“Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.”
The rain started last night and is just now stopping. It has left behind yet another dreary day. It is 56˚ and as warm as it will be for the whole coming week when we’ll drop to the 40’s every day. I’m inclined to stay close to hearth and home.
Watching the Macy’s parade dates back to when I was five or six. I remember sitting on the floor in front of the TV eating snacks. My mother always put out mixed nuts for us to crack and eat, tangerines and M&M’s. We had those silver crackers and matching forks to pull out the nuts. Brazil nuts were my favorites. I liked tangerines because they were so easy to peel. I just didn’t like that they had nuts. Those I’d spit into my hand then put on my plate. I never missed color. Black and white was all we knew, but the parade still had magic from the floats, the sounds of the bands and Santa arriving at the end.
When my mother baked, the windows in the kitchen fogged. At night the window water would freeze in a thin layer like on our car windshields except it was inside the house. Sometimes the window ice looked like mountains ridges, some higher than the others. The ridges, though, never went beyond the middle of the window. I used to like to scratch pictures or messages on the ice with my fingernail, but once the heat kicked in, it didn’t take long for the ice to melt.
Our first frost came the other day. When I went to get the papers, I noticed my car windshield was wet, and the part of my neighbor’s front yard filled with mulch still had its layer of frost. When I went out about an hour later, the frost was gone.
I always hated scraping my car windows. It was early in the morning, around 6:15, still very dark and cold. Now, I seldom go out all that early so the frost has usually melted. When people ask me about the best parts of being retired, I’ll have to remember to tell them about never having to scrape a window.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: B&W TV, dreary day, foggy windows, frost, M&M's, Macy's parade, nutcrackers, rainy day, scrape car windows, tangerines, window ice
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
November 20, 2015 at 1:55 pm
The air is cold, the skies are blue, and we wait for the first biggie of the season. 5-8 Brandon was yelling on channel 4 – your Saturday will be shredded – bummer really as I am supposed to see the Jersey Boys at the Fisher tomorrow afternoon
The Toro Snowmaster 724 QXE is being delivered early so that I am ready for tomorrow’s fun. This babe magnet of a white stuff chucker is ready to throw anything that settles on my driveway some 40 feet in any direction.
Mrs MDH and I are kicking it up a gear as we approach the return of children, relatives the parade and the Detroit Lions – we will be blistering the credit card down the Costco tonight
I cant get to grips with the Bowie – I want to but I just cant
November 20, 2015 at 6:12 pm
My Dear Hedley,
It is even colder now in the dark. The big game here tomorrow is BC against Notre Dame at Fenway. Strange to see goalposts and goal lines on the field. The Boston Patriots used to play there. The Irish have taken over the city.
What fun! You can snow blow the whole neighborhood. You’ll be the hero with wing crowds and applause.
I have an empty dance card until Monday when I will watch Our Patriots play the Bills. We get to listen to more of Ryan, thank God no relation. Sadly, though, our boys are hurting from many injuries.
It will be an exciting time at the Hedley homestead!
November 20, 2015 at 4:07 pm
We never reached above 32F today and since it rained all day yesterday until the below 32 degrees came I had concrete ice all over my car, I wished I was retired when I had to scrape it from the car windows 🙂 The weekend will be rather cold so I bought fire logs on my way home and have had the fire burning all evening.
Brazil nuts are the only nuts I can’t eat, my lips get nummed and it starts to tingle in them 🙂 So I can’t eat any nut mixes where the nuts are without a shell. I liked them but they were so hard to crack that I really don’t miss them.
We have a citrus fruit that is as easy to peal as the tangerine but without any seeds in them called Satsumas. I can eat loads of them but my stomach usually dies the day after 🙂 Not fun to be around me days like that but they are soo delicious 🙂
The temperature will fall down to at least 17,6F tonight but I don’t care since I don’t have to scrape any car windows tomorrow morning 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
November 20, 2015 at 6:23 pm
Christer,
We had no rain and it was warm. I didn’t even go outside, had no reason to go. Tomorrow, though, I need both dog and cat food so I’ll have to go out regardless.
My mother alway bought the packages where all the nuts were in shells. Half the fun was cracking those shells.
When I was young, I didn’t care about seeds. Now I never buy oranges with seeds.
It will start to get colder here just in time for Thanksgiving.
Have a great evening!
November 20, 2015 at 5:26 pm
Hi Kat,
I love Brazil nuts. I didn’t even mind cracking them. They looked so different from the other nuts in the mix. Like fortune cookies or something. I always eat those first followed by the cashews.
Tangerines were not a favorite because of the seeds and the strings. I dislike both. Clementines are okay. Mandarins, too.
The inside window on my bedroom would sometimes freeze like that and I would melt pictures into it with my warm hands. If I put a glass of water on the window sill overnight, it would have a skim of ice on it too. There was no heat in my bedroom and the insulation was pretty minimal. I liked it though. I would snuggle down under heavy blankets and it was snug and cozy. The presence of a warm dog made it even better.
It rained all last night in a steady and polite fashion and was all over by 8AM. The clouds mostly blew away and left big patches of blue and sunlight. It never got above 47ºF. But I was walking the dogs in my flip-flops anyway. 🙂
Enjoy the evening.
November 20, 2015 at 6:37 pm
Caryn,
We always had nuts we needed to crack. I thought that was part of the fun of it. I also love cashews.
I don’t know if they had Clementines back then. Oranges are now my favorites, and they don’t have seeds.
I never thought of putting a glass on the windowsill. One of my windows was right above the radiator so it didn’t get ice as often, but the other one did.
We never got the sun, but it did get warmer in the afternoon. Gracie was out a lot, always an indicator of the temperature.
The cold is coming!
Have a great evening!
November 20, 2015 at 7:23 pm
Hmm. No rain here yet. I s’pose we’ll be in the line of some drippy clouds before too long, tho’. What we’re startin’ to get in spades is cold. I am such a happy boy! Got my workout in this afternoon and it was perfect weather for shorts and a T.
I haven’t watched Macy’s parade in Gawd-knows-how-long. Never was a big thing for us. We were used to parades that had floats, ‘cuz Mardi Gras. Balloons just weren’t the same. Nobody tossed beads from balloons, either. Different place, different custom.
I remember Brazil nuts – and the ‘less-than-politically-correct’ name they had in the ’50s. The silver crackers we used then sit in my kitchen drawer today, even tho’ it’s been years since I’ve bought nuts of any kind. Satsumas were a staple in New Orleans, but they’re being slowly replaced with other fruits. Tangerines are good, and lately I’ve found a fruit that’s marketed under the descriptor of ‘Mineola.’ We also have smaller versions called ‘Clementines,’ but those are so small it’s more trouble to peel than they’re worth. I’d rather have something large – like an Ugli fruit … and yes, that’s its real name. It’s huge, contains oceans of liquid, and you’d best eat it over a sink so you can have a wash-up when you’re done. They’re absolutely great.
I don’t remember any window-fogging from Mom’s baking. I do, on the other hand, remember frost on the windows in winter after a rain. We were never lucky enough to get the ‘Norman Rockwell’ kind of icing you describe. I’m still waiting for the first frost – maybe this weekend … ?
If there’s a Wal-Mart near you, visit their automotive dept. and look for a product called ‘HEET’ … I buy five or six cans every year before winter sets in. If I have icing on windows and around doors, I walk outside, can in hand, and ‘HEET it up’ – then I go inside and wait for five minutes. When I go back again with my wide fish-turner in hand, it’s just a matter of moving slush off the glass – and the door’s not frozen shut anymore, either. Like you, I rarely have to scrape a window, but when I do, I use HEET … (doesn’t that sound an awful lot like the horrible beer commercial with ‘The World’s Least Interesting Man’ … ?)
November 20, 2015 at 7:36 pm
Richard, growing up (in London) Satsumas were a lovely Christmas treat. We also battled all sorts of hard shells with the nut crackers.
Thank you for the memories.
November 21, 2015 at 9:27 am
Quite welcome, Hedley. Are you now in process of applying your SnowMonster to said snow? That machine sounds reminiscent of the one Hammond, Clarkson, and May designed for snow-clearing in (I believe) Norway. Have you painted a name on it yet? When you describe it, I can almost hear the theme music from ‘Vikings’ in the background.
November 20, 2015 at 7:44 pm
Richard,
The rain has moved on from here. More might be coming, the same storm which is dropping snow on the Midwest. Today was the warmest day of this week. It will start getting colder tomorrow.
I went to the Macy’s Parade one year, and it was great fun to be there after having seen it on those years on TV. No beads, but it is still fun.
I also still have those crackers only now I’ve been using them to crack lobster shells. We also have Clementines, and they sell them by the crateful as they are so small. I buy a crate a grab a couple of clementines for the road. I’ve bought ugli fruits as they sell them here as well. They are also a citrus which is why they have all that juice. I like them.
In the winter was when the windows fogged from the oven being on. It had something to do with inside temperature being hotter than outside.
There are no Wal-Marts on the Cape. Every town has worked really hard to keep them away. I remember using Heet at one time or another. Now I about late enough that the frost has usually melted. That’s one of my favorite parts of being retired.
November 21, 2015 at 11:31 am
Richard – the Monster stands ready in the garage and yes it is snowing ! This bugger can go nuclear !
November 21, 2015 at 9:35 am
Watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade is still one of my favorite parts of the holiday. Unfortunately, TV has turned it into a kind of variety show inside a parade, 😦
I have been in Phoenix all week and the temperature yesterday afternoon was around 80 degrees with clear skies. When I arrived on Sunday it was actually raining here and we had a couple of cool days with highs only reaching 60. I was here in August when it was very hot and now I can see why lots of retired people move here from places in the north. I’m headed home later this morning.
My favorite nuts were Pecans. I had a friend that a special machine to rapidly she’ll them. Their house was sourounded by pecan trees and they collected a lot of nuts every year. BTW they are not pronounced like a metal can that you pee into. 🙂
November 21, 2015 at 11:08 am
Bob,
That’s true as most acts stop in front of Macy’s to sing and bands stop to play. I don’t care. I love the balloons and the clowns and the floats.
I’ve been to Arizona a couple of times, one was over Thanksgiving. We swam in the pool, called over the cabana boy for drinks and had a wonderful Thanksgiving, albeit different but still wonderful as most of the family was there.
I had to think about your last sentence for a while. I got it. PeKahn!