Sunday, June 30, 2013
Another Saturday Story
I woke up on Saturday at (what else?) 5:30 AM. Since it was
Saturday, I made some soft-boiled eggs for breakfast and lingered over my
second cup of coffee.
But, all good things come to an end, and I had to get ready
for my Saturday morning errands. First came my massage appointment, followed
immediately by my long-overdue haircut. Since they were back-to-back, I was
late for the haircut.
My barber is trying to find her old waffle maker. She saw
something on the internet about using them to make other things, like Panini, crispy
grilled cheese sandwiches or even brownies. So, she’s jazzed about trying it. If she
can’t find it, she said she’ll start going to yard sales, lol!
Then I went to Kroger’s for supplies and weekend food. I got
everything that I needed except for Blue cheese (oh, they have it, but, bah!)
and Adobo seasoning (that they didn’t have). All my recent research into Puerto
Rican dishes have led me to believe that, along with the Achiote oil, I need
some Adobo seasoning or sauce. What kills me is that I had it in my hand at the
Dos Hermanos market but put it back when Vicky said her mother never uses it.
But, my confidence in Westborn was shaken when I couldn’t
find any. One of the young girls that work there is Hispanic and a friend of
mine, so I hunted her up. She said she keeps telling them to put it on the list,
but they haven’t so far. She asked what I was making, so I explained. She said
I could make homemade Adobo sauce, if I didn’t mind a little work.
She took me over and got a packet of dried Ancho chiles. She
explained how to make it and then said, “Wait a minute, I’ll write it down for
you.” So, she went away for a bit and came back with the ingredients and
instructions written down on the back of a receipt. I thanked her and checked
out.
Sidebar: I had to laugh, she writes like Vicky!
Oh, yeah, I forgot. Instead of “Kroger blue cheese crumbles,”
I got a small chunk of Gorgonzola Dolce from Italy. Granted, there was a slight price difference, but I only need
a little bit and I’m worth it!
Back home, I unloaded and unpacked the groceries. I changed
clothes and went out back. I attached the tomatoes to their trellis. I don’t
know if it is all the rain we’ve had, but I believe this is the best vegetable garden
I ever grew here (so far, anyway).
I took the two semi-flattened downspouts I had saved and cut
off the bad parts. Then I slipped them onto the downspout in the front of the
garage (which never had an extension) and the one by the wisteria in back (that
I ran over with the mower). I used 1/2-inch self-tapping metal screws to secure
them.
I put the pig and the gnomes back outside. I had put them
away for the big mulch project and forgot to return them. I spotted them while
cleaning out the garage.
Then I dug up eight clumps of tiger lilies for a lady who
lives in the townhouses and had asked me where she could buy them a while back.
I told her not to buy them; I’d give them to her. I left them in a garbage bag
on her stoop, as per our prior arrangement. She has to have dialysis treatments
and is gone a lot. I did notice she is one of the few people in the townhouses
that has flowers planted around her door.
Then I opened the garage door and started working again. A
little while later, the tiger lily neighbor walked over. She said the new
landlord has raised the rent and she has to move! Worse yet, she’s moving to an
apartment and will have no place to plant flowers.
She’s lived here for eight years, BTW. She said she was
still going to plant the tiger lilies for whoever moves in next and would be
coming back to water them. I told her they grow like weeds and not to worry
about them. She asked to borrow a shovel, so I gave her one. A little while
later, she brought it back.
She said she’s supposed to graduate from Wayne State in
2014, and if she gets a good job, she might move back. We said our goodbyes and
I wished her well.
I was hungry, but didn’t want to spend too much time on
food. So, I opened a can of beans and cut up two hot dogs in them. I took a
break and ate a late lunch watching a DIY show. It had been clouding up and
looking threatening all damn day, so I decided not to try and grill tonight.
I went back to working in the garage for a while. Then I
took another load of “stuff” out to the shed. Despite my Brother Carl’s
remonstrations, I took my time putting it all away.
I went inside again (after weeding about the reflecting
pool) and was surprised to see it was 7:30 PM! I decided I’d done enough for
today and quit for the evening. I took a rinse-off shower and then I did my
last security walk-through o make sure everything was buttoned up for the
evening.
I noticed my friends the fireflies are back and all over the
yard. I love those little guys!
I watched uninspiring TV for a while, then switched to a
book and finally bed. It never did rain...
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Rain, rain, go away!
It was cooler on Friday, which was nice. It also rained a
lot, which was not.
And the rain was getting sneakier! Let me give you an
example. I had to go to Office Depot at lunch (I lost my protractor). So, a
wicked thunderstorm blew in about 11:45 AM. It had slowed to a drizzle by the time
I left work though. I went to Office Depot, got a new protractor and checked out, Damn, it was pouring again!
So, I got soaked getting back to the car…
I also had to pick up a prescription at CVS, so I also picked up some chicken fried rice for my lunch.
It had cleared up enough to take my afternoon walk outside
but, sure enough, 20 minutes before it was time to go home, it started pouring
again! I mean, rain coming down sideways, storm drains backing up, water all
over the expressway and so on.
The first thing I did when I got home was to reset the
weather radio. The alarm was going off (I could hear it in the garage) and it
makes the cats nervous. After treating the cats and soothing them, I changed clothes. I spent
some time on the computer, making out my weekend ToDo list and a grocery list.
I checked and emptied the rain gauge. I picked up another
inch-plus rain in the last 12 hours! Then I went out and worked in the garage.
Since it was Friday night, I gave myself a break and quit at 7:30 PM.
I warmed up the last two grilled Polish sausages and ate
them with deli mustard for my supper.
I watched a great movie called “Red” with Bruce Willis. Morgan
Freeman and Helen Mirren. It was an action-comedy about a retired black ops
team being targeted by the CIA. John Malkovich’s character, Marvin Boggs, was
over the top!
I went to bed when it finished a little after 10:00 PM.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Update
I checked the rain gauge Friday morning. I picked up another inch of rain on Thursday. We've had over 6 inches of rain so far in June. This is unlike last year, when we only had 1 1/2 inches all June!
Thursday
It was overcast and a tad cooler on Wednesday. I needed some
achiote seeds (to make achiote oil, of course) for the weekend, so I decided to
go to the Mexican market Jake had told me about a while back. It’s called Dos
Hermanos Market and its in Westland on Ford Road. He sent me a text regarding
its location, so I checked it out on the web. They don’t have a website, but
they did have several reviews.
Reviews for a grocery store? Well, this is an unusual
grocery store in that they also have a very small (10-15 tables/booths at the most) restaurant
attached to it. According to the reviews, the authentic food rivals the best restaurants
in the Mexican section of Detroit.
Since I was going there anyway, I asked Vicky if her Mother
needed anything. She said she wanted to come and check it out. Michelle wanted
to join us as well, so off we went at lunchtime.
Note: It’s a very little place and you could drive right by
it if you weren’t looking for it. And, you have to park in back, but it’s a very
little parking lot and there were no parking places left! So, I kinda left the
ass end of the car hanging out into the side street (there’s no parking on the
side street or on Ford Road for that matter).
Vicky was a godsend as she could tell them what I wanted.
And, when the clerk couldn’t find any achiote, Vicky searched and finally found
some. She grabbed me a can of pigeon peas as well. She wasn’t impressed with
the freshness of their plantains, though, so she didn’t buy anything.
Meanwhile, Michelle had snagged a booth. I paid for my
groceries and joined them. Michelle had some nachos, Vicky ordered a Torta Del
Pollo (one of the sandwiches that Evy, her mother had sent me before, but this
one had beans on it as well). I, of course, ordered beef enchiladas.
Michelle and I both had water to drink, while Vicky ordered
something called ‘Fresh Water.” I asked what that was and she said it’s rice
water with various additions. She chose the one that had cinnamon and sugar. It’s
made in a machine I could see in the kitchen. She said we had to try it, so she
asked for three straws. It was actually quite good!
The enchiladas were over the top, probably the best I ever had.
And, I ate all three, the rice and
the beans! Vicky’s sandwich and Michelle’s nachos were huge, so they both only ate
half and took the rest back to work.
When I was leaving for home, Vicky asked if I wanted the
other half of her sandwich for my dinner. So, I said sure. She warned me it had
avocados on it (I didn’t eat the ones with her Mother’s sandwich, as I am not
that fond of avocados). So, I had my dinner!
It was sprinkling on the way home. I stopped at O’Rielly’s
as I noticed my right front turn signal was out.
When I got home, I treated the cats, and turned on the TV
while I changed my clothes. The weather radio was blaring a warning and then
the Emergency Warning System on the TV went off. Both were warning about a
severe thunderstorm moving my way. It was supposed to hit Redford at 5:35 PM,
with winds up to 70 MPH. I looked outside and it was sprinkling with almost no
wind.
But, hit it did. The rain came down in buckets and it was
windy, but I never saw 70 MPH winds here. The thunder and lightning were
impressive, though.
I went out and opened the garage door. The storm had cooled
down the temperature and it was quite pleasant to work out there and
occasionally watch the storm.
By 6:30 PM, it had slowed to a drizzle. I finally closed up
shop at about 7:45 and went inside. Since it was cooler, this was the first day
I didn’t need to take a shower. I warmed up my sandwich and ate my dinner
(avocados and all) checking out the TV offerings for tonight. Not much… I ended up watching a few
taped DIY shows. BTW, Evy's sandwich was better - maybe because I didn't put avocados on it, lol!
The sun came out around 8:30 PM! I started dozing about
9:30, so I turned off the TV and turned in.
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