“I love being home, reading the paper in the morning and having a cup of coffee, doing laundry, going grocery shopping and running daily errands. For me, it’s important to have that balance in my life.”
Last night was cold, not quite wintry cold but close enough. Saturday night will be in the 30’s. That’s winter to me. The sun is resting elsewhere so the sky is all over cloudy, not a single break of blue. It is a still day.
I was out yesterday and am going out again today. I can’t remember the last time I was out two days in a row. Maddie and Gracie are my incentives today. They both need canned food, and Gracie is almost out of treats. I also need sunflower seeds. That’s the first stop, Agway. As for me, I’m out of bread and butter. It is a two stop day.
When I was a kid, my parents always went grocery shopping on Friday nights. My father had to take my mother as she didn’t have a driver’s license and wouldn’t have one until after we had moved to the cape. Saturday was my father’s day for errands and chores. When I go by the Chinese laundry still in my home town, I think of my dad. He’d go to the “Chinaman” every Saturday with his long sleeve white shirts. He wore one every day to work and liked them starched. He wouldn’t start wearing colors until much later. I gave him a button down collar yellow shirt for Christmas one year, and that was the start of colors and buttoned down collars. My father surprised me when he abandoned white.
My father seldom deviated from his usual anything. He didn’t easily try new foods and wouldn’t eat familiar foods if they were changed even in the smallest way. The key to my dad was to work around him. When he was here visiting, he ate a pork roast to which I had added garlic in slits around the meat. My dad loved the meal. When my mother was making the same dish, he caught her adding the garlic. He told my mother no way would he eat it. Only shrimp scampi had garlic. He wouldn’t eat hummus because he said it looked like wallpaper paste. Chinese food was exotic to him, a man who loved Spam, sardines and instant coffee.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: going out, grocery shopping, habits, Laundry, pork
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November 9, 2017 at 2:01 pm
I saw this article today and thought of you: https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/joni-mitchell-rarities-are-just-that-rare-here-are-some-of-the-best/
November 9, 2017 at 2:34 pm
sprite,
That is a wonderful, amazing article. In the first video Joni is just so young. I don’t remember her when she first started, but I remember her music.
Many thanks!!!
November 9, 2017 at 2:06 pm
Hi Kat,
There was definite frost on the pumpkins this morning. I don’t have any pumpkins but there was frost on everything else. There was even a thick skim of ice on the bird bath. I finally got to wear that sweater I finished knitting last spring. I’m not sure I’m pleased about that, though.
My father was a cautiously adventurous eater. He would try something, if you told him what it was first. That stemmed from an incident in France during the war. As he told it, he was served calves brains but he didn’t know what it was. He liked it very much so he asked. When they told him, he went outside and threw it all up. This a person who would eat oysters on the half shell which seems to me to be much more questionable. 🙂
I like Spam in moderation and only if it’s been fried and has a runny yolk egg on top. Sardines are also acceptable in combination with good bread, mayo, and thinly sliced onions. Instant coffee is a no-no. Unless it’s Starbucks Via which is actual brewed coffee in pellet form or something, IDK, but it’s drinkable.
It’s very sunny and cool up here today.
Enjoy the day.
November 9, 2017 at 2:50 pm
Hi Caryn,
We didn’t get a frost this morning. It was just warm enough to keep it away. I did need a sweatshirt when I took Gracie outside.
I don’t ever remember my dad eating oysters but I know he loved steamers as did my sister and me. They used to disgust my mother.
As a kid, I ate sardines on Saltines, but I can’t bring myself to eat them now. I don’t even like how they look. My sister still likes Spam, but I never did. My dad too often cooked his. The slices did brown nicely.
Ghanaians were tea drinkers so they only had instant coffee. It was either that or no coffee. I went with Instant Nescafe from Holland. When I first went back, I was hoping for real coffee, but they still had only instant.
You’re the one who stole my sun!!
Have a great day.
November 9, 2017 at 9:41 pm
Your choice of cassettes would make me smile anytime. Joni has an incredible voice. It’s hard to believe that we baby boomers are now in our ‘Golden Years’.
When I lived in Queens as a teenager, neither aunt nor my uncle could drive. My cousin’s job, as soon as he was old enough to drive, was to take them grocery shopping on Saturday. My aunt bought enough food weekly to feed a small European principality. Much of it would disappear in the back of the fridge where we grew various kind of molds. 🙂
My dad also had his dress white shirts professionally laundered weekly. My sister and I would play with the cardboard sheet that came with each shirt. Wash and wear along with colors came much later after my dad stopped working. My company dress code is business casual every day. I chucked all my ties with the last move. A tie is a totally useless appendage. The only time my boss wears a tie is when the British CAA come to audit the records of our European clients. They like to look spiffy and dress up not down.
Today was cloudy in the AM and chilly with a low of 49 in the morning and 60 in the afternoon.
November 9, 2017 at 10:13 pm
Bob,
We played them all the time. During the rainy season, the cassettes wouldn’t rewind so we had to use our Bic pens on the teeth and do the rewind manually.
My grandmothers never learned to drive. On the Cape, my mother had no choice but to get a license as there were no buses so she was stuck. When we only had one car though so she was still a bit housebound. When they moved while I was in the Peace Corps, she had her own vehicle.
We uses to color those cardboard inserts with the shirts. I found a great shirt for my dad which was wash and wear. He loved those shirts so I bought him a different color every Christmas. He always wore a tie.
Below freezing after midnight, the coldest yet. We are the only part of the state which hasn’t had a frost, but after tonight, we won’t be able to say that.
November 9, 2017 at 10:48 pm
Whenever I think of cassette tapes I remember the first Sony Walkman tape player I owned back in the late 70s. It was slightly larger than a tape, was beautifully designed, came with semi earbud headphones and ran on one triple ‘A’ battery. Later I carried a Sony disc man CD player. Sony was the leader in music in those days but Apple just blew them completely out of the water with the iPod. My daughter still has my first generation iPod Nano which still works.
November 9, 2017 at 11:08 pm
I also had a Sony Walkman then upgraded to a disc man. I have an old iPod but it works just fine. Apple kills me with all the upgrades to their machine enticing me to buy!!
November 10, 2017 at 9:22 am
It was a warm morning yere and it has been since too but now it rains and tonight will be chilly they say so we might even get our first snow tomorrow morning.
I’m not sure I would have tried calf brain but I do eat almost everything. I don’t eat fish pudding though, that’s an abomination 🙂 🙂
I did my weekend shopping after work today at the store in the village where I work, after that I went tothe store in Gudhem to get the dog food I had ordered and I always feel guilty if I don’t buy anything there too so I bought some instant coffee and a cheese 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
November 10, 2017 at 6:42 pm
Christer,
We too will have a cold tonight, below freezing for the first time on the cape. The rest of the state has already had one.
I haven’t had either of those two. I don’t even think they are even available around here. Tongue is about the most exotic, weird food I’ve had.
I went shopping last night and got bread, butter, chicken and dog treats. I need to buy more dog food, maybe tomorrow.
Have a wonderful evening!