more rain in the afternoon

and it never has warmed up much.....still below 50, windy......going to have a small piece of hamsteak, mac-n-cheese, and baked beans for supper.....baked beans made me think of that New England brown bread in a can.....with or without raisins.....haven't had that in years.....I suppose the place to look for it would be near the B&M beans in the store? slice off some of that, and spread it with butter.....

chilly, foggy

didn't get wet on the early walk, but now there's some drizzle......the frito pie is plenty filling, there's enough leftover for at least two more meals.....and I saved a little of the hamburger to make patty melts for lunch a couple of days.....will probably make one today.....couldn't find anything to watch on TV last night, so I finished the first library book and started on another.....got all the lights and the electric fire on in the living room, trying to combat the dreary gloom of another gray damp morning......oh well, it should be sunnier over the weekend.....and the backyard being wet gives me an excuse for not going out and running the lawn mower.....

got it in a low oven

a layer of corn chips, then shredded cheese, then small olives, then the mixture of pinto beans, salsa, hamburger browned with onion, then another layer of corn chips, then more cheese.....some oregano on top of it all.....let it all melt up nice, and I've got sour cream for garnish at the table....did finally get a walk in this afternoon, between drizzles.....otherwise just been sitting reading and listening to music on the radio......

at the grocery store

it started coming down so hard this deep drumming noise made everybody stop and look up at the ceiling.....then everybody looked around at each other....and continued about their business......I got fixin's for Frito Pie tonight.....and one day I'm going to try a hash-brown sausage casserole with spinach dip in it.....because I got a jar of that half price.....might work.....later now in the morning I thought maybe it had gone past so I could go for a walk, but it's started raining again.....52 and some wind.....nothing in the mail today......

Heavy Thunderstorm Rain

that's what it says online for the Clinton weather right now.....pretty accurate, looks like from where I sit.....so I'm thinking of doing something radical, and not go to the corner for the morning paper, but just go ahead and go all the way to the grocery store early and get the daily paper there, plus the weekly Clinton paper, plus the groceries on my list.....on the radar, it doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon, so I'm likely to get a little wet whenever I go out today, might as well just go for it......

from the front porch

I'm sitting out because it warmed up to about 60.....and I hear the lady around the corner coming with her two grandkids that she babysits....a 3 year old boy, and a girl who's a little over 1 I think....she is pushing the girl in one of those plastic strollers that looks like a race-car, and the boy is riding a tricycle, and the grandma is yelling at him to stay with her and not go racing off...but of course the kid is going as fast as he can to get into the big puddle in the church parking lot....a puddle like a small pond.....the lady is yelling at him to stay out of the water, but in he goes....so she catches up and tells him to ride out of the puddle....so he gets off the trike and starts splashing back and forth the length of the puddle, soaking his white tennis shoes I'm sure....so she tells him again to get out because he will catch a cold getting wet.....so he sits down in the puddle....so she tells him now he's got his pants all wet and to get out of the puddle....so he starts rolling around in the puddle like a pig in mud......what a holy terror....I was sitting on the porch and cracking-up, thinking that I was 3000 miles from any 3 year old grandson....though I'm sure Colton would never be such a stinker.....

later the same morning

had a very nice walk by the Mill Park.....plenty of sunshine, green grass, birds singing etc.....and the mail was here when I got back, so I could pay the City utility bill, and read the ads for shopping day tomorrow.....got to figure some cheap meals....thinking about a ham slice, haven't done one of those in ages...should be good for several meals....with fried potatoes, baked beans....things like that.....plus maybe casseroles, like hash-brown and sausage, or "Frito pie".....a high-school picnic favorite.....and I need eggs, orange juice, paper towels.....need some veggie sides......still have almost half a loaf of bread.....

patches of frost

here and there on the newspaper walk.....34F, all bundled up.....but the sun is out and maybe it will heat up some today.....enough for a walk after lunch.....and then rain is predicted on and off until the weekend.....Saturday morning I'm planning on going to a charity pancake breakfast at Fatz Cafe.....cousin Cindy will be waiting on tables.....it's for Thornwell, the orphanage that used to have a school there too, where some of the cousins went....two or three anyway, I think.....Thornwell, like everything else, is falling on hard times.....they do have a beautiful old campus of stone buildings over across from the college, but it's largely empty now.....I think most of the kids there now aren't actually orphans, but just children taken out of their homes because of neglect, abuse, parents on meth, or whatever.....the usual modern situation.....and now they ride the bus to regular public schools....until a couple of years ago they had a working model farm there....the orphans for decades were taught to be good farmers......not a good business model for today's youth, I don't think.....I had chicken livers last night, and I have one pork chop left for today, and then it's shopping day again.....watched a couple of old movies last night until around ten, slept well with the space heater on in the bedroom as it got down to freezing by the wee small hours.....

cold,wet, more on the way

raining hard early on, and below 40 out.....might be a frost tonight, might be rain the rest of the week too.....the weeds will be getting pretty tall before I can get them mowed looks like.....didn't do much yesterday except watch basketball and then old movies once the games were over.....the library opens at 9, so I'll head over there and try to find something more to read......

thunderstorm after breakfast

so I took the Jeep to get the Sunday paper....last week it was 20 degrees above the norm....this week it is 20 below the norm.....might keep raining through Tuesday.....38 windchill right now, drizzle.......french toast and sausage this morning......this wet spell might bring the region up to normal rainfall for the season, help with the fire danger situation.....I should fry up the rest of the chicken livers this evening......I roll them in oregano and seasoned bread crumbs, and then just use a little olive oil in the iron skillet.....

lazy wet afternoon

took a nap earlier, a while after lunch.....played some Supro lap-steel electric guitar, and realized that the strings on that are a lighter gauge than those on the dobro, so I'm thinking of getting some of those light Martin Bronze to try on the resonator .......because I was getting some pretty chimey stuff going on the lap-steel that I don't think I could do quite the same on the heavier dobro strings that are on there now.....I guess there's more NCAA basketball on tonight....that's something to watch anyway.....if the commercials get too annoying, you can turn off the sound and put on some music.....last night I used Steve Miller's Greatest Hits.....slam-dunking space cowboys....etc.....

rain tracking this way

got the early walk done OK, but it looks like it's going to be wet later this morning and afternoon.....in the 50's without much wind right now, but it might start blowing if the stormy part of the front gets here......that box of Uncle Ben's rice said it makes about three servings....so I have enough left for two more meals.....finished off the lima beans.....I'll probably have my library books ready to take back on Monday......

chicken leg quarter

going to oven-broil that with some bbq sauce on it this evening, to serve with long grain and wild rice mix, and either corn or lima beans....or maybe even early peas....we'll see.....might be enough chicken there for another meal.....at Wal*Mart I got trimmer-line for the weed-eater.....which I'll have to get out and use some time....maybe not for a week or so, since rainy weather is predicted for next week.....and I got Marvel Mystery Oil, which I was out of, but which everyone should have on hand....and they had Blue Goo on "Rollback" price.....and I got a box of Vella Burgundy, and a jar of maraschino cherries.....had grilled swiss and corned beef with pickle slices, bbq corn chips, and wine for lunch.....oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon, and a splash of half-and-half cream, black tea, OJ for breakfast......getting ready to go for a walk in the park....probably need a jacket....sunny but still windy......

chilly overnight

got into the mid-30's......clear and bright in the morning, cold north wind.....might be some rain sometime over the weekend......had a pork chop and a biscuit with gravy, and lima beans for supper Thursday.....watched the Aztecs get knocked out of the NCAA thing, went to bed......going to go over to Wal*Mart and look for a few things......that will get me out of the house anyway.....

hail in the middle of the night

woke me up briefly.....didn't hear any thunder, just wind and sounded like hail ......clear this morning, warm, not too windy.....stayed up late watching Knicks-Magic.....tonight there will be SDSU and UConn......I can have a cold chicken liver biscuit for lunch, and a pork-chop with gravy supper.....I need to clean up the kitchen some, I bought some liquid all-purpose cleanser yesterday to mix with white vinegar in the spray bottle......it should be warm enough later to try a shorts and tennis shoe walk around the park.....and then pretty soon I'm going to have to cut the grass I guess......one of these days......

70, scattered clouds, windy

30% chance of thunderstorms after 9 PM........went grocery shopping.....going to fix chicken livers, biscuits and gravy, lima beans for today.....also have some cut up chicken to oven bbq, and some pork chops....rice and veggies for sides during the week, etc.....stayed within budget OK.....forgot to buy more peanut butter, but that's no biggie.....plenty of that corned beef left for lunch meat, got more swiss cheese.....going for the park walk in a few minutes I suppose.....reading the local paper, the school districts around here are losing pupils, and the population of Clinton has gone down too, from 2000 to 2010 census......unemployment in 2000 in Clinton was only 3.4%, now it is 11.4%.....the Mill was still running in 2000......Greater Greenville real estate values went up 5.4% year to year, which includes Laurens County......48% of the Clinton City budget goes to bulk electricity purchase and sewer-wastewater fees, and is thus beyond the control of the city government....both of those expenses are going up in the coming year...they are going to cut five public safety positions, fire five cops in other words.....well, two or three of those positions were vacant already I guess......

straight to Summer

that's the weather report for today....went for a walk around the park after lunch and ended up in a sweat....barefoot and sitting on the porch most of the afternoon, drinking dark rum and Dr. Pepper on the rocks....Trish who was a waitress at the Resort Cafe turned me on to that....it was her drink of choice.....she was pretty much a regular at the "Over the Yard-arm" group .....wastrels who would start drinking at 11 in the morning......watching golf on the tele....which was on at that time for some unknown reason...maybe because it was coming from Back East......

voter number one

On the way back from getting the newspaper I stopped in at the church across the street and voted in a special election for County Council......what you would call a Supervisor in California? I think the vacancy came up because the incumbent got elected to the state-house in November, something like that.....so this election today is just for Seat 7, which includes Clinton.....I was their first customer at the Mill Village Precinct, so it took three of them to make sure they were pushing the right buttons on the laptop to verify me as a voter......I should go out and trim some dead foliage off that magnolia near the AC unit, since they haven't picked up my pile of stuff yet I could add to it before they get here......going up into the 80's today is what they say.....I'm out of bread, and butter.....so I could do without until tomorrow, or I could make a trip just for those two things.....difficult decisions abound.....

yard work made me hungry?

I ate some lunch, but found myself thinking about supper right away.....I've got cornbread mix, and sausage links, and a sweet potato that's been in the cupboard for a while.....so I'll do that thing where you put the links in the cornbread ......and bake the sweet potato at the same time.....that will work if I microwave the potato a little first, and then put it in the half-hour with the cornbread and sausage.....a recipe online said to put a cup of corn in too, and buttermilk.....not going to do that this time, maybe some day......diced onion was also mentioned....I might try that....

electric pole-saw

I got out and used the pole-saw to clear out some dead wood, and to trim the mimosa, etc....I got about 3/4 finished with what I'd been thinking of doing and my back was starting to ache, so I knocked off for the day....experience has shown me that if I keep going too long after the ache starts, I might not be able to walk the next morning....have to crawl out of bed.....anyway, it was a good morning for yard work, 59 and overcast, got sweaty but not overheated, you know what I mean.....so now there is a pile of sticks and branches out at the curb for Tuesday, when the City truck comes around for that kind of thing......

13mph east wind

blowing some clouds around.....Saturday evening a front went through with thunderstorms, hail, tornado sirens, and a couple of hours of rain.....no hail right here, but they say it was thick in Gray Court.....evaporated rapidly once it hit the ground to produce enough fog to limit driving visibility in some areas.....other than that, nice weather continues, not freezing anyway.....neighbors were cleaning up their yards yesterday, while I lazed on the front porch....I have no shame....I'll do yard work some time or other, I promise.....finished off the rib-eye for supper, with asparagus and mashed potatoes reheated in the frying pan.....papas refritos? I might make an asparagus and mushroom omelette today.....saw the Aztecs go into overtime and finally win, and then switched to the last part of that bizarre Butler-Pitt game with the twisted finish.....

well, it did get as warm as yesterday

up to 81 anyway....went for a walk over towards that big pawn shop a couple of blocks away by the train tracks....but it wasn't open, closes earlier on Saturdays....they have a whole wall of guitars in the back room, so I go over there three or four times a year to see if there's anything interesting.....across the old highway from the pawn store there's a place that used to be a pool hall, but it closed a while back.....today there was a guy there painting a sign out front that says Good Cents Bargain Store......bunch of weird junk inside mostly.....old color TV's for twenty bucks, old stereo speakers.....nothing interesting to me......if you had just rented a trailer and wanted to furnish it dirt cheap you could look there I guess....been there, done that.....

some clouds

not going to be as warm as yesterday, some chance of showers this weekend.....went and got gas this morning, first fill-up since 1/25, according to my check-book.....with the .35 off with my Bi-Lo rewards, regular was $3.04, took 11 gallons.....I was going to get gas yesterday, but they were out of gas when I went by there......had the first of many corned beef sandwiches for lunch yesterday, but that's a good thing.....it fries up tasty.....

warmer outside than inside

very pleasant sitting out on the porch as it got dark yesterday....left the bathroom window open a couple of inches all night.....the corned beef and cabbage was good, and there's plenty left....today though I'll try to use up the rice stuff from Tuesday, just have to microwave it....to say I could "nuke it" doesn't seem politically correct at the moment.....I did end up watching most of the second half of the Aztec win, we'll see how far they get.....I guess I almost have enough to do laundry again, could do that this afternoon.....should be nice walk after lunch, a good temperature for a bit of exercise.....in the Summer it will be too hot to walk after lunch, so I'll walk mid-morning.....in April they start having the street dances again on Thursdays I think....

well, got up to 70 even

I'm going to make the potatoes mashed with the beer/brisket juice.....a thing in the paper earlier in the week said to try your corned beef with honey mustard sauce.....they had Texas Pete Honey Mustard Sauce on sale at the grocery store yesterday.....used it on asparagus last night.....pretty tasty stuff, it's going on the sliced brisket today for sure.....watched Clemson get beat.....don't know if I'll try to watch any SDSU or not, sorta basketballed out feeling right now....

Happy St. Paddy's!

In baseball, PC beat Clemson last night 4-3.....the first time they've beat Clemson since 1949.....so now it's happened twice in my lifetime? Clemson basketball is on TV this afternoon.....and San Diego State has a game later also.....March Madness indeed.....this morning I got a pint of beer too when I went for the newspaper.....to pour over the corned beef brisket in the crock pot.....in a little while I'm going to walk over to the bank and convert the CD that matures today to a "no-fault" 11 month certificate.....so if interest rates go up sharply soon I can get it changed to the higher rate.....plus that will give me something that's liquid, but at a higher rate than money market savings.....life is so complicated.....cold this morning, but the sun is out and it should warm up to somewhere in the 70's.....they are saying maybe 80's over the weekend, 20 degrees above the norm.....just in time for Spring.....

clouds broke up

after 3 in the afternoon.....walked earlier, was in the 50's I guess.....going to fix a piece of rib-eye steak with mushroom on top, asparagus, and a few leftover potato wedges in the iron skillet.....the small iron skillet will be big enough for that....the one I bought for $1 at a church lady sale in Pauma Valley seems like a long time ago.....probably was 2002......

St. Patrick's Eve

I went ahead and bought the smallest corned beef brisket they had in the meat case.....I'll be having corned beef and swiss sandwiches for lunch for a while.....I still have pot roast to use up too.....and I got an 8 0z. ribeye, and asparagus, lima beans, apples, mac-and-cheese, and they had beef link sausages brown-n-serve 10 links in a box for a buck a box, so I got two boxes....at ten cents a link I figure 20 cents for a couple of sausages with my french toast on a Sunday is well worth it.....they'll keep in the freezer.....it was still dang cold out grocery shopping.....41 windchill, clouded over, misty fog.....hopefully it will burn off some later for a more comfortable walk after lunch.....right now I've got the weekly Clinton paper to read .....Clinton Elementary won some kind of national award for their "cluster" style of teaching, whatever that is.....they say teachers come from all over to see how it works......Clemson won last night, and goes on to play again Thursday in the Big Dance.....

mushroom stems and pieces

about half a can of those, maybe a quarter pound of country sausage (mild), half-cup (dry) of rice, maybe a half cup of diced sweet onion (produce of Mexico), can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup.....made into a casserole and garnished with Parmesan-Romono cheese (store brand).....in other words, the infamous "rice-stuff".....in the oven at 325, covered for the first half-hour, and now hopefully browning up nicely.....gray drizzling day....stayed inside reading and playing the radio.....

windbreaker walk

ENE wind at 8mph was blowing all night I think, continues this morning.....overcast, mid-40's, rain hitting the western edge of the county right now, will probably get here in 20 minutes.....and might keep going on and off until late afternoon.....so maybe not walking weather after lunch.....yesterday I walked after lunch, and then took a nap after walking.....I finished one book about Ireland, and started another book set in the South....watched the Spurs-Heat last night, and the first couple of innings of a pre-season baseball game from Florida....a Spring training game is what that's called I guess.....in college baseball the Blue Hose have a game against Clemson some time this week.......I'm going to throw odds-and-ends together and make some kind of casserole for supper tonight, and then go shopping tomorrow.....

had a couple of nice days

over the weekend.....yesterday's high was 78F.....and it stayed warm enough in the house overnight, and this morning I walked without a jacket.....so now a little after ten in the morning it's 55 with a 8mph NE wind and predicted to cloud up after noon and maybe rain by evening.....I got up this morning by the sun, not by the clock, trying not to disturb my sleep pattern, which has been working OK lately....I went to bed at 11, which is really 10.....next Monday we will be into Spring, so I should look at starting on yard work.....might have to spray WD40 on the padlock on the tool shed.....haven't opened it since late Fall 2010......leaves are starting to come out on the oak and the pecan trees.....all I got in the mail today was junk from Charter Cable, Geico, and something about if you had the flu right now you could participate in a flu treatment study.....threw it all in the kitchen trash.....I'm going to eat an apple now, and later use the last slice of honey ham in a grilled ham and swiss on wheat.....supper today will be leftover pot roast....

the house next door

Two guys were out looking at the abandoned burned out house next door.....the one guy has something to do with the church across the street....he might be going to be the new pastor, since I saw in the paper that the current preacher is thinking of retiring.....anyway, what I did overhear them saying, as I was sitting out on my front porch on a beautiful day, is that they thought they could get the place for the back taxes, bulldoze it out, and then move the old house across the street from it off the church property and put that on the bulldozed lot. Sounds like quite a project to me.....they said they would only have to move it 150 feet.....I guess you would have to build new brick piers, or do something else to support the wood part of the foundation.....I forget who told me that the old house they want to move was full of termites....maybe it was some man from the City, maybe not......anyway, it's all none of my business.....as long as they do the demolition in a proper and legal manner so I don't get polluted in the process.....

mild sunday morning

I split the difference and got up half an hour late by the clock, or half an hour early by body clock, depending on which way you look at it. Next time I drive somewhere I'll have to set the dashboard clock......I did breakfast for supper yesterday.....eggs over easy with hot sauce, one sausage patty, grits, wheat toast with butter and apple butter.....actual sunday breakfast today was french toast with ham.....there's one slice of ham left.....I should do leftover boiled dinner this evening.....actually it will be like this afternoon.....the sun not setting until 7:30 now for some bizarre reason......I see birds outside building a nest.....

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Tingles/134957976573309

about 2 hours at 325

I had a 1.73 lb. chuck roast that I browned in olive oil on each side and then added onion soup mix, three small red potatoes cut in wedges, and a bottle of dutch onions with the juice.....it came out delicious, and there is enough left for another dinner, and for pot roast sandwiches at lunchtime......got down in the mid-30's overnight, so the morning walk with the windchill factor was at 25 degrees.....predicted high today of 69, and going to the mid-40's overnight, when we spring forward, clock-wise......clear, bright, brisk outside right now....birds singing, squirrels chasing around......

was around freezing, clear and bright

at 7:30......around 9:30 I walked out again to go to the bank and roll over some CD's......I'll go back again on St. Patrick's day to take care of the last one .....and then nothing matures until next November.....while I was just finishing up in there, Caroline called to say they had gone up the river to the grandparents in case the tsunami from the Japan earthquake was going to flood up the creek in their backyard......the boiled dinner last night came out pretty tasty, and I'm going to use some of the kielbasa this morning for a sandwich on wheat roll......

after lunch

I went for my usual walk around the Mill Park and on my way back I saw the door open to the old "Red's" across from the mill offices....I stuck my head in the door and asked the guy inside if they were going to open it....he said "Yeh, he thinks he's going to sell hotdogs out of here or something." I wished them luck....maybe if they put a billboard out on the highway......

back from the library

with more historical novels.....I've pretty much gone through all the science-fiction at the Clinton branch.....someday I'll have to drive all the way over to Laurens and look in the main branch there....I can't usually find any mainstream or contemporary novels that I like much.....sometimes a dark comedy or a work of cynicism and desperation will be amusing......

fog around the edges, some drizzle

on the early walk.....I guess that front came through in the middle of the night, but it didn't wake me up, maybe there wasn't any thunder after all......I finished off the leftovers from last week yesterday, so today I can start in on the new batch of groceries.....I guess what I'll do is go put kielbasa in the crock pot with cabbage and potatoes.....and maybe with a sliced up apple.....that apple and cabbage trick is pretty neat, they work well together.....and then I'm going over to the library.....it's not my usual library day, but I finished all my books already.....this evening the Lakers-Heat game will be on at 7:00......

around 2:30

was when the squall line hit here.....driving wind and rain from the west .....and it's been raining some ever since.....there will be a break, and then another smaller front in the middle of the night....might still be raining around daybreak, we'll see......

didn't make a list

but did a pretty good grocery shopping I think.....mostly got stuff on sale......got a cabbage and a kielbasa to slow cook with little red potatoes.....and a beef chuck roast to cook with mushrooms and Holland onions.....and eggs and orange juice and a loaf of bread, etc.....a sweet potato, a bag of apples......I got some whole wheat sandwich rolls in the bakery section, so I'm going to have a bbq pork on wheat roll for lunch.....and kielbasa on a roll some time this week.....a little lunch variety....the skies are threatening......lots of rain predicted over the next three days.....on the news they said the folks up in the mountains should have 72 hrs. worth of supplies on hand, since the creeks are already full and the ground is still saturated from the last rain so water might be over bridges and all ......the newspaper walk was OK, but the way things look outside right now I think I'm staying inside......

windchill28

on the sunrise walk.....more rain might get here by Wednesday morning, and continue into Thursday.....they tore down an old mill dam on the 12 Mile River with the idea of restoring it to a natural state......and now the paper says "Raging river carves new path".....it's washing big hunks of the bank and mature oak trees into Lake Hartwell......hmm, good intentions......I used the last slice of bread at breakfast, toast for my poached egg.....so for lunch today I can have cold chicken wings, cornbread, pickles......and get another loaf of whole wheat on my regular grocery day.....Tuesday supper might be sausage and eggs with hash browns? or maybe with grits.....saw some strange old movie on TCM last night, and tonight at 7:30 there's Portland-Miami on NBATV.....the fan favorite game that's determined by text voting or something .......not who wins the game, but what game they show......

slow cooked pork

I've got that country rib meat to use up.....so I had a bbq pork sandwich for lunch....it was delicious.....and this evening I'll use up some more pork, with leftover rice-and-gravy as one side, and leftover cut corn and leftover lima beans can go together to make succotash as side number two......that pesky cold north wind is back, but I think I'll brave it in a while to get a walk in around the park.....to get out of the house some......

clear, sunny

below freezing, frost in the shade on my early walk....it's warmed up to 36 now.....should get up to 60 in the afternoon.....by late yesterday the church grounds across the street looked like a swamp....on the evening news they showed highways closed by flooding, rivers and creeks over their banks, etc.....mostly to the north of here, where the storms pile up against the mountains.....watched the Lakers whomp on the Spurs, that was a good game, even if it was a blow-out, in my opinion......opened a new thing of oatmeal this morning.....brought the trash can back in from the curb before leaving on my walk.....can't think of any other interesting news.....

every time

I think about putting on my boots and windbreaker and going for a walk, it starts raining again....so I'm going to resolve to quit doing that for the rest of the afternoon.....the cornbread I baked last night came out better than usual for some reason.....maybe I cooked it longer, so it's chewier? It's tasty anyway.....had a piece for a snack just now.....took a little nap before that, on this dead quiet and dripping Sunday afternoon......

just not walking weather

this morning.....lots of rain blowing up from due south, so it's not a cold rain....just wet.....I drove to get the Sunday paper.....turning to a drizzle now maybe.....fixed whisky french toast with a deli slice of honey ham on it for breakfast....OJ, black coffee.....there wasn't anything on TV last night, so I sat up 'til after 10 finishing a book I started earlier in the day.....Dairy Queen Days by Robert Inman.....takes place in a dying mill town off I-20 between Augusta and Atlanta....in 1979 I think it was.....good book, there were some others of his on the shelf, I'll look them over next time I'm at the library.....Sunday the 20th there's somebody speaking at the Library over in Laurens about Mill Village Preservation.....he's from some kind of State historical board or something.....our Mill Village Precinct here in Clinton seems to be pretty well preserved as it is....except maybe for the burned out house next to mine.....a neighbor the other day said he had talked to the City about that place and discovered that part of the problem with getting it cleaned up is that the siding is asbestos ......people seem to be unclear as to what that entails safe-demolition-wise? The neighbor lives two doors West on Washington....he was thinking of buying the lot for the back taxes and building a garage for his old trucks.....but he is stumped by the required clearing of the condemned structure.....nobody knows what it would cost to get it done right.....he says there's rats in there.....I haven't seen any rats, just cats and bats.....

the radio from outer space

has been playing quite a bit of old T. Rex and James Gang lately.....fine with me! Light rain right now....had a grilled ham and swiss with bread-and-butter pickle for lunch....with a some store brand bbq corn ships and a glass of CA burgundy.....

the cloud blanket

kept it in the mid-40's overnight, so the walk this morning wasn't as cold as yesterday.....70% chance of rain today, tonight, and Sunday morning.......I'm going to go ahead and do the pintos with sausage over cornbread today.....yesterday after pork, potato, and lima beans I was falling asleep watching the news in the nice warm living room.....mellowed out.....for tomorrow I have the fixin's for a proper Sunday dinner.....fried chicken, rice-and-gravy, cut corn.....finished one sci-fi book, and now I have three novels set in the South to read.....I think they are all three about Georgia in fact......one of them mentions a Pulaski.....like Uncle Pulaski, the guy who left his plow and mule out in a Georgia field one day and went off looking for a better life in Florida.....the Pulaski name comes from Count Pulaski I believe.....a Polish nobleman who fought in the Revolution and had a county named in his honor......

bitter cold wind

clouded over, no sun, freezing on the morning walk....Winter isn't done yet apparently.....I'm going to drive over to the store for a box of burgundy......will probably have some of the country ribs this evening, the wings last night came out perfect, as did the gravy......I'm running the electric heat stove this morning, which I hadn't had to do much lately during that spell of more moderate weather....well, not long until Spring......

stayed windy all day

but other than that was nice enough this afternoon.....the wings have been turned over, the rice is on, and I'm about to go make the gravy.....I'll just microwave some cut corn.....I'll need to go get more wine tomorrow.....

chilly in the morning

but it should warm up about like yesterday.....and then starting Friday and on through the weekend there's a chance of rain.....the country ribs came out fine, falling apart tender and flavorful.....enough leftover for at least three more meals....today I might iron skillet oven fry chicken wings, and make rice-and-gravy......I got bread-and-butter pickle slices cheap at the store yesterday....they make a great addition to lunchtime sandwiches.....try them grilled in a grilled ham-and-swiss.....they had the olive oil I like cheap too, the kind that says "lighter in flavor for baking and frying".....it was less per oz. than their store brand, which is actually sort of strange tasting......wasn't much on TV last night, went to bed fairly early, slept well....

looks like

iron skillet country ribs slow cooked at 250 for two hours, then drain off fat and turn over and cover with bbq sauce and put back in for another hour....with a baked potato and lima beans with sweet onion.....other menu items for the coming week will include chicken wings with rice and gravy and corn as a side.....and pinto beans cooked with country sausage and sweet onion served over corn bread......finished the pastrami today, so my new lunch meat is honey ham deli-sliced....got more swiss cheese.....looks nice enough now to go for the park walk.....the corned beef briskets for St. Patrick's seem expensive to me, plus being a lot of meat for one person to use up.....we'll see about that next week I guess....they do have corned beef already cooked at the deli counter, any amount you want.....

down around freezing overnight

so I got the ski jacket out again for the sunrise walk.....should get up into the 60's in the afternoon....looks wet on the west coast radar.....I made a grocery list, so maybe this time I'll be better organized and buy things that I need and not buy things I don't really need.....but sometimes I've had something on the list, but forgot it anyway....oh well....so I don't know yet what's for supper this evening.....depends on if I find what I'm looking for.....

storm came through

the weather was the only thing on the 5 o'clock news.....reports of a tornado heading from around Clemson into Greenville County.....there were trees down and a washed out rush hour and power outages in various places.....and some hail, etc.....but the brunt of it all went just to the north of here......we did get thunder and lightning and wind and rain, and a couple of minutes of hail, but the power didn't even flicker, at my house anyway......it was over before my bedtime, gone to the east.....it got up to 76F yesterday afternoon, and stayed 60 in the house overnight into this morning.....March first is clear and bright, with some north wind.....I finished off the pork curry last night, and have steak left for today.....I found some good library books, enough for a couple of weeks maybe......Tuesday night there's usually something on NBATV, and there's already some baseball on?