From Potato to Vodka

It must be true . . . . . . . .  I saw it on the Internet.

Book: Christmas in Plains

I thumbed through this book while staying in a rented house during last year’s vacation near Asheville, North Carolina.  I enjoyed recently reading Carter’s memories from boyhood as well as his adult family Christmas memories.  He included his four years in the White House, and I reminisced those historical years as I read.

There were a couple passages that caught my attention:

He explained that his father used to make sousemeat.  It was a “special” holiday meat that used up the aftermath of hog-killing time.

Sousemeat is a conglomeration of feet, ears, faces, and other parts that were cleaned thoroughly, boiled into a homogeneous glutinous consistency, seasoned heavily, and then formed into a large loaf.

He talked about raccoon and opossum hunting with neighboring black men.

‘Possums were scavengers and needed to be fed clean food for a week or two before they were good to eat.

I guess opossums were captured and taken home to be cared for until they were “good to eat.”

He remembered that Trivial Pursuit was a very popular game in 1980, and he proposed a question of his own:

Which former presidents, if any, are not buried within the continental limits of the United States?

Answer: Any living former president.

Fred and Grace

Two tropical storms are headed towards the U.S. coast.

Our paternal grandparents were named Fred and Grace.

Egg-in-a-Nest

Breaky this morning:

And then immediately after taking this picture, my phone slipped from my fingers, and a corner of it dived into the center of the egg and splattered yolk all over the table.

The phone survived, but I was sure sorry to have to wipe up the yolk instead of eating it.

A Riddle

 

The Cake Dilemma

How the heck are you supposed to lick the beaters and the bowl?

>>>>>  DO NOT EAT RAW BATTER  <<<<<

Disregard the Best By date. It's only 7 months late.

Movie: An Affair to Remember

I love the end of this movie.  This line appealed to me this last time I watched the last half of the movie:

If you can paint, I can walk.

Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr

Prediction for 2024

A month ago Meghan McCain made the prediction that one of these four would be the Republican presidential candidate in 2024:

Ron DeSantis - current governor of Florida
Ted Cruz - current U.S. senator of Texas
Josh Hawley - current U.S. senator of Missouri
Kristi Noem - current governor of South Dakota

Three years from now I hope I’ll remember this post.

………………………...
The View  06/04/2021

Erin the Dweeb

 

Erin: "I'm a failure at everything."
Daddy: "If you were one of your brothers I'd know what to do about you. I guess you just don't grab one of your daughters by the neck and yank her out of bed."

One of my favorite episodes. Probably because Erin is a dweeb. I saw this episode today.

 

The Waltons

My Own Poem

I posted this on Facebook in October 2018:

Whose bike this is I do not know
He left it hither even though
He fled on foot down the path
Hoping it would remain safe just so. 

This bike had been abandoned near the park district's walking path along the Phinney Branch. I came across it on one of my "morning walks." The poem is modeled after Robert Frost's Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening. I probably spent the rest of my walk composing my little poem in my head.

Because of You

Soup for Supper

I shoulda gone to the grocery store yesterday.

I shoulda gone to the grocery store this morning.

But I didn't.

My Own Haiku

I wrote this one myself!

Book from the Past

I enjoy "finding" Little Free Libraries when I am out walking or driving down the street.  I first saw this one between houses when I was a passenger headed for home after our coronavirus vaccination shots.  It is a few blocks from our house on a park district walking path.

 

I immediately focused on the book on the right because it had a Library of Congress call number on a spine label.  Then I saw that it was property stamped PC Library on its top edge.  I brought it home with me because J reads this author.

See that handwritten due date?  May 30.  That's MY handwriting.  I had checked it out when the book was first acquired in the library and brought it home for J.

J is re-reading this book now.  

Seeing this book brings back many memories of working in PC Library.

Cold February

We had roughly 2 weeks where temperatures remained below-freezing in February 2021. C-U temperatures have been below freezing since late on February 4. I believe we finally got above 32° this past Sunday (February 21).

But that is nowhere near the record for longest streak of complete days with subfreezing temperatures in C-U: 36, stretching from Dec. 29, 1976, to Feb. 2, 1977. During that period, there were 16 days with low temperatures below zero, including a -20 reading on Jan. 17, 1977, as well as readings of  -12, -13, and -17 on other days.

The average temperature during the 36-day event was about 10.5 degrees. January 1977 was the coldest January in the 133-year history of C-U weather records.

The News-Gazette, 02/20/2021:

On the other hand:

COVID-19 Vaccine

 
It can be difficult to get vaccinated for the coronavirus. I found it difficult just finding correct, up-to-date information. I learned that I had to sign up online. It was difficult to find where the sign-up was. Then, it was full and the sign-up was closed even though there were random openings throughout the form. I continued looking over several days, and I did get us registered. We received our 1st dose on January 26.

We were told that the Public Health District would contact us to get our 2nd shots in 4 to 6 weeks. Hope that works better than getting this 1st shot scheduled.

Facebook Friends

Plus, "sharing inspirational quotes."

2020 -- The Year of the Coronavirus

One "disturbing" characteristic of COVID-19 made it clear the battle against coronavirus would be unlike any other disease-prevention effort, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert: The fact that so many cases were passed along by people who had no symptoms. "We're seeing that even people without symptoms transmitting it, and that to me is something that was the game-changer," said Fauci in an interview this week. "It was the game-changer in everything we did." It changed testing, because only testing symptomatic people would miss those who were asymptomatic, he explained.

Additionally, "Mask wearing became much more important, because if you're only worried about somebody who's symptomatic, then you'll know who you're dealing with," said Fauci. "But if you don't know who's infected, then everybody should be wearing a mask, which is the real fundamental rationale for saying we need universal and uniform wearing of masks."

The stealthy nature of the disease took even Fauci—who has served six presidential administrations over four decades—aback. "I guess you could use the word surprising. It was a combination of surprising and disturbing," he said. 

"The other thing that has really been an issue is that I've never seen a virus like this—and I've been dealing with viral outbreaks for the last, you know, 40 years—where you have such a range of involvement of seriousness, from 40% of the people who get infected and have absolutely no symptoms at all, to those who have symptoms," added Fauci. "About 80% have mild to moderate symptoms that generally require staying at home for a few days, maybe sometimes a couple of weeks."

And then about 20% to 25% of COVID patients get severe enough symptoms that they require hospitalization and intensive care, "and then they die," said Fauci.

That's what Fauci considers "the mystery" of COVID-19—how differently it can behave in different people.

According to the CDC, more than 19.4 million cases of coronavirus have been reported in the U.S., and more than 337,000 people have died.