About the time we were leaving Arizona for Ohio, we visited friends en route in Tucson, AZ. We happened to go to a local swap meet held in an area near the Pantano Wash. A wash is sort of a dry wadi as found in North Africa. When, and that was a rare thing, there was a good healthy rain storm, the wash turns in to a raging torrent of flood waters. So this area was located in good residential area but some what uninhabitable because of the close proximity to the wash.
As we perused though the junk so to speak, we found a family selling Desert Rose salsa, their brand name, out of the trunk of an old dilapidated car. So we bought a couple of quart jars of the stuff and found it to be absolutely superior. It had great taste and flavor.
A year or two later while visiting Tucson again we tracked it down to high end department stores. It had grown in reputation and moved beyond the trunks of cars the shelves of fancy places. They had even come out with a new issue called "Commeertavio." Generally meaning commemorative and it was commemorative. By then we had progressed to the "hot" version of the salsa and the Commeratavio was a step a beyond that but very tasty.
We started at that point of tracking down the maker and found we could mail order the stuff. And so in our travels we would around Christmas time get a whole case of the stuff sent to us. This went on for years.
Later, in California while working for Rockwell International in San Bernardino, on Fridays we would bring snacks in and that gravitated to salsa and chips. Finally we reached the point where we brought in our favorite commercial salsas and rated them. Desert Rose was the champ. And was in great demand.
By then we could get the salsa at high end specialty grocery stores in California. It was now an off the shelf product. We no longer had to order from Tucson, we could get it in Redlands.
Years later we ended up in Tucson working for Raytheon and the local high end food stores had it on the shelf. That was really pleasing to us. In fact, that was about the only time we ever went to that grocery store was to get salsa and we bought all they had in stock.
Then it disappeared. It was not to be had. It seems the company sold out to a bigger operation and then was discontinued.
So we looked of a suitable substitute and did not find one anywhere. Later while now living in Ruidoso, New Mexico, I found a salsa put up by an elderly lady in a small town of LaLuz. LaLuz is between Terazozo and Alamagordo, NM. There was a Pistachio company that sold it at their store on the high way between those to towns. It was close to Desert Rose so we began ordering salsa from the Pistachio people.
Just a few months ago we passed through that area and stopped at the store to pick some pistaschios and salsa. Well we got the pistachios alright, but the elderly lady had retired. There was no more LaLuz Salsa to be had. It seems she could not get her family to help her make the salsa and it had become to much of a burden to her.
None of the local salsas like Joe T. Garcias comes close to Desert Rose or LaLuz. I guess our tastes are not compatible with the local desires. We keep looking and trying but it just is not the same.
An era has past. We enjoyed it but it is no more. Times have changed.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Friday, October 17, 2014
Ebola . . .
Ebola. We are learning more and more about it day by day. It seems we are as up to speed as the Center for Disease Control.
The two secondary cases from Dallas have been moved by the government to higher isolation facilities, one in Atlanta, GA and one in and around Washington D. C. That unloads the local hospital from the terrible load of treating and isolating the patients. And the local hospital has turned into a empty palace for the sick. Patients are cancelling even cancer operations in dire fear of Ebola infection.
It is clear the President has failed to recognize the dangers, or at underestimated the danger. The CDC has clearly muffed it in all directions. We learn to day the Frontier Jet, allegedly cleaned three times, has never been taken out of service. Could thousands now be suspect? Who approved this nurse's travel plans?
Now a lab person is self quarantined on a cruise ship down in the Gulf of Mexico. The Mexican government will not let the passengers to embark into Mexico. The ship is on its way back to Galveston. I foresee that it will be quarantined and cleaned to (meaning disinfected from stem to stern). Who let this nut to go on a cruise!
People are acting stupid including our government. People on volunteer quarantine go out to get their favorite soup. Now the President as appointed a Czar to manage things - a lawyer. Give me a break. We don't need some dam Democratic lacky, we need a competent doctor to be the Ebola Czar. There are certainly many more experience physicians with disease and disease control that some dam lawyer. Just another stupid thing by the current administration.
Fox News just had an expert on disease incubation periods say that the 21 day incubation time is a 30 year old number. He has studied the numbers and infection can occur 30 to 35 days after exposure. Another study out of Minneapolis says Ebola may have mutated into an airborne virus (I hope not or else we are doomed by the inept central government enamored with being politically correct.)
Will they wake up? God save us!
The two secondary cases from Dallas have been moved by the government to higher isolation facilities, one in Atlanta, GA and one in and around Washington D. C. That unloads the local hospital from the terrible load of treating and isolating the patients. And the local hospital has turned into a empty palace for the sick. Patients are cancelling even cancer operations in dire fear of Ebola infection.
It is clear the President has failed to recognize the dangers, or at underestimated the danger. The CDC has clearly muffed it in all directions. We learn to day the Frontier Jet, allegedly cleaned three times, has never been taken out of service. Could thousands now be suspect? Who approved this nurse's travel plans?
Now a lab person is self quarantined on a cruise ship down in the Gulf of Mexico. The Mexican government will not let the passengers to embark into Mexico. The ship is on its way back to Galveston. I foresee that it will be quarantined and cleaned to (meaning disinfected from stem to stern). Who let this nut to go on a cruise!
People are acting stupid including our government. People on volunteer quarantine go out to get their favorite soup. Now the President as appointed a Czar to manage things - a lawyer. Give me a break. We don't need some dam Democratic lacky, we need a competent doctor to be the Ebola Czar. There are certainly many more experience physicians with disease and disease control that some dam lawyer. Just another stupid thing by the current administration.
Fox News just had an expert on disease incubation periods say that the 21 day incubation time is a 30 year old number. He has studied the numbers and infection can occur 30 to 35 days after exposure. Another study out of Minneapolis says Ebola may have mutated into an airborne virus (I hope not or else we are doomed by the inept central government enamored with being politically correct.)
Will they wake up? God save us!
Sunday, October 12, 2014
The Oaks . . .
We have two red oak trees in the front yard. They are Shumard Oaks, relatively fast growing trees.
The one in front of the window I look out everyday is the larger of the two oaks. I think it has to do with the soil. The top soil on the left side of the front was scraped off to level the lot for the house. So naturally the soil is not as nutritional as the soil on the right side. So the tree on the right is bigger, and grows faster than the one on the left side. Both have been treated for "Oak Wilt" and that treatment seemed to perk them up a bit. Both have been fertilized a couple of times and of course the grass has been treated three or four times a year.
Any way the tree on the right is a little more than a foot in diameter now, rising up well above the roof line of our house. It is quite stately. I reminds me of the Pen Oak we had in the front yard in New Roads when I was growing up. That tree was about 75 years old, when lightening struck it, and started an internal fire. It must have smolder for a year, all remnants are gone from the tree.
I discover yesterday the Shumard has dropped its acorns. That is a sign of maturity, I understand it takes usually 12 years of age before they produce any fruit. Since we have volunteer growing in the flower bed (which the deer keep eating the top off) I am sure it produced acorns last year. But this year there is a bumper crop of rather large sized acorns. The Burr Oak produces the largest acorns I have ever seen, almost an inch in diameter. These are about an half inch in diameter.
So I policed up a few of them and will see if I can get them to grow. We have a ton of Post Oak acorns floating around. They are smaller in size. The Post Oak is a notoriously slow growing oak tree, takes maybe 50 years to be a 10 inch in diameter tree. And they never get very big, die off before for any number of reasons. They do not tolerate much of anything around them, animals, yards, fertilizers and so on. I have seen them just die in the middle of the summer for no apparent reason, healthy one day and dead the next.
We do have a Barkley Oak on the side yard that is a volunteer. There are a few of them scattered around the neighborhood. They too are members of the "red" oak family, have a similar leaf as the Shumard but have the distinction of not dropping their leaves in the fall. Their old leaves are pushed off in the spring by new growth. But it is also a relatively fast growing tree. I even tried to cut it down once when it was just a two or three footer. But later we cut down the Hackberry tree that was next to it. We managed to save it and it is now up about 20 feet and trunk is about four inches in diameter. A Post Oak the same age is near by and is all of three feet high and about an half inch in diameter.
I had to pull up an Shumard in the back yard that had died. It was pot bound when planted and when I pulled it up (it was quite dead at the time) the tap root was all coiled up and it had literally chocked itself to death. I will try to get one of the volunteer oaks to grow there or maybe if successful with by planted acorns will put one of them there.
We have about 30 Post Oaks in the back. There is one Elm, three large Hackberries (trash trees but produce shade), a smaller Hackberry. We have two Peach trees off to the left in the back but they have maybe five or six more years before they will die off. None of those threes are close enough to the house except for one Hackberry to produce an shade for the house.
There are lots of oaks in our neighborhood and most have been well taken care of. Makes the place look good.
The one in front of the window I look out everyday is the larger of the two oaks. I think it has to do with the soil. The top soil on the left side of the front was scraped off to level the lot for the house. So naturally the soil is not as nutritional as the soil on the right side. So the tree on the right is bigger, and grows faster than the one on the left side. Both have been treated for "Oak Wilt" and that treatment seemed to perk them up a bit. Both have been fertilized a couple of times and of course the grass has been treated three or four times a year.
Any way the tree on the right is a little more than a foot in diameter now, rising up well above the roof line of our house. It is quite stately. I reminds me of the Pen Oak we had in the front yard in New Roads when I was growing up. That tree was about 75 years old, when lightening struck it, and started an internal fire. It must have smolder for a year, all remnants are gone from the tree.
I discover yesterday the Shumard has dropped its acorns. That is a sign of maturity, I understand it takes usually 12 years of age before they produce any fruit. Since we have volunteer growing in the flower bed (which the deer keep eating the top off) I am sure it produced acorns last year. But this year there is a bumper crop of rather large sized acorns. The Burr Oak produces the largest acorns I have ever seen, almost an inch in diameter. These are about an half inch in diameter.
So I policed up a few of them and will see if I can get them to grow. We have a ton of Post Oak acorns floating around. They are smaller in size. The Post Oak is a notoriously slow growing oak tree, takes maybe 50 years to be a 10 inch in diameter tree. And they never get very big, die off before for any number of reasons. They do not tolerate much of anything around them, animals, yards, fertilizers and so on. I have seen them just die in the middle of the summer for no apparent reason, healthy one day and dead the next.
We do have a Barkley Oak on the side yard that is a volunteer. There are a few of them scattered around the neighborhood. They too are members of the "red" oak family, have a similar leaf as the Shumard but have the distinction of not dropping their leaves in the fall. Their old leaves are pushed off in the spring by new growth. But it is also a relatively fast growing tree. I even tried to cut it down once when it was just a two or three footer. But later we cut down the Hackberry tree that was next to it. We managed to save it and it is now up about 20 feet and trunk is about four inches in diameter. A Post Oak the same age is near by and is all of three feet high and about an half inch in diameter.
I had to pull up an Shumard in the back yard that had died. It was pot bound when planted and when I pulled it up (it was quite dead at the time) the tap root was all coiled up and it had literally chocked itself to death. I will try to get one of the volunteer oaks to grow there or maybe if successful with by planted acorns will put one of them there.
We have about 30 Post Oaks in the back. There is one Elm, three large Hackberries (trash trees but produce shade), a smaller Hackberry. We have two Peach trees off to the left in the back but they have maybe five or six more years before they will die off. None of those threes are close enough to the house except for one Hackberry to produce an shade for the house.
There are lots of oaks in our neighborhood and most have been well taken care of. Makes the place look good.
Friday, October 3, 2014
Back from the Big Easy . . .
Every year near our wedding anniversary we travel to New Orleans and stay in the French Quarter. We try to stay at the Monteleon Hotel but could not get a room there this year. We stay around the corner in the Hyatt French Quarter. That was a mistake not of our choosing, the Hyatt is not a bad hotel, but the Monteleon is a great hotel.
We had learned not to arrive there on a Monday, all the good restaurants are closed Monday. So we arrived on a Tuesday, we stay over night en route at the camp on False River. WE ate at Not Your Mama's in Livonia as all the good restaurants in New Roads are also closed on Monday.
We noted the lake is down at least two feet, maybe a bit more. This is a biologist pipe dream of rejuvenating the lake. I think it is a large waste of time. However the dredging to be conducted in the flats at each end sounds like a great idea. I understand they will just the dredge materials to build two islands, one at each end of the lake. The spoil from the dredging is to be used to create the islands. The dredging is to deepen the ends of the lake that have filled in from farm field run off over the many years. All this is said to bring life back into the lake.
We trolled around in Baton Rouge a bit, visited LSU, stopped at the book store and bought a few things. We also ate lunch at the Piccadilly Cafeteria out on Essen Lane. That was yum, but we did not over do it as New Orleans was calling us.
The first night we ate at our traditional place, Galitore's. As usual, it was outstanding and great service. The second night we ate at Antoine's, we had been trying to get there for some time. Unfortunately, while the food was adequate, it was not as good as Galitore's. We were disappointed. In fact we ranked the place behind the Red Fish Grill and ranked Galitore's as the best of the best in the French Quarter.
He ate breakfast every day at Café DuMonde - benguies and coffee for me, coke for Judie. As usual the coffee and benguies are unchanged but I recall the pouring of coffee and mill from two pots into your cup, a practice long gone. We also trolled through French Market and had our blacked catfish po boy for lunch. And then we visited Aunt Sallies and bought pralines. Naturally we partook of the samples.
It was sad driving out of New Orleans, in the rain, heading home again. But we made it back in one piece and racked up another visit to the Big Easy.
We had learned not to arrive there on a Monday, all the good restaurants are closed Monday. So we arrived on a Tuesday, we stay over night en route at the camp on False River. WE ate at Not Your Mama's in Livonia as all the good restaurants in New Roads are also closed on Monday.
We noted the lake is down at least two feet, maybe a bit more. This is a biologist pipe dream of rejuvenating the lake. I think it is a large waste of time. However the dredging to be conducted in the flats at each end sounds like a great idea. I understand they will just the dredge materials to build two islands, one at each end of the lake. The spoil from the dredging is to be used to create the islands. The dredging is to deepen the ends of the lake that have filled in from farm field run off over the many years. All this is said to bring life back into the lake.
We trolled around in Baton Rouge a bit, visited LSU, stopped at the book store and bought a few things. We also ate lunch at the Piccadilly Cafeteria out on Essen Lane. That was yum, but we did not over do it as New Orleans was calling us.
The first night we ate at our traditional place, Galitore's. As usual, it was outstanding and great service. The second night we ate at Antoine's, we had been trying to get there for some time. Unfortunately, while the food was adequate, it was not as good as Galitore's. We were disappointed. In fact we ranked the place behind the Red Fish Grill and ranked Galitore's as the best of the best in the French Quarter.
He ate breakfast every day at Café DuMonde - benguies and coffee for me, coke for Judie. As usual the coffee and benguies are unchanged but I recall the pouring of coffee and mill from two pots into your cup, a practice long gone. We also trolled through French Market and had our blacked catfish po boy for lunch. And then we visited Aunt Sallies and bought pralines. Naturally we partook of the samples.
It was sad driving out of New Orleans, in the rain, heading home again. But we made it back in one piece and racked up another visit to the Big Easy.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
LSU Football . . .
Football season has begun. LSU started with Wisconsin, fairly even match on neutral grounds in Houston, TX. First half of the game went to Wisconsin, the second half went to LSU. And LSU won by coming from behind. Coming from behind is not a trait of LSU, usually when they get a couple touch downs behind, it is all over but the shouting. Perhaps this come from behind win shows some character in the team.
The next two games gave the Tigers a warm up, a fine tuning of the defense, an exercise for the offense. Since the second half of the Wisconsin game, the whole team's character has changed from an also ran to a winner. Both teams were not of the caliber that the SEC teams are but they were good teams in their classification, very capable and had good stats before running into LSU. Things changed when those two teams played in Tiger Stadium. The two teams had moved into the big leagues when the played in Baton Rouge. Over a hundred thousand fans looked down upon them, a hundred thousand roaring LSU fans. There is meaning to "Tiger Bait."
Tune time is over, LSU faces Mississippi State this weekend. The first SEC game for the Tigers. South Carolina has already faced Texas A&M (and lost). South Carolina comes out the box and faced Georgia and won. That was a great game and come back for the Game Cocks. And once again the opening premier game for Georgia resulted in a loss.
So now it is not time for LSU to stumble. They have what is referred to by Coach Miles as a "quality opponent" Saturday in Baton Rouge. Both teams are unbeaten so far but only LSU has faced a tough Big Ten team while Miss State has been chewing up lower class teams. So both of them are in for the tough ride of facing their first SEC team.
It is ironic but all the top rated SEC teams this week are from the SEC West division. A division some say is a conference to itself. Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, LSU and yes, even Miss State are contenders, not so in the SEC East. Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Tennessee are all weak sisters in their division. Florida is so so, Georgia and South Carolina already have been discussed. Missouri has not been discussed and is a dark horse in the SEC East, over shadowed by Georgia and South Carolina but they are coming on strong. Auburn and Ole Miss are power houses in West division.
Its gonna be a good week for football. Beginning to cool off a little bit. A lot of attention will be drawn to Baton Rouge to see who moves up and who moves down. Miss State has not beaten LSU since 1999 - that is a long stretch. And their coach now knows LSU well and will be really prepared even though he has to face the Tigers before 102,321 screaming spectators. Some will be from Mississippi but the vast overwhelming majority will be Tigers and the noise will reflect it.
Geaux Tigers!
The next two games gave the Tigers a warm up, a fine tuning of the defense, an exercise for the offense. Since the second half of the Wisconsin game, the whole team's character has changed from an also ran to a winner. Both teams were not of the caliber that the SEC teams are but they were good teams in their classification, very capable and had good stats before running into LSU. Things changed when those two teams played in Tiger Stadium. The two teams had moved into the big leagues when the played in Baton Rouge. Over a hundred thousand fans looked down upon them, a hundred thousand roaring LSU fans. There is meaning to "Tiger Bait."
Tune time is over, LSU faces Mississippi State this weekend. The first SEC game for the Tigers. South Carolina has already faced Texas A&M (and lost). South Carolina comes out the box and faced Georgia and won. That was a great game and come back for the Game Cocks. And once again the opening premier game for Georgia resulted in a loss.
So now it is not time for LSU to stumble. They have what is referred to by Coach Miles as a "quality opponent" Saturday in Baton Rouge. Both teams are unbeaten so far but only LSU has faced a tough Big Ten team while Miss State has been chewing up lower class teams. So both of them are in for the tough ride of facing their first SEC team.
It is ironic but all the top rated SEC teams this week are from the SEC West division. A division some say is a conference to itself. Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, LSU and yes, even Miss State are contenders, not so in the SEC East. Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Tennessee are all weak sisters in their division. Florida is so so, Georgia and South Carolina already have been discussed. Missouri has not been discussed and is a dark horse in the SEC East, over shadowed by Georgia and South Carolina but they are coming on strong. Auburn and Ole Miss are power houses in West division.
Its gonna be a good week for football. Beginning to cool off a little bit. A lot of attention will be drawn to Baton Rouge to see who moves up and who moves down. Miss State has not beaten LSU since 1999 - that is a long stretch. And their coach now knows LSU well and will be really prepared even though he has to face the Tigers before 102,321 screaming spectators. Some will be from Mississippi but the vast overwhelming majority will be Tigers and the noise will reflect it.
Geaux Tigers!
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
American Legion . . .
I am a current member of the American Legion but do not belong to a local post. So the American Legion assigned me to the state chapter in Austin, TX. That is okay with me. It means I am a member in good standing with the American Legion.
I was a member in Redlands, CA in the early 1990s and they had a very active chapter and chapter operation. It was sort of a private club, membership only kind of place and could serve alcohol beverages when it want to. They also put on a nice lunch every day. Having said that, I never attended anything there, I was just a member so to speak.
The American Legion was after me to renew my membership, I had let it lapse when I left California and moved to New Mexico. Every year they would send me an application. I decided we were not going to move ever again, so I signed up again. I have been an active member, that is a dues paying member, for a couple of years now.
The local post called me and asked if I would move my membership to their chapter. More members meant a good thing to them. So I said, "Okay, sign me up." But that was not enough, I had to come down and sign up. Okay, I figured they needed a signature to make the membership transfer to work. No big deal.
I went down to the post and it was locked up tighter than drum. Strictly after 5 PM operation. That's okay. I let them know I had come around and they were closed.
Today I got a telephone call saying my membership had been submitted to the local chapter poo-bahs and approved pending I prove I am eligible to join. Whoa, I said to myself, :"Hey, self if I am already a member of the American Legion and have been a member in good standing, why do I have to prove I am eligible to join? I mean I am already a member."
So, no I am not going to go down and prove I am eligible. I will just stay with the state wide general membership and let the locals stew. I was given the line that they had to approve my eligibility by law. That is a crock. I mean, if I have been a member in another state, and I am now a member in this state, why would the law require me to prove anything about eligibility - again? That smells to me. Something is just not right.
So I will not be joining the local chapter or post. They pressed the issue a little to far for me. Such explanations that it is the law does not make sense to me as a long standing member. Just a bit fishy. So I am not transferring to the local chapter. Perhaps a membership in the local Veterans of Foreign Wars is more appropriate.
Perhaps I am testy. But as I get older, I sense more and more that there is no free lunch and that someone is always after what you have especially in the way of money. So it is not a mandatory thing for me to do in joining the local American Legion post, just sort of a civic thing to do. I am already a life member of Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) and a life member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV).
I was a member in Redlands, CA in the early 1990s and they had a very active chapter and chapter operation. It was sort of a private club, membership only kind of place and could serve alcohol beverages when it want to. They also put on a nice lunch every day. Having said that, I never attended anything there, I was just a member so to speak.
The American Legion was after me to renew my membership, I had let it lapse when I left California and moved to New Mexico. Every year they would send me an application. I decided we were not going to move ever again, so I signed up again. I have been an active member, that is a dues paying member, for a couple of years now.
The local post called me and asked if I would move my membership to their chapter. More members meant a good thing to them. So I said, "Okay, sign me up." But that was not enough, I had to come down and sign up. Okay, I figured they needed a signature to make the membership transfer to work. No big deal.
I went down to the post and it was locked up tighter than drum. Strictly after 5 PM operation. That's okay. I let them know I had come around and they were closed.
Today I got a telephone call saying my membership had been submitted to the local chapter poo-bahs and approved pending I prove I am eligible to join. Whoa, I said to myself, :"Hey, self if I am already a member of the American Legion and have been a member in good standing, why do I have to prove I am eligible to join? I mean I am already a member."
So, no I am not going to go down and prove I am eligible. I will just stay with the state wide general membership and let the locals stew. I was given the line that they had to approve my eligibility by law. That is a crock. I mean, if I have been a member in another state, and I am now a member in this state, why would the law require me to prove anything about eligibility - again? That smells to me. Something is just not right.So I will not be joining the local chapter or post. They pressed the issue a little to far for me. Such explanations that it is the law does not make sense to me as a long standing member. Just a bit fishy. So I am not transferring to the local chapter. Perhaps a membership in the local Veterans of Foreign Wars is more appropriate.
Perhaps I am testy. But as I get older, I sense more and more that there is no free lunch and that someone is always after what you have especially in the way of money. So it is not a mandatory thing for me to do in joining the local American Legion post, just sort of a civic thing to do. I am already a life member of Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) and a life member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV).
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
The Heat Is On. . . .
The local temperature hit a 100 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday. Local weather people say more of the same today and no rain in the forecast. Indeed we don't even seem to have the puffy white clouds that are so common in Texas. Though the weathermen say the humidity is rising.
It is just hot. My outdoor temperature transmitter for my indoor temperature read out broke. I guess it got to hot or something. I opened it up and did not find any spiders or such, it was nice and clean inside. I changed the batteries and the little red LED came on, then off as to indicate "I am okay." But the indoor receiver does not change from a reading on minus 40 degrees (C or F, does not matter as that is the cross point for both temperature measurements).
I guess I just got fried.
Oh well, that is North Texas for you.
It is just hot. My outdoor temperature transmitter for my indoor temperature read out broke. I guess it got to hot or something. I opened it up and did not find any spiders or such, it was nice and clean inside. I changed the batteries and the little red LED came on, then off as to indicate "I am okay." But the indoor receiver does not change from a reading on minus 40 degrees (C or F, does not matter as that is the cross point for both temperature measurements).
I guess I just got fried.
Oh well, that is North Texas for you.
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