dughlas

Greetings Albert. I'm better than I've been but I'm feeling the weather changes. It always seems I have the most trouble coping with the lovely weather after the storms.

Isn't that the Addams' Family msnsion?

It's common for Cub Scout dens to be led by women. Usually someone's mom. It was when the boys reached Webelos that male leaders became preferred though both my assistants were moms. Scout troops are almost entirely male led though the new female troops must have female leaders. The popcorn monies should have gone into the general Pack treasury. The individual units be they Pack or Troop only get to keep a portion of the proceeds. Popcorn is the Boy Scout eqivalent to Girl Scout cookies.

Imagine if you will growing up and spending your entire life in the repressed rural Great Britain of the last half of the 20th century. Your life has been dedicated to laboring as an estate gardener and hiding that you're gay. You are Eric, a lonely curmudgeon living a rather desolate life but things are changing. Thanks to the help of a charming young gay couple, Andy and Adam, Eric begins to experience some of the things most people take for granted. With their encouragement he slowly delves into aspects of modern life. While not everything is tea and roses Eric learns he can function outside the confines of life in his spare cottage. Even the cottage evolves. He begins to explore LGBTQ culture and find it's okay to tell select friends who he is. Life is a brighter place and there are things to celebrate. Yet, the LGBTQ world seems even more youth obsessed than society in general. How does a lone elderly man find a place? As part of an ever closer friendship Andy and Adam act as his guides. With their support Eric attends the local Pride and his world becomes a more open and hopeful place. This is the second installment in the tale of Eric's changing life and I highly recommend reading the first volume. Extremely well written it is somewhat unusual in that the protaganist, Eric, is an elderly man dealing with issues common to older folk. This is not a tale of teenage angst or sex. The consumate portrayal of Eric clearly supports northie's status as a Promising Author. In addition to Eric's life we learn more about Andy and Adam's world.

You have a clowder of kittens in the barn and open containers of screws? My grass has grown too. I know this because I've been watching it.

Growing up my family along with friends spent most summer weekends camping on some wooded ground my folks owned. We cooked over a wood fire supplemented by a propane stove. So I learned how to prepare a variety of foods. I spoiled the boys in the scout troop. On one of our campouts to Cape Henelopen in Delaware I maded pineapple glazed baked ham in one of the dutch ovens. My own homemade baked lima beans in another and pan roasted potatoes in my two 12 inch cast iron skillets. The boys had spent the day from mid-morning until dinner time playing on the beach and in the surf. They were hungry. I fed them. One summer campout I made grilled strip steak (the local butcher sold them to me at cost because it was for the scouts) fresh grilled corn on the cob and parsley potatoes. If it was a winter campout and they were gonna be outdoors in the cold they got things like homemade baked chili, fusili and cheese casserole or homemade chili over cornbread. I was known to chase them out of the campsite for a night time hike in the falling snow and then serving fresh hot homemade apple crisp with vanilla ice cream when they got back. They learned how to make foil baked apples or bananas. They ate warm peach crumble made with fresh peaches. Not all meals were extravagant. There were plenty of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, hot dogs grilled over the open fire. They learned how to make foil pack meals with ground beef or ground chicken or turkey breast and sliced potatoes, onion and carrots. We usually served a cooked breakfast, bacon and eggs or hash made with homefries, sausage onions and eggs. Sometimes they got french toast or pancakes. Occasionally, I would surprise them with grilled stickybuns. The first thing they did after setting up their tents and my chuckbox was to mix up a five-gallon cooler of Tang and fill the other five-gallon cooler with drinking water and ice. Surprise the Tang cooler was orange and only ever used for Tang or lemonade. The water cooler was blue and only used for water. I always started the morning with a pot of fresh perked coffee for the adults, those guys would have drunk ditch water not me, I like good coffee so that's what they drank too and a second larger pot with hot water for tea or instant hot chocolate for the boys. Mocha was a popular morning treat for the older boys, 16+. That was typically made with a spoonful of instant coffee added to their hot chocolate but sometimes they got it the way I made it for myself, cocoa, milk and sugar stirred into fresh perked coffee. Yep, I spoiled those boys. At one meeting after a campout one of the leaders told me I wasn't very popular with his wife. I served the boys my homemade potato soup on the campout. Seems that the first meal she prepared when they got home was potato soup. Eleven-yearold Greg took one taste of the soup and said "Mr. Frank's is better".

It's become very pleasant here. The sun is quite warm, hot actually, it's 88/31° but there is a breeze and the dewpoint has dropped into the mid-50's/13° making for very comfortable humidity. I'll shut off the AC and open the house once the sun has gone down.

Gee that sounds like every other Friday ... well, actually most days that you work.

🤣

Congrats to you both. May you have many years of happiness together.

G'day y'all. The lovely weather that Val was experiencing hasn't quite made it to me just yet though it is forecast.

You do know that regardless of whether you've everything ready they're still gonna come. I'm also pretty sure they're coming to visit you not your newly remodeled bathroom ... although it is a long trip so yeah, maybe they are coming for the bathroom.

Sounds good except for the tomato soup. Not fond of it. I had a friend who thought the height of campout cuisine was tomato soup with hot dogs, but the the hot dogs were "cooked" by boiling them in the soup. Not on my watch.

Actually, Grand Haven sounds rather familiar so I believe you're correct.

We had a brief thundershower this afternoon, barely dampened things before it cleared. We're waiting on the cold front to pass through here.

Not me. I'm sittin' on the curb watchin' the guttersnipes at play.

Of course you do ... you want it all, spread out before you and ready to eat.

So you're hoping for hot Italian sausage were I went with sweet.

I was never much of a proponent of the no pain no gain concept. However, in your case it seems valid.

I decided dinner should come early today. Sweet Italian sausage sauteed with fresh rapini then tossed with fresh raddiatore pasta and grated asiago.

What lovely portraits of summer. They fill the senses and make one appreciate the simple pleasures of the season. These are the things we long for on those cold drear days to come.

That aren't many cicada here as years past. Which somewhat desappoints the pup. He consumes them in great delight.

Thank you. Sadly, I must report that today's serving was the last of the quiche. I'd purchased it on Monday split it into thirds. A third for lunch Monday, a third before crashing on Tuesday and the last today. I forgot to mention it also contained shredded potato. It was very good. I'm sure you would have enjoyed it.

There are still some heavy clouds but there is improvement. I am determined to take things easy the remainder of the day.

Things are improving thank you Page. I have a relative that lives somewhere in the part of Michigan where you're on vacation. He's my cousin's son and I forget exactly where he and his wife live other than it's on a lake, not Lake Michigan but close, across from Milwaukee.