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Cables, Coffee, Cycles, and Cocktails


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1 hour ago, BigStewMan said:

 Picked California's Central Valley.

  • Good to hear, and glad it's not LA or another big city. Plus relatives and your brother is good with it, good for you.  :emotion-21:
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6 minutes ago, dtel said:
  • Good to hear, and glad it's not LA or another big city. Plus relatives and your brother is good with it, good for you.  :emotion-21:

Thank You Elden.  I'll only be 89 miles from San Francisco, so I can get my fill of the city easily.  Concerts, sporting events, great food, and great sites won't be that far away. 

I don't think I have any relatives left where I grew up ... a couple maybe still in Oakland; but not ones that I've kept in contact with over the years. Probably wouldn't recognize them if I bumped into them on the street. 

Being near family was the final decision maker.  I'll be a six hour drive from my kids and grandkids instead of a 15 hour drive. I get along with all of my cousins living in that area, I'm younger than all but one of them, but we're still close enough in age to have a lot in common. Plus, most of them are Portuguese woman and they sure can cook!  So, it will be nice to eat some of that food that I grew up on. (okay for clarification, it isn't the SAME food ... new food cooked in the same manner).

Hoping to find a little farmhouse where I can let the Cornwalls breathe without getting a visit from the local police department. 

 

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Well you have been saying for a long time now you would like to live out of the city but within range when you feel like going. Nothing wrong with that, it's way better then living in the city. We live an hour from New Orleans and it's been over a year since we have gone, and that was because someone was in town and wanted to go. I grew up there so it's no big deal plus it's easer to get in trouble there or get shot, depending on your luck that day. 

As I got older I like the space and privacy more but still close to a city if we feel like it, it's why I thought you made a good choice. Been to SF once, better have parking breaks on your car.

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1 hour ago, BigStewMan said:

Thanks my friend ... likely won't be a regular again; but may pop in every now and then. 

I'm in a good mood today.  Decided that a move next Spring is a DEFINITE GO.  Picked California's Central Valley.  Little over an hour south of San Francisco. 


Maybe the Central Valley will appreciate a new barber in the area. Your profile pic speaks for itself — 💇‍♂️

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2 minutes ago, richieb said:


Maybe the Central Valley will appreciate a new barber in the area. Your profile pic speaks for itself — 💇‍♂️

Thank you for noticing ... Floyd is one of my heroes.  I have a shirt with his photo on it and in the photo he is pink.  Underneath it says Pink Floyd.  I caused quite a stir at a casino in Lake Tahoe a few years ago when I wore that.  Seriously, I was getting high fives from strangers as I walked through the casino ... wait, I think it was from the shirt ... couldn't have been me????

Hope you are doing good Richie my boy ... stay well and remember, there is no problem too big for ketchup.

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Hey Steve

Sounds like a good move to me. Maybe not as isolated as my "town"... but a similar distance to places you can do things w/o the neighbors knowing...lol

 

Any "old country" ladies can cook. Whether it be Portuguese, Mexican, Italian, German.... We get homemade Mexican... Handmade... Access to good food is really important.

You fun about your culinary skills... I bet you make a mean hot dog..jk jk...Them ladies will make sure you're fed...

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27 minutes ago, grasshopper said:

Hey Steve

Sounds like a good move to me. Maybe not as isolated as my "town"... but a similar distance to places you can do things w/o the neighbors knowing...lol

 

Any "old country" ladies can cook. Whether it be Portuguese, Mexican, Italian, German.... We get homemade Mexican... Handmade... Access to good food is really important.

You fun about your culinary skills... I bet you make a mean hot dog..jk jk...Them ladies will make sure you're fed...

Thank Bill ... but my culinary skills are pretty bad.  My ideas are good; but something gets lost in the translation. I just bought an Instant Pot, it's a crock pot and pressure cooker and steamer and some other things ... supposedly to be dummy proof ... we'll see. My first attempt was a failure.  I bought a pork tenderloin and left in the fridge until it expired.  Guess I need to move action closer to my ideas. 

I grew up in a Portuguese environment.  My relatives did speak English; but to each other they spoke Portuguese. My grandparents were the first generation in this country. I don't speak much Portuguese ... enough to know what's for dinner and when I'm in trouble. Oakland, CA had a pretty heavy Azorean population (my family hails from the Azore Islands of Faial and Flores), when I was a kid we'd go to the Holy Ghost parade and there was always a meal afterwards. I have relatives still living in the Azores ... I'd like to go someday. Decades ago, my Grandfather suddenly wanted to return to Faial. His daughter told him that she'd take him to a travel agent to plan a vacation. He said that he had to go right away because he wanted to die in the village that he was born.  He wouldn't change his mind.  So, he left right away ... he died the day he got back to the village he was born. 

Peace to you Bill and stay well. 

 

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Now BC (British Columbia), the province I live in, has asked the federal government to allow the legal possession of small amounts of all drugs, including stimulants like cocaine, crystal meth and crack, and actual narcotics like morphine, heroin and fentanyl. The idea is that by decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of these dangerous drugs, a person, or a friend of a person, having trouble with a drug reaction, will feel that they can go to a hospital or call an ambulance without any risk of being arrested.

 

This is a serious step, but we have a serious problem.  Last year, the province lost 1500 people to COVID-19, while it lost 1700 people due to drug overdoses.  A health emergency was declared five years ago, but people keep dying.  Portugal found itself in a similar situation in the late 1990s, and, sort of out of desperation, decriminalized all drugs in 2001.  That meant that drug users were now seen as patients and not as criminals.

 

It worked.  Drug use went down, and more addicts came forward to get help with their addictions.  I hope the results will be equally good here.  BC is a geographically large province, but the population is only about 5 million, so this many deaths means that many of the population are somehow affected, directly or indirectly.  Now we have government TV ads showing that drug users come from all parts of society, not just the poor unfortunates we see on the streets.  This is an effort to reduce the stigma and tell people not to be too judgmental, because they may well know someone who has a drug problem, maybe a serious problem.

 

Hopefully, decriminalization will be a step in the right direction, but what we really need are new psychiatric hospitals, and the skilled people to work in them.  Seeing mentally ill people sleeping on sidewalks, or getting arrested for petty theft, because not everyone wants to be begging for their food every day, is a sad experience.  If physically injured people, with no mental problems, became unemployable because of a permanent injury, like paralysis or an amputation, and were forced to beg for their food, there would be a huge outcry, because middle class people could see themselves in the shoes (or shoe) of someone like that, especially if their work was dangerous, like construction, for example.

 

On a related note, when a prison worker was recently asked how many of the inmates were developmentally or mentally disabled, she replied, “About 80%”.  I’ve always thought that criminals weren’t too bright, and that seems to confirm it.  When a person fails at everything they do, through no fault of their own, no matter how hard they try, some will become desperate, while some others think that they’re too smart to work at a regular job, while the suckers that surround them deserve to get fleeced, because why should they have all the money?

 

Have you met guys that weren’t too bright, but thought that they could put one over on you, even though you could see exactly what they were trying to do?  I’ve met people like that.  If they keep trying, they’ll eventually find someone who can be tricked out of their money, and they’ll eventually get caught doing things like that, and end up in jail.  Bernie Madoff types get the headlines, but those guys are really rare, unlike the low-level chancers who have flawed reasoning because they have flawed brains.  There are millions of those guys.

 

I’m not suggesting that everyone who scores below 90 (or whatever number sounds right to you) on an IQ test should be tossed into a mental hospital for an indeterminate time.  I am suggesting that the folks who are struggling to get through their lives for mental reasons should get the same respect and care as those who struggle for physical reasons.

 

Okay, RANT MODE Off.

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shivering me timbers this AM...39`F. We closed the windows last night.

Won't last long. 80` is forecast... today

Average temp is climbing about a degree/week. It's 84` in Tucson.  Come June, it will be around 100`. 

 

Having to keep the coffee on the warmer. My hands are cooling the cup down. I imagine it's around 50 in the house.

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@BigStewMan not quite... going through the motions of the red tape now. Clerk of Court stuff comes first in this case, that makes it take slightly longer to close. 

Maybe you can get some of those favorite tacos of your again!

 

@grasshopper your darn right about those ladies `cept you forgot that other Mediterranean hotbed of great cooking with the oregano and lemon mixed together. Greece!!

The lady I've known forever still usually brings me some Koulourakia without the seeds occasionally. She had me drinking creamed decaf when I was six dunking those delicious "Not Too Sweet" cookies in it.  

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I did forget about the Greeks. I couldn't list all of the "Old World" folks that celebrate life with food. That's why the "..." to include those I missed.

 

Another crisp morning. 41` this AM.

 Made pancakes using vanilla flavored yogurt for breakfast. Figured we can roll strawberries in them. Sort of a crepe... except the cakes have some thickness to them and aren't rubbery.

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Well I can't:), lived next door to some good ones off and on my whole life.

I almost made pancakes this morning with the last of my Aunt Jemimah mix that just takes water and they are so good.. and cancelled by the dumb-dumbs. "They" refuse to recognize that it is a celebration of what the different ethnicities can do so well, not a put down. Uh oh, this will get deleted also I'd bet. Someone thinks the way I think is threatening I guess.

 

Bill-the-Cat.jpg

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PC has run amok, John

 I can give you an easy recipe for scratch made pancakes. I can whip up the batter in about the time it takes for the pan to get hot.

 

2Cups flour

1Tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 or 2 Tablespoons melted butter

 

Enough milk to make the batter pour

 

When I use yogurt, I put a pint [or so... I don't measure it]  in and some water to thin it down. And still need to spread it a little

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