Fade to Cool

Good afternoon!

Our major incident ended not with a bang but a whimper.  Thank God for that.  We were all a tiny bit uneasy here in Southern California.  And on Friday morning, you could hardly get into the stores like Walmart for the huge crush of people who, I believe, suddenly realized that they were not at all prepared for even one day of privation of the Essentials for Life.  So they belatedly stocked up.   That stuff will sit there like my Y2K stash, until someone in the family nags and it all gets dispersed into the world of charity. (Baja) (probably).

Even the winds turned cold, as if embarrassed at the press of heat and suffocation they'd inflicted on a nation already without resources for air-cooling, air-movement, and light.  So now we are back into the suit jacket mentality when we think of leaving the house.

To complement all this thinking, the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001 is upon us.  My husband is evading hearing about it by sticking to the US Tennis Open. I am watching movies about dragons and reading the book club book.  I  don't like anniversaries of tragedies because they are too often sentimental and exploitative of bad events.  So I shall bow my head in prayer tomorrow morning and remember for a moment, if I ever forgot, the horror of the day's occurrences on September 11th.

This blog may undergo bloggus interruptus at any time now, as I prepare to move the computer to another room and clear this living room out a bit from my drifts of paper. I may move the operation to  the Public Library, entirely, and the hiatus will be as long as is necessary under the circumstances. But not yet, not yet. Soon, but not yet.YAZZYBEL

WHOA

Good morning!

Whoa. We've had a Major Incident.

Our power went off yesterday after noon at three:forty p.m.  I was outside trying to cool off, reading Pride and Prejudice out on the back patio. (It wasnt cool!) Theo was just inside glued to the US Open. Suddenly all was silent, and I said, "Don't turn off the TV, go over to Chris Matthews," because we were trying to find out when the President's speech would be on.

He snapped back that he had not turned it off but that if I wanted to change the channel I should come in and do that instead of   "barking out orders," his  favorite phrase for the general range of my deportment.

Finally I realized that the fans were not revolving and that we were in the throes of a power outage.  I ran to the bedroom to grab a portable radio and by the time I got it on KOGO had begun a noble and lengthy reportage of our situation.  No one knew what had happened, nor the extent of the outage. But as the phone calls reeled in, it because apparent that this was no minor or local incident and one felt those prickings of awareness that come at times like this. How prepared are we in case this goes on for some time?

I was all for jumping in the car and driving around to get some air-conditioning, as our house was stuffier than ever without the fans, but was quickly disabused of the illusion that that would be a good idea as more and more callers called in to report massive traffic congestions on all major streets.  When the power went out, many people jumped in their cars to leave work early and head for home, and as a result, many were stranded in their cars like sardines in a tin can, for hours on the streets and highways. 

We had no report of compromised water systems, so I went out and watered the shrubbery and the grass all around the house just in case of fire.  I heard many jackasses shooting off fireworks in the early night, so my caution might have been valuable if anything had caught fire.

I don't know what the traffic was like in CV, but as I was on my porch the neighbors were in their truck driving out and yelled to ask me if we needed anything from the store. I said no thanks, and they zoomed out to look for whatever it was they needed. I understand that ice was going for five dollars a bag in some places.  They returned shortly but I don't know what they found out there.

We hoped for a quick end to our emergency but as time went on we learned the extent of the crisis, as it extended way up into Orange County, east as far as New Mexico, and down into northern Baja California.  The San Onofre "nucular" power plant went offline immediately, raising more antennae in us paranoids, for it suggested a potential for larger scale danger than we were being informed about.

We went to bed early, without lighting one candle. We took flashlights to bed with us. It was beautifully dark and quiet out there.  Wow, what a beautiful night.  I understand that lots of people ate outside, in their gardens or at restaurants, by candlelight. The unpleasant crisis was turned into a time of bonding and celebration.  For us, being old, it was a time for relaxation and snoozing.  By two a.m. enough cool moist air was coming in to make a light cover comfy enough, and when I woke at three, it was to the realization that the streetlights were on and the fans all whirring merrily.  Crisis over. It could have been worse and may yet be so...some lady called the Coast to Coast radio in the night to say that they were packed up to leave for Canada this morning (from Wichita) because her relative who works for Homeland Security had warned her that this power crisis in Southern Californ was the signal for some massive emergency to occur for the whole country.  So this morning as I write this she and her family are driving north, hell for leather. I hope she was kidding. But the fact that I even write this down is indicative of the feelings that can come upon us in this season of historic calamity. YAZZYBEL

Well, I skipped Wednesday

Good morning!

Maybe I'll have time to write a bit before I have to make breakfast. If not, this will be short!

Let's go back to Tuesday morning, the beautiful, cool, showery morning.  When we went to the store at about ten, it was raining and cool enough that I wore a light rain jacket.  When we came home, the rain stopped but it wasn't for an hour or so that I noticed that what little air that was getting into the house was HOT.  How could it be hot, after such coolness? We haven't had heat like that for months.

Well, it was and is hot right now. It was as if a big ShopVac hose had come down and sucked every bit of rain and coolness out of the universe and had left us oppressed under a saucer of pure heat.  Our house hates heat, doesn't handle it well. I've spent the last two days going around opening windows (as Theodore is a window-closer.) and it is difficult. Hard on my osteoarthritis.  "I'm swallowing resveratrol as fast as I can!"

Yesterday Patricia invited me to go up to her house to play, and I grouchily refused because of the heat. Then I reflected that it would be cool until noon, so why not go and enjoy  myself? So I did and was glad I did. Her piano is different and pleasant to play upon. It was good to be in her airy house again.  We had an enjoyable time playing. And she fixed me a wonderful lunch of Gouda cheese melted on artisan bread, plus lentil soup.

By the time I got into the car to come home, the heat had settled in again.  We are just lucky to have coolish California nights (Thank you, O Great Pacifica!) so that we can sleep and wake refreshed in a cool morning.  So had a great Wednesday after all, though I did not blog about it--until now. 

That picture up there is of my Angel Trumpet flowers. They start out yellow and quickly become apricot colored. Just beautiful. I have another plant, baby of this one, that's planted in the ground and is eight feet tall and glad to be out in the world.  I 'm still waiting for the lady who owns the old eucalyptus tree that's ruining our back yard to bring the thing down. Then about eight plants and trees will go into the ground. YAZZYBEL

My Lord, What a Mornin'!

There's a wonderful bonus to getting up early.  You get to see the sky at very early morning.  If you get up before dawn, you'll have to plan to miss the morning sky, because you'll be back inside reading the paper or your email as it happens.  If you wake at the first morning light, when you go out you'll see wonders in the sky.

We have been having monsoon weather lately. When I went out at first light, it was obvious that we had had more rain during the night.  Rain is almost too big a word for it, for it falls so quietly, stealthily almost, that I never hear it in bed.  But it had darkened the driveway quite a bit more than yesterday morning's rain did. 

Coming down the front steps, I looked ahead over Richard and Terry's house to see a beautiful storm-streaked sky. As I got past the obstruction of the garage I saw the glory of sunlight and cloud to the east.  Then all the way out to the street to get the paper, I looked  to the west over the Picazos' house to a beautiful looming purplish gray dark mass over the ocean.  I was so newly awake that my vision was reeling with all these light-and-cloud effects.  My fingers and my mind yearned for a paintbox, to start mixing water and gray and purple and blue to form these impressions on a piece of paper.

I guess that's why there are so many bad skies in amateur paintings: we want to capture the uncaptureable and our skills are not up to the task. Or should I say, our practice has not brought us up to the task.  Any time I see a painting with a wonderful sky I study it square by square: There he did thus and so, and there something else. Isolated, their techniques do not make a sky, but put together they have caught some hint of the magnificence that surrounds us. YAZZYBEL

Beautiful Monday

Hi!

I woke up at about three, very unhappy from some sort of nightmare. Not a dream, that I could remember, but a feeling of pain, frustration, misery, panic. Then I was awake for a while, but around four or five  I calmed down and went back to sleep.

The feeling I had was, above all things, portentous.  As if something were about to happen that I was actually sensing in my dream.  I do not often have such feelings when asleep, but it did happen a week or so ago also. This time I really wonder.  Maybe it is the Earthquake. We are due for a Big One.

When I got up and went out, the driveway was damp, and so was the newspaper. Not wet, just damp, but I knew we'd had a little rain.  It happened again while I was taking my bath.  And the air is heavy with the possibility of more.  Monsoon weather, floating in from Arizona, perhaps. It's gray outside and pleasant.
In spite of my miserable dream, I feel happy today.

I had more broccoli salad for lunch.  There is enough for dinner. Maybe I have to be sensible and eat my dinner at three and then stop eating, like smart old ladies. It's a good idea, worth trying..... YAZZYBEL

Figs, Broccoli, and Makeup for Old Ladies

Good evening!

Went to church this morning. It was pleasant. The Dean is back from his vacation, but there were not too many people around as it's the Labor Day weekend.

Came home, stopping at the Home Avenue Goodwill by way of diversion.  There purchased I a silvery wood frame for the photo of no. 5 and her husband, and a large square-round water-color glass jar to hold flowers in the kitchen. It's meant to be a canister but is lacking its top and will be perfect for a kitchen flower holder.

Then to the Von's where I bought a large fresh head of broccoli and made the salad thereof when I came home. It's that broccoli-onion-raisin-bacon one that became so popular a number of years ago.  It is still one of those dishes that has a hypnotic effect on the consumer. You don't want to sit in front of the TV with the whole salad bowlful in your lap or you will just go on mindlessly eating the whole thing.

Tonight Theo and I picked a whole bunch of ripe figs and I removed four and took the rest to our neighbors the Picazos.  I thought I could count on Mexicans' loving figs, but Rick, the dad, took them in a lukewarm way as he does not like them but was pretty sure he could find someone in the family who did. Oh dear. Lukewarm about figs. Well, you either love them or you don't.

Here's how I make up my face for church at seven in the morning. And if you are 82 this is how you should make up your face every day.

Make sure your face is clean, but do not slather it with any moisterizer right before you make up or you possibly could streak up your face.  On your clean dry face, already moisturized the night before or early early before you go out, put a slight dusting of the finest face powder you can find, in the color closest to your own color that you can find. Right now I am using Borghese pressed powder and it is so much finer than, say, Estee Lauder that you'd not believe it.  Step two involves applying some color to your lips or otherwise they will be gray, lol. I have a Revlon lipstick in a clear medium pink color, not rose, not mauve, not plum, just a clear pink. Apply, blot well, comb hair, and adios.That's it. A light powdering is much kinder to octagenarian skin than any amount of covering material. My mama taught me that.  Thanks, Mama. And in the winter I will use a powder blush high on my cheeks in a clear light pinky rose if I feel gray all over.  And that's it.

One last note, of gloom alas--Kitty B. has disappeared again. Where can he be? Where does he go?  Hope he comes back; I'll keep you posted. YAZZYBEL

Eating Cheap

Good morning!

I am beginning this posting as I finish a delicious plate of Huevos a la Mexicana.

Huevos a la Mexicana have become my favorite breakfast dish as I try (sometimes not so successfully) to abstain from meat fats...My old favorite was Huevos Con Chorizo and I still don't think there's anything more delicious.  But Huevos a la Mexicana is so simple and tasty that no one could complain. Here's how you make it. (Notice I said, "it"--this is for one egg.)

a fifty cent piece size chunk of onion, chopped
a 1/4 jalapeno pepper, chopped

Spray the pan with good pan spray and frazzle up those bits of onion and pepper.  They can even brown a teeny bit. Add one egg, and scramble away. You have been toasting a corn tortilla over an open flame, so now put it on a plate, add the egg and EAT. Very nice.  This morning my jalapeno was very very meek, so next time I will taste beforehand and if it doesn't have some kick I'll add a few of the seeds.  My chile-pequines are producing now in the back yard and I may add one (ONE) of those to these proportions. Then I will not have to worry about kick.

One egg just fills one folded tortilla. Makes you realize how many eggs you get when you get H. a la M. in a cafe--wasteful for this li'l'  old lady.  One is all I should have per meal.  I had a smallish glass of much-maligned orange juice with this. I think orange juice is very good. Too high in sugar, yes, but it is natural and has fiber and vitamins and wakes up the body. Plus it fights the cholesterol.  Zzzzz.

Last night we had Cowboy Steak for supper.  As a beef dish it is not too fat, either for the body nor for the pocketbook.  In order to make this, I look in the supermarket for good cuts of meat that have been marked way down because they've come to the doomsday date on the package. These steaks were red, bright, moist and good-looking. No reason to pass them over becauase they are $4.00 instead of $8.00!

I was watching a movie in the bedroom so instead of browning them in a skillet, I put them into the oven to let them brown. They even got a little too brown, and looked kind of like roof shingles when I got them out, but that was good because they left most all their fat in the pan. I speared them out and put them into the skillet with cut up (good sized chunks) of green pepper, onion, red pepper, tomato, and a few grains of McCormick type dried minced garlic. With water added, they merrily simmered until supper time. At the time you serve this, you could take some juice out and mix with a little flour  in a dish and put it back in to thicken the gravy. You could add rice or potato cubes toward the last if you'd rather do that. I did add a quartered carrot or two about half an hour before dinner.  Other additives could be: tomato paste, catsup(!), chili powder, herb sprinklings, and of course salt and pepper.  These steaks were some kind of thin cut meant no doubt for the grill, but adapted quite nicely to my treatment and came out tender and juicy in a relatively short time. If I were doing a thick piece of meat I would put it in the oven covered to finish up its cooking as it would need longer than an hour and a half to get tender and delicious. YUMMO. YAZZYBEL