Crossing the Pond

My wife and I are getting ready for an extended trip to Paris and Lyon this month. We watched Dorian closely and at one point I had a Plan B in place when we thought it might get into the Gulf. I had a rental car and a hotel reservation and we were going to drive to Atlanta. That looks like it won't be necessary now but the Boy Scout in me said "Be Prepared".

So, posts for the next month or so will have a European focus and we'll check on the status of the Yellow Vests. I'll also check in on the new Musee de la Liberation - a new museum about the liberation of the city in 1945. I may also go see the largest collection of Citroen automobiles. It will be good to visit old friends and enjoy the City of Light.

Thank you, Dietrich von Choltitz, for disobeying the order to destroy the city.

Hurricane (Barely) Barry

My 82 year old mother in law's air conditioning went out so she moved in with us to keep cool until repairs were made. Then along comes Barry and she stayed as she doesn't like to be alone in bad weather. She has stayed glued to the TV with its almost continuous coverage of the storm. The problem is that, with air time to fill, they spend time talking about all the things that COULD happen and they are scaring the crap out her. Try as I might, I cannot get her away from watching the doom and gloom. Even this morning, with the storm well west of us and going on shore, she was worried to hear that it had just been upgraded to a Cat 1 hurricane...… by 1 mph! What we are having in the burbs of New Orleans is really just a blustery, blustery day.

And I have a peeve about the reporting. They re reporting the storm surge as "above ground". That reference means absolutely nothing. They should reference "mean sea level". Then they can add the tide and storm surge to get a realistic number for the storm surge. For me, this is just another way the news reports false news and terrorizes the public to boost their ratings.

Jalapeno Poppers

My wife came up with this as we wanted to bring a snack dish to the Mother's Day crawfish boil. It makes about 100 poppers.

Cut about 50 jalapeno peppers in half the long way leaving the stem on one side. Take out the seeds.

Fry up about 1 lb of chorizo and one pack of Jimmy Dean sausage draining off the oil.

Chop up about 1/2 onion, 2 garlic cloves, chives and 1/2 cup cilantro very finely.

Mix veg, herbs, sausage, 2 lbs of low fat cream cheese and 4 cups shredded cheese.

Cut 2 lbs of bacon in half.

Stuff the peppers with the sausage mixture and wrap it with the bacon. Bake at 375 F for 15 to 20 minutes. It's best to bake them on a rack so that the bacon fat drains away.Enjoy.

PSA

This is a PSA about PSA. I was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. It was a matter of luck that the medicos found it.

I realized last year that I had not had a PSA (prostate specific antigen) done for years, so when I was getting a blood test for another reason I told the nurse to also add a PSA. That gave me a base line for comparison. I had it done about a year later as part of a normal physical. and it showed a slight increase but the raw number was not concerning.

Then I started getting the typical old fart peeing issues and when I mentioned this to my doctor, he sent me to the urologist. He did the "finger wave" (digital rectal exam) but didn't feel anything abnormal. When I told him that both my father and his brother had had prostate cancer in their 70s he scheduled a biopsy. Nobody was expecting it but they found cancer in 2 of the 12 samples.

I opted for radiation and am now getting 42 treatments on the Cyberknife. It takes about 10 minutes for the treatment and then I go about my day.

FYI, the docs will tell you that EVERY man will get prostate cancer if something else doesn't kill him first. It is the second most common cancer in men but it is the most treatable. Medical technology has improved with robotic surgery and targeted radiation so the old complications that men dreaded are minimized.

September is prostate cancer awareness month, so go to your doc and get a PSA and a digital rectal exam.

Lip-Sync Bragging

You may have heard about the lip-sync challenge that's going around. The Gretna Police Department got my son, who has an advertising agency, to write and produce their video. He had a ball doing it and got to play with the SWAT vehicle. Here's a link:

Gretna PD Lip-Sync

Mailer Daemon Movie

My nephew has written and directed a short film about the guy that returns your emails to you. It was filmed at his dad's house. They built the set in his garage and scrounged props from the family to set up the office. They used some of the crew from NCIS New Orleans while the show was on hiatus. This is a short about the behind the scenes action.

Oscar Mike

Heading across the pond today to visit oldest grandson who is doing a semester abroad. The school is closing the dorm over Easter so we will provide refuge. Then we go to the City of Light for a few weeks. Expect to see short blogs and pictures of stuff.

We went though the process to get Global Entry which includes the TSA Precheck. I'll let you know how that works out.

Carnivale in Bologna

The oldest grandson is doing a semester in Europe in Bologna, Italy. They celebrate Mardi Gras a little differently over there. Here is a video typical of the parade he went to today. The floats are fantastic.....and some are towed by Lamborghini tractors.

Christmas Traditions

With our extended family getting so large, we have had to develop systems to spread Christmas visits. For example, we have the 3 grandsons over to our house on the eve of Christmas Eve for an overnighter and present opening on the 24th. Even though they are all teenagers now and one is in college, they still look forward to this tradition. Our TV playlist always includes "Die Hard", because Christmas does not start until Hans Gruber drops. This year we added an educational show and watched the origin of Festivus by watching Seinfeld. (I've had a Festivus Pole for several years and they expect me to put it up in the foyer) If you want to learn about Festivus, go to Seinfeld, Season 9, Episode 10, "The Strike".

I hope your Christmas brought you as many laughs as we had.

New Shooter Report

Youngest grandson is entering 8th grade. He is joining NJROTC. They have a rifle team and he went yesterday for his first practice shoot. (They use air rifles but then so does the Olympics) He has never fired a rifle before except for Nerf guns. He outscored everyone else and scored a 10 ring in the offhand position. I think we have a natural.

P.S. - His great grandfather was part of the cadre at this same school back in the 40s.

Finland Independence Day

On this day in 1917 Finland declared independence from Russia. My grandparents emigrated from Finland in 1903 so they never lived in an independent Finland. Their stories may have been the source of my mothers hatred of Russia and her concern about me when I was travelling there for oilfield business in 1991.

22 years later, Finland would celebrate this day by fighting a Russian invasion of the Karelian Peninsula. This was the Winter War (Talvisota in Finnish). It was the Finns that developed the Molotov Cocktail as an anti tank weapon. It was this was that developed the worlds top sniper, Simo Hayha. It was in this war that the Finns gained a reputation as excellent ski troops. Even though they fought the Russians to a standstill, they had to give up Karelia in the treaty. And it was the Finns performance against the Russians that helped to convince Hitler to invade Russia.

Mondays Suck

I'm being a good boy and flossing my teeth on Sunday when the crown on my left incisor pops off. (That's the number 10 tooth) There was no pain involved but I had a big gap in the front of my mouth. i tried to glue it back with dental adhesive but had no joy. I called my dentist only to find that his number was disconnected. (Not surprising... he was getting a little long in the tooth, ha, ha) I located an alternate dentist and called bright and early on Monday morning to see if they could glue the crown back on. No problem, they said. We have an opening at 9:00.

I showed up at the appointed time and filled out 6 pages of medical history. They shot an xray (did you know that they have digital xrays now? The  picture shows up on a high def screen instead of a tiny film strip) Then they told me that part of the tooth had broken off in the crown. They could either glue it back and hope for the best or drill and tap the root, install a titanium peg and put on a new crown which would be a more permanent solution. A couple of hours later I had a new piece of metal in my head.

I've come to the conclusion that dentistry is closely related to mechanical engineering. The dentist took great pains to ensure the fit and clearances for my new tooth (using carbon paper to mark interferences after drilling and tapping the root and then screwing in the titanium rod.

Retirement

I was forced into retirement in August when I was laid off. It was no surprise. Oil companies were cutting budgets and cancelling projects. Therefore there was no need for engineering services. Since I had no projects to charge my time to it was only a matter of time before I joined the ranks of the unemployed. And since no one wants to hire an engineer whose age matches the numbers of a famous cross country highway, I pulled the trigger on the retirement account.

And the timing is serendipitous for other reasons. The company had announced a change in management which meant the younger generation was taking over. I would have been working for a young guy that I had some history with. One of my side duties was as quality control "manager". My job was to make sure that the staff followed the quality processes that the company had instituted to be in line with ISO 9001 (If you don't know what that is, you are lucky) I had to write up this guy a couple of times for deviating from procedures for checking and record keeping. And now, in a classic example of the Peter Principle, he was going to be the department manager. Therefore, it was a good time to leave.

Here are some of the changes (mostly positive) I've noticed to my life:

• Lowe's and Home Depot are empty during the week
• I use a lot less gasoline
• Traffic is light but there are a lot of old people that keep getting in my way
• I don't need to worry about staying up late on a "school night"
• I don'r need to get up at the crack of dawn but it's hard to reset the internal clock
• I'm busier now than I was when I was working

Remodeling Projects

A house that my wife and I rent out became empty and we've filling our spare time with repairs and upgrades to the property. One thing we've been wanting to do for a long time is install a tile floor in the kitchen and entry hall. We've had excellent experience with Lowe's installation contractors and booked the job through them. One reason for subcontracting was that time was of the essence and I just didn't want to spend all that time on my artificial knee.

The installation guys were obviously foreign but I didn't recognize the language. Only one of them spoke English. So I asked them where they came from. Turns out that they were Brazilian.

Brazilian! That's a long way to come to install ceramic tile. It's also a construction trade that should be able to be filled with citizens. It doesn't say much about our economy or the American work ethic when we have to import tile installers from Brazil. I assume that these guys got here on an H1B visa but I don't understand how it could be justified.

And before you blast Lowe's, they hired a large regional  interior decorating firm to do their installation and these guys worked for them.

You Can't Choose Family

Last Sunday the family held a party to celebrate my mother in law's 90th birthday. The usual drill is that everyone brings a dish as we could easily field a mob of 40 to 50 people. Some of my in laws are pretty good cooks so the food is good and you appreciate the time and money they spent. Others just go to the store and buy something and think they have fulfilled their obligation. And then there are the leftovers.......With the family containing LEOs and shift workers, not everyone can attend and plates are made a put aside for them. However, there is one sister in law who thinks she can bring store bought bread (literally) and then abscond with all the leftovers. We got wise to her when she took ALL of the leftovers from our Thanksgiving Day dinner last year. We went looking for turkey and realized she had taken it all. We then saw that she did the same thing at every family function. This time we started picking up early and hid the leftovers we wanted to save. She comes in and starts packing up some food and has the gall to ask if there are bigger plates (so she can take more) but by that time all the good stuff had been distributed and packed away. Gotcha.

You Had Me at Bacon

Posting has been light because I've been on a family vacation. My wife and I took the three grandsons to the White Mountains in NH, Quebec City, Canada and Boston, Mass. I'll be posting a few things from the trip.

These are the first. Zeb's General Store in North Conway has a selection of bacon flavored products.

Doesn't it make you drool?

Mother's Day and Crawfish

The family tradition is to have a crawfish boil on Mother's Day. When you have a family as large as my wife's, that's the only way to feed all those people. My brother in law hosts it as he has the burners and the boiling pots. When the crawfish are done, he fires up a kettle of oil and fries fresh caught fish. It's a good day and everyone gets their fill. In all, four generations sat down to peel and eat and then the grand kids took the great grand kids to the pool and they all splashed to their hearts content.

We eat a lot of crawfish in Louisiana. LSU Ag center will tell you that we consume over 110 million pounds of the little critters. That's a lot of mud bugs.

Thanksgiving Dinner in Paris

We spent Thanksgiving in Paris this year. For me, it was a normal work day and since turkeys are difficult to find in France we took an evening cooking class followed by eating what we cooked.  About a dozen or so other American refugees were there as well.

The starter was Chestnut Soup and Meslcun with Fennel Salad. The main course was Cornish Game Hens with Potato Dauphinois and Pumpkin Puree. Dessert was a Walnut and Caramel Tart and Pears Poached in Red Wine. (What's that thing in the chestnut soup?  Why, Bacon, of course!) No cows were harmed during the preparation of this meal, but a large amount of cream was used. The chef reminded us often that cream wasn't 35% fat but 65% water!

While it may not have been the traditional Thanksgiving meal, we enjoyed the cooking education, meal preparation and the comraderie of our fellow displaced Americans.

 

 

 

Pens, Pens, Pens

I have added another website to the right hand side. It's called "The Pen Enthusiast". It's all about fountain pens, the ink they use, and the paper they write on. If you like writing implements from the old school, give it a look.

Belated Memorial Day Thoughts

On my bookcase there is picture of a young soldier. It was probably his basic training graduation picture. The last in a string of 4 children, he was probably a happy surprise for his parents. The baby of the family. At the time of the photo he was still a teenager. He was sent to England and trained in the operation of a secret weapon - the double drive tank - as a member of Company B, 743rd Tank Battalion. June 6, 1944 found him in the vanguard of the assault on Omaha Beach attached to the 29th Division. He landed on the beach due to the quick thinking of their LST driver who realized the sea was too rough for the flimsy canvas hull of the DD Shermans. He may have gone on the next day to Pont du Hoc to relieve the Rangers there. This was followed by a period of rest and refit and a transfer to the 30th Division. He died on July 9 in a field in Normandy along with most of his company in an ambush by the SS Panzer Division "Das Reich".

That was my Uncle Philip. As a child I would see this picture on my grandmothers table but nobody ever talked about him. There are no other pictures of him. His is buried in Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville, KY.