RANDOM RAMBLING

Due to the pandemic I don't get together with friends as much these days beyond Facebook, email, & old fashioned phone calls. When technology took over life mutated and now it's mutating all over again.

Currently I'm back in lock-down mode and plan to be until this wretched virus is under control. One thing I miss about the April Covid 19 shut-down was the quiet! My phone wasn't ringing off the wall all day with unknown numbers.

Lately online I've been getting a lot of attention from the POD people; either it's persons seeking connections or offering vague sketchy jobs. I am a POD person myself although I don't ever remember joining this networking site. Perhaps it occurred during my sleep as in that science fiction flick.

While we're on the subject, the 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Kevin McCarthy & Dana Wynter was much scarier than the 1978 remake with Brooke Adams and Donald Sutherland despite the canine-human hybrid. -- Although that was a great touch and one I enjoyed!

Since my vision began deteriorating reading has become more of a strain. With all my eye floaters and flashes it's especially trying attempting to decipher small print. However I can still enjoy movies!

Recently I saw Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and greatly enjoyed it. Quentin Tarantino never fails to entertain and impress! He certainly did an amazing and brilliant job of capturing the atmosphere of 1969. That was the year I graduated from high school and I remember everything about it vividly!

However as with Inglorious Basterds, I wish there was a banner at the end that read: This Is How It Went Down in a Parallel Universe! -- Alternative history should be labeled as such! Otherwise this fiction is too similar to Holocaust and moon landing deniers.

Also I've been enjoying old reruns of The Big Valley. I never had the chance view it during its first run beginning in the 1960's. Apparently a family member, most likely my father preferred whatever was airing opposite.  This was back in the days before VCRs or DVRs. But now I'm hooked on this series!

I think there should be a TV movie update staring an elderly Linda Evans as an aged Audra Barkley in 1920. She would be a widow burying the last of her brothers, probably Heath. As a young woman in the 1870's, 1920 would seem quite a different reality. Similarly as a young woman in my 20's during the 1970's I find the year 2020 nothing short of bizarre!

If not for the shortages, the April lock-down would have felt like a vacation! I kept telling myself to pretend I was vacationing in the Third World. However the pandemic made me glad I decided against expatriating, although it's still not off the table. -- I'd have affordable health care and also be able to give up driving! But then, I'd also be giving up many things I enjoy here.

ICE CREAM SCREAMS OF DELIGHT

You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream! That was a popular saying when I was a kid.

July is here and it's National Ice Cream Month! Yippeee! And Official Ice Cream Day is the third Sunday in every July! This year it falls on July 19. THAT'S TOMORROW!!!

This will be my weekly Cheat Day as well. I plan on enjoying a chocolate-coated ice cream donut filled with Boston Cream flavor inside!

To me however, all of summer qualifies for that title. Absolutely nothing taste better when it's hot, sticky, & humid outside. And Florida summers seem to be getting longer each year. Growing up, May and October were not summer months as they are now. Not to mention we're setting records for heat during the rest of the year as well. Ice cream isn't just for Cheat Days anymore!

With fondness I recall Red Velvet ice cream summer. Red Velvet flavor was trending that year and everyone who makes ice cream was coming out with one!  Trying them all and making comparisons was delicious fun! Guess people O.D.ed on the flavor because I rarely see it anymore, which is a shame.

I knew from that first taste of premium ice cream I would have difficulty returning to the supermarket stuff which tastes like ice milk, sugar, and flavoring all whipped together! And I don't see that the premium is any more fattening.

In fact, I eat it whenever I'm trying to drop weight and it works! -- Probably because I eat less than half a pint at a time. This fills a medium sized wine goblet nicely. I don't drink alcohol and that actually does make you fat along with other unpleasant things.

One problem I have with premium ice cream are those sneaky raised bottoms to trick you into believing you're getting more than you're paying for! I'm constantly scouring my newspaper and mail for buy-one, get one-free coupons.

For my birthday last January Winn-Dixie gave me the choice of one of their blocks of store brand flavors for free. I chose Vanilla!

Vanilla is the little black dress of ice cream flavors. You can enjoy it plain or tart it up fancy all sorts of ways! Personally, I like to floozy up my vanilla. Some of my favorites include mixed nuts topped with honey or maple syrup, sometimes just lots of nuts & shredded coconut. Also it's delicious with chopped pieces of a candy bar topped with coffee flavored syrup.

Of course the above falls into the category of Cheat Day dessert and pairs well with pizza!

The New Orleans brand ice cream has a Creole Cream Cheese flavor that tastes so rich even a small amount in a goblet is delightfully fulfilling. They also make a heavenly Cafe au lait with beignets.

As much as I love chocolate I've never cared for chocolate ice cream or cake beyond the coating or frosting. Probably because the chocolate in each is so diluted it tastes blah!

Many decades ago when I was a small child, every Sunday afternoon my entire family would pack into the car for a Sunday drive. We always ended up at one particular gas station in Fort Pierce that sold Eskimo Pies for 10 cents. That dark chocolate candy coating over that vanilla was the most delicious treat to ever touch my little pre-school tongue.

Recently, I've heard there are plans in the works to change the name because it's considered insulting to the indigenous people. I don't understand this. Eskimo Pies are something wonderful and special! Name them after me, I would be proud!

Enjoy tomorrow and celebrate with ice cream!!!

MOURNING OF THE TREE

I am a tree hugger, always have been and I always will be!

The oak's limbs were thick and low, also plentiful. This tree was wide and high, a magnificent and splendorous creation of nature! One look and I longed to be child again grabbing branches and climbing all the way to the top. I could imagine seeing the neighborhood from a bird's eye view.

This particular oak tree had a magical quality about it like something you'd read in a child's storybook. I could visualize it as a major condo/business center for the many squirrels and birds in my yard; or even a hang-out for faeries in the wee hours as dawn was breaking or banshees shrieking on its branches during a hurricane.

I recall being awakened after midnight by an eerie sound. I looked out my window. It was coming from that tree. Out of curiosity I hurried downstairs and grabbed the big flashlight. I went outside and shined it up thru the branches. The sound came from an owl! I'd never seen one in person before. We made eye contact.

I told that owl to be quiet I was trying to sleep. I went back inside to bed. Miraculously it remained silent. And I've never heard it since.

I had the coolest and most beautiful tree in the neighborhood right in my front yard! Visitors were awed by it and often commented on its beauty. It certainly gave my home curb appeal.

Sadly a day came, the one destined to remain in the infamy of my memory forever. It happened on a Saturday. I was up at 5:30 AM and brought my newspaper inside. As I ferreted thru its pages my overhead light went out leaving me in darkness. In retrospect, I wonder if that was an omen.

This was last April, the start of the Covid-19 shut-down. Otherwise, I thought it would be a normal Saturday.

The oak's branches started overgrowing into street and needed trimming. I asked my yardman to do it. Around 4:30 PM while engrossed in a Lifetime movie I heard buzz saws outside. My yardman had trimmed this tree before, so I didn't worry. -- Big mistake!!!

About 45 minutes into the movie I happened to get up to look out my front window. I thought I was going to drop from a heart attack, I couldn't believe what I was seeing!!! The huge lower branches were all down!!! I shrieked and motioned for my yardman and his crew to CEASE!!! Ballistic I ran outside!!!

They looked stunned.

"I didn't tell you to take the whole tree down!" I hollered. "I only wanted it trimmed!"

My yard guy couldn't understand why I was so upset. "Grass will grow there now that those branches are gone," he told me. "You'll have a nice lawn."

Grass is ordinary and common! That tree was a beauty and a rare treasure! Not only did it give my home curb appeal it provided just the right amount of screening from my neighbors!

And now since ruined, the only way I could get that back was to hire a professional landscaper. In other words, I'm going to be out more money that I can't really afford to spend!

I thought of firing my yardman on the spot! However he has been with me for a long time now and unlike many of the previous ones did far more than just mow & go. He also raked, trimmed hedges, and fixed my sprinkler system every time it malfunctioned and also did other outside jobs.

However he didn't trim my tree, he BUTCHERED it! Think of going for a manicure and having your fingers cut off at the knuckles! The tree remains, but its magnificence and beauty are gone. Imagine Elizabeth Taylor during her height of glamour having her nose cut off along with an eye gouged out! That tree was a superstar in my life!

The following day, I called my friend Marie and cried on her shoulder. She had a similar experience and was sympathetic. Marie told me that tree trimmers and men in general don't care about aesthetics the way we do. But eventually I'll grow accustomed to the way my yard looks now.

I'll be dead first, before that happens! Even now, I can't look outside my front windows without wanting to cry. It's just more thing in life that I enjoyed, now gone forever!