Smoking is Dumb and Pants are Good

So, my supervisor and I saved a guy from certain death by banging on his door and waking him up after driving by and seeing his truck on fire inside his garage, which in turn ignited the whole house. Getting him out was the only thing I could do since my "quality" city-issued fire extinguisher wouldn't work (it most likely would not have made any difference in the outcome). The smoke became so great that it completely enveloped the neighbors' houses. Therefore, I had to run through the thick darkness and evacuate 2 kids whose mother thought it would be a good idea to just drive off and leave them in the house while it quickly filled with smoke. There is no shortage of Stupid in our society. Some people would greatly benefit from a good wake up slap.

Speaking of stupid, I have a renewed disrespect for smoking. I experienced a years worth of smoke in my lungs in less than a minute and let me tell you, smoke and lungs don't mix, and there is a reason firemen use a fancy oxygen mask and not just a shirt pulled up over their nose and mouth. I was hacking for about a half hour after my jog through the black cloud, and I still have black boogers.

Attention all people who sleep in your underwear: its a pretty good idea to keep some pants and a shirt within reach just in case your house catches on fire and you have to run outside in the middle of the day with the entire neighborhood staring, complete with media crews and helicopters over head. But, I guess it's better alive in your skivvies than dead fully clothed.

Debt Sucks

Spending Money = Fun.
The Aftermath of Spending Too Much Money = Not Fun.
If you happen to know someone who has access to a time machine, please let me know so I can take a trip back to see my late-teen early-twenties self and commence to beat the poo out of him until he understands that using credit cards and getting unnecessary student loans is not a good idea. How free I would be if the me then had the me now's brain. The borrower truly is slave to the lender. This is the whole reason I continue to live in the city, which is the bane of my existence. I am a slave...but I am slowly digging my tunnel to freedom.

I hope my pumpkins grow.

High Definition

Tonight I stood out on the front porch and watched nature TV. The usual blazing hot late evening sun was blackened by a sky full of ominous clouds rapidly approaching from the northwest. Within minutes the temperature dropped from the mid-nineties to the low seventies (ahhh). The chilling breeze coupled with the clean wet smell of coming rain filled me with thoughts of Halloween and pumpkins, hot chocolate and sweaters. Until a couple of years ago, I somewhat despised rainy days. Now, it feels like I missed out on years of free entertainment that far outweighs any provided by so called "High Definition" TV. You want true High-Def? Put on your glasses and sit outside as a Texas Thunderstorm approaches, or lay perfectly still in a hammock and observe all the movements of life in the limbs above. Watch a group of chickens as they go about their daily chores of pecking and scratching, or listen closely to the familiar never-ending song of the whipper wheel bird. Tonight, I miss the country.

Little Bit of Puke in My Mouth

Here is a good idea. If you weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 350-400 pounds and someone knocks at your door, before answering put on something more than a size small see-through nightgown that doesn't fully cover your otherwise naked body. I have had many nightmares less frightening. What's worse is this is the second time I have been to that house and the second time I have received this less-than-pleasant surprise presentation. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, gouge my eyes out.

Yeah Rain!

Bee Gone, Bee Found

My garden's lack of production this year can be traced to one major factor - no pollination. The bees are gone. I have not seen one single bee, or wasp for that matter, anywhere close to one of my plants. I have tried planting several different yummy smelling bright colored flowers to try to entice the bees into setting up shop, but all to no avail. Until yesterday, I had no clue where all the bees could be hanging out. While working a 4 car major hit and run accident on the rush hour, jam-packed, angry driver laden freeway, I found them. As I was strolling through the grassy median between the edge of the fast lane shoulder and the concrete barrier, I suddenly became aware of the wildlife moving around me. Grasshoppers, gnats, butterflies, wasp and bees! I was furious! Of all the places a bee could go to perform its natural talents, it chooses the grassy inside median of major metropolitan freeway during rush hour! I guess I need to just throw a bunch of trash on my front porch, honk a lot, spill some oil, blanket my plants in exhaust fumes and give them the middle finger on a regular bases so I too can attract those fuzzy pollinators. And here I thought organic was the way to go...time for a paradigm shift.

Garden Multiplication

Upon return from our travels, we were greeted at the front door by a horrible slaughter. The front porch garden was out of control. Many of the plants were past the point of CPR or electric shock for that matter. It was just too hot and the water too nonexistent. The survivors seemed to have banded together in some sort of sacrilegious festival to mourn for their fallen family. The spent tomato plants had Medusa-like spindles extending in all directions. The Malabar spinach and the cantaloupe had both reached out of their pots and intertwined in some sick incestuous relationship. And the new pumpkin vines had decided to grow into the nearest hedge.

I wish I could say it all happened while I was away, but, other than watering, I have been letting things go on autopilot for a couple of weeks prior. So, I spent the morning yanking out dead plants, pruning the injured and separating the viney lovers with a stern lecture. I took cuttings off of the tomato plants and replanted them in 4" pots to root. This is my first attempt at rooting tomatoes, so my fingers are crossed.

home.

Free from the City (Temporarily)

Drank some coffee, loaded up car, left the city, drove to the coast, unloaded car, saw old friends, met friends' cute baby boy, ate a good burger, saw more friends, reminisced, spent the night at friends' new house, drank some coffee, ate breakfast tacos, watched family swim in friends' new pool, watched daughter kiss a boy, called more friends, loaded up car, met friends for Mexican food, laughed, missed, saw old house, wished I could sell old house, drove to the country, hugged parents, unloaded car, watched daughter do a dance for cat, dance for dog, dance for chickens, dance for Nana, ate lasagna, ate pie, spent the night at parents' house, drank some coffee, ate cinnamon toast, ate cobbler, played with daughter, swang with daughter, ran with daughter, changed car's oil, rode to town, picked up niece, picked up nephew, rode back to country, ate a sandwich, ate some chips, zipped on zip-line, sagged on zip-line, helped weed garden, made bread with niece, ate bread with niece, drew picture with nephew, rode to town, dropped off niece, dropped off nephew, bought groceries, rode back to country, walked to grandparents', talked, smiled, walked back to parents', ate chicken, ate dumplings, read book, watched wife sewing, tried sewing, messed up sewing, decided to blog...

Snotty Hands and Cat Hair

This book is hilarious. I found it at the library and have been thoroughly enjoying it. One of the sweet ideas I learned from it was a trick the author's father used on apples. Each year when baby apples first started to appear on the trees, he would take clear plastic tubing or bags and cut them to fit about 3" diameters around the apples stapling them near the stem. The other end was left open to allow air and growth. This trick prevented the negative effects of the apple-maggot fly. One year he used clear plastic grocery bags with labels and realized at harvest time that the labels had transferred to the apples due to lack of sun in those areas. Their family then began personalizing apples by writing names and notes on the plastic before wrapping the apples each year. How awesome would it be to make striped, checkered, or polka-dotted apples? The ideas are endless!

In my continued quest for fall weather, a trip to the nursery to purchase pumpkin plants seemed like the perfect idea to begin setting the mood. Isabel and I put on our shoes and walked to the fantastic local nursery down the street from our townhouse, which specializes in native Texas plants and has a friendly, somewhat intimidatingly intelligent staff. We returned from our voyage with 2 healthy pumpkin vines, 2 delicious smelling handmade bars of soap, 1 pot of beautiful yellow flowers, and 2 sticky little hands covered in stray nursery cat hair (snotty nose rubbing mixed with kitty petting are a less than pleasant combo for all parties involved). Now, we just need to plant our vines in a little sun with a dose of water and dream of jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pie.

Lovely Blossom

Lactose Intolerant Birds Beware

This is the latest of my bird houses I've been making out of old scrap wood. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it since our townhouse seems to only attract the ugliest varieties of black loud squawking birds in the continental U.S. But, they are fun to make.

My cantaloupe plants are putting on quite a show of yellow flowers which makes me just want to punch them in the face since they didn't produce a single thing and now the weather is a tad bit too hot (and by that I mean similar to the surface of the sun). So, I suppose we will just watch and see what happens. The tomato plants are looking really healthy, which leads me to believe they are going to make it through to fall.

Ah fall! Come quickly! I have always been a Summer guy, but this year, after a few zillion times of standing on a freeway hot enough to make an omelet wearing a black outfit with 20-30 pounds of equipment hanging from my body, I am seriously ready for those Autumn leaves to start dropping and those cool breezes to start blowing.

We Love Fruit Smoothies!

Old Friends, Old Ways

We had two friends from La Porte come visit us for lunch today. Sitting down over lunch and good conversation put a greater illumination on the isolation of this city life. It made me long for the small town and country lifestyle of sitting around a fire pit after dinner deeply engrossed in words, ideas and the feelings of love and friendship. I am a firm believer that an individual can never really experience life to its fullest outside of community. I was listening to a radio program a few weeks ago and heard someone quoted as often saying, "You will be exactly the same 5 years from now as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read."

Easy Roasted Tomato/Basil Soup

Nocona and I really love fresh foods. The fresher the better. The most ideal dinner would be to go out to the garden pick all the ingredients for a dish. You can just about do that with this soup. Its so easy and fast to make. I've never been a big soup fan but this was souper delicious.

Tomato/Basil Soup

10-11 Tomatoes (medium sized)

1 Onion

2 Cloves of Garlic

2 T Fresh Thyme Leaves

1 t Salt

1 t Pepper

2 T Olive Oil

12-14 Fresh Basil Leaves

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the tomatoes and garlic in halves and lay them out in a 13x9 baking dish. Cut the onion in fourths and place it in the dish with the tomatoes and garlic. Drizzle all of it with olive oil, sprinkle the thyme, salt and pepper over the top and pop it in the oven for 25-30 min. Cool for a few minutes.

Now take the roasted tomatoes and friends and put them in a blender (it will probably take two shifts). Combine it with the 12 basil leaves (or 6 per shift) and blend it up. Pour all of it into a pot on the stove and heat it up for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. You can add additional salt and pepper to taste. Then serve it up with some basil leaves on top and you'll look like you know what your doing (it goes great with a grilled cheese)!

I enjoy a good beer every once in a while. I've never been the type to give myself over to strong drink, but a single beverage is nice on occasion with a burger or pasta dish. However, it only takes a few incidents such as finding individuals so intoxicated they are literally sleeping behind a dumpster with one shoe on and upon waking can only cry for 15 straight minutes before one begins to wonder whether the 18th amendment was one of the smartest things Congress has ever done.

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