Orange Is the Color of the Month

I can't see pumpkins without remembering when I was recovering from the runaway car accident caused when I stopped to pickup a pumpkin from the garden. 

I was telling the PT in the nursing home/rehab center how it happened: 

"So I wanted to get a pumpkin for the front porch-" I began, and she burst out laughing.

"PUMPkin," she chortled. "Pump-kin. You ain't from here, are you?"

Curses! I'd learned to say tater for potato and mater for tomato and baccer for tobacco, but the local pronunciation punkin hadn't quite sunk in.

No matter. The therapist treated me very well, despite my status as a foreigner, excuse me, furriner. 

 

Something New

I've always had an adventurous palate. One of my favorite things about traveling was discovering new foods. Alas, our traveling days are past and even venturing out to the many ethnic restaurants in our area is increasingly problematic. But I can still cook and try new things.  And chayote was on the menu last night.

I'd been under the impression that it was a kind of squash but it's actually more of a fruit from the gourd family. Also called mirliton in Cajun cooking or christophine in Caribbean cuisine, it grows on a vine and is edible raw or cooked.

Wanting to taste it without a lot of extra stuff, I cubed it and sauteed it with onions and garlic and served it as a side to a tilapia filet.

It was good--still crispish, soft inside, mildly sweet--kind of a cross between a unripe pear and a cucumber. I'll definitely seek out more recipes.

 

Dear Sirs

                                         

Though one of my senators (Tillis) at last seems to have found a spine, and my representative (Edwards) is on his way out, I still feel the need to keep after them all--

 As your party's flailing candidates shriek of the perils of socialism and communism, your president is openly allying with Putin, the oligarch's friend and the invader of Ukraine. Your president is doing his best to hamper Ukraine's efforts to defend itself against Russian aggression, lifting sanctions and tampering with StarLink and StarShield.

And as your candidates fixate on drag queens and lie about schools providing transgender surgeries, children continue to die in real school shootings, enabled by lack of any real gun control legislation.

The GOP is presiding over the decline of the USA--its economy, its probity, its importance on the international stage, and its standing in the court of human opinion. 

I would like to know how you personally have profited from this corrupt regime. Has your net worth increased? Do you sleep well at night?

Have you no shame? At long last, have you no shame?

Absolutely No Rabbits

 

Getting Ready

A prediction of lows in the 30's for the weekend, had us scurrying around yesterday. John made a trip for more K-1 (which has pretty much doubled in price, thanks to the Republicans and their senile egomaniac of a president,) and Justin came up to move some big pots of plants indoors (a fifty + year old ficus tree, rosemary, lavender, basil, and a few others.) And almost all the hay we need for the winter has been delivered. It's a bit like the squirrels that are frantically storing walnuts and buckeyes. 

And it's a good feeling, as the days grow ever shorter, to be turning my thoughts to soups and stews and perhaps a bit of baking. Fall brings out the hobbit in me.

Spring is still my favorite season, but now, in my old age, Fall is a very close second. The comfy clothes, the slower rhythms, firelight . . . oh, yes!

And, pretty much as predicted, around 6:15 the wind picked up and and gray clouds moved in from the west. By 7:45 it was raining and the temperature had dropped appreciably.

Time to go close that last open window . . .

 

Done!

 

Three Amendments--Yes or No

                                                          

 Early voting begins today! John and I will be there--voting a straight Democratic ticket. As far as I'm concerned, the GOP has lost all credibility with their blind allegiance to the deteriorating DJT, the war in Iran, their support for the ICE thugs, their disregard for affordability, and oh, so many more things.

The three proposed amendments to the state institution sound good--at first. But a closer examination reveals problems. The first two mainly benefit the wealthy. And the third works to disenfranchise many. This below is from the League of Women Voters of NC -- a traditionally non-partisan organization.

I'll be voting against these amendments.

Why the League Opposes the Amendments

The League of Women Voters of North Carolina believes constitutional amendments deserve particularly careful scrutiny because they establish durable limits and requirements that are more difficult to change than ordinary laws. These policy decisions are better addressed through legislation, where elected officials can respond to changing circumstances and voters can hold them accountable.

LWVNC opposes the income-tax amendment because current law already keeps the individual income-tax rate below the proposed 3.5% cap, and the amendment itself would not lower current taxes. Placing the cap in the Constitution would limit the ability of future elected leaders to respond to changing economic conditions and state needs.

LWVNC opposes the property-tax levy amendment because it would shift greater authority over local funding decisions to the state while leaving the actual limits, formulas and possible exceptions to future legislation. The League is concerned that restricting local property-tax revenue could affect funding for public education, elections and other local services and/or increase reliance on fees.

LWVNC opposes the photo ID amendment because state law already requires identification for absentee voting and provides for voters who cannot reasonably provide ID. The proposed amendment would place the requirement that all voters present photo identification into the State Constitution without protecting those existing safeguards. The League is concerned that this could create additional barriers for military, student, rural, and older voters.

What's With the Eyebrows?

                               

599 × 747599 × 747

Fashion is so fickle. Today, for a certain segment of the female population, huge black eyebrows are the thing, along with swollen lips and breasts.
Have we reached a peak moment? Will deflation eventually set in?

                                  

Are we due for a return to the pencil-thin arches of the 1920's and 30's? Maybe the flat silhouettes of the Flappers and the Cupid's Bow lips of Clara Bow and her ilk? Or the shaved brows of the Renaissance?

Heaven knows, it seems to be part of being human--wanting to modify one's looks. Powdered hair, bleached hair, dyed hair, makeup in general, Ubangi lip plates, bound feet, blackened teeth, elongated necks, tattoos, piercings, and any number of extreme body modifications . . . if you can imagine it, someone's done it.

I watch and wonder and mark myself safe (except for pierced ears) from such silliness.

             

Looking East Yet Again

                        

 

 

 

 

Retired

                     

They make an attractive display, these tools from our past.

Yes, we actually used these things, once upon a time. The tobacco planter on the left had a reservoir of water so you could job it into the ground and release the seedling and a little water at the same time. (I wish I still had the cooked stick that I used planting our first crop.)

The tobacco basket was what we took our tobacco to market on. Hands (bundles) of graded tobacco were arranged in a circular stack on the basket. Horribly labor intensive and in the latter years of our tobacco growing, everyone had switched to baling the cured leaves--easier, but not so elegant.

The little wheel hoe/cultivator never got much use-- our soil was too rocky for it to work well. But I love the way it looks.

Old times they are not forgotten. It was such hard work but we we fortunate to have participated in a dying culture.

Ahhh!

Oh, the pleasure of a much-needed rainy day and a fire in the fireplace--not really necessary but a real delight.

Though we haven't yet had a frost, it's really feeling like fall. Now I need to go buy some decorative gourds . . .

 

How Low Can We Go?

 Pretty low, apparently. The news that the Pentagon plans to livestream an execution puts us in the company of North Korea and Iran and brings to mind archival photos of folks turning out for a hanging (bring the kids!) not all that long ago.

When this disgusting regime is finally gone, it's going to take more than bleach to rid us of the stain on our country.

October Gems