They Wish That They Could Be a Pepper Too

Genius sent me an update on his peppers Wednesday.

 

 

"Can't believe how big some of these are getting!"

"Wow! Did you buy some magic beans? Will you be climbing the stalk?"

"That one isn't even the biggest! Meanwhile, the upstairs neighbor's tomatoes are sad and wilted."

"Look at those sad tomatoes!"

"They look absolutely crispy. As Jerry Seinfeld would say, 'That's a shame.' As insincerely as possible."

 

"Tomatoes are not full sun plants, and they have no overhead shade, so I think they're pretty toasty."

 

"They need a beach umbrella."

 

"I have the most lush balcony greenery in the building - a thing that is both normal to want and possible to achieve."

 

That's my Genius. Always striving to be the best!

The Slug Whisperer

The Pony has his own magnetic powers! He's not a Weirdo Magnet like his mother. He seems to be a Slug Magnet! I'll take my chances with the weirdos, thanks.

I got a text from The Pony on Tuesday at 2:46. I think that's about the time the temperature hit 100.

 

 

"Baby slug on me."

"Where did you get the slug?"

"Transferred from grass, I assume, to my leg, to my finger, then blown back to a lawn."

"So at home?"

"No. While working."

"Better work than home!"

So maybe it's not Pony House being overrun by slugs, but merely The Pony having such magnet powers. Those slugs are lucky they didn't find ME! I would do more to dispatch them than carry one outside on a scrubby sponge, or gently blow one onto a lawn...

The Grillmaster Lives Up to His Reputation

Hick proved himself to be a renowned grillmaster on the 4th. Also a renowned eater, even though he didn't consume 63 Nathan's Hot Dogs. 

 

No hot dogs on our grill, GassyG Jr. We DID have some bratwursts, but they weren't the kind I'd planned on buying at Save A Lot. Their meat department makes their own, and they are long and plump and delicious. Silly me. I didn't want to brave the crowd on Saturday, and by Sunday, all the good brats were gone. So I had to get Johnsonville. Which are good enough, but not as great as those generic kind on the white styrofoam tray.

I found a couple of T-bone steaks for Hick and The Pony:

 

I don't skimp on steaks. They love them so much! This was not a bargain, but they were thick and meaty and fresh. It's not like we eat steak every day.

The Pony discovered that he needed one plate JUST FOR HIS STEAK! And another for his sides. And a bowl for the Stove Top Stuffing that he is partial to.

 

The Pony adds butter to his steak. Plus salt and pepper out of the grinders. That bite of steak up top is not levitating, but being posed by The Pony to show you the done-ness. He is not one to complain, and said his steak was delicious, but he generally orders his meat a little less done than this "medium" cooked up by Hick. Oh, and though we have actual steak knives, The Pony chose my little Pioneer Woman ceramic knife.

 

The Pony had his stuffing, a baked potato, two deviled eggs, and three slices of garlic toast. The frozen kind. No need to reinvent the wheel. It's not like I'm cooking a Thanksgiving dinner! Also, you might notice that The Pony was a two-fisted drinker, having both a Sprite and a Coke. I asked if he wanted to leave one in Frig 2 to stay cold, but he said, "It won't take that long!" He was right. That's my butter in the background. The Pony didn't bring his own Kerrygold this time. He's out, and the store was out when he went to get more.

Hick also had a plate just for his steak, after hearing The Pony's advice:

 

I didn't mean to show Hick's bare belly. No, we did not dress formally. We were having a cookout, not tea and crumpets with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

 

Hick's sides included three deviled eggs, stuffing, the before-seen two pieces of garlic toast, a baked potato that he dismembered, and the baked beans that we like actually BAKED, and sort of dry. I added a diced onion, and some BBQ sauce, yellow mustard, and a dash of Cuban mustard, then baked them at 350, uncovered, for 90 minutes. Stirring once. Oh, and before all that, I poured out the liquid from the can, because Hick despises runny beans.

I had two bratwursts, thought one would have been sufficient, I found out after eating them!

 

Of course I had a side of slaw! Store-bought. I don't like chasing my sides all willy-nilly across the plate, so I put mine in ramekins. Good thing, because while taking the picture, it dawned on me that I forgot MY potato, which I'd sliced and tossed in vegetable oil and baked for some tasty fries! The Pony took my plate to the stove to add them.

 

My potato was actually smaller that those of Hick and The Pony, but it sure made a bunch of fries, all tangly on my plate.

 

There are the deviled eggs, before we descended upon them like a horde of locusts! I also had a Chinese Tupperware container with eight more, for The Pony to take home.

 

Hick and The Pony even had room for cheesecake! Not this ol' Val! I was stuffed to the gills. My favorite is the plain, with the graham cracker crust. Hick likes the raspberry swirl. The Pony prefers the chocolate swirl. He doesn't like that "Turtle" kind with the chocolate chips and caramel. The texture bothers him. I don't like the cookie-crumb crust on it.

 

The Pony had a portion of his steak to take home, and he gave me a few bits he trimmed off. The Pony is like Jack Sprat! I gladly accepted his fat with a little meat attached. The Pony is so generous! He also gave me his potato skins, and a round corner of garlic toast. Hick added a couple of chunks of his potato. So I had a plate of leftovers to look forward to.

As The Pony was leaving, he had FOUR Chinese Tupperware containers! His steak and three bratwursts. Two hot dog buns. Four slices of cheesecake. And eight deviled eggs. Plus two Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies that he liberated from our pantry. Oh, he asked first, before taking anything. He's a well-mannered Pony.

If the saying is true that "you eat with your eyes," I guess all of you are feeling pretty stuffed right now!

The Grillmaster is IN

In a surprising turn of events, The Pony has July 4 off! It doesn't matter what the federal holidays are, because the CCAs (City Carrier Assistants) are bottom of the totem pole. They have a different contract, and don't get all the same holidays as the regulars. So The Pony is not always sure then he will get a holiday, without looking it up. Turns out July 4 is one of his six holidays for the year!

Anyhoo... The Pony sent a text when he confirmed this holiday, saying, "I could come out, if you want." Yeah. Of course we want. And I suspect The Pony knew there would be a grilled steak in his future!

The menu is: T-Bone Steak, Bratwurst, Baked Potato, Deviled Eggs, Baked Beans, Garlic Toast, Stuffing, and Cheesecake.

Hick will be grilling, after he picks up some propane. He has some, but says his nightmare is running out mid-grill. He and The Pony will have steaks. I will have bratwurst. Baked Potatoes for the guys. I might make myself some fries in the oven. The Pony likes stuffing. I doubt Hick and I will partake. Deviled Eggs all around. I can do without the Garlic Toast. Hick and I like the Baked Beans. We'll probably negotiate for the Cheesecake, which is in slices, four varieties. The Pony abhors the raspberry kind, and I don't like the slices with cookie crust. Only graham cracker crust for me!

We are looking forward to the festivities. By which I mean EATING. No fireworks here. Unless the Cheesecake negotiations go wrong.

I'll try to remember to get pictures...

Un-Sweet Hick-a-hiker

Hick hitched a ride to town with me on Thursday, to pick up The Pony's car from the mechanic after the air conditioner was fixed. I didn't mind. I was on my way to the bank, and this mechanic is along that route. 

 

Or shall we say he "Hicked" a ride with me. Hick is not a good passenger. He's a bit controlling. A shotgun-seat driver. I could understand if Hick was commenting on my driving technique. If I was sweaving, or speeding, or driving on the wake-up bumps. Turnabout is fair play. But I wasn't. And he wasn't. His running tirade was a bid for control.

First cat out of the bag, Hick adjusted the vent on his side.

 

"Make sure you put that back when you get out! I don't need my cool air blowing out on that side when I need it over here."

 

"If you'd put it on AUTO, it would work better."

 

"No." I pushed the FAN up one notch. Cold air poured out. "I keep it on RECIRCULATE, because that makes the air colder. It doesn't have to cool the 97-degree air continuously."

 

"Well. On AUTO, it would automatically start blowing harder to circulate the air."

 

"You mean the HOTTER air? See? It's cold. The fan is pushing it out harder. Why didn't you just say you wanted the air up? Besides, your vent was closed. AUTO wouldn't help that."

 

That's the thing. If I'd had T-Hoe's air conditioner set on AUTO, Hick would have ridiculed me for not having it set on RECIRCULATE. You KNOW he would! He just wanted to be the expert.

Like when we pulled up to the 4-way stoplight by Walmart, and he said,

"You're not turning LEFT!"

"I know that. Can't you hold it for two seconds? I had my signal on to get in this lane, to go straight or left. I was NOT going right, so I had to switch to this lane when the yellow line veered over. I was only signaling a lane change. I can't turn off that signal instantly, before I'm even in the lane!"

Also, Hick kept trying to tell me which way we were going, without actually explaining. You know, how he does that thing by saying the same words over and over, but louder. He lost me when he directed me to turn on a street that he said ran beside the old Casey's.

"You mean 7th Street?"

"No. Another one, before 7th."

"There is no street past Casey's, before 7th."

"Yes there is, 6th Street, I guess."

"But 6th Street is BEFORE we get to Casey's."

"Well, you want the street after Casey's. There's a side street that branches left off it. Like an H between that street and the one where the mechanic is. So you can come out and get back on this road to go to the bank."

"That street after Casey's is 7th."

"No."

"Yes."

"You don't know nothin' about directions!"

"I know there's no street where you're telling me!"

 

"Anyway, there's a street that branches off of it that goes by the mechanic."

 

"Down beside the mechanic?"

 

"No. In front." 

"But the mechanic is across from the lumber yard."

"Yeah."

"So the H street comes down by the mechanic?"

"Yeah."

"Beside it?"

"No. In front!"

"That would be the lumber yard street, 8th Street."

"No! You don't know nothin'!"

"Here we are. See? This is 6th Street. Then there's the old Casey's. Now the next street is 7th."

"Yeah. That's the one you turn on!"

"You said it wasn't!"

"Up there is the side street. The H shape, that cuts through by the front of the mechanic."

"I see the sign for the side street. But I'm going on up to 8th Street, by the lumber yard, to get to the mechanic."

 "That's fine. See? Where that side street comes out right here?"

"Uh huh. It's nowhere near the mechanic! And even if it was closer, it's on the SIDE!"

"Can't tell you NOTHIN'!"

"Here. I'm letting you out. I'll make a U-turn to go back out and head to the bank."

"Whatever."

You'd think a man who used to work for that city would know the streets...

Another COINucopia For Val

Things were poppin' for Val's Future Pennyillionaire Fortune this week!

 

On SATURDAY, June 25, I came out of the Gas Station Chicken Store and saw a surprise.

 

 

Good thing I didn't pull forward a bit more in T-Hoe, or go to town at a different time, when the sun didn't highlight my surprise.

 

It was a 2009 face-down penny, showing Lincoln sitting on a log on its backside.

From there to where I was obviously meant to be, the Backroads Casey's. I only go there if the parking is conducive to T-Hoe's large-door opening.

 

Sadly, I had to choose a line! The floor on the other side, at the left register, had something else silver. I took it for a nickel, so stayed in my line.

 

It was a 2005 face-down dime, ripe for the picking.

_____________________________________________________________________

MONDAY, June 27, I was over in Sis-Town to deposit a check for Hick from Back-Creek Neighbor Bev. I was meant to be there!

 

OH MY GOSH! It was SO HARD to get this picture. I was way back in line when I spotted my treasure. The guy who was rightfully ahead of me, and stepped up after this dude, would not stop dancing around! It was like he had ants in his pants! So I kept this long-distance view from the back of the line.

 

 

It was a face-down 1998 dime, AND a 1969 face-down penny! A two-fer!

 

But wait! From there, I was headed home, and stopped by the School-Turn Casey's. Where I made another discovery on the way in!

 

 

You have to be careful taking pictures near somebody else's car! They might think you're some ne'er-do-well up to shenanigans. But all I wanted was a picture of this penny, waiting there just for me, under the 9 on the license plate.

 

It was a face-down 2019 penny, lurking under a bumper, quite photogenic.  ______________________________________________________________________

 

But wait! I wasn't done! On my regular errand day, THURSDAY, June 30, I made another discovery at the Sis-Town Casey's.

 

 

So many people, so little respect for a line! I was waiting my turn, allowing others to go ahead who had been standing on the other side of an aisle. I don't know who was first. But then, a clerk opened up the register on the right, where my penny was located under the candy! So I selflessly allowed others behind me to go ahead to the cashier on the left.

 

It was a heads-up 1990 penny, waiting for me to claim it. Welcome to the shirt pocket, Abe.

______________________________________________________________________

That's 6 COINS this week, for 24 CENTS towards Val's Future Pennyillionaire Fortune!

______________________________________________________

2022 RUNNING TOTAL

Penny          # 56, 57, 58, 59.
Dime            # 9, 10.
Nickel          still at 3.
Quarter       still at 5.

 

2021 FINAL TOTALS

Penny        124
Dime           14
Nickel           7
Quarter         6
______________________________________________________

 

I Would Already Have a FOR SALE Sign In the Front Yard

Good thing I'm not the technical owner of Pony House! Good thing I don't live there! Because I would already have a FOR SALE sign in the front yard! 

Oh, the HORROR! 

I was awakened from my beauty sleep at 8:40 a.m. by a text from The Pony:

"The horrors of city water! I just had to relocate a slug that crawled up my shower drain!"

 

"YIKES! I could have done without the visual!"

 

"I thought you might want to blog about it!

"We used to have them on the sidewalk at my $17,000 house. Some gray, some with black spots."

"It's probably going to die in the heat, but I didn't want to just kill it!"

"I used to murder them with salt."

"How cruel."

"I stepped on one in bare feet."

"You and stepping on things seems to be a running problem."

Said The Pony unfairly, referring to the dead bird under fallen leaves that I stepped on nearly every day for a month, walking out of school to the car in the parking lot. I didn't kill that bird! And it wasn't my job to dispose of it. Besides, either Genius or The Pony could have WARNED me every day as I neared that area of leaves!

Anyhoo... The Pony was either soft-hearted, or had no idea how to kill a slug inside the house. Hick says it has nothing to do with city water.

"That came in through the main sewer! Not the water pipes! I can't do anything about that. Pony should get a can of salt. You know, the cardboard can. And pour a quarter of it down each toilet, and the rest down the shower drain."

I will relay that info to The Pony next slug-pic, or when he has a day off.