“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”
Today is a carbon copy of yesterday. Carbon copy? Where did that come from? I haven’t seen a carbon copy for years. It has gone the way of the phone booth.
Last night got really chilly. I grabbed the afghan, snuggled under it and fell right back to sleep. When I woke up, the morning still had a chill, especially the backyard as the sun doesn’t get there until the afternoon. The first cup of coffee was especially inviting this morning,
Peapod came this morning, and all the groceries are already put away. I noticed I bought hot dog buns but no hot dogs. I also forgot toilet paper. I swear I looked and chose the paper I wanted, but obviously I didn’t; however, I did remember the Twizzlers. I do have priorities. I’ll just have to hit the grocery store later.
Artichokes are ugly. They are also too much work to eat. I sometimes wonder who was brave enough to taste one for the first time, and how long did it take to figure out how to eat it?
When I first started eating brie, I didn’t like the brie mold. I’d dig around underneath it and leave a gaping hole, sort of like eating the pie filling and leaving the top crust. It took a while before I realized the mold was tasty.
The world knows I hate beans. Where that came from I have no idea. Even as a kid I didn’t like beans. Our Saturday night baked beans never touched my plate. I look with distain at most beans, but one type makes me grimace, makes me crinkle my face in disgust. That would be refried beans. I can never get pass how they look. They are gross.
I love kitchen tools. My favorite is my juicer. It is orange metal and is the easiest way ever to get lemon or lime juice. I also love my avocado skinner, parer and my corn cutter which takes the kernels off the cob. I have this amazing little wheel which you roll and it minces garlic as it goes. I bought onion glasses but they didn’t really help all that much. Now I buy chopped onion to save myself. I have a mandolin, but the first time I used it I cut my finger so I don’t use it so much. I have knife sharpeners, but I can never seem to get them to work. Most off my knives are depressingly dull. On my sometime in the future to do list is to bring a few knives at a time to be sharpened. Lord only knows if my fingers will be safe.
Last night I was standing outside the Cape Playhouse before going inside. It was only 7:30, and it was already getting dark. I wanted to scream. Summer is too quickly coming to an end. Labor Day, the traditional end of summer, is next weekend. It’s time to accept the seasons are changing and it’s time to bring the sweatshirts out of the guest room closet.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: Grocery store, hot dogs, kitchen tools, knives
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August 26, 2017 at 12:52 pm
You can also include the typewriter, the pager, the mimeograph machine, the dictaphone, the tape recorder and a host of other things that are now found in museums. When my 20 year old son was seven or eight I inherited my father’s manual Hermes typewriter. He liked playing with it and called it the ancient word processor. Eventually the ribbon wore out and I couldn’t find a replacement. He soon lost interest. He also called my father’s vinyl record collection, black CDs. Now as a commercial music student and a good guitar and drum musician, he buys vinyl records because he says they sound better than digital recordings.
Yes, the man or woman who discovered the artichoke and how to eat it deserves a medal. Why is the best part called, The Choke? I’m not a big fan of beans, however the Boston baked style with bacon and the Black beans are good. I’m not a fan of the refried Mexican style of either pinto or black variety.
I hate moldy cheeses of any kind. I dislike brie, gorgonzola and blue cheese in any form. I also hate cilantro in any form. My sister, my first cousin and I all think that cilantro tastes like soap. I think it’s an inherited trait.
We don’t have a lot of kitchen gadgets because we have a very small kitchen. Most of the gadgets we bought in the past were just impulse purchases which took up too much space in the kitchen drawers. Remember the pitchmen who sold kitchen gadgets in stores and at the state fair. “It chops, it dices and it makes snow cones for the kiddies.” Of course it was a pain to use and clean. You don’t see Gordon Ramsey or any of the chefs on the Food Network using any of those gadgets. They are masters of the chef knife.
Today is also cloudy and cool which for August is very strange. Some of this may be caused by Hurricane Harvey. Even though it’s been downgraded to a tropical storm, it’s going to dump about 25 inches of rain on South Texas including the Houston area.
August 26, 2017 at 4:06 pm
Bob,
I still have my typewriter. It was a high school graduation gift. I think they’re are still places where you can buy ribbons. Maybe I should just keep it on my desk as a curiosity piece.
I have a turntable and several vinyls. I also just bought the 50th anniversary Sergeant Pepper on vinyl. Many are coming out on vinyl as limited editions.
I just don’t like beans of any sort. No beans in my chili! because real chili doesn’t have beans.
I dislike the other than brie cheeses you mentioned. The taste is too strong for me.
I use my kitchen gadgets when I cook. I like that they make tedious tasks easier. On the Food Network they have the best pans and utensils. Their knives are wonderfully sharpened.
I saw where all the rain will be dumped in the next couple of days. I suspect massive flooding.
August 26, 2017 at 5:56 pm
I don’t think the typewriter made it through the downsizing to the condo. Moving into about half the square footage of space means that you have to part with a lot of things you haven’t used in a long time.
Although music experts will tell you that vinyl records produce a softer edged sound, my 70 year old ears, that have survived noisy piston powered airplanes, can’t tell the difference. The real audiophiles buy vacuum tube amplifiers because they say that they produce a warmer musical tone. Good luck finding replacement vacuum tubes. Vacuum tubes are another item that younger people won’t recognize. They probably are available on the Internet and I think they are still being made in Russia. 🙂
August 26, 2017 at 6:24 pm
Hob,
My mother used to tell us that after she’d gone toes up, we’d have quite the task of going through her house. She was right. I suspect it will be the same with me.
I like the sound of my vinyl, but my turntable isn’t anything fancy. It does the job of playing, and that’s all I needed
August 26, 2017 at 7:51 pm
Here’s an interesting article about boomer parents leaving stuff for their kids. My father used to say he was spending our inheritance. 🙂 He didn’t make it to where the last check he wrote was to the undertaker and it would bounce. BTW a checkbook is another disappearing item.
http://www.businessinsider.com/some-adult-children-dont-really-want-to-inherit-their-parents-stuff-2017-7
August 26, 2017 at 9:26 pm
Bob,
My brother said he wanted nothing from my parents’ home after my mother died. Later his kids were really angry at my sisters and me because they got nothing. We told them about their father but I think he told a different story when he realized how angry his sons were.
My sisters have called dibs on some of my stuff. I told them they’d have to wait a while. The African stuff probably hasn’t much of an appeal, but some of it is valuable. I figure I’ll have to start taking pictures of my stuff and giving a description. I have a Steiff boxer with the original tag. They wouldn’t realize how valuable it is.
They will have some fun going through my stuff!
August 26, 2017 at 3:13 pm
I have been doing Fall like stuff, cleaning and switching out exterior lights, it’s almost on us. I walked in the very early light of a Michigan dawn and it was chill. Rochester is beautiful at this time of year. Yates’ cider mill opened yesterday, I guess their planning matches mine.
I tried to walk to old terrier to the corner, she was neither amused nor enthusiastic and has returned to her room to sleep. It is her Fall.
Chapel tonight, means I can enjoy Sunday morning with Tottenham Hotspur. I invested a whole $50 with NBC Sports Gold to make sure that I do not miss one of their matches
Steven Wilson fills the air. Find the stream.
August 26, 2017 at 4:13 pm
My Dear Hedley,
The first sign of fall, the mums, are out at my farm store. I love their colors.
The Cape doesn’t get all the foliage changes as we have so many scrub pine and oak. When I go toward Boston, I can see the leaves in all their splendor.
Gracie loves to go into the backyard but not stairs. We go down the driveway, and I open the gate for her. When she is done, I walk with her up the stairs. I just provide assurance.
I believe your money was well spent. Your Saturdays are all planned.
Have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy the game.
August 26, 2017 at 3:14 pm
The online museum for vanishing and endangered sounds (dial phones, typewriters and more):
http://www.conservethesound.de/en
My dose of culture today, a oriental Jazz orchestra free open air concert and Kelewele on a nice warm summer day 🙂
(…in soccer town Dortmund. Hi Hedley! Dortmund won today. Just saying 😉 )
Good luck, dear Texans and whoever gets hit by Harvey and rain and power outage!
August 26, 2017 at 4:24 pm
Birgit,
I’m not going to thank you for that6 link as I spent so much time listening to the sounds of my childhood and even a few from my adulthood.
You knew you’d kill me with the kelewele.
I went to Hyannis today to pick up the new hard drive which has all the files and such from my old computer. This is the second trip to Hyannis in a week. I think that’s the most in six months.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
August 26, 2017 at 4:45 pm
Hi Kat,
Same kind of night, same kind of day. But this is my season so I’m a happy camper.
I am a recovering kitchen gadget addict. But I discovered the gadgets were harder to clean than a chef’s knife or an ulu and often fussier to use. I do have the Mexican style citrus juicer. Best thing ever. And I have a micro plane for grating citrus peel, ginger, garlic or nutmeg. To counter that, I have a fondness for electric things that can be set to do their job and forgotten because they’ll shut themselves off when done. Rice cooker. Fancy countertop convection oven (AKA toaster oven). Bread machine. Slow cookers. Electric kettle. Love them all.
My knives are also not the sharpest in the drawer. 😀 There’s a place in Reading that sharpens anything with a blade. I may have to look them up.
Rocky and Piki Dog are out on the porch howling at the electronic church bells. In harmony. With Feeling. 🙂 Can’t say I blame them. The electronic bells are painful. Of course, they do the same thing to the mail carrier every day. I told him they were greeting him with the songs of their people. He laughed.
Enjoy the Twizzlers and the evening.
August 26, 2017 at 5:09 pm
Hi Caryn,
I also have a micro plane, but I think of that as essential rather than a gadget. My mother had a convection oven which my sisters sent to me. It is in the cellar as I haven’t any place to store it. I have an old slow cooker which is one piece, the insert isn’t an insert and a newer one. I use them mostly for chili and my sausage cacciatore and other foods which meld a while. I did buy a one pot, a pressure cooker, but I haven’t used it yet.
My knives are a real pain as they bend stuff rather than cut. I do have one which I use so often it will be dull soon enough.
Gracie used to bark, but now she just cocks her head and listens. I guess old age stifled her barking.
Have a wonderful evening!
August 27, 2017 at 8:38 am
Maybe I should throw a roll of TP over the wall?
No baked beans for me. Chile with beans is ok. Lima beans? Fogetaboutit.
Our friends Katie and Michael had to clean out both their parents’ homes. Most of the glassware,etc. is on neatly organized shelves in their basement. Their only child doesn’t want any of it. One or our granddaughters wants one our African balancing guys, a small tub of hand putty, and $50. That’s all.
August 27, 2017 at 8:43 am
That’s chili, not Chile.
August 27, 2017 at 11:04 am
I figured as much.
August 27, 2017 at 11:04 am
Bill,
I’m thinking that’s a great idea. Make it multi-ply please.
Lima beans are disgusting as are kidney beans. Real chili and beans don’t mix.
Your granddaughters are still young so maybe they’ll have more requests when they are older. $50.00 is a cheap behest. Why the hand putty?