AG: Aunt Granny's Advice, or How to become an elderly cyclist:

Ever since I noticed that Chinatown Express is a short walk from
Arthur Street, I've been wanting to buy hot and sour soup "to go" and
eat it in the park.

I was finally in the right place at the right time today, and I did
it. It was a lovely day, and I found an isolated picnic table with a
fine view of the lake.

Pity the restrooms have closed for the season. The powers that be
around here have an absolute terror of frozen pipes, and shut things
down while the weather is still hot.

It wasn't hot today. I woke up thinking "at last, it's cool enough
that I can stand to wear tights instead of knickers."; tights are much
more convenient even though I've replaced all the snaggy cable guides
with electrical tape. Turned out that I wore the tights *under* my
knickers. (I think "knickers" are "plus fours" in other dialects.)

But it's still a long time until first frost.

The farmer's markets are starting to look picked over, and have only
three more Saturdays in the season. "The Farm"'s booth was still well
stocked, but I bought their last quart of cherry tomatoes. The
poblanos were beautiful, but I still have one of the poblanos I bought
last Saturday. One poblano makes stuffed pepper for two.

Yesterday I stuffed a poblano with two stuffed chicken breasts. Since
I made it in a skillet instead of the oven, I put the poblano halves
on top of the chicken instead of the other way around, and turned them
over when served.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

Dream come true -- and cancelled. For weeks, the only fit day in the
week has been Tuesday, which is too soon after wash day to look
forward to.

Last week, I read the ten-day forecast and yea rah! *Wednesday* is
going to be a perfect day for riding.

Then Monday night I got an e-mail enclosing a contract that had to be
signed and hand-delivered as soon as possible. Another
hastily-planned Tuesday ride, and I'm spending Wednesday, among other
things, putting away laundry. Maybe I'll work in the garden a bit.
I have a lovely day for it.

After giving the contract to the receptionist, I went to Warsaw Cut
Glass. I pass it every time I go to the dentist, but haven't been in
for ages. I should have told the clerk I was looking for small
saucers; none were on display, but I'll bet she had some blanks in the
back.

I need a couple of small saucers to feed the cat, and I realized one
day that my beautiful cut glass spends all its time in the cupboard
and is thick with dust despite being behind doors. Cut glass cat
dishes are extravagant, but I get to *see* them -- every day.

Thence to Walmart by way of Fox Farm. McElroy Hill is one-way to old
ladies -- there is no place to walk on the north slope. I started my
stair-climbing exercises in the hope of getting strong enough to climb
McElroy hill -- the last few years I've been doing them in the hope of
not getting weaker as fast.

I think I could have gotten at least three-fourths of the way up if
I'd had 150W to myself. I didn't feel up to dealing with the hill and
traffic at the same time, so I got off at the beginning of the mowed
beyond-the-ditch. Being able to climb the south slope would not have
been a sign of hope for the north slope anyhow -- one has to start
from a dead stop where the road is already rising.

I wanted to go that route so I could eat a sausage from the hot-dog
roller at Freedom Express for lunch. Alas, every column on the roller
was marked "not cooked yet". So I had a Noble Roman pizza, which
turned out to be a better choice. I'd have eaten all of a hot-dog
size sandwich, but I ate only three slices of the pizza. When I left
Walmart, I wanted something, but not a full meal, and I'd forgotten to
put my bag of bars into my cooler. A quarter of a single-serve pizza
was just right.

Home by way of Bell Drive and Sunset, just in time to dress for Taco
Tuesday at El Faro.

I had a box of cutesy half-pint canning jars and two cans of pickled
beets in my pannier, but nothing that had been on my list. I did get
a gallon of milk when I passed Owen's.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

On Wed, 09 Oct 2019 11:12:44 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:

I got off at the beginning of the mowed
beyond-the-ditch.

Is there a name for a clear strip to the right of the shoulder and
ditch?

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

On Thu, 10 Oct 2019 13:36:51 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Wed, 09 Oct 2019 11:12:44 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:

I got off at the beginning of the mowed
beyond-the-ditch.

Is there a name for a clear strip to the right of the shoulder and
ditch?

I suspect that it depends on the location as the land right up to the
ditch may well be private property. Think city property where the home
owner's lawn reaches right up to the sidewalk.
--
cheers,

John B.

On Fri, 11 Oct 2019 05:48:28 +0700, John B.
wrote:

On Thu, 10 Oct 2019 13:36:51 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Wed, 09 Oct 2019 11:12:44 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:

I got off at the beginning of the mowed
beyond-the-ditch.

Is there a name for a clear strip to the right of the shoulder and
ditch?

I suspect that it depends on the location as the land right up to the
ditch may well be private property. Think city property where the home
owner's lawn reaches right up to the sidewalk.

In my father's day, private property extended to the middle of county
roads. But all that got you was the privilege of paying for the
gravel and grading and snowplowing. And a vote on whether or not to
pave.

I'm reasonably sure the strip on McElroy Hill belongs to the gravel
pit or whatever that one can glimpse through the trees when walking,
mowed for public relations purposes.

I makes me think of Albany County: the ground slopes down steeply
starting at the edge of the strip, and needs those trees to hold it in
place. But, unlike Albany County, not so steep that if I fell over
the edge, I'd land in a tree top.

I also see strip lawns between major roads and fields owned by
seed-corn companies and the like. I don't think the Hoosier Farmer
has ever mentioned the practice, but Dave reads it much more closely
than I do.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

On Thu, 10 Oct 2019 23:32:12 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:

I'm reasonably sure the strip on McElroy Hill belongs to the gravel
pit or whatever that one can glimpse through the trees when walking,
mowed for public relations purposes.

Just thought of asking Google Maps -- It's G&G Hauling and Excavation.
Satellite View shows it excavated around the edges, but few of the
piles are the same color as the excavations. Appears to be a big
flattened place to store stuff that was dug up elsewhere.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

On Thu, 10 Oct 2019 23:32:12 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Fri, 11 Oct 2019 05:48:28 +0700, John B.
wrote:

On Thu, 10 Oct 2019 13:36:51 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Wed, 09 Oct 2019 11:12:44 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:

I got off at the beginning of the mowed
beyond-the-ditch.

Is there a name for a clear strip to the right of the shoulder and
ditch?

I suspect that it depends on the location as the land right up to the
ditch may well be private property. Think city property where the home
owner's lawn reaches right up to the sidewalk.

In my father's day, private property extended to the middle of county
roads. But all that got you was the privilege of paying for the
gravel and grading and snowplowing. And a vote on whether or not to
pave.

I remembering my grandfather mention something about that in
conjunction of some story about maintaining the rode up to the old
farm. But that was long ago and I'm fairly sure today they the roads
belong to the town/city and of course some to the state as when I was
a kid that was a descriptive add on as in "the state road".

I'm reasonably sure the strip on McElroy Hill belongs to the gravel
pit or whatever that one can glimpse through the trees when walking,
mowed for public relations purposes.

I makes me think of Albany County: the ground slopes down steeply
starting at the edge of the strip, and needs those trees to hold it in
place. But, unlike Albany County, not so steep that if I fell over
the edge, I'd land in a tree top.

I also see strip lawns between major roads and fields owned by
seed-corn companies and the like. I don't think the Hoosier Farmer
has ever mentioned the practice, but Dave reads it much more closely
than I do.
--
cheers,

John B.

On Fri, 20 Sep 2019 18:48:52 -0700 (PDT), pH wrote:

Even though I was born just after dirt had been invented,
I had to look up a Gibson.
Lovely.
I don't think guys realize just how rough girls have it....they
have to do everything we all do AND look lovely at all times along the way.

That reminds me of the Punkintown Fair. One year my schedule was so
tight that I didn't have time to comb my hair, let alone braid it, so
I just brushed over the surface, twisted it into a French knot, and
stuck in three bobby pins.

At the clean-up party, one of the other women commented on how elegant
I was: "She pinned her hair up every day!"

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

On Thu, 17 Oct 2019 23:52:48 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Fri, 20 Sep 2019 18:48:52 -0700 (PDT), pH wrote:

Even though I was born just after dirt had been invented,
I had to look up a Gibson.
Lovely.
I don't think guys realize just how rough girls have it....they
have to do everything we all do AND look lovely at all times along the way.

That reminds me of the Punkintown Fair. One year my schedule was so
tight that I didn't have time to comb my hair, let alone braid it, so
I just brushed over the surface, twisted it into a French knot, and
stuck in three bobby pins.

At the clean-up party, one of the other women commented on how elegant
I was: "She pinned her hair up every day!"

I didn't know what a "french knot" is so I looked it up on the Web.
and found a site labeled "How to Make French Knot Easy Way Hair
Style", in 11 steps :-)
--
cheers,

John B.

On Fri, 18 Oct 2019 11:41:43 +0700, John B.
wrote:

I didn't know what a "french knot" is so I looked it up on the Web.
and found a site labeled "How to Make French Knot Easy Way Hair
Style", in 11 steps :-)

I make it in three steps: twist hair into rope, fold rope, let it ply
itself while pinning to head. My hair was long enough that I usually
had to tuck some extra under the knot.

"French knot" in embroidery is an entirely different critter.

A Gibson is pretty much the same thing, except the hair is combed to
the crown instead of the nape, and the rope is wrapped around the
base. And I use hair pins instead of bobby pins. It took me decades
to learn how to use hair pins because nobody I knew had long hair, so
I had nobody to tell me that you stick them in pointing out, then turn
them to point in.

I suspect that there are still trails of hairpins on the University of
Indianapolis campus. (Which I never attended; there was a small
religious college on the site at the time.)

I think I've found the same website: "You can mimic second day hair
with product, which will be discussed later." doesn't save much space
over "pour a little olive oil into your palm and rub it into your
hair."

I use castor oil, which was left over from my spouse's soap-making
hobby.

"it’s important to work out all the tangles and knots". I usually do,
if I have time, but tangled hair holds longer. I wouldn't go so far
at to "tease" it. This section seems to have been written for people
who got long hair overnight somehow and don't know how to comb it.

But you should *never* assume that an instructee knows anything unless
you are standing right there to watch him.

On topic story!

Once I was stopped at a light waiting to cross Railroad Avenue in
Albany, New York. I think I was in a car. The road slopes sharply
down from there -- I hated going the other way on a bike -- so I had a
good view. I saw a guy who was coming toward me on a bike negotiating
his way across the lanes, and thought "Yea rah! Somebody has been
told that you move left before turning left, instead of riding in the
gutter to the intersection, then making a mad diagonal dash across six
lanes and a railroad!" But when he reached the left-turn side of the
inner lane, he kept on negotiating across the oncoming lanes, went
around the corner in the left gutter, then had to cross two lanes and
a railroad to get back into the right-hand gutter.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/