Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, December 8
through
Saturday, December 14
_____________________________
It’s Saturday, December 14, 2019
Welcome to the 617th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
_____________________
1.0 Lead Picture
See section 2.0 Commentary of this date.
_____________________
2.0 Commentary
The holidays are running at breakneck speed.
Days are hours, hours, days.
After a couple of hours of gainful work at apartment, I walked out to Trader Joe’s carrying my usual backpack and a shoulder-shopping bag filled with suit jacket and tie and rain-jacket and compression shirt for lifting.
When I emerged from Trader Joe’s twenty-five minutes later, I had added to the bag two bags of Italian-made biscotti with chocolate tops, two jars – grape jelly and strawberry preserves, and a box of assorted crackers for cheese.
I took the bus to South Station and the Red Line to Downtown Crossing and, from there, walked the two minutes to Planet Fitness where I changed into my lifting clothes. The machines reminded me that I had been too many days (5?) in between sessions. After the workout I tanned for four minutes to get even more attractive.
Then I dressed in suit jacket, shirt and tie and walked two minutes to the Green Line which dumped me inside the Prudential Center where I went directly to the Blue Bottle Café and enjoyed my Cortado, half-caf, very hot, for here, for Dom, with a shot of sparkling water on the side. Victoria made the coffee and she takes great pride in her work. She has good reason for that: see today’s lead pictures.
I worked on the blog and posted it at 1.15pm.
At 1.30pm I had a tech support sitdown at Microsoft wherein we worked on a shortcut merging two emailing lists.
At 2.30pm cousin Lauren will pick me up and we’ll drive to the MFA for Christmas shopping for young friends on our respective Christmas lists. And then my graduation present to her: dinner at the 465 Restaurant within the MFA. Their food is very good. Graduation present because her classes are over, she will return to her family home in Revere, will find employment in the field of her choice, and move into her own apartment convenient to her work, in Boston or across country.
After dinner we will have time to shop at Costco after which I will drive her back to Revere after which I may have to stop a Whole Foods (Ten o’clock closing) for tomorrow’s dinner.
Happy Holidays!
_____________________________________________
4.0 Chuckles
“Most people with low self-esteem have earned it.”
~ George Carlin
_____________________________________________________________________________________________ 6.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
My dying friend
The snow covers the grassy hillsides.
The trees are barren and that’s what
cancer has done to your body; wasted it down.
At lunch today, I wanted to ask you
how you face down cancer and what you do
with time as it runs low. I stopped myself.
Cancer has a weird smell. It’s cold and I think
it tastes like metal. At least, that’s how the fear
tastes against my teeth.
My love is out there shopping for engagement rings
with his Mother. You hand me a gift and say,
slow down and taste your life. For you, I say,
I will. The glasses clink on my seat. I once stood
in your office and said I gift engaged couples glasses
and tell them: celebrate the ordinary every day miracles.
Time is running out.
the forecast says
just like the snow you’ll be gone by my wedding.
Web Meister responds: Two opposing impact ideas woven artistically. Lovely and congratulations.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
_____________________________
It’s Friday, December 13, 2019
Welcome to the 616th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
_____________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Seattle Streetcar 301 leaving Pacific Place Station
Steve Morgan
The Seattle Streetcar system's car 301 in service on the system's first line, the South Lake Union line. It is northbound on Westlake Avenue, crossing Stewart Street, at the beginning of a trip to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
The streetcar vehicle is a 12-Trio built in 2007 by Inekon Trams, in the Czech Republic. It is crossing the wires of trolleybus route 70.
For more details, scroll down to 12.0 Thumbnails, this date
_______________________
2.0 Commentary
The normally very busy Blue Bottle Café in the Prudential Center is experiencing a down-tick in business. Not talking a prolonged slump, just the last couple of days.
A holiday-induced change in patrons patterns?
In my continuing efforts to bring our content-producing and media-dissemination we’ve begun an overhaul of our file management.
Meaning both a renaming and reorganization of files.
Making me feel like I’m making progress.
Given the exigencies of the holidays, at our next session, we’re going to record two videos and two podcasts at one time, the idea to avoid ensnarement in the web of days-off that may result in missing a recording session.
Hope I’m up to it.
Have been on a Christopher Walken binge, Sarah, Plain and Tall, the Prophecy, Man on Fire (Walken the quintessential supporting or walk-on actor,) Dead Zone, the Mind Snatchers, and today, The Deer Hunter. Do you remember how long director Michael Cimino spent on the wedding sequence at the start of the movie? I think the real wedding didn’t take as long. Found it a little much. Haven’t finished the movie. Splitting the viewing one of the great advantages of modern screen-watching.
God bless.
_____________________
4.0 Chuckles
“I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.”
~ Lily Tomlin
______________________
6.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from Sally C:
Colonoscopy, huh? Maybe it won't be so bad.
It puts me in mind of a situation two years ago, when a family member, who has cultivated and nurtured a grudge against Phillip and me for three and a half years now (surely it must be getting boring by now), messed with me one too many times over some nonsensical garbage of her own manufacture.
By the time I left the house to go get a tooth extracted, I was livid.
The dental surgeon apologized before he began for having to do the procedure at all, accustomed as he was to patients' complaints and distress.
He was amazed and amused to learn that getting my bad tooth pulled was the best part of my day!
And it was!
Sally
Web Meister responds: Could not find a more appropriate illustration of a really bad day.
_______________________
12.0 Thumbnails
The South Lake Union Streetcar, officially the South Lake Union Line, is a streetcar route in Seattle, Washington, United States, forming part of the Seattle Streetcar system.
It travels 1.3 miles (2.1 km) and connects Downtown Seattle to the South Lake Union neighborhood on Westlake Avenue, Terry Avenue, and Valley Street.
The South Lake Union Streetcar was the first modern line to operate in Seattle, beginning service on December 12, 2007, two years after a separate heritage streetcar ceased operations.
The streetcar line was conceived as part of the redevelopment of South Lake Union into a technology hub, with lobbying and financial support from Paul Allen and his venture capital firm Vulcan Inc.
The $56 million project was funded using a combination of contributions from local property owners, the city government, and grants from the state and federal government.
Construction began in July 2006 and was completed over a year later by the Seattle Department of Transportation.
The line is owned by the City of Seattle, with operation and maintenance contracted out to King County Metro.
The line is popularly known by its nickname, the South Lake Union Trolley (abbreviated as "SLUT"), which is used on unofficial merchandise sold by local businesses.
The streetcar was controversial in its first few years due to its slow speed, low ridership, public funding, and connections to real estate development.
Improvements to the streetcar's corridor since 2011 have increased service and improved schedule reliability, but ridership has declined since peaking in 2013.
A planned streetcar project to connect the South Lake Union Line with the First Hill Line via Downtown Seattle was placed on hold by the city government in 2018.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s Thursday, December 12, 2019
Welcome to the 615th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
__________________________________________________________________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
They debuted on Fox on April 19, 1987
The Simpson family. From left to right: Bart, Santa's Little Helper, Marge, Maggie, Homer, Lisa, and Snowball II.
See 12.0 Thumbnails below within this date.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
2.0 Commentary
The thing about the holiday season is the struggle to maintain our normal schedules in the face of an ever-increasing onslaught of ‘get togethers,’ telephoning, texting, emailing, gift-shopping, lists-making, cooking, dining, visiting, hosting, specials-watching, incessant repetitions of “I just love Christmas,” and seasonal-music playing, all the while desperately waiting for January 2 when an explosive quiet settles on us.
Just in time.
Except that this year, for me, January 3 is the three-day-before- the-event start of a colonoscopy procedure.
I honestly can’t decide which is worse.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
4.0 Chuckles
“Follow your passion, stay true to yourself, never follow someone else’s path unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path then by all means you should follow that.”
~ Ellen DeGeneres
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12.0 Thumbnails
The Simpson family consists of fictional characters featured in the animated television series The Simpsons.
The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of married couple Homer and Marge and their three children Bart, Lisa, and Maggie.
They live at 742 Evergreen Terrace in the fictional town of Springfield, United States, and they were created by cartoonist Matt Groening, who conceived the characters after his own family members, substituting "Bart" for his own name.
The family debuted on Fox on April 19, 1987 in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" and were later spun off into their own series, which debuted on Fox in the U.S. on December 17, 1989.
Alongside the five main family members, there are a number of other major and minor characters in their family.
The most commonly recurring characters are Homer's father Abraham "Grampa" Simpson; Marge's sisters Patty and Selma Bouvier; and the family's two pets, Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II.
Other family members include Homer's mother Mona Simpson, Homer's half-brother Herbert Powell, Marge's mother Jacqueline Bouvier, and other minor relatives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
_____________________________
It’s Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Welcome to the 614th consecutive post to the blog,.
existentialautotrip.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Photograph showing a freestone peach in cross section with yellow flesh and a single large reddish brown pit.
See 12.0 Thumbnail below for some facts re: the peach
_____________________
2.0 Commentary
Eureka!
Is that how it goes?
When you hit it out of the park?
Made a pheasant on Monday night as part of a dinner-Celtics game package, my guest supplying the tickets and me the dinner.
But the intrinsically tough bird presenting a problem.
To which I felt I had the answer.
I did.
I combined 2TB of sesame oil (I actually use what I call Asian oil: sesame oil in which I have sautéed fresh ginger, scallions, and garlic) with ½ t each of curry, cumin, salt, chili pepper and brushed the exterior of the bird with it.
Then I slow-roasted the seasoned bird, as is my wont for most meats,) but omitted the 15-minute high-heat finish.
Instead, after the slow-roast, I carved and scissored the small thing into pieces, perhaps sixteen of them.
In a large fry pan I combined 3 TB Limoncello, ½ cup chicken stock, my own, s/p
3 TB chicken gravy, my own, 3 TB flavored butter (truffle,) ½ t each:
cumin/curry/chili/onion powder/black pepper, and 1t salt.
I added the legs (the toughest past of the pheasant) and slow-simmered them for 10minutes. Then I added the rest of the pheasant, covered the pan, and slow-simmered the dinner for ten more minutes.
Lovely.
___________________
12.0 Thumbnails
Hundreds of peach cultivars are known.
These are classified into two categories—freestones and clingstones.
Freestones are those whose flesh separates readily from the pit.
Clingstones are those whose flesh clings tightly to the pit. Some cultivars are partially freestone and clingstone, so are called semifree.
Freestone types are preferred for eating fresh, while clingstone types are for canning.
The fruit flesh may be creamy white to deep yellow; the hue and shade of the color depend on the cultivar.
Peach breeding has favored cultivars with more firmness, more red color, and shorter fuzz on the fruit surface.
These characteristics ease shipping and supermarket sales by improving eye appeal.
However, this selection process has not necessarily led to increased flavor.
Peaches have a short shelf life, so commercial growers typically plant a mix of different cultivars to have fruit to ship all season long.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Welcome to the 613th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
_______________
1.0 Lead Picture
Conflicted
__________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Commentary:
Conflicted tells of a girl touched by God because of her goodness capable of meditation so deep as to elevate her from the physical world, a sphere of falsehoods, into humanity’s ultimate achievement: the communion of saints.
But unlike other mystics distanced from the struggles of mankind, sixteen-year-old Dee is a fully-engaged warrior of God, she so powerful only the most prodigious capable of standing against her.
Until the day the minions of Satan kidnap her and for five weeks inject her four times daily with heroin. It didn’t take long before her addiction’s craving for those injections muffled her love of God, Dee putting strange gods before Him, the second gravest sin a Christian mystic could commit.
Once rescued, her powers of mind and body quickly overcame her addiction
On the heels of which one might expect her to repent and ask God’s forgiveness. And repent she did; and then stepped into the single gravest sin against God: ascribing His power and place to herself.
Dee did crave heroin. She knew that.
She also knew that asking God to would indeed bring immediate forgiveness.
Easy.
Too easy for Dee.
In the shame of her addiction Dee judged that she deserved the utmost punishment: separation from God.
She wouldn’t ask forgiveness; couldn’t.
Meaning that prayer, talking to God, no longer an option for her.
And the dichotomy of her love of God and her refusal to pray set up a spiritual conflict for which she has no solution.
Leaving the question, will this separation from God mean the loss of her great powers of mind and body?
An important question since Satan created a website designed to bring humanity to the End of Days.
An evil website that would destroy mankind using its own free will.
A simple website appearing uninvited at the top of every newsfeed of every internet community..
“As a token of our trustworthiness, we’ve taped an envelope containing $100 under your chair. Reach under the left side and take the envelope.
Open it.
Find the money.
“Now earn another $500. Almost as easily.
“Go outside and key a car.
Any car.
Return here and you’ll discover the location of the $500.00.
“Why are you hesitating?
Go and key that car.”
And, indeed, buoyed by the five twenties in the envelope, off goes the follower to key a car.
To return and find directions to the money, immediately nearby, and another invitation:
More violent.
More lucrative.
For example: “For $2500, get a baseball bat and crack someone on the knee.
The blow must do severe damage to the person; cause great pain.”
As followers of the website multiply, and they will, into the millions, the number of crimes and victims will overwhelm and eventually disable the forces of both law and order and health care providers.
Anarchy.
Dee aware and ready to engage in conflict with Satan’s forces.
But, blocked from the wellspring of her power, even with the help of her three intimate girlfriends and with the forces of good coalescing around her, does she have the strength needed to defeat the enemy?
Conflicted tracks Dee as she moves out of her parents home, welcomes her three intimate girlfriends as roommates, the four starting the school years as new juniors in a competitive high school, stars on the boys’ basketball team, works with the police to stem the tide of violence throughout the world, watches one of her girlfriends fight a losing battle against leukemia, finds a boyfriend, and, losing the spiritual conflict within herself, stands up to the conflict engulfing mankind.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
4.0 Chuckles
“Take your risks now, as you grow older you become more fearful and less flexible. And I mean that literally. I hurt my knee this week on the treadmill, and it wasn’t even on.”
~ Amy Poehler
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
6.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from Sally C:
Dear Dom,
I haven't ever cooked pheasant (yet) but I have had it. We enjoyed it in a restaurant while traveling in South Dakota in 2004 on vacation. South Dakota is the only state that allows consumption of its state bird., the ring-necked pheasant (native to Asia). (Considering the diminutive size of most state birds, preparation of them would probably be far more work than the consuming, allowed or not, would be worth.)
It was delicious.
Much love to you,
Sally
Web Meister responds: Love these tidbits. Makes one hungry for more of Sally.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
_____________________________
It’s Monday, December 9, 2019
Welcome to the 612th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Tennis star Dustin Brown
Diliff - Own work
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Diliff - Own work
Diliff - Own work
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Commentary:
That season.
When efficiently tracking commitments requires a personal secretary.
Writing this Sunday afternoon for Monday’s post, with the clock tick-tocking.
Tonight, five hours away, I am preparing dinner for a party of 20 Microsoft team members as a thank you for their graciousness in the personal training they give to myself and hundreds more who, like me, need all the assistance they can get.
Having said that, I’m afraid that I will add a chuckle See (#4) and then close up today’s comments.
Bless you for your tolerance;
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Commentary:
That season.
When efficiently tracking commitments requires a personal secretary.
Writing this Sunday afternoon for Monday’s post, with the clock tick-tocking.
Tonight, five hours away, I am preparing dinner for a party of 20 Microsoft team members as a thank you for their graciousness in the personal training they give to myself and hundreds more who, like me, need all the assistance they can get.
Having said that, I’m afraid that I will add a chuckle See (#4) and then close up today’s comments.
Bless you for your tolerance.
3. Table of Contents
Scroll a bit further down
4.0 Chuckles
“For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.”
~ Lily Tomlin
3. Table of Contents
Scroll a bit further down
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
_____________________________
It’s Sunday, December 8, 2019
Welcome to the 611th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Pheasant
Gary Noon
_____________________________________________________________________________________________2. Commentary:
I am fully committed to eating one of these on Monday night: Pheasants.
These birds can be found world over in introduced (and captive) populations.
Pheasants are characterized by strong sexual dimorphism, males being highly decorated with bright colors and adornments such as wattles.
Males are usually larger than females and have longer tails.
Males play no part in rearing the young.
I can’t tell you if the males taste better than the females.
Pheasants typically eat seeds and some insects.
The thing about pheasants is that they are tough.
Their legs are very tough.
Yet I want to try to overcome that propensity using a combination of my slow roast followed by a quiet stovetop braising of the legs-only in a juicy, sweetish sauce combining orange juice, honey, cumin, stock, and other seasonings.
I haven’t been doing much reportable cooking lately, myself being consumed by my involvement with blogs, podcasts, and videos.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
3.0 Table of Contents and Contact Information
For entries posted earlier this week, keep scrolling.
1.0 Lead Picture with single line comment
2.0 Commentary
3.0 Table of Contents and Contact Information
4.0 Chuckles
5.0 Mail
6.0 Dinner/Food
7.0 Podcast
8.0 Video
9.0 Poetry
10.0 Movie Reviews
11.0 Thumbnails
12.0 Recipes
13.0 Tweets
14.0 Blog News
20.0 Acknowledgements
21.0 Good Morning
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
4.0 Chuckles
“You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”
~ Robin Williams
_____________________________________________________________________________________________7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
In Chapter Nine, we saw the girlfriends reunite and followed their adventures with both the police and a demon possessing one of them.
In this, Chapter Ten, we will have dinner with the girls and discover what plans Dee has in store for them.
The podcasts are also available on iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
Dom’s website: existentialautotrip.com
The podcasts are also available on iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
Dom’s website: existentialautotrip.com
__________________________________________________________________________________________
14. Blog News (re: existentialautotrip.com)
I must say that after a year and a half of almost daily personal training I’m beginning to feel comfortable with the gamut of 1,000 click-sequences necessary to post a blog.
And today, for the first time after a year of posting to the social media, I have posted my Conflicted podcasts to a community in which I intend to participate, responding to posts from others.
Conflicted is a genre-bending manuscript and it’s difficult to find the appropriate community. But this one is very small (only 530 followers) and I don’t expect to be overwhelmed by responses.
We’ll see.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
14A. News re: volunteers to work on the blog
Looking for someone or two who would like to help with some part of the blog.
Are you interested?
domcapossela@hotmail.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
15.0 FYI: Instructions to Access Our Content in All Social Media
The best ways for followers to access content on the various Social Media is to drop our RSS feeds into their respective address bars.
For our Conflicted Podcasts:
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
For our "Hello, my friends" and other Videos:
ttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOCcrbbzsbguN0k4zs-OEyurcVd-kl56b
For our existentialAutotrip Blog:
existentialAutotrip.com
A tip o' the hat (U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, 1924) after signing an Indian treaty.
Sly devil that he was.
____________________________________________
20. Acknowledgements
Thanks to Amy Poehler, Ellen, and Lily Tomlin for their chuckles.
Thanks to Sally C for her tidbit on pheasant and her illustration of a bad day.
Thanks in general to the Microsoft team at the Prudential Center for their unflagging availability to help with a constant flow of technological problems.
Always thanks to Wikipedia, the Lead and the Thumbnail sections of the Blog very often shaped from stories taken from that amazing website. They are truly worthy of public support.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
21. Good Morning
This week has happily shed some of the frenetic character that has marked the last several weeks as all of the adds seem to have fallen into a rhythm, however shaky.
But now? Gotta go.
Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?
See you soon.
Your Taeyeon