a Wednesday

I did get a Boston Butt pork roast for $5.01.....as it says in the store ad "perfect for pulled pork".....and I'm going to try the store brand "golden" bbq sauce this time....a mustard based type....and I got some good looking yellow squash and zucchini.....and corn, and bag salad....so the actual holiday weekend can be pulled pork and veggies....and other dinners can be chicken parmesan with pasta and veggies, and pan-seared shrimp with a whole-wheat pasta side, and green salad side.....I found online a very good shrimp-searing guideline, so they don't come out either chewy or gooey.....should be another fairly mild and pleasant day, was nice enough out for the walking this morning, before and after the shopping.....the 120 Musgrove address has opened now as a pizza place, with also Italian and some American entrees, plus the bar over the alley is open again....live music sometimes......at the other end of town, there's another pizza and subs place, with beer and wine and live music sometimes just opened too......in the Clinton paper today, there was a guy talking about the job-training center Piedmont Technical (think community college) is opening over in Laurens....his good quote was that we needed to invest in is getting a decent industrial labor base because "We can't compete by selling each other pizza."

Labor Day ads

came in the mail....the grocery store ad has good prices on Boston Butt, and on pork loin.....I might do pulled pork for my holiday weekend last of Summer thing.....I sort of try to observe a holiday, even though all the days are the same to me for all practical purposes.....they have fresh corn advertised too, I'll get some of that and use up more slaw and with the pork call it a BBQ.....though I'll just do the meat in the crock-pot, a lot easier that way.....maybe buy a can of beer to pour in there......

ceiling fans turned off

they have been on pretty much all the time since June.....well, in the room I'm in at the time, if you see what I mean.....this morning it's bordering on chilly, compared to the way things have been.....so I cut the grass out front after I got back from my first walk, and I'll count that as enough exercise for right now.....I had tuna and peas on toast yesterday for supper, and there's another helping of that left over.....I should make a list for Wednesday shopping.....maybe this week I'll slow cook a chicken and make a box of cornbread stuffing, haven't done that in a while....they had whole hens cheap last week.....or maybe a pork roast.....I'm out of eggs.....and I need a loaf of bread.....today is predicted to get to 85, which is normal for this time of year....three weeks roughly 'til Fall?

kinda late at night

and there's lightning flashes to the south I can see from the front porch....but the only stuff showing on the radar is way down near Augusta....is that what I'm seeing? Don't hear any thunder....cool enough this evening, nice out.....I got some good looking library books this morning, something to read.....they are saying it might rain on Labor Day, so have your picnic earlier in the weekend.....

cool down

nice this morning with mild dry air and some breeze.....I'm going to go walk around the park, and then go to the library.....I might make shrimp and pimento cheese grits for supper.....I've got slaw I should use up, maybe have some with lunch.....

good-bye Irene

South Carolina dodged the bullet by about a hundred miles.....that seems to be the summation of our encounter with the hurricane.....today it's clear skies and gentle breezes.....this week the weather should be seasonal.....that's to say, more normal temps than we had for most of the month.....looking for highs 80's instead of mid-90's......Saints at Raiders is on at 8 tonight, so that's 5 in Oakland? Should be blimp shots of bay bridges, etc.....see what Brian's weather is like....I've got tuna and peas penne salad for an easy leftover supper.....lunch will be a pimento cheese fish slider, with bread and butter pickle slices.....Sunday breakfast was french toast with ham......

DEVO live in Japan 2003

amazing what you can find on streaming netflix if you just keep poking around.....very good show....enough to restore your faith in humanity.....still some artists out there not afraid to speak the truth.....de-evoluntionary: in the beginning was the end.....that sums it all up .......

tropical air and a warm breeze

that's how the newspaper described the wake-up weather.....there are clouds from Irene hanging around, but it will clear off and be hot and humid later in the day.....I ran the AC in the evening yesterday, and will probably need it again today around the same time.....last night out on the front porch around 9 you could hear the drums of the half-time marching band at the high-school game .....Clinton and Laurens both lost their season openers.....the pasta salad made for a good supper, and there's about half leftover......today I guess I'll finish off the ribs.....Friday lunch was a fish-and-slaw sandwich on the last wheat bun......

hurricane clouds?

Looking at the latest satellite image, I guess that's what's going on this morning.....clouds to the East, some NE wind which would fit in with the storm rotation.....so maybe it won't get as hot as yesterday, if we get overcast and maybe some moisture from Irene......they say it will make the price of gas go up? My rib platter last night was excellent.....I could hear the band playing until 9 or so last night, didn't walk over there, just sat on the porch.....there were pictures of the whole thing on GoClinton this morning.....today I'm going to try the tuna-and-peas salad idea.....right now I'm going to go on a park walk I guess......

chipmunk

I'm used to seeing the tree squirrels in my yard.....and lately I've seen a chipmunk near one corner of the back porch....I think that's where their burrow is.....maybe they are out more lately hoarding for the Winter? Another beautiful morning, should get up around 90 again....and the humidity is inching up some today.....but I still haven't had to run the AC in six or seven days now....the power bill should come pretty soon, the meter reader went by already.....and I need to look at the AT&T bill, and tags for the Jeep are due at the end of September.....don't know if the mail's been by yet or not, I'll look in a couple minutes.....this afternoon I'll slow-oven the ribs and potato, mix up some raisin slaw.....there's a band tonight over by the train tracks, and a "block party" for the incoming college class, where the merchants welcome them to town is the idea.....wasn't much of note in the Clinton weekly paper yesterday, things just going on as usual....school started up smoothly and all.....I think the high school football starts Friday night.....

ribs w/ baked potato and slaw

got enough of that for 2 days....and there's one enchilada platter left....and I'm going to make a tuna and peas pasta salad that will make some meals....plus there's still chicken and shrimp in the freezer I can do something with....so I'm set for groceries I guess 'til the end of the month.....they had pimento cheese tubs 2 for one, so I can have pimento fish sliders for some lunches.....I think I'll do quesadillas for lunch today with leftover tortillas and cheese.....so I got the walking and the shopping done on another pleasant morning......just been leaving a few windows open day and night and staying comfortable enough......

cool in the 60's

well, we were all cool in the 60's.....64 on the early walk, with a lot lower humidity and a good breeze.....might stay in the 80's today......now they are saying that the Upstate could get 1/2 to 1 and a half inches of rain Sunday from the hurricane, if it goes on the projected track.....so now I'm going to go walk around the park, and probably won't even get sweaty with the dry wind keeping me comfortable......of course the humidity is coming back by the weekend, with Irene dragging Gulf Stream moisture into the area......had the enchilada platter again last night.....poached egg on toast for Tuesday breakfast.....fish sandwich lunch continues for a couple more days or so.....might look for ribs and a baking potato at the store tomorrow......

fresh cut grass smell

coming in through the living room window.....there was a cool breeze early on, so I went and mowed out back.....through the kitchen window there's a jasmine breeze still at times.....that vine keeps blooming for months I guess....vine or bush or whatever it is.....the crick in my neck that moved over to be an ache in my shoulder has now moved down some into my upper back.....I get one muscle worked out and the next one tenses up apparently......saw some of the Chargers last night, but didn't make it all the way through the game.....it was pretty hot and muggy by supper time Sunday, so I didn't really feel like fixin chicken and all so I just had a ham-and-egg sandwich on a whole wheat bun instead.....that was enough.....Hurricane Irene might "clip Georgia and the Carolinas" around next Sunday maybe.....there was a severe weather warning for Laurens County last night during the football game, but the lightning stayed to the west of Clinton, I could see it out the kitchen window before I went to bed....didn't even rain here....

there was a deluge

late yesterday afternoon.....I went out on the porch when I heard it starting to come down, and saw that I hadn't rolled up the car window....so I got soaked pretty good in the time it took to go to the car and back.....so I just sat on the porch and dripped for a while.....felt good actually.....72 and humid for the early walk this morning.....french toast, honey ham, coffee, juice for Sunday breakfast.....Saturday supper was microwaving a plate of enchilada and beans....tasty......I might make taquitos for lunch today, and chicken dinner this evening.....I think I get the channel that has the Chargers at Cowboys tonight.....that crick in my neck from the other day has moved into my left shoulder.....but my back has been good lately....one thing or another.....sunny day today will probably lead to another afternoon storm, 50% chance......

must have rained while I was asleep

muggy and soaked this morning, puddles everywhere.....going to get hot later they say, and then a cold front and rain come down on Sunday.....did my walking this morning, and then vacuumed and mopped, and went and got some wine at the grocery store.....and spent half an hour trying to make the natural gas website work.....they now have online bill pay, but it's one of those things where they send you an email with a password, but it's mixed upper case letters and numbers.....mine had "O" in it twice......and I couldn't get it to work for the longest damn time because the first O is a zer0, but the second O is an upper case letter.....why the hell do they do things that way? The password is a puzzle......so I don't think I'll actually switch over to paying them that way....I'll just keep using my bank account bill pay, it's less confusing.....plus the gas authority charges 2.5 % to use your card, which they don't tell you until the end.....that's enough excitement for me for the weekend......

some rain yesterday evening

they say it got up to 90, but it seemed cool enough to me all day long.....watched some preseason football, but just up to half-time again, then turned it off.....out on the front porch around ten you could hear a pep rally or something coming from over at the college.....the freshmen are there for an orientation week.....there was drumming and chants of some sort.....later next week there will be a party downtown to introduce the new students to the town, and a band and dance afterwards.....it will be a band from Laurens that has a couple of records out, and goes on little regional tours and such.....the shrimp enchilada experiment was a success, just like I knew what I was doing......leftovers for several meals looks like.....I'll have a fish burger for lunch, and chicken with rice and green beans for supper.....I put a tablespoon of organic pure cocoa in my oatmeal and raisins this morning.....I think I'll keep doing that, it was good.....beautiful looking day right now.....clear, temperate, a gentle breeze.....

did I "sleep wrong"?

I've got a sore neck this morning.....rubbed some stuff on it and it's better, but still somewhat stiff....it's usually my lower back that bothers me first thing in the morning, not my neck....oh well....another fairly cool morning, so after the newspaper walk I got out and trimmed up the front yard with the weed-eater and the lawn- mower........yesterday I went ahead and tried the fish sandwich idea for lunch, even though I still had one chili-dog left.....the fish "portions" are a good size for the buns, so that's going to work.....I'll have the last dog today, and I have some taco filling still for a taco or two for lunch sometime.....supper Wednesday was a chicken fillet, long-grain-and-wild-rice, and green beans cooked with onion.....today I'm thinking of going head on and faking shrimp enchiladas...or I could google that concept for ideas.....the sun has burned through the clouds now.....was 90 yesterday, might be the same today by late afternoon......

enchiladas de camerones

went ahead and got some frozen shrimp.....and enchilada sauce, etc....so I can use up some of those tortillas that way......and whole wheat hamburger buns and minced fish patties for lunches....tartar sauce, pickle slices......orange-pineapple-bananna juice.....various other things.....didn't take a list to the store, just faked it.....real nice weather again today....walked to the Post Office when I got back from the grocery trip, to mail a birthday card to Colton.....the Pharmacy School is starting up again, with twice as many students as last year.....I guess that thing is going to work, they apparently turned away many applicants.....

tortillas

I've still got a lot of them......didn't get many ideas from the grocery flyer, but they do have the bags of frozen shrimp two for one again.....maybe I could make shrimp enchiladas? It's staying mid-80's today so far, a few clouds helping keep it cooler......cooler than mid-90's......I didn't see any fish patties in the sales flyer, but they must have something like that.....need to remember orange juice.....and the bi-weekly bag of ice......besides the ads, the only other thing in the mail was an offer about insurance for "final expenses"......I don't think I'll worry much about that if I'm dead......I'm reading a good book about Julian the Apostate, a noble Roman for sure......

fresh

feels like, and smells like mountain air....in fact the air is moving down again today from the North Carolina and Kentucky mountains.....cool and dry air.....but last night the weather lady said that by Thursday things would turn around again and we would be getting that warm moisture up from Alabama and Georgia ......so it will get hot and sticky , but maybe not to the extreme degrees of July.....school is back in, so this morning I had to wait for school busses before walking across Elizabeth.....and the crazy mothers are back, dropping off the kids and then speeding to get to work on time.....still working on tacos and beans for supper, and chili dog lunches.....I think I saw some small wheat buns on the bread aisle, so maybe I could find some fish patties too, and some tartar sauce.....and have fillet o' fish burgers for lunches next week.....the ads should come today for groceries tomorrow.....I want to get more bread-and-butter pickle slices too, those are all gone....those sound good on a fish sandwich......

a floral scented breeze

wafts through the picture-perfect morning.....blue skies, around 70.....proper seasonable weather....went to the library and found a few things.....did my walking.....ate my apple.....looks like a nice enough Monday so far.....

late at night

quarter 'til 11.....really nice out, almost full moon, air like cool silk, all those frogs and crickets singing.......

rain in the morning

around 8:30 it rained hard for maybe 20 minutes.....maybe less than that.....so it's a cool Sunday morning.....now at 9:30 some sun is poking through the overcast on and off......so it will probably stay comfortable again today with just ceiling fans running some......

late afternoon

it was starting to get hot and sticky, but then a storm came along to cool things off....it was really dumping rain hard for a while....now it's starting up again looks like....I've got the Yankees and the Rays on, but I might switch to something else, since the damn Yanks are winning....though you can never tell in baseball....maybe they will put a relief pitcher in for the late innings who will give up a bunch of runs in a row......just about got my library books done, Monday can be library day......got the game on with the sound off, so I can hear the rain instead of the same commercials over and over.......there ought to be a law....in the interest of public mental health, that says the idiots can only show any given commercial once an hour, on penalty of death......

so far

today looks like yesterday.....maybe it will rain at lunch time again, and stay more or less cool into the afternoon.....I started watching a football game last night, but only made it to half-time, and then went on to bed......those preseason games aren't all that exciting.....and they are screwing around with the rules again in strange ways....oh well.....tacos yesterday, probably tacos again today.....a pound of meat will fill a lot of tacos.....school starts on Tuesday I guess, so there's a last weekend of Summer vibe going on, though it's going to stay hot enough for a couple more months.....gas went down 20 cents ......but I've got enough gas anyway to last this month and probably next month.....we'll see what the prices are then.....well, I'm going to go sit out back and eat my daily apple......there's Saturday afternoon baseball later on ch. 21......

been out on the porch

watching the rain....light thunderstorm around noon.....had a chili dog for lunch, with a glass of wine.....the sound of the rain could put me to sleep in the middle of the day easy......

Friday morning

another cool morning, low 70's, clouded over, nice wind.....yesterday I only ran the air for a couple of hours, and then it clouded up and cooled off a while after supper.....I fixed a chicken breast patty sandwich on wheat with pickles, lettuce, mayo.....and just about finished off the potato salad.....tonight it will be back to tacos and pintos.....30% chance of afternoon thunder-showers.....I got my walking done this morning earlier than usual, stayed comfortable......

cooler today so far

clouds and breeze make it good weather for walking.....really nice right now out in the back yard.....taco nite was a huge success, I guess I was craving some tacos....lots of white corn tortillas left, and plenty of taco fillings, so I might just do that again today....or have chicken with potato salad, which needs eating up......it had cooled off into the 70's by 11 last night, so it was comfortable enough sleeping under the ceiling fan.....they are having school registration today and tomorrow I think, teachers are having prep days.....football teams are having workouts......people start coming back to the college pretty soon, a couple of weeks yet I guess.....hmm, sounds like I got something in the mailbox, I'll go check that out.....

lower humidity

is nice, along with a wind coming through the house.....don't have the AC on, just ceiling fans.....there was a small earthquake in Gray Court the other day.....and a 4.1 in Ensenada? In Gray Court it was 2.1 I think....."on an unnamed fault related to the formation of the Blue Ridge Mountains"......hmm.....it was a good thing I checked that jar of salsa in the fridge before I went to the store.....it was all funny looking, so I got it thrown out and got a bottle of Old El Paso taco sauce to use at supper .......nothing on hand but funny salsa would have been a bummer....I swept and vacuumed earlier, before lunch.....but I'm going to have to mop the kitchen too sometime soon.....maybe tomorrow.....

taco nite

and I've got chili cheese dogs with onion for lunches.....got more coffee, eggs, wheat bread.....besides tacos and pintos I can have chicken with rice and green beans for a couple of suppers....we'll make it through the week somehow.....it stormed east of here last night before bedtime, but all we got here was a bit of a breeze.....enough to cool things off some for sleeping....I've got the Clinton paper to look through.....they are saying it will be a little cooler over the next few days, still in the 90's but not high 90's.....pleasant enough out so far today.....

took about an hour and a half

to cut all the grass and take a shower.....beautiful morning for a little yard work, around 80 and breezy.....but with the high humidity it's still a work-out, for an old fart.....was a high of 100 yesterday, but some storms went by pretty close in the evening, close enough to cool it off for a good night's sleep.....had chicken, potato salad, corn-on-the-cob for supper Monday.....guess I'll finish off the chicken today.....or I do have a can of chili beans.....we'll see .....I need to buy eggs and bread tomorrow.....and maybe taco stuff? I should check and see if the grocery ads are here.....I've finished 3 out of 5 library books......

bought a new hairbrush

my old one broke yesterday, the handle came off....so I got the cheapest one at the grocery store, also got the cheapest box of wine, and a bag of ice......in this weather, ice is a good thing.....don't know when I'll get another overcast morning to cut the weeds......there was an article in the real estate supplement to the Sunday paper about patio homes for empty-nesters who are down-sizing ......this one buyer was saying a big reason he liked the smaller place was it only took 15 minutes to mow the lawn.....he said at their old house they had six acres, so it always took him from Saturday to Wednesday to cut the grass, working at it a couple of hours a day.....that's just crazy.....another housing trend is "lush carpeting".....older people are getting damned tired of all that hardwood and tile that's heck to clean and hurts your ankles eventually.....I figured that out years ago.....yesterday I had a bowl of noodles for supper....it said it was orange chicken flavor, but I don't know.....didn't have much flavor at all, so I put some soy sauce on it, and added some crunchy rice noodles to kick it up a notch.....going to get up around 100 again today I suppose.....

some rain last night

cooled things off nicely before bedtime, so I could leave some windows open for sleeping......now around 10:30 Sunday morning it's starting to burn off, with a mostly West wind.....french toast with sausage for breakfast.....yesterday I made a little different lunch.....ham and egg on a wheat bun with mayo and lettuce.....I remember a little corner cafe on York Blvd. near Oxy where I used to get a fried egg sandwich sometimes......it was across from York Taco and down one block maybe......York Taco was awesome......if you went west from there on York there was the Sea Breeze.....this little beer bar with nets and floats hanging on the walls, and coin pool tables, and a pitcher of PBR for $1.00.....in the morning anyway I think that was the special price......shoot, you used to be able to get a plastic quart of Pabst for 75 cents in a mom-and-pop market where some kid was behind the counter who didn't give a damn how old you were as long as you were handing him the money.....the old days.....there was a Jack-in-the-Box a couple of blocks off campus where you ordered and gave them your money, but you almost never got back what you ordered exactly.....but you would get more items than you had paid for, so what the heck? I think they just gave away the tacos if they had been sitting a while, if they had made too many by mistake or something.....don't know what I want for lunch today.....guess what I've got is ham-and-cheddar.....

nice cool morning for a drive

went over to the Farmers Market in Laurens....I had only been over to it once this season I think....nothing much new....there was a guy there with local honey and with that homemade brown sugar candy I can remember from the old days.....a lady used to have it at the Swap Meet too......but I didn't buy any, it can't be good for your teeth or for any other body parts.....was tempting though......in the 70's and misty and cloudy so far today.....might be more thunderstorms this afternoon.....it was so rainy in Charlotte that streets were turning into rivers and some folks were flooded out of their houses.....in the paper it said two ladies were shoplifting at a coat outlet, and when the police chased them they tried to cross a swollen creek to escape, but one was drowned and the other is missing......the heat wave is going to crank up to around 100 again by Monday, with increased humidity too......I had 4 oz. of steak and a salad and a buttered roll last night.....today can be chicken and salad and a roll.....it's burning off rapidly outside looks like.....it's tax-free weekend for back-to-school, but I'm not going to go back to school.....

heck of a thunderstorm

lots of lightning strikes close by....I think one might have hit an oak tree across the street in the church-yard.....it looks like a big branch is down touching the ground instead of being up where it should be......the power went out for about one minute.....it's coming up from the South, instead of down from the North like the afternoon storms usually do, so when I went outside it was like a blast of swamp air.....I think it's rolling towards Laurens now.....the thunder is receding, but the rain is still dumping down good.......

clouding up some

I don't think it's going to get as hot as they were saying it would today.....hopefully it will rain in the afternoon.....I guess it was around 80 again this morning when I was out walking around 9:30......got my Guitar Player magazine in the mail......it has lots of stuff this month about fuzz pedals.....I got a little package of real thin ham slices Wednesday, they are perfect for grilled ham and cheese sandwiches......I should cook the other piece of steak today, and make a green salad.....I had cold chicken and potato salad last night, with a buttered roll.....watched one of those odd Italian westerns last night, where the lips don't match the words.....it didn't start cooling off at all until around ten maybe.....all of my bills have cleared through, so the balance in the computer has caught up with the balance in the checkbook.....actually, the bank says I have one dollar more than my by-hand figure, I'll go with that.....

caught a little break

early on today.....clouded over and some NW wind for my dawn walk and the walk around the mill park....but now a little after 10 it's 90 heat index.....got the house closed up and the thermostat set at 85.....last night a little after 10 it was still 90 outside, with the AC still running.....yesterday was a record-breaking 8/3.....broke a record from 1888 by 2 degrees I think it was.....the humidity wasn't that bad yesterday and overnight, but it's going to get up high today.....so we go from a bad air warning to a heat health warning.....today is 8/4.....8/4/o8 I got the power and water turned on in this house, and became an official resident.....three years into this trip and I'm still pleased as punch, getting along fine please and thank you.....watched True Stories last night.....search that on Netflix.....you'll see why you should always drive through Texas as fast as you can.....still watching the news from overseas in the evening, instead of the shit from Fox/Murdoch or whatever.....

got the groceries

so for supper I can have steak, beans, corn-on-the-cob......enough for another steak meal, and I got chilled deli chicken and potato salad for several meals, and some fancy bagged salad greens, apples, an onion.....and what all.....enough for another week anyway....remembered the orange juice.....a can of olives on sale......got some dinner rolls free because I bought the deli chicken and deli potato salad....a "deli deal".......

humidity down, ozone up

it didn't get to 100 yesterday, just 98......and no heat advisory, since the humidity wasn't high enough to push the heat index into triple digits.....so 101 today is what they are saying.....with an air quality warning.....I'm trying to think of what I need at the store, maybe salad fixings of some sort for suppers.....I still have two of those whole wheat buns left.....I watched Vicious Lips last night, without a doubt the worse 80's girl-band flick ever.....search for it on Netflix.....well, off to the grocery store....

100 today, 100 tomorrow

that's what the channel 7 weatherlady says anyway.....I have City of Clinton showing up on Facebook this morning telling us that next year when they get the new billing software up and running, you will be able to go paperless with them.....so Clinton makes it to the 21st century, at least in that regard.....we are going to get the meters with radios in them too, so they just have to drive down the street and computers tally your utility usage......so there won't be all those dogs barking at the meter reader.....yesterday was Lammas, loaf-mass, the pagan celebration of first wheat harvest, the day John Barleycorn must die, aka the Green Man.....and today is the 2nd.....three years ago I got Back Down Home on the 2nd, and on the 4th I got the permit from the City to occupy my dwelling.....so I'm in the middle of three festival days.....why not? David and them are up in the High Sierra by now I think.....and Cindy says that they had to take Uncle Ed in an ambulance to the hospital this morning, and the sisters are gathering.....he's close to 90.....and the debt-ceiling fiasco ends?

must'a rained after I fell asleep

I was out on the front porch from maybe 10:30 to 11 last night waiting for the thunderstorm over towards Ora to blow on down here, but it didn't while I was still out there....lots of wind, but no rain while I was awake, but things were wet this morning.....and it's not too bad early on here, overcast and some wind when I was doing my walking.....so the record-breaking July heat is over, but the August heat is going to be pretty much the same they say......I might make a patty melt for lunch, I need to use up hamburger meat.....I'm reading a science fiction book with variable light speed theory in it, and that concept makes my head hurt.....you can get some things explained that way, but you have to have a constant that isn't constant.....well, change does happen.....