Exciting Dinner

Hello,

Leroy and I discussed what to prepare for supper. We say supper instead of dinner. It is a word we both grew up using. He had talked about pizza yesterday, but now he mentioned waffles. I convinced him to go back to the pizza idea because I had a kale pizza recipe that also used lemon. The lemon in the refrigerator was getting tired and almost expired. The kale in our front garden is beautiful. Leroy gave in fairly easily. Even though this recipe was very basic I wanted to boost the ingredients.

We were out of peppers and mushrooms. Leroy volunteered to go to the community garden for peppers. Here might be mushrooms there, but we might not be alive to tell you about them so we ignore such. I convinced him to ride his bike which he has not done since he hurt his knee at the end of July. He did ride and he said, “It was fine except for the brace pulling against my leg stroke.”

While he was gone I cut up some tomatoes and proceeded to put them in a pan to make a quasi sauce for pizza. Tomatoes were not on this pizza according to the recipe. I also mixed up the dough from whole wheat flour, that is fairly normal, but I do not make it often and I did not use a recipe.

I cut up onions to add to the mix, also not in the recipe. By the time Leroy came home, I had burned the sauce, but decided to called it browned and tipped it out of the burned area.

Leroy squeezed the lemon, and cut up the kale, putting it in the frying pan along with some garlic. By the time that was ready I had flattened the dough on two pans, added tomato paste and pizza spice to the sauce that I had made, and spread it around on the dough. We sprinkled on some onion, green peppers, added the kale mixture and TVP that was a little more liquidish than I liked. Shredded cheese topped it all

Earlier Leroy had also put water on some TVP (texturedized vegetable protein), but it had not absorbed all the water, but we used it anyway. The oven was hot so we put them in, set the timer, and waited.

When we got it out of the oven we were unable to get it off the pans. I realized I had forgotten to add oil to the dough. Finally with much persuasion, it came off one pan. We promptly ate that. The other we had to tackle with progressively stronger spatulas. The pizza tasted, according to Leroy, “Ok.” I liked it a little more than that, but I was grateful that we did not have guests to eat with us as getting it to our plates was such a struggle.

This all gets exciting because I start getting bossier and louder when things do not come together as I think they should. Leroy just keeps plugging along. Luckily he rolls with whatever I dish out.

Now we have settled in for a quiet evening of reading.

Paula

Bringing In Plants

Hello,

Leroy was at the church this afternoon so I brought five plants into his office. I used to take many of them to the library, but will only have three there as it was too many plants for some tastes. The morning time was spent hanging out clothes and doing a final scrub on the plant pots. I also checked all of the leaves for bugs or spider webs that might house baby spiders. My self-appointed summer job of squash bug killer helped me to gain the skill and confidence to tackle all bugs with my bare hands. How I have changed! There was one critter that I gently pushed off the mother-in-law’s tongue. It stayed on the work table for a small amount of time, perhaps getting orientated before it crawled up the side of the bucket. I thought it was quite fine looking. 

It stayed with me for a long time even as I dipped my brush into the water.

I think the plants look quite fine in Leroy’s office. Hopefully they will do well even if it is on the north side and there will be much light, but little sun. Then there is the added interest of Leroy watering them. Do you think he will remember or water too much?

On my way home I stopped to get a flu shot only to find out, after I had filled out all of the paperwork, that my insurance does not have a contract with this pharmacy so they would only do it if I paid for it. Since I know the insurance will pay. I declined.

I had hoped to have it before traveling to DC for a visit with Sarah’s family. It seems that traveling exposes one to different germs. Course the flu shots do not really come to full strength until after two weeks so I am already too late. But when I think of it, I like to get it done as it is hard to say when I will think of it again.

Paula

The Road of Surprises

Hello,

It was great to drive to work at noon Monday with the normal amount of traffic on the Interstate. I blended in happily thinking I was joining my usual friends. As I merged from there to highway 30 I noticed that the pickup truck in front of me was going five mph slower than I am accustomed to when I get on this stretch of road. Still following him, I put on my turn signal and got off on the exit ramp only to find the truck pulling over in front of me at the last possible second before he would have to go farther down the road. The ramp splits into two lanes before we get to a stop light. The truck chose first the left lane and then at the last minute swerved into the right lane. Both lanes are required to turn right.

I stayed in the left lane because I make a left turn at the next stop light which is quite close. After the first stop light that truck came over into the left lane only to make a sudden brake and turn all the way over to the right, cramped hard to make a u-turn, moved across in front of me, smiled as he went by in the lane facing me.

He must not have known what he wanted to do and just made all decisions while moving around. Because of all his moving around I had stayed back a ways so I was not in any danger, just astonished. Life is always full of surprises.

Paula

CROP walk and Community Garden

Hello,

Yesterday Leroy and I walked in the CROP Walk. We pray that the money is used in the best way possible to help people on this earth. It gives us a satisfied feeling of doing something in the face of such large problems that do not show an easy solution. Our congregation had 20 walkers which I believe is a larger number than usual. For some reason there were just a few when we first came here. Giving was down a bit from last year, but that could be because people are looking inward a bit more as we approach a building renovation and organ purchase. Both of which are big ticket items. All of the needs bring to mind how much to keep for oneself and how much to pass on. I suppose there is never a time in life when one stops considering those issues.

This morning I went to the community garden. It has been a long time since I have been there as I have ceased waging war on the squash bugs. Some of the zucchini are still blooming. There must have been some zucchini, but I did not see any pickable ones today. Hopefully someone has picked and enjoyed them as last Monday, Leroy said, “There are some small zucchini that are not ready yet.”

I just said, “Oh, and forgot about them.”

I did not pick green beans even though there were some nice ones. The plants are wet and I was always told not pick when wet as they rust.

I did find a few tomatoes. Again I think someone is picking them right along as I mostly see green ones. There were some on the ground that I brought home or shared with a woman who said she will eat any vegetable. It is cool enough that no one is sitting on the porch so it makes the sharing much harder. I also left a nice amount of okra for her as well as bringing some home. I just realized I can share the okra with a guy on our street who likes it. I just leave it on his porch. I will do that when I am done here. I picked little broccoli shoots and brought them all home. The next delight was to pull/dig some green onions. I also shared some of them. I was pleased to see that someone is picking collards and Swiss chard. The cilantro is growing like crazy as it keeps reseeding.

Fall gardens are nice because the bugs have gone elsewhere. Where do bugs go for the winter?

Paula

Driving on Friday

Hello,

On Friday the bridges in the city were still closed except for the Interstate Bridge. Leroy’s boss came and took him to work because they could get back into the museum. One of our cars was in for a checkup. Leroy called me about four to tell me that I could come get him so we could get the car home. I set out to the interstate only to see that cars in the direction that I wanted to go were stopped. I had heard tales of people being on the “380 parking lot” for an hour. I did not want to risk it so I headed in the opposite direction and took the long way around. It really was the long way around. Besides the distance, I had to stop for almost every stop light that I met up with. Also there were a lot of cars jockinging for the same spot from time to time. Then as I got closer to the museum there were some streets that I could not use as they were still blocked for flood control. By the time I got there, I was ready to melt into a heap. It seemed it would have been better to ask for other help to pick up the car and let Leroy come home with his boss who drives through or close to our neighborhood to go home.

As Leroy got in the car he commented, “I could have come home with Dave since he is ready to go home now.”

We drove up the easy way to get the car and moved without slowing much or stopping. After we got the car we both drove a car home, but used the streets which were jammed with drivers looking for that alternate way around. I was tired, but happy to be home at 6:30.

Today, Sunday, the bridges are all or mostly all open. Tomorrow will be a regular day moving around the city. Blessing indeed! It reminds me again that I am not grateful enough for the things that work.

Paula

Beggar?

Hello,

Yesterday as I came out of a store I heard a woman in a car talking to two people who were walking to their car. I could tell that she was talking about men who were in the trees or bushes. It seemed to be not good. I walked over to my car and as I opened the door a guy suddenly was talking to me. He was standing back by the end of the car. He seemed to notice my start as he said, “I will not hurt you. I have run out of gas and I need to get to a neighboring town.”

I just kept looking at him as he hesitated then he said, “I just need a little more to buy gas.”

I was considering giving him five dollars when the woman in the car drove up and started yelling with hostility at him, “You should go. You are just begging. This is illegal.”

“You stay out of this, it does not concern you,” he retorted.

“That other guy ran away when I accused him,” she said.

In the meantime the man who has been walking to his car came up and he strongly told the begging man, “You should apply for work as a company is hiring.”

It all came to a standstill then. I looked at the asking man and he looked at me. At that moment I decided and said, “I will give you two dollars.”

As I handed it to him he said, “God Bless.”

Where is God in all of this? What is the right thing to do? Would anyone help me if I needed it?

I remember a friend talking about her son who accidently got off at the wrong platform on the EL in Chicago. He did not have a dime or a phone on him. He asked people to give him the fare so he could get back on, but it was a long time before anyone did that. At that point he learned a new appreciation for desperate people. If people had known that he was rich but just did not have the funds would they have been more generous? We ultimately never know the circumstances of another. Are we all just afraid that someone is getting rich from begging? I do suspect he was a homeless man, although he looked fairly clean, who might live somewhere around there. If I am asked at that place again, I will be less willing to give, although is that right? I have no trouble giving from the community garden, but this did not sit as easy.

Paula

Pants and Shoes

Hello,

I bought some new pants. They felt good in the store, especially when I was standing. As I always do I sat down to test the feel as they come against my abdomen. It seemed to be ok. I took the tags off and wore them to work one day. It was not long before I did not close the clips at the waist and just let the inside button do the holding job. If pants are too tight and press into my stomach I get quite a noticeable pain which is only relieved when I take the restricting item off. My dad also had this sensitivity. Perhaps we have a tight curve at the appendix or some other bend in the internal equipment. Daddy only wore overalls for farm work. I never saw him in a pair of jeans. On Sunday he would wear dress pants to church, but usually with suspenders rather than a belt. Mom told me one time that nearer the end of his life his underpants were so large she did not know how they stayed on his body as he was quite slim. But he was happy that way. Anyway my pants felt so much better when I stood up. I thought up lots of excuses to be on my feet.

One of the second hand pair of shoes that I brought home from UT is a brand that I have liked. All of these shoes look as if they were never worn or maybe worn once or twice. The problem with this pair was that they were a half size larger than I usually wear, but they had a strap across the instep so I thought it might be ok. They felt good in UT for the time I wore them around the house there. Here I wore them to work even though I felt that my foot was sliding forward and touching the toe. By noon I was wishing that I had not worn them. They felt best when I was seated so that I could slide my foot back to the heel. When I walked my foot walked out of the heel area. Luckily I keep a pair of shoes at work that feel good on my foot so I could change. I will pass that other pair on to someone else. I do have some shoes that I wear only when I am not walking anywhere in particular. For instance, I often walk to church in a different pair of shoes than the pair I wear for church where I am sitting a lot.

It seems I have stand up pants and sit down shoes. Now the real trick will be not to wear them at the same time. Woe is me if I forget which is which.

Paula