weather to open up the house .....

just got back

from a nice walk over by the old mill.....cool, overcast morning with a little breeze, good for walking.....the steak last night was good...it's a kind that the store has seasoned....it said it was "Montreal seasoning"....the way they cook sirloin in Canada? I put some grilled onion on it too.....the Vidalia sweet onion they sell a lot around here.....it rained during the night, and I got a good night's sleep.....rain predicted for the next four or five days I think.....I got more of those N.C. ginger apples yesterday, tasty little green apples....good in cooking too...

they had olive oil on sale

the kind I like, but when I was in the store I forgot to get it....I got apples, and generic citrus mouthwash, and some sirloin that was marked down.....and AA batteries because my kitchen clock kept telling the wrong time....and something else, I forget what...it was drizzling when I went out shopping....there was a real light drizzle on my walk this morning too....last night I microwaved some of the enchilada pie...it's even better reheated, I think....tonight I'm going to have a bit of that sirloin, a sweet potato, and some peas....In the book I'm reading, the guy says that every work of art is an act of forgiveness....are we forgiving the awfulness of being thrown into this mess by creating some beauty? Don't know what he meant....maybe something like that.

rain

getting a pretty good soak, looks like more is on the way later this evening....

cleaning binge

I did go on a cleaning binge, armed with a spray bottle of generic citrus cleanser....it's cheap, and it works, and it smells fruity, not chemical. I can't stand the smell of Pine-Sol, which some people use....I think that's because once I ate at this place that smelled heavily of Pine-Sol, and whatever I ate gave me some terrible indigestion, so I was up all night running to the toilet....ever since then Pine-Sol makes me sick....also, it reminds me of elementary school....anyway, I scrubbed down and swept and mopped the bathroom and kitchen, and the woodwork through the house with handprints on it....and ran the vacuum on the carpet....and I even tried rubbing mink oil on the leather top of the coffee table, but I don't know if that accomplished much....and then I ate an apple, and later ate a cold chicken wing, a piece of bread and butter with black pepper, a small piece of swiss cheese, and a glass of wine for lunch. I read this thing once that said that the proper amount of cheese to have in a day was a piece the size of a matchbox.....I'm guessing a small match box, not a kitchen match box....the piece I had with lunch was about the size of half a small matchbox.....

lots of food for sure

I got out to Ora early, so I visited the grave yard for a bit ......and later I went in and introduced myself, and met some of the community people....the names of the people were mostly the same as the names on the tombstones....I guess you could call that staying close to your roots.....there was a heck of a lot of food....I sold about half of the enchilada pie....got two compliments on the pie, and one on the bowl....one of those black and white kind, that look like they are native american or mexican or something....I think Brian has the coffee cups from that set? Let's see....I had meatballs, yams, green beans, that corn souffle stuff, enchilada pie, a spoon each of mac and cheese and scalloped potatoes, deviled egg, and probably some other hot dish I'm forgetting.....and some lime pie, and brownies, something with blueberries, candy corn, etc... from the dessert table. There was iced tea. Overcast here this morning, 20 percent chance of rain is what they are saying.....I need to clean house some, esp. the bathroom and kitchen.....looks like I'll be having enchilada pie for dinner.....

in the oven

is enchilada pie, a.k.a. New Mexico enchilada....it will be my contribution to the potluck at the Ora Community Club meeting tonight....it's the second Monday each month....it looks OK, we'll see how it comes out....I bought ground beef to put in that, and some of that is leftover...enough to make a patty melt for lunch I think....will probably encounter all kinds of food at the potluck, that's what cousin Cindy says anyway.....on the weather front, a high from the NE is fighting with a low from the SW, and the low should win by Tuesday, so we might get some rain....today pretty much like yesterday, mild, high clouds.....

lazing on a Sunday afternoon

The Panthers were getting beat, so I turned it off and took a nap....and later went to McD's and got a McDouble and sweet tea for $2.18....the large sweet tea amounts to like a whole pitcher I think....that's what I was really after, I was thirsty....plus enough sugar for a week.....it's up around 80 outside I think, but it's cool inside still.....

hose unraveled....

The Blue Hose had their home opener yesterday, and got their socks knocked off by Elon, which is some place I'd never heard of, but which is 10th ranked in the nation in whatever division of the NCAA they play in.....it was 41-7. The coach said it was a good learning experience for his young team.....the Hose have a real nice looking stadium....I don't think I've ever seen a brick fieldhouse anywhere else.....nice here again this morning, 64 around nine o'clock, breezy, mostly clear.....had bacon and french toast for breakfast....well, it was hog jowl, but it looks like bacon....but it's more gnarly, sorta....

this was tasty...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjtingle/3912856735/ on a bread board, work seasoned bread crumbs into cube steak with finger tips, fork whip egg and tawny port on a saucer, and dip meat on both sides....place in iron frying pan with hot olive oil, add fresh sliced mushrooms and early peas, cook until done....fork tender and delicious!

oh yeh, I forgot....

public alligator hunting season opens today....

mowing done

I went out because it was staying cool and knocked down the back yard.....now nothing much to do for the rest of the day I can think of.....

the 12th

Clinton beat Laurens with a catch and run with 18 seconds left on the clock.....nice looking morning, they say it will get pretty warm by the afternoon.....cold chicken and a salad for dinner yesterday.....I could have chicken-fried steak for dinner again tonight, or maybe beans on toast. That's actually a British breakfast, but I have it for dinner sometimes....ever try beans on toast? It's quick and easy, and you get some fiber.....

70 degrees

mostly sunny....Clemson messed up that game, and lost by a field-goal....and dumb plays.....I thought about the lawn again this morning, but didn't work up the energy to deal with it....the weeds can wait.....I'm reading a book that takes place in Bombay....I just finished one that took place towards the end of the Roman Republic, it was pretty good....Laurens plays Clinton tonight....the paper said to expect heavy traffic if you were thinking of going to watch....I remember going to see a football game in Laurens when I was five or six years old.....I think it was Ford School playing Laurens High? That would have been around 1953 or something....I remember it was cold, and I had to stay standing to see anything.....

on the evening news

they said it was as cool as the middle of October....well, it's good sleeping weather, I think....and there's a Clemson game coming on, so maybe I can stay awake long enough to fall asleep....

wait a minute

the blogs and things are getting mixed up....fried catfish with cheesy grits and green beans just showed up on Coast to Coast, and there is pizza BBQ on the e-mail from Dave....

maybe I can go for a walk

the rain has let up I guess....I was driving around some and the sign at Whiteford's Giant Burger this week says 8 piece liver snack for 2.99, or a steak biscuit for .99. Do you get some slaw with the chicken livers? Probably not. Is that a chicken-fried steak biscuit? Too many questions in life....I've never actually had a giant burger, though I saw some people eating them, and they did look pretty giant....the people and the burgers....

it's raining

but I got back from my walk before it started....guess I don't have to mess with the lawnmower today.....it said that the storm last night blew down two trees in Clinton.....not my trees, luckily.....

missed us

the big storm went south-east, and mostly missed this county, but there were lots of trees down and something like 4000 power outages around Spartanburg....

clicked on the weather

and another severe thunderstorm warning, like last night....on the radar, this one looks bigger.....I also wanted to mention that the Clinton Chronicle had some interesting BBQ recipes this week.....the maple sauce ribs might be something to try sometime....

Wednesday dinner

was wings and a salad...I think Thursday will be chicken fried steak with mushrooms and gravy, and early peas.....didn't get too hot today at all.....ran the vacuum, and did a small load of laundry....

foggy, cool, damp from the rain

I need to go to the store and get bread, butter, eggs, orange juice.....and maybe chicken, or something for a few meals....and some cash, my wallet is empty....and the Clinton newspaper comes out today too, might as well get one of those....

weather!

heck of a thunderstorm rolling through right now....

post holiday

Went to the library and only found a couple of things, but they are thick, so maybe they'll last awhile....seems warmer today to me, but with the lesser humidity, not uncomfortable.....I'm planning on getting a whole house humidifier for the Winter, I read that can help lower your heating bill....and I kept getting a scratchy throat last year with the dry heated air in the house.....I've still got some leftovers for dinner, and then Wednesday is shopping day again.....

seven dwarf galaxies

Circling around the Milky Way are between 20 and 25 known satellite dwarf galaxies, which are smaller clumps of stars bound in orbit around the Milky Way by gravitational attraction.
Some pessimists predicted the Milky Way was doomed to a grizzly death by dismemberment if enough of these galaxies collide with it. In fact, scientists think many satellite galaxies have already rammed into the Milky Way, though so far it has endured.
Damn dwarf galaxies are prowling around going "Hi ho hi ho, off to work we go!" And on Labor Day Weekend.....they want to destroy us, I'm sure.....as if we don't have enough to worry about.....

Labor Day

Walked over to the Curb Market and got a dollar's worth of smoked pork jowls, skin on....it's sliced up like bacon...I'll use it to flavor beans later on.....72 degrees outside, broken clouds, windy.....the town looks empty this morning, even more so than usual....the guy at the market said more people would be out after they woke up and sobered up some....I'm sure he knows the locals better than I do, his family has had that market for ages.....have a safe and sane holiday, all....Dave said he was going to fix pizza on his gas grill? Well, young Stephen will be there, and he's a professional cook, so I'm sure it will work out.....

mild, a few clouds

Went for a walk and took some pix....see my photos if you like for that....PC got stomped by Furman....Clemson won....can't think what I want for lunch....had some grapes for a mid-morning snack.....I've got left-overs for dinner I'm sure.....very quiet Sunday morning, not many cars across the street at the church, everybody go out of town for the weekend?

feel better after some lunch....

I felt all dragged out this morning, don't know why....slept through the night pretty much....anyway, fixed a fried fish fillet and pimento cheese sandwich, and feel better now....I've got some of that Boston Butt in the slow cooker, covered with Luck's spiced fried apples....going to have lima beans with that, for a meat and two supper, before the 5 o'clock kickoff of PC vs. Furman, which is on Ch.40.....Clemson starts at 6, but I want to watch PC, since I think it's going to be the only game of theirs on TV this year....another nice day here, not too hot at all.....should be good for all the tailgate parties.....just don't drink and drive.....

Labor Day Weekend?

There is an Upstate Fair starting this weekend I guess....we went to the L.A. County Fair once around Labor Day, and just about melted, as I recall....looks like nice weather for this one though....mid-70's right now, some clouds....but I won't go and try to find the Fair, just stay home as usual....I put olive oil on grain and granola bread and made a swiss cheese and pimento spread grilled half sandwich for lunch, with a kosher pickle spear and a glass of mountain burgandy....My Guitar Player magazine came in the mail this morning, so I have something extra to read, besides my library books....they are due Tuesday, because Monday is a holiday.....the Gamecocks won that game last night, which at least kept me awake for awhile, so I could sleep better....does that make sense? Seems to be how it works, though.....

the Port and cheese

after dinner, the ladies withdraw to the drawing room, to gossip, and the gentlemen to the study, for Port and cheese and cigars....and some moments away from the ladies....well, forget the cigars, but I still like the port and cheese after dinner....port and marsala and sherry, and vermouth too, etc...these are fortified wines.....wines to which brandy is added, because if you don't up the ethanol in the wine then it might "turn" during a long bumpy voyage in a sailing ship in the old days....so you end up with a cargo you can't get a good price for.....after they found the New World and starting getting chocolate, then you could have port and cheese and chocolate....you might want some walnuts with all that too......