Tis the season for eatin'.......
Ever since I saw the classic movie
A Christmas Story, I think of the Asian dinner the family had on Christmas Eve.
No goose with a long neck though!
I think it is (possibly) a FACT that these restaurants always stay open at Yule time.
All the other eateries are closed and the staff is at home with family.
The
Green Garden opened around the corner from my house last year and - so far - it has been open on Christmas. Got the Lemon chicken and veggies to go.
Enough left over for a second meal.
My brother and his wife invited me to have Christmas dinner at his house.
We ate together on Turkey Day and I had brought along a pie and ice cream.
Guess I started a "tradition" - invite the bachelor bro and he'll bring a pie.
This time I bought a frozen one, read the label carefully and baked it for 55-minutes and it was perfect!
The crumbled topping and the crust were crispy.
I thought he even had provided vanilla ice cream but it was frozen yogurt. Hmm, I'll have to remember that.
The day before I had stopped for a late breakfast at a diner on Daniel Island after seeing my skin doctor.
She told me the earlier blemish that she had frozen off my cheek was completely gone.
She reminded me to apply sunblock there - and on my lips - four times a day to be safe.
The dentist tells me to floss after every meal. I listen to both doctors.
Well, I DO listen.
Please note, I paid extra for the breakfast to add sausage to the bacon that came with it.
And, instead of standard hashbrowns, this came with diced potatoes...including some sweet potatoes. How could I refuse?
In addition to now actually cooking a meal (well, one frozen apple pie), I have started making Avocado Toast.
More than once!
This whole idea of living alone and making a grocery list every week (well, sometimes two weeks go by), is still fairly new.
The internet is a great source of quick directions. I have had some frozen salmon filets and just figured out they can be zapped in the microwave fairly easily.
Meanwhile, Wallis, the orange cat has shown my investment in an amusing cat toy is paying off.
She ignored it for more than a week, then she would join me in playing with it until I got bored and walked away.
Now, she not only spins the three brightly-colored ping pong balls, using her paw to push them, she will nudge the device around the room until it is sitting where she wants it.
She also has added a new feature for it to entertain her...
She manages to wrest one of the balls from its loop and it slowly rolls across the carpet.
So far, just the pink one, on the bottom.
(Clik on the links and photos for more details)
Eating and playing with the cat.
Retirement is a full-time effort.
Labels: biting avocado toast, cat toy, diced sweet potatoes, frozen apple pie a la mode., pink ping pong ball, sausage AND bacon, standard hash browns, sun block AND flossing
A Semper Fi "war story"....
I was telling a buddy of mine how much I enjoyed his stories about his Army days overseas in Italy and aboard troop ships getting there and coming back.
He crammed a lot of "unofficial" events into his military memory floggers.
Then, one day, I asked how long had he served and he said he was a 2-year draftee.
Wow, the tales he told about in that short time span.
My only Marine Corps time out of the United States was to an island off the east coast of Puerto Rico, which of course, is a territory of the US, along with Guam and, I think, Samoa.
In my four-month stint on the small island of Vieques, in 1960, I was attached as a photographer to a tank Battalion from Camp Lejeune.
It also included my only ocean voyage, but not aboard a fancy cruise ship.
It was the
USS Fremont, a flat-bottomed attack troop carrier from WWII and it bounced us down from North Carolina for 7 days, culminating with a USMC training pre-dawn landing.
It was like every war movie I had seen in my young life, tightening our helmet strap, donning a life jacket, hoisting our backpacks, and slowly climbing down the side of the ship on scratchy brown cargo nets.
We timed our release to drop down into the bobbing small landing craft and hoped it would not be surging up when our boots made contact.
The training was pretty authentic and we could see and hear loud explosions on the beach ahead.
My job as a combat camera toter was to wade ashore and race ahead of the landing troops with my camera.
(It helped a whole lot that nobody was actually firing at us!)
I remember there were quite a few LCP (Landing Craft Personnel) as daybreak slowly lighted up the beach.
We could see signed areas warning us to keep away from the planted explosions that were booming to create the sounds and noise of an actual combat landing of troops.
I heard later that two Marines had died when one of the LCPs had sunk. However, I don't recall that was actually ever confirmed.
It was my first view of a M
arine Corps Amtrack vehicle used in an amphibious landing.
Once ashore,
the tankers set up their Tent City rows of 5-man units like everyone later saw on tv in M*A*S*H.
As a photographer, I was issued a military field portable darkroom.
It was divided into a section for storage of equipment and a light-proof side for processing film and making contact b&w prints.
These were 4x5 inches, large enough to show the Colonel what I had taken that day of their training exercises with tanks.
The darkroom was protected from the sun with a large outer tent that provided shade from the relentless tropical sun.
The whole unit was quite a functional design.
It broke down into several large - but manageable - large crates.
I scavaged wooden pallets to provide a floor for my workplace and the middle section contained a cooling fan to kept film cool ... and it also was a cool place to store Cokes. As in Rum & Coke and cans of beer.
After a site was selected and the unit erected, I saw it was in close proximity to the area of the Officers Club (large tent).
I guess a young Lieutenant heard about my neighboring photo operation and he paid me a visit to see what was involved.
We became friendy (I was a 20-year old Cpl E-4, he was 23) and he was a very good amateur photographer.
We discussed a lot about taking photos and one Saturday morning, he requisitioned a jeep and we took off on a photo jaunt into the "jungle" outside our camp.
Not really a jungle and it had a few trails laughingly called roads.
As we climbed into the jeep with our cameras, I casually mentioned I had a
small .25 caliber pistol. that I would like to include in case there were animals that might be a threat. He said,
"Sure, that makes sense."
Yikes. He didn't ask why I had a non-disclosed, non-issued, weapon and I can't recall how I got it, why I had it packed in my gear and whatever happened to it later.
As we ventured in the opposite direction from the camp's recreational beach, he reminded me there was a lot of unexploded ordnance where we were headed inland.
The Navy used most of the uninhabited part of the island as a target for their guns and planes dropped bombs there.
I realized we really didn't have permission to go there but -
what the hell!
We took turns firing a whole box of ammo that I had.
None of the coconuts we shot in trees actually fell because it was a very small gun.
The other good news is we did not get blown up and nobody ever asked me about the trip we had taken and I am sure the officer never mentioned it either.
As I think about it now, he was complicit in the deed and it would have weighed more heavily on him.
I'm also thinking that the statute of limitations has long passed.
Labels: 4631 combat photographer, AKA, Camp Lejeune, LCP, Marine Amtrack, refuel at sea, the island of Vieques off Puerto Rico, unexploded ordnance, USS Fremont
If not healthy, sure is colorful...
I say THIS is the message that appears when I step on my bathroom scale.
Not true but COULD happen.
The other message - as I feel a few more pounds have been added - would be "Come back alone."
I showed this to somebody and he asked where did the sign really appear?
It's on the entrance door at my
Pinnacle Bank branch on Dorchester Road at the end of Ashley Phosphate in North Charleston.
I started banking at the Mount Pleasant branch when it was named
Southcoast, then became
Bank of North Carolina.
If you've been to either branch, you know that the door admits you inside but a second door does not open if it detects you have metal on you, like a gun or, I suppose, a sword.
It made for an apt sign to indicate I am heavier and need to take another look at what I am eating.
A recent house guest - taking a break from Chicago weather - came for few day's visit and I observed he bought different groceries than I do.
Healthy dark green salads, fruits, and veggies, but he did use some bread when he made avocado toast.
I had this for the first time while in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Anyway, he left two avocados behind and I made my version of the breakfast dish.
Not bad but I don't see any instant reduction shown on my scale.
I do enjoy blueberries and other mixed fruits with my cereal and probably should follow his lead and eat healthier.
Into grilled chicken and pork loin - the other white meat - so maybe I will see some lower figures on my scale.
Meanwhile, after a lull in activity of building a sidewalk on my side of the street in Hanahan, the SCE&G crews showed up.
Fascinating activity as the crews worked to install new power poles and removing the ones blocking the path of the sidewalk.
Came a knock on the door and a linesman informed me that my power would be turned off around 10am and they would restore it quickly as possibe once the transition was made to new poles.
Crews were working all the way down my street to clear the p[ath of the new sidewalk.
They had two trucks with booms and it must be like working activity in space at the International Space Station.
No, I think the ISS only has one boom arm.
Obviously, a new pole would be put in place but all the "stuff" already attached would have to be moved to the new one.
We are talking about dangerous electrical connections that had to be carefully removed and then placed on a new pole.
I used to call them telephone poles but - with everyone carrying and using cell phones, I guess "power" is the correct new name.
Another example of how things are taken for granted and are subject to change.
Meanwhile, I still look around in my freezer and either "nuke" a meal in the microwave or simply use my frying pan.
I got rid of my pop-up toaster to have more counter space and use my toaster oven to prepare my bread slices or blueberry bagels.
Sure bread has carbs but at least there is some fruit involved.
I'll keep working on my food intake.
(Click on the photos and links for more details.)
If you have not tried avocado toast it is simple to make.
Even I could do it.
Burp.
Labels: avocado toast, bathroom scale, BNC, come back alone, fruits and berries, grilled chicken, guns and swords, Pinnacle Bank, porkloin, Southcoast community Bank
Seeing through the eyes of a visitor...
T'is the season to do some holiday travel.
Not in the crowded skies, but on-the-ground aboard AMTRAK
It was a good sign when my buddy from Chicago arrived two minutes EARLY.
It has been a while since I went to our old, old railroad station but I was pleased that the parking lot had shrunk, due to the start of construction of a new intermodal facility.
This had been talked about going back to when I first returned to Charleston from Tallahassee, back in the nineties.
Doesn't look like much right now but the project has finally started.
Dirt is being moved around and the digging of foundations is underway.
The new, expanded, modern facility is scheduled to open next summer to welcome travelers.
Not just as the passenger railroad connecting point for Amtrak, but also shuttles to the airport, the new Greyhound bus station and CARTA buses headed downtown.
Back in 2005, after I had retired from the local paper, I bought a North America Rail Pass that gave me access to all the routes by Amtrak for 30 days.
I learned a lot about train-riding as I traveled up and down both coasts and Coast to Coast when I added a trans-Canada trek on a restored 1950s vintage VIA Rail train.
One of the parts of the Rail Pass was to include a leg of the journey in Canada.
It was an added cost but the First Class posh ride - with my own roomette - was a relaxing Canadian break.
Last week my buddy and I had 6 days to get around town and re-visit places we had gone to 3 years before.
Last time, the remodeling of The Market had just been completed.
So he had to walk through and do some gift shopping with a Southern flavor.
Adjacent to the Market was Noisy Oyster where he enjoyed a platter of salmon.
It was a sunny noontime and the open windows there went well with a mild, sunny day.
I ate my way through a delicious serving of shrimp and grits, with pieces of sausage and crumbled bacon bits.
Oh, and a slice of cornbread.
Delicious.
We spotted a group of (I guess) Amish young ladies in long blue skits and white bonnets.
Right across from the Noisy Oyster, several of the older Amish gentlemen were in a lengthy discussion at a booth offering tickets to a carriage tour.
Equine horse-power being the center of the conversion I am sure.
Sure, it's a cliche or stereotyping but it MIGHT have been what they talked about.
We had seen the younger folks as they trooped up the many steps of the Custom House and then came back down and wandered toward the market.
We stopped at the Moon Pie Shop where I usually have my guests pose, sitting on the prop moon, set up in the back of the store.
Today that area was filled with boxes and I was told they would be closing soon. Aww!
Naturally one passes the Four Corners of Law at Broad and Meeting Street.
Today I actually had something to mail so we ducked into the Federal main post office. I had not been in there for a long, long time.
There was a small area off the lobby labeled History Room and it was pretty interesting.
Old equipment, official uniforms of the 1900s era, Confederate stamps and currency and other odds and ends, like an odd-looking numbering machine in addition to old typewriters.
There were many racks of various hand stamps that reminded me of summers at the Folly Beach post office in the fifties.
My grandmother worked with Jimmy Ballard, the Postmaster, and she would let me take naps on piles of scratchy mail bags and "help her" as I hand-canceled tons of colorful postcards. Well, small stacks.
I was probably 10 or so. Center Street had not been paved yet. It then was crushed oyster shells.
My Chicago visitor and I wandered around today's Folly Beach Island - lunch at Rita's - after walking out to the end of the fishing pier. We saw craftsmen working on encasing damaged support pilings with a protective skin of concrete.
Then I drove us to the west end of the island and we walked on the beach toward the lighthouse.
We were joined by two ladies who had recently moved to Charleston.
Telling them I grew up here, they asked if I had taken the boat tour from Bowen's Island to the lighthouse where you go ashore? They said they saw a Groupon for it.
I responded that there no longer was an "island" to tour and the lighthouse was closed to the public as too dangerous.
We came upon something that had been uncovered by Hurricane Irma when dunes were recently severely eroded.
When asked what it was, I suggested it either was part of a flying saucer or perhaps the base of a WWII shore gun emplacement.
It was a beautiful day at the beach and we took lots of photos with our cellphone cameras.
(Click on the pictures and links for more details.)
Thanks for joining my small walkabout tour with my out-of-town friend
We made sure to stop in at a few Craft beer breweries while he was here.
At
Edmund's Oast Brewery he had his first cask ale in quite a few years.
I do wish I had brought my "real" camera with its crisp zoom lens for even better shots. Hindsight and all that.
Here are a few more pictures including an interior view of the marble and staircase in the Main Library:
,
Labels: Amish youngsters and horse-minded gents, Beach scene with flair, Folly Beach Island, Main Post Office, remnants of a flying saucer, WWII beach gun emplacement
Ever since I saw the classic movie A Christmas Story, I think of the Asian dinner the family had on Christmas Eve.
Please note, I paid extra for the breakfast to add sausage to the bacon that came with it.
Meanwhile, Wallis, the orange cat has shown my investment in an amusing cat toy is paying off.
