Happy and prosperous new year

[Mikado14]

Several things between hacking up a lung...not too sure which one but when it finally comes up, I'll let you know.

First off, kevin, is this the old soldier who commented in regard to inspecting the bottom of the chair? I don't know what to say other than to have hope. I had a friend who had a heart attack on Memorial day of 2013. They did a bypass and he ended up with a stroke. He came around but never did get off the ventilator or out of bed or regain the ability to feed himself etc. He did real good for a while but then the insurance stopped paying for the rehab, where he did make progress and was getting about 4 hours off the ventilator per day, and put him in a home. He never got out of it. I wish he would have never made it out of the initial hospital. What does this have in common? Hope. Throughout the entire ordeal, I continued to visit him once and sometimes twice a week until he went to the home and then it was once a month for it was a good drive to get there. Perhaps I am rambling but you strike me as a realist but then you also strike me as one who has hope. I hope for the best for you and Suzi and as far as the puppy goes....oh well.....puppies will be puppies....<g>

david, thanks for the wishes but what I can't figure out is that even though the Doctor suspects viral she still put me on antibiotics. Well, we won't discuss the side effect of the Cephalexin but it is sure taking a long time. Feeling a bit more human today.

Klingon, I agree with kevin...what is up with the next 13 months?

and rose, yeah, no way to end the year. For New Years' Eve, I had wild caught shrimp, a crab bowl and a 16 oz for me and a 10 oz lobster tail for Kim. Well, the tails are in the freezer. Managed to eat the shrimp but the bowl just didn't taste right to me and now it is too old to reheat. And one thing...the bottle of wine, our yearly libation, is still corked.

I look forward to a new year of conversation, quality not quantity of posts. And Luis...Please.....Please.....the Ciba thingy maybe? I have a few things in regard to Brown and the Due-Diligence of "Defying Gravity" that I expect to post but then some of it is more preponderance of evidence so I will differentiate between the two when I post. I have been looking into the "tube speaker" as far as powering it and making it function. Plad and I are expecting to get together over the winter and do something with it. I can predict the outcome of it and I did talk with Andrew in regard to it and he and I are pretty much in the same Church as to what it will do and won't. I promise to post a thread in regard to it along with photos and the setup.

I have two remaining stories to retype that were published that are connected. For those of you that have read them to date and if you liked the three "boy and his dog" stories, you will like the two for they are about Rory and his dog. After the first two were published, the editor liked the idea and asked me to continue to send him more of the "dog on the damn" stories. He was, for an editor, short on words. I was happy to oblige for I was fascinated with time travel as well. There were a total of five stories that made it. I had played with the idea of doing a novelette/novella and possibly submitting it to Analog at the time but life took a different turn and it never did materialize. When I read them, I see they are a bit dated but then they are not meant to be text books, they are entertainment.

Best to everyone and may we disagree politely for that fosters serious discussion and when we agree, let's not paint ourselves in the corner.

Mikado

[kevin]

Mikado,
Yes it is the self same "Old soldier" ( blues and royals)
And after getting all His family together to say goodbye, He is now able to breathe without the mask and oxygen.
All around Him are much younger men that look hopeless.
Luckily We will have Him home here, and a care package can be arranged, the National health service may be antiquated , but it still is for the people.
He sets a high standard.
And He still has the humour and wit.
Kevin

[LuisP]

Better late than never, so even if Five days into it - a Happy New Year to You All and Those who you love !

I have great expectations towards 2015 and truly hope you may meet them too, not just in health and prosperity but also with Joy and Happiness. Hope you guys had a Merry Christmas and went into the New Year the best way possible.
If not, well, may you have the Strength and Grace to even it, that is what I wish.

Fair wind, then.

Far as me myself went – allow me to spill some beans ! - I’ve used up my last few 2014 vacation days by going “underground” after Christmas, meaning, shedding all urban skin and diving onto the peasant, country folk around the little piece of land I own until it passes on to someone else after I’m gone (my Jacaranda’s won’t shed its leaves, will you believe it, but that’s another story and I’ll post a pic so you may see). Also, my daughter’s nearing Eighteenth birthday (less than a month away) talked loud and she wanted time with her friends instead of her parents on New Year, and so off we went, me and the Wife (my heart breaking a bit, I have to say, for I don’t feel that Old so as to be already traded by her friends, but what the fuk, I did the same !) and so spent days eating and drinking with strangers and not so strangers, while driving around the hills with my 50 years old Series II Range Rover and my partner in Life riding shotgun in it complaining about the cold and the discomfort.

Know of worse ways to have quality time. I enjoyed it enormously, to be frank. And got on a couple of pounds to show it, too !

Things being what they are, we mostly ate Codfish. Now this fish can be cooked in dozens of ways – all extremely savory – so no complaints from both of us, and no wonder about it. My people fished it for more than five centuries on Newfoundland and so it got to be “mainstream” on our diet around this time of the year, because men sailed around May only to return around November with the catch. It arrived quartered and heavily salted and that is the reason why we nowadays do not want it fresh, but only salted and dried as plywood. It then takes 24 hours with 3 shift fresh water cicles to desalt, and after that it can be cooked. And it is exquisitely wonderful and well worth the effort. Even if one can rip chunks off it raw to chew on downed by a glass of red wine while picking from a bowl some green olives mashed with garlic, the kind of food that will make hair grow on boys chests and stomach burn on older ones.

The easiest, most common (and my preferred) way of eating cod is “With Everything”, meaning, boiled with potatoes, carrots, chickpeas, eggs and green vegetables. Plated as such and then profusely immersed in virgin olive oil, wine vinegar, chopped garlic and onion, and to top it off, handsomely sprinkled with parsley and white pepper.

Bacalhau Com Todos (Codfish With Everything).jpg (7.83 KiB) Viewed 8063 times

Since cod is The Most Unfish of fishes (you can plow a field from its energy, contrary to all other fishes which will only allow you the strength to rearrange your bookshelves), we all eat it drinking strong red wine. And boy, does it taste heavenly. The cod, I mean. And since it always stays a bit salted it sure makes a man thirsty and red wine being the beverage available, so be it and you can figure the rest. Come nights, we would eat it thinly sliced with pieces of ham and a heavily spiced creamy sauce. Next day, roasted on coal with green peppers and turnips, and so on a and so forth, for – as I’ve said – it can be cooked dozens of ways.
Since inside the hilly dirt roads cops won’t venture (all locals have folk there) I wasn’t too worried. Besides, the Range Rover knows its way home and I always took a refreshing nap inside some barn on top of a haystack with the Wife clacking at her laptop by the side prior to turning its nose, so it all went, shall we say, pleasantly unlawful.

But this is “The” holiday season, let’s not forget it ! Meaning, you will be facing more cakes and sweets than any normal being can absorb.

But about that I’ll speak tomorrow.
Bellyful already.

[Mikado14]

Hello Luis! Glad your holiday season is going/went well. Your trip almost sounds like one I would have enjoyed. Eighteen year old you say? They grow up so fast and as their hand slowly slips out of yours as they walk away, we remember the feel of it forever.

I remember as a young boy on Christmas Eve, we would celebrate the "seven fishes". Cod was evident in the salad....baccala salad. It was mostly made from the salted cod but there were times it was made fresh cod. Never did quite care for it too much. I remember eating it with heavy crusted Italian bread.

Enjoy your time. By the way, does it snow where you are?

Mikado

[StarCat]

Sending New Year's blessings to all. I was released back to work on December 18th with no restrictions. I'm about six weeks ahead of schedule as far as healing and rehab. I also started going to the gym. Very light workouts to start with. I don't fancy more surgery with its attendant PTSD escalation.

Mikado, I hope you're feeling better. Sounds like it was viral pneumonia. The gut wrenching Cephalexin is a good choice for secondary bacterial infection prophylaxis. Unfortunately, antibiotics are picky about which bacteria they off. Kind of like chemotherapy.

Best to all,

Catness

[LuisP]

Hiya, Mikado ! Holidays are over, much to my chagrin. I had too much fun and enjoyed it more than I should, I guess, for it is taking me some hard time getting back into my “suit”. And am not saying that just because of some extra pounds !

Hope yours was the best possible, and that both you and Kim are okay.

Yes, Eighteen in a couple weeks ahead … it seems like a dream, sometimes, for I still see her as my “little” girl (no way around that). I don’t know if what I am about to say is exactly “kosher”, but thing is, this is the second time my heart broke a bit – first one being when she started menstruating. I mean, she was around Eleven ! I remember thinking how raw life is, I remember my anguish at my impotence to deal with her great confusion, and even, yes, embarrassment. It broke me a bit (big bit) to see my child gone - but while still there ! - so young a one bravely trying to figure out what was happening to her, and how to adapt.

My wife called me a fool, saying I should instead be happy to see her grow healthy. Maybe I was a fool, but that’s how I felt - terrible, heartbroken. Because, yes, I saw her adapt, and through that explosion of healthy growing I watched my baby, felled from a star … being gone. Replaced by a girl.

Its splinters hurt me to this day, fool that I am.

And just when I was getting used to the idea ….Wham ! A new transmutation. Not that I was unaware of its coming, of course, I had already heard the plaintive buoys bells chime far out ahead. But I played deaf - as in, not just yet – I have time, we are pals, I am the Moon and she is the Sun and even if I’m attached to Earth, you are the Epicenter.

Well, it ran out, time did. It was to be expected, you might say, the notion that other bodies of mass exist and also orbit the sun. But it hurts like Hell. Not that I craved Mooncentrism, I was pretty enough content with Geocentrism as long as both Earth and me were the sole inhabitants of a future Heliocentrism.

But it simply isn’t that way things work. Or healthy growing happens.

I am in awe on this young woman by my side. I don’t know where she came up from, so unexpectedly. Especially so when I can only see a small child… much that my eyes view otherwise and my brain says they’re wise.

But hey … I’m on a rampaging rant, it seems ! Enough.
Since it got me tasting salty water on my lips, I’ll give it a rest.



No, it doesn’t snow where I live. My latitude is pretty much the same as New York but the Gulf Current passes submerged there and on the surface here, and that makes all the difference – we have temperate Winters.

This one isn’t feeling quite like that, though.

[LuisP]

Glad to hear you mending well, Cat.
And Thanks for your blessings.

[Mikado14]

Sending New Year's blessings to all. I was released back to work on December 18th with no restrictions. I'm about six weeks ahead of schedule as far as healing and rehab. I also started going to the gym. Very light workouts to start with. I don't fancy more surgery with its attendant PTSD escalation.

Mikado, I hope you're feeling better. Sounds like it was viral pneumonia. The gut wrenching Cephalexin is a good choice for secondary bacterial infection prophylaxis. Unfortunately, antibiotics are picky about which bacteria they off. Kind of like chemotherapy.

Best to all,

Catness

Well I am feeling a bit better but the cough is still there. If it is not gone or mostly gone by next week I will go back to the Doctor. I stopped the antibiotic after about 5 days when it appeared that it wasn't doing a damn thing. That only left the inhaler which wasn't much better so I am depending upon my own immune system to fight it off at present. I have been taking Benzonatate for the cough which does work fairly well.

This has got to be the worst ...whatever, I have had in a long while.

Sounds like your fairing much better, at least I hope your holidays didn't suck as bad as mine.

Mikado

[LuisP]

Sad to hear about your ongoing battle, Mikado. Hope you better it soon !
Don't let yourself get down !


Just to end a subject (this one, at least), and since I did say I would mention it, here are some “seasonal” sweets I indulged in this past holiday season, just for the fun of it (hope it cheers you !) :

Bolo Rei (King Cake).jpg (10.11 KiB) Viewed 8056 times

Bit "thick" with all them cristalized fruits, almonds, nuts and dried grapes, but it is "tradition" so ... just grab a slice.

Then,

Broas Castelares (...go figure its translation...).jpg (11.5 KiB) Viewed 8056 times

Made from pumpkin with mashed almonds. Delicious !

Followed by

Rabanadas (Crusty Pancakes).jpg (13.1 KiB) Viewed 8056 times

Bread slices fried and then "sauced" with a cinnamon, lemon and honey mixture.

And also joined by

Sonhos (Dreams).jpg (10.9 KiB) Viewed 8056 times

Don't really know much about it, but it is also made from pumpkin paste mixed with milk, fried and then cinammon/sugar coated.
Tasted great !


All these are "peasant" sweets. Not high cuisine.
But did I enjoy them !

[LuisP]

Oh, and btw, salted Cod’s texture is a bit fibrous … no wonder then that most kids don’t like it. They chew and chew and just make small lumps of it on the side of their mouths, which the more brave with gulp and the not so brave will spit out after much squabbling. It is a growing thing. We grow, and we will like its growing taste. And then we’ll love it.

Nowadays, it is such an old fashioned, peasant food – boiled cod with chickpeas – that the few restaurants in the capital that dish it out … ask a fortune ! Either that, or travel a hundred miles and eat it much cheaper. But there are still (even in the capital’s centre) a few places where you can get it for a decent price. Like everything else in Life, you just have to be aware of them.

For the record, here follows a couple of pics of it fresh and salted. The difference is so huge that no wonder the flavor is as much ….

Fresh Cod.jpg (5.63 KiB) Viewed 8056 times

Salted and dried Cod.jpg (9.58 KiB) Viewed 8056 times