Blog Entry #205

I'm sitting here staring at a blank computer screen. Why did I promise to start banging out those bitching entries.?  My previous 204 Blogs have addressed nearly all my major complaints about our screwed up world. So what now?

Hopefully with your approval, I'm going to resort to some repeats:  Television for one.  I guess it's nearly impossible to exist without it, but does is it give them the right to subject  us to such garbage?  Probably true sports fans will not agree to calling it garbage since Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday are owned by football. if they run out of football games, there are all those other invented sports like throwing a bag full of corn at a hole in a inclined wooden board.  If you don't fancy that kind of stuff, we'll put on a golf tournament from some strange country. I don't want you to get the wrong Idea, I don't  dislike sports, played a lot myself and enjoy watching, but don't you agree that the overkill is absurd.

Can't find something of interest we'll switch you to one of our super interesting infomercial stations and sell you a frying pan.  Wait, here's something even better.  Go to a channel that is showing a commercial.  Not your cup of tea, click over to any another station and you'll find that they all have a commercial going at the same time.  They've got you, you don't have a chance to escape.  I could probably go on for pages on Television alone, but I'll save it for another time. 

In the meantime I'll go to something silly that crossed my mind.  Had to make trip to relieve myself and a couple of thoughts crossed my mind.  In all my trips to a restroom, I've never run across someone resting.  Then it struck me that there were many different names for that room,  Toilet, potty. crapper, shit house, John, men's room, ladies room.  Know anymore?  Boy, this new lifestyle has really go brain really screwed up.

I'm going to quit now while I'm still a head in the game. Going figure out how to cut and paste a recipe from my cookbook.

 

 

RHINO HAS RETURNED

Just to let you know that I've regained the use of a computer and have made several attempts to enter a Blog. Each attempt has been a failure. My large Polish finger falls on the wrong key and deletes my brilliant return entry. But I'm stubborn, so here I am, giving another shot.

A lot has transpired since by long ago last entry. We're currently living  at The Orchards of Southington, an assisted living location.  Marge experienced some medical events and is now in rehab getting back in shape.

This initial little Blog is only a test to see if I can function on the lap top and to find out if I still have any readers left.  The usual "Bitching Blogs" will follow as soon as I get used to this damn thing.

P.S.  Will also search my Rhino's Recipe cookbook for a recipe to include 

Thanks for your patience,

Bill

So Happy I Did It!

 

I vividly remember that day.  It was back in September of 2014.  I was relaxing in a recliner watching the boob tube and trying to decide what to do with the rest of my day.  Since I had been retired for over fourteen years at that time, deciding what to do with my day had become my major profession. I turned my head from the TV and looked over at the bookcase and toyed with the idea of reading a book, Years ago I was an avid reader, but now it seems that for some reason a TV “remote” ends up in my hand and I’m sure you know what happens next, all reading thoughts are put aside for some other day.  But this time I looked at the books a little longer and spotted two Stephen King novels my King follower daughter lent me months ago.  Why hadn’t I read them?

They were too damn big. Each one was over 1000 pages.  I can handle that size novel, but I like to read in bed before sleep and the thought of holding them up in bed kept putting me off. Suddenly I remembered an occasion during a trip to Nova Scotia when we saw a woman sitting on a stone wall holding some sort of tablet which she appeared to be reading.  Curiosity brought my wife and I over to her to find out what she was reading.  She told us all about the “Kindle and its merits.  We were impressed, but continued on with our vacation tour. Never gave that meeting a thought until I stared again at the giant King novels in the bookcase.  I thought I should give that ‘Kindle” thing a try.

Ordered one from Amazon which was zipped over to me in a couple of days.  I downloaded novel number one.  I think it was “It” and could not believe that in a few minute 1,100 pages had somehow jumped into that little slim black tablet and were available to me.  How the hell do they do that?  Well I think you know the rest of my story.  All my book reading since then has been on the kindle. My reading has probably been a little excessive, having since then consumed over a thousand books, an average of over two books a week. I’ve really enjoyed this new habit.  It really helped to take the remote out my hand once in a while.

Reading seems to have caught up with then entire family.  To the extent that we’ve formed a Family Book Club with a membership of about 10.  The Club has now read and discussed eight books.  This past Sunday we discussed Black Cake a first novel by Charmaine Wilkerson.  The Cake itself was baked in the Island nations like Jamaica for special occasions and was significant in the novel.  In support of our meeting our Granddaughter, Erica baked one using a recipe from the book we all thought it was quite delicious and might become a new item on our Christmas

---

Our usual Blog recipe:

Classic Greek Bean Soup / Fasolada

1 pound medium-sized white dried beans

2/3 cup extra-virgin Greek olive oil

3 large onions peeled and chopped

3 medium-sized carrots

3 celery stalks or 1-1/2 cups chopped wild celery with leaves

6-8 cups water

Salt and pepper to taste

 1-2 tablespoon vinegar or balsamic vinegar to taste

 

Soak beans overnight.  Rinse and drain them. Heat 1/3 cup of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat and cook the onions, carrots and celery together until softened, about 10 minutes. 

Add the beans and toss to coat in the oil. Pour in the water.  Raise the heat and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and let the beans simmer, skimming the foam off the top, for about two hours, or until the soup is thick and creamy and the beans and vegetables are very soft.

 About 10 minutes before removing from heat, add the salt and pepper.  Stir in vinegar to taste.  As soon as the Fasolada comes off the stove, pour in the remaining olive oil.  Serve hot.                                                                               Serves 6

---

 

For us older Folks - Interesting

 

Some interesting statistics......

The 1% Age Group

This special group was born between 1930 & 1946 = 16 years.

In 2022, the age range is between 76 & 92

Are you, or do you know, someone "still here?”

Interesting Facts For You . . . .

You are the smallest group of children born since the early 1900s.

You are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war that rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.

You are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves.

You saved tin foil and poured fried meat fat into tin cans.

You saw cars up on blocks because tires weren't available.

You can remember milk being delivered to your house early in the morning and placed in the "milk box" on the porch; the Good Humor ice cream truck coming through the neighborhood.

You are the last to see the gold stars in the front windows of grieving neighbors whose sons died in the War.

You saw the 'boys' home from the war, building the little houses that they were so happy with.

You are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, you “imagined” what you heard on the radio and you read library books.

With no TV until the 1950s, you spent your childhood "playing outside" There was no Little League. Many kids walked to school.

There was no city playground for kids. You organized neighborhood baseball and football games on vacant lots. You rode your bike everywhere.

The lack of television in your early years meant that you had little real understanding of what the world was like.

On Saturday mornings and afternoons, the movies gave you newsreels sandwiched in between westerns and cartoons.

Telephones were one to a house, often shared (party lines), and hung on the wall in the kitchen (no cares about privacy).

Computers were called calculators; they were hand-cranked.

Typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon.

'INTERNET' and 'GOOGLE' were words that did not exist.

Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and the news was broadcast on your radio in the evening. Kids read comic books.

The Government gave returning Veterans the means to get an education and spurred colleges to grow.

Loans fanned a housing boom

Pent-up demand, coupled with new installment payment plans opened many factories for work.

New highways would bring jobs and mobility.

The veterans joined civic clubs and became active in politics.

The radio network expanded from 3 stations to thousands.

Your parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, and they threw themselves into exploring opportunities they had never imagined.

You weren't neglected, but you weren't today's all-consuming family focus.

They were glad you played by yourselves until the streetlights came on.

They were busy discovering the postwar world.

You entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where you were welcomed, enjoyed yourselves and felt secure in your future although the depression and poverty were deeply remembered.

Polio was still a crippler.

You came of age in the '50s and '60s.

You are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to our homeland.

The second world war was over, and the cold war, terrorism, global warming, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life with unease.

Only your generation can remember both a time of great war and a time when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty.

You grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better...

You are "The Last Ones."

More than 99 % of you are either retired or deceased, and you feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times!"

 

 

Amen! It’s great being part of the 1% …. Special Group!

 

Is there a doctor in the house?

 I’m sure you’ve heard this question many times while watching TV shows.  Until recently I’ve been unable to say yes, but now our family has one.  Our granddaughter Sarah received her Doctorate from the University of Connecticut for her accepted thesis on Macular Degeneration. As a published researcher on the subject she has recently accepted a position at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.  Our family is so very proud of her achievements and wish her the very best in the move. Sarah is already in Ireland and will be celebrating Saint Patricks’ day in Dublin. We miss her already and hope you join me in sending her this little Irish blessing.

May the dreams you hold dearest,
Be those which come true,
The kindness you spread,
Keep returning to you.

In keeping in the mood, I give you the following recipe:

Slow-Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

4 large carrots, peeled and cut into matchstick pieces

10 baby red potatoes, quartered

1 onion, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces

4 cups water

1 (4 pound) corned beef brisket with spice packet

6 ounces beer

1/2 head cabbage, coarsely chopped

Place the carrots, potatoes, and onion into the bottom of a slow cooker, pour in the water, and place the brisket on top of the vegetables. Pour the beer over the brisket. Sprinkle on the spices from the packet, cover, and set the cooker on High.

Cook the brisket for about 8 hours. An hour before serving, stir in the cabbage and cook for 1 more hour.