It keeps getting to be bed time before it gets to be Usenet time, so
here's a snippet from the Beeson Banner:
Wednesday, 3 November 2021
I was having a hard time working up enthusiasm for this trip, then I
suddenly needed to go to RP Home & Harvest for duplicate house keys,
and that straw was enough.
It looks as though my all-day trip will start at noon or later. I
slept late, and then there was a lot of stuff to do before putting on
my outer layers.
***
Left at 12:08. It turned out to be less of an all-day trip than
planned: it had gotten colder when I came out of Tractor Supply at
almost four, so I pulled out my shopping list and decided that nothing
I wanted at Aldi was urgent. We are almost out of breakfast sausage,
but there is some "dry Italian salami", a nearly-full package of
pre-cooked bacon, and plenty of ham.
Moral: if I'm going to be out after three o'clock, TAKE THE
WINDBREAKER! (I *had* taken a pair of warm gloves to put on.)
I warmed right up on the first hill, of course, but it would have
continued to get colder, my metabolism would have slowed down while I
was in Aldi, and I'd have been likely to get sweaty if I stayed
indoors any length of time; I wasn't wearing a zip-off jersey.
But I did get four keys made, One of them is now on my car-key ring; I
put the original back on my depleted ring of tools. (It's now one
over- fat pocket knife with a short long blade, one measuring tape,
one bike-cable key, one house key, nail clippers, and a Kroger "drop
in any mailbox" tag.)
Dave brought home a Mad Anthony shrimp taco for my supper. I did't
bring him anything at all from the Marathon station.
I'd planned to lunch at Wendy's, but they were drive-through only,
Arby's didn't appeal to me, and I'm not sure they weren't also
drive-through only, so I decided I could get something in Sprawl Three
(Google Maps says that it's Woodland Plaza).
I paused before the awkward intersection of Commerce Drive, Commerce
Drive, and Commerce Drive (one of those is really the other end of
Orthopedic Drive) to survey the fast-food joints of Sprawl Three,
which consisted entirely of McDonald's. (There was also a
sit-down-and-wait-to-be-noticed restaurant.) Then I glanced to the
left and saw the Marathon station. I decided to see whether they had
a hot-dog roller. They did, there was food on it, and it wasn't
labeled "Not cooked yet".
So, many years after I first noticed the existance of these clever
gadgets, I finally got to sample their wares. I chose the sole
remaining "tornado" and something with chicken-cheddar in the name,
also the last one. That left a hot dog and a couple of other things.
I studied the layout for a while: there are the bags to put the food
into, but where are the tongs to pick it up? I finally decided that I
wasn't going to touch any food but mine, and if I held the tornado bag
open and ready I wouldn't have hold of the food long enough to get
burned, so I used my fingers.
Turned out that the food was only lukewarm. I should have expected
that; if it was kept honestly hot for hours, it would burn.
The tornado turned out to be in dire need of sauce, but I had a packet
of Taco Bell taco sauce among my emergency food bars. I imagine that
I'd have seen packets of sauce if I'd hunted for them before checking
out.
Thursday, 4 November 2021
A hard freeze is predicted for tonight, so just before supper time, I
walked my wheelchair bike up Chestnut street so that I'd have its
basket to bring the produce home in, and picked all the tomatoes off
Kathy & Dave's vines. I also found a greem pepper.
--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/