Category Archives: Commentary

A December to Remember

Posted on December 28, 2017 by AnnieRie

And not always in a good way.  Maybe turning 65 tomorrow is a good thing. Time will tell. Hopefully the dozens of phone calls trying to sell me Medigap policies will cease.

As for why I wasn’t enamored with this month? So many things failed, or had to be replaced. I felt the checkbook and credit cards were always out.

The one that hurt the most? Having to take down a beautiful spruce tree.

I loved that tree. Standing as tall as our house. Weathering storms.

It survived snowmageddon, and ice storms. But needlecast did it in. We couldn’t save it, and last week it was felled. A hole in my yard and my heart.

It was just one of those things this month. Add to it a failed heat pump. Struts and shocks on the SUV. And, today! A dead washing machine. Anyone know where the nearest Laundromat is?

I shouldn’t complain. We are lucky that we have small local vendors who take good care of things for us. Landers’ Appliances will come to assess the 13 year old washer to see if it is salvageable. If it isn’t, Bray and Scarff will be replacing it.

BA Auto Care (formerly known as British American) did an awesome job as usual on our 14 year old car.

Advance Arboriculture surgically removed the tree, leaving nothing but mulch in our front yard.

Environmental Systems Associates (ESA) replaced our failing heat pump with a new energy efficient unit.

What did you get for Christmas? I got a bunch of invoices for all this work.

As for tomorrow, we aren’t going anywhere for my birthday. It’s just too cold and miserable out, so we will hunker down, pan sear a few filets, and open a bottle of old red wine. I should send my hubby up to Dandelion Bistro to pick up a nice chocolate dessert to savor with the leftover wine, after dinner.

I must be getting old. I prefer an evening by the fireplace, watching old movies, instead of going out to celebrate.

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Thankful

Posted on November 22, 2017 by AnnieRie

Another year. More to be thankful for. This year, watching the natural disasters around the North American area, including the Caribbean islands, I am thankful to live in a relatively benevolent region. Think about it. Houston. Florida. California. Montana. Puerto Rico. The Virgin Islands. Smaller islands, belonging to other nations.

We can’t forget that those people lost their homes. Their livelihoods. They are still struggling to recover, and it will take a long time. It took a year around here to recover from the Ellicott City floods. Even more for some businesses.  I see that Portalli’s is finally going to open again. Sixteen months since the floods.

When we give thanks tomorrow, we should think of those who still need help. If we can, we should step up on “Giving Tuesday” and find those still trying to put the pieces back together.

Happy Thanksgiving for those fortunate friends and family. Hopefully, a better year for those still digging out.

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Napa and Sonoma

Posted on October 12, 2017 by AnnieRie

I think if there was one place that we would love to live, and that we loved visiting, it was California wine country. For me, the combination of agriculture, culture, climate and activities made it one of our favorite vacation spots.

It depresses me to see it burning out of control.

We spent 10 days there, a decade ago. Rented a house. Visited wineries. Cooked. Grilled. Strolled through amazing farmer’s markets. Ate at awesome restaurants.

Chateau St. Jean. In the news now for the damage to their property.

It was one of the first places we visited. Picnic in the gardens while enjoying a glass of wine.

We went to over two dozen wineries that trip. Some of them were known because of our wine dinners at Iron Bridge.

Like Corley.

Family owned. Transplants from Virginia. We still get wines from their wine club, and we hope they are doing OK. They are between the Silverado Trail and Highway 29, fairly far north in the valley.

We first met them at a wine dinner in 2005. Out there, they remembered my husband and were so nice to take us everywhere on the property.

We made other friends out there. One, St. Helena Olive Oil. I would order their oil on line to be delivered here. They lost part of their production facility, although Peggy posted that her house was spared.

The impact on all of us. The loss of produce and fruit. Sonoma was a humongous producer of vegetables and fruit, for the US market.

US olive oils. Hopefully, those old, heavy producing olive trees survived. Otherwise, it could be years before production comes back to normal.

Avocados. Nuts. Citrus. Berries. The melting pot in Sonoma.

Makes me nervous when Florida and California have losses in citrus. Between the hurricane and these wildfires.

Add to it all, the disruption in income when all these businesses can’t open. For them, and their workers.

It’s been a crummy year here in the US, hasn’t it?

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San Francisco Bay

Posted on October 1, 2017 by AnnieRie

Coffee.

If there was only one environmentally friendly packaged coffee out there, I hope it is this one. We have a Keurig for convenience, for those days we don’t want a whole pot. I do buy some Green Mountain coffees, but don’t like their wasteful packaging.

Way back when, I discovered this family business that packaged their coffees without all that extra plastic stuff.

Use it. Put it in the compost. Even their outer wrap for the 10 pod packages is made of compostable material. I made special trips to Wegmans to buy it.

Now, it’s gone. Probably because it doesn’t work in K-2 machines. It was a bargain. Less than 40 cents a pod.

But, you know, when you can’t find something, you can always turn to Amazon, can’t you? Yep, the 80 cup pack on line for less than what we paid at Wegmans. With Prime, and free shipping, 30 cents a cup.

And we wonder why brick and mortar stores are hurting.

By the way, this is an excellent dark roast coffee. Low in acid. High in flavor. The dark roasts are so much nicer for those of us who want to avoid acid.

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Preparedness Bootcamp

Posted on September 6, 2017 by AnnieRie

Did you know that our county is having an emergency preparedness “bootcamp” on the Office of Emergency Management Facebook page?

Not a bad time for us to review what we need to do, to remain prepared for possible extreme weather. With Hurricane Irma out there, and maybe more behind it.

I can’t believe it has been five years since Sandy came through. I remember being a new blogger and writing quite a few posts about preparing for it, and how we coped.

We are much more prepared these days, making it simple to ramp up if we need to do it. Always have extra batteries. Have all sizes of containers around to stockpile water, if needed. We know where to get the largest bags of ice, and we have four coolers for food.

We hope that Irma will somehow miraculously take a hard turn and go out to sea, but if not, we are ready.

Around here, it’s that massive deluge of rain that worries all of us the most. As big as Irma is, it will be hard to avoid getting drenched somewhere along the East Coast.

For those interested in weather, and wanting to learn more about preparedness, check out the OEM page. And, be prepared.

Finally, one simple tip, and a recipe. Make sure you have a good hand can opener. Power outages, you know. For us, the simplest meal. Canned tuna in olive oil, canned chickpeas, a white onion, salt and pepper. Drain the chickpeas. Dice the onion. Mix tuna, chickpeas, onion and salt and pepper. Add a bit more olive oil if it needs it. Serve over lettuce.

Stay safe!

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Hurricanes Past

Posted on September 1, 2017 by AnnieRie

I hate hurricanes. For us they are the largest and most frequent weather events that bring damage to our area. For us, looking at the remnants of Harvey, the hurricane that won’t go away, it is difficult.

Our hurricanes almost never drive us out of our homes. They just hang around, knock out power and dump copious amounts of rainwater that flood those in low lying areas.

A few days of inconvenience for most of us. A minimal number with tree damage to their homes. A handful of flooded basements. Annoying. Yes. Catastrophic. No.

We have many friends in Texas. One in Port Aransas. If he still has a home there. They are in our thoughts. That landing area. Where homes were leveled, and recovery will take years.

Not unlike what Ellicott City had to do, after the floods a year ago. Muck. Bacteria. Mold. Throwing everything away. Wearing respirators to clean up. Fighting with the Flood Insurance People. And more.

If you can, give money to help those who need it in Texas.

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No Bones About It

Posted on August 24, 2017 by AnnieRie

Bare Bones, that is. A local restaurant that hosted the blogging community and what seemed like a boatload of politicians from our county.

There were over 100 people at the popular “ribs” bar on Monday night. An opportunity to schmooze. Catch up with old friends. Meet people running in our next election in 2018.

Scott Ewart and Bill Woodcock hosted the event. They found sponsors that helped make the night special. A big thanks to Performance Tinting, who brought goodies to share, and who conducted a raffle of baskets with many of their auto-related products offered at their business. We use them to detail our cars. They did an amazing job on our pickup truck, getting those fabric seats beautiful and stain free. To support them, we bought a few raffle tickets, and then, surprise, we won the big basket. All sort of cute little items including some potential Christmas stocking stuffers.

Thanks to those who made the night out so special. And, I have to say, they still have some of the best BBQ ribs. We stopped visiting after an hour and sat down to indulge.

The Monday night special. A rack of spare ribs. Two sides. I picked their butter beans and corn fritters. Brought home half that rack, which became dinner the next night, along with my better half’s leftovers. Not a bad deal for $18.99.

Bare Bones also has their own beers. We enjoyed a pint while talking to some of the long time bloggers.

Eat In or Carry Out. Really good ribs. Trust me.

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Dad’s Day

Posted on June 18, 2017 by AnnieRie

Did your dad love to cook? Mine did. So did my husband’s dad.

We miss our dads. Years have gone by since we lost them. Still, every time we make something that they loved to cook, it brings a smile to our faces.

For my dad, it was frying stuff. Scrapple. Crab cakes. Liver and onions (which, by the way, both my brother and I love).

This post may be short. Not a ton of substance. No recipes. No recommendations. No other stories.

Just missing my dad.

me-and-the-brothers

Me and my dad. And his younger brothers. I was the first. The oldest grandchild. Yeah, we are getting old, aren’t we?

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Fifty is Nifty

Posted on March 21, 2017 by AnnieRie

If you are a city, that is. Even though people think that 50 years is a long time, it certainly isn’t when it comes to cities. The place I lived the longest, Columbia MD, turns 50 this summer. The celebration started last weekend.

The storytelling event this Friday night at the Owen Brown Interfaith Center will feature many long time residents. Who may remember the tiny little town of the 1960s and 70s. When there were just two lane roads, and not all that many traffic signals.

It was an interesting place to live, but it certainly isn’t old, even now. Heck, I might have a pair of boots or two older than Columbia.

I grew up in Baltimore, in a house built in 1920. I considered it really old when it was only 50 years. Back when I started college. I couldn’t wait to graduate and move to the New Town. The one with the cool people tree.

And the even cooler downtown, that included a lake, instead of high rises and congestion.

I remember ice skating on that lake. Spreading blankets on the grass before the fireworks. Making reservations at The Tomato Palace, to have dinner and watch the fireworks (in the years after I made enough money to do that).

Still, it isn’t really old. Sitting out here with a next door neighbor in a renovated farmhouse that was built in 1894, I have a different perspective.

No matter what. It’s been my home county for 42 years. Columbia was the town I lived in for 30 years, so there are lots of memories.

You bet I will be enjoying the storytelling events. And many of the other events celebrating the occasion.

I think I’ve even gotten used to this no longer being the Rouse Building.

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Whither Winter?

Posted on February 23, 2017 by AnnieRie

To paraphrase the Elvis quote, “winter has left the building”, or has it? Rumor has it that we will get another Arctic Clipper blast a week from tomorrow. Hopefully, that won’t be the case, but it certainly doesn’t feel like winter anymore around here. I had the French doors open all day today, and it is T-shirt weather.

I seriously considered heading up to the community gardens and clearing up the asparagus beds. I almost took the tomato seedlings out of their warm spot in the laundry room and moved them out for fresh air.

I went back in my old photos to check out the four previous February files. I found quite a bit of bad weather this week.

feb22snow-002

Two years ago, on the 22nd. Frantic birds chowing down on the hastily thrown seeds on the patio. It was too deep to get to the feeders.

csa-fandf-and-vdweekend-060

Last year, the day after Valentine’s Day.

Other years I also had the mad rush for fresh water from the cedar waxwings, and the pileated woodpecker working on a possible new home (or food source in my dying tree).

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pileated-woodpecker-010

I think the birds tell me when the seasons are changing. That means right now, since the juncos are still here, that winter has not left the building. Spring will be here when they leave and the hummingbirds show up.

Now, if only we don’t get weather that is too harsh, because the daffodils are coming up and the tulips are just popping through the soil. I hope the dogwoods and the cherry trees don’t suffer from too much cold. They look to be close to budding.

Climate variance. Around here, we measure things like bud break. Soil temperatures. The farmers can tell you all about weather and climate variance. They have large amounts of data tracking the weather. It’s the only way to know when to plant.

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