Tag Archives: neighbors

Routine

Posted on September 12, 2013 | Leave a comment

Yes, I needed a herding dog to teach me that. For ten years I’ve been mercilessly trained and re-trained as herding dogs never do something fun once.

A long time ago a neighbor knocked on my door and asked for a screwdriver. Not the drink, silly! I asked Phillips or regular? And what for? He locked himself out. I turned bright red, invited him in and opened my laundry closet. In it I had 20 keys all named after dogs with no owners’ name or address, just the dog. Yes, I was a closet dog walker, the best in the neighborhood.

I still had the keys from the former owner of Prego and Paisano, two Aussies pere et fils. I gave him the key. Five minutes later he returned the key. I said, no, I’m embarrased to still have it! He said no, I’ll do this again and I want you to have my key. The next week, he needed it again.

Today I did the unthinkable. I had a maid here and packed up with the dog to go get muffins and knew my front door was unlocked. I forgot my keys, no-one has a spare so we had to go ’round and find someone who could let me in. Of course the keys were hanging on the hook where Her Routine-ness always places them as she walks in the door with the herding dog. I even had a phone number to call, but left it on the kitchen counter and I couldn’t get to my kitchen!

Perhaps Alzheimers is setting in after all. I never forget keys. I even had my wallet and phone and was downstairs reading the papers and putting them back in order for my neighbor to read later. He’s a retired architect with a far better memory than mine turns out to be.

Time was when I had everyone’s key in the neighborhood and they’d call and ask if I could take Woody out. Woody dragged me to my house to visit his good friend, me. I’m at the other end of the leash, Woody! Can you take Makai for the weekend? Sure. She placed all my dog’s tennis balls in the tub while I was in it, then chased the vacuum cleaner. She also tried to “kill” the park’s sprinklers by putting her face right in there. Clever, nice dog.

There are no pet-sitting “trades” here which actually is good. A few years ago I ended up walking everyone’s dog and once in five years I had a family emergency and needed to be away for a few days and everyone said no. So I’m glad I don’t have a door full of neighbors’ keys or the responsibility that entails. Everyone leaves pets with family or hires a sitter. I still like to be called “Aunt Dee.” Keep a watch on those keys, dear reader! Aunt Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , ,

Almost Killed on Local Street

Posted on April 29, 2013 | 5 comments

More later. Must take out the dog as it’s nearly seven in the morning and it may even happen again.

Remind me to tell you what I did.

Sorry to have to leave you but Zoe needed to go out. Saturday morning we were out a few minutes after seven, between two wheelchair ramps in the middle of the street. I messed up my ankle on these blasted sidewalks coming back from the grocery Thursday afternoon and was icing and trying to take it easy,

There were three cars coming one way, behind a red light a block away. No traffic the other way. Halfway across the street with Zoe, me limping, a 1960’s green or light blue car came screaming out from no-where, passed the three cars right in front of our place.

I couldn’t move any faster so when he went back into the lane right in front of me I stood with Zoe behind me in an X and yelled out “HEY”. He careened around me on to the wrong side of the road and luckily averted us.

Note to police. I did not call. Yes, I’m sorry I never got a license plate number but I was planning for Zoe and me to be dead in 1/2 second and didn’t think of helping you on that one.

There are two signs here, but no crosswalk. This man must have been going at least 50 mph on a road that’s called “Place” for a purpose. I’ve been trying to get the Mayor’s office to actually paint a crosswalk by the signs, and am certain people here would even pay for the paint. No answer.

Dee

5 Comments

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , , , , ,

Old Neighbors

Posted on January 13, 2012 | Leave a comment

I’m up late or early or both, worried about our future. Luckily my husband is not and is upstairs snoring with our dog.

I saw on social media that one friend graduated from the college my father worked at and thought she might have been to Coughlan’s pub. I grew up with these boys, especially Tommy and Jimmy, and Joey stole our bike one day and my tooth went through my lip and I missed a visit to the Zoo.

Many years later I saw the pub en route to my aunts’ home and stopped by. Joey asked who I was and gave me a soda on the house, while telling me of Jimmy having a son they named Tommy after his uncle, my age, who died very young.

I tried to give a review of the place but the site is not conducive to such an act. I will call in the light of day to see how they are doing, in such a small town, when all I really remember is them calling on my dad every night to go out back and play baseball, or on the street for touch football. Dad’s only rule was that everyone got to play, girls too. And play fair, of course.

Love is due to to Dad for doing that for us, and much more. But when I think of neighborhoods I remember the one I was in for five years from age 3-8. OK, also age 8-10 but that’s another story. Cheers, Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , ,

Comfortable Furniture

Posted on November 16, 2011 | Leave a comment

Do you remember sleeping on a really cheap sofa bed, where every rail hits you in the wrong place and there is no rest to be had? I do.

Today I went to a good mechanic to get my husband’s snow tires put on, and whatever other maintenance was on the schedule. It took 2.5 hours and their chairs looked comfortable, but the padding belied wooden supports that just kill your butt.

When it was done they said they needed four more hours for other work needed in the next three months but it was so cold in there my teeth were chattering and my butt was sore so there was no way I was staying.

The entire time I pored through cooking magazines I’d bought and never got a chance to read. Well, not the entire time, maybe half of it as conversations were going with two other local women, a very interesting morning.

Saveur, Food and Wine, formerly Gourmet, I love reading those odes to cooking. Of course the food tastes wonderful and looks great, too, but you’re also dressed and having a fantastic dinner party. It transforms one who is making dinner for a husband into a chef, for a moment.

As my many cookbooks are in storage and have been for nearly three years, what I don’t find online in terms of new ideas, I get magazines and when I want to look up old memories I get the cookbooks I already own out of the local library.

How about that for cooking inventiveness? Cheers and as Jacques Pepin would say, Happy Cooking! Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged ,

Sweet Treats

Posted on October 17, 2011 | 3 comments

Our neighbor, a local pastry chef, has been doing some recipe testing and we have been the beneficiaries of some of her trials.  Yes, it’s been such a trial to taste brownies and pain au chocolat.

Of late the hand-delivered packages have come in something like a shirt box.  The first one I opened in the morning and it looked as if a wild animal had been in it.  Oh, it was only my husband late at night.

We saved a few delicious morsels for ourselves and my husband Jim brought the rest to work.  The other day we got another shirt box.  Jim was out with the dog.  I hastily put a post-it note (didn’t want to write on the box because I knew its final destination) RAT POISON!!! and a really badly-drawn skull and crossbones.

I was affixing the sign to the box the second he walked in with the dog.  Oh, well, he asked if it was really rat poison.  It was just to keep him from eating the entire thing.  It would have been better for me to keep the box cool in the garage.

So now Jim has a new team at work and we haven’t even had them over for dinner yet.  I don’t bake but am known around work for my lemon-blueberry-pomegranate trifle with lemon curd.  Now I live in a neighborhood with stellar cooks and luckily we like each other and have dinner at each others’ homes regularly, especially in the off-season (not ski and summer) but these ladies can cook and bake!  And also host a splendid dinner party.

So it looks like I’ll have to cook something for the team, to let them know Jim and I appreciate their work and that I usually don’t burn toast.  Cheers, Dee

3 Comments

Posted in Editorial, Education, Recipe Ideas

Tagged , ,

The Neighborhood

Posted on October 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

All I can say is that it’s getting more competitive, in a good way.

We live in a neighborhood that has chefs and cooks and luckily we’re here in the worst weather and have dinner at each other’s home about every month or so.

One is the pastry chef for local hotels and she often brings by tastings of recipe tests.  Another works with her husband to create amazing meals and desserts.

As for me, I ask one of them to bring a dessert because I don’t bake.  I do cook, however, and hold my own on that one.  When in doubt I make a trifle or serve up the best vanilla ice cream I can get (my ice cream maker is in storage 1,600 miles away) and do a fruit puree then top with fresh fruit and a store-bought shortbread cookie.

Yes, we live in a good neighborhood with very nice neighbors who are here year-round.  And I love to create good food to serve to our neighbor-friends. Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged ,

End of Summer

Posted on August 3, 2011 | Leave a comment

We think the last teens participating in high-caliber sporting events have gone now.  It’s always fun to have them here though a few more people than we’re used to.

Today I chose in my weekly delivery of bottled milk ($1.50 deposit each), juice, eggs, and bacon a produce box.  It was filled with green and red peppers, tons of chili peppers (serrano, jalapeno, ancho, and fresno), some pears, cukes and apples.  Looks like we’ll be having some spicy food this week!

I’ve been working on a new dish.  My inspiration was from BBQU.com for the flatbread, though I’ve changed the recipe provided by master chef Steven Raichlen.  Also a recipe for lamb kabobs that I’ve been making with other meats and seasonings.

Think of a hot-dog sized seasoned meat patty on homemade grilled fry bread.  Then I made my own tzatziki, and garnished with tomato slices and thinly sliced white onion.

I’m working on it.  As of tonight I know with our grill, even with a new propane tank, I have to cook the breads first.  Next time.  It’s great bread just to rip and dip into seasoned olive oil.  I could do that for breakfast.

Next week I’ll hit the farmers’ market on Wednesday and see what’s fresh.  Our season has been delayed by weeks here by late winter storms.  I told my mechanic yesterday that my snow tires are on because it snowed in June and will again in October and I only drive a few miles per day.  I’ll save $160 changing them out.

What we do out west to hard boil an egg or drive down an icy street we make up in good neighbors (we need good neighbors in this harsh climate) as if there’s any kind of emergency, we know the few folks who are here year-round and they know us, even though mostly it’s in parkas and boots.

It was a pleasure to help organize a pot luck on July 3 for all our regular neighbors, plus some folks who come here every year on vacation.  It’s good to see everyone before school starts again and there are only a few of us here ’til ski season.

Sometimes we have to come back to reality in the place, one of the most beautiful in the US, we call home.  That’s when a former neighbor, an Olympic medalist, dies in a local canyon.  Anything can happen here, an avalanche or car crash but because of the severity of the weather we have to be prepared.

Yes, there are still a few winter coats that need to be cleaned and that last load of PolarTec gloves and hats that we’ll be needing soon, so I better get to work as summer is nearly over and it’s barely started here as there are not even tomatoes or peaches….  Cheers, Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , , , ,

Software Engineer or Busker?

Posted on July 24, 2010 | 2 comments

Tonight husband Jim left with the dog and brought along a bag of balloons, as he just started balloon twisting last weekend to have something with which to entertain the kids who belong to his colleagues and staff.

Canary on a Ring

After an hour when dinner was done he was no-where to be found. Oh, he learned the Canary this afternoon. I called to make sure the dog was OK and getting water and his explanation of where he was, well I didn’t understand it. En route to finding them I came upon some fast pitch softball kids who are visiting and gave them an alien baseball cap with eyeballs (balloon eyeballs) and a flower. Then I came across another softball family we’d met who is leaving tomorrow and gave us a ton of fruit salad. Then Jim and Zoe arrived.

They’d been at the town square, it’s not a town and not a square but that’s the best description I have. When I called he said he had a number of orders for space guns and as soon as he was finished, he’d be home with our dog, who was probably panting away by then for lack of water.

A Simple Flower

He came home with $14 in his pocket, about what he spent on balloons, and no-where near what his professional time is worth, for that outing. He didn’t see the first dollars come in, then kids started giving him a dollar, thinking him an itinerant and intermediate level talent. He let them do so as otherwise their parents would have been upset.

One kid asked for his business card. He gave it to him. Lead Software Engineer, Major Company. It amused him to think what the kid and especially parents thought of that! Please know he’s practicing so he can have a few balloons in his desk so when kids come to visit the office he can do something other than give them a piece of candy. He’s not in it to make money! That $14 will be put back into balloons to delight other children.

In the meantime we thank the local kids and all the visitors from the fast-pitch softball championships for letting Jim practice making baseball caps from balloons. Oh, a busker is someone who plays an instrument, sings or recites or does something on the street that passers-by pay to hear/see.

When it comes to money, “earning” $7/hour busking would not allow us to live here or anywhere without a land grant and cabin and vegetable garden and a couple of cows and goats. Let’s just say Jim should keep his day job. Cheers, Dee

2 Comments

Posted in Editorial, Recipe Ideas

Tagged ,