later in the day

blue sky and a few puffy clouds.....79 outside and 72 inside....very pleasant.....had a burrito for lunch with beef, potato, cilantro, onion, queso sauce.....for supper I've got lasagna and salad on the menu.....I might go to the Laurens event both days, just for something to do.....maybe check out the BBQ Friday afternoon, and while I'm over there see if that new Irish pub is open and if it is get a pint of stout. And then Saturday for sure try to catch the tractor parade and the old car cruise-in. They are talking about organizing an old car event in Clinton too, maybe for the Fall Festival thing they have here around Halloween....some of the same food vendors show up each year in both Laurens and Clinton, but they don't charge as much for their food at the smaller Clinton thing....

no rainin' on the Squealin'

is what they are shootin' for....continues cool, cloudy, and a little damp today, but should be nice over the weekend for the festivities in Laurens.....the BBQ cook-off and street fair, with bands and stuff.....you've got to see the tractor parade on Saturday morning, that's the best part.....that and maybe a bowl of hash....we've had moisture pushing this far inland from the remnants of former tropical storm Nicole, which had storm status for something like 11 hours, and then went back to being merely a depression.....sounds like the mail truck just drove by without stopping at my address....just junk mail yesterday, solicitations to buy life insurance and cable TV......

cool, raining, windy

got the newspaper without getting rained on, but it started raining a little later....63 outside right now.....got a few things at the grocery store, but was pretty unorganized....did get a personal lasagna on sale, and a can of chunky chicken corn chowder.....things that sound good for overcast days.....and the olive oil I like had a sale price, so I got more of that....and the dozen eggs for 88 cents....I might make a beef and potato burrito, those are good.....used to get those at Taco Bell....

leftovers report

they didn't have the rye bread I like on the shelf yesterday, so I got the whole wheat that was on sale....it's good too.....so I toasted a slice of that and spread on mayo and mustard and made a half-sandwich with a little swiss cheese and a small piece of leftover chicken fried steak I had been saving for just such an occasion.....and two dill cocktail pickles, and a glass of Argentine burgundy....so I'm looking at probably chili-pepper shrimp and pimento cheese grits with the beet and romaine salad for this evening.....and then tomorrow should be a light shopping day, since I've still got leftover taco meat and burrito fixings to use up.....I will buy eggs, since the ad in the mail this morning says they will be .88 a dozen large.....and I'm low on peanuts....looks like a good price on pork chops......the sun has come out and the breeze is blowing and the birds are singing....and I found some good books on the library trip......

hopeless

I vacuumed yesterday, but since I walked across the wet lawn I ended up tracking bits of grass into the house again.....oh well.....59 early this morning, clouded over....rained during the night....I'm going to go for another walk and then go to the library.....

so far

it is raining all day.....drove to get the newspaper, and later ran the vacuum and mopped the kitchen, and wiped down woodwork, as indoor exercise....then drove with lights and windshield wipers to the store for wine, bread, and orange juice.....essentials....thinking of a taco salad for lunch.....supper might be an open-faced roast beef sandwich with gravy, and peas as a side.....last night before bed I closed windows that had been open for a month or so, since the last time I ran the AC any.....rain was starting to blow in.....

looks like

it could keep raining all night and most of Monday.....around 5 inches likely for Laurens County.....so I've just been watching football today pretty much.....had a regular Sunday dinner....fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, with white gravy......Fall weather kind of dinner....it was 100 in Escondido today?.....about 63 here.....

lanai

The California trailer park laws called my old place at the Resort a "Trailer-home with lanai".....the whole thing was under a tin roof.....and on days like this you could just sit and listen to the rain on the tin roof, which is a nice, relaxing thing to do.....on this side of the country, a California room is called a Florida room.....a lanai in other words.....I don't have a tin roof here, but when it rains hard enough I can hear the tin roof on my shed....or the tin roof on the church across the street, which is a metal building with a brick facade at the main entrance....the smaller sheds in the mill village were outhouses, like the one in my back yard.....two doors over down Washington, the neighbor has a much bigger shed, at one time either the chicken-house for the block, or maybe the washing-house......or maybe even the stable, you get different stories....

change in the weather

20 degrees cooler today than yesterday....raining right now, and 90 % chance of thunderstorms this afternoon.....got a little sprinkle on my walk for the newspaper, enough to get that fresh rain aroma going.....when this lets up a little, I should take the trash out to the curb, before the thunderstorms.....

dinner burrito

large overstuffed eat-it-with-a-fork burrito....beef, beans, cheese, garlic, cilantro, onion, chili powder, salsa.....it had me dripping sweat half-way through it.....a heart-felt gastronomical experience I'm sure....and Stanford is beating Notre Dame.....not much to complain about here and now......

driving around

I was down to 1/4 tank so I went by Shell and put in 10 gallons of 89 octane for 25 bucks....and then went out to Lisbon Rd., and over to the 221 to the 127 which takes you over to Wal*Mart, and then back to Clinton the usual way....26 miles, the needle didn't move off Full, not very much anyway that I could see.....went pass several yard-sales, but didn't stop because I've only got $3 in my wallet.....nice morning for a drive in the country......

woke up in the middle of the night

feeling all muggy, so I turned on the ceiling fan and eventually got back to sleep.....after the park walk this morning I drove to the grocery store for some random items....dental floss being one thing....also got a jar of coarse ground mustard, the kind where you can see the seeds still.....because I want to have cold roast beef on rye with mustard and mayo for lunch.....the squeeze bottle of honey mustard that's been in the fridge for a while is going to get tossed, because it's largely empty, and it irritates me every time I use it because gets stopped up and won't just squeeze out in a proper fashion......last evening I had chicken wings and a romaine and beet salad and leftover mashed potatoes sort of squished into a pancake shape and browned in the chicken frying pan.....life is an adventure.....

Thursday, Fall, full moon

going to get up around 90 again later in the day, so I'm going to go walk the park in a few minutes while it's still coolish.....the roast came out good, and I mashed the potatoes....that worked....I've got leftovers from that....some of the roast I'll use for beef burritos, I got cilantro, tortillas, etc....yesterday. I forgot to get dental floss....I stopped and looked down that aisle, but couldn't remember why at the time.....the radio show I listen to in the morning plays Frank Zappa's "lonely dental floss" song every now and then......I got some chicken wings I should cook up tonight....I've got a head of romaine and Harvard beets for a salad....love those sweet-n-sour beets...

bills, groceries, newspaper

After paying bills online and going grocery shopping, there is still money left in the bank, enough to last until the next deposit, I think.....I got the weekly Clinton newspaper at the store, and have been reading about Act 388, which is the SC version of Prop 13.....it was passed in 2006 I think, and lots of people would like to get rid of it.....the trouble is, rich people benefited the most from this tax "reform", so rich people don't want it touched....guess who is going to have their way.....also interesting in the paper was an article about rapid transit coming to the county.....there isn't any now, but they are in the early stages now of talking about some bus routes that might link up with other routes so you could go as far as Greenville, and maybe Clemson even.....just talk right now though, looks like.....another warm day here, but by early next week they are saying it will be more like Fall weather....got the roast in the crock-pot.....thinking about what to have for lunch.....

HD?

DISH is confusing me somewhat.....there are two dishes on the roof, and one says "HD", and it aims south and so isn't blocked by the trees that have been messing with some of the channels I like.....and now all of a sudden ALL of the channels I usually watch are seemingly in HD, so I don't get interference anymore because they are all being fed to the clear dish? I think that's what is going on.....almost everything I watch has the little HD sign when they show the channel logo.....fine with me.....

east wind

keeping things cool so far today....our above average temps should end in a few days, maybe.....watched the Braves lose to the Phillies last night, which is bad for the Braves but good for the Padres, wild-card-wise....had steak and chili-pepper hash-browns and butter beans Monday, today will be chicken fried steak and biscuit and gravy and kernel corn I think.....Wednesday I'm going to put Tingle roast in the slow-cooker in the morning, before I go shopping....I already have red potatoes to go in with that.....just about finished my library books, a week before they are due....

that took a while

but I got it done.....yesterday a guy at a stop light told me I had a brake light out, I thanked him as the light changed.....I've had a spare bulb in the glove box for a long time, so this morning I went ahead to change the bulb....I used the wand from the vacuum cleaner to brace between the driver's seat and the brake pedal, to see which side it was, since I hadn't thought to ask that at the stop light....it was the driver's side.....my tools are in a mess, but eventually I found the right socket and the socket driver handle, since the bolts are recessed so you can't reach them with a wrench....and the bulb holder came out according to the instructions in the manual OK, but when I tried to twist the bulb so it would pop loose, it broke instead. So I had to go find needle-nose pliers to get the remains of the bulb out. But it all went back together and works now.

touch of something?

I got up and did Sunday breakfast and walked and got the paper and went through it, and went online for a while.....so it got to be about 9:30, and I just felt like I could go back to bed and sleep.....and my innards were gurgling some.....so I did go lie down for a while.....feel better now, and it's not like I have to go any where or do anything anyway, so I'll just take it easy.....as usual....

sport report

Clinton beat Boiling Springs 20-14.....Laurens lost in OT.....the Blue Hose play Citadel, and that will be streamed online.....Hosers have lost 16 games in a row.......the Gamecocks are only on pay-per-view tonight, but Clemson-Auburn is on ESPN at 7ET.....whew....lots of football.....70 degrees right here right now, with a breeze....I think I'll vary my walking today and go around downtown some instead of around Mill Park.....it's been good sleeping weather, with the lower humidity, so I got a good night's sleep.....can't think of anything I need at the store, so I probably won't drive anywhere today.....

did

did some laundry, did have a salad for lunch, did go to Wal*Mart yesterday and get fish oil....did not do much else....read a book, played some guitar, sat on the porch.....

just a walk in the park

nice cool morning for it, some breeze.....the normal high for yesterday was 81, but the actual high was 91.....and they say above normal temps will continue for maybe another week....but it's not like the heat wave we had there for a couple of months, where it was getting up around them old triple digits.....4 oz of strip steak, done with garlic, oregano, and some bbq sauce, along with chili beans and a green salad....that was Thursday....I think Friday will be chicken fried steak with biscuits, butter beans, and white gravy. I've got cold fried chicken for lunch.....does all this sound a little heavy? It's not , if you control your portions and you're not using any saturated fat or butter fat.....guess I should have a salad for lunch today , since I opened the bag Wednesday, and it doesn't seem to stay fresh very long......dogs are barking because the city meter reader is making his rounds....

Thursday already

last night the Yankees and the Rays were fighting for first place, but I fell asleep in the fifth inning....when I woke up, it was 4-3 Rays.....I like it when the Yanks lose.....looks like a nice morning, with those high "herringbone" clouds.....the wind is supposed to shift around from the southwest later today, so it will be that swampy kind of air that comes up from the Gulf.....so I should get up and go out and walk now while it's still cool....I might drive over to Wal*Mart later, their ad had a good price on fish oil.....

groceries, video phone....

It looks like some southern cooking this week, fried chicken, chicken fried steak, gravy, butter beans, salad, biscuits, whatever.....when I got back from shopping, I tried out the Skype I had downloaded earlier, and contacted Nick in Goleta, and we talked for about an hour through the computers, with voice and video....pretty slick....and it doesn't cost anything? The chamber of commerce weather continues another day, very nice......

street lights

There are a couple of other walkers who stop and talk sometimes when we cross paths.....this one older feller goes out early, around the same time I go for the paper.....he stopped and talked to me this morning just across the street, and one thing he mentioned was that there used to be an "old boy" who lived where I live now who used to sit out on the front porch and shoot out the street lights.....he said he could never figure why he kept doing that.....I said that maybe he thought it ought to be dark at night.....the gentleman allowed as how that could be it. The street lights don't bother me......

Chargers lost?

oh well....I didn't stay up to watch it, read the score this morning.....weather is pleasant another day, so I got the back yard cleaned up....got the new line trimmer working pretty well, and now the weeds are gone from the edge of the house, along the brick....ate up the leftover noodle casserole finally, threw in a couple of things to spice it up some, and it made a meal anyway......my groceries are about gone for the week, so today will be breakfast for supper....Spam and eggs with grits? Sound good enough, and then Wednesday is shopping day. I should do something with that chuck roast in the freezer soon.......

great weather for walking

just got back from walking around the park....in the 70's, good breeze, some high clouds.....was good sleeping weather last night too, not muggy at all.....if it stays like this tomorrow, I should tidy up the back yard some....cut the weeds, pick up fallen tree debris, etc....but right now I'm just going to sit out on the porch in the sunshine and eat an apple.....

pretty big storm

in the middle of the night.....thunder, lightning, heavy rain.....the streets got washed clean, all the debris in piles on the storm-drain grates.....few clouds coming and going this morning, with a little sprinkle a while ago.....might get into the middle 80's in the afternoon......I've got the last of the ribs to eat up, with chili beans I think.....

seems like a long day

for some reason.....after dinner I was thinking it was Sunday, but then realized it was still Saturday......so I still have a Sunday breakfast coming.....and NFL football? Looks like the Charger game isn't on until 10:15 ET.....I won't be awake through that, I don't think....

34 to nothing

Clinton beat Laurens on high-school Friday night.....this morning looks like it could rain at any time now.....it is starting to rain, in fact.....I went to the grocery store for a bag of ice and more of the two for one tonic water.....people were buying stuff for their tail-gate parties, or just for staying home and watching a game maybe.....I'll stay home and watch Carolina-Georgia at noon....if this bit of rain goes south some miles, the tail-gaters might get wet out in the parking lot....I might microwave popcorn for the game....I've got steak, baked potato, and corn-on-the-cob on this evening's menu.....

real cool

There's a stream of clouds and cool wind coming through the Upstate.....I think the weather lady said something about it reaching back to the moisture from that hurricane that went up in the middle of the country earlier in the week....at any rate, it's a change from the Summer heat.....my bag of apples this week is from North Carolina, crisp and tasty "Gold" apples....

keeping up appearances

went out front and trimmed and mowed....just as much as you can notice if you are driving by.....the back is getting a little tall, but it will have to wait for a bit.....today is going to be a little cooler they say, some good breeze.....I might have a couple of ribs and some bread-and-butter for lunch, with the Argentine burgundy.....and a pickle? This evening I'll fix a small piece of steak and the artichoke......at least the girl tending the robotic stations yesterday at the grocery store knew what an artichoke was, unlike her manager that time he was manning a lane......where do they grow them around here I wonder?

memory

sometimes this blog is useful as memory....because I can look back and see what I did on a previous day....or see what day of the week yesterday was.....right now I'm going to use it to remember a recipe: 2.26 libra slab of baby back ribs....cut in half and place in large iron skillet, bone side up....douse with apple cider vinegar, maybe a half cup....sprinkle with oregano....let sit for an hour.....pre-heat broiler to 400 an hour or so before you want to eat.....place ribs six inches below broiling element, leave for 1/2 hour and check it out....if it looks good, turn ribs over and pour on your bbq sauce, turn up to 425 and leave another 1/2 hour.....remove from broiler and let sit the ten or fifteen minutes it takes to fix the rest of the meal....in this case it was corn on the cob and macaroni salad, glass of red wine.....ribs were just the way I like them, tender, but not real fall-off-the-bone....that irritates me, I like them pretty meaty like.....

grocery day

the baby back ribs looked pretty good, so I got those.....and a small strip steak, and a nice artichoke, some decent looking local corn, a russet potato.....eating realistic portions, that's a week of dinners already, for one elderly person.....a loaf of New York rye bread, a can of Spam for two bucks on sale, will make lunches......they had their oatmeal two for one in the ad yesterday, but I walked right by it in the store....and I forgot to get my bag of ice......the weather today is predicted to be much like the day before, with some chance of rain maybe by Saturday.....the lawn out front wants attention again....but soon it will be Fall, and it will go dormant until April or so and won't bother me for some months......Padres are slipping and sliding....Braves fell out of first place last night.....but San Diego and Atlanta meeting in a playoff series is still possible?

library day

stayed overcast enough for a comfortable park walk, then I went to the library and found two sci-fi books and two sea stories....and I read the sea story that precedes these two a year or so ago, so I'll get the tale in the right order. Last evening I cooked iron skillet rib-eye with garlic and mushrooms, and black pepper....and had a green salad with croutons and ranch dressing. So what I have left from last week's shopping is shrimp, mushrooms, onion, and a packet of cream sauce pasta, which will make dinner tonight, and probably some leftovers. The ad from the grocery store was in today's mail.....looks like they'll have a good price on baby back ribs for the Wednesday senior shopping......

Labor Day

like that guy said on TV, the trouble with being retired is that you never get a day off.....went for a drive, the back way over to Laurens, and then through town and back on the highway....hardly any cars out on a holiday morning....the only place with a lot of traffic was the Bojangles, where the parking lot was overflowing.....they had a sign stuck out front that said "Chicken ready at 7 AM"....were the folks there picking it up for their picnics? Beats me....I tried the Bojangles here in Clinton when they opened it, and it didn't seem like much special to me.....when I came back over the tracks and the river I noticed that the place that had been a mexican restaurant was now "Paddy O'Malley's" ......sports bar and eatery, I think it said.....maybe some day I'll go check it out....if it stays in business long enough.....my Sunday supper was just an omelette, with swiss chess, red onion, mushroom, oregano, and ranch dressing garnish.....the weather is staying real nice, not too hot, breezy.....

possum

last night late I was sitting on the porch and an opossum went walking by on the sidewalk.....more good porch-sitting weather today looks like, cool and breezy.....low humidity too, there's an advisory posted that says to make sure your campfire is doused if you are camping up in the mountains this long weekend....good idea.....the way the wind is blowing, it feels like mountain air here this morning, delicious......I ate my salad during half-time of the Clemson game, which was a fairly entertaining game......church bells in the air right now......

damn

another Robert Rodriquez film on IFC.....that guy is wierd....

no sweat today

mid-70's, wind 2 mph from the NNW, high clouds.....been sitting out on the porch eating an apple, watching the squirrels starting to gather their acorns for Winter.....feeling close to Fall maybe.....Clinton and Laurens both won their Friday night football games.....I'm going to watch Clemson at 3:30 in their opener I suppose.....going to have a salad for dinner, with salad shrimp, macaroni salad, onion, mushrooms, croutons, greens, ranch dressing....I'll see if I can find anything else to throw on there.....might be a can of olives in the cupboard....yesterday was leftover jambalaya....

perfect morning

for a drive out through the woods.....a cool front is coming in from the west, so it felt and smelled like driving in the mountains on a late summer day......the local Blue Hose got stomped by Wake Forest, but they apparently pulled off a 64 yard touchdown on some trick play, but I couldn't find it online yet to see what it was .....it's an ESPN Play of the Day, they say.....Gamecocks beat Southern Miss., I watched into the 3rd quarter, then went on to bed, since they were way ahead....

radicchio

and romaine greens, with sliced bella mushrooms, circles of purple onion, with a roasted red pepper and garlic vinegar and oil dressing, some re-heated mac-and-cheese, and about 4 oz. of a nicely marbled bit of rib-eye steak pan-seared in olive oil with a glaze of sweet-and-sour and hot southern bbq sauce mixed together.....about a cubic centimeter of pure cocoa for dessert.....with the merlot.....so shortly I will watch the evening news, and then later there's the college football opener.....I have popcorn.....and ginger ale and rye......WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT FROM LIFE.....a baby's hand holding an apple?

like a hurricane

muggy, east wind, expected to get into the 90's later today.....I don't know if Earl will actually do much this far inland, though we might get a couple of bands of rain? Saw some cars this morning sporting the garnet-and-black.....Gamecocks football tonight on ESPN, from Columbia, just down the road a piece.....nothing in the mail today but ads, no bills .....shouldn't get any bills until around the 20th anyway......my back feels better today, for some reason it stayed in a knot to the left of the lumbar all day Wednesday, couldn't get it to work out.....the pimento spread was marked down yesterday at the store, so I couldn't resist getting a small thing of that stuff....so lunch today can be grilled swiss and pimento on rye.....a slightly greasy guilty pleasure....hey, it's olive oil in the skillet.....

jambalaya

I think that's how you spell it.....no crayfish pie, though.....got some sausage to use up, and some frozen shrimp, and a box of cajun jambalaya mix.....do that tonight I think.....also got ribeye steak and salad greens for my Labor Day.....the corn on the cob looked sort of tired.....macaroni salad was a dollar off, got a little tub of that....got bella mushrooms too fairly cheap, and a package of pasta with butter sauce....to mix up more of the shrimp, and some of the mushrooms with pasta for a dinner.....another mild day, this first day of September.....