went for a walk around the park

and when I got back, UPS had left my new boots on the porch....and the mail had come too, just junk mail.....the pair of Wolverine Wellingtons I bought at Boot World back in 2006 were pretty much worn out.....these new Wolverines have a different sole.....anyway, they seem to fit well enough....I'll put some mink oil on them sometime.....the sun is starting to come out, and it might get close to 70 in the afternoon.....that's fine with me, a break from the cold a bit.....I watched the Heels-Vols last night in some bowl game from Nashville....it went to two overtimes, and was a real crazy game.....kept your attention.....at noon today Clemson plays in Charlotte, and then Carolina plays tonight at 7:30 from Atlanta.....and after that's over it won't be that long until midnight....I'll find some count-down show to watch I'm sure.....Happy New Year!

32F at sunrise

and it's clouded over with a cold front pretty close by to the north-west, so at 9 in the morning it's still 32F.....the rain is predicted to start after midnight Friday, so people will have dry weather to shoot off their skyrockets and cherry bombs when the clock winds down for the new year....there's been some random explosions going on for the last couple of days already, what with the kids out of school.....I watched part of some bowl game last night, but it wasn't very interesting.....N.C. and Tenn play somewhere tonight I think, a game of sort of local interest....call it regional interest maybe.....I've got chicken corn chowder for tonight, the store brand was on sale, and it's chowder weather for sure.....and then I can start the black-eyed peas on New Year's Eve.....the paper today had an article that said that this December has been "one of the coldest, if not the coldest, on record".....it was about how people can expect high electric bills.....I've already paid my electric for most of December....they read my meter on the 20th.....

got warm enough around noon

to go ahead and walk around the park, for the first time this week.....the Brahma Boots I've been walking in for cold weather for the last two years are wearing out.....they need more Shoe-Goo on the left toe, because my left leg doesn't swing right.....but my new Wolverine Boots might get here tomorrow....the UPS tracker said they left Lexington today and arrived in Spartanburg....I got them through Amazon from something called Bargain Outfitters....they have camping and hunting stuff.....the same Wellingtons in a store were $110, but I got them for $59 plus $7.99 shipping on an after Christmas sale.....I've got that leftover pork roast, and pinto beans were 88 cents for two cans.....so I'm thinking pork-pinto chili....Martha Stewart had a recipe for that posted.....

back from shopping

ready for the weekend with black-eyed peas, cornbread, collard greens, champagne.....popcorn for watching the Rose Bowl.....I've been eating wheat bread and muenster cheese for a couple of weeks, so this time I got rye bread and swiss....and some deli sliced roast beef for lunch sandwiches.....got the weekly Clinton paper while I was out, and a Guitar Player mag was my mail for today.....still cold and snow on the ground.....still pretty harsh out to go on a walk for pleasure....might warm up some tomorrow, and then for New Year's another weekend storm, but just rain this time, not snow......

north facing roofs

squirrels

little bundles of appetite and agility.....dashing through the snow, carrying pecans.....today's "Wake Up Weather" said "clear and bitterly cold"......was 21F at sunrise....."windchill" said 12? Snow in shady places hasn't melted....like on north facing roofs.....stayed up until the middle of the night watching Falcons-Saints, that was a good game.....I'm reading a book called The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd.....subtitled "The Dublin Saga".....one family in the book live at Rathmines, which means the farm of the Mines family.....like Grandma Mines.....Rathmines is today still a district of Dublin.....anyway, it's one of those thick historical novels that goes on for generations......I've still got a lot of pork roast leftover, it's easy to heat up for more dinners.....might make a sandwich out of that for lunch too.....

scenic north america

that's the theme of the calendar for 2011 that I found in CVS for six bucks.....that will work, it has the one square inch of space to write something in to remind yourself....I love it because those are always blank in this current life phase.....I also got two years worth of senior vitamins for $20, on one of those CVS two-for-one deals.....after spending money in the drugstore, I didn't go into the grocery store across the parking lot to get chili dog stuff.....maybe I'll get some on Wednesday.....the snow-melt is still dripping off the eaves.....at 37F, you can sit on the front porch, if you don't mind being pretty chilly.....last Monday of the year? The calendar has scenes of mountains and lakes etc.....and it comes with a desk calendar and a wallet calendar and some other kind of calendar, but those will just go in the trash.....

windchilled 20 degrees at sunrise

there was a big patch of ice on the sidewalk in front of the pharmacy school, but you could walk around that easily enough, otherwise the footing was good after the snow refreezing overnight.....bright sun, blue sky right now.....I've started a load of laundry....I might go over to the store later, I find myself thinking about chili dogs for some reason....but I don't have the fixin's for that.....

not hungry for dinner

after spending the afternoon with the Good sisters and other relatives.....meatballs, sausages, cookies right out of the oven, chips and insane "hot sausage dip"......peppermint bark and other Christmas candies, home-made and store-bought.....lots of stuff.....they had boxes of photos of Tingle family holidays going back for decades.....it was a pretty drive over there and back through the snowy landscape......some snow flurries and temps in the teens going on tonight.....watching the Giants-Packers.....

going over to Laurens

the snow has mostly stopped, and a bit of sun comes through from time to time.....cousin Cindy is having "family over for snacks".....might be the usual Tingle food-fest, who knows.....the streets look good, no snow sticking on the asphalt right now.....37F, a little wind....I got hungry in the middle of the morning, so had ham-scramble with a little salsa and wheat toast with apple butter for brunch.....we'll see how hungry I am after "snacks" later, as regards dinner plans....just been sitting around reading with the radio on, with the snow swirling around outside most of the morning.....

snowed during the night

and it's snowing more right now.....the front should move out of here by noon, and then wallop the eastern seaboard is the prediction.....

Christmas evening

well, I got in contact with everyone during the day....everyone I wanted to talk to.....the roast pork with little crunchy wedges of roasted potatoes was excellent, as was the creamed onions dish.....egg nog gravy worked well also.....cousin Cindy is doing Boxing Day tomorrow, so I'm going over there in the afternoon.....snowing in Gray Court they say, but just rain in Clinton right now, but it should turn to snow as it gets colder later.....whatever....a very nice warm comfortable Christmas all in all......

Merry Christmas!

No snow yet......but the front is on the move from the west, so what they are saying now is mixed rain and snow this afternoon turning into all snow during the night, and more snow during the day Sunday.....so maybe a white Boxing Day instead of a white Christmas? Can boxing day fall on a Sunday? The weather service statement for Laurens airport says maybe 5" accumulation of snow into Monday.....just cold so far here today, no moisture frozen or unfrozen.....fixed egg nog french toast for Christmas breakfast.....plenty of food in the house, staying warm enough.....can play the nice ukulele from Dan and shuffle around the house in the nice slippers from Caroline.....there will be basketball games on TV, and I'm looking forward to the creamed onions later with holiday dinner......

egg nog day

December 24th is egg nog day? works for me....

watched the Aztecs

beat Navy.....that was a good game.....stayed up late for that.....21F this morning....I'm going to go over to the dollar store 'cause I saw gloves in there real cheap....the gloves I've got now somebody gave to me free at the swap-meet years ago, and one of them is worn out....from walking with a cane, looks like.....maybe the ice will be melted off the windshield by now.....or maybe not, it's still below freezing.....sunny but cold....I should drive the Jeep around enough to warm it up, since I probably won't fire it up over this weekend, if it snows....or even if it doesn't snow......

try this

a little egg nog in the gravy

need to vacuum and stuff like that

Clear and cold, 29 with the windchill on the early walk.....really light traffic this morning, I think a lot of people are already off work or gone out of town or whatever.....I don't plan to go towards Laurens today though, I bet there will be lots of traffic in the Wal*Mart area.....I was reading in the sports section about Navy-SDSU tonight from Mission Valley.....the field was under 10" of muddy water yesterday? Build your stadium on a flood plain, the land is cheap.....up in the Presidio, they used to have a big photograph taken from there of the valley below with waves from the Pacific rolling over where the stadium is now, during some big rain event in the 1930's or some early decade or other ......

back from the store

and I did get a small fruitcake and a small carton of egg nog....and a boston butt cut of pork roast and a package of smoked turkey drumsticks.....and now they have the dutch onions in a bottle....so my Christmas dinner can be pork roast with little red potatoes (called red-skinned potatoes around here?).....and creamed onions and new peas as the other veggies....all with gravy. And fruit cake and egg nog with dark rum after dinner....should that be Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day? The other holiday weekend dinner will be heated up turkey leg with mushroom cornbread stuffing, probably some leftover creamed onions, and broccoli in cheese sauce.....there will be leftovers from all this to last at least until next Wednesday, when I'll look at how to do a small amount of ham and black-eyed peas for New Year's....and we'll see what price they have on champagne by then.....my city utility bill for November was in the mail box when I got home.....looking at the electric usage and adding in the extra from the natural gas bill, would say the November deep freeze this year cost me a little over $100 in energy ....well maybe $75 over a "normal" November.....the sun is starting to come out, so I'll think about a walk around the park after lunch.....

fruit cake, egg nog

I wish they wouldn't show pictures of these things in the newspaper on grocery shopping day....now I will have Christmas cravings.....I still don't know what to look for holiday dinner wise....I'm tending towards pork roast, if I can find a small one....clouded over and fairly chilly this morning, but they say it should clear off this afternoon and get up to almost 60F! wowser And the weather service is still saying there might be a white Christmas.....there was 1.4 inches at the airport in 1963, that was the last official white Xmas around here .....well, I guess I'll go head on to the market......

clouded over, warmer

I didn't wake up to look for the lunar event....and I guess it was obscured by clouds anyway....the storms hitting SoCal should bring a front this far East over the weekend....perhaps leading to a White Christmas.....the weatherunderground says 50% chance Saturday afternoon, 30% the night before Christmas....the local Clinton.com says "slight chance"....whatever....it looks mild enough right now to go on the park walk, so I'll do that shortly.....and later I guess I'll go over to Laurens for a guitar string.....when I was over there the other day, the guitar store guy failed to open at 11, like it says on the door.....maybe today I'll try around noon, see if that works.....I had chicken and sweet tater for supper last night, today I'll have beef and gravy and peas.....still have stuffing left too, a box of that goes a long way for the "starch" side.... I don't think I'm doing Xmas turkey or ham.....

took some time in the library

to find much anything to read....but I did find some things....and I went over from there to the grocery store for a loaf of bread, and a package of those things you put in the toilet tank to bleach the bowl....clear and cold today, was 25F early on.....so I ate my oatmeal and had my cup of black tea and then bundled up well to go get the newspaper.....had to scrape a little ice off the windshield before driving to the library at nine, when it opens....nothing in the mail today except coupons for Domino's Pizza, and an ad for high-speed internet from the cable company.....yesterday I made a hot beef melt with muenster cheese for lunch, today it will be fried baloney grilled muenster on wheat, with a hand full of bbq potato chips and a glass of Madera County California red table wine....I might also eat one Mary Jane candy.....

California storms?

looks like the wet weather is in the bayarea this morning....32 and clear here right now....was 30 and fog for the sunrise walk.....had french toast with ham for breakfast....Saturday supper was chicken wings, cornbread stuffing, peas, white gravy.....wasn't much to watch on TV last night....Fresno St. was losing on that horrible blue turf in the rain with empty stands in Idaho....so I only watched a couple of minutes of that mess.....it looks like San Diego State plays Navy on ESPN, from San Diego.....sounds interesting maybe..... that's on Thursday.....only thing on today any good might be Falcons and Seahawks from out West....a game with playoff implications, as they say....

later in the morning

the storm got here....I thought I saw like one snowflake, and then it just started pouring rain....cold and blowing rain outside now for the last hour or so.....I got the e-mail that my AT&T bill was ready to view and pay....but the thing looked different than usual....I couldn't just click on the "pay now" line and pay....it took me instead to some screen where I had to submit a new password....why do these idiots do that? A new password for the new year or something? How the hell are old farts supposed to think of and remember fucking new passwords all the time?

rain or snow showers

that's what the newspaper says for this morning....so far that hasn't happened...at 9 o'clock....but there is a storm coming from the direction of Athens on the radar, which might hit here pretty soon....or it might just angle up towards Laurens instead....31 windchill degrees on the newspaper walk, overcast, north wind.....yesterday I ate that big dinner of beef, baked potato, and sprouts....and got so stuffed I fell asleep sitting up watching the evening news....about half an hour there is lost as far as I can recall....and I watched the Knicks and the Heat....it was tied at half-time, but the Heat pulled away in the 3rd quarter.....Fresno St. is in a bowl game tonight, from Boise Idaho....is that where the grass is painted blue? Those games are hard to watch, the blue field is enough to give you a headache.....there are 35 bowls over 23 days, it says in the sports section.....

I'm thinking baked potato

with thin slices of london broil heated up in bbq sauce, with brussels sprouts.....

went over to Laurens

and got a nice heavy flannel shirt at Tractor Supply....my old best flannel shirt was a Dickies that I bought in Escondido, but it finally got a tear in the sleeve.....this new one is a Tractor Supply house brand....should be comfortable and warm....I also walked around the Square in Laurens and that downtown area, for a second morning walk....the weather is actually nice today....so now I'm going to eat some lunch.....oh, the shirt was 25% off....holiday sale....

googleing my memory

I think oven-fried chicken is 425 degrees for 45 minutes, turning once....I'll make white gravy with the drippings....serve with leftover onion-cornbread dressing, and the last of the baby lima beans....that should work for a cold weather supper....continues cold, wet, gray....34 at one in the afternoon.....the cold beef sandwich for lunch was tasty and satisfying....I had a chunk of pecan roll for dessert.....took a little nap after lunch, 20 minutes or so....with the rain outside and the electric fire inside.....I might go over to Laurens tomorrow, I want to look in Tractor Supply again....

light rain, freezing rain

weather moving west to east across the Upstate pretty much all day....warmer than it has been, with the moisture.....I see that it's raining in Escondido too.....so I drove and got my newspaper, since walking in freezing rain seemed a little radical....during the cold snap the humidity was much lower than it had been, and this old house changes with the humidity.....one door starts sticking, and another door becomes looser.....I guess Christmas break has started at the college, and starts for schools on Monday? The City takes a four day weekend for Christmas it said in the paper.....none of this will vary my routine, I don't imagine.....so I've got cold roast beef to make a sandwich for lunch, with mayo and german mustard....I think I'll oven-fry the chicken wings today in the trusty iron skillet, and then alternate beef leftovers with chicken leftovers almost all the way to next Wednesday......

london report

that london broil is the most tender and flavorful I've ever done in the kitchen....I mean, over charcoal it would be better .....but when it's freezing outside, it's too chillin' for grillin', I think....three bucks a pound, what a deal....it's been so long since I've done one, I can't remember what I've ever paid before....anyway, my compliments to the Bi-Lo meat department for a nice cut of beef.....it was part of their "12 Roasts of Christmas" promotion....I don't think I could list the other roasts, without getting the ad out of the trash.....

the dollar store

over across from the ABC has incense, which I'd been looking for....they didn't have a box of pine cone style which is what I really wanted, but they did have a pack for $1 with some pine sticks in it.....so now the living room smells like there's a pine fire going in the electric woodstove....there's even a little smoke blowing around....very authentic....also for $1 I got a small pecan log, or pecan roll they call it....anyway, for my holiday pecan candy fix.....I rubbed the london broil with that mesquite seasoning I got for the ribs last week, and it's in the fridge now waiting to get broiled for supper.....there will be plenty for several meals.....lunch sandwiches too....I'll do the broiling in the big iron skillet.....still right at 32F at 1:30 in the afternoon.....

with a mighty effort

the starter did crank over the dang cold motor and the Jeep fired up OK on another subfreezing morning.....and I drove to the grocery store....I got a piece of London broil... haven't done that in a long time....and I got some chicken wings and a russet potato and a sweet potato....frozen brussel sprouts....and this and that.....the mail was here when I got back, so I can pay the gas bill ....some clouds today, and wet weather on call pretty much into the weekend, starting tonight.....

with the windchill

it never got above freezing today.....I went out on the front porch once, but came right back inside....so I didn't do my second walk again today...getting lazy....it should be a little warmer Wednesday they are saying.....I took a couple of half hour naps on the sofa in the nice warm living room.....no noise in the neighborhood at all today, too cold for people to be out leaf-blowing or whatever....even the dogs just stayed hunkered down on the ground in the sun, instead of running around and barking at anything.....

windchill feels like 6 degrees F

so it was a very bracing sunrise walk.....I stayed up fairly late listening to that Paul McCartney show on Sirius XM radio.....that was entertaining.....similar to the Hyde Park concert I saw on some TV channel towards the end of the Summer, but with a varied playlist.....had leftovers last night, and tonight might just do breakfast for supper.....ham and eggs, grits, wheat toast with apple butter.....something like that, since I've used up my meals from last Wednesday, and will get more stuff tomorrow....we'll see what's on sale.....time for meatloaf? Chance of snow tomorrow night, or sleet.....

well

Several studies have arrived at a fractal dimension of between 5 and 8 for human EEG data. This suggests that the brain operates in a higher dimension than the 4 of traditional space-time. These extra dimensions suggest that quantum gravity may play a role in generating consciousness. (from an abstract on the NeuroQuantology site)

windchill of 16 degrees

6 mph west wind on my sunrise walk.....I've got the central heat running so the bathroom can warm up enough to take a shower in....then I'll probably just stay inside most of the day, it's sunny outside and looks nice, but that "Arctic blast" breeze justs blows right through yuh.....and they are saying the real cold will be tonight, maybe 13F.....minus windchill off that too I guess.....and freezing rain by Thursday? There were snow flurries across the Upstate yesterday, but I didn't see any here myself.....

"cold air rushes into the area"

that's how the weather service describes current conditions .....pretty accurate....nasty outside, looks to me....I'm staying in....been watching Bengals-Steelers....last of the ribs for dinner I guess....

most of the storm

had gone through by the time I finished breakfast, so I was able to walk and get the Sunday paper....right now it's sort of a windy drizzle outside.....looks like a good day to sit inside in front of the electric fire and watch football.....I-85 football is on this afternoon.....Falcons and Panthers....might be more interesting if it wasn't between the best team and the worst team around....

Lipton onion soup gravy

I have leftover sausage and leftover mashed potatoes, so I was thinking "bangers and mash"....and reading online it said that in pubs the sausage and taters is often served smothered in onion gravy....well, there's a packet of onion soup mix in the cupboard.....and sure enough, Google yields up an onion soup mix gravy recipe.....pretty simple....packet of mix, 2 tbsp. flour and two cups water.....that's what I was going to do if I couldn't find a recipe, just wasn't sure about the amount of flour.....I don't have the traditional pease to go with the dish, so I'll use baby limas as my veggie side......no second walk today, just too raw outside to do that when I've already got a runny nose and somewhat scratchy throat.....staying in watching App State and Villanova......

a little light reading

"Most of the time we live an illusion. We put the worst possibilities out of our thoughts, and live as if evil is a neutered beast, incapable of the horrors described in stories of old. We see ourselves as strong, and lucky; the weakened beast is no more than a shiver in our spines on a blustery evening---and this is a good way for us to live. For to be fully conscious of the potential horrors of existence would quickly destroy existence, as a raging stream will level the mud castle a child has made upon its bank." dang (Linda Nagata, Memory, page 277)

only freezing

early on, not that cold.....you don't see many Lakers games on back here, but since they are on an east coast swing they were on last night playing the Bulls.....and they lost! I think they said that the Bulls hadn't beaten the Lakers for the last three years.....the Fakers blew a huge lead in a few minutes when the subs came in.....they lack depth? Oh well, it's early in the season, and other such sports platitudes.....I need to go buy a loaf of bread, and maybe a bottle of wine.....

a little warmer?

it said 36 this morning, but with a windchill of 31....that's warmer than 19 anyway....but the cold must be getting into my back, because walking didn't loosen it up like it usually does.....still feels like a kink or a knot in the spot that bothers me....by Sunday more "Arctic air" is predicted, this time with a 50% chance of rain or snow.....if the front gets here at night, it might be snow.....some clouds today, broken sunshine....when I was out walking near the mill, this girl in a little old Toyota or something didn't even stop at the stop sign at Academy and Sloan, and crashed into this guy's Dodge pickup.....she stopped for a minute and he wrote down her plate number, but she never got out of her car to show insurance or anything, she just drove away.....the guy speculated that she was drunk, and maybe didn't have insurance, since she didn't wait for the police.....last night I had sausage cooked with sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes.....today will be leftovers.....ribs, rice-and-gravy, and the last of that can of kernel corn.....watched old spy movies until bedtime, there seems to be an endless supply of them on this one channel.....

19 degrees (again)

Cold snap continues, without much relief on the horizon.....we're running 15-20 degrees below average for this particular time of year....so it's hard to get up the gumption to go outside for a walk around the park.....maybe later in the day it will warm up a bit.....rib report: I hadn't done ribs with just a rub in a long time....I used a McCormick Mesquite Seasoning that was marked down to $1.29....about half of the little shaker bottle on 2.5 lbs. of baby back ribs.....that went into the iron skillet with the iron lid from my camping dutch oven which fits perfectly and I did the 3 hours at three-hundred.....fall-off-the-bones tender, fat all cooked out of 'em, flavorful from the rub.....enough of them left for two or three more meals....oh, I used oregano on the bottom of the slabs, rub on top....Celtics were playing Denver last night, and beat them....Celtics are on again tonight vs. the 76ers.....you see lots of Celtics on the East Coast I guess.....I can hear a train going by....I think it's about time for the coal train.....

3 hrs. at 300 degrees

that's how I'll do the baby-back ribs in the oven, with a mesquite rub.....on these freezing days, may as well run the oven....baked potato with that, and corn I guess....crock-pot beef sausage and sauerkraut will be another supper option this week, and I have leftover ham, and rice-and-gravy....enough stuff for a week anyway.....19F this morning.....put some Heet in the Jeep, and filled the tank on the way back from the grocery store, to prevent freezing gas lines .....slept well last night, with the bedroom heater on low.....the forced air heat kicks on some in the night, and the ducts in the crawl space seem to give off enough warmth to keep the pipes from freezing, at least so far...knock on wood.....

factoring in the wind-chill

it was still well below freezing when I did the mill park walk around noon.....I had a load of stuff in the dryer, I did get something useful done today.....the grocery store ad says they will have Ocean Spray Cranberry Cocktails two for one, so I'll get a couple of bottles of that tomorrow .....and I'll get gas on the way back, it's getting low.....and we'll see what there is for dinners that catches the eye....no more chicken this time, maybe I can find a good deal on ribs, or one of those pork-butt roasts....Boston butt, they call 'em.....

19F, sunny

it might get all the way up to 38F today.....got up to 39 yesterday.....I got a 1 lb. DAK canned ham at Wal*Mart, and I have a potato I need to do something with, so supper will probably be pan-fried ham and sliced potato.....with either green beans or corn.....when I ordered the electric heat stove, it was $99 delivered.....but over black cyber weekend they had it at $89, so I asked them if they would give me 10 bucks back.....and danged if a $10 credit didn't show up in my account today....cool.....there was an American Pickers episode last night where they were in South Carolina, but it didn't say exactly where, that I saw anyway.....Pickers and Pawn Stars is about the bottom of the barrel for me evening TV wise.....something until an 8 o'clock movie comes on, or until I just plain turn it off and read a book until I get sleepy enough to go on to bed....I think tonight, Tuesday, there should be a game on NBA TV.....

they didn't have

what I was looking for at Wal*Mart.....a 20x20 filter for the forced air heating....I went over there because they usually have the best selection and prices, but they had shrunk the filter section or something.....they did have a good price on orange juice, so I got some since I was almost out of that.....as I was leaving Clinton, I had to stop for a coal train....there was snow on top of the coal....I guess those trains come from Kentucky, where it was snowing last night....I came the back way home, and deer were crossing the road out in the stretch through the woods.....I didn't hit any...

23F, clear

so the dawn walk was pretty chilly.....now I'm going to go over to Wal*Mart and look for a couple of things.....the Jeep has a good heater....if the Jeep starts in this cold...I think it will.....it's supposed to be even colder tomorrow......

Carolina got whupped

but Oregon won.....windchill of 29 walking just after sunrise, predicted high of 44 later today......maybe there will be some interesting NFL game on this afternoon, otherwise I do have some books to read ......I've still got one pork chop to cook, and leftover stuffing and green beans too, so that will be for today.....I'll figure something for Monday, probably involving chicken and rice-and-gravy.....might go to Wal*Mart tomorrow......

back from the parade

it was great, as usual....high-lights this time in my opinion would be the Corsa Club for one thing....never seen so many Corsas and regular Corvairs at once before....there was even a Corvair powered Chevy Greenwood van bringing up the rear of that parade unit....I remember WB wanted a Greenwood, before he bought the VW bus.....the other new thing this year was those Shriners doing the precision go-kart drill, that was trick.....and of course the hillbilly jalopies are a fan favorite.....one jalopy this year had a guy standing on the front running board with one flap of the hood open, adjusting the carb as they went down the street.....the hillbilly Santa was a nice touch....and lots of church and civic groups throwing candy to the kids along the street....I even picked up a Mary Jane....somebody there had a dog with them that was going nuts snarfing down candies, wrapper and all......anyway, I came back to the house and fixed myself a grilled swiss on wheat with fried baloney.....Carolina plays Auburn for the SEC Championship today at 4.....if the Gamecocks win, it will probably be declared a national holiday in SC tomorrow.....it's clouding up pretty good now, a front coming this afternoon....

snow?

20% chance of snow on Saturday.....later in the day if it does happen, no snow predicted on the parade in the morning....it was another subfreezing night, but the idea of leaving the space heater on in the bedroom is working pretty well.....I have the ceiling fan in reverse and turned to the lowest speed, so any warm air up close to the high ceiling should be directed down to bed level.....yesterday for supper I fixed chicken, stuffing, and green beans sauteed with diced sweet onion....I watched old movies until 10, no basketball on .....

the joy of language

poking around on the net.....I fixed myself an afternoon libation of rye and ginger ale with a dash of bitters....it tastes good, so I Googled that....and found out that a "rye-and- ginger" is simply a "high ball".....scotch and ginger is sometimes called a "Presbyterian".....one obscure drink-naming website said whisky and ginger ale with a dash of angostura should be a "bitter Presbyterian", or maybe a "Calvinist"......one post from overseas said that when Americans came into the bar and ordered "whiskey American" he gave them the rye-ginger-bitters highball.....one post was from a guy who said he would go into bars and order a "highball" just to see what he would get.....once the waitress came back and told him "Honey, you've just ordered a type of glass." A highball glass is a tall thin glass, to better keep in the bubbles....from the ginger ale.....could go on with this, but that's probably enough for now.....I'm going to go get another highball with a dash.....

28F, calm

so the early walk was cold, but that biting wind was gone today.....so I did the park walk after reading the paper and looking online, and then drove to the store for the things I forgot to get the other day....eggs, peanuts, butter....I also got half-and-half for my oatmeal, natural almonds because they were on sale, and swiss cheese this time, because the cheese is almost used up, for my grilled cheese 1/2 sandwich at lunch.....bought some thick baloney too, 'cause the Spam is almost gone too....that tornado Tuesday night hit the main street in Easley, and closed their little business district right in time for the holiday buying season....that's what it said on the evening news, anyway....and it was in the paper this morning too....store owners were saying that one thing could leave them in the red this year.....acts of God.....

bitterly cold night

that's what the weather lady says....a "hard freeze", in the 20's....air from Canada.....there was in fact a tornado in Gray Court last night, around the time I was going to bed....nobody hurt, but lots of trees down, sheds and barns knocked down and around, and the one mobile home blown off it's jacks.....the deep freeze nights will probably continue for a week or so looks like....will be time for the ski jacket and muffler on the morning walks....

31 windchill

early this morning, after being 68 around the time I went to bed last night....maybe a tornado touched down briefly in Gray Court, a mobile home was blown off it's foundation....and there was lots of rain in the middle of the night.....the Clinton Christmas Parade is on Saturday, the tree lighting is tomorrow evening.....I won't go to that, but I will go to the parade....I forgot to buy eggs in the store yesterday, but I have one left for Thursday breakfast....Wednesday breakfast is oatmeal....there's a strong cold WSW wind right now, I'm trying to decide if I really want to go walk around the park or not.....

tornado watch

severe thunderstorm warning at 8:30 at night, with it 66.3 degrees and December in the morning? And storm # L1 on the radar headed straight here at 29 knots.....give me a break.....oh well, we need the rain.....that's what they say, anyway.....

strange

early in the afternoon it got warmer outside than in the house....warm wind and rain from the south-east blowing onto the front porch....and behind that there are thunderstorms in line....they had their already fried chicken discounted this morning, so I got some of that to heat up this evening with the last of the mashed potatoes and gravy, and collard greens.....and I did get some pork chops for this week, I can fry some apple slices and mix those with the cornbread stuffing and have that on pork chops for a couple of meals....

45F, fog, drizzle

I'm out of bread so I'm going to go grocery shopping today instead of my usual Wednesday senior discount day.....I also don't have anything much for dinner, so I want to look for pork chops or something....bands of rain are moving across the Upstate, so a park walk today looks like a hit or miss proposition.....leaving the oil filled radiator heater on low during the night worked well for keeping the chill off in the bedroom, and I don't think it's going to effect the electric bill very much.....I'll look for that pine incense at the store, to augment the electric fire experience.....the classic Lodge camping dutch oven looks graceful on top of the fake iron stove.....

duraflame

well, the little stove heater got here OK, and I plugged it in and it works.....at first I turned it up all the way, and that got the room real hot real quick, so I figure most of the time I'll use it dialed down lower than that.....the "flame-effect" is amusing....I like it, all in all.....so I moved the other heater to the bedroom, to keep the chill off in there in the middle of the night....it's dang raw outside today, and the storm front hasn't got that close yet even....tonight is when the rain should get here.....

40 degrees and drizzle

a cold blowing drizzle.....that was the morning walk.....now I'm waiting for the library to open, so I can look for something more to read....it might rain through Wednesday, so I can just sit inside in front of the fire and read.....after FedEx delivers the electric fire sometime today....I should get some of that pine log incense too, to add to the homey effect.....yesterday I wanted a baked apple, so what I did was slice a granny smith into wedges on a plate and sprinkle that with cinnamon, and then microwave it for five minutes....that worked, hot cooked tasty apple....had left-over sausage-rice casserole last night, and today will be the last of the steak with more of the mashed potatoes.....but I don't know what I've got for Tuesday really....

cast iron japanese teapots

there are pages of them on Amazon, and the Zen styles are neat looking.....it's just that I decided something should go on top of the fake iron stove that should get here Monday.....but I already have a Lodge camping dutch oven out on the kitchen porch....clean that up some and use it....the illusion of cooking dinner in the living room, over the illusion of a fire.....or a bronze stove dragon would be cool.....but it wouldn't actually get hot and blow steam out it's nostrils on a fake stove....this is getting complicated.....or one of those gray crackle-wear coffee pots, like would be sitting on the pot-belly stove in a country store.....anyway, you can tell it's been a long day I guess....took a little nap after lunch, then watched a football game, then ate supper, then watched a movie....I could go out and see how much cleaning up that dutch oven would take.....I'll just go on to bed after much longer anyway.....I need to take library books back in the morning....Aunt Addie was saying at Thanksgiving that she draws a little star inside the cover of a library book after she's read it, and that way she can tell if it's one she's already read if she picks it up again on a later trip to the library.....

"MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING"

that's the two inch tall headline on the Sunday Greenville News.....what they are talking about is the Clemson-Carolina score from yesterday (Gamecocks won 29-7)......that was a quote from a fan..."Beating Clemson is more important than anything." I guess that depends on your priorities in life.....maybe says something about your world-view.....the contretemps in Korea made the inside of the A section somewhere.....oh well.....30 degrees this morning, I got my stocking cap out of the sock drawer to keep my ears warm on my walk....I made blackberry wine batter french toast with a sausage patty for breakfast.....the sun through the south window and the space heater on the lowest setting are keeping it comfortable in the living room, the rest of the house is at 50 degrees.....I need to remember to put the trash can out later today, it's pretty full....I put it out maybe twice a month, they give you a large thing with wheels on it that takes me a while to fill....there's a cold wind kicking up outside now.....how many days 'til Christmas?

cold NW wind

but it's sunny and bright....just not warm....34 on my first walk, and then 41 the second time out over by the mill.....Carolina-Clemson doesn't come on until 7 at night, I think ESPN did that for ratings considerations, it's usually a day game.....late last night it said that my electric stove fireplace was somewhere in Georgia, and would be here the 29th instead of the 30th like they had been saying.....I've got a piece of steak to fix for supper, with mashed potatoes, gravy, and peas....Clinton seems even deader than usual this weekend, like everybody is still at grandma's or something....or they are at a mall in an actual city.....I love it, it's so peaceful.....

ddd marathon?

I watched Auburn-Alabama, and then some local news, and now it looks like Diners and Dives is going just one after the other....and after all that food yesterday....I did some comfort food myself for dinner...."rice stuff".....diced onion, diced mushrooms, country sausage, can of cream of mushroom soup, pepper, parmesan cheese, and white rice......done in the oven covered for a while with a lid on, and then take the lid off and put some bread crumbs on and brown it 15 minutes with the top off...serve with a side of very young early peas done in butter.....raining again now after dark, and they say it's getting to low 30's tonight.....

after breakfast

it was raining some but it looked like it was slowing down so I went walking for the newspaper anyway.....and ended up getting a little wet when the rain picked up again halfway to the store....but then it stopped, and the walk back wasn't wet.....that was probably my big adventure for the day.....there are two different weather systems interacting with each other here today, but the stronger cold one from the north will prevail by the end of the day....or maybe by Saturday.....checking FexEx Ground tracking numbers last night, my electric fireplace should be delivered Tuesday.....in time for a predicted cold trend.....it had been beeped in Nashville yesterday, and it's coming from Alabama?

dinner report

turkey, dressing, gravy, sweet potato casserole with nuts on top, mac and cheese, green beans with almond slivers, rolls......pecan pie, lemon cream pie, chocolate cake, old fashioned cookies, pumpkin bread cream cheese roll....what else? sweet tea, coffee ....Cindy did the cooking, and Matt and their kids little Addie and Ed and her parents Addie and Ed the elder and her sister Elizabeth and myself did the eating....along with Spike the dog......very convivial family Thanksgiving afternoon....nice weather too....so...that went well.....oh, and I had a glass of scuppernong wine.....tasty....I think Cindy said it was from Wal*Mart.....

happy thanksgiving

the weather is more like it today.....overcast, some showers moving across the Upstate....seems like Holidaze weather.....one of the dang department store black friday ads must have had those perfume samples in it, because my living room got perfumed somehow....so all that is gone into the kitchen trash.....I stayed up late watching the Heat-Magic game, but this morning I can't even remember who won....I'll have to check Yahoo Sports.....I think it was the Magic? Heck, I can still smell that perfume.....

beautiful afternoon

sitting out on the porch, it doesn't seem like the next day is Thanksgiving already....very mild weather....I bought a cream cheese and pumpkin bread log so I wouldn't show up for dinner tomorrow empty handed....I couldn't find a pecan log, no Bate's Nut Farm close by....and I was too lazy to cook anything to take, like the creamed onions last year....at the store they said that the Shriners will be selling pecan logs Saturday, but they didn't know where I could get one today....lots of people shopping, it looks like the Holiday thing is kicking into gear more this year, maybe....

5 day weekend?

I guess the schools are closed today too, so lots of people are off until Monday.....today is the travel day ......fog and 45 degrees early this morning, burned off now, and I'll go for a walk and then go to the grocery store....it might be crowded there, more than usual....

stimulate the economy

I ordered an "electric fireplace stove" online....I tried to shop locally, but couldn't find what I wanted....this looks like a small cast-iron stove, with a flame illusion, and should heat my living room easily and cheaply....I'll move the oil-filled electric radiator heater from behind the sofa to the foot of my bed....so at bedtime I can turn off the zone heating in the living room, and turn it on in the bedroom....I might save enough on the whole-house heating this way to pay for the new stove ($99, free shipping, no tax).....and I think the flickering illusion of a log fire on cold Winter nights will be nice.....life is illusion anyway, by and large....it's made by Duraflame, their "budget shopper" model.....maybe I can find an old black iron kettle to set on top of the thing por ambience....

well the rain didn't wait

'til the afternoon....it started coming down pretty good right after I got back to the house, about 9:30.....hmm, I just heard the mailbox rattle, guess I'll go check that.....and I can sit on the porch and watch the weather for a bit.....

30% chance

of showers this afternoon.....about 60 in the house this morning, not bad at all.....my utility bill was in the mail yesterday, and it looks like I spent a little less on electricity this October than the previous October.....the "heating season" is about to start though, and the natural gas bill will go from something like $15 a month to close to $100 for the next three months or so.....oh well, I've kinda got that factored into the budget I guess....I'm going to go take a walk, and try not to step in anything strange......

while walking around downtown

or on the way back, I stepped in something and got it on the sole of my shoe and didn't notice it until I'd come into the house and put my coat in the closet and gone to the bathroom and went into the living room to sit down and look at the mail.....then I saw these dark red stains on my brand new forest green carpet....it's been more than two years here, but I still regard things as nice and new for some reason.....anyway, I don't know what is was, looked like something organic, like holly berries? Not paint I don't think.....I have a spray thing of fabric stain remover, and that worked well enough looks like....though there was about 45 minutes of crawling around through the house involved.....cleaning that up.....pissed me off.....

overcast

so it didn't get that cold overnight.....a change in the weather is expected for the holiday weekend, a cold front with rain, and temps down to freezing at night again....I made a sausage and mushroom omelette last night.....today will be a plate of leftover pot roast dinner....oatmeal for breakfast, grilled spam and cheese for lunch....I need to pay some bills today, and might as well go ahead and pay the property tax....it's not due until January, but I'll just get it off my desk....walk it over to the Post Office, walk around the little downtown......

thin slices of fried Spam

and french toast for Sunday breakfast, cornbread and black-eyed-peas for lunch....sort of medium weather, not as cold as the last few days, but not all that warm either....just listening to the radio, playing some guitar, reading.....no pro football I'm interested in on that I can see....woke up early in the morning, in the wee small hours.....got a drink of cold water out of the Frigidaire, and the moon was very bright through the kitchen window....went back to bed and slept to maybe 6:30.....

sort of surprised

that Fox Sports Carolina has The Big Game on.....Cal and Stanford.....and it's not in the middle of the night! I did watch the Carolina game for awhile, but they ended up getting 69 points, was not a pretty sight for the other guys.....

enjoyable early walk

with the cold fresh air and the Fall colors in the sunrise light.....I think there's Carolina football today at noon....might watch some of that.....hard to believe it's a Saturday again already....I had to think twice this morning to figure out what day it was, and the Saturday answer surprised me....in the Saturday paper they have an Auto section, and today one article was about the jump in Jeep Grand Cherokee sales for the 2011 model, looks like Chrysler-Fiat has a hit with it....funny to think of Fiat Jeeps....though my '88 AMC Jeep is from the Renault era I guess....has a french designed engine management system.....cousin Sam has a '89 Wrangler, he told me at the reunion....that would have the 4.3 litre I think, like that '87 Eagle Limited I had for a few years back in the'90's, and like they had in the Post Office Jeeps.....lots of torque, and a Torqueflite....

there were still some tortillas

so I had pot roast tacos for lunch.....tasty and satisfying ......

windy and chilly

and dry.....no rain predicted until Thanksgiving....had a plate of that pot roast with mushrooms, potatoes, and carrots last night, with a biscuit to mop up the gravy.....might have the same thing this evening, or I might make cornbread and black-eyed peas, just to avoid the same supper two days in a row.....no mail came today.....couldn't find anything on to watch last night, so I finished a science-fiction book, and I have the one that comes after it that I can start today.....Jack McDevitt "Hutch" stories.....well, I'm getting hungry....will go in the kitchen and look for lunch....

got warm enough

to sit out on the front porch in the afternoon for a while.....coming back inside, the house smells like pot-roast....which is a good thing.....I went over to Laurens for a guitar string, and some more of that whitening mouthwash from Wal*Mart.....they have the best price on that.....where Wal*Mart used to be, across the highway from where it is now, they put in Tractor Supply, and some fashion store, and Big Lots, and now a discount grocer called Save A Lot....all in the same building....I should go check out Tractor Supply again, I think they might have Dickies flannel shirts......I have one that I wear almost all the time, maybe should get another one.....the parking lot for those new stores had a lot of cars.....the music store looked like it was doing OK, staying in business anyway....I was afraid for a while there that he might give it up, and then I wouldn't have anyplace for strings or whatever....but he says things are steady.....he's retired from some place anyway, so I guess he doesn't worry too much about making money off the store....

back to freezing in the morning

and now it says 43 degrees.....so I'll put on a jacket and go walk around the park in a few minutes....I've got the rump roast and veggies in the crock-pot.....that will be good for tonight, and several other meals I'm sure.....cold pot roast sandwich for lunch some day or other.....with mayo and mustard.....today's lunch might be microwaved chicken livers and gravy over a biscuit....leftovers from Wednesday.....

so I won't buy a turkey

Cindy has invited me to Thanksgiving at her house again this year, so I'm not going to cook a dinner myself....maybe at Christmas I'll do a ham.....a small one in ginger ale again....

clear, warmer

Got my walking done today OK, and spent a lot of money at the grocery store.....I was out of some things that you have to get from time to time, like a big can of coffee....that will last for months....I got a beef roast, and mushrooms and red potatoes and carrots for the crock-pot, with a can of mushroom soup and a packet of onion soup mix....that always works....tonight I'll use up the chicken livers, with biscuits and gravy and slaw for sides....and the week's menu might include black-eyed peas with cornbread, and sausage-shrimp grits too.....still trying to decide whether or not to bother with doing a turkey dinner....but Thanksgiving is coming up pretty fast, ain't it?

grocery ads

in the junk mail every Tuesday.....so it looks like a good price on bottom round roast, and mushrooms, and mushroom soup, and canned veggies in general.....so crock-pot beef roast? And I have cornbread mix, so a can of those seasoned black-eyed peas, and some Spam....I've been meaning to do that for a while.....plus it's time for coffee, eggs, O.J., bread, wine, paper towels, T.P.......I've actually made a list on a note pad, if I can remember to take it when I go shopping.....been raining steady all morning so far....

walking in the rain

there was some light rain falling when I went to get the newspaper, didn't get very wet.....but, looking at the radar just now, there's a lot of moisture coming up from the south....looks like it's going to be wet for hours.....so instead of a park walk I might have to get some exercise with vacuum, broom, and mop....the kitchen floor is due for sure anyway.....I think I got almost 8 hours sleep last night, which is more than usual for me.....I was watching Monday Night Football, but one team was stomping the other one, I just went to bed around 9:30, and slept pretty well until 6 a.m. ......with the overcast, it only got down to 52 overnight, instead of the 32 a few days ago, so the house temp wasn't bad at all when I got up......

gray all day

I did walk after lunch, around the park...got a few drops of rain on me, nothing much....and came back and took a nap....felt like a nap kind of overcast afternoon.....the huevos with a glass of muscato really hit the spot lunch-wise.....might have aided with the napping idea.....it will be more tortilla use for supper, shrimp tacos continue....

apricots, mangos, and lilacs

I'd never purchased a bottle of muscato before, but it had caught my eye in the grocery store, mainly because it looked like a good price.....tasty stuff....aromas of apricot, etc.....it doesn't say "serve chilled", so I didn't put it in the fridge, it's imported by Gallo from Australia, the kind I got....started raining around 9 this morning, so I haven't been on a second walk.....maybe after lunch I can get one in.....I'm low on bread, but have some tortillas, so I might do huevos rancheros at lunch .....the cooking ladies in the Greenville paper had a recipe one time where you serve the salsa poached egg on top of a tortilla....I tried that once before, and it's pretty good .....at the Resort Cafe, they served the tortillas and frijoles on the side.....

brisk, clear, sunny

watched Carolina beat Florida last night, so now they will play Auburn later for the SEC championship, which would get them into the BCS, or something? Clemson lost, Oregon barely won. Yesterday I cooked chicken livers, corn, and rice.....and made gravy for it all.....that was a good meal....for Sunday lunch I'm going to have cold livers and raisin slaw....or maybe I'll heat the livers up some in the microwave....a front with some rain should get here Monday night, with 70% chance of rain on Tuesday.....I got golden delicious apples this week instead of granny smith, since they were a dollar cheaper a bag....they are tasty, but not as crunchy as the grannies.....but not mushy either, like some of those big red apples....I got a really thick catalog in the mail yesterday from Sweetwater ProGear.....it has guitars and amps, but also pages and pages of computer stuff for music.....gets confusing, trying to figure what some of that stuff is for even.....

not too chilly

right now....well, it's around 40 or so outside.....instead of walking around the park I'm thinking of walking around "downtown".....an article in the local paper this week said that the little two blocks or so of the old business district is 30% vacant.....there used to be a J.C. Penney's, and a movie theatre, etc.....but now there's lots of empty store fronts....I guess that's true in many places nowadays, stores were going out of business in Escondido back in 2006, before the statistical start of the Recession? Of course the idea the downtown association is pushing is to go the quaint artys-craftsy route, and try to get people to open I don't know what.....a bunch of gift shops? Trouble is, every little town around here wants to be an "historical destination" for non-existent tourists.....my idea would be to open a big honky-tonk dance hall, with a billboard for it out on the interstate......but the Baptist town fathers would never go for that.....

property tax

bills came out today.....mine is $194.72.....I think it said 9 cents of it would go to indigent relief.....glad I'm doing my part....

nor'east wind 5 mph

32 degree windchill on my walk.....it's warmed up to 39 now, and I'm about to go out again.....stayed up to watch the Celtics beat the Heat, tonight it will be the Jazz and the Hawks I suppose, unless there is some old movie on that looks more interesting.....and it's going to be taco nite, food-wise.....

cocktail knowledge

"It turns out, though, ginger ale works as well with real rye as with fake, and once people acquired the taste they stuck with it, even after Prohibition was repealed. Fact is, it's a damn tasty drink. Babe Ruth used to drink a quart of it with his breakfast (how else to wash down a 16-ounce porterhouse, six fried eggs, and a half-acre of homefries?). Good enough for us. " Boy, the stuff you can find online....what led me to this quote was something else I had read calling Canadian whisky "fake rye".....by Canadian law, if it says "Canadian" on the label, it has to be 51% barrel aged rye, and the rest can be "grain alcohol"......anyway, I don't think I could hang with the Babe at the breakfast table.....

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/drinks/rye-and-ginger-ale-drink-recipe#ixzz1506TNlWJ

11/11

Windchill of 40 early on, clear and crisp again.....I think the trees are turning later this year than last year.....maybe a sign of a milder Winter....I hope so. I drove over to Wal*Mart for niacin, it's cheaper there than anywhere else I've found.....didn't find anything else to buy while I was over there.....I need more string for the weedeater, but I think that can wait until Spring ......I might make a chicken quesadilla for lunch, and supper will be chicken fried steak.....watched a good basketball game last night between the Jazz and the Magic, and the Celtics-Heat are on tonight.....

61 degrees, blue sky, east wind

just got back from a walk a little while ago, and then sat on the front porch to eat an apple and look at the day...very nice day....also got the grocery shopping done already....chicken livers, cube steak, shrimp tacos will be some of the menu items.....still some leftovers from last week too.....bags of angel hair cabbage were on sale, that goes in the shrimp tacos, and also makes slaw to have with livers and rice-and-gravy. I've got the weekly Clinton paper to look at, and then I'll fix some lunch....

my right wrist

has an ache in it today.....hope it's not carpal tunnel from guitar playing, that would be a bummer....I just did about 45 minutes with the big old Oscar Schmidt Delta King through the new Fender amp.....and I don't think that helped too much.....I was hoping I could loosen it up, but maybe it got worse....might need emu oil.....ended up 75 degrees here in the afternoon, nice weather for sure.....going to start the rice for rice and gravy pretty soon.....with leftover fried chicken and peas.....

40 in the morning

warmer day for sure....went out and used the lawnmower as a leaf blower, and also tossed some bark and sticks that had fallen from the oak to the curb for the city to pick up....didn't see much of interest in the ads that came in the mail.....it's all toys for Christmas, or food for Thanksgiving.....don't know if I'll bother cooking a turkey this year or not....it takes an awful long time to eat the whole thing....but it is sort of fun to do I guess....grocery day tomorrow, and I still have fried chicken left over to eat up, I'll have that tonight.....I only used half of the tortillas in the enchilada pie, so I could buy frozen shrimp and make shrimp tacos, those are good....get some pintos for a side.....I think there's some useable cilantro left, have to check that out....I'm about out of oatmeal.....

warmed up

early in the afternoon....nice enough for some porch-sitting....

waiting for the library to open

at nine.....I was awake per usual time, rather than clock time.....so I'm an hour ahead of myself, or something....more frost today than yesterday, clear and crisp again.....they say it will gradually warm up this week, and it might rain by the coming weekend.....I've got some hamburger that needs to be used soon, there was some leftover from making the enchilada pie, so I'll make a patty melt for lunch today.....I saw two episodes of Drive-ins, Diners, and Dives yesterday that I had never seen before.....if I had money, I would open Cousin Steve's Famous Food and Drink.....if you could get on on-site liquor license in this town. There was a Greek guy in Riverside who called his burger joint "Pete and Georgia's Famous Food"....I'd go in there for lunch sometimes, and once somebody asked Pete "How come you claim to serve famous food? I've never heard of this place before."Pete said "Well, you've heard of hamburgers before, right? And you've heard of gyros? And french fries? What's not famous about our food?" Maybe I'll have a famous patty melt for lunch.....

freezing

was 32 when I went for the paper, some light frost in shady places. Didn't sleep very well, was wondering if the unusual sugar intake from the dessert table at the reunion was messing with my metabolism or something....or maybe I was just too stuffed to sleep right. Fixed rum-and-egg french toast with thin fried ham slices for Sunday breakfast.....the weekly throw-away newspaper, the Laurens County Advertiser, had the voting breakdown for the county by precinct, and I was surprised to see that Clinton Mill precinct voted for Sheheen, the Democratic governor candidate, by a little more than three to one. He lost to that Sarah Palin clone by 5 points statewide, something like that.....so I guess my immediate neighborhood isn't terribly conservative after all.....so the sun is back on it's natural rotation, and it will be getting dark around dinner time.....and it won't be in my eyes on my 7:30 walk, it will be an hour up in the sky.....the Greenville paper says they are going to start printing the weekday comics in color (?) and they are going to drop Mary Worth.....heavens to betsy!

Tingle family reunion a huge success

it turned out to be a beautiful Fall afternoon at the church grounds, lots of Tingle kids running around, lots of good southern cooking, enjoyable conversation, many shared memories....all in all a good time.....there was excellent corn pudding, mac-and-cheese of course, sweet potato casserole with crunchy pecan topping, and on and on.....crisp evening, but not too cold to wander around outside after eating......happy occasion.....back home watching football, set my clocks back already.....

not so bad

they were predicting it would be 29 degrees here at 8 this morning, but it was actually 39, so the newspaper walk wasn't that cold, it was just about like yesterday.....I should clean up around the house some this morning, and in the afternoon I can make the enchilada pie, and then get over to Ora 3:30-4:00, something like that.....get there early, 'cause I might leave earlier than most......I get tired enough to go to sleep by 9:00 lately.....but then, when I get home, I can turn the clock back and gain an hour? Last night I finished off the rib-eye, with half a baked potato, and asparagus.....tonight will be a smorgasbord.....

winter weather statement

is posted.....freezing temperatures for tomorrow at dawn, so maybe I'll dig out my wool cap and scarf for walking.....I should buy some better gloves....I wore my old leather jacket today while I was out, hadn't needed that since last Winter......I think I'm organized for the reunion, got the camera batteries charging up.....will probably be several people posting pix on FB.....it sounds like there will be plenty of food....hash brown casserole, orange juice cake ....have already been mentioned....hope someone brings that corn pudding stuff.....it's in the evening this time, so it's going to be dark driving home, and after my bedtime maybe.....I haven't driven at night in a long time.....no reason to.....

cloudy, in the 40's outside

There's one bridge on the 108 between Clinton and Ora that's closed.....so I'll get to the reunion tomorrow some other way not as direct looks like.....I turned on the central heat around six this morning, and then went back to bed until 6:30 or so.....let it take the chill off some....going to stay cold Saturday they say, and warm up some Sunday maybe.....not good porch sitting weather at the moment.....

96 in San Diego?

It's going to get down around freezing here tonight, with a chance of snow in the high mountain counties.....the iron skillet oven fried chicken came out perfect, and I made some really good gravy, with lots of black pepper in it, it was tasty, and I managed to make it with no lumps in it this time.....so I'll have leftovers to make a regular Sunday chicken dinner too.....probably get to eat all kinds of good food at the reunion Saturday.....

looks like

it might rain all day......the packet of Tenda Bake Southern Style Seasoned Flour and Coating Mix has directions for oven fried chicken that tell you to do it exactly like I've always done it, so I guess I've been doing it right.....the same as the Fanny Farmer Cookbook, best as I can recollect....I'll use some of the mix for the gravy too.....

rained all night?

was raining when I woke up anyway.....could feel the arthritis in my left knee somewhat....must just be the weather, 'cause I didn't do anything to hurt it I can think of, nothing unusual.....so I put on the knee brace, and my morning walk warmed it up enough so it feels OK now.....stopped raining long enough to get the paper without getting wet....raining again now, so I might have to put off the park walk until early afternoon, when they say this should be mostly gone past....watched some old western movie last night, couldn't find any sports.....the Atlanta Hawks home games on SportsSouth are blacked out in this area.....they must think I'm going to drive to Atlanta to watch a game? I don't think so.....I do get NBA TV, and sometimes there will be a game on there that's interesting, but they don't usually start until after 8.......I'm considering baking the chicken today, or oven-frying, if that's what you want to call it, some oil in the pan anyway.....I got some "southern style" chicken breading mix to use for that.....

wet, chilly

It didn't start raining until right as I was getting back from the grocery store....I stopped for gas too....looking in the checkbook, I didn't buy any gas in October. And so I went over to Laurens in the rain, and looked at Cindy's billboard....Matt had a full sized one put up near Pete's #9 BBQ, for her 40th birthday, with her picture on it in her Halloween outfit.....classic. I went there and back along Forest Rd., and just after the bridge I think I saw some wet turkeys crossing the road....so I'm ready to make enchilada pie Saturday, and I got some rib-eye steak, and a whole cut-up fryer for the coming week.....tonight I'll have steak and baked potato and asparagus, which was at a good price today.....and then one day I'll do the fryer in the iron skillet in the oven, and that will be good for several meals I'm sure.....I'll make rice and gravy, and I bought some early peas.....

when I went for the paper

I saw that there weren't very many cars at the polling place, so I went in and went straight through, no line at all.....the left coast won the World Series last night, is that an omen for the poll results? probably not. It was clouded over an hour ago, but the wind seems to be blowing that off now......I could do a load of laundry today.....tomorrow is shopping day, and I should get the fixings for the enchilada pie for the family reunion on Saturday, but the corn tortillas at BiLo leave something to be desired, when they even have them at all....something like freshness, actually.....so I'm thinking of going over to the mercado in Laurens, they should have what I need over there I hope......I still haven't turned on the central heat yet, just running the electric oil-radiator thingy behind the sofa in the living room, with the living room door kept shut.....that keeps me comfortable pretty well.....

feels like November

cold north wind on my walk at sunrise, rain predicted by Tuesday night, highs in the 60's, lows in the 40's this week....I turned the page on my kitchen calendar, and saw Thanksgiving on there sure enough....doesn't seem like another year gone by already, but I guess it's so.....SF Giants won again, so tonight the Series could be over? And the political ads on TV could be over tonight too? I hope so, they are pretty mean-hearted and nasty by and large, either that or saccharin fantasy of plastic wife-and-kids and a day gone by that never existed.....I just have to walk across the street to vote, that's pretty easy......

trick or treat report

My first Halloween in Clinton two years ago, I had roughly 75 kids come by. Last year it was around 60. This year the city fathers said that trick-or-treat should be on Saturday, rather than Sunday, and I only had about 25 visitors. I'm going to leave my porch light on again tonight, and see if any people come on the traditional night. Otherwise I'll have most of a bag of Mary Jane molasses and peanut butter candies to eat myself. It was funny, last night this one little girl, a toddler maybe two years old or something like that started to just walk into the house when I opened the door....her mom had to catch her and tell her to just open her bag for the candy, you don't need to go inside.....anyway, the Giants lost the first game in Texas, I forget who is pitching tonight......42 windchill on the sunrise walk, clear and crisp.....french toast and fried ham for breakfast....yesterday I made a chili-cheese-frito omelette for supper.....probably do leftover ribs and a salad today, use up some lettuce while it still looks fresh.....

pretty big crowd

at the Clinton Fall Festival, a couple of blocks from my house....the people with the hash were there, she says they won the trophy for hash at Abbeville the other week....anyway, I asked her for a hot dog with a serving of hash on it, and that was no problem.....one buck for the hot dog, and one buck for dumping the bowl of hash on top of that....and I put on some of their good bbq sauce....lots of booths set up, the usual stuff....I got a fortune cookie at the Confucius Institute booth.....they have lots of old cars, more than at Laurens maybe.....there was a 1957 Studebaker Silver Hawk with a 289.....and a green Gremlin X with a 360....an automatic....and a Corvair Corsa Spyder, the ragtop.....and a bunch more.....cheerleaders were dancing or something, and there were kiddie rides, and the world's tallest pin-ball machine like in Laurens, and the fire dept. has a haunted house on a trailer, etc....every once in a while a freight train goes right through to make things interesting....vendors were still getting there as I was leaving.....it goes on with music and shag dancing into the night I guess.....the Curb Mkt. didn't have today's paper either.....

slept well

nothing on TV, so I went to bed around nine, and got a good eight hours or so.....back didn't feel too bad when I got out of bed.....but I could see my breath, in the house....50 degrees it said in the kitchen.....I haven't fired up the gas pack yet this season.....so I ate breakfast and went for my sunrise walk, 37 degrees outside....they were starting to set up for the Clinton Fall Festival when I walked by there....got to the Gate gas station-store where I get my newspaper every morning, and there weren't any! The newspaper distributor hadn't shown up today.....that's just wrong! So I'll have to read the comics online I suppose.....GoClinton will have it posted as to whether or not the Red Devils won the football game.....later in the day I can walk over and check out the festivities, and see if the newspapers are there yet.....those people from Greenwood who make hash might be there like last year.....there will be some bands and stuff going on....pickle eating contest, etc....the World Series is going to be on at 6:30, and I guess I'll watch it with the porch light off and the living room lights off, to signal that I am not recognizing Trick-or-Treat on the wrong day.....what's the point of tradition if you don't honor it?

cold this morning

feels more like Halloween weather than that warm muggy spell earlier in the week....crisp and clear out walking.....had a bowl of chili for lunch, to warm up some.....got a Guitar Player magazine in the mail today, something to look at for a while.....watched baseball again until the middle of the night, they are moving it to Texas Saturday evening, Giants looking good....

steak sandwich

with mustard and mayo, an imported from Greece pepper, glass of red wine.....Thursday lunch....this afternoon I'll turn on a slow oven and put the country ribs in the iron skillet with apple cider vinegar and a little oregano.....that might sound strange, but it works, I've done it before.....2 hours at 250 or so, then take them out and dump off the fat, put them back in on the other side, and put on the bbq sauce, and then give 'em another hour at 300....this is all uncovered....anyway, the storm passed and I stayed up and watched the World Series Game One, which was entertaining enough .......more again tonight.....got the Occidental magazine, and the AAA mag in the mail this morning, along with the usual offers for life insurance, etc....none of them ever say they will insure that I live.....wouldn't buy that either.....

"the largest non-tropical storm in recorded history"

that's what they were saying about the weather on the local news when the station went off the air......thunderstorm here now, with a renewed tornado watch......

weird weather continues

they finally lifted the tornado watch about an hour ago.....it was overcast at sunrise, so I put on a flannel shirt for my walk, and got soaked in sweat.....72 degrees and 100% humidity, south wind 6 mph.....it will be clear this morning for a half hour, and then wind and big black clouds will return for half an hour......anyway, went grocery shopping, and got some candy for Halloween, and some country style pork ribs they had a good price on, and some leaf lettuce, baking potatoes, collard greens, bbq sauce, the good unsweetened unfiltered apple juice was half price, and I got O.J., eggs, extra sharp cheddar cheese cheep, and other things.....finished up the meatloaf in a sandwich for lunch..... leftovers today, and then I'll put those ribs in the oven tomorrow I reckon, with a baking potato, and have a leaf lettuce and Harvard beet salad as a veggie side.....there will be ribs leftover.....

tornado watch

until 3 am.....but on the radar it looks like the storms are tracking north of the county.....watching Shaq and his Celtics stomp LeBron and the Heat.....when did Shaq join the Celtics? I haven't been paying attention I guess.....

strange day

blowing hot and cold...had a sweater on earlier in the afternoon, but now it says the heat index is 85....80 degrees, 73% humidity.....been playing around with guitars some today....it's odd, a couple of my more beat up electrics that hum and spit through tube amps sound perfectly smooth through the new Fender Mustang....must be something the digital signal processing does....fine with me.....

warm moisture

coming up from the south....100% humidity, low clouds and fog.....68 on my sunrise walk, 70 on the park walk a couple of hours later.....got some windows open now....fixed myself ham slice, fried taters, and the rest of the squash last night.....I think today will be a piece of strip steak, spinach, and a biscuit.....watched Top Gear last night.....and while I was watching Pawn Stars on the History Channel earlier, they were saying that HC is going to have an American Top Gear show starting pretty soon.....the Celtics-Heat starts off basketball tonight, and then the World Series Wednesday.....these things are something to keep me awake until bedtime.....if I just conk out on the sofa after dinner, I'll end up awake with an aching back at one in the morning, which I don't like.....well, I've still got meatloaf for a sandwich, and a new loaf of Health Nut bread, which makes nice crunchy toast.....right now I'm going to go sit on the front porch and eat an apple.....

storm front went through

and it's 70 degrees getting towards sunset here.....so after a burst of activity early it ended up a lazy day.....fell asleep a while in the afternoon.....watching Pawn Stars after dinner....nothing else on.....

the third place

I went to had the part I needed for my oven, the baking element.....it rained hard the whole time I was driving around, but stopped once I got home.....the used appliance store over near Ford School where I got my washer and dryer is where I found the part, they had one hanging on the wall.....so I fixed my oven for $30....the hardest part of the operation was finding a 1/4" socket in my tool box.....it's not cold very much this morning, just wet, as the weather is coming from the south-west seems like.....I think I'll have a bowl of chili for lunch, because I've got lots of chili, and it's a rainy day.....

clouding up, cooling off

got the Falcons-Bengals on TV, with AC/DC on the stereo.....was jamming along for a while with the amp set to British 60's with flanger and octaver dialed in for twist and crunch.....quiet Sunday afternoon in a small town....decided on meatloaf, mac-and-cheese, and crook neck squash with vidalia onion for dinner.....one of the leftover combo choices.....Falcons are ahead, playing pretty good.....they just got another TD.....makes it 24-3 after the FG......

you are now free to move about the country

Southwest Airlines had a two page ad in the Sunday paper about their new Greenville-Spartanburg Airport service.....it looks like there's no direct flights to the west coast, but you can fly to Nashville and connect to San Diego or whatever.....if you had the money and the inclination to do so....Portland is the only place listed in Oregon......it looks like it's $59 to Nashville and then $109 to either S.D. or Portland....or Oakland.....bags fly free, price does not include this, that, and the other thing in fine print at the bottom of the page.....they had an article on the front page about this too, since several regional carriers dropped their price to Nashville, etc.... to match the Southwest price, which is what the local chamber of commerce was hoping would happen.....bright, calm Sunday morning in Clinton.....french toast and sausage for breakfast, bowl of chili for supper yesterday, bowl of popcorn while watching the Giants make it to the Series.....might start raining tonight, 80% chance on Monday, thunderstorms likely by the afternoon ......

that meatloaf sandwich yesterday

was so good I had another one for lunch today....I did go over to Wal*Mart for more emu oil, and they also had unsweetened chocolate cheaper than BiLo, and Health Nut bread 50 cents cheaper too....they have that thing that lets you play YouTube on the TV down to $128 now, maybe it will be half price after Christmas? Probably not. I don't really look at YouTube all that much, but it just sounds cool....you can get Netflicks over it too.....the Jam On station is doing Pearl Jam all weekend? I can turn my new Fender DSP amp to the "AMERICAN 90's" preset and get the grunge tone to play along.....ever evolving wonders of technology.....got a pot of chili on the range....

dead quiet around here

you can hear the train going by, but that doesn't last long.....Laurens and Clinton both lost, so I don't think either one of them is going to the playoffs this year....watched the Rangers win the AL title last night, so maybe it will be a Texas-Frisco world series? I'm thinking of driving over to Wal*Mart for a couple of things.....I've got half of the hamburger meat and half of the sausage left that I need to do something with soon, so I might get chili beans and make chili.....then I'll have a third leftover to work on, might not need to buy much groceries this coming week.....got down below 40 during the night, sunny and calm now......they are saying the rainy front crossing the country now will be in this area Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.......

bill paying day

took care of AT&T, City of Clinton, and Allstate.....paid the gas company a couple of days ago, so I don't owe anybody anything.....watched the Giants get beat last night, but they just have to win one more to advance to the World Series.....San Francisco looks nice on TV, the bay and all.....the meatloaf is delicious, so I'll have a meatloaf sandwich on wheat-berry toast with a little mayo for lunch.....tonight will be leftover scalloped taters with ham.....I took the check in to Allstate in person 'cause it's right on the way to the ABC, where I was headed since I was out of whiskey....so I'm all set to read library books, listen to the radio, torture the guitar, watch baseball games, take walks.....all the usual stuff.....

mild Fall afternoon

It's been a fine day......got meatloaf cooking, with baked potato, probably finish up the lima beans in the fridge too......you could bottle this weather and sell it at a premium.....

more baseball

I stayed up late again watching the Giants game.....maybe they can win again tonight.....this morning when I got out of bed and started doing my crunches and stretches etc....something popped in my lumbar....in a good way! That nagging pain and stiffness I have when I get out of bed pretty much just went away all at once.....usually I have to rub emu oil on it and do my sunrise walk before it loosens up somewhat......chilly and clear today so far, will do the other walk shortly, and I should vacuum.....the ham and scalloped potato dish was a success, enough leftover for another dinner or more.....I had lima beans as the side.....

what you can do

when making ham and scalloped potatoes , start it in the microwave, and then stick it under the broiler in the oven to crisp it up on top....time and temp will vary according to amount and unknown factors.....this works for meatloaf too.....ground chuck and country pork sausage were on sale, so I'll do meatloaf this week too.....oatmeal works in microwave meatloaf.....1/2 lb. ground beef, 1/2 lb. pork sausage, one cup oatmeal, one can cream of mushroom soup, one egg....mix by hand, form into loaf, nuke it 1/2 hr. on 50%, then place under broiler until it looks right....let cool some to firm up so it will slice better.....looking at the radar, the rain front has gone off to the East.....rained most of the morning, but now some sun is coming out.....I stayed up watching the baseball game past midnight, and was awake around 5:30 .....that's no 8 hours sleep, but I feel OK, old people don't need as much sleep.....

raining early on

I was just getting back to my street when it started coming down....it's still raining some about an hour after the newspaper walk......I'm going to go grocery shopping......I figure I can use up some of that ham if I make a dish of scalloped potatoes with it......so I need potatoes, for one thing.....and a jar of Ragu cheesy alfredo sauce, I'm too lazy to make white sauce for scalloping anymore.....and an onion.....I have enough eggs, orange juice, bread until next week I think....I'll try to figure things out as I wander around in the store I guess......

stayed up late

watching the Rangers beat the Yanks, slept pretty well.....50 on the morning walk, as opposed to 40 the previous day.....just got back from walking the park, didn't need a jacket.....they say it will be sunny and get up to around 80 today, and then Wednesday a cold front should come through with a slim chance of showers......Monday dinner was fried ham with bbq sauce, baked sweet potato, mac-and-cheese.....I might make a ham salad sandwich for lunch.....ham ham ham ham; sung to the tune of "Spam Spam Spam Spam".....IFC continues with their Monty Python hours in the evening.....I've seen a couple I don't remember ever seeing before.....

people who walk

I walk about an hour every day, 20 minutes to get the newspaper, and 40 minutes around the park and back.....I talked to a guy this morning who is out walking almost every day too...he lives over by the park....he says he walks for the same reason I do, to work his back, warm it up....he had a spinal fusion in 2000 he said....mine was 2003 I think.....and I talked to another walker today too....this guy walks down to the Bi-Lo shopping center just about every day, which is probably about 4 miles round trip to over where he lives past the mill.....I passed him today as I was coming back from the library, but he doesn't ever want a ride, he says he enjoys the walking....one day in the Winter it was dang freezing, but he still wanted to walk home from the store......we were talking about how many empty houses there are around here, but they are building apartments to rent.....we figured that maybe these old houses aren't good enough for some people....or maybe young people like apartment buildings for social life, almost like living in a dorm maybe.....I had a Marie Callender chicken pot pie for Sunday supper....those things are so big I felt stuffed by the time I finished it, they are not like those little chicken pies we had as kids.....very nice weather continues.....crisp in the morning, warming up pleasantly in the afternoon.....

fried ham

and fried sweet tater slices, and a deviled biscuit.....Saturday supper.....Sunday breakfast of french toast and two sausage links, coffee, orange juice....clear and chilly, lots of sunshine but not very warm sunshine, at least not in the morning.... they predict a high of 79 ......I put a blanket on the bed last night, in addition to the usual quilt and bedspread......there is a new notice on the burned out house next door, it says that on Nov. 2 the property will be deeded to a new owner unless Angela Denise Smith pays the $368 back taxes.....it seems to say there already is someone who has already agreed to pay the tax and thus gain the property for that small amount? Will they require that person to clear off the condemned building? We'll see what happens.

Teisco Del Rey

About all I could ever get out of my Teisco Del Rey 1969 Spectrum II guitar was a sort of Powderfinger tone (red means run son, numbers add up to nothing) which is cool in a grunge sort of way.....but today I started fiddlin' around with various stomp-boxes, and finally got the Spectrum run into a mid 80's Arion Metal Master, on the "soft" output.....and then into a dual amp rig I've been playing with....anyway, the guitar has this slide switch on it that says Rhythm and Solo.....and I could never get much out of the Solo setting, it just seemed to mute the pickups or something.....but I got it working today.....if you turn the volume and tone knobs all the way up, and have it switched to solo, and you've got some gain dialed up on the metal pedal, you can get this bizarre San Francisco hippies-on-acid lead tone going.....I played that for about an hour I guess....I suppose I'm easily amused.....right now I've got the Clemson game on the TV, and Rust Never Sleeps on the stereo, I wanted to hear "Powderfinger".....

driving through the woods

the Fall colors are just barely starting.....wandered around on some back roads for a while, visited the church grounds.....there are sure some nice looking properties you can see driving around.....chilly this morning, I think it said 37 on the dawn patrol.....Laurens won, Clinton lost, which is sort of a switch.....I stayed up until 11 watching the Rangers-Yankees, but when the Texas bull pen blew up and New York tied it in the 8th I got disgusted and went to bed without waiting for the 9th to play out.....dang Yanks......I'm going to fix myself a ham and egg sandwich.....

soup's on

diced up chicken, onion, garlic, added a can of chili beans, oregano, about 1 cup chunky salsa, maybe 1/2 cup nacho cheese sauce, 1 cup fritos, and 2 cups water, in the crock pot early this morning....smells good.....was 39 on the sunrise walk, and around ten the wind chill was still in the lower 40's for the park walk.....just finished my apple on the porch, and later for lunch I'm thinking of a sausage cheese biscuit.....I made some biscuits last night.....don't think I got any mail today, the other day I got a $11 gas bill.....I should get the people out to give the heating system a once over before the real cold weather gets here, make sure I'm not wasting natural gas.....watched old movies until around ten last night, and then slept pretty well.....my back felt better today than it does some mornings......

small chance was a good chance

thunderstorm here and now....doesn't look very big on the radar though, should pass by fairly quickly......

radio radio

In German, "Rundfunk"....the spark that goes around the world.....in early 1950's Carolina, we didn't have a television, just a brown bakelite Zenith.....Buck Rogers, Gene Autry, Roy Rodgers, Jack Benny, Arthur Godfrey, Art Linkletter, "How much is that doggie in the window", "I don't know why I swallowed a fly", Tarzan? was he on the radio, I seem to remember his jungle call before TV.....Tom Corbett and his Space Cadets....cut off a part of the cereal box and send it in for the decoder ring....Dick Tracy? or was that just a comic strip?......on Dog Star radio nowadays they play this spot where a girl is talking about how one of the most important parts of her childhood was when she grew tall enough to reach the radio on the kitchen counter, so she could turn it on and listen to music all the time.....AM top forty through school, and later FM.....KPPC in college, Pasadena Presbyterian Church....that's where that came from, the first L.A. "underground album rock".....they played "Light My Fire" at midnight every night.....KROQ, the "Rock of the 80's", broadcasting from on top of Mt. Wilson.....which brings me to why I started this rant....Sirius XM has switched the DJ time slots around I guess, so I'm hearing the wrong voices at the wrong times of day.....the old DJ's given a new life in their old age on the space radio.....radio is better than TV, 'cause you can read a book and listen at the same time....or you can play the radio while football is on TV, and you don't have to hear the commercials, and the game is better with a rock soundtrack anyway.....

61 degrees, cloudy

100% humidity, wind 3 mph.....but the wind could get up to 10 to 15 mph today, as we are between two fronts....predicted high of 74, chance of showers........not much of a chance.....I think I'm going to add some ham to what's left of the hopping john for supper today, and I need to figure something to do with the remains of the chicken.....soup maybe......or chicken chili....looks good for a walk right now, so I guess I'll get goin'......

another variation

in the walking.....I went shopping, and picked up the weekly Clinton paper, and in the classifieds there was a house for sale at 404 Bailey, so after lunch I walked down there to see how it looked....they don't have any price listed....it didn't look like it has central heat and air. While I was over that way, I noticed that the little thrift shop half a block from my house has closed, and moved to Laurens. But there is a new thrift shop out on the highway now, that I could check out sometime .......I had a chicken salad sandwich for lunch, with a pickle and a pepper and a glass of wine.....I got a three pound canned ham when I was shopping, so I can have ham sandwich for lunch sometime, and fried ham and a sweet potato and mac-and-cheese will be one dinner this week.....I got an American Musical Supply catalog in the mail, so I've got something to look at this afternoon for a while anyway......

instead of the park

I walked to the bank, and dealt with that CD.....so nothing matures now until next March.....I made an appointment for next week to talk to their financial planner dude when he comes to my branch .....I want to ask somebody about bond funds.....anyway, it got into the high 80's again yesterday here, and they say one more fairly warm day and then the high pressure area will be pushed out into the Atlantic by a low coming from the West, so the temps will go back down to a more seasonable 40's at night and 70's during the day....a few leaves are dropping, but not many yet....chicken last night, so black-eyed peas and rice tonight, in the leftover rotation....I'm down to heels of bread, but a heel will work for lunch, with peanut butter and apple butter? Haven't heard the mail truck yet, to see the Wednesday grocery specials in the Tuesday ads......finished a good book last night, since there was nothing on the 250 channels of TV worth watching, Blasphemy, by Douglas Preston.....more mystical quantum mechanics......

good walking weather

and nice for sitting in the sunshine on the front porch....warmer than average for this time of year....it's a bank holiday? And no mail today, but kids are in school....I had a CD mature on the 10th, but that was a Sunday, and the 11th the bank is closed.....anyway, they give you ten days to decide if you are just going to let it roll over or what.....but they are hardly giving you any interest at all right now.....that CD was making better than 4%, 'cause I bought right before everything really hit the fan two years ago......

saffron john

I didn't want chicken dinner again today, so I looked in the cupboard and found a packet of Mahatma Spicy Saffron Yellow Rice, and a can of "seasoned black-eyed peas".....and I chopped up some onion, and sliced up some link sausage.....and got that boiling, simmered it for a while, and now it's just sitting to mellow and be heated up later for supper.....I figure to garnish it with some parmesan and olive oil....I don't remember canned black-eyed peas in California supermarkets....never looked for them I guess, just bought the dry kind in a bag.....but here they have half a dozen different brands of canned on the shelf....quick and easy, that's for sure.....so, hoppin' john for sunday supper.....

63 fair humidity 94% wind zero

quiet Sunday morning.....french toast and two sausage links, coffee, orange juice....last night Dan called and we figured out how to do a Skype video chat, which was interesting.....technology marches on.....some of the cousins are promoting a Tingle reunion on Nov. 6, at the usual place.....I'm ready to make enchilada pie for that.....watched USC beat #1 Alabama yesterday afternoon, with a leg and a thigh and some stuffing and some green beans microwaved at half-time for dinner....also just about finished off my peanut supply watching the game.....I've got some books to read, but I'll find myself reading a few pages, and then just starting to doze off sitting here......

steak quesadilla?

I have one flour tortilla left, and a piece of steak I saved from last night.....might be today's lunch....did watch the Reds-Phillies last night, which was another interesting game, I only fell asleep for maybe one inning.....Laurens lost, Clinton won, Gamecocks and Tigers both play this afternoon at 3:30, on ABC and CBS.....in HD.....dawn walk today was comfortable with a flannel shirt, park walk around 9 you could do without the flannel shirt.....going to get to mid-80's late in the afternoon, around football time I guess......will probably just microwave a leftover chicken dinner plate at half-time.....

iron skillet

steak and onion, with fried potatoes, and green beans.....so I'll watch the local evening news, and then probably the Phillies and Reds, since their game the other night was a good one.....or maybe there will be some old movie on that's more interesting.....

different walk

went over and looked in the pawn shop a couple of blocks away....he has lots of guitars in there, and they change every once in a while....never any real bargains though that I've seen.....then I came back by the body shops and garage and around back that way.....the NAPA over there closed a while back, that was the auto parts I could walk to.....there's another NAPA over by my insurance agent.....speaking of insurance, I got my auto renewal today in the mail....not due until Nov. 5th.....and I got a letter from GEICO saying I should switch to them, since their customers report an average savings of $500 a year.....hell, I only pay about $360 a year, so if I switch to them they'll pay me? I don't think so......the chicken dinner last night was good, made good gravy....I might have a chicken salad sandwich for lunch today......another beautiful day here, not too hot, not too cold, blue sky, breezy.......

chicken in the pot

slowing cooking.....45 early on today, about 70 outside right now, and 60 in the house....so I opened a couple of windows after I finished cutting the grass out back.....they say it might get up to 80 in the afternoon....I noticed that it was about 80 in Coos Bay yesterday....hotter than the Summer there? I saved a little of that steak from last night to make a sandwich for lunch today....I watched that Doc Halliday dude pitch his historic no-hitter on TBS, if not for that one walk it would have been a perfect game.....the Braves and the Phillies had so many games on TV during the season I'm familiar with their team, which sort of makes it more interesting.....the city fathers want to move trick-or-treat to Saturday at the end on the month, instead of the actual All Hollows' Eve on Sunday? Don't quite get the logic....Saturday is when they are having the Fall Festival a couple of blocks from here at the town square or whatever it is....they say kids can get candy there from the vendors and church groups or whatever, instead of going house to house.....so do I expect the t-or-t on Sat or Sun? Or do I just leave the porch light off and forget it this year, since they are messing with the tradition anyway......

no clouds today

so it's warming up faster....still just 61 at lunch time though.....was 40 on the early walk...had a cheesy bean burrito for lunch.....did get a whole chicken at the store, and cornbread stuffing, cut green beans, a couple of marked down pieces of steak, biscuits 2-4-1, link sausage .99 the box, 6 lbs. of Granny Smith apples for $4, etc....anyway, a weeks worth of groceries I hope, should work....going to have some of the steak with leftover mashed potatoes and some veggie for tonight, and then put the chicken in the crock pot in the morning....I'll do the stuffing on the stove top, with fried green apple in it....sounds good already.....can use the chicken drippings as part of the liquid for the stuffing....always thinking ahead.....with it down in the 40's at night, it's good sleeping weather....it's dark when I wake up, but time changes at the end of this month?

by late afternoon

warm enough to sit on the front porch....songbird singing, woodpecker pecking, Old Glory making that flag-flapping sound on Miss Ann's flagpole next door....every once in a while a car goes by, and the folk inside the car wave at the old man sitting on his front porch....clouds coming and going.....I'm low on groceries, so I'm going to just fix a pimento cheese and Frito omelette for supper....don't laugh 'til you try that....in the morning I'll go shopping....the ad says chicken legs and thighs .99 lb., or whole hens the same price...so I'll probably be eating chicken this coming week.....maybe with cornbread stuffing as a side....and cut green beans? I need more butter substitute, and something else....I'll remember what, maybe.....earlier I plugged the Fender dreadnought with the magnetic pickup into the big old Fender amp.....that works great, for a clean acoustic sound.....picked at that for a while.....

ten degrees

above freezing outside after breakfast, 42F.....about 52 inside.....later I was online and the power went out....so I went for a walk around the park, and by the time I got back the power was back on....don't know what happened.....the traffic lights were out down by the highway and the train tracks....I wonder if the railroad crossing arms have their own power, or what happens if a train comes through when the power is out? If the power had stayed off, I could have had a cold sandwich for lunch I guess.....yesterday's supper was leftovers, roast beef, mashed potatoes, peas, with gravy.....the lid from the slow cooker fits exactly over this one dinner plate I have, so you can microwave a leftover dinner that way.....well, I should eat my mid-morning apple, and drink my apple juice.....apples have something in them that's anti-senility.....can't remember what it's called.....