$10.99

I had an extended lunch with Jeff Mitchell today at Longhorn Steakhouse in Fayetteville today. I am normally late to most meetings, with friends or family. That wasn’t always the case when I was much, much younger. If “we” had a doctor’s appointment and we arrived 10 minutes before the appointed time, then mom considered us as “being late.” That is how I grew up as a child, but I think it was sometime about 1977 that things changed, and I didn’t intend to start arriving late, but it wasn’t important to me to stress out and arrive way ahead of time. 

So, I arrived about 15 minutes early for our 11 am lunch meeting. When I drove into the Longhorn parking lot there were no other cars in the customer parking area at the front of the restaurant. I went online and found that Longhorn opened at 11 am. I looked at several other things on my phone to bide my time, and a couple drove their truck into the lot and parked about one space to my right. I was facing the front door.  A short time after 11 am, Jeff drove up and parked in front of me, closer to the restaurant entrance. He was driving his white Toyota truck.

We went inside and were seated shortly in a booth.

I already knew what I wanted to order for lunch having gone online last night. Jeff came prepared for me to order whatever I wanted, but what I ordered only cost $10.99 not including tax, or my drink, unsweet iced tea. At Longhorn, especially the Longhorn in Goldsboro, NC, I normally go by myself, and I order their cheeseburger, and a bowl of their Shrimp & Lobster Chowder. I often order water as my drink, and I eat the whole loaf of freshly baked bread with butter that they bring to the table. I’ve also started bringing several slices of sweet onion and several sweet pickles (to replace the dill pickles the restaurant provides with their burger). But, today I ordered the 7-Pepper Sirloin Lunch Salad Combo. 

The salad wasn’t that special. I think it had Romaine lettuce and some anemic tomatoes and I don’t recall anything else in the salad but the sirloin strips. And I found this steak was a little tough to chew. Maybe if it had been cut into thinner strips the toughness would have been less noticeable. *And, I planned ahead and brought my own salad dressing (my Italian dressing mixed with a little of the Cilantro-Lime dressing I had made several weeks ago for my salmon excursion.) and I put a couple of Castelvetrano and a couple of Kalamata olives in the same bottle of dressing. I used a empty glass spice bottle to transport my salad dressing & olives. I ordered the steak salad without their dressings. Online I had seen that the Longhorn dressings (except for no dressing) to be high in calories and/or high in salt. My dressing & the olives made the salad palatable. The Shrimp & Lobster Chowder was okay. I still think that this bowl of soup has better flavor at the Goldsboro restaurant even if it comes from the same can as other Longhorn restaurants.

Jeff and I talked about different things, some in the present, some from the past, and even about updating wills. Jeff has been a good friend and “like a brother” for many years. I first met him, about 1985 when he was stationed down at Camp Lejeune, as a young Marine. I knew him before he met Robin and got married.

So, now I’ve started to read another Bosch novel, “Echo Park.” This is jumping back several volumes from the later ones I have been reading, pre-Bosch/LAPD retirement. *Oh, I am doing this because I bought several Bosch novels at the last Cumberland County Library Book Sale. They were only a dollar each, and I was really buying them, not to read, but to incorporate into the Little Lending Libraries that I have been shifting various books between. I’m currently “on hold” as far as driving around to the various LLL locations because it is winter, but I plan to start back in spring, when it starts to warm up. I’ve probably got about 12 Connelly novels, mostly Bosch, but some Ballard & Lincoln Lawyer, and a few duplicates. But, as I said, I was going to leave one in each LLL I visit. 

I’ve written about finding the Matthew Perry memoir in one of the LLLs, a few days before he died unexpectedly. That started my reading, and once I finished that volume I had made reading a habit, and I then started reading a Bosch novel. I put a novel in the little basket by my toilet, and because I go so many times during the day, I read several pages, sometimes a whole chapter, each bathroom visit. I have a Panera Bread gift card that I use as a bookmark. The face of the card is distinctive, and I am able to mark which page I stopped reading by putting the face of the card facing either the left or right page, and whether I need to start at the top of the page, or half way down, by the direction I turn the card, up or down.

Echo Park starts with LAPD having responded to a call of an abandoned vehicle, which ends up being the car that belonged to a recently missing young woman/girl. The auto had been left in an unused garage of one of the apartments of High Tower. Funny, but I didn’t immediately recognize the name High Tower, but as Connelly began to write the description of the small elevator, I began to envision the elevator and apartments that were filmed for “Elliott Gould’s portrayal of the private detective Philip Marlowe, in Robert Altman’s 1973 adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s novel The Long Goodbye…” The elevator is iconic, and from the movie, I think Marlowe had several attractive girl neighbors, who in various stages of undress, would exercise on their balcony. Marlowe also had a finnicky pet cat that he attempted to fool into eating “just any old brand” of cat food. The cat wasn’t fooled. How cat like.

So I’m using the Google Street View and moving up High Tower Drive toward the tower, and there are the extremely small garages on each side of the street, dead ending at the entrance gate for High Tower apartments. I’ve written about this before, that the Bosch series did for Los Angeles what Morse did for Oxford. If a location was being filmed, the street signs weren’t hidden or blurred out, but they were distinctively displayed, and I could go to Google Street View and find the exact location and look around. 

I now attribute this “location realism” to Michael Connelly and it is recognizable in both the TV series and the novels. Connelly’s description of the small garages is spot on.

And “Eastside Luv” Cafe/Bar from another Bosch novel:

[NOTE 01/17/24]: I happened to see that I could watch “The Long Goodbye” last night, so I started watching. The High Tower Apartments & elevator are prominently displayed, Marlowe renting the apartment, to the right, as you come off the elevator. I’m not sure if there have been structural changes to the layout, since the 1973 filming of the movie, but it looks like the apartment across from Marlowe’s has changed. The current photo doesn’t show a balcony. The one his neighbors were exercising on.

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Gower, Franklin, Beachwood Ave – Google Maps

Beachwood Cafe Menu

Acopa Odin 8 7/8″ 18/8 Brushed Stainless Steel Extra Heavy Weight Forged Dinner Fork

I’m a little over 300 pages into “The Dark Hours.” This novel, by Michael Connelly, is mainly about Detective Renee Ballard, with assistance by Harry Bosch. We’re kept busy as Ballard investigates a double murder, and tag-team serial rapists, while finding a firehouse love interest and getting a new dog.

Let me say that I have not read much, for pleasure, throughout my lifetime. I definitely wasn’t interested in reading police/detective fiction, but I did watch a bunch of the British murder mysteries. Poirot, Agatha Christie, Midsomer Murders, etc. And, I’m not sure I’ve ever read any Stephen King novels, although I am a fan of the TV movies that were made from his books. Until recently I had never read any of the Connelly Bosch novels. But, now I am into my 4th Harry Bosch novel. I started to read one of the Mickey Haller (Lincoln Lawyer) novels, but just a page or two into it I realized I really had no interest, so I stopped and found another Bosch novel. *I do like the Lincoln Lawyer movies & series. I’ve enjoyed the Bosch series, but I have no desire to go back and revisit Harry and J. Edgar in their exploits. I’m coming to the point as I guess Connelly is too that life, after LAPD, for Harry Bosch is actively concluding. 

I started to write this entry because earlier this evening I found myself, on the toilet (where I read), having defended Ballard’s & the LAPD’s actions regarding the rape case in the novel. Now, I think this is an acknowledgement of Connelly’s writing skills, in that I took the time to rehearse the police procedures written in the story, and their justification regarding the tag-team rapists.

I also find it comforting regarding how Connelly writes about the January 6th attack on the Capitol. 

I’ve never thought that Donald Trump should be running for, or being voted for the President of the United States. I didn’t think that Hillary Clinton was any better choice, so in 2016 I did not vote for either candidate for President. 

I didn’t make that mistake again in 2020, and voted early, and voted for Joe Biden. I now think he is too old to run for a second term, but if Donald Trump is once again the Republican candidate for President, I will vote for Biden again. ”I would vote for a dead Joe Biden, rather than vote for a live Donald Trump.” Trump brought a great deal of angst to American society, and we don’t need that again. He was definitely the wrong Leader during the Covid Crisis. He found it difficult to “bad mouth” Putin. He kicked some of our “long-time” allies in the teeth. He was going to “drain the swamp,” but quite often he didn’t have a better plan. But, he always said “I have a better plan.” And what might be even more frustrating was that, a bunch of seemingly intelligent Republicans refused to see how wrong he was for America. He wasn’t going to be able to “Make America Great Again,” because his image of a Great America didn’t include the Democratic half of our society. As Democratic led cities had burning in their streets, President Donald Trump admitted that he couldn’t make those cities great because of the Democratic leadership.

Nepotism isn’t the way to go, but Trump frustrated more loyal Republicans who in turn stepped up to serve America, and repeatedly became frustrated, because of Trump’s chaotic leadership style, and left service. But, I guess when enough loyal, old-school Republicans leave, you are left with Capitol Attacking shit who think it’s okay to try to overthrow a valid election. Just because Donald Trump wouldn’t admit that he was defeated fairly a bunch of time and effort was wasted proving that the last Election was fair. After all these years, now all of a sudden, Democrats are so wiley that they can cheat their way to victory. And what is more insidious than a President disparaging the American Electoral System. The worst damned Communist couldn’t do more damage than an American President telling the public that we can’t trust our system for electing a President. But this same man told his constituents to “not listen to the Media, come to me for your news.” When I heard this, early in the Trump Term, I thought to myself, “this must be how it was with Adolph Hitler.” 

It just doesn’t make good sense to choose one source for your news, one man?! I would prefer to listen to multiple sources, and normally truth will be told in enough and in different ways for you to determine what is a good approximation of the truth actually is. 

Donald Trump is a blight on the American System. America is under attack, and America could very well be brought down to nada under Trump’s leadership. Wake Up America!

For Republicans who believe that Democrats are smart enough to “steal the Election.” The only election stealer I heard about was a Republican from Bladen County that was harvesting absentee ballots and before he could be tried and convicted of that crime, he came down with Cancer and died. If you want an example of an election stealer, you have to look first at that Republican.

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	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat
	01/14	01/08	01/09	01/10	01/11	01/12	01/13
Breakfast
	Waffle, Bacon, Coffee	Liver Pudding, Scrambled Egg, Whole Wheat Bread, Tea	Liver Pudding, Scrambled Egg, Polenta, Tea	Fried Apple, Bacon, Coffee	Oatmeal, Tea	Egg Salad, Bacon, Tea	Waffle, Bacon, Tea
Lunch
		Polenta, Chicken/Chipotle/Avocado Soup	Steak, Sweet Potato, Cabbage Slaw	French Onion Soup, Salad	Seafood Chowder, Salad	Chicken Caesar Salad	Hamburger, Baked Beans, Dill Pickle
Dinner
		Pork Chop, Salad, Steamed Cauliflower	Hispanic Chicken, Rice	Hamburger, Dill Pickle	Pork Chop, Cauliflower, Garden Peas	Steak, Asparagus, Sweet Potato	Seafooc Chowder, Salad
Snacks
		Bill’s Drink Mix	Bill’s Drink Mix	Bill’s Drink Mix	Bill’s Drink Mix	Bill’s Drink Mix
					Pomegranate Juice

Damn, that is frustrating! I had a rather extensive shopping list that I had built with categories such as Bread:, Meat:, Veg:, etc. and then the various sub items, such as Veg:Onions, Veg:Tomatoes, etc. The only frustrating problem with that list was that it didn’t keep my “alphabetize list” option and I would have to re-sort each time before I used the long list.

Then I started getting messages that My List would be switched to Google Assistant (I think that was what it was being switched to.). I didn’t think anything of it because it was a simple program that kept a list that I could sort easily. It was very useful! WAS very useful!

It finally was switched yesterday, and the new list looked different, and since there were so many items in the list, it was useless to have them unsorted (not alphabetized). But, I couldn’t find the alphabetize option. Instead of telling me directly that the new program couldn’t handle a simple sort (alphabetize), it cheerfully told me that I would have to copy my list and put it in another app and sort there, and then copy it back. Well, that’s moronic!!! That would make the new list app useless.

But I see they have a simple solution for that. I can no longer find my list. I’ll create something, or find another list app that works and leave this Google Shit behind.

NOTE [ 12/07/23 ]: I found another app quickly, and scheduled it to be installed. But, as I waited, I noted that the reviews for this new app stopped about 2021. So, I went looking for another app, but came across the option for a To Do List template in Google Sheets.

I saw that the Google Sheets To Do List should accomplish my needs and I entered a couple of items manually. I then looked for a way to import my old list into this Google Sheet. I managed to copy the old list into the new format. I then found how to change the font & font size once the old data had been pasted into the Sheet. I removed all the strikethrough text that had come over, and then used Search/Replace to clean-up the categories & some other existing ragged text.

I am able to use both the Google Sheets interface and the Google Sheets interface on my Android (Samsung) phone. It worked fine and I was able to check off the items, via my phone, as I put each in my shopping cart.

Okay, so if Google can screw up a simple app, what is to keep them from screwing up Google Sheets? Not a damned thing. I have seen this happen with other apps throughout my technical career. Not all later versions of a program or app were necessarily better, and depending upon the direction that the owner or programmer wanted to go, the useful functionality or even the whole program might be abandoned. Painter was a powerful graphics program, but after it was sold, twice I think, the last owner decided to abandon the graphics program to pursue their video interests.

WordPress took away certain functionality that made the pages less attractive.

Harry Bosch & the Lincoln Lawyer

Several years ago Wake County in North Carolina, Raleigh, discontinued school bussing based upon family income. I remember thinking that the students from lower income families would suffer by this decision.

Wealthy families, living in the same neighborhood, sending their children to the same school would be able to provide much nicer “extracurricular activities” for their children. If you have low income students mixed with higher income students, you’re not going to be able to send a group to New York City on a special educational trip.

At Southeast Raleigh High School, the total minority enrollment is 94%, and 45% of students are economically disadvantaged [USNEWS article]. “Southeast Raleigh High School grieves loss…” was part of the title for a story that WRAL TV had on it’s web site. This was regarding the recent knifing & death of a 15 year old, by a 14 year old, in the school gymnasium. *I wonder if better security would have already been in place, if the student demographics were more diverse.

In 2010, John Tedesco was a very visible proponent of ending the bussing.

I’m 69 years old, and grew up in eastern North Carolina near Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base. Now I’ve heard of many soldiers being stationed on Okinawa. But only tonight as I am watching an old “black & white” movie called, “Okinawa,” has it sunk in that Okinawa is an island, a part of Japan. I guess through all these years, I knew Okinawa was near Japan, but it never sunk in that it was Japan.

Oh, and Lejeune was always pronounced LEE-JUNE, never Lay-Jurn as it is now pronounced. My mother worked many years on Base, as did my Uncle Bob. She as a Clerk-Typist, and he, as a painter. *Maybe we could remind folks, that in North Carolina , Beaufort is pronounced “Bowfort” and in South Carolina it’s pronounced “Bewfurt”. If the man wants his name pronounced correctly, that’s one thing, but the Marine Base in North Carolina, where many “locals” worked for many, many, many years, it will forever be “Camp LEE-JUNE”. Well, unless the Government steps in and makes you change your pronunciation of “Fort Bragg” to “Fort Liberty.”

And most of the Christian Marines that I knew, believed that victory lay in the Hand of God, and not in the might of their Hum-Vees, Tanks, Bazookas or M16s.

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I’ve known and been good friends with Jeff Mitchell since 1985 or so, and with his family through the years, but only recently asked him if he ever travelled and saw the sights while he was in the Marines. He surprised me (although he may have told me this before), but he did go out exploring the various parts of the World he as travelling through. He said he visited many ornate churches and saw a bunch of wonderous architecture. He tells the story of one time, going in to play on a “what he thought was a public tennis court” but the caretaker came out enraged because Jeff had messed up the court (a clay or composite court I am guessing). Jeff was apologetic to the man telling him the gate was open and he thought it a public facility.

• 1 cans (6 ounces) light water-packed chicken, drained and flaked
• 1 large red apple, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped celery
• 1/4 cup dates
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/8 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/8 cup Dukes mayonnaise
• 1/8 cup sour cream
• 2 lettuce leaves

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Originally I was going to make a Waldorf Tuna Salad. I like a good tuna salad, but at some point, I said to myself, “Maybe I won’t like tuna with a Waldorf Salad, chicken would probably be a good substitute.” I do like a Waldorf Salad. I use dried cranberries and coconut.

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READ makes a 3 Bean Salad also.

I was planning to make a multi-bean salad including green, kidney, and cannellini beans but I know from past experience that 3-15 oz. cans of beans makes far too much bean salad for me to eat, even refrigerating or freezing it, so I was going to use half a can of green beans, and use the rest of the green beans with some white potatoes & seasoning meat for another side dish. I took out a can of green beans and a can of pinto beans, and then I saw the can of READ 4 Bean Salad.

In the past, I’ve also used wax & pinto beans, and even added assorted other sweet pickled items, like peppers and curried cauliflower. Fresh Market has a delicious curried cauliflower on their olive bar. I see on the can that this salad also includes turmeric. I just opened the can and the liquid is a sweet vinegar. I like it! So no need to make my own bean salad.

NOTE [ 11/12/23 ]: I ate some of the 4 Bean Salad. It was okay, but I found that I had no desire for a second helping in the near future. The problem is that I can make a multi-bean salad that is delicious, but opening a can each of the different beans I might use, means that I end up with way too much homemade bean salad. I would use green, yellow wax, pinto, and kidney beans. I’ve also put in sweet pickles, sweet onion & some of the roquito (little red pearl shaped) peppers. I think it was an episode of Guy Fieri, at home in which he made suggestions of other items to add to his bean salad. I had already tried some of these extra items. I think it was Ryan’s Buffet that had a multi-bean salad that I liked.

Ryans was over about where the current Cracker Barrell Restaurant is located, off of Skibo Road and next to the Walmart. There had been another Ryan’s Restaurant across town, next to where All American & Raeford Roads cross.

Ryans had a good buffet, although I recall chipping a tooth filling one lunch. I think I was trying to eat a pork cracklin (the hard fried skin). But, my dentist, Dr. Lewis was good about getting me in, maybe the next day, and re-filling the missing filling.

At some point, I had not been visiting Ryans every week. Seems I might have been out of town one week on a business conference, and had missed a couple of other weeks going elsewhere for lunch. So, I decide to go to Ryans for lunch that day. I turn in to the Ryan’s parking lot and then I notice there is only one car in the whole lot, and it is parked oddly, up close to the building, not in a parking space and running along the side of the building. I get out of my car and walk up to the front door. There was a sheet of paper pasted on the glass door and it said something about a group that was scheduled to meet at Ryans. They would need to go elsewhere because Ryans was now closed. Closed for good!

I talked to one of the waitresses I knew sometime later. She said that management had said nothing to the waitresses or staff, and just closed the doors one day. I later found an article online that said many Ryans had closed, but that not all had gone out of business. I’m thinking it was one of those towns over near Charlotte that still had a Ryans in business.

*I just found the Facebook site for the Fayetteville, NC Ryans from 2012. A post on the site says, “Located 1470 skibo rd Between Logan’s and Sam’s club.” Looks like the chain closed several locations in January 2012, and a later note says the remaining locations closed due to COVID.

25 grams of cashews are about 13 cashews. This is about 160 calories.

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NOTE [ 11/21/23 ]: I am hijacking this posting just because I can, and I didn’t want to start a new posting.

It may have been while I was still living over in Queen Ann Apartments that I last made a Broccoli, Raisin & Bacon Salad. At least that is the mental image I have, and I haven’t thought of the dining table in that apartment, perhaps ever since I left over 11 years ago. It was about this time that I also made a Bill’s 50 Salad that included kiwi fruit and black olives. Seems like the black seeds in the green kiwi fruit, were mimicked by the black olives, but I don’t recall the other items in this concoction.

However, the Broccoli, Raisin & Bacon Salad I fixed today was delicious and I added a bunch of stuff some suggested elsewhere, but probably not all of it together.

I added kiwi fruit, dried coconut flakes, dried cranberries, crumbled walnuts, with mayo, red wine vinegar, Splenda, and Agave Nectar. Don’t recall if I also added some diced celery, maybe not. I had bought a 6 pack of little boxes of raisins from Walmart earlier this week.

I fixed a regular salad and added some of my homemade Ranch dressing, but didn’t really like it. Earlier in the week I’ve enjoyed a homemade Greek salad made with my homemade Italian dressing. I guess it’s Italian. If not here are the simple ingredients: olive oil, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, Italian dried spices, and S&P. The actual salad ingredients include: salad greens, Kalamata olives (pitted), sweet onion, tomatoes diced and Feta cheese crumbles. I guess the term would be some of these flavors provide an “acrid” tone to this salad. *I order a Greek salad at Pharaoh’s Legacy when I order their Lamb Gyro. Those same acrid flavors, of the unsweetened vinegar, make the heavy lamb chunks pop.