Hello again

Hi:

The picture here is an older car from Jordan Dinner Car Show.

This time I will use just one picture. I was able to fix the prior two posts but not the one earlier today. We shall see how this one operates when I post it.

I do wonder some times how I get books from the library. I picked up two today and one last week where I do not remember where I got the book recommendation to reserve such a book.

Now I have 34 pages on my Kindle. Each page holds 12 items, so I have much to read on it. Now I have seven books from the library here too. What to read next is the big problem for me.

I ride my bike to the library and to Safeway here. I cannot buy much when I am on my bike as I can carry only about four bags of groceries when biking to the store.

Spaghetti tonight for dinner.

I do hope your day went well.

Steven

Hi

Hello:

I have been editing this site, to try to change the way it looks when I post it. I think I change it correctly but we shall see once I post this one.

The pictures here are from the Jordan dinner.

The top picture shows the combined cake and pie table on the stage in the gym where the dinner took place.

The bottom picture is the Country Store in a booth outside. The dinner had many booths outside as well as an old car show.

It is raining hard here this morning when I awoke at 5:00 am.

The library does not open until noon today, so I will make my trip there after lunch today.

I record the Jay Leno show every night. The next morning I watch it but only the opening segment and some games he plays. I rarely watch the interviews, but earlier this week I watch Hugh Laurie interviewed by Jay. If you have not seen Hugh Laurie interviewed then you will not see he has a very strong English accent. You do not detect it when you see him as the star of House.

Stay dry today.

Steven

That did not work...

Now I will try it without a picture. It was worse than ever during my last post. I used one picture but now it shows I did not create any paragraphs.

I am confused about this website. There are many ways I can change on my blog but not how to post it with proper punctuation.

Now I have six books awaiting for me at the library. I will make a trip there to pick up those books tomorrow.

A story about my stay in China. Upon arriving there, I had to go the police station to tell them where I was living, showing them the property papers of ownership of the house I was in. When I moved to Xi'an (SHE-an) I had to visit the police station there to register there again. I moved back to Shanghai for some time when I left Xi'an, I had to visit the police station yet another time, this time to tell them where I was living in Shanghai.

I am listening to a story on Talk of the Nation about the killing of a census worker in Kentucky. I rather doubt many of you would agree to visit the police station every time you move.

OK, I have some paragraphs here so I will end this now.

Steven

Raining here hard today

Hi again:

I am going to try something different today. Just one picture, this one from the Jordan Dinner. The old cars all showed up again here. These cars came from the 19-teens.

We shall see if we get a proper separation between paragraphs.

I had a strange dream last night. I was entering my senior year in college and had to make my schedule of classes. I had four classes set up but then I found out I needed just 3 more hours to graduate, so I needed to take only one course. But I wanted to take all four classes. Who knows how and why we dream these fractured fairy tales.

Some of my friends tell me dreams mean something in your life. Not me, dreams are just, as I as I said, "fractured fairy tales."

I have been summoned to jury duty in Marion County on Oct 13. I got called to jury duty just before leaving for China two years ago. Seems like I am getting it too often here. They take your name from the driver license records.

On my prior jury service, I did get called for an interview by the attorneys, but both knew me as well as the judge knew me, so I was excused.

I plan on taking my Kindle with me when I go the courthouse for my jury service.

Have a good week.

Steven

Cooling down, rain expected rest of week...

Monday here:

Fall is in the air today. No rain today, but rain every day for the rest of this week. No more hanging clothes outside for the foreseeable future.

The pictures here are from the Jordan Dinner. The top picture shows what it looked like about half an hour after the five us got there. Upon first arriving to eat there only about 1 table was full. I went on stage to take this picture and the picture below the first one.

The second picture is the cake table. All cakes are home-made and all were excellent even though I had room only for one piece of German Chocolate cake. First German Chocolate I ate for more than 15 years. So very good.

I downloaded an audio book to my Kindle today. It took almost 2 hours to get it done. I then deleted it as I did not want that book on my Kindle. I will find some other audio book from Library2go, which our library supports and shows up on the new webpage of the library, revealed to us today.

I finished Vanished last night. A page-turner near the end, but with stock characters such as a Blackwater-like organization that runs the wars and near wars of the U.S.

My next book is Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11. I want to read about the great conspiracies that permeate this world for the past 90 years. I will give you updates on this book during the next few days.

Just past 6:00 pm here now. Cloudy all day with rain expected tonight.

I cooked some hamburger tonight, put cooked it too long. I had some tomatoes from our garden to with the over-cooked hamburgers.

I have a few brownies left today. I will eat the last one later tonight.

Have a good week.

Steven

P.S. Again, I double-spaced between paragraphs again, so I do wonder how it will show up once I post it. (I edited the post once I published it, to triple space between paragraphs so see how this works.)

Dinner was great...

Hi once again:

The pictures here are from the Jordan Dinner. The top picture is my plate before I started eating it. The bottom picture shows the pie table in the stage in this gym. Three types of pies: apple, berry and lemon meraigne. It was berry for me plus a piece of chocolate cake.

I will post more pictures from the dinner during the coming week to show you what you missed by not going there.

I went to the the dinner with my dad, his wife and my nephew and niece. Two of my brother Randy's children. They live in Wilsonville. Yesterday the oldest son of my brother, Michael, went to Eugene to see the Ducks beat the Bears. Today he went with other friends to Seattle to watch the Seahawks. Probably more time driving than watching football.

I am half way through Vanished. It is a good book but not a great book. For some reason the author's writing style is geared more for younger readers, although it is meant for the adult world.

Time to get back to reading after I finish listening to Only a Game on iTunes.

Steven

P.S. I do double space between paragraphs. I do not know why it does not show up when I post this blog.

Perfect Saturday: Ducks win and Beavers lose

Hi again:

The pictures here show what is left and what is right where we stayed in Depoe Bay.

A perfect Saturday: Ducks win big and Beavers lose again. I cannot ask for a better result.

Today I am probably going to the Jordan Dinner today. I am not sure yet. We shall see...

This week I am getting a flu shot, a regular flu shot. I did not get one last year, getting back from China too late to get a flu shot. I got the flu last year, but not this year.

With seven books here from the library and 3 more waiting for me, there will some I do not read.

Not much happening here today. I got up just before 5:00 am and I have listened to the four stories from last night's All Things Considered.

I will go to Safeway a little later to the Sunday Oregonian. I need to read about the great Duck victory and the Beavers loss.

Hope you enjoy the remainder of your weekend.

Steven

Saturday morning...

Hello:

How are you this morning?

The pictures here are from recent events. The top one is taken from near the ocean looking back to the bridge in Newport. The second picture is a VW that is all electric. It is an older VW to show you that any car can be converted to all electric.

I am watching the shows I recorded during the past few days. As I write this I am watching Real Time with Billl Maher. A good liberal. I do not watch Fox News and it is not on my TV when I scroll through the channels.

If I go to the Jordan dinner tomorrow I will take my camera to show you what the dinner is like in this very small parrish.

I have two books waiting for me in the library here, but with six books here now, I will wait until next week to pick them up.

I do not know why the posting of these blog entries do not show paragraph separation. I double space between paragraphs as I write this. I can never predict what this will look like when I post it. I will try get this to work like it should when I post it.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Steven

It is Friday now...

Hi again:

I washed clothes this morning. Two loads and hung the clothes on the line outside. I feel this is the last time this year I may be able to hang my clothes outside. I love the way clothes drying outside feel and smell. I will have to use the dryer from now on unless I see a sunny day in the future when I wash my clothes.

The pictures here are from our apartment complex at Depoe Bay. Both pictures I took from the lawn of our place. The top one shows a big rock that holds many birds. The white ones are seagulls and the ones on top, which are hard to see in this picture, are cormorants, long neck black birds. The bottom picture shows the small bay near the south end of this complex.

I am reading Vanished by Joseph Finder. I like his book and books he wrote previously. He is an excellent writer.

I have six books here from our library. I spend an hour each morning reading articles I transferred to my Kindle. I must do this or I will get further behind on the my reading of this stuff.

One of the books I have is a graphic novel, A.D. After the Deluge. I have trouble reading these comic novels as the story line does not flow like you read the Sunday comics.

I read an article today that Princeton is experimenting with the Kindle DX. Four classes are set up to use this larger Kindle. Texts have been downloaded to the Kindle DX and it has the abiltiy to read PDF documents. So many of these PDF documents will be transferred during the
semester. Each student is given a Kindle DX and it becomes the property of the student after successfully completing the class. Reed College in Portland is also experimenting with the Kindle DX. I will try to find more about how Reed is handling it.

I am listening to NPR programs on my computer. Instead of listening to ATC last night or Morning Edition today, I go to npr.org and download the stories I want to hear. I do not have to listen to all of the corporate tag lines or the local news or station identification. Plus if I do not like the story and don't want to hear it I simply go on to the next story.

The Jordan Dinner is this Sunday. I will make the trip over there again for this great Parrish dinner.

Steven

Now H

Hi again:

The pictures here are from my coast trip.

The top one is the bridge across 101 at the Otter Crest Loop exit. If you go there you can see what is in the bottom picture, whales blowing. You park at the first parking lot you see from 101. I need a longer lens to get better pictures but you can see two whales blowing right above the white area of the ocean.

There is a permanent pod of whales in this cove, or so some people told us in Depoe Bay. Also I read this in some of written material I found while there.

It is getting cooler here now, Fall is in the air. Wore long pants for the first time in a long time today. Also, last week I wore shoes for the first time all summer. I have a pair of sandals I had made for me in China for 48 rmb, about $7.00. They are so comfortable, I wore them everywhere during the summer, including to lunch and to the library today.

I sure do miss the food of China. No cheese of course, but no sugar things also. That is why I lost 50 pounds during my two years in China. I have gained back about 10 pounds since returning last December. I am sure it is the ice cream and brownies I seem to find and make so easily here.

I found out the way to use check disk on my computer. Go to My Computer, of Steve's Computer on my computer, go to your hard drive, right click on it to open it. Under Tools hit "check it now" icon and chkdsk will start. Have all of your operations closed and only this open when you do it. Mine still will not complete it for some reason, unknown to me.

I have XP in this computer. When I get a new computer at work, I am getting XP put on it again. I will not work with Vista. Two friends here have it and I cannot find my way around in it. I don't care what anyone tells me, I want XP on any new computer I get. If I cannot get the disk here, I know I can get it from a friend in China, where it cost me 10 rmb. or about $1.54 for an XP disk a Chinese friend got me. I thought it would cost 20 rmb, about $3.00 but having a Chinese buy it rather than me, a "law why"--a foreigner.

The Jordan Dinner is this weekend. It is by far the best parrish dinner around this or any other area. Jordan is about 10 miles to the southeast of Stayton. It is the parish in which I got married on Sept 11, 1971.

Hope you enjoy the rest of this week and your upcoming weekend.

Steven

Good morning

Hi:

The pictures here are the views from the back door and deck of our place in Depoe Bay. These are the crashing waves we hear all of our time there. Such a great view.

My brother Ken is coming to Oregon next month for two weeks. He lives in Maryland now. I have not seen him for over five years, so it will be nice to see him again.

Summer is over now, as Fall arrived here yesterday. It was 86 degrees in Depoe Bay on Monday. Yet yesterday, fog rolled in and it was very cool by mid-day.

I record Jay Leno every night but end up watching his monologue and some of his tricks but rarely watching any of the interviews.

Now time to start some work here.

Steven

Back from the coast...

Hello again:

Two distinct images from our trip to coast. The top picture is from our deck of our place in Depoe Bay. The bottom picture is a dead seal I found on the beach in Newport, near the North jetty.

We saw a pod of grey whales at the Otter Crest turnoff of Highway 101. There is a permanent pad of grey whales there that apparently stays there around the year. I do not know why they do not migrate like other grey whales.

I have many more pictures from our trip to the Oregon coast I will share with you on this blog.

I finished Cold a book about the cold weather around the world. It is a very good book. I stopped reading it when The Lost Symbol appeared on my Kindle. I have 5 books waiting for me at our local library.

During this vacation, I read over 25 articles I moved to my Kindle during the last month. Today, finding more articles on The New Yorker website and on The Atlantic website, but this time I identified, in the title of the article, whether it came from the NYer or Atlantic. That way, when I read it in the next month I will know where it came from. Moving to my Kindle identifies me as the author when I make the transfer to my Kindle.

I found my quarter collection just before I left. I collected the state quarters ever since they it in 1999. Coming back from China I had to collect the final two years of it, the years I spent in China. I went to Safeway early morning upon my return and found all of my missing quarters in the cash register there.

I slept so very well on the coast. We had the glass door open to hear the crashing waves all night long. Big waves crashed outside on the cliff below our place. I slept over 8 hours last night. I never sleep that long.

Birds awoke me this morning. There is a big rock where birds nest on the top and side of the rock all night long. Them awakening in the morning got me awake by their noise this morning.

I do hope you enjoy the rest of your week.

Steven

Leave in one day

Hi again:

We leave tomorrow for Depoe Bay. The picture here is part of the bay.

It is raining here today, a cool rain, but by Monday it will be 90 degrees here. We will be at the coast on Monday, and we shall see how hot it gets there.

I have some sort of bug now. I feel a cold sore inside my mouth. I am sleeping much more than usual. It is not a cold as my nose is not plugged nor are my eyes watering.

I am getting a flu shot this week for the regular flu. I got a shot in 1976 and that year it is was a swine flu shot. The news organizations tell me that a 1976 flu shot will protect me this year against the swine flu.

The Ducks are playing Utah on ESPN today, but the score is now 28-24, Ducks ahead. It is too close for me to watch so I am watching a movie instead. I will check on the game periodically, but not watch it.

Hope you enjoy your coming week.

Steven

Canned again today..

Hi again:

Here is a total of my canning efforts:

18 quarts of peaches
3 quarts of peach syrup
16 quarts of prunes
4 quarts of tomatoes
2 quarts of applesauce
4 quarts of pears

I canned the pears, the applesauce and two more jars of prunes today. All sealed correctly.

It was hot in my kitchen this morning. Heating up the canner, boiling the syrup, and the water for lids. I later headed water for the tomatoes, in order to peal them easier. I then heated up the remaining prunes for stewed prunes. I also have a little applesauce left over, for me to eat fresh.

I want to find some asparagus to can now. I checked the two farm stores here but neither has asparagus for me. I need to check the paper ads this week to find it, I do believe.

Anyone else read The Lost Symbol? I am taking a day off of reading now that I read the 500 page book in 2 days.

I know I used this picture before but the main topic of this blog entry is about my efforts at canning. I will take some pictures of my canned food once I get it all in one place again.

We are heading to the coast on Sunday and will be back Tuesday afternoon. The minus tides are now in the evening for the rest of this year. We will go clamming Sunday night as the minus tide is at 8:00 pm. It will be close to dark by then, and too dark once Standard Time returns.

I do hope you have a good weekend.

Steven

TGIF

Good morning:

The picture here is from our parade in the middle of the summer. It shows an electric car driven by the Shriners. The Shriners are part of the Masons, the topic of Dan Brown's new book The Lost Symbol. I am sure the Masons are upset at Dan Brown, just like the Catholic Church was upset at The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons, his previous two books.

I finished The Lost Symbol last night. It was indeed a great page-turner. Not to worry, no spoilers here. Like his previous books, he gets preachy in parts as he has characters describe some esoteric part of Masonic ritual.

Like his previous books, the warning in the beginning carries great weight: "All rituals, science, artwork and monuments in this novel are real."

I sure there are tours organizing in Washington D.C. to take people to the sites mentioned in this book. No overseas locations in the book, as it is set in our nation's capitol.

Canning is on my mind today. We have some pears here, as well as an excess of tomatoes, so I will can all of them. I also got another 5 pounds of prunes, but these I will use for a special dessert I found on my Kindle.

Nearing 10:00 am here and time for me to set some breakfast.

Steven

W here

Hi:

The picture here is not from the Hubble Space Telescope. It is an artist's depiction of the Milky Way now, in the bigger picture, compared to the Milky Way early in its life.

I am reading The Lost Symbol. It is quite the page-turner. I am half way through it and it is hard to put down. The Catholic Church will not get upset at this book. However, the Masons may be upset as Brown reveals some secret rituals of this group.

I have the book on my Kindle as I told you. I also reserved it from the library. I picked up The Lost Symbol from the library yesterday. I will keep the book until I finish Kindle version. I am doing this in case there is a problem with the Kindle version. I will finish the book very soon so the next person who reserved the book can pick it up.

I want to read The Lost Symbol on my Kindle because of the built-in dictionary in it. I used a few times to check words I did not know or knew just a little about the word I searched in the Kindle dictionary.

I plan on going to my Dad's place this afternoon to download The Lost Symbol to his Kindle. I got him his Kindle for his birthday a year ago. His Kindle is linked to mine under one account name, meaning he gets any book I purchase for my Kindle, both books that cost me money and books I get for free from Amazon.com

Tomorrow we are going to Happy Valley to visit a parts store that we want to be the supplier for Green Car of America.

Time to get some lunch here.

Steven

Hi again

Hello:

A variety of pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope, all new after its update recently by the space shuttle crew.

I wonder if we will ever look back in time to near the Big Bang. I think it may be comparable to getting to Absolute Zero, -460 F. We can get with a few .00005 of that but not at absolute zero. Our universe if over 14.5 billion years old. We can see as far back as 12 billion years and with Hubble working great now, we can probably see back to 13 billion years.

This morning I found The Lost Symbol on my Kindle. This is what I will be reading for the next few days.

Today I will make my sauerkraut. Like I told you earlier, I put sauerkraut on my cheese list. I just don't like the taste of it and I cannot eat it. But it will make nice gifts to those who do like it.

Time for some breakfast and then to start reading my book.

Steven

Good morning

Hi again:

Hubble says this is a planetary nebula. A nebula caused by an exploding planet.

I prepared the brine for my sauerkraut that I will make tomorrow. The brine, made with Kosher salt, must be room temperature when I pour in on the cabbage in the crock.

Have you seen the SyFy show Eureka? This fictional town is set in the northwest, according to some the characters. Last Friday there was a scene in Sheriff's office. In the background was a state flay from the state of......Oregon. I had recorded this program so I went back to this scene as soon as I saw it, froze the picture to see the blue and white flag of our glorious state.

I watched both Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2. I recorded each from the Spike network on cable. I could tell it had been "edited for content" as there was no cussing nor much violence.

I got an email from Amazon today, telling me The Lost Symbol will download to my Kindle at midnight tonight.

I usually do not leave my Kindle on overnight, turning it off when I got to bed. Also, once I turn it on I rarely turn on the Whispernet as it cuts the battery time from about a week to less than a day when whispernet is on. I am not sure I will download it tonight. If I do that I may not want to sleep, reading the book instead.

I do not plan on reading any reviews of the book until after I read the book.

Write me if you have any questions.

Steven

Monday morning

Hi:

The picture here is a stellar speeder, a star that moves fast. It shows four different pictures of this star that likes to move fast. Again the Hubble Space Telescope found this star.

I finished The Last Ember last night. I was planning on reading it over 3 nights, but yesterday not much happening yesterday so I spent the day reading with just a few breaks.

Today I will start making my sauerkraut. Like I told you, I do not like to eat it, but with fresh cabbage and a crock here I may as well make some. It will take 3 weeks for it ferment. I will give some of the fresh stuff to my dad, but can the remainder. Then I can give cans of sauerkraut as gifts later this year.

I opened my peach syrup last night. It is so good on pancakes. This was my dinner last night.

I wonder if I turn on my Kindle at 9:00 pm tonight if The Last Symbol will download then. It is midnight in New York so I wonder if it will be available then. In any event tomorrow I will have it on my Kindle. I wonder too about the my reservation of the book and the audio book at the library. I made these reservations about 3 months ago. I wonder also if I am the first one to reserve it. We shall see when I check my reservation list in the morning tomorrow.

Next Sunday we are heading to Depoe Bay for 3 days. With the minus tides in the later p.m. our clamming will be in the evening during the rest of this year. I will show new pictures from that trip upon my return. I do not plan on taking my computer with me to Depoe Bay, so I will be dark for the three days of September 20, 21 and 22.

I can access the Internet on my Kindle but I never tried it before. The Whispernet that lets me download books is actually an Internet connection. I will try to access my email account from the Kindle then to see how it works.

Have a good week.

Steven

Sunday morning

Hello:

The picture here is a butterfly galaxy, as identified by the Hubble Telescope people.

Right now I am watching a TV program on C-Span 2, BookTV on weekends, of an interview of an author of a book I have here from my library: Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11. It is not due back to the library until Oct 1, so I will read it after I finish The Lost Symbol this week.

Until next Tuesday I am reading The Last Ember by Daniel Levin. It is a debut novel by this author. It is a tale seeking something Josephus took from the Temple in Israel before Titus raided it. I am over 1/3 through it now, reading it last night. A little too predictable for me, as I can foresee what is happening. I usually do not like books where I can predict what is going to happen. John Grisham comes to mind as a quite predictable author. But this book is good enough to keep reading to see how it ends. I have some ideas how it will progress and I want to see if I am right.

I will finish The Last Ember Monday night. Tuesday morning I will turn on my Kindle to find The Lost Symbol added to it.

Once I see this book added to my Kindle, I will visit my dad later in the day to download it to his Kindle. He shares his Kindle with my account. So whatever books I get from Amazon on my Kindle go on his Kindle.

Time for some breakfast here.

Steven

Good morning

Hi:

The next set of pictures appearing on this blog are the new ones from Hubble. NASA released some new pictures from the telescope, showing what it can do now that Hubble was repaired by the Space Shuttle crew last month. This picture shows triple galaxies.

A bifurcated night for me last night. Went to bed around 11:00 and got up, wide awake, at 4:00 am I stayed up for about 2 hours then went back to bed for another two hours. We ate at A & W last night, with me drinking a large glass of root beer. I am sure there was caffeine in it; this is why I do not drink coffee in the afternoon. The caffeine in coffee and other drinks affect me in this way.

We played poker 2 to 3 times a week when I was at Regis. On Sundays, we would play poker and then head to A & W to get 5 cent root beers and 5 cent ice cream cones. We paid for multiple drinks and ice cream with pennies from our poker game. More of a social gathering than serious poker playing. The ante limit was 2 cents and raised could not be more than a nickel.

On Sept 20 we are heading to Depoe Bay for 3 days. This time of year the low tides are in the evening. On the 20th the minus tide is at 8:00 pm so we will go clamming in the evening.

My dried prunes are so very good. I ate a few of them last night.

I gave my dad and step-mother a jar of canned prunes and a jar of canned peaches. I bought all of my canning jars here from an older lady who is moving out of her farm. These are old jars with very thick glass. I bought six dozen of them from her for $20.00.

I will be making some sauerkraut later this week. I got a 10 pound cabbage a few days go. I make this stuff even though I do not like it and will not eat it. I will give some to my dad and can the rest. Then I will give it all away. I made sauerkraut before I went to China. I do this because I have the crock from my dad's house. He did not want it so I took it. So got a recipe from the Internet for making sauerkraut.

I want to can some asparagus if I can find some here. Two of the farm stands near here do not carry asparagus. There is one more farm stand across the Santiam River here; I will check that one today.

If I can find some apples here I want to can some applesauce. I have a great recipe for microwave applesauce.

Time for some breakfast.

Steven

Good morning

Hello:

This is a sad anniversary: Sept 11. The picture here is the New Yorker cover that came out just weeks after the event. Look closely and you see the two towers in silhouette on the cover. Back in those days I had a subscription to The New Yorker, but coming out every week, I got farther and farther behind.

Once it became available on my Kindle I had a subscription there. But, like the print edition, I got behind reading it on my Kindle. So I canceled that subscription.

Then I discovered how to get New Yorker articles to my Kindle. I find the article I want to read from the New Yorker website, copy it to Word from the Print page of the website, correct the font and save it. I then email it to (my name)@free.kindle.com and it comes back within seconds in the proper format for downloading to my Kindle. I use the USB connection between my Kindle and my computer and save the articles to the Kindle in this way. I now have 33 pages of stuff on my Kindle. This is because, like the New Yorker, I do not find the time to read the articles on my Kindle. Too much other good stuff to read here.

I added a counter to my blog. This counter tracks from where the person reading it comes from. I can see that most reads come from Stayton and two from Portland. I cannot tell WHO reads my blog only where that person is from who reads it.

My dad read my big copy of The DaVinci Code and I was surprised that he liked it. He is a very conservative Catholic and I thought he would not like the premise of the novel, that the Holy Grail is not a cup but the descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. I tend to believe this over much of what the Catholic Church teaches. But no rant today.

Another warm weekend of summer coming up.

Steven

Good morning on this W

This car in this picture has lithium ion batteries in it. Similar to the batteries we will use in our cars, but ours are better. The batteries in this car cost the owner $186.00 per battery. There are 102 batteries in it. He took his car to Sacramento to get it converted. Ours will cost a fraction of what he paid, making ours conversions much more affordable than his.

I got some good news this morning. One of the big grants I applied to from the Department of Energy is now being processed in its second step. We passed the first test and now on to the second step. I am confident we will pass this one too so we may get this grant yet this month.

Time to tell you some things about Idiot America. This a book by Charlie Pierce I read about a month ago. A fellow liberal like me there is much in this book to admire and like.Some good examples of Idiots in America are:

1) how the Republicans reacted to Terri Shivo.

2) W taking us to war in Iraq.

3) Republican attitude toward global warning.

4) Republican attitude toward the fact of evolution.

5) In Missouri, there is a Creation Museum showing dinosaurs with saddles so kids can ride them, representing real life. Of course those kooks believe the world is only six thousand years old so humans lived with dinosaurs. What a crock. Don't get me on a rant on this topic. Suffice to say, dinosaurs lived for 125 million years, ending about 65 million years ago. We came upon the scene in some form or another about 3 million years ago.

6) Here is what Charlie Pierce says about Sarah Palin: "Palin's nomination was an act of faith by Idiot America almost unsurpassed in political history. Her speech at the Republican convention was a long sneer…She claims foreign policy experience because Alaska is so close to Russia.”

Why don't you think of some other examples of Idiot America? I can come up with one from last weekend. One of the opponents of health care reform got in to a fight with a supporter. The supporter bit off the finger of the opponent. They took the opponent to the hospital where Medicare paid for reattaching the finger. This guy is the latest example of an idiot in America.

Steven

Hi again

Hi again:

This is what 10 pounds of prunes look like when they are dried. They filled half a bucket when fresh and fill a medium bowl after dried.

I am thinking about getting another 10 pounds of prunes, cooking them up and then freezing the cooked prunes. I love cooked prunes as well as every other way of eating prunes. So now I have canned prunes, fresh prunes, cooked prunes and dried prunes.

Here is the story about some of my experience in glee club at Regis High School. Like I told you, I was ordered to go to auditions by the principal/priest at Regis. During the start of my senior year in 1967 the principal announced no club would have to raise any money for any project during my senior year. That was fine until spring time when the combined boys' glee and girls' chorus decided to make a bus trip up through western Washington to perform at some Catholic schools there. But the group and teacher decided we need to raise money for this trip by selling candy. I reminded everyone the Principal's declaration the previous fall of no fundraising during our year.

I lost the argument but I announced I was not going to sell any candy. The teacher told me I would not be going on the trip if I did not sell any candy. I stuck to my guns. I was not going to sell any candy. The teacher told me then if I did not go on the trip I would lose the one credit hour for the class. I told her I did not care; I did not need the one credit hour to graduate.

The teacher, a nun, reminded me again that I was the MC for the group, announcing the various acts and songs and they had no one else willing to do this. Again, I did not care; I was not going to sell any candy.

A few of my female classmates came to me to try to convince me to sell candy. I told them no I was not going to do this. Then unbeknowst to me, a few of those girls checked out candy in my name and sold it to reflect that I sold the candy. I got upset at them for doing this but the teacher told me I could go on the trip as "you sold some candy..."

On the bus trip we played hearts on the long trip. Unknown to me, some girls behind me were signaling to the others where my Queen of Spades was in my hand. Once I realized this I held my cards to the ceiling of the bus so no one could see them.

I had a very low opinion of the the Regis girls' uniform until I went on this trip. I saw some pretty ugly uniforms on this trip. After this trip I ended up liking the Blackwatch plaid of the Regis girls' uniforms. I even bought a pair of boxer shorts of Blackwatch plaid. I also had a Pendleton shirt of Blackwatch plaid.

Have a good and short week.

Steven

Good morning

Hello:

The pictures here are of my food dryer. The top picture shows the prunes in the dryer. This is the start of the process. The bottom picture is what the dryer looks like when it works. It took over 12 hours to dry these Brooks prunes. Dried prunes are so very good.

I am reading a book called Cold: Adventures in the World's Frozen Places by Bill Streever.

A week from today, I will turn my Kindle on as soon as I get up and within a minute see The Lost Symbol showing up on my Kindle. Like all new releases, it cost me $9.99. Whatever I am reading at that point I will stop to read this new book.

Good, a short week.

Steven

Happy Labor Day

Hello:

I hope you are enjoying your Labor Day by not working.

Raining again this morning but it suppose to get hotter later in the week, more like the summer we are still suppose to be in.

The picture here is a low tide at Newport. It was so low at -3.0 feet, there was no water under the bridge at Newport.

Has anyone listened to the Glee TV show from the link I provided yesterday?

I taped the last 7 episodes of Lost so today may be a Lost day, watching all of the last 7 of them. I do not see Lost on the schedule of ABC yet. I looked over the list of new TV shows this season. There is not much there that interests me. I am taping every one of Jay Leno's show. His show is on at 10:00 pm Monday through Friday.

Like we keep calling our listening music records even though they may be CDs or downloads. I keep call it "taping" but I have a DVR here, so there is no tape, just a hard drive in the DVR.

Did you go camping this weekend? Get rained on?

Steven

Hi again

My second posting today:

I watched Glee on Fox today. It was a repeat of the May premiere.

If you watched this week or last May and you want to see the last production number of TV program you can see it on UTube. Click on this site to see a good version of the song Don't Stop Believing (initially performed by Journey):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUZwdbeS2mM&feature=related

The picture is from uTube. You will not see a video of the performance but just hear the music. Look in the right hand column to see other related uTube performances.

This TV show is of interest to me because I was in Boy's Glee at Regis. It started when I was a freshman, and I was ordered by the principal to go to auditions. Being a freshman and mostly fearful of priests at that time, I went to auditions. I ended up in the baritone section and as MC for our public performances.

Unlike the glee club in the TV show our glee club was big for the size of the school. Over 65 boys in the glee club and over 100 girls in Girls' Chorus, out of a school with about 200 students then.

Glee at Regis was 7th period of the day so none of us had to miss football, basketball or baseball practice to participate in Glee and Chorus. We even produced a few records of our performances. I assume they are with my ex-wife at her new home in Salem. Besides I no longer have a record player to listen to the record.

I recall our glee club was very good. I would like to listen to our records again sometime soon.

It is amazing what one can find on the Internet.

Steven

No rain today...

Hi again:

The picture here shows the 2 quarts of tomatoes I canned on Friday. As you can see I mixed yellow and red tomatoes. My first time canning tomatoes so I was sort of flying blind. As I said in an earlier post, I added garlic powder and dill to each jar.

I had a few prunes left over from the canning of 14 quarts so I cooked them up. I love cooked, or stewed, prunes. I made some brownies to go with the prunes. I am finishing off both today.

I found 3 good articles to read from the opinion page of The Sunday Oregonian. I wanted to cut them out but the front page overlapped the jump to the second page. So, I found each on The Oregonian's webpage, www.oregon.live.com and copied each to Word then sent them to the (my name)@free.kindle.com. I then added each to my Kindle to read each of them there.

Time to start reading again.

Steven

Raining all day here

Hi again:

For dinner last night I made pancakes in order to try out my peach syrup. Boy, it is so very good. I used the peelings to make this syrup and it has a very strong fresh peach taste.

The picture here is an art structure in Vancouver BC, near its Chinatown.

There is a talk on clamming in Charleton on Monday but that city is so far from here. I estimate it would take us 3 hours to drive to Charleston so I will wait until the DFW has a meeting closer to us in Stayton.

I was going to visit two garage sales today but the rain is keeping me in. I want to ride my bike to the local sales here. I will keep checking the weather this afternoon.

In reading Methland I find the author relies upon The Oregonian's article Unnecessary Epidemic written by Steve Sue in 2004. In 1986 Congress had the chance to regulate ephedrine but did not, letting Werner-Lambert produce and sell this drug in pill form to anyone who wanted it, including the big cartels in Iowa and Mexico to use it to manufacture meth.

Until about 1980 meth was sold legally in world, including the U.S., mainly as a diet aid.

With all of this rain, I will finish reading this book today. I recommend it highly.

Have a great holiday weekend.

Steven

Canning done....

Hi again:

Well, I canned 14 quarts of prunes today as well as 2 quarts of tomatoes. I got the tomatoes from my plants outside. They look strange in that we have 3 yellow tomato plants and 1 red plant so each jar has mixture of each in them.

I did not know what to put in the tomatoes, so I added some garlic powder and some dill. With that I added hot water.

Right now the last two quarts of prunes and the 2 quarts of tomatoes are cooking now. In about 10 minutes the canner will be done.

The picture here is an engine in an electric car. Very complex. We plan to buy a kit to convert our first car once we get going. We can use the instructions from the kit to work on subsequent cars.

I am nearly out of jars now. I can call the lady I bought my first 3 dozen jars to see if she has any more left. She is selling all of her canning supplies as she sold her farm. We got the first 3 dozen for $10.00. She actually gave me 20 wide-mouth jars instead of 12; she just cleared her shelf as she put the jars in the box.

With all of this canning, I am thinking of canning the next tuna we get. We can go to Newport to get a tuna off the boat. I have never canned meat before so I do wonder how to do it. I could ask my father. When he was growing up, his family either canned or smoked all the meat they got, whether it was salmon, deer or a bear. With no refrigeration, this is how they preserved meats.

I seem to be writing more on this blog than I did on my old one. It is just nicer feel to it than what Yahoo had on its now-defunct blog site.

Steven

Prunes on Friday...

Good morning:

I started my prunes this morning. I am heating the water in the canner. This takes the longest tine of anything in the canning process. Later I will make the syrup and heat the lids. Then I will start cutting up the prunes and putting them in the quart jars.

The picture here is an electric car with the motor and controller in the front of the car. The 12 volt batteries are in the back of this car. It has a range of only 40 miles between charges.

Are you traveling for Labor Day? We may go see a movie today or tomorrow.

I started reading Methland last night. it is about the small Iowa town of Oelwein (pronounced OL-wine).

I heard about a new way to cook meth yesterday on NPR: use a juice bottle and hook it to your bike wheel and ride around town. It cooks while you ride your bike. You get about 10 grams of meth but usually not enough to sell. Why? WHY? do people do this???????

The Ducks lost night. It is going to be a long season for my beloved Ducks.

Once again, I did not watch the game; I heard the score on NPR Morning Edition today. I do not like watching football on TV.

Baseball is going to be bad this year if the Yankees go far into the playoffs. I hate the Yankees so i will not watch any of those games unless I see their opponent way ahead.

Breakfast is done so now time to do my prunes.

Steven

25 poounds of prunes here

Hello:

I ordered 25 pounds of prunes yesterday morning from a fruit stand just west of Stayton. Last night the prunes were delivered to my house. I have been eating a few fresh (I know, is 3 enough, or is 4 too many...). Tomorrow I plan on canning about 10 quarts of prunes. Once I finish that we may order another 10 pounds to dry those as I like dried prunes also.

The picture here are a couple of seals at Newport, waiting for the offal to come from the fish cleaner working charter boats.

I picked nine tomatoes yesterday and today. We have fresh corn here too from the fruit stand. I have about 7 pounds of apples in the frig I need to make in to applesauce, which I will do later today. I usually cook up a some brownies or a chocolate cake to eat with the applesauce so I will prepare the brownies too.

I wonder why I am putting on weight upon my return from China. I lost about 50 pounds in China, mainly from eating only excellent Chinese food (nothing like the Chinese American food you get here), and eating with chopsticks. Plus no cookies, no cakes, no brownies, no candy, no donuts, no sugar in China.

I finished reading The DaVinci Code today. It is such a good book, much better than the movie.

On Tuesday, September 15, as soon as I get up, I will turn on my Kindle The Lost Symbol will be there. Plus I have both the book and the audio reserved at the library. I reserved both about 4 months ago so I wonder if I get them first from our local library. I don't know how I would like to read the book, in my Kindle or from the library.

The next book I plan to read is Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding. This book is only 246 pages so I will read it in the next few days.

This book is about Oelwein Iowa, small town with a population of 6,126. I will give you a report on it once I finish it.

I want to read this book as Stayton is a town of nearly 8,000 so I will compare that small Iowa town with my hometown here.

Canning prunes is easier than canning peaches. I do not have to peal the prunes. Just wash them, cut them in half and put the halves in the jars. I do not remember what percentage of syrup to put in the jars. I am thinking a very light syrup, 2 cups of sugar for 6 cups of water or even less sugar. This time I will prepare the canner water and the syrup before I start doing the prunes.

What are your plans for Labor Day?

Steven

Hi again on Hump Day (W)

Hello again:

The two pictures are older cars at the Car Show at Santiam Summerfest. They had only about 20 cars last year, they told me there. But this year well over 200 cars.

The next thing I am canning is 25 pounds of prunes. I put my order in today to get the prunes later this month. I love canned prunes, especially on my cereal in the morning. I do know how to can prunes as I canned many quarts while I was married as I was the only one in my family that liked canned prunes.

Nolan flew to Buffalo New York yesterday and will be gone until Sept 7. He is attending the wedding on Saturday of his nephew.

I picked up six more books from the local library today. I know have nine books here, not many of which I am planning to read before Sept 15 when I get The Last Symbol. I do believe I will read that book in two days so I don't have to read all of these nine books before that day.

Here is a list of the books I have here now:

The Foreigner by Fancie Lin

Cold: Adventures in the World's Frozen Places by Bill Streever

Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding

Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency by Barton Gellman

Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan by Doug Stanton

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes

Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant

The Wilderness Warrior by Douglas Brinkley

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli (my first effort at reading a graphic novel, a big book of cartoon characters).

I cannot remember where I get many of the recommendations for books now. Some come from The Oregonian; others from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker. Others come from the Amazon Daily, the blog I get every day my Kindle once I turn on the Whispernet, the cell phone connection inside the Kindle that connects it to Amazon Kindle online.

I know have 29 pages of books and articles on my Kindle. With 12 listed on each page, this means I have 348 items on my Kindle. Most are books but at least 100 are articles I copied to Word, then sent it by email to free.kindle.com and then added to my Kindle by the USB cord that connects to my computer. I would much rather read long and even short articles on my Kindle rather than reading them on my computer screen.

I do hope you enjoy the remainder of your week.

Steven

Hi again on this U

Hello:

As you know me Tuesday is abbreviated as U in my system. M, U, W, H, F, Sa, Su is my system for the days of the week.

The picture here is the house I live in Stayton. We live in the downstairs and Nolan lives upstairs.

We are getting more and more tomatoes now. Need to start eating bacon and tomato sandwiches for lunch. Not the traditional BLT but BT for me.

I want to find a few buckets of prunes so I can can about 12 quarts of these. I love canned prunes.

I also have about five pounds of Gravenstein apples in my frig here. I make applesauce with these apples. I usually make just one big bowl to eat fresh but I have enough apples now to can a few quarts of applesauce once I start processing the apples tomorrow.

I am re-reading The DaVinci Code in preparation of reading The Lost Symbol when it comes out in two weeks. I forget how preachy he gets in parts of the book. He preaches his theories through characters in the book. I assume we will see the same thing in his new book. The Lost Symbol is a sequel to The DaVinci Code. I can hardly wait to read the new book.

Why do people like to live in the LA area? Fires in the summer. You can count on mudslides in the winter if we have another El Nino this winter, as predicted for this year. Plus the unexpected earthquakes there. Don't get me started on the lack of water in that area. Just wait until they cannot get enough water from northern California. They will cry for a pipeline from The Columbia River to get water from it to southern California. What is your opinion of shipping our water to southern California? If you are like me, I would rather see the billions of gallons of fresh water to enter the Pacific Ocean than ship one drop of it southern California.

Xenophobia. Love of your area to the detriment of other areas. It is one of two phobias I have. My other one is fear of closed spaces. Cars do not do this but trying to sleep in cab-over camper. I was to sleep in the small area above the cab. I ended sleeping on the floor rather than sleep in that small area.

Steven