I stopped in to the First Citizens near the Mall to cash a check yesterday. I took the paperback book I had gotten from Chappell’s Peaches a few days ago, with the intent that if the young cashier, with the 3 star tattoo on her hand (a reference to Harry Potter, on each page of his books), was still working as a cashier there, I would give her the book. “She’s a reader.”

I didn’t recognize her, but when I asked if the girl with the 3 star tattoo on her hand still worked there, she lifted her hand to show me the tattoo, and smiled. I said, “Well then,” as I held up the book and handed it to her, “this is for you.” It may have been almost a year ago that I first met her in First Citizens. Actually 3/4s of a year, because I think I was telling her about the Cumberland County Library Book Sale that was going to be in August, and now the next one is going to be in August. I think it was probably about three weeks ago, last year, so maybe July 2024.

Anyway, she said it “made her day” and it added to mine. I really do like performing these little vignettes where I surprise someone by remembering something special about them, and maybe even leaving a little gift. I have no dark ulterior motives, no sexual undercurrents. It’s just fun “playing” with people.

As I was walking out to my car, I stopped and looked across the parking lot to a cigar shop. There was also a line of people waiting outside the ABC store next door to the cigar shop. I tried to make the analogy of people standing in long lines, overnight for the latest Apple product or updated gaming system, but I couldn’t quite name everything correctly.

I went into the cigar store, and it was a large open space, but I saw a customer and a young woman clerk talking in the back. I stopped and started looking for the image of the red Avanti Cafe Mocha package on my phone to show the clerk. I finally found the image and walked up to the clerk. The other customer, a woman, had already left the store.

The clerk said they didn’t carry that brand. I asked if they had another coffee or chocolate flavored cigar, and she did find me one. A regular cigar, not small but about $6 and I did buy it. It didn’t have the same flavor, but it did burn well.

But, here was the fun part. Somewhere in the start of a brief conversation, I mentioned Clint Eastwood, and to my surprise I saw a blank look on the girl’s face, and I recognized that she had no idea of who Clint Eastwood was or is. After all, he is 90 years old or so. That’s funny, but not the first time that I’ve begun to realize that my heroes are dead or dying at an extremely fast rate (as too will I, but hopefully not too soon – 82?).

I went on to try and “catch her up.” Clint Eastwood, he played a detective, “Dirty Harry.” He had a really big gun and said something to the bad guy like, “Make my day.” *I’m trying to recall the first example of who he was, before I started on Dirty Harry, but I don’t at the moment. Rowdy Yates? No, but that would have been a good start. I guess the young people don’t watch Rawhide either. Or the Twilight Zone? **And now I recall, I mentioned “the Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” and there wasn’t much recognition on her part for that movie either. Oh well.

I was watching an old Tab Hunter movie yesterday, “Lafayette Escadrille” and here was a young Clint Eastwood playing a “bit part.” The movie was released in February of 1958, and portrayed a group of Americans that fought in WWI in French uniform & flying French airplanes, prior to America entering the War. David Janssen co-starred. And Tom Laughlin, who later would play “Billy Jack” was playing Arthur Blumental (actually  Bluethenthal). Arthur Bluethenthal was born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1891 and died on a bombing mission in June of 1918. On Memorial Day, May 30, 1928, the Wilmington airport was named Bluethenthal Field in his honor.

So I stopped and asked her, well who is the macho, leading man in movies for you. She said Chris Hemsworth. I asked, “Does he have several brother’s that are also actors,” and “yes” was her reply.

I also briefly mentioned, or tried to think of several actresses that I just didn’t like. Nicole Kidman for one, and the clerk recalled her name. I then tried to think of Melissa McCarthy, but could only think of Sandra Bullock (who I do like), but I mentioned that she attended ECU. Another blank stare and that got us on the question of where she was from.

I asked where she was from and she said Michigan originally. I told her I had a friend who’s son had just recently married up in Pontiac, MI. That was a familiar place to her. But she said she had moved to Georgia, and I asked where. I don’t recall the exact town/city, but it was in north Georgia. I didn’t think of Flowery Branch (my half sister Donna), but instead thought of Stockbridge and then we had a short conversation about the airport and jets flying out about every 30 seconds or so.

I then asked if she had ever been as far south as Thomasville, and we hit on the Florida Panhandle, and Florida State. I then mentioned that as you travelled south you came to a change in the “road kill” along the road. In North Carolina the road kill might be a possum or a raccoon, but when you got that far south, the roadkill became armadillos. And I also asked about pink flamingos, and mentioned St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay and Bradenton where I had seen pink flamingos… like we might see seagulls here.

Ask your favorite AI about why birds will in a high wind, often orient themselves to face into the wind. I don’t recall, but my guess is the wind was coming from the left to right in the above picture and the seagulls were orienting themselves accordingly.

Okay, now that I rehearse this encounter, I was long winded, but it was interesting to me at how I needed to get a new “frame of reference” of idols & symbols for the current generation. I guess I really don’t since I could probably live out the rest of my life, content with my own heroes, and not having to learn new ones. I do like Millie Bobbie Brown.

If you don’t watch TV or movies, how do you get your extended frame of reference? Online, and that probably only on the phone. I’m not sure that young Americans are cohesive enough to weather the storm. Especially since I’ve seen Donald Trump almost single handedly… well not alone, he’s had a bunch of help by a bunch of “new school” Republicans and he has dismantled some major institutions, and questioned or ignored the courts & legislators, and the media. He’s knocked out a bunch of these things that are absolutely necessary for a society to continue and thrive… and he hasn’t got a better idea, or sometimes apparently any idea of an equal or better replacement to what he has destroyed.

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I just looked over at my little avatar, with his gray hair, yellow/green long-sleeved shirt and rust colored shorts. I actually have the shirt and those shorts, but I now wear black suspenders with them.

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A day or two ago I was listening to an Economist, an educator, and he may have been talking before a group of young people, or people that worked with young people. The camera was focused on his chair at a table and there was no sign of people near, or behind him and the camera never panned around to show if or who he was actually talking to.

Toward the end of his talk he made a statement that we would have to change the fundamental goal of our society, from working for monetary “profit,” to something more sustainable. I don’t think we will make that change, and I see a bleak future for America, or even a future in which America, as we know it, doesn’t exist. Donald Trump and the “new” Republicans are cutting costs, lowering taxes (except for the Big Beautiful Bill in which it adds a trillion or more to the Budget Deficit).

Since 2016 I’ve seen the World turned upside down and there is little on this Earth that you can put your trust in. It may have been that way all along, but Donald Trump has “put it in your face.” Don’t trust the Media. Come to me for your news. *He said that, and it was recorded on YouTube, at one time. How stupid is that suggestion? I’d prefer to listen to multiple sources, and make my own decisions about which ones to trust, or how to combine it all to come to a truth that no one of them is purporting.

As President, during his first term, he sat on his fat ass in the Whitehouse as those sorry pieces of shit Republicans attacked the U.S. Capitol. He actually wanted them to force, along with V.P. Pence performing unlawful actions, a reversal of the valid Election results, in which HE LOST! IT WASN’T STOLEN. HE’S A POOR LOSER!

Kennedy has presented the phrase, “Make America Healthy Again.” And my first thought was, is that fat assed, McDonald’s hamburger eater in the Whitehouse going to stop eating unhealthy, as a start of this MAHA Campaign? No telling how many people will die because Donald Trump appointed Kennedy to this position. There may have been waste, but there are idiots in the World that are worse than waste.

President Trump was the wrong person to have in leadership when Covid hit, and there were a bunch of people, mostly (maybe all) Republicans that followed his ignorant leadership regarding Covid as if they were lemmings, going happily over the cliff, waving their masks in their hand, instead of wearing them to protect themselves and others. He made wearing a protective mask a political statement, and one which Republicans weren’t going to have “the Government” forcing them to wear masks. And, “the Government” wasn’t to be trusted and they weren’t going to be taking any Covid injections, because loyal, good Republicans stand together. *Please, please stop the band from playing “God Bless America.”

That’s just stupid to make protective mask wearing a political issue. I grew up in a society that trusted Science and medical doctors. And now it’s almost as if we’ve taken a bunch of steps backwards into an age of voodoo and witch doctors. Donald Trump and his Cabinet member, Kennedy, don’t trust science nor medical doctors, or their years of scientific research. What in the hell is an “anti vaxxer?”

I knew there were people, often women, who totally distrusted vaccines, and would never have one of their children injected with anything. *I’m not saying that certain medicines can’t harm or kill you, but with a bunch of research, that’s how to reduce the risks, and humanity, at least in recent years, has managed to pull itself out of the Dark Ages. That is until now, and now it seems that you’ve got the inmates driving the bus. *I know it’s the inmates running the asylum., the crazy person driving the bus.

The only trouble with giving them enough rope to hang themselves, is that the decisions they are making will take themselves AND a bunch of others down at the same time. If their decisions only screwed themselves, then let them have at it. But if their decisions are going to mean that research doesn’t continue regarding protecting the Public from infectious diseases, and that MY insurance company isn’t going to pay for me having an updated Covid booster shot (which I’ve never had any serious negative reactions to the Covid shots or boosters I’ve had), then I’ll definitely have a problem with that… until they succeed and I am dead.

And even if “they” don’t succeed, I will still be dead in a few years, but just not at THEIR hands. On one hand, “I don’t want to die,” but on the other hand, “I don’t want to remain past my ‘Sell by Date.'” I’m enjoying my retirement because I have enough money & time that I can pretty much focus on whatever I deem important. *I may die before, but the age of 82 came to me several years ago, as the age at which I would die. Not sure why, but “82” has been the number for quite some time. But, I’m also aware that if I live to be 81 (and that’s only 10 years from now), I might get a little antsy, and want to renegotiate with God. But I really don’t want to live beyond my usefulness. I’ve had a productive work life, with computers and the Internet at an institution of higher learning for many years, and hopefully during that time I helped professors, admins and students provide & receive a better education using some of the tools I was in charge of.

When the time comes that I’m no longer reasonably healthy, and am stuck at home or in a “care” facility, then I definitely want to go on.

Salsa Mancha Recipe

• 1 large ancho chile
• 1 large guajillo chile
• 3 chile de arbol
• 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• ⅛ cup raw peanuts (or cashews)
• 2 ½ teaspoons sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• ½ teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
• ½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)

I added some Agave Nectar as I had seen a slightly different recipe that added sweetener (optional). Still, I’m not happy with the finished product. The peppers aren’t distinctive, and I may have toasted the garlic or nuts slightly too much.

Unless I find a “store bought” version of Salsa Mancha that is more pleasing, Spicy Chili Crisp wins, “hands down.”

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Baymont by Wyndham (Greensboro, North Carolina)

As I started to walk down the hallway to my room for the first time, I began to realize that I had never walked down a hall this long, and it was also going downhill. I said to myself, “I’ve only walked in hallways like this in my nightmares.”

The picture above is not an optical illusion. No mirrors at the end of the hall, or I would be showing in the photo. The hallway actually drops (or rises depending upon which way you are walking along it).

When I went outside to my car, I looked at this motel building. It is actually built going down a hill. There was no attempt to bring in a bunch of soil to build on level ground. Fortunately the rooms are level, but how odd to walk past three rooms and then have the hallway drop, no steps, the floor just slants (undulates), and do this all the way down the hall. Great exercise in the morning when you are walking up the hall to the free breakfast. *But, this hallway just screams that whomever built this building was “half assed” about it. You just wouldn’t be this slack an architect. **The AI just gave me the justification for my thinking that this long hallway, with the undulating floor, was odd. It provides problems for accessibility.

I did like the lighted bathroom mirror, and it might have even been heated in the center because when I was taking a bath, I noted that the mirror was foggy except for a rectangle in the center of the mirror.

I realized that I had forgotten two things. One was a brush for my hair, after I showered. I had one in the car, but still, I used to think ahead and include a tooth brush, and tooth paste, a brush for my hair and maybe even a few cotton swabs for my ears to get the water out. I had noted on the WRAL weather report that it was supposed to turn cooler on Tuesday evening, so I had brought along a long pair of pants and a bright yellow/green long sleeved work shirt (they’re cheap at Walmart – about @$8. But, what I hadn’t done was bring another short sleeved shirt (like what I was wearing when I left home) for the next day, and I could tell while going up for breakfast, and watching the morning news, that it was going to be a hot day. *I thought it odd that there was nothing showing the WIFI password in my room. Only a week later, at home, as I was about to throw away the key card, did I notice the WIFI password written on the sleeve of the key card. Ha!

I wanted to detour to Gibsonville (I’ve been before.) but stay on Hwy. 70 and not go via I40. After trying to fight the AI, which was acting super stupid that morning… “No, I said Gibsonville, not Gibson… not Gibsonvale, Gibsonville.” I’m not making that up, and it kept starting me somewhere in Missouri, not in Greensboro, where I was sitting outside the motel in my car. I finally just stuck the AI up my ass, and manually looked at the map on my phone to navigate to Hwy. 70. I stopped in back of a funeral home one time to get my bearings. There appeared to be a Seniors high rise apartment building across the street from the funeral home. How convenient.

A short time later, and a few blocks over, I drove around a small insurance agency building (the building was small, although the agency might have been small also), on the corner of some street to get on Hwy. 70. *How odd. I see from Google Maps that this appears to be both an insurance agency, and a coffee shop. Cafégency Insurance Organic Bean Coffeehouse.

This was all near a hospital. I don’t recall if that was Moses-Cone, but I did pass between Moses-Cone, and thought that this was where Debbie had spent a good deal of her work life… and I hoped she still wasn’t having to work at age 70+. *And yes, this was Moses-Cone, I just checked on Google Maps.

Gibsonville has the intricate model train layout, “the Gibsonville Garden Railroad,” which I see appears to be, weather permitting (no rain, or fog, or wind, or too hot), run on each Saturday – April to December.

I decided to stop at a Walmart in Burlington, North Carolina to get a short sleeved bright yellow/green work shirt and put that in my phone’s GPS. What did I find in Walmart? Well, I found the shirt I was looking for and it was only $4+. I did the self-checkout, went into the bathroom up front, and changed shirts, and put the long-sleeved shirt I had been wearing in the Walmart bag with the ripped off new shirt tags, and walked out of Walmart wearing my new L(arge) short-sleeved shirt. Comfortable in the warming air.

*A note regarding how things used to be, and how nice they are now. When you were planning on going out of town for a day or more you had to contact the motel several days in advance, and get a reservation. And this was normally done by a secretary. You would also have to go to the front desk when checking out to officially check out. I can now wait until just a few hours before arrival, the same day, and reserve a room online (as long as they are available). Also, I don’t think I would have been able, as easily as I did, to buy a new shirt, for a great price, put it on in the store and walk out comfortable. *I even looked at some magnifying glasses, and setups, with the idea that the next time I lose a screw in my eye glasses, I want a magnifier, with a stand to be able to try and fix this problem myself (as I have in the past, but was close to going to the eye glass store in Walmart to have them replace the screw). My hand isn’t steady and depending upon the glasses that are still working I may not be able to see as clearly to fix the problem (“thread the needle successfully).

The free breakfast had a Belgian waffle maker, but the batter ran out for me so I almost had half a waffle. I took this as a sign that I only needed to eat half a waffle. I’m not sure if there was any sugar free syrup, because neither container was labeled. The orange juice was good. The yogurt was good, but I ended up putting syrup in the yogurt because there was no fruit. The coffee was okay and I poured some milk in because there was no creamer.

The T.V. was large and eventually I figured out how to jump from section to section. Not sure if they had HBO but I don’t think I found it. The room didn’t have a microwave, so I put the bag of un-popped popcorn I had brought back into my bag.

The air conditioner/heater was easy to use and I turned the heat mode on for a while as I prepared to take my morning shower. As if I have an evening shower too,… I don’t.

I was in Room 143, and the key card worked for the room and the outside doors. I figured out where my room was located and ended up parking my car right beside my bed. I also found the far entrance and parked near it so that I didn’t have to walk a long way down the scary hallway.

Before finding the motel, I first stopped by Whole Foods to buy some liquid Stevia sweetener, and some peach tea. I had seen a 2 oz. bottle of the Stevia online, but they only had an 8 oz. bottle on the shelf, and it was $20, but I put it in the basket anyway. They didn’t have any of the tea, so I found the nearby Harris Teeter, in the same “high end” shopping center, and got some sugar free cranberry drink.

I then went to “Sticks-n-Stones” and ordered a ‘to go’ “To Be the One” Margherita Style Pizza with fresh jalapenos. What’s that? Mozzarella, tomato sauce and some basil. I ate the whole thing in the bed, in my motel room. *I was almost able to create my Bill’s Drink on the road, but I didn’t have any orange juice, until the next morning and I added a little OJ from the Continental breakfast to my drink bottle.

I’m an old man, and I realized that staying in a motel room was no longer a pleasant experience, even if it was otherwise a comfortable room. It may be the Type 2 diabetes that make my feet sore when walking on a hard floor. My toes are stiff (this is not a new thing), and I can tell I’ve lost some feeling in both of them.

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My day out of Fayetteville started by stopping at “Chappell Peaches” and buying a small bag of peaches (my second this season). I also took a free paperback book from a table, Frank Herbert’s “Dune Messiah,” to leave at some LLL. I recalled that I had left a Michael Connelly, “Bosch” novel with a girl at the stand, last year.

*I just gave this book to a teller at the First Citizens Bank. She was the one that had the three stars tattooed on her hand (Harry Potter ref.).

I bought a bag of “Desiree” peaches on my first visit and “Summer Prince” on this visit. *I took some of the Summer Prince peaches over and left them for the Hendricks.

I then headed up Hwy. 220 to Asheboro and ate lunch at No. 1 China Buffet. As I walked in, I saw a sign that lunch on Tuesday was Senior Day. The difference in lunch buffet price was about $3 less. I ended up paying about $12 total, some for a tip.

After lunch I went for a short visit to the Public Library and browsed through a “My Mexican Kitchen” Cookbook by Eva Longoria. The image below shows a recipe & image of “Corn and Green Chile Soup.” This soup is enhanced with a “Salsa Mancha,” which came to my interest. As I read about Salsa Mancha, I came to realize that it is much like the “Spicy Chili Crisp” that I love to put on all sorts of food. I also used the bathroom, and this time, unlike last, both toilets were not clogged with toilet paper.

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I had been planning to drive up to Winston-Salem to drive around for a few hours before heading back to Greensboro for the night, but then I decided to drive around Lexington, North Carolina. I drove down Main St. and then came back. I did some side streets, and at one point ended up in the medical community, which included the hospital.

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After spending the night at the Baymont in Greensboro, and detouring to Gibsonville, and stopping at the Walmart in Burlington to buy a short-sleeved shirt, I had planned on going on to Raleigh.

I decided not to go to the Raleigh Wegman’s, but asked for the nearest Wegman’s and there were two in Chapel Hill, and the one in Cary that I’ve gone to repeatedly was also an option. I’m glad I took the Wegman’s in north Chapel Hill because it brought me to a surprising place. The GPS said to turn left on Service Rd. and when I neared the stop light, I looked to my left and there was the old Blue Cross – Blue Shield building that has been around for many years. *I see that the construction started in 1970 and was completed in 1973, so it was being built as I was attending Carolina in 1972/3. It was the trapezoid shaped, mostly glass outside building, that hasn’t been BCBS for several years now.

I turned onto Service Rd. and it led me in a snaked path to go past the old BCBS building and then there was the new Wegman’s a short distance away. I parked and went in. The nice thing about Wegman’s in the south, is that they are all pretty much laid out the same. The one key difference is that the self-checkout section is laid out in different patterns, and I think I’ve seen 3 distinct layouts. *I even made the mistake once of saying to a store employee that, “I see you’ve gone back to your old layout,” to which they replied, “No, it’s always been this way.” And then I realized that I had been in a different Wegman’s

But the bread section, and the cheese section and the deli meats section are all pretty much the same wherever you go. I bought some small red cherry tomatoes (Flavor Bombs) and later, for lunch had several with some salt and they were delicious.

There was no Hillshire Farms Pastrami, so the “friendly” butcher cut me half a pound of Wegman’s brand, and even let me try a slice of “smoked pastrami” which was delicious. I also bought a block of sliced Wegman’s White American Cheese (I love the Wegman’s flavor, better than HT.) for $3 exactly. *I pulled the plastic cheese bag out of my trash to check, and yes, the price was exactly $3. I had already put a Ciabatta Roll and a Pumpernickel Bagel in separate bags.

I think I bought a few cans of cheap beans (some as cheap as 79 cents a can), and went looking for Wegman’s Sugar Free Peach Tea. It ended up that it wasn’t the Wegman’s brand (if there is a peach tea they make) but I found the other that I liked with help from a woman staffer.

I also picked up a 2 lbs. package of bright red strawberries for a good price (under $5). *I left them out on my dining table and this morning I see where two or three of the strawberries have already started to grow white mold. I put them in the fridge.

I used my box cutter pen to slice around the outer edge of my Ciabatta Roll, and then pried it open. I put some pastrami on it and a couple of slices of the Wegman’s White American Cheese. I didn’t have any Dukes Mayo, but it was still a very pleasing sandwich. The mayo would have kicked it up a notch, but it still gave me the satisfaction of thinking that “this is a really good tasting sandwich, that I just made myself, in my car, sitting in the Wegman’s parking lot.” I had several of the Flavor Bombs cherry tomatoes with some salt, and a few of the strawberries with a little Splenda. All good, as I drank some of the zero sugar Snapple Peach Tea from my Rainbow aluminum coffee mug.

After lunch I left heading to Raleigh and wanted to stop by the State Farmers’ Market. I didn’t even need the GPS because the I40 road signs directed me into the two left lanes for the State Farmers’ Market. I normally take the right to go to Wade Ave. and Whole Foods.

There were no peppers yet but I did buy several types of squash (small white & small yellow patty pan squash, and small zucchini). I think I’m going to look for a squash casserole dish online maybe with some Panko bread crumbs and some grated parmesan cheese.

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NOTE [06/12/25]: I weighed 250.2 lbs. this morning which is the highest I’ve weighed in a long time. But, after I thought about it, I ate a bunch of calories yesterday, including the Ciabatta Roll sandwich at lunch, and then made a Pastrami Reuben at home for dinner. Those are special, and I consider fixing & eating them “an event.” This Reuben has melted butter on the outside slices of seeded rye bread, and melted cheese on the inside of both slices. It has a few calories in the homemade Thousand Island Dressing, even though I substituted some Plain Greek Yogurt for some Duke’s Mayo. And then the Pastrami has a lot of fat and sodium.

I used a small 8 oz. can of Silver Floss Sauerkraut for the sandwich and the sauerkraut side dish. [end NOTE]

Silver Floss (flip the can and open from the bottom because the top of the can is oddly shaped)

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Sauerkraut is going to be high in Sodium because of the fermenting process it takes to create sauerkraut. Still, it is low in carbs (1) and equal to carbs in fiber (1). I’ve made a simple side dish with sauerkraut and thousand island dressing (homemade).

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This was a delicious meal. All the flavors worked well together. The only thing that might have added positively would have been bread or a dinner roll, but it really wasn’t necessary to be able to repeatedly say, “that’s really good food.”

• Thick Cut Port Chop (London Broil)
  • As I’ve done several times before, successfully, I stopped by Lee’s Fresh Market in Benson, North Carolina and bought a package of Thick Cut Pork Chops (two to a package) and only a little over $3 plus tax total. I normally use the “London Broil” method (high heat, fast cooking in the oven) and now put one chop in the bottom of my wok style pan, placing a small sheet of tin foil over the meat. I’m not sure if it is the wok or the tinfoil that causes the bottom of the chop to brown up nicely. I normally let it cook on HI for about 15 minutes and then turn it over for another 7 minutes. And after this amount of time, even the thick cut chop is completely cooked, and still moist.
    
    I S&P both sides of the chop, but also may use ground cumin, fenugreek, garlic & onion powder.
    
    I may be able to get two or three meals from the one chop. And although these are thick cut chops, I found that the remaining chop does fit into a sealable plastic sandwich bag and placed in the freezer.
    
• Red Cabbage Slaw w/ Mung bean sprouts
• Fried Okra w/ Onion

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I will eat okra fried, stewed or even raw. Fried, it reminds me somewhat of “fried oysters,” but when I fry it, I normally don’t batter it. I have bought frozen, diced okra and added it to soups or stews. I also like the flavor and texture of okra chips. The okra chips are produced by cooking them under pressure and at a low temperature. This leeches out most of the moisture, but the okra keep their original shape.

Fried Okra

When preparing okra for frying, I’ll normally take 3 okra pods, line up their stem ends and then proceed to dice the pods into 1/2 inch pieces throwing away the stems. I also like to dice some onion to fry up with the okra. I just add either some olive or avocado oil, or maybe even some bacon grease to fry the okra and onion mixture, in a pan, on the stove top.

Below is a broiled thick cut pork chop, red cabbage slaw with Mung beans, and fried okra with onion. *This was a very delicious pairing!

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Egg Salad Breakfast w/ Avocado & Grape Tomatoes

I normally have bacon with my egg salad breakfast, but this was a time when I had avocado and no bacon. I really liked this combination. *I was running low on Blue Corn Tortilla Chips this morning, so that is why I even thought about adding some of the crumbs to my egg salad. They were great with the egg salad, adding both flavor and texture (crunch) to it.

Black Beans & Quinoa

I really like the flavors of this Black Beans and Quinoa. It takes about 20 minutes to cook this. It starts with a lot of liquid, but by 20 minutes it is just moist, not overcooked, and this combination has a little more flavor than most bases.

The Black Beans & Quinoa are the base of this Hispanic inspired meal. This meal will also include a homemade guacamole, that may be blended smooth in food chopper. There is also the meat component that may have diced tomatoes, or chopped chilies, diced onion & chopped cilantro. The meat is usually ground beef, but might also be chicken, or even diced pork if I have it.

I might make a couple of tacos using blue corn taco shells, or just use blue corn tortilla chips.

Thick Cut Pork Chop, Fried Okra & Red Cabbage Slaw

I stopped by Lee’s Fresh Market near Benson this afternoon and bought a couple of Thick Cut Pork Chops. A great price again at only a little over $3 plus tax for two thick pieces of meat. They did look like they had a little more fat that the ones I’ve purchased before, but they tasted great. I did a London Broil on one of them and it looks like I’ve got enough meat for 3 meals for each chop.

I had bought some fresh okra at Pate’s a few days ago, and I had already diced most of them, along with some onion and put it all in a Rubbermaid container in the fridge. I had also already made some Red Cabbage Slaw with Mung bean sprouts. Little did I know how wonderful these three items would work together in this meal. This is one of those meals that I just have to keep saying, “Boy that’s good,” and I take each bite. Nothing fights anything and the flavors all scream, “this is delicious.”

My Mexican Meal

The Mexican Meal is simple to make and has three major components: Home made refried beans using either Pinto or Black Beans, homemade quacamole w/ onion, chopped cilantro & ground cumin, and the ground beef mixed with diced tomatoes & green chilis. The meat also has chopped cilantro, and diced onion & either sweet bell pepper or perhaps jalapeno and/or poblano peppers. *And if I have them, I like to add a few chopped Aji Dulce peppers (from Compare Foods). They have a unique flavor and are not hot, or very hot.

I made my Mexican Meal using Black Beans recently and they came out looking almost like blue corn. I actually enjoyed the pureed Black Beans better than the mashed Pinto beans. *Another important note is that I have not found any refried beans that don’t already have a large amount of sodium included. You can buy Pinto or Black Beans with low or no sodium, mash or puree them yourself, and then just add back whatever salt you desire. The refried Black Beans took on a deeper flavor than the Pintos I’ve been using.

I don’t think I’ve ever named a post, “New Things I’ve Tried,” but it is possible. I’ll just have to search my site to see if anything comes up.

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Nasoya Shirataki Spaghetti – Zero Pasta 8 oz (June 2025)

Shirataki are translucent, gelatinous Japanese noodles made from the corm of the konjac plant.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much like regular noodles these looked like, felt like and tasted like. *My first test was to make some Spaghetti & Clams with Knorr Pesto flavoring. It was just as satisfying as if the noodles had been made with wheat flour. They cost about $2.50 for the 8 oz package in the freezer section at Harris Teeter. Expensive, but also satisfying.

As my second test, and there was only enough of the noodles for two helpings, I made some spaghetti sauce, with RAO’s Marinara Sauce as starter, and some diced Fire Roasted tomatoes, ground beef and finely diced onion. I had some red bell pepper and a couple of raw garlic cloves which I diced. Oregano, Italian Spices, Fenugreek, Garlic & Onion powder, and some red pepper flakes. It was a good tasting sauce, and for homemade spaghetti sauce and Shirataki noodles it was perfectly fine. The noodles are pleasing… but I may have come to the end of my enjoying a spaghetti meal, and I don’t think it’s the noodles.

Woeber’s Sandwich Pal Jalapeño Mustard, 16 oz Squeeze Bottle [June 2025]

I was in Pate’s Farm Market a few days ago and as I was nearing their “meat” wall, I noticed a display for various condiments by the Woeber’s Company. I think they were each about $3+ and I noticed the Jalapeno Mustard and decided to try it. *I just saw that Walmart has it listed for under $3 so if I buy another bottle, and it looks like I might, then I will try to get it there.

Sodium is about the only thing this product offers nutritionally and only 80 mg per serving, but a serving is 1 tsp. Even calories & sugars are 0%.

It is a spicy hot yellow mustard, but I’ve already found that I like to mix it with the Inglehoffer’s Creamy Horseradish, and throw in some Agave Nectar, Stevia, and Equal for sweetness. I use a Ingelhoffer squeeze bottle to mix it. It does go well with a slice of sprouted bread and a slice of Hatfield’s Sliced Ham. I’ve made a sweet horseradish mustard before, but this threw in a slightly hot element. *And, just about as quickly, I fell out of love with the extra spiciness. I still like mixing the Inglehoffer’s Creamy Horseradish, with French’s Yellow Mustard and some sweetener like Agave Nectar and/or Equal.

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Coriander Cilantro Paste by Perù Food [June 2025]

I was in Compare Foods yesterday and got stymied by their closing off a large part of their vegetable refrigerated wall. Don’t know if something had broken down, or if for cleaning, or some other reason, but there was yellow tape blocking access at several aisle points. And there were not peppers where the Ajicito peppers had been previously. *And after several years of saying they should put an accent over the “é” in “Compare,” as it’s obviously a Hispanic chain, I googled and realized that adding the accent to the e wouldn’t make it more Spanish, but that it would be more French, so that joke is gone.

So I trudged on and looked more closely at their pork sausage wall. The only thing to note, was that they pay more for many things. Not just their cans of chipotles. And I saw no “low sodium” Pintos, and even if I had, I would have expected them to be more expensive than Aldi’s or LIDL.

But, I did see a small jar of “Coriander Cilantro Paste” and the Company apparently, “Perù Food.” It was under $4 and I decided to buy it because I’ve been using a lot of fresh cilantro leaves in my current favorite dishes.

It is murky green and I’m not sure it is actually the flavor of cilantro ground up, but is distinctive enough. I’ve put some on a sandwich and it was good. I also put some in the hot sausage/cannellini beans/shrimp soup I make and I think it added positively. *I think I even tried mixing a little of it with the creamy horseradish… not bad, not sure yet.

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Shred Silk The Knife

I just ordered one of these. Saw it in a video on Amazon and it immediately caught my interest. The first instance was under $7, but I later saw that the shipping was not free so I deleted it from my cart. But then later I saw what appeared to be a 2 pack of the same shredder and it was only a little over $7 and the shipping was free, and by tomorrow, so I placed the order.

It looks like it makes fast work of making shreds of various veggies, onion/carrot/peppers, but I’m also thinking this might make shredded, roasted rotisserie chicken a breeze. And with my current interest in blue corn tacos, a little shredded chicken would be an excellent alternative to seasoned ground beef.

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Bionaturae Sourdough Pasta Noodles

I bought some of this at Harris Teeter earlier today and fixed some spaghetti sauce for lunch. I liked the texture & flavor of this pasta. It’s pricey, about $5 or $6 for 12 oz. I cooked a 2 oz. helping of this pasta, but probably left a .5 oz. portion uneaten because I didn’t want to eat too many carbs or spike my blood sugar. *This morning my resting blood sugar was 109, so that’s in my “new normal” good level. But, I realized this morning that the spaghetti sauce and pasta wasn’t as satisfying as it has been most of my life. It’s no longer in my meal rotation.

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Moser Roth Dark Chocolate (cranberry)

I recalled from a “Feli from Germany” episode that Aldi’s has good prices on their chocolates, but that was some time ago. I finally thought to look at some of their chocolates and I decided on the Cranberry Dark Chocolate. There were 5 individually wrapped packages in the one big package. It is sweet enough for dark chocolate to be pleasurable to me. I would buy this again.

After I rechecked the nutritional values for this, I’ve had to nix it. But, like the Oatmeal Cranberry cookies, enjoyable but messes either with my weight or my blood sugar. Buy and eat sporadically, or give away most and get “just a taste.”

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I saw this photo on Amazon. I was looking at low sodium beans, and this image looked delicious. I asked Gemini (AI) to list the ingredients, and it added the possible dressing ingredients.

Ingredients:

• Beans:
  • Black beans (likely canned, rinsed and drained)
  • Kidney beans (likely canned, rinsed and drained)
  • Chickpeas (garbanzo beans, likely canned, rinsed and drained)
• Vegetables & Aromatics:
  • Corn (kernels, possibly fresh, canned, or frozen and thawed)
  • Red onion (thinly sliced or finely diced)
  • Red bell pepper (diced or thinly sliced)
  • Avocado (diced)
  • Cilantro (fresh, chopped)
• Possible Dressing Ingredients (implied by a salad):
  • Lime juice (for acidity and flavor)
  • Olive oil
  • Salt
  • Black pepper
  • Cumin (ground)
  • Chili powder (optional, for a Mexican flair)
  • Garlic (minced, optional)

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I periodically forget about a bunch of photos I’ve posted to Flickr. Not even sure I could login to mass download them.

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KRYSTALS RESTAURANT (PORT WENTWORTH, GEORGIA)

I would stop here to get a sack of Krystal’s hamburgers. They were small and square and juicy and had chopped onions on them, and they were a delicious comfort food. White Castle in the north and Krystal’s in the south. I think the first and the last White Castle’s that I visited was probably in Louisville, Kentucky.

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PUBLIC ART IN MAIN POST OFFICE (COCHRAN, GEORGIA)

I was passing through Cochran, Georgia one time and stopped in the Main Post Office to mail something. The above art work was hanging up on a wall. I later found that it was a Government funded art work, Like the work programs that the Government funded during the Depression to give people work.

I take it to be of a little barefoot colored farm boy that is carrying a pig under each arm, and is standing between corn stalks on his left and perhaps cotton on his right.

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SWEET GRASS DAIRY & THOMASVILLE, GEORGIA

This was my first visit to Thomasville, Georgia and Sweet Grass Dairy. They still produced both goat and cow cheeses, but later they stopped making goat cheese. At the time, they allowed the public to visit the actual dairy where the goats were located and were fed. I had brought a couple of ice chests, and bought quite a bit of cheese. I see from another photo that I was driving my blue & silver Dodge RAM 1500.

On a second visit they had built a new store, a short distance away from the actual dairy farm. At that time I bought several bottles of Pecan Oil. I think they were on special, and I made presents of them to Mary Ann and family.

It may have been the second visit that they had opened a restaurant in downtown Thomasville, and now I don’t think the shop near the dairy is still open. They’ve focused on the restaurant and the cheese seems to have taken a back seat. The boy’s parents were still involved in running the dairy on my first visit, but they may be dead or retired by now.

I ate at Liam’s in downtown Thomasville on my first visit, but on a later visit it wasn’t open and I ate at a seafood restaurant, Jonah’s, next door and enjoyed that much better. I think I had a lobster bisque, and I also liked their heavy silverware so much that on returning home I bought a similar set at the Oneida Store in Smithfield and have continued to use it daily ever since.

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BILTMORE SUMMER FLOWERS (2004)

I think these are from my summer visit to Biltmore in 2004. My first visit was in the late spring of 2004 and I missed out on the spring garden plantings by a few days. Where you see the beautifully laid out flowers, there was just tilled earth. I decided to convert my day’s ticket into a year long pass, and returned four times that year, visiting also in the summer, fall and winter & taking the Christmas tour also.

I didn’t know that a large number of tall trees in front of the mansion had been diseased and removed before my first visit. It was only years later that I was watching a movie that was filmed on the grounds and saw the beautiful old trees, which totally changed and blocked a good deal of the view of the mansion’s entrance.

I’ve also visited the State Arboretum in Asheville, just off the Blueridge Parkway, a few times and they also have a great number of beautiful flowers, foliage and even Bonsai. I also like to stop by the WNC State Farmers’ Market. That’s where I got my bright yellow Cara’s Corner bag and Cara’s Corner is where I bought several “new to me” types of dry beans, all of which weren’t as good as, or better than the favorites that have worked their way to the top.

Ramps have an interesting, strong, distinctive flavor, which is as different from onion as garlic is. In fact if you were blindfolded and given a taste & smell of an onion, garlic and ramps, you would easily be able to tell all three apart. Ramps are odd in that they have a narrow white tuberous (like a spring or wild onion) root, but their tops have a broad green leaf. You can cook & eat both the root (after removing the dirt) and the green tops. I’ve cleaned and then frozen both the roots and tops for later use, and once I actually mixed new potatoes, goat cheese and ramps as a side dish. It was delicious.

Ramps only grow above a certain elevation in the mountains, and are only harvested in early spring.

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AMTRAK TRIP TO GEORGIA & BACK (ONLY TRIP ON A TRAIN)

This is the Amtrak Train I took from Fayetteville, North Carolina down to Savannah, Georgia. I picked up the yellow rental car there, because it was cheaper there than if I had picked it up in Charleston, South Carolina. Seems like there was a holiday during this jaunt as I think schools were closed. The car is parked in Spivey and Yvonne’s driveway at St. Simons Island. I returned the rental car in Charleston and then took the Amtrak back to Fayetteville to finish my trip. *Not sure if I ate at the Water’s Edge on this trip. This is where I originally tried the “curry remoulade” sauce on a Shrimp Po’ Boy and then came back home to replicate it for many more, and different sandwiches.

Spivey has been dead for several years and Yvonne eventually moved back to Florida and I think is living with Vivian Sue, her youngest… but even Vivian Sue would be an old woman now.

I took the photo of the ship when I had walked to the waterfront of the village on St. Simons Island. I believe this is a large ocean going car carrier, a RORO. I’m not sure if it is the one that eventually sunk, but it was one like it that did sink. Someone had left an exterior door open and when the ship began to list, the water came in the open hold door and the vessel fell on it’s side.

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I like this picture of the sea gulls in front of a Target store in Jacksonville, North Carolina. I took it on a cold winter day and had noticed that all the gulls were pointed in the same direction. Not sure if they were facing that way because of how the wind was blowing, or for some other reason. But later as I looked at the picture, it just made sense to label this picture as “Missing the Target.”

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I loved the oriental motif that I created for my patio table. Not too long ago I donated the lamps to the church thrift store. They had been packed away for several years.

I think I bought the striped tea pot and the gold rimmed Turkish Glass glass on the same visit to a New Bern antiques store. I enjoyed visiting this store and roaming around it, but a few years ago I started to drive up into the parking lot and noted that the entire building had burned and been totally removed. Just a small portion of the parking lot was still recognizable.

As I walked in the front door, I looked over and saw the beautiful gold rimmed glasses (there were two) and I immediately took them to the checkout counter so they could keep them while I roamed about the store.

Why would I buy the old striped tea pot, that had a broken ceramic loop that had been poorly repaired? Well, and it is the reason that I still have this tea pot when I have recently given most of the other tea pots away… it has a wonderful sound, when you put the tea pot lid on the pot. It is what I note as a quality sound, like what I would think a Cadillac automobile would sound like, when you closed a car door. Not the sound that a cheap car door sounds like when you slam it shut. *I’ve recently donated several tea pots and quite a few coffee/tea mugs/cups.

And finally, the mobile kitchen cart, and it hasn’t looked this good in several years. I now have it in one corner of the small kitchen, in fact the only corner it could actually fit in, and there is a bunch of stuff on top of it. I think the mug on the cart top is one that I’ve still kept. It is a blue, large mug and probably holds two cups of drink. That’s the Oneida Stafford Stainless cutlery that I use daily, and the one that was inspired by my visit to Jonah’s Restaurant in Thomasville, Georgia.

It is amazing that I actually drove all the way down to Thomasville just to visit and buy various cheeses at the “Sweet Grass Dairy.” And perhaps more surprising that I would make a couple of more trips to Thomasville, Georgia. Nice town but a long way from home for me to drive, and I probably wouldn’t do it at my age, but then it was a wonderful adventure.