The Daily News
1 Back to business.
2 You know life is good when you get home and Google "Loaded Baked Potato Recipes."
3 The fact that this happened on the evening of Garbage Day speaks volumes.
4 Yesterday the Recycle Guys came by early for my garbage, but late with the Recycling.
5 I got up early and cleaned out the remainder of Thanksgiving stuff from the fridge.
6 Breaking The Fourth Wall, Dept: I did a cursory job, as I also had to make time to write this morning's DN.
7 Duty often calls, to God, to Country, and quite appropriately, to the DN.
8 Listen: This time of year, you have to give the heave-ho to as much food as possible. This includes Thanksgiving food. You have to be sure you could replace it with Christmas food.
9 I've become careful with food. I label my food with masking-tape dates. Those dates tell me when I placed each item of food into the fridge. Healthy habits. Anal retentive, admittedly, but healthy.
10 I've miscalculated in the past; I shall miscalculate again.
11 Those days hurt. Major pain. You just don't want that.
12 Bottom line: I got rid of enough lousy stuff, and simple math dictated what to have for dinner from there.
13 What survived? Potatoes, to be sure. They hide on you. What else survived? Two excellent cheeses, fresh Parmesan and Sharp Cheddar. Sour cream. A kale salad kit. Remnants of a more recent trip to the store.
14 I made a swift run to Safeway at around 6:30 p.m. for any items I may have forgotten. Root beer, for example.
15 Now, here's the thing: at 6:30 p.m. in Sac, the word "Safeway" becomes a misnomer. People are nutsy at 6:30 p.m. Insanity vibrates from dark parking lots to frantic lunatics hovering inside stores.
16 Once inside, I found it impossible to concentrate on anything except leaving. My thought processes morphed to two thoughts: roasted chicken and chilled wine. Screw the root beer. I stormed through the store, picked that stuff up, and got back in the car. People shot out of parking spaces with intent to kill. Others sat and texted despite having a line of cars behind them.
17 Guys in dented cars displayed distinct exhibitions of how their cars got dented.
18 They were by far the most irritated, and the most impatient.
19 Funny how that works. They probably began in a good mood. Here's how it works:
Before.
After.
20 I got out of there with my life.
21 I threw myself on to Le Luge, and Googled "Loaded Baked Potato Recipes."
22 How hard could that be?
23
24 Okay. I'm pretty sure that there are over six-thousand Loaded Baked Potato Recipes online, most claiming theirs as the very best.
25 So basically, it comes down to this: use your own classic recipe. Throw a few variations. Variations include tabasco, oregano, garlic, sage sausage, and of course, butter.
26 The potato is your oyster, without the fishiness.
27 I avoided going the microwave route. To me, microwaving a baked potato is like nuking a squash.
28 It's called a baked potato.
29 Harriet Nelson made these in her custom Hotpoint oven.
30 She fed those to Ozzie, David, and Ricky.
31 Case closed.
32 Moving On, Part One: The behavioral traits of Homo Sapiens this time of year become fierce. I thank the Lord that we have access to lighter fare.
33 I have enjoyed going online and finding things less stressful than the world outside my immediate frame.
34 I traditionally go through a negative phase in November. It might be the onslaught of winter; it might be that I pull out all my conspiracy books about the JFK murder, or it might be the Niners. Or any combination thereof.
35 I find I sometimes become Mr. Wheeler, the angry Goofy character in Disney's classic cartoon Motor Mania. If you're a Disney fan, you probably know it.
36 If you haven't, it's easy access.
37 Now that I am retired, I can begin shedding the Mr. Wheeler fellow. I'm not as rushed, and it is nice. I can move all of my pent-up anger from years of work and turn it into a smile.
38 Motor Mania shows two sides to Goofy: Mr. Walker, the guy who walks around whistling and being polite to everyone, and the aforementioned Mr. Wheeler, who becomes a banshee the second he hops into his car.
39 One feature of Sacramento is a mentality I saw this summer while vacationing in Tahoe.
40 My sister Linda, my cousin Judy and I drove up to a place called Fallen Leaf Lake. It's a beautiful, yet dangerous ride, as it is an uphill mountain road, one lane. What this means is that people have to be polite if they wish to get where they are going.
41 We drove past a cabin that had a wooden sign that said, "Okay to wave." I mentioned it to those gals, wondering aloud what it meant. We continued, and I noticed people waving as they would get past us.
42 I rarely saw that in San Jo. Up in Sac, it's really common. Don't get me wrong; we've some horrid drivers up here. But when it isn't evil o' clock, most people use waves and peace signs to show gratitude for courtesy.
43 I always love that.
44 It also keeps people from getting hit by cars. Sacramento is literally darker than San Jose, which has slowly replaced it's classic yellow street lights with much brighter lights.
45 A part of me is happy about that; the streets seem much safer.
46 Another part of me is a bit sad, as I have always loved driving into the hills of San Jose and looking at the view. It was always peaceful, as well as easy access from both my house and my work. I could be way up in the hills in ten minutes.
47 Well.
48 I don't want to get off the rails here, so I think it's time I said a good-bye for the day.
49 Hope you have a good one, and hope this put you in a Mr. Walker mood.
50 Thanks for listening, and have a GREAT day.
51 See you again.
52 Peace.
33 I have enjoyed going online and finding things less stressful than the world outside my immediate frame.
34 I traditionally go through a negative phase in November. It might be the onslaught of winter; it might be that I pull out all my conspiracy books about the JFK murder, or it might be the Niners. Or any combination thereof.
35 I find I sometimes become Mr. Wheeler, the angry Goofy character in Disney's classic cartoon Motor Mania. If you're a Disney fan, you probably know it.
36 If you haven't, it's easy access.
37 Now that I am retired, I can begin shedding the Mr. Wheeler fellow. I'm not as rushed, and it is nice. I can move all of my pent-up anger from years of work and turn it into a smile.
38 Motor Mania shows two sides to Goofy: Mr. Walker, the guy who walks around whistling and being polite to everyone, and the aforementioned Mr. Wheeler, who becomes a banshee the second he hops into his car.
39 One feature of Sacramento is a mentality I saw this summer while vacationing in Tahoe.
40 My sister Linda, my cousin Judy and I drove up to a place called Fallen Leaf Lake. It's a beautiful, yet dangerous ride, as it is an uphill mountain road, one lane. What this means is that people have to be polite if they wish to get where they are going.
41 We drove past a cabin that had a wooden sign that said, "Okay to wave." I mentioned it to those gals, wondering aloud what it meant. We continued, and I noticed people waving as they would get past us.
42 I rarely saw that in San Jo. Up in Sac, it's really common. Don't get me wrong; we've some horrid drivers up here. But when it isn't evil o' clock, most people use waves and peace signs to show gratitude for courtesy.
43 I always love that.
44 It also keeps people from getting hit by cars. Sacramento is literally darker than San Jose, which has slowly replaced it's classic yellow street lights with much brighter lights.
45 A part of me is happy about that; the streets seem much safer.
46 Another part of me is a bit sad, as I have always loved driving into the hills of San Jose and looking at the view. It was always peaceful, as well as easy access from both my house and my work. I could be way up in the hills in ten minutes.
47 Well.
48 I don't want to get off the rails here, so I think it's time I said a good-bye for the day.
49 Hope you have a good one, and hope this put you in a Mr. Walker mood.
50 Thanks for listening, and have a GREAT day.
51 See you again.
52 Peace.
~H~
fin.
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