Bad Weather Day on San Jose

I woke up at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday. I’m not sure when it started, but it had already snowed enough to whiten the driveway, the road and the patios.

I had already decided not to venture out today for any reason, so I didn’t really care. Four-wheel drive does NOT help at all on ice, and freezing rain was predicted.

I had a cup of coffee, filled in the Blog and watched the news. When it ended at 9:00 a.m., I shaved and showered and then got dressed in my working clothes.

I put away all the inside Christmas decorations and put back my normal knickknacks. I had to go into the attic for the stacking crib set box (Note to self: put it in the downstairs hall closet for next year, dummy!) so I carted up my suitcase. I took down one of the two remaining Christmas ornament tubs. I plan on going through both, saving anything that means anything to me and putting the rest out to the trash.

Sidebar: Jake has strongly suggested that I please clean out the attic before I die. But, since half the stuff remaining up there after my last big cleanup is his, I don’t feel that guilty!

Next, I moved outside. Now, I could hear the sleet hitting the roof when I was in the attic, so I was not that surprised to find it was icy on the garage apron. But, I got down the Christmas wreath, the Father Christmas next to the door and the little sled that McKay made years ago.

I put up my winter wreath (slipping and sliding) and then went back inside.

I decided I was hungry, so I made some lunch. I had one 8-ounch package of small diced ham in the freezer (still unused for some bean and ham soup). So, I thawed that out while I made the old fresh eggs into hard boiled.

When the ham was thawed and the hard boiled eggs were cooled, I made some ham salad.

I put the ham in one bowl and then used the egg slicer to make two eggs fine diced (one of the few times I use that little tool as I prefer large chunks of hard boiled eggs in general). That went into the bowl with the ham.

In another bowl, I put 1/4 cup of dill pickle relish, 1/3 cup of mayonnaise and 1/2 teaspoon of prepared yellow mustard.

I didn’t have any fresh celery and I needed half a cup – fine diced (I threw out my stash when I left for the holidays), so I added in 1/2 teaspoon of celery seeds. I mixed that up and folded it into the ham and egg mixture.

I cut three of the potato dinner rolls in half, added a leaf of head lettuce and slapped some ham salad on top. I added some salt and vinegar chips to the plate and went in the bedroom to watch a DIY show and eat lunch. It was delicious, but way too messy to photograph, LOL!

Sidebar: I missed the “crunch” of the celery, though.

I spent the afternoon in the garage. The temperature had risen and we were just getting rain. I put things back where they belonged and then started to put away tools.

I was in the house getting more tools when the phone rang once and then stopped. I checked the caller ID and saw that my daughter Melissa had called. So, I called her back. Dave was enclosing a gas-log fireplace in the family room and she was trying to paint her kitchen cupboards for the third or fourth time.

Note: She was discouraged as these were built onsite (like most old cabinets were) and had flat doors. Mine were the same. So, I tried to explain how I bought lathe strips from Home Depot, mitered them and then glued and tacked them on to give some definition before I painted them. I don’t think she understood me, so I’m posting a picture so she can see.

After we hung up, I went back to the garage. I made tremendous progress, but the work bench and the downstairs floor was still not cleaned off. At least the garage itself is back and I was happy.

Sidebar: For a couple of weeks, I had to open the door on the truck carefully, so I didn’t hit the table saw. Pain in the ass!

I also have a big scrap pile (from both the computer desk and the special project) that I need to burn. But, it was still raining, so that will have to be another day.

I went back inside and found that my granddaughter, Riese had called and then her mother Jyl. I knew why. Riese needed to interview me for a school project. So, I called them back.

The interview lasted a lot longer than the one three years ago. Sample question: what technology did you have in school: Um, none! The one question that stumped me for a while was “What is the main difference between my generation and the current one?”

I decided it was the availability of information. I explained that if I needed an answer to any question when I was young, it involved going to the library, dealing with the Dewey Decimal system cards and then checking several sources. Now days, you can Google something and get 2,000 responses in a nao-second.

I started dinner at 6:30 p.m. I decided I wanted to recreate Jake’s holiday sausage, potatoes and Brussels sprout roast. So, I trimmed and halved a tub of Brussels sprouts. Then I cut up an equal amount of baby redskin potatoes. I cut up a ring of Eckrich smoked sausage, but this time into coins instead of cutting on the biase. I figured the thicker coins wouldn’t burn before the veggies roasted.

I turned the oven onto 400 degrees F. I tossed everything with salt and pepper and olive oil. Then I stuck the half sheet pan in the oven. After 30 minutes, I took out the pan, tossed everything around and stuck it back in for 30 minutes more.

When the timer went off, I pulled the pan.

I plated my dinner and ate it watching TV. It was good, but I kept thinking something was missing. I finally figured it out! Dammit!!! I forgot the garlic. Sigh…

I watched an old movie for the hundredth time and then went to bed.