bread and butter

Bread and butter. Mary discovered that the cats like bread with butter spread on it. Well, not real butter, but Crock's spread which I guess is healthier than butter. I was surprised that they even ate the bread and butter, but they love it. Mary also puts out a generous supply of dry cat food as well. Tammy the cat is both a fussy eater and a finicky eater. If the can of cat food has been opened for more than a couple of hours, she won't touch it. I guess that it must lose some of its aroma by being open. So what Tammy the cat won't eat, gets put out for the feral cats to eat. The cat eating the bread and butter is the mafia cat Tony. I call him a mafia cat because of his Italian name. Last night we had a pork tenderloin that was shaped like a log roll. It came sealed inside heavy plastic with teriyaki seasonings inside the package, so the meat has had a long time to marinate. It was very good and we will get at least one more meal out of that pork loin. The pork loin came from WalMart and it was very inexpensive. I was surprised by the price and we went back the following day and bought two more of them. The pork loin was very lean and free of any fat plus the fact that there is no bone means that the whole loin gets eaten. But today is Friday and that means fish for supper. Mary is going to prepare some flounder. She is also preparing a pasta salad with a box mix called Suddenly Pasta which has nice seasonings in it. Today it is a work-outdoors day since the chance of rain is suppose to be less than yesterday. Everyone have a nice cool day and for those non-believers in global warming, just step outdoors around 3:00 in the afternoon. What can I say but HOT!!! Lew

dairy truck

Driving in Miami one day, I saw this McArthur Dairy delivery truck. What impressed me was how dirty the back of the truck looked. I decided that I just had to get a picture.

I got closer so that I could get a better picture. I noticed that this delivery truck was an independent distributor.

I do hope that they eventually cleaned the truck up and gave it a new paint job as well. However, I am sure that the inside of the truck was immaculate. Have a nice creamy and rich glass of chocolate milk. The chocolate milk will make whatever you are eating go down much better. My favorite is to get a container of Carnation chocolate malted milk additive. Spoon some (be generous) of the chocolate malted powder into a glass of milk, stir, and drink up. It is pure pleasure. Real yummy. Oh, but the calories. Well, we try not to think about those. At least not until after we are finished, because when you are drinking your glass of Carnation chocolate malted milk you just want to take in the whole pleasurable experience. Obviously, I really like the carnation chocolate malted milk mix in a glass of whole milk. Whole milk? Well, there goes the cholesterol. Why is it that everything that tastes good is bad for me? Should I mention chocolate ice cream? I better not. That is a whole story in itself. Be good. Have a non-fat unflavored cup of yogurt and pass on the chocolate malted milk. If you can do that then you are a better man than I Gunga Din. Rudyard Kipling? Lew

there will come soft rains

The north side of the neighbors house which is also the front of the house. Yes, really, it is the front of the house.

There will come soft rains

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,

And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pool singing at night,

And wild plum tree in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire,

Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war,not one

Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,

If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself when she woke at dawn

Would scarcely know that we were gone.

This is a poem by Sara Teasdale which I first heard a reading of it on an old time radio show

X-Minus One. This radio show did an adaptation of the short story There Will Come Soft Rains by the science fiction author Ray Bradbury. Ray Bradbury had incorporated the Sara Teasdale poem into the ending of his nuclear war post-apocalyptic short story of the future and named the short story after the poem. I like the poem and refer back to it for a reading from time to time. I have read some of her other poems but I like this one the best. It is also known as her best and most popular poem to which I can attest. The poem is similar to that new television series Life After People which is based on what would happen to our modern buildings if people weren’t around to maintain them. Of course they would get overgrown by vines and other vegetation. When I look at my neighbors house I think that it is an example of the television series Life After People with the vines growing over the house and garage. I sometimes wonder if there will come a point in time when the house will become completely covered over.

The picture above is the east side of the house which faces us.

This is a picture of the garage overgrown with vines.

I don’t know why they don’t keep the vines trimmed back. Perhaps the vines shade the house and help to keep it cool. It is interesting though to watch as the vines make their advance over the house. Hopefully the neighbors won’t wake up one morning to discover that they can’t get their door open because of the vines. I may have to get my machete and hack my way through the vines to rescue them. I know, fanciful thinking. I guess that I watch too many scfi-fi movies. Have a cool day and if the house gets too hot, just let the vines grow over it. Lew

Tuffy

This is a picture of Tuffy, a border collie. The same kind of dog as in the movie Babe about the little pig on the farm. This dog lived at a place called The Little Farm. The owners told me that her name was Tuffy. This was a farm set up for educational purposes for children. They had a few of every type of farm animal imaginable and gave demonstrations to the school children who were brought here by the busload. The border collie is a dog used for sheep herding purposes. I would collect goat milk samples here for work. When I would pull into the Little Farm with my van, Tuffy would run over and kept cutting in front of one corner of my car forcing me to turn the steering wheel. I told the owners about this and they said that she was just trying to “herd” me and that type of behavior instinctual with them. There were a total of three of these border collies, but Tuffy, because of her loving disposition, was my favorite. She always greeted me warmly. I would go to the Little Farm about once every three months. One time I heard via the grapevine that a vehicle had pulled on to the property and was leaking antifreeze. Two of the dogs who had drank the antifreeze died. There was a two in three chance that Tuffy had been one of the ones that had drank the antifreeze and died and only a one chance in three that she was the one that was left alive. I held my breath until my next scheduled visit and I was so glad when Tuffy came running out to greet me. She was the one who had lived. I felt sorry for the other two dogs that had died but I was absolutely ecstatic with joy that Tuffy was alive. I always enjoyed seeing Tuffy on my trips to The Little Farm and I am sure that the school children enjoyed her also. Tuffy is one of my pleasant memories of my life in Miami. May everyone find a pet as sweet as Tuffy. Lew

artist at work

This is a picture of the back of the house. In the window to the right of the window air conditioner is Mary sitting at the dining room table doing her painting. She was wearing a light colored blouse and so you can just barely see her.

Here is a close-up view and you can definitely see her now. The bright spot on her head is a fancy bejeweled barrette in her hair. Here is a lighter version of the previous picture in case that was too dark.

I always sit at the dining room table right by the window air conditioning unit. Actually I sit right in front of the air conditioner with the air blowing onto me. I like to be as close as possible to the source of the cold air. I do my studying here as well as using my laptop. Also, from 5:00 am to 7:00 am this is where you will find me either studying or writing a blog on my laptop. Plus, I always start the day with a game of solitaire on the laptop sitting here while having a cup of coffee and some toast, then it is on to the studying and blogs. I walked out the back door this morning while it was still dark and looked up at the sky and there were the three bright stars called the summer triangle. The summer solstice has passed and now the days will begin to get shorter and shorter until the winter solstice when everything reverses and the days once again start to get longer. But for now, with each passing day the temperatures keep edging up into the hotter range. Sort of reminds me of the song by Buster Poindexter called Hot, Hot, Hot. I liked his singing and he always portrayed himself as a lounge lizard. As I do each year, I just dread the coming of August with its high heat and stifling humidity. But August is still a month away and today is Tuesday which means movie day at the mall. Today we will see the movie Transformers. Mary has already printed out her coupon for a free popcorn. That is a pretty good coupon when you see what a bag of popcorn at the movies costs nowdays. This morning I get a haircut but unlike Sampson of olden times who had Delila cut his hair, my hair cutting will be done at Great Clips because we have a coupon for a $5 haircut (normally $12). Aren’t coupons great? We saw a good movie on a library DVD yesterday called A Beautiful Mind starring Russell Crowe based on a true life story. It was a sad and moody movie. Definitely not one to cheer you up. But it really stirred the emotions within. Dawn is breaking and it is time to go. Have a cold glass of soda and a good-sized slice of green key lime pie to cool the day. Lew

jasmine bush

jasmine bush

Just look at how much damage that the winter freeze did to the jasmine bushes. We weren’t sure how much the two bushes would recover from the winter freeze and so we waited to see how far up the stems the new green leaves would sprout from. This seems to be about the maximum regrowth of the frozen limbs so we decided to trim off the dead wood. Just look at how much dead wood there is, especially on the right hand side of the bush.

So we completed trimming the first bush and it came out pretty well. But it was very hot and we decided not to go on to the second bush the same day, but rather save it for another day.

You can see the difference in the two bushes. They definitely look better trimmed. But wait a minute. This is Florida. We aren’t suppose to get “freezing” weather in Florida. That is why we northerners left the north to come south to the land of sunshine, palm trees, surf, and sun. Have a pleasant day. Lew

Rivership Romance

Yesterday we spent a leisurely day cruising Lake Monroe and the St. Johns river on the Rivership Romance boat. Or should I call it a ship? I can never keep the designation of boat or ship straight. Never-the-less, it is a large boat with all of the amenities including very good air conditioning inside and beautifully decorated inside including Tiffany style lamps over the dining tables. Since the boat is moving, outside the boat there is always a cool breeze off of the water. A nature talk by one of the boats staff was held toward the bow of the boat and was quite interesting. There was so much wildlife to see. We were celebrating the birthdays of both Mary’s daughter Rhonda and her husband Guy and treated them to the cruise.

The meals that were served were fabulous. They started off with an appetizer buffet bar and then came the main course. Mary and I had their steaks. I was surprised by the size of the steak. It was huge. One of those “Texas” size steaks. It was very thick as well as large. We couldn’t eat all of the steak and brought the remainder home. Mary cut it into thin slices and we had steak sandwiches for supper. We definitely got a lot of protein yesterday. There were the usual sides of mixed vegetables and potatoes as well as rolls served in a wicker basket lined with a large linen cloth to keep them warm. A nice touch was that they had real butter served with the rolls instead of margarine. It was all finished off with a chocolate brownie with icing on top for dessert. Mary had a strawberry daiquiri to drink and her daughter had a drink called “tropical breeze” which was pink in color on the top half of the drink and blue in color on the bottom half of the drink. I am not sure which I liked better, going to the bow of the ship and watching the bow plow through the water or going to the back of the ship and watching the large propeller churn up the water, Both were very impressive. We went to the lounge for a while and sat and listened to a musician play songs from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. He asked for requests and I shouted out “Volcano” which is my favorite Jimmy Buffet song. He performed the song very well and I enjoyed listening to it. I would say that a good time was had by all. I am sure that compared to yesterday, today will be much more sedate. Have a good day. Sit back and relax and have a tall glass of pale green limeade while listening to some Jimmy Buffet music. Lew