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lazy day
I saw post recommending a post a day through October to gear up for write a novel in November month. I am not committing but its only like 1,6137 or something words per day to get your 50 K for a decent sized novel. I routinely write posts that long so it seems doable. I think of it most years and reject it for this or that. Probably always be to busy. Certainly ain’t getting it done today. I had ambitions of doing some stuff but just didn’t feel it today. Up late with the rain delay and dozed off in the chair. Had to look up the results on tigers.com.
Slept late and just a little out of sorts. Drank coffee and read the newspaper and decided to just take it easy. Did get a couple loads of laundry done with the last one still on the line. Maybe take it in the morning. There has been an unending string of perfect days. Sunny around 80. Could use some rain though, I haven’t felt like watering. There’s consequences to a lack of ambition but I will spare you the litany of the undone projects.
I did cook a couple nice meals. Made scrambled eggs with an italian sausage, a pimento pepper, green onion, a few baby portebellos and some olive cheese. Served em up with some grits and toast. For supper I felt I had to use the egg plant and knowing John is not a fan i tried to do it super jazzy. I brined the egg plant in salt water for several hours and rinsed good and made a packet with sweet onion, fresh basil and tarragon from the garden, olive oil and black walnuts and little black tomatoes. It was pretty yummy but still egg plant. (should’ve done the turnips).
To accompany that I did organic t-bones with a dry rub of some medium roast guatemelan done to an espresso grind and fresh ground black pepper. I used mesquite chips for the smoke and had a medium fire smoking nicely. While doing the outside stuff I fired a smallish black bell pepper, a big green onion, and some portabellos and garlic in butter to serve on the steaks. Broke out some dill pickle slices which were pretty good. It wasn’t too shabby.
Other then reading some Thor comics and farting around that was my day. I’m about through a box of mostly Marvels from the late 70s. Thor was looking good in that era, steeped in the myth in the beginning of a post-DonaldBlake. Pure Thor, even in his “secret identity”. Fun book, riding his Goat Cart, Beta Rey Bill, you’d have to be a fan…. Nothing wrong with taking one to rest but hope I can get on some stuff this week. But its late faithful reader and time to wind down and rest, perhaps another Thor.
not even for baseball
There’s been a couple rain delays in the 5th inning close to 2 hours worth so Verlander’s done. We got back a couple but are still down one and the kid is pitching. It has been very nostalgic watching the playoffs, well really the whole season. We watched the first 2 innings of opening day and couldn’t get a sattelite for games 2 & 3 and dead before game 4. A 1-2-3 inning.
Watching baseball has helped me feel connected to Dad. Sitting in his chair saying what he would say, believing what he would believe. Avilla is one for forteen, “alright, he’s due”. Doesn’t deliver but we’re only one behind and the kid is pitching.
We saw him pitch in KC last year. He was great, hard throwing and athletic which Dad liked in a player. He would be excited about last year’s rookies doing so well and the new guys. He would have loved to see the Yankees go down in flame and would have a rightful fear of Texas. He would have drank some rum and been pleased as hell when the game came back on. He’d no doubt be hootin’ and hollerin’.
I can’t help but think that the last 2 or 3 cartons of cigarettes cost him the summer. Seeing the Tigers be the Central Division champs, beat the Yankees and go deep in the play offs, winning a World Series maybe. And that makes me sad.
Sometimes though I think how a couple weeks before Dad took ill I had realized he couldn’t make his bed or do his laundry and I was going to have to suck it up and raise my game and do more, but Dad never would have wanted to be a bother. not even for baseball.
no title
Watching the American League Championship game 1 and its no score in the 2nd Verlander is on the mound. At least it was, Rangers take a 1 run lead. As always baseball is pretty slow and gives me a chance to update my movements. Its been a pretty good day got up and drank a light/medium roast Guatemalan. Pretty yummy. Harry came by and I made another pot.
We went to the market and had breakfast burritos and listened to some accordion music. The guy had some kids out doing kids songs it was fun. It was a nice market and picked up a variety of peppers, some white sweet potatoes (i’d never had those), some organic sirloins, baby bok choy, turnips, some black maters and white onions both on the small side and a few other things. We decided not to brave downtown to go to Artrageous because of Homecoming.
We hiked instead and went out to Finger Lakes where there was a new trail to an alleged waterfall. We hiked out and enjoyed some Fall color. It seems a couple weeks pre-peak but it got me thinking that pre-peak might be the best color because there aren’t the bare spots you get when most leaves are peaking. Looks like the cotton woods are peaking first and it was pretty. We hiked on a mountain bike trail and it seemed like they packed as much trail in the space as they could so it seemed circuitous for hiking. There was a nice patch of tiny blue asters and it was a pretty enough trail. The waterfall was a bust though, dry as a bone. Must have been a while ago when the reporter did the trail.
Harry dropped me off and I took John’s offer for a haircut (short and looks good) and I got on some yard stuff. Turned the compost, maybe a couple weeks out from getting some. Might make some tea with it though. Dug up by the roses and cleaned out those beds and planted some crocuses. I got this giant variety, though I’m sure they’re still pretty small.
After that it was time to cook. John had gotten some cube steaks so I marinated them in fresh squeezed lime juice, diced garlic, & turmeric. I made my fire with cowboy charcoal and added some red bud pieces when i spilled the coals out of the chimney. I made a packet out of the white sweet potatoes that i peeled and diced with raisins, local honey, black walnuts from Michigan, and some fresh grated ginger with some extra pads of butter because Mrs. Selierman said the taters where dryer then the regular kind.
I also did up the turnip greens with a couple baby bok choy, green onions, white onions, a red poblano pepper, my own garlic. Fried up the hard stuff in bacon grease, then the garlic, then the greens which i then added malt vinegar, sesame oil & bitters and put a lid on it. Served with cottage cheese and hot bread & butter pickles. Pretty yummy.
Now if my tigers can come back it will have been a pretty good day.
still watchless
I’m up early, heard John get up with his dogs and Fido had to pee, if I would have realized it was 4:00 i might have tried continuing to sleep. I’ve gotta get a watch or a clock in my bedroom. Mostly I use the highway traffic to tell the time. First wave of “rush hour” means its time to get rolling. Its been a pretty good week. With the long weekend, short weeks go by quick. Tuesday I felt pressed by messages I couldn’t respond to, paperwork I couldn’t write, training I need to get going on. Wednesday I got some no shows and moved on the first two.
The training thing I think i am going to have to go in on a weekend and dispense with. I need a little space to think, read, and put together the final touches on my certification application to be at long last a [drum roll please] Certified Co-Occurring Disorders Professional – Diplomate as well as my re-certification for my [no drum roll required] Registered Associate Substance Abuse Counselor II.
Wednesdays are my late day so I have a rare weekday morning to do something besides work. I went downtown and checked on Tre and myself”s application for the Oddfellows. We were accepted and are moving on to the next phase this month or next. Tre is visiting an Ashram in Colorado so is inaccessible to nail down plans. I am most looking forward to some cross-generational socialization. I haven’t had much old dude rambling on as i’ve been used to since Dad died.
I also stopped by the Occupy Como site at “Freedom Square”. Met an earnest young man named Tripp who told me about the 1%, very cute really. [i apologize for the bold, i am up early writing in the dark and hit some wrong keys and its easier to live with then figure out how to turn off. i will just write about stuff that needs extra emphasis. while i am on a break from my mainstream of thought anyway i will mention the light/medium roast Yemeni/Guatemalan blend I am drinking this morning is quite frankly excellent.] The Como Occupation has been going on for better then a week with someone always there and sometimes a little crowd. I asked if there was any way i could help out and we settled on me picking up Tripp some loose tobacco.
Whenever I deal with youth activists I am always informed by my interactions with my old buddy Ivan. In my youth activist days Ivan was a Geometry professor [bubble specialist] who moved from Berkeley to toledo and found our scruffy activist ways the closest thing to home. He used to insist on buying the pitchers when we went out after meetings because we were poor students and he had a living wage. I try to do the same.
When i came back Tripp was engaged in a lively discussion with another Occupier about the Truth about 911. Yawn. I picked up a sign “You Are Awesome” and waved it for a while and jumped in when the conversation moved on to Blackwater and agreed to stop back by this weekend when I had to go to work. I hope to stop in this evening when i am downtown to check out a little of the Artrageous. Someone I know is having a showing i said i would try to stop by at.
While downtown I went into Coolstuff to see about that watch situation. If i am going to try to squeeze a little Walstreet protesting in i’ll need to be better organized. They had backward clocks which i considered for my timeless bedroom but can’t see it in the dark anyway. I looked at alarm clocks but no wind up ones. I only need an alarm a few times a year. Seems silly to draw juice the other 360 + days. No backwards watches and only a tiny stretchy watch that would not fit my giant wrist. I’ll keep looking. Maybe at Itchys.
The other big event has been Tiger baseball. Enjoyed mightily seeing my Tiges fell the mighty Yankees. Sportsmanship and management overcame money once again. Fister came through and I like how Leland had the confidence in him to take Verlander off the potential roster so he’s fresh for game 1 vs Texas. I hear Texas’s whole roster costs less then one of the highest paid Yankees. Yankees were warming up the bullpen in the first inning after 2 quick solo home runs and through everything but the kitchen sink on the mound including CC Sabathia’s first relief work in the majors. But they still lost. Hah.
Now i’m going to drink a little more coffee then take Fido out for a morning walk. Got back in the garden finally and planted my mum in a gap in the strawberries the hot dry spell created. Might be a mistake but I figure they come on slow and the strawberries will have done their thing before the mum gets big. I got a big bag of crocuses at Costco in toledo and am going to weave them into the herbs i think. Maybe up by the roses as I try to even out the rough patches in my mow route.
to many competing demands. Tre gave me some garlic which i want to get in the ground and john built me a cold frame i would like to get some lettuce and spinach and the like going in. need to get compost. oh well, one thing at a time. trying to be patient.
two up, two down
Watching baseball, Yankees/Tigers play off baseball. The kid is pitching and he bunched out Granderson and Verlander was just grinning. Didn’t need any patience to enjoy that half inning. I feel like tonight is our best chance, I’m worried about our five spot, not confident with Fister coming up again or the new guy. Maybe an ensemble. The bullpen is tough and deep. But i would be content if tonight was the night and the next game is a rested Verlander against the next team.
Well, back for a day of work after a long weekend road trip. Busy day and still a lot i didn’t get to. Cooked dinner, spanish rice and peas and carrots which i did with fresh grated ginger and black walnuts, salt and pepper of course. I was a little headachey i think from the 11 hour drive home from the homeland and then dozing in front of last nights game, but rocked through my day nonetheless. So it feels good even as Granderson makes a beautiful catch and we don’t get a couple of runs.
Went for a somewhat whirlwind trip to the homeland. Took a half day on Friday for working the Saturday after my vacation. John is teasing my live blogging baseball. “the reader will have known who won but i don’t”, beautiful. John was a fun traveling companion especially doing all the driving. Smokey sat up front, she likes to scan for cows so she can bark like crazy at them. She has a pretty good eye for them, and can smell them from a distance depending on the wind. She was good company up in the big front seat of dad’s truck. Hard to think about having to get rid of it.
We stayed with Brenda and its nice to see her doing well. She hopes to make it down for her CNA test in Missouri around Thanksgiving. I am going to get an heirloom turkey. I’ve only had bobtail white, you too i bet. Not that they’re not a nice turkey, I’d just like to try something else. Didn’t order one quick enough last year. More salt in the brine Brenda requests, last year must have been a little tough. “Probably just from it being able to walk around” was John’s take.
We got in late late Friday so I was a little out of sorts but John brought dark roast Panamanian. Yemeni today at a light middle it loses something when it gets darker but it needs something. John has been a great roaster and taught me some tricks and is leaving his roaster so i don’t have to figure one out.
Brenda and I went to the market and I was really impressed. It had grown a lot and the pavilion was full. There was a nice selection with some good buys and some stuff I can’t get at home (black walnuts for example). The pineapple bread was crumbly and expensive but the cider was cheap and excellent. Got some beautiful red peppers 2 for a dollar and some this and that’s. Brenda picked up some ground chuck from Dannies and I made burgers for supper with fresh tomato. Forgot to bring pickles but Brenda had some store bought ones.
Called Chad Osborne and he happened to have plans with Chad Olson and was meeting another friend at the Red Coat in Royal Oak. It was fun and enjoyed a white ale and some good company. I had a cuban which was good but not exceptional. We went out for another round after and it was nice to reconnect and Chad and I had a good catch up conversation as Chad napped on the drive home.
Sunday Brenda made us breakfast scrambled eggs (local free range) with cheddar and feta, fried potatoes with the red pepper, and biscuits and hamburger gravy. Good stuff.
Earlier Saturday we went to a nuclear power protest at the statue of Custer that stands downtown in Monroe. There were better then 30 people and a lot of people driving by honked. One person rolled down a window and yelled “go fuck yourselves” which hasn’t happened to me in a long time. No death threats though. Some people like having a job so i’m not bitter.
There was a singer songwriter and some people made speeches and a lot of plants were representing. Detroit and Toledo folks too, Mike Keegan I think was the only one from Monroe. It was part of an international day of action being Oct 1 and all. Mike Leonardi mentioned in his speech that the Trapp Brothers drove up from Missouri for the event and we had organized protests and been pushed over on tripods (not true john was doing support for the tripod guy that got pushed over and was maced and randomly snatched up before he could handcuff himself to the police car had been his plan), jumped off the Martin Luther King bridge, and chained myself to that very statue of Custer (actually it was just handcuffs). Saw Jesse Deerinwater which was a bonus as last we’d heard she was in KY.
The protest then caravaned down to Promenade Park on the Toledo waterfront. There were bands (someone out of flint the insurgents or something, very political but fun and sincere and not too cheesy) and speakers (we left during Kucinich, hohum a politician). It was mostly nice seeing people although i liked the occupy toledo kids. especially the one who can’t keep her hands off dogs.
After that we went to Costco so John could get the dog food he likes. They don’t have one in Columbia. I picked up a few things and it wasn’t as overwhelming as that type of thing can be. I owe it more to sleep deprivation and protesting all day outside more then the horror of the big box. Toledo waterfront is beautiful, there are some cool statues and the new bridge is a sight.
Couldn’t believe I jumped into the Maumee off the old Cherry Street Bridge. The water was cold, I didn’t even check the temperature just asked someone who’d done it how late in the year he went. We got picked up by a sail boat to avoid unpleasant conversations with the police and fire department and such about the wisdom of such things. The boat could only get so close being a sail boat coming up on a bridge (hadn’t thought that through) and we had to swim quite a ways out to get picked up. Joe got cold and was having trouble swimming. I held him up and swam him the rest of the way in. John Schwartz was crewing and I can’t remember who else pulled Joe in and when it came time for me to climb out I realized I couldn’t move my legs. Only been cold like that a couple of other times but don’t want to get started on knocking your core temp out of whack. I’ve got way to many stories and though dreary it wasn’t too cold.
We had a big family dinner on Sunday at Bob and Pam’s. Pam made pot roast which was excellent and Betty made this killer squash/yam casserole with ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and a little clove I think. Brenda made deviled eggs (with the free range, she gets little ones for a dollar a dozen) which sparked a conversation what mom put in them (mayonnaise, yellow mustard, salt and pepper was the majority opinion with a little paprika on top). I make mine more daring but they were good. Bobby and Julie brought an apple pie from a local orchard that was killer (it was the walnuts). Sparked a conversation about Smuckers and I’ll try to get Brenda to bring down a blueberry one for Thanksgiving. You should come, looks like there is going to be a feast (i got extra guests last year by posting the menu).
The star of the show was Mr. Nolan Lagrange all of six weeks old. He holds his head up which is about all you can reasonably expect. Struck me as a serious sort, thoughtful, to the extent all of those little neuronal firings are organized into such a thing. Had good conversation with Bobby about consciousness development and I am glad he and Julie are watching.
Its nice to see everyone doing well. Shane came by and had pictures from his hunt in South Africa. i want to see his stuff when its stuffed. All the meat goes to market. They give discounts on shooting stuff they need for the market. Charge by the critter. He forgoed a giraffe for example for some big thing with horns.
The drive home was a little trying. Hadn’t recovered from the drive up. Enjoyed some WJR. They got some welfare reform so they had the Great Lakes State social services director talking about throwing 11,000 families off welfare for their own good because people get dependent on a check don’t bother learning how to read. lazy shit heels. The next guest was a Yupper congressman talking about oil companies already paying their fair share. All this without irony.
Also caught an hour of Terri Gross interviewing a big wig in the New Apostolic Reformation. A lot of stuff on spiritual warfare and getting control of the guvmint. Scary stuff, very middle ages.
But finally made it home. Bases loaded in the 8th Yankees at bat ahead four to one. Al Albuquerque to the rescue. Leland plays the match up. Nite faithful reader, go Tiges!
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