Food Bank-o-rama.

The food banks here have a unique problem. A glut of donations. They are begging people "Please come get this food!" Now we don't really need to rely on food banks in our household. We have been fortunate in that we are not wealthy in our retirement, but our income has been guaranteed and safe during the pandemic and our expenses are low since we downsized.

My wife went to a food bank today and came home with literally hundreds of pounds of food. Everything from fresh vegetables to canned food to frozen meats. Why would we do this if we don't need it?

We live in a senior mobile home park where there are many who are not as fortunate as us. Not only income-wise, but they are health and transportation challenged. We took much of the food and passed it along to neighbors who have a need for it. We are running our own mini food bank right here. We are also taking the fresh perishable stuff and turning it into things that can be frozen, such as turning raw potatoes into frozen bags of Potatoes O'Brien. You get the idea. We also have a spare upright freezer where we can store things and continue to distribute it for a few weeks. We love to cook so this has been a busy but fun day.

A small sampling of good news.

I live in a small town in Northern California. While our politics are slightly blue, we have our share of idiots, too. Since the pandemic began a small minority have been staging vehicular protests in the form of about 20 pickup trucks making a few circles through town festooned with Trump flags, American flags half the size of the truck and signs saying things like Stop The Tyranny, There Is No Virus, etc. They drive around blowing their horns, briefly blocking intersections and yelling and screaming. Their target destination is the Department of Public Health where they have been administering vaccinations.

Their they shout out rude things directed at the Public Health Director through their bullhorns. Never caused any real trouble or violence and the whole thing is over in about ten minutes before the cops can get there. Then they scatter.

The interesting thing is, the last time they did this a few weeks ago, there were no Trump flags. Not one. This indicates that decision was made collectively, not individually. Nothing else was different, just the Trump flags being gone.

Supreme Court nominations.

Let's say next week another SC Jusstice passes away. So President Biden nominates a progressive woman of color for the seat. Will Joe Manchin say he won't vote for her unless there is bipartisan approval?

Filibuster or no filibuster,

any Democratic Senator would still have the power to kill any bill we tried to pass by simply not voting for it. This is what they really fear. Having to vote against something.

Let's be clear about one thing...

If insurrectionists attack the Capitol in August,
And if they burned every federal building to the ground,
And if they killed every sitting member of both houses of Congress,
And if they assasinated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,

Donald Trump will still not be President of the United States.

There's a whole lot of people walking around right now

who are going to look at a picture of themselves taken today about ten years from now and say "What the hell was I thinking when I picked out those glasses"?

Rare inside article about Cyrus Vance Jr. working on Trump case. Pictures.

Sometimes necessity can lead to a good discovery.

My wife and I had some corn on the cob left over so she decided to make corn chowder. As she began to make it, she discovered we had no potatoes. We just did grocery shopping yesterday so we didn't want to go to the store again.

Then I realized we did have some Tater Tots in the freezer. So we dumped those in the chowder. We knew they would disintegrate, but figured we would still have the potato flavor needed in the chowder.

The wonderful discovery was what a great thickener they turned out to be. Next time I make beef stew, I'm going to try some in that for a thickener. Sorry, we rarely go by a recipe or measure ingredients when we make stews chowders and sauces, so you'll have to experiment with amounts. They broke up almost immediately, so you can always start with a few then add more as needed.

I did something yesterday I've never done.

I bought a new car without even opening the hood, and I've been a gear head for most of my life.

The lease was running out on my 2018 Sentra and the used car market is so crazy right now, the dealer offered to pay off the residual on my lease and give me 5K to put down on a new one. Payment for me will be the same, but I'm buying instead of leasing. Good deal for me and the dealer, because he will still make money selling my leased car. Because of the pandemic, it only had 18K miles on it.

This is my third Nissan Sentra, I leased the first two. The new Sentra is way improved over my first two. Lots more safety and entertainment features.

I am someone who has built several car engines, and when I got home I did open the hood. If I was shown a photo of what was under that hood, I would almost not be able to identify it as a car engine. Only things like the battery and dipstick would give it away.

Parenthood, the responsibility that never ends.

Have you ever had your kid tell you first thing in the morning that they were supposed to bring cupcakes for the whole class today? So you frantically cook cupcakes and barely get them to school on time, because that's what parents do.

Today our daughter, an RN who works at the local hospital called us at 11:30 to tell us she was supposed to buy a Mexican lunch for her staff for Cinco de Mayo. So we run to a Mexican restaurant, pick up a bunch of food and rush it to the hospital just in time for lunch.

This daughter is 51 years old.