before the third period

in the hockey game, whipped up a quick and tasty swiss cheese florentine omelette....so Canada is still ahead by one.....

curious

I looked on Expedia for an ocean view hotel room in Myrtle Beach for two days in the middle of the week after next....and there's a place right on the beach with 3 stars out of 5...."partial ocean view balcony".....$49 a night, before tax.....Myrtle Beach is a couple of hours away, I think....something like that.....on the "Grand Strand"......fifty bucks a night sounds pretty reasonable.....of course there are always "fees" and things that get added on....I should check through AutoClub too......

the Tuesday forecast

for Clinton...."heavy snow accumulation"......30F on the morning walk today, bright sunshine, calm, birds singing.....for breakfast, rye toast with butter and honey, one egg over easy, one sausage patty, coffee, orange juice.....yesterday I went back to the music store, and the guy had it open this time....but he didn't have the coiled guitar cord like I was looking for....so I tried good old Radio Shack, and they do still stock the same coiled cord they've had since the 70's, that I know of.....except now it's $10 instead of the $3 the first time I bought one.....I like the coiled cord since it will stay up off the floor, and I can't step on it and tweak the jack or whatever.....I guess USA-Canada gold medal hockey game is on CBS at three in the afternoon, I'll watch that I guess, though I still don't understand about the blue line.....

the noon siren

that sounds on Saturdays was going off right as I got back from my walk around the park....45F, clear, not too much wind....had a fried hash sandwich and Fritos for lunch, with a glass of wine. There's enough hash left for quite a few sandwiches.....I'm going to do pork schnitzel for dinner....

guided by voices

pan dulce muy caro.....79 centavos per uno! I used to get them five for a dollar in Pauma Valley....so I just got one to save for breakfast in the morning, with scrambled egg....but it looks fresh anyway.....that mercado has all kinds of good stuff...next time I want to do fajitas I'll go over there and get the real deal on meat and tortillas.... the music shop usually opens at 11, but the guy wasn't there.....so I sez to myself to go by the Hash Pot, since I had never gotten around to that, after I went there the first day it opened and the hash wasn't ready.....and damned if I wasn't there on the last day it's open, too......they are closing after today because the property was sold out from under them.....but I did get a pint of hash, and ate some for lunch....it's really good, I think, maybe more spicy than Uncle Carl's? Hit the spot on a cold day, for sure. There's enough left to make hash sandwiches, where you take some cold hash and fry it in the iron skillet, and make a grilled pimento cheese and hash on rye.....that will be for Saturday lunch.....

maybe in a couple of months

when it's warmer....I got the AAA magazine yesterday, and there's a thing about camping at Myrtle Beach....there are six AAA rated campgrounds, and 1,800 restaurants.....and if you decide not to camp there are 80,000 rooms available.....I will think about it.....meanwhile, it's another cold sunny day.....I might drive over to Laurens and go by the music store....and it's near the mercado I've been meaning to look at, to see if they have fresh tortillas or things like that....pan dulce.....I haven't had any since California.....

with the capo on the second fret

the Catalina is up into A, and with a bottleneck and the 5 watt Fender up about 8 I got a real lazy droning tune going, and about put myself to sleep......warm enough to fall asleep in the living room, but I about froze my nose in the wind when I took a walk after lunch. The sunshine is deceptive. There was a crew putting a new roof on this one old shake house across from the mill parking lot, and a for rent sign out in the yard, where there had been a for sale sign for at least a year.....but it doesn't look like there's any central heat and air, and it's just got old single-glazed windows.....how comfortable could it be for any renter? Maybe they are going to fix up things besides the roof.....it's got a big fenced back yard, be good for kids and dogs I guess....that's the block that is all the same shake house, and the others are all in good shape and occupied.....they have brick front porches that look nice.....

about 11 in the morning

clear, sunny, 30 degree windchill....I've got a couple of leftover taquitos to microwave for lunch pretty soon.....for this evening I'm thinking of pounding a piece of chuck steak with garlic and chili pepper and putting that in the iron skillet with sliced onion and hash browns. Have that with peas and black pepper gravy.....

a little drizzle

was all that really happened here, but it stayed cold all day, and will be cold and windy in the morning I bet. Found some old movies on to watch....watched some curling too.....that is spellbinding.....

well....

they moved the possibility of snow from last night to tonight, Wednesday night. But probably no accumulation at this elevation, just cold rain with some flakes maybe mixed in after midnight. Clouded over this morning, but not real cold....just about time to go grocery shopping....need various sundries too, should make a list or I'll get back home without something I went for....

OK

warmer today after fog in the morning, and then chance of rain and snow tonight on into Wednesday, and back down to freezing......leftover rib dinner last night, should be the last of the taco fixings tonight, and then shopping day....in a mix of rain and snow? We'll see, I guess. Boiled peanuts are much higher in antioxidants than roasted peanuts or even raw peanuts. And shortnin bread is obviously a health food too, because "Three little chillin lying in bed, two of them sick, the other half dead. Called for the doctor, the doctor said, feed them chillin on shortnin bread." And then later in the song, after mamma makes the bread, the three kids are jumping up singing and dancing. They dance the "pigeon wing"? Shortin bread is by tradition made in a 10 inch iron skillet.

fairly nice in the afternoon

took a walk, actually took two walks.....didn't do much else....well, I never do much else.....I did get the laundry done, come to think of it.....

rain storm

started before dawn, and might be mostly gone by now, around 9 in the morning....at least that's how it looks on the radar....so it's 45 and puddles outside .....watched Dr. Zhivago on TCM last night, one of those monumental flicks....I remember 1965 when it came out, our whole English class went to see it, as a field-trip or something......

lovely weather

pleasant outside.....might rain after midnight and on into Monday, but that will actually warm things up, with the overcast holding some heat during the night. The ribs mit kraut came out good.....breakfast today was the last of the sourdough loaf, toasted, with butter and honey, and one egg over easy and a slice of fried Spam. What exactly do you want from life anyway? I need to do laundry sometime soon, and I could get some new socks if I went over to WallyWorld.....

still gets below freezing

overnight, but it should warm up to around 60 today. The handle broke on my can opener, the part you turn....I've never had that happen before....must have been just plain worn out, I can't remember when or where it was from. So I need to go to the store for orange juice, wine, and a can opener. I used a pair of pliers to open sauerkraut to put in with the ribs, and got the crock pot going for Saturday supper. My city bill might come today, and my AT&T e-bill is ready...so I guess I'll wait until after the mail comes, which should be shortly, and then pay bills and see what's left before I go shopping.....

warmer again today

walked after lunch, sat out front for a while....I've got ground round to use up, so I think it will be taco night again....

thursday, 25F at sunrise

Let's see, it should be warm enough for a comfortable walk in the afternoon....didn't get any mail today.....got leftover red beans and sausage rice I should work on this evening....so maybe Saturday I'll put beef ribs, kraut, and taters in the crock pot, with some apple juice....apple juice takes the edge off the sauerkraut, and it all ends up delicious, in my experience anyway.....

from the iron skillet

beef white corn tacos and frijoles refritos....ummm....

strange

liquor laws are local, apparently......there is no SC law that says bars have to stop serving at 2 AM, or that stores can't sell beer between 2 and 6, like in CA. So maybe that's why the only two bars I know about in Clinton are only open at night....they are open all night! Until dawn? I don't know for sure, since I haven't been to a bar since the one I could walk to at 120 Musgrove closed due to the economy, a month or so after I got here......

21 degrees F

at sunrise, but no wind, so the newspaper walk wasn't bad....still cold when I went shopping....got lots of good stuff on sale....so I'm going to have a pimento cheese slider for lunch, with pickle slices and Fritos....got stuff for tacos too, and beef ribs with sauerkraut and new potatoes will be a slow cooker trip.....

did walk yesterday afternoon

in a stiff cold wind.....looked into the little thrift shop, but didn't find anything interesting....this morning 25.2 on my sunrise walk.....no overcast, just cold and a little wind.....this evening I'm going to make red beans and rice with sausage....don't know what's for lunch, I'll have to figure something out......

drove to the library

in the rain...no snow, way too warm for that....and picked up the newspaper while I was out...so no walk yet today, but maybe the front has just about gone all the way through, so I might walk in the afternoon...with the rain, the only snow left is snowmen...guess they take a while longer to melt, being concentrated, as it were.....

while I'm thinking about it...

Remi called me yesterday from the Resort, one thing he mentioned was that old Bob had died....he lived across from me in an old trailer.....he was 90 something I guess. The main story I remember that he ever told me was that he was there at the liberation of Paris in WWII. The other thing I remember about him is that one day he came over waving a letter he wanted to show to me.....I put on my glasses and looked at it....it was from a commodities house, and it said they had negotiated his gold futures per his instructions, so 200 something thousand had been put in his account.

sausage scramble and grits

for Sunday breakfast....last night I fixed chicken-fried steak, hash-browns, lima beans....with country gravy. Tonight might be an asparagus and swiss cheese omelette? Still large patches of snow in the shady places, the north side of houses.....last night I finished reading Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson....I recommend it.....my library books say they are due the 15th, but isn't that Presidents' Day? I hope they are actually open.......

what a nice day

brisk photo walk after sunrise....later it warmed up enough to sit on the porch....and in the afternoon I walked by the park, and even took a drive through some wintry woods. The snow is melting off pretty fast now.....they predict a 50% chance of a little more snow Sunday night-Monday morning.....saw maybe a half-dozen snowmen on my drive.....

President Valentine's Weekend

snowed in? Nah, I'll just put on my old boots with the snow soles......I'll get some more pictures when I go for a walk. 21F and maybe three inches of snow, looks like....I don't need to drive anywhere, but maybe in the afternoon I'll see if the Jeep wants to start.....

some snow pix

on flickr....it looks like there might be a lot on the ground by morning....

around seven

couple of inches so far, and it's still coming down....they say it should snow until midnight.....

chance of snow near 100%

starting this afternoon, and on into the night? I'll take pictures if it does happen.....

http://www.learntillithurts.com/

should warm up

enough to go for a walk after lunch.....yesterday lunch was fried bacon Spam on wheat toast with mayo and german mustard, and bread-and-butter pickle slices, with a few olives and a glass of wine. Breakfast today was a thick slice of sourdough wheat bread soaked in an egg and apple-juice batter and iron skillet french toasted, with melted butter and hot syrup. And orange juice and coffee. I'm going to try country sausage chili tonight, to have with the left-over cornbread from whenever that was.....

I didn't walk

this afternoon because the wind-chill never got over 34.....I did drive down to Cross Hill because there's been an ad in the Clinton paper for a while for the Country Cafe and Bakery....Cross Hill gets it's name because a native path crossed a hill there, or something....anyway, it's another one of those old farming towns that looks like it was a lot more viable 50 or 100 years ago.....the Cafe had a few old farmer types sitting there drinking coffee and looking dour at best....the bakery lady was dressed like a Minnonite or something, but her bread is good....I got sourdough wheat bread for 3 bucks, the kind you slice yourself....this morning's loaf.....so Thursday morning might be sourdough wheat french toast....supper today looks like New York strip steak with steak fries and asparagus.....

I did walk

yesterday afternoon, all bundled up in a cold wind.....freezing today with a high-wind warning, but blue sky and sunshine....I went grocery shopping already, and the mail came with the natural gas bill for January, which was about the same as December's.....I picked up the Clinton paper at the store.....there is never much in it....they did have a thing about starting work on a frontage road between the two main interstate off ramps in Clinton, so that there could be commercial properties you would see from the freeway, that would hopefully get more people to get off and spend some money locally.....we'll see, I guess....I should take a picture of the new McDonald's building, it's pretty fancy looking.....they should have it finished soon looks like.....

GDGD

After about 45 minutes on the cross-tuned fiddle, I put the mandolin in the same tuning, and did about half an hour with that....now my right shoulder aches, sorta behind the shoulder blade....the rain globs keep sliding around Clinton....I want to take a walk just to get out of the house...it's 42 outside.....

the weather lady

last night said to expect rain anytime from sun-up to sun-set....that sorta narrows it down, thank you. So 100% chance of rain, possibly turning to snow after dark.....nothing right now, so I did the usual paper walk, but don't know about another walk yet....big glob on the radar moving this way.....Monday supper was pork-and-beans with cornbread....filling.....looks like grilled swiss on wheat for lunch.....what new and exciting can I get Wednesday grocery shopping?

interesting game

last night....you hardly ever see an onside kick work....and I've never even heard of one at the start of a half.....and the Who were good.....

nothing on IFC

so I just listened to 4 hours of Andrew Loog Oldham from Bogata, Columbia again this Sunday afternoon....he is pretty interesting, when you can figure out what he is saying through his accent, or just plain strange diction and Brit locutions.....so pretty soon I can think about something for dinner.....and then maybe some news will be on before the Superduperbowl.....but local news is strange here on weekends....it isn't always on....if there's any kind of sports at all going on, that will be on instead of any local feed....or sometimes there will just be some infomercial.....and then the national news from New York or where-ever.....it's not like SoCal with six different high-powered news teams tag-teaming all day long....anyway, anyway.....the local newscasters are all pretty funky too....none of them could make it for more than two minutes on a big California station.....some of them can't even read apparently, and the mikes go on and off, and they can't seem to look at the right camera....it's prat-fall comedy news .....hmm, I just flicked on the channel guide, and, no local news showing this evening....

before the morning is over

it's clouded up and 41F outside.....and since my nose is already dripping I think I'll forgo the after-lunch walk....just stay inside and stay warm......maybe I can find some old movie on TV.....IFC used to have Samurai Sunday a few years ago....maybe they have something good on.....

sun shining, birds singing

but it was still below freezing on the morning walk. Must be hardy birds. They fluff up their feathers in Winter to create insulating air pockets, clever things. I went for a drive yesterday, and there was a lake over off 108 I'd never seen before....I think it's usually just a field there.....but no more rain until Tuesday, maybe....SuperBowlSunday....but it's not on until 6:30 Eastern Time....it'll be my bedtime before it's over...oh well.....won't need a lot of game time snacks because I'll already have had dinner.....

Enoree, Reedy, and Little Rivers

are over their banks....the park near Cindy and Matt is under water mostly, she was looking for their canoe yesterday....el Nino is causing the jet stream to suck moisture from the Texas coast and funnel it into our area.....this will continue through the rest of the month....so I'll have to walk between storm fronts...the walk for the paper today was OK, and the park walk later today is "probable" I would say, though some clouds seem to be massing now around ten in the morning....sunshine keeps coming and going.....

a nostrum for long life

Charlotte mentioned one time that uncle Carl still goes through two or three pints of Rock and Rye a week...and he's danged old. What is Rock and Rye? It's rye whisky with rock candy and orange peel in it....in the bottle....well, that's how it used to be, today I guess it just has sugar syrup and citrus flavors.....to get all legal about it, here is what Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms has to say.... (3) "Rock and rye", "rock and bourbon", "rock and brandy", "rock and rum" are liqueurs, bottled at not less than 48 deg. proof, in which, in the case of rock and rye and rock and bourbon, not less than 51 percent, on a proof gallon basis, of the distilled spirits used are, respectively, rye or bourbon whisky, straight rye or straight bourbon whisky, or whisky distilled from a rye or bourbon mash, and, in the case of rock and brandy and rock and rum, the distilled spirits used are all grape brandy or rum, respectively; containing rock candy or sugar syrup, with or without the addition of fruit, fruit juices, or other natural flavoring materials, and possessing, respectively, a predominant characteristic rye, bourbon, brandy, or rum flavor derived from the distilled spirits used. Wine, if used, must be within the 2 ½ percent limitation provided in Sec. 5.23 for harmless coloring, flavoring, and blending materials.

People drink it in the Summer over ice, and in the Winter straight up to prevent and/or cure colds.

wintry mix

is what they call it....it looks just like rain to me, but the radar shows freezing precipitation....and the weather service reports light snow right now in Clinton and Laurens.....just not right here maybe....or it's frozen in the clouds but melts as it comes down? Anyway, it was too cold and wet to walk this morning, so I drove and got a newspaper....got wet enough just from the porch to the car and back.....let's see.....last night I had country-style pork ribs and a sweet potato. Today looks like a good day for soup for lunch, but I don't think I have any in the cupboard, and I'm not going out in this just to get some, I don't think....

kippers for breakfast

not really, it's just that I was streaming Roxy Music, Supertramp, Dire Straits.....was 32 at breakfast, outside anyway.....rain after 1 pm today......yesterday I made iron skillet baked chicken breast, cornbread stuffing, lima beans with diced sweet onion, gravy......

sunshine

Just got back from the park walk....long line at the food bank down the block....looks like things are still getting worse before they get better....earlier I went down towards the grocery store, and while over there stopped in to visit Aunt Addie at the NHC nursing home....it's a very nice facility...she has her own room....I went with her to PT, and we talked while she worked some kind of exercise machine with foot pedals and hand levers. She is in a wheel chair mostly, does move around with a walker some, and has trouble with talking, and goes to Speech in the afternoon.....she thought Uncle Ed would be there pretty soon, but I didn't wait to see him, since I think they were getting ready to start lunch, and I needed to get my shopping done too....

fair tonight

followed by grossly unfair tomorrow morning!.....that's Ziggy watching the evening news....in the funny paper.....the other great Ziggy was from a while ago....he is driving across a plain towards some mountains, and there's a big billboard by the highway that says "An Evil Robot from the Future Welcomes you to Kalifornia" well, I stuck in the "K".....you have to pronounce the name of the state the way the idiot does, to get the full effect....here today we have freezing fog to start with, then the sun will come out, they say.....

iron skillet chicken wings

I've got more wings I need to use up....what I've been doing with them lately is nuke them for a couple of minutes to bring up the internal temp, and then fry them in a little olive oil to crisp them.....but I think I'll put them in the skillet with some seasoned crumbs on them and bake them at maybe 425 for 20 minutes or so.....this should heat up the kitchen some, so I don't eat supper in the cold....I'm not in the kitchen enough to heat it in general, economy-wise....cold and damp here today, groundhog day......no shadow here, no sun......

after breakfast

which was poached egg on rye toast, it is raining and 36F. On the radar, it looks like it might be raining for a while.....

well

the last post was all weather and no food....so....the way I did chicken wings last night was to shake them in seasoned bread crumbs and chili powder.....this works really well (remember to fry them after you shake them).....and Monday lunch is shaping up as carnitas taco with a handful of olives....Monday breakfast was oatmeal with raisins and honey.

21.5, clear, frost

some schools are going to stay closed today, and some are opening around 11, or after the black ice melts....I'm letting the sun come up a bit more before I go get the paper, but the sidewalks look pretty dry anyway....we are looking at rain Tuesday, clear Wednesday, and then starting Thursday another storm that might bring snow over the weekend again.....