Wednesday Morning, 4 am

Another one of those nights. I actually got an hour of sleep but that’s just not enough. That groggy feeling never goes away now. But things could be worse — I could have missed that hour of oblivion and had another of the sleepless nights. Hey, sometimes ya just have to look for the sunshine in the shadows in order to remain sane!

I had burgoo for supper last night. My brother brought me a few containers of that ambrosia and I called my aunt to see if she wanted to join me for that. Silly question. Most of the people in this area love burgoo. Daviess County is the place to be for the real thing. Several other places advertise they have it but they serve a knockoff version with things like squash and beans in the mix. The only thing worse that that would be putting peas in the pot.

It’s hard to believe that there is only one week left in April. Time is speeding by, and dare I say it? Christmas is only 8 months away! How many people have started planning for that? I have. Already working on Christmas gifts for the family. Of course that is for Christmas before last! No matter how I work it I seem to remain a year or two behind. Question: how many of you still send Christmas cards? With the price of stamps these days I just wonder if I’m the only one who has stopped doing that.

I also use bags rather than wrapping paper for gifts now. Bags I usually keep from the previous year plus the ones I buy the week following Christmas. Of course the Dollar Tree always have bags for all occasions every day. I even make my bags at times, when I’m feeling energized. Chee! I sure could use some energy right now. Or at least some caffeine. I’ve been caffeine free for a year now. After years of having a Coke or a Pepsi before my eyes were completely open I had to open a drain one day and the only thing I had was a Coke! It worked better than any other method I ever tried before and I suddenly realized that something that would open a clogged drain couldn’t be very good for my stomach.

KODAK Digital Still Camera

KODAK Digital Still Camera

KODAK Digital Still Camera

KODAK Digital Still Camera

KODAK Digital Still Camera

KODAK Digital Still Camera

KODAK Digital Still Camera

KODAK Digital Still Camera

Speaking of May, my Barbies are ready for prom night. Enjoy!

Party Central

I’m beginning to think this place should be named Party Central! Or maybe it’s just that time of year. This past week we have had the Derby hat parade on Thursday, Cinco de Mayo on Friday, a Derby watching party tonight (our horse ran well but lost ground in the end),!

Tomorrow we will have a live concert featuring the Owensboro Community Band, Happy Hour with live music on Monday,and a Mothers Day luncheon on Thursday. My daughter will be here for that, and a few cousins will attend with my Aunt and a cousin who also lives here. I think we might be the only family with this many people who live here.

Two weeks from today will be the Carmel Home annual picnic with barbecue and burgoo! I’ve talked about burgoo before—the food of kings — at least in Daviess County! Other counties have tried to make it but we have the real thing. Mutton, chicken, potatoes, onions, cabbage and corn, all cooked in huge vats holding 60 to 100 gallons over an open fire and all ground up before going in the vat. The meats are cooked first and then ground while the vegetables are cooking in the broth, tomatoes added when it begins to heat up, and all stirred constantly for 12 or more hours. Yummy stuff!

Cooking the burgoo used to be a big deal with large cooking teams taking turns with the stirring. These days they have automatic stirrers run by electricity to do that part. I’ve never been there for that part because I’m usually at home baking cakes for the booths. It’s the ultimate party as well as major fund raiser for the churches in this area.

I’m going to add some photos of this week if I can find some that won’t compromise anyone here. I think I have a few — a few thousand, that is!

These were taken during the race and while I blundered into resizing the bottom one the top was just too stubborn for me. Now I’m going to sit back and enjoy the rest of my mint julip before getting some sleep — I hope!

Coming To You From My Dell

I’ve been trying for two days to let you know that my Dell was coming home, but both of the drafts were stuck someplace in the atmosphere.  There was a knock on my door a few minutes ago and Mike stuck his head and arm in with my lovely laptop held out, in a hurry as usual, but apologizing for not bringing it last night when he came to work on my power chair.  Things never happen one at a time in my place.  We go along for months with nothing ever happening, then the big “WHAMMO!”  It all hits the fan at the same time.  I will have to do more updating with the Driver Support team to try to speed it up, but it is working on Windows 8 at the moment.  The Windows 10 it came with has disappeared and I really want that back.  I sure don’t want to pay for it again, so that requires another session with the nice people at Driver Update.

As for my chair, I was shopping at Kroger’s Thursday and felt a little, um, pull? to the right, maybe more like a jerk?  Then it felt like the right side was lower.  First thought was a flat tire.  Quick check showed the tire was inflated, so finished my shopping and came home asap, got out of the chair and the problem presented itself immediately.  The right armrest, with the joystick of course, immediately dropped so low it was under the chair seat!  Very alarming, to say the least.  I sent an immediate SOS out to Mike with added HELP,  and every other alarm message I could think of, and he came by last night and fixed that problem.  Mikey can fix anything!

For the uninitiated the photos that just disappeared from the screen are the burgoo kettles that are used at the church picnics around this area.  If I remember correctly each holds 60 gallons of the wonderful food, a local favorite and pretty much a regional dish,  Thick with ground meats, chicken, beef and mutton, onions, cabbage, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, and the spices and sauces that are known to the cooking teams and very few others.  I know one of the best ones, but I won’t tell.  Just going to put the photos back on and see if it will publish this time  If it doesn’t then this one just wasn’t meant to be written!