A Crisp Cold Day with North Wind

 

Beach ritual on New Year's Eve--even on a cold windy day. Anything for art.

 

After 2 years of weakness, Brother Rick's Rolls--just what the recipe says but not just what I remember. 2 pictures

 

Maybe I had changed the recipe to cook at 350 or 375 rather than 415. Recipe says 415.

The marble slab in 3 pieces came from a junk store north of the Brandywine River 3 or so blocks, on Market Street, in Wilmington. I have not had the feeling of kneading on marble in 2 years and had forgotten the pleasure of making circles of dough on the marble with the palms. Back to life in 2022, new clot or not.

The rolls are good but they are not what I remember. Next time, lower temperature.

Memory of Uncle James Alexander Bell, who walked home to Mississippi from Rock Island Prison

 Grandpa said he run away from home at 16 years of age & went to War. He said he was so young they made him feed the Horses 2 years. He was gone 5 years when he got back his daddy was chopping wood out in front of the house & he asked if he could spend the night and he said you will have to see my wife & she knew him. He didn't have a beard. When he got back his face was covered with beard.

[He also would not leave the house in his wagon or on a horse without dried fruit or something else to munch on: he had been starved in prison.]

Virginia teachers fire back after school district mulls implementing more 'equitable' grading system

 You know what this means? Suzie can never be said to do anything better than Tom. And Tom would be hurt if you gave a higher grade to Adam.

After Kent State many professors adopted a plan of over-grading everyone and failing no one. Well, here we are. Time for a more equitable grading system.

Feats you could achieve in the old days--Making Brother Rick's Rolls while making Regular Loaves

 I took out a gift from Mike Moughan, THE SECRETS OF JESUIT BREADMAKING, because some stamina is returning and I want a change from cornbread or skillet bread, good as they are. 

This is in ballpoint pen at the top:

"Memo 4 October 2002. I can start Bro Rick's rolls--get them in refrigerator. Then at once start other regular bread & get it cooking while Bro Rick is rising 1 1/2 hours and then reset oven fast from 350 to 425 & put first pan in--it works-- other bread rises 2nd time and cooks while Bro Rick is in pans on the counter rising."

The thing about Brother Rick's rolls is that they go in the refrigerator at least 2 hours after mixing and also after kneading right after mixing. I want to make them but am afraid my shoulders won't take the kneading. Maybe I can add 5 minutes to the mixing? And knead for 5 more?

If I try this tomorrow I won't make loaves of regular bread at the same time. 

WHAT 2 CHAIRED PROFESSORS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE REALLY LOOK LIKE

 

Attack of Beach Snark Karen. K. Karen and her two loose Vicious Dogs at a No-Dogs part of the Beach

 SHE DID HAVE A LEASH, AFTER ALL.

She was using a short lacrosse stick to throw or pretend to throw a ball to the dogs and had them running into the water and all the way back to the beach. I tried to angle away to get out of her way but she was having no escape. She threw or pretended to throw something right at me, and both dogs charged me. They barked and snarled and jumped at me but did not bite me or knock me down. 

I am waiting 3 more weeks to see a new hematologist (the good one went to Colorado) about the ugly new ultrasound shows new clotting after 18 months on blood thinner. I did not want to be knocked down and did not want to be bitten. I called to her to please hold her dogs. When she came up she yelled, "You old fool, what the fuck are you down here for?" Then she loosed several FUs, but she did hold the dogs and head south, stopping to throw the stick at me (she missed).  Up to now the best thing a dog-owner said after an attack was, "It's your fault. You let him smell your fear." Well, that does beat "You old fool, what the fuck are you down here for?" Well, at 86 I can't argue with the characterization.

This was the no-dog part of the beach. There's a 4 mile off-leash beach and a short dogs-on-lease beach near the Rock. Truth is, with the pandemic everyone has to be more tolerant, and as long as dogs are on leashes I'm cool.

San Luis Obispo Tribune ‘A new white shark frontier’: Morro Bay attack focuses attention on Central Coast population

 So we have more sharks swimming in the water. Surfers are talking about going in teams. That makes sense. At times when I was running, and running very early, I have seen single surfers going into the water while it was still dark, too dark to see them a hundred feet out. 

Yesterday the rain was supposed to slack off in midmorning so out I went and very quickly saw that I was getting so wet that I might as well slog through Duck Creek and the Cloister's stream, smaller. I wondered about one middle aged woman and then another. Did no one tell them not to go out and play in the cold rain? It was a glorious 43 minutes and at the garage I hosed out the shoes and put them in a narrow bucket to drain. Then back to the Mountain Meadows massacre, which breaks your heart the more you read about the condition of the few children who survived. I try not to learn about the details of the entrapment and slaughter. My poor cousins . . . . Land sharks.

2 days after Shark Killing. No Surfers Today. 2 Little Bands of People shouting something Strange-- "HAST SEEN THE WHITE SHARK?"

 What an 

odd thing to call out.

Turmoil in the Waters down the Hill--Success in the Kitchen before 9 am--And some revisions on the Mountain Meadows Massacre

 

It looks as if David Middlecamp has a photo and photo credit in the New York TIMES

 

Behind the sign, the Rock--FATAL SHARK ATTACK

 

Shark, maybe a Great White Shark, Killed a Man here Today

 Shortly before 11 a 31 year old man boogie boarding (news says) was killed by a shark, presumably not while on the boogie board. The scene is precisely the one I usually post, the view from the Rock from the end of Highway 41, where I turn around and start back north. Today I did not cross the rapid water at  Duck Creek but turned back through the dunes, shortly before 11.

For hours, Texas man assaulted woman in her Parker County home, sheriff says

 This has to be a fake story. Greg Abbott has eliminated rape in Texas, don't you know?

Playing in the Rain--but with no Jolly Playmates

 I went to the beach in long-sleeved shirt and an anorak with knit hat under the cap of the anorea. The rain was driving from the South. I waded across Duck Creek and the flood at the Cloisters Creek, a little afraid of losing my footing. Then I gave up after a while and went back onto the Cloisters and the trail back to the parking lot. The low places were submerged, as they have always been. But I got to pass the Norman Roberts bench quoting RWE: THE HAPPIEST MAN IS HE WHO FROM NATURE LEARNS THE LESSONS OF WISDOM.

Now, that is one of the worst samples of prose I know, but the southbound part of my outing was in Nature, and exhilarating. So the blood clot is worse, still the leg is not swollen, and I am 86 and happy to cross the raging waters--and get home and wash my shoes out and put them to drain dry. Happy to be active, after the shutdown of 2020.

U S Representative Scanlon's is carjacked in Philadelphia--AMTRAK did not stop in Newark, DE in my time. What's a Univ of DE student to do?

 Two armed men approached Scanlon and demanded the keys to her vehicle — a blue 2017 Acura MDX. Scanlon surrendered the keys, and one of the two men drove off with her car. The second man entered a separate vehicle and followed the first man, Philadelphia police said.

Scanlon's Acura was found at a shopping center in Newark, Delaware, around 9 p.m., and five people inside it were taken into custody, Delaware State Police said.

ONLY 4 WERE ENGLISH MAJORS?

Hematologist gone to Colorado, New one on hold for January, Blood Clot worse, not better, 2 miles a day on Beach

 Really unpleasant report from ultrasound. Common Femoral Vein completely blocked. Popliteal Vein blocked. Ho, I was counting on the poplital vein.

But the leg has not swollen back up and I am going fast on the beach (for an 86 year old) to stir blood up. All I see new are puffy tracks near the blocked off femoral vein. 

It's hard not to worry but there is no point worrying. New doctor in mid January.

Today on the Beach I saw a once-familiar red orange wind breaker--Doctor Dick, 80 now, who still drives down to LA every week to treat very poor patients. He was overjoyed to see me after 2 years and I was overjoyed to see him. Told him briefly about Stanford saying aggressive cancer and suggesting enucleation for the eye. Doctors. We did fist bumps. I'm really glad he is alive and well. I did not tell him about the DVT.

I still have not seen Tom from Los Osos in all these months--that is, have not seen him in 2 years, 2020 being a blank. I've seen Jan and Craig, so they are fine.

Caretaker's iPhone last night--Henry James's LAND OF THE PINK SKY

 

Sunday Morning Skillet Bread--Ready at 8:30. At night I dream of shoulder strength for kneading but come daytime I settle for Skillet Bread

 

Cooking 2 pounds of Pinto Beans today. These have been on 6 hours and have another hour to do.

 

Now that I can't give the last name of any Chris in Hollywood, I am thankful that I am retired.

 Noah A. McGee

Mon, December 13, 2021, 12:00 PM

Christopher Trogan, a professor in the English department at the University of Fordham, was fired after confusing the names of two Black students in his class, in what he called an “innocent mistake,” according to The Observer.

Can't get anyone to play in the rain with me.

 

Hate greasing 2 pans--decided to use the Skillet which water never touches, only papertowel

 

After a little storm--Everyone was taught not to go out and play after a storm

 The wind off the Pacific was very cold.

Yahoo Sports Bayern Munich's Joshua Kimmich out until 2022 with lung issues from contracting COVID-19

 So his future financial security may be shot and his future health may be compromised. But at least he did not take a risky vaccination.

If you have not read Stephen Kiernan's THE BAKER'S SECRET you ought to read the reviews you get when you type author & title on Google

 I liked it very much when I first read it a few years ago. I read it more slowly this week, savoring the sentences, and liked it even more. The stroke of genius was to make the heroine a young woman who does not hope for an allied invasion which will end the years of occupation. Not recognizing that some of her friends are in the Resistance, she resists in her own way. This is a beautifully written book.

Delta Passenger Reportedly Caught Breastfeeding Cat Mid-Flight

 Why do I look at Yahoo items when I try to get my email?

Skillet Bread and a very good book about baking

 

Birdies from inside the front door.

 

Like yesterday--again, private beach at noon. No complaints.

 

PRIVATE BEACH AT NOON