Travels with The Rayman

Yesterday was the Rayman’s birthday and we have a great way of celebrating birthdays.  When its Rayman’s birthday, he gets to be in charge of he day.   He choses what we’ll do, when we’ll do it, what we’ll eat and when we’ll eat it.  And, that is a vice versa arrangement.  We find it works very well for all parties involved.  Him and moi.

So it was yesterday.  Mr. J decided golf was in order.  And so we teed off at 8:47 at the Morro Bay golf course.   With us was Norm.  We know Norm.  Norm is a great golfer.  I refer to him often as Stormin Norman.   We had no idea we were going to play with him but it was a fun time and a great day of golf…except for the score for me.  Rayman had a good game, Norm had a fabulous day.  My game, not so much.  However, it was a great walk and lots of laughs interspersed with “Fiddlesticks.”  Or “Drats.”  Perhaps something a bit stronger was heard here and there.  But, it was great fun.

And the turkeys came by to wish him happy birthday.  Seems people must be feeding them because when I stopped the cart, these lovely ladies literally ran to the cart and begged for food by sniffing, bobbing, weaving.

After golf, we came home, showered, relaxed, and did a bit of this and that before we joined up on a Zoom call with our Sideways wine tasting group that is holding itself together thru the magic of the technology of the day.  This is a weekly event and much fun for all concerned as we share our comings and goings with each other.  And our time of staying home…a daily occurrence now for a year.  

We are getting antsy about liberation.  It’s so close and yet so far…no one yet has had a second shot.   We are also, most of us, thrilled that the Dems are in charge now.  Help is on its way but we are checking our email, our local paper coverage, our local TV news to check for more vaccines.  We want our shots and we want them NOW.   

But I digress.

The Zoom party starts at 4 p.m. and goes for an hour or so.  Given that, Rayman had asked for lamb chops, roasted red potatoes, asparagus for dinner so timing was important to the cook.  Potatoes take a long time so I decided to speed them up by steaming them a bit so cooking in the oven would be shorter.  However, I steamed them too long and they were fully cooked.  So I decided to peel some garlic and poach the garlic in cream so that I could make mashed potatoes. 

As Zoom was proceeding, I smelled garlic.  Long story short,  I burned up the garlic in the cream and may have ruined my pan.  My martini may have contributed to the situation.  

When the Zoom was done, it was time to fire up the grill.  And the dog needed a walk.  In being a good person for Rayman’s birthday, I volunteered to assist.  Great.  However, this new barbecue of ours is ultra-modern and is run by an app.  And somehow, I screwed up the app.  (Remedial training will ensue post haste.)  www.sparkgrills.com      So, I barbecued the meat without the app and it was a bit underdone but we ate it.  And the potatoes.  I threw them in the oven with garlic and re-heated them and roasted the asparagus as well.   We washed it all down with red wine and then we celebrated with chocolate chip cookies, homemade, with a nice glass of port.  

We were in bed by 8:45.  Lights may have been turned off at 9:00.  Birthday boy and his trusty wife hit the wall.

P.S.  It’s tomorrow and the day that the housekeeper comes so we run away from home so we’re not in the way.  This a.m. I was on a hunt for a card table.  “I know, I’ll go to the thrift store and find one.”  So, we went to the thrift store.  I went inside and a young woman asked if she could help.  I said, “Do you have any card tables?”.  She said, “What’s a card table?”.  Well, now, the funny part is that she was serious.  It was a hoot.  Never thought card tables would cease to exist.  So, we drove to Costco.  While waiting at the light, I noticed a nice Mercedes in front of me.  It has a special license plate holder denoting the car was owned by a police person.  OMG.  It was our friend, Tom.  We followed him to Home Depot.  Got a big laugh out of it because we ran into him at Costco two weeks ago.  Then we ran into him at TJs.    We are on the same schedules.  When I honked at him at the light, Rayman and I frantically waved our arms.  He said to himself, “What are those crazy people doing behind me?”. 

So, we had a good outing and found a table at Target.  I opted for a rectangle table.  Going to use it for my scanner and all my old family records which I am trying to scan in the great room but it is too bright there so the new table will go in the den.  Wish me luck.  Scanning can be hard.  And it is hard.  My new scanner is so sophisticated I think I need a PhD in order to use it.   It is taking way to long to do anything on it…but I will persist.  My book needs pictures.  And old letters.

Today is upon us and I started my adventure by donning my clothes, rushing out of the house and driving to the dentist.  Because I broke off a side of big back tooth on the lower right side.  Clear in the back.  This happened last Thursday as I was munching on my cookie on the 14th hole of the golf course.  Or was it the 15th hole?  Who cares?  It was not a good event.  

Going to the dentist these days is not like it used to be.  Now, you have to knock at the front door of the office and someone comes out and takes your temperature and asks you probing questions about your health.  Everyone is wearing a mask as required.  The office takes on a different vibe.  

The office was freezing and boy was I glad to have worn a cashmere turtleneck sweater and my big Pillsbury doughboy jacket.  When led back to “the chair”, I elected to leave my jacket on and I kept my sunglasses on my lap in case the lights were too bright (they were).  Quite a sight.  

It was a very unpleasant experience.  The shot wasn’t too bad at all.  It was the drilling and I’d like to make a case for considering “drilling” as an .  That is the word that sounds like it sounds.  Other words considered onomatopoeias are words like “snap” and “crackle”, even “pop”.  The drilling was very difficult because of the location of my tooth.  At times it sounded like someone moving a grand piano across a wood floor….almost a growling sound.  Then at other times, it was just a sharp shrill (onomatopoeia) sound that was quite loud and extremely annoying.

The sound, however, was nothing compared to the waterboarding I received.  With my tongue depressed, water flooded the tooth scene and I couldn’t breath very well.  I tried to ignore it but, no way.  After the first bout of this, I started gaging.  God, gaging is so darn horrible.  A reflex that is at once life saving and involuntary.  OMG.  Gag upon gag each one postponing  the drilling.  The dentist was so kind.  He stopped again and again to allow me to recompose myself and steady my resolve until then, the next gag happened.  

Coming up for air I said, “This feels like waterboarding”.  A nervous laugh was heard.  Then an explanation of the difficult location of the tooth.  Okay, then.  What else could he say?  It had to be done and we both had to live through it.  At this point I found myself wondering if anyone bites him.  I had my chances.  However, I opted out figuring it wasn’t very lady like.  And so I endured what was necessary.

The option would have been worse.  So there is that.  Extractions are horrid too.  Worse, really.  Especially on those big back teeth.  It makes me wonder…why don’t they knock us out?  Not all the way.  Just enough that if someone cut off our head we wouldn’t care.  

What do you think about under these circumstances?  I really do wonder what other think when in the dentist’s chair.  My grand piano thought lead me down the rabbit trail of thinking about my Great Aunt Rachel, a pianist, who owned a grand piano and played the Turkish March on it…great piece, by the way.  Then the mind flitted away and tried to find Zen-like poise and that lead me to thinking about Buddhists.   I know a few. When the shrill (onomatopoeia) drill started, I was wishing I hadn’t worn my hearing aids.  Being in such close proximity to the ear, hearing became the problem.  Quite a different problem.  

Well, I’m happy to say that I survived but you know that already.  But, really…I am happy that I did survive.  It felt like touch-and-go for a bit.  All this took exactly one hour from knocking on the door to returning to my car.  And the outside temperature rose 4 degrees in that hour.  The little things in life, eh?  

I’m home with a temporary crown in my numb skull.  It may take days to return to normal and for that I am grateful.  Can’t imagine life without numbers.  

In other news, Biden and Harris are on board.  The inauguration was fabulous.  Today an article of impeachment goes from the House to the Senate.  Heady days in the Capitol.  Don’t know how you all feel about it but I am delighted that the Dems are forcing the GOP members to take a side.  Are they with the seditionists or for the Constitution and rule of law.  It’s not a difficult call at all and yet…it is so disappointing to know that the horrible man down in FL now, has them scared.  Too scared, perhaps, to stand up for what is right.  And no, there are no two sides of this.  It is one or the other.  

Moments to remember from Biden-Harris inaugur… – CBS News

In other news, yesterday, I spent the day trying to make an iMovie on my MacBook Pro.  It took forever.  The occasion of the movie is that Feb. 5 is Ryan’s birthday and we are here and he is there.  So his main squeeze asked all his friends and family to do a short video.  After much gnashing of “teeth” (there I go again), I finally put it together.  I’m relatively certain he never reads my blogs so I mention it here.  If I am wrong, I will be considered a toad.  Oh, well, wouldn’t be the first time.

Well, it’s almost noon.  Time to jump in the car and head to Opolo.  They emailed that our shipment is ready for pick up.  And after all that came before this, I definitely need a pick up!!

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.  

‘;

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.