SEPTEMBER 2022
Wednesday 2022.9.28
September is Coming to an End
The warm weather isn't gone yet. I bought my Pedego electric pedal-assist bicycle during an October and I remember it was 103°F (39°C) that day. However, for many, the coming of October means change. Some consider Labor Day, the first Monday in September here in the USA, the final day for BBQs. Others will argue this is the time of year to stop wearing light colored clothes, especially white, in public.
I was born and raised in New England. October is the time of year when the leaves change color and eventually fall to the ground. I remember an amusing incident.
We wanted a big pile of leaves to jump into. That was fun. So one day we went around the neighborhood and asked people if we could have the fallen leaves in their yard. Keep in mind, we were only kids. Of course, the neighbors were happy to give us their leaves. We raked them up and made a huge pile in the yard of one friend's grandfather. Everyone called him Pa. He didn't know what to make of our bringing other people's leaves into his yard, but we had a huge pile of dry leaves to jump into and that made for a fun afternoon.
I never learned what became of those leaves. I'm sure one or two dads got together and helped Pa rake them up and put them in the trash. At least we crushed them down, making then fit into the bin better.
Summer's Last Hurrah?
As I said above, the warm weather isn't over yet. This week began with some fairly hot days. Monday and yesterday were predicted to be in the mid to upper 80s. As I've often said, it is usually ten degrees warmer where I live, but the temperature outside pretty much agreed with the forecast this time.
Getting a Little Perspective
I've written several times about my bladder situation. I can't empty it without using a catheter. No need to go any further. However, I saw a helpful documentary on Monday. It was about diabetes.
Maintenance of their disease is difficult for those afflicted with it, sometimes requiring many readings per day. Some people who couldn't afford their insulin died. There are meters and insulin pumps and some newer technology that helps ease the burden of maintenance. What struck me most were the people who had to undergo one or more amputations because of their diabetes. That was sad.
It got me thinking. Am I so bad off? I have a lot for which to be thankful. I thought of Friar Lawrence's lines in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. "A pack of blessings lie upon thy back." For 70 years I've enjoyed good health. "There art thou happy." I have all my limbs, my eyesight, my hearing. "There art thou happy." I have good medical insurance. Other than some small copays, my insurance pays for everything. "There art thou happy." The catheters alone would cost me $60 per day if I were required to pay for them.
So, okay, I have to shove a hose up my urethra four or five times each day. It doesn't hurt. It's a nuisance, but a minor one; I'm home everyday anyway. It doesn't limit my mobility much. I can still go shopping. I can meet a friend for lunch. I can go for a bike ride.
And I've been thinking there might be another blessing. If something serious should happen to one of my relatives on the East Coast, I might be expected to fly there to say goodbye or to attend a funeral. I hate to fly. Now I can say I can't go unless I ship a carton of catheters first, or fill my luggage with them instead of clothing. My relatives might not be happy, but it's up to them to understand my limitations now.
Only Murders in the Building
Yesterday evening I watched the final episodes of the first season of Only Murders in the Building. It's one of the best TV series I've seen in a long time. If you're not familiar with it, three amateur sleuths team up to solve a murder that took place in the building in which they live. The stars are Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez.
A friend told me about them. I found the second season and watched it. I was hooked. However, much of the story depends on the first season, but I couldn't find any of the first season. A friend gave me his login and password so that I could stream it to my TV. It was very enjoyable.
Sunday 2022.9.25
Baby Cereal
Something that some people might find odd, or maybe even find difficult to believe, is that I remember the flavor of my baby cereal. I have very few memories of my infancy. One vivid memory is of eating sweetened rice cakes at the lake with my mother. She bought a package of six at the concession stand. There were six different colors and each cake was wrapped in a piece of brightly colored cellophane. I remember being disappointed that the rice cake wasn't as colorful as the wrapping. But, back to the cereal.
Off and on during my years I tried reproducing the flavor of that cereal, but I never knew what the ingredients were. Back then, we didn't have computers and the internet. And I never thought to look at a box of baby cereal at the store to see what was inside.
A few years ago I cooked something that required oat flour or finely ground rolled oats. I ground up more than I needed and decided to try cooking the remainder in milk and flavoring it with sugar and a little vanilla extract. When I tasted it, it was a revelation. There at last was the flavor I remembered from my babydom (which, according to the internet, really is a word). It was baby oatmeal.
A few weeks ago I made Refrigerator Oatmeal Cookies, using a very old recipe (1956) sent to me by a friend. I still have some rolled oats in the cupboard. So I ground some using my Vitamix, mixed it with some sugar, a little milk and a few drops of vanilla, and cooked it until thickened. I am eating it as I write this blog. It's still the flavor I remember so well.
OCD Revisited
In Wednesday's blog I mentioned my grill press. I didn't like the bare wood handle. It needed finishing with stain and varnish to protect the wood so that it wouldn't become stained with kitchen oil and grease over time and lose it's clean appearance. I worked on the handle.
It didn't turn out the way I hoped it would. Some of the wood absorbed a little too much wood stain. However, I still think it is an improvement over the bare wood and it will keep it's appearance a lot longer. It also feels better to use. And it will be easy to keep clean.
The cast iron is also better protected against rust. While the handle was removed and drying it's coats of polyurethane, I coated the iron with flax oil and heated it to above 500°F (260°C) for 30 minutes to polymerize the oil onto the iron. Then I let it cool to room temperature before coating it again. I repeated the process a few times and now the iron is sealed and a beautiful shiny black. Look for it in future panini videos.
And Speaking of Panini
This week I uploaded two more panini videos to YouTube. The heat spell of last week is well passed. We're back into temperatures in the mid to upper 70s, sometimes in the low 80s; however, I am still enjoying sandwiches.
One goal is to create a Panini playlist on YouTube, for which I need a few videos. I did four so far:
Pesto Lamb Panini
Grilled Chicken Panini
Pastrami and Provolone Panini
Roast Beef and Swiss Cheese Panini
I'd like to do a fifth — Grilled Sausage Panini — but maybe not right away. I would use some of my homemade sausage. Actually, this would fit into my plans to make more sausages.
When I stuff sausage casings, there is always some sausage meat remaining in the bottom of the stuffer and in the horn. I devised a way to push that filling into a casing for one additional sausage. What if I were to press that into a patty and grill it for a panini?
That's the plan. However, I need to use up the sausages I have in the freezer before I make more. I still have Polish sausages, Italian sausages, and beef sausages. There aren't many; so I can probably use them in a week or two. I'm really trying hard to use up some of the frozen foods in my freezer.
Meanwhile, I have enough panini videos on YouTube to cover me for the next three weeks.
Watching Ian
My twin brother and his wife live on the west coast of Florida. Soon-to-be-hurricane Ian is headed their way, but fortunately the eye of the storm will pass well west of them. It is predicted to make landfall up around the panhandle area of the state. I'll be watching as the week progresses.
Finally, Backups
It's boring, but it's something that needs to be done. After the feeling of loss I experienced when I temporarily lost the use of my favorite software, I once again realize the importance of doing backups.
This might be closer to OCD. I make two backups of every Mobile Home Gourmet cooking video and every My Kitchen Vlog video. One goes onto a Blu-ray disc (three to four videos fit on a 25GB blank) and one goes onto a 5TB hard disk drive I keep on a bookshelf in my office. It isn't connected to the computer, except when I do backups, and therefore it is safe if a virus ever attacks this computer. The computer has never suffered a virus attack — it is almost always off line; so the danger is low. However, zero is better than low.
Then I finish by documenting the videos in a database. With more than 400 cooking videos, it can be a little difficult finding one I need to watch again.
Wednesday 2022.9.21
Happy Fall
Tomorrow is the Autumn Equinox and thus the end of summer. If I remember some of the geometry I learned a long time ago, tomorrow is the steepest slope of the sine wave that models the length of days. Tomorrow the daytime will grow shorter by the most amount. The days will continue to get shorter until December 21, the Winter Solstice. The days will still be warm for several weeks because the daytime will be about the same as the nighttime — the heat will be on about the same amount of time as it is off. As we near winter, the nighttime will be longer, allowing for more cooling than heating, and thus the days will get colder.
Caring for Cast Iron
Cast iron cookware is among the most durable cookware to own. You could throw it through a window and it would be just as fine when you pick it up outside, as long as you don't live on the 20th floor of a building. Of course, it wouldn't do the window any good, but that's another issue.
Most cast iron cookware and gadgets come "pre-seasoned" by the manufacturer. That means they spray it with a light mist of oil and heat it until the oil darkens and polymerizes on the metal. That helps prevent the iron from rusting. However, the pans rarely get more than a cursory coating of oil and if left to air dry after washing, spots of rust will often appear. What to do?
Several years ago I learned flax oil is the best oil to use when seasoning cast iron. It contains the highest percentage of alpha-linolenic acid, the compound that polymerizes on the surface of the iron, giving it a durable and water-resistant surface. It also helps the pan to develop an attractive glossy black appearance. And the surface is somewhat nonstick, certainly better than bare iron.
One treatment might be enough for an already well seasoned pan, but if the pan or utensil is new, it will probably need four or five treatments until that polymer layer is built up enough to be protective.
On Monday there was a slight scattering of rain showers. The weather was cool, giving me a good opportunity to perform one of my long-delayed errands — season some of my cast iron cookware. I have a griddle that looks great on top, but the bottom will rust if I don't dry it carefully after washing. The same is true for a little seven-inch skillet that was given to me (see below). And I recently purchased a cast iron grill press that was slightly pre-seasoned; it definitely needed some attention.
After cleaning and drying the cast iron well, very lightly coat the surface with a very thin layer of flaxseed oil. It should barely look wet. Then heat in a hot oven (500°F / 260°C) for an hour. You might want to disconnect your smoke detector temporarily because the cookware will smoke. After an hour, turn the oven off and let it cool naturally. Repeat as necessary.
For smaller pieces, I cheat a little. I'll place the cookware upside-down over a gas burner on my stove and heat it that way. Using my laser thermometer, I check the surface temperature often to make sure I am maintaining at least that 500 degree heat.
The skillet only needed some maintenance. The grill press needed the full treatment. And griddle was seasoned in the oven while the morning was still cool.
That Little Cast Iron Skillet
I think I blogged about it several years ago. I was in a thrift store and saw it. It looked awful. Evidently, something had overheated in it and caught fire. The cook moved it onto a kitchen towel, which was probably polyester or nylon because it melted and stuck to the pan. So the inside was coated with something burnt and the outside had a hard plastic coating. When I expressed interest in it, the clerk at the thrift store gave it to me for free because it looked too far gone to save, other than to toss in the recycling bin.
I stripped the inside with oven cleaner to remove all the char. The outside plastic peeled off without too much difficulty. Then I proceeded with several cycles of the seasoning process. The pan came out looking great. I know I once took a photograph, but I can't find it now. It's probably on one of my backup discs somewhere.
A Little OCD
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I don't really have it. I'm just fussy. Or maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist about some things.
When I buy a kitchen utensil with a wooden handle, the wood is rarely, if ever, finished. By finished I mean stain and varnish. There was a time many years ago when manufacturers took pride in their finished product. Look at the gold designs on some antique Singer sewing machines. Now it seems like products are rushed to market to maximize profit.
I don't like unfinished wood handles. If my hands get a little oily from butter or other fat, that will transfer to the handle and it will look dirty, maybe even ugly after a while. So I do something about that. I use some wood stain to enhance the wood, then after the sufficient drying time I add a few thin coats of polyurethane. All my kitchen gadgets are thus enhanced and years later they still look like new.
This week I did the same with the wood handle on my grill press. I now wish I had taken before and after photographs, but oh well. Trust me. The handle looks great.
Sunday 2022.9.18
Happy Days Are Here Again
I mentioned in Wednesday's blog a friend who has a subscription to the software I formerly used (before it was mysteriously disabled). He and his wife use it to do some design and layout work for a few clients. He pays the $55 per month and he generously shared his login ID and password so that I could install the software on this computer. We did it together on Thursday.
Not only am I fully functional again, but I am able to use the latest version of the software. Of course, there is a learning curve because many features have been added and some older features have changed. It took a while to locate things and figure out how to use them the new way. I may be 71 years old, but my brain still functions fairly well. It was actually kind of fun discovering where some of my favorite features are located.
Maybe needless to say, I am ecstatic. It isn't only because I have my software back again, but because I was feeling so depressed about having lost it. I was ready to pack up all my video gear and find a place to store it in the shed. I made up my mind that it was time to retire from this hobby unless I could find a sponsor.
It was that or I start from scratch with this computer, re-installing the operating system and all my applications, hoping that might solve the problem. As I said earlier, it would probably take two days to accomplish that. And what if it didn't help?
In an earlier blog I mentioned having an older version. It was new in 2008. A lot has changed in 14 years and I really got used to using something newer.
And then a friend surprises me by telling me he not only pays the subscription price (I never knew) for the software I lost, but then he helps me install it on this computer. The jump from despondency to joy was wonderful. Between that and the ability to watch the first season of Only Murders in the Building, I've been walking around with a silly grin on my face most of the time.
The friend's wife does some fashion design work. He helps with the artwork and layout. He surprised me when he said he wants me to help him learn tailoring. He'd like to participate more with his wife's sewing. I'll teach him what I can. It's the least I can do after the favor he did me on Thursday.
However, I was working so hard trying to learn some of the new features, I forgot to publish this blog yesterday.
It's That Time of Year Again
As we approach the fall here (The Autumn Equinox is on Thursday) I start to see predictions of rain in the weather forecast. It was supposed to rain this past weekend. The probability started at 80% and diminished over time. No fain fell where I live. This week the forecast has been 50% chance of rain tomorrow. I hope so. We could use some rain. It's early still.
The water year here is September 1st through August 31st, but I don't expect to see any significant storms until November.
And it seems a little early to see Christmas trees and other decorations for sale in Costco. It seems to get earlier every year. We have more than a month to go before Halloween. Someday we'll see the Christmas stuff in the stores before the 4th of July. It's okay though. It gives me a chance to look at the latest LEGO toys. I don't buy them, unless I see something irresistible. And even then, after I build something I disassemble it and send it to a friend in Kentucky who is an avid collector.
Another Panino
Before I did all that software installation with my friend, I shot another cooking video, this time making a grilled sandwich with roast beef and Swiss cheese. It was surprisingly delicious. I wasn't sure I'd enjoy it because I prefer lamb instead of beef (and that's a future panino too). However, I really enjoyed the flavor. And, once again, I didn't add any condiments. Some people would put mustard or horseradish on such a sandwich. I like my food plain.
The video gave me a fun opportunity to edit and encode it in the new software. It went well. But there is still a way to go before I feel proficient.
Wednesday 2022.9.14
I Changed My Mind
For today's blog I initially wrote a rather lengthy woe-is-me essay about feeling sorry for myself. I've been a little despondent because some of my favorite software for maintaining this web site and for creating videos was disabled this week. I don't know how that happened. I've been using it freely since before I retired 11 years ago. Maybe a short history?
Although it wasn't in my job description, I used to assist the department with their publications. All documents were passed through me for editing before going to the printer. (I can tell you another story about editing. Maybe later.)
My grammar is good. For example, "To insure proper alignment…" Insure? No. Insurance is something you purchase to financially protect yourself or others in the event of accident, sickness, death, etc. I have health insurance. Without it, my medical bills for this year would have cost me nearly $100,000. So far, I spent about $400. That's insure. The proper word for the phrase above is ensure, which is like guarantee.
Occasionally, I did some of my work at home. The department let me make copies of the publication software we used and I installed it on my home computers. I have been using it freely since then. How it became disabled, I do not know. This computer in particular is permanently off line. It has no connection to the internet. I do that to assure (there's that word again) it is safe from viruses because this is the computer on which I edit my videos and maintain this web site.
When I built new computers in 2015 I installed the software on them.
One friend suggested there might be some sort of internal clock in the software, automatically disabling it after seven years unless the license is maintained. The department might have finally discontinued their license in a cost-cutting measure. Or maybe they switched to a newer and better software package. That's a guess.
I quickly recovered from my despondency and chose not to publish that self-indulgent preoccupation with my software problems. A friend has a paid subscription for the software and he said he'd help me install it on my computer as a second work site.
How About a Little Good News?
I received a pleasant surprise this morning. My prescription for my blood pressure medication is expiring. There are no more refills. The pharmacy asked if they could contact the doctor to have it renewed. I agreed. I expected the doctor to contact me and require a visit before renewing the prescription, which would require some of my time and cost me a $20 copay, along with the usual examination (he just listens to my heart and lungs) and the recommendation for a rectal cancer test or whatever. But the prescription was renewed and it's ready for pickup at the local Costco pharmacy.
That Story About Editing
My supervisor was in a master's program. The students were assigned an essay to write. He gave me his paper to edit before submitting it. I went through it, cleaning up the grammatical errors. The most common was something called "antecedent to the pronoun."
"My girlfriend doesn't like her gray hair, so she dyes it." The word it is a pronoun. It refers back to the noun, hair. The reference is usually easily understood, but sometimes the antecedent can be used incorrectly, which can cause confusion. "My girlfriend stubbed her toe on a rock, so I bandaged it." Did I bandage her toe or the rock?
My supervisor submitted his edited paper and when it was returned the professor said it was one of the best written papers she ever read. She asked if she could keep it to use as an example for other students.
Sunday 2022.9.11
Remembrance
Not a day I enjoy remembering. It was more than 20 years ago the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked by terrorists. There was also the jet that crashed in rural Pennsylvania, thanks to the bravery of those who fought the terrorists on that plane. Thousands lost their life that day.
I went to a therapist to discuss it. I couldn't cope with the thought that humans could be so cruel to others. Nonetheless, it's a day to remember, not only for those who died, but also lest we forget the dangers of radicalism. On January 6th of last year we saw what happens when some American's become radicalized. I watched that live on TV that day.
Long Live the King
And speaking of remembrance, I was a little saddened by the passing of Queen Elizabeth. All my life she has been the queen of England. Even though I have always been an American, there were times when I was a little fascinated by the Royals. I watched some of the coverage on TV. There is an 8-hour difference in time here; so it was inevitable I would miss some of it.
At Long Last the Heat Has Passed
The heat wave finally ended this weekend. Friday was forecast to be 86°. At 9:00 in the morning it was already 88°. I didn't wait. I turned on the office air conditioner and turned off one of the desktop computers (lest I pop the circuit breaker again). The highest temperature I saw here was nearly 106° (41°C).
We're back to normal temperatures in the 70s each day. I was hoping to see a little rain yesterday. There was a 20% probability of a thunderstorm Friday night, but that never materialized. They happen so seldom here, they're fun to watch. Where my twin brother and his wife live in Florida, thunderstorms are almost a daily occurrence in summer.
There was an 80% chance of rain showers yesterday, but that changed to 70%, then 40%, and I never saw any rain at all. According to the weather radar, a little rain passed to the north and south of us, but none fell here. There is a 20% chance of showers today. 20% is as near to zero as makes no difference.
The rain is not a predictor of the coming rainy season. It was an odd storm because of the hurricane that advanced up the west coast of Mexico. That storm, named Kay, has since moved away from Mexico and into the Pacific where it dissipated. The projection for Southern California is another La Niña winter — lower than normal rainfall — and therefore a continuation, or worsening, of the drought.
I've read news reports about a surplus in California's budget. I don't know why some of that money isn't being spent on desalination plants. Yes, we don't always need them, but when there is a drought — and climate change seems to be making them worse — they could provide some much-needed water. And perhaps we could sell the water to other states during times of water surplus here to help offset the costs of the plants.
Power Outage
As scheduled, the electricity went off during Thursday evening and was back on Friday morning. I don't mind an occasional power outage. I have oil lamps and some battery-powered storm lanterns. Resetting the clocks is a little inconvenient, but they mostly set themselves. They're radio controlled to synchronize with the atomic clocks in Fort Collins, Colorado.
During summer the radio time signal isn't as strong as it can be during winter. For some odd reason, the best location to place a clock when it is searching for the signal is on the railing at the west end of my deck.
As mentioned in Wednesday's blog, I prepared my oil lamps. I also powered down my computers and home theater equipment in advance. I couldn't use my laptop computer for the internet because it depends on the WiFi router, which requires electricity. However, for non-internet needs, such as watching movies or TV shows copied to a flash drive, it works fine. Otherwise, from 8:00 until bedtime my only other source of entertainment was my radio, which has a crank for charging the battery.
One odd coincidence during the outage: In the evening I watched a couple episodes of Only Murders in the Building, an amusing comical series about three would-be detectives — Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez — solving a murder in the building in which they live. At the end of the seventh episode the electricity goes off and remains off during most of episode eight. My own darkened home, lit only with one oil lamp and a battery-powered lantern, made the experience even more fun.
By the time I rolled out of bed on Friday morning the electricity was back on and I only had to reset two clocks.
Our Little Idiosyncrasies
This week I bought another carton of paper towels. The price went up — hello inflation — from $40 to $60 for the box. That might seem like a lot, but I buy the rolls that go into the dispensers you often see in public restrooms. Each roll has 450 feet (137 meters) of paper. Compare that to a standard roll of kitchen paper towels. Do a little arithmetic with me.
A roll of Bounty is about $2.60 and it contains 60 feet of paper.
A roll of commercial towels is $5 and it contains 450 feet.
Bounty costs about 4¢ per linear foot.
The commercial roll is about a penny per foot.
Why wouldn't I use the commercial paper towels at ¼ the price? Of course, the paper isn't perforated, and therefore it doesn't tear as easily. However — and this is where the idiosyncrasy comes in — I use a small battery powered circular saw to cut notches, about half an inch deep, in each end of each roll. That gives me a convenient tear point when I rip off a portion of towel.
Wednesday 2022.9.7
Hot
The heat wave was supposed to subside after Monday. We're still seeing warm temperatures in the lower- to mid-80s, but the possibility of triple digits is gone.
Sunday was the warmest. Initially, it was projected to be 84°. By 10:30 that was updated to 94°. I expected to see 100°F (38°C) and I wasn't disappointed. The highest temperature of the day was 102°F (39°). Monday was forecast to be 83°, but it was already 87° by 9:00 in the morning. The day peaked at 100°F. Yesterday it was in the high 90s all afternoon.
One reminder I received: Don't run both computers and the air conditioner at the same time in the office. It pops the circuit breaker. One computer should be okay.
During the afternoon/evening there were two college football games on TV that I wanted to watch; so I turned on the living room and the office air conditioners. Most of the time the temperature inside my home was comfortable, in the mid-70s. Portable air conditioners are not as efficient as the ACs mounted in a window or central air conditioning run from a compressor outdoors. However, I live near the ocean where the temperatures are usually mild. Spending a lot of money on an air conditioner to use only a few times per year seems to be a waste of money.
Another reminder: Close the roof vent. I forgot to close it and the AC was pulling in hot air from outside. I wondered why the temperature in my living room climbed to 92° in the afternoon. The vent.
If my furnace ever dies, I'll add central air — if I can afford it — when I have a new furnace installed. It will be expensive, but it will add value to my home.
Grill Press
My grill press arrived yesterday, but it has been too hot to grill a sandwich with it.
It ain't fancy, but it should work well. I thought it might be fun to make several sandwiches over several days, doing a video of each one, and then edit all the videos into one for uploading to YouTube. However, it has been so warm here, I don't want to cook anything, not even a grilled sandwich. Maybe next week.
Power Outage
We received a "Maintenance Power Outage Alert" a few weeks ago. The outage is necessary to upgrade a utility pole outside the park. The electricity is estimated to be off for 12 hours, from 8:00PM tomorrow and restored by 8:00AM on Friday. That gave me a good reason to prepare my oil lamps for the winter, burning off the wax that accumulates in the wick as lamp oil slowly evaporates during long periods of neglect. I also took one of my battery-powered storm lanterns out of the shed. It's easier to carry around than an oil lamp.
Thankfully, during this latest hot spell there were no fires in the area where I live. If those burn beneath the high voltage lines, we typically suffer outages. Sometimes the power is back on in a few hours; sometimes it takes a day or two before electricity is restored.
Sunday 2022.9.4
Too Hot to Cook
Wednesday was forecast to be the warmest day. I saw 90°, but I never saw 100°. Today is going to be a scorcher. At 8:00 this morning it was already nearly 80° outside. The forecast is for 85° today. By 8:45 we had already exceeded that. I turned on the air conditioner. It is putting out some really cold air. I checked it with a thermometer. 47°.
I didn't do much cooking this week; therefore, there is no new feature recipe for today. But I did make a few sandwiches. I was surprised to see a hot dog on a bun called a sandwich; although, I guess I should have expected it. It's a piece of meat between two slices of bread.
I made panini, even though I don't have my grill press yet. As mentioned in Wednesday's blog, I used the square-ish rolls sold at Costco. After shaving a little of the crust off the top and bottom and then toasting the outside, I toasted the inside too. While that was going on, I heated a portion of pastrami in the pan and topped it with a slice of provolone or Swiss cheese. It works very well and it tastes delicious. And it doesn't require much cooking on a warm summer day.
The grill press I ordered is supposed to arrive on Tuesday. I'm not sure how much difference it will make in my panini, but it might be fun to demonstrate in a video.
And Speaking of Deliveries
On Friday my newest supply of catheters arrived. As mentioned in Wednesday's blog, I ordered a 90-day supply. Storing four cartons of catheters was a bit of a challenge, but I found two places for them in closets.
Happy Labor Day
Tomorrow is a national holiday here in the USA. It's a day to recognize the workers who labored to make our country great. I don't think there are any parades in this area, but maybe I can find one on TV.
I used to schedule my vacations around three-day weekends. Every January I would give my boss a list of all my vacations for the coming year. After 20 years of employment I was earning the maximum number of vacation hours. Nearly every month I enjoyed a week off from work. If I remember correctly, August was the one month I had no vacation because there are no holidays.
Saying Goodbye to Another Friend
This week I expect to lose another friend. She has been in decline during the past few years. For several months she has been in bed. Now she is in a coma with round-the-clock hospice care. As I'm fond of saying now, as we get older we lose friends and gain doctors.