Monday in the Heartland July version

I personally find it strange that the police are so hesitant to call Steve McNair's death a murder. His girlfriend shot him 4 times and then shot herself. Unless he was some kind of miracle guy, it is difficult to shoot our self twice in the chest and twice in the head. Kind of like the punchline of the old joke, "Worse case of suicide I've ever seen." It never ceases to amaze me that married men that carry a gun, and have a girlfriend, often die of Lead Poisoning. For that matter, I struggle with the desire for two women in a man's life. I fully understand one but two?

For the first time in several years, I did not see any fireworks over the 4th. I resisted the urge to stop at a fireworks stand to see what is there. I could hear what sounded like a war on Saturday evening but I didn't even peek out the window to see what was happening. I did drive to the store Sunday morning and see the remnants of the show up on the court. The family that lives there has some little kids and they do a few of the showy night stuff. The neighbors to our immediate north went over to a family member's house this year and the conflagration over there didn't happen. This is the first year their kids are both gone away from home so they just don't feel the fireworks are a big deal either.

Today the Master Food Volunteers are setting up a booth at the Master Gardner's "Sick Plant Clinic". I'm sure we'll set up out usual two or three displays and talk about health diets and ways to use the produce from our gardens. Our bounty has just started and the cherry tomatoes are turning red by the bowls full.* The cucumbers have been growing and Barb showed me an egg plant that will be ready by the end of the week. I made the eggplant dish zaluke over the weekend. I burned the tomatoes as I tried to figure out how much seasoning to use. I think the diced tomatoes in a can tasted fine when I started over. The very first batch I made a couple of weeks ago just didn't have enough spices in it. A full tablespoon of pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of salt really are needed to bring out the flavor. A couple of cloves of garlic through the press really does taste better than garlic powder.

* The plural rule always sounds funny to me. It is hands full not hand fulls. It is fists full of fingers not fist fulls. So if bowls full sounds funny, don't blame me. Unless you are making a Clint Eastwood movie and then it is simply "Fist Full of Dollars" and the plural goes on the dollar not fist or full. I just love the ending scene of that movie when he is counting up his bounty and when he is short, turns and shoots the last bad guy to fill up his wagon with the dead of the wanted, "Dead or Alive".

I for one am glad that Sarah Palin has resigned from office. As a private citizen she will be able to sue Dave Letterman's socks off when he makes further stupid remarks about her family. As the Governor of Alaska she had to suffer the outrageous slings and arrows and now she can collect damages for the idiots that accuse her of doing things that are not true or say unkind things about her family. Added Note - Does anyone know where I can send a check to the Palin's to help them pay off the $500,000 she owes because of the lawsuits she had to pay for to defend lies about her time as the Governor?

Our lunch guest yesterday, Dave's in laws, the Parks, are living in Las Vegas. He said that the housing boom is over in Vegas and his condo has fallen by about half of its value. His plan was to return to the Heartland in a few years and buy a house with the money he has made. Now he doubts that he will but just break even. The developers were building as fast as they could just a few short months ago. Right now there are model homes sitting vacant in un-built subdivisions all over Las Vegas. A lot of the trades people have left and the flush of tourists on the weekend is a lot slower. Dave and his wife Barb are going to Vegas in August and have a package for one of the big hotels that includes a round trip plane ticket and a room for a week for about $400.00 each.

I guess I'd better cut this off and go get ready for the day. It has been nice to chat and drink a cup of coffee here in the quiet at Rabbit Tun. Other than the chatter from the birds at the feeder, it is pretty quiet. have a great day.

MUD