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......