The Sandcastle

Whoever you are.

Wherever you are.

Whatever you believe.

We all remember.

TTYL,

Linda

Blogs I’ve been reading lately have been about the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous speech. I wrote a comment on one of those blogs then decided I needed to post that comment here.

“When my daughter was young, back in the 70s, I did a program for mostly white kids using Fisher Price people to show how they were all kind of the same but kind of different–clothes, hair styles, skin color, etc. The mother of an adopted Korean daughter thanked me for that program. Then I did that program for kindergartners who were mostly black–they didn’t get it. There were so used to seeing the differences they couldn’t see the similarities. Broke my heart.

As an adult I was with a group of friends one day when one of the guys made a comment about us not all being caucasian. Surprised, I asked who wasn’t. He said he was Eurasian. I had never noticed.

Apparently it is easier to not notice if you are a member of the group not often discriminated against.”

When my brother was in third grade he had a birthday party to which he invited his best friend from school. The child said he could not come. My brother was heart-broken. My Mom called the boy’s mother to reinforce the written invitation. Finally, the mother said my Mom did not know that her son was a Negro. Mom said of course she knew but he was my brother’s best friend so we really wanted him to come to the party. His mother said in that case he could come. How sad to be afraid to let your child go to a friend’s house for fear of discrimination.

It was years later before I realized that incident may have been the catalyst for me being invited to visit my black school friend’s houses. I played with everyone so I didn’t know there might have been something special about those invitations.

I am so glad I was raised to be color blind.

TTYL,

Linda

Here in the apartment during the summer I eat a fresh tomato most evenings. For storage they just sit  on the kitchen counter. Visualize, if you would, what would happen to a tomato left to sit on the counter in my RV while I changed camps.

Right.

Now I could put tomatoes in the fridge in my RV but that kills the taste of them. And I could put them in my pantry with the canned goods but the cans tend to shift if I have to make any sudden moves including tight turns so I would soon have smashed tomatoes.

And the same thing would happen with bananas.

So, I’ve been trying to figure out how to safely store and transport delicate produce like tomatoes and bananas.

My first thought was to buy a metal basket to hang someplace to put these items in. So when I was offered a free wire chicken-shaped basket I took it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any place to hang it where it would not be in the way of something else.

Then one of my Yahoo groups started talking about hammocks. This group is mostly people who have converted a cargo van to something in which they can live. Someone suggested you use a hammock for a bed so you can take it down during the day and have full access to the space. Someone else said they put a hammock along one wall above their regular bed and they store clothes there. Someone else said you can store all kinds of things in hammocks. Someone said they didn’t have room for a hammock but they did use a gear loft for holding things.

I have a gear loft. It came with my roll-up table. I think you are supposed to hang it under the table to put the table’s storage bag in so the bag won’t blow away. I just leave my storage bag in the van when I take the table out. Plus, when I did put the gear loft under the table it tickled my knees so I didn’t like it there.

I got the gear loft out and held it up under my kitchen cupboards to see if it would fit there. Yes!

So off we went to the local hardware store. We have one not far down the road from us in the neighborhood where Dave lived as a child. One of those old-fashioned hardware stores where they have everything. Including helpful clerks.

Dave showed our clerk a picture of the tie downs in my rig and said we wanted something similar. We looked at u-bolts and similar items but they were all too big. Then, as these clerks usually do if they can’t find what you want, he asked if we would be willing to assemble something from pieces parts. He found us some flat plates to be the cross piece and some wood screws to be the uprights and we headed back to the RV to begin installation.

Dave was hoping to be able to just screw into the bottom of the cupboard but the wood was a bit too resistant so here he is with his huge drill in my tiny space drilling pilot holes:

 

And here’s my new banana hammock:

 

We tightened it up enough that the front and back of the hammock are right up against the ceiling but the ends are open for inserting and removing food items.

 

So when I leave this fall, I can stock up on fresh produce and it won’t become mush before I can eat it. Let’s hear it for fresh tomatoes. And hardware store clerks who really do help their customers.

TTYL,

Linda

A couple years ago we made a driving trip to Texas to plan my new RV. Traveling by car meant using rest areas, restaurants, and motels. During that trip my ankles became so painful it was hard for me to walk.

At my next physical I asked my doctor about that pain but she could find no reason for it. Thinking it might be arthritis I started taking glucosamine/chondroitin again as it had helped my knees years ago. No relief.

The only thing that helped was not walking.

So, at this year’s physical I asked my doctor about my ankles again. She ordered x-rays and gave me a referral to a podiatrist.

The x-rays did not show arthritis.

The doctor explained to me that just like people’s eyes change shape over the years requiring glasses feet can change shape requiring more support. These supports are called orthotics and they would do a test to see if those might help me.

This is what the test looks like:

 

That is tape they put on my feet to mimic the support of orthotics. I was to wear the tape for at least three but not more than five days to see if they helped. If not, I was to have a radiological bone scan on day four.

For me, this taping was like a wonder drug! I was able to run errands two days in a row without ankle pain!

But…

…I am allergic to adhesives. I managed to leave the tape on almost three full days but once removed the reason for my itching was clear:

 

I had this rash on both feet and it had been driving me nuts!

But, at least, I didn’t have to do the bone scan.

I wanted that relief back without the allergic reaction so we we tried wrapping my feet with an ace bandage:

 

Unfortunately, that didn’t help.

So, back to the doctor I went and they made these molds of my feet:

 

Which they then sent off to have orthotics custom made just for me.

Now, for the next challenge. These are meant to replace the insoles in any pair of shoes. But the shoes I wear most are these:

 

And those insoles are not removable. I tried putting the orthotics in on top of the molded insoles and they fit in the shoe but they make the arch support way too high so didn’t even come close to being comfortable. Unless I want to sand down the insoles of these shoes, I don’t think they are going to work.

So, I started looking at other shoes I own. Like these:

 

As you can see by the one in the back, these insoles come out. In fact I used to wear these shoes so much I wore out one pair of insoles and ordered another pair from the shoe manufacturer. So these would work. As long as the weather is nice. Except for the fact that I’m supposed to wear socks to protect the insoles. Socks with sandals, anyone?

Then there is these:

I haven’t tried these yet because I’d have to trim the insoles to fit. What they have in them now is not so much an insole as a liner. But the tops are stretchy fabric so I might be able to put the orthotics in and still get my feet into them. But, I won’t know until I’ve already trimmed the orthotics. I’m not excited about making that experiment.

The one other pair of shoes I own do not have removable anything. Plus, they are sandals, too.

As a minimalist, I hate the idea of having to go buy shoes when I already own all these. Especially since I only bought those Crocs last month.

But, I sure do like having no ankle pain.

TTYL,

Linda

 

I don’t enjoy cooking. So I am always looking for easier ways to get fed. But, I don’t like eating out all the time either. So I am always looking for easier ways to prepare food at home. Our newest method is called Sous Vide, pronounced “sue veed”. That apparently translates to “water bath”.

No, I’m not boiling all our food now. I know that’s what it sounds like but, honestly, I’m not.

It starts with buying a bunch of meat. LIke these steaks and pork chops.

 

Then filling the meat’s bathtub with water.

 

And setting the temperature for the desired degree of done we want for this particular batch of meat.

 

We have special bags to put the meat into after first turning down the tops to keep from making a mess of the closures.

 

Then the excess air gets vacuumed out of the bags.

 

And the bags of meat are test fit into the water.

 

Then more water is added to cover this particular batch of meat.

 

Then we put the lid on and go watch TV, or do laundry, or whatever else is on the agenda while the cooker does its thing. Sometimes we set a timer to remind us to take the meat out but sometimes we don’t bother. In this case, we set the temperature for 140° for the steaks then came back an hour later and removed them; then we upped the temperature to 160° for the pork chops and put them in to cook. We came back several hours later to remove the pork chops. We could safely do this because the machine cooks the meat to just the temperature you selected then keeps it there until you are ready for it. Leaving it in longer does not make the meat overdone; it just makes it more tender. And who would object to steak you can cut with a butter knife?

Here’s what the pork chops look like right from the cooker.

 

If you like your chops or steaks to look more finished, you can throw them on a hot grill for a few seconds per side to get that crispy outer crust so many like. Dave cooks his steaks that way because he likes his a little more done than I like mine.

And you can put seasonings or marinades right in the bag with the meat so you can gets lots of different flavors from each batch of cooking. And you can cook fish, poultry, eggs, and vegetables this way, too.

But, with only the effort it took to bag the meats and drop them into the cooker we made, I think, nine servings of meat to be readily available for consumption over the next few days.

Next fall, I plan to cook lots of meats this way and freeze them so when I head south for the winter I can eat for a long time while only having to thaw the meat and prepare side dishes. That’s a style of cooking that suits me just fine.

TTYL,

Linda