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REXTINE1's Recent Blog Entries
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
At the Kiwanis meeting today we agreed to do another pancake breakfast at the Lutheran Church of the Palms for the Palm Harbor High School band. This is a service event, not a fund raiser for us, and it is for September 25. I also agreed to bring my air compressor and a few other tools to Burnham’s house at 10 Saturday morning, so we determine our ability to use the second mounted grill. We really need two grills one way or another, but I think we used the church oven last year. There were only 8 of us at the meeting, and the meeting that moved us out of the back room had 10 people.
After I came home I put the 95 gallon trash container on the curb, then got out the chain saw and took the camphor tree down in four pieces. They were pretty heavy, but there was still room in the can, so I decided to dig the stump out then, even though that’s not my favorite chore. It took a round point shovel, a square long handled shovel, a mattock, and a chain saw. With a lot of digging and chopping I got the stump loose, but not free. Finally, through the magic of a chain saw, I took the stump out in six pieces, and a lot more pieces of root. It took several trips to get all the roots in the trash can, but when I was done the entire small tree was in the can, which was pretty hard to tip. The lift on the truck didn’t have any trouble, however.
I had a cheese sandwich for lunch, then tried to find the new, closer Harbor Freight Tools store. After I gave up, I went down to E. Bay Drive, near Belcher, in Largo. I got quick disconnect fittings and an Air Blow Gun Set that is just a pistol grip valve with three tips: one is blunt, one is six inches long, and one is 12 inches long. All three have the same diameter opening, so the fastest air will come out of the blunt tip, but I don’t know where we will be blowing in the burners. I also found some welding rods and two gauges of steel wire that I have which will make long drill rods if we have to try to drill scale out of the assembly.
We called and visited with my youngest brother, who is 66, and found out that he had a stroke last Saturday, and has had a total of four mild strokes since then. The ER doctors did a CAT scan of his head, and found no permanent damage and just doubled his blood pressure medicine. If he recovers within a day he isn’t supposed to worry. The BW told him we were coming by in October and he reminded us that Frank, the in-between brother who had retired, sold his condo, and bought another in Mansfield, was worried that Ev would die before Frank got there. Instead Frank came down with sepsis and died nearly nine years ago.
The BW was going on, and I had to explain Ev’s meaning to her. He plans to outlast us all, or alternatively, it’s a crap shoot. He has friends that are passing on too. We need to just pick some dates and plan the trip so people will stop nagging us about “when?”
Monday, August 30, 2010
I went to bed a little late last night, and got up late this morning. As I was about to leave, the BW got up, and it was just 7:30, so I stayed and had a bowl of cereal. She wanted me to go along with her to Oldsmar, to get her shots in the hip, so I was just going to take the dogs for a quick walk. Then she wanted to start an hour and a half before the appointment, which was only another 45 minutes away, so I decided to take the dogs when we got back.
After the appointment, she wanted some groceries from Sweetbay, so I dropped her off and put yesterday's tips in the Kiwanis service savings account, then looked around the store and couldn't find her. After trying the car again, I found her and we finally got home at noon, so I took the dogs out then, as it was still only 85 degrees.
We got a half mile (by my pedometer) and Ralphy wanted to lie down in the shade again, so I got to carry him home. He weighs 15 pounds, which is a pound over the standard for the breed, and Dr. Lynch wanted him to weigh 11 1/2 pounds. He was down to 13, but last week the BW had both dogs at the vet's and he was supposed to lose a pound, so I guess he's not really terribly fat, just not good in the heat. I checked his fur tonight, and it's about 5/8 of an inch, so maybe I'll give them haircuts pretty soon.
The irony is that the BW made me quit taking them with me because Gracie was laying around all day, and she thought it was too much for Gracie. Her stomach tucks up a little, and Ralphy's is nearly straight. He needs to lose a pound.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
I set my alarm for five this morning, and pushed the snooze alarm to get an extra three minutes. Then I got up, dressed and shaved, collected the paper and fed the dogs. After breakfast I made it to Nelson’s by 6:25, but Burnham was there before me and the storage facility was open. He had connected the hose, and we didn’t bring the sausage grill because he was confident he had two working grills on the trailer. I asked him if he had lit the second, and he said no. I had serious reservations abut that, but kept my mouth shut. We gave the second grill to the Senior Center several years ago, and it just sat outside until he finally asked them if we could have it back. I think they were happy to get rid of a big hunk of iron that was in their way.
Jack showed up shortly later, and I passed my key through the fence so he could get in, and we loaded everything in three cars and the trailer. Tom showed up and helped load, but he had left his car outside and walked in somehow. We were all on the road by 6:45, and got to the Y in time to drive back to our serving location, which make life a lot easier.
We unloaded, unhitched and leveled the trailer, and tried to get both grills in operation. The new (old) grill never did fire up, so we heated frozen sausage on part of the working one, and cooked pancakes on the other. This wasn’t a good solution because it takes a lot longer to get frozen sausage up to hot than it does to turn out 18 to 20 pancakes. We normally do up to 36 at a time, but Tom was making them bigger on a smaller surface, and there wasn’t much need to make them faster because only a few people didn’t want sausage, but we would run out of pancakes when we had sausage.
It was still a good day, and we served from about 7:45 to about 11. By the time we cleaned up and packed up everything it was past 11:30, and then we had to take most things back to Nelson’s for storage. Tom and I followed Berhnam home and helped push the trailer up the hill for storage, but Jack, Marty, and Papuga went home. We wound up with $208 in tips, and expect another $100 from the organizer for their volunteers, so we should show about a $200 profit on the event, which will more than pay for a school event where we provide everything and the school keeps all the money.
I brought all the sausage and pancake tools and utensils home for cleaning. The first thing I did was to turn the hose on in the back yard and wash as much pancake batter off as possible, then I ran what I could through the dishwasher and washed the rest by hand. The two big bowls fit the big side of the sink just fine, and the BW gets credit for insisting on that configuration when we got a new kitchen. I finished up by counting the money again, and found that we have 93 one dollar bills, not 92, so I’m still OK as the treasurer. I’ll walk over to the bank and deposit it tomorrow.
Then I tried to satisfy Brenham’s request that I combine two of the chafing dish fuel containers, and couldn’t figure out how to do it, so I just took everything back to Nelson’s and put it in storage until the next event. That was a little after three, and the BW went along with me because she wanted to find a grocery store she had read about – in Oldsmar. We poked around and finally found it after some difficulty because my first impression was that the address was vacant. Then we saw the marquee, and it turns out that it was that address, #8. I never heard of stores having unit numbers, and the ad didn’t mention it, but the marking on the window said “1530” and “No. 8” under the address number.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Yesterday I looked up “goat heads” on the internet because when I got home I found two of them stuck to the sole of my right shoe. For any easterners who have never heard of goat heads, they are a nasty seed with sharp, strong thorns that stick out in either two or three directions. They surprised me in Yakima when I first encountered them by causing a flat tire on my bicycle. I was a sheltered Ohio and Indiana guy who had been to Barcelona, Naples, Genoa, Berne, Paris, and all over the US many times on business, and even as far south as Mazatlan in an RV, but the only natural world observation that I recall was to think that the weeds in Barcelona look a lot like the weeds in Indianapolis.
Goat heads are a pest that certainly matches sand burrs for irritation. They are much stronger, and will puncture your shoe and stick you from the outside. Prior to yesterday I had assumed that they were a western problem. One of my oldest daughter’s fiancées (before they had premarital counseling and she called it off) was a bug man for the agricultural station in Yakima. He had never seen a lightning bug, and was astounded when he came to visit us in Indianapolis. I have been told that there are no flying insects in Hawaii, which I still feel hard to believe. So I assumed that we were safe here from goat heads, but when I looked them up in Wikipedia the article said they were annuals in the north, perennials in the south, and they were found in the southeast US. They are a world wide problem, found on every continent except Antarctica, because they prefer warm weather. One thing that gives me a little hope is that they are broad leaf plants, so weed killers will help control them (while also killing the weedelia I planted). I’m not sure if we have any goat head weeds in our yard, but I know I have seen them flowering somewhere locally. One good thing is that tall cover, St. Augustine grass was mentioned specifically, helps to control them.
I remember fondly bluegrass, and worrying only about dandelions and plantains. If you didn’t want a pristine lawn, you could still run around barefoot without worrying. Here the seeds of some plants in your yard can be a real irritation. I couldn’t believe a builder who told me the way to get a lawn was to soak the lot in roundup, wait until everything was dead (a couple of months) then sod the whole thing. I’m finally beginning to believe him.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Tuesday I bought 600 Jimmy Dean breakfast sausages and stored them in the Kiwanis freezer. Thursday I had the empty propane bottle filled and put it back in storage at Nelson’s. I also was in leeway last night at TOPS, and had a nearly perfect day for the Spark nutrition measurements. Today I bought Tylenol and groceries for the BW. I got everything on her list and some more, so we can keep eating for a while.
Tomorrow we will go to Fairway Pizza for lunch with the TOPS crowd – a friendship lunch that everyone is invited to attend because it’s not a real TOPS function. Then later I will pre-stage two five gallon containers of water at the “Y”, where the triathlon will be on Sunday. We have to set up in a parking lot and bring everything necessary to cook pancakes and sausage and serve pancake breakfasts to 300 or so kids and grownups. We just can’t move it all now with the second grill on the trailer, so I move the water and some other utensils in and cover everything just before they lock the gates overnight. That makes it easier to set up Sunday morning.
Sunday I get to Nelson’s by 6:30 to load things, along with my new check list to be sure we load everything. I couldn’t find the clipboard and checklist we have been using, so I printed a new one. I also reduced the font from 12 point to 11 to make room, and added the chafing dish and some other new stuff we use now. With luck the races will be over in good time. Then we pack up, and I help Burnham push the trailer back up into his back yard. Then I’ll come home with a lot of stuff that has to be washed. I think I got it all back to Nelson’s by 4:00 the last time we did this which makes it a pretty long day, but I took time out for lunch and ran a load of the smaller stuff through the dishwasher, so it’s not all work.
I also found out that I’m going to be the treasurer of our combined club for one more year, but maybe John P. will take over next year (2012). If not I might resign because I don’t like to stay in one job for more than four years, and nothing will make me be president.
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Member Comments About This Blog Post:
I love pancake breakfast.
