- Boo and I went on a hike with his Cub Scout group this morning. It was a beautiful morning, with lots of stuff for the boys to stop and learn about.
- We had as many hikers at the end as we did at the beginning, so I’ll call that a success.
- People who go to the hardware store to wander the aisles are just as infuriating as people who go to the grocery store to wander.
- There are many times in life where someone asking “Why?” is appropriate and necessary.
- Most of the past week has not been one of those times, both for me and for other folks in my life.
- Somedays, I just have to remember that I was not put on this earth to break things down Barney style.
- Also, as I’ve grown older, I’ve learned that I have to conserve how often I use my crayons to explain things.
- I went out today to do four errands. I proudly came home after completing all two of them.
All posts in category Uncategorized
Musings
Posted by daddybear71 on October 14, 2017
https://daddybearsden.com/2017/10/14/musings-262/
Musings
- The Tomato-Jalapeno jelly tastes really good, but it’s not setting up the way I want it to. I recanned it with more pectin, and it is a bit thicker.
- During recanning, between residue and steam, I lost a pint of jelly. That surprised me.
- I’ll give it a few days to set up before I declare it a failure.
- Then again, it might go well with vanilla ice cream. This requires experimentation!
- I also made chili sauce from the tomatoes and peppers we’ve been freezing all summer.
- The total is 23 quarts of sauce out of two 14 quart batches of fixings.
- Along with the 22 quarts of pasta sauce I made last month, that should last us until this time next year.
- Pro-tip – When canning food, make sure the dogs don’t have access to the kitchen.
- There’s nothing like trying to empty a glass quart jar full of boiling water and having a dog run between your legs.
- If the rain stops, Boo and I will be pulling what remains of the garden out tomorrow so that we can start mixing mulched leaves into the soil.
- It’s my hope that all of my kids know how to at least supplement their diets with home-grown vegetables by the time they get to adulthood.
- I also have a large bag of daffodil bulbs that need planting. My plan is to eventually have enough bulbs planted that we won’t have to plant flowers every spring.
- Irish Woman and Boo had a fun weekend down in Florida. I’m told that Boo performed well as a young wizard, and they both enjoyed a lazy day yesterday swimming around an artificial volcano.
- From what Irish Woman tells me, it would have been hard to find a virgin in the area much older than Boo had a sacrifice been necessary.
- Irish Woman’s new term – “Buttkini”. You figure it out.
- Boo spent a good portion of his weekend at Hogwarts. What does he want to watch tonight when I offer him a bonus movie night? Harry Potter.
- One of the side benefits of sending the family away for a weekend is being able to watch my movies before 9 PM.
- Get your mind out of the gutter.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 8, 2017
https://daddybearsden.com/2017/10/08/musings-261/
Musings
- Famous Last Words
- I don’t need to wear rubber gloves when I cut up these jalapenos.
- Washing my hands will get all the capsaicin off my hands.
- That’s just nice, clean steam coming out of that boiling pot of tomatoes and peppers.
- My eyes and sinuses will stop burning in a little while.
- Irish Woman and Boo are off on an adventure. Apparently they had to do their O.J. Simpson impression running across an airport to make their connection today.
- Schedule for me while they are away:
- Tonight – Jalapeno-Tomato jelly.
- Friday – Researching walking routes through the Pamir Mountains and the governmental structure of the Parthian and Bactrian Empires. Laundry.
- Saturday – Chili base and housework.
- Sunday – Yard Work, cook dinner, and pick up the family.
- I spent about half my day trying to prove a negative. I think I may have made a career out of doing that.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 5, 2017
https://daddybearsden.com/2017/10/05/musings-260/
Dinner Tonight
Ingredients:
1/4 to 1/3 pound leftover beef roast, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
2 cups beef broth
1 cup warm water
1 medium white onion, finely chopped
1 bell pepper, deseeded and finely chopped.
1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, deseeded and coursely chopped.
1 cup pearl barley, dry.
1 1-pound bag of frozen mixed vegetables
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine broth, water, beef, onion, and peppers in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and add barley. Allow to steep in broth for 30 minutes. Prepare mixed vegetables per directions on package, drain and add to soup. Turn heat back on, low, and bring back to a simmer.
Serve with bread. Makes two to three servings.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 5, 2017
https://daddybearsden.com/2017/10/05/dinner-tonight-23/
Coming Soon!
While I was at LibertyCon this year, OldNFO mentioned that he was considering expanding his short work “The Morning The Earth Shook” into a compilation of short stories about CalExit. For those of you with a healthy, full life away from the ugliness of politics, CalExit is the movement to take California out of the Union and stand it up as its own country.
So, as I sat in a dark theater watching a panel, an idea got to me, and I started sketching it out. Once I had it lined out and drafted, I sent it along to Jim, and it’s going to be included in his anthology.
Seeing the works of the other authors in this, I’m humbled to be included. Jim says that he expects for it to be ready for publishing in a few weeks. I’ll keep y’all updated.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 4, 2017
https://daddybearsden.com/2017/10/04/coming-soon-18/
Remembering
20 years ago, American warriors were fighting for their lives, cut off and low on ammunition, food, and water. Some were already dead; others would die from their wounds before a relief column could get to them. 18 Americans would die in the dust of Mogadishu on October 3 and 4, 1993. The bodies of heroes Randall Shughart and Gary Gordon were drug through the streets as trophies, and western press obligingly flashed images of the macabre parade for all to see.
In honoring these men, we need to reflect on what we should learn from their sacrifice. Mogadishu should have been a wake-up call. Our opponents are not civilized nations, such as Germany or the U.S.S.R. We are facing, for the most part, a poorly trained, but highly motivated, mob of barbarians. They will give us no quarter, yet will use our own willingness to offer it as a…
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Posted by daddybear71 on October 3, 2017
https://daddybearsden.com/2017/10/03/remembering-2/
Musings
- My morning started with my youngest son walking around the house in his underwear singing “One eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater”.
- I’d blame it on his mother, but I distinctly remember being that age and walking around my house, in my underwear, clucking out “In the Mood” with my brothers like the chickens on the Muppet Show.
- Let’s say you have 50 tasks, which are somewhat related to each other in a couple of ways. If you do a little analysis, you can group them into either ten batches of five or five batches of ten.
- My co-workers gave me 50 batches of 1.
- It’s amazing how quickly somebody stops complaining about something when you point out that they are the ones who created said problem in the first place.
Posted by daddybear71 on September 29, 2017
https://daddybearsden.com/2017/09/29/musings-259/
Musings
- My genius of a wife, whose only real fault is her unfortunate taste in men, had the brilliant idea of renting a cabin at a lake in Indiana this weekend.
- Unfortunately for her and Boo, her grumpy, creaky, and rather ill husband tagged along to make things harder for everyone.
- Having a cool, quiet place to go to in order to crash on Friday and Saturday did me a world of good.
- There is a nice feeling to be had when you’re making your morning coffee and you show your son how to make his hot chocolate in a canteen cup.
- Boo spent a lot of this weekend fishing for blue gill with his aunt-by-choice-not-by-chance. The happiness that a three inch long fish can being to a young boy is priceless.
- I didn’t feel good all weekend, but chalked it up to stress and arthritis. Sunday afternoon, I was exhausted, but gutted through it. I felt like death warmed over by the time I got home on Monday. I slept about 20 of the last 24 hours, after drinking a little less than a gallon of water, and I feel good enough to crawl out of bed. Tomorrow is another day.
- Falling asleep with a fever, while watching an old horror movie, was probably not the smartest thing I’ve ever done.
- Apparently, there is a money scandal involving the local university’s basketball program, and it consumed the first ten minutes of tonight’s local news. The weather got another five minutes, as did commercials. I’m glad there wasn’t anything important to talk about in the remaining ten minutes, because it was mainly fluff pieces or stuff that’s been going on for days.
- I’ve given up on watching the national news broadcasts. It’s either inane human interest stories, or it’s politically canted one way or another to the point that the actual information gets lost in the fog.
- I am currently beta reading a book, reading another two books, listening to two audiobooks and several podcasts while I drive, working on both a novel and a couple short stories, and trying to do research. I’m also enjoying every minute of it.
Posted by daddybear71 on September 26, 2017
https://daddybearsden.com/2017/09/26/musings-258/
Musings
- I’ve been listening to a lot of old-time radio podcasts lately, and I think I’ve learned some things.
WomenMenPeople are treacherous and will cut you when you’re not looking.- Villages on the moors of Scotland and England seem to have murder rates that rival Chicago or Detroit.
- Signing a life insurance policy is the same as signing your own death warrant.
- Folks seemed to hitchhike a lot more back then, and folks seemed to be more amenable to picking up hitchhikers on isolated roads on moonless, foggy nights.
- Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco, but Chesterfield sponsors better programs.
- One of the game shows from the 1940’s promised to send 39,000 cigarettes to a VA hospital when somebody won their contest. The smokes were donated in the name of the winner, and were made available in order to help the morale of wounded veterans. Suddenly, the furor over tobacco advertising comes more sharply into focus
- In the first 3/4 of the 20th Century, OEM car parts appear to have been made of compressed rust and dryer lint, considering how many companies bragged about the quality of their batteries (Now with a waterproof, rubber casing!), spark plugs, light bulbs, and various filters.
- It sounds like most folks ran their automobiles on a mixture of moonshine and old bacon fat. That is, of course, until the “supreme” brands started straining out the rodent parts and using actual petroleum, then telling us about their innovations on the radio.
- Someone made the argument to me today that the marijuana sold today is a lot stronger than the stuff my parent’s generation got their hands on, and they may be right. Of course, the same argument could be made that beer should be illegal because a good craft beer has a higher alcohol content and more hops than Schlitz.
- It is never a good idea when your manager’s manager looks you in the eye and holds your gaze as he announces to a meeting that there are a few things that have needed doing and must be done soon.
Posted by daddybear71 on September 18, 2017
https://daddybearsden.com/2017/09/18/musings-257/
Musings
- We made our first batch of pasta sauce today.
- 1 14 quart electric turkey roaster, filled to the brim with roma tomatoes, onions, garlic, and a secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. Set roaster to 350 degrees F and stir occasionally. After about half of the liquid has boiled off, hit with stick blender until you get your desired consistency. Can using your preferred method.
- I had the brilliant idea of putting the roaster out on our porch, thereby putting its heat outside where I’m not paying for air conditioning, about three hours after the sauce had started simmering.
- I guess I need to can this stuff tonight. Otherwise, the raccoons are likely to spend the night on our porch doing bad Pacino imitations and singing “Atsa Matta For You?“.
- Boo announced this evening that he wants to get better at dodgeball.
- I immediately started trying to remember where all of my wrenches are.
- I’m sure I won’t be allowed to give advice on shot placement for maximum damage.
- I had to have a long conversation with Derby about personal space. She just couldn’t understand that when I’m relaxing on the couch, I do not need a 35 pound dog laying on top of me.
- Irish Woman bought alligator meat at our local grocery store for dinner tonight.
- I wasn’t aware that we had come into so much money.
- It occurs to me that at Boo’s age, I did not know what lobster, crab, alligator, fresh shrimp tasted like. My son has not only sampled all of these and more, but has been assured that he will be having them again.
Posted by daddybear71 on September 17, 2017
https://daddybearsden.com/2017/09/17/musings-256/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 