Saturday, August 8, 2009

The red jalapeno

We're always looking for a good home cooked meal while traveling. And by home cooked, we aren't talking some of the concoctions we have found on some restaurant menus. We looking for meat loaf, ham, greens, mashed potatoes, green beans, mac and cheese . . . all the "good" things people need to survive.
We also don't mind trying something different while traveling to various regions.
For example, we wouldn't mind trying some alligator tail if we were in Florida. Or sucking the crushed head of a crayfish if we were in the heart of Louisiana.
When we visited the Dixie III in Asheboro, North Carolina, we could tell by the noon crowd we had picked a good place. If you spot a vacant table you better grab it. As we stood in line several people walked past us to take a seat before someone gave us the information we need: Don't wait, if someone gets up, grab the seat.
After grabbing a seat we noticed they had daily specials right up our alley. Baked ham with three sides, $5.99 including a drink.
"What will you have?" the waitress asked.
The baked ham, fried squash, green beans and . . . well, let's see here. Oh, yeah, we'll take the red seedless jalapeno peppers.
"What?" she inquired.
The red seedless jalapeno peppers. Never had tried them before and I'll give it a shot. I'm a;ways willing to try new things.
"What are you looking at, exactly?" she asked, with the wife joining in. Both with a look like we were crazy,
Right there, we pointed to the specials. The red seedless jalapeno peppers.
Both looked, read and then commenced laughing. Before they were through the waitress noted that we had made her day. In fact, she said it was the best laugh she had for a week.
Maybe we had better get out some reading glasses and take a closer look.
Ooops! The red seedless jalapenos transformed to red seedless grapes.
We ordered them anyway. and for the rest of the meal the waitress kept checking back wanting to inquire if the "red seedless jalapenos" were too hot for us.
But, we got a senior citizen discount, and did not the red seedless jalapenos again.
If you ever visit Dixie III in Asheboro, North Carolina and order the red seedless grapes, and the waitress looks at you and smiles, you'll know it's the same one who waited on us.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

World's most expensive eggs

One of the goals of living on a fixed income is learning to plan your meals so you are not a regular visitor to the area restaurants. In an attempt to do just that, we prepared a meal of scrambled eggs, whop 'em biscuits, butter and molasses.
We should have made the decision to visit Huddle House and eat their eggs. The cost would have been a lot less.
No, these weren't some fancy duck eggs from China - or it is Japan - that have been buried for a century or so. They weren't imported ostrich eggs imported from Australia. Shucks, they weren't even hummingbird eggs from the forest of South America.
They were simple, white, 12 in a carton, chicken eggs!
And they cost $131.45!
How, so, you may wonder. Well it worked this way . . .
There are two adults and one four legged child who live in our house. One of the adults decided that it would be nice to fix a small plate of eggs for the child's supper.
Junior was delighted! He lapped them up in a couple of gulps and begged for more.
The next day he was feeling sort of out-of-sorts. Listless, you know?
He was walking across the living room when the diarrhea hit him. He couldn't make it to the door before it hit him again.
We called the vet for an emergency appointment and packed him up. After a quick exam the doc asked: What does he eat?
Dog food.
Do you feed him off the table?
No. Well, the wife did give him some eggs last night.
EGGS. What kind?
Scrambled chicken eggs.
Uh, do you know you don't feed these kind of furry pets scrambled chicken eggs?
Well, after a bill of $131.45, we do now.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

The iPhone

The iPhone!
We've been studying about the novel new (to us) device for months. A few weeks ago we were in the Apple store in Memphis and the bug bit even harder. We even stopped by an AT&T store on the way home and checked to see if they still had some of the original iPhones in stock (the cheaper ones).
It took another week or so before we finally made the decision.
We consulted with our son who has one and he made the recommendation we forgo the $69 extended warranty and said all we needed was the vehicle charger. With his recommendations we headed off to the store and was about to close the deal when the wife sees a sign that says: Special with iPhone purchase. Free Case.
She should have stayed in the truck. The "free" case cost us an additional $108 - plus tax.
But the bottom line is this . . . the iPhone is worth the money!
It's almost scary what it will do. Download a free application (called app for short) and you can find anything you want - gas, food, lodging, hospitals . . . anything.
And then it will guide you from your location to the location you want to go.
There are also the fun things. We found one called The Moron Test. (Maybe not politically correct, but what the heck . . . . it's still fun.
The game gives simple instructions for you to follow, i.e., crack the eggs from largest to smallest. Simple, right?
Well, after an hour we have learned that "you are not much more than a basic mammal."
As with anything Apple does, every detail is covered right down to the padded box.
Bill Gates, eat your hear out!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

We were forced into taking an early retirement from our position as general manager of a small weekly newspaper owned by a large company. Knowledge and experience be damned, youth and degrees (and lower salaries) became the thought process of our corporate office.
In all fairness, we had seriously considered retiring at the end of 2009. We informed our employer in the fall of 2008 of our thoughts.
It was December when we were called to the office for an annual evaluation and told: We've talked it over and decided that if you are going to retire we don't need to do an evaluation. In fact, we were told, if you decide to retire 10 months early we're willing to offer a severance package.
And what if I wanted to stay until the end of the year?
Well, I could still leave 10 months early and wouldn't be eligible for the severance package.
We've done some nutty things in our life and people have been more than willing to tell us that. But, in truth, momma didn't raise no nuts!
So, we "retired" and took the severance package.
As it turned out things have worked out fairly well so far. We get to do some traveling, see the country and now we have found the wife a job that will require her to travel the country in our travel trailer (we're the driver) while she works.
Like we said . . . momma didn't raise no nuts!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The Back Page

After being forced into retirement earlier this year, one of my passions was snuffed out . . . I hope to find it again in this new media.