Cop Car's Beat

And now, to the comics

There have been a couple of "Oh, yes, I've been there!" cartoons in the last few days. I must comment on them!

Saturday's Dilbert (one must scroll down to 12/12/2009) has this conversation:

ASOK: There is a huge disconnect between my enormous technical knowledge and the trivial tasks you assign to me.

Pointy-Haired-Boss: That's a temporary situation, ASOK.

ASOK: Okay, good.

P-H-B: Eventually your technical skills will become outdated.

This sort of thing is, undoubtedly, true in fields other than engineering. It also explains, somewhat, my changing jobs every few years. I always thought that, once I knew my job, it was time to try something else - either within the same company or at another.

Today's Pickles has this conversation:

Opal:  I guess it's going to be just you and me for Christmas this year.

Opal: It's going to seem weird. I don't even feel like decorating.

Earl: Don't then.

Opal: I don't feel like shopping or playing Christmas carols either...

Earl: Fine with me.

Opal: or baking Christmas goodies.

Earl: Hey! Now you're talking crazy talk!

That's how it's been for years at the CC & HH house - except that we have usually had (and hope to have) at least our local family with us for dinner. As long as HH gets his pecan mushkatzoni, his walnut mushkatzoni, his almond horseshoes, his meringue cookies, his nut rolls, his fudge and his Rolla rolls (click on "Cop Car's Chow" in the right-hand sidebar for recipes), I can rest, relax, and enjoy the holidays. So far, I've made a double batch of pecan and a double batch of walnut mushkatzoni, four batches of almond horseshoes, six pans of fudge, and a partridge in a pear tree.

P.S. HH has finished 2.5 pans of the fudge, 1/3 of the pecan and 1/3 of the walnut mushkatzoni and 1 batch of almond horseshoes. Bogie & her WS and Elder Brother & his wife should soon be the recipients of 1 dozen each of the three kinds of cookies and 1 pan (1/2 walnut and 1/2 Heath chip) of fudge. They were mailed, yesterday.

So I thought

Friends and relatives, thanks for all of your input on the subject of cataract surgery. I should have realized that I was naive.

I am severely disappointed to have to write that, not only will I not have the cataract surgery that I feel I need, but that the surgeon suggests that surgery would be difficult because my eyes wander - something that I had felt might be true for the last few months, but which no one else had noticed (and I had not thought to mention the suspicion to my physician!) Dr Qaum told me that the wandering eyes (I think he called it "eye dyskinesia", but I may not remember correctly) may be associated with Parkinson's disease.

Dr Qaum will re-evaluate in nine months; but, a friend who is an RN was in his waiting room with her mother before I went in for my appointment. My friend the RN said that "they" had recently upped the severity of visual dysfunction that must be present to warrant surgery. The written materials that Dr Qaum gave me mention that surgery is required when one can no longer carry on the functions of everyday living.

I'm considering getting a second opinion, although Dr Qaum's qualifications are astounding for one who is practicing in our neck of the woods. (His undergraduate degree is from Cornell, his medical training from Harvard, his residency was at Duke, and he has won citations for his published papers.) Think Annie - "The Sun'll come out tomorrow...."

The eyes have it

Prior to setting out on the trip to KC, last week, I had made an appointment with my eye doctor and had decided that the KC trip would be my last solo cross-country drive until I get my cataracts removed. The drive back from KC, was "murder" on my eyes - driving into the sun, with cloudy, murky, grey skies.

These days I am color-blind, especially when the hue is dark, to the point where I don't know what color trousers I am wearing. (I took a pair of Navy pants to KC instead of the black that went with the rest of my outfits (I think!) Yesterday, HH had to tell me that my pants were green, not the grey that I had thought I was wearing.)

Well...after my gym & swim session last Monday, I did go see Dr McCormick, and told him that I am "ready". He did his usual exam and declared that my brain must work better than my eyes do because his visual evaluation of my cataracts said that they were 20/50 (meaning that my visual acuity could be corrected to no better than 20/50), but that I "tested out" better than that (20/40 or better is required to maintain my driver's license.) Of course I tested out better - I've had years of practice at guessing what letters I'm look at on highway signs, et cetera. There are only 26 letters so it is comparatively easy to guess which one that blur might be.

I'm to see Dr Qaum, eye surgeon, this coming Monday. Now is the time to speak up if you have any wise words of wisdom for me. I should appreciate them! I'm planning to have the implant correct my vision so that I may continue to see "close up" without my glasses, meaning that my vision would remain at about what it is, today. I've been wearing glasses for 60 years, now, and for the last 30 years, I've been taking them off if I needed to see anything up close. Why force me to retrain now?

All things recent

Last week found me driving to Kansas City MO, spending 2.5 days in FEMA meetings (at which I represented the American Red Cross coordinating chapter for the State of Kansas), and driving back home. That was 'way too much sitting!

Contrary to the usual practice of holding the quarterly (more-or-less) meetings in the FEMA Region VII Regional Response Coordinating Center (RRCC), these meetings were held in a Salvation Army facility - their Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) near downtown Kansas City. Although I was somewhat taken aback at our meeting in a church facility, I understood that the RRCC was being otherwise utilized and that the H1N1 influenza activities had required our meetings to be moved from the previously scheduled Health Department building. (If you are surprised that I refer to The Salvation Army as a church, you may wish to go to their web site on which they avow that they are both a church and a non-profit organization.) It was interesting to hear what the man, a recovering alcoholic since the 1970s, who runs the ARC had to say.

The ARC houses nearly 130 adult males who have various addiction problems and provides a six-month- to one-year-long program for them. The facility is rather new. Plans are to add, when feasible, a program for adult females. However, for whatever reason (no one thought to ask), we were told that the female program would need to cover a greater time span. The results of their adult male program have been two or three times a good as the national average for such programs (depending upon how one measures "success").

While in Kansas City, I was able to see the youngest of my mother's sisters/siblings who is the only survivor of her generation in Hunky Husband's or my families. In addition, the first evening that I was in town, two of my cousins (by another aunt, another uncle) were able to get together with us. That is usually a bonus of my being sent to the FEMA meetings!

Saturday, we met at the American Red Cross Midway-Kansas Chapter (the previously mentioned coordinating chapter for Kansas) offices in Wichita, for a memorial gathering in memory of COO. Over 100 people were in attendance (I'm guessing around 150), and many shared fond memories of COO. Hunky Husband was pleased to see a fellow with whom he had worked for many years, starting in 1960 or 1961, as well as a Red Cross volunteer with whom he had worked on his first disaster. We both were able to chat with Red Cross people from across the state, whom we don't often see. The farewells to COO were touching. Thank you to all of my blog friends who dropped by to express their condolences.

Sad thankfulness

In the posting, Sadness, Elation, Hope - Bittersweet days, I wrote,  

On the hopeful side: our Red Cross chapter's COO, who nominated my Hunky Husband for his award (please see the previous posting), is fighting for her life. She is in hospital for dehydration and malnourishment, brought on during her stringent course of treatment for cancer. Following diagnosis of multiple cancer sites (several within her brain) COO has undergone surgery to remove part of a mass surrounding a vertebra in her neck, worn a neck brace for six weeks to allow the vertebra to heal, and undergone radiation of the brain lesions and strong chemotherapy (I believe she has had two or three sessions - more to come). The primary cancer site has yet to be identified.

COO has played a big role in HH's and my lives for the last several years, and we are very hopeful that her fighting instincts will help her establish a truce, if not outright victory over her cancers.

Sadly, COO lost her battle a bit over two hours ago. I am thankful for having known and worked with COO (especially when she, in competition with DH, avowed, "I love you more!") She will be sorely missed.

Below is a photo that I snapped of COO, through a fence, when she was setting up for a fund-raising event at the Red Cross chapter offices a couple of years ago.

 
And below is a photo of COO at the volunteer service award event of 10/6/2009.

Thanks to John for the latter photo.

How Hunky Husband learned to eat squash

In all the years since I first fed Hunky Husband a meal in 1957, I've never known him to eat squash willingly. If a restaurant serves squash as part of a seasonal vegetable medley, he might accidentally consume a bit; but, when I serve squash at home, I am alone in its consumption. The preceding were true statements until a few weeks ago. You've all heard (and practiced, no doubt) that age and cunning will overcome youth and ambition. I am aged. I am cunning. I have induced HH to eat squash (not that he knew that he was consuming it, you understand, but....)

A few weeks ago, I tried a new (to me, at least) product: instant mashed sweet potatoes. It sounded like something that would be handy on the shelf. I tried it with baked pork chops and, although the seasons were a little "strange" to my taste buds, both HH and I found the mashed sweet potatoes acceptable. Then, a couple of weeks later, I actually read the box in which the two envelopes of product had come. It turned out that the sweet potatoes were mixed with Irish potatoes. Oh, well. No matter. I had a nefarious plan. Elegant Friend had given me the largest zucchini that I had ever laid eyes on (from her son's garden). It was about 18" long and about 5" in diameter.

I baked one-half of the zucchini, scooped the meat out of the "shell" (I didn't want the green to give me away and I saved the seeds for the squirrels), mashed it with a bit of milk, and mixed it with the instant sweet/Irish mashed potatoes. HH didn't notice the difference. The product was OK with him (what he didn't know didn't hurt him!)

Last week, I baked a medium-sized butternut squash, saved the strings and seeds for the squirrels, scooped out the meat, mashed the meat with low-fat cottage cheese, and otherwise followed a recipe for "Corn Squash Bake" from a book that I gave my mother in 1985, when she was coping with heart/cardio-pulmonary issues and diabetes, "The Best from the Family Heart Kitchens: A Guide to the Alternative Diet: Low-fat, Low-salt Cookery". I told HH (who always asks what it is that is being served, if he doesn't recognize it) that the dish was "Corn Casserole". Eventually, I let HH know that the casserole was based on mashed squash; but, by then, he had decided that he liked the dish!

Here is the recipe as it appears in the cookbook. As the cookbook says, "Corn and squash - an American tradition."

Corn Squash Bake

5 cups zucchini, cut into 1" rounds [I used mashed, baked butternut squash.]

1 small onion, chopped

1 tsp. margarine [I used olive oil.]

2 cups corn, fresh-cut or frozen and thawed [I used whole-kernel canned corn, drained.]

1 cup low-fat cheese, shredded [I omitted this cheese since I had incorporated low-fat cottage cheese into the mashed squash.[

3 egg whites

1/2 tsp. Lite salt or less [I omitted salt.]

1/4 cup dry bread crumbs

2 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook zucchini in small amount of water (about 1/4 cup) until tender. Drain and smash with fork. Saute onion in margarine. Combine mashed zucchini with sauteed onions, corn, cheese, egg whites and Lite salt. Turn into a 2-quart lightly oiled casserole. Combine bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese and sprinkle on top of casserole. Bake for 40 minutes or until set. Let stand 5-10 minutes before serving.

Makes 6 servings.

A challenge for you

As I was trying to take a nap, this afternoon, and (as usual) not succeeding, a few word strings came to mind. My challenge to you is to (without searching the Internet) figure out what the word strings mean or represent.

For instance: Thanks for all of the fish

What the word string means: part of the title of a book by Douglas Noel Adams (1952-2001), So Long and Thanks for All the Fish (Hitchhiker's Guide, #4)

#1: Ten Twelve full ounces, that's a lot! [I must have been asleep!]

#2: Infantile paralysis

#3: Preservation of parity

#4: Slush-O-Matic

#5: Come on, Victor!

#6: Horsehair petticoat

#7: QLF (or, any other member of the Q-code)

#8: Gedunk machine

#9: Butter paddle

#10: Google Whack

Now...you may go ahead an search the Internet for any word strings that may not have spoken to you. Tell us how you did on these, and add your own challenges - or put your own challenges on your own blog.  

11/21/2009 - And, now, for the answers that I had in mind.

S-o-o-o-o confused, I am

My readers were kind (and smart) enough not to pile on when, in Rose lovers arise (which a grammarian might have pointed out should have read, "Rose lovers, arise"), I wrote, "When the buds that I had identified as Peace rose buds opened, I discovered that I'd become confused as to which side of the Mr Lincoln bush the Peace was on. The pink buds are on/from an Yves St Laurant bush. (Rose lovers would probably have told me that the buds of the YSL differ in shape, as well as color, from the Peace!)"

Bah, humbug! Since then, I have found another "map" of our rose bed - which disagrees with the first. According to the second "map", the roses were not Yves St Laurant, but Secret. It seems that Yves St Laurant (according to my notes on the second map) is light pink while the Secret is cream with pink. Well...looking at the photo in that posting...that sounds OK. I'm ready to exclaim, "I don't care what kind those blooms were, they were pretty!"

Today: Standing at my kitchen window-on-the-world watching it snow/rain, I notice a yellow blob over in the rose bed. Interesting; but, even with my binoculars, I can't tell for sure what it is. I take my camera, my rose shears, and the small vase outside to check it out. It is a Peace rose! All of the other bushes are bare of anything that looks like it could produce a bud. The Peace rose bush is also bare, except for this little jewel. So...as a reward for it's having survived the weather, I pluck it and bring the blossom inside for us to enjoy.

This photo is truly of a Peace rose, and it is truly our last hybrid tea rose of the summer. (There are still blooms on the miniature roses in front, beneath the branches of the leather-leafed viburnum. If anyone disagrees with the identification, they have two choices: 1) comment about it or 2) recognize that I've confused people enough and just let well enough alone!

What the deal seems to be.

TypePad support had me try copying and pasting a URL to this page into my browser's address bar...and...look where it took me. My browser was not recognizing the links that were available when I logged into my account. We shall see how long I can stay on!

Bogie--Please keep the ID and password where you can find it. I would ask that you let my readers know if there is a problem with me, rather than with my machine.

Readers--Unless you see a posting from Bogie, please assume that I am OK, even if I don't post for a few days or weeks at a time. These machines and systems can drive us nuts!

Suspicions Proved True

Cop Car has asked me (Bogie) to post on her blog as an affirmation that it is her computer keeping her from posting and not Typepad. and yes, that means she is okay - no need to call in the Feds to search for her.

Anyway, here it is, I was able to post, so it's not Typepad.

Bogie