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...