Good Day "45"

Hope this finds the bad weather coming to an end for all of you.

am doing better since the surgery. have a lot to catch up with, so just wanted to pop round for a tick to tell you all that prayers have been said and am thinking of you all.

Yes, good to hear from you..haven't talked to Leslie lately and she's in your area..hope things are Ok with her also. Well, Richard that so called "down home food" put me back up 3pounds this morning.  It's going to be an challenging week I think. There's only tow days this month I have not walked an mile and day and one of them was yesterday.

I heard on the news this morning that southern England sustained a lot of flooding over night from an storm that went through the area, that Heathrow (?) Airport in London was briefly closed down from it all. Stay safe people. I'm very leerie about going northward for the sister in-laws funeral come this late weekend...we have an major storm coming in then also, they know rain, but how much...looks massive off the coast right now and coming down from the north are cooler temperatures..it could be thier first snowstorm up there as they are at a higher elevation. Hope not...but am trying to prepare for it just the same. It's not as if we haven't traveled in snow up there before now. Sunny but the wind is wild out there and you can feel the cooler weather even now.

Ron, I keep having my times when I want to drop in an chair, but our family ...it's killing them to not have excerise daily...and sitting in that that chair to much. they can't burn the calories they eat doing it. So rest if you must...but don't make it an habit all the time. It's hazardous to your health. Moderation is better.  But at any rate, I need some stockings...girls always seem to need stockings..it's just an "girl" thing. So I will be going to get those hopefully here soon and put some extra's in the suitcase. I need to call my sister in-law also, I think she wanted me to take her for her doctor's appointment tomarrow if she hasn't found someone else by now. My sister said that her land lady is giving her an week to clean up her tiny apartment or they might evict her...naturally with winter coming on..moron's. They never did find any place for the homeless down in Portland to stay this winter as of yet...they seem to think if they don't say anything it will all go away...I don't think so. I find that very unhumanitairan of them to not help them. There are churches that can open their doors and offer an hot bowl of chili and coffee, for them it's tax deducible...they have to heat those churches anyway. Most of them have basements besides that. Each church take in maybe 8 to 10 people and it shouldn't be an problem. Not to also mention that most churches have restrooms already built also. I think after that it should be the health clubs admit them for free for the showers daily and maybe some excerise...anyone drunk can be taken to jail...anyone dirty can be given cleaner clothing to sent to an Laundromat. Most these people aren' t that way..they simply don't have jobs to ear n money to make an home on their own. I would guess 1/3 of them are  full time college students. At any rate...I best get going for now...don' t let your panty hose blow you away ladies and stay safe until it passes over..talk later.

Receipe....Pumpkin-Arugula Salad....

Spice paste..to coat one small pumpkin or butternut squash . peeled, seeded and cut into one inch cubes....rub the paste into the cubes, place them on an slightly oil foil liner and roast the cubes at 350 degrees for 30 minutes....2 Tablespoons marjoram leaves, minced....2 cloves of garlic, minced.....1 1/2 teaspoon salt...1 teaspoon ground coriander...1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon cumin, and 1 tablespoons olive oil. Now raise the oven temperature to 375 degrees an continue roasting another 30 minutes..until caramelized and a little crispiy.

Place roasted cubes into an bowl when done and add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper...and 2 small bunches of arugula (which has an slightly nutty tastes for fresh greens)...mix everything together and plac eon individual plates..drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, sprinkle with lightly toast pine nuts..or walnuts perhaps..about 3 Tablespoons...and chili powder, just an light sprinkle of it.  Top with shaved pecorino cheese. Enjoy!

It should go well with some kind of meat dish and some hot rolls.

Fingers crossed it wont be too rough for you and yours.

We dropped 25 degrees in 24 hrs. We expect a bit o snow tonight, just enough to cover the pumpkins.

A Good Night to you all... 

Well, guess what's all over the major news tonight...England's wind and rain storm...followed by tonight we get our first really good frost down in the valley areas. Sounds like your storm went through Europe also causing havoc. I walked out to Portland General Electric guy here...wanting in my back yard to check on tree cutting branches away from the feeder lines behind my house. Said he'd be back in two weeks. I said, you could top them below line level and help us both out...he said...we don't do that we simply cut limbs around them. My big oak trees out front...they lost nearly all their leaves in the last couple of days with this wind. only ones left are where another tree blocked the wind. So there goes my pretty autumn trees.

I got my stockings today...so they are ready to be packed...I just got to find the backpack. It's around here somewhere...hum.

Rick..time to take out the hot drinks for this winter...cocoa, cider, buttered Rums, eggnog..wine..that sort of thing. You can't beat hot chili on an cold day. You know those little individual packets of Frito's corn chips...well, you bring along your thermos bottle with hot chili in it...and some shredded cheese..open the bag, put the chili on top, sprinkle in the cheese and close it to melt an bit and open it up and eat it with the drink of your choice while skiing. Maybe an second thermos with an hot drink in it. Candy bar and your good to go down the ski slope again. Do you have an nice fireplace or woodstove to hang out at so you can get warm now and then? You know about th emetal popcorn tins in the car bit also....you clean them out and set several large candles that can burn down inside them and punch holes in the top of the can...it can help heat the back of the car without having to use the car battery and wearing it down. You can generally get an whole bag of candles of assorted sizes at the Goodwill for less then $5 to burn. You can put tea lights in the ones that you want to use over again. Can't think of anything else then the corned beef sandwhiches...OK..maybe an donut also. That can hold off the hungries and cold for an crowd during the day at the mountain. Make sure with the popcorn cans, to leave the window cracked open an tiny bit for some oxygen in the car..they shouldn't get hot,if you've done things correctly.. but some hot pan holders might be an safety thing just to be safe. You can take the tops off the cans if you have very many candles in them burning also. It's "time" I think...winter is creeping up upon us now.

I don't like some things coming up concerning this funeral exactly this morning.  I hope the highway department in Washington state is out in force this weekend ahead of us going through the area, as they are forcasting  snow in the Cascade mountains....we have to go through them, right now in Yakima..it's 23 degrees....and we have to travel through that area also...so you can bet when it snows, it sticks to the ground. Not much I can do but make sure we have some cable chains with us and maybe an snow shovel..some sand at the least.

Last ninght on dancing with the stars....when they were doing to group dance...the second team with the tails....thye barely got started an dmy tv went blank...and the screen didn't come on again until the very end of the dance...so I didn't get to see this rated "10" dancing...it didn't start off looking like an "10" to me though. I also don't understand why Mark and his partner can seemingly do no wrong either...they are good..but far from perfect dancers. I felt sorry for Sasha losing out also, and yet in an way, I think she was getting tried of the effort with little reward to it most the time...such as is life these days for most of us any more....we well "understand". Sincethe funeral is next Monday morning...I don't know if I'll get to see DWTS next week or not...don't know where I'll be exactly and what I'll be doing exactly. Everything seems "wrong" for some reason to me right now. From Louise's passing on, to the weather conditions, to the the timing in general.  We turn back our clocks an hour Saturday night also...the last eclipse of the year is November 3rd....the following Sunday....before the funeral. Monday is the 4th...and the 5th is election day. They have another ballot this year to raise property taxes again...and already did for us to the tune of $168this year...our Social Secuirty checks we were only given $23 this last year to make up for the cost of living needs...they all but wiped it out. So there are bad vibes suurounding that also. We can't give when we don' thave it to give exactly but they turn their heads the other way and refuse to listen. The constant severe stress reflects my dieting and my way of life. So..I'm no tlooking forward to the end of this weekend onward. Last time I was through this kind of an influence I watched Fred Meyers, where I was working literally crumble to pieces before my eyes...along with me leaving ahead just before they put it up for sale to the highest bidder more or less..but there were an lot of wrong decisions going on back then...it was the current path they were taking in leadership....and I find this to often the path before the fall....they forgot humanitarism over profit.  I can but only pray that we have some protective guidance over this period coming up. I come back to not only Thanksgiving, but sissy's ear operation for the titanium ear bone transplant also. Before I leave, I'm taking the money I'd saved for Christmas this year out to my son for the kids and us...and am asking he give them the grocery change I save for this year so sissy can go see an movie before her operation...at least one anyway. We expect this to be "day surgery" as most operations are like that now. I hope she is not in the pain she was the last time. She will have it done an couple of days before the kids get out of school before Thanksgiving Holiday. One reason I wanted to be slightly ahead of the Holidays this year. I go for now.

Talk better later on when all this is behind me perhaps and I'm not so concerned about things. I was hoping for some happier Holidays...but they have yet to arrive. Your recent storm was named "St. Jude" if you didn't know already.

So I go back and get to packing I guess.