Top Of Mind
27/11/22 07:01
Happy Thanksgiving week, boys and girls! Who's looking forward to Thanksgiving? Who doesn't like a nice turkey dinner with all the fixings? That's what we're talking about. The best part is probably getting together with family and friends and giving thanks for all your blessings over this past year. That's what the pilgrims did back in the day. Right? It's a great tradition, any way you slice it. I've checked the forecast, and the temperatures will be in the forties. It will be a perfect day to get out for a walk after dinner and, God willing, get down to the beach for a change of scenery. We won't be the only ones there, I can assure you.
The missus and I were on our way out the door yesterday afternoon, going nowhere in particular, when I suggested we call the Ev man to see if he needed us to bring him anything. It was spur of the moment, and I wasn't surprised to hear the Ev man say that he was definitely up for having us bring him something to eat. "Call your order into the restaurant, and we'll stop and pick it up," I told him. "In fact," I added, "order yourself something for tomorrow as well." When we finally arrived at his place, I don't think I've seen him happier to see us stopping by with a so-called care package. If I had to guess, I would imagine that he was probably looking through his freezer to see what he might have for dinner before we called to check in. Just file this under "The Lord works in mysterious ways."
I think this is going to be one of those weeks where I may need to make a list just to stay organized. My bike has been in the shop for a few days now, and I missed my chance to pick it up last Friday when they sent an e-mail that I didn't see in time. I was out of town all day Saturday, and the shop was closed on Sunday. I don't like not riding my bike for more than a few days in a row because I tend to lose a bit of momentum. The more momentum I lose, the longer it takes me to get back on track. The weather hereabouts has been cold and blustery, with temperatures mostly in the thirties, so I'm not sure I would have been out and about on my bike even if it weren't in the shop. I don't mind riding in the extreme cold, but I need to work up to doing that. It's too cold too soon. Brrr rabbit.
I'm also not sure that I'm done with my pre-winter yardwork. I need to cut down a couple of tall grass plants near the shed, and I should probably rake up the garden. It's more of a tidying exercise than anything else. If I did none of it, it wouldn't be a big deal one way or another. I also have the garage to square away. I need to make room to get our cars in there, so that should take me a good few hours to get that done. The missus offered to help me with sorting through any number of boxes that she had stored in the garage some years ago so I may take her up on her offer. She's a bit of a hoarder, so those boxes have been doing nothing but collecting dust all these past many years. Now that we're needing maybe a little more room to store other things, it's high time that they get carried off to the local recycling center. Good riddance.
I sure hope that I can have a constructive discussion with my local mechanic about fixing the Ev man's car. I'll need to do that today just to get the ball rolling. The last thing I want to hear from him is that he can't do the job. That will probably mean having the dealership do it instead. I'm not against having the dealership do it, but I imagine I'll be paying a premium for their services. Maybe, that's the price you pay if you want things done correctly the first time. That's not to say I don't trust my local mechanic because I surely do. It's a big job with a hefty price tag, and I'm running out of time to get this done if I understand the inspection process and how much time one gets before they tell you they can't put another sticker on your car. Then what? The Ev man has no car? We can't let that happen. Not on my watch, as they say in the movies.
We're a couple of days out from Thanksgiving, and I seem to have the wind at my back when it comes to getting a few things done around here. I never did make that list I was talking about, so I'll keep putting one foot in front of the other until I get everything done. I didn't have covering our air conditioner on my bingo card, but I got that done yesterday while I was otherwise putzing around in the garage. Whenever I clean one area of the garage, I come across something else or some other area that needs to be squared away. It's never-ending. It's easy to just stuff as much as possible into one or more places in the garage. It's more challenging to ensure that what you're putting away isn't something that should be thrown away instead. That means pouring over this, that, and the other thing until you've teased out the things that need to get thrown away. All in good time, my friends.
I finally got around to picking up my bike at Colonial yesterday. The repair was not as expensive as I thought it would be. It always irks me when I think they'll give me a bill that costs me half of what I paid for the bike. My bike is relatively new, but if it weren't, I might buy a new one instead of paying monies to pay for a costly repair. I've always bought reasonably priced road bikes since I'm hard on them, and I don't need an expensive bike to do what I like to do every day. When I say "reasonably" priced, I'm referring to bicycles in the $500-$600 range. I can usually get a good ten years out of a bike if my history is any indication. That includes riding in the winter when the roads hereabouts are riddled with frost heaves, covered with sand and salt, and, not inconsequently, wind-swept down along the ocean.
I haven't been paying much attention to the senatorial run-off race in Georgia between Rafael Warnock and Herschel Walker. I feel a little snake-bitten after watching the Republicans do so poorly in the midterms, and I'm just not allowing myself the luxury of thinking that Walker can win that race. I don't know how, but the Democrats have perfected the art of stealing elections. The Republicans are just no match for the Democrats. Maybe I should take my clues from the fact that some races are still being counted some two weeks after November 8th, Election Day. That's just a fucking disgrace. I'm not talking about recounts. I'm talking about counts. I have to wonder how many Republicans in Georgia feel like I do. They're just going to say, "fuck it." What difference does my vote make, anyway? The Democrats are going to steal it, and they know that we know they will steal it. Is that how the Democrats are doing it? If they steal enough elections, the Republicans will lose faith in the system and stay home on Election Day. It seems to be working.
I use an application called Grammarly to clean up some of this here blogging of mine from time to time. It cleans up a lot of stuff that probably should be cleaned up before I get it out the door at the end of any given week. I don't always go back and review the corrections that I make, so no one should be surprised if some sentences don't make much sense. I seem to have a lot of trouble with tenses, so thank the baby Jesus that Grammarly cleans those puppies up as nicely as it does. I also don't always agree with some of Grammarly's recommendations, and, if I didn't know better, I'd say that they are sometimes just wrong. I think I have a pretty good ear when it comes to word use and placement, so I'm just fine with saying no to using their suggestions when and where that seems appropriate. Either way, I'd rather have the application than not because I think it makes what I put down on paper more readable and easier to digest. Who gives a flying fuck is an entirely different story.
Here we are, the day before Thanksgiving, and I think we're in pretty good shape. What I mean by that is I think that we have everything we need for our Thanksgiving meal tomorrow without having to go to the store one more time. No one, and I mean no one, wants to be running into the supermarket the day before Thanksgiving. The lines are too long, the shelves are picked over, the clerks are unusually harried, and for what? So that you can have apple sauce with your turkey and giblets on Thanksgiving day? That's right, the missus informed me this morning that we have no apple sauce. A Thanksgiving meal really isn't complete without apple sauce, is it? Damn. So, I'm going to be that guy. I'm going to be that guy running back into the store for all the reasons I've already given as to why I'd rather not be that guy. How badly do I want it? right?
I'm guessing that were I to look back at all of my pre-Thanksgiving blog postings going back 10 years or so, I would find more than one or two mentions about the fact that I've never liked the Thanksgiving holiday for one reason and one reason only. That is to say, there isn't much in the way of news coming out of anywhere that is worthy of paying attention to. You go from drinking your news out of a firehose to licking the condensation off your water bottle just to quench your thirst. That's a pretty good metaphor, yes? Thankfully, there are books to read and other distractions like getting in a little extra pre-winter yard work to keep my mind occupied. You know, things that get you up and off the couch and onto your feet. That's always a good thing. Maybe I should be thankful that we don't have to travel during the Thanksgiving holiday. I feel sorry for those people. Then again, there's probably something to be said for sticking with your tried and true traditions. It's what you do. It's who you are.
More and more stores have quick self-checkouts these days so maybe going into the store the day before Thanksgiving isn't the dreadful sort of thing that it used to be. The Ev man and I went into Whole Foods in Portsmouth yesterday to pick up our Thanksgiving meal order, and that place was hopping. It was maybe busier than I've seen it in quite a while. I guess that makes sense. Thanksgiving might be that one holiday when you want nothing but the best for your family. That is what Whole Foods has to offer its shoppers. It's a cut above, and if you've ever been to Whole Foods to shop for your family, you know what I mean.
We ordered our items online a week or two ago, and we showed up at the designated hour to pick up our turkey and fixings. We ordered a turkey between 12 and 14 pounds, and it came in at 12.2 pounds. I'd have preferred that it be closer to 14 pounds than 12 pounds, but that's fine. Ev went off looking in the prepared meals section of the store while I waited for the turkey, and he returned shortly with some lasagna and a couple of other things. All in all, I think we spent something like $150 on everything. I thought our organic turkey was reasonably priced at $2.99 a pound. I'm not sure how much organic turkeys cost elsewhere, but I might like to have a look around just to satisfy my curiosity. Oh, and we didn't buy any alcohol. It's not our thing. Just sayin'.
Don't tell the missus, but I've been bringing a few things to the recycling center lately without telling her. When I'm on a roll doing what I'm doing, and I'm referring to cleaning out the garage or other, I'll get up a head of steam, and the last thing I need is someone having to sign off on things that I intend to throw away. She catches me doing that every once in a while, and the next thing I know, she's emptying out my bags and admonishing me for throwing this or that away without consulting her. I think that if I don't get rid of some of this stuff, in the dark of night or otherwise, someone is going to have a godawful job ahead of them when the time comes to move out of this home of ours. If I do it right, I'll never have her asking me about this or that article of clothing or other that she used to have sitting in the garage or wherever. That's the plan, anyway.
The missus will make her grandmother's pumpkin pie recipe today. She will also put together some deviled eggs. If the deviled eggs last until tomorrow, it would be a small miracle. I bought some hard-boiled eggs for her to use rather than having to cook and peel the darn things before adding the yolk concoction. Peeling eggs can be a frightful task. Oh, and I have this little pet peeve of mine that is not a big deal, but it is worth mentioning. I hate eating egg dishes, be it egg salad or deviled eggs, and finding pieces of shell in the end product. I simply won't have it. That is so yesterday when you think about the fact that pre-hard-boiled eggs are a relatively new product to hit the store shelves. Is that something I can look up on Wikipedia? Lest we forget, the missus will be making a nice cranberry sauce using real cranberries. I'm good with the canned stuff, but you'll not hear those words crossing my lips in her presence. No siree, Bob.
That's all I have for today. It's my list of "top of mind" items. God, I hate that expression. I first heard it coming out of the mouth of Jean Pierre, Biden's press secretary. I now hear it here and there, and it still irks me just as much as it did the first time I heard it. Did you see her clown act yesterday when a reporter in the room asked Fauci about the origins of Covid? She went bananas. She shut him down and wouldn't let Fauci answer the question. Fauci was there to say goodbye, and she wasn't about to let things go south by allowing someone to ask a legitimate question. God forbid. Do you think that she even knows how stupid she looks? Forget the words coming out of her mouth, she is a caricature of herself if she's anything. That's par for the course when you consider who hired her. Yep, we're talking about Joey Bumbles Biden. The main act in what is a three-ring circus each and every day of the week. They all fucking deserve each other. There, I said it.
Will someone please tell me why this FTX fraudster, Sam Bankman-Fried, isn't in jail? You know, this crypto exchange guy who stole lots of money from people and is still at large in the Bahamas. I'm talking about millions and billions of dollars. This is not chump change, folks. This is the real thing. Is anyone in our government making any efforts whatsoever to bring this guy back to the United States to face justice? He's fucking Bernie Madoff on steroids, for chrissakes. You can probably make the case that he is so well-connected politically that he's not going to spend so much as a day behind bars for his "crimes." You can probably also make the case that the people who lost money by parking their life's savings on the FTX exchange were doing so willingly and with full knowledge of the inherent risk associated with their investing activities.
Am I answering my own questions here? His donating millions to the Democrat party will only serve to enhance his chances of staying out of jail. I'm talking about that double standard as it applies to democrats who commit crimes compared to republicans who commit crimes. The latter are more likely to rot in jail without bail while awaiting their sentencing. The former, not so much. Look at this Theranos bitch. You know, the young upstart who built a medical empire on a lie and who hoodwinked the elite into investing millions of their hard-earned dollars into what they believed was a good investment when she knew full well that it was nothing but a crock. Now, the judge in her case recommends that she spend her eleven-year sentence in a "prison" essentially without walls. Is that your idea of justice? It ain't mine. Meanwhile, Trump supporters who were ushed into our nation's capitol on January sixth by the Capitol police, having been charged with trespassing, sit in jail interminably awaiting their trials and, when ultimately convicted, their sentencing.
I'll have to take a look around online to see if there isn't a Black Friday deal or two to be had. I don't need anything, but I'm a sucker for a good deal, so, as I said, I'll take a look around. The missus could use a new iPad, so that's a thought. I usually look forward to Black Friday to update our hardware or maybe buy an extra storage device or two. Remember when people used to fight with one another just to get in line at midnight outside a Best Buy so they could be the first one into the store at the stroke of midnight to get that flat-screen television for just $77? With inventories at all-time highs this year, I wouldn't be surprised to see a return of those midnight openings. You want to clear out those inventories and clear them out fast. Selling your stuff online doesn't do the trick. That isn't to say that you can't find some good discounts online. You can.
I read something this morning about Bumbles Biden and someone in his immediate family having their wedding on the grounds of the White House. These fucking grifters never stop feeding at the trough of governmental largess. Do it on your own goddamn dime. The White House belongs to the American people, and we don't need hucksters like the Bidens using our beloved White House as a backdrop for their bullshit. It gets worse. I'm also reading that the people getting married have been living at the White House for months now. What? The Bidens and their corrupt spawn have been sullying our nation at every turn since that clown was inaugurated some two years ago. Who paid for the wedding? Was it the Communist Chinese? You know, the ones Hunter has been doing deals with since you (Bumbles) were Vice President? Or, maybe the wedding, as lavish as it likely was, was paid for with kickbacks from the money we gave to the Ukrainians to pay for weapon systems, etc. Then again, how would we know? The wedding was closed to the general public, so nobody would be the wiser.
I just don't know how we as a nation can hold ourselves up as a model of everything that is right and everything that is good with a fraudster and a cheat the likes of Joe Bumbles Biden sitting in our White House. Everyone knows that this ass clown has been on the take for years. The infamous laptop from hell is replete with stories about the deals that Bumbles and his son, Hunter, made with America's enemies abroad. They even have Joey on video saying that if the Ukrainians didn't fire the person investigating his son Hunter that the Ukrainian government wouldn't get the billion dollars in aid that they had been promised. That's what they call quid-pro-quo, my friends. You scratch my back, I scratch your back. Oh, and how about the many stories of "ten percent" for the Big Guy? Hunter is not only a druggie with a proclivity for call girls and crack cocaine, he's also the Biden Crime Family's bag man. So, I say to you again. How does this not sully our nation having this grifter go about his criminal activity without a worry in the world and without so much as one agency looking into his grift as a public official? How does any of this make sense? I don't get it.
What's this I'm hearing about the new leftist president in Brazil freezing the bank accounts of people who are protesting his ascension to the presidency. I know there have been a lot of questions about whether he stole the election from Bolsonaoro or not, but the courts have dismissed Bolsonaro's claims, so it seems like a done deal to me. Funny thing is, who else do you know that has frozen people's bank accounts when their citizens took to the streets to fight back against what they perceived as governmental overreach? That's right. I'm referring to the president of Canada, Justin Trudeau. These are the tactics of dictators, if I'm not mistaken. I suppose that the people who disagree with the protesters are quite happy to see the government stepping to separate people from their money. Short of running over protestors with tanks, ala Tiananmen Square, separating people from their money is a bloodless solution to an irksome problem for a dictatorial government. The cautionary tale here, dictators aside, is that people should be careful what they wish for when it comes to governments coining their own digital currency. The spigot is not yours to control.
Thanksgiving has now come and gone. It was quite nice. Coordinating all the dishes so that everything got to the table while still hot has always been a challenge. This year was no different. I think letting the turkey sit for a good half hour while we finished prepping the remaining dishes was the key to our success this year. The missus and I worked hand-in-hand in the final hour before we sat down to our meal putting the final pieces in place. We even delivered the buttery rolls straight out of the oven while still piping hot. That never happens. We made certain that the things we know the Ev man enjoys most were served just the way he likes them: In paper bowls and with plastic serving spoons. The turkey was spectacularly moist and nicely browned with a golden crust. It might have been a tad over the recommended 157 degrees, but not by much. I'll carve the remaining turkey off the carcass today, and we'll have nice turkey for sandwiches for the next few days.
I was a little disappointed in the quality of the roasted vegetables that we purchased from Whole Foods. I think their stuffing, which we also ordered from Whole Foods, was subpar. The veggies were dry and rubbery, and the stuffing, while tasty, looked like it came out of the north end of a jackass. I expected more from Whole Foods, so, yes, it was a disappointment. The missus suggested that we stick with the tried and true Stovetop stuffing next year. That never disappoints. The missus wasn't happy with the way her cranberry sauce turned out, but it was just fine as long as you didn't eat too much of it. It was sufficiently tart, you might say. And, as much as I made of the big container of applesauce that the missus purchased at the store in recent days, I had none of it. There simply wasn't room on my plate for one more thing. I prefer the individualized six-packs of applesauce, truth be told. The mashed potatoes the missus prepared were to die for.
It's always good to see the Ev man sitting down to a home-cooked meal. He hasn't missed a Thanksgiving meal with us yet, so we feel pretty darned good about that. It was interesting to see him passing on the mashed potatoes. I think he's got a keen eye for the kinds of foodstuffs that spike his glucose, and mashed potatoes fall squarely into that category. In other words, he knows which foods make him feel good, and he knows to stay away from food like mashed potatoes which, nutritiously and medically speaking, are a bloody disaster. That didn't stop him from eating the rolls, but I think he may have had just one or two, and he was done with them as well. He decided not to stay the night, and he agreed to have us pack up some leftovers for him to take home. Who doesn't like to take home a little Thanksgiving with them? No pumpkin pie was served after dinner, and that was just fine with everybody. Better to leave some things for tomorrow.
The missus and I drove into downtown Portsmouth after the Ev man departed for home. It's always better to move your body than not after eating a large meal, so that is what we did. It didn't take too much cajoling to get the missus up and out of the house since she is, more often than not, a bigger proponent of moving one's body than I. Temperatures were in the forties, and it was actually a delightful evening to be out and about. Even better was the fact that no stores were open in downtown Portsmouth and we literally had the streets to ourselves. If we saw a handful of people milling about, I might say that was an exaggeration. The missus loves to window shop, so she was in seventh heaven. And, of course, every window of every store in the downtown area has been turned into something resembling Santa's workshop now that the holiday season is upon us. I have little patience or interest when it comes to such things, but none of it was about me. It never is, and that suits me just fine.
I'm not sure how we left it with the Ev man. Now that he and a friend have had a chance to tidy up his place, I'm not sure there's much for the missus and me to do. Once the dishes are done, and the trash has been taken out, that's about all she wrote. Maybe that's how we left it with him. The Ev man is lucky to have such friends, and that is not lost on him or us. Housework is not one of the Ev man's strengths, and, if anything, it is something he struggles with. He'd be the first to admit it. I think it's not something he has a lot of control over, so you kind of have to take that into account when you're looking to improve things on the margins. That's not to say that he doesn't appreciate having order restored once he's knee-deep in the chaos of it all. He does. He's often said that it sometimes feels as though he's moving into a new place after this or that deep cleaning. If I had my druthers, and if I thought it would improve his lot, I would hire the Maids house cleaning service to go into his place once a week. It's not a very practical solution, but one of many thoughts I have from time to time.
I don't know what got into me. After saying I never make things like soup from the carcass of the turkey that we have for Thanksgiving, I do just that. Well, no need to jump the gun here. I don't actually have soup just yet. What I do have, after about five hours, is a lovely stock that I can now use to make a tasty soup. It was easy peasy. So easy peasy, in fact, that I haven't a clue as to why I haven't done this before. My dad, God rest his soul, would be so proud. This is something that he, and probably his father before him, would have done without blinking an eye. And, my dad was no Chef Boyardee. Memories are funny things, though, so I could be wrong. I can see him making the soup in my mind's eye, but I can't quite see myself sitting down with a heel of crusty bread in one hand and a soup spoon in the other. Still, it's not a stretch to see myself asking him for advice on what he would do with a leftover turkey carcass a day or two after Thanksgiving. You just never know.
Now that I have a stock, and plenty of it, I might add, I need to think about next steps. I was thinking about using wide egg noodles in the soup instead of rice but ended up with bowtie pasta in my cart after all was said and done. I think the missus has now talked me out of using the bowtie pasta, so I'll be going back to the store for the wide egg noodles after all. I have some frozen peas that will do just fine, and now I have to give a little more thought to what I might add next to spice it up a bit. They say that poultry seasoning has a way of bringing out the flavor in an otherwise tasteless broth, so maybe I'll do that. The recipe that I'm looking at calls for adding a can of this or that soup to the broth. I worked too hard to reduce the turkey carcass to bones, so I'll not be muddying up the nice broth with some store-bought bullshit. It's not happening. Last but not least, I had a lot of leftover turkey meat, so I'll need to dice that up before adding it to the soup. How am I doing, Pops?
This week's blog is getting a little long in the tooth. I was going to go on and on a bit about the missus and her complete and utter failing when it comes to using our various and sundry remotes. You know, the ones we use to turn on our television sets. Imagine, if you can, a fish out of water flip-flopping around on the deck of your boat with his or her mouth agape and bulging eyes while gasping for air with every essence of its being. That's my missus to a tee when it comes to sorting out which buttons to press when all she ever wants to do is watch one or more of her favorite shows. "Have I taught you nothing all these past many years, little darlings?" It's a rhetorical question. She knows it, and I know it. I say it anyway. Enough said, I suppose. I did say this was getting a little long in the tooth. Let's leave it there.
The missus and I were on our way out the door yesterday afternoon, going nowhere in particular, when I suggested we call the Ev man to see if he needed us to bring him anything. It was spur of the moment, and I wasn't surprised to hear the Ev man say that he was definitely up for having us bring him something to eat. "Call your order into the restaurant, and we'll stop and pick it up," I told him. "In fact," I added, "order yourself something for tomorrow as well." When we finally arrived at his place, I don't think I've seen him happier to see us stopping by with a so-called care package. If I had to guess, I would imagine that he was probably looking through his freezer to see what he might have for dinner before we called to check in. Just file this under "The Lord works in mysterious ways."
I think this is going to be one of those weeks where I may need to make a list just to stay organized. My bike has been in the shop for a few days now, and I missed my chance to pick it up last Friday when they sent an e-mail that I didn't see in time. I was out of town all day Saturday, and the shop was closed on Sunday. I don't like not riding my bike for more than a few days in a row because I tend to lose a bit of momentum. The more momentum I lose, the longer it takes me to get back on track. The weather hereabouts has been cold and blustery, with temperatures mostly in the thirties, so I'm not sure I would have been out and about on my bike even if it weren't in the shop. I don't mind riding in the extreme cold, but I need to work up to doing that. It's too cold too soon. Brrr rabbit.
I'm also not sure that I'm done with my pre-winter yardwork. I need to cut down a couple of tall grass plants near the shed, and I should probably rake up the garden. It's more of a tidying exercise than anything else. If I did none of it, it wouldn't be a big deal one way or another. I also have the garage to square away. I need to make room to get our cars in there, so that should take me a good few hours to get that done. The missus offered to help me with sorting through any number of boxes that she had stored in the garage some years ago so I may take her up on her offer. She's a bit of a hoarder, so those boxes have been doing nothing but collecting dust all these past many years. Now that we're needing maybe a little more room to store other things, it's high time that they get carried off to the local recycling center. Good riddance.
I sure hope that I can have a constructive discussion with my local mechanic about fixing the Ev man's car. I'll need to do that today just to get the ball rolling. The last thing I want to hear from him is that he can't do the job. That will probably mean having the dealership do it instead. I'm not against having the dealership do it, but I imagine I'll be paying a premium for their services. Maybe, that's the price you pay if you want things done correctly the first time. That's not to say I don't trust my local mechanic because I surely do. It's a big job with a hefty price tag, and I'm running out of time to get this done if I understand the inspection process and how much time one gets before they tell you they can't put another sticker on your car. Then what? The Ev man has no car? We can't let that happen. Not on my watch, as they say in the movies.
We're a couple of days out from Thanksgiving, and I seem to have the wind at my back when it comes to getting a few things done around here. I never did make that list I was talking about, so I'll keep putting one foot in front of the other until I get everything done. I didn't have covering our air conditioner on my bingo card, but I got that done yesterday while I was otherwise putzing around in the garage. Whenever I clean one area of the garage, I come across something else or some other area that needs to be squared away. It's never-ending. It's easy to just stuff as much as possible into one or more places in the garage. It's more challenging to ensure that what you're putting away isn't something that should be thrown away instead. That means pouring over this, that, and the other thing until you've teased out the things that need to get thrown away. All in good time, my friends.
I finally got around to picking up my bike at Colonial yesterday. The repair was not as expensive as I thought it would be. It always irks me when I think they'll give me a bill that costs me half of what I paid for the bike. My bike is relatively new, but if it weren't, I might buy a new one instead of paying monies to pay for a costly repair. I've always bought reasonably priced road bikes since I'm hard on them, and I don't need an expensive bike to do what I like to do every day. When I say "reasonably" priced, I'm referring to bicycles in the $500-$600 range. I can usually get a good ten years out of a bike if my history is any indication. That includes riding in the winter when the roads hereabouts are riddled with frost heaves, covered with sand and salt, and, not inconsequently, wind-swept down along the ocean.
I haven't been paying much attention to the senatorial run-off race in Georgia between Rafael Warnock and Herschel Walker. I feel a little snake-bitten after watching the Republicans do so poorly in the midterms, and I'm just not allowing myself the luxury of thinking that Walker can win that race. I don't know how, but the Democrats have perfected the art of stealing elections. The Republicans are just no match for the Democrats. Maybe I should take my clues from the fact that some races are still being counted some two weeks after November 8th, Election Day. That's just a fucking disgrace. I'm not talking about recounts. I'm talking about counts. I have to wonder how many Republicans in Georgia feel like I do. They're just going to say, "fuck it." What difference does my vote make, anyway? The Democrats are going to steal it, and they know that we know they will steal it. Is that how the Democrats are doing it? If they steal enough elections, the Republicans will lose faith in the system and stay home on Election Day. It seems to be working.
I use an application called Grammarly to clean up some of this here blogging of mine from time to time. It cleans up a lot of stuff that probably should be cleaned up before I get it out the door at the end of any given week. I don't always go back and review the corrections that I make, so no one should be surprised if some sentences don't make much sense. I seem to have a lot of trouble with tenses, so thank the baby Jesus that Grammarly cleans those puppies up as nicely as it does. I also don't always agree with some of Grammarly's recommendations, and, if I didn't know better, I'd say that they are sometimes just wrong. I think I have a pretty good ear when it comes to word use and placement, so I'm just fine with saying no to using their suggestions when and where that seems appropriate. Either way, I'd rather have the application than not because I think it makes what I put down on paper more readable and easier to digest. Who gives a flying fuck is an entirely different story.
Here we are, the day before Thanksgiving, and I think we're in pretty good shape. What I mean by that is I think that we have everything we need for our Thanksgiving meal tomorrow without having to go to the store one more time. No one, and I mean no one, wants to be running into the supermarket the day before Thanksgiving. The lines are too long, the shelves are picked over, the clerks are unusually harried, and for what? So that you can have apple sauce with your turkey and giblets on Thanksgiving day? That's right, the missus informed me this morning that we have no apple sauce. A Thanksgiving meal really isn't complete without apple sauce, is it? Damn. So, I'm going to be that guy. I'm going to be that guy running back into the store for all the reasons I've already given as to why I'd rather not be that guy. How badly do I want it? right?
I'm guessing that were I to look back at all of my pre-Thanksgiving blog postings going back 10 years or so, I would find more than one or two mentions about the fact that I've never liked the Thanksgiving holiday for one reason and one reason only. That is to say, there isn't much in the way of news coming out of anywhere that is worthy of paying attention to. You go from drinking your news out of a firehose to licking the condensation off your water bottle just to quench your thirst. That's a pretty good metaphor, yes? Thankfully, there are books to read and other distractions like getting in a little extra pre-winter yard work to keep my mind occupied. You know, things that get you up and off the couch and onto your feet. That's always a good thing. Maybe I should be thankful that we don't have to travel during the Thanksgiving holiday. I feel sorry for those people. Then again, there's probably something to be said for sticking with your tried and true traditions. It's what you do. It's who you are.
More and more stores have quick self-checkouts these days so maybe going into the store the day before Thanksgiving isn't the dreadful sort of thing that it used to be. The Ev man and I went into Whole Foods in Portsmouth yesterday to pick up our Thanksgiving meal order, and that place was hopping. It was maybe busier than I've seen it in quite a while. I guess that makes sense. Thanksgiving might be that one holiday when you want nothing but the best for your family. That is what Whole Foods has to offer its shoppers. It's a cut above, and if you've ever been to Whole Foods to shop for your family, you know what I mean.
We ordered our items online a week or two ago, and we showed up at the designated hour to pick up our turkey and fixings. We ordered a turkey between 12 and 14 pounds, and it came in at 12.2 pounds. I'd have preferred that it be closer to 14 pounds than 12 pounds, but that's fine. Ev went off looking in the prepared meals section of the store while I waited for the turkey, and he returned shortly with some lasagna and a couple of other things. All in all, I think we spent something like $150 on everything. I thought our organic turkey was reasonably priced at $2.99 a pound. I'm not sure how much organic turkeys cost elsewhere, but I might like to have a look around just to satisfy my curiosity. Oh, and we didn't buy any alcohol. It's not our thing. Just sayin'.
Don't tell the missus, but I've been bringing a few things to the recycling center lately without telling her. When I'm on a roll doing what I'm doing, and I'm referring to cleaning out the garage or other, I'll get up a head of steam, and the last thing I need is someone having to sign off on things that I intend to throw away. She catches me doing that every once in a while, and the next thing I know, she's emptying out my bags and admonishing me for throwing this or that away without consulting her. I think that if I don't get rid of some of this stuff, in the dark of night or otherwise, someone is going to have a godawful job ahead of them when the time comes to move out of this home of ours. If I do it right, I'll never have her asking me about this or that article of clothing or other that she used to have sitting in the garage or wherever. That's the plan, anyway.
The missus will make her grandmother's pumpkin pie recipe today. She will also put together some deviled eggs. If the deviled eggs last until tomorrow, it would be a small miracle. I bought some hard-boiled eggs for her to use rather than having to cook and peel the darn things before adding the yolk concoction. Peeling eggs can be a frightful task. Oh, and I have this little pet peeve of mine that is not a big deal, but it is worth mentioning. I hate eating egg dishes, be it egg salad or deviled eggs, and finding pieces of shell in the end product. I simply won't have it. That is so yesterday when you think about the fact that pre-hard-boiled eggs are a relatively new product to hit the store shelves. Is that something I can look up on Wikipedia? Lest we forget, the missus will be making a nice cranberry sauce using real cranberries. I'm good with the canned stuff, but you'll not hear those words crossing my lips in her presence. No siree, Bob.
That's all I have for today. It's my list of "top of mind" items. God, I hate that expression. I first heard it coming out of the mouth of Jean Pierre, Biden's press secretary. I now hear it here and there, and it still irks me just as much as it did the first time I heard it. Did you see her clown act yesterday when a reporter in the room asked Fauci about the origins of Covid? She went bananas. She shut him down and wouldn't let Fauci answer the question. Fauci was there to say goodbye, and she wasn't about to let things go south by allowing someone to ask a legitimate question. God forbid. Do you think that she even knows how stupid she looks? Forget the words coming out of her mouth, she is a caricature of herself if she's anything. That's par for the course when you consider who hired her. Yep, we're talking about Joey Bumbles Biden. The main act in what is a three-ring circus each and every day of the week. They all fucking deserve each other. There, I said it.
Will someone please tell me why this FTX fraudster, Sam Bankman-Fried, isn't in jail? You know, this crypto exchange guy who stole lots of money from people and is still at large in the Bahamas. I'm talking about millions and billions of dollars. This is not chump change, folks. This is the real thing. Is anyone in our government making any efforts whatsoever to bring this guy back to the United States to face justice? He's fucking Bernie Madoff on steroids, for chrissakes. You can probably make the case that he is so well-connected politically that he's not going to spend so much as a day behind bars for his "crimes." You can probably also make the case that the people who lost money by parking their life's savings on the FTX exchange were doing so willingly and with full knowledge of the inherent risk associated with their investing activities.
Am I answering my own questions here? His donating millions to the Democrat party will only serve to enhance his chances of staying out of jail. I'm talking about that double standard as it applies to democrats who commit crimes compared to republicans who commit crimes. The latter are more likely to rot in jail without bail while awaiting their sentencing. The former, not so much. Look at this Theranos bitch. You know, the young upstart who built a medical empire on a lie and who hoodwinked the elite into investing millions of their hard-earned dollars into what they believed was a good investment when she knew full well that it was nothing but a crock. Now, the judge in her case recommends that she spend her eleven-year sentence in a "prison" essentially without walls. Is that your idea of justice? It ain't mine. Meanwhile, Trump supporters who were ushed into our nation's capitol on January sixth by the Capitol police, having been charged with trespassing, sit in jail interminably awaiting their trials and, when ultimately convicted, their sentencing.
I'll have to take a look around online to see if there isn't a Black Friday deal or two to be had. I don't need anything, but I'm a sucker for a good deal, so, as I said, I'll take a look around. The missus could use a new iPad, so that's a thought. I usually look forward to Black Friday to update our hardware or maybe buy an extra storage device or two. Remember when people used to fight with one another just to get in line at midnight outside a Best Buy so they could be the first one into the store at the stroke of midnight to get that flat-screen television for just $77? With inventories at all-time highs this year, I wouldn't be surprised to see a return of those midnight openings. You want to clear out those inventories and clear them out fast. Selling your stuff online doesn't do the trick. That isn't to say that you can't find some good discounts online. You can.
I read something this morning about Bumbles Biden and someone in his immediate family having their wedding on the grounds of the White House. These fucking grifters never stop feeding at the trough of governmental largess. Do it on your own goddamn dime. The White House belongs to the American people, and we don't need hucksters like the Bidens using our beloved White House as a backdrop for their bullshit. It gets worse. I'm also reading that the people getting married have been living at the White House for months now. What? The Bidens and their corrupt spawn have been sullying our nation at every turn since that clown was inaugurated some two years ago. Who paid for the wedding? Was it the Communist Chinese? You know, the ones Hunter has been doing deals with since you (Bumbles) were Vice President? Or, maybe the wedding, as lavish as it likely was, was paid for with kickbacks from the money we gave to the Ukrainians to pay for weapon systems, etc. Then again, how would we know? The wedding was closed to the general public, so nobody would be the wiser.
I just don't know how we as a nation can hold ourselves up as a model of everything that is right and everything that is good with a fraudster and a cheat the likes of Joe Bumbles Biden sitting in our White House. Everyone knows that this ass clown has been on the take for years. The infamous laptop from hell is replete with stories about the deals that Bumbles and his son, Hunter, made with America's enemies abroad. They even have Joey on video saying that if the Ukrainians didn't fire the person investigating his son Hunter that the Ukrainian government wouldn't get the billion dollars in aid that they had been promised. That's what they call quid-pro-quo, my friends. You scratch my back, I scratch your back. Oh, and how about the many stories of "ten percent" for the Big Guy? Hunter is not only a druggie with a proclivity for call girls and crack cocaine, he's also the Biden Crime Family's bag man. So, I say to you again. How does this not sully our nation having this grifter go about his criminal activity without a worry in the world and without so much as one agency looking into his grift as a public official? How does any of this make sense? I don't get it.
What's this I'm hearing about the new leftist president in Brazil freezing the bank accounts of people who are protesting his ascension to the presidency. I know there have been a lot of questions about whether he stole the election from Bolsonaoro or not, but the courts have dismissed Bolsonaro's claims, so it seems like a done deal to me. Funny thing is, who else do you know that has frozen people's bank accounts when their citizens took to the streets to fight back against what they perceived as governmental overreach? That's right. I'm referring to the president of Canada, Justin Trudeau. These are the tactics of dictators, if I'm not mistaken. I suppose that the people who disagree with the protesters are quite happy to see the government stepping to separate people from their money. Short of running over protestors with tanks, ala Tiananmen Square, separating people from their money is a bloodless solution to an irksome problem for a dictatorial government. The cautionary tale here, dictators aside, is that people should be careful what they wish for when it comes to governments coining their own digital currency. The spigot is not yours to control.
Thanksgiving has now come and gone. It was quite nice. Coordinating all the dishes so that everything got to the table while still hot has always been a challenge. This year was no different. I think letting the turkey sit for a good half hour while we finished prepping the remaining dishes was the key to our success this year. The missus and I worked hand-in-hand in the final hour before we sat down to our meal putting the final pieces in place. We even delivered the buttery rolls straight out of the oven while still piping hot. That never happens. We made certain that the things we know the Ev man enjoys most were served just the way he likes them: In paper bowls and with plastic serving spoons. The turkey was spectacularly moist and nicely browned with a golden crust. It might have been a tad over the recommended 157 degrees, but not by much. I'll carve the remaining turkey off the carcass today, and we'll have nice turkey for sandwiches for the next few days.
I was a little disappointed in the quality of the roasted vegetables that we purchased from Whole Foods. I think their stuffing, which we also ordered from Whole Foods, was subpar. The veggies were dry and rubbery, and the stuffing, while tasty, looked like it came out of the north end of a jackass. I expected more from Whole Foods, so, yes, it was a disappointment. The missus suggested that we stick with the tried and true Stovetop stuffing next year. That never disappoints. The missus wasn't happy with the way her cranberry sauce turned out, but it was just fine as long as you didn't eat too much of it. It was sufficiently tart, you might say. And, as much as I made of the big container of applesauce that the missus purchased at the store in recent days, I had none of it. There simply wasn't room on my plate for one more thing. I prefer the individualized six-packs of applesauce, truth be told. The mashed potatoes the missus prepared were to die for.
It's always good to see the Ev man sitting down to a home-cooked meal. He hasn't missed a Thanksgiving meal with us yet, so we feel pretty darned good about that. It was interesting to see him passing on the mashed potatoes. I think he's got a keen eye for the kinds of foodstuffs that spike his glucose, and mashed potatoes fall squarely into that category. In other words, he knows which foods make him feel good, and he knows to stay away from food like mashed potatoes which, nutritiously and medically speaking, are a bloody disaster. That didn't stop him from eating the rolls, but I think he may have had just one or two, and he was done with them as well. He decided not to stay the night, and he agreed to have us pack up some leftovers for him to take home. Who doesn't like to take home a little Thanksgiving with them? No pumpkin pie was served after dinner, and that was just fine with everybody. Better to leave some things for tomorrow.
The missus and I drove into downtown Portsmouth after the Ev man departed for home. It's always better to move your body than not after eating a large meal, so that is what we did. It didn't take too much cajoling to get the missus up and out of the house since she is, more often than not, a bigger proponent of moving one's body than I. Temperatures were in the forties, and it was actually a delightful evening to be out and about. Even better was the fact that no stores were open in downtown Portsmouth and we literally had the streets to ourselves. If we saw a handful of people milling about, I might say that was an exaggeration. The missus loves to window shop, so she was in seventh heaven. And, of course, every window of every store in the downtown area has been turned into something resembling Santa's workshop now that the holiday season is upon us. I have little patience or interest when it comes to such things, but none of it was about me. It never is, and that suits me just fine.
I'm not sure how we left it with the Ev man. Now that he and a friend have had a chance to tidy up his place, I'm not sure there's much for the missus and me to do. Once the dishes are done, and the trash has been taken out, that's about all she wrote. Maybe that's how we left it with him. The Ev man is lucky to have such friends, and that is not lost on him or us. Housework is not one of the Ev man's strengths, and, if anything, it is something he struggles with. He'd be the first to admit it. I think it's not something he has a lot of control over, so you kind of have to take that into account when you're looking to improve things on the margins. That's not to say that he doesn't appreciate having order restored once he's knee-deep in the chaos of it all. He does. He's often said that it sometimes feels as though he's moving into a new place after this or that deep cleaning. If I had my druthers, and if I thought it would improve his lot, I would hire the Maids house cleaning service to go into his place once a week. It's not a very practical solution, but one of many thoughts I have from time to time.
I don't know what got into me. After saying I never make things like soup from the carcass of the turkey that we have for Thanksgiving, I do just that. Well, no need to jump the gun here. I don't actually have soup just yet. What I do have, after about five hours, is a lovely stock that I can now use to make a tasty soup. It was easy peasy. So easy peasy, in fact, that I haven't a clue as to why I haven't done this before. My dad, God rest his soul, would be so proud. This is something that he, and probably his father before him, would have done without blinking an eye. And, my dad was no Chef Boyardee. Memories are funny things, though, so I could be wrong. I can see him making the soup in my mind's eye, but I can't quite see myself sitting down with a heel of crusty bread in one hand and a soup spoon in the other. Still, it's not a stretch to see myself asking him for advice on what he would do with a leftover turkey carcass a day or two after Thanksgiving. You just never know.
Now that I have a stock, and plenty of it, I might add, I need to think about next steps. I was thinking about using wide egg noodles in the soup instead of rice but ended up with bowtie pasta in my cart after all was said and done. I think the missus has now talked me out of using the bowtie pasta, so I'll be going back to the store for the wide egg noodles after all. I have some frozen peas that will do just fine, and now I have to give a little more thought to what I might add next to spice it up a bit. They say that poultry seasoning has a way of bringing out the flavor in an otherwise tasteless broth, so maybe I'll do that. The recipe that I'm looking at calls for adding a can of this or that soup to the broth. I worked too hard to reduce the turkey carcass to bones, so I'll not be muddying up the nice broth with some store-bought bullshit. It's not happening. Last but not least, I had a lot of leftover turkey meat, so I'll need to dice that up before adding it to the soup. How am I doing, Pops?
This week's blog is getting a little long in the tooth. I was going to go on and on a bit about the missus and her complete and utter failing when it comes to using our various and sundry remotes. You know, the ones we use to turn on our television sets. Imagine, if you can, a fish out of water flip-flopping around on the deck of your boat with his or her mouth agape and bulging eyes while gasping for air with every essence of its being. That's my missus to a tee when it comes to sorting out which buttons to press when all she ever wants to do is watch one or more of her favorite shows. "Have I taught you nothing all these past many years, little darlings?" It's a rhetorical question. She knows it, and I know it. I say it anyway. Enough said, I suppose. I did say this was getting a little long in the tooth. Let's leave it there.