Government Shutdown

Posted on October 1, 2013October 1, 2013 by Dusty Roads | 14 Comments

As most of you know, I usually keep political comments to a minimum. The biggest reason is I don’t consider myself a “deep thinker”. I’m just your “Average Josie”. I go along with my business and leave the governing to those elected to govern just as I leave the police to do the policing and the firefighter to fight the fires. I study issues to vote and then keep my vote to myself. But this government shut down has me irritated.

Listening to the sound bites and news anchors make me think I’m watching a bunch of toddlers fight in a sand box. Where is the leadership? Where is the responsibility? Where do these people, who are our elected officials, get off making decision that hurt the public? The same people they owe their jobs to?

One recent headline said 2.1 MILLION federal workers could be affected! But do you know what really gets me? These “elected officials” who are causing this atrocity still get paid! Yes, a government shut down won’t affect their paycheck.

I didn’t know why. I was complaining on FB that Congress should get “docked’ first and one of my friends said “27th amendment”. So I looked it up. The 27th amendment protects Congress from changes in their salary.

“The Twenty-seventh Amendment (Amendment XXVII) prohibits any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of the Congress from taking effect until the start of the next set of terms of office for Representatives. It is the most recent amendment to the United States Constitution. It was submitted to the states for ratification in 1789 and was adopted, over 200 years later, in 1992.”

Now as I said, I’m just a simple, average person. I never took any political science courses and even living in one of the most political states in the union, I manage to stay out of most political discussion. But I can’t help but think that any amendment that took 200 years to get ratified can’t be a good idea.

I don’t think John Q Public is free of blame either. We elected these morons. So maybe we deserve what we get but basic negotiating skills are learned in the sand box. Maybe we need to send Congress back to kindergarten so they can learn to play nice together.

Comments are welcome. Is anyone else embarrassed and annoyed by Washington?

It’s October!

Posted on October 1, 2013October 1, 2013 by Dusty Roads

October 1st. Once again I want to share my favorite Poem with you. I first learned it in 5th grade and still remember it!

October’s Bright Blue Weather

O suns and skies and clouds of June, And flowers of June together, Ye cannot rival for one hour October’s bright blue weather;
When loud the bumblebee makes haste, Belated, thriftless vagrant, And goldenrod is dying fast, And lanes with grapes are fragrant;
When gentians roll their fingers tight To save them for the morning, And chestnuts fall from satin burrs Without a sound of warning;
When on the ground red apples lie In piles like jewels shining, And redder still on old stone walls Are leaves of woodbine twining;
When all the lovely wayside things Their white-winged seeds are sowing, And in the fields still green and fair, Late aftermaths are growing;
When springs run low, and on the brooks, In idle golden freighting, Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush Of woods, for winter waiting;
When comrades seek sweet country haunts, By twos and twos together, And count like misers, hour by hour, October’s bright blue weather.
O sun and skies and flowers of June, Count all your boasts together, Love loveth best of all the year October’s bright blue weather.

Helen Hunt Jackson

Gator Boys Memorial to J-Mart

Posted on September 30, 2013September 30, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Just a brief update.

At the end of last night’s episode (Big Croc Rescue) of Gator Boys, a short video clip, very short (10 seconds?) was played in Memory of their friend, John Martinez. The video was nice but short. I really thought they would do more. But maybe they just didn’t have time.

There were no still photos used so my pictures were not included but you can see those at www.dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com.

Rest in Peace, John.

I Love NY

Posted on September 30, 2013September 30, 2013 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

Meanwhile Back at the countdown of the states…

Yes! New York State, not the city although I have been to New York City several times.

I have to check off New York State because that’s where I grew up. The old homestead is right in the heart of the Adirondacks.

When I was growing up the town of Bolton was a little place with only one stop light. We joked that there were more bars than churches and for a little town we had a lot of churches, Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist.

Our school wasn’t a one room but it was a one building, kindergarten through 12. The size of my class changed a little through the years but most of the folks I graduated with had been in my class from the day I started in kindergarten. Final count of graduates…27.

I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I moved to Massachusetts as an adult. I grew up in the country and I had a horse. Why would I want to pedal up and down those hills when my horse could do the work?

We also had cows and pigs, sheep and goats and chickens as well as my horse. I learned to feed the animals, groom them and muck out stalls. In the fall we butchered some of the animals and my father, and eventually my brothers, went hunting for deer. We all loved venison. Once Lake George froze over we had lake perch to eat. Ice fishing was popular and to this day yellow perch is a favorite dish.

We went tubing on the Schroon River before tubing was popular.

We cut the tall grass in the field…haying we called it….first with teams of draft horses and then later with a tractor. We loaded the hay into wagons with pitchforks.

We didn’t sit inside watching TV. We went outside to play and roamed the fields and woods using our imaginations to avoid the “Indians” or search for “fairy rings “.

I rode the Ticonderoga and the Mini Ha Ha, cruise ships on beautiful Lake George.

I worked with the photographer for the Sagamore Hotel where I witnessed elaborate dinners and dance lessons on the portico.

Eventually I had to grow up (as much as I ever have…I have a strong streak of Peter Pan Syndrome) and headed to Albany, NY to attend college at SUNY Albany. That was at the end of the 60’s and beginning of the 70’s. The “Free Love” Movement and Hippies predominated. Then the Kent State tragedy cast a pall over the riotous college atmosphere and I headed back to the country.

My visits to New York City have been short. It isn’t my favorite place. I’ve been to stage shows on Broadway and stood in Times Square. I’ve been in Grand Central Station and some of the museums but most of the time my trips are quick hits…run in, do what I must, leave.

Heading off to the west I’ve made it to Buffalo and Niagara Falls. I’ve been there twice but it was many years ago. I’d like to go back again.

Recently I was at a travel show and met a group of travel agents pushing Lake George. I picked up the brochures and by the time I finished reading them I was ready to take my next vacation right back where I grew up.

Glens Falls hosts a Balloon Festival every Fall. I went in 2012.

Missed it this year but am planning for 2014. I haven’t even touched on all there is to do. New York is a big state. There’s a wine section in the Finger Lakes Region and caves to explore.

The “I love NY ” slogan is very fitting. If you go, you’ll love it too.

It’s Apple Pickin’ Season

Posted on September 29, 2013September 29, 2013 by Dusty Roads

As you know I am not a food blogger. I can cook but I like basic , home style cooking. I’m happy with meatloaf and mashed potatoes instead of chicken cordon bleu. That said I felt I had to share this recipe. Although you can certainly make it all year round, I tend to think of it when the fresh apples abound. So here it is. Enjoy

Apple Pancake

1/2 cup flower (I like Bisquick but any all purpose flower will work)
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 large or 2 medium size apples (Granny smith, Macintosh are great…cortlands tend to get a bit mushy)
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix sugar and cinnamon. Set aside

Whisk flour, milk and eggs together until smooth. Melt butter in cast iron skillet (this is essential). Remove from heat. Pour mixture into skillet. Peal and thinly slice the apples. Place on top of mixture. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mixture. Sprinkle brown sugar on top of that. Bake 20 minutes.

Enjoy.

Additional Tips and comments:

You can serve with syrup but I don’t think it needs it. I don’t peel the apples either as I like the skins. If you use a stick margarine or butter you get a crispier crust than with a whipped margarine. That’s also the theory behind the cast iron pan. You could use a pie plate but you won’t get as much “crisp.”