We had a good time!

 After the fun with our uninvited porch guest we were actually looking forward to some invited guests:  our son and his wife visiting from San Diego.  We often go down there about this time of year to celebrate their birthdays; they are about 2 weeks apart.  Unfortunately, right now you can only go quarantine yourself for 2 weeks if you are on a non-business trip to California.  That just wasn't going to work!  We might stay with them but they live in a two-story house and there was no way our dog could manage the stairs.  So, even though they are busy, they managed to get a few days off to spend with the old folks in Pahrump.

We had a good time.  We ate out quite a bit and they managed to go check out our local casinos.  She likes to gamble so it worked out well.  We could take them to various local sights but actually this area (and the drive to get here) are quite well known to them.  So it was lots of talk and eating.  What's wrong with that?  Our son is an IT guy so he was able to help my wife with her computer which has been slowing down.  That was a good deal!

They left on Sunday then on Tuesday our daughter came to visit.  Well, actually she was in Las Vegas but we managed to get over and have lunch with her.  We just saw her when we visited her in Texas so it hasn't been a long time but it was fun.  She had lived in Las Vegas for something over 12 years so Texas is quite a change.  Of course, Texas in the pandemic is nothing like it will be in normal times so we are hoping she will get to start enjoying her new town and state.  It is funny.  When she lived in Las Vegas we would just go into town to buy a few things and we never thought to stop and see her.  Now that she has moved my wife cannot go into the city without remarking on how strange it feels now that she isn't around any more.   

We got our second COVID vaccination yesterday (the Moderna variety).  Our local Walgreen's was doing us old folks so my wife got us in line.  It was quite easy and painless (in spite of the really long needle they used).  We both have a sore arm today but it really isn't bad so we are just perking along.  We won't be abandoning our masks any time soon but we want everything on our side that we can get!  We've noticed that some restaurant staff have a pretty poor track record with using masks correctly but we have continued to patronize the restaurants.  In our town there isn't much work except hospitality so those folks need customers if they aren't going to be on the poverty rolls.

I came across something amazing the other day.  A nurse in England had been caring for her husband who had Parkinson's Disease.  She noticed he had an odd odor on his body but then she noticed the same odor on another person with the disease.  She got in touch with some university people and talked with them about the possibility of a 'sniff test' for the disease.  And now it looks like that may happen!  Isn't that amazing!  A woman with a really good sense of smell may have discovered something that will help millions of people with a horrible disease.  Now that is good news indeed!  

My mother had dementia for nine years before she died in 2005.  It got to the point where she was unable to move around on her own and was wheelchair bound.  At that point a new doctor was assigned to her and he put her on medication for Parkinson's.  I never learned his reasoning however suddenly she was able to walk again!  It didn't last long, only 5 or 6 months, but it certainly made an improvement in the quality of her life.  It makes me wonder if there might be some similar hint for people with dementia.  Wouldn't that be wonderful.  

Gotta go.  It's my day to cook and I'm doing Shepard's Pie.  It's easy but we both like it so why not?  Have a good one and keep washing those hands and wearing those masks!

Back home again

 I've been AWOL for a bit but this time I've got a really good excuse.  My wife has an aunt who is ill with dementia and we wanted to visit her before it was too late.  The only thing is that the aunt lives in Florida; so we headed off to Florida.  We wanted to take the trailer for a trip so, of course, here are a few thousand more tow miles.  It was a very weird trip.  

Let's start with the first night when we hooked up the water and the toilet started leaking.  Hmmm.  Maybe we should have taken it as a hint and changed the trip to a plane trip!  The second day we didn't really have a problem except that the left front stabilizer didn't work quite right.  I lubed it but it is still only working with lots of effort.  Our daughter moved to a suburb of Austin, TX a few months ago.  Since we were making the trip on I-10, it was pretty much a no-brainer that we would stop and see her on both sides of the trip.  In Texas we were seeing dead deer on the side of the road at least 3 or 4 times a day.  Sometimes there would be two together.  We got off I-10 at Junction, TX so we could check out some of the famous Texas Hill Country.  Unfortunately, it was about that time that we got an error message on the dash:  Engine output reduced.  We were running in the hills and going uphill we were lucky to be doing 45 mph.  There didn't seem to be anything wrong; the engine temp was just fine; the transmission temp was fine; we just didn't know what was going on.  I was thinking that there must be a computer chip in the system that had died.  However, we made it to our daughter's.  We had a couple days with her and the truck ran just perfectly!  So we headed on East.  That didn't work long!  A 100 miles or so away and the problem started all over again.  We got the same Engine output reduced message and we also got one that said there was a problem with the trailer lights.  Grrr!  This time we stopped in East Houston, it was Sunday so I knew I'd be headed for the Ford dealer the next morning.  

I got to the Ford dealer by 07:15.  I went in to talk to a service advisor.  The guy came out and plugged his code reader in:  in a couple minutes he said "You need antifreeze".  Huh?  So I went over to the parts counter and bought 2 gallons of Ford's wonderful antifreeze.  (I say wonderful because it was $20 a gallon.)  I went out to the truck and the service advisor had already opened the cap where you add fluid to the cooling system.  I poured a gallon of antifreeze in and he said it should be mixed with distilled water!  So he went and got a gallon of Ford distilled water!  (For free!)  And he gave it to me to pour in with the antifreeze!  OMG, the cooling system was 2 gallons low?  How the devil does that happen and the truck doesn't overheat or anything?  However, that was the problem because it's been fine ever since!  

So we wandered off the next morning.  We got the trailer light message again but since we do a light check when we hook up the trailer we knew it was in error.  (That night I sprayed the trailer light plug with silicone spray.)  But the big news was that the truck ran like a top all day - no Engine output problem.  So we finally made it to Florida.  

We pulled up and my wife's uncle was standing there in the driveway waiting for us!  He has room on his property to park the rv so we stayed with him.  He is a great host and we had a great time visiting with him.  We visited my wife's aunt at the nursing home; he is going over there every other day but cannot visit her because of covid-19 so he goes to the window of her room and talks on the phone with her.  Unfortunately, her phone went missing so all we could do was wave and yell 'Hello'.  As it turns out, our visit was too late.  She showed no response at all to any of us.  It has to be just killing him to see the woman he loves turn into a non-person.  

However, we had visited her so now it was time to head back home.  This time I noticed that in Alabama and Mississippi there were parts of cars on the side of the road.  One time I saw the front bumper of a car with the license plate still attached on the side of the road.  We drove rather steadily and got back to the Austin area without really any trouble.  Again we had a good visit and headed out west.  We were nearing Deming, NM when the wind started hitting us hard.  It turns out there was a storm earlier today that was still with us with gusts up to 50 mph!  Let's just say we were really happy to make it to our rv park!

Our next night was to be in Phoenix.  As we got to Phoenix the rain started and, of course, the traffic became awful.  The rain was nasty and the fact that 4 cars were involved in a fender-bender made traffic just creep along.  We finally got past all that and were almost up to speed when something else happened.  I didn't see it along the side of the road but it must have been there because we had another long slowdown.  Finally we found our rv park about an hour later than we'd been expecting.  It is a huge park with mostly park model homes but they had 15 or 20 spaces for travelers.  It was ok but had no internet connection at all.  Well, we won't be stopping there again!  However the weather forecasts were scary.  They were talking about snow and a lot of it where we were headed.

In the morning the news was full of I-40 accidents and views of other roads that were simply covered with snow.  I started talking about going on I-10 to California then working our way north to Nevada.  In the end, that's pretty much what we did.  It wasn't the route I'd have chosen but it worked out just fine.  We got home Tuesday afternoon having not seen a single snow flake.  There was snow on the ground and it made the mountains even more beautiful than usual but no flying snow flakes.  Now that was just luck but I'll take it.  Now we have to adjust to living in a house again.  It's amazing but in less than a month I've forgotten where to find things.  I actually have to think about where the cutting board lives or where the coffee grinder stays.  Oh well, if that's the worse thing in my life it's ok.

Happily we have a new President who seems to be reversing many of the orders that Mr. Trump had made over the last four years.  I'm unsure about the legality of all these Presidential Orders but since they have been allowed to function as laws I guess it is just my ignorance.  I would just as soon that there was no more impeachment proceedings against Mr. Trump but that is just part of my desire for him to disappear from the headlines.  Let him just be the lying golfer that he's always been and not the headline grabbing right wing idiot that we've had for the last four years.  

Well, that's the story of the last month in my life.  I hope everyone had a great January.  We'll be working on February soon enough.  Take care & keep washing those hands.

Life in the 'I don't know' lane

Things are still poking along here in Nevada but darned if I know which direction they are going!  The number of people getting ill from covid-19 is increasing but fairly slowly. Our governor has decided we should be wearing masks when we are in public areas which I suppose is a good thing. At any rate the proportion of people wearing masks has definitely gone up. On the other hand some restaurants are having trouble keeping those tables 6 feet apart. Not being able to serve people because the place can't be over 50% full has to hurt! Especially when you've been almost out of business for a couple months. Still, my wife and I both thought this thing was going to be over long ago.

We are going out to lunch much as we did last year; that is 4 or 5 times a week. We are still going to the same 6 or 8 places; most of them have their entire menu back available. During the height of the closures reduced menus were the order of the day. There are occasional times when one needs to wait for a table but mostly the number of customers has declined somewhat.

Our daughter has moved to Austin, TX and is renovating a house. It is taking MUCH longer than anyone could have expected; even getting cabinets delivered was delayed. We had planned to visit her and help her get set up; now they are talking about closing the Texas border. Who knows if we'll get to visit anytime in the near future much less visit to help her arrange things in her new home. That's not going to make any of us happy.

I found a recipe for 'Keto Meatloaf'. It calls for the use of ground dried pork rinds (chicharrones) rather than bread crumbs but two other things popped out. Ordinarily you might use ground pork in meatloaf; this recipe uses Mexican Chorizo (the moist, loose kind not the smoked sausage Spanish kind) and then is wrapped in bacon and covered in tomato sauce! It was really quite good if you like spicy things. (The chorizo has spice and you are to add a chipotle pepper as well.) Here is what it looked like before cooking.

The recipe specifies that sort of pan; not a loaf pan.  Of course there was quite a lot of fat that collected in the bottom but everything got done; even the bacon. 

Of course we've had a few nice sunsets.  This one was especially nice.

Well, that's all the news from this space in Nevada.  Thanks for stopping by; keep washing those hands!

More travel!

Ok, so we've been gone again.  This time we do have a really good reason though!

My wife's sister-in-law passed away from pancreatic cancer recently and her husband (my wife's brother) was holding a Celebration of Life to memorilize his wife.  It was held in a small town near their home on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state.  I've never attended such a celebration but this was quite interesting.  She was a poet so various people read their favorites from her poems.  It was quite a fitting sendoff.  Of course having someone close to you die of such a terrible disease is really quite awful.  In her case it was especially nasty because originally there was hope that it was operable and in the end it was not.

The ceremony did lead me to think about what I am doing with my life and I believe I'll be making some changes to give more back to our community.  I was thinking that if it were a celebration of my life it would only be family members attending.  I need to do more.

Because of the sadness of the occasion I didn't bother trying to take photos but there were sure some opportunities!  That part of the world is both beautiful and depressing at the same time.  Locally it is called Washington's Banana Belt.  Well, you could have fooled us!  Rain, mist, cloud and just plain wet was the order of the day.  You fly into Seattle then drive about 3 hours so that pretty much takes a day.  Coming home is another day.  So on a 5 day trip you spend 3 with the people you've come to see.  Yeah, I guess you could compress it if you wanted but I'm over 70 and don't want 12 or 14 hour days. 

Now it seems as though things will settle down for a bit.  We have no travels planned so anything that comes along will be a surprise.  Right now the things on my calendar are getting lab work done and my annual visit with the doctor.  Talk about hot stuff!

So this is what Washington looks like in good weather.  This was taken July of last year on the Washington shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  Thanks for stopping by!

Weeds!

That's my curse word of the day:  weeds!  But I guess that's what happens when you take a moment and turn away. 

Actually we took more than a moment, we took two weeks.  We had a birthday celebration in Washington state so decided to make a trip of it.  We went over to the California coast by driving up highway 95 to Tonopah then on to Reno.  Then we hopped onto I-80 for a few miles and got off right after the Donner Pass onto California 20 and took it all the way to the coast.  That puts you in a little town called Fort Bragg.  Our timing was pretty good:  perfect weather going over the Pass then the next day chains were required!  Then we drove up highway 1 for a few miles until it ended on 101.  Let me tell you, that section of highway 1 is twisty and then some.  From the ocean to 101 was 22 miles and it took over 40 minutes to drive.  Then we just headed north.  It was a very pretty drive and we even managed to check out a few redwood groves.  There was a fair amount of rain and even a little sleet but nothing very serious.

The town we were headed for is Sequim, WA which is out on the Olympic Penninsula.  Of course, being Western Washington, it rained a bit but we lived in the area for something more than 15 years so there was no danger of us melting.  We got to see everyone, sing Happy Birthday and go out to eat a few times then it was time to head back home.  This time we were on familiar roads; south on I-5 then cutting across California back to Reno and down home.  Again the weather was just fine.  In places in California there were two or three feet of snow on the sides of the road but the roads themselves were clean and dry.

My wife is the navigator on our travels.  She uses Garmin software on her pc then enters waypoints in either the car's GPS or the Garmin we use for our truck.  Or sometimes, she uses both.

It's not every guy that has a woman and two machines telling him where to go!  Lucky me!  (Actually we took the Garmin because it has addresses for everyone in it's memory and the car doesn't.)  That photo was taken in the parking lot of our hotel in Sparks, NV.  They have a nice little lake there and we managed to wander around most of it after a day in the car.  I also got to see something I've never seen before in the park area by the lake.

I have absolutely no idea what was intended by whomever placed that sign there.  There wasn't anything really going on there; just a sign on a light post.  I guess it's an especially free area.  

So now I'm home and spraying weed killer like a madman.  We had rain when we were gone so the weeds are growing like crazy.  It will take a few days but I'll get them; every one of them.  On that note, I'll buzz off.  Thanks for stopping by!

Not much to say!

I'm kind of out of news.  The closet has been such a big deal for the last week or so that I haven't done much else.  We planned this to be a quiet day because all the weather forecasters in Vegas said there was a big system coming down from the north that would bring us at least rain but most likely snow.  Well, that didn't work out!  It's about 55F (more than 12C) which certainly isn't anything to complain about.  Not here in December for heaven's sake.  It's been mostly sunny as well.  The wind is blowing but you can't have everything.

We have this huge pile of broken down boxes in our living room.  There are some boxes full of 'protective packaging' but lots of empty boxes.  Here is what the protective stuff looks like: 

On the left is a piece of maybe inch and a half (4 cm) cardboard that is cut into the right size to protect stuff in the boxes.  It's just ordinary but thick cardboard.  On the right is some cardboard that has been sliced up so it still has some strength but is really flexible.  I have serious cubic feet of this stuff!  It ranges from about a foot long (.3m) to 6 feet (almost 2m).  Then there is a pile of flattened cardboard boxes.  I'm pretty sure I've got a pickup truck load.  I'm thinking I'll load it into the truck then wait until next week and take it to the recycler.  Life in the fast lane.

I saw two stray dogs in the neighborhood; one would come to me, the other wasn't really willing.  It's the first time I've touched a dog since our dog died last January.  It was even a black dog much like ours.  It was tough; I wanted to grab them and take them around the neighborhood asking if anyone was missing a dog but don't really have the facilities for that - not to mention the one with a collar didn't want to come talk.  Called Animal Control; I guess that's about all one can do. 

My wife is wrapped around her own axle about Christmas.  It's looking like we'll have both Number One Daughter and Number One Son (and Number One Daughter-In-Law) for the holiday.  That would be great but it brings up questions.  Presents:  should we or should we not?  We are talking 40 year old 'children'; they can buy anything they want.  I'm hoping the don't still believe in Santa!  Food:  everyone has an opinion and everyone but me is a picky eater.  Can't have this; can't have that:  I probably draw the line at bugs but who knows?  Length of stay:  we have one very jealous Number One Daughter.  Can't have anyone else staying longer than she does.  Let me tell you, I'm in search of a place to hide next Christmas; somewhere they won't want to follow us to!  I'm reading Kevin & Ruth's blog and they are making Africa sound really great.  Who knows.

Gotta go.  Time for some feet up time in the recliner before dinner.  Have a good one!

AWOL again!

Yep, I keep trying but keep going away for weeks at a time.  This time I have at least a bit of an excuse:  we flew to Florida for a week.  We had a family birthday to celebrate, relatives to meet and even old friends to visit.  Actually it was a great time. 

We started things off by taking the cat to the vet to be boarded.  He's an old guy and we thought he would be more comfortable where he knew everyone.  Well, that didn't go so well!  We walked in with him and he started hissing and spitting and carrying on like someone elses cat.  He's been there probably 10 times and he's never been  upset at all.  This was really weird but we really had no choice but to leave him.  We were a bit worried but figured he'd calm down and be more like his usual self. 

The flight out was non-stop on Southwest.  We were warned that they would only give us a couple peanuts for a snack so we brought along our own cheese & salami plate.  That worked really well!  We spent our first night in a Quality Inn in Tarpon Springs, FL.  As walk-in's we got a really good rate; it wasn't fancy but it was clean and quiet.  It was also at about 30% occupancy.  We had dinner at a restaurant called "Rusty Bellies" in Tarpon Springs.  It is kind of half bar and half restaurant.  We ate inside and it was nice; outside they had really loud music.  I couldn't have been out there!  In the morning we had the motel's free, included breakfast.  I've got to say, the breakfast alone would have cost $10 anywhere.  What's not to like?

The next day we went up to Crystal Springs, FL.  Our family had a house full of other family so we looked for another motel:  found another Quality Inn.  This one was a bit older but it was still clean and comfortable; after all, we were planning on spending all our time with family.  So  we signed up for two nights and went to visit, talk and eat.  What else do you do with family?  That night (Thursday) we all (11 of us) went to dinner at a favorite restaurant then my wife and I bailed out to our motel room.  I went out to get some ice and coming back I was kind of light-headed.  I was thinking maybe I'd drunk too much but then I got to thinking... I've felt this before.  It is called vertigo and I had it a couple of years ago.  That time it surprised me and it meant a trip to the emergency room.  This time I remembered the medication that had been prescribed and in the morning my wife was going to call our doctor here in Nevada and have her call a prescription to a local drugstore. 

Because of the time difference, it would be at least 11:00 a.m. before she could contact the doctor.  She did find time to call the vet; turns out the cat has quieted down and, while not friendly, isn't too crazed either.  Then she called the local CVS.  She mentioned the medication, meclizine, only to find that it is now available over the counter for motion sickness!  What the heck.  So she bought some and by 14:00 I was able to get up and get around.  What a deal!  As it turns out, I needed to take it morning and night for the rest of our trip.  Friday night all 11 of us went to another place, a Chinese restaurant.  Everyone thought it was the best Chinese food; I guess it was ok but I don't really remember what I had! 

Some of the family had to leave early Saturday morning so we moved into the computer room/emergency extra bedroom for Saturday night.  It was really very nice of them to keep us but I was glad to have had the privacy of the motel room when I had been really ill.  Saturday was also the big party.  These folks know everyone in the neighborhood and they all showed up for the party - this is in addition to the family members.  Jeez!  What a crowd.  They are all pretty old though so there were no fights or late nights. We did prove that if you eat all afternoon, you won't need an evening meal! 

Sunday morning we headed back south towards Palm Harbor to visit our old neighborhood.  We had been fairly close to our neighbors and it was great to see them again.  We visited with them and some other neighbors until fairly late.  We had quite a bit of catching up to do.  Monday they had an appointment we we were on our own.  We had lunch in St. Petersburg at a place called "Red Mesa".  It is sort of updated Mexican but kind of pretentious too.  Then we spent the afternoon visiting the new Salvidore Dali Museum.  Now that was great.  It is all new and very nice.  The problems would be 1) the entry fee is $40 for two of us plus $5 for parking and 2) there is only one floor of paintings in the three story building.  It should be nice at those prices!  We tried taking our friends out to dinner that evening; went to a local place that was so totally awful that I'm not going to describe it.  Just don't go there!

Finally, Tuesday, we got to fly home.  This trip had a stop in Austin but the flight was just fine.  We got home in time to go collect the cat.  Turns out he was just fine.  He even forgave us for leaving him rather quickly.  So that was our big trip.  There will be more later this summer but for now I'm glad to be home. 

Thanks for checking in.  Have a good one.

Real excitement!

Yesterday we were just discussing where to go for lunch when my wife got a call from our daughter.  She was out of town on a business trip and her cat-sitter couldn’t get into her house to care for her cats.  In terms of emergencies, it was kind of low key but we have a key to her house so agreed to go in to Las Vegas and open the house for this gal. 

Off to the big city we went being really careful that we were in fact taking the darned key!  So we follow this pickup into the development and right to our daughter’s house.  Turns out she is having some concrete work done and this is the guy who does the work.  He said the power was out to all the exterior outlets.  But he did have the key to the lock to the back yard.  So we start looking for the breaker box.  Oddly, here they put the breaker box outside.  Hmmm.  And it was locked.  This isn’t looking good.

Turns out our daughter was smart enough to get two padlocks that are keyed alike so the back yard key also opens the breaker box.  Unfortunately none of the breakers were tripped.  Hmmm.  So now we are wandering all over the house looking for a tripped GFCI.  It took quite a while but finally, we found it!  Now we finally have power to the outside outlets, the garage door opener started working, all kinds of great stuff.  I didn’t realize how many GFCI’s were used in a modern house – 2 in the kitchen; one in each bath; and one in the garage.  (Huh, the garage?)  Who knows.  Anyway, the one in the garage was the problem.  What a trip!  Anyway we got an unexpected trip to the big city and got to meet some of our daughter’s neighbors.

Today we are just being lazy.  I’m catching up on blog reading and doing a few chores around the house.  I was in Home Depot getting a couple things and some woman, a complete stranger, says “When you get through with your wife’s ‘honey do’ list you can come work on mine.”  Huh?  What’s that all about?  Trust me, lady, I’m not that handy.  All I’m doing is putting up some shelves in the garage. 

That’s all the news that’s fit to print.  Have a good one!

Life in the slow lane!

The visiting family wandered off last Sunday so I'm finally catching up with the blogs I read.  It's really amazing how much time I can spend reading about other people’s lives.  You’d think I didn’t have one of my own; life that is.  As it is I’m driving myself nuts trying to figure out what to do with some of our mutual funds.  I know I want to move more into index funds; it’s just that there are so many to choose from!

I can see why some people prefer to have a professional manage their money.  It’s a lot like work.  Fortunately I enjoy it.  Yahoo Finance is my friend.  Our brokers, Fidelity and TD Ameritrade, each have research available as well so if Yahoo doesn’t have the information I want there are other sources I can use.  One of the things I like to check is what companies are owned by the fund.  For example, we own Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX).  One might think that they would hold stocks that might be out of favor with the intent of making lots on them when they recovered.  Well, you’d be wrong.  They own Apple, Google, Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola, Walt Disney – how much more mainstream can you be?  It gets really fun when you go into the ‘Basic Tech. Analysis’ section and compare the last years price chart of FCNTX vs SPY (an index fund for the S&P 500).  That is when you find that FCNTX sometimes tracks the S&P 500 really closely and sometimes, like now, it falls behind.  So now I’m paying extra for a managed fund that isn’t doing as well as an index.  Grrrrr!

When I’m not grinding my teeth over stuff like that I sometimes get out to work in our yard.  This is weed time in the desert so pulling the big ones and spraying the little ones is my lot these days.  At least it is good exercise.  It’s not very satisfying because they seem to spread faster then you can get rid of them.  There are a couple of guys in our yard that we like:  two cacti that we actually planted.  I’ve started watering them; you are supposed to let them be over the winter.  Here is a photo of the results; new growth.  I’ll try to get more photos after the growth becomes something more.

I guess that’s all the news that’s fit to print.  Thanks for reading.  Have a good one.

Holiday Weekend!

No, I haven't fallen on my head.  This is our new holiday weekend.  At least for this year!  What has happened is that Number One Son and his Significant Other (SO) have trouble getting time off on the holidays so we decided to make our own holiday.  Number One Daughter can pretty much schedule her time her way so she has no problem.  We are retired so no problem.  What we are hoping is that having a mid-December holiday will enable us to all be together for a couple days.  So far it seems to be working.  The only problem is to not become too blimp-like from eating too much three times in a month! I'm sure we can figure out something. 

This year though my wife was determined to do a Prime Rib.  (Prime is the highest quality rating that is commonly available.)  I won't say how much that damn roast cost but will tell you it was $19.99 a pound.  If you care you can figure out the price per kilo; personally I don't want to know!  I must say it was very good and remarkably easy.  We made a garlic/salt/pepper/thyme paste to put on the outside and let it sit in the fridge for a day to soak up the flavors.  Then tossed it in the oven for half an hour at 450F (230C) then reduced the heat to 350F (175C) until the internal temp. was 115F (46C).  It took about three hours.  When we tried the crust, it was AWFUL - totally salty but it also just fell off the roast.  Without the crust the roast was great.  The two end pieces were fairly well done but the interior was just medium rare; just like everyone likes it.  I had one of the ends and even it was nice and juicy and even the exterior was tasty.

Everyone who watches the various cooking shows has seen someone using a mandolin.  It is used to cut  uniform slices off potatoes, onions, etc.  I just had to buy a cheap one a couple weeks ago and yesterday we decided to use it for the first time to slice some potatoes for a dish.  I managed to slice a piece off my little finger on the second slice!  Grrr!  What a chump.  My wife did use it to slice the rest of the potatoes and you can believe she was careful.  I must say it did a great job though; uniform slices and the job didn't take more than about a minute a potato.  This is about the cheapest mandolin on the market & I can recommend one if you are careful.  Maybe it's not so great if you are a chump like me. 

Now we have three whole weeks until the next holiday.  Why don't we move Christmas to April or sometime?  I'm going to break the scale if this over-eating and over-drinking keeps up. 

Have a good one!

Happy Belated Mother's Day

I hope all you mothers had a good day.  Hearing from the kids is good regardless of their age.  We did well:  called the remaining mother, got a call from number 1 son and a visit from number 1 daughter.  What could be better?  Daughter brought lobster for herself and her mom; steak for me (shellfish allergy).  It worked out beautifully.  She also brought a DVD from Redbox.  It is the first Redbox we've ever gotten that was in just awful condition.  Someone must have been handling it with peanut butter on their fingers.  It took half a dozen cleanings before the thing would play.  Nasty!

On Saturday I indulged myself in doing something I've always wanted to do:  create pulled pork on the bbq.  I started about 08:30 making a rub and soaking wood chips.  I stole ideas from a couple people on the instructables.com website.  My main guide was this instructable.  By 09:00 I had the pork butt on the bbq.  I was having trouble getting smoke, perhaps the fire wasn't hot enough, but had a serendipitous moment.  We had a couple of uncooked sausages that we wanted for a late breakfast so I tossed them on the bbq directly above the charcoal.  The fat dripping off the sausages onto the charcoal got the smoke and fire going very nicely.  I tried keep the fire low and indirect and was successful for a while.  After an hour or so though I was unable to stay in the 225F - 275F range (107C - 135C); got up to 300F (149C) for a while.  It went quite well though; this is a photo from about 13:00 - 4 hours into the cook.  That hard layer on top is a fat layer that was hopefully dripping down into the meat as well as the drip pan.

Finally about 14:30 I started losing heat.  I did not start with as many charcoal briquets as suggested by my guru (didn't have any more!) but I did have some lump charcoal.  Lump usually burns faster and hotter than briquets which is the reason I didn't want to use it but when I put it on top of the already burning briquets, it just lay there.  It didn't even smoke.  I've no idea what happened there!  Anyway, I needed heat so I turned on the gas bbq and moved the meat over to it.  I figured it had gotten a big enough dose of smoke anyway.  Using the gas (Weber Genesis) with one burner on as low as it would go and the other two off, we were sitting right at 275F - perfect.  I had to shove the bbq back next to the house so the wind wouldn't blow out  the flame but it worked!  It was almost 17:00 when I wrapped the meat in foil and took it into the house.  We prepared a salad and some vegies while the meat rested - we are trying to learn to rest meat after cooking but it sure is hard after you've been working on it for eight or nine hours!  We finally got to eat; and I must say it's good.  The wood chips I used were mesquite, not what the guru suggested, and we did find the meat has a slightly odd taste.  But it was what I had and it is very good; just a little odd.  I was pretty shy about making the rub too strong and as a result it was quite mild.  Next time there will be more zoom to the rub.  For a first try though, I'm very happy.

This week we have medical tests for my self and my wife and a return visit with the vet for the dog.  We sure do spend on the medical front!  Last time we talked with the vet she noted that the dog as cataract on both eyes.  "There are several vets in the valley who will remove that for about $3000 an eye."  Jeez, give me a break! 

I've downloaded a utility called TreeSize Free (via a link from CNET).  It lets you know how much space is being used in various files on your computer.  It has always bothered me that I can't get that information from the operating system but maybe I'm weird.  This thing though went through my computer in a few minutes and told me all kinds of interesting info.  For example, all the photos I've been taking and scans I've been doing are taking up 9GB of space!  And I'm no where near done!  I'm going to back everything up though.  Losing all those photos would just be a killer!

I've got to go.  Hope you have a good one.  I'll try to post a bit more; once a week is just bad. 

Interesting Guy

Reading Ed's blog I read about another blogger (amazing huh?) named Fred Reed.  He is a writer who lives in Mexico and is putting his ideas about life into his blog.  I've dipped into his stuff here and there and find him quite interesting.  Not to say that I agree with his every word but he's got some interesting takes on life.  I just read one that kind of spoke to me.  It's about illegals coming into this country from Central America or Mexico and how difficult the journey can be for an uncomfortable existence in this country.  It spoke to me because my father-in-law's father was such a person.

I don't know much of his story but I know a little.  This guy came over the border in the 1920's or even a little earlier.  He figured that the best way to not get sent back was to be as far from the border as he could.  Personally I think he kind of overdid it; he went to South Dakota!  Somewhere he met an Irish immigrant woman and they married and had the kid that grew up to be my father-in-law.  They were dirt-poor farmers; working for maybe a share of the crop.  Even when he was a small child my father-in-law was working with his parents or doing something to provide for the family.  Farming, hunting, trapping, gathering berries or weeds or whatever, the young man did not have an easy life.  Most of the time they had a house but there were times when they lived in a dis-used railroad car.  If you don't know South Dakota; it can be 95F (35C) in the summer and -20F (-29C) in the winter.  That's a hell of poor excuse for a home.  Eventually the FIL joined the Navy and made his way in the world.  I'm not even sure when his parents passed away but Fred's words reminded me vividly of his story.

We are having a short spell of almost ideal weather.  It's in the mid 60's (18C) at night; almost 90F (32C) in the late afternoon.  We open the windows at night then close up about 09:00.  The house remains comfortable without any air conditioning.  We have eaten out on the porch the last two nights; last night we brought out some of the newly painted boards for our new seating area and enjoyed the sunset in comfort.  It's been a long time getting put together (and isn't quite done yet) but that seating area is going to be great.  The porch deflects a lot of heat from the southern aspect of the house but it does hold the heat for quite a while in the evening.  Being out away from the house is much more comfortable.

I'll close with a photo of a magnet we have on the car.  It's one of the Libertarian ideas we agree with.  The United States needs to get over this idea that we are the policemen of the world.  Have a good one.

Veteran's Day 2011

Today is the day that at least some of us remember our military veterans: the ones among us, the ones who died for their country, and those who preceded  us.  For some, like me, it's better than Christmas.  I can easily believe in the men and women who have fought and perhaps died for freedom while that all seeing God thing is beyond me.  I think I prefer the name this day has in other countries, Remembrance Day.  It's not just about veterans; it's about remembering the horrors of war and why we should avoid wars.  Don't get me wrong, veterans are great.  We signed an oath offering up ourselves to protect the freedoms this nation offers.  It's just that we need to remember that war isn't a good solution to any problem.  I certainly wish Mr. Bush had remembered that prior to sending our troops into Afghanistan and Iraq. 

I'm also pretty unhappy with the way we got entangled in Vietnam even though I never went there.  It started out with fear that communism would take over Southeast Asia.  Then the hundreds of 'advisors' turned into hundreds of thousands and we were involved in a totally f@5ked up situation.  It was basically a lesson in why you don't intrude in another country's affairs.  Obviously history is a much underrated class in our schools.

I was watching what passes for the news on our local Fox affiliate.  They have two news anchors; a man and a woman.  The woman very nicely thanked her husband for his military service.  The guy also thanked him; he had no one he could think of who had served.  Wow!  That really got to me.  My grandfather served in the Spanish-American War, my mother's brother served in WWI, my dad served in WWII, my father-in-law served during Korea, I served during the Vietnam conflict, my wife's brother served for 27 years up to 2000.  This current conflict, in Afghanistan and Iraq, is the first time we haven't had family involved in well over 100 years! 

It's a cloudy day here in Nevada; fairly unusual.  Had to look it up!  Las Vegas averages 73 cloudy days a year and this is a good and cloudy one.  Check this out.

 

Have a good one even it it is cloudy!

Home again

Hi there, y'all; we been gone!  Took a quick trip from here to San Diego.  It's about a 6 hour drive since we 1) tow our trailer and 2) obey California's STUPID 55 mph (88kph) speed limit for people towing.  Geez, it gripes my butt every time I think about it.  Here you have a bunch of untutored, text-messaging assholes flying along at a legal 70 mph (112 kph) and they are having to dodge a vehicle, a big cumbersome vehicle, that is doing 15 mph (24 kph) less.  Grrrr!

Had a great trip though.  We had rain here the night before we left so when we got over the mountains into California there had been run-off.  There was dried mud across the road many places and in one place we found several inches (say 15 cm, I didn't measure it!) of water flowing across the road.  We left about 09:00 on Sunday and got there by 15:30 or so.  The only bad part of the drive was around Riverside, CA where I-215 is being worked on; has been for the two years we've been using it to visit San Diego anyway!

We spent our week doing tourist stuff like Old Town and Balboa Park.  The trip was mostly to see our son & his 'girlfriend' of 16 years.  So far they have resisted marriage & I wish them success.  I know I was worried when my wife and I decided to stop 'living in sin' and make it legal.  Guess it worked out since it's been 27 years now.  You never know how people are going to react though so I can see not screwing with a good thing.  We ate together a lot & talked quite a bit.  Had good food and some that wasn't quite so good.  Happily it was all good when we ate at their house and when he ate at ours (she is a nurse and was working some weird shift).

Photos?  Nope.  Except for the flowers around the dog run at the RV park!  Here's one from my cell phone:

Came back on Sunday.  It was my wife's idea to do all our traveling on Sundays and I must say it worked out well.  We had what I would call moderate traffic all the way.  We decided to stay on I-15 going north rather than take the I-215 and that was pretty successful too; not being torn-up is much easier on the nerves and it's only about 10 miles (16 km) farther.  Even at $4.15/gallon ($1.06/l.) and using 1 gallon every 10 miles (23 l. per 100 km ), it's a no-brainer.  Traffic towards Vegas wasn't bad but there was quite a lot of it.  Traffic from Vegas back to California was nasty.  There is an Agricultural Check point on I-15 in California; they had a miles long backup at 13:00!!  When we went through the previous week at about 11:30 it was nowhere near that bad.  No idea if that is always the way it is or not but I did see a few vehicles on a road going parallel to the Interstate.  Guess if I was in a hurry I might consider getting off the Southbound highway at exit 206 and try out the other road.  No idea where I'd get back on but  it would at least be fun!

We get off I-15 at Baker, CA and drive up to Shoshone, CA then cut over to Pahrump.  On the road between Baker and Shoshone (55 miles or 88 km) I counted oncoming vehicles: 3 semi-trucks; 3 work trucks, 20 private vehicles (including motorcycles). We were passed by 7 private vehicles.  My kind of traffic!

Got used to eating three times a day in San Diego; I'm hungry.  Have a good one!

Not a Daily; not yet!

I'm sure not doing daily blog these days but I must say they are busy days.  In-laws and son and his girlfriend are our guests now; they are pretty easy to deal with but having six people in the house rather than two does up the stress level.  We are eating out more than usual because it's easy and it gets us all out of the house.  The animals are pretty weird-ed out too.  Of course, they have no idea why they have all this extra excitement but they are putting up with it pretty well. 

The young people like gambling so they have something to do while we older folk sit around watching the Master's Golf Tournament.  They have been here two days and have as many 'points' from gambling as my wife and I have accumulated in the two years we've been here!  Normally we wouldn't watch the golf but it's something we can all do and the in-laws really enjoy it.  I understand they aren't bad golfers for folks around eighty years of age.  Augusta is such a beautiful course too.   

Tomorrow we take the in-laws to Vegas and put them on the plane for home.  Then we will be down to just the kids who are staying until Saturday.  This hosting thing is getting easier and easier.  Started at eight visitors, then six, then two; pretty soon we'll be back to our quiet home in the desert.  Yep, I'm looking forward to it even though I do love all these people.

Today we are getting one of our wind storms.  From reading blogs I get the idea it's covering almost the entire Southwest.  It makes me want to check out the weatherstripping on the windows and doors before summer really hits.  I can feel a breeze when I'm near the window and it is definitely noisy.  There is quite a bit of dust in the air as well; we are all complaining of a dry feeling in the throat. 

I've left this post late so need to quit.  Time to run off and feed our faces.  Here's hoping I haven't gained too much weight this week!  Have a good one.

Back at the ranch!

We got home yesterday from our little trip.  We had a good time and got home safely but it wasn't exactly without event.  The trip started badly when my wife looked into the shower compartment and found that one of the faucet handles had come off.  Hmmm, a little investigation and it became obvious that the faucet was dead.  So our first stop was at a local rv dealer where we bought a new faucet. 

The stop slowed us a bit and it was somewhat windy so we decided to stop at Kingman, AZ. for the night; we had wanted to continue on to Congress, AZ.  It was early enough so we could install the faucet in the daylight.  Tried it and it seemed to work though the hose leading to the showerhead was leaking.  It was cold though, down to about 26F (-3C).  The next morning we towed the rig down to the Escapee's park in Congress, AZ.  Again we were battling the wind but the rig handles wind reasonably well and it wasn't uncomfortable, just slow.  We left the rig there and drove down to Sun City, AZ to visit family.  We had a great visit and even got an invitation to their 60th wedding party to take place next June in western Nebraska.  Hmmmm.  Well, maybe.

Back to the rig; it was supposed to be 22F (-5.5C) this time so we tried something new and left the slide in.  With the slide out it's a lot more comfortable but with it in we reduce the area that is being heated by something close to 25%.  It worked and we spent a comfortable night in Congress.  Finally it was time to head for California. 

Grrrrrr!  More wind!  Plus going through the mountains means you get odd, unexpected bursts of wind as you round a corner or go down a grade.  We went to Blythe, CA on I-10 then took CA-78 down to Brawley and El Centro, CA.  There we met I-8 and took that in to San Diego.  Not long after getting on I-8 we saw a sign saying there was a wind advisory for 'high profile' vehicles.  Well, it was only an advisory so we went anyway.  Not a very smart idea but we managed to get through it ok. 

We stopped for gas before the last jump over the mountains to S.D. and I managed to snag both rear stabilizers on the concrete; bending both.  Looks like they will have to be replaced.  Grrr.  Anyway, we managed to find San Diego and landed at a park we've visited before.  I was hoping for warm weather but, you guessed it, it was chilly and nasty! 

We were planning on having a good time though so first thing Thursday morning I decided to try our shower.  Grrr, again!  The shower head was spraying water all over; mostly out the handle.  Happily we were close to the campground showers so used them for the duration of our stay.  After all that, we did manage to do a little shopping and see our son for a while that evening. 

Next day we toured two of the museums in Balboa Park; the automotive museum and the Timkin Museum.  Don't ask why we chose those two; there was no logic involved.  LOL  (Automotive is easy but Timkin has mostly medieval paintings.)  It was still chilly but we persevered and had fun.  It's a beautiful park with amazing buildings.  We will have to visit S.D. a hundred times to visit every place we want to see!  That evening we took our son & S.O. out to dinner at Prado, in the park.   They each have a birthday in the next couple of weeks and this was their present.  We had an excellent dinner for four with appetizers, drinks, wine, and desert for $250.  Not bad for the kind of place. 

On Saturday the kids took us to the zoo.  They have season passes and get a few tickets for friends (or relatives!).  The zoo cannot be covered in a day except by some maniac runner but we had a good time walking around enjoying what we could see.  It was a great day and we had fun looking at 1) the animals, 2) the people and 3) the plants.  (You may order the attractions as you wish.)

The trip home was pretty uneventful.  Windy, of course, but not bad.  I was getting sleepy so asked my wife to drive the last 50 or 60 miles.  I don't think she has driven this truck-trailer combination before but, of course, she had no problem with it.  She's an excellent driver and I got some relaxation but discovered that the truck seat isn't very comfortable for sleeping.  I'm buying a pillow before we go anywhere again! 

Started this post on Monday but got interrupted and didn't finish.  Tuesday has been pretty quiet.  I worked in the garage trying to organize things.  We've only lived here for two years; wouldn't you think the garage would have SOME organization?  Well, ours is coming close but.... 

Have a good one!

Lots of little stuff

Is it really November 1st?  Jeez, time is sure flying.  We had zero trick-or-treaters last night.  Can't say that I missed them though I did always get a kick out of the really small kids.  I asked a couple of the neighbors and they said not to expect any.  I still bought a small bag of candy so I'll get a couple thousand calories out of it.

We went in to Las Vegas Sunday; our daughter has found a house she would like to buy.  Well, she has found a builder who has a model she likes and wants to have one built.  We checked the company out; looked at the model; that stuff.  We can't see any reason she shouldn't go ahead with the deal so come March or so she should have a new home.  Very exciting time for her.  She works from home so is excited about the extra space.  It is practically a zero-lot-line area so she won't have anything outside to worry about and it is still only about 10 minutes to the airport for when she is traveling. 

Quite a long time ago my wife got a recipe for hummingbird food from her mother.  It was supposed to be 'top secret' but, of course, it is all over the internet.  Anyway, we finally got our feeder out and after about 10 days, our first little guy has showed up.  (Apologies for the photo; it was through the window AND the blind!)

We are forecast to have good weather later this week so I'm going to be doing some window washing and other outside tasks.  Winter is coming and doing the windows then isn't nearly as much fun.  We are expecting number 1 son and S.O. for Thanksgiving (25 November) so having the windows half-way clean will be a requirement.  We also have a certain amount of rock-raking to do to level things out.  How's that for life in the fast lane? 

You all have a good one!

Kinda normal stuff

Got the trailer back the other day; the dealer is waiting to get the new flooring so doesn't want our trailer sitting there for weeks on end.  I can sympathize so brought it back.  Was lucky and it was a nice day; not too windy and no snow.  

It's pretty different hooking up by one's self.  Almost makes you want a motorhome!  LOL  Well, it really wasn't that tough.  From the time the guy got the trailer out where I could hook up until the time I left the lot was only 20 minutes; and that included me having to get him to raise the hitch.  Let me explain.  The trailer hitch has a motor to lift it but the leg isn't long enough to raise it to the height of the hitch ball unless it is supported by several inches of wood (one of the disadvantages of having a 4x4).  The guy put 4 layers of 2x4 under the leg but it wasn't quite enough; the tow ball hit the hitch rather than going under it.  So he came out again and raised the hitch with his tractor and added another layer of 2x4.  Backed up and got hooked up.  It really wasn't that tough; makes me wonder why my wife has such a problem backing me up but I guess that's another post! 

Now we are preparing for a visit from my wife's birth mother & her husband.  He's a fabulous guy; she's a ticking bomb; sometimes she's fine, sometimes she goes off on you.  I'm sure most people know someone like that.  Anyway, we are cleaning up things and getting prepared.  The husband has diabetes (and other health problems) so we want to be careful about what we serve.  We are still planning on corned beef & cabbage on St. Paddy's Day - not Catholic or even christian but we know a good meal when we hear it.

Hope things are good for you!

"You will be safest in the middle."  Ovid