Sandwiches for lunch?

Well--‘twas my day to prepare lunch at the Geddes Ranchero and, thanks to an ingredient a neighbor (Ms. Wilma) provided, I was able to put together two pretty good sandwiches. On taking them to my spouse, and pointing out what they were, she asked “where, pray tell, did you find any Elk?” Well, that being said, I told her I’d explain completely, after she evaluated the sandwich. Which she did, very positively, I might add, and with a smile on both our faces, I pointed out we already had the Eggs, and the cheese, and when Wilma came up with with the lettuce, our “Elc” sandwiches were just the thing for our luncheon menu. Interesting, wouldn’t you say?

Of course, this will not be passed on to our one and only grandchild who still maintains a few illusions about our “Christmas” gatherings!

Scientific problems--scientific solutions

Working on a post for my facebook play book, and one of my neighbors caught me at it! Seems one of the neighborhood "children" found some of my cat food attractive--well more than just attractive, I guess, more like mama than anything. You see, another baby possum pretty much left the wet cat food and the dry cat food alone while sucking up the entire helping of moo-milk that the cats also, normally, may or may not find attractive. Guess it was a good time for possum youngster, more like a second or third grade possum than a baby, this one, in any case. If I were inclined, I could have caught and tamed it. Luckily, I was not so inclined. My dog would not have appreciated it, and my wife would not have appreciated it, and I would not have appreciated the rearrangement I would have found for my night-time accomodations.  

Well, that's just what is on the agenda for this evening--pointing out one of the neighborhood denizens. I think they live in the sewers most of the time, coming out if there is a really bad storm, of course. I expect there are worse places to live--the sewers are fairly high in moisture, which really isn't a problem for our little buddies, their accoutirement is not negatively impacted, and the water, such as it is, beats the alternative, especially when one is relatively resistant to the various other creature life that may be carried along in the water. Mankind isn't as resistant as possumkind, I suspect, when it comes to dealing with bacteria and other life forms that may be found in our rainfall and waters of other description that may be found in our drainage sewers.  

Which brings up one additional question--while we are looking for people having resistance to covid-19 by having recovered from said infection, I wonder how such might be handled by our marsupial cousins? Could it be they would be more resistant to this somewhat major distraction than we? I wonder.  

Then, again, maybe a cold-water solution might be worth considering. We do eat fish, don't we? So, if we were to infect some of these little friends of ours with our disease of interest, and find they are not particularly offended with our little problem, maybe a serum made from the blood of this God-given food source would be worth considering. While we are searching for solutions, why exempt any of our food sources?  

How about it, CDC? How about it?

Chocolate chip cookies, and Charlie

Sitting here in our living room, my wife and I were finishing up our breakfast snack. Taking a bite our of a chocolate chip cookie she handed me, I looked at the remainder before putting it in my mouth, first mistake of the morning (and if you believe that, read on, friend!)

Still here? Well, thanks. In any case, looking at my remainder of the chocolate chip cookie (from Fresh Market, at that,) I took it over to Jennie and said “look at this.” Which she did, for about two seconds, before that look of recognition appeared on her face. “It’s Charlie!” She exclaimed--pointing out the nose, eye, mouth, and little colorations of brown on top of the golden coat of our son’s Lab. And, what she saw was exactly what I had seen a few moments earlier. We were in total agreement, for the first time all morning. Thank goodness for small favors.

I returned to my seat on the couch, looked out our living room window at the front lawn, and casually polopped the cookie into my mouth.

Now some things you just should do and some things you probably should not do. This was the latter. I, the sometime auspicious photographer, at that, ate Charlie. Nearly made me sick. If throwing him up would have done the least bit of good, that is exactly what I would have done. Poor Charlie.

I went to my bedroom and stretched out. Nothing seemed to help. I went back to the living room and told wife about my misdeed. She laughed. That did it. Guess I won’t be sick--at least not over this.  Plenty of other things to be sick over (the noon news should do the trick!)  Guess I’d better call Stash to be sure all is well with dear old Charlie! Anyone agree with me on this? (Yep, there goes one hand up in the back of the room.)

And thanks for that, my friend!

Covid-19 vs Us

 A friend of mine and I needed a place to sit down and discuss the news of the day, and we thought the City’s Carolina Bay outdoor area might suit our needs. We met there at 9 AM this morning and took a look at the trail around the bay before sitting down on the covered outdoor structure at the bay. We were able to observe the outdoor life: A couple of Canada Geese, a few turtles, and a number of other bird species provided a bit of entertainment as we had a brief discussion of our understanding of the problems of the day. We were the only two people there which, considering the time of day, was not unusual.

After we had enjoyed each other’s company for about an hour, a city truck drove up. The driver told us the structure, and, indeed, the Carolina Bay area itself was closed to the public due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the City’s thinking the use of its facilities could promote the passing on of the disease. Whether this is the case, or not, it is a decision that was made by our city council, or so we suspect. We were not aware of the prohibition of using the structure we were having our coffee at until the city employee informed us of that fact. We thanked him and left. Hopefully no one who might have used the structure prior to the time we were there left anything that could cause either of us any difficulties. No telling if this might be the case, or not. Guess we will know in the next couple of weeks, though, and will pass any info we might be party to at that time on to anyone else who may have an interest. So, what can I tell you? Keep reading, and let us know how you are faring in today’s viral environment if you develop any problems.

Just out of curiosity, though, we wonder how many people have been tossed off the walk/run track at the park. It seems quite a few walkers are not maintaining anything like a 6 foot separation which, we are told, is something we should be doing to protect ourselves. Is this a problem? If not to them, then why were we considered as being in danger from our interaction? Neither of us has experienced any symptoms of a viral attack. So what might be considered as being the problem here?

Is it just possible that too much is being done to help us all stay healthy? Anyone else have any thoughts on the matter? If so, maybe a phone call to City Hall might be in order. In any case, do what you can to protect yourself, and to protect me in the mean time too.

And thanks for that, my friend!

Another Paul Harvey?

Today I thought I’d like to work up another entry for the blog. Guess I’ll start out by going to Textmaker, my current msword-like document creator, something that was available for purchase at my local megastore, Walmart. Which I quickly purchased, it being quite economical, as opposed, that is, to the rentals our previous great word processing programs are going to in order to suck as much money as possible out of the pockets of their users. I do hope this company can resist that temptation. If they don’t, I just guess I’ll have to look around some more.

For now, though, this program works fine: Now, for that Blog.  I’ve been writing blog articles for quite a few years, now, and I guess what I need to do more of is to come up with a way to find ideas for the blog that I can use for a source of popular topics that would draw people to read my writing. Paul Harvey used to come up with some pretty good ideas, and he put out a column for many years that I used to enjoy--before the internet he was on television and before that on the radio, and boy did he have us all hooked, listening till he finished up with, “and now you have ‘the rest of the story!’ ” One of the greatest of all time broadcasters.

So how, you say, is our “Mister Wannabe” going to attempt to join the ranks of a “Paul Harvey?” Damn Good Question.

 Such a good question that I am going to put off providing my answer for a few days. In the mean time, I am hopeful that a few of you readers might give me a bit of a literary push by providing the answer you would give if the question were posed to you.

How do you think a “Steve Geddes” should go about attempting to join the ranks of a "Paul Harvey?"

Well...?

Corona virus issue 1

I am titling this "Corona virus issue 1" since it discusses who just might be "hurting" the most.  Good luck to all. This thing is bigger than our politicians' capabilities to even try to respond. The problem I see developing is with politicians closing this and regulating that, the little people are suffering even more than they deserve. They are the ones who have the least ability to react to this dangerous time, and they are the ones who are suffering the most with loss of jobs, loss of the ability to pay their rent, to buy food, to do anything. The lowest rung of our society is the one being hurt the most. They need help to just survive. Who will help!!!! And HOW !!!! PLEASE, EVERYONE, ADDRESS THIS MOST REAL NEED !!!!  

That being said, what can be done?  Help me with this, if you can, by writing your newspapers, your politicians, your churches, your everyone who might be able to help in the least!  Do this, and do this today.  

The poor do not deserve to be turned out into the streets, do they?  They do not deserve an enforced diet of whatever, perhaps dandelion because it is edible and growing well these days, but dandelion what--root, leaves, with what kind of dressing?  Why dandelion?  Because they may be found growing at the side of the road, and the price may be all that our lower rung may be able to pay.  

And what if someone in this bottom rung actually catches a cold?  First thing will be to go to an emergency room for treatment, and hope they do not catch Covid-19 in the process, right?  

We all have problems because of this virus but, unless we are in that lowest rung, our problems are minor--until we, ourselves, catch the virus.  Then what is for us--whatever we have to look forward to at that point in time, what would be our situation if we were on that lowest rung of our county's financial society.  

If the hospitals are full, and we have nowhere to go, what will be our fate?  Sick, hungry, out in the weather?  Is that what anyone deserves?  Am I wrong here?  Who will take them in?  

City of Aiken Helps!

What’s happening today? Well, all things considered, it being just 3:30 PM, and wife and I are in our living room watching “The Virginian,” not much is going on here in Aiken. This AM though, we had a visit by a City-endorsed contractor to get our backyard forest trimmed just a bit (something we had looked at with a couple of other contractors but had not done due to the prices we were quoted.)

This is interesting. We had discussed getting the back yard bush hogged but had been given prices that were outlandish. The City had a contractor who gave a price to do the exact work we were looking to have done for a pretty reasonable price--$275, to wit, and when we found out about this, after a city inspector wrote us a letter saying we were out of compliance with our backyard maintenance, and mentioning the given price to get the work done, we were happy to be “out of compliance.” The work was done this morning, and the price was paid. The City was happy, the contractor was happy, and, best of all, we were happy too!

Well, wonder what else we might want to get done on our property that the City might be able to help with? Interesting.

Need work done? Our City might be able to help!