Mmmmmmmm! Onions!

Having lived in the Midwest for most of my life, I was never influenced by hot sauce, hot peppers or any of that 'hot spicy' stuff, including Buffalo Wings.  Just not my style.  Oh, I'd have Tommy's Subs with extra hot peppers (not really hot banana peppers) and Tommy's Pizza with some crushed red peppers sprinkled on top, but not like my Dad.  I remember his weekend breakfast of eggs covered in black pepper and drowning in Tobasco Sauce.  I tried a drop of Tobasco Sauce once back then and have stayed far from it ever since.  Onions, now that's my favorite.  I cook with onions but especially LOVE fresh sliced/chopped onions.  On hamburgers, hot dogs and salads, fresh onions.  Charlene may be the Garlic Queen but I'm the Onion King.
But now, I live in Southern California of which the vast majority are Hispanic.  Oh, my God, do they love HOT.  Not temperature wise, rather spicy-wise.  My introduction to Hispanic Spicy-ness was my friend Omar.  Shelley, Sister Pat, Cuz'n Kent, Scott and Nathan have met Omar.  We all love him.  He's like a big puppy, kind and gentle.  He used to give me his Mom's burritos at lunch and then he'd go out and buy something to eat.  For years, his Mom would take dinner leftovers and make burritos for him to eat for lunch.  I guess he was a little sick of them.  When Zachary spent a summer out here, when Scott spent a few years out here, when Shelley was here, when Sister Pat was here, I'd bring home what we like to call, "Omar's Mother's Burritos" and have them try them.  All of us just love them.  Better than anything you can buy.  She could make a fortune opening a "Omar's Mother's Burritos Shop" in the Midwest.  If Omar decided to eat them, he'd drown them in Tapatio Sauce followed by Tobasco Sauce.  Ahhhh!   Just thinking about it makes my tongue burn.  Omar would buy a bag of potato chips, dump them on a paper plate and do the same.  I mean he would drown them in Tapatio and Tobasco Sause and eat them like it was just plain chips to us.  Wouldn't bother him at all.  I do, however, remember that whenever he would buy a sandwich that had fresh sliced onions on it, he would pull them off and give them to me.  I'd eat them raw, just pop them in my mouth and chew away.  It really freaked him out.  He said they were too 'Hot' for him and didn't understand how I could eat them.  Talk about an oxymoron!
Ventura County doesn't have a lot of industry that makes stuff; it grows fruit and vegetables and has processing plants for all the produce grown here.  Lettuce of all kinds, onions, cabbage, strawberries, raspberries, celery, beans, lemons, oranges - - I could go on and on.  Lots of fruit and vegetable processing plants that take the stuff grown locally, process it as fresh or make juice and ship it all over the country.  One of the places I love to take service calls is anywhere on Pacific Avenue in Oxnard.  There are lots of processing plants in the area but the one that makes me slow down, roll down the window and take a giant sniff is:

I ask all my customers in the area how they like the aroma of onions every day, all day and they just find it repulsive.  Of course, they're Hispanic.  The Midwest guy, he's floating in onion aroma, smiling..........

Lap Time

As most of you know, we have a cat.  I don't know her name that Charlene and the kids gave her, I just call her, "Cat".  I mean, why name them when they don't pay attention to you, don't come when you call them or anything else.  Totally opposite of a dog.  If you hold a snack out for a dog, you're lucky to come away with most of your hand intact.  Cats are weirdly different when you offer them a snack.  If they don't see movement, if they don't feel it with their whiskers, they really don't know how close they are to the snack.  They move up slowly until their nose bumps the snack, back up a little, sniff it and then figure out whether or not they want it.  Oddly enough, most of the time, I'll whistle at the cat (like you would to a dog) and say, "Come here Cat" and she comes!  I've tried to raise her as a dog 'cause that's all I'm used to for many decades.  We all notice her 'dog-like' qualities and refer to her as Catdog.  She really knows the word, "Food".  If anyone says it, she turns her head, wide-eyed, ready for the run to the food dish.

Everyone says she's 'Daddy's little girl'.  I guess I just give her what she wants:  I don't pick her up as she usually dislikes that.  She does jump up on my lap and no other's.  I skritch her where she wants to be skritched, stop when she just wants to sleep ( she'll turn and do a pretend bite on my hand which means stop now or the next one will draw blood).  She just plain enjoys 'Lap Time'.  Sometimes, in the middle of lap time, I want to get up and do something and I'll tell her that I want to get up.  She'll look at me and then I point to the floor and tell her again that I want to get up.  Usually, she'll jump down allowing me to get up.  Once in a while, she'll utter a small 'meow' meaning stay put, I'm comfy.  I'll move a little and tell her again and then she'll jump down and walk away.
A few days ago, she was settled in for the long haul, refusing to get down.  I'd tell her I'm getting up and she'd meow.  I moved my legs to make her get down and she just meowed louder.  I even used the word "Food" repeatedly, loudly, to no avail.  This went on for a few minutes until even Charlene in the next room heard Cat's refusal 'meow'.  Charlene took the following picture of Cat refusing to get up.  Disgustingly spoiled:

OMG! Is that what's wrong with me?

If you've ever been to our house, you'll notice a magazine rack in the bathroom.  It's loaded with various magazines to which we all subscribe.  You'll find Surf Magazine Nic and Trav get, Discovery Magazine, Time and Popular Science that I get.  When Cuz'n Kent comes down from Pismo Beach, he'll grab an Atlantic Monthly.  Charlene always has a collection of " O Oprah" magazine and Real Simple magazine.  In the last month, though, a new one has shown up:  AJN.  American Journel of Nursing.  Cool, something else to read that's different.  After reading a few, though, I think I'm starting to come down with all the diseases discussed in them.  I feel my pulse, check my temperature, poke and prod areas described in the articles.  Sometimes, it's rather scary so I think I'll stick with the death, destruction and terrible news in Time Magazine.  I feel healthier that way.

Strong Coffee

Most everyone knows that I like strong coffee.  Started at age 14 doing the coffee and expresso thing.  Now that I'm 448 dog years old, I like really strong coffee.  Maybe with an expresso chaser.  Years ago, when my late son, Dan would spend time at my place, I'd make coffee for both of us.  He dubbed it, "Dad's Rocket Fuel".  Well, I can appreciate his point of view.  He was just a beginner at the coffee thing.  Since this past Christmas, I've tried various brands of coffee in my new Keurig coffee maker.  It's the one that takes those 'single serving' coffee pods (actually, they're called K-Cups).  There's about a million different kinds of coffee made for it and I'm searching for the best, strong, non-bitter coffee.  Something that tops Starbucks house blend.  Most of the brands and strengths are just, "O.K."  A few are just great, what I've been looking for, but the search goes on.  I stumbled upon the following and it just reminded me of what Dan said.

Let me tell ya', this really was "Jet Fuel".  Way, way too strong.  Dan would have agreed.  Right now, we doing French Roast but my favorite so far is Emeril's Big Easy Bold and Green Mountain's Dark Magic.  The kids love the hot cocoa and Charlene has become addicted to Earl Grey Tea.  Of course, all served at a precise 192 degrees........

Attack of the Boatpeople

After I posted my last Blog, I got an e-mail from my good friend, Andy, who lives in the frigid central Ohio area.  I met him decades ago, late 1980's I believe.  I was living in a 2 bedroom townhouse when Andy, his Mom, sister Amy (with baby), brother Tim, friends Greg and Perry moved in several doors down from me.  My first thought was, "2 bedrooms and a ton of people.  My God, they must be Boatpeople."  You know, where 8,000 people crowd into a rowboat to escape some despot country.  In time, we became great friends, party animals supreme.  They're all very talented musicians, by the way.  We used to go to the Indycar races at Mid Ohio Race Track and have gone to several Inianapolis 500 Time Trial weekends.  I dubbed us the "BoatPeople Racing Team".  Had signs made and all.  We've gone camping together, flown cars through the air into people's yards (well, Greg, son Dan and I did), gone on non-stop trips to help sandbag the great Mississippi Flood of '93 and driven to south-central Pennsylvania just to be in a Blizzard (36" of snow in 12 hours after we got there).  Lot's of fun.  Charlene has met them and gives them (mostly) two thumbs up.  Anyway, back to the e-mail Andy sent me after my last blog about movies.  Here's what he wrote as he quoted one of my lines:

And I quote "Julie and Julia again? Hey, I've seen it 4 times so far."

WHHHATT??? We gonna have to have a redneck boat people racing team intervention and get you out of California before it's too late!!!!

I almost died laughing.  Years ago, Andy and I had a discussion about the kind of movies we liked.  Me, I like 'Chick Flicks' and Andy likes 'War movies, Action movies'.  I ask him why he liked War movies and he replied, "They're historic, they're educational and they blow shit up!".  Yea, great Boatpeople answer.  So, I guess Cows and Boatpeople rock!

But Andy must remember that my all-time favorite movie still is, Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now"................

Recent Movies including Avatar

Nic, Trav, Charlene and I just returned from seeing the movie, "Avatar". Long movie, very good movie, astounding scenery, watched in 3D. Why anyone, even wearing glasses, would watch it in non-3D is beyond me. I worried that Charlene, who has a brain the size of a entire dinosaur and a bladder the size of a walnut would miss a lot, trotting to the restroom. She stayed put and glued to the giant screen. (That was more amazing than the movie). I was the only one that returned the 3D glasses on the way out. I thought we were supposed to........Nic, Trav and Charlene didn't care - they paid extra, they're keeping 'em.


After we got home, I got to thinking about the top movies we've seen in the past few months. Would I watch Avatar again? No. Once was enough, beautiful wide screen movie theater in 3D just cannot be replicated at home. Would I watch Julie and Julia again? Hey, I've seen it 4 times so far. We saw 'Up in the Air' a week or so ago. I'd watch that again, at least several times. So, obviously, Really, really loved "Julie and Julia", really loved "Up in the Air". "Avatar" was astounding, once, in a movie theater. Oh, I've seen, "The Hurt Locker". Very good, very depressing, but very good. Hell of a "message" movie. I have it on DVD and will probably watch it again tonight.

Revolving side Pictures

All my kids, wife and very close crazy friends know I love cows.  I just think they are so innocent and so cool.  Raised 'em for years when we lived in the country in Ohio.  Plus, I love milk!  Since the name of my blog includes "Cow", I figured out I really should put a picture of a cow on there somewhere so last week, I added some California Cows that I stole from their website.  Most of you know that I really like the band Pink Floyd and I stumbled upon some of their old albums at Amazon.com.  I used to have just about all of them including Atom Heart Mother, Ummagumma, Meddle and others on LP's (33 1/3 vinyl).  When I finally gave in to CD's, I gave/threw the albums away.  I know, I know, dumb!  I did keep one vinyl:   Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of H.G. Well's 'War of the Worlds'.  Marvelous album.  I even downloaded the digital version when illegal downloading was sort of, well, not quite so illegal.  Anyway.  I decided that every so often, I'm gonna change my Cow picture on the upper right side of my blog.  Hope you notice, hope you enjoy.  Cows rock!

Birthday, the aftermath........

6 A.M. breakfast.........

The best present................

Enough said.........

Old Fart Thoughts

A friend of mine in Florida sent me an e-mail today and it got me thinking about my (ug!) birthday tomorrow.  It was all about the benefits of walking as you get older, the exercise and what the benefits are.  Here's some of the highlights:
1.  Walking can add minutes to your life.  This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7000 per month.
2.  I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
3.  I have to walk early in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing.
4.  Everytime I hear that dirty word "exercise" I wash my mouth out with chocolate.
5.  We all get heavier as we get older because there's a lot more information in our heads.  That's my
story and I'm sticking with it.

To keep this short and sweet, now that I'm older I thought it was great that I seemed to have more patience.  Turns out I just don't give a shit .........

Get that Copier out of the Living Room

Three or four years ago, our company was going to throw out some used trade-in copiers.  I looked and grabbed one as did a couple of other techs.  I had our driver guy help me load it in the company truck and immediately took it home.  Charlene wasn't home at the time so we just left it in the living room and returned to work.  When I got home, there was no excitement, no joy in mudville.  Instead, it was, "You're not putting a copier in our living room."  Sigh......  I explained it was a 20 page a minute copier, network printer and a super fast fax.  No dice.  "Put it in the garage".  "Honey, I can't, it will get ruined out there".  So, a compromise was reached.  I took off the auto document feeder and replaced it with a flat platen cover (lid).  Then I took it off the stand and put it on the floor sitting on a piece of plywood.  Now, it was pretty much hidden from view sitting on the floor behind the couch.  Especially with a cover thrown on top (one of the cat's favorite sleeping places).

    It was little used at first but it replaced our small laser printer on my desk.  Then, Charlene decided to become a RN.  Gotta get the Associate's Degree first, then 2 years of intense (put mildly) Nursing College.  All of a sudden, the volume started picking up.  An occasional fax, mainly copies and computer prints.  Now, years later, SHE goes through between 2 and 4 reams of paper a month.  2000 sheets!
Not a day goes by (7 days a week) that she's either printing or copying stuff.  We joke about it often but she's glad it's here. 

Here she is, last week, copying articles from AJN (American Journel of Nursing) for class and study material. 
Dealing with I.T. guys in the network part of my job, I run across used equipment they're trying to get rid of so I've picked up an HP 4050 laser printer and stuck it in Nic and Trav's room.  Both are 'networked' so anyone can print to them.  When Charlene has problems with paper jams she can't clear, she'll turn it off and wait 'till I get home and just switch her print jobs to the HP.  God, I love Technology, especially when it's free.

Gettin' Near the Top......

Charlene reminds me that my birthday is coming up.  Yuch!  Another birthday.  Maybe it's a old fart thing, maybe it's just me but birthdays don't excite me anymore.  She asks me what I want for my birthday every year and I say the same thing, "Nothing, it's just an old fart's birthday".  She goes out and gets something anyway.  This year, the same question, "What do you want for your birthday?".  Thought I'd play a trick on her this year.

Her:  What do you want for your birthday?
Me:  If you promise to get me what I ask for, will you?
Her:  Sure!
Me:  I want Nothing, will you get it for me?

Yea, it was a nice try.  I started to go into the bedroom a couple of days ago and she said, "Stop!  You can't go in there yet, I have something for your birthday and I haven't put it away.....

So, with the lyrics, "Will you still need me, will you still feed me?  When I'm 64" running through my head as I'm reading the newspaper comics, I glanced at the column "Today's Birthdays".  I've read it for decades, noting all the famous/infamous people listed with their ages.  When I first started reading it, my age was at the bottom (youngest).  Now, I'm getting near the top of the list.  Ewwww!  Everyone asks me, "So, when is your birthday and I always reply, "Same as Thomas Edison's".........

Attack of the Study Halls

First, I'd like to say that if you double-click on any photo, you'll get the bigger, uncut photo.  Then use your browser's 'back' button to return to this page....
I've sent many e-mails and even a blog or two about Charlene's continuing assult on RN Nursing College.  She's just started NS30, the 3rd of 4 half-year classes toward finishing her RN degree.  The first requirement was an Associates Degree which she finished in December, '08.  She thought Algebra, Chemistry, Anatomy, Physiology and Micro Biology were tough but she was unprepared for the tremendous amount of homework and studies involve in Nursing College.  Throughout all of undergrad school, she mostly hogged the desktop computer we both shared, leaving me to my company laptop.  I bought her a laptop two Christmases ago and took back the desktop for my own.  Worked out well with the wireless thing allowing her to use it in the bedroom, living room and even the back patio.  Even at her study sessions at the coffeehouse with fellow students with the free Wi-Fi.  The biggest problem now is the incredible mass of study materials she uses, including her 'medical-app' loaded iPod Touch.  (I think it's a toss up between the laptop and the iPod Touch as to which is more valueble).  Here's a picture from a week or two ago.  Travis was sneering on pupose as he saw me raise the camera.  They're both doing homework.  Notice Charlene's laptop and the iPod Touch right next to it.  Medical apps are invaluable - better than books, sometimes.  Notice all the books surrounding Charlene (including the big textbook on top of her even bigger 3 ring binder).  And yes, she's wearing her 'famous' Sock Monkey jammies. 

Here's another picture of the same area, while she's in her student nurse uniform, complete with her "stinkin' badges".  More books consuming space in the living room.  That little woven basket used to hold our remotes (we all have way too many remotes, don't we...) but now it holds weapons of mass instruction - scissors, markers, pens, pencils, post-its and sticky tabs.  Her study hall has out grown the living room.......

So, she decided she needed a bigger and more efficient study hall.  Hey, just around the corner is the kitchen with a huge dining table.  Well, guess what!  No more meals served in kitchen until the middle of May when this quarter ends.  I think this picture says it all (complete with dual monitors which she finds she cannot live without.

Books piled everywhere, a plastic basket full of paperwork and....... well, you get the picture(s).........

Organic - Huh?

Most everyone seems to be on a health kick, doin' the excercise bit, eating right (whatever that means) and trying to live longer.  The big thing I see is the new 'Organic' push.  You all know what I'm talking about.  You hear it on TV, read it in the newspaper (remember those?) and they even have an Organic section in the grocery store.  The other day, I was looking at the giant selection of frozen pizzas and low and behold, there it was:  Organic Pizza.  My first thought was to laugh and I did.  Organic Pizza.  Uh, let's see, organic usually connotates heathy.  I've eaten enough pizza to know that it ain't healthy.  It's chock full of artery clogging animal fat even before you add pepperoni and sausage and ham and other animal meats.  Organic pizza?  I don't think it makes a difference whether pizza is organic or not, it's still gonna kill you. And, as far as this "Organic" thing goes,  just remember that Hemlock is organic, too.........

Bagpipe Guy

I usually take a shortcut home using back roads to our street.  About a half a mile from home, I cross under the 101 Freeway and for the past couple of years, I occassionally see the "Bagpipe Guy".  I don't know who he is, where he lives or anything about him.  All I know is that about once a week, I pass him as he practices under the freeway.   He's got long silver-blond hair, always wears sneakers and he's kind of an old fart like me.

As you can see, there's also an operational railroad track there, too.  I don't know if he's married or lives with someone but seeing as he practices his very loud bag pipes under a freeway, next to a railroad track, uh, I think his musical practice got kicked out of 'home'.  It's kinda cool, though when I come around the corner and see/hear him playing.  I took this picture out the truck window 'on the fly' so it's a little blurry.  Hard place to pull over to snap a better pic as it's a blind curve at this location.  One of the local good guys I guess and it's always fun to see him 'pipe-ing' away.