Poker Bluegill

Wednesday, February 1

2012-02-02T02:45:00.003-05:00

Leap year gives us a bargain. One more day in Florida.

I drove up to the Ocala poker room and lost $35 playing Omaha and the 1-3 spread limit game. I had queens full for the high hand for 15 minutes. Another 15 minutes and it would have awarded me $100. Pretty lousy cards most of the day. My play was okay.

My new glasses will change my game. They work great at the table and I'll see the cards and the players and the television much clearer. The bifocals make perfect sense to me. The headache I had on the first day is gone. Driving is much easier and the slight tint seemed to take the edge off the glare of headlights. All in all I am still adjusting, but the expect to be quite pleased. Oddly, the whole thing should make me feel older, but actually seeing clearly makes me feel younger again.

I had iced cream up there and that was good.

Back at home Elizabeth and Ann Marie had made pork loin sandwiches. Those were good.

Not much else going on.

Our history

2012-02-01T04:35:00.002-05:00

Modern science just speeds along and the results are more amazing every day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/science/gains-in-dna-are-speeding-research-into-human-origins.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ref=science

Finally, we are on water again

2012-01-31T18:08:00.001-05:00

We rented the pontoon boat today and took a fine ride up to the springhead and then to the island where the blue herons nest.
I was fine to be on the water again. There were dozens of manatee in the waters and we saw them quite well, coming and going, a few with little ones following. We did not try to swim today, but it would have been hard to swim and not see manatee.

Along with them we saw nesting osprey on the signposts. They let us get very close as they are not shy of boats because they see them everyday.
Pelicans were everywhere and so fun to watch.
Ann Marie got a good look at a red shoulder hawk, and we saw about fifty turkey vultures circling in the area we always find them.
Even in the afteroon the heron were on the island in their nests and I managed to circle the island although the water was as low as it ever gets and the marina warned us to be careful.

Margaritaville, the old Greek restaurant on the water has burned down, but there were BBQ signs at the old Seagrass and folks were out eating on tables, so something is happening there. I like being able to access a little eatery by boat.

The day was cold in the morning, but by afternoon we could be in tee shirts and the sun was very hot.

In the morning Ann Marie and I had gone to the Cowboy flea market. I found a couple dollar Tee shirts that will work well to save my good shirts when I am eating at home. I bought 5 whisky glasses for a dollar. I also bought a dozen of the fish head drink holders as I liked the ones I bought last week. I bought a salt and pepper set with a lobster on it. And I got 13 ruby red grapefuit for the price of 12 and well below the prices in Sweetbay market. Each grapefruit was a dollar as opposed to $1.29. And then one was free. Ann Marie bought a little bag and a book. So we were delighted.

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FIRST GLASSES

Well, I have my first pair of real glasses. Up until now I have just used dollar store reading glasses. Now I have bifocals, distance and reading. I think they will help on my distance viewing, help on signs on the road, and television. Television tonight looked much better. They are so new I can't tell, but at least I am giving them a try. I've procrastinated this since June.
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Ann Marie cooked tonight. Sweet potatoes, baked pork loin, and this great and simple recipe of red cabbage cooked with granny smith apples. It will become a standard in my house from now on. It was really delicious and no spices were used. I think it would work very well in the slow cooker.

So, it has been another fine day here in Florida.

Fort Cooper

2012-01-31T10:40:00.000-05:00

We three went for a walk at Fort Cooper. We were bird watching at the wrong time of the day, but as a group we saw some black/brown duck that no one could name, and chickadee, tufted titmouse, red rump warblers and perhaps a black and white.
The walk was wonderful. The morning had been very cold, but the sun took that all away. The park was nearly deserted. The trail moved along a fine pond. It was beautiful.

The park is set in an old field hospital site during the Indian wars here, so there were historical markers.

http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortcooper.html

It was all very beautiful; it is hard to imagine how much suffering occurred there a hundred years ago.

Chuck will remember the museum in Dade County where we went to hear bluegrass music. That was near where the Indians attacked and US soldiers in what is sometimes labeled a masacre, sometimes a skirmish, but if it had been done by the soldiers would have been called a military victory.
On the bulletin board at Fort Cooper there were photographs of General Scott and others on the white side, but no Seminoles. There are sometimes reenactments of the event at the park.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osceola

Then we did errands.

In the evening Elizabeth cooked the hogfish using Ann Marie's recipe with ginger and it was delicious. It is so wonderful to have this seafood here.

During the day we also made more social plans: We are meeting Steve Bourie who published me for two years now in the American Casino Guide. We will be meeting him on the East Coast and seeing a casino we have not visited. We'll stay a night near there so I can play a bit of poker that night.
Ron and Laura set times to come in early March, perhaps with the baby if Laura feels comfortable with that.

We also rented the pontoon for February and March and will do the paperwork later today. It can stay at the boat rental place until we get a slip in our second rental here.

And the book dealer who sold me the bad cookbook through Amazon is sending me a replacement copy and expediting the mailing, so it gets to me before we move. It pays to complain, but I wish I had waited on feedback to Amazon because it clearly was just a mistake and the attention to it has been amazingly responsible.

It was a very productive day.
However, I was up at about four this morning, so I'll need a good nap tomorrow.

Saturday Morning

2012-01-30T06:26:00.000-05:00

Another fine day here in Florida. A bit chilly in the morining.
Yesterday I gambled for about 12 hours with a short break for the buffet. I lost $45 and played both 2-4 and a 3-6 Omaha game that I liked.
Details are here:

http://foxwoodspokertr.blogspot.com/2012/01/second-trip-to-tampa-hard-rock.html

Elizabeth and Ann Marie did grocery shopping and went to the Manatee park on our free pay. So that worked out well.

I found the trip back really easy again, even on a Saturday night although I would have liked to play into the early morning, but was too tired and left at 12:30. I had a great time.

This morning I finished the Light in August Faulkner novel. It did not satisfy. A bit dark and just too much drama and inner turmoil over things that are entirely unnecessary to cover in all the drama. We do make too much of ourselves and our moral dilemmas.
The character who started the novel, a young girl pregnant and going to seek the man who deserted her, is perhaps the most appealing. Although she is the character who everyone sees as destiture and unrealistic, bascially she is one of the few who does not require much to be entertained and is enjoying the travel aspect of her search while others care for her. Her frugal expectations of life give her the ability to totally enjoy herself as few other characters in the novel, living or dead, were ever able to do. I'm happy to be done with it.

As I write, Elizabeth is making stone crab. Yum!

Swimming and Dairy Queen Blizzard in the afternoon followed up with watching Dowton Abby.

Scotch taste test

2012-01-29T18:28:00.001-05:00

Inverhouse at $14
Cutty Sark at $36

Ann Marie and I did a scotch taste test arranged by Elizabeth. She has only bought Cutty Sark and Elizabeth got her a birthday present of a bottle and I added two nice glasses from the flea market.
So, with my purchase of the Inverhouse Plaid, we had two bottles of scotch in the house and decided to set up a taste test.
All in all each of us tasted 6 glasses and independently evaluated them. So that is 12 tastings and only 2 times each were we correct, 4 out of 12. The math suggests 6 out of 12 on average and there should be more right answers if this matters at all.

I am not suggesting that other scotch drinkers could not have done better. But I don't buy scotch for other scotch drinkers, nor does Ann Marie. So for us, it seems like saving $22 a bottle by buying the Inverhouse Plaid would be a good decision.

All the left overs went into my Vernor's diet drink so I'm feeling all this scotch.

I remember back decades ago I set up a taste test for Chuck who thought he could tell Budweiser and who hated Milwalkee. Without labels on the bottles he could not tell which was which and in fact picked the Milwalkee as Bud the majority of times. I did the same thing at a bar with Michelob, but all those guys picked the Michelob easily. It was a no brainer.

Neither Ann Marie nor I noticed anything very distinctive at all in our tastings. We never felt like we were very sure. Nice for a frugal guy to find out how wrong he judged the tastes. I won't even bother with Dewar's again now that I know the Inverhouse fits my needs.

Ann Marie's birthday

2012-01-27T18:24:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday Ann Marie!!!
She is here with us, still healing but in pretty good shape after the extensive ordeal to determine at great length that there just isn't any cancer they can find.

So, we toasted her birthday with some Sangria, just Carlos Rossi with added Page oranges, Key lime juice, a paste of blended banana in Torrejon fashion. Very good really. I whipped the second batch and the banana was more blended in and less chunky.

I took a bubble bath and slept a good sleep. Salmon for supper.
Tomorrow I'll take another stab at Tampa Hard Rock. I did well yesterday. Details here:

http://foxwoodspokertr.blogspot.com/2012/01/tampa-hard-rock-2-4.html

Sun is here again after a slight rain, hardly enough to notice.

We are hanging around the house today, but tomorrow the women will head to Homosassa and I'll head to Tampa Hard Rock and see how the action is on a Saturday.

Today a bubble bath and a nap seemed appropriate.
Then Elizabeth cooked salmon, brown rice in my new $2 rice cooker, spinach salad, and some Krause's chocolate for dessert.

Before bed I am drinking the Sleepytime green tea, but the benefits are cut way back when it is decaffinated. I should try to get my doses in earlier in the day.

A look at the Hill Cabrera family

2012-01-27T15:11:00.000-05:00

Keith, Bernadette, Gio and Sasha.
No comments necessary here.

Monday, JANUARY 23

2012-01-23T20:02:00.002-05:00

I am happily listening to an old Radio Delux show and happy to have found that some of the old ones are available for free. This on features John and his daughter, Madeline. Right now Redbone plays with that distinctive voice. "Shine on Harvest Moon."
It is followed with a fine Neil Diamond Harvest Moon song. Nice. Harmonica and everything.
I always love what they play on this show. Real music with lyrics I can hear and sounds that touch me. Less and less am I willing to tolerate folks shouting at me and pounding the beat into my skull.
This was a common song sung in the family in the car. I loved it. I guess there are very few now who know and sing it. I am so pleased to hear it on this fine radio mix. Even some whistling. Some of what he sings I had not heard before. I only knew the chorus.

Here is the playlist of this show that first aired in November.

Leon Redbone - Shine on Harvest Moon (Double Time)
Neil Young - Harvest Moon (Harvest Moon)
Jeff Hamilton Trio - Too Close for Comfort (From Studio 4, Cologne, Germany)
George Shearing & The Robert Farnon Orchestra - Heather On the Hill (How Beautiful Is Night)
Kate McGarry - The Heather on the Hill (The Target)
George Shearing & The Robert Farnon Orchestra - Oh, Lady Be Good! (How Beautiful Is Night)
Bobby Darin & Johnny Mercer - Two of a Kind (Two of a Kind)
Johnny Mercer & Nat King Cole - Save the Bones for Henry Jones (Capitol Collectors Series)
Judy Garland & Johnny Mercer - Friendship (Definitive Collection)
Sandy Stewart w/Bill Charlap - After You (Love Is Here To Stay)
Bill Charlap - Put On a Happy Face (All Through the Night)
George Benson - It's Only a Paper Moon (Guitar Man)
Joe Pass - How High the Moon (The Best of Joe Pass)
Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Pass - You Took Advantage of Me (Fitzgerald & Pass...Again)
Frank Sinatra, Jr. - That Face (That Face!)
Frank Sinatra - River, Stay Away From My Door (The Complete Capitol Singles Collection)
Michael Feinstein - Luck Be a Lady / All I Need Is the Girl (The Sinatra Project, Vol. II: The Good Life)
Billy Joel - Rosalinda's Eyes (52nd Street)
Sara Gazarek - You Are My Sunshine (Yours)
Emilie-Claire Barlow - All I Do Is Dream of You (The Very Thought of You)
Paul Simon & Phoebe Snow - Gone at Last (Still Crazy After All These Years)
Jessica Molaskey - Finding Home (Dream True)
John Pizzarelli - I Just Found Out About Love (Knowing You)

I have I glitch iin the comment section of Vegas on the Bus blog and it is annoying me no end. However, it does not seem to affect the comment section of this blog, so comment away.

We had stone crab on the cement table, and the shells went everywhere. I had my grapefruit and realized that the seeds could be catapaulted by spoon anywhere and they would tuck themselves under the leaves fallen from the water oak or scrub oak that grows in such interesting patterns all over the lawn surrounding the house.

http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/water_oak/wateroak.htm

ANOTHER IMAGE OF WATER OAK

We went swimming and then for a rare Dairy Queen Blizzard with butter fingers. Yum.
My orange popcycles came out really good. That Tuvia does its job. They will be cheaper than storebought and healthier as well.

I have been overtired all day. I hope I sleep well the next few nights as they are going to be filled. Wednesday I'll head up to Ocala for some poker. Thursday I'll play at Tampa Hard Rock after Elizabeth picks up Ann Marie at the airport and gets the car.

I did spend some time planning my next Vegas trip and I expect I'll have good rates again. It is very vague in terms of dates as yet, but I did book some deals that may work.

We shopped at Bell's for a few minutes and I picked up a couple more of the shirts I live down here. One was long sleeves. We got the senior discount. Elizabeth bought a really cute little dress decorated with flip flops.

Then we met and coordinated with our cleaner and arranged for her to clean up this week and again after we leave. The landlord pays most of that cleaning. Nice.

Oh, and after a long look we did find the bathroom plunger in the pool bathroom. "nuff said."

Sangria

2012-01-22T18:49:00.001-05:00

Okay, I've been drinking Sangria, just a cheap American imitation by Carlos Rossi.
I had it with Marlin.
First rule broken.

I remembered that my Madrid born pal Paco rolled his eyes at the very mention of Sangia. For him, it was an adulteration of good red wine and something those stupid Americans did, an extention of their love for ice.

Second rule broken.

Now in Torrejon de Ardoz they made a fine Sangria probably to fit the tastes of the American Air Force Airmen. It is the only Sangria I ever had that included banana in the fresh fruit floating in the red wine.
It went well with the pizza they made, a pizza using machego and chorizo. Another fine blend of American (Italian) and Spanish.

Okay, we have bananas that Elizabeth won't eat except in a smoothy, so I put chunks of them in the Sangria.
Third rule broken.
Well, they add some taste but not much, so I just toss my glass of Sangria into the blender and mix it all up.

A frothy Sangria.
Fourth rule broken.

Nice drink!

Next I may try watermelon
¡Viva la Vida!

¡Viva invención!

Sunday January 22

2012-01-22T17:30:00.002-05:00

It took a while. We don't adjust quickly. However, I am outside writing in the Florida sun, listening to Ray Smith with earphones so I don't disturb the neighbors.
I love this stone table. It is a bit hard and cold on the bottom, and I am not really in favor of the way they decorated the top, with broken bits of blue tile. But otherwise I like it just fine.
It gives Elizabeth and I separate space without much interruption, and that is nice for a day like today when we are hanging out at home unless I go up gambling in the afternoon in Ocala.

The sun is up now and soon I'll have to take off my sweatshirt and just be in a tee shirt. Amazingly abrupt change of weather.
I took a couple rides around the block, once going around two blocks. Going to the left I get some workout up a hill, catch my breath, get a shaller workout, and then coast home. Just right.
I have had two grapefruit halves today, the beginning of my new food addition. These were the expensive and juicy pink from the Sweetbay market. I'll look for cheaper ones at the flea market this week.
I also had a good measure of green tea this morning. I'll try to have the 5 cups a day that made the difference in Japan. I suspect my cups are somewhat bigger. For iced tea I've been brewing the green with on bag of black. I like that blend flavor. All in my Donegal Ireland tea pot. My pleasures are simple.

Except for Ray in my ears it is quiet, but I think I could hear some gun firing a long way off. Perhaps there is a range.

I did see some people walking dogs this morning when I was on my bike. I saw only one car. The mild hills of this neighborhood are perfect for getting me back in biking shape. My brakes work fine without noise. That's a good job done.

This morning I cooked up left over rice, black beans, onion, red pepper, Bruce's garlic, seasoned it the with pepper seasoning and some garlic seasoning from the fair yesterday, and added in some Louisiana hot sauce. A bit too much hot sauce, really. I am getting to like the Louisiana as well as Frank's Hot Sauce which is good as the Louisiana brand is half the price.

Elizabeth has some pain in her feet today. Perhaps we overdid the walking yesterday.

Well, Newt won the South Carolina primary in spite of the attacks on his personal sexual history and all the talk of open marriages. I still think that Romney will get the candidacy, but this will push him into being more conservative. Democrats must be thrilled. They know they can beat Newt.

Warm here now at 11:21AM. I am outside in just a tee shirt enjoying the sunshine and not at all cold. This is really fine and never ceases to amaze me that I can wake up cold and before noon it is as warm as summer at home.

We headed over to the pool and had a nice swim. Now Elizabeth is cooking the Marlin from Shelly's. Smells very good.
I decided to put off the gambling until later in the week. I'm tired and no limit is tough when I am tired.

Our neighborhood

2012-01-22T08:12:00.000-05:00

These large sprawling trees are everywhere in the neighborhood, and expecially on our house lot. They don't seem to grow up, but rather like to grow to the sides and cover verticle territory as well as horizontal. I don't yet know their names.

In some cases we can see where they had grown out and the growth was in the way, so someone cut them off at the trunk to make room.

At our house we have particularly sprawling cluster right at the end of the driveway. It makes it easy to find our driveway. I should photograph those.

Often the Spanish moss hangs from the trees making them delightful to stare up into. I can to that from a swing in the front yard hung on one of those old side growths.

I have always loved palms and these small fans of growth I find particulary attractive.

Manatee Festival

2012-01-22T04:10:00.002-05:00

In the afternoon we went up to the Manatee Festival in Crystal River which is less about manatees and more just an excuse to bring out the craft vendors and the food trucks. Still, we shopped the places and found some things we liked: wooden kitchen spoons, three fine cast iron hooks with fish design, our favorite pepper and herb blend and a garlic blend as well from the same organic producer. We ate some really wonderful chicken on a stick done with curry over the grill and some decadent potato chips done from potatos cut into ribbons. Both were very good and surpassed the usual fair foods. The ribbon cutting of the potatos meant that when they came out of the deep fryer, they were easy to serve, and then they sat at angles so the oil ran off and the chips crisped up. I have never had these before.
I took a few photos:

Here we are at the pier overlooking Crystal River. We thought Peter might like seeing this place.

The bag we are carrying is a Filipino design that Bernadette's mom gave us in Chicago.

There is a museum in Crystal River that collected just a few arifacts from the area and we toured it. This is an old pencil sharpener, state of the art in its time.

This is not what it looks like at first glance. It is a scale for measuring fish.

This takes fish bones to an entirely new level.

Of course during spring training all the Yankee greats came this way. I wonder if Dad was ever in Crystal River.

Filmed in the Area at a very different time in America.

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After our Festival walk, we went up to Shelly's Fish Market and bought the last of their floater stone crab, some marlin steaks, a bit of sheepshead, and some yellow tail snapper like I used to eat when I worked that summer with Tom in Key West.

We were tired.
So we stopped at the Olive Tree Greek restaurant for spanikopita and prime rib. The beef was good, but the pie was a bit strong tasting and not done the way we like it.
Live keyboard music played while we ate, but it was pretty noisy and few cared to listen but talked over the sounds.

We stopped too at Sweetbay and bought some groceries. At home I made some orange juice popcycles using Tuvia as a sweetener with half juice and half water run in a blender to evenly distribute the Tuvia. fozen in a plastic cup with a wooden stick. Tastes just great.

Saturday, January 21

2012-01-22T03:13:00.000-05:00

I slept well and woke up pain free. The swimming helped.
I tuned in WRPI and listened to the Saturday morning bluegrass music. Great stuff.
Here are the lyrics to one of the songs I heard:

Five Pounds of Possum
My children are hungry, my dog needs a bone.
I'm out of a job now, so I'm just drivin' home.
An hour after sundown, when what to my delight,
There's five pounds of possum in my headlights tonight.
CHORUS:
There's five pounds of possum in my headlights tonight.
If I can just run him over, every thing will be all right.
We'll have some possum gravy, oh what a beautiful sight;
There's five pounds of possum in my headlights tonight.

Won't have to clean no chicken, won't have to open no cans.
Just a little bit closer, and I'll have him in my hands.
I think the time has come now, to go from "dim" to "bright."
There's five pounds of possum in my headlights tonight.
CHORUS

Then I listened to Ray Smith and his blues again.
I wrote to Robin and to Gordon Brooks as well. We figured out how to print on Elizabeth's printer. That was just fine. Neither of these guys have a working computer, so I liked having a more efficient way to write to them both.

I read around a bit and noticed that Japanese green tea is made differently than Chinese green tea, so I'll be looking for a source of Japanese unfermented green tea. I can't order anything by mail here now as I can't be certain that we will be here long enough to get it and the forwarding is really ridiculous.

"The trick with green teas is the way it's preserved, so that the polyphenols are not destroyed, by the fermentation. Japanese green tea is not fermented, but Chinese green tea is and therein lies the main difference in its active health properties and efficacy."

My otther reading seems to indicate that all green tea is green because it is not fermented, so I am confused. We should be going to the Manatee Festival today. I hope we can find some tea there, or at least some of that good pepper mix I like.

I read a bit more in the Faulkner, but it keeps getting darker. I should have known that it would depress me as it went along. Still, I expect to finish it and then pick up something less depressing. Maybe I'll reread some George Burns.

I took the bike out and went up and down the street a bit to begin to develop some stamina. I am truly out of shape. I think we need to be here in December. I came home from Vegas in much better shape with all the walking. Then I got sedentary again.

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Friday, January 20, 2012

2012-01-20T20:28:00.002-05:00

Up in the chilly morning. It is below 37 degrees right now. I had to move the computer indoors.
And as soon as the sun does its thing, we will be up in the 70's again.
Lots of errands in Homosassa today and a swim perhaps if the cold does not discourage Elizabeth.

I bought two cookbooks because I am addicted to them. These two are in the house here and I have been reading them and enjoying them. After seeing them online for quite a bit of dough, I finally found a decent price on each. I don't quite understand it, but sometimes a second search brings in more choices than a first. The shipping is $8 and the total cost is $11 so the books do not sell for much. Beverly Jolands is the author of each of them and they are very well done with recipes that are unusual and both books are full of seafood recipes. These are the two that I bought.

Ironically, we rarely really plan a recipe, buy the ingredients and follow it exactly. I need to discipline myself to do that. I do get techniques for cooking as well as ideas for what might combine and be tasty from reading the recipes.
These are the 2 that I bought:

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Ever-Recipes-Mediterranean-Beverly-Jollands/dp/0681630515

http://www.amazon.com/500-Hot-Spicy-Recipes-mouth-watering/dp/0754817628/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327066942&sr=1-1

I listened to the radio this morning while I typed inside. Nice idea.

One problem I found was that a few days ago I located on LA Times a list of Vegas things to do without noticing that the list was from 2008. I posted in on discussion boards. Embarrassing.
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Here is a fine photo from Antiqua of bother Tico and niece Eliza

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Okay, I decided to treat myself with a bit of Dewars on sale for $30.
Then I saw this one for $15.

Okay, I thought I'd need a lot of Vernor's to use up this purchase, but it turns out I like it just fine alone. I'd like to do a taste test with this and Dewar's to see if folks could tell the difference.

http://www.inverhouse.com/portfolio-green-plaid.php

Of course, I know nothing about scotch except the nice buzz I have right now with a glass before food and a bit of key lime juice.
I do think that since we live in Inverness a scotch called Inverhouse is appropriate.

Okay, I've had supper, but the scotch is still working. I managed to overcook my shrimp dish and still enjoy eating it. I put too much hot sauce in the rice and still enjoyed eating that as well; however, I am a bit guilty to have wasted the best of Bruce's organic garlic by overcooking and so ruining the longevity advantage.
Sorry Bruce.
I did take a huge bit of the raw garlic as I cooked. Perhaps that makes up some for the waste. Wow! it did have a kick. Followed with a slug of Scotch, I thought that perhaps I might invent a new drink, and that was the first hint that I was a little drunk because who really thinks a new drink might be scotch and raw garlic.
I am not too drunk to make a good cup of licorish tea for dessert.
Sorry again Bruce, but the cup I bought for fifty cents at the flea market last Tuesday, the one with the covered bridge that reminded me of the one near your farm, while appropriate since I used garlic and all, is just too small for a good licorish dessert drink.
But at least you know I have been thinking about you.

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I adjusted my brakes on the bike this morning. There is a fine line between having brakes that actually grab the tire rim and brakes that let irregularities in the rim rub and screech when no brake has been applied. I may have found that fine line after about an hour of playing.

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We went into Homosassa for a doctor's appointment. We stopped for grapefruit but found that the fruit at the stand we like were just not as sweet or juicy as what Elizabeth had bought at Sweetbay. So we wait for a chance to go grocery shopping again.
I bought a tuner for the uke and some books of songs. I may try playing that again. I have not played in a couple years now. The music store is in a spot where there was a music store and then a marina, so it freaked me out a bit as I thought once again I was losing my mind and not remembering. The owner told me that it was a very different music store from the first one and that to move in he had to clean out all the rotten shrimp in the refrigerator from the marina.
At the thrift store I like I bought the rice cooker I passed up at $5 for $2 reduced. I also think I have a little pan that will melt butter easily on the stove for popcorn.

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We went swimming for an hour at the pool, and Elizabeth met the kaya lady again. So perhaps we will get an invitation from her. It is exciting because this woman and her friend are heavier than we are, so perhaps their kayaks can teach us something about comfort. It is a complicated process to buy a kayak. There is so much to learn and so many options. Each salesperson seems to have a unique perspective on what would work best. So far I have hated the kayaks I have tried. I don't find them as nice as what I rig up in the canoes, especially the old yellow canoe. I should try to patch the little leak in that one and set it up again as a kayak like experience.
The swimming was wonderful as usual and there were hardly any people. I had the deep side of the pool all to myself and I could just swim in circles and let my mind drift along with the swimming. It is great for stretching things out and getting a bit of exercise.

Etta James died today at 73, just about the age my mother died. I saw her at the Orleans a couple years ago.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/01/etta-james-rip.html

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Tomorrow we will probably go to the Manatee Festival at Crystal River.

A Day at Home

2012-01-19T19:19:00.001-05:00

We were too late to get tickets to the Cajun music tonight. It was sold out and we were number 28 on the waiting list. I think we will be waiting until next year's concert.
It was just as well. We did a good bit of work today. All sorts of things. We hardly took time to eat.
Well, that isn't really true.
We ate.
I know you know we ate.

Lunch was left over stone crab. We ate outside on the stone table. Great stone crab spot. The cement is great for the cracking and who cares if sits and pieces of shell or dripping butter falls on the ground. It just melts into the leaves. Much better than having it over carpet in the Florida room. Along with it we had the salad that Elizabeth took home from her lunch yesterday. Great mixtures of lettuce, carrot, corn, beans, bunches of stuff.
Again the quiet is like nothing I remember. There were maybe three cars that passed, but other than that, no noise whatsoever except some motor clicking in for a while at the neighbor's.

Then for supper we cooked Mangrove snapper using the Chef Paul's Seafood Magic again. This is Elizabeth's favorite. I like it, but I better liked whatever she did to the red snapper, that mixture of fish rub and garlic and who knows?

I also started to day my grapefruit and green tea experiment.
http://eatthis.menshealth.com/slide/green-tea-0?slideshow=77687#sharetagsfocus

We will be up in Homossasa tomorrow for a doctor's appointment, and so we'll get more stone crab and more grapefruit at the open markets there.

My major work today was hemming up the $11 jeans from Walmarts. Elizabeth helped me with the first pair to get them just the right length. This is the hard part. We did not have pins so I used bag clips. They seems to work fine except the thread kept getting tangled on the ends of the clips.

I used the first pair to measure out the second pair and it all worked well. I did the sewing listening to WAMC on the NPR radio. 18 degrees at home. Oh, man! I guess there are not too many eating in the backyard around Burden Lake.

Edgar Allan Poe had a birthday today. He would have been 203 years old. I listened to Garrison Kheilor tell about him on Writer's almanac today on NPR. He only got nine dollars for the Raven. So sad. It is one of the few poems I actually memorized although when I tried to recall it this week, I could not do so. I remember I was inspired by John Mooney, an older fellow at the UCC church camp. He was so talented and showed me what it might be like to be an English major and have passion for literature. I had brought along an anthology of poems and he asked me to check his memory. He could recite many. He became a sort of hero to me.
Well, it is sad that Poe died young, in grief and distress, and never knew how much of an influence he would have on American literature and American young people in particular. Such a shame.
Another sad part is the apparent end of the annual ceremony to honor his birthday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/edgar-allan-poe-toaster-tradition-is-no-more/2012/01/19/gIQAOQUBBQ_blog.html

It is seven and I am tired again. I did not sleep well last night, had some pain and discomfort and was up a long while. Later I rested and we went in the hot tub. That might help with the pains. If I get them again tonight, I'll go out in the dark and sit in the hot tub again.
And perhaps tomorrow I'll take a nice, long, bubble bath.

Meanwhile, this evening, I found that WRPI in Albany is playing a special featuring Ray Charles and some of the music is stuff I never heard. I figured out how to listen on my computer. Great commentary as well. I really liked the music with Betty Carter. I'd like to won that CD.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Charles_and_Betty_Carter

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

2012-01-18T20:08:00.000-05:00

Woke up to a warm enough morning to use the computer in the Florida room. My own little office until it is time to eat. The WD 40 worked on the screech in the metal legs of this table. Ah, the joy in simple things.

I finally did the dishes last night during commercials for "The New Girl" I like that quirky comedy.
We watched "Glee" as well and there I sat through the commercials and was pretty restless. At home we tape these shows and fast forward. Even then the break takes away from the absorption with the show. I best like Roku old TV where the commercial break that once was there is just fade in and fade out. It still makes for a more choppy experience and it not as satisfying as a good, uninterrupted movie, but it is much better than this other craziness. I managed unloading the dish washer and loading all the dishes with Elizabeth just giving me a shout once the show returned.

I read an interesting article on the connection between the love of Capitalism and the insertion of "under God" in the Pledge.
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/for-god-so-loved-the-1-percent/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1
I have been very interested in this lately. I thought there was an oxymoronic connection between the two. As I read Jesus, he was fully in favor of redistributing wealth, although I don't think he favored the middle class, but wanted to raise the suffering poor and to get people's minds off materialism. The minister of my youth, Phil Muir, first connected those dots for me, but then the entire drive of liberal Christianity was for social action. That is what grabbed me.
And I guess what keeps me at some spiritual distance is I do enjoy material goods, from the comfortable and pleasing to the eye cups I find at flea markets to the electronics or my new car.
And while I don't much like prayer at football, I also don't do a whole lot for the world's starving either.

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The NY Times now limits the number of articles I can get per month, but they send me a daily email with the headlines and summaries of stories, so I search out the stories on other sites. It seems to work well and introduces me to other interesting papers. Then I can read my free NY Times articles in those few cases when the it is an editorial of interest from the NY Times and not reprinted anywhere else.

That being said, I enjoyed this article on new perspectives for reducing global warming that are pragmatic, pay for themselves, and help immediately.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/science/countering-climate-change-without-waiting-for-a-payoff.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science

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Elizabeth and I drove up to Ocala where she dropped me at my poker game and went into Gainsville to look around, and back to Ocala. It rained all day, so she had to just shop around. It was a dull day.
Meanwhile I played Omaha at the poker room. I never get to play that game. It was great fun, but I was a pure idiot. Luckily it was a 2-4 game. I ended up down $7.
http://foxwoodspokertr.blogspot.com/2012/01/second-visit-to-ocala-jai-alai.html

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We then went to supper at a barbecue buffet at the Iron Skillet nearby. It was good. It looks like a good place for me to grab a good breakfast on my way to play poker.

It rained until we were home.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

2012-01-17T19:32:00.000-05:00

Last night we did another batch of stone crab, cooking the rest in the bag. We have left overs, but we wanted to get them cooked. A couple years ago we lost a batch in the freezer by waiting too long. Still, these from Shelly's are just much fresher than those we bought before.
Elizabeth took all the left over veggies and beans and blended them into a fine soup. It was so good. Too bad we could never duplicate that recipe. She fixed up the left over squash as well. What a great feast.
I talked to Jacky yesterday for quite a while and she is planning on being here the first week in February. We will hope to see her soon after that. It was a good conversation. She seemed chipper and in good spirits. The radiation has not had many side effects, just exhaustion.

This morning the frigity seems to have lifted. I woke up at 3 AM but I can still use the Florida room. Nice. Hopefully, the house managers come to look at the oven today to see if they can manage to get it up and going again and to teach us how to do that as well.

Well, we got a lesson in how to make the oven do what we want even if the display is missing. Great! Works for me. We just hit "bake" and then punch in the temp numbers.
I went to the flea market where I found some cheap treasures and thankfully passed up a ton of cheap stuff I don't really need. One woman even had cups for a dime.
For a dollar each I bought two more hemostats for removing fish hooks, small ones that are bluegill size. I used to think it was a bargain if I could get these for $3. For $2 I bought a ceramic dog for my dresser that holds wallet and keys and such. It is in the shape of a Dashshund. I have three of them now. I got my first one when I was a kid and my Uncle Charlie loved his and bought me one for my birthday. I got the second shopping at a flea with one of my sons. I just can't remember the details. I rarely see them. Perhaps I'll leave this one at Orford, or perhaps I'll have a third one on my dresser.

The flea market was packed. It sells all small things. Tons of kitchen junk. All sorts of other things. Lots of guns. It is so easy to buy a gun. I heard a vendor talking about what they need to see to sell one and telling that there are plenty of guys who don't bother with any of that documentation. Creepy.
I did not buy books, records, or fishing gear. Sadly, I have all I need, probably for my life. Well, I'll still buy books when I see exactly what I want.
I also bought a $1 tee shirt that will be another shirt I do not have to worry about at supper time. I should have packed some of my stained shirts on this trip. I use the bibs when we go out, but at home I like to eat bib free.

I stopped at Walmarts. I rarely shop there at home, but here it is one of the few places near here to buy what I want. I bought a new shirt and two pair of $11 jeans that fit me but will need to have the legs shortened. I can't seem to find any pants with legs short enough. At Penny's I tried on 29 inch seams and they were too long. Strange. Strange too was the size of the pants I bought. I have a 48 inch waist. But these jeans I bought are 44 inch waist with a note that they are meant to be worn just below the waist. Hip-hop pants I guess. Well, they will do me for a while. Also, found a bit more food items and an extention cord.

We walked at sunset and Elizabeth did get her first no-see-um bite and has ice on it. Too bad. We thought this was bug free, but it just bug sparse. We walked in the neighborhood and actually ended up finding a back way into the Terra Vista gated community dog walk. We met a fellow named Chuck there from Minnesota visiting his children and had a fine and friendly talk. He is a corn and soybean farmer on a huge farm in Minnesota. He was a friendly fellow. At the end of the path in the Terra Vista community there is a large pond and a fine fountain. It was a good walk except for one bug.
Going out on this moonless night, the sky was filled with stars and it was very quiet so there were the stars and the sounds of the crickets and pick black.

It seems our mid February move will be effortless. We can even move over a few days if we want. Nice. No worries. After our move down here, that will be a relief.

Elizabeth cooked up some of the chicken breasts and left over brown rice and collards with the last of the cherry tomatoes. Nice supper. I am waiting for the very slow dish washer to finish a load before cleanup time with a little Dean Martin in the background.

I guess I won't go gambling tomorrow. It promises to be a warm day and we may head out to the pool again. Mornings have still be uncomfortable here. Odd. And once the sun is up, we throw open the doors as it is warmer outside than inside.

Monday, January 16, 2012

2012-01-16T16:58:00.001-05:00

Frank starts his job tomorrow.
"After meeting with a housing counselor, homeowners will have the opportunity to meet with an on-site attorney to discuss the housing counselor’s recommendations and prepare for a court date that will determine whether the foreclosure case can be mediated with the lender."

http://cookcountyforeclosurehelp.org/about/

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It is still pretty cool here on the Florida room porch, but I think it is better than it was yesterday morning. The change in temperature is dramatic once the sun comes out.
Elizabeth talked to Dana yesterday and he seems to be busy but doing well. He had this flu that seems to be going around and was out of work a couple days. Keith has had it and it has been in Peter's family as well. A number of my Facebook friends have caught it. It is severe enough to be mentioned unlike a common cold. Keith was even sleeping out on the couch so as not to spread it around.
Margot is out visiting in Chicago, so hopefully all there are beyond the contagious stage.

We watched Downton, Abbey last night as it progresses through its second season. Oddly, Elizabeth knows how all of this will end. There is closure in the final installment and she has already seen that one. It seems there are other viewers out there who complained that the series ended without closure, so they aired the end of the second season before the season itself. Seems mad to me. I have to keep Elizabeth from telling me what can't happen now because she had seen the ending.
I like the show. It does not seem too drawn out now that I know it will end in some way that finalizes the plot threads rather than continuing them in soap opera style.

Does anyone sell soap on the soap operas anymore?

And speaking of soap, does Ivory still float? I think I'd like a bar for my next bubble bath.

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Happy Birthday Martin Luther King!
I feel sorry that you did not have the pleasure of retirement. I know we lost all that you would have added to our sense of how to treat one another here in the USA. Your messages shaped my life more than any other single public figure.
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The garbage trucks came through this morning. A huge noise for this absolutely quiet neighborhood.

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I thought that I had trouble deciding about what to do for a better dock, but down here it can be a 50 million dollar decision.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/article1204105.ece

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We were a long way away from Brother Tiko last week, but he and the family were eating the same sort of fish on Antigua Island.

********************************************************
This afternoon we swam at the pool and may have made a connection with a friendly woman who will take us out in kayaks. She would like to get on the Homosassa River, so that is the trade. If it happens , it will be a pretty good trade.
We had a blizzard and snack at Dairy Queen. Decadent.
We drove up to see the Gulf of Mexico from a boat launch and very small beach up in Yankee Town/Inglis. It was nice, but we like the other beach better.
Still, it was fine to look out at the islands and out as far as we could see into the Gulf. Fishermen came in with one small snapper that they released. They put their pontoon on a great trailer that allowed them to just motor on up and with very little effort be secured. No ratchet needed. I was impressed.
The water in the Gulf seems warmer than the water in this pool at the house. A young mother and her two year old were froliking on the edges and playing. It was fine to see them.
I stopped at Penny's, but no pants fit me. Even 29 length is just too long. I guess I'll get some cheap ones at Wallmarts and do my own sewing of the cuff as I did last year. Either that or try to order some on line, but if 29 length does not work, what will?
House managers are coming tomorrow to look at the stove to see if they can figure out how to get it working again.

Sunday

2012-01-15T15:34:00.002-05:00

I just baked a yummy butternut squash, but it took forever because the oven is so sporadic. The owner just bought a fine new refrigerator, and now he really should replace this stove as well. (Ah, I'm happy to be a renter.) We have to reset it often, sometimes with the circuit breaker, but the last few times that has not worked either. We did manage to get the oven to bake with no display to tell us the temperature, and so got the squash cooked..

In a fine smoothie, I used up a good bit of fruit that has been here a while, mostly melon with one bananna and a nice chunk of Wyman's blueberries. Elizabeth is content with just milk, but I better like a couple of healthy scoops of plain yogurt. I suspect that the usual advantage of whole fruit is maintained when it is a smoothy as compared to supermarket juice.

I made some more tea in my 33 cent made in Donegal, Ireland teapot and enjoyed it hot and now cold.

We skyped with Keith and Gio and Sasha for a nice visit over the airwaves. Gio seems to remember us. Amazing! He showed us his new drum and played a couple pieces on it. Keith seemed better. He has been sick. We skyped Frank for a few minutes, but he was busy. Margot is there visiting. So we just said hello and let him get back to his day. Sylvia was sleeping and so not skype available.

We talked a long while to neighbor Ron. He may come for a visit after all this season. Slowly our visitors get in their dates, and we get ready for small parties.

It was so cold last night that the heat did not offset it much. This morning I had to move indoors from the Florida room to use the computer. Now I am back and the sun has taken the frigid weather away. What a contrast!!

Last night I watched more television than I have in a long while. Elizabeth went in early to bed and I watched all the British sit coms from "Are You Being Served" "Waiting for God" " As Time Goes By" "Keeping Up Apperances" and one I have not seen before called, "The Worst Week in my Life." I enjoyed all of them, even both repeats on the " As Time Goes By." I never seem to tire of them. They are such a comfort, like the voice of Ray Smith on the radio.

Well, we did a bit of shopping and went to Stumpknocker's for supper. Elizabeth had a fine rib eye. I had country fried chicken. We split the meal so we each had half of each. Good as always washed down with their microbrew.

Sunday morning

2012-01-15T08:25:00.002-05:00

I woke up from a pleasant dream this morning. It was set in Burden Lake. Elizabeth had set up soem sort of a lecture at the house and I was not that interested, so I came a bit late, about the time that the woman would be done talking and the visiting would start.

None of the people there were people I know in my real life, and in the dream they were people I knew only because they were connected to Elizabeth's circle somehow. I was showing them some hanging dried bony animals from the sea, when a crab looked alive. I put a bit of string near the claw, and sure enough, this fellow was alive.

I thought one of the kids had played a trick on us. I took the crab (shaped like a bluecrab but with bigger claws) down and it scuttled behind the couch.

Somehow then in the dream I decided to make a home for the crab and there was a huge old fashioned bathtub full of water and odd bits of sea like rocks and such. The crab was delighted to be dropped into that tub, only now it was not a crab anymore, but a turtle with an intricately carved shell.

We all watched it swimming along and enjoying getting back from near death.

It was a delightful dream, more realistic and without the usual anxiety that dreams can bring.

It is cold again this morning and to write in the Florida room I have to wear a sweater, slippers, and wrap my shorts up in one of the those nice fleece blankets that the Four Queens gave me last visit as a consolation to not having enough points to buy anything at the auction. Still, I like the spot.

It is ironic to come to Florida to escape the cold and be colder than I would be at home.

LuckyPete said that we are heated with a heat pump which just does not deliver like the furnaces at home and so when the temperature drops, it cannot deliver a lot of heat or deliver it fast. Strange to have such a fancy house as this and have it cold in winter. I don't mind it really, but some would.

Yesterday it was like this, and we dressed in winter jackets to go to the Crystal River outside market. But as soon as the sun came out for a while, we tossed off the jackets and enjoyed warmth again.

We saw nothing to buy at the market, but again I saw old windows, like some I have saved in the basement, used as wall art. This time the artist had painted the glass. She told me if I wanted to try it, to get a good paint, an enamel, as other paints would peel off quickly. I think I am more apt to mount my photographs in such a frame. It might be a decorative idea for the poker room at Orford.

I also tasted some pulled pork from the Big Green Egg the Pinch a Penny store was demonstrating which was a grill, an oven, or smoker, a ceramic barbecue grill. It uses charcoal but cooks better than most charcoal grills. We don't barbecue much so it probably would not be practical, but I liked the idea of it except that the price was around $1000. I think I can buy quite a few grills for that amount of money.

The bite of pulled pork, however, cost nothing. Well within my budget.

My 33 cent tea pot is working out very well. It was made in Donegal, Ireland. I keep marveling that the woman who sold it was willing to take 50 cents for it, but had taken the time to glue the handle. Incredible really. Well, she got me to spend another dollar and take two more pieces of her junk. That is the kind of flea market I like. It makes a good pot of tea which I leave on the little glass table and use for iced tea as I want it.

We are hearing birds in the early morning at a bit of a distance, but none come to any of the feeders. It is perfectly quiet here, but that means not many wild things either, just a few gray squirrels and they are rather shy.

Yesterday, I cooked up some Cedar Key Snapper using a recipe that was here in a fish cookbook, but using the Seafood Magic as the spice. I don't remember grilling a fish and then turning it over, but that worked just fine. I had a laugh because the recipe called from bream, another work for bluegill, and I used it on snapper. Usually, I do the reverse, use the saltwater fish recipes for freshwater fish. It crisped the skin and tail up. It is hard to judge the cost with paying for head and innards, but at $2.99 a pound it is a good price and beats the fillets we bought in Homosassa. It did not quite match the red snapper taste, but it was good.

We have been eating more fish here. I bought another bag of Key West shrimp on sale for $8.95 and this time noted that they were the same price as all the other packaged varieties that came from Thailand or Bangladesh. Hard to imagine that there are not more consumers looking for wild caught gulf shrimp and willing to pay for them. I was leery of the gulf fish after the oil spill, but that was just wrong. The oil may have caused some fish disease,

http://blog.al.com/live/2011/10/researcher_northern_gulf_fish.html

http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/wildlife/sick-fish-suggest-oil-spill-still-affecting-gulf/1164042

http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/news/33720

but does not seem to have made any fish poor for the fish market. It is more a case of worrying about toxin damage down the road reducing the catch.

Meanwhile, we ignore the issues of shrimp. The environmental concerns are huge for these little creatures so popular. I avoid the problem of chemicals and pesticides, but not perhaps the trawling in the Keys for my Key shrimp.

http://www.alternet.org/food/145369/shrimp's_dirty_secrets%3A_why_america's_favorite_seafood_is_a_health_and_environmental_nightmare

Slowly the effects of trawling are minimzed by regulations and those trawling in the Gulf seem to be taking steps to help.

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch/species/pink_shrimp.htm

This is a good guide to eating fish in the US

http://simplelifeainteasy.blogspot.com/2011/11/dirty-fish.html

Here to you can see the dirtiest shrimp are those imported.

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_regional.aspx?region_id=0

However, Thailand shrimp might not be as bad a risk thanks to WalMart

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/global-food/the-big-challenge-in-making-farmed-shrimp-safe-to-eat/article1807786/

Or that might just be propaganda

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44701461/ns/health-food_safety/t/tainted-seafood-reaching-american-tables-experts-say/#.TxLOm6V8Am0

It just seems safer here to eat stuff that comes from here. The fish we bought at the Homosassa market are actually provided by a spear fisherman. Now there is a way to keep the environment free from being affecting by the harvesters.

And of course the bluegills of Burden Lake are some of the most sustainable and least environmentally impacted fish of all. Every mercury, the big scare of freshwater fish, is not much of a scare when eating down the food chain and the studies on Burden Lake bluegill actually measured very low levels of mercury and lead, lower than many other lakes in the area. No one at the time knew why, but they suspected that the lake cleans itself so quickly the heavy metals were washed away. Lead was seriously reduced when gasoline no longer contained it as an additive. And now the new EPA laws

http://www.ajc.com/business/epa-issues-mercury-reduction-1267220.html

will reduce the mercury coming from the air corridors. I'll add my thank you to Obama to this one from Minnesota and like minded people serving under him for this law.

http://www.sctimes.com/article/20120101/OPINION/101010035/Letter-Thank-you-Obama-EPA-new-law

While I don't generally go with voting single issue politics, this one would control my vote this time, so I am happy that there have been so many more advances over the last four years that make the decision easy.

I can't understand why this would be partisan decision at all except for the decision to cause gridlock. We've been fighting this pollution all across the country for years now and finally a little bit has been done. But regardless of the politics, this is a huge change for sportsmen and particularly for my own Burden Lake as well as those lakes in the Adirondack's.

Friday, January 13

2012-01-13T19:56:00.000-05:00

Well, not a lucky day they say.
I did needed some luck yesterday when I drove up to Ocala to play poker at the Jai-Alai.
http://foxwoodspokertr.blogspot.com/2012/01/ocala-poker-at-jai-alai.html

It is pretty cold here today. I just finished breakfast of bagel, a nice Page orange, and some blueberry Acai tea. Bigelow makes this flavor. I tried it this week and I like it. I guess the eggnog flavor is gone for the season. I should have bought more of that. What I have was a present from my daughter-in-law Jen and it is very good.

We ate red snapper yesterday. Elizabeth cooked it with some mild spices in the broiler. It was so good. Just much better than anything up North, even in restaurants. Along with it we had a salad and Page oranges.

There Page oranges are so juicy and sweet that when I cut them I have to remember to do it over a bowl to catch the running juices. What a treat!

All of this tells me that I am eating too much grocery store foods that have been shipped from too far. As well as hidden pesticides and other junk, they just are bland. Tons of food and all of it subpar. Tomatoes especially disappoint me. The canned variety still works well, but anything fresh seems a poor imitation of what a tomato is supposed to taste like. Oranges as well.

Today we rode out bikes down the road here. We are in a dip, so when we leave we pedal uphill in either direction. Then when we tire, we just coast home. Neither of us are in shape so for now the rides are short.

We went over to Homosassa and visited the Manatee park. It was fine to see it for the first time this year. I have been missing the water and the park. It was very cold and there were a large group of manatees in at the observation platform. It would have been a fine day to be swimming with them but no one was out as it was both cold and windy.

Lu looked good. He was up eating and then he had his head out of water for a while while he worked something out from where it was stuck and could not be swallowed. Fun.

Afterwards we went to Charlie's for fish. Nice mix of fish and crab cakes and lobster bisque with a couple hushpuppies and honey for dessert. Even two for one margaritas. Good.

Nice day in spite of the cold.

Sleepless

2012-01-12T03:00:00.000-05:00

Up again for a couple hours tonight.
I took at look at the hits on this blog. Since Jan 2 there have been 176 hits on an old cheese pun thread that started with banter between my old buddy Gary and his wife Rose and me. I posted in 2008 and it is the most popular post in the blog, fifty percent more popular than the blog as a whole unit.
Viewers come from all over the world, but a large portion of them come from the UK.
They come in on a search for cheese puns or similar kinds of searches.
Generally, when I write here I suppose I have half a dozen readers. I don't get many comments. And who really want to know right now that I am sleepless? How interesting is that?
Still this cheese pun phenomena is just bizarre especially since I don't update that post with new puns nor do the collectors of the puns leave comments, although two did yesterday.
Perhaps somewhere there is some sort of game where the players have to collect cheese puns to win.

I called the Stratosphere tonight for information on resort fees. They have a wild policy. They charge them for five nights and then they don't. The amenity is free access to the tower. I don't suppoe I will go there. But the right week would mean I could have coffee in the morning and see all of Vegas.

I think it is quiet here in the daytime, but at this hour it is really quiet. I can't even here any far away road traffic. No dogs bark. Nothing.
And there are no bugs that I can identify.
I do wish the birds would start.

Rainy Day

2012-01-11T19:01:00.001-05:00

Luckypete called this the beginning of a Noreasterner that will head North and bring snow.
It seemed like a mild rainy day to me.

When I showed Luckypete my dashboard yesterday, I put my keys in the ignition to let him see how it lights up. Well, I did not take them out. Maybe I even left it turned on. The GPS drew power all night. So the battery was dead this morning.
From AAA came the truck with a little jump box and he got it running. He was a character. At one time he told me he could not help us. " Why?" we asked, thinking that it had something to do with a major breakdown of the car. "You are from New York," he explained.
He was quite a jokester, but he had me going for a while and after all this car business over the last few weeks. it just wasn't so funny.
We had to reschedule at Dodge, and we wanted to drive a while to charge the battery. We drove up to Kim's for breakfast. It is so much better there than at the other little places. it beat that Cockadoodle place by a mile, both in food and in cost. We had eggs and bacon and fried green tomatoes and I had grits with a good hot sauce. It was great.We read the Chronicle and saw a photo of dolphin and a pelican chasing the mullet on Homosassa River. Well, that made us miss the water.
The top story was of the whooping cranes held up in Alabama

http://www.walb.com/story/16455590/whooping-cranes-grounded-by-red-tape

It was the first we had heard of it. Everything is one bureaucratic nightmare these days. I'm just tired of it.

Elizabeth had her hair cut while I went to the grocery and to my favorite thrift store, the one near Homosassa. I bought a fine sandwich press like the one we took from Bernie's. We have missed it. I bought some other things as well for this Florida container and a couple things for home including a boat that can hold kitchen spoons and has two mounted on the sides like oars. I got a few more glasses, so we are pretty much set on those. It was fun.

Then we went to the Dodge place and walked up to Ma's Kountry Cafe for lunch. Well, it was good, but nothing to rave about. The waiter was a jokester and we liked him. In the same plaza I had my hair cut and I liked it. The barber was friendly and easy and he played old records on a turntable, mostly Dean Martin. Around the shop he had some photos of Dean and Frank and Godfather posters. Also there were two of Elvis getting his hair cut. Those were pretty interesting, not perhaps in the media as they had been in the drawer of a custome for many years.

Then we came home. I hooked up that flat bird feeder we bought down here one year. I have it rigged so that we could see birds from the hot tub were they to find the source of food. We hear birds here, but have really not seen any except for a few crow. I rigged it by throwing a rope over a high branch like we used to do when we were cutting down trees for firewood. Perhaps it will not be available for the few gray squirrels I have seen here.

For the most part the rain stopped and it is just cloudy. Not a bad day at all, really, just not the normal sunshine.

Elizabeth is arranging the company for the next month. So we will have some good times coming soon. But for now we are enjoying the quiet of this place. We will probably soon be up for some entertainment, but just now we are entertained well enough in the house.

I am happy to have my car with new oil and filter. The mechanics could not duplicate the knocking we heard and think it is not much, perhaps as everyone has said related to poor gasoline. We have not heard it much lately. So, I'll free myself up to go play some poker one of these nights.

For supper we mixed another recipe starting with the bean soup. This time I added some cream of mushroom soup along with the Patak Tika Marsala from the jar. Elizabeth ran all of hers through a blender, but I kept the chunks. I liked mine best, but hers was delicious as well and ranks a place in my recipe blog.
http://weightlossveggie.blogspot.com/
We accompanied the soup with bagels toasted and coated with humus.
I accompanied it with Mirassou Pinot Noir

http://www.mirassou.com/wines/california-pinot-noir.asp

Oh, very nice. Now if I can just remember to buy it when I get back up North in April. I should have opened this one when neighbor Ron came over. We tried two bottles. The first was just too sour for company and I should have known at two bottles for five bucks. But I think I bought this one at the same store in Colonie on my way to play poker.

Anyway, a good supper here.
We sang to Peter. He was lucky at the poker at Gregg's and came away with $250 which it a huge win for that game. I talked to him and Jay is beginning the repairs there, so things are looking up all around.

I sure love the quiet of this Florida room. Elizabeth who is always seeking quiet, it seeking music and such today. One door separates our computers and I can just barely tell she is playing a video or music or both. Being here reminds me of my time in a similar porch on Warren Street when I first was relieved of the duty of working on the Burden Lake house every minute. It was such a wonderful relief to just sit and read on that porch away from everyone and away from the worry of the house.

Well, happy birthday Peter. Hope all things improve for you over this next year of your life.

Tuesday, January 10

2012-01-10T18:18:00.001-05:00

Well, the morning alarms are set, so I hope they wake me up if I sleep in. I go to the Dodge dealer at 8 AM.

Lucky Pete and Captivating Carol came today to see this place and they showed us a Cuban place nearby where we all had some dinner. I ate the buffet. The rest were more moderate and ordered from the menu, mostly sandwiches. Peter came with a coupon for five dollars off. Good ole Lucky Pete.
http://havanahousecafe.com/?page=36756

The buffet included meatballs, a pork chop in mushroom sauce, a chimichanga, some stewed pork, a white bean and sausage soup, plantains, black beans. It was all tasty and I used the hot sauce in the black beans and found that very good as well. Peter had a pulled pork sandwich. Elizabeth and Carol had wraps. I drank a mango Jarrito soda but it was not as good as the tamarind flavor. That is the one I drink at home.

JARRITO SODAS

We also went to a nearby flea market where I found some useful items for a quarter to a dollar. It is a good one and we will perhaps go back. No covering, just tables out in a field. Every Tuesday. There is another one nearby that goes two other days of the week.

We had a fine visit and got caught up on money, children, Vegas, travels, cars, and swimming pool solar pumps.

It was a long drive for them, two and a half hours. Next time we will visit them or meet in between.
Thanks Lucky Pete and Carol for coming all that way.
And when you hit big in Vegas, remember to say

Yippeeeeeeee~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I rocked a bit in the swing under the trees in front. That sure felt Southern. Looking up were the tree branches decorated in Spanish moss. All I needed was a mint julep. Instead, I read some Faulkner and sipped my water. Still, Faulkner was certainly appropriate.

It is very quiet here. We love that. There is next to no traffic and no outdoor sounds.
We hear birds, but so far none have come to the feeders. I want to put up one other feeder where we can see it from the hot tub. We were in that again today. It just feels great with the woods all around.

In the evening watching Prada to Nada. It is pretty corny, but I like the Latino settings.

Monday Jan 9

2012-01-09T17:35:00.000-05:00

I was up for an hour, but I went back to bed and slept until 10:30. I am rested!!
Elizabeth is dancing to the X box, some hip hop moves. I watched for a while. With this big screen and soft rug it is an ideal spot. She decided that if she switches from Roku to X Box in the same TV plug, it is easier to get the electronics to run without trouble.

I had some more of my bean soup for breakfast, trying some of the dry marsala spice. It is hotter, but not as tasty as the jar of Patak's. I think next time I'll use a bit of both.

It is great to have all this sweet citrus to eat here. And this honey is just fine in my tea.

Outside here by the pool and the birds are chirping, but the pool motor does run most of the time. I think the vacuum pump gets stalled. It makes it clear to me that I don't want to have one of these. I'd move into the yard, but the battery on this computer only lasts for a short while.
It is fine to be outside even with the pool motor. Such a pleasant spot.

We went into the post office and got the form we need to make sure the postal carrier knows that we are going to get mail. We filled it out. We met her on the street as we came back and had a nice talk. She is a fine woman. So we should not have trouble getting the mail.

I ordered drugs today. The sleep apnea people are giving me a hard time. I need a face to face with my doctor they say because I am now on Medicare. Always something.

Elizabeth took the broth and picked meat that I mad from the chicken carcass, added summer squash and portabella mushrooms and whole grain pasta and made a fine soup for supper. She thought about tomatoes, but I discouraged her and I was glad of it. I had some English muffins along with it laced with more of the leftover stone crab butter. That is so good as it has just a hint of the stone crab taste in it from the dipping of pieces.

Tea with honey and strawberries for dessert.

I read a bit of Faulkner out on the cement table in the yard. The crows were not really sure they wanted me there. It was very nice there; it was at sunset and there were no bugs out.

Elizabeth took her bike for a short spin in the neighborhood.
It was a quiet and nice day.
Luckypete and Captivating Carol called to confirm their coming tomorrow.
yipeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And Ann Marie called to say no cancer found after a series of invasive biopsies. She will make the trip to Florida and is both relieved and happy as are we to have this long ordeal end on a good note.

So, it had been one very nice day indeed.

Sunday only I think it is Monday

2012-01-08T23:05:00.001-05:00

So I've been calling my med suppliers and telling at them that they need to be open when they say they are open. Luckily, all the yelling has gone on only in my head, so I did not embarrass myself, until now.

Odd, because I have not been overtired today. I slept through last night.

One thing Elizabeth does well is bring all the electronics along. That is why we need a van.
Today's project was to set up the X Box so she and I and guests can jump up and down when the television tells us to and earn points. It is a good bit like poker, only without any cards, or dice, or seats. On this huge screen it will be fun. The layout of the room gives us plenty of space for jumping.
Well, that did not work well for her. It got pretty complicated and she knocked out the entire network and had to figure how to get back in again.
So, maybe we won't be jumping after all.

I read some more Faulkner today, and I'm really liking it. I did not rise to it in college. And I did not teach it. Teaching Twain was hard enough in the inner city. There was a good bit to explain. Teaching Faulkner would have been really difficult. I like rising to it because it was a hole in my American literature understanding. Maybe I'll take a class when I get back. We hear that classes are free for seniors at SUNY.

Looks like we have our first social event planned. We are going to see Luckypete and Captivating Carol sometime this week. Whooopieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Breakfast was orange juice not made from concentrate, a nice mix of melon, mango, red grapes, kiwi, and a bite of pear with an English muffin spread with garlic humus. Very good. The new dollar store plates reduced my anxiety about dropping one of the matched set here. These dishes they have are even matched to the placemats in the Florida room. Very nice. But the old arthritic hand won't have any respect for that if I lose concentration for a minute.

In Vegas I see that they have added a car to the Imperial Palace collection, so perhaps the renovations in the that area for the new Ling project won't eliminate the car collection after all. The less the Imperial Palace changes, the better. O'Shea's will just be gone. Too bad. No more live poker inches from the strip.
They report an upsurge in visitors as the end of recession begins to lift the lack of revenue there. Still, the room rates for my May trip look really good. My new downtown home Gold Spike has rooms right now at $30. And I'll pay that as I really liked that place. If I can work in a weekend for free at the Four Queens, I'll be set.

The Republican politics goes along to keep Romney as the front runner. I'm happy to see these irregulars go. They are so crazy.

Elizabeth and I went for a swim up at the Crystal Lake Park today. It was as nice as ever. It takes twenty three minutes to get there from here.
Then we went down to the old stomping gounds and bought seafood. We will have some stone crab for supper. Oh boy! It has been a long wait.
We will freeze some of the fish we bought, red snapper, hog fish, and mango snapper so as to have it until we move down there and we can get it almost daily.

We also shopped a bit at the Bealls outlet and we each found a new swimsuit. Mine is colorful in a tie dye sort of way, with a really nice tie and it is long. I'm sure I will love it. I also got another sleeping shirt and thought I bought sleeping pants, but they were not in the bag.

At the fruit stand we bought a whole bag of those Page orange/clementine crosses, and a few Honey bell oranges as well. Both come only at this time of year and are very good.

Elizabeth cooked up stone crab and did the collard greens in olive oil with Bruce's garlic. It made a fine meal. in the Florida room.

In the evening we watched Downton Abbey, both an old episode and the beginning of the second season. It moves along with some of the subplots never seeming to be resolved, but not so much a sense of the same thing over and over.

So now to bed.

Saturday afternoon

2012-01-07T17:30:00.000-05:00

Well, another nice afternoon.

We went up to the Farmer's Market and found very little food. I was happy to talk to the people who made the honey I bought at the other little market from Bee Sweet apiary. It is pretty raw, just strained for the larger bee pieces, but uncooked and unfiltered, and it all comes from local bees. One flavor is Tupelo, but it does not come from Mississippi, but from the panhandle where there are the right trees to make it.

http://www.tupelohoney.org/

So I bought some of that as well as what I bought yesteray. It is supposed to be good for diabetics, one of the few sweets they can easily tolerate. I am not diabetic, but I suspect I am leaning in that direction. So it is a good precaution.

We did find some food to buy. We got some tangerines and a big batch of collard greens. Elizabeth in tends to fry these up with some of Bruce's garlic. She wanted to put it in the bean soup, but I just got that so I can make a bowl that I like. I add a good bit of vegetable broth and some tika marsala curry from the jar, and about two thirds cup of whole wheat macaroni elbows. That reduced the overpowering of the spinach enough to make the soup taste the way I first expected. The curry is very, very mild. So, I'll leave the base soup alone and continue to have us make our unique bowls. It made a fine supper tonight.

For lunch we walked across to the Cockadoodle Cafe. It was okay, but we were disappointed both in the price and in the meal. We both had eggs and corned beef hash.
The decorations were great, however. The place was covered in roosters.

Note the rooster in the bottom photo is a cow.

We took a fine walk around Inverness and found an Italian deli where Elizabeth bought some Italian olives. This is a popular spot in Inverness, but I was not too impressed with the menu or the few Italian things for sale. I could not even find anchovies here.

We shopped a bit at a thrift store and at Bealls on their big sale, but for the most part I found both these spots overprice. I bought a few things at the Dollar Store where I paid the thrift store price but got a better selection of what we wanted. Elizabeth found one thrift store cup and some clothing on a good sale.

In this plaza there was some sort of a Ford car show. Here are some of the automobiles we saw:

Of course, if any man decides to do any work on one of them, others have to crowd around to help.

Well, it was warm here, but not warm enough to bring the pool up much above fifty which is too cold to swim.

Saturday morning thoughts

2012-01-07T08:02:00.001-05:00

Reading the LA paper in the early morning.
I did not sleep well last night.

I am reading about Eric Yahnker's Analogous to the Fall of That One Empire (Moby Dick), a process piece in which the artist cut up a copy of Melville’s novel and made mounds of every letter, number and punctuation mark.
http://www.latimesmagazine.com/2010/01/jokers-wild.html

This illustrates just how far away from modern art that I am. I can't rise to this. Comedy may be a way to get to truth, but I can't follow this line at all. Perhaps truth is overrated.

I do like the LA Times. Unlike the NY Times they have not limited how many articles a month I can read online. So I just skim the NY Times headlines and put the articles I would like to read in the search engine. Often I read BBC.
Today I see that the US Navy as rescued some Iranian fishermen from Somali pirates. Amazing. Ironically, it is at the same time that political Iran is threatening to shut down the oil routes for the West if sanctions happen. It is a good read for me. It reminds me that all these relationships between countries are very complex, and that one segment of a nation may be happy to know us while another is acting the jerk.

Great news on immigration. Common sense.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-immigration-20120107,0,5923586.story

I had left over pizza for breakfast. I am now completely decadent. Good thing none of it is left.

We got the massage chair working today, as well as the foot massager. Elizabeth is giggling right now with those two things working.
We will also put birdfeed in the feeder.

Groceries in Florida

2012-01-06T18:28:00.003-05:00

Guzik sent over a few photos that we made while we were playing with his new camera. Here is one of us in his kitchen there in S. Carolina

We went back to the Brooklyn Deli we liked last year for lunch and had some tasty wraps and a knish. It satisfied.

We went to a small local grocery advertising local produce, but so much of it was not local it was hard to tell when it mattered.
We bought quite a few things and used our coupon of 69 cents a pound for tomatoes.
Then we went to the nearby Sweetbay (like Hannaford } and stocked up.
It was not like it will be at the new Trader Joe's on Wolfe Road in Albany, but it was nice just the same. I always like grocery shopping. I remember when my first wife and I were first married to Margot with no money in Sault Ste Marie. We would get our Air Force money for food at the beginning of the month and shop very frugally, but still much of it would be gone by the end of the month. We watched the sales and passed up plenty when we shopped. I remember cuddling up in bed one night and feeling glad to have restocked the pantry when Margot said,
"I hope someday we will be able to just go to the store and buy anything we want."
And I honestly thought that would never happen.
Well, I still watch sales, but that day has arrived for me. Elizabeth and I pass up very little that we want in the grocery.

Back at home we did learn that in winter the poo here l is not heated. Too bad. We got that wrong. So for swimming we will drive into Crystal River again or perhaps I'll try my wetsuit. Just now the temperature is really pretty cold.

I tried my bean soup again tonight, adding to my bowl a good bit of vegetable broth and that seems to lessen the strength of the spinach. It is good. But I can see that the addition of some whole wheat pasta will be welcome. And then I'll try adding some Indian curry like spices. The nice thing about making a large base soup is experimentation can happen in each bowl.

I moved my computer out on the Florida room table. It is warm here and fine. The ceiling is outlined in a string of soft amber bird shaped lights that just give enough light to take out the darkness.

I can even play some videos without bothering anyone. Today I found a great one in which my old student Stephon Harris plays and lectures on jazz. He looks the same only now he is a grown man.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector?blend=1&ob=5#p/u/13/7shXEFuxHAA

I am always so surprised to be so old.

Frank announced his job on Facebook so I guess it is safe to announce here. He will be working for Cook County and basically making sure that when there is a mortgage mediation the home owner and the bank have done all the paperwork to get ready to bargain, so they don't waste mediation time on stuff that has no substance. It is a cool job. While Frank won't be on one side of the other, just the nature of the job will more often help the home owner move the case along and perhaps keep the house rather than see it go into foreclosure. He starts with seven others all beginning this kind of paid job for the first time. The job did not exist before. So that should be exciting as well, to begin something with other beginners. And it should be an opportunity to make friends. Congratulations Frank. Enjoy.

It sure in quiet here.

Today in Albany the sunset was at 4:37
Here it was at 5:46
Just sayin'

Tomorrow we will head into Inverness for the Farmer's Market and hope to find some more good food.

Friday is a day of sloth

2012-01-06T12:08:00.000-05:00

I did sleep through the night until 5:30. I got up and read around on the computer, had a bite of pizza for breakfast, and then decided to rest up a bit. Out mornings inside are a bit chilly. The heating here is a bit slow as it common I guess int the South. So I turned on Jazz Decades on the wifi radio and went to sleep.
I woke up and decided to take a bath in the bubble bath. It is much nicer that the one we have upstairs at home that I never use. This one held most of the heat of the water and so I soaked and listened to Ray Smith while Elizabeth puttered around with more unpacking and arranging. She brought me in a couple kettles of boiling water to boost the bath. It was great.

So after my bubble bath, I exercised:
I took a long walk from the jazuzzi to the hot tub in the back yard.

And after that strenuous exercise, Elizabeth and I soaked in that tub for the first time. It is so private here that we can soak naked. Mostly trees around us.
I offered to take Elizabeth's photo as she had taken mine, but for some reason, she declined.

The pool is still pretty cold. I had thought it was a heated pool, but it does not seem to be. It is too cool to swim. I may use my wetsuit.

It is very quiet here, much more so than at the old places. I have not seen another living person here on the streets since we arrived. Nor have I heard a barking dog.
We have not been out long enough to know if we have escaped the biting no see ums. Elizabeth seems to think that she saw a couple yesterday. Let's hope not.

Well, I think we had better go shopping. We can't live on restaurant leftovers and pizza forever.

Unpacking and lazy

2012-01-05T21:39:00.000-05:00

We almost made it out of the house today.
And then we didn't.

We unpacked and organized most of the day.

And we just enjoyed the house. This is going to be great.
I cooked a bean soup but put too much spinach in it.
We ordered pizza delivered. We never do that.

Watched a Rockford File on the television. Elizabeth took about two hours to figure out how to get it working once we figured out how to connect it. She is so patient. Then she had it.
Bingo!

This big screen television is pretty wild.

I hooked up the radio so that I can hear my stations, especially Ray Smith.

There is just room here for everything. It is so amazing. Drawers galore and walk in closets and huge bathroom space. Easy to unpack.

I am still pretty tired and going in to bed.

Tomorrow we have to shop. We ate up every bit of left over food from the restaurants. I had fajitas for breakfast and a pear from two hotels ago.

South Carolina and then Florida

2012-01-05T12:25:00.003-05:00

From the hotel in Virginia, Elizabeth saw that our route included another snow storm, so she went inland and wove around it. At 2 PM we realized that we were near Myrtle Beach. Well, we had missed the Guzik visit with all the car issues, so we called and asked it there was room at the Inn. There was!
In a couple three hours, getting lost twice, we found our way to the Guzik's and saw their new retirement house. Wow! It was a castle on a lake.
They fed us some fine chicken baked in garlic, oregano, basil, diced tomatoe and accompanied with roasted potatoes and pumpkin. I never had that before. It was delicious. Well, Gail is a fine cook.
We walked over to see Don and Josey's house. It has high ceilings and a different Mediterranean look. It felt good to see Don and Jerry planning their retirement years togethers.
It was a good long visit, covering aspects of politics, old stories, the challenge of dealing with aging parents and plenty of banter.

Gayle, Dewey and Elizabeth

Jerry took the photo so below is a photo of him along with Gail and their son Adam, his girlfriend, and daughter Amy. They were not all there; but they were celbrated in story.

I read an interesting book that Gail was given for Xmas by Adam's girlfriend. It was called Mary and was a composite of much of the art through the centuries as well as a condensation of the stories surrounding Mary. A great book. It collected and organized the stories and the theology around Mary much in the way Joseph Campbell did, but from a more Roman Catholic perspective.

http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Martina-DeglInnocenti/dp/B004KAB70I/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325785129&sr=1-6

We were on the road by 10:30 with nine hours of driving ahead. We usually do five or six, but this day we just pushed along and finally made the decision to push ahead so as to arrive in Florida that day. It was a good decision. I had forgotten that the roads would get continually easier and eventually be almost totally deserted for a long, long stretch. We stopped about 45 minutes away and had a fine rest and some Greek supper. We ordered Laki's platter of Moussaka, Patissio, Dolmades, Tyropita and Spanaopita as well as roasted leg of lamb done in oregono with a fine rice pilaf. It was all good and made our breakfast here this morning as well.
We arrive tired. It was very dark. The solar flashlight was out of sun. One other flashlight was in the back of the car and one was packed close to the passenger's sliding door, but had gotten pushed back a bit. Of course, this last and easy flashlight was not one I found.
We were faced with a locked box that included a key, but we had only the little red light of Elizabeth and she could not see to open it.
Why did I not have one of Ron's little lights in my glovebox? That would have done it.

I decided to just take the bikes off, so I had access to the rear of the van. That was a good idea, except the bikes were on with a safety chain that had a combination lock, and we could not see to open that.
So there we were. We could not even move the car easily without reattaching the bikes. And we did not want to drive for yet another flashlight.
So I unpacked most of the van in the dark, pulled back the rear plastic cases, and squeezed my hand into where I found one of the flashlights.
And that gave enough light so Elizabeth could get the doorkey.
Whew!

The house is just wonderful! We had only seen photos of the inside. We are delighted. The refrigerator broke this week and they just got a new one in today. We were all lucky that we came late, I guess. Although we could have done without a refrigerator for a few days.

I went to bet just short of midnight and slept right through. I think the beds are some of the most comfortable I ever encountered.

Well, I snapped a few details so that I could record the sense of this place. It is quite oppulent and we are going to be very happy here if I can remember which way my bedroom is located. The heat is coming up. It was cool this morning. The pool and jacuzzi are yet to be turned on heat. We'll do that soon.
I unpacked our Florida odds and ends and they match well with what is here. We will have everything we need.

These are the guest bedrooms. Our bed is not made but it is larger and higher. In the master bedroom there is a walk in closet and a huge bathroom with a wrap around counter, a tub with jets.

The beds are so high that some folks might need a bit of help climbing up.

Often this is the size of the kitchen.

Here it is a separate wet bar with a great feature

And here is the kitchen

This is the Florida room just next to the pool

If we cook and eat here, there is a way to pass food through

Here is the pool.

and hot tub

This blue chair in the Florida room vibrates for massage, including foot massage.

Sense of the dining room furniture look.

Outside is large and nice. We have a fine picnic table of stone and a nice swing.

We are connected to the wifi, but having trouble getting the Roku connected to the large screen television which is one huge TV.

We arrived

2012-01-04T23:26:00.002-05:00

More tomorrow

One pretty big margarita

2012-01-02T20:36:00.000-05:00

From this Comfort Inn just South of Roanoke we walked for supper to a Mexican place next door, picking out way through the snow which was so deep it came almost up to the soles of our shoes at times.
I had a medium margarita and it did make me a bit drunk. We ate fajitas, but mine were unusual, make with pineapple and served in half a pineapple. It was delicsious. I need to cook more often with pineapple, especially with chicken.

The journey was easy again. We had some flurries of snow, but they did not raise much anxiety.

For lunch we stopped in Strasburg.
http://www.hotelstrasburg.com/
We got a tip at a rest stop from a fellow passing through.
What a great old place this was. Usually, these sorts of old places, completely decorated with turn of the century antiques, boost up their prices. These were inexpensive price for expensive ambiance. We ate a wonderful carrot soup, Elizabeth had a wrap and I had a great salad. They had on the menu four fancy salads, perhaps very similar but with slightly different ingredients or dressings. Mine had gorgonzola, mixed greens, cranberry, sliced almonds, carrots topped with a vinagrette.

There was a Christmas tree that did look turn of the century. There were pointsetta flowers, and small old ornaments. I could see three dolls : a black and a white and on the top an angel with a huge fancy laced dress. The tree was dimly lit in amber lights mounted on some sort of pine come looking mounts.
Our room, and perhaps most of the restaurant was decorated in old plates and most of them were of some sort of flower design. Near the looby were prints with scened of Civil War era life. Tables and chairs were antiques. We did not have room for the pies, but they looked very good. One was a cherry and apple pie. I have never seen those two fruits blended into one pie. Blueberry pie was there as well. The waitress Beth was a cute girl with welcoming smiles.
The whole stop was delightful.

We listened to some of the podcasts that Steve taped for us, and to blues, and for a while to country music. Did you ever notice that most Spanish songs have "corazon" and most country western songs have some reference to fried chicken? Johnny Cash sang Sunday Morning Sidewalk. What a great song.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RLiuPRMJy8

Along the route the colors were delightful. At one point I saw a fine beige horse with a wide and well groomed mane in a field where the color of horse was picked up by the lighter colors in the growing hay and weeds. Always horses seem to look like they are waiting. And always I wonder what it might be like to be the owner of that horse.

At sunset the sky was dramatic. We could see the sun, see the dark clouds, see the patterns and the shadings. We enjoyed it.

I don't know if the econ button was part of the mileage, but we did get close to 24 mpg today.

Well, about half way to out place in Florida.

Here in Pennsylvania

2012-01-01T21:40:00.001-05:00

We are in Pine Grove, Pennslyvania.
We tired out before Shippensburg.
The packing took longer than we estimated and last night was a sleepless night, so we started late.

But we found a fine motel. This time Elizabeth used a Room Saver coupon that she could bring up on her phone but not print. Imagine that. Comfort Inn for $59

We did not swim tonight, but had a fine diner meal in this 50's diner, pork chops and meat loaf and a decadent mix of potatoes and stuffing with gravy. Yuengling (thanks DVR) on tap. We are not eating healthy. They played Peter's favorite Casey Jones on the invisible jute box.
We watched them look for Bigfoot on some strange television show. I see so little of this sort of TV that I forget how ridiculous it is.
And now we are almost asleep. We can swim in the morning.

The van feels good to drive. The cruise is greatly improved as is the entire dashboard. Mileage averaged 23, not bad packed up with all this weight. The bikes were still a puzzle, but I think we have them loaded up fine.

I love that route we took today through the rolling hills of New York and then into the farmland of Pennsylvania. So relaxing. Very little traffic today too. It is a good day to travel. Very few folks on the road or at the motel.

I am starting to feel like we are in charge again. Sometimes it seems events drive our lives, but most of the time, being retired, we drive events.
So it is today.
Happy New Year.

Okay, we go tomorrow

2011-12-31T18:51:00.003-05:00

It has been a pretty frantic few days. The old van was towed to Albany Dodge, and we still don't know exactly what the problems were. It was more than the $800 fuel pump replacement, that was certain.

It turns out that the last day of December is the best day to buy a car. Something about quotas and rebates and, well... They took the old van in trade for about a grand less than I paid for it, and with water in the gas tank and an unclear engine diagnosis (just that Mark suspected a blown head gasket.)
By trading before they had a chance to look, the old van and whatever its ailments, is now their problem.
They knew we were in a hurry. And it was the last day of the month, so they were in a hurry as well. So they offered a good deal.

I now own a 2012 Grand Caravan. It is the same silver color, but the bare bones model, so no automatic sliding doors or seats or halo light, but it has pretty much everything I really like or need with some improvements since 2008.
The way I drive, I'll have 5 years of powertrain warranted. So I won't be going through this kind of mess again for 5 years.

This recession helped again. How I can borrow ten grand at 1.83 percent is a mystery to me! But that was the deal.

It gives us peace of mind on our way to Florida and sets me up with a vehicle that I don't have to worry much about. In the long run the few bells and whistles I traded away would have cost plenty were they to break, so I buy a more practical van to keep longer than 5 years and drive it into the ground.

Many thanks to son Keith and to Lucky Pete in Florida for all their help and advice, even if we did not always take it.

So here are the features I will celebrate:

1. I thought this salesman was giving me some more mucka jucka when he told me it would handle better. I never drove it, letting Elizabeth do the test drive. Guess what? It does handle better.
2. I could not see that the 3.6 liter engine had less pep than that 3.8 liter engine in the 2008. We'll see how it is packed up tomorrow. The old 3.3 liter was not enough power for some people who reviewed it. I guess all are now 3.6.
3 The cruise control is on the steering wheel and so much easier than that stick with the end button to push.
4. With the elimination of that halo light and extra glasses storage section running down the central ceiling of the van, there is a couple more inches for things that I might carry to fit without hitting that run of plastic.
5. I think the stow-and-go second row seats are simpler to stow. I know that all the seats that stow also have a way to be seats with the head rests flipped down into the seat, so that visibility is greatly improved from the driver's seat when no one sits in unstowed seats.
6. I don't think that my old key fob had an emergency key in it in case the fob was not functioning. This one does.
7. They charged me $80 to move the trailer hitch, but they gave me over $50 in gas in the tank.
8. The ability to hand shift into one of the drive modes is there and functional. The front window has good glass tinting. The radio is exactly the same and it has the Aux-in jack hole, so I can play my tape player through the car system.
9. The interior is beige. I never liked that dark interior of the old van.
10. I think that I have an extra door protection strip.
11. The drink caddy is not in this one between the two seats. I always hated that caddy. It never would really hold drinks. I certainly can make one more functional if I want anything more than perhaps a zippered bag for change and what not. We have two nice drink holders that pop out of the dash.
12. The dash lights and look have changed and I like the new very much. I can see it so much better.

I am certain there will be more.
I do like to celebrate.

On the way home we had a fine New Year's Eve dinner at the Arlington House. I had a wonderfully glazed salmon and a bowl of lobster bisque. Elizabeth had delicious slice lamb and an eggplant something or other. It was all good and the place just fit celebrating the end of old troubles and the beginning of a new year.

So we pack up early tomorrow and head out to Walnut Bottom Road, Shippensburg PA for a good swim.
My back up plan was to go into Albany and get drunk and call one of those places that gives you a ride home on New Years Eve.

"So where do you live, sir?"
"Why, I live in Homosassa Florida and thanks for the lift home"
Happy New Year!!

Walleye

2011-12-29T21:45:00.000-05:00

So, as long as we were in limbo with nothing in the refrigerator, we decided up to Marty's for a quick early supper. Marty's is only open Thursday through Sunday now, winter hours.

We started with a tasty pea soup with ham, not the canned variety.
I had the walleye and it was very good. Two thick chunks with a glaze I could not identify. Very good. Elizabeth had fried chicken and that was good as well.
They did cook the sweet potato fries extra crispy, but the beans were near raw. Elizabeth likes them that way, but I like them cooked more.

Along with supper I had a eight barrel super IPA and found it very refreshing.
Elizabeth was not impressed.
It was brewed by this Chatham brewery

http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2011/02/25/chatham-brewing-back-alley-operation-big-time-tast

and in the spring I want to go to that place with a growler, or at least a fruit jar.

Next to us was a Black grandpa ( a bit younger than I) with white grandmother (perhaps once blond,) his light skinned son and beautiful wife (she looked a bit Spanish,) and their three kids who were all delightful, but the youngest was blond as she could be.
The children were very well behaved. Crayon art was the focus of the afternoon. It felt good to be in the Adirondack decorated place along side a great Cosmopolitan family and the sounds of children coloring. It cheered us.

At home we watched "Murder She Wrote" but it was not the tightest of stories.

I am reading "Light in August," a Faulkner that I never read. I like it. I can see similarity in sentence rhythms with Hemingway. It must have been a way of those times. Some of the visual details are perfectly succinct. I studied some Faulkner, but all I remember is some of the discussion of theme, not much on style of writing.

Still Here

2011-12-29T12:41:00.003-05:00

The car broke minutes before we were to pack it.
I had it towed from Burden Lake Road to mechanic Mark in Albany.
http://www.gocomics.com/herman/?utm_source=GoComics&utm_medium=free_email&utm_campaign=user_comic
Everything is packed and ready and the refrigerator has a half dozen things in it. All the work for winter is done.
The car may be done tomorrow. Fuel pump. Part cost alone is $800 and they have to take out the gas tank to replace it.

In the summer of '65, my '54 Dodge lost a fuel pump when I was practice driving on my permit out Transit Road with my mom and dad coaching.
We called the local garage.
The guy replaced it while smoking a cigarette.
My mother questioned the safety of that practice.
"Well, I have't blown anything up yet," he explained.

I think it cost $24, installed right there on the side of Transit with just the simplest of tools.
For what this will cost, we could have rented another month in Florida or I could have done a month in Vegas room and food and shows.

inky dinky spider turns out to be no dummy

2011-12-28T03:03:00.000-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/science/tiniest-of-spiders-are-loaded-with-brains-researchers-find.html?_r=1&ref=science

.

Cory and Dana arrive

2011-12-23T22:57:00.001-05:00

The nice weather held. Dana showed up late afternoon. We went and picked Cory up at the airport in the evening and met Peter and Casey for Indian food on Wolfe Road. It was a delightful meal, with Casey keeping everyone in stitches.
Peter says that as he and Casey were driving away he said. " love Cory; he is so cute." and so we all laughed on the way home as well.

The boys played a bit with Elizabeth's new hand hammered bowl that produces a fine musical note that can be used for meditation.

And then we went to bed. Xmas brunch is tomorrow. Eggs and bacon, toast and bluegill bits.
I feel good today. I drank a good bit of coffee with a headache this morning and it passed again. Thanks again Leif for that trick. I had a graham cracker flavored coffee from the little Polish cafe in Amsterdam. Nice.
My Gody treat.

No ice on the water and warm weather. We expect no major storms to interrupt our leaving next week.

Nice photo of Frank and Sylvia

We'll have a Merry Christmas but a Crabby New Year

2011-12-22T16:52:00.000-05:00

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

2011-12-21T10:11:00.002-05:00

You can hear Virginia as an old woman read this letter from the Sun that is so famous as perhaps the best answer to the idea of Santa Claus

http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2011/12/20/yes-virginia-of-valatie-there-is-a-santa-claus

Wow!

2011-12-19T20:23:00.001-05:00

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26132/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/08/110809-other-universes-multiverse-big-bang-space-science-microwave/
This makes absolute sense. Still, it is a bit overwhelming. We'll have to see what the next information suggests.

A few photos from the Chicago trip

2011-12-19T10:41:00.000-05:00

Winter Solstice

2011-12-18T20:44:00.000-05:00

On December 22 we will still be here in Albany. Had we elected to go to Florida for December, the shortest daylight day of the year would give us an hour and twenty minutes more than Albany, as it will be on January 4th when we certainly will be in Florida.

You light up my life, sunshine!

Saturday, December 17

2011-12-17T21:12:00.002-05:00

I am writing while I listen to folk music on NPR. Great music!
Prairie Home was fine as well. He mentioned St. Lucia twice and I just posted about that ritual. I had not been aware of it before this year. So goes the pattern that something I do or think any week will be on Prairie Home as well.

This weather is really something. What a snow free December! My neighbors must be in depression, waiting for the snow boarding.

I worked outside for a while today and sat along the quiet lake. Except for the banging of the neighbor's float barrels, the place was quiet. Tonight the other shore is dotted with Christmas lights. Nice.
I am slow at picking up this wood. I'll be sorry if the snow comes and covers it and makes it more difficult to sort.

We talked to Jerry tonight and set up the dates for our visit there on New Year's Eve on our way down to Florida. We packed a few things, listed a few things. Our lists from last time are extensive, but we will bring less this time because we move while we are there and want less to pack up.

Frank posted another video of Slyvia that included us holding the baby. It was very nice. Such a sweet little girl!

Elizabeth did a run of Paul's mom's potato soup and it tastes great. She says it tastes even better after a day in the refrigerator. It is a very simple dish and I can't quite see why it brings so much flavor. I did the dishes.
I made a marinade for some chicken thighs. I was inspired by the Filipino adobo chicken at the Cabrara's last week, but mine is certainly different than hers, different even than the recipe. I do have oregano and Bruce's garlic in the mix, but other things as well. I'll cook the chicken tomorrow.

We ate salmon tonight, the last of what we had frozen here from Miller's. Very good. I'd like to get the shrink freeze system for bluegills. It would keep them better. They do it now right on the boats so that the frozen fish is often fresher than the fresh. Of course, in the little shop right on the Gulf where we'll be buying fish next month everything comes in the back river door and goes out the parking lot door, and most of what is caught is quickly bought. While we shop, the owner cleans and fillets right there to refill the glass case. It really is wonderful!

The bird feeders work great, but the squirrels got in the flat one from Florida that is meant for cardinals and flipped out the seed. Lots of birds gather around each morning. Woodpeckers are back. I sure like this post for hanging feeders that Jay constructed.
We are still getting waterfowl as well, but less of those. I see one gull around almost every morning but I don't think s/he finds much here long the lakeside and I never see her land in the water as I have seen in the past.

We've been watching a mystery series and enjoying it very much. It is a Brit series called "Rosemary and Thyme."

https://www.google.com/search?q=rosemary+and+thyme+photos&hl=en&rlz=1C1CHKZ_enUS435US435&prmd=imvnse&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=8FHtTqjOAcjj0gG1x_nQCQ&ved=0CDoQsAQ&biw=740&bih=394

Friday, December 16

2011-12-16T16:25:00.003-05:00

One day in Vegas:

I know most of the Pokerbluegill readers don't care to read about gambling, but this post is more about touring the UNLV campus, banned comics, bits of pottery from Central America, playing old pinball and watching the bull riders. It was a Vegas day that included very little gambling and has some interesting photos like the one above of desert plants and cactus as well as some of the museum pieces.

http://vegasbirthdaybash.blogspot.com/2011/12/unlv-campus-walk-desert-museum.html

The rest of today was dull.
We did some shopping.
We watched some television.
We picked up some of the yard and unloaded the van for her cleaning.

Meals were pickup and left over.
A dull day.

thursday, December 16

2011-12-15T16:35:00.001-05:00

My friend Rose wrote that Pinot Grigio goes very good with baking Christmas cookies.
I am not going to bake cookies, but thinking about baking Christmas cookies seemed almost good enough to make a drink.
So when I made a smoothy of those two bananas that Ana gave me at Thanksgiving, and the last of the bad of Wyman blueberries, and a bit of cheap blackberry jam, and Greek yogurt and milk and just a bit of chocolate Hershey syrup left on the sides of the container, I decided that some rum would go good in it as well as some nutmeg grated on top. After the rum, I sweetened it with Tuvia.
Hey, this smoothy is almost like a Christmas cookie, but it requires no chewing.

I took down the old bamboo steamers today and plunked them in the wok and did some carrots on the bottom, some brocolli on top, mixed with some portobello mushrooms, a red pepper, some sweet white onion. Nice.

Elizabeth ate the leftovers of my Mexican tlayuda and liked that.
She reheated it in the little toaster oven to keep the crust crisp, so the cheese melted.

And I got my weather wish. The snow melted off the deck. I swept the last of the sawdust and other odds and ends left by the melting snow. It looks great out there.

We moved chairs again inside so that both Elizabeth and I can have a great view. We picked up some other areas as well.
I wrapped presents for the mail tomorrow. Nice to have that done.

I just need one more address.

I am slowly working on photos and getting ready to post some of Gio and Sasha and Sylvia. I am still working on the photos for parts of my Vegas trip report. I don't care how long it takes. Some of my photos from the desert gardens on the UNLV campus came out very nice. I wish I could better remember my thoughts as I walked that campus.

I feel very good. I am amazed to feel so good at this time of year.

December 15

2011-12-15T01:42:00.000-05:00

Okay, two visits in one day to the Mexican Grocery on State Street is too too much.
I had a couple quick tacos before the poker game and then took Peter for a bite afterwards. I had a tlayuda, a mix of cheeses and meats on a crispy shell almost like a pizza when the cheese in not melted but with spicy meats. I found that the Tamarind soda I liked in the Chicago airport is here at this place as well.

So, I'm awake again in the middle of sleeping and this time it is my own fault.

I must eat bland today. And lite.

The deck is really done now but has yet to be inspected. Hopefully, at this stage that is just a formality, and they won't find some nit pik something that needs adjustment.

We set up food for the birds, and it did not take them long to come flocking around. Jay made a fine bird feeder that swivels so that four feeders can be hooked on it, and the suet is mounted on the post. It is a fine design. We are having a good time with the view here from inside the house. We see the birds coming to feed and we see the water fowl as well.
Now if we could get one day of thaw so I could clean off the snow that I left, thinking it would melt away as it has in Albany. It is icy now. Not good. I forgot my Buffalo snow attitude, "As it falls, shovel."

Tuesday, December13

2011-12-14T00:34:00.000-05:00

Home.
Tired.

I slept in this morning at the hotel so I missed swimming and oatmeal.
I made up for it at the airport with juevos Mexicano. Airport food is getting better and better. This tasted every bit as good as other Mexican I have eaten. Eggs were filled with chorizo and onion, some salsa, jalapenos. In flour tacos I could mix this with refried beans or black beans. I drank a Tamarindo drink. Elizabeth had similar with other bits, some guacamole. It tasted great!

Also, in the corridor of the airport I listened to a great rendition of "Feliz Navidad" by an all Black high school group. Their voices were wonderful! They were backed up by a student band.

We had a fine flight. The airplane was uncrowded and although we checked in very late we got our seats in the back. I never needed the bathroom. On the way up I watched very foggy downtown Chicago covered by mist and clouds. On the way down I saw a great stretch of rural New York with a dozen little lakes and finally a view of SUNY. I loved it. I wish I knew what lakes and mountains and towns were. One lake was not developed except at its base, and the town was huge. I liked it.

I read a bit more of the Eddie Condon biography. He writes a great description of Bix Biederbecke, and the suprise it was that this dissheveled guy could play amazing jazz. I like this description of the jazz of that era:

"You know what the melody is, but you don't hear it. The coronet and the clarinet, and sometimes the trombone, treat it like a girl. They hand around it, doing handsprings and all sorts of other tricks, always keeping an eye on ti and trying to make an impression. The rhythm section provides the transportation, everything floats on its beat."

It is a fine book, the organization is grammatically jazz like. And it read as authentic rather than the polished prose of biographers written by professionals even though it is not Condon who did the writing.

http://www.amazon.com/We-Called-Music-Generation-Jazz/dp/0306804662
We watched a bit of a new sitcom, New Girl, and like it.

Elizabeth was so tired when she got home she just crashed, and soon she was in bed and asleep. Some Christmas dance music plays on the television while she sleeps.

The deck is done and Jay put up a fine birdfeeder that turns for loading the feed. Nice work.
He put out the plywood for protection, but I'll pick some of it up until the snow and ice actually threaten to fall and dent the new deck. If the weather stays this mild, we will get a few times to sit out in the sun. I know that will keep the seasonal blues away.

It is very quiet here, especially at night. So nice. I hope it does not get any colder and the ice does not thicken. We had just a pretty crust of ice on some of the lake today when we arrived home.

For supper I ate a half sandwich which Elizabeth bought for the ride out to Chicago. We had a refrigerator at the hotel and it kept, so I wrapped it up this morning. It was ham and some flavored sauce on a really nice piece of Italian bread. I added a bit of cooked bacon from our refrigerator and it was very good with iced tea from those large bags of tea left over from my birthday party in October, and some left over rice and soy sauce from our dinner with Peter and Jen. It was quite a leftover medley.
I made popcorn later. Elizabeth had me make her style of popcorn. It felt good to be home.

However, it was a perfect trip. Frank wrote us a very sweet email of thanks. Nice.

Bill Scharra commented on my Lucia post. It is odd sometimes where the responses come from and who connects up on Facebook or here. I like the connections.

Sylvia in Chicago

2011-12-12T23:20:00.002-05:00

Well, we had a fine day visiting Sylvia and her parents.
She is so tiny.
We held her and gave her parents a few hours of sleep. Elizabeth fed her. We watched Frank change her and he faced the poop with determined courage and did not waiver from the task.

We heard her cry, but only for a brief period of time.
We heard the story of the day of her birth.
We caught up on family talk and had a fine visit.

We brought chicken and fixings from Rosticeria Los Fernandez,
http://www.losfernandezrosticeria.com/
a great little Mexican place near out hotel. It was very good, cooked very similar to the way the chickens were cooked in Costa Rica.

For supper they served a home-made spanakopita dropped off by a friend who understands that cooked food is what new parents need most.
Yum.

Sylvia's parents were happy to have the little girl home from the hospital and doing so well.

Sylvia was happy as well.

It looks like we avoid any snow tomorrow. Jay writes that the deck is finished. Yep. Finished!! So off we go to return home again. I don't think that this visit could have gone any better.

Up early

2011-12-12T08:43:00.000-05:00

I slept through the night.
Cool.
We see Sylvia today.
Cooler.
But first a swim and some oatmeal.

Chicago Day 2

2011-12-11T20:56:00.000-05:00

It was sad to leave Keith and Bernie's. Gio tires us out, but it seems now that it will be a long while until we see him again. And Sasha is so small and sweet. She will grow quickly.
We had a fine visit. JoAnne joined us for a couple hours and there were plenty of stories flying around. However, I can't remember any of them tonight. Also, Elizabeth had her photo disc crash and lost all the pictures she took as well as a couple videos. I did not take enough photos. Bern took some of us with the kids just before we left. Gio did not want those photos taken, so we tricked him. I can't imagine how they are going to turn out, but it was fun to try to get them in spite of Gio.
For breakfast Keith cooked up bacon and eggs and potatoes. For supper Bern cooked up some brie baked in a pastry and it was very tasty. We had a bit of adobo chicken and a chicken salad sandwich. We were full.
Hard to try to capture this day. But an amazing time.
Tomorrow we see Frank and Julie and Sylvia. The baby has only been home a couple days.

Chicago Day One

2011-12-11T05:34:00.000-05:00

We had a very good flight on a plane half booked. I slept most of the way, but had some good views of the territory under me, most of them a pattern of different shaded white with snow squares and rectangles and tiny little houses or wisps of clouds in swirls of shapes. Amazing stuff!

Elizabeth discovered that she had left her phone with GPS at home.
Such minor difficulties do not impede Elizabeth.
What she did was renegotiate the great deal I had for an Alamo car so that she upgraded to a huge SUV , got permission for both of us to drive it, added a rented GPS, and got the price down $40.
If Elizabeth could be appointed as an American financial czar and learned to speak Chinese, she would have this deficit thing fixed before lunch.

Keith and Bernie looked well and happy. We had a fine day seeing this tiny Sasha and playing games with Gio. I rocked Sasha to sleep, watching her as she lay in her little rocking bed. Gio liked chasing me around the house. In the center of their house is a square of paths and I would put my head out, surprise him with "Woo, Hoo" and then go another way. If he chased me, I'd try to stay a few steps ahead and there was on place I could hide and pop out unexpectedly. We played some on the floor toys, but that was the most fun.
At first poor Gio was confused. He had been prompted to expect Grandpa and when I showed up at the door, he took one look and knew I was not Grandpa. But by the end of the day I was Grandpa and he was not so disappointed.
He loved the little bear Cooper that I found and Bern read to him a bit and we all heard the bear talk back to us as we read certain words in the text. I am not sure that Gio quite got it, but over time he will. He did like the bear and keep saying Cooper at various times of the day.
At the end we watched a show on television full of super characters and letters. Gio knows most of the letters and can read them. This is pretty amazing for a boy his age.

Jun and Emy brought most of lunch, all good Filipino taste treats. We added our Square Pie, pecan, and we all had a good time telling stories. Jun is a great talker. I like being with him. We toss similar anecdotes back and forth. He sure looks good for a man eight years older than I am. He keeps fit and does not seem to age. I suspect he has a long life of retired living ahead of him. Emy still works. She is always very nice to me. Some of the talk was of travel and some stories from the last trip to the Phillipines. Jun always tells of how easily Keith eats anything. And Jun loves challenging him to try something.
So this trip he offered Balut http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_(egg) a duck egg with an almost developed duck in it.
"Just give me a few more of these beers," Keith said, "and he ate it"
He even agreed that had they been able to find some dog meat, he would have probably tried that. It was common in the Philippines.
I don't know if Jun actually enjoys all these odd foods, but he sure does enjoy watching others try something very different, just as he enjoyed teaching us to suck the brains from the head of cooked shrimp when we met him for the first time.

I am up early after some disturbing dreams but I feel rested. Yesterday I sparked up with three cups of coffee and that held me most of the day. On our return after checking into the hotel I had some London Pride beer. That was good. I'll have to buy some. Keith always has good things to eat and drink.

Today there will be more visits.

Off to Chicago

2011-12-10T03:51:00.002-05:00

Well, we are off in a few hours. Wish I slept the night through.
We'll see Frank and Julie, Keith and Bern and of course, Sasha and Silvia.
Just a few days to visit and confirm that these granddaughters are not just imagined and are really girls.
It seems hard to believe, but the male only curse of this generation has ended for the Hills.

Most of the little bit of present shopping we do is done.
Neither of us like shopping.

I have to admit that I don't do well in this season. I rise to Thanksgiving and then......... I don't know.

I'm ready for Florida stone crab.

And all the ranting.
I like Jesus even if he would not have played poker.
I like it that he would not have approved of football even if Elizabeth did get a book this week from the son of the owner of the Chicago Bears on Catholicism and football.
I think Jesus is something to celebrate.

The Atheists malign him.
The fundamentalists shove him down our secular throat.

Well, some of him. Nothing much really beyond a few cherry picked verses and the book of John. Nothing certainly about loving enemies or redistributing wealth. Mostly it is just stuff selfishly focused on their own salvation and how wonderfully special they are to not be like others in the secular world.
What happened to Luke 18:14?

Some Christian sects have thought that the whole Christmas Celebration is a mistake on Biblical grounds, arguing that birthdays should not be celebrated, and in Christmas there is just too much revelry carried over from Pagan practice. The Puritans banned Christmas for about 30 years and fined those who celebrated.

I guess it was a great political decision in 336AD to package the celebration of the birth of Christ with Saturnailia and the birthday of Mithra and Ḥănukkāh among other religious holidays that emerged at the Winter Soltice.
But it was a political and not a religious decision.
Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus, better known as Constantine I or Constantine the Great worshipped the pantheon of Roman gods as all his predecessors had done and especially the Roman sun god, Sol. However, a vision and a military victory added Christianity to his beliefs and he helped see that all religious groups within the Roman Empire had equal rights and decided to help Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25.

Jesus probably had not celebrated his own birthday. It was not a custom in those days. It seemed egotistical to focus on self as important. Jesus probably celebrated Ḥănukkāh; however, the form of the celebration was most likely quite different.

The historical Jesus was born probably in the Fall. It is only the imaginary Jesus that is born on December 25.

And now we have Kwanza and Santa added into those older celebrations.

So, most of us should all be able to celebrate together as was the intention of Emperor Constantine when he made his political decision.

I would love it if it was celebration.

But most of the folks arguing for their right to wish us "Merry" are not at all merry. They are disguntled.
What happened to Matthew 7:3 anyway?

And now my computer at times won't type a line without laying it over the line before.
That is so annoyingso I am also disgruntles.
(oh, I just unformat and it goes away)

Enough whining.

I did celebrate last night. I saw my old friend Robin and his friend Peter at the American Legion and drank a few Yungling beers, and it was fun until the most terrible karaoke started and ear drum blasting levels.
Who started this custom?
I liked the songs they were singing. But they did not like them or they would not have beat them up so badly and twisted them into discord.
But at least it was intended as celebration and not contention.

Robin told a great story of putting his Corvair in a rally at Daytona...no, I've lost that detail. He has it on the road after about 40 years of storage. It was a great and funny story. The car was fine; the navigation of the rally.....well. And he caught me up on the news.

So I've spent some time with someone I've known for over 40 years and now I'll go to spend some time with two girls I've know about for under a month.
I celebrate that.
But I better try to sleep a little more before the alarm rings.

Wednesday, December 7

2011-12-10T02:58:00.000-05:00

Well, Pearl Harbor day.
So many changes since then.
I get a good bit of the feel of those times reading "Unbroken," the story of a runner who was caught in WWII and suffered prisoner of war camps.

Up again

2011-12-05T03:07:00.002-05:00

I sure hoped I'd sleep through tonight.
I did not.

Tomorrow I'll head up to Turning Stone. It probably is good I don't have a companion because I have not idea when I want to go. Maybe in a hour or so I can sleep again and will sleep into the morning so I am rested enough for late night poker.
On the other hand, often at Turning Stone on weekdays my limit games dissolve around 10 PM.

Yesterday was a fine day. We went down to Troy for the Victorian Stroll with friends Amy and Sterling and their boy Devin. This was a time when all the places opened, some gave free food and drink, and some folks dressed in late 1800's costumes. It thought of my grandfather often, especially once when seeing old looking firemen uniforms.

We spent a good while listening to George Wilson.
http://www.oldsongs.org/georgewilson.html
who gave quite a performance at the Rennsselaer Land Trust gathering. I bought a couple tee shirts there as well for $1 and $2. They don't get much cheaper than that.
His music was full of old fiddle music played on a 111 year old fiddle. He put a quarter sheet of half inch plywood down so his feet could dance a tap dance jig while he played. Tunes included things he wrote, things we recognized, things "twisted" as he called a particular style of music. He introduced all the tunes, joked about how they had been named. Much of what he played was rooted in Scotland, some in Ireland. In between he took the banjo and played funny songs. Especially funny was his version of the "I was Born Ten Thousand Years Ago"
http://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=2884

He updated it to born 14 million years ago and his amazing feats involve Big Bang, Algae, trilobites and dinosaur and stop when people emerge in the picture. Even the asteroid destruction of life on earth is mentioned.

We heard other music. Some was in Indigo, a hair shop that gave out free cider and thin fancy cookies. Oddly, while we were there they did not try to interest us in massage or hair cuts. The young women barely engaged folks at all.

In the Atrium we found our way to Vanderheyden Hall offering of a great breakfast buffet with good coffee and great chocolate muffins as well as ham, potaoes, keish, waffles with fruit and a great mix of cut fruit as well. It was a fine feast for just $10 each, good value and a good place for our money to go.

We also walked through the photo shop where Elizabeth knows the owner, looked at all the old cameras, checked out the current displays (which did not capture my attention) and had a good look at all the things there. It is an amazing collection of old photographic stuff. I should dig out all my old cameras and see if he would like to have them.

Bathrooms were a challenge as they always are for me. Most places suspended their customer only rule. Dunkin Doughnuts did not. In some places we needed to be escorted to a bathroom somewhere.

Jill's Art Center held a graphics art display of Richard Deon's work, featuring the same graphics art figure of a man surreal and imposed over various settings. Common was the man attached to an airplane and super imposed over famous scenes like the Grand Canyon, or some expanse of desert. Were these supposed to make me laugh?

http://www.richarddeon.com/pubart.html

You can get an idea of the art here:

http://www.artscenteronline.org/exhibits/current-exhibits/

Elizabeth had planned well and so we could pick our way to free music and food in the midst of crowds and a sprawling of folks at little tables selling Christmas do dads or rich candy and pastry. Add to that food trucks from local venues like Dinosaur Barbecue and it was a maze, so planning was important.

http://www.dinosaurbarbque.com/locations/troy/

Jay is really on the last bits of the deck work and I can see he is happy to bid this job adieu and get on with other things. It looks great. I have bits of usable wood to sort through and store and some plastic ends too that may come in handy one place or another.

Elizabeth and I watched an English mystery I had seen and dislike years ago and I disliked it again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gosford_Park
Too many characters to remember and nothing satisfying to me in the way the plot was resolved. I should have known. It was a very popular movie. I think I remember Frank liking it. I know I remember wondering what was wrong with me that I could not engage the film. Altman made it. There was a list of famous actors in it a mile long. The reviews were great and it won awards.
Whatever was wrong with me is still wrong.
In twenty years I'll try it again.
No, let's say thirty.

2011-12-03T12:08:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm guessing I don't play poker today. Just don't feel in the mood.
I'd like to go into Pittsfield today and see the art associated with this new book

http://www.ferringallery.com/dynamic/exhibit_artist.asp?ExhibitID=454

Elizabeth is on her way home and we'll talk.
The day is beautiful and the lake calm and fine.
Jay and son finish up the deck work today.

11 eggs are getting hardboiled.

I'm listening to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell me"
I like this humor, but I wish they did not have the contest where they tell three bits of news and only two of them are true because I probably will repeat the false ones at some point as something I read. They are constructed to sounded odd and memorable and could be as true as the one that is true.

Interesting news on government's attempt to control language. I always find that so funny. This one is from one of funniest cultures in the world. Or scariest. Depending on how much power they manage.

http://gawker.com/5861306/pakistan-bans-1700-texting-words-including-satan-glazed-donut-and-monkey-crotch

The French also act sometimes on the idea that language can be controlled by government

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/540/handouts/french/dirigism/DIRIGISM.html

English, however, generally absorbs all vocabulary and even some grammar. We rarely get a vocabulary argument although the grammar police come out often with the same old tired complaints against homophonic confusion.

Dirigisme is an interesting word.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirigisme

Friday at Orford

2011-12-02T19:51:00.001-05:00

Awake at 3 AM and up soon after that.
Frost on the deck this morning, so Elizabeth got a laugh out seeing my bare footprints etched black against the white frost.
Getting up so early, I had plenty of time to cook the whole turkey here at home, make the gravy, pack up the car.

We babysat for Casey in the afternoon today. Jen made us a fancy chicken lunch called some exotic name. It had chicken and tomato and pasta and some stuffing mix (Peter said it did) and Italian like spices. Eliz took Jen to work, and when Peter got home, we put out a second Thanksgiving.
I was disappointed in the stuffing. I used Bell's. I'll go back to Pepperidge farm. Generally, I have saved bits of whole grain, mostly organic, bread over the course of the year, but I used all of that up on the first Thanksgiving turkey so I was reduced to packaged stuffing. It is not satisfactory.

Also, I forgot the brocolli.

Otherwise the meal was fine. The brown, sweet, organic rice from Hannaford at Wynantskill was delightful. I think it was Lund's or something like that. I need to write these names down.

Both Peter and Jen were delighted especially since they had not had the leftovers after Thanksgiving. They will have a few more meals on that bird.

Casey got seriously into the pickles. And he liked the cranberry sauce. And the rice. He was not thrilled with turkey.

We had fun playing with the dinosaur puzzle we bought him for his birthday. Is is getting pretty good at fitting the pieces. It says 3 plus; however, it takes me a while to figure it out.

Somehow, "You're a turkey, baby" caught on as a game and Elizabeth told Casey it had to be said with a kiss on the check, so there he was getting a good joke out of it and giving cheek kisses all around.

It felt like a long day. I did not nap well. I'm tired.

Wow December already

2011-12-01T17:53:00.002-05:00

I've managed to take the nails out of all the old pressure treated lumber that once was my deck. I stacked some and will work on the rest other days. Jay should finish this week, but rumors of rain sent him to paint and another job. As it turned out, he could have finished up here. Well, he'll be motivated to finish here as the weather drops in temperature or if snow is predicted.

We like this deck. It had some fine and interesting angles and will do visually what we wanted as well as not be so black and scruffy. The plastic boards will be easy on the barefeet. Three levels. It will take a while to get used to that or know what we want to put where.

I pulled the lilac bush up and tied it straight. I hope it will root again. Jay got confused on that one and rubble from the job knocked the bush over and pulled some of the root cluster up. I am hoping spring will allow the bush to regenerate roots. It not I expect there will be some shoots coming up and eventually we will have a bush again.

We have been eating turkey soup almost every day. I bought some baby Kale, but it is so mild. We like the flavor of the adult Kale and probably will go back to that, but in the meantime these sweet little leaves will get some greens in me.

After poker I looked up this place.

http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2011/11/29/tacos-at-la-mexicana-grocery-restaurant

It was all that the review said. I was a bit tired and disoriented so did not use much Spanish, but this was like all the little Mexican diners I have experienced in other towns. I liked it. I could not follow the television much, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I ate a small portion of two tacos with chorizo and some horchata. The tacos were just great. The horchata seemed just a bit weak to me. I shopped in the little gorcery and bought a jar of Bufalo chipolte which I know I like. They had the Mexican hot sauces I have seen in restaurants.
I'll certainly go again. It is an easy ride from poker.

Then I shopped at the Hannaford in Wynantskill and was amazed to find that it is much different than our old Miller's or the one in East Greenbush. I guess they want to appeal to the younger crowd, the students at RPI. Every aisle had a section of natural/organic blended in with the other food, so I could compare price and product. If I wanted soup, Campbell's was there but so was Amy's. I bought some of that lentil as Elizabeth likes it. There was more selection overall and plenty of the more interesting foods. I may make it my main place to shop here. Of course, now we are trying just to use up food, preparing to go to Florida at the end of December with a few days away in between to see the granddaughters in Chicago.

I like Wynantskill. I don't know why we don't drift that way more often. It is less traffic, and is about 2 miles closer than East Greenbush. Too many old habits.

Turning Stone sent me a fine deal. Overnight at the Inn for $35. Can't beat that. Also a matchplay and some free or cheap bits of food. So I am heading out on Monday to make two days of it with poker in the mix. Guess I am beginning to get some action around home. It is not Vegas. There will not be free drinks or very cheap food, and the rake in the 2-4 will be ridiculous. Still, it will be fun. I'll get a swim and a visit to the Savoy in Rome for a good Italian supper. I'll stop to see the Arkell Museum on my way out. I'll see one of the largest gingerbread house display

http://oneidadispatch.com/articles/2011/11/30/life/doc4ed6bcc9c45c5688529546.txt

However, I will miss this display as it is not open on Monday or Tuesday.
http://oneidadispatch.com/articles/2011/11/24/news/doc4eced14edc76e255964401.txt

Soon I'll be in Florida and there the gambling will be farther away.

I sat on the deck with a fine Wildberry seltzer. I sure like this new Adirondack flavor. It is a lot cheaper than beer and it often satisfies just as well without any calories or artificial sweeteners.

Tomorrow we watch Casey for a while and have a meal with Jen and Peter in Albany. That should be fun.

Middle of the night post about nothing

2011-11-30T03:06:00.002-05:00

Just awake.
My head is clear.
Wind blows hard outside, but the temperature is not very cold.

I opened the door and forgot the security alarm was on, so I set off the alarm and Time Warner called to find that everything was fine except my memory.

I'll bet my neighbors are happy. Especially neighbor Ron.

Elizabeth laughed at me. I hope she is back asleep.

I got a good bit of feedback from rare Facebook friends when I posted this just after Thanksgiving:

They've all gone back to their lives now
And it's damn quiet here
I feel like shouting, "Wait, come back, I have another turkey I can cook!"
But somehow I don't think that will work.

Neighbor Ron and I split an Ommegang Abby Ale on Ron's deck while he waited for liquid wrench to loosen some twenty something year old threads so he could complete a clutch repair on his old Toyota truck.
A nuthatch came to watch us.

I do like it. So I thought I'd keep it here where I might see it again.

It reminded me of that Truck book that Chuck got me reading.

TRUCK: A Love Story by Michael Perry

And that reminded me I have not been reading his blog much lately.

That might be a thing to do when I am up all night.

http://sneezingcow.com/

Yep, good idea.
His editor can tolerater his "perplexitude."
I like it. Even better than my dictionary words of the day.

Now there is something else to read when I'm up all night.
I collect them. I don't remember them. And I always have more questions.

Can you have an appentence for poker?
Isn't Procrustean a word to describe the response to "occupy?"
Am I a bibliophage? Or a bibliophage wannabe?
When can I fall into kef?
Or at least anoesis?

Tuesday, November 29

2011-11-29T22:06:00.000-05:00

Rain as I write just before bedtime.
Nice.
All day this storm has been building dark clouds in the sky and migraine pressures in my head.

I had a fine, refreshing nap.
Then I treated the migraine with coffee.

And now it has eased up quite a bit.

I took some more nails out of old boards today while Jay and son almost finished the deck. Not much left, but another wait through this rainy weather for better working weather.
Elizabeth and I watched a couple movies.

An Aligator Named Daisy

Then Bob and Carol, Ted and Alice.

We ate some popcorn and enjoyed both.

And soon to bed.

Mexican toasts

2011-11-29T13:29:00.000-05:00

I'm not drinking anything today.
Just practicing

Old Mexican Toast - with glass in hand... do the following:

Arriba... lift glass up
Abajo... lower glass down
Al centro... place glass to center and click glasses
Adentro... means liquid goes inside you... drink

Another Old Mexican Toast:

Salude ... health
Amor... love
Riquezas... wealth
Y TIEMPO para gozarlos... and TIME to enjoy them all

Monday November 28

2011-11-28T15:50:00.000-05:00

Well, the last of the Thanksgiving gathering has found his airplane. Cory left this afterroon.
Yesterday we spent some time hunting perch. I found one. Then Cory pulled the live well for me and there were so many bluegills still in there that I cleaned over 50 fish. I was surprised.
We had a fine meal of fish last night and I have a few meals left.

Gradually, the deck is getting finished. A few last minute changes. Jay and his son worked a good part of yesterday and all of today. It is shaping up to look really fantastic. I know we will have fun there next season.

My job is to pound nails out of the old pressure treated decking that I am saving for future dock repair or repair of the fish cleaning deck. We salvaged quite a bit of lumber.

I was pretty tired yesterday after cleaning the fish and pounding out nails. It was a long time be hunched over and my back told be that it would rather not to that for that long. I did a bit more today. Then I went over and shared the Ommegone that did not get consumed with neighbor Ron to hear his newest stories and just shoot the breeze a bit. We have not had much time together since I got back.
Elizabeth took Cory to the airport and she is tired and resting.

Seems just a bit sad to have all this closure and be falling back into the slow pace of our quiet lives.
I sure enjoyed this Thanksgiving gathering. It is right up there with my favorites. All my regrets are of missed opportunity. I did not make a tortilla or serve the chorizo or pass around the Ommegone. I guess all my regrets are of missed food encounters. Rather strange.

We will rest up a while and then we will fly to Chicago for a different kind of gathering, and we will meet two new granddaughters. Seems dreamlike.

Thanksgiving weekend

2011-11-26T19:54:00.000-05:00

We all had a fine Thanksgiving up in the place where we gathered in Cambridge. Plenty to eat. "Dana and his generation took over some of the arrangements and preparation. Slowly, over time we hope to pass on the major work of these gatherings to the younger folks. So they did more this year. Nora has always just sort of fit into the older generations rhythms, but this year in some way every one of the younger adults took over more responsibility in some way.

Nice to see. Thanks.

Thanks were given individually all around that large square table setting; everyone could see everyone else.

There were some toy areas for Casey as well and he seemed to do just fine as the only kid.

Plenty of music afterwards with Tico and Bruce on guitar, Henry on banjo and a violin passed around. Nora sang more than ever. What a fine folk voice, clear as a bell. Those pieces where she sang and her dad played one guitar were just breathtaking.

I brought my camera, but did not take a single photo of this wonderful round house, built with firewood and old bottles, with large timbers and a huge fireplace in the center. I wanted to be young, take my Burden Lake house down, and start all over again. Ironic because this weekend is also the weekend when Jay puts the final touches on the deck renovation, probably the last bit of outside building that will ever be done here at this house by us.

Wild bits of oddities all around this Thanksgiving place. Crafty bits that manage to be quite artful. The hood over the stove area was an actual Ford car hood.

Chickens. Jen liked that. She carried one to the sauna, but it did not feel comfortable sensing the heat. The rooster was not certain he wanted Jen holding his woman and carrying here about, but Casey was certain he wanted it to happen.

Ana shared this with us. It is a good way to see how this family interacts. She seemed to enjoy us. Everyone enjoyed her, but then she is absolutely a pleasure. Cory is very fortunate.

I had not slept well, but there was coffee. We went over to Abigail and Bruce's afterwards to sleep, and I did not sleep well again because I completely forgot my apnea machine, but there was coffee for breakfast and some fine organic sausages and a walk up to visit the garlic barn and get a good view of a good part of Washington county.

I finally slept most of Friday.

Today Elizabeth, Cory, Ana, Dana and I met Peter and Casey for the Muppet Movie which I loved. Casey was squirmy. He may have missed the idea of it, but then he did not have all that history with these characters that we did. I expected to be disappointed, just because it is hard to capture the emotions of long ago and present them again, with new twists, in ways that works as well as they once did.

I was not disappointed.

I loved the movie, all the new twists and all the allusions to old show and the old developed characters and issues.

I liked it better than I liked the last Muppet Movie.

Ana saw the movie with us, but scooted out for her plane back to Denver.

Then we met at Orford for steak with leftover mashed potatoes, a good salad and a few tastes of all those pickles and peppers and corn relish and watermelon rind and olives left from Thanksgiving.

And more coffee.

Dana has left now for Providence.

We have the pleasure of Cory a couple more days.

It all went as smooth as a rowboat over the glassy lake water. It was delightful, but it all went so fast.

Last year at this time I was fighting a miserable kidney stone. I did not even meet the gathering at Thanksgiving. This was much better.

And there is still a bit of pecan pie and Krause's to tap in small tastes.

And turkey. Soon we will think about making a soup.

Sylvia Winifred

2011-11-23T21:28:00.001-05:00

Here is Frank and Julie's little daughter.

Okay, we can talk now.

2011-11-22T11:04:00.001-05:00

Frank and Julie write:

Announcing the birth of Sylvia Winifred Englander-Hill. 4lb 11oz. Mom and baby are fine. Sylvia will be in the NICU for awhile, but she is

a champ and is doing great. We are so happy she is here.

They call her a little peanut.

Now, there is a knickname out of my past.

Pictures later today.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Imagine these two girl cousins.

Born so close together.

Living in the same part of America.

With names that begin alike.

Sasha and Silvia.

Destined to become great friends.

Monday November 21

2011-11-21T20:46:00.000-05:00

We went for pizza and wings over to Casey's house and played with him and talked to his parents for a while. Bop-E is the favorite for Casey.
It was a fine visit.
It is good to have Elizabeth home again after her trip to Rochester sitting with a sick friend.
Jay and son did quite a bit of work on the deck today, and the last of the old decking was removed. Slowly the new boards will be added, the stairs shaped, and the railings formed. It is really quite a bit bigger than I imagined. I think we will have a good deal of fun with it.
The best new view is from the kitchen table. From here the lower railings are invisible and a good chunk of the lake is right there. From anywhere there will be more view than we had. It is easy to compare since half the original is still there.
We will be glad to see this project over and settled.
Warm weather greets us. Yesterday was really warm and today was still not that crisp biting winter wind that is expected this time of November.
We are ready to head up for Thanksgiving in Cambridge NY. I have not seen the spot as I got sick last year and needed to stay close to my own toliet. So I have a treat.
Dana in tomorrow. Cory and Ana in Wednesday afternoon. Casey and his parents expect to come as well.
And somewhere West of us there is great rejoicing.

Sunday, November 20

2011-11-20T16:25:00.001-05:00

Still sleeping the day and night away with bits of writing and eating and TCM in between. Elizabeth comes home tomorrow and deck work resumes and the cleaner comes. It will not be a quiet day of naps.
I took out what looked like bluegill bits in onion. So I tossed it in some clam chowder. I forgot that earlier in the year I had pickled some fish and then frozen it after reading that fresh water fish should not be eaten pickled or in ceviche unless they spend a couple days in the freezer.
So there it was, pickled fish in a mild chowder.
Well, it did not taste so bad sweetened with a bit of Tuvia.
Odd but tasty.

I did a bit of writing on the discussion boards and my Vegas blog, slowly collecting up the experiences of this past month so as not to lose them and so as to share them.
Nice responses.
I sent another limerick to Guzik on his upcoming birthday. He responds in Limericks. I have one for each day and an extra.
It has been a fine day and the best of the day is yet to come and the best of announcements yet to be announced.
Some nights celebration comes with the surcease of worry. This is one. So relieved and so grateful.

Back from 23 days in Vegas

2011-11-18T19:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I had a really fine time in Vegas. Lost $236 over the 23 days. So the entire trip cost me $59 a night with air, food, 13 shows, gambling. Plus tips and bottled water of which I did not keep track.
My poker play turned a corner. Had I just played poker, I would have come home ahead. Actually two days before I left I was $42 ahead.

Here are more details than anyone wants to see
http://vegasbirthdaybash.blogspot.com/2011/11/just-bare-bones.html

no wifi now

2011-11-08T12:26:00.000-05:00

Still having a great time here in Vegas. So many stories to tell that I don't know where to start. I swam again today in the heated pool here at the Gold Spike. Now I move to the Orleans. I am having some coffee from my little traveling pot. What a great treat it is to have coffee right in the room even when no coffee pot is included.
I may not have wifi after today and certainly not after the 10th, so anyone wanting to talk to me needs to try the phone.

The gambling is going well enough so far. Lots more to do to see how it goes by the end.
I was one of 10 people splitting a freeroll tournament.
Unlike my last trip, I feel myself in charge at the tables and see that finally after all this time I have had a bit of a learning jump and win more often than I lose. I think that is the best part of this trip.

The buses are just great. So many changes this year and most all of them do seem to be good ones.

Ah, Finally the official announcement

2011-11-04T01:42:00.003-04:00

After many generations of all-male Hills, we are surprised to announce that it's a girl! We are still in shock!!

Sasha Ryne Hill arrived November 1, 2011 at 2:16pm via c-section. She came in bigger than her big brother, weighing in at 9 pounds, 7 ounces and 20 inches long. She has lots of wavy black hair, also like Gio!! All Hills are doing well and are looking forward to the days ahead!

Well, Keith, I am not in shock. I predicted it would be a girl. In fact, I bet Elizabeth and won.

All we feel is relief that the waiting is over and the task accomplished. And we want Bernadette to recover soon.

I have always liked Cosmopolitan approaches to community. It is interesting that this English heritage son and Filipino heritage daughter-in-law give their first born an Italian name and their second a name that is Russian. Hopefully these children will feel like world citizens and will give themselves permission to adopt whatever is good from wherever they find it.
Sasha means "protector of mankind" and after baseball, Ryne established the Ryno Kid Care which protects and serves the need for child. Perhaps she is destined to do good works.
I'm in Vegas. So I'll have to find that zero roulette wheel in Riviera and bet 23.

Last night

2011-10-24T19:34:00.001-04:00

Before I turned the boat over, I drifted in the wind a while and caught one nice perch to add to those we were to have for supper.
It was cold.
I wore Lucky Pete's old winter coat, a scarf, and a warm cap. Pete gave me the coat when he went to live full time in Florida about a decade ago.
I was the only one on the water.
On Saturday, one other boat zoomed by me and then back, using up the last of the fuel so it could be put in storage for the winter.

Otherwise it has been me and crows interrupted by honking migrating geese.

Just as I came in to the dock, literally on my last cast, I hooked something big. It may have been a nice pickerel. It moved like I was hooked on a log. I did not see it spit the hook. Ah, last fish and it is the big one that got away. Nice.
At that moment the sun broke through the dark and overcast sky to make the color shine from the trees across the lake, and blue heron came in for a landing on the land North of the dock.

We have eaten a fine meal and the dishes are done.
My boat is turned over on land.

And early tomorrow I'll be off on an adventure and instead of drifting in the rowboat with Lucky Pete's old coat, by Thursday I'll be watching him play for Silver Strikes at Sam's Town.

Errands

2011-10-21T22:16:00.000-04:00

Well, Elizabeth and I had our flu shots today. Easy. Great and friendly nurse. We just walked into Oldendorf's office and bang. I breathed to relax easily and I think I beat the muscle pain.
We also ate at Loundonberry's in Stuyvesant Plaza. In this restaurant the same couple are in every picture except in the Men's bathroom. Marilyn Monroe is in the men's bathroom. Always they are well dressed and romantic. In one they are kissing in the rain and a maid is nearby holding her umbrella while a butler holds his. I had a wonderful Greek salad with anchovies.

A new meat place named "The Meat House" opened with high end cuts of meat. I think they can get me the sort of lamb chops I remember when I was a kid. They are expensive, but nice.
At the bookstore I saw that they still have two American Casino Guides left. Too bad.

I worked on getting things ready for Vegas. Heard from Janice and I guess we will get a meetup day. Nothing from anyone else. She will coordinate with Gayle.

Lucky Pete and I have a plan.
No plan with Bill yet. No answer to my email.

I made a fine venison stew. Peter, Jen and Casey should come tomorrow for roast chicken. I bought Casey a couple birthday presents today.
I returned the smaller wet suit. It took a while.

I shopped for groceries, did up the dishes, watched an "Outer Limits" and a "Twilight Zone" I taped as Elizabeth was out with friends and to the Holly Near concert.
I remember seeing Holly Near once, but I can't remember when.

Jay hoped that Bob from the tool rental would come and inspect the holes, but it now does not look like that will happen on Sunday.

A fine day. A bit cold, but nice. I did not get out in the boat. Maybe tomorrow.

Courtesy of Slink and Jay

2011-10-19T21:05:00.002-04:00

Birthday Celebrations and other adventures

2011-10-18T17:01:00.009-04:00

Well, I am long overdue blogging. My three readers must be wondering where the words are.

It has been a busy and rewarding week. I turned 65, a surprising feat in itself.
The day before the poker buddies all sang to me, gave me a rutabaga that Gregg grew and Chuckmonk coached, and a cake that Ann baked. The last hand of the day made me rich. It was a $200 pot and I took it with A-4 of clubs, two clubs on the flop, and the flush club on the turn. By then everyone in the hand was all-in.

On my birthday, Neighbor Ron took me to supper at the Country Club here. I had a very good piece of broiled haddock with crispy fries and a great salad filled with hot peppers. And we all had a fine visit, Elizabeth and Laura being our dates.

On Saturday 22 people wished me Happy Birthday by having coffee and cake with me at Professor Java’s on Wolfe Road. Elizabeth took a room full of interesting artwork and a bookshelf and folks came to say Happy Birthday from 11am until after 2PM. It has to be the most memorable gathering of friends I have even had. For one thing, each friend was a representative of a different community in my life and they interacted with one another because there were not two from the same community (except couples of course.) I was delighted to see old friends and family and new friends interacting and sharing. Some read some bits of facts or poetry. Some brought old photos of me. My daughter-in-law brought old fishing shots. Cathy along with flowers still bright with color on my table, brought a folder of old Livingston clippings that I can read and return. Josie gave me a book she has enjoyed that I must read, and Chuck gave a nice talk on my name. Mary and Neil sent along a fine fishing poem which we posted in a book just after a photo of me in the Goembel Ave. backyard with my dog, Sparky. Jokes and stories and good wishes filled the room. We did not get photos of everyone, but we did get a few.

Attending:
Josie and Don from Harriet Gibbons
Tobie Anderson from UB days
Bobbie a recent friend
Donna and Peter, very recent couples’s friend
Peter, Jen and Casey
Abigail, Bruce and Nora - They brought me fresh garlic I have used three times this week
George and Judy - friends from when my sons were teens, from Frank to Cory.
Cathy- from Livingston days
Chuck and Mary and John - friends that go back to early Burden Lake days
Gregg and Annie- Poker friend, couples/ friend
Jill - friend from the days of Capital Rep and Harriet Gibbons
Elizabeth - my best friend
Dewey - my second best friend

Sorry that we did not get photos of everyone. But here are some that came out.

Casey was fascinated with Pete the deer. He called it a moose.

Cathy and Dewey

Good shot of the whole room

John, Mary and Dewey

Annie, Gregg, and Tobie - they are old friends but into my world they come from different places

Dewey and Gregg who host poker once a week

Chuck, Dewey, and Peter

Don, the great story teller

Peter Casey and Donna

Tobie and Peter

John and Mary

Josie, Dewey, and Don

I had to crop Don out. What a perfect photo catch of him. Classic Don.

******************************************

I know my birthday is over; however, today seemed like an extension. Elizabeth and I drove up to Rotterdam Center to try to find an old friend of Lucky Pete whose house was affected by the hurricane floods. We did not find him, but with the help of a neighbor sent work that Lucky Pete would like to hear from him and was wondering how he was doing. All the house on that block were gutted and airing out so that after they dry, repairs can begin. We talked to Doug, the neighborhood networking guy, and he has just had one whole basement wall replaced. Out on the sidewalk were belongings destroyed and ready for the trash. We left Lucky Pete's number and address with Doug for Dick Whalen to have so he could contact Peter.

Note the insides of houses on the street

This is the one we went to find.

We went on to GWIB Polish deli and coffee house in Amsterdam where we had a bite of brunch and bought coffee to take home with us. This time the flavor is Graham Cracker Crunch. They were rather low on supplies. Soon they reduce their hours. It is a funky little place with lots of interesting wall hangings and odd sayings. It is small but divided into little sections where small coffee tables allow a meal and a brew. Two ceilings were some of the nicest old tin ceilings I have seen with tin worked too around the overhead beam. It was inexpensive and tasty. I hope the coffee is as good as the Chocolate Toasted Praline Elizabeth brought me last visit. All these whole bean coffees are roasted especially for GWIB.

After the fine fun coffee and kielbasa we went to see a movie at the Spectrum. I'll let Elizabeth comment and tell you how much she enjoyed it. I thought it feel short in these ways:

All three stars performed below my expectations. I like them. They just had very little funny lines to deliver.

I cannot identify with birding this way, nor would I enjoy it if it were a fishing movie. We saw very little of the birds and nothing spectacular in photography. The photos in the end while the credits rolled showed the birds better than much of anything in the movie, but there too they showed them in a split second. This fits the movie. The idea is to win a competition and see the most birds, so the birders are rushed through some great spots in the world, and focused on seeing a bird and moving on to fill the book.

This is the experience I had a Pointe Pele during the great search for warblers. I'd see a great bird, clearly, doing interesting things, and some birder would look and say, "Oh, I already got that one" and miss the aesthetic experience of the woods as well as real watching of the birds. The birders would watch for fifteen minutes waiting for a tiny dull colored warbler to hop out from behind a tree trunk and hop back. Meanwhile an Baltimore Oriel would be right there on the trail in all his color and mean practically nothing to anyone but me.

I did think some of the photography in the movie of places around the world was fun to see.

I liked some of the jokes.

I liked the helicopter ride by mountains.

and the movie was tolerable, but shallow. The plot was shallow and the view of birds was shallow also. One time we get a reason to admire a bird who migrates so many places. Twelve such stories about birds would have made this a better movie.

But it was a fine time out.

Before the movie we stopped at the nice library across the street and a bit down the block. I read a Mad Magazine. Long time since I've seen one. Still funny.
And when I got home a wetsuit that fits me was here. I went swimming in Burden Lake but not for long. It worked. My arms and legs are unprotective and water is mighty cold. However, this will be great for Vegas pools in November.

Well, I can't seem to load the video of me going in the lake with this suit. You might be able to see it here on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150406364411772

I am 65

2011-10-13T02:35:00.002-04:00

But I can't sleep.

I did sleep for a while, the sounds of Benny Goodman flowing out of WGBH Jazz Decades
http://www.wgbh.org/programs/Jazz-Decades-282

and then at midnight Elizabeth gave me a birthday kiss, turned over, and went back to snoring.

And I got up.

It is raining.
Such a soft sweet sound.
There will be no motorboats on my birthday and no noisy hole digger either as he can't come tomorrow. This is not a good thing.
But it is not a bad thing in the short run. It is not a bad thing on my birthday.

Some spammers have decided to make more comments on my blog in one day than are made in a year. You won't see them. They never get posted. I moderate comments. I have marked them as spam each time.
Eventually, they will get tired and go somewhere else to annoy another blog. All that is in the comments are a list of websites on all sorts of topics.
My wish to you spammer is that each of your businesses fail and there is no bailout and while you are sending me spam someone sleeps with your wife and your mother simultaneously and you get depressed and jump out a cyberspace window.
Sorry. I guess I need to pray about my inability to turn the other cheek to spammers.
Hey, I gotta cheek for ya, Sparky.

It is fine to be 65. Who would have imagined a life this long?

I remember being about 10 and it was my birthday. I was in my yard on a gray day and the snow just started to fall in little flakes. Maybe I was having a little migraine. I knew that I would die someday and I thought, "Well, I hope I can make it until the change of the next century," because at ten it seems pretty cool to be able to write two thousand anything at school on top of that lined paper.
Well, that wish has been fulfilled along while now.
It would be nice to be able to visit my ten year old self in the yard and tell myself that I would make it to this day. That the A-bombs would not fall all around. That I'd sidestep war. That I'd fine good work, and that my second birthday wisher (when I turned 65) would thank me for having been her best teacher. That I'd find love. That I'd catch so many bluegills and have so many children and grandchildren. That the last poker hand of my 65th year (today starts my 66th year) would be A-4 of clubs with two clubs on the flop and another on the turn, and so $200 in chips would be pushed to my side of the table and let me cash out with great profit just like in the movies.

That ten year old kid wondering what would happen in the cement yard of Goembel Avenue, under an overcast sky with just bits of snow blowing about, and feeling just a touch of headache, who was just beginning to consider the reality of mortality, would be pretty happy to hear all that I know I have lived so far.

And the adventure continues.

Today I bought myself a birthday present. A Wetsuit. I'll take it to Vegas, so that I can swim in comfort in November in the outdoor pools.
I'll look like a nut. And I like that part of it too.
I have never seen a photo of anyone in a wetsuit in a Vegas pool. I'll be the first.

And I may be comfortable in Burden Lake next week when it comes too.
And I may be more comfortable on cold days with the manatee this winter on the Homosassa.

We'll see.
First it has to fit this large body of mine. I actually bought two and will exchange the one that does not fit. Most likely I'll return the smaller one. I am just hoping one seems practical.

I bought it at Dick's at Crossgates. I asked on the way in where the wetsuits were, and the fellow called someone and told me they did not sell them. I went to the outdoor section anyway and two very knowledgeable fellows answered all my questions, and we ordered what made sense to be delivered to my house.
Never take no for an answer unless it has been repeated so many times that it seems it must be certain and maybe not even then.

Happy Birthday to me!

2011-10-11T17:36:00.001-04:00

What a day!

This is the best season and the least attended by humans

In the morning puffy clouds reflected in the mirror lake

None of these photos capture what we really see and feel.

Here is one our neighbors took.

We went out in the rowboat. One kayak joined us on the water. No other boaters were anywhere.

A few people puttered around readying up for winter.

I rowed up into the bay of the second lake and then we slowly drifted back on just a bit of wind.

Our favorite individual bits of color were right along out own shore.

I like the three colors in this combo

Hopefully, we can just get these holes dug and the new deck constructed before cold weather sets in.

Monday, Columbus Day

2011-10-10T20:11:00.000-04:00

It has been yet another day today of great heat. Indian Summer.

We had a fine morning with Cory and Anna. We talked and I got a better look at their book of photographs from their last trip together.

On Facebook I found the photos of St. Francis with one eye pecked out by a downy woodpecker who was working at at way to get inside the wooden statue until Anna's father covered the head with a bag. the whole thing was very funny. St Francis was being attacked by a bird.

We headed out to Krause's to send some chocolate home with them. Krause's gave us a free sample of maple creams and those were very good.

Then we left Anna and Cory at the plane.

For dinner Elizabeth and I ate at the Dragon Buffet.

At home I sat on the deck and talked to old teacher buddy Keith who is recovering from a hernia operation and doing very well. It was a good talk, our first in a long while. I hope it broke up his day.

Elizabeth and I watched a couple Mad Men reruns, seeing one we had not seen. I did not like one of them at all. It bothered me in a number of ways. Betts' father dies in this one. Also, the company takes advantage of a crazy young man with too much money. It was all a little sour and disconcerting, seeming to pose a number of small plots and resolve none of them. Oddly, Betty eats a peach that was left in her dad's car. Yet he died in line at the A & P so the peaches he bought there would not have any logical way to have been put in his car.

Maybe I'm just grumpy.

Boat ride

2011-10-09T23:58:00.000-04:00

Today was the first time I decided to row and did not first have to bail.

The sun was just beginning to settle in for the night. That angle of sunlight always brightens the color of the trees.

At Kay's someone was in trouble. Four flashing light trucks and a stretcher went in. I missed who came out. It was strange because all the while these lights are flashing, folks are walking out with their pizzas.

The water was calm. I stayed far away from the rock throwing kids at Kay's.

No one else was on the water.

Just as I came in the blue jet boat with black smoke out the back guy ran his locomotive a bit, but I was done. The other jet boat guy has his glare light off and has wandered back to the city. Nice. Every little while it gets quieter and Kay' closes this weekend.

I was amazed that three of the trees had such rich color that even with no sunlight, the color was intense and wonderful.

I should go out tonight. I can't seem to sleep.
Maybe it was the whiskey and coke I had watching Mad Men.
They are all repeats, but Netflix in Florida sent up lots of discs that skipped so we keep seeing scenes we had not seen before.

Cory and Anna due soon unless the shindig went on longer than expected.

2011-10-09T14:40:00.001-04:00

Over to Peter's this morning for his grandmother's famous pancake made like a crepe in a cast iron skillet put in the oven. Nice with real maple syrup, some of Elizabeth's strawberry jam, mixed berries, and a doughnut from Indian Ladder Farms.

Playing with Casey was the main attraction.

Later they all went letter boxing and on the swings.

Leif was not there. However, I sure like this photo

and we did have coffee.

Road trip

2011-10-08T13:01:00.000-04:00

I guess I did not post my road trip with Pastor Chuck. We went to see Marilyn Olsen on Lake Champlain and look over some records she was giving away. Dick Olsen is the minister that mentored Chuck in his younger years.
It was a good visit. We saw the old train collection and had a good talk over lunch. Then we gathered about a third of what Marilyn wanted to get rid of.
I got plenty of old lounge music, most of it in those collector boxes that we used to get when we bought sets of such music through the mail. Most people today have little use for such songs, but I love it. And much of is was swing as well.
Chuck got some things John might like listening to and a few other sets as well.
On the way up and back Chuck showed me place after place that he knew. The camp where he worked, some other places he liked, and finally the Balston Spa church where he preaches once a year, usually on Labor Day and the family gathers for swim as well. We may join them there next time. It looked like fun. Plenty of tourist places to stay for an over night.

What we best enjoy is talking all that time up and back. We are alike, Chuck and I, in most everything. And we are very old friends, older than his ministry. Chuck is Dean now and sure busy. We will see him and Mary in Florida again this season. There he has no work and he can just relax and listen to the music at the outdoor gatherings of county/blues or head out for some Florida park. It won't be long now.

2011-10-06T11:48:00.003-04:00

Fried up some green tomatoes from the poker game yesterday. Won $153 and got some old jazz on CD and a fine couple batches of green tomatoes from Gregg's garden.
Here is breakfast with the jazz playing.

(click on arrow to see frying with Eddie Condon in the background)

Out fishing this morning in the peaceful serenity when half the road workers in Averill Park showed up to run their truck engines, dump gravel, and go beep beep beep in various ways. Last time I fished it was jet boat guy. I can't seem to pick the right times.
I caught three bluegills and a perch. I'll clean enough from the live well for a meal tonight.
Color is coming.
The air was cold. The sun was warm. Rowing kept me from feeling cold.

CLICK THE ARROW BELOW TO HEAR THE BLUEGILL SIZZLE

Bluegill

2011-10-03T19:06:00.000-04:00

Over a dozen bluegills off the dock casting into the tip of the fallen tree.
Most were nice and fat. My jig hook sort of sorts out the size a bit although I did lose worms to the little ones.
Nice fighters.
They only liked worms. No twisty tail jig got a hit without a bit of worm attached.
I put them in the live well. The water is over the top of it, so it is good I have the top screwed down.
Hope to have a meal on Thursday.

Nice and Autumn quiet until the guy with the jet boat across the way came.
Then there was noise and plenty of it. And waves as well. So intrusive.
But just for a very few minutes.

I bailed the boat, but before I go rowing, there will be more rain.
Off with Chuck tomorrow so no fishing.

Jeff visited and is posting more signs to keep out the hunters.

Ordered a couple more Kep' Mo' Cd's.
Talked to Lucky Pete in Florida. He'll meet me for a while in Vegas. Nice.
More silver strikes coming. No silver in them, however.
Can you still call it a silver strike if it does not have silver?
30 dollars now for the collectable when it is released. That one has six ounces of silver.

Casey's Day with Grampa Dewey and Boppee in pictures

2011-10-03T16:39:00.002-04:00

2011-10-03T01:43:00.000-04:00

We saw Keb' Mo' at the Egg on Saturday. We had fourth row seats that be bought a couple months ago. He was great. Muscians were not backing him up but clearly talented enough to be the show. Riffs were passed around effortlessly. I could hear all the instruments separately in the mix. This was not loud noise; if was jazzy, folksy, blusey mixtures with plenty of variety and perfectly blended. And when he bent those blues notes, it was amazing.

Organ, keyboard mandolin harmonica drums base guitar and Keb' Mo' using a new guitar for almost every song.

Every word of it was clear as a bell. Every note seemed right on.

Upbeat and celebratory blues is rare.

This blues is not , "low down and dirty," says keb' Mo', " but uphigh and happy.

and still not corny pie in the sky.

And none of those self aggrandisement "put your hands together for" crowd manipulative tactics.

the audience was brought into the experience in a very natural, good humored and friendly fashion.

All musicians were on the real, layed back, and easy.

At one point a boy about eleven was break dancing in the aisle and Keb' Mo' with slight motions got him up on the stage and finished the song dancing with him. It was just great.
I love the Egg. I can't remember a concert which was not too loud for me and where singer's lyrics were not drowned out by overplaying bands. It was so important here because most of these songs were new to me; the lyrics were new and to miss them was to miss so much. Keb' Mo' like Hemingway packs fairly simple vocabulary and sentence structure with layers of meaning and unique rhyme.

Take his allusion to the
Who "See me, hear me, touch me feel me" which has the sky speaking those words inside his head. Or the humor evoked by rhyme reaching for words to rhyme with Gov'ment cheese, or the short narrative development of Keep it Simple where even the absense of "stupid" tells volumes about this guys message in which there are no arrogant rants, no humor at anyone's expense. He opens with a song that celebrates how wonderful he is in every way, a miracle, and then comes the line "guess what? so are you. And he ends with "I'm gonna make my world a better place, I'm gonna keep that smile on my face. I'm gonna teach myself how to understand. I'm gonna make myself a better man."

A day with Casey

2011-10-03T01:31:00.001-04:00

We started at the Alexis Diner where we had eggs, bacon, home fries and Casey had some juice and a bagel. He is not much for bacon. Good kid.
Near there we went to the Children's Museum of Science and Technology -http://www.cmost.org/- and played. We could be in our own weather report, generate electricity with a hand powered windmill, play on computers, check out lobster, snakes, fish, frogs, turtles, an own, lizards, cut cardboard, build blocks, worked hand puppets, all sorts of things. We stayed a long while and had fun.
Then we went back here and played more toys. He liked the new little trucks and cars. We had a lunch of tuna fish and pineapple, the pineapple being the favorite for Casey.
We played a bit more and watched a movie with a British dog. Very clever.
Casey seemed to have a great time all day. At the museum he approached a woman our age and encouraged her to go in a cave and then wanted to give her a tour of the entire museum. It was very funny. Peter says he often does that. Perhaps he will be a salesman or a politician.
In the car to Casey we sang Abba Dabba Dabba, I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts, Old Mc Donald, Up and Down, but Casey's favorite seemed to be the Farmer with the dog Bingo and he could sing the letters especially if we clued him by pointing.
All in all it was a fine day. Fun. And tiring.

Before we went home, we stopped at Ichiban and ate some supper. Great prices and a great spot. I had the same crispy duck I had at Plum Blossom, but I liked the other better. I'll get the curry Elizabeth had next time. It was very good and very cheap as well. Some fine strong tea, good ambiance, and better than cooking and washing dishes after a busy kid centered day.

Trip to Massachusettes

2011-09-30T19:47:00.004-04:00

Note: This is still a post in progess. Elizabeth has more photos on here camera and I'll just post them here when I get them. I need to get things written and posted or I forget things.

I'll also edit tomorrow. So if you are a really detailed reader, you should return and reread later. It will get better.

Elizabeth and I went up to the Clark to see the Pissarro exhibit. I could not take photos there, but here is some sense of what we saw:

http://www.clarkart.edu/exhibitions/pissarro/content/exhibition.cfm

http://blog.timesunion.com/localarts/on-exhibit-pissarros-people-at-clark-art-institute/16823/

I am not thrilled with impressionists, but I enjoyed seeing these. I certainly enjoyed his celebration of the common laboring people. He was one of the first to do that. I liked that he thought labor was admirable, but that it should be balanced with leisure. He especially celebrated farm labor. In the cities capitalism had destroyed the chance for common people to be comfortable and happy. He did an entire book on the evils of capitalism in the cities.

Most of his work reflects pretty young women working in the fields, picking apples, working as maids.

What I learned about myself is that if a painting reflects the rich beauty of the human face, I like it better than those that try to celebrate the human figure or people in a scene without managing the face. Impressionists can do that, since what they depict are not the kind of realistic details that allow us to interact with a face. It hit me that Pissaro did manage to give us a sense of the personality via the face.

One painting was of himself reading in 1893. It could have been something out of the 1960's. He looked just like many of my old friends. Once there was a decent reflection of human personality, then the impressionist creation of the easy chair and the rug in small brush strokes worked for me. Pissaro compared making those small brush stokes over and over to the same kind of labor a farm person does when they do their tasks over and over. It gives a new slant to repetition. A sweeper might provide service without drugery. One painting celebrates washing dishes.

There were many celebrating the harvest. It was a different take on farm work than Hawthorne had after he lived a Brook Farm and did some of it. Was it romantic?

I was interested in The Pork Butcher - 1883 as it was a sweet painting with no blood. A woman was doing fine cuts on the meat. Nothing was hanging.

http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=12080

Sad was the story of his daughter Jean, called Minette, who died. He painted her as she declined.

After seeing the technique of using flat planes high and behind the main focus of a painting, I went to see Winslow Homer's undertow, one of my favorites. However, I did not like his plain sky now that I had seen what could be done there. I love all the drama and the action and the water. Maybe the guy on the left is a bit overdone. However, this dull, grey sky needs something more.

Francis William Edmonds - City and Country Beaux

I got a good laugh out of this one. However, it was also a very different take than Pissaro on the city versus the country. Here the county fellow is a bumpkin and the city fellow is polished.

Very similar was this one

Here is a cool painting called The Card Player's from 1646, 300 years before I was born. David Teners the Younger.

This painting was about burglars being arrested, but I thought I use it the next time I talk about rules discussions in poker.

In the Prado I had a favorite painting of Saint Jerome. He was an interesting religious character who live in a cave and was totally devoted to God. As an old man there are other sorts of meanings in the holding of the skull, a reminder of death.

There was a couple paintings done by Goya. This one is called Autumn. I caught the Goya in this woman with the basket on her head and it reminded me of the Prado.

I can't remember the name of this one. But it is just wonderful. Here is what I mean about faces.

How could I not like this next painting? It is called, The Amorous Proposal and is an old man's fantasy. Francois Le Moyne, a French painter is the artist. The girl's youth shines out against the dark sense of the old man. I have had a card with this painting on it on my dresser since my last visit.

Outside other sculptures picked up the themes of Pissarro. They were very well done.

We walked along a nice wooded road and path to get to the newest part of the Museum and see some interesting modern art.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Anatsui

http://www.google.com/search?q=elanatsui&hl=en&rlz=1C1CHKZ_enUS435US435&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=bVqGTuuHK8-r0AHpk-3lDw&ved=0CFYQsAQ&biw=740&bih=394

Basically the artist put together fine bits of found aluminum and other metal so that it looks from afar like woven fabric. It was quite decortative and beautiful and showed an amazing process.
I did not take photos of the art; I did of the path.

On out way out we had lunch at this place.

I had a wonderful salad with grilled prunes, granny apples, Gorgonzola large walnuts over greens and dressed with a raspberry vinaigrette that they make there at the restaurant. This place is a bit upscale, but we sat in these large tall backed upholstered chairs and just had a fine time. We were early and the only ones there for a long while. Elizabeth had some seafood, but it did not set well on her stomach. I tried one scallop and my stomach liked it. I drank an IPA called Lost Sailor.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33/89
I think Saranac is a better IPA, but it was good to have a local brew.

The bathrooms were uniquely marked

I guess they wanted us to figure out which was which. It hardly mattered since they were for one person at a time.

On the way back we stopped here:

There was a lot of drumming in the small temple. This temple was being painted. Tomorrow is a big celebration, an anniversary of sorts. It was interesting to see all this. We don't yet know what it means.

Here is an interesting way to build a bench. Are the sandwiched sections there because they needed more height or to act as nailers or to hold the seat together or for some symbolic reason. All the benches had them. I may steal this design. I sure have lots of short pieces of pressure treated wood that I brought back from Ann Marie's.

On our way home we stopped at the Plum Blossom

http://web.timesunion.com/entertainment/restaurants/onereview.asp?RestaurantID=1335

outside of Troy along route 7 and just across the street from Ron's fish fry. It is a fine sit down Chinese place and the food was all good. I had Peking duck...well, Elizabeth and I had Peking duck. It came over a fine bunch of fresh mixed vegetables: squash, broccoli, little corn, carrots. I upgraded to fried rice and started with a delicious chicken corn soup. We took most of Elizabeth's sesame chicken home for another snack. Nice prices as well. Strong tea and noodles with sweet/sour or mustard dip came with the meal. Maybe the tea and the coffee at the Clark helped keep me up into early morning.

Ahhh

2011-09-22T14:25:00.000-04:00

I think we are set on the deck. Old Jay went in and managed to save us a bundle on materials at Home Depot. What a disorganized place that is! Elizabeth was there most of yesterday. Well, some of us have to shop and some have to play poker.

I took down all the bird feeders, etc today. Looks like this is going to happen soon. Materials are coming tomorrow. Jay is digging holes and he gets the first inspection. Then there is nothing until the last inspection. I gave him gramp's old john bar for digging around the rocks. That tool has sure seen its days of work. I used to spend hours knocking out the ice on those old garage doors on Goembel.

Rainy today and more predicted. But clearing in between.

Burden Lake wildlife

2011-09-22T03:07:00.000-04:00

Coming in on Friday night.....well, 2 AM Saturday.......from the Blowers poker game I'm watching the roads, and watching the roads and watching....
For deer.
Nothing.
Turn in to Kay's parking lot and head up to find two are on Walsh's lawn. Young. Running from me.
I was happy to have them not running into me.

One morning Elizabeth, looking for a good view of cedar waxwings saw a bald eagle land in the big pine in front of the house. I got a look at that white head. Then we both saw him lunge away over the water from where he had come.

Twice, fishing on the dock, I watched a large blue heron flew by. They never seem to be in a hurry. Yesterday she came right into a branch of a tree along the shore, near the fallen tree, and for a long while we were fishing together.
Well, I was fishing, and she was watching.
Northern great blues are not so tame as they are in Florida where she would have been right in my yard waiting for a snack. Finally, she got tired watching me catch nothing and drifted off.

Yesterday was the best. I did not get down to the dock until ten AM and it still was as quiet as 6. At the end the dock only the most adventurous mosquitoes ventured to find skin somewhere between my neck scarf and my cap.
It was quiet.
There was not even any construction noises. Very rare for Burden Lake. There should have been noises in my own front yard, but there was a materials snafu so deck work was delayed and it was very quiet.
The loudest thing seemed to be the pine cones hitting the docks when the squirrels chewed them off and they dropped to crash and bounce.
Ron says they let them dry before they eat them.
"Hey, squirrels! Most of the time, when pine cones drop in the lake, they ain't gonna dry."

Ducks circled and landed and circled.
Crows called here and there.

Two other quiet fishermen at Kay's.

And that was it.

Later someone came and started a circular saw at Kay's.
I packed up the tackle box.
Then jet-boat-noise-and-blue-smoke-I-leave-a glaring-light on- all- night- long- because- I'm- from-the city-and its-scary-here guy launched and roared away the wonder of the morning.
But by then it was eleven and I had a pickerel in my refrigerator and a couple more bluegills in the live well.

All on jigs and twister tails topped with refrigerated fish eyes from the last batch I cleaned.
The pickerel hit on a bright orange twister tail. Usually I fish purple.

The pickerel is my only one this year. I have released a few bass, but hooked no pickerel. This one was small, just 15" and skinny. He grabbed, got hooked and went like a torpedo in a slightly curved arc from in front of the dock toward the willow. I could see him just below the surface, the jig visible in his mouth and I followed him with the tip of my pole and a tense line, turned him, and brought him to the net.

I rarely fish with a net, but I had my father's old net down at the dock because I wanted to see if there was a hole in my live well. It was very quiet there. I netted a few fish, even one perch that has been there since May and rarely gets snagged in the nets, so I guess most of the fish that Peter, Frank and I caught are alive and well and waiting to sacrifice their lives for my dining pleasure.
Anyway, the net was handy for the pickerel.
This light leaderless line snaps easily in their mouths and I wanted this one for today's breakfast.

It was fine to fish on the dock with its new boards.
The one inch mistake I made at the every end actually works to keep me tipped a bit back so I won't stumble off the slippery dock. I guess I won't change that.

And then I went to lose $43 at Gregg's in poker.

Rough Two Nights Sleeping

2011-09-20T12:33:00.002-04:00

Maybe it is anxiety about the upcoming renovation of the deck, but I was tired, and I tried sleeping from about 8PM with little success. Finally, I slept in from 7AM until 10AM, very unusual for me, but refreshing.

There is a delight overcast rain today and I may do a little dock fishing. Yesterday I replaced all the rotted boards on the dock which makes it much easier to fish there and gives me access to the fish live well. I had nailed down the board covers before Irene so as not to loose them. It was a good plan. I found that my circular saw accuracy has leaked out a bit over the years. But I did not need accuracy; it is after all only a dock and one that needs replacement if I can ever decide what I want to replace it with.

Of course I dropped the hammer I was using to pull up the old boards in the lake at the end of the dock. So, my last task before supper was to go in the cold water, walk around the dock, go completely underwater and hold myself near the bottom while reaching for the hammer. I had to reach in between some supporting struts and had the unusual picture of being caught in the frets and drowned. It was not rational really, but just a factor of being underwater and rubbing against these dock supports with my big belly, but it was disconcerting. I was happy to quickly find the hammer and get back up for air.

I was sore when I was through and that kept me awake as well. I am to sedentary.

One time I woke up from a dream. I was dreaming of poker. Bill was playing and to his right was Governor Cuomo, and then Peter Margiotta (a Livingston music teacher who died) and then Elizabeth and then me. Cuomo was dealing. Oddly the betting went counterclockwise. Bill bet his cup of pennies. He would not count them. I was frustrated. It was such a small bet and I wanted to know how many were there. Cuomo folded. Margiotta thought a long while and then he folded. It was now Elizabeth's turn and she just would not make a decision. All she did was sit and make a lip vibrating noise sort of like a horse makes. I was getting impatient, so I woke up. And in my right ear was Elizabeth making those horse snoring noises. It cracked me up. I thought I'd start laughing and wake her up, so I snuck out and went on computer.

Neighbor Ron cut the grass yesterday just in time to beat the rain. I had cut parts of it where we don't let him go anymore after he was stung there.

In the middle of the night I caught one of those timed deals and managed a couple vouchers for a Beatles show in Vegas just before the offer expired. I like those vouchers because I don't have to have a certain date to use them.

Sunday we had a small gathering of a larger musical group that Elizabeth belongs to. I was the only guy. The last time we sang, but this time we looked at Tibetan bowls and played with them. What wonderful sounds. No wonder folks meditate to these. I have heard this music on the radio, but not felt what these bowls produced when the vibrations were right there for me to experience directly. I guess on the radio it is just sound. Here we could feel the music through our feet as well.

I liked this better than the singing. It was interesting too to hear how these bowls are made. They are hand hammered with one person holding and three hammering in succession until the bowl is shaped the right way. The process is centuries old. This collection is very pricey. It is not something that one would pick up at flea markets.

We are waiting for the deck materials to be bought and delivered. Jay is getting a run around from home depot. Not a good start, really. I'll be glad to see this project off and running so that I don't have to hang around the house. I felt I had to be around all day yesterday as well. There has been more waiting than anything else on this project, and I am ready to see it move along.

Peter called with a worn wheel bearing. That was the noise. Good thing it was finally checked out. Once that is fixed the old Buick should be ready to sound like herself again.

Well, I won't be around tomorrow. The poker game is on at Gregg's. Looks like a good turnout as well. Here is the hand I want when Gregg has quads.

At the poker game

2011-09-17T03:06:00.002-04:00

I lost $12, but Peter took a good chunk of money.
Go Pete!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!