I was in Lee’s Market near Benson, North Carolina about a week ago. I go there especially to buy their Pepper Bacon. I don’t recall the weight of the package, but the price is usually around $14. The strips of bacon are probably a foot long and I can either cut them in half or into third lengths. I then have enough bacon to freeze two containers (I like using the reusable clear plastic containers, with the red plastic tops that the Hillshire Farms Deli Meats come in.) and have a third container to use currently. I like this bacon with my fried apples, my waffle, and/or my scrambled egg (that I cook in my onion cooker, in the microwave.). I also like liver pudding/mush (Penders | Larrys) with my egg for breakfast. I’m currently using the Larry’s version which seems just as good as Pender’s. Neese’s Liver Pudding is packaged differently and has a different flavor & texture, and I like Neese’s when I am making a sandwich.
Okay, so I use a whole introductory paragraph about me being at Lee’s Market and fail to mention that I bought a large container of Taco Seasoning. It’s always a “crap shoot” when you buy something like this as to whether you’re going to like the flavor or not once you taste it. I liked the flavor of this taco seasoning. *Buying coffee provided the same type of problem. It doesn’t matter what the name of the coffee is, it is whether it tastes good to you or not. I went through several packages of coffee (at about $9 each) before I found one that I liked. I bought the Starbucks brand, “Breakfast Blend” at Walmart and it has a good flavor to me. So, I like the flavor of this taco seasoning.
It’s heading toward 4 am this morning (a Saturday) and I’ve already prepared several items for my Mexican Taco Lunch today. The total calories for this lunch is spot on at 900 calories. I had a small ripe avocado so I mashed it up, and added some S&P and chopped up some sweet bell pepper and some sweet onion, and added just a little lime juice to hopefully keep this guacamole from turning brown. Oh, I think I also added just a few whole cumin seeds. I also opened a can of Pinto beans, mashed them up and heated them to use as refried beans. I had some “unlabeled” spice, that I finally decided was probably ground cumin that I added to the refried beans. Why unlabeled? I had bought several packages of spices from the Indian Market in Apex a month or so ago, and I didn’t label the container to which I transferred this spice. Another spice of which I did cut out the name of the spice and included it in a different container was Amchur, which is ground Mango. It is tart. I also plan to chop up some lettuce and a few tomatoes, but I prefer not to put tomatoes in the refrigerator before their use. I think the cold changes the flavor of a tomato making it less flavorful. I only plan to use one small flour tortilla for this meal, but with all the other items, and a little sour cream and Mexican Cheese blend, those 900 calories should be delicious and worth it.
I like Mexican food, burritos, tacos, fajitas, rice & beans, chips & salsa, guacamole, some sweet chopped onion and sour cream. But, I haven’t quite got it right at home. I have most or all of the ingredients but the flavors haven’t quite “got there” yet.
Since I wrote the above paragraph, I have found at least two Hispanic/Mexican themed meals that are both satisfying and repeatable: Black Beans & Quinoa is one, and my Mexican Meal is the other. Both of these include homemade guacamole, which may be blended with either sour cream or plain Greek yogurt, chopped cilantro & diced onion. The Black Beans & Quinoa are the base in one meal, homemade refried beans (either Pinto or Black Beans) pureed or smushed are the base in the Mexican Meal. The third element in the Black Beans & Quinoa is homemade salsa (not cooked, which includes diced tomato, diced onion, chopped cilantro, lime juice, etc.) and the Mexican Meal has ground beef, diced tomatoes w/ green chilies, onion, cilantro and select sweet or hot peppers, and this mixture is cooked on the stove top.
When I look at this video at some point I usually ask, “How could we not love her (Diana Rigg – Mrs. Emma Peele).” And the character of Mrs. Peele was so ahead of her time. She didn’t wait for John Steed to step in to save her, and quite often she saved him. She did her own research and came up with her own conclusions. So much about the character was a guiding light on how young girls should grow up to be women. “I want a girl with a short skirt… and a long jacket.” I also want some clear Paulson Bubble Goggles so that I can wear them when I watch “THEM.”
Suzy Bogguss was so damned sexy in this video and I love the feeling of this song. Her outfit and especially the hat was perfect.
I was in an IGA grocery store several years ago (in Benson, NC), walking up and down the isles shopping and I stopped when I heard this song start playing. I couldn’t have told you who it was, but it was just rock-n-roll that took hold of me that day. Since I’ve listened to a bunch of ELO and Jeff Lynn and I also like his concert where Rosie Vela was backing him up. She was also, so damned sexy singing and swaying in that long dark dress. *I’ve only been to that IGA a few times (2 or 3) and I bought Honey Crisp apples for the first time there going away from Fayetteville that day, and stopped and bought 4 more Honey Crisps on the way back home later that day. The apples were gigantic and I bought four of them. I get to the check out counter with only the four Honey Crisp apples. The clerk rings it up and says to me, “That will be $10.25.” I stopped for a brief second and then handed her the money. But I immediately calculated that it was more than $2.56 for each apple. That price, per apple in today’s economy, might not cause a pause, but this was probably just before Covid and that was an outrageous per apple cost. But, they did have an exceptionally distinct and delicious flavor. For fried apples, I almost always buy Galas and am completely satisfied.
You can see St. Pauls Cathedral in the background and you realize that the Millineum Bridge would be built right here, years later, and the band must have been facing the Tate Modern Museum as they played. The base violin player always reminds me of Bocephus – Hank Williams, Jr., even though I wasn’t a Williams fan. **One bit of info about Rosie Vela that has stuck with me was that her boyfriend in college died of a terminal illness. It might have been cancer. So when I’m looking lustfully at her singing and see her beautiful face, I usually think, “Yeah, but there is a great deal of pain in her eyes. She’s suffered.” And that’s even though I can’t really see her eyes that well in the music videos.
I think it’s probably true. That you look at a beautiful woman and you forget briefly that she’s a person like everyone else. She’s not a goddess. She’s suffered the little and big things in life that come to us all. But maybe that makes her even more special because even, in spite of great pain, her physical appearance is much like Dorian Grey. Most of the scars do not appear on her physical appearance.
For some reason the above comment reminded me of some personal wisdom that I haven’t adhered to most of my life. The wisdom is, in any competition, you should try to come in first place or very near first place every time. Why? Because getting there first, in almost all situations, grants you more & varied choices for later. I’m not sure if a less stressful life, or having to make less stressful choices during your life actually makes you live any longer, or even live better, but given the choice of living life poor or living life well off, I’ll choose “not poor.”
From Fayetteville, the trip takes about an hour and thirty-five minutes mostly on Highway 24 and 705. Odd to see places named with the 705.
What instigated this trip? Much like my trip to Asheville on August 19-20, this trip was in response to Longhill Pointe Apartments Management’s notice that apartments would be inspected for termites & new filters added for the air conditioning units. *The previous trip was because there was going to be partial repaving of the apartment’s parking areas. As I left home, shortly before 9 am, my intent was to drive to Lexington, NC and “look around.” Lexington would have been about 2 hours, one way. I was also planning, not to eat breakfast in Fayetteville. Already 9 am before I was anywhere near a restaurant, I began to think that I might even skip breakfast (unusual for me) and have an early lunch somewhere.
I don’t recall exactly where, but probably before Carthage (maybe even Cameron), I recalled that there was a restaurant in Asheboro that Jeff & his family had enjoyed a couple of years ago. I had even travelled through Asheboro some time after his positive review. It was about 2 pm on the day I came through, a late lunch possible, but as I passed the restaurant their parking lot was still full, so I decided not to eat there.
I thought to myself, “Was that restaurant called ‘Davids,’ and it was. I asked, “OK Google, is there a Davids restaurant in Asheboro, North Carolina.” And in asking, somehow David’s was added to my navigation route on my phone’s GPS. The phone asked if I wanted to add this restaurant to my trip, but the question disappeared before I could respond in the affirmative. Later, when I was attempting to find the opening time for David’s, the phone asked if I wanted to remove David’s from my navigation. I didn’t know it had already been added. I found that the restaurant opened at 8am. *I didn’t think about it at the time, but 8 am seems kind of late for a breakfast restaurant to open. Still, when I actually arrived at David’s after 10 am, I saw a sign that said they served breakfast all day long. Great, so I went in and ordered breakfast.
David’s Restaurant in Asheboro, North Carolina Burge Flower Shop is located next door, and “Our State” Magazine has an article including Burge this month.
I may have already decided not to go all the way to Lexington by the time that I was sitting in David’s eating my breakfast. I ordered one egg, “over medium,” patty sausage, hash browns, and one pancake (although the menu said I could have two pancakes for the same price). I also had coffee and some ice water. I asked for some sugar free syrup and hot sauce (Tabasco was one option), ketchup was already on the table.
The food had good flavor. Everything tasted fine. The sausage patties were gigantic. I used some pancake for a savory bread to sop up some of the runny yellow of my egg. There was plenty of crispy crust on the hash browns. I think the Tabasco might have been a little off, but not completely and combined with the ketchup, it was okay. I finished the meal by eating the other half of the pancake with some sugar free syrup and a little butter.
My waitress was personable. All the staff were Hispanic. Sometime during our conversation, I asked if the restaurant had a change in ownership in the last couple of years. The waitress responded in the affirmative. I asked her how she would categorize some of the food choices, which included tacos & quesadillas. “Hispanic or Mexican?” She thought a moment and then responded as “Mexican.”
After travelling about Asheboro and visiting the Library, I returned to David’s around 2 pm for lunch. There were just a few cars in the parking lot and few customers inside still eating lunch. I ordered their Taco Special which also came with soup. I asked about the soup and later another waitress came out with a small sample of a tomato based soup (a light broth, with orzo noodles). and a creamy spinach soup. I liked the flavor of both soups, but asked for the spinach, and also because the meal came with two tacos, I asked if I could have one taco with beef and the other taco with chicken. The waitress thought a moment and then said, “I don’t see why not.” And sure enough, when she brought my tacos, I had one of each. The chicken was hidden by a copious amount of shredded ice berg lettuce and shredded cheese.
I preferred the beef taco, but both tacos had good flavor. I would take the chicken taco with me, in a small ‘to go’ box, and finish eating it one the road. I enjoyed the creamy spinach soup. *The waitress from breakfast passed by my table and recognized me from earlier. We both laughed.
After breakfast, I had determined that I wasn’t going to continue on to Lexington, but was going to explore Asheboro and then return home. It was a sunny morning. I looked for the Little Lending Libraries in the area and saw that there were four of them. Eventually, I found one LLL in a high end neighborhood. I left two books (one Bosch & one Agatha Christie) and took one ’78 Stories…” a children’s book.
On my way back into downtown from this LLL, I stopped at a convenience store to purchase gas. The price was under $3 a gallon, but paying with my VISA it was 10 cents more per gallon, but still under $3.
I found the local library and stopped in to look around. The Library was across the street from the Courthouse. As I walked inside I saw a tall, double stairway, that led up to the main Library floor. But, I also saw that there were signs to an elevator. I navigated the narrow hallway and found the elevator just around the corner. I got in and pressed “2.” Out the elevator to my right, and then the checkout counter was to my left. There were a couple of people at the counter. There were many colorful books on display and I was quickly drawn in to pick some of them up and peruse their pages. One book was a pink themed Margot Robbie Barbie book and another was a Caribbean cook/story book. There were many other books on display and many had “interesting” titles. If I were younger, I might even be enticed to become an avid reader.
I made my way around the library floor. Eventually I found a small magazine section, a man sitting reading close by. I reached for the latest “Our State” magazine and walked to a nearby chair and started to read. There were a few pages selling items for Christmas, with North Carolina themes. One I liked was a Tree ornament that had several images included that were NC focused, a lighthouse and an outline of North Carolina being two of them. The only two I can recall at the moment. I do recall another item. It was an oyster board that had carved indentations for 12 oysters. This was for sitting and eating fresh oysters in the half shell. Although, I guess you could actually stand and eat them.
Before leaving the library I stopped to ask the Reference Librarian a question about donating a Bosch novel. I commented on the interesting book titles they had on display. She was also the Main Librarian for Adults. Downstairs before leaving, I stopped in a Local History section and struck up a conversation with a couple of these librarians. *I had seen a street sign stating that the home of Governor Jonathan Worth was a short distance away. I recalled that this just Post Civil War governor had a paddle wheel steamboat named after him. This boat would later become the “Rockledge” and carry President Cleveland and his bride on their trip to Rockledge, Florida during their Exposition visit. This vessel would also follow the railroad as it was being built down the length of Florida. It would end up in Miami, first as a gambling establishment, and later as a early hotel for those building the first Miami hotels. Years later, in 1913, the derelict vessel would be towed out several miles into the Atlantic Ocean, and sunk. Although there are copious lists of sunken vessels off the coast of Florida, and their locations, the location of the “Rockledge” remains unknown. **Governor Jonathan Worth would die in 1869, years before his namesake vessel would travel down to Florida.
After leaving the Library, I did stop to take a few pictures of the Courthouse. I took the pictures from across the street, sitting in my car, at an abandoned bank drive thru.
I found my way to McCrary Park & Stadium, home of the “ZooKeepers,” baseball team of the Coastal Plain League. I suppose their season is over for this year and I saw no one at the park. I think I found this before lunch at David’s.
There appears to be a large Hispanic population in Asheboro.
This was an enjoyable trip to and visit of another North Carolina city. Asheboro is only 30 minutes from Greensboro and about 45 minutes to Winston-Salem (an hour & a half to Raleigh).
My Amazon order of 48 glass spice jars, lids and sifter filters was waiting at my door when I got back home. I had finished my chicken taco on the way back.
[NOTE 09/12/24]: I’ve already transferred 12 spices/herbs to my new spice jars and placed “3 Letter Codes” for each e.g. CUR-curry, MAR-marjoram, TUR-turmeric. For most spices I won’t have a problem with a 3 letter code, but how about “Coriander” when it’s whole seed, or ground? Or “FEN” for fenugreek, or fennel seeds. Maybe FEG for fenugreek and FEN for fennel. I haven’t added the “warm” spices yet that I use when I fry apples.
Still, the consistency and orderliness of these glass vials makes everything line up so nice and neat. The jars were packed using a plastic matrix for the top & bottom of the jars. I may be able to just put all the jars in either the top or bottom matrix, or cut smaller matrices for “fried apple” spices, or the “hot pepper” selection.
[end NOTE]
And by now, after midnight, almost 3 am, I have filled 34 of the new glass vials with spices I already had and a few I bought last morning. I now have one jar of ground mustard, and one of whole mustard seeds. I have Tamarind powder and Garam Marsala. *I also decided to have a separate, and slightly larger jar of the “warm” spices that I use when I fry apples: ground – cinnamon, cloves, ginger, mace, nutmeg, coriander & pumpkin spice which is a mixture of some of the already listed spices. I’m not sure if All Spice is included, but it might fit in with the others. And thinking now, the Tamarind might provide an interesting addition too. A little sweetener and those spices make for a delicious fried apple, and add to that, pepper bacon for a deliciously savory juxtapostion.
[NOTE 09/16/24]: I was looking for one of my electric hair trimmers yesterday and happened to find a shoebox of empty/recycled spice jars. These were like the jars I just ordered from Amazon but most did not have lids. I’ve found the lids are subject to rust or corrosion.
The Amazon jars came packed in a box with a flexible plastic matrix on the top and bottom in which each jar fit snuggly. I decided to use one of these to house my spices on my counter top. It fits almost perfectly, however I still have some items that I don’t quite know where to put. [end NOTE]
I’ve moved my plastic sandwich bags which were against the counter wall, right next to the stove. They are handy there. But, I also have a Tupperware container for butter. I keep the larger Country Crock plastic container in the refrigerator and fill the smaller container periodically as needed. I found if I left the larger container out for a long time eventually the margarine starts to mold. I also have a salt container in which I keep my salt mix. I take regular Morton’s Salt and I grind it with the Pink Sea Salt. This ends up as a fine grained pinkish salt that I use for everything. *It doesn’t taste any better than regular salt, but I just like doing it this way.
My predicament is that I have two bamboo spice racks that are tiered and fit next to the counter wall, and I need some of those for the spices that don’t go into the new jars. I have three grinders for pepper, and I mix two of those with black, green, white & red (not really a pepper). One of the mixed peppers grinds super fine, and the other grinds coarse. The third grinder is specifically for my Indian Long Pepper. I think it was a couple of years ago that I was cleaning out a few items. I will buy some new spice or curry or other food flavor enhancing item and then not use it… and not use it… and continue to not use it for years sometimes. So, I came across a plastic pouch that had some Long Pepper in it. I had never tried this and when I opened it, the pepper was indeed long and gnarly. This pepper didn’t fit in a standard grinder so at first I used a small. grey stone mortar & pestle that I have. This worked to grind the Long Pepper and I found this pepper very pungent and exactly what I wanted in a ground black pepper. But the mortar & pestle wasn’t ideal for grinding because some of the pepper would hop out over the edge and I would have to cover the pestle, with my hand, as I was grinding. So, I went online and found a grinder (not specifically for the Long Pepper) that had a microplane at it’s base. You could grind nutmeg or other hard spices, but I think the hard nutmeg nuts are too much for this grinder. However, this grinder is a well thought-out piece of kitchen equipment.
This grinder has a storage compartment in the top (handle) part. This is the part that you turn when manually grinding. But, that is the one flaw that I have found with this grinder. The screws for the storage compartment are plastic (the whole grinder is a sturdy black plastic) and they have frozen together so that I cannot open the storage compartment. Not a game ender, but just minorly annoying, and every once in a while they unfreeze, but I haven’t found a way to stop the freezing. I’ve put on olive oil but they still bind together. The grinder works fine. I have a glass jar nearby that has the whole Indian Long Peppers and periodically I take out a few and put them in this microplane grinder and grind as needed. I need to fill it up about every couple of days. I can’t control the size of the grains and all come out fine grained, but this pepper is pleasantly pungent. *How did I put up with McCormick’s Black Pepper in that one metal container that we kept for years & years… & years. And, that is NOT exaggerating. I guess it was made of steel and painted red & white and eventually, after years of use rust would appear in the corners of this little box. I know now that freshly ground pepper is pungent at first but quickly loses it’s pungency (my word) so using the “store bought – already ground” McCormick’s Black Pepper seems an act of idiocy for someone that appreciates the taste of their food.
I don’t do it regularly, but quite often I have ground (verb not adjective) pepper at home, put it in a plastic sandwich bag and taken it with me to a restaurant to put on my eggs or potatoes. Normally when I do this, I add several other spices & salt to make a spice blend to enhance the flavor of the food. I like curry powder, dulse, celery seeds, thyme, marjoram, and oregano. *This started years ago when I ate at Burger King regularly. I put this spice blend on my hash rounds, and added some ketchup or their honey mustard sauce. At some point Burger King started charging an extra 10 cents for each honey mustard container. *I’m not sure why I stopped going to Burger King for their breakfast (a Croisandwich Value Meal with Ham). but it has been a long while, and just writing about it here reminds me of how long.
That takes me in a different direction. I was reminiscing the other day (to myself) of the various places that I used to eat at regularly through most of my working years. And, let me preface this with, “Covid ended many buffets, which I enjoyed eating at for lunch.” I would eat at Golden Corral once or twice a week. Golden Corral is still in town but I haven’t eaten there in a couple of years. I would eat at Wendy’s once of twice a week. I liked their basic hamburger, and their chili, and their baked potato. At some point, I stopped liking their hamburger and then I realized (after going online) that they had changed how they made their basic burger, and it wasn’t for the better for me. I think they steamed their buns and this moistness in the bread made the burger more delicious to me. I think their buns used to have sesame seeds on it. I liked those buns. *At some point I realized that their Chili gave me indigestion, although I really did like the flavor. And the baked potato became anathema because of my Type 2 Diabetes. It’s not that I don’t eat baked potatoes any more, but the ones I fix at home are smaller (or halved larger ones). And when I do eat a baked potato I still like to add butter & sour cream. **I just bought a bag of small Russet potatoes. I mention “small” because they were ALL small potatoes, and just the size I now like, but rare to find in a bag because most bags of potatoes contain a mixture of various sizes of potatoes. And these Russets had a darker brown skin. I haven’t tried them yet, but their smaller size is actually a positive selling point for me.
I moved to Fayetteville in 1995 to work at Fayetteville State University. A few years later, they built a new Golden Corral near the Lowes (Home Improvement, not high-end grocery) on Ramsey Street. This was perfect for me because it was “on my way” between home and FSU. But normally I would only eat at Golden Corral for lunch. However, I recall that the Golden Corral near the Mall would have a breakfast buffet on Saturday mornings that I loved to go to. Oh, all the glorious breakfast foods… think of me dancing and twirling about as I view all the choices. Something special for breakfast would be some corned beef hash, and add a little bacon with that, and some scrambled eggs, and maybe some of those sauteed onions & peppers, and a biscuit, with maybe a little sausage gravy. Some milk & some orange juice and maybe even hot tea. I’m through, I think I’ll go back for a second helping of all of this. And, I would quite often, but maybe leaving out the biscuit on the second go through. *DeWayne was a long-time favorite waiter at GC for me and he did move to the new GC once the Ramsey Street location was abandoned, but he seemed rushed and not having time to be friendly. And, I don’t think it was his fault. Management. Yeah, I think it was management’s fault.
The new GC wasn’t as inviting. The buffet counter was straight, not undulating as the old one had been. This meant that as you moved about for food, you always had someone coming at you (another customer), another useless confrontation, whether you turned left or right along the long counter. And the new GC was loud. Sound bounced off the walls and wasn’t pleasant. And, in a couple of places the aisles between tables were just a bit too close to each other, which meant that staff and other customers passed by uncomfortably close, or someone had to wait for others to pass before they continued on. *You could probably write a small volume on “How to Not Improve an Eating Experience” from this one location. “Gosh, how many years has it been since I ate at the new GC?”
But after years, they tore down the Golden Corral by the Mall and rebuilt it. *I actually remember riding by the destroyed building (I have a picture or two of the remains.) and being shocked. I had to turn the car around and ride through the parking lot. I didn’t know if the building had burned down, but later found they had intentionally demolished it. And not too long after they had the new Golden Corral, they left their building on Ramsey Street. They didn’t tear down the Ramsey Street building and so there eventually were two other restaurants that found their home in that building.
I don’t recall the order in which the new restaurants inhabited the old Ramsey Street GC location, but one was an oriental restaurant and the other a country cooking (Chaisson’s Grandson’s). Before the oriental restaurant (a buffet) opened, I remember thinking “why would you want another oriental restaurant this close to an already existing one.” The existing Chinese restaurant may have been called “China II” or as I see it on Google Maps, “Little China.” But, I was a regular customer. They had a small buffet, and they had some items (which I don’t recall specifically now) which I really liked. The irony? After the new restaurant came into the old GC location, I became a regular customer and rarely, if ever, visited Little China. That is until the newer Chinese restaurant (after several years) went out of business. Then I visited Little China once again, but I think they no longer offered a buffet, and there was no reason to return.
And for a while, there was a Chaisson’s Grandsons restaurant (country cooking buffet) in the old GC location. They had good food and I liked going there also. Maybe I just liked eating at this location no matter what type of food was being served. And then whichever restaurant finally closed up shop and left the location empty, it remained empty for a while and then one day I was passing by and they had already demolished most of the building. I think I got a picture of one little corner wall standing alone. The signs went up that there was a new 7-11 Convenience Store coming to this location, and eventually it did. And, I buy gas there often but not regularly as there are other locations in town that offer better gas prices.
Cracker Barrell, the one next to I95, was a regular breakfast stop every Sunday for several years. It was too far away from where I lived and worked to visit on weekday mornings, but sometimes Saturdays and almost every Sunday I was in town I would ride across town to eat at the Cracker Barrell. There were several waitresses I liked. I don’t recall the older waitress’ name, but her husband had a beautiful deep speaking voice. I think he was a mechanic, or worked with trucks, maybe drove them. And there was a younger “country” girl named… Brandy, was her name Brandy? I must have been completely oblivious to her before she changed her hair style. I recall her mentioning this once or twice, so it was probably true. But after the change, and I don’t recall what she looked like previously, she was quite a physically attractive woman;-) She had a pretty face and she was “round like I like ’em.” But, she was “country,” and I’m not “country.” My childhood, in the country of eastern North Carolina, but with copious amounts of TV watching on which I gravitated not to “country” but to other worldly environs, made me a different character than a country boy. I’m not sure if TV was the sole contributor. I’m sure there is something inside each of us that determines the choices we make and the paths we choose. Is that question, “nurture or nature?” Environment does play a part on who we become. If the TV or the personal computer hadn’t been invented before I came along, what choices would I have made? I don’t think I would have become a doctor or a lawyer. I’m not committed enough. “Committed” isn’t the right word, but the right word is not within my grasp at the moment. Perseverance or persistence? Formal structure? Yeah, I don’t like formal structure, although I do like structure.
Even in my chosen profession, my education, knowledge, talents and experience all were fraught with holes or gaps. Like Swiss cheese. I understood some basic programming, but I wasn’t good enough to make my living programming. I didn’t comprehend all the concepts to become a network administrator. It wasn’t just a lack of knowledge, it was an ability to gain and keep knowledge in various areas. I might even understand, briefly, a concept or idea, and then it would fleetingly disappear. I’m not sure if that is a flaw or just a human personality trait. Oh, but I also couldn’t manage others. What I am saying is that if you are really good at managing people you can make more money. If you can program well, you can make more money. If you organize well, you can make more money. I made enough, or so far it seems, even with the holes. However, one of the really big holes was in myself, and that meant I could never commit to another (woman, or man). Not sure of what all was lacking, but even at 70 years old, I do not know, do not have “it” and never will, or there is no point at the end of my life to go, “Oh, there it is!”
It has been a long time since I attended college and I am probably severely out of touch with what a student’s life is like at college during the present day, but let me suggest some things regarding food that would have been helpful when I was attending college those many years ago.
Braun makes a multi-tool for the kitchen which includes a food chopper, a whisk, and a stick blender. Maybe not in a college dorm, but the stick blender can be used to puree various soups while the soup in still in the hot pot. I originally bought a Braun multi-purpose tool because I wanted the stick blender to help me make my “Curried Apple” Soup. The Braun equipment I originally bought was not very powerful, nor was the chopper container very big. In fact, I could not even process a whole can of garbanzo beans when trying to make hummus. Later I would buy a more powerful Braun system that had a bigger chopper container and the motor could handle blending a whole can of chick peas.
Homemade Hummus
If you like hummus, you can easily make hummus at home, and cheaply. Get a can of garbanzo beans and throw those into your chopper bowl. Add some cumin seeds (or ground cumin), some lime or lemon juice, some turmeric and some salt and blend this mixture. If you like tahini (fermented sesame seeds) you can add that also. Although tahini is is the original hummus recipe I had, the hummus I make is just as satisfying without it. Maybe some roasted garlic would blend well with this too.
Turmeric provides an interesting taste and color to making pickled sweet onion, bell pepper and tomatoes. I guess I might call it an acrid flavor, but marinate those veggies in this vinegar mixture and they become addictive.
The nice thing about hummus is that it becomes the base for all the other flavorful veggies and other ingredients you might want to eat with it. I like sweet onion, colored sweet bell pepper, chopped tomatoes, and carrots, but I also like Smoked Oysters. I like celery, but for some reason I don’t like it with hummus, and it seems to be perfectly suited for scooping up hummus. I could see making a whole meal, without meat, around hummus and veggies.
Homemade Salsa
Buy the chips and make the salsa in a food chopper:
You can start with fresh chopped tomatoes, but I like the diced fire roasted tomatoes, or those in a can flavored with roasted garlic. Add some sweet onion and sweet, colorful bell pepper to this also. I like the flavor and heat from a premade salsa called “Salsa Ranchera” which is made by the Herdez Company. I think this is ground Chipotle peppers, which are roasted Jalapenos. So, you could add any type of hot peppers to your desire, or maybe some fresh jalapenos or poblanos. Here are three peppers I tried last season that had a distinctive flavor and I don’t recall any of them being too hot: Biquinho, Trinidad Perfume and Brazilian Starfish. One of these looks like little yellow tear drops and one is bright yellow, and one looks like a tiny bright red “patty pan” squash. It doesn’t taste anything like squash, but the shape is almost exactly like those squash which are an ivory white. Oh, I almost forgot, you can roast your peppers and onion before blending them. Adding cilantro leaves would provide extra color and flavor. Ground cumin or cumin seeds and S&P are interesting.
I don’t know what the dorm policy is, but if you are not allowed to cook in your room, I would think that being able to make hummus and/or salsa should still be allowed, and you can store all the necessary ingredients and finished product in a mini fridge. Put a chopping board on top of the fridge with any kitchen tools (sharp tomato knife) and plastic storage containers you may need.
If you are allowed to cook in your dorm room (or have an apartment later) I would suggest that getting an electric wok would be the best investment you could get. Cooking with an electric wok is perhaps the easiest way to cook that I know of. You can chop up the ingredients for a “stir-fry” quickly, cook them quickly and clean the wok very quickly afterwards. You do need a fire proof spatula for moving the cooking food around in the wok.
I would get a can of Toasted Sesame Oil and some olive oil for cooking in a wok. Toasted Sesame Oil provides the classic flavor for fried rice.
Soy sauce is another classic flavor and even some lime or lemon juice.
Most meats like chicken or pork you chop up into bite sized pieces. You don’t have to chop shrimp or ground beef. And then the veggies: Asparagus, Bell Pepper, Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Mushrooms, Onion, Tomatoes and even Zucchini. Maybe add some sesame seeds, or buy a can of mixed Stir-Fry Vegetables (bamboo shoots, baby corn, bean sprouts, water chestnuts) or buy individual cans of those you especially like. White rice is probably traditional, but fried rice would be good also with some diced carrots & garden peas.
Multi-Bean Salad
If you’ve never had it, a variation of 3-Bean Salad can be delicious and filling. I would have never thought to mix beans with sweetened vinegar. But, when I think of sweetened vinegar, I usually tell myself, oh, that’s just pickle juice. So imagine marinating various beans in a sweet pickle juice.
The surprise for me was the variety of beans you could use to provide both color, flavor and texture. Black, cannellini, green, garbanzo, kidney, navy, pinto, and wax beans all work well in this concoction. For simplicity sake you might just choose three of the above listed beans, but feel free to add to the number if it works for you. But this isn’t just beans and sweetened vinegar. You can chop up some sweet onion, or get some pickled peppers. Basically anything that is sweet pickled would probably taste good in this salad. I’m not sure if beets (and I like beets) would work because they might discolor the rest of the white beans, but conceivably “pickled beets” are in a sweet vinegar.
If you can have a toaster oven:
Ciabatta Roll Pizzas
A basic pizza sauce is easily made at home from about 7 ingredients and then can be stored in the fridge for several days. The ingredients include: tomato paste, oregano, thyme, white vinegar, garlic powder, olive oil & salt. How simple is that? And it tastes like one of those pizza sauces from my past.
I’m talking about making personal pizzas using split ciabatta rolls, but you could buy a prepared pizza dough and just slather on the homemade sauce before adding your favorite ingredients. But, ciabatta rolls will fit in a toaster oven easily whereas even a small pizza might not.
If you have a microwave:
One item I would buy would be an microwave onion cooker. What’s that you ask? Well, they (some manufacturers) make plastic looking onions that have a top and bottom. You can put a whole onion in one of these, put the top on and heat it in the microwave for say 5 minutes (maybe more if necessary, the power of your microwave can determine cooking times) and you get a deliciously sweet baked onion. The phrase to remember about cooking any onion is that, “Any onion is sweet, once it hits the heat.” There’s just something about the sugars in an onion that are enhanced by heat. Even a bitter or hot onion will sweeten when you cook it. So, save your Sweet Vidalia Onions for salads or to slice for burgers or chop for hot dogs, and microwave regular onions or cook them on the stove top or in soups.
But, having said all that about using an onion cooker for onions, there are at least three other things you can put in one of these that can turn out delicious: bake a sweet potato, a regular potato, or create an egg omelet. I’ve found that adding a little water when cooking a potato helps keep them from drying out.
Beat one or two eggs in a bowl and add some olive oil (both to the onion cooker & in the beaten eggs to avoid sticking to the plastic cooker), with S&P. I like to add some other things like dulse (a salty seaweed), celery seeds, and garlic or onion powder. You might also add some cayenne or red pepper flakes. If you are going to add chopped onion or jalapeno peppers I would roast them first. It may take about a minute or a little over to completely cook the eggs in the onion cooker, but if you want to add some shredded cheese blend, or the roasted onion/pepper then I would cook the egg first for about 30 seconds. This will start the egg to solidify on the bottom of the cooker. Stop the cooking process and then add the extra ingredients to the still uncooked egg. Put the top back on the onion cooker and finish cooking your egg(s). Check to see if it looks like your eggs are done. If so, you can dump them out on a plate. The nice thing about using this cooker is that the cooked eggs look like the rounded egg patty that comes in an Egg McMuffin. And, if you have an English Muffin (toast it) you can put the cooked egg on the muffin. If you have some Canadian bacon or regular bacon you can add this to your breakfast muffin sandwich also. If you haven’t already put cheese in your eggs, then you can put a slice on top of your egg.
I cook all my bacon in my microwave. I cut my bacon in half, but you don’t have to, but it seems to fit better on a dinner plate. I have a splatter guard that I can put over the plate to keep the bacon splatters from messing up my microwave. I then cook the bacon one minute at a time. Usually about the third minute, I pour off the bacon grease that has drained from the cooking bacon. I put the hot grease in a little bowl because this can be used later for flavoring other things I am cooking. If I have a small Ball Jar, I let the bacon grease cool down, put a lid on the top and put this in my refrigerator.
Corn on the Cob
If you have a grill, you might like the extra flavor of cooking your corn on the cob on the grill. If not, I’ve found that I can cook corn on the cob in my microwave easily. I normally buy unschucked corn because I’m going to use the microwave to steam the corn in the husk. If your corn is already schucked, you can wrap each ear of corn in a wet paper towel and then cook it. The paper towel will help keep the heat in next to the corn and steam it (like the husk does). *Here’s a trick I learned a short time ago, but it works usually. Corn still in the husk had what is called silks. They are those little inedible strings that stick to the corn on the cob, and you have to rub them off before eating the corn. The trick? You cut a little bit of the stalk end of the corn off, exposing the ring of corn kernels. Then cook the corn. When you first remove the corn it might be extremely hot. After all, there has been steam involved in the cooking process. I start cold running water from my sink, change it to spray the water, and then pinch the silk end of the corn cob. As you squeeze the cob, the cooked corn will begin to squeeze out the cut stalk end and the silks (miraculously) will remain with the husk. You won’t have to peel off the husk and then rub the silks off. Who knew? Not me and I’m an old man. *Sometimes you can’t squeeze the corn out using the above method. If not, then remove the husks and rub the silks off and there is no loss.
Basic Ingredients: Dukes Mayo, Ketchup, Hot Sauce, Chopped Onion, Pickle Relish, Minced Garlic, White Vinegar & Salt.
Construction:
Butter the outsides of the bread and toast them. When the butter is melted and the outside is toasty, flip each slice of bread over and put on your cheese to melt it. Swiss is traditional, but I like White American Cheese also. I think of the cheese as forming a protective layer for the bread in case your sauerkraut or Thousand Island Dressing is too watery. When the cheese is melted I would put a few slices of pastrami on each slice of toasted cheesy bread. Then put on some sauerkraut and mix a little dressing with it. **I like using this Sauerkraut & Dressing mixed as a side dish. You can change the order of the ingredients within the slices of bread, but done in this order, the wet items are in the middle. Maybe not classic by having a large hunk of sliced meat in the middle of your sandwich, but a thoughtful choice to make it a less messy meal.
Oh, and a classic Reuben sandwich has Corned Beef, but I’ve heard that if you use Pastrami then you call this sandwich a Rachael. ***I like to have some wavy potato chips & a Ranch Dill Pickle spear with this sandwich.
[09/03/24]: I made a really good green beans, potatoes, and bacon side with a little chopped onion (starting with some bacon grease) and then I threw in some small polenta wedges (they remind me of little cornmeal dumplings). I did add S&P, some garlic powder and a generous portion of margarine. *These turned out so good that I ate all of it instead of having two or three meals from it. However, I didn’t sautee the fried okra I had planned, but I did microwave an ear of corn.
While at my doctor’s appointment yesterday, the check-out receptionist told me about Anne’s Old Fashioned Flat Dumplings (pastry). It comes in a red package and can be used for things like chicken & pastry or lima beans & pastry. [end]
[NOTE 09/14/24]: I finally bought a package of Anne’s Pastry. It comes frozen. The pastry dough is very thin and there are three pieces per “sheet” with a divider sheet that helps you peel off a layer of pastry. I happened to see that I had a Tupperware container of garden peas in the fridge. I had used some of those peas in tuna salad a day or so ago. I thought that sometimes garden peas can have pastry so I started to make a helping. I had put the pastry in the garden peas, and had added some Chicken Broth to a little water in the pot. But, then I also remembered that I had some country ham and I sliced a few bits of that and added it to the peas & pastry. I think I also chopped up a little onion for this also. This turned out well and I ended up eating the whole helping instead of dividing it into two helpings. I was planning on fixing some steamed cabbage, but ate the extra garden peas instead.
I had a good little trip to and from Jacksonville, Hubert, Swansboro, New Bern, and Havelock last Friday. I like to get back down to visit with my cousin Mary Ann on the Carolina Coast every couple of months. I might like to make the trip more often, but at 70 years old, the round trip is taxing to me. Two hours each way.
It has been a couple of weeks since I made a quick (very enjoyable) trip to Asheville, and I still see evidence that the energy I spent making that trip has not completely returned for use in my daily life. *Not just the use of energy, but “packing up” all the necessaries for daily life (even on the road) are a hassle to return for use in daily life. What? Hearing aid recharger not where it needed to be. The nightly mouth guard still packed in the suitcase.
One note, among the many, is that I made the trip to Asheville and forgot to bring along either my Windows laptop, or my Chromebook. Fortunately, my smartphone will do most of what I need done while on vacation. I can pull up Google Maps and get a “best route” to various locations. I can check opening & closing times for restaurants and other businesses. Heck, as I was sitting in El Catrin restaurant waiting for Mary Ann to arrive, I was able to google on my smartphone about the name “El Catrin.” I pulled up its menu (looks as good online as it does in the restaurant – why not? Its a PDF document.) on my phone.
The good points of the Asheville trip: pleasantly cool morning mountain air as I cruised about downtown Asheville (saw two copper colored turkeys in a neighborhood), enjoyed a short ride up the Blue Ridge Parkway (seeing two Black Bears cross the road), a wonderfully pleasant stay at the (remodeled) Quality Inn, “looking good, feeling good.” Enjoyed my trip to the WNC Farmers Market, and even found and bought Dulse at the Earth Fare Market. Unfortunately, the East Village Grille no longer has a Pastrami Reuben on its menu, but I had a good Philly Cheesesteak there this time. Also on this trip I meandered on the way there, and I meandered on the way back home. I refreshed my memory of many places (Maxton Airport, Laurinburg Library, Gibson, Seaboard Station Restaurant, Hamlet Library, Rockingham Library, passed near downtown Charlotte, Weaverville & the Mangum Gallery, the New Morning Art Gallery, Food Matters) and I added several cities/towns that I’ve never visited previously (Morganton, Mocksville).
My visits to Hubert usually start with breakfast at Helen’s Kitchen for a country ham (biscuits, sliced potatoes & egg over medium, with coffee). After a two hours trip down, I’m ready to eat. They usually give me more than enough country ham so that I am able to slice one of the biscuits open and make a ham biscuit for later. I ate that biscuit for dinner, after stopping by Hwy. 55 in Kenansville and finishing off an order of onion rings (with ketchup) and a Diet Dr. Pepper, while driving. *After breakfast I normally drive over to the Onslow County Library to see if there are any books I want to buy. I think I bought six or seven hardback books this time, a couple of cook book for Mary Ann and more Connelly novels that will go to the Little Lending Libraries that I visit.
After my OCL visit I will usually try to drive up to New Bern and then on to Minnesott Beach and get on the ferry there to cross over to Cherry Branch (and then either back to Havelock and probably Hubert, or on the Beaufort & Morehead City – the back way). I was running about 30 minutes late and although I made it to New Bern (the back way, for the second time recently) I realized that I couldn’t get to the ferry to make the 20 minutes crossing, so I went directly from New Bern to Havelock and then back to Swansboro to meet Mary Ann for lunch at El Catrin.
I had never been to El Catrin before, but Mary Ann had said they had really good food, and this was directly across the road from the Bamboo Asian House, which I knew was also a favorite eatery of hers. I got to the restaurant shortly before Mary Ann and Ray arrived and had time to look at their menu and to google for the name “El Catrin” while I sat waiting. As I picked up the menu. I was immediately impressed. It was a vivid purple, and inside were several magazine quality menu pages with color photos of some of their dishes. I didn’t pay much attention to the prices, although later I might say, they are “a little pricey.” But I justify the higher prices because of the extra attention to their environment. Purple is one theme and the El Catrin character is displayed on the welcome rugs, the walls in drawings, logos, and large wall photo murals. They have a bar area and several large screen TVs playing various sports events, etc. We ended up sitting in a half booth/half table setting near the bathrooms. *I think the place looks great, but it is too small for the number of customers I think they are going to generate. There may be other good looking restaurants in Swansboro, but this place is “inspired” and successfully “accomplished.”
I enjoyed my food as did Mary Ann and Ray, and they both had a Flan dessert, which they said they enjoyed. Flan doesn’t “float my boat,” and I didn’t need a dessert (Type 2 Diabetic).
I had books for Mary Ann, and flavored olive oils & vinegar, & pepper grinders and Dulse for Ray and Jacquelin. I also had a couple of books for their kids. The C. S. Lewis Space Trilogy (in one book) and an Inventions book that was a pictorial on how things work.
I left after 6 pm for my trip back home and it began to rain, and got progressively heavier rain as I continued & there were several instances of impressive lightening. The rain stopped completely before I finally arrived home.
I had an order of onion rings and a Diet Dr. Pepper at Hwy. 55 in Kenansville. This is a normal stop, although I rarely go further and stop at Smithfield’s Chicken -n- Barbecue where I40 and Hwy. 24 cross. *There is a State rest stop at this crossing and if I need, they always have clean restrooms. I even had an unexpected play date one time when there were a couple of vans of young children on a field trip. They were from Rocky Mount (a church group I think) and I playfully interacted with them as they were getting ready to board their vans after their bathroom break. I asked in an animated voice, “Are you all from Rocky Mount.” They gleefully affirmed that they were from Rocky Mount. But the really special part of this trip happened at the end when the last little girl in line was waving at me, and I am glad that I saw her. I waved animatedly at her. She hadn’t been close enough during the earlier playtime for me to address her with any attention, but she was appreciative enough to be waving at me as I left. I hope my waving back to her was special to her also. She was just as important as the rest of those kids & their teachers.
Mary Ann mentioned later that there were other restaurants in the Swansboro area that had just as much flair as El Catrin. “Flair” was my word and interpretation of what she was trying to say. I do not go out to eat a whole lot, and those places I go to are “old standards” for me. Still, El Catrin was the flashiest restaurant I have been to in a long time, if ever. For its size, no other restaurant has been as impressive. Maybe Miami Vice meets 2024?
I had bought a can of mixed beans (Black, Kidney, Pinto Beans) from Whole Foods (about $1.27 for a 15 oz. can) and then, when back in town (Fayetteville) I had bought a Rotisserie Chicken from Harris Teeter. I currently think that the HT roasted whole chicken has better flavor than the Publix version, and HT is about a dollar cheaper at around $6.88 plus tax. I had bought several ears of corn on the cob, but I don’t recall from where.
I went to Farm Fresh and got some red, pickled Peruvian peppers (small bright red tear drop shaped peppers), and some of the multi-colored Peppadew peppers. I added these along with a half can of wax (yellow) & half a can of green beans, to a half of the 365 Bean Trio from Whole Foods and some chopped sweet onion. I poured in a little white distilled vinegar, some red wine vinegar and some Apple Cider vinegar and some Splenda sweetener. Even with using the half cans of beans, I still ended up with enough bean salad for three helpings.
I think I first enjoyed a bean salad at Ryan’s in Fayetteville some years ago. They had a good buffet and were over near where the current Cracker Barrell is located, next to WalMart. Ryan’s was a chain and eventually went out of business in Fayetteville, leaving suddenly, with little warning to their employees. Not sure I would have come up with combining various beans in a pickled vinegar base, but I liked it. Through the years I’ve made it, but always have made too much (using a can each of the various beans) and ended up throwing away more than I’ve enjoyed eating. *Not sure if I would like adding garbanzo beans to this mix, but might try it some day.
For my meal, I pulled off a drumstick with some white meat attached. I microwaved one ear of corn which takes about six minutes total. *I’ve found that I can put the corn, in husk, in for two minutes and then cut off the stalk end and cook for four more minutes and it’s done. This corn was sweet and tender. And, I had a helping of the bean salad.
The vinegar in the salad cut some of the fattiness of the rotisserie chicken and the corn was just a delicious “comfort food” addition to the meal.
And, this was so good that I had it again the next day… and I think I still have at least one more ear of corn to make it a delicious three meals.
So what’s the approximate cost of this meal? Let’s say 50 cents for the ear of corn. $1.45 for the roasted chicken.
Divide the bean salad by 3 (for three helpings) .75 for half of the Bean Trio, .65 for half the green beans, .85 for half of the wax beans and approximately $2.25 for the Peppadews, Peruvian peppers and the chopped sweet onion. .25 for the Splenda and .60 for the three types of vinegar used. So, $1.45 for the bean salad.
Approximate total would be $3.40. That’s a damned good price for a delicious meal.
[NOTE 08/28/24]: I made chicken salad from some of the rotisserie chicken I had bought at Harris Teeter earlier in the week, and I still have enough for another, or another helping of white meat chicken. After I made the chicken salad, I read some of the ingredients that I had added in a previous concoction and I had left out garden peas & pasta shells. I think either of these would have enhanced the salad, but it was still good.
Yesterday was the day I scheduled to have my blood work done. The young black woman was surprisingly gentle, even though she couldn’t locate the vein in my right arm and had to go to the left to be successful. She was also very quick. It seemed like she had hardly put the needle in when she was removing it. I said something to the effect, “You’re quick too. You used to have to take two vials of blood.” To which she said, “I did.” She had taken two vials and was labelling each. *I didn’t sense any loss of time from when she put the needle in my left arm, but now that I think about it, it went too quickly for it to have actually been done that quickly.
So on my blood work days, I don’t eat anything after midnight and only drink water until the test is performed. I went to JKs after for breakfast. There were not many customers when I sat down. I ordered an egg over medium, link sausage, home fries, whole wheat toast and hot tea. *I forgot to bring a tea bag so I used theirs. I did bring some seasoning from home that had a little curry powder in it. **The food was really good. [end NOTE]
I would have to mention two different jobs as being the “worst job” I ever had, and they were for different reasons.
When I was still in college, but on break during one summer, I got a job “on Base” (Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base). My mom was working, as a clerk typist, somewhere on base. This was late in her career. I got a job with a “maintenance” company that was cleaning & repainting an old cafeteria building. She drove me in to work that morning (she ended up being within walking distance, but several blocks away).
The job I was given was mopping down the ceilings with a caustic solution (maybe Clorox and water) to remove any old mold. I think this would have been in preparation of repainting the walls & ceilings. The ceiling was very high up. Think of it as a two story building, but no second story, just a really high ceiling on the single floor. Well, they had a really tall wooden ladder that swayed a little when I climbed it because it was really tall, but narrow. There was a bucket with the cleaning solution, and I was give a mop with a wooden handle and sent up the ladder.
So, I dip the mop into the liquid and then lift the mop head up and scrub the ceiling. Almost like mopping a floor, but in the opposite direction. Well, I didn’t like being high up on this ladder, but the clincher was that I had no work gloves and as I mopped the ceiling, the cleaning solution would run down the wooden mop handle and onto my hands and arms. I did this work for about four hours, until it was time for lunch. I realized that the cleaning solution was “eating into my skin,” so I told the boss that I was going “home for lunch” and was going to buy some work gloves. But, I ended up walking several blocks and found my mom. I took the car to drive into Jacksonville (NC) and home. I didn’t get any work gloves, and I didn’t go back to work after lunch. I drove back later to pick up my mom after her work (probably 4:30 pm).
I never went back to that job. I only worked four hours. But later that night and possible for a couple of days, I was washing my hands in the bathroom sink (at night because the light was on), and I looked down and could press the skin on my fingers and small air bubbles would come up through the pores of my skin with the water on my hands. The cleaning solution had eaten down into my skin, and yes, they were raw for several days.
I think it was several months later that I got a check in the mail paying me for the four hours I had worked. I don’t recall how much I was paid, but I thought it was good pay for such a short time of actually working.
In my twenties, and after college, I got a job as a house parent for emotionally disturbed children. This was a State (of North Carolina) funded job and was located in Elizabeth City, NC. I was still living down in Jacksonville, NC but the scheduling worked like this. I worked from Sunday afternoon until Friday at lunch and lived in a “half way” house during that week. There was just one other “parent” staff person, and when I was working she was a pregnant white woman. And we only had two children to look after.
These children were “emotionally disturbed.” They both happened to be boys. One a teenage white kid, and the other a little black child about 9-11 years old (I don’t recall his exact age, but I don’t think he was a teenager yet.).
Here is part of the rub. I said we worked from Sunday to Friday, not even a full week. But, then we were off for 9 days. Work five days and then take nine off, making the full two week period. Oh, and the State provided all the perks that you might need to be happy. Color TV, games, food, a nice house, and even money to go out for ice cream and/or a movie. The problem was that these kids were an emotional drain on the staff (us). In reality, it took a couple of days to prepare yourself to work in this environment, and then it took a couple of days to recover after working just five days under that strain.
The little boy could not take orders from an adult, and would physically react. I recall having to wrap my arms and legs around his arms and legs to keep him from hitting or kicking me (and biting would also be a possibility) during one of his “tantrums.” It was sort of like he was demon possessed, and would lash out, but after a while he would calm down. *I normally protected myself pretty well, except for one time. The child was “acting out” and I was trying to protect my pregnant co-worker and in so doing the kid managed to kick me in the face (more like running sandpaper over my cheek, instead of a punch, but only because the kick missed most of me).
We would try to reward these kids when possible. I they behave, we all go out for ice cream and a movie (their choice) at the end of the week. And, they would be good for a while, but they “always” found a way, just before the reward was to come, to “act out” and spoil the possibility of a reward. They always found a way to “shoot themselves in their foot.”
I said the little boy couldn’t take orders from an adult, but here is the funny thing. One time (during the summer) we went to a local school where they were having some kind of youth program. These children were from the community . This wasn’t just for emotionally disturbed kids. So the two boys were down on the gym floor with a bunch of other kids, all milling around, playing. The other staff person and me were up on a raised area next to the gym floor, talking to other adult staff from the school/program. At some point, I see a big black kid run into our little boy. The other boy didn’t do it on purpose, and he was much bigger than our kid. I saw our boy turn and look up at the bigger kid with that demon-like anger in his face and his body tensed. I was helpless to step in because I was so far away from either of them. And then it happened, instead of our boy jumping on the big kid to fight him (as he would have with us), his facial demeanor completely changed, the anger went immediately away, and he untensed and walked away. When I saw this, I knew the little kid could control his anger but chose not to (with adults). In that brief encounter, he had realized that the bigger kid would have “kicked the shit out of him” if he had started a fight, and so, he chose to “let it go.”
I don’t recall how long I worked at this job. Perhaps for a summer. But, and I haven’t met one in a long time, you can recognize people who work with emotionally disturbed children easily. They are laid back, and that is for their own personal protection. So, it would take me two days to prepare to go to work. I would work five days. It would take me two days to recover from the stress, and then I would have five days to enjoy before the whole cycle started again. And, I would imagine that although the State of North Carolina was probably paying a pretty good chunk of change to fund this merry go round, the general public would be completely satisfied that they didn’t have to face the angst and anger of these children.
I don’t recall if I have started this list elsewhere, but am doing it here to make sure it gets done. *Oh, and I consider myself a slow reader. I’ve always been a slow reader, but on the other hand, I remember a great deal of what I read. When you realize that I have read 28 of the Michael Connelly novels between November 2023 and July 2024 (approximately 9 months) and that most of those novels were about 385 pages each – The Overlook being the shortest at less than 300 pages, and originally published as a serial in a newspaper.
I make this list because after many years of not reading anything for pleasure but technical computer manuals and most of those online, I started reading again from the book resources I had incurred from my interactions with the Little Lending Libraries. I had not originally intended to read any of these books but to just act like a “book bee” moving a few from one lending library to another, within town and between towns as I visited elsewhere. Those other towns began to include Raleigh, Bennettsville, and Benson.
It may have been in Benson where I found, at the only Little Lending Library listed for the town, “Fig Pudding” by Ralph Fletcher. There were multiple copies of this little booklet, and I surmised that they might have been purchased for some group reading project, either for children, youth or adults. This was an enjoyable and quick read. I guess I would term it a “family” oriented novel, without being a Christian tome.
“Fig Pudding” primed the reading pump, and then the following “hinkey” event happened. It was late October of 2023, the 23rd I think. I had stopped at the Little Lending Library located nearest to where I lived. I think I left a book or two, but then I noticed the face of Matthew Perry (comic actor from the TV show “Friends”) filling the cover of his “memoir,” “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.” I had no desire to read this book, but I thought that someone else would recognize him and want to read it. So, I took the book.
A few days later I was sitting in my easy chair, watching TV and browsing online on my Windows laptop. I happened to be on one of those web sites that memorializes celebrities that have died in the past year. I normally do not look at these until they start appearing near the end of the year, but as I started to scroll down the site, I happened to see a picture of Matthew Perry about the third celeb from the top. I thought to myself, “I didn’t know he was dead.” I hadn’t taken his memoir from the LLL because of him being dead, but because I knew he was famous. But I quickly determined that the actor Matthew Perry had died just three days after I had snagged his book from the LLL. That is what I called “hinkey.” And I said to myself, “I guess I’ll have to read his book.”
I started to read his book and within the first few pages he says, “I should be dead by now.” And then he goes on to explain that the “Big Terrible Thing” was his long time drug problem. He made a lot of money, and he also spent a lot of money. And, whether he could have stayed “on the wagon,” is now moot. One interesting aside is that Keith Morrison married Matthew Perry’s mother, and MP said that Morrison was a good guy.
I am now reading “The Men We Became” by Robert Littel who was a long time best friend of John F. Kennedy, Jr. The interesting aside from this story is that Christiane “Kissy” Amanpour of PBS fame (for me) was one of several roommates that JFK, Jr. and Rob Littel shared an apartment/house with during John’s last couple of years at Brown University.
So, once I finished the Matthew Perry memoir, I was stoked to read more. I had a bunch of Michael Connelly (Bosch) novels that I had collected to disperse via the LLLs. I had already said I had no plan to read any of those novels, and repeatedly said I wasn’t going to read any more of them once I had read several… and finally I finished all of the Bosch novels and included three others, “the Poet,” “Blood Work,” and “the Late Show.” “The Poet” was a Jack McAvoy novel. “Blood Work” was a Terry McCaleb tome, and “The Late Show” features Renee Ballard. *I did not read the Bosch novels in their published order. I learned to hate Harry Bosch from the novels. This was something I had not noted from the TV series.
I never had any desire to become familiar with Los Angeles, California, but because Michael Connelly puts his fictional characters in “real” settings and I recognized this first in the Original Amazon Bosch Series. If you pause these videos the street signs are perfectly readable. They are not blurred out as most TV shows and movies usually are. So, I started pulling up these streets or street corners on Google Maps and did Street View which gave me an even deeper understanding of the settings. Bosch liked Chicken Pot Pie on Wednesdays at Frank and Musso Restaurant. And, this restaurant after 100+ years actually does have this as a special on Wednesday. And as I began to read the Bosch novels, I saw this Michael Connelly influence. Avalon is the only incorporated town on Catalina Island. The large cargo ships loading & unloading their containers at the Port of Los Angeles all night probably does annoy nearby residents (even those trying to sleep on their boats at a nearby marina). City Hall, LAPD HQ, the LA Times, Bradbury Building, Grand Central Market and Angels Flight. In the opposite direction the CCB, China Town, and over to Union Station. Also on 1st Street is Mariachi Plaza. I already knew of High Tower Apartments from a favorite movie, “The Long Goodbye,” but I didn’t know how close the Hollywood Bowl was located to them. And now when I rewatch that movie I note the small garages down below those apartments. And, the iconic Chateau Marmont in “the Drop.”
I’ve always been a “cat person” so watching Marlowe (Elliott Gould) deal with his finicky cat has always been pleasing. Somewhere in the last 30 years it seems that everyone else got on the “cat loving” bandwagon and now are endlessly entertained by Cat Videos on YouTube.
So, here is the list (not necessarily in the order in which I read them, but I read them):
Who Goes There? – John W. Campbell, Jr.
Fig Pudding – Ralph Fletcher
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing – Matthew Perry
The Black Echo – Michael Connelly
The Black Ice – Michael Connelly
The Concrete Blonde – Michael Connelly
The Last Coyote – Michael Connelly
Trunk Music – Michael Connelly
Angels Flight – Michael Connelly
A Darkness More Than Night – Michael Connelly
City of Bones – Michael Connelly
Lost Light – Michael Connelly
The Narrows – Michael Connelly
The Closers – Michael Connelly
Echo Park – Michael Connelly
The Overlook – Michael Connelly
Nine Dragons – Michael Connelly
The Drop – Michael Connelly
The Black Box – Michael Connelly
The Burning Room – Michael Connelly
The Crossing – Michael Connelly
Two Kinds of Truth – Michael Connelly
Dark Sacred Night – Michael Connelly
The Night Fire – Michael Connelly
The Dark Hours – Michael Connelly
Desert Star – Michael Connelly
The Poet – Michael Connelly
Blood Work – Michael Connelly
The Late Show – Michael Connelly
Resurrection Walk – Michael Connelly
The Wrong Side of Goodbye – Michael Connelly *The last Bosch novel I read.
The Men We Became – Robert Littel
Highest Duty | My Search for What Really Matters– Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, III – 08/06/24
Fair Warning – Michael Connelly
The Little Black Bag – C. M. Kornbluth
Toys!: Amazing Stories Behind Some Great Inventions – Don L. Wulffson
Tim Russert, We Heartily Knew Ye: Wonderful Stories from Friends Celebrating a Great Life – Rich Wolfe
[NOTE 08/09/24]: I think the first version of “The Little Black Bag” that I watched had Burgess Meredith and Chill Wills in it, and it was an episode of “The Night Gallery.” Meredith was a disgraced former doctor, turned drunken street bum, who finds the little black bag and proceeds to recover some of his former life as a practicing physician aided by the bag’s futuristic healing instruments, tools and potions. The bag comes from the far future which explains its miraculous contents. Meredith’s character finds redemption by using the contents to heal, the until now unhealable. But, Will’s character sees dollar signs and a way to a vast wealth. Wills ends up killing Meredith with a scalpel from the bag, and the future monitor revokes the bag’s useful contents. But, this revocation isn’t obvious to Wills, who is about to show the current medical professionals and example. Unfortunately for Wills, the scalpel he now plunges into his neck, as a demonstration, has lost it’s miraculous powers for healing and instead kills the surprised Wills.
It was sometime later that I saw another version of “the Bag” from an episode of “Tales of Tomorrow,” a 1952 Sci Fi anthology show. In this version, the disgraced, alcoholic doctor has a nagging wife and she wants the monetary reward from his use of the tricks from the little black bag. The wife ends up stabbing her husband in the back, killing him, and then finding the revoked bag’s contents reduced to straw and putrid liquids. And now I’ve read “The Little Black Bag,” and I cannot tell you the twists and turns from this reading. I like the Night Gallery version because of the “just desserts” ending that the Wills character receives.
I like the 1951 Howard Hawk’s version of “The THING from another world.” I watch it and think of how “cutting edge” this movie must have been for it’s time. I liked the 1980s version of “the THING” and it’s remake, with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, but for different reasons. But, after enjoying these movies through out the years, the thought finally came to me, “why not read the original short story”? And, I found that the 1951 movie left out the most important element of the “Who Goes There” story. The alien could fool humans by it’s appearance. Thus the natural response by a soldier standing guard and being approached by someone unknown, “Halt. Who goes there?” *The two later versions of the story focused on this shape-shifting element.
I prefer the 1945 adaptation of the Agatha Christie mystery, “And Then There Were None,” but a close second is the 2015 version which may come closer to the original written story. Several characters from the 1945 movie were deserving of sympathy, much less in the 2015 version where Vera Claypool has been responsible for the death of a young boy under her “nannyship.” The choice of endings for the various versions of this acted story are myriad. In 1945 the story should have been re-titled as “Then There Were Two.” And, the Hugh O’Brien and Shirley Eaton version would also become, “And Then There Were Two.” And then there was one, in the 2015 version. Which was a surprise for me when Vera shoots and kills Phillip Lombard. And it was this version that prompted me to actually read the Agatha Christie short story just to see who, if anyone, actually survived to the end.
I found the story online and copied the text to my laptop. As I read through the story, I realized that Christie must have originally written it with the idea and intent that it would eventually be “acted out,” either as a play or a radio drama. And so, I started reformatting the text to make it more readable as a “script.”
[end NOTE]
I went to the Friends of the Cumberland County Library yesterday (08/16/24). I bought nine books, one of which was “Tim Russert, We Heartily Knew Ye: Wonderful Stories from Friends Celebrating a Great Life” by Rich Wolfe. This was the last book choice I made there because I was looking for something to read “next” after the book about toys I was reading. I bought one cookbook by Martin Yan (Several years ago I enjoyed watching him on TV, but haven’t seen him recently.) and the rest were current fiction (fodder for the Little Lending Libraries). *Russert has been dead since 2008, but I recall enjoying watching Meet the Press on Sunday mornings when he was hosting the show. A sharp and personable guy. Oh, the hardback books were only $1 each and I think I left a $1 donation to round out the $10 bill I gave them for payment. **I had talked briefly with a woman (two women standing behind me in the line waiting to get into the Library book sale) and for some reason we had been discussing how police forensics (my term) had changed drastically through the years. DNA only because really important during the 1990s and computers, on detective’s desks, were also slow to appear. I had picked up a copy of “Fair Warning” to buy and when I saw her I thought I would give her a gift of this book. I fished around for a dollar and stopped her searching, temporarily, to give her the book and the dollar to pay for it. I also told her as I was walking away, “You can read it, or give it away, if you want.” Later, I thought of this book’s content and mildly regretted giving her this to possibly read. The reason? The book starts off with the bad guy, the Shrike, breaking a woman’s neck (killing her) and in the end, the killer gets killed in an automobile accident.
After the Library Book Sale, I drove around, went to the bank, and eventually rode over to BJ’s Used Books before returning home. I bought 6 or 7 cookbooks @$1, and I bought another copy of “The Narrows,” another Bosch novel. I may have this confused, but I did give the copy of “Fair Warning” to the woman while still in the Cumberland County Library. And I did buy a Bosch novel while at BJ’s and I think it was “The Narrows,” because this would be one of a set that I might put together as a gift for someone who likes police fiction. *I’m not sure how accurate Connelly portrays police procedure.
“The Narrows” has Harry Bosch and Rachael Walling (FBI) and Harry is looking into the suspicious death of Terry McCaleb. I would add “The Poet” (Jack McEvoy & Rachael Walling) and “Fair Warning” (also those two fictional characters some years later), and also in there I would add “Blood Work” which was about Terry McCaleb (FBI agent that has a heart transplant). And, “The Narrows” has the Poet returning from the supposed dead.
As another “side note,” I think I have been healthier, regarding the common cold and Flu, since COVID. I didn’t have any colds or the Flu during the two serious COVID quarantine years, because of wearing a mask while out, and not eating at buffet food bars. And because I don’t eat buffets any more (many have closed shop permanently) I think that has severely cut the possibility of the cold and Flu bugs being spread (to me). Before COVID I might eat at Golden Corral twice a week, and Ryans also had a buffet.
I don’t recall if it is the first episode of Tales of Tomorrow, or another early Sci FI anthology series but the basic story is that a woman from the future has come to the present time and asked a man to “acquire” (steal) certain items (paintings & other items of artistic value) for her. She gives him a special device that stops time, except for people in his immediate vicinity. She gives him a specific period of time in which to make all of his acquisitions. He completes his tasks and then she reveals that the Earth will shortly be destroyed by a special bomb (atomic, I don’t recall) and she has been acquiring these art works to preserve them. Now, I don’t recall but I guess the world won’t be completely destroyed but just all life. I also don’t recall how human life continues into the future from which she has come. *It was episode 37 of season 1 of Tales of Tomorrow, called “All the Time in the World.” Not to confused with the Twilight Zone episode called “Time Enough at Last.”
The man who has stolen all the items asks the woman if he can keep the time control device. She lets him keep it, but basically tells him he only has a minute left and he can choose to stop time, exist alone for as long as he would like, or let time run out. She leaves.
But, I immediately thought there could be hope. Stop time, and make a plan. She had told him not to get too near other people or they would be drawn into his “stopped time” environment. I think I would approach the problem from this perceived weakness. He would need to research who or what might be done to stop the end of the world. I don’t recall if automobiles & other equipment worked for him in his “stopped time” environment, but I think they did. And he could bring others into his STE (stopped time environment) that could assist him. Maybe he could bring a brilliant scientist into his STE, and they could go to wherever they needed to go to control/stop the bomb from going off. Or they could bring another bomb to destroy the doomsday bomb. But the flaw with this story was that he could bring others into his STE, and if you could do that, even a few seconds could be an eternity to work on & possibly solve this problem.
[04/24/25]: Some time ago, I was playing with an AI, either Gemini or ChatGPT and I started going through the logic for an alternative successful ending to the above SciFi story, and according to the AI, I came up with a valid solution where the World and myself were saved. The basic logic was that I had an endless amount of time to research a solution, and then I could go to where one or more people might have the knowledge or skills to help me stop the bomb. If you get to within a certain distance of a person they come into your endless “time bubble.” So, I go somewhere and ask knowledgeable people who might be able to help me. I then go to the suggested person or persons and get them in my bubble and ask if it is possible to stop the bomb. If they think it is, we go to the bomb mechanism and I let them try. I guess you can walk away from a person to remove them from the time bubble. So, if more than one person is needed, I could get them in the bubble and walk them to the bomb location, and then go to get as many other persons they need.
Still, I guess the paradox is that the woman that came from the future had to come from somewhere in the past, and if the bomb goes off and kills everyone, then where did she come from. And if my quest is successful, then there wouldn’t even be a need for her to come back to try and salvage all the art works. That’s the problem with the time travel, change the past scenarios. [end]
Like President Trump couldn’t have called in a bunch of pepper spraying police to disperse the Republican attackers on the US Capitol on January 6th, if he had wanted to.
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Bill Gibson, II 