Hello on Thursday Morning

Dear Friends,

Linda spent a good portion of the day in the kitchen baking. I love it when she
goes domestic! It brings back memories of my mother spending a good portion of
the day in the kitchen making three square meals for our family.
As we get older, the idea of standing over a hot stove and oven has become less
appealing. The attitude now is: "I want to be waited on." I am from the old
school. I like it when the female / mother / wife took care of her children and
husband. What went wrong?
While Linda was baking, the house was alive with some great smells. Two
girlfriends, who Linda was driving to BONCO, walked into the house, and said:
"What smells so go good?" They soon found out it was the pumpkin breads. Linda
gave them each a taste. They wanted to stay at the Curley's, and eat a couple
more slices / loaves instead of going off to BONCO, a 20 minute drive from our
house. Linda was the designated driver!

My visit to the dentist went okay. I have to gum my food for a couple more
hours. The dentist said that the cavity was a huge one, and he didn't want me
chew and grind on this newly filled cavity for 24 hours. The dentist had to take
out the old cavity, to get to the decay beneath it. I thought that he would
loosen it, and pop it out. Not! He had to drill his way through the old filling
before prepping the tooth for the new filling. A trip to the dentist is always
an adventure for the Curley Lad.

Sports -- I flipped between the Celtics, and the World Series last evening. My
Celtics toyed with an awful NBA team on their way to a rout.
The New York Yankees couldn't win the first game of the World Series in their
own ballpark. Good pitching will always beat good hitting. Since the mid 90's,
the team which has won the first game of the World Series has gone on to
eventually win the World Series. We shall see!
Speaking of awful teams, the National Footbal there might be one bad team that
everyone would beat up, but now there are 6 or 7 teams struggling just to win a
game or two. If it continues on like this, the league will self destruct!

Social Calendar -- I am leaving the house at 6:30 AM, and driving 2.5 hours to
the Annual REAM convention on the grounds of the former Fort Devens. It is now
called Deven's Commons. The meeting starts at 9:30 AM with a coffee hour
starting 30 minutes before the meeting. We break for lunch. We take care of a
little business after lunch, and then I head back to the Berkshires.
Linda will be enjoying several hours of peace and quiet after a routine doctor
appointment.

No, our day doesn't end when I arrive home. We are off to a 6:30 PM Polenta
Dinner at the ITAM. It is a fundraiser for our Lodge. The food, fun, and
merriment should end at around 8:30 PM. I will be one tired puppy when this day
is over.


Politics -- The President is going to meet the coffins of the latest round of
soldiers killed in action. It is little consolation to the families which have
lost their loved ones. Will sending in more troops stop the blood shed, or will
it give the bad guys more targets to shoot at? What is the solution to stopping
the bloodshed?

Observation -- A little while before the cake baking, I helped Linda move some
buckets in the storage room / furnace area. We were looking for some buckets
marked "Fall". She is getting much better at throwing things out, but isn't
quite there yet. I kept on stressing that if we haven't used the item in several
years, and we don't plan on doing so, and we don't think that anyone would could
possibly use it, then throw it out.
Some items we did find are classified as re gifting items. We do have to be
careful not to send them back to the person who gave us the item.
I believe that some of the items, which we put our hands on, have already been
re gifted once.
One item which we put our hands on was a device called "Salad Master". This is
a hand crank device that can slice vegetables in different shapes and sizes by
changing a cylindrical / cone like blades.
We got the item from my parents years ago as mom's hands became more arthritic.
I remember a man coming to the family home in Lee to sell my parents a set of
stainless steel pots and pans, which they still have, when I was about 10 years
old. The "Salad Master" device was an extra if you bought the set of pans.
I just couldn't throw out the device. I must be emotionally attached to the
item. It has sentimental value, but we will never use it. We are so lazy now
that we can purchase any vegetables sliced and bagged in any shape or size. Of
course we have electronic devices that have replaced most hand cranked items. Is
there a museum for antique kitchen items?

My sister has day surgery on her elbow today. I am hoping that everything goes
as planned. Functioning with one arm, until the healing is done, will be
difficult. Family members have already volunteered to do the cooking for
Thanksgiving at her house.

Well, I have to select a wardrobe for my meeting.
I am deciding whether to take the scenic route, or stay on main roads like the
Mass Turnpike. My GPS device has me heading East on the Mass Pike. This way is
good for us old folks who might need to use a restroom more often than the
younger generation.

Have a great Thursday.
Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad