Travels with The Rayman

It began as normal with coffee and reading the news.  We had planned to golf.  With the Georgia election the day before there was plenty to read.  And then we decided to turn on the TV to see if the certification of the Presidential election had commenced.  And then we watched the insurrection.  All day.  

It. Was. Truly. Unbelievable.  In all my years, I never dreamed anything like this would or could happen.

Hour upon hour we watched the Capitol under siege.  At one point, I unfurled myself from my leather chair to pace and scream at the TV.  Was I the only one that imagined dead Senators and Congresspeople spewed around the Chambers?   

Texts flew.  FB posts proliferated.  Telephone calls.  All from my dear friends that share my view that Trump has brought out the worse in us.  It all started with Trump and his racist accusations against President Obama, called birtherism.  He let everyone know that he was a proud racist.  Period.  Full stop.  And there you have it.  From there he gathered up followers that are racists.  Oh, there may be supporters that aren’t full-on racists, but it is my belief that the original sin of slavery was reawakened by this man and his Grand Old Party enablers.  

The embarrassment was staggering.  Our standing in the world has been damaged and I think China is  the most powerful country in the world now.  

But I digress.

An insurrection occurred and not in a vacuum.  The Republicans own this.  For four years they have let him run wild, violating norms, violating laws, lying daily…they looked the other way.  How could that be a thing?  Because of the racist base of supporters.  It is not secret that the Republican Party is populated by bigots, racists, and evangelicals.  It is an unholy alliance that has been cultivated by the GOP ever since Lee Atwood and the Southern strategy came to the fore.  And white people organized within the Republican Party to thwart the rights of people of color along with ripping at the safety net that protects citizens from total ruin while letting corporations and tax dodgers pay zero taxes.  McConnell and McCarthy allowed all this to happen.  Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz aided and abetted this.  They are disgraceful.  When given the chance to hold Trump to account last year during the impeachment trial, the Republicans suppressed the evidence of wrongdoing.  They gave this vile man a pass.  Only Mitt stood up for the Constitution.  The rest of them violated their oaths of office for their own selfish reason of job protection.  

And they repeated the Trump lies about election fraud.  Ironic since they are the frauds.  And it led to what we saw…a Presidential insurrection that the GOP owns.  

So, I blog about this to create a record of our experience on this very sad day, January 6, 2021.

One last thought.  There was exposed yesterday in stark relief the fact that there are two systems of justice in this country.  One for white people and one for people of color.  If those insurrectionists had been Black, they would have been tear gassed, shot, arrested en masse.  We witnessed that when in the Spring, BLM protesters were met with violence on the same streets of the Capitol.  The government flew helicopters, they donned ominous looking riot gear.  Against peaceful protesters.  Yesterday the Capitol Police frolicked with the insurrectionists and arrested almost no one.  The difference was not subtle.  It was outrageous.

My cousin’s own daughter, mother of three, was shot point blank by a rubber bullet from a gun carried by a U.S. official.  In Portland.  Last year as she helped form a wall of Moms to protect the BLM protesters from U.S. officials.  I know of what I speak.

Which again shows to the world and to our own citizenry that we are a sick country.  I can only hope that the young people of this country watched this and were repelled by it and will do all they can to try to fix the problems of racism in the future.  

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It all starts with a rebate check we thought we had received from our friends at Costco.  We couldn’t find the coupon so I tried to find it on the website but I failed to crack the code.  

It was getting late.  We planned it that way…arrive close to the end of business…it might be less busy.  So off we went, coupon-less but full of hope.

Nota bene:  if you go late on the shortest day of the year you don’t have to look for a shady parking place so that Beau won’t overheat.  And there were less people there so we were all over it.

Grabbing a basket we headed in.  The plan was to go to the customer assistant who was located on the way out.  So, I squeezed between displays and went to the assistance desk.  A young man said we didn’t have a rebate coming.    What?  How can that be a thing?  He did not budge.  No rebate money to spend.

What we were shopping for was booze.  So we went to the booze, made three selections, cruised by the nuts looking for pecans which were not there, a search of the refrigeration units for pasteurized canned crab.  Nada on that too.  

We arrived at check out and they had trouble with our credit card.  That necessitated a visit from a manager to the register.  Since the manager was summoned for help, she multi-tasked and and brought a fistful of dollars which they dutifully counted and recounted and filled out forms.  This was all good news because I was on the phone trying to order dinner from Taste, a restaurant in San Luis… the plan being we would pick it up curbside on our way home.  It took me all that time at the check out to figure out their website so I could get food ordered.  

Walking across the parking lot, I was purchasing our dinner.  Isn’t that just amazing?  Arriving at the car, I received a text signalling that I needed to reorder.  WTF?  And did I mention that I was driving?  So, Rayman was riding shotgun and he was of no help.   Doing things on a phone is not his forte.  So, I called them.  They would take my order by phone.  Remembering our order was an ordeal.  The place specialized in sliders and they have about 2000 sliders to choose from.  I had ordered four distinct sliders but which ones?   I had also ordered Brussel sprouts but at Taste, they have 6 different treatments for Brussels.  Good grief.  I had no earthly idea if what I reordered was what I had  originally ordered as I stood at the cash register at Costco

As mentioned previously, I was driving.  So, I asked Rayman if I should take South street.  He said, “No you do not want to go south.  It’s north.”  At this point, I am at the intersection of Higuera and South so I turned on South going north.  

“Why did you take South?”, he exclaimed.  “Because I am going this way.”  

Letting that go, we arrive at South and Broad.  “Which way do I turn?” I ask as I can’t remember which way to turn.  It is dark.  I’m hungry.

“Go left.” He replies like he knows what he is talking about.  So I turn left and realize by landmark sightings that this is the wrong way.  

“We’re not going the right way.  I should have turned right.”  At this point Rayman says, “Isn’t Taste on Higuera?”  Alarm bells go off and I bring the car to a screeching halt in a bad place, meaning a place where parking is not allowed while incredulously exclaiming, “You don’t know where we are going!!!  We are going to Taste.”  He says, “Isn’t it on Higuera, the place we ate at when we took the car to the Toyota when they were trying to fix our audio system on the Prius?”  “NO.  We are not going to that restaurant.  That restaurant doesn’t do sliders.  Didn’t you hear sliders?” 

I wasn’t too incredulous about it because I don’t think Rayman has eaten at Taste that many times to remember so I just laughed at the whole situation.  And then I got incredulous.  

“I order the food, I drive the car, I plan the trip (giving myself a certain amount of credit) and you just sit there.   So please go pick up the food and pay for it.  I’m going to sit here and read my phone….please.”  

On the way home, Rayman says, “You know when you went to talk to customer service, while I was waiting for you with the cart…I saw something across the aisle and so I went to look at it.  30 seconds max.  Turned around and my cart was gone.  Someone stole my cart.  So I went out and got another cart and when I went to enter, the greeter asked to see my card which you had over at the customer service desk.  I explained the situation and she took pity on me and let me through.”

And so I wonder, dear reader, is your life like that?  Or are we just old and strange all by ourselves?  

As Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll wind up somewhere else.”

The new Spark Grill.

There is only one other year that I was thoroughly separated from family for our national eating holiday.  

Having taken possession of my bright red MG (this harkens back to the 70s), I was flying up Berryessa Road in San Jose with my two recently purchased pies when out of a cross street lurched a car which plowed right into my brand new spiffy car.  And after that debacle, I was consigned to a Thanksgiving all by myself.  My children were in Paso Robles, having left a day earlier with my Mother to beat the traffic.  And how could they all fit in such a stupid purchase as the tiny MG?  These were the years that I was lost emotionally and spent hours on the couch of a psychiatrist.  Oh, dear.  Now I have spilled the beans.

Without further adieu, I choose to change the date and fast forward to today where Rayman and I are spending the day alone on purpose because we elected not to endanger ourselves or others by gathering against the guidelines issued by every government agency in the U.S.

What a year.  What a time to reflect on all that we are thankful for now.  Our health, our families’ health… what is more important than that?  I think that is such a wonderful thing to know that no one we know was felled by this killer.  And we know of no one that has come down sick with it either.  Yet.  Let us all remain vigilant and do the right thing for our friends and families.  

Okay. 

The screw up of the day concerning the preparation of the meal is annoyingly funny.  My dressing called for 4 oz. of prosciutto.  I had 2 ounces and so I added 2 oz. of ham.  It all needed to be chopped, so I chopped it.  Then I spotted paper in the chopped food.  What?  It just so happened that there was paper separating the prosciutto that was the exact footprint as the food and I had chopped it without separating it.  So…it took about 20 minutes of the Rayman and me looking for thinner-than-paper-thin pieces of paper.  Let it be known that the pan “stuffing” has paper in it perhaps.  Good grief.

The turkey was brined in buttermilk and salt for 48 hours.  It is now unattended on the brand new Spark grill that we have never used but are using today because, why not?  It has probes.  It has special coals.  It has a temperature gauge so that it keeps watch over the turkey and will alert us via Bluetooth when the meat reaches 165.  How on earth did we ever cope without this new fandango of a barbecue?

The plate sans roasted pear salad.

The Brussel sprouts with garlic are done.  Just threw the balsamic on them.  I’m roasting the pears now.  Well, almost.  I hate digital controls for stoves.  I set the oven to 500 and forgot to hit start.  So the pears came out with no color on them.  Reset the stove and am waiting for the oven to reach 500 so I can, friggin, finish the pears.  They are part of the salad.  

The stuffing is ready to go in the oven after the pears.  Complete with paper in the mix!!

The pie should be good.  Cooked the sugar pumpkin to make the puree.  Nothing like fresh pumpkin.  Beats the canned stuff all over the playground and back again.

Pumpkin pie with gingersnap crust.

We miss our turkey day parties of old.  So much fun cooking together.  Spending almost every waking moment with Rayman makes it harder because there is such a thing perhaps of too much together time.  No.  I don’t think so.  

The place settings.

After all, I could be completely alone and that’s not nearly as much fun as cooking with the Rayman.  He adds charm to the kitchen and his clean up skills are beyond reproach.  For my friends that read this and are spending their day alone, I hope you can find comfort in the silence and time for reflection.  Reflection is good and so is a good TV series to binge.  Just saying.  Or a good book that allows for escape into some other world or topic.  

Other things we are thankful for include the right pans to cook this feast, a beautiful cloudless day by the bay, a gorgeous table setting.  A new President and a first ever, female VP.  And Beau, who gives us laughs on a daily basis, that scamp!!  

And we are thankful that we have you in our lives.  All of you that are reading this as well as friends that don’t as I haven’t captured the gift of great writing but I still practice and I’m writing a memoir that is so much more difficult than I thought it would be.  I’m on page 85 now.  Single spaced.  I think I’ll add some pictures, some recipes to fill it out since so much of my family history was lost with the death of my Mother.  She had the goods…and she took them with her.  However, she couldn’t boil water…so there is that.

After dinner walk. What a fabulous day…like summer.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Well, here we are.  One day before the election of our lives.   So, what am I doing?

Thinking about pork.  We love pork although, we feel guilt when we eat it.  We feel sorry for the pig.  We feel guilty for eating the fat.  Pork makes us feel guilty until we bite into it.  And thus, I must blog.

Sunday morning, I slow fried 4 pieces of bacon.  Bourbon pepper bacon, from Whole Foods who is known for treating animals right and so forth.  It smelled divine.  And after the bacon was fried very slowly as to not splatter bacon fat all over the stove, it was removed to paper towels and the eggs from Farmer’s Market were opened over the cast iron skillet, salted, peppered, as they were also slowly cooked in the bacon fat.  Then as is customary in our house once in a while, I tilted the pan so the bacon fat could run across the yolks like the tide rushing in on the beach to cover the sand dollars.  And then recede.  

Oh, the taste of bacon and eggs prepared this way is a joy for the taste buds.  Ode to joy!  Accompanied with local baked bread usually but not this day.  Had English muffins with butter and orange marmalade and a shake or two of Tabasco on the eggs.  It hit all the marks for a great meal.  

I hate ordering eggs and bacon in a restaurant.  The bacon cooked ages earlier and then left to sit in a pan of bacon until needed.  The eggs cracked over a cooking surface that is linear and boring and unable to produce eggs basted in anything…let alone bacon fat.  No, the eggs in a restaurant are pitiful unless you order in a really high end restaurant that charges arms and legs for a very simple dish.  

And then we barbecued some baby back ribs over a fire with nothing more than salt and pepper to gild the lily.  Just enough color, just enough seasoning to let the ribs shine.  No sugary barbecue sauce for this family.  We like our pork nude.

Then we ate a ham and cheese sandwich…with uptown cheese and wonderful ham, slathered in mayo and doused in dijon mustard.  Plain.  Simple.  Yummy.

And there you have it.  Three different forms of pork on two different contiguous days.  

Happy, happy.  

Pandora sent me an email.  She says my annual bill is scheduled to be paid in November.  

We don’t want Pandora right now.  So, I need to cancel it.  In order to cancel it, I must find the vendor that the bill goes through for payment since Pandora doesn’t do collection directly.  And that is a Pandora’s Box that was unleashed on my tender sensibilities.

After about 7324 hours research, I’m just not sure.  I can’t be for certain.  Of anything.

How did life treat me so unfairly?  I ask.   I created a monster,  that’s how.  This is all my doing and as it currently stands, my undoing.  Good grief. 

While trying to figure out my Pandora bill problem, I first went to my credit cards.  The only way I could figure out what is being paid out of my credit cards was to look at the statements.  My feeling was that the credit card companies would have an easy-to-access list of all my electronic debits…but I couldn’t find them.   If they are there, they are well hidden.  

Pandora is coming due in November, so I had to go back to 2019 and look for November which was always spread between the November AND December statements.  Good grief.  My patience was thinning.  

Because I was going to all this trouble, I decided to write down which debits went to which bills.  The list was long.  Our life is complicated.  I bet yours is too.  But not as bad as mine and even if it was, you wouldn’t admit, now would you?   If your life in this regard is less of a problem, I would love to know your methodology.  

So…three credit cards, a checking account, and Paypal.  All three of these methods played a roll in my search to unlock my Pandora’s Box.  

Paypal was the last one and they make things super easy.  And the bank account was relatively easy.  The credit cards were ridiculous.  By the time I arrived at Paypal, I discovered that I could easily just stop the auto payments and so I did.  Disney Plus…deleted.  QVC…deleted although it hadn’t been used all year (I actually think I only used it once),   Houzz, Ancestry Uber…all zapped.   It was such a powerful feeling.  The crazy thing is I don’t remember having this set up on any of them except Disney Plus for the original Hamilton performance.  

After hours and hours, I have a better handle on things…except Pandora.  I have no idea if that will get automatically deducted or not.  But I’m not spending another moment on it.   If I win, I win.  If I lose, I lose.  The worst thing that will come of it is more music.  

I could use more music.  I’m A Creep by Radiohead would sound good about now…Better go to Pandora and listen to it while I maybe still have the account.