Kaimusailing

The last two posts represented my accumulated writing while packing a rental car, driving 11 hours South, unpacking, and getting readjusted to the boatyard in St. Marys. It was not convenient to post to the blog during that time.
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We were discussing bolognaise sauce and I thought I had many recipes of it. It ended up I had Martha Stewart’s, which is very good, and the others were recipes I came across on the internet but didn’t download and save.
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This one looks promising, by Mary Berry of The Guardian:
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Generous knob of butter
100g smoked streaky bacon, finely diced
1 onion, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
2 sticks celery, finely diced
250g coarsely minced beef, at room temperature
40g chicken liver, finely chopped
150ml whole milk
Nutmeg, to grate
150ml dry white wine
400ml tin plum tomatoes
1. Melt the butter in a large flameproof casserole set over a gentle heat, and then add the bacon. Once the bacon fat has started to melt, add the onion, and cook gently until softened, then tip in the carrot, and cook for 5 minutes before adding the celery and cooking for a further 2 minutes.
2. Crumble the beef into the pan and brown, stirring occasionally to break up any lumps. Season, then stir in the liver, and let it cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 125C. Pour in the milk, and grate a little nutmeg over the top. Simmer gently until almost all the milk has evaporated, which should take about half an hour.
4. Pour in the wine and the tomatoes and stir well. Put the casserole into the oven, with the lid slightly ajar, and cook for at least 3 hours (4 is even better) until the meat is very tender. Check on it occasionally, and top up with a little water if it seems too dry, although this probably won’t be necessary. Serve with pasta or gnocchi, and grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese.
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Geoff says he never makes it the same way twice. Bolognese has milk or cream in it and just a little tomato, a sauce with more tomato and no dairy would be Neapolitan, what most Americans recognize as meat sauce.
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A fellow named Houston was interested in my old windsurf gear, so we kind of pieced together what he would need to get started. I found that many of the old windsurf parts are not available. He chose an F2 slalom board, carbon mast, adjustable mast base, boom, and a sail which he has yet to pick out. I expect I will end up helping him learn the ancient art of windsurfing.
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I was invited to help make gumbo at Geoff and Karen’s house. This was a massive cook off. I got to chop veggies and also chicken. There was about 4 gallons of gumbo when all was done. Geoff had learned to make gumbo at a place in New Orleans where the chef took him back into the kitchen and he learned they don’t cook gumbo in a pot, it is all done in ovens in baking trays. Geoff follows the tradition pretty closely. He brought us down to Southern River Walk where the place was packed with yacht club members and visiting cruising sailors. We had a couple glasses of wine and returned to the gumbo.
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Geoff made some rice while I learned the NY Jets bungled another game, badly. I drank more wine. We ate out on the porch. I had seconds. This gumbo is good.
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The next day I went with Komputer Ken on errands. I bought ingredients for Ole Mole sauce, a large bowl, a hose nozzle, orange marmalade, natural peanut butter, a bunch of hot dogs, a large salsa jar, and a box of Black Box Pinot Noir. I had been out of wine and it was time to get some more.
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I cleaned up a pot to make my mole sauce in. Well, mole means sauce in Aztec. I used 2 tablespoons of most of the ingredients. A partial list would include chili powder, cumin, cocoa, peanut butter, and orange marmalade. The medium salsa has the tomatoes, onion, and garlic that I would laboriously chop up otherwise. I started with a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil. The only oil I had was EVOO. Also some water, not very much. Heat and mix. When it’s all bubbly, turn off the heat. I’m trying my poaching technique. The hot dogs go in in two batches as well as the large jar of salsa, put some in, bring to a boil, add more. The rule is, when it comes to a boil, mix it, and when you’re sure it is all the same temperature, shut off the heat. Of course it’s covered and it just sits there stewing in its own Mexican juices.
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I was tasting this sauce as it came together and simmered, adjusted the spices, which meant slugging down some pinot noir and having a chili dog. This stuff stains like nobody’s business. Like most complex sauces it was raw and needed time to mellow. I ate one of the dogs with some of the immature sauce. It had its raw sharp edges, but I guess the balance was about right. You can’t adust the spices until the sauce sits for a while.
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The tradition of this sauce is from Mexico, from the very early days, when a pot was brewing and whatever you thought might be OK for the sauce went into the pot. It just kept cooking and food was taken out to be eaten and ingredients were thrown in when they became available. So, there are a million mole recipes and they are regional, mostly because some of the ingredients were indigenous to that region. It’s kind of like barbecue sauce or chili in the USA, the recipes are guarded secrets and they all say they are the best.
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That’s why my attempt at a traditional Mexican sauce is just as valid as any other of the sauces made down there. I’d like to keep things simple, but instead of two dozen ingredients I’m down to a half dozen.
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I kept the chili dogs and mole in the fridge overnight, heated them up again, and poured the concoction into a plastic bowl. Geoff and Karen arrived and took me to the Southern River Walk where other foods were being arrayed on a couple of tables off to the side. Geoff had his 4 gallons of gumbo and a pot of rice.
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The place got crowded and I took my place on a bench seat on the fringe of the crowd. Soon more cruising sailors showed up and it was really crowded. Karen brought me a bowl of gumbo and rice. Geoff exclaimed they ate all the gumbo and all your chili dogs. I don’t think there was much food left. We packed our empty pots and pans and left.
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I hoped to take a day off but the bulk of the Thanksgiving Feast had to be peeled, cut, boiled, roasted, and I went to the kitchen to help. We peeled 20 lbs. of potatoes that were riced and mashed with butter and cream. Then 10 lbs. of carrots were peeled and sliced lengthwise for glazed carrots. Hams and turkey breasts were sliced. Then I was invited for libations at Southern River Walk. I returned to Kaimu to change my shirt and ran into Jimmy, a sailboat owner I had skippered for. He and his family were in town and I suggested the restaurant. There would be appetizers provided by the restaurant but a cash donation was expected.
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The appetizers consisted of mainly chicken wings and spring rolls. There was what looked like a salsa, maybe a corn salsa, and chips. The place was soon jammed with plenty of boat people to talk to.
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When I returned to Kaimu I fielded a couple phone calls that kept me up late. In the morning I texted Geoff “what time” and took a shower. Karen showed up to take me to the kitchen. It was time.
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We ran a couple trays of meat to a home that would heat them up, I think. Then we returned and loaded up the back of the vehicle with trays of food. There was a large pot of gravy and one of cranberries in sauce. The restaurant was starting to crowd up with hungry guests. We uncovered the trays. I thought I would wait till the food line wound down. The restaurant had three sections and an adjacent section was quieter. Geoff and I began a pinot noir bottle from Chile with a third glass for Karen who was running around managing the Feast. She went out to acquire more utensils. I snuck into the end of the food line and had a nice plate of the usual Thanksgiving dinner.
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We finished off a second bottle of wine and eventually made it to their house where I begged some ibuprofen. I had overdone it. The next day they were off on vacation and I took the day easy. The NY Jets played in the first Black Friday NFL game. They lost in embarrassing fashion.
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The image is a night photo of the restaurant where our Thanksgiving Feast took place.

The drive through the fields going East to Pocomoke was foggy as the sun began breaking the sky with a very nice sunrise. Maybe when I get to Pocomoke I can get a snapshot. I was wary of any deer. I had the cruise control set at 9 over.
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The sunrise kind of stalled out, all dark blue and purple. It was two hours to the bay bridge tunnel. Lots of small towns, lights, and speed limit changes. No traffic. Must be beating the morning rush hour. The early morning rush hour.
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Traffic was a little heavy heading toward route 58 out past Virginia Beach, on the way to Emporium. So far no rush hour (it was Saturday!). Some construction. Keep with the trucks. It began to mist then rain off and on.
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I hadn’t burned much fuel, but had to pee, and so peed and got fuel just outside of Emporium. There I was able to get on 95 South. Traffic flew along with few slowdowns. Rain was coming and going. I had the new phone perfectly connected to this new car. I was able to get ESPN New York through the phone into the cars speakers. Ah, those New York accents.
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I had two incidents with the same FedEx truck, a small box truck, that was dawdling along in the left lane, but when I passed on the right, he swerved into my lane and I had to bail out into the next lane, and one time out over the barrier strip. It could not be a coincidence.
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I arrived through the rain just before dusk in the boatyard and took a look to see if the boat was habitable. I had a call from my Ph.d chemist friends about my trip down and they invited me for some bolognaise pasta and my favorite wine. They wanted a wedge of parmesan, I was going to the grocers for wine anyway. They didn’t have parmesan wedges. I got romano and asagio as well as shaved parmesan.
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I got to their home unshaven, unwashed, uneverything, but they welcomed me in and invited me to eat on their outside porch. I love pasta with bolognaise. Tagliatelle or any of the wide noodles work well. I love it. Kudos to Geoff who made the pasta and sauce.
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I had a nervous sleep on the boat. Unsure. I felt really worn out when I awoke. I was able to go out and get propane and a Subway sandwich, tuna with everything on it except lettuce. I got the propane tank set up with an adapter to refill the little one pound tanks. Back on board I ate half the sandwich for lunch, I was going to save the other half for later, but I ate the whole thing with a glass of pinot noir. I felt weak and tired, sleepy, and I crawled into the bunk. Maybe a nap. Of course there is a phone call interrupting. After the conversation I am no longer sleepy.
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There are football games. I watch some and nap at other times. Later I get hungry and what can I do? Make a tuna sandwich. Call my brother when the Jets game comes on around 8:15. It’s his birthday weekend. He puts the Jets game on, he is in Hawaii. We compare the lag between our two games. The game does not go well for the Jets. I drift off to sleep before the end of the game.
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The next day is shot. I text out that I am toast, wiped. I move a few things, but I feel really shot. I was invited out for dinner, but I made a cheap shrimp and zucchini dish in the skillet. I had plenty of asian spices. I slept well again.
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Now I had to really unpack the car. Put the power tools on board in the forward port locker. There was so much more. Rain was forecast, had to keep hauling and stowing. Geoff the chemist texted he was in the yard. Hey, we’re going down to the Southern River Walk if you’d like to join us. Well, I had to shower first. I made it to their place in time for dinner.
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He poached salmon or sea trout and served it with rice and a ratatouille with a nice wine. We discussed the upcoming Thanksgiving Feast. The format has changed and there will be no roast oyster night. There is a need for extra propane tanks for Geoff’s big outdoor cookers.
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I returned the car to the Jacksonville airport and Komputer Ken gave me a ride back to the boatyard. We lunched at a Chinese buffet, “It’s better than the one in St. Marys”, well, it was.
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The weather had been rainy with an East wind coming off the Gulf Stream, being driven by a tropical depression in South Florida. It seemed to be raining every day, intermittently, with downpours interspersed with overcast clouds rapidly racing across the sky. The weather South of us looked horrible on the wunderground.com radar.
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I was feeling sore and it will take a few days to recuperate. I pumped up the bike’s tires and oiled the chain. Once again I was biking around the boatyard. Loosen up the new prosthetic hip.
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The image is a photo of a replica of Magellan’s flagship, the Nao Trinidad. She came to Crisfield just before I left.

The countdown to departure from Crisfield gets down to a few days. The weekend has passed and after nice dinners and a lot of wine I find myself grilling the last strip steak. The dinner is ridiculously quick and easy. The steak is grilled for 2 ½ minutes a side and while it’s grilling several romaine leaves are chopped up on a plate and cherry tomatoes thrown on it, drizzled with my brown balsamic vinaigrette dressing and some mayo, and then the steak is plopped on top of it all. It has to rest for a few moments according to the chefs. Probably 10 minutes is enough.
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The countdown to the NY Jets season has brought us to a Monday Night Football game with playoff implications. The Jets play the Chargers. If the Jets lose, both teams will be at .500, 4-4. Much better the Jets win and go to 5-3. Their division rivals are losing left and right. The Dolphins are 6-3, the Bills are 5-4. Enough football talk, the steak must be ready to eat by now.
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The game was a disaster for the Jets. I didn’t go to the Shanty to see it but followed it on ESPN and NFL online on my phone. Better not to see it. 27-6. The Jets put up another ugly game full of penalties, miscues, and fumbles. The Chargers basically did what the Jets wanted to do, score on special teams, get turnovers, score a touchdown.
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The next day is another getting ready to go day.
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I finished off the hotdogs out of my little freezer.
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I made a ride to Cornelia Marie’s house. The Veteran’s Administration said I had mail there. It was a postcard thanking me for my service. I made another ride to the wine shop.
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I wanted to hear music so I bluetoothed the cheap KEMU speaker to the laptop and listened to “25 Years of Rounder Records”, the Louisiana blues disc. Then I looked for Pat Metheney, but that wasn’t part of my Ubuntu audio player app. I found some tracks from Metheney’s Travels album and played them. Also the Left Turn album.
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I read a thread from NotAlwaysRight.com. It’s the 2023 most inspirational stories. I recommend it, but have plenty of tissues around. Must be my allergies.
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The stories are submitted and categorized. There are very many stories on that site. Of the last batch, the one that had a meter man find out the nice old lady living in the apartment he was taking meter readings at might have been the best. He was servicing meters on Christmas weekend and her meter needed some help. She was concerned that her fridge might be in trouble unless it got power. He checked her fridge and found out she was having some bread and beans for Christmas dinner. He went home and talked to his wife and they came back. The lady asked if there was something wrong with her meter. They invited her to their home with their kids and dogs for Christmas dinner. She refused.
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They insisted, and with tears in her eyes she accepted. They had family over for that dinner and their grandma and the old lady hit it off. It ended up with the old lady becoming an elderly babysitter and part of the family. My allergies are causing me trouble again.
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I have tears when I leave, others have tears when I arrive.
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How maudlin.
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It’s the movement, the moving around, going South, but anyone who is moving like this, for their life, or maybe for just a few months, has to go through moving. A terrible process.
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I was persuaded to take my time moving and I’d like to spread out the packing up the car process over more time, maybe a couple of days.
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The sunset was spectacular but it didn’t excite me as much as the one out at the Legion a couple of nights ago. A lot of comments on that photo.
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I have to apologize to the readers of the previous post who may have read it before I could re-edit it. Also my apologies to those who read it afterwards.
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I was given a ride to the airport to pick up my rental car and I am thankful for the elderly couple who are so nice, and like me, are packing up to head out of Crisfield. Moving is never easy, and the older you get, the less easy it is. My schedule to pack up the next day and leave the day after that early in the morning was changed to two days of packing before I left. I trundled a cart full of stuff up the dock to the car and then took off to get steak and salad greens at the grocers and have dinner at the Legion with Cuddily and Teri.
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I needed to be more careful with my wine, it is not good to get a DUI with a rental. When I returned to the marina my gate code didn’t work, but I was let in by security. Back on board I was ready to hit the sack when a friend called and I ended up not getting to sleep until around 2AM..
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I was very sore the next day but taking my time I moved a lot of stuff into the car. I took a break and went to the post office to forward my mail to the boatyard in Georgia. I decided to quit for the day when I got back, had a glass of wine, and grilled the steak. Let it sit for about 15 minutes, then slice it onto sourdough bread, a steak sandwich with out any cheese, just pepper and mayo. And pinot noir.
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The last night in Crisfield was weird because it was Veteran’s Day (observed). The Legion had a reserved table for 8 in a prime location, near the bar and near the entrance. The commander was a marine and Semper Fi, he had some of his marine buddies, these are real military, they gathered at the reserved table. These are fleshy men guzzling shots of some sort of fire water and shouting marine marching commands. I don’t know how drunk they were but they got a ceremonial sword out of its bag and its case, and then began marching maneuvers with that sword. Could have taken anyone’s head off.
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I had to drive back to the marina and my new code worked at the gate. I was ready for sleep, but I woke up soon after, maybe 2AM or a little later. I needed to get going around 5 or 6 and I still had stuff to move to the car. I wanted to make that last trip of stuff to the car my last trip to the car, and I could drive off.
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I had plenty of time to make breakfast, coffee, and work my stuff into the dock cart. I threw the port warp onto the piling and brought SUNSPLASH a little bit away from the finger pier.
The bicycle was aboard, all was ready to depart. The automatic gate opened and I left.
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The image is the photo of the spectacular sunset at the American Legion.

I needed to repair my garden hose at the boat so I rode the bike up to the hardware store just a little past the grocers. I took it easy, this is the farthest I’ve gone on the bike since the hip surgery. The female hose end cost $2.39 and went into my pocket. I rode back near downtown near the marina and stopped in the wine shop. I wanted a magnum of Frontera Pinot Noir, they did not have, so I got a magnum of Frontera Malbec. It cost less than ten bucks. I then biked over to Cove Street for Cornelia Marie’s cookout and bonfire. She had wanted a bonfire for a while.
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I sat outside at the picnic table I was so familiar with. They loaned me a wine glass and I hydrated, sparingly. It was a nice afternoon. Nori, the wonder dog, patrolled the yard, now fenced in to keep her safe. Cuddily and Teri arrived separately with bags of food and wine.
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The firepit now had a huge circular steel thing that turned out to be a firepit from Tractor Supply. It was old and rusty, but fit perfectly over the old firepit. Wilbur filled it with scrap lumber and started the fire.
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Croquet wickets and stakes were already in place and we began knocking the balls around. I remarked that I could not have done this a month ago. I couldn’t stand around for long periods of time then. Now I was managing quite well. I was able to get my ball up near the leaders but lost out in the end as it got dark and we gathered near the fire.
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A gas grill was set up with a propane tank and brats and veggie kabobs were grilled. Cuddily had made potato salad and CM had a garden salad. In the dark we ferried food from the picnic table to the circle of chairs around the firepit. I took a photo in the dark which came out remarkably well using the new phone camera.
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The potato salad was remarkably good and I will try to get the recipe. We sat mesmerized by the fire while we heard strange sounds coming from the direction of the marina. After a while it was time to head home and for me it was a careful bike ride, 3 weeks earlier than the orthopedics allowed. I was sure I would be fine on the bike, but accidents do happen and my new hip still had a way to go to be completely healed.
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The marina was strangely dark and eerie sounds were emanating from there. I was very careful crossing intersections but there was no traffic. The marina gate was open for some event within. It was dark. I had noticed over the past couple of days Halloween displays being erected, skeletons, wrecked automobiles with mannequin victims, fake blood, skeleton dogs and cats, eerily lit displays, and now they were lit and had sound effects. What the heck? I had no idea what was going on. There was police tape cordoning off the parking area forcing me to pedal carefully in the dark and hope I didn’t get snagged by the tape or end up in a cul de sac. I had to be ready to dismount.
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I safely made it to the boat and aboard.
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The next day was soreness but I know it will make me stronger, keep on biking. The garden hose repair was completed including the initial Halloween like green liquid dripping out of the end of the hose. Green blood. My boat neighbors were there to converse and see how I dealt with these things.
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The new fitting was for a larger hose. Would I have to bike back up to the hardware store and get a replacement. Soreness won out. The original fitting was the same manufacture. It turned out the collar was the same size on both fittings. Surely they must fit them together with pressure somehow, they can be pressured apart. I was able to do so without breaking. After fitting the whole thing together I was able to open the tap and stream out green blood from the hose. Neighbors said St. Patrick’s! After a while the algae was cleared and the stream from the hose looked normal.
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In the middle of the night I realized that my old batch of sicilian meatballs and sauce still had a portion in the fridge. I’d better heat it up for a midnight snack or it will rot. I got the zip lock bag of meatballs and sauce out of the fridge and put it in a pot of boiling water. I got out a plate and put two slices of sourdough on it. I sliced each ball in half to expedite the heating process.
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So I had a midnight snack under the full moon with a glass of malbec.
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The next day the people who decorated the marina were now gathering up their skeletons and other Halloween objects. They didn’t seem happy. It was Sunday morning. It seemed like a lot of trouble for a holiday that I don’t feel many people celebrate anymore. Let’s say it wasn’t as successful as the huge inflatable duck.
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I had a hot dog sandwich for breakfast and languished briefly. I asked the marina to unlock the old Red Shell Shanty for viewing of football and went off to bike to the men’s room and then to the old Red Shell Shanty. The Jets Giants game was ugly. Penalties. Inclement weather. Defenses thrashing the offenses. The game kind of depended on specialty teams and kickers. The Jets have “Greg the Leg” who won the game in overtime. The end of the regular game time was such that even hard core Jets fans left the stadium, game over, it looked like a Jets loss.
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The Jets had run a fourth down play in their own half of the field with Zach Wilson, the much maligned quarterback, getting sacked, giving the ball to the Giants, already in place to kick a field goal, a sure win. The departing loyal fans heard that the Giants missed the chip shot field goal and the Jets had the ball down deep in their own territory with only seconds on the clock.
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Somehow Zach Wilson threw a couple of passes and got the ball spiked in field goal range with one second left on the clock. “Greg the Leg” hit the field goal to tie the game and send it into overtime.
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In the ten minute overtime period both teams struggled against the defenses such that both teams had had the ball and now any score, even a field goal, would win the game. “Greg the Leg” kicked one for the Jets and thus, the Jets won the “Battle of New York”.
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All the next day the YouTube channels devoted to the NY Jets were clogged with responses to this ugly game. A couple of commentators who were at the game left in disgust when there were only 24 seconds left in the game and the Giants were lining up for the clincher field goal. One commentator was going to his car when he heard the announcing system say the Giants had missed the field goal. Well, I might as well watch the last 24 seconds on the big screen, he thought. Then the tie and then into the overtime. Ugly. But a win for the Jets.
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I can get creative with cooking and the result sometimes backfires. I don’t like to regurgitate (sorry) these failures but I am always looking for ideas, usually on YouTube, and I’ve found one that looks to be a no brainer, no fail, breakfast sandwich. This idea is from Epicurious, which has a YouTube series that includes 3 cooks, one an entry level, the second supposedly a bit better, and the third a professional chef. Sometimes I like what the entry level or second level produce, but this time the food was grilled cheese sandwich, so I had to watch that one. The one that caught my eye was the pro chef who made grilled cheese sandwich like he makes in his restaurant in Paris. I make grilled cheese and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches all the time. For me the hard part is getting just that perfect browned bread and melty cheese. The pro French chef made his sandwich with nice ingredients, butter of course, but he had a little twist in that he hollowed out a little circle in one of the pieces of bread, and then he placed an egg yolk in it and broiled it just until the yolk was warm.
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So I have been making the “egg in the hole”, “one eyed Connelly”, or egg toastie for a long time. Now I add fried ham with melted cheese on top of it all. I like the buttery egg yolk running like a sauce to sop up with the sourdough bread. The ham has all the salt you need and fries up nicely, just put it on, slice it up, and enjoy. This French pro chef has me thinking to go one better than him, make two egg toasties with the ham and cheese all melty between the slices. Can’t do it until I bike to the grocers for more bread though.
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I had to get rid of the last of my romaine lettuce hearts. These would be called hearts of lettuce hearts, just the last few leaves on the hearts, hydroponically kept alive in the boat’s cockpit with the plastic water bottle bottom tripod. Pile the leaves on a plate and drizzle the balsamic Italian dressing, distribute the contents of a can of tuna fish evenly over it. Black pepper it and squeeze some mayo in a pattern on top. Hey, we’re running out of groceries, so you have to invent. Not bad, though.
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The weather turned for the worse with rainy overcast, preceded by high winds, and looks like a two day event. Nevertheless I had to do laundry and biked around with rain gear on, get the quarters for the laundry machines, get the laundry to the laundry, stand by while it goes through the machines, shiver a bit as the thermometer goes down. I see a couple liveaboards packing their stuff up in a pickup truck to leave for the season. I will be doing the same in about a week.
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I was ready to go out, low on food, but the weather made it too difficult to go out, dinner was hot dogs and salsa and blue corn chips. I had some pinot noir and became hungry again. I ate more salsa and chips. I had an egg and blueberries so I know what will be for breakfast, crepes with blueberries. I suffer so much.
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Most of the Halloween apparatus has been cleared from the marina. It looks like the hay bales that were part of the event were taken away by pickup trucks with appropriate farmer drivers. Did they loan the bales or are they grabbing some leftover giveaways? I wonder if the event even made any money. I think a better idea would be to make the Red Shell Shanty a haunted house, including the nice grounds around it. Have contest for best costume. Open mike ghost stories. Why should I offer any ideas? I grew up in Halloween country. The Headless Horseman, the Catskills, Sleepy Hollow, the pumpkins, all part of Hudson Valley, NY, lore.
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The marina is one of the best parts of Crisfield and it works with the Arts Council to have events that bring in a little tourism and give the locals something right in their marina. Most of the time they have to drive a ways to someone else’s event. This Halloween event didn’t seem to me to be that great. A festival in the fall is a good thing here, it is to me the best time of the year when the summer heat is gone.
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The Thanksgiving event in St. Marys, GA, has brought many cruising sailors to that town every Thanksgiving and they visit and tell others. Crisfield has several events like that but they seem to die out after Labor Day. The Halloween event must have been an attempt to get something going in the Fall. Oktoberfest? What did the original settlers do after the harvest?
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The rain was followed by high winds and low temperatures. The temperature dropped 30 degrees from one day to the next. There was a freeze warning. Night time in the marina got down to 38. It was too windy to go out shopping on the bike. I had crackers and sardines again.
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A nice elderly couple offered to take me to Walmart for shopping and when we got there they gave me a spare key in case I came out of the store before they did. When I came out I tried the key in the van in the handicapped space but the key didn’t work. I sat on an idle electric shopping cart for about a half hour. My phone rang, we’re done and in the car, how are you doing? Yes, a senior moment, I was at the wrong van, identically parked but just one parking aisle over.
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The next day was a trip on the bike for coffee and filters on the way to the Legion. We had chicken sandwiches and of course wine. I took it easy on the wine, biking at night to the marina is a bit dangerous. It was chilly.
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While at the Legion I took a few photos with the new phone and it is definitely a step up from the S20+. The image is a photo of the mainland shore East of the Legion.

The ride on the rented golf cart took only 20 minutes, but was very enjoyable, both to get out of the marina and get errands done. I now had wine and two packages from TEMU. The total for the TEMU purchase was about fifty bucks. In it I had a nice chef’s knife, a cheap hearing aid, five USB LED night lights, a mortar and pestle, a vegetable peeler, two long sleeved sweat pullovers, and two 17” square pillow cases (embroidered). The pillows didn’t have any filling and the LED lights weren’t the rechargeable kind, they come on when plugged into a USB socket.
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I used the chef knife while preparing a cheese omelet sandwich for breakfast. I guess you would call it a prep knife, 6” blade, perfect for slicing cucumbers. I got the hearing aid because it was so cheap I had to see how it worked, can it be useful? It is rechargeable, thus no batteries. It seems to work. I will try it out in public when I am with the women artists who speak, usually, with quiet voices.
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May I draw your attention to Parker Hallberg who has a channel on YouTube and a whole bunch of gourmet recipes. If you want to really impress your guests try some of them.
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My 6 month Dr visit was due and I also shopped for more groceries. More berries, hot dogs, etc. One item was gourmet Sicilian spicy meatballs which I had a coupon for. I found the last package was marked “manager’s special” and 40% off. I was purchasing it for less than 1/3 its regular price.
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Back at the marina I was exhausted. I fried the meatballs in butter and olive oil, then used jarred pasta sauce to simmer them for a while. I made an open faced sandwich of sourdough, 3 halved meatballs, and the sauce. Better than some of the restaurant fare around here. A jar of crepe batter was made and thrown into the fridge. The rest of the meatball stuff went in there too.
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I made another batch of my vinaigrette dressing. I was using the California Olive Growers EVOO when I couldn’t find my usual. I had purchased avocados which were on sale, and a white onion, but no lime to make guac, so I sliced an avocado into a salad along with some monterrey jack cheese. Healthy.
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We had a strong northerly flow, chilly overnight temperatures, and SUNSPLASH was bouncing around like she was at sea. I was going to try the bicycle, earlier than recommended by the orthopedics, but it was too windy. Later I did try it out and it was no problem, just don’t fall or crash the bike.
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My transportation needs were being answered by three calls to ask if I needed anything from the store. Heck no, if I did need something there would be no calls. Later I asked Cornelia Marie if she would like dinner at the Legion. I hadn’t been out if a while and she is one of the earlier calls about transportation. We took a ride to the wine shop and then stopped at the grocers who had charged me the BOGO price for a single bottle of balsamic vinegar. It was about a 5 dollar overcharge, but I felt it necessary to have them correct it. Then it was off to the Legion. When we arrived the parking lot was packed. Uh oh.
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It turned out the crowd was there for a wedding which was cordoned off from the regular bar and dining room of the Legion. The specials menu had baked chicken along with something called peas and dumplings. CM had a chicken salad sandwich and we both tried the peas. They were not too bad, but the serving was enough for a family.
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I was moving around quite well and several friends remarked at my new mobility. CM rode me back to the marina. I did not use the bike at all after drinking. Too dangerous.
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My lovely phone had been acting up, display going to a high frequency hash. Notifications still were beeped and the phone responded to display on and off with the button. Also two taps on the phone would turn the display on and off. The inductive charger would change the display to a muddy greenish brown, plus all the other modes, bright hash and totally dark.
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It’s kinda scary when the phone is the primary contact with the outside world and it starts to malfunction. It had been doing this hash screen thing for a while. It was always possible to fiddle with the phone for a few minutes and then it would spring back to its old self, working perfectly. The direct replacement in Samsung’s Galaxy lineup would be the S23+, costing around a thousand dollars. I wanted the malfunctioning phone to last a while longer, but I needed reliability. I could get a cheap phone that does what I need as far as a phone goes and concurrently use the S20+ for its camera and data management. Or I could bite the bullet and order the new phone from T-Mobile. They could ship it overnight. I bought it.
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The overnight shipping would put the phone at Cornelia Marie’s house. It turned out she wasn’t working in Baltimore this week and could sign for the phone when it arrived. Tracking said it was out for delivery by UPS at 9:42AM. I expected delivery early afternoon. Cuddily texted me about going to the Legion later, if I needed a ride. I had been biking around the marina and thought maybe I could bike to the Legion. It would be my first test biking around town.
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I took a shower and saw an attempted delivery notice. I bike to the house and CM and Wilbur were obviously there with wheelbarrow shovels, doing yard work. The UPS delivery notification was laying in the grass. I suspected the driver didn’t do due diligence on the delivery. I biked to the grocers to get bread and blueberries.
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I biked to the Legion. I was amazed that I had done my little bike trip in only 35 minutes. I was not winded although I had not been getting cardio exercise for a month. I ordered a merlot and a glass of Sierra Mist with a little ice, to properly hydrate. I was way early, took a photo of the bar, and sent the photo to Cuddily who replied it’s Teri’s birthday.
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There was no phone number on the delivery notice. There was a reference number that could be tracked at UPS that resulted in a menu which offered “change delivery location”, but when I tried it would not let me do it. I wanted them to deliver the phone to the marina tomorrow. I knew someone would be there in the office to sign for the phone. Maybe I could call UPS in Salisbury, but there were several locations including a UPS Store which I called. I gave them my reference number and explained the situation. They gave me a number to call “where they have all the trucks”. I called and got a nice lady who was able to contact the driver, who was still in the Crisfield area and directed him to make another delivery attempt. I called Cornelia Marie and asked her to stick around and accept the delivery. I also said I would treat them to grilled chicken BLT for dinner if they came to the Legion, also that it was Teri’s birthday and she would be there at 5.
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Cuddily, Teri, and I were sitting at a little 3 top with a view to the North, a nice view of the water going up the channel between Jayne’s Island and the Crisfield mainland. If we had two more joining us we would have to move, plus a couple, a new couple, who like the table we were at, arrived and were getting their drinks at the bar. We moved to a larger 3 top and the couple came by and thanked us for giving them their favorite table. They were organizing a veteran donation charity for Thanksgiving. We thought about what we could donate.
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CM and Wilbur arrived with the new phone. Go get drinks, put it on my tab, it’s my first time out in a while.
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The new phone is a Galaxy S23+, the logical replacement for my S20+, 3 generations newer. I loved the S20+ but it was going downhill fast, scary. I was working around its limitations. Don’t charge it unless you’ve turned the phone completely off. When it works it’s great.
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It looked like I needed good WiFi to activate the new phone. It was all black and not as sexy looking as the cloud blue S20+. It turned out the old phone was low on battery, so I put it all away, deal with it later.
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The bar doesn’t pour a new glass of wine for a refill, they give you a plastic cup of wine which I’ve found out is the equivalent of two glasses of wine anywhere else. Here they over pour but no one objects. The BLT chicken sandwiches were the special and we all ordered food. I had more wine. I think I took one bite out of the sandwich. It was good but for some reason I wasn’t very hungry.
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The evening went on and on and we finally paid up and left. My friends deemed me too drunk to bicycle and threw the bike in the back of the pickup truck and drove me to the marina. I do not remember much of this, just little dribs and drabs. They walked me to the boat. I fell once on the dock, they said. I believe it, the next day I was a mess. What’s the number of that truck that hit me?
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When I got aboard SUNSPLASH I started the charge the old phone which meant I had to turn it off. I woke up at about 4 in the morning and groggily went around on the boat, found my cold chicken sandwich and ate it. I took tylenol and went back to sleep. I awoke again with it all sunshiny outside, but I had a proper hangover. No breakfast. Make coffee. Phone turned on and the text messages came in. Alarmed that I was not responding. I responded. Took more tylenol. Made an egg toastie along with coffee.
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The phone came with some accessories that I had ignored the night before. A little pin to eject the SIM card. A USB-C cable, what good is that? A quick start guide. I ate and read. Maybe I could just move my SIM card from the old phone to the new one and that would be that. I tried it. It took a while for the Samsung transfer apps to do their job and after my breakfast I kept watching the process continue. It seemed to work. All my vast collection of stuff was on the new phone, as far as I could tell.
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I had watched several videos on YouTube about the S23+ including one that compared it to the old S20+. Basically the S20+ is still a very nice phone. 3 generations of improvements now are not the same as 3 generations of improvement of several years ago. Smartphones have plateaued out, but they rated the S20 as about 85% compared to the S23. I can see the difference. It was time to take care of my phone problems and I’ve made the upgrade about a year earlier than I wanted. Maybe I’ll get a prettier phone next time. This all black monster is a dire necessity.
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There is a definite difference in how the two phones feel in the hand. After I broke the S20’s case, not that long ago, I began using it without the case. I could feel how it’s rounded edges and curved back edges made it feel smooth in my hand. The new phone has flat glass, a black plastic back, feels heavier, and looks more industrial with its 3 camera lenses at the back. The old S20 had a rectangular fitting for the cameras, so you could just wipe that off to clear any smudges. The new phone might require individually cleaning each lens.
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It’s hard to compare cameras and display but right off the bat the display on the new phone looks great, but the old one does also. I haven’t taken any photos with the new one. The photo for the blog might be the last one taken with the old phone. The new phone is faster, noticeably, things transition more quickly, YouTube videos look great. I tried the bluetooth transfer to the old laptop and was successful. I can blog from the boat.

The problems of posting the blog seem to climb to new levels. When I arrived here about 6 months ago I could sometimes use the laptop to post using a USB extension cable and a little remote WiFi antenna. When this method failed to work I would write the blog on the laptop, then bluetooth it to the phone, bluetooth the photo on the phone to the laptop, to be processed, mainly for upload size, bluetooth it back to the phone, then get online with the phone and post the text and photo.
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Then after upgrades at both Samsung and Ubuntu, the bluetooth connection didn’t work anymore. It’s no wonder, bluetooth is complicated and evolving. So, now with an unusable bluetooth connection, I would email the photo from the phone to the internet, then traipse to the old Red Shell Shanty, now a TV room and internet cafe, without the cafe, and there access the internet with the laptop, download the email with the photo from the phone, then upload to the sailblogs host site.
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Before the hip surgery I could zoom around the marina and town on my bike. The ride to the old shanty is maybe 700 feet. Zip on the bike. Now, after the surgery, no bike allowed for a couple weeks, the 700 feet becomes a real 700 feet, as in walking. I’m doing OK, but I have to be careful. No bike, dammit.
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I had my follow up orthopedic visit and was shown an x ray of my new hip. It sure looks nice and industrial. Skittlezz couldn’t give me a ride, but she got me in touch with Cap’n Tyler, not the old deceased Cap’n Tyler, this younger fellow got me to the appointment and back. He is local, about the same age as my daughters, and really likes Crisfield and understands its limitations. I had a nice talk with him up and a nice talk with him back.
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On the way back I had to pick up groceries. I was almost out of bread. I wanted to keep having salad ingredients on hand, and the tripod water bath for hearts of romaine worked well enough for me to try it again. Practice makes perfect. Bananas, some fried rice ingredients, and I got some sardines, just a salad idea, “greek” yogurt for the blueberries and bananas.
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I had made crepes with blueberry and banana filling, just fried in Irish butter, and now I wanted to try yogurt with blueberries and banana slices, also as a crepe filling. I think it will work.
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So, crepes, pirogies, tortillas, we have two distinct cooking methods that use mostly the same ingredients. You find fillings such as fruit, cheese and herb, the list would be endless. The crepes get wrapped around a filling, the pirogies are like ravioli and totally contain the filling, the sauces are similar, but these foods exist all over the world and there is a universe of sauces, fillings, plus different flours.
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I used a used jar to make my crepe batter and put it away in the fridge. Jacque Pepin has a nice video on YouTube about making crepes. I put my new romaine hearts in the tripod bottle bottom with fresh water of course. I made another bottle bottom for green onions. When it came time to make supper I hemmed and hawed about the salad ingredients and made a hot dog sandwich instead. Last of the dogs. Later I made the salad and will have to make a new batch of dressing. I have some new high end olive oil to try out for the dressing.
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The next day I made crepes for breakfast and then cooked blueberries and banana slices in the skillet until the fruit was like a syrupy jam. I had 3 crepes on the plate, so I didn’t fold them up in squares like the French or roll them up, I just made a 3 layer stack of crepes with the blueberry banana sauce in between. Yum.
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I think crepes can be an everyday part of the diet. They are used in wrap sandwiches, so there is a world of kinds of food you can make with crepes. I guess you could make BLT crepes and they would be good. When I got hungry though, I made tuna on romaine on sourdough with tomatoes, mayo, and black pepper. Nutritious.
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I made a batch of rice, not in the rice cooker, but in my regular old T-fal pot. I made fried rice that came out too salty, must be the soya. There was also a musty flavor like one of my ingredients had gone stale.
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Next was to watch the football game of the Jets against the Eagles. The Jets won the game against the reigning NFC champions, a huge upset. In their first 6 games the Jets faced both of last year’s super bowl contenders and their division champion and put those quarterbacks at their lowest rating.
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I made a salad of cucumbers, yogurt, and sardines. The dressing was yogurt and minced garlic with a couple dashes of balsamic vinegar. The cucumbers were joined by tomatoes, romaine lettuce, green onions, and of course sardines. Black olives would have gone well in the salad, but I did not have any.
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I had a set back on my healing hip. It was painful again to walk. Maybe I was overdoing it. It’s about a thousand feet to the rest room in the marina, longer to go to the shanty for internet. The wine shop is a half mile away, the house is a bit longer. Perhaps it was the effect of Tylenol but I thought I would try to hoof it to the house, to the wine shop, and back to the shanty.
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I dropped the laptop off at the shanty on my way out. I continued and at the main office decided to ask them about golf cart rental. For slip holders the rate is $25 for four hours. I asked what about a half hour? They said $15 for one hour. Deal. I ran my errands and dropped parcels and wine into a dock cart at my dock and returned the golf cart. 20 minutes.
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The image is of the marina near the old Red Shell Shanty. A rare sunset in days of overcast weather.