I wish restaurants wouldn’t call any random salad they want to fancy up a Caesar salad.
Kale & Radicchio, with creamy sunflower dressing, grilled onion, nori, and whatever “crumble” is, is NOT remotely a Caesar salad.
They aren’t even cousins.
They’re cute. They’re fluffy. They have those adorable little paws. And they are total assholes. Also, stupid.
When I moved into a duplex in Charleston, SC, there was a tiny piece of yard. I planted 24 crocus bulbs. Squirrels dug up every one, took a single bite, hated it and tried the next one. They never learned that if it looks exactly the same, it is going to be just as nasty.
That was the start of my loathing. And nothing has changed my mind.
When Vash was debating being a yard cat, we left kibble out for him. We spotted cardinals helping themselves when it had snowed and decided that bird feeders were in order.
And the squirrels thought they should help themselves.
IF they didn’t also help themselves to tomatoes, more bulbs and strawberries, I might be inclined to be more kindly. But, they’re just destructive and I refuse to encourage them.
We have 3 Squirrel Buster feeders off the deck and think it’s funny, in a mean way, when new squirrels try to figure out how to get in them. It’s doesn’t work. Those things are effective. And watching squirrels bouncing around on them is vastly entertaining.
One night, something tore up the alternative squirrel-proof feeder my husband put in the front yard. It might have been the bear. It might have been a raccoon or opossum. It wasn’t a squirrel. So, that feeder goes in and out instead of remaining available.
And, since birds are dribblers, the squirrels do have one shot at getting snacks from us.
I don’t mind them cleaning up the wasted millet. They are clearly not starving.
We had a party, ages ago, and I wanted to make carrot cake. But, I decided that slices of cake was awkward because it can be hard to slice that very thin. With everything else on the table, I didn’t expect people to want large pieces.
So, I decided on miniature cupcakes. They would be a couple of bites and folks could have as little or as much suited them. In addition, rather than frost all of them, I put the frosting in a bowl so that people could have as little or as much as they preferred. (My child doesn’t care for frosting and would always pick it off. That made me think there might be other people in the world who felt the same way.).
At the end of the night, most of the cupcakes were gone and the bowl of frosting was almost untouched. My family didn’t bother finishing what was left either.
I have quit bothering to make layered cakes. Instead I make cupcakes and freeze most of them. This allows us to have more manageable portion control. A cupcake thaws pretty quickly and we don’t feel that we have to eat a whole cake in a week.
Also, I’ve quit frosting the carrot cupcakes and finally realized that, without the frosting, they are, indeed, muffins.
People new to the South watch us get ready for a snow storm and laugh at us. That’s because they haven’t lived through it, yet.
The problem isn’t the snow. It’s the ice that happens as the snow thaws during the day and freezes after the sun goes down. Particularly in shady areas. Major roads get salted and plowed. But, the secondary roads don’t. It’s not worth the expense to keep a huge fleet of snow plows ready when we may not even get snow in a given year. Or just get it for a couple of days.
So, we hunker down and, for the most part, enjoy the mini vacations that are snow days.
If ice takes out power lines, people with fireplaces use them. They break out the candles and camping gear. People without fireplaces get out all the blankets and wear coats and gloves inside. And go stay with family and friends who do.
And, for some reason, a lot of people make what my husband calls a French Toast Run. I’m not sure why so many people decide that now is the time to buy extra eggs, milk and bread. But, those things get bought up quicker than anything else at the grocery. The eggs, at least, still need cooking. I don’t ever notice a surfeit of deviled eggs after a snow storm as unneeded boiled eggs get used up.
My employer gets hotel rooms for workers who live an inconvenient distance from our workplace. And, because I work for the major employer in my area, the roads from the interstate to my building with get plowed quickly. They contract with someone to do the parking lots quickly and probably more than once, too.
So, I’m packing for a couple of nights in a hotel after work tomorrow.
I’m expecting it to start snowing tomorrow night and turn into a “heavy wintry mix” that will make driving hazardous. With ice on secondary roads all day Sunday. They’ve already started salting the main roads. Since it’s not precipitating yet, that should be effective. There may only be 2-4 inches of snow. But, the ice part is still the problem.
The last time they put me up, my car got stuck behind a hill of ice that the snowplow left behind. It took me a cold hour to stomp and kick my way out of that. Now, I have a folding snow shovel in my car. And a long handled, heavy duty scraper with a brush to clear everything off the car before I try to drive. It’s rude to let snow blow back on other drivers if you can help it.
There’s a neighbor at the far end of my road who plows for us. But, the 3 miles between me and the interstate are sketchy. Lots of shade and it doesn’t usually get salted. I expect I’ll be able to get home by midday on Monday, being very careful on the last leg.
It makes me chuckle every time I pass it on my way to work.
It’s kind of blurry because I grabbed the shot with my phone on one of the rare occasions I have actually been stopped by that traffic light.
I am the Audience 