It's getting easier

Surviving the hectic holiday season is getting easier. Gone is the torture of deciding what to buy my wife. After 57 years of marriage we’ve run out to things to buy each other and refuse to get each other another kitchen item….I cook and love to eat. Marge’s jewelry box holds enough items to pass on to the girls and no one will really want my stuff anyway, so our gift giving has been made easy, we buy each other nothing. Unfortunately or fortunately we’ve begun to reward ourselves with more expensive stuff…..trips! This year a Caribbean cruise, we decided to escape the snow for a week or so. Although we haven’t joined the “Snowbirds” after last year’s ugly winter we decided to escape for at least a few days and get a taste of some tropical weather. Additionally a trip to Oregon in June is also on the calendar. Yah, I guess Christmas gifts would be a lot cheaper.
Gifts for the grown ups has also been solved, $25.00 grab bags. Grandchildren’s gifts no longer present any major problem since it seems that most of them already know what they want and pass that info along to their parents. Besides that, the older ones like the ideal gift, that green folding stuff.

Besides our gift solution I’ve finally convinced Marge that we have no need for a large Christmas tree, real or artificial. Replacing them is a small lighted ceramic one given to me 39 years ago by my secretary. The box it’s in even has the old newspapers I use to protect it. Once a year I take some time to read the 39 year old news and advertisements. It sits on a table in front of the picture window waiting for the oohs and aahs from passerby’s ……..lol. Even my cooking requirements have diminished. Now that the holiday celebrations have been taken over by my daughters and daughter-in-law my culinary skills are now limited to making the traditional family Polish mushroom soup.

While all these things have reduced the hectic nature of the season I can still find things to bitch about, most of them the results of television. Commercials: Just how many times to we need to watch that silly woman prepping us for that wonderful day, no not Christmas but “Black Friday”. Where and when did that ridiculous phrase come from? And how many times do I have to see mom and pop drive away and their son’s new Auidi? And speaking of commercials, does it appear to you that the breaks are getting even longer. I’m able to go upstairs, make a coffee, grab a cookie, take a quick pee and still get back in time to not miss a minute of the show. What are they charging for them these days? Is it like one of those super market things, buy one get three free? Oh well, they “got us”, there’s no escape. The days of looking out at the neighborhoods and seeing all sorts of antennas on every roof are over along with the days when we had no remote in our hands to click away wearing put batteries making Eveready richer. Three channels were all we had and we actually got up to go to the set if we wished to change the station.

Well, I better put and end to this one before I start boring you with all that nostalgic stuff you so often get in your emails. Before I sign off I do want to wish you all a very “Happy and Healthy” holiday season. I think it’s a politically correct greeting.

When did it happen

I’m very early. The tables and chairs are nearly empty. I locate an empty one, one that gives me a people watching view of the later arrivers. I stake my claim and reserve the remaining chairs for friends who will arrive shortly. Why am I here so early? I’ll tell you why, Marge and I are infected with a very serious disease. It’s called acute volunteer-ism, can never say no. Today she’s at another table selling tickets for a raffle held at the Local AARP Chapter monthly meeting. Oh yah, that’s where we are. She handles the ticket table while I sit at the empty table and act as a “Sentinel” observing the parade of seniors marching in. Why am I even here? I’m too young to be here, these people are so damn old.

As I pondered this situation I finally realized that no one is telling me: “Young fellow you must be at the wrong meeting, you’re certainly too young to be here”. I guess these people have accepted me as one of their own. I must actually belong here. When did this happen to me? How did it come so quick? Was I fooling myself at all those class reunions when I said to myself, my God, how old they all look? It pains me to say that I appear to have been wrong; I was really one of them all along. The pain occasionally goes away when someone says: “You can’t possibly be 76, you look great for your age”. Where are those people when you need them?

You know life is full of strange coincidences. As I was writing this little piece I happened to check my emails and found one from a very “old” friend. He sent me a poem that just begs to be included in this Blog.

The Mirror - Edmund Burke, 1729 - 1797, Irish Philosopher.

I look in the mirror
And what do I see?
A strange looking person
That cannot be me.

For I am much younger
And not nearly so fat
As that face in the mirror
I am looking at.

Oh, where are the mirrors
That I used to know
Like the ones which were
Made thirty years ago?

Now all things have changed
And I`m sure you`ll agree
Mirrors are not as good
As they used to be.

So never be concerned,
If wrinkles appear
For one thing I`ve learned
Which is very clear,

Should your complexion
Be less than perfection,
It is really the mirror
That needs correction!!

Weird Month

What a weird month this has been. Went from two wonderful weeks on a luxury cruise ship to almost a week learning how the Amish live. I gained a great deal of respect for these people who have adjusted to a life without electricity, hence a life without television, telephone, cars, lights, iPods, iPads, email, internet. The recent power outage gave me the chance to learn that I could actually live without television, I learned that pizza tastes pretty good prepared on an outdoor grill, that snow keeps stuff cold for days in a cooler, that I can sleep ten or twelve hours a day and can save fuel by having a nice cold bedroom, that it’s a bitch reading by candle light, that the fire in my fireplace is only decoration and throws very little heat, that I should have had more batteries, that my trees had some weak branches. Can you imagine all these free lessons along with a lower electric and oil bill next month? This rustic Amish week was quite an adventure, some discomfort yes, but very enlightening.

With things back to normal I arranged for my brother and me to meet a very dear friend from Canada for lunch in Burlington, Vermont. We became good friends when doing business with the manufacturer he worked for as Sales Manager. It had been around eleven or twelve years since we had seen each other and we both really looked forward to getting together. The 248 miles we needed to travel each way put a little damper on things in addition to a fog which encompassed nearly all of Connecticut, Mass and Vermont. The sun finally came out and we were able to enjoy a great meeting. Three hours reminiscing about shared experiences, enjoying some nice wine and oysters (a passion the three of us share) and promises to do this at least once a year. No the bad part of the day, 248 miles to go before home.

The ride was pleasant until we got down to West Springfield……traffic, yuck! A short MacDonald’s stop helped kill some time and have some of the traffic clear up, at least until we approached Hartford. Creeping along we finally entered route 84 and breathed a sigh of relief, almost home. The relief turned into horror, accident, traffic stopped, fire engines, ambulances all on the way. Great trip suddenly ended, one mile in over thirty minutes. Can’t believe my brother who was driving stayed pretty calm. I handled it pretty well, but began to internally panic over the prospect of no bathroom, especially after having consumed a large coffee at our MacDonald stop. Well needless to say we made it.

I know I sound like a broken record when I constantly proclaim: where the hell are all these cars going. Traffic these days is horrendous. I don’t care what time, what road, what city there, the lines of cars are endless. I still have fond memories (yah, I’m getting old) of country roads with only scenery not the rear ends of cars. What has happened? I have a theory….women. Ladies, don’t get mad, let me explain. Years ago most of us lived in a one car family. You never saw women driving a car alone, especially on a highway. After the big war, luxuries like televisions began to come to market, cars once again became available. These things became difficult to acquire on one salary which was the norm, man worked, woman stayed home. But now women began to take jobs. How do they get to work when the old mans has the car. Another car hits the road, more traffic. Now with both parents driving around, heaven forbid the kids have to walk or take a bus…oops here’s another car on the road. A woman driving alone on a highway flying by at seventy miles an hour is no longer a strange sight. And that, dear readers, is why we have so many damn cars on the road. My theory and I’m sticking to it!!!

Till next time, thanks for reading.

Turkey and Greece trip

I know, I know, it’s been two months since my last blog. I have no excuse, just lazy I guess. The old excuse of nothing to write about is, however, not available this time around. Marge and I recently came home from a wonderful 14 day cruise to Turkey and Greece. Nine ports in fourteen days, Istanbul, Ephesus, Bodrum, and Marmaris in Turkey, Rhodes, Santorini, Athens, Mykonos, and Crete in Greece. Wow, quite a schedule for this old timer. Lots of walking and hill climbing but it was well worth it.

We flew out of JFK on Turkish Airlines, flight #2, #1 coming home. Never was on such a low numbered flight. Plane was a Boeing 777 and the airline was top notch. After a long 9 hour flight to Istanbul we boarded the Celebrity Ship, Constellation following a short lunch aboard we began the first of almost daily bus and walking tours. I had no preconceived notions concerning Istanbul or Turkey. Having seen many documentaries about Greece and its Islands I sort of knew what to expect in Greece, but did not know what to expect in Turkey. Istanbul an ancient city that has had three different names and now holds 13 million people was a pleasant surprise. It is a beautiful city, with friendly people, an exciting history and fascinating buildings, especially the Mosques.

The ancient city of Ephesus was next on our tour schedule. Ephesus was the site of Saint Paul’s teaching and was also the home for Mary. This ancient city was once home to 250,000 residents. In ruins now, but enough has been, and continues to be restored to make this one outstanding visit. Six thousand tourists agreed the day we were there. My camera was smoking. Thank heaven for digital cameras; I don’t think I’d be able to afford the film. The remaining stops at Bodrum and Marmaris had their own charm as we made our way down the coast toward the Greek Island of Rhodes.

No, there are no remains of the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the world. An earthquake took care of that many years ago. Castle tour here and off we went the next day to Santorini. This volcano formed island is breathtaking, especially as viewed from the top. I’m sure you’ve all seen Santorini on some of the documentaries, believe me it’s everything they say and more. We got up there by cable car instead of the other options, stairs or mule.

Athens was next. We were lucky, no strikes or riots and we got around quite well. Athens is a far cry from the other Islands we visited. A big city, lots of traffic and crowds. Not my cup of tea, but we had to handle it because we vowed to climb the Acropolis and see the Parthenon. And Marge and I did it as evidenced by the thumbs up by Marge. Next on the list was the picturesque and wealthy Mykonos, a far cry from Athens. I would love to own a paint store on this island. Very small inventory of colors needed. Only white and dark blue colors allowed, white for the building and blue for the doors and window trim. Real pretty to see.

One more stop in Crete and then back to Istanbul for the flight (#1) back home. Ten hours of confinement in my seat (not wide enough for my body). Hope the stock market comes back up; I'd strongly consider splurging for first class.

Many, many things to write about and over three hundred pictures, each with a story, but I think I’ll be happy I held your attention this long.

Addiction and more

And another day begins.

When I turn my computer on in the morning I generally open up Freecell and play a few games, usually three or four. This kills a little time while the computer warms up and accesses all the programs. Several years ago I started doing this with game number one and proceeded to play them in numerical order. Some were easy, while some others took many, many tries over a period of days. I continued playing them in order with the exception of number 1941 which I was unable to solve and was put aside and attempted from time to time. This one too succumbed to my skills after a little clue from my daughter who had previously conquered it.

This morning I solved a milestone game, number 20,000. I know, I know, you’re going to tell me I’ve got too much time on my hands. You might be right, but remember it’s been many years since I started this and I only play a few games each time, but still, 20,000 is an impressive number. What do I do now, stop or continue? When I had hit 15,000 I was going to stop, but I guess I’m a victim of addiction. Must have caught it from my father who when he found something he really enjoyed he just couldn’t get enough of it. This held true with booze, beer, champagne, pistachio nuts, comic books and a whole bunch of other temporary addictions. I’ve fortunately eliminated most of my inherited traits, but I guess addiction is not one of them.

My recent one has been reading, mostly mysteries and thrillers. Since I bought that darn Kindle last September I’ve read over 100 books, probably more that all my previous 75 years. Oh well, can’t say this one is a bad addiction.

By the way, this “Gentleman Farmer” is having a problem with his crops this year. Unlike the bumper crop of Butternut Squash I had last year, the couple of plants I planted this year are yielding little. I tried Buttercup Squash this year and the five or six I planted from seed started out like wild fire but have all succumbed to some infestation and I had to pick a bunch of immature fruits. Thank heaven I don’t do this for a living.

Speaking of this year, do you agree with me that 2011 kind of sucks? Winter gave us a storm a week, then tons of wet weather and recently a bunch of muggy 90 degree days. I think we’ve only had a couple of those days you can call great. My personal year has also had a few ups and downs. Shoulder and arm problems screwed up an already shaky golf game. Played very few rounds this year, but several injections in the neck have taken care of most of it and I think I’ll be ready for fall golf. I recently spent three hours in the emergency room having them figure out if I was having a stroke. Turned out to be a case of Bell’s Palsy, thank heaven, but still not a pleasant experience. It appears to have gone away so it’s on to the next ailment. Vision in right eye seems to be deteriorating, so it’s off to my eye doctor next Wednesday. Got to take care of that, can’t interfere with my reading addiction.

I had a whole bunch of complaints left to go, but will save for a new Blog. You know I try to keep these things short.

A great summer evening

You could see the people in the other cars staring as the long, white, stretch limo cruised by in the passing lane. They were wondering, who’s the celebrities or big shots in that limo and where were they going? Guess what? That was me in the limo along with my wife Marge, my brother Peter, and his girl Kathy. We were roaring down the Hutchinson River Parkway heading to Yankee Stadium to a Paul McCartney concert. Peter is a huge Beatle and especially McCartney fan and has attended many of his concerts over the years. He was always after us to go with him and we finally caved in to his pleas two years ago and went to see him at City Field in New York. Now, two years later we were again talked into going to with him to a performance at the new Yankee Stadium. Not having seen the new stadium and perhaps the last chance to see McCartney I told Brother Pete to “Book it Danno”. And book it he did. With two sold out concerts he managed to get four tickets from somewhere in England…would you believe that? Hard to imagine being so popular for so many years that you can still attract over 100,000 fans in two days.

Then it occurred to me, how are we going to get there? Drive my car, in that traffic, where do you park, drive home at midnight, take a train? All questions I did not like the answers to. The hell with it lets splurge, the hell with the kid’s inheritance, let’s hire a limo and relax. And relax we did. Reclining in comfortable air conditioned splendor the ride down was great. No concerns about traffic, no bitching and moaning by me, and annoying everyone in the car. What a great idea, I thought, as I savored my brother's homemade turkey sandwich and diet Pepsi.

Just as I experienced two years ago, his performance was outstanding. I continue to marvel at his ability at 69 years of age, to perform 33 songs non stop over two and one half hours in the New York summer heat. I was exhausted just sitting and listening…..of course I’m a little older than Paul. It takes some coaxing to get this old body out of his recliner and do something like this, but Marge and I are happy we did, a very enjoyable evening. Of course we paid the price the next day. After getting home at 3:00 AM and getting up for early Mass at church I was shot for the day. I was even too tired to read my Kindle.

By the way I am now on book ninety one. Since September of last year when I bought the thing, I think I’ve read more books than I ever read the last sixty or seventy years.

Exciting Evening

Last night turned out to be a real strange one. With the temperature still climbing toward triple digits I decided this was not the night for me to prepare supper. Even something on the grill outside would prove to be unbearable for someone who’s hot when it gets over seventy. We rummaged in our coupon envelope and found a gift card (thanks to a Mother’s Day gift from our youngest daughter) for Applebee’s which suited me just fine if we could get there before the usual crowd developed. With the sky beginning to darken I found a parking spot right in front allowing for a quick trip to the car if we were leaving during a rain storm.

As we sat in our window booth enjoying our Mozzarella Stick appetizer we watched as the sky grew darker and darker and the tree in the parking lot began to bend with the breeze. Breeze soon became an understatement as the wind increased along with an ever darkening sky accompanied by lightening and thunder. Even all the TV sets reacted to what started to develop as a real big storm and ceased to function. Strangely enough the building appeared almost soundproof as we watched but did not hear the results of the storm. It was a little surreal enjoying a quiet dinner while watching a torrential downpour and heavy winds outside. In an effort to delay our departure we even went overboard and ordered dessert and coffee.

The rain finally slowed a little, so we ran to the car and made our way home. What a surprise! Sitting in the restaurant and watching during dinner we knew the storm was a heavy one, but our trip home offered another perspective, branches, leaves and rubble everywhere. My immediate concerned was a power shut down at the house and me with no key and an electric door opener which would prove worthless. As we turned into the man road to our house we saw cars turning around from what appeared to be a huge tree across the road. Well, no problem, we turned around and headed in the other direction to take a longer route home. We didn’t get more than 100 yards when we saw cars turning around on this road since another huge tree blocked this route too. Well ok, we’ll go back the way we came and go all around the reservoir and hope that no other trees block our way. Thoughts of having to spend the night in the Holiday Inn Express crossed my mind, but thank heaven we were able to head the rest of the way home with no trees to block us. The other fear of no power at home was unnecessary since the houses we passed had their lights. Now, what will our yard look like, how many of our trees will be down?

As we approached the house we let out a sigh of relief, the yard looked undisturbed. I was just going to let out a cheer until we looked in the pool area. Everything on the south side was gone. Everything went for a swim. A heavy glass table with umbrella was sitting down in the bottom of the pool like a World War 2 submarine. Chairs joined the table. Even chairs that were stacked together in anticipation of the storm had disappeared. They were thrown at least thirty feet and now rested on the bottom of the pool’s deep end. Actually the disappearance of all the furniture struck us funny and kept me from displaying my usual agitation (putting it mildly). I guess thinking about what people have been going through with floods and tornados made this experience something easy to live with although I didn’t particularly relish the thought of retrieval the next morning. Actually couldn’t sleep thinking about it so I was out there at 5:00 am. Pleased to say that retrieval went well with actually not one sear word uttered.

Rhino's roaring again!

Why do we go out to eat in restaurants? I don’t know about you, but I want to sit in a comfortable chair, relax, have someone serve me well and hopefully have a meal which, since it’s being prepared by a professional, will be better or at least as good as what I can prepare myself. How come it so rarely happens, at least not for me? As far as I’m concerned good service will overcome a mediocre meal, but a good meal is rarely able to overcome bad service.

By no stretch of the imagination can I be considered a world traveler, but I have had the opportunity to visit several other countries and have usually been very impressed by the high quality service I’ve experienced in their restaurants. Perhaps European patrons just do not tolerate what we in the states seem to consider normal. Here in the US, we get excited when we’re lucky enough to have some top notch service.

Have you had any of these experiences? I certainly have.

The hostess sits you down at your table, hands you a menu and says, Cindy your waitress will be with you shortly. Not quite sure what her definition is of “shortly”, definitely not mine since Cindy has somehow disappeared off the face of the earth and when she does finally show off and goes to a table of patrons who just got seated.

Quite the opposite also occurs. Hostess completes your seating and hands you an elaborate nine page menu (especially if you’re in a diner type restaurant). You have just leafed through it and located the appropriate section and there’s Cindy pencil in hand, “can I take your order?” Sure Cindy after I finish reading this novel in front of me.

Then you ask a question, “What’s today’s soup?” Well now that’s a real tough one for our informed girl….lol... Wait, I’ll go check. My goodness what a tough job to find out the soup of the day before you start waiting on tables-duh!

And here’s one that seems to always happen to me. I love soup and frequently will order a cup with a sandwich to follow. I sit patiently for my soup, but as more and more time goes by I know I’ll be getting the soup with my sandwich. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like eating soup with my sandwich. If end up having to, you know the soup will be get cold before you finish. So what do you do, to get her attention and ask for your soup to be served before your sandwich?

Have you ever tried to get the eye of a waitress when you needed them for a situation like this or if you wanted a coffee refill or even to just ask a question? Well now for some reason or other this girl’s eyes are surrounded by some sort of invisible blinders. She will never, ever turn your way. You begin to wave your hands frantically to no avail. Then you start calling, oh miss, miss, loader and loader. Unbelievable, the whole restaurant hears you in your desperation except for Helen Keller who eventually just continues her stroll and disappears. Oh well, screw the coffee, I’ll just sip my water (if I ever even got one).

I could go on and on and I’m sure after you think about it you would be able to add many of your own.

And I don’t even want to start on food quality. That’s fodder for another blog.

Project completed, almost

Well, almost a month has gone by since the kitchen project was begun. I’m happy to report that it is now around 95% finished (as evidenced by the pictures). All that’s left is some painting and the replacement of the drawer fronts which were ordered incorrectly. When putting everything back together we managed to actually throw some things away although not as much as I had hoped for. Even though I am not one of those savers, even I was infected with that “You never know when you might need it” syndrome. I try not to dwell on that inevitable fact that we will at some time need to depart this world, but when I do, I think about how our kids will hate us when they have to get rid of all our accumulated crap. We have devised a plan. Marge and I must get rid of at least one of our possessions each week. We figure that if we live long enough we’ll be leaving the kids a house devoid of need I say the word again, crap. It really is remarkable how much we accumulate, although you have to realize we’ve been married for almost fifty seven years. While reorganizing the shelves I looked at some of the stuff and said “I don’t even remember where, when, or even why we have this thing”. Those were the easy things to throw away.

It will be nice to put this project to bed and get outside (if we ever have some warm weather) and do some different work. The cold has not been the only things holding me back, still fighting the shoulder problems and then stupid me I lifted a heavy box in the garage the wrong way and severely pulled a muscle in my lower back. This put another kibosh on plans. Having a real problem accepting the fact that I’m not that Polish “Bull” anymore and have to live with the fact I’m getting to be an old fart. Oh well, with golf on the back burner look at all the money I’m saving.

The aches and pains have created another problem. I’ve done little these past few months except sit around, read books on my Kindle, and unfortunately eat. A long put off visit to the doctors revealed the errors of my way when I stepped on his scale. I will not reveal the results, but just let me say it was not very good. Let me just say that a substantial amount of my hard fought 45 pound loss of last year has reappeared. I should have realized this quite some time ago since for some strange reason the pants in my closet have begun to shrink without the benefit of washing. Needless to say, with very little left to wear, a renewal of my diet is in order. Progress report to follow.

P.S. Have the seeds for this years little garden started. A little different stuff this year.

Keeping you up to date

Our coffee maker is on a small serving table out on the porch. A great portion of our possessions are spread out on the porch floor. Hundreds of wine glasses adorn a table in the living room. Our dining room table is seventy five percent covered with dishes, cups, glasses and other assorted household items. The downstairs freezer now contains about a weeks worth of frozen dinners. Yesterday, I spent the morning crawling on my belly cleaning areas that had not seen a wet rag in a very long time, and right now some guy named Steve has begun to tear apart parts of our kitchen.

Why has all this happened? Two possible reasons, one, Marge and I have totally lost our minds, or two, the house has been infected with the HGTV virus. This virus has begun to infect many wives. It appears that after many hours of exposure to the HGTV cable channel women have insatiable desires for granite counter tops, stainless appliances and escape from the seventies cabinets. This virus makes women feel that if your house is not equipped with these things it is now considered worthless and unsellable.

The treatment for our infection began quite some time ago with advance diagnosis and demonstrations of possible cures. I think therapy should be first administered before the required viewings of hundreds of doors, knobs, handles, stoves, sinks, faucets, refrigerators, paint chips and even multiple visits to cold warehouses to look at slab after slab of Brazilian granite.

Thank heaven most of the decisions have been made and the long treatment has begun. Wish me luck.

Next problem is how to eat with no kitchen and all the stuff on the porch floor? I think the local restaurants will be seeing a lot of us the next week or so. Besides the annual Myrtle Beach golf trip and what’s been going on at the house you can probably understand the lack of Blog entries.

As long as my sanity holds out, I’ll try to give you a progress report.

Good stuff from the Cellar

Happy to report that both my little Pelonis Heaters which served to take some of the chill out of this cellar office have now shit the bed as they say…..pardon the language. I wonder, is this a sign of spring? I doubt it, too much March left, but I am going to escape a little of this wonderful New England weather by heading to Myrtle Beach this Saturday to enjoy seeing some green and hitting the little white ball. Been a busy boy this week, I replenished my wallet with a trip to the bank, washed my clubs, my balls and my car, vacuumed and even checked out my travel safety bag. Marge took care of the clothes. I also recharged my razor, my camera and my Kindle in the event the company gets boring this year. Only kidding guys. Even finished cooking some weekend meals for my soon to be bachelorette……what a guy huh?

Even the past weekend was a busy one. Everyone came over last Sunday to celebrate my Birthday. Don’t want to say which one, but a good clue would be the song in Music Man, you know the one with the parade and the horns. Oh hell, yes, it’s 76 although I can’t believe it. By the way, I even worked at my celebration. Made a big pot of chili for the crew, pretty good if I say so my self. Gifts were different. Did get a nice bottle of wine, but usually we’re looking at many bottles (I think they know I like wine). My new habit of ready novels on the Kindle made it easy for some of them this year, Amazon Gift Certificates. I think I have to slow down a little on the reading; I’m currently on book number 43. That’s a lot of books since September.

And it was strange to get so many Happy Birthday wishes on the computer, even from friends I hadn’t heard from in a long time…..thanks Facebook.


I know this dissertation is not what you’d call exciting, but this morning I realized that I’ve been Blogless since early February and I didn’t want to head south for a whole week without boring you with something. I always hesitate doing it unless I have a real juicy bitch to write about. How interesting is it for me to report that every weekend breakfast has been great and without incident, all the restaurant visits decent. Didn’t get arrested, I guess I’ll have to wait for Sheriff Taylor and Barney on the upcoming southern trip. I really hope I won’t have to write about it when I get back. Nothing broke in the house (except my heaters). Of course they were about thirty years old and only cost about $25 each.

I think the only broken thing is my body, but I’m a lot older than thirty. I think every day brings a new ache or pain to my attention. Just got finished curing a bad neck and shoulder problem on my right side and now somehow developed a problem in my left one. Don’t know how I did it, but after it screws up my golf next week you might see some rough language in the next Blog. Till then……Peace!

Hibernation 2011

Well here I am in my third day of forced hibernation. Don’t know how the bears last as long as they do. Here it is only three days and I’m beginning to go a little stir crazy. I can’t even humor myself on the computer for long because it’s too damn cold. A few minutes down in the cellar office and my fingers start to get numb. A quick check of my email, I answer the important ones, check out the nasties and I’m off for the warmth of my cozy recliner in the family room. I suppose I could back my clean (washed it before all this weather) Enclave out of the garage and venture out. But for what? To slip and slide around the streets doing what? My usual retired activity is an almost daily trip to the grocery store. Why daily? My produce is fresh, the breads are just baked, I get a chance to say hello to all the friends I’ve made and I get a tiny bit of exercise walking around the store. So I sacrifice the trip, keep my car clean and try to figure what to do with another long winter day.

A couple things have saved me from some of the boredom. Without the store trips some food supplies have begun to run low forcing me to be more creative with the daily cooking ritual. That’s been a fun challenge and has helped clean out a great deal of accumulated odd items. Stuff in those Christmas baskets have now been turned into dinner and will not sit in the cabinets gathering dust. I’d like to say that we’ve thinned out the wine supply, but the inventory is too deep. Will have to wait for some company for that chore.

The second thing helping me to maintain sanity has been my new, constant companion, Mr. Kindle. Purchase in late September I have already read thirty five novels. Not little punky skinny ones, regular size and even a few Stephen King whoppers. Amazons computers are so funny. I read a bunch of mysteries written by women, and now every time I log on to them to check out books, ninety percent of their recommendations for me are novels by woman authors. No complaints on my part concerning the suggestions their compute makes for me, but it’s a little creepy. Here’s some electronic device checking out my reading habits and deciding what other books I should read. With the millions of Kindle owners ordering books, what kind of monster computer is making all these choices for us? And they recommend twenty four each time I look at it.

For m, the advances in computerization, communication, internet and all the rest is just mind boggling. I purchased my first computer in the seventies, a giant Burroughs machine with back up and program discs the size of a large Domino Pizza. What a difference. The things kids carry around in their pockets and purses probably have the capacity of a thousand of that first relic I owned. The past thirty years or so have so dramatically changed our world, almost to the point where we feel we could no longer live or function without these new tools or in some cases toys. Unfortunately a lot of negatives have also come along with the good. That’s for a future Blog.

Soup Night and More

A couple of years ago the Men’s Club at my Church began a Scholarship Program. Obviously that meant we needed money to support it. We began to run some simple money raising events on Saturday evenings after our 5:00 pm Mass. Besides a few “Hot Dog Nights”, dogs with all the fixings, chili, kraut , relish etc, we also decided to have a “Soup Night”. Well, since big mouth here ran the successful dog nights, guess who ended up in charge of Soup Night. The first of what now appears to be an annual event was held last year. Big question for me was how much soup do I make? All we asked for was a donation to the fund, and did not charge for the soup. Because it was free and no tickets were sold we had no idea how many people would attend or how much soup they would consume, a real shot in the dark for me.
I got real lucky because I guessed at 150 portions which lasted to the very end. Three totally empty pots. There were three because I made 50 portions of three different soups, Minestrone, Sicilian Chicken and a Corn and Cheese Chowder. I made the same soups for this year’s event and got many request for the Minestrone recipe. Those who I’ve sent it to in the past said they really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d pass it along in today’s Blog.

Quick & Easy Minestrone Soup

2 cans (14-1/2 oz each) chicken broth
2 cans (14-1/2 oz each) stewed tomatoes untrained, coarsely chopped
2 cups or 19 oz can cooked kidney beans, drained
1 package (16 oz) frozen mixed vegetables
1/4 cup pasta of your choice (penne, elbows, orzo) uncooked
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1 teaspoon garlic powder
A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large sauce pan. Bring to boil on medium-high heat. Reduce to low and simmer 20 minutes or until pasta is tender. The addition of some kielbasa or cooked chicken will add to the flavor of this quick and easily prepared soup. Makes 8 to 9 one cup servings


Now as you know this Blog Site, “Rhino Roars”, was established to provide me with a platform to let off steam and bitch about all the things that annoy this old fart, so I have to get away from all that good stuff like recipes and charity events and move on. Since most of my avid…lol…readers live in Connecticut, they’re all aware of our recent batch of snow storms, some big, some small, and a few near misses. The frequency of the storms has given me plenty of opportunity to get pissed at the forecasters. There’s an old say that if you don’t like the weather in New England, wait for some short period of time, I don’t remember, and it will change. This has held true for a long time, yet these idiots have decided that they can predict and tell us about an upcoming storm seven or eight days in advance. Now tell me this doesn’t screw people up. Plans get changed, things get cancelled and super markets have to double their purchases of bread and milk. I’ve often wondered, do people drink more milk during a snow storm and won’t all that bread turn stale? And, as I wrote before, my wife Marge spends the better part of the morning preparing for disaster. Problem is most of these predictions never materialize and I end up having to drink a gallon of luke warm coffee and tomato soup

Back to a restaurant complaint. Did you ever notice that when a restaurant is not busy the service deteriorates? Just try to get that second cup of coffee. When it’s busy they are constantly walking around with pots asking if you need a refill, but on a quiet day their eyes never fall on your pleading face or notice your frantically waving hand.
Just last Saturday we, (my golfing partners) and I met for breakfast at a restaurant we often go to. Place wasn’t busy at the time. When my friend Bob came in he ordered a decaf. He was told that a fresh pot was brewing and he would have to wait. Not a problem. I had a perfect view of the pot and watched the coffee complete its journey into the pot. Well, I watched the filled pot sit there, and sit there while three waitresses were catching up on all the exciting things that happened in their lives over the past week. We finally got lucky when someone else ordered a decaf forcing one of them to look in the pot’s direction. I’ve seen this type of thing happen many times when restaurants weren’t busy. How many times have you had waiters or waitresses disappear for so long you’ve been ready to send out a search warrant.
I’ll stop now because I’ve got too, too many restaurant complaints to include here. See you again shortly.

ALREADY A PRETTY TOUGH WINTER

I finally worked up the courage to come downstairs to my cellar office and try to knock out a blog. It’s been quite awhile, but this cold cellar office is not conducive to creative writing. The small little Pelonis ceramic heater is having almost no warming effect on my frozen fingers. I don’t normally mind the usually brief, mild winters we have here in Connecticut, but this year’s winter is starting to get me down. Watching TV doesn’t help with half my screen covered with activity cancellations and the rest showing cluttered highway video with all the damn cameras they seem to have hanging on every light pole. Give me something to watch, if I wanted to see snow I only have to look out the window, and since I’m retired with no place to go, those cancellations mean nothing to me. With another storm being predicted for later in the week, this was maybe the year Marge and I should have joined all the Southington “Snowbirds” and headed south.

Marge has worked some magic during all this crappy weather. Our area of the city is notorious for losing power and certainly adds to the misery of winter weather, but not this year. When our illustrious weather men and women begin their rarely accurate predictions, I call them threat of approaching storms Marge springs into action. The nightstands in the bedroom are fully equipped with flashlights and even a battery operated lantern is made available. Boiling hot water is stored in the main thermos although I’m not sure what we would use it for since there are no women around in their ninth month. It’s probably there for a cup of tea……Marge is a tea drinker. Coffee has already been made and occupies another thermos. One more thermos of hot tomato soup is ready in the final thermos. She has not always done this, but every since she started we’ve not lost our power during any of these storms.

My confinement and absence from this desk has created one positive. My recent “Kindle” purchase has resurrected my interest in reading. I was on an extended sabbatical from any serious book reading, but since the Kindle entered my life a few short weeks ago, I’ve read twenty six books, mostly mysteries. Can’t explain why it feels so much more comfortable reading these electronic versions. Am I getting that weak so I can’t even hold books up….lol. I had to add the lol since I’ve vowed to lay off the “getting old” conversations. Another small positive has been our recent purchase of more cable channels on the TV.

The golf channel was one of the new additions and looking at all that green is helping to make our upcoming Myrtle Beach trip more of a reality for me. Almost time to clean the clubs and load the balls to help fill the South Carolina ponds and swamps.

Hate to say this, but I have to quit even before I lose your interest because these fingers are actually getting numb.

New Years Eve Celebration???

For many years now we have celebrated the coming New Year by having two of our very good friends for dinner, a couple of pinochle games, and a toast in front of the television as we watched the ball come down on Times Square. The days of church dances, out of state trips to celebrate were all in the past. When we were half way through our second game of cards we decided that this year we weren’t going to make it to watch the ball fall.

It will be the first time ever that we didn’t make it till twelve, but we agreed that the whole event is not what it used to be. The Guy Lombardo type music is history. Now every channel has nothing but load rock music with words that none of understand. I guess it’s alright for nineteen year olds, but my crowd now consists of friends in their seventh decade of life.

While discussing this I came up with a great idea……it’s time for a “Senior Ball Drop”. Since we all begin to start snoozing an hour or so after dinner we decided that there should be a separate dropping of the ball around nine or ten for us “old timers” along with music we could reminisce about. I later found out that even most of our kids never made it to twelve.

I must report that our latest celebration left me with no heart burn and nary a touch of a hangover. Some time age has its advantages…..common sense. Even made it to church in the morning in spite of the fact that this year attendance was optional….no holy day obligation. What’s with that? Too tough for us because it falls on Saturday?