Ball Masque XVIII

I pulled up my Word programme, formatted the blank page for my journal entry, and saved it into the folder for my journal entries. I just file these by the date. It hit me like a ton of bricks this morning that I was typing out 2011 as the year. It seems like it was yesterday the world was supposed to end because of “Y2K”. Surely, it could NOT be over 11 years ago people were stockpiling food and water in anticipation of the breakdown of the food chain.

I know it sounds like a broken record, but I’m discovering first hand how fast time passes as you get older. It seems like yesterday I was having the conversation with Ron about what it would be like for me if I moved south. Ron was from Arkansas and he taught me well on the “ins and out’s” of southern etiquette.

It was early afternoon on Sunday May 11, 1985 Ron drove to my house from Rochester, NY. We had planned a trip to Niagara Falls, Ontario. I was mowing my front lawn when he pulled into the driveway. I will never forget Ron telling me in no uncertain terms, “Jimmy, what do you think you are doing? Put that lawnmower away. NICE PEOPLE don’t mow their lawns on Sunday!” That was my first indoctrination into southern living. Ron passed away back in September of 1992. He was never able to witness my transition into southern life. To this day I feel a twinge of guilt whenever I do yard work on a Sunday!

1985; Ron, Niagara Falls, Ontario:

The book “A Southern Belle Primer, or Why Princess Margaret Will Never be a Kappa Kappa Gamma” by Maryln Schwartz gave me a tremendous insight to the culture of the South. In this book she describes the “Royalty of the South”. I had the evidence of that “royalty” at the Mystic Krewe of the Druids “Ball Masque XVIII” last night.

This annual event is put on every year to raise money for West Alabama Aids Outreach. Musical tableaus are preformed, beads and Jello shots are thrown into the audience, the reigning king and queen step down, and the new king and queen take over. It is pomp and circumstance and bawdy fun all rolled together. Everyone has a good time while raising money for a worthy cause.

The new king and queen:

While it is not mandatory, tuxedos and formal dress are informal dress codes. I’m lucky in I was able to score a great tuxedo jacket from the Goodwill some ten years back. I used to accessorize it with my black leather riding pants and work boots. Now I wear my black Utilikilt. I have not given up wearing work boots though!

I can still fit into the pleated tuxedo shirt I bought at Chess II in early 1980’s. It has some small holes; I can’t bring myself to get rid of it! You can’t go wrong when sticking to the basics, so last night I wore a plain white shirt; but the bow tie was a real one. It is an art to tie those damn things. Doing it left handed makes it more complicated!

The bitter cold we experienced did a number on my Camellias’. I really had to search out the “Pink Perfection” bush in my back yard to get two nearly perfect blooms for Em and I. Those blossoms brought us lots of compliments.

If you want to catch the beads, you need to be down in the front. After years of attending this function, I have more plastic beads than I will ever use up in this lifetime. It must have been fate as I got hit in the head a number of times by the flying beads!

Pre Ball Party: Cornelius, Me and Emmet:

Home from the madness!

There were after hours parties going on at the clubs. Em and I were both too beat. It was a forgone conclusion we would leave at the end of the programme. I implored Em to crash at my place, have a good breakfast and drive back to Birmingham in the morning. No, he was adamant in driving home. I hate that drive so, especially at night. I like to extend the offer.

This boy is not used to the “late night life” and slept in till nearly 6:00 a.m. I felt like I wasted half the day!!!

I will be feeling the guilt of doing yard work on a Sunday today. I need to get the yard in shape for the newest acquisition from E-bay…. A cast iron Railroad Crossing sign! It is to be delivered Tuesday. Now I can gripe to the city, “It’s bad enough I have manholes and fire hydrants installed in my back yard, now you’re putting a railroad through here!”

The new sign:

When Ron and I did a road trip to his home in Arkansas back in 1989 we did a tour of the battlefield in Corinth, Mississippi. I fell in love with that town. We visited the museum there and I was able to get the ratty Edison phonograph they had on display working. You could just tell the docent at the museum was one of the “dowagers” of the town. She was so happy I was able to get that machine functioning.

We were headed to Memphis after that. I questioned Ron on how if I moved south if I would ever be able to fit in being from the north. Ron replied, “Jimmy, if you moved here people would just say of you; oh, he’s that nice Yankee who moved here from New York.”

Ron was so wise: I’ve had that line said to me a number of times in the time I've lived here. However, I’m thinking I may be pushing the envelope a bit. Now, I'm afraid that phrase will be, “Oh, he is that crazy Yankee who moved here, He’s a mess!”

I take being called “a mess” a very high form of praise!

Snow and Cold

It started snowing last night at about 6:00. There was a blanket of snow on my lawn when I let Stumpy out at 4:00 a.m. this morning for his first foray to check his territory. He did not stay outside long. When he wants in Stump will jump to the top ledge of the outside shower. From this perch he can claw at the heavy wire screen protecting the swing out bathroom window. When he gets going you can hear him in any part of the house. I am programmed to open the window and coax him into the house. He has to rub the bottom window frame and poke… all the while the freezing cold air pours in! You can’t hurry up a cat. Then he climbs up to the window sill, and I’ll carefully close the swing out window being careful to not pinch his paws. I don’t have to worry about his stump of a tail! It’s a quick jump to my shoulders and he gets a lift to the kitchen where I’ll dish up his treats. I think we have this routine down!!

6:00 a.m from the back study steps: The clothes line is actually a TV cable I salvaged on one of my walks. An old bleach bottle with an opening cut in serves as my clothes pin holder! Household hints from Jamie!! LOL!!

I was enjoying my first cup of coffee messing with E-bay about 5:00 a.m. when Stumpy signaled he wanted in… NOW! He and Daggy got their wet food treats and both cats are now sacked out with full bellies blissfully sleeping on the bed. To be so snug and warm when it is 27° outside is a luxury I appreciate.

7:00 a.m: Contented Cats! My everyday Utilikilt is draped over the footboard: you can just barely make out the snow through the window...

There is a “Railroad Crossing” sign I’m negotiating on. I won the E-bay auction a few weeks ago, but it did not meet the reserve price. The seller relisted it with a buy it now price, or make an offer. My offer is way more than the high bid on his auction, but about ½ of his buy it now price. Who knows??? That sign would go well with the fire hydrants!

I needed a good stick to the ribs breakfast this morning. HOTCAKES!! They are such a pain to make with having to melt butter, beat eggs, etc, but the results are so worth the aggravation. First I seasoned up my great grandmother’s cast iron griddle by frying thick cut pepper bacon. That smell of frying bacon should be bottled and marketed! The hotcake batter was then poured onto the heated greasy griddle. When it was time to flip the cakes the pure maple syrup was nuked. The cakes were buttered before taking them off the griddle, they were plated up with the bacon and the hot syrup was poured on top. I had to force myself to eat slowly as this is one of my favourite meals.

The city seems to be functioning. I’ll call in a bit to see if the “Y” is open. So long as the schools are in operation, everything else seems to follow. I’ll have to push myself now doing my rowing sets aggressively to work that meal through my system!!

This weather sure puts a damper on getting projects finished up. Nearly all my outstanding chores involve being able to work outside. There are a number of “piddly things” and paperwork that need to be done. I’ll work on those projects this afternoon.

Strawberry Pie

It has been over a week since my last journal entry. I was on the road to Florida for the Orlando Phonograph Show. I’m going to start this entry with Monday, and mash it all up. Hopefully it will make sense!

Billy and I were up early to drive to Webster, Florida to the flea market. The busiest day for this market is Martin Luther King Day. This year it ended up being a wash-out due to rain. Today (1/24) should be better. It was bitter cold as we left Billy’s house in my truck. I did not wear my Utilikilt, and had layer upon layer of other clothes on. Central Florida is so much colder than the coasts. There was frost on the grass as we explored the fields as the dealers were setting up in the early morning.

Antique wise there was little to find that I was interested in. The closest things were a set of porch lights that I had no earthly use for. The real big draw is the fresh produce. I spent $5.00 on a ½ flat of fresh strawberries and another $5.00 for three bags of ruby red grapefruit!

Here is where I have to jump around a bit. What the Hell was I going to do with 6 pints of strawberries? Time to reflect a bit on the past: Back when I lived in Lancaster, PA in the early 1970’s the biggest treat imaginable was to go to Hess’s department store and get a huge piece of strawberry pie. I remember finding a recipe for it on the internets in the past. I decided to make up that strawberry pie!

First problem was making a pie crust. I found a great basic pie crust recipe on line. However, I did not have any shortening. Cooking for one, that kind of stuff just goes bad. Here is where I really appreciate finding recipes like this on line. The comment section after this basic recipe was filled with pointers and suggestions. One commenter said she substituted frozen butter for the shorting, using a grater to break it up into the flour. She also added a bit of sugar and vanilla.

What a perfect idea, and it was exactly what I did! I have never made a pie crust from scratch before. I used mom’s pastry tool to chop the flour, salt (cut way back because my butter was salted) and sugar together. Then a dinner fork was used to blend it all with the ice water. It was formed into a ball and wrapped in plastic to chill overnight.

Early Thursday morning the oven was heated to 475° as I rolled out the dough. I really got into it! When it was to size, I rolled the crust around the rolling pin and transferred it to the pie tin. It baked for 7 minutes to a nice brown.

Later in the morning I hulled enough strawberries to line the crust.

Three cups of whole berries were required to make the glaze. These were first mashed, then put through a ricer, and finally through a wire strainer into a pot. Water and lemon juice was added and the mixture was brought to a boil and corn starch was added so it would all thicken. Once cooled to room temperature. The glaze was poured over the berries in the pie crust.

The whole mess sat overnight.

Today, Friday the 28^th was my big day at the “Y”. I had made up my mind to erg another ½ marathon: 21,097 meters. I warmed up first with some stretches and leg raises for my hamstrings. Got a glass of water for the mid way drink and an extra towel to sit on. At home I had duct-taped sterile gauze pads to the blisters that have developed from the extended erging I’ve been doing for this challenge.

I programmed my workout for a single distance of 21,097. I had a long playlist on my MP3 player all set and playing. I had to beat my first ranked time of 1.35:01.6. This meant I had to do a racing start. I held my breath as I focused my attention and began with 2 1/2 slides, a 3/4 slide, a "reach" slide and finally a full slide and 10 hard fast strokes.

I was so pissed when I realized five minutes into the row I forgot to position my heart monitor readout on the handle! Oh well… too late for that! For the first 10,000 meters I did power sets every 5,000 for a minute. Then I went to power sets every 2,500 meters starting at 7,500. I could feel my right calf start to cramp up at my 5,000 meter mark. Cut back a little, but at the last 500 meters I went all out. It paid off as I shaved over 2 minutes off the previous time. Today I was 1.32:39.3. Ranking that workout put me at 16 of 35 for my age and weight class.

After a long HOT shower and a rest with the cats, I made up fresh whipped cream and dumped it on a heaping piece of strawberry pie. It tasted just as I remember from nearly 40 years ago.

Tonight I’ll cook up my last chuck steak with lots of butter and onions. Then I’ll top it all off with another hunk of pie and whipped cream!

Life is good!

Stop the Whining

Monday I was viewing a You-tubes on Rochester, NY. On the side bar were other related videos. I’m still in amazement in how the “tubes” (internets) has changed my life. I watched one of the linked videos which was of a Rochester, NY news show reporting how Church’s Fried Chicken ran out of chicken during a sale. The story reporter interviewed disappointed customers who were turned away from the “chickenless” restaurants. I’m not going to link to the video because I found it very troubling. The way these people carried on you would have thought it was the end of the world…..

As I reflect upon my past I’m constantly amazed how a simple remark made in passing could have such a profound effect upon how I’ve lived my life. I was touring Europe the summer of 1970 with the American Youth Hostels. There was an event I wanted to look my best for. Carrying clothes in bicycle saddlebags does not result in nice looking garments. I was lamenting how my collared shirt was full of wrinkles. One of the German guys in the dorm said to me, “You Americans. People are dying in the world and you are worried about a wrinkled shirt!”

A chance remark from a stranger opened my eyes to something I had never even contemplated. In the grand scheme of things what difference would it make if my shirt were wrinkled or not? I was unconsciously whining; a trait I truly dislike.

I grew more intellectually in that summer of 1970 than I could ever imagine. That German teen ager forced me to look at the world with me not being the center of the universe.

That is one reason I’m so nauseated by the current political climate. Before “the tubes” news stories reported on TV and Radio were heard/viewed once. It was pretty much impossible to go back to retrieve a story to fact check or rehear/view it again. Not anymore.

I have great respect for Jon Stewart. As a comedian he is like the court jester used to be to the king. The court jester could counsel the king through comedy as counselors could not. It is really sad The Daily Show does more research and fact checking then “legitimate” news outlets

This clip on the memorial service in Tucson, AZ shows Americans facing adversary with strength and resolve. But, it also shows Americans whining at their best. The moderators crying over the seating arrangements is a new low in my book. I would not want to be remembered for complaining about where people sat for such an occasion…..

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-january-13-2011/veiled-criticism

Always Eat Healthy Food

January is flying by way too quickly for this boy. If only things would warm up some. It was 17° when I put my laundry on the line at 7:00 a.m. this morning. Stumpy made two trips outside and is curled up on the bed with Daggy in “cat bliss”.

After breakfast yesterday I went to the sewing machine repair place and got a replacement belt for my old sewing machine. It was only $7.58 total. I pulled out a ten dollar bill and remembered I had change…I told the lady “Oh wait, I’ll use up some of this change then you can just give me dollar bills back.” I had to go into two pockets to get the last penny and I had to laugh, and then explain, “My father used to do this all the time and it drove me crazy, now here I’m doing the same thing! The apple does not fall far from the tree!!” She was smiling as I left, I knew she understood!

I got to the “Y” in the mid afternoon. After some stretching exercises I set up the Concept 2 rower for my erg session. For once I remembered to bring the MP3 player. Got wired up and programmed my workout for a set time: one hour. I started out with my favourite routine of Anna Russell in which she gives a description of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in layman’s terms. The music of the “Ring Cycle” is so glorious, but to hear her describe the action and storyline of the opera makes me laugh till I’m nearly crying. To quote Anna, “That’s the beauty of grand opera; you can do anything so long as you sing it!”

I had my player set to do a great playlist while I rowed. After “Anna” it played one song and then cut out due to a low battery! Damn! I finished out the hour in silence trying to really concentrate on my sprints every ten minutes. I covered 13,707 meters. I’ll try for another hour today and see if I can beat that distance. My “virtual team” needs every meter I can give them!

I was starving by the time supper rolled around. I planned on being bad the other day when I picked up two cube steaks at Publix. I breaded them up and turned on the deep fat fryer. The left over flour and seasonings was added to a generous amount of bacon grease in mom’s old cast iron frying pan to which I added the leftover milk and egg. More milk was added along with more ground pepper.

Left over smashed potatoes were nuked in the microwave and the first breaded cutlet was dropped in the 375° oil. I love to hear that crackling frying noise. It brings back memoires of working the back line at Burget Chef.

The chicken fried steak and potatoes were smothered in the white gravy. I had to force myself to eat slowly…. It was SO GOOD!!! There are enough leftovers for a repeat meal in a couple days. Don’t tell the food police!!

One of my facebook friends had posted on his wall this morning: One of my favorite quotes is by Abraham Lincoln: “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” Setting goals provides us with a way to create our future today by focusing our attention and daily action steps toward what we really want and then making them a reality. Setting goals works.

I’ve gotten used to seeing postings like this on facebook pages and I wonder if there is a site they get pulled from. This really got to me as I’m now living the future I envisioned all those years ago when I was working production in the factory.

I had a conference with my investment advisor concerning my accounts Monday. We had done some tweaking to my holdings last summer which rewarded me with good results. I’ll be 59 ½ by the end of the year and can start to draw on my 401’s. She asked me when I planned on drawing them down. I replied that I did not have any plans to draw on them in the foreseeable future.

This is kind of like when you go on a trip and the journey is so enjoyable, you don’t know what to do when you get to the destination. It sounds crazy, but I've spent so much of my life being frugal and counting pennies it can be hard to let go and spend money on something I'm not passionate about. Enough of this … I need to get my journey started to the “Y” so I can kick butt on the Concept 2 today! My MP3 is all charged up!

Mend and Make Do

It was the early fall of 1972 I signed on to the midnight sort at United Parcel Service in Lancaster, PA. Working nights loading the delivery trucks on the line and “hogging” in the trailers necessitated having warm rugged clothes. Champion Apparel had a “real” outlet store in Perry, NY. The clothing they sold was true factory rejects. My favourite basketball jersey from that store had a big 16 on the front and a 17 on the back! That shirt drove people crazy when I used to wear it!

It so happened I was home in Lockport, NY before I started that job assignment. My mom, dad, good friend Toni, and I made the 55 mile trip to Perry, NY so I could stock up work clothes. We left early on a bright Saturday morning, driving through the Alabama swamps, the city of Batavia, and the rolling farmland till we reached Perry, NY.

Whenever we made this excursion we would have breakfast at “The Hole in the Wall” restaurant located in the heart of the village. This place was famous in they would always give a serviceman or woman their meal for free if they were in uniform. That tradition began during WWII. My metabolism was off the charts back then. I can still remember the look from my dad when I ordered bacon, eggs, homefries, and a side stack of hotcakes for my meal. I ate every bite!

Going to an outlet store was a big deal back then; I made the best of this opportunity stocking up with lots of heavy sweat pants and heavy sweatshirts. I have two of those sweatshirts remaining from that trip I can still wear. They are so battered and worn I only use them for the really messy jobs I don’t want to risk my better clothes on.

Working on the Graphophone mainsprings this past weekend was one such job where I was wearing the Temple University Football shirt. The cuffs were so ragged even I had to admit they made the sweatshirt unwearable. I did a laundry of my nastiest work clothes Monday. The grease washed out really well from that old sweatshirt; I could not bear to rip it into rags.

Google searches for “sweatshirt knit cuffs” led me to a discussion board. It was suggested that the elastic tops of socks can make perfect cuffs. What a great idea! It was easy to find a pair of socks with the bottoms pretty much worn through to use.

It was easy work to sew the sock-tops to the sweatshirt sleeves. I should be able to get at least another ten years wear out of that garment!

the shreds of the original cuffs and the new "sock cuffs"

This aspect of my life I can’t make sense of. I’ve made playing the “miser” into an art form. But, truth be told, I can get a comparable sweatshirt at the thrift store for a few dollars any time I want. Hell, I can even go to the “yuppie stores” and pay top dollar if I were so inclined. It is not the money aspect. Whenever I wear those old sweats I think back to when they and I were young. The memorable trip with those I cared about that early fall morning to Perry, NY: Working on the loading docks at UPS, doing chores around my first house in Lockport and now my home in Alabama. I always have happy memories wearing those worn out clothes. It is also a good way to annoy people… I’ve got ammo for years now harping on how to make use of worn out socks!!!

Brooklyn Bridge: 1907 & 1988

On my Google homepage I have a link to Shorpy.com. They have constantly changing vintage pictures in high definition. I can spend hours studying these wonderful images. Wednesday the 29^th there was an image of the Brooklyn Bridge from 1907. That vantage point looked so familiar. Sure enough; doing a fast check of my pictures I uncovered a photo from October 1988 of Joe, Don, and Richard from our October excursion to the city. I was lost in the past before starting this entry rereading my journal archive of that trip. Looking back, it was one of those special, magic times where everything clicked. It was an excursion that could not have been planned out to be any more perfect. Memories of that time remind me how I’ve always tried to live life to the fullest and to try and keep on doing so.

Images: 1907 and 1988. Joe and I were under strict orders from Don to not act like tourists, and to try and just blend in. HA!!! That only made us act up worse!! I remember yelling, “Turn around and let me take your picture!” for this shot. Joe-left, Don-middle, Richard-right

The cold is slowly leaving us. Temperatures are warming up a bit, but rain is now also a factor. Hopefully I will get the first coat of paint onto the body of the San Francisco fire hydrant today. Yesterday I picked up some yellow artist oil to tint my white oil based paint. The hydrant base colour should be an off white almost bordering on a creamy yellow. The top will a light green.

The paint removal and priming was finished up last month. The old paint was so built up the raised lettering was undecipherable. My next trip out to San Francisco will have to entail research into the Risdon Iron Works. Some quick online work uncovered that Risdon was absorbed by another firm in 1910. There is no mention they actually manufactured hydrants or not. This hydrant could have been for just the Risdon works site. I’m hoping I can date it to being pre 1906 so I can say it was present for the earthquake and fire!

Speaking of San Francisco, I got an E-mail from Southwest with “want-to-get away” deals. You punch in how much you want to spend and where you want to go and “BINGO” the perfect destination is chosen. I chose $700.00 and one of my destinations was San Francisco listing the flights I usually use and the Travel Lodge on Market St I normally stay at. I’m so tempted to get-away!!!!

The internets came to my rescue again: a job I need to do is to flush out my tankless water heater. Vinegar is pumped thorough the heating coils to clean out the sediment and build up. I needed to get a submersible utility pump to be able to accomplish this chore. The initial pump cost is about half what a plumber would charge to do a flushing. Checking out the stock at Blowe’s, Homo Depot, and Sears on line I ended up finding the best deal through Amazon which included free shipping. It should be delivered next week. I have gotten so lazy; I hate the thought of shopping around store to store anymore.

Another needed article is some green velvet to recover the turntable of the latest “Cow”. (The Columbia Viva Tonal phonograph model 810) Columbia could not use felt as a turntable covering like every other manufacturer. No, they had to use velvet. Trying to match up the original green at local fabric and craft stores has been impossible. Some online sources have been located. It is just so hard to accurately match up the colour. The last time I hunted down a burgundy jacquard silk for a phonograph grill cloth, the delivered shade was light purple! I got the idea the other day to stain it with burgundy wine when I spraying extra strength cleaner onto the wine stains on my old sweatshirt. That might darken it up closer to the right shade. A box of Burgandy wine is on my shopping list for today! Even if it does not tone things out, I’ll still be able to drink it!!