Stubborn As A Mule

     Tamara's been fighting some sort of thing -- respiratory infection, most likely -- since suffering a torn intercostal quite some time ago, coughing and hacking.  Over the past week or so, it has grown to include upper respiratory troubles, which she is describing as "just a cold."

     Maybe it is, maybe it isn't; either way, I am having trouble convincing her to see a doctor, or even a nurse-practitioner.

     Swelp me, she's goin' today, even if I have to drag her in at gunpoint. Stubborn?  Sure she is.  I am, too.

    Follow-up: Took her and, surprise, she's sick.  But on proper drugs now.

Dinner Last Night

      Dinner last night: Picadillo, or as close as I get to the real thing, anyway.

TAMARA KEEL PHOTO

      The basic setup is a pound and a half of ground meat (I used a pound of ground beef and a chorizo sausage), an onion (I used three "spring onions," which are a little more delicate in flavor, but just see what you find), a bell pepper (I used one orange bell and an Anaheim, but again -- whatever; you can heat it up here if you wish but ponder the spice palette first -- read on!) and some garlic -- you can use fresh, I used the powder.

     Since I had chorizo, I started with the meat. Some versions will have you start with the veggies. A little good olive oil, some garlic (I'd like to tell you how much, but you know what you like), some cumin (seeds or powder, maybe a quarter-teaspoon?), a dash each of nutmeg, cloves (ground or a few whole) and cinnamon, maybe a little black pepper and the meat; get it browning and be breaking it up as you slice the onion, add it, and do the same with the bell (or whatever) pepper. Use your nose: you want it to smell good. Add more of any of the spices that appeal to you but don't go wild. Depending on the meat, you may want to drain the liquid and separate the grease/fat from the broth -- add the broth back in.

      You'll want 1/3 to 1/2 cup each of raisins (the store had some nice golden ones, but again, whatever) and good pimento-stuffed green olives, sliced. You'll probably want to slice them while the meat and veggies are cooking.

      With the meat well-browned and the onion translucent, give it a little Worcestershire sauce (A teaspoon? More if you like it, leave it out if you don't) and add a 16-ounce can of diced tomatoes, followed by the raisins and olives. You're trying to balance the salt and sweet here, so once it starts bubbling, give it a taste. Put some oregano in it (start with a quarter-teaspoon). You can float a bay leaf or two, if you like (don't break them up and be sure to take them out before serving!). Basil's never really out of line, either. Add garlic, cumin (light hand, that stuff can take over), nutmeg, cloves and/or cinnamon as needed -- they're what makes this work. Cover and let simmer for five or ten minutes. It is not at all soupy; you don't want lots of liquid.

      It gets better if it goes longer but it's essentially ready after that. Refrigerate for the next day.
Flavor is complex and fragrant, with bursts of sweet from the raisins and salt from the olives over a solid meat/onion/tomato background.

      You can put a few capers on it for serving. Some versions add diced potatoes and/or a little beef stock. Without potatoes, it is often served over rice. Black beans are good on the side or even mixed in.

Insight Is Where You Find It

     Yesterday morning, I was chatting at Tam and mentioned my admiration for Robert E. Howard, the Texan writer who created Conan the Barbarian and launched "Sword and sorcery" fiction.  Howard's prose could be as purple as the pulps that published it, but he had remarkable imagination, good discipline and an excellent ear for dream-like narrative.

     Robert E. Howard's mother was ill with tuberculosis all of his life.  He helped take care of her and they were very close.  The disease eventually resulted in her death, which appears to have prompted  his suicide.  His mother and father were somewhat estranged to one another, though they stayed married and lived together.

      People -- perhaps F/SF fans especially -- being what they are, the mother-son closeness and his suicide led to all manner of speculation, some of it quite smarmy.  But -- as I remarked to Tam, "It may have been no more than his despair at having failed to keep his mother alive."

     I choked on the last few words and felt unexpected tears rising in my eyes.  Had I failed to keep my mother alive?

     Sometimes it feels that way.  Maybe if I'd been a better child, less of a disppointment, more dutiful, quicker to reconcile...?

     No.  I might've had more time with my family -- stressful though I often found it -- but Mom's heart wore out on her long before she passed.  She kept going for years on pluck and determination, and I am glad we had as much time together as we did.  I still miss her.

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     I have nothing for you.  I'm old (as old as I've even been) and I am feeling pretty down.

I Am In A Lousy Mood

     Seriously lousy.  This whole "interacting with people" thing is reaching at least a middle for me.

So Who Do They Want To Control?

     On social media, links to a New York Times article about the process to legally buy a gun in fifteen different countries are being posted by gun-control supporters.

     --But even the NYT piece admits that illegal purchasers in any of those countries don't have to do anything but hand over cash and take their gun.  All those lovely, well-meant laws and requirements are no barrier to sellers and buyers who won't abide by them.

     And never mind that the home-inspection requirements of many nations violate the Fourth Amendment.  I guess we're not supposed to notice that.

The Children's Crusade

     You know, there probably wasn't a "Children's Crusade" as the term is commonly understood; even the best accounts aren't very clear or especially trustworthy.  One of the connections scholars have made that seems to hold up is to the use of teenagers as soldiers in that time; not exactly "children" by the standards of the day, the bulk of armies were made up of young men in exactly the age range at most risk of committing or suffering violence in the modern world.

     This past weekend's "Children's Crusade" also uses teenagers for foot soldiers.  They are, after all, excellent cannon fodder: idealistic, inexperienced, and full of the belief that they can Fix Everything.  But who are the generals?  Follow the money, and it circles back around to Michael Bloomberg's "Everytown "organization, relying on subsidiary "Mothers Demand Action" and the Gifford anti-gun organization for organizational help and logistics.  Yes, Mr. Bloomberg and his big, well-funded anti-gunners are hiding behind children in the manner of Saddam Hussein. 

     Ah, but the media tells us kids are being shot at school in ever-greater numbers, and we must do something?  No, kids are not.  School shootings are on the decline.

     But the U.S. is a horribly violent places, isn't it, third worst in the world, and we have got to address that?  No, we're not.

     And the big, bad NRA is buying Congressman, aren't they?  The New York Times tried pushing that, and came up with small change as political money goes -- and they had to use career-total funding plus non-coordinated advertising to do so. NRA is nowhere near the top-spending lobbying groups.

     On the other hand, donations to the political activism division of NRA are up.  So all the marching and rallying has done some good, after all.

     Interestingly, all the links above are to Left-leaning or neutral groups and organizations.

How Much Snow?

     This much snow:

     Yes, that's seven inches of the stuff.

It Begins

     I slept as soundly as ever -- which is to say, not hardly -- and every time I woke up to commune with nature, ease a crick in my neck, or shift to a position that didn't make my fingers tingly or my left ear hurt, I looked out the window, because Snowmageddon was coming.  It's been all over local TV and Internet for the last few days: White Doom From Above!

     The initial prediction called for the snow to begin late Friday night.  It kept not arriving.  Along about 6:00 a.m., non-local double-daylight time,* it was 38°F and the back yard looked pretty nice -- dry, leaf-piles ready for the Spring clean-up, sky overcast but not especially threatening.

     Seven-fifteenish, in the middle of making an indulgent breakfast,† I glanced out the window: sidewalk still dry.  Well, dry-like.  Or not. Kind of blotchy, really -- I looked up: snow is just starting to swirl down.

     It's here.
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* Indiana is on the far western edge of the Eastern Time Zone.  Come Daylight Savings, the sun rises late and stays up partying until long into the night. Tamara loves it (it's good match for her, if you substitute "writing" for "partying") but I do not.

† Three slices of bacon, one egg and a stack of "Swedish" pancakes, basically thick crepes served with butter and sugar (or, traditionally, lingonberry jelly; I like blueberry jam on 'em but the good stuff is spendy), which I dearly love.  I feel guilty making them just for myself -- but I'm home alone this weekend, which somehow makes it okay.

Tick-tock, Tick-tock....

     The Spring Winter Storm approaches inexorably, and I still haven't laid in full French Toast supplies.

     Worse yet, I'd made arrangements to meet Saturday to meet with techs from one of the few outside users of vertical space at my employer's North Campus, so they can swap out some equipment -- and yesterday, they sent me e-mail asking, "So we're still on and the place will be ready, right?"

     Um, no.  We've got one (1) guy on snowplow (and emergency assistance) duty, and he will be doing that at the Main Campus with a working staff of around twenty (20) people, many of them needing to be traveling and returning in the course of their duties, not the North Campus with a normal working staff of zero (0) people.  Our facility up north is down a long, winding private lane that crosses a couple of swales on short embankments, easy places to nosedive a car in heavy snow and just high enough to make for trouble when you do.

     Haven't heard back.  Perhaps they'd not been paying attention to the forecast.

Hahaha, It's Spring, We're Out From Under, We're....What???

     Thought we'd made it, did you?  Ha!  Figured the big bad storms had sated themselves on the East Coast, did you?  You've watched Hollywood horror films, right?  It's just when you think you're safest that you get this:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Indianapolis IN
356 AM EDT Thu Mar 22 2018

INZ021-028>031-035>042-046>049-056-057-065-221600-
/O.NEW.KIND.WS.A.0002.180324T0600Z-180325T0000Z/
Carroll-Warren-Tippecanoe-Clinton-Howard-Fountain-Montgomery-
Boone-Tipton-Hamilton-Madison-Delaware-Randolph-Hendricks-Marion-
Hancock-Henry-Shelby-Rush-Decatur-
Including the cities of Lafayette, Frankfort, Kokomo,
Crawfordsville, Anderson, Muncie, Indianapolis, and Shelbyville
356 AM EDT Thu Mar 22 2018

...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM LATE FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH
SATURDAY EVENING...

* WHAT...Heavy mixed precipitation possible. Total snow
  accumulations of 3 to 6 inches, with localized amounts up to 8
  inches, and ice accumulations of a light glaze are possible.

* WHERE...Portions of central Indiana along and north of
  Interstate 74.

* WHEN...From late Friday night through Saturday evening.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Plan on difficult travel conditions.
  Significant reductions in visibility are possible.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A Winter Storm Watch means there is potential for significant
snow, sleet or ice accumulations that may impact travel. Continue
to monitor the latest forecasts.

&&

$$

For more information from the National Weather Service visit
http://weather.gov/ind

     Oh, damn.

     And here I was thinking from earlier forecasts that Saturday might be a wash but maybe I was going to want to replace the battery in my motorscooter for Sunday....  Not!

     I'll be stocking up on French Toast supplies tonight.

It's A Winter Springtime Wonderland

     In the abstract, it's pretty -- fluffy white snow on the ground, big, fat, white flakes drifting and spiraling down to join them....

     Except it's the the first darned full day of Spring!  We seem to have annoyed the Weather Gods.  Oh, not as badly as the people out East (Northeast), who have had snowstorm after snowstorm.  Still, we must've trod their corns, or burned the wrong sort of barbecue upon the ancient, storm-wracked stones of their altar.*

     Oh, well.  I made chili last night, or maybe red stew† (it's not my fault, really it isn't -- the grocer's decided to add a little kale, broccoli and carrots to their "fajita mix," half of which I stir-fried with mushrooms Monday for side vegetables to go along with a couple of little pan steaks, and it needed to be used up).  I'll grab some leftover chili for a stay-in-the-office-lunch and hope to be able to avoid the worst of the weather until the temperatures get above freezing this afternoon and stay there for the next twelve hours, which is what the weather prognosticators say will happen.  Of course, that's the same group of mages, charlatans and arch-priests who claim Winter is over, which any fool can see is self-evidently wrong.
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* Man, if you want to see people square off to restage WW I, only with at least four sides and better chemicals, get a nationwide cross-section of cooks going on just what exactly does, or does not, constitute "barbecue."  But step back smartly once you light the fuse -- it'll heat up fast!

† And once the barbecue fight cools down -- along about 4:43 p.m. on the 32nd of Never -- you can have them start in on the essential nature and ingredients of "chili."  Texans and Sooners on one side, Upper Midwest church ladies on the other, Cincinnatians way out there in left field with the cloves and cinnamon, and accusations of "filler," "inedibly spicy" and "what even is that stuff?" flying as thick and fast as dark-red kidney beans, hot peppers and elbow macaroni.  Shredded stew beef or hamburger, and who's that over there with ground turkey?  Infidel!