Thanksgiving Break, Day 1
Nov. 18th, 2021 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ffloI have every day from today through Thanksgiving weekend off. :)
It was snowing today. First came down in spat pellets that looked like something you'd fill a beanbag with. I was in the trees when that happened, and they were slammin', at what seemed like more than a 45-degree angle. But there weren't many of them. And I had a hood up. It wasn't even all that cold.
Got a bunch of stuff started around the house. Took a long-expired bottle of champagne that'd been on the top of the fridge out & popped it open, so I could dump the contents and get rid of the bottle. So I was poppin' champagne on my first day off.
Later I was at the deli counter, asking the guy what's in that broccoli salad, cuz I haven't been able to reproduce it. He gamely peeled something off the little sign and read to me from the back. Dijon mustard, in addition to the (apple cider) vinegar, and watered-down mayo. Wouldn't have guessed the mustard.
After we were back-and-forth a little more, he said some kind of philosophical thing, and I said this was the most philosophical conversation I'd had with a deli person in a long time. Later I asked if he plays guitar, cuz he had a guitar pin on his badge. Yep. Got some tips from him. After we talked about how he went about picking up the instrument and what songs he used to get himself into it, some deli-stuff-wanting person showed up, doggone it.
While I was checking out, one of the mathematicians at work got my attention. We talked a bit over the self-check-out thing, which the patrol person didn't seem to like, though there was no line for the stations. Those monitor people make me vaguely uncomfortable, though. Could easily have been my imagination. With everybody wearing masks, it's harder to get a sense of what's up.
It was the first time Klaus has run into someone he knows from the rest of the world while in the grocery store. He'd opened by wondering if I too lived nearby. I mean, kinda. Not as nearby as he. The two grocery stores nearest my house have gone belly up. I said something about masks, in terms of recognizing people, but he misunderstood, and indicated gratitude that we have to wear them, he'd just seen the numbers again today. Winter is a-comin', I noted. We were both all smiles, you could tell.
These two store convos made me glad I'd made the little venture, just to pick up a few things. I'll shop again before cooking for myself next week, in the NEW DUTCH OVEN that should arrive tomorrow. Used Amazon points I'd been saving for years, so it was free:
I went with "iron red", on the left, cuz it seemed appropriate, for Marquette Castings. Runner-up was the blue on the right, on which you can see the embossing better than on the red shot I could show you.
My idea is that I'll make pot roast for Thanksgiving, or thereabouts. This one coworker was like "Say hi to Tracy" when I was like "Have a good Thanksgiving", thinking he was clever, as I've spent some Thanksgivings with T. But this year, happily, she's getting the heck out of dodge, as it's her first year without her partner. Which just seems so weird. Of course that's an understatement, but there's something about how it's this one --- well. I'm sure I'm not going to say it well.
I've been going back and (reading but mostly) listening to the P.D. James novels with Dalgleish and (now) Cordelia Gray. Have some decent earbuds now, and also listen in the car. I've been thinking as I go of paying attention to how justice is or isn't served, as I remember my friend Elana, who turned me on to the books after her dentist (I think it was) turned her on to them, way back in 1980-something. 198something. Hmm. That second one doesn't work, but the first one is sorta wrong. Anyway, of course we find out who done it, but, yeah, it's not the clean crime-and-punishment.
The more striking thing is how judgy so many of P.D.'s characters are, particularly about looksist things. The hero detectives are every bit as much so. It has me thinking P.D. musta thought that kind of shit herself. Anyway, it's amazing I didn't pick up on it the first time I went through them. This go-'round there have been multiple times I've laughed out loud at the extremity of the lastest example, sometimes when I'm walking among other people---it just comes out of me in a blurt, it's so nearly-absurd. I mean, she writes great sentences, and that only makes the burns more extreme.
Now, quiz time!
Q. How are the following people and I alike?
Andre Braugher • Sandra Oh
Billy Wilder • Fred Gwynne • Pablo Neruda
Answer below, upside-down, to help you have a chance to guess.
It was snowing today. First came down in spat pellets that looked like something you'd fill a beanbag with. I was in the trees when that happened, and they were slammin', at what seemed like more than a 45-degree angle. But there weren't many of them. And I had a hood up. It wasn't even all that cold.
Got a bunch of stuff started around the house. Took a long-expired bottle of champagne that'd been on the top of the fridge out & popped it open, so I could dump the contents and get rid of the bottle. So I was poppin' champagne on my first day off.
Later I was at the deli counter, asking the guy what's in that broccoli salad, cuz I haven't been able to reproduce it. He gamely peeled something off the little sign and read to me from the back. Dijon mustard, in addition to the (apple cider) vinegar, and watered-down mayo. Wouldn't have guessed the mustard.
After we were back-and-forth a little more, he said some kind of philosophical thing, and I said this was the most philosophical conversation I'd had with a deli person in a long time. Later I asked if he plays guitar, cuz he had a guitar pin on his badge. Yep. Got some tips from him. After we talked about how he went about picking up the instrument and what songs he used to get himself into it, some deli-stuff-wanting person showed up, doggone it.
While I was checking out, one of the mathematicians at work got my attention. We talked a bit over the self-check-out thing, which the patrol person didn't seem to like, though there was no line for the stations. Those monitor people make me vaguely uncomfortable, though. Could easily have been my imagination. With everybody wearing masks, it's harder to get a sense of what's up.
It was the first time Klaus has run into someone he knows from the rest of the world while in the grocery store. He'd opened by wondering if I too lived nearby. I mean, kinda. Not as nearby as he. The two grocery stores nearest my house have gone belly up. I said something about masks, in terms of recognizing people, but he misunderstood, and indicated gratitude that we have to wear them, he'd just seen the numbers again today. Winter is a-comin', I noted. We were both all smiles, you could tell.
These two store convos made me glad I'd made the little venture, just to pick up a few things. I'll shop again before cooking for myself next week, in the NEW DUTCH OVEN that should arrive tomorrow. Used Amazon points I'd been saving for years, so it was free:
I went with "iron red", on the left, cuz it seemed appropriate, for Marquette Castings. Runner-up was the blue on the right, on which you can see the embossing better than on the red shot I could show you.
My idea is that I'll make pot roast for Thanksgiving, or thereabouts. This one coworker was like "Say hi to Tracy" when I was like "Have a good Thanksgiving", thinking he was clever, as I've spent some Thanksgivings with T. But this year, happily, she's getting the heck out of dodge, as it's her first year without her partner. Which just seems so weird. Of course that's an understatement, but there's something about how it's this one --- well. I'm sure I'm not going to say it well.
I've been going back and (reading but mostly) listening to the P.D. James novels with Dalgleish and (now) Cordelia Gray. Have some decent earbuds now, and also listen in the car. I've been thinking as I go of paying attention to how justice is or isn't served, as I remember my friend Elana, who turned me on to the books after her dentist (I think it was) turned her on to them, way back in 1980-something. 198something. Hmm. That second one doesn't work, but the first one is sorta wrong. Anyway, of course we find out who done it, but, yeah, it's not the clean crime-and-punishment.
The more striking thing is how judgy so many of P.D.'s characters are, particularly about looksist things. The hero detectives are every bit as much so. It has me thinking P.D. musta thought that kind of shit herself. Anyway, it's amazing I didn't pick up on it the first time I went through them. This go-'round there have been multiple times I've laughed out loud at the extremity of the lastest example, sometimes when I'm walking among other people---it just comes out of me in a blurt, it's so nearly-absurd. I mean, she writes great sentences, and that only makes the burns more extreme.
Q. How are the following people and I alike?
Andre Braugher • Sandra Oh
Billy Wilder • Fred Gwynne • Pablo Neruda
Answer below, upside-down, to help you have a chance to guess.
