Leftovers Night

I used leftovers for dinner tonight, and dinner turned out to be surprisingly tasty. Very tasty! I’ll list the amount of each ingredient but it’s the kind of recipe that doesn’t need strict attention to proportions. Use what you’ve got.

• 1 medium summer squash, sliced thin
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced into rings
• 1/2 green bell pepper, sliced into strips
• 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into strips
• 4 oz. Lloyd’s Woodfire Pork BBQ

Put the veggies into a bowl and heat 20 ~ 30 seconds in the microwave – 40 ~ 60 seconds if the ingredients came from the fridge.

Heat a wok and add:

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp brandy
• 1 tbsp diced garlic

When the liquid begins to sizzle, add the veggies and pork. Stir as it fries. Add salt, pepper, and sprinkle on red pepper flakes. (I like food that is hot and spicy - you may prefer to omit the red pepper flakes.)

Stir-fry until veggies are done. Eat. Enjoy.

Servings: 2
Calories per serving: 260

Listening to Linda

My Suzy Bogguss post of yesterday motivated me to find some Linda Ronstadt material. Ronstadt is high on my list of favorite female American singers. Is Ronstadt the most talented female American singer of our time? Possibly. Is she one of the best? No question. She has 11 Grammy Awards, 2 Academy of Country Music Awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, an ACM Music Award, numerous gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, as well as Tony Award and Golden Globe nominations. She has charted 36 albums, 10 Top 10 albums, and 3 No. 1 albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts. Linda can hold her own with any singer. She has a great voice and can put a lot of power into it.

Rummaging through the first dozen albums in an old box of LPs turned up a half dozen Ronstadt albums from the ‘70s and ‘80s. My favorites were Greatest Hits and Living in the USA. She has so many great songs that it’s hard to pick one song and call it my favorite, but here goes anyhow: Easy For You to Say. If you have it on CD or can find an MP3, put on your headphones (or plug in your ear buds), close your eyes, and listen to Linda belt out this Jimmy Webb song (a Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the spring of 1983). If you don’t have it, then YouTube will have to do. This is Linda singing Easy For You to Say in a live TV performance in 1983. (The studio performance on CD is even more perfect – as would be expected.)

Also-ran favorites:

All of these songs are found on Linda’s Living in the USA album.

Livin’ in the USA : this live performance with Chuck Berry sounds very much like track #1 on the album.

Alison : one of many great songs written by Elvis Costello.

Mohammed’s Radio : one by the late, great Warren Zevon.

White Rhythm & Blues : a beautiful ballad by J. D. Souther.

Listening to Suzy

Another day behind me. Had plenty to do today and didn’t get online until after 8PM. Now I’m listening to some old tunes. I stumbled across this Susy Bogguss tune from her album Aces. (I bought the CD when it was released in ‘91.) I like listening to this lady – what a nice voice she has! This album has some great tracks. Aces was her breakout album; it went platinum. Someday Soon was the album’s first single. I don’t listen to much country music, but I like this song. If you want to skip the intro, the music starts 37 seconds into the clip

Where’s the Blimp?

It has now been 1,202 consecutive days without a blimp flying directly above my house. What are the odds?!

 
                       A random blimp buzzes my house.

Pull up a chair and I’ll tell you a story about me and the Blimp. Well, not the blimp. A blimp.

Back in my college days, eons ago, one summer found me working in Bladensburg, Maryland. I was working for a company called Fairchild-Hiller, trying to earn money for my college expenses. Monday night through Thursday night I stayed in a room at a frat house on the University of Maryland campus in College Park. There were about a dozen frat houses arranged along a U-shaped road (I bet it had a really unique name, too, like “Fraternity Row” – but that’s a pure guess). I paid $8 a week for a small room without electricity or hot water (‘cuz it was summer, remember?).

Anyhow, there was a huge open field behind the frat house and every evening as the sun went down a blimp would appear. It would land at the field, take on passengers, and then take off to tour the Washington, D.C. area. I can still recall looking up as the blimp soared low above the frat house on its takeoff and being astonished at seeing words and crude images flowing across the bottom of the blimp. (When the blimp is 100 feet above you, it’s impressive; quadruple that when animated electric light messages cover its bottom half against a dark sky.) That the blimp can display messages is common knowledge now, but this was back in the day, shortly after the discovery of fire and the invention of television. Back then, who knew? Only a few people. And me.

A surprise package (and new windows)

A large white envelope arrived by USPS today. It was from my friend CyberDave in Roanoke-town. “What wondrous item has CyberDave sent me?”, I wondered. Multiple thoughts flashed through my mind, rapid fire. A free update to Windows 7? A free copy of Visual Basic 2010, no doubt obtained through his computer club? I fondled the package; it felt like a book. Hmmm … a book? Is it the autographed John Holland robotics book I loaned CyberDave years ago and now his wife, in a fit of extreme housecleaning, has ordered him to return? “Get this out of the house,” I imagined her saying. “Books are clutter.” Or perhaps he has sent me a genuine, personally autographed copy of his first book, which I imagine would somehow combine elements of programming, computer-aided design, and beer.

I ripped open the envelope and eagerly withdrew the contents. It wasn’t a book after all, but a book-shaped box holding a DVD. It was a video instruction DVD from LiveLessons titled Data Access in the ASP.NET 2.0 Framework.

Huh? Data Access, that sounds like database stuff. ASP is Active Server Page technology. ASP.NET implies that the ASP technology is designed to run on the .Net Framework. I’m not sure I am smart enough to understand all this stuff. People are always overestimating my intelligence. I’m really not that smart. I’ve just learned how to be good at faking it.

Well, thanks very much, CyberDave. I will definitely watch as much as I can, barring a brain meltdown. This may turn out to be the very thing I need to make my website take off and turn me into a software-mogul/celebrity-billionaire. And if that happens, I won’t forget you. No, indeed. In fact, to show my appreciation I declare publicly, right here and now, that I will return this DVD to you anytime you want it. Just call my secretary and tell her, and she will have your message waiting for me the very next time I get back from the Bahamas. After all, it’s the least I can do. And never let it be said I didn’t do the least I could do.

Steve the window guy was here today. He was here 4 weeks ago to measure my upstairs dormer windows for replacement windows. The old dual-pane windows had gotten so fogged up internally that they had become opaque. I am a firm believer that windows should be transparent, so I made arrangements to replace them. Steve measured them (and wow, was he fast – zip with that tape measure, got it –zip, got it –zip, got it) and took off. A week later I called him. “Did you order the windows yet?”  “I ordered them this morning.” Replacement windows must be custom made. The two front windows measured 32 inches wide, but the rear bathroom window measured 32-1/2. So he showed up today with the windows. The front windows went in very quickly (Steve: “Tell me I can’t measure a window!”), but when he got to the back window, the window that measured 32-1/2 wide 4 weeks ago -- well, it measured 32 inches wide today. Oops. Steve pointed out the back window didn’t have trim inside the frame, and he had taken the measurement assuming it did. He looked at me and said “Who would have thought somebody would install a window and leave it without any trim?!” He looked suspiciously at me as he said it, implying that it wasn’t his fault and that, quite possibly, it was my fault. Somehow. I shrugged. What do I know about windows? Not much, but I do know you can’t return a custom-made window for a refund. Even though he had asked me to tell him, I resisted the temptation to say “You can’t measure a window.” I felt bad he had to eat that window, but we younger geezers know how the Universe works … just brag on what a great job you’ve done before the job is completely finished and Bam! you’ll get a giant smackdown from the Universe. Every time.

If all goes according to plan, Steve should return in a few weeks to replace that last window and wrap the frames.

Oh yeah, one more thing; according to Steve, “Obama is going to destroy the country.”  How so, Steve? Steve started listing things “the guy on the radio” told him. Stop right there, let’s take the first thing you said.  “Obama is going to get rid of the Republicans.”  Get rid of the Republicans?  “Yeah.”  You’re kidding, Steve. The Republican Party is set to win big in the mid-term elections. How is Obama going to get rid of them?  “You’ll see,” he said.

So goodbye GOP. Remember, you heard it here first. Unless you, too, listen to the guy on the radio.

Friday

It’s been a long, hot summer. Long. Hot. Summer. Did I mention hot?

Before modern air conditioning was invented (by Willis Haviland Carrier in 1902), European nations considered Washington, D.C., to be a hardship post for their ambassadors. Summer in Washington was hot and humid. One hundred twenty miles to the south lies my small central Virginia town. Summers here are usually hotter than summers in Washington. In fact, summer temperatures here are often hotter than central Florida temperatures. Florida is helped by air off the ocean while Virginia bakes under air that has crossed thousands of miles of hot interior.

	Heat index = 115°. Sometimes it’s hotter.
	Sarcasm from Aliens: Frost: Hot as hell in here. Hudson: Yeah man, but it's a dry heat!

It doesn’t seem to matter how far north or south the location might be. One of the hottest places I’ve visited was Helena, Montana, in August. (Though Glacier National Park – same month, same state – was comfortable. So there’s an upside to having a glacier nearby!)

But on this September day there was a touch of fall in the air. The day was sunny, breezy, and 72° at noon. I went to Applebee’s Bar and Grill for lunch today. Instead of wearing shorts, I put on jeans for the first time since this summer began. 

I got to the restaurant early and there were no customers at the bar. Behind the bar, a waitress cut up lemons and pineapple for cocktails while the Friday bartender, Stephanie, pored over some papers – a work schedule, perhaps. I ordered a light beer and a house salad. The house salad is one of the healthiest items on their menu. In my humble opinion.

After a while another customer - a young black man - sat at the bar. Over his black T-shirt he wore a heavy gold chain with a large and flashy gold cross suspended from it. (Judging from the size of his cross, he must have been a very devout young man. Very devout.) As he sat down, he pulled out an iPhone and placed it on the bar. Soon a woman joined him (probably for prayer). They were the only other customers at the bar while I was there.

Oh, remember in my last blog entry the gal who said she was bitten by a jellyfish - which caused me to question, “Since when do jellyfish have teeth?” She was here today, waiting tables. In fact, here is the actual photo of the jellyfish taken seconds before it attacked and bit her. Jellyfish experts I have spoken with say these attacks are rare. She is expected to make a complete recovery. 

 

A photo of the rare toothed Jellyfishicus Dentalarius.

An Average Day

It’s been an average day. Average, average, average. I went to Walmart this morning and bought grub – including a pack of 6 hard-boiled eggs. I came home and put away the grub. I made deviled eggs from the hard-boiled eggs. I ate one of them. It was my breakfast.

I went to the ABC and bought a liter of brandy. I went to Martin’s and bought more grub. I came home and ate another deviled egg. I made broccoli slaw with ranch dressing.

I did a whole bunch of other totally average things. At about 5PM I ate dinner. Blackened filet of salmon (actually baked, but with blackened fish seasonings), asparagus sauteed in evoo, and steamed squash and onion. Yum.

At 7PM I call my cousin Ron. He’s the only relative I have left who still speaks to me. Am I that hard to get along with? Must be. At 7:10 I decide to take my evening walk. The air is about 85 degrees, and after the high 90s to low 100s we’ve had all summer the air feels good. On Lynchburg Avenue I pass two men talking across a chain link fence; the man on the sidewalk side of the fence has with him a Siberian Husky. I stop to talk to the men about the dog. The 6-month-old Husky is friendly and jumps on me to try to lick my face. I continue on my way past the middle school; the middle-schoolers are playing football behind the school this evening. Their impromptu athletic field is well below the roads around it, and as I pass by I look down on the field. Parents line the edge of the field, sitting in folding chairs watching their kids get exercise. I pass by parents sitting in parked cars and pickups watching events on the field below.

I go east for a couple of blocks then turn south. An elderly man sits in a rocking chair on a porch. “It’s a great day for sitting on the porch”, I say to him. “A lot better than a month ago”, he replies, smiling. I continue south on Cameron. As I cross Jackson Avenue, I see a man in a van having an argument with a woman standing beside the driver’s door. I don’t know what the argument is about; they argue in Spanish. Despite studying Spanish for two years in high school, I remember only enough now to say “no hablo Español”.

I turn onto Virginia Avenue and walk a short block to Violet Bank Museum. It was built around 1815 as a private residence. It replaced an earlier house that burned down in 1810. Its architecture is in the Federal style of the period. Violet Bank is locally famous for the massive and gnarly cucumber tree standing in front. I’ve never been inside the museum and I’m not going inside today.

I turn onto Arlington Avenue. It’s a short and pretty block. The street is divided into two lanes by a center median of grass and trees. A half minute later I arrive at the Boulevard. If I turn south I will begin a long downhill walk to the Appomatox River and a bridge across it that connects to Petersburg just a couple blocks from Old Towne.

Instead I turn north. About two blocks later I walk by the World War 2 Memorial Park. It’s kept in beautiful condition. A block further on, and the Boulevard bends and blends into an assemblage of auto shops, used car lots, tattoo parlours, hair stylists, gas stations, drugstores – a gritty smorgasbord of American roadside mediocrity. A young black woman jogs toward me with iPod earbuds plugged into her head. I figure she’s listening to music as she jogs, but as she passes I hear her utter a phrase in some foreign language, so I surmise she’s learning a new language as she jogs. Exercise for the body and the brain? Most likely, she’s a soldier stationed at nearby Fort Lee, preparing herself to go overseas.

I head for a drugstore entrance. I see a gal who waits tables at the local Applebee’s Bar and Grill. She’s talking to someone in a car, and though she sees me she gives no hint of recognizing me. Nor do I hint at recognizing her. Some kind of unwritten social convention seems to be at work, making each of us invisible. As I approach her I can tell she’s talking about a recent trip to Myrtle Beach. As I pass her and enter the store, I hear her say she was “bitten by a jellyfish”. I knew jellyfish can sting, but are they biting now? They have teeth now? Ouch.

I spend two minutes inside the store, basking in the air conditioning. Then - back outside. It’s getting dusky. Soon I’m back on Lynchburg Avenue and headed toward Lafayette. Ahead of me I see my neighbor Carey walking her two dogs (I have a blog entry about her dogs). She’s at the corner of Lafayette and Lynchburg. I wave and call her name. I hear her say something, but can’t tell what. I’ve lived two houses from her for seven years, and I’ve spoken with her in her front yard or over her backyard fence many times, and yet she’s never asked my name or given any indication she knows it. Of course, she’s only 37; I barely exist to people born after 1970. They consider me a part of the fossil record. “Say, shouldn’t you be in a museum?”

Give me time. I’ll be there soon enough.

Large Thoughts

I’ve been having large thoughts lately. I’ve been thinking about the universe. Those who study such things say that when we talk about the universe, we must distinguish between the universe and the "observable" universe. We know how big the observable universe is. We don’t know how big the entire universe is. It may be many orders of magnitude larger than the observable universe. In fact, it may be infinite.

Before the universe was … I almost said “created”, but that would be jumping to a conclusion … before the universe came into existence, there was a void: no space, no time, no matter, no energy. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Many people are under the mistaken impression that before the Big Bang occurred, there was just empty space, and the Big Bang was an explosion that occurred somewhere in this empty space. But that is not the case. Before the Big Bang, space did not exist. Time did not exist. Hence my use of the term “void”. The Big Bang created “spacetime” and all the matter and energy within it.

All very good. But at the instant of the Big Bang, something else came into existence … something we don’t usually think of as coming into existence … something we tend to think of as always having been here. And that something was: the laws of physics. Plank’s constant. The speed of light. Quantum physics. And all the rest: mathematics, geometry, trigonometry, integral calculus, differential calculus. Etc., etc., etc. Isaac Newton didn’t invent calculus. He discovered it.

Where did the laws of physics come from? Why should there even be any laws of physics? If the void had existed for eternity without spawning a universe, then why should our universe have suddenly popped into existence 13.7 billion years ago? Why did the Big Bang (“creation”, if you prefer) happen at that particular moment? Why not a trillion years earlier … or later? Why not never? Does a question of time in a timeless epoch even have meaning?

And now, theorists theorize that there may be many universes … perhaps an infinite number of them. This collection of universes is called the multiverse. The laws of physics may be different in each universe. In many universes, the laws of physics are such that matter could not form … or stars could not form … or life could not develop. In our universe, the laws of physics, by sheer coincidence, turned out perfectly for us.  According to this theory, we live in a rare “Goldilocks” universe where all the laws of physics just happen to be fine tuned for us to be here. That’s not a very satisfying explanation. You might as well say it was magic.

The health care question

Some facts about the health care bill:

First, you don't have to buy health insurance. If you choose not to, you'll be treated differently at tax time. Just as single people and married couples are treated differently. Just as homeowners and renters are treated differently. Just as business owners and wage earners are treated differently. And on and on. No one will make you buy health insurance.

You say we can't afford it? The Congressional Budget Office, which both Republicans and Democrats acknowledge as non-partisan, says the bill will reduce the deficit over ten years. The CBO has a large group of accountants who have pored over the legislation with computer spreadsheets and have come to this conclusion: we're better off with it than without it. You may not believe them, and you're entitled to your opinion. Just realize that they have hundreds of pages of numbers and you have an opinion.

I'm for it. It's wrong to add a "surcharge" to every medical bill I pay in order to pay the bills of the uninsured. Why should someone else's health care expense be added to my bill? Shouldn't people be responsible for paying their own bills?

The law requires motorcycle riders to wear a helmet: society isn't protecting the motorcyclist from himself; society is protecting itself from the expense of caring for people for weeks in a hospital, months of rehabilitation, or possibly a lifetime of institutional care. Society has a right to insist people take action to mitigate the consequences of risky behavior if those consequences might otherwise fall back on society.

An advantage of having government pay for health insurance for the poor is this: If our society chooses to allow people to not have insurance, their unpaid bills should be borne by our entire society and not just by people who get sick.

Just my humble opinion. But I'm right.

Early November

Below is a cell phone photo I took today in the park across the street. My phone has a very poor-quality camera, but still you get the idea that fall is here. Most leaves have turned, and some trees have lost many, and some have lost almost none. Walking around the neighborhood I see big piles of leaves raked to the curb. Some of the piles are huge. I walked past one that must have taken many days to create (or many people working for only one day). That takes determination … or maybe, a leaf phobia. Personally, I’m not real big on raking leaves. I’ve found that if you leave them alone, nature takes care of them by itself … it doesn’t need our help. They gradually disappear on their own schedule. Where they go, who knows? To a big leafpile in the sky, perhaps. Of course, in this “civilized” land, just as we have to keep all our blades of grass trimmed to exactly the same length, if a leaf touches the ground it must be gotten rid of NOW.

There was a Halloween festival in the park, and the serpentine track in the grass is where the Haunted House stood. The track was caused by hundreds of kids tromping through the House.

Here’s a closeup of the tree in the above picture. Very colorful.

It’s been a fairly warm autumn. Roses are still blooming beside my house. This yellow rose is one of several blooming below an awning on the south wall of my house.

More later.