snow and chicken soup.

According to the newspapers we are about to have one of those winter storms that comes every ten to twenty years.  Round one came today in the form of a rather light snow which did not even slow traffic or give enough to build a snowman or go sledding. Beginning in the wee hours of the night tonight and for the next two days they say we are going to be in for a rough time.  We will wait and see.

Anyway, this morning Anne suggested we have chicken soup or potato soup which would be perfect for winter weather.  I took that as my cue to make chicken soup which I did.  I decided to make a big pot of soup.  After all, it is silly to go to the trouble of making soup for only two people.  When it was all said and done, there was soup for six people with plenty left over for another day.  

Today is my birthday, and nothing makes me happier than to cook for the people I love or even for people I just like, or even those I do not even know.  I think I am a good cook, and I love to share the results.   The first, last, and most important thing to know in being a good cook is to do it because you want to do it.  One does not cook for one's self but one cooks for the pleasure and enjoyment of others.  The ability to be a good cook is a gift and that gift is to be used by sharing the food one prepares with others.  I made enough soup for Anne and myself, and to take some to her Aunt Doris, and to our friends Axel and Jeremy.  Our son Jon came by and had his share of it later.

Evidently it was a success because Axel was texting me before I got home telling me it was fantastic. When I got home Anne was on the phone with her aunt who was telling her how good it was and asking how I made it.  Later Jeremy was texting his compliments.  Overall, that soup make my birthday a happy birthday too.  One finds happiness by making others happy. I must confess that i am not usually a big fan of soup and I did not really like this snow day soup. 

I rarely measure anything when I cook.  I am running around the kitchen tossing things around like a madman.  I could be the subject for America's Most Funny Home Videos.  One can not believe the mess I can make in a kitchen in only a few  minutes. 

Now I will attempt to tell how I did the soup for those folks who asked.

I boiled just over half  of a 3 pound bag of chicken tenders in about 2 quarts of water.

When the chicken was about done I added a 2 pound box of chicken stock (not broth)

Then I disolved 6 chicken bullion cubes in 6 cups of boiling water and added that.

A good rounded teaspoon of Kosher salt and about half that amount of fresh ground black pepper

a rounded tablespoon or a little more of Herbes d'e Provence Seasoning which is a blend of salt, 

      parsley, thyme, marjoram, poppy seeds and taragon.

I sprinkled in about 4 or 5 tablespoons of dehydrated onion flakes, a few red pepper flakes, 

      and about a tablespoon more of dehydrated parsley flakes.

I had chopped up a medium onion, 3 or 4 small carrots, and and 2 or 3 celery stalks

Let this cook until everything is completely cooked. 

 Next, I threw in almost a cup of dry egg noodles, about half a cup of veggie squiggley pasta, and about half cup of instant brown rice and a handful of regular elbo macarroni. 

Cooked until those last thingys were tender.. 

that's all there is to it. 

cars, trucks, etc

Folks sometimes tease me about the number of cars I have had over the years. I am starting this list with only those vehicles owned and driven by Anne and/or myself or members of our household.  All were registered in either her name, my name, or jointly.  Vehicles marked for Allen, Jon, or Axel may have been in their name but they were registered at our address.

1961 Mercury Monterey (blue)
1968 Ford Torino (blue 2dr sport coupe)
1967 Mustang blue
1969 Ford Galaxie 500  gold
1973 Datsun B210 s-waggon, orange
1968 Chevrolet BelAir  blue
1973 Pontiac Catalina 2 door hardtop dark green and white
1977 Pontiac Catalina station waggon, white
1965 Mustang convertible- dark blue
          Ford Maverick Grabber
1973 Chevy Caprice Classic 2dr coup. 459 high performance motor
         Datsun B210 coup, tan, 5speed
1976 Mercedes 240 D  beige
         Plymouth Fury (inherited from my mom)
1984 Dodge Aries K-car, silver and red
1984 Nissan Sentra wagon
1976 Mercedes 280 4door silver
1978 Mercedes 240 yellow
1987 Honda Accord
1995 Cadillac Seville 2tone blue
1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass
1984 Mazda 626
1984 Oldsmobile Cierra
1987 Ford Taurus
1978 Mercedes 240 cream
1978 Cadillac Fleetwood Braughm
1982 Mazda 323
1980 BMW 325i 2door blue
1990 Dodge Caravan
1995 Ford Taurus red
1996 Ford Mustang Convertibe
1996 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1997 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1998 Toyota Forerunner
1987 Mercedes 300SDL
2003 Ford Crown Victoria
2006 Ford Fusion
2007 Ford Focus
2008 Ford Taurus X
2003 Chrysler Sebring Convertible
2012 Nissan Sentra
2013 Ford Taurus
1984 Ford Ranger
1990 Ford F150 Lariat
1999 Ford Ranger
2001 Ford Sports Trac
2006 Ford Ranger
2007 Ford F-150
2001 Ford Ranger-blue 5 speed
2005 Dodge Ram
1966 Volvo
          Datsun 200sx
          Datsun 240Z
          BMW 5-series
          Toyota Celica- brown
          Jeep Grand Cherokee 4wd-
          Honda
         Toyota Tercell
         Toyota Celica-white
198? Saab (blue 2dr)
1995 Saab
2001 Mazda Tribute
2003 Saab
1999 Volvo S80

20 Fords, 1 Mercury, 3 Datsuns, 2 Chevrolets, 2 Pontiacs, 5 Mercedes, 1 Plymouth, 2 Dodge
2 Nissan, 2 Honda, 4 Cadillacs, 2 Oldsomobiles, 3 Mazda, 2 BMW, 4 Toyota, 1 Chrysler
2 Volvo, 1 Jeep, 3 Saabs


         

One of my biggest challenges.

In my first blog I stated that my wife says I am flexible.  Wow, I am glad someone thinks so because that has been one my most difficult challenges as I have grown older.  I believe most people become more rigid and "set in their ways" as they move into their "golden years" or the "twilight of their life" or become senior citizens or just plain old folks.

Early in my adult life I made a serious commitment to myself that I would not follow that pattern. It was my first year of teaching and I was fortunate to have a classroom near a veteran teacher. She was a great help to me as she offered advise in a constructive and non-critical manner.  She was well grounded and had her act together.  She was one of the most respected members of the faculty and of the community and she deserved every bit of that respect.


Unfortunately she feel just short of being the perfect teacher due to one flaw in her practice.  She simply could not cope with change.  If an assembly program ran over time or some unexpected event changed the class schedule, she would complain that even ten minutes of lost time would disrupt her schedule and her classes for the entire day.  I could only wonder why she could not just accept the changes and make the best of it. In the overall scheme of things, the students were usually better off because of the program or whatever had caused the schedule change for the day.  It was then and there that I made the commitment to do my best to be flexible and realize that the world does not revolve around me and my plans.

Unfortunately, as I got older, I found this more difficult than expected. I have recently found myself in forcing confrontations with people over minor changes in plans.   A sad fact is that I did not realize what I was doing. Looking back to my behavior in certain situations ten years ago, I really have regrets over my attitude and inabilty to accept changes.  I will admit embarasment as I think back on my behavior at times when a regular routine activity would be changed.

I am sure some damage has been done in my friendships with at least a couple of friends due to my inability to realize that I was not keeping my commitment to myself not to be so rigid and to be able to go with the flow and make changes as needed.  If you are reading this, and it applies to you, I ask that you please accept my apology.

 Unfortunately there may be some truth in the idea that we can not learn from the mistakes of others.  I had to make my own mistakes and learn from my own short comings and stupidity. With a better realization, it is my hope to do better in the future.

Tech

It was the Christmas of 1960.  I was in the 8th grade. The one Christmas gift that I recall from that year was that we had a phone installed in our apartment. The place was wired for only one phone and it was in the living room. The only phones anyone had were the rotary dial phones. Ours was black.  Actually everyone's phone was black. There was no other choice.  Luckily we were not on a party line so nobody else could listen in on our conversations.  The phone bill was around six dollars per month, but we would have to pay extra for long distance outside our area of Elberton and Royston.  That put us on the cutting edge of communication technology.  It could not get better than that.

Going back a couple of Christmas seasons the one gift I remember was a toy car.  It was big, maybe 10 to 12 inches long.  I have always been a car nut so this was the right gift for me.  The one thing that set this car apart from any other toy cars was that it had a phone receiver attached to a string that recoiled into the dash of the car.  The idea of a phone in a car was just not possible.  Phone lines could not be attached to a moving car so the idea was impossible, except in one's imagination.

For all my life, the first thing I look for in the newspaper is the comic section. As a child one of my favorites was Dick Tracy.  He was a city detective of a metropolitan city.  In the early 1950's he had an edge of fighting crime by the use of a two way radio strapped to his wrist. I worked much as a walkie/talkie or cell phone would today.  By the mid 60s with the implementation of the cb radio and actual walkie/talkies, Tracy was forced to upgrade to the two way television where he could see and likewise show people and events in another part of town. I could not help but wonder if and when we would ever be able to see such devices as the two way television.  By now I was beginning to realize that the cutting edge of technology would need forever to be made sharper.  There would be no limit.  If it could be imagined, it could be.

The day before Christmas Eve Anne and I were in our car.  I pushed one single little button on the steering wheel and simply said, "Call Allen Hall".  After a brief  moment of silence we heard his phone ring twice and he answered.  We had a nice conversation while we were in route to finish some last minute Christmas shopping. Oh, I failed to mention that he was in Shanghai, China; and we were here in South Carolina, totally on the opposite side of the planet.  A few days later I walked into our study to see Anne at her computer talking with Allen.  I joined in the conversation.  With the use of Skype we could see and hear him perfectly and he could hear and see us as well.

In my teens and for years after we were limited to 3 or 4 tv stations for our entertainment.  Today we have well over a hundred.  We also have Netflix which allows us to watch our choice of hundreds or even thousands of movies and thousands of old television shows from our television, our computer, our tablet, or iPad, or even our cell phones. With the use of a good head set we can watch a movie with sound quality as good or even better than available at the theater.

The old board game of scrabble is now available for play on the internet with computer, tablet or cell phone. One can play as many as twenty games at the same time with up to twenty other players.  I play regularly with a lady with whom I was in school almost fifty years ago. I have not seen her since our school days, yet we play the word game regularly and from time to time comment about things important to us today through texting.

We used to get in trouble at school for passing notes to our classmates. Today kids simply use their cell phone to text messages around the classroom, to other classes, to home, or wherever anyone wants to be. I will confess that a few years ago I had several long texting conversations with a friend who was in his college class during our conversations.   Oh, yeah, I was working at my desk as well, or was supposed to be working.

Yes, things have changed drastically from the mid 1950s until the mid 2010's.  A few years ago, I had someone who was supposed to have special gifts and powers tell me that I would live well into my 80s.  The  age he predicted will give me at least another twenty years.  I hope he was right.  I cant wait to see what things will be like then.