Lonesome Quartet

When the leaves left this pear tree naked, this forgotten quartet of pears remained. Actually they were a compleat surprise. We never knew they were there before. Usually some sort of bug or blight takes most of them out. We may get one or two, sort of a special treat when we do. But then, long after the season had passed, here they were, just hanging around. Seems like this should mean something, but I don't really know what. I did think they were kinda pretty hanging there. For some reason it made me think of a "partridge in a pear tree". I haven't seen that partridge yet, but this is the last day of November and he may show up soon.
The seasons are rushing by. When I was a kid, Christmas took forever, now I can't get out of it's way. You can say it's three weeks away, but as soon as you turn around, another week has flashed by. Has time sped up, or have I slowed down ? Does this have something to do with that relativity stuff ? Does it even matter ?

Probably not.

Once this was a proud bird, a mighty bird, a magnificent turkey. But now what ? This is all that remains. He was cut down in his prime, never to strut the barnyard again. Never again to incite fear in lesser foul, or young children.
Of course we all realize this particular piece of poultry probably never had the oportunity to engage in any of these popular pursuits amoung turkey-kind. It's a pitty of course. Sometimes we get to see his wild and free counsins in fields arround here. People do try to shoot them but at least they have a chance I guess. Don't get the wrong idea here, I have no reservations about eating turkeys. I think it was Freewheeling Franklin who said it was "OK to eat turkeys 'cause it was God's way of punishing them for being so stupid". Wild turkeys aren't so stupid I hear.
We got a couple "organic" turkeys once. They were quite tasty actually, but also quite expensive. Too expensive. We have raised chickens, also ducks, geese, and some other kind of bird I can't figger out how to spell. We had some muscovy ducks once and man, were they ever mean. But I have no trouble chopping off thier little heads, it's just part of it. We used to make the kids pluck them just for fun. I guess that was mean too. It does smell bad. But we gave all that up for now.
This scene of carnage actually took place at our daughter's place in the Big City. It was really nice of them to have us, and we had a good time eating turkey and other stuff. But they don't raise turkeys either. They keep cats, but none of us eats cats. I think this is probably a good thing.

The Tin Man

The Tin Man is here.
He was a gift from a friend of our son a few years ago. Unfortunately he is not a tin woodsman like in that movie with all the munchkins. If he were, I could maybe put him to work on this wood pile. He is a tin cowboy, but we have no cattle so he has little to do around here. He is getting a bit rusted though. But his joints still move. But you have to admit, he never looses his good attitude, see him smiling ? Beside his good attitude, he does already have a heart, so no quest is necessary on that count.

Thanksgiving is upon us. Let the holidays begin. I do have a lot to be thankful for, my loving wife who has put up with me all these years, for one. And a lot of other stuff. Even my truck is running again. I still have a job, good health, and so I am thankful. Some people don't have anyone to thank, but I will thank God, and join family to feast before Him.

It's that time of year again. Time to split.
This is our only heat source here. (Although we have been known to throw in a lump of coal from time to time.) It is a lot of work some times, and I don't have a lot of patience with that "it warms you twice" bit. Some years ago, during one of those oil crunches, there was a big fad for folks to go to wood burning to save money. But it kinda slacked of when people realized how much work was involved. What was fun and trendy got to be a drag fast. It was good when things let up a little, cause the competition for wood eased off a bit. A lot of what we burn is what we pick up on the streets here. There are a lot of trees in town, and when limbs fall they must be removed. There are still people who want it though and most of the good stuff gets gone quick, especialy in cold weather. Some folks like to burn a little in their fireplace for effect. Now days, people are getting these gas fireplaces. No muss, no fuss. But that's good for us.
I supose we could be viewed as filthy contributers to global warming and all that, but what we're really into is dwelling warming. There is something about having a real fire here in the house that just resonates with me. I think it's the hearth thing, "Home and hearth", as they say. It's also a great place to warm up the old butt on a winter evening.
There are, of course, some practical aspects. We don't freeze our tushes during ice storms. The price is right, if you can some how ignore the labor. And a rug next to a woodstove is a great place to nap.

Happy Happy Joy Joy !

The Happy Hula Dancer Girl
Happy Happy Joy Joy !
She is happy to be home. Finally, after many days, truck is home. And amazingly, I have driven truck for two (2) entire days without truck no go. Dancer loves to ride in truck. She go every where with me when I drive in truck. You can see by smile she glad too.
Times was very sad when truck no go. Even girl in grass skirt was sad. She no go anywhere, must stay home all time. I pay much money for fix truck. But that in past now. Now we is very happy again. Happy Happy Joy Joy !

For Want of a Nail

For want of...............................
It was a nail, a shoe, and more.
In this case more modern stuff, but the principal still holds.
It has been previously told how I was finally forced to face the facts and send my truck to the truck doctors. I had come to the conclusion that the problem lay in the deep recesses of the computer, or processor, as they refer to it. My shade tree lacked the complex and sophisticated equipment necessary to deal with this sort of situation. So, just for the record, after a week or so, the experts concluded the same thing. This is not good. But at least I do have the satisfaction of knowing I was right about it all. When I was at Ft Bragg one time, a drill sergeant gave me this advice, "Always expect the worst, and you'll never be disappointed".
Here you can see an exposed brake drum. You may wonder why is this so since this is not the usual thing. This brake drum is part of what was previously referred to as the "tow vehicle". In the days preceeding this doctor visit, (and hospital stay), problems were detected in the braking system of the potential tow vehicle. This could present a danger on the highway as can be easily understood. This could be easily corrected by an adjustment to the brake shoes inside of this brake drum. There is a opening though which one can easily perform this operation but unfortunately when this was attempted the adjuster fell off inside the brake drum. This picture was made during the two days it took to hammer it loose. Eventually the brakes were fixed and the trip was completed. On the return home it was discovered that a leaky fuel line was skeeting gasoline under the tow vehicle. God is merciful.
But the reason I even brought this up, is that the picture reminded me of the other day. Since my real truck has been indisposed, I have been riding to work on the motorcycle. This is not a bad thing in it self since it is my vehicle of choice in reasonable weather any way. But on this fateful morning, as I went to crank the bike, I discovered to my dismay, the tire was flat. Once again the faithful tow vehicle was called into service to save the day. Things were fine until after a longer than usual work day, on the way home, I heard that ominous sound, the flop flop flop of another airless tire.
But life is good. Do you realize what could have happened ? Suppose the brakes had failed when I was towing another truck on the four-lane. Suppose the spewing gasoline had caught fire at 60mph. Suppose this blowout had occurred in that situation. So what do these little annoyances count for any way.

And so not to dwell on troubles any more. Fall is here. the mornings are crisp. The leaves are falling. Life is good.

The Infamous Trio
This is about another fiasco involving what should have been a simple matter.

Due to some dietary complications which I won't go into here, it became necessary for us to purchase a pressure cooker. This unfortunate chain of events began early this year. There had never been such a gizmo among our collection of useful food preparation equipment. In fact, I must admit, there had always been a slight apprehension of having such a dangerous high pressure device here in an occupied dwelling. But times change, and necessity is necessity. And so one evening my Sweet Thing and I zipped on over to the K Mart. We had both seen these things in use in our younger, more innocent days, and thought we knew what we were looking for. Well, as one has come to expect, what we were looking for was not, in fact, there. However, we did find something that was referred to as a "pressure cooker". This was made in a foreign country which was once under the thumb of a great European empire. After some study, it was determined that what set this contraption apart from what we had in our minds as a "pressure cooker", was the addition of a few features that were most likely added to enhance it's safety. Well, safety is a good thing, I suppose, but so is simplicity. Too many moving parts are not always a good thing. However, since this was the only thing in the whole K Mart that bore any resemblance to what we needed, we went for it.

Time has an ability to reveal things, and it didn't take a lot to do it. The handles kept getting loose, various plastic parts broke, and inferior sealing rings (on the "safety" features) crumbled and leaked. (This, by the way, is the cooker on the far left.) It became obvious that this wasn't going to work out very well. Having internet access, the obvious thing seemed to be to go online and find a replacement. So with high hopes in modern technology, we launched into hyper-space searching the World Wide Web for a simple, low tech, pressure cooker. There are a lot of these things out there, but we finally found what we believed would be just what we wanted. No bells, no whistles, just a simple stainless steel pressure cooker. It was even made in a "European Country". I suppose P T Barnum was right, although I hate to admit it under these circumstances. Well, they got our money, and our pot was shipped to us. In truth it seemed to be everything we had hoped for, simple and functional, although the directions in an unknown language did give us some pause. (This would be the one in the center.)

Unfortunately, in this "European Country", there must be a steel shortage. After using this thing a few times, the flimsy locking lugs began to stretch, and the gasket would no longer seal. Being the resourceful fix it type guy I am, I took a crescent wrench to the thing, and bent the lugs back into a position that enabled it to seal once again. This became an every day thing. Not good.

On the right you will see a third pressure cooker. In a fit of frustration, we finally sought out that great American Institution, Sears & Roebuck. I wish I could report that this brand name cooker reestablished the superiority of american technology and quality, but alas, it seems to have been made in an asian country. There is also the fact that we haven't tried it out yet. Yet it seems to be well made and not overly complex. Maybe this time things will work out and we will be 1 for 3 .

They're calling for frost again tonight. Of course this isn't the first time. Before the first frost I pulled these peppers and some green tomatoes. The tomatoes aren't much to look at but I think the peppers are kinda interesting. I like all the bright colors and all. The jalapinas were a little disappointing this year, not very hot, almost like a bell pepper until you got right down to the stem. But the habaneros made up for it. They were hot going in, and hot coming out. But I guess that's the point, isn't it ?