Smokin’ In The Boys Room
And by “boys room”, I mean the outside. While I work this weekend, my BF has decided to do many manly things, like, work on his motorcycle, cut large tree limbs with a chainsaw, and smoke much meat. It sounds like so much fun I just wish I could have had these days off to be here for all of it. Ahem. No, really. (Not really). I like to spend my holiday weekends working and taking care of sick people and listening to their families tell me what a crap job I’m doing. It’s what I got into this profession for. That rewarding feeling of spending more hours with other people’s families instead of my own. Without sarcasm, I really do like my job. It’s just some families make it very difficult to keep calm. The patients are fine. It’s just the families sometimes. Still, I think it will be better than the manual labor that needs to be done here. Sweaty, with heavy lifting. Oh wait, that’s my job too. Ha. OK. Enough. That’s my work rant. Back to the meat!
Apparently this is stuff you need. Along with a starter tube thing that gets the coals going, a temp gauge, (actually two temp gauges, one for the cooker and one for the meat), water for steam, spices, herbs, liquids, “rubs”, side dishes, buns, etc…and of course: The Meat. This will all cost you approx. 90 dollars or so. If you had to buy your own smoker, that could be an extra 100-500 dollars, depending on quality and advanced smoking technology. Or something. This smoker in the picture was the gift the BF got for working so hard at his job for this many, past 15 years. It seems like it’s nice smoker machine. I have just been informed that the meat is at 162 degrees. The number we are looking for is 190 I believe. We are doing pulled pork as the maiden smoking. I keep typing “we”, but I literally have done NOTHING except take the pictures and type this. Soon, I will get dressed and leave, so I won’t even be here for the big finish. But, of course I have a preview. Please feast your eyes below on three hunks of pure animal flesh, cooking and smoking, slowly, and at a certain temperature, for maximum tenderness and pullability. It really smells good too:
Two on top, one below. That sounds like a good name for a band or a book title. The key to cooking this right, I am told, is slow and low. Also, coincidentally a good band name or book title. At any rate, what we want is to put it in our mouths and not even have to chew. The meat should literally pull apart and melt like butter on our palates and slide juicily and effortlessly down our throats to our waiting tummies without any pesky chewing involved. But usually it’s on a bun with sauce, so please, family, while I am gone, chew a little, please. Bread mostly needs to be chewed, somewhat, to break it down. Then swallow. No need to ruin a good weekend with “Heimlich’s” or “ambulances” or “hospitals” or “morgues”. Thank you.
Thus ends the meat post for today. I hear and smell lots of manly things going on in the neighborhood today, so I need to get the hell out of here! The outside temp is up to 75 degrees. Sunny and beautiful for the Midwest. The meat temp is at a cool 165. The BF is cutting sticks with the chainsaw. The boy/son is playing XBox in his room enjoying none of the outside weather. The daughter is still at my sissy’s house and will prob go from there to her cousins house to spend the night, after she stops here first to eat meat. She loves meat. Yes, I see what I typed there, but I’m leaving it. It’s too early (for me) to try and fix the innuendo. She’s 14 for cry-yi. Some girls are salads and try a vegetarian phase, not mine. She is steak all the way.
Let them eat meat! And don’t forget it’s Memorial Weekend. Hug a vet! Thank a soldier while you are grilling those hot dogs and drinking that beer! Even if you just send up a big toast and a cheer into the great unknown. It’s all good karma to the universe. Later.
Stevie Pic #6 The Tree
It blooms, white as can, be for about one whole day, then it fades like all the other trees. This is not her best picture, because I think we missed the high bloom, but it’s here for “filler”. Fast pic. Fast post. Stay in the game because I have to go to work now for the long weekend. It’s my holiday. But I am not going to complain too much because unlike the military people, I, at least, get to come home every day to my family. Hopefully I will post more as we go through the next few days. Nothing groundbreaking or relevant to any particular thing, just whatever I have on hand and can post quick and efficiently. If you are home this weekend, please enjoy it and take a few moments to think, about all who have, and still are, out there making a difference, so we can have a barbeque and hang out in the sunshine. Although the sunshine is not available right now. Looks like rain. I guess that’s OK too. Cozy up inside and have a nice cup of coffee and I will check back later. Hug a vet (or a soldier) if you have one near. And as my cousin always says, (who has a son in the Army (Rangers–Special Forces)—AND my other cousin, who also has a son in the Army (Bomb Squad)—which I need to give a personal shout out too–hey Brett–(and momma) you’ll get your own dedication soon—SO SO proud of both, she says in case you forgot already: Freedom isn’t free. Our kids are out there carrying on! Mine says he’s going too after high school. Then I will really be on the soapbox shouting the word. Wow. This is a sudden heavy turn for a post about a picture of a tree. Ending now. Get those flags up and hanging! That’s what I’m going to do right now! Later.
Thanks Stevie! For #4.
My next favorite thing to take pictures of after birds and flowers and trees. The sky! Or more accurately: Clouds in the sky.
I saw this big space, just wide open in front of me, while I was driving to work yesterday, but I didn’t have the time or place to stop and take the picture. The sky is so amazing when all those clouds are up there, looking like they just got thrown across the blue, right in front of you, just waiting for you to arrive. You can see the curve of the Earth and almost feel the world turning under your feet, and you can imagine, for that one moment, that the road, and this life, can go on forever.
I can not be the only one who sees all that blue and just wants to keep driving until the highway ends and the water begins. If you have ever driven to the ocean, and I mean, driven straight on a road, for miles and miles, towards the end of dry land; Watching the sky change and seem to open up as you get closer and closer; And the air changes and the wind blows salty through your open window and you just know you are at the end of the world; Then you probably know what I mean.
But maybe that’s just me. I daydreamed of running all the way to work. And then I went in and forgot all about it until right now when Stevie sent me this to post here. All that from one photo. Pretty amazing. Thank you my lovely girl.
My Lips Are Chapped!
As promised! You want. You got. Now go buy and tell me that it works good. Today you might need it. My thermometer reads 82 degrees. And I have to go to work. Again. It better be nice tomorrow too so I can enjoy one day off of beauty. Or at least temperate weather. I even took the pic all artsy fartsy like just for my cuz. No, they are NOT paying me. I wish. Just so you know, I am wasting all kinds of shower-work-prep-time just to post this one extra thing today. And obviously wasting more time talking about it. Sheesh. Make sure you check out Stevie’s flower picture below. It’s quite pretty. Just like her! And it goes with the blue-ish, dusky theme we have going here today. Enjoy the weather all! Later!
Stevie Pics!
She took the next few pics I will be posting. With her IPhone of course. I have to go to work, right now, but I don’t want to keep the same pictures, especially of some dandelions, on the front of this thing for days and days. Besides, I have endless pictures that she takes to use at a moment’s notice, so I could really go all lazy bones here and never post my own stuff again. She takes A LOT of pictures. Full credit to my sweet little girl! (Don’t worry cuz, I will get that lip balm picture up and in the books for posterity) Everyone have a great day! It is beautiful out here in the Midwest! 77 degrees and counting. Pity I will be indoors, but no one just hands me money for sitting at home typing words into the ether. Later.
I Know They’re Weeds But I Gotta Post Something
It’s late. It’s been another week. Hot. Cold. Warm. Chilly. Calm. Windy. Sunny. Rainy. I told my cousin that I would post these dandelions. So here they are. Next up is a fantastic picture of the Nivea Lip Balm I promised her I would post so that she could go and buy it because it works so good. Warning! Old people posting. This is our conversation on a hot, partying, Saturday afternoon at my sissies:
“Now, where is my chapstick? I never leave home without my Chapstick.”
“Oh I know. I never go to work without my lip balm, my eye drops and my reading glasses.”
This is just sad. The week can only get better from here. Later.
One Whole Week Without Internet And This Was The Best I Could Come Up With
I know. But I am in a time crunch. Again. I had to work all weekend and now all week. But still, I need to waste some time here when I should be getting my uniform and showering. We really did not have internet. My kids were going crazy. No access to the public via the smart phones. At least not without using our GB’s. No XBox! That was the real tragedy for my son. Cut off from the gaming world forever! I could not pay bills or share all my random, excess thoughts and lame pictures. But after 3 visits from AT&T, it’s finally fixed. The inside guy came and determined it was the outside guys problem. Only because construction on one of our roads messed up the wiring that occurs half a mile away from your actual house. But only an outside guy can fix that. Then another inside guy has to come back and readjust all the little wires in your “inside” equipment box (which is actually outside bolted to your house) and finally get you running again because he didn’t connect all the stuff correctly the first time he was here. Human error all around. At least I got a 20 dollar discount/credit and it works good now, so whatever.
It’s been hot and cold and raining and sunny and windy in the last week. But yesterday was warm. 70-75 degrees. Today is even better. 80+. My little temp box says 84. Figures. I am bummed because I have to leave in 30 minutes and won’t get out of work until dark now. Boo hoo I know. All the daffodils are dead. All gone. They bloomed and now they are no more. Just green stalks where they used to be. I shall leave them as they are for awhile and then cut those down too. There’s the pic above. Below is the curtain hanging by the door as I went to go take the picture of the green leaves. I thought it looked kind of interesting. That’s all you get on a Tuesday. I’ll jump back in this posting game during the week as we go. Have a very wonderful day and enjoy some of that nice warm weather and sun if you can. Later.
I Suppose I Could Have Gone With Flood Flowers As A Less Creepy Alternative
The rain is over. The water is as high as it can get in this area now, with all the rivers cresting and reaching their flood points on Saturday and Sunday. The water should start receding and retreating, back into its proper channels, to lie in wait for the next big storm to arrive, and let it loose once again from its muddy shores. Poetic huh?
Reality check. We sit high on the block so we never have a lot of standing water, but my flower bed does get full and floats the timbers onto the sidewalk and onto the driveway. I just put them back in place over and over until the rain stops. Small problem. However, I might have created a bigger problem with my car when I drove through all that stupid water the other night, although I am desperately hoping not, because now it’s making a weird sucking or blowing noise near the engine, I think, that sounds like a fan, or a motor that’s constantly spinning, or something that is trying to suck or blow air under the metal box that is covering the actual engine. It almost sounds like a hose is disconnected, and creating extra wind noise, kind of like a vacuum does when the suction isn’t right, or when you’ve sucked up something that doesn’t quite fit in the tubes and it’s blocking the path to the debris chamber. At any rate, I need to get my tired, lazy bum self, up, yet again, and haul my ass, and the money drain, over to the repair shop for a quick, “Hey, can you listen to this and tell me how much it’s going to cost to fix?” early in the morning. Staying up and posting this is not helping my anxiety or bad feelings about this newest problem with the car. And I haven’t even gotten around to telling you the last few problems that have already occurred. I’ve hinted. I’ve teased. I have pictures to illustrate. But work, and time, are conspiring against me. There’s too much of one and not enough of the other. I even took more dangerous pictures on the expressway, in the rain, to add to my current backlog of exciting and entertaining, but foolish and irresponsible, life story posts.
I’m tired. I have a headache. I just took my blood pressure pill and I should go to bed. Because I am old. To beef up this posting I am including a few more pictures from the rain. They aren’t really good, but now I can file them under “used”. I will caption them up here: 1. The sky looking like crap to the North. 2. The muddy puddle, in the back lot, of our stick inventory. 3. Some of the really wet sticks, that used to be brown, but now look red, for some reason, hiding a bunny. (That one is a bonus, like one of those puzzle pictures.) See if you can spot the rabbit! Brain games! Later.
I Call It: Green; With Branches. 24 Hour Rainfall.
I could also call it: We Pay For Spring In This City. 24 hours of rainfall. Really. I drove home last night through many flooded areas. Standing water up past the bottom of my car. It’s the deepest water I have ever driven through in a car. I was scared. But if you just keep going and don’t stop you have a fighting chance. Besides I could see ahead from 2 other cars that attempted it, how deep it really was. They gave up and turned out of it. Not me. Now I know why people get stuck. I did the same damn thing, and thought the same damn thing, “Pshh. I can make it.” I luckily did. There was even a police officer sitting off to the side in a parking lot watching all of us idiots trying to go through, probably just waiting for someone to get stuck and then he could shut the intersection down. Anyway, it’s still raining, and I hear worse weather is on the way. My daughters school just called to say they’ve canceled all after-school activities due to the impending weather predicted. I think I heard tornadoes and what not. I guess we are going to find out.
Which brings me to my other working title for this piece: Hurry Up Because You Have To Go To Work. Dummy. I really do. This was going to be quick. Ever the dreamer I am. Be careful and stay on the ground today. Later
I Call It: Warm Peach Pie Draped In Cool White Cream And Hot Black Coffee On Rainy Grey Day; With Spotted Chicken.
I also call it: Break Time. And: Too Much Time. And possibly: The Longest Title I Have Ever Created, That Includes 5 Different Thoughts AND A Weather Update; What A Cheap Way To Get In Even More Words.
I feel sometimes that this site may be confused for a weather center or outdoor enthusiast blogroll of some sort. I can’t seem to stop talking about the weather and the things outside in my yard alot of the time. Really, I can’t stop talking at all, most of the time. But this site is about more than just weather and birds, and flowers, and birds. It used to be about money and cars and benches and laundry too. And it shall be again. Truthfully though, it’s really about nothing. Just one life and what I do in it, with the people I am surrounded by, every day or every week (or month/months, as it’s been) and mostly for my own amusement. I do love the sound of my own words. And maybe you do too. Anyway, the simplest things can be the most satisfying things I never say. OK. I typed myself into a soft spot there. Let’s get back to the humdrum.
I did leave after that last post because my car was ready to be picked up and I need my car. The tire place was very nice and gave me a loaner car so I could come back home instead of sitting there for 4 hours, but it was like, the garbage car. The one that they have to brush wrappers and leaves off of when they need to drive it. Like, “Joe’s” car, the guy who gets lunch for everyone and picks up extra parts and crap when they need him to. And maybe gets into accidents or runs it into things when he parks. I don’t know. When I asked about the “car” I was getting, the guy says, “Oh yeah. Frank told me that. It’s a green Contour. Hold on, let me go see if I can find it.” Like, what?? This place is not that big. I mean, where could it have been? After I saw it, and drove it, I’m guessing it was parked behind a dumpster or in a hole. I will not complain though because it sounds bad and tacky and I really was glad to have it. I guess I am spoiled now with my “nice” car. More on that later. Of course I took pictures. I am just grateful for the fix. Finally and completely. I hope.
On another note, I did do several loads of laundry and folded them and put them away. That’s right. I said several. And folded. And put away. Well, mostly put away. The clothes are in their proper rooms and near the closets and drawers they belong in. That right there is the main roadblock to my laundry doing. I can throw clothes in and out of a washer and dryer like nobody’s business. It’s the folding and putting away part that I hate. And it’s been awhile since I had any control over the disgusting piles building up every day. I do my uniforms and whatever is right below my uniforms and that is all. I had to wear shorts and a really really old tshirt to bed last night because I have no pajamas to wear. At least none that I can find in any of these piles and piles, clean or dirty. They must all be at the very very bottom of these baskets. Good Lord. Anyway…the main point here is that they are NOT sitting in a giant crumpled wrinkled heap on the couch getting layed on and kicked and shoved into the cushions or pushed onto the floor anymore. These clothes have a chance now. A real fighting chance to look clean and smooth and presentable while being worn and walked around in. It’s a rainy day, tax day miracle.
FYI, true weather update, it is raining now. I was going to post outside with the laptop but now I can’t. So I ate peach pie and drank coffee instead while thinking about all these words I just layed down for you. Oh yeah. You are welcome. Let me go switch switch another laundry load quick quick and I will be right back. Yes. I know it’s not real time. Just having fun here. Later.
just shy of pretty 