Strawberries, the Perfect Fruit

This is the time of year (one of the times of year) that I really love.  It's the time the strawberry guys comes to our town.  He brings his luscious strawberries from the central coast and sets up shop on several different corners in and around town.  And, believe me when I say they are the very best strawberries ever grown.
I grew up in Orange County in the 50's and 60's (gosh, I can't believe that came out of my mouth (or keyboard actually) so easily.  Anyhow, it was a time when there were strawberry fields all over the place and there were strawberry stands galore.  And I never did pass up a strawberry stand, I still don't.
You can do anything with strawberries, put them in salads, dip them in sweetened condensed milk, pile them high in a pie,  put them in milkshakes, dip them in chocolate.  There is absolutely nothing you can't do with a strawberry!  Oh yes, and you can even eat them plain.
But.....my favorite thing to do with a strawberry is to make soup with it.  If you haven't tried it you have no idea what you have missed.  Luscious, it is luscious.  We used to call strawberry soup birthday soup because we used to make it for every one's birthday.  But our soups nickname has changed.  Our, then, 10 year old grandson changed it's name.
One year our Idaho grandson was visiting us for the summer.  We had so much fun having him for the summer and we hated to see him leave at the end of his visit.  so we decided to have strawberry soup  the night before he left.   Our 10 year old grandson was so sad that his cousin, whom he loves very much, was leaving that he decided it wasn't birthday soup anymore, now it was sad soup.
But strawberry soup by any other name is still delicious!

Fahrenheit 451

My 15 year old grandson was assigned to read Fahrenheit 451 for his English class.  As he read he kept telling me how confusing it was and how he really didn't like it.  Well, having never read it before (I know, shame on me), I decided to read it so I could talk with him about it and maybe help him understand it a little better.

And, what do you know, it turned out to be one of those books that I LOVED.  It's full of symbolism and moral lessons and it was kind of exciting.  So, if you haven't read Fahrenheit 451 I would recommend it highly.

You  probably already know this, but it's about, in part, a fireman who starts fires instead of putting them out.  He burns books, just as Benjamin Franklin did as the very first fireman, according to Ray Bradbury anyway.  Read it, you'll like it!

And now I'm off the the DMV to take my mom to get her CA drivers license.  Wish me luck!

Get Ready, It's Coming

Nothing says Spring like soft little ducks, right?

Even the snails make me smile

Just getting you in the mood, it's on it's way (I'm not even going to think about the snow that's coming on Friday!).  Springtime.........

Beautiful Springtime

Yes, Virgina (or Emma) There are Nice People in California

 My Mom moved back to California after over 20 years in Oklahoma.  She has been here since November, but for some reason she is constantly surprised that people are nice here.  Every time she goes somewhere she will go on and on about how nice everyone was to her.  I think she must have expected them to curse at her and call her names.
Well, I am a big fan of people and I know that nice people are everywhere, yes, even in California.  And I want to tell you about my experience with one of those very nice people.
My husband has recently gone through knee replacement surgery, he's recovering nicely but has not been able to attend church for the last two weeks.  At church today many people stopped by to ask how my husband was doing and to say hi to my mom who came to church with us today.  By the way, she was totally surprised that everyone was so nice and went out of their way to introduce themselves to her.
Anyway, we are sitting on the couch early afternoon and someone knocks at our door.  That in itself is unusual because people come to the backdoor.  I go to answer the door and there stands a gentleman, whom I do not recognize, wearing a suit.  He introduces himself to me and tells me that he and his wife are here for the week from San Diego, just visiting, on vacation. He was at church that morning, he says, and in one the meetings people were talking about my husband 's surgery.  He tells us that he and his wife will be here for the week and wants to know what they can do to help us out.  "Anything" he says, "from stacking firewood to cleaning toilets".  And, yes, he really did say just that.
Even I was impressed with his niceness and his unselfish willingness to serve perfect strangers.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, people are good and kind and I love them.

The Airport, Great Place for a Vacation

I have "one of those faces".  You know, the face that everyone relates to for some reason or seems to recognize.  No matter where I go there is someone who thinks they know me from somewhere.  We were in New York, on Ellis Island years ago.  They were presenting a reenactment of people getting off the ship and stepping onto the Island.  The entire time one of the actors kept looking  my way.  Afterward he came up to me and asked me if he knew me, that I looked so familiar to him.  Well, I didn't know him, but I really get to meet lots of nice people because of my "familiar face".
Another perk of my "one of those faces" is that people talk to me and they tell me life stories; their life stories, from beginning to present.  These people who tell me these things probably get home and wonder why on earth they told a perfect stranger about their Aunt Ethyl whose husband cheated on her and, long story short, ended up in prison.

On my flight home from my daughters home in Idaho I sat next to a man who told me his life story, from childhood to falling in love to divorce to all three of this children and what they are doing at this very moment.  He told me about the alimony he has to pay his wife and about his lawyer who is trying to get it so he doesn't have to pay so much.  He told me all about his career and where it has taken him.  He happened to be the CIO of Dole, you know the pineapple people.  But I have to tell you that actually pineapple is a small part of the Dole Company, they really make their money with bananas (CIO man told me so).  Nice guy, but boy, did he talk.
Also during my trip and my stay in the airport I have become a member of a club.  It is called the "Glued to your handheld electronic device" club.  It's not a very exclusive club and if the other members knew how inept I am with anything electronic they would probably expel me.
One more little thing.  I have to admit that I am just a little star stuck.  I actually look for those familiar celebrity faces at the airport.  And it paid off, I saw Powers Boothe.  A little disappointed though, he's very ordinary looking.  I was hoping for someone more like Bruce Willis, oh well.....(that's for you, Erin).
P.P.S.
I think I'm going to be British next time I'm at the airport and can be anonymous.  Or maybe I'll just make up a language like my friends and I did when we were out in public during grade school.

"Three things in life are important: the first is to be kind, the second is to be kind, and the third is to be kind"               Henry James

Too Much Animal Planet?

Is there anything such as too much Animal Planet?  Until Saturday night I would have said, "absolutely not!"
I couldn't sleep at all Saturday night so I got up, went into the den and turned on the tv.  There wasn't anything I wanted to watch so I decided to watch something I had recorded.  Ah ha, Animal Planet, one of my favorite channels.  I have an episode of Infested recorded so that's what I decided to watch. 
I am not a really squeemy person, I can take a lot  At least I used to think I could take a lot.  This episode was about three different families who had different infestations.  One was brown widow spiders.  I never even knew there was such a thing, believe me there is!  Another family was infested with scorpions, ewwwhhhh.  That's a whole other post.  Then there was the mother and her young daughter.  They started hearing noises that they couldn't explain.  Then they saw peanuts all over the walkways and yard and then they saw THEM.
They were everywhere and multiplying by the hundreds in the garage.  Have you ever seen a baby rat.  Man, are they ugly.  My apologies to rat lovers, I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  My eye did not behold beauty.
The mom finally was able to find out that her neighbor was feeding peanuts to squirrels, hence the rats, they do love anything peanuty apparently.
The mom very politely explained her horrible rat situation to the neighbor and the neighbor refused to stop feeding the squirrels (I think the neighbor must have felt some sort of kinship to them).
Long story short, right......the city got involved and the rats were taken care of.  And in deference to the rat lovers I will not go into detail about the extermination process.
Well, I finally went to bed but I still couldn't sleep.  I was very tired but the rats and the scorpions crawling all over me all night kept me from sleeping.  And when I did doze off I heard them.  So, I ask myself is watching shows like Infested, Hoarders, and Fatal Attractions worth it?  I have decided........yes.