Pax, the ridiculously named winter ice storm

Well the ridiculously named snowstorm Pax (means peace) is here. The weather men have been predicting it for days and it is living up to its hype. Cold, wind, snow, sleet, and ice. We've got it all here in GA and to prove it many thousands are without power. I got up early and took a hot shower right away and made coffee. Phew, at least I got that in before the power went out. Next in line for important duties was to post the blog entry for The End Time, and while I was at it I wrote a second one. Phew.

It wasn't long before the temps tumbled and the ticking of ice against the glass appeared. If there were 8 tiny reindeer I'd have jumped aboard and headed for Key West. I thought I left the more severe weather behind me in Maine when I moved here, but that was not to be, at least today. Ah well, we have had mild winters for the last 7 years so I can't really complain.

They say that the worst of the storm is on its way. Over 100,000 Georgians are without power as I write this, and the numbers are rising fast. So when they say the worst is yet to come for the Athens area, I believe it. I have lived through enough ice storms to have developed a healthy hate respect for them.

I've filled my sun shower, drawn water into three jugs totaling I'd estimate about 10 gallons, made food, gotten cat food and litter, batteries for the weather emergency radio, have a hurricane lantern and oil plus candles. I'm physically ready but not emotionally. I dread the tree limbs over the house and the pops and smashes through the night that indicate falling limbs and trees. I dread the ice and the cold...and the worry about pipes freezing. It is 27 degrees but the real feel is 10. I am sure the aging pipes feel every degree of that cold.

But on the plus side, there is no school, I have books, and craft projects I can do, power for now, food, cats to entertain me, and close neighbors. All is well and though Pax is ineptly named, I do fee a peace. I won't say Pax be with you, because it is predicted to barrel its way up the eastern coast of the US, but I hope  you're prepared and do feel a peace - that spring is almost here.

Crock pot, O crock pot

It is a quiet Saturday here at the Prata home. I got up early (5:45am) and brewed a pot of coffee and sat in my special chair and read for a while in the quiet. I love doing that.

It's good for me too, my predilection is to bound out of bed and launch into the day. Being productive is all-important to me. I feel lazy if I 'waste' a moment. However I make myself slow down on Friday nights and Saturday mornings so that I can catch up to myself. I believe a person can lose the art of knowing how to relax if they let themselves. Then a permanent restlessness will set in. A person would engage in movement for the sake of movement, tasks that are mindlessly accomplished or not accomplished. Futzing and dithering would become the norm. Eventually a person would become non-productive and just run in circles. I have to watch out I don't become that person. This is my opinion.

I'm reading John Grisham's latest book, a legal novel called Sycamore Row. I love legal books. A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr, which was non-fiction, is one of my favorites. So is the non-fiction legal book One L, by Scott Turow and Turow's fictional Presumed Innocent.

However it's a given that John Grisham dominates the legal fiction category. Cranking out one book a year since 1989, with at least 25 of them in the legal genre, he is the king of fictional jurisprudence. And he is a good writer, too. His stuff is good, meaning; well-written, with individually defined, realistic characters, stories that could happen and therefore I can identify with, and satisfying conclusions. And they're free from profanity, a blessing in this day and profane age.

So I sat and read, with coffee.

When that was over I made use of the cool morning to bake pineapple-sour cream muffins, and steam some potatoes. I like to have potatoes on hand so that they're done and I can add them to soups, or make home fries or whatever. I hate using time at night to cook for a long time, and weekends afford a chance to steam or roast a bunch and thrown them into stuff later. I also boiled quinoa, same reason. Then I tried a new recipe for stuffed peppers. It is Mexican dish containing quinoa and black beans, cooked in crock pot. I hardly ever use my crock pot because I don't eat meat and most crock pot recipes seem to involve meat. So this was a chance to try a new recipe and use an appliance I haven't used in a while. I hope the peppers come out good. We received 8 or so in last week's Bountiful Basket plus I'd bought 4 on severe markdown the day before. So let's just say I had a lot of peppers to use up.

Tonight I am going to a housewarming party for a person in our Sunday School class. He and his wife just built a new house, and invited us all over for chile. Our class isn't huge and we all know each other pretty well, so that will be a nice evening.

All in all, it is a nice day shaping up here in the teeny burg of Comer GA. I hope you have a nice day as well.

Small spaces and kitties with large personalities

It seems strange to still see salt on the roads and the temperatures are now in the 50s and climbing. I'm glad the storm is gone and so are any remnants, at least around here. I hate snow.

I went to pick up my Bountiful Basket this morning. This week we got:

blackberries
LOTS of pears
Asian apples
bananas

beautiful broccoli
cabbage
romaine
lots of tomatoes
a zucchini
lot of green peppers
artichokes

I don't know what I'll make from all that, except maybe pear compote or pear cobbler because we got a LOT of pears, but other than that... I'll probably roast the broccoli since that is just so luscious. The rest...we'll see.

After I got the fruits and veggies washed and sorted, I sat down to eat a wonderful lunch. I had bought some non-preservative bread from BB and I sliced a tomato-dill piece from the baguette, and toasted it. I topped it with hummus and ate a quinoa-orange-feta salad on the side. Chai black tea finished the meal.

I live in a small space. It is two real rooms with a small ell for the tiny kitchen. So...two and a half rooms? The rooms themselves are rather large. The high ceilings help. I calculated the square footage. It's 340 sf. I excluded the bathroom. When I read in design magazines of studio apartments and small living spaces and I read 340 sf it sounds small. But my apartment feels incredibly spacious.

Here is a closeup of a detail on a handmade textile I have hanging on my wall,

Ans here is my curious kitty ready to attack my dangling lens cap

Have a wonderful day everyone.

Making good food

Here are some of the things I made during the snow days. I like to cook in large batches so that I have food on hand for a few days and that way I don't have to cook each night. It maximizes my time. When I get home I like to write and read. If I can simply grab and heat then it takes less time away from the things I really like to do.

Tuesday when I got home at noon I made:

• Black bean-quinoa patties
• Asian slaw with hummus sauce (it's the filling in a soft wrap)
• Orange-kiwi salad

Thursday I made:

• Quinoa-oranges salad
• Squash casserole
• Roasted carrots
• Roasted potatoes

I've used up almost all the veggies I received at the Bountiful Basket drop off two weeks ago. I have a few potatoes and a few stalks of celery left. Using the carrots and potatoes and squash was the last hurrah. Fortunately this Saturday is another drop off.

I had a lot of oranges from the BB too, that's why I made the fruit salad and the quinoa salad. I still have two oranges and several apples left. And a couple of bananas going brown.

It feels good to have veggies roasting in the oven all day, and to be comfy with good food in the fridge. You notice that there is nothing ready-made on that list. My goal of eating almost 100% homemade food is getting closer all the time. I ate a school lunch this week, which contained highly processed french fries, and I could immediately feel the difference.

Take the time to plan ahead and make meals from fresh ingredients. You won't regret it. Once you get into the routine it goes fast. For example, when I was making the quinoa for the black bean patties, I made extra. I knew I'd use it for either a salad or for hot cereal in the morning. Always make a bit extra as long as you have the stove burner on. And speaking of stove, I made the casserole, potatoes, and carrots all at once so the oven was full and I didn't have to turn it on the next day for 45 min just to bake or roast one thing. The carrots and potatoes are now cooked and I can use them as-is or make them into something else. And the fuller the fridge the less it has to work cooling down all the empty air.

Anyway, that ishte mid-day report, lol.

Mushrooms

In looking at my stash of photos I've taken over the years, I notice that there are more than a few of mushrooms. I guess I like them! Some mushrooms I have known:

Elephant ear mushroom growing on dead tree stump, Comer GA. It was large, but dried-out and butt-ugly

Mushroom town in Comer GA. A population of tiny button mushrooms sprang up during the wet fall. They were nestled under a tree by my front door.

Here's a closeup of one. It was white and delicate and very pretty. It looked delicious to eat, but I didn't dare.

Polyporus squamosis, I think. Gray Maine

These are those puffy mushrooms that explode spores when you hit them. So of course I hit them. Comer GA

Some large mushrooms growing in the front yard near a dead stump int he shade. Comer GA.

At Bendzunas Glass, an artfully made mushroom watering can! Comer GA

I wrote in a previous blog entry that I had known Sam the Mushroom Man when I lived in Maine. Dr Sam Ristich was a world-renowned mycologist who happened to live in North Yarmouth Maine, and from whom I rented an apartment on his property. When I moved from the place, he gave me this mushroom stamp. It says, "Dear Elizabeth, I hope you find prolonged happiness."

For Sam, happiness was mushrooms.

Cat battles mailman: very funny. No school today

I laughed a lot at this one. I bet you will too. Being home on a no-school day means I have time to watch funny cat videos.



I'm posting at this time of day because we have a no-school day. Here is why. Shawn Reynolds of The Weather Channel took several of TWC producer Stephen Neslage's photos and put them into one montage. Here clockwise, we see ATL gridlock, (some stopped for over 10 hours), abandoned cars littering the Atlanta highways, and people sleeping in various grocery store aisles. Shawn is at @WCL_Shawn and Stephen is at @StephenNeslage. The AJC reports that the governor has sent National Guard humvees to try and rescue the students still on buses trapped in the traffic, and others to bring food and water to students over-nighting in schools.

I went outside at around 8:30 this morning to check things out. It was about 19 degrees with a real feel of 13. It felt VERY cold and the walk way was all ice. The Sheriff's Department is urging and pleading  for people to stay off the roads.

Looks kinda forlorn, doesn't it...

I'm bundled up in my apartment and I'm actually thinking about going back to bed for a while. Icy, cold, forbidding day... It seems like an 'extra' day because of no school. Why not?

Sea glass

I used to rent a charming little cottage on a secluded cove in the eastern most city in the US, Lubec Maine. This little city borders New Brunswick Canada across the harbor. Here is what the cottage looks like-

Expired property listing

Here is the front porch overlooking the cove- ahhh driftwood and Adirondack chair. Bliss

EPrata photo

Here is the view. See what I mean about bliss?!

EPrata photo

A short meander down the lane brings you to the cove's beach. Since Johnson Bay and its smaller nook Globe Cove was used by fishing fleets for over 100 years, thee is a lot of old sea glass that the violently tumbling tides of the Bay of Fundy wash ashore. The fishermen would toss the glass overboard, the tides would break it and tumble it to a sheen, rubbing off all the sharp angles and removing the sheen and pitting it like frost. That's sea glass.

There was a lot of it. There was so much, I actually got tired of picking it up. Little did I know how rare it is.

Here is Wikipedia on sea glass-

"There is only one true type of "genuine sea glass" that can be produced and that is by the sea naturally. Pieces of glass from broken bottles, broken tableware or even shipwrecks are rolled and tumbled in the ocean for years until all of their edges are rounded off, and the slickness of the glass has been worn to a frosted appearance."

'My' sea glass is in various states of finished tumbling. One or two pieces were totally rounded and quite frosted by the ocean's wave action and the salt. Others had sharper edges but their colors let me know they were indeed older pieces of glass.

Extremely rare colors include gray, pink (often from Great Depression-era plates), teal (often from Mateus wine bottles), black (older, very dark olive green glass), yellow (often from 1930s Vaseline containers), turquoise (from tableware and art glass), red (often from old Schlitz bottles,[4] car tail lights, dinnerware or from nautical lights, it is found once in about every 5,000 pieces), and orange (the least common type of sea glass, found once in about 10,000 pieces). These colors are found once for every 1,000 to 10,000 pieces collected. Some shards of black glass are quite old, originating from thick eighteenth-century gin, beer and wine bottles.

EPrata photo

"The most common colors of sea glass are kelly green, brown, and white (clear). These colors come from bottles used by companies that sell beer, juices, and soft drinks. The clear or white glass comes from clear plates and glasses, windshields, windows, and assorted other sources."

EPrata photo

Less common colors include jade, amber (from bottles for whiskey, medicine, spirits, and early bleach bottles), golden amber or amberina (mostly used for spirit bottles), lime green (from soda bottles during the 1960s), forest green, and ice- or soft blue (from soda bottles, medicine bottles, ink bottles, and fruit jars from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, windows, and windshields). These colors are found about once for every 25 to 100 pieces of sea glass found.

EPrata photo

Uncommon colors of sea glass include a type of green, which comes primarily from early to mid-1900s Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper, and RC Cola bottles as well as beer bottles. Soft green colors could come from bottles that were used for ink, fruit, and baking soda. These colors are found once in every 50 to 100 pieces.

EPrata photo

Purple sea glass is very uncommon, as is citron, opaque white (from milk glass), cobalt and cornflower blue (from early Milk of Magnesia bottles, poison bottles, artwork, and Bromo-Seltzer and Vicks VapoRub containers), and aqua (from Ball Mason jars and 19th century glass bottles). These colors are found once for every 200 to 1,000 pieces found.

EPrata photo

I found other kinds of ceramics besides just glass.

The color of sea glass is determined by its original source. Most sea glass comes from bottles, but it can also come from jars, plates, windows, windshields, ceramics or sea pottery.

EPrata photo

EPrata photo

In all, the sea is a treasure and the sea yields up treasures. Whether it's sea glass from Lubec Maine, rounded granite and rhyolite rocks from Jasper Beach Maine, or shark's teeth from Venice Beach Florida, or fossils from the Peace River in Florida, or conch shells from the Bahamas, or giant scallop shells from Labrador Canada... No matter what beach I've walked, I've always enjoyed the scenery, but mostly, I'm looking down at the sand to search for treasures!

Source Wikipedia

My evening in pictures

Or as Sheldon Cooper, the character from the Big Bang Theory would say, "prevening".

I come home on Fridays and vacuum. My abode is ready for me to enjoy all weekend and I won't be aggravated by looking at something I have to do. It's done, ergo, no aggravation.

Murray the new kitty and Luke my old kitty are snuggling. This is the first time that I'm aware that the two foster brothers feel relaxed enough to rest together. Murray is blending into our family just fine.

Bert, however, is on the table because he wants me to comb him. He is a hussy for being groomed.

My treat this week: a freshly baked batch of chocolate chip cookies and some chai spice tea. Two of those cookies are going into my tummy right now.

It's the weekend. It's Friday night. I like Friday nights best. It is the longest time until Monday work again and the weekend possibilities are still myriad. The sweetness of coming to a full stop after literally 10 hours of constant movement is still deliciously wonderful. It's quiet. I love Friday nights.

Enjoy your weekend. May they be full of whatever it is that you enjoy best.






I also like to have a treat on Friday evenings. Tonight I made chocolate chip cookies.

Murder, She Wrote has to be the worst show ever. Unless it's Matlock.

I went to a graduation party for an adult friend of mine who has completed her requirements for a teaching degree. She now has her certification! We were all so proud of her.

The event was held in a nice lodge in the north Georgia woods, in the foothills of the Smokey mountains. The 6 foot fireplace had a roaring fire, the full moon and stars blinked and shone over head, the wood planking inside the lodge glowed warmly in the firelight. And the tables were beautifully set with teacher kind of things.

Like apples.

I was surprised when my friend's son said that the apple centerpieces containing a tea candle were real apples. He said they just scooped out the top and set the tea light in the hole, and lit the candle. Neat! So I did the same at home. Here is how to do it.

Select a size apple proportional to your table. Also make sure it can stand upright. The apple I had was worse than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

I took a sharpie marker and drew a circle around the tea light so I'd know how much to carve out.

I took a paring knife and carved. Occasionally I'd set the tea light inside to see how much more I needed to carve. I wanted the tea light to set inside just to the rim.

Place tea light inside and light. Voila!

I tried to wear nylons on Sunday with my skirt to church. It didn't work out. Kitten 1. Nylons 0.

Speaking of kitten, he tried to climb the lace curtain. His claw got stuck about halfway up and he was swinging like Tarzan. I was yelling at him and laughing at the same time. However that very same night I ordered a Kitty Claw Clipper from Amazon. This was not a coincidence.

My Bountiful Basket is so tremendous. I roasted Brussels sprouts this morning and they turned out incredibly yummy. And to think I had hated Brussels sprouts as a kid. Silly kiddo!

Yesterday I watched on snagfilms "Sundance Film Festival Classics "Sikumi" about an Inuit hunter who witnesses a murder on the ice. His friend kills another friend. Bringing the body back would mean his friend goes to jail. And will the murderer even let the witness return alive? It was beautifully photographed on location and it was only 15 minutes.

I also watched Word Wars. This documentary is like Spellbound, the movie tracking the spelling bee participants, but this time the Scrabble champions are tracked. Spelling bee kids are cute and charming. The four men in the Scrabble documentary on their way to the world Scrabble Championships in San Diego are not cute and not charming. They are rather pathetic, offbeat in a creepy way, and sad to watch. I learned a lot about Scrabble but couldn't take the men, so three-quarters of the way through I fast forwarded to near the end so I could see who won. Doing that only made me sadder.

The saddest part is that Scrabblers don't learn the words so as to learn their meaning, but only to know words so as to gain points. One participant said that trying to learn the definitions would drive them crazy, and I can see this, because there are a lot of words they have to know. But still. What is the point of knowing a word if you don't include it in your vocabulary? Where was all this memorization, winning, and losing...going? That's what made it sad.

I also turned it off because the black guy swore like a sailor and I couldn't stand it any more. The irony of his militant use of profanity and his standing up for the black man and his perception of the oppression of having to use English instead of Ebonics or African was not lost on me, Scrabble WORD GUY.

So I was off to watch another short, Picture The Leviathan, about painter James Prosek and his paintings of fish. He really likes fish. He really, really likes fish. He explains his emotional and creative process while fishing and seeing the fish as it comes out of the water. We see him photograph and note-take details of these fish, and his attempts to capture all the colors and details of this magnificent living animal as he puts all the information into his paintings, was pretty interesting. And I loved seeing the montage at the end of his finished work. It was amazing!


Then I was on to Murder, She Wrote, the world's worst tv show. I was looking for that elusive combination of nostalgia, clean watching, and mindless entertainment. I did not find it in Jessuca Fletcher. Here is why I had to turn it off, its flaws so glaring even I couldn't overlook them anymore, as lazy as I had wanted to be.

A murder had taken place on a train and a passenger was missing. Fletcher tracked the action to a strictly guarded government facility in the southern Arizona desert. She entered a crime scene, (!) stole the dead guys' ID card, who by the way worked at the government facility (!!). It turned out the facility was the NSA (!!!). Fletcher used the ID card to gain entry to the NSA facility (!!!!) and then hacked the computer to try and find information (!!!!!).

When inevitably caught, Fletcher told the NSA facility commander that she had been trying to get to meet him all along and then she gave him what-for.

The NSA guy just shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "Aw, man, what are we ever going to do with this no-nonsense Yankee spitfire lady, anyway? Chuckle chuckle."

No. Here is how it works. You enter a crime scene you get arrested. You steal something from a crime scene and you get arrested. You use a NSA ID card to unlawfully gain entry to a NSA listening facility and you get put away immediately. You hack their computers and you never emerge into the light of day again. (Snowdon? Snowdon? Anyone? Anyone?)

I spent some time last night buying stuff at Amazon. A kind person had given me a gift certificate so I spent a happy few hours carefully buying what I needed and wanted and got the most out of the gift certificate. I came in three cents under. Ha ha!

I am enjoying this day off. The temps have returned to normal, now it is 62 degrees. Bright sun is streaming through the lace curtains (the ones unmolested by kitty) and speaking of the three cats, they are sleeping. I will heat up a lunch and make some tea and read. Days off are great.

Bountiful Basket Day

Here is the basket for this week:

7 bananas, 7 oranges, 6 apples, 5 kiwi, celery, 3 avocados, 6 baking potatoes, 2 Acorn squash, bag Brussels sprouts, box of cherry tomatoes, 4 artichokes, Romaine.

There were leftovers and everybody got an additional item, but not all baskets received the same additional item. My overflow item was squash, that's why I have two. It cost $21.50 for everything. I also received an extra bag of an item of my choice because I volunteered. I picked a 2nd bag of Brussels sprouts- not pictured. The next rotation is in two weeks. I can't wait!

I'm excited. I would never buy artichokes but I like them and will eat them. Same with Brussels sprouts.

Of the things I'm not so much a fan of...oranges. I like oranges OK but they are a pain to cut up and messy. They take a long time to work with so I'm not so much a fan. A banana is something I can bring with me, and eat as I'm going up the hall at school, or chow down on in one minute as my snack during the work day.

As for the veggies, I'll steam the artichokes all at once. I'll make a ratatouille with the celery and tomatoes and a yellow squash I have and peppers. I'll throw in some quinoa. Later on the acorn squash will become soup- but I'll roast the squash first.

Today was cold, only 26 degrees as we unloaded the truck and distributed the veggies. It was the biggest Basket day ever, with 47 people signing up. There are 95 available. I'm glad that about 10 people showed up to help distribute because many hands made light work. As it was we barely got it all sorted out into the customer's baskets before the people started arriving.

First you yank down everything from the truck, which is an 18 wheeler. This is harder than it sounds because what you are taking down are flats of potatoes and bananas etc- HEAVY. Then we open every box to do a quick eye scan to make sure nothing drastic is happening in there. Next the Coordinator sends us down the rows of baskets (which we lay out in order of number) with an item. She has done the calculations of how many items go into each basket, based on how many are in a flat and how many people signed up for a basket. So we had 47 people and she told us to start with putting 5 bananas into each basket, 6 potatoes, etc.

At the end when there are leftovers of stray bananas or potatoes or kiwis, etc, she tells us to put one certain item in each basket till there are no more left of that item and to start putting into the next basket where you left off of the next item. So if we had 30 bananas left over the first 30 baskets got them and then the next 17 baskets got a potato. If we still have leftovers we just start again at #1. So everyone gets something extra but not all baskets get the same extra. All produce is distributed as evenly as humanly possible.

The Basket co-op took a rotation off last time so since they come around every other week we had a month off. I was dying on the vine so to speak. I went to the grocery store in between basket weeks, but there is no way to reproduce the amounts you get for $15. The co-op cost for the food is $15 and the other $6.50 is for processing and fuel for the truck. The Basket people like to say it costs $15 but since $21.50 is coming out of my pocket is just say it's $21.50 for the produce. It is still a great deal.

It is an extra God-send because January is the time when our school payroll goes a long time between paychecks. We are paid monthly on the last work day of the month but in December the kind payroll people work hard to get us our money before Christmas break. This year we were paid on Dec 18. But the next paycheck isn't until January 31. So the 6 weeks between paychecks is hard to budget for and the last week certainly is a stretch. So I appreciate access to quality produce at such an affordable price. The baskets usually last me two weeks.

It is still cold here, a mere 35 degrees, but the sun is strong and the day is early. I cleaned and changed the sheets and straightened up before I left to get the Basket. This afternoon, I'll do some writing, take a nap, and get ready for a party later this evening. A friend graduated from college and she earned her teaching certificate, the fulfillment of a long-time dream she has been working toward for a while. Not easy with two kids and she worked as a parapro. So her friends and family will celebrate her accomplishment tonight!