Haiku My Heart Fridays, July 16, 2010, and Only the Good Friday

Haiku My Heart is a weekly meme project started by my friend Rebecca of recuerda de corozon blog. To read more Haiku and to contribute, check out the links.

Only the Good Friday is from Shelly over at This Eclectic Life. Please check out both these fantastic blogs. Shelly is taking a break from the Optimistic theme of the Good on Fridays, only for the Summer, but I just couldn't resist feeling good about my offering today.

Today's haiku is an essay of sorts, in pictures and words, that tell of our Summertime fun. No activity soothes the soul like a day, or in our family's case, 'days' at the beach. In fact, we went today, to not one, but two different beaches in Minneapolis. Lake Hiawatha and Lake Harriet. We spent an hour at one, then loaded up, keeping our bathing suits on, sitting on wet towels, and went to another and spent better than another hour there! These beach visits were preceded by the bagel shop, the coffee shop and some freezies from the freezer of Auntie Binky's workplace!

The photos are from another trip, to Lake Sissabagama, (Sis-a-bay'-guh-muh), in Northern Wisconsin. The shots of the kids jumping for joy and screaming at the tops of their lungs is the kind of spirit we love. Their pleasure shows up later as they jump off the dock with reckless abandon and line up by size for the photo op.

This post will also be a part of Only the Good Fridays as well. Happy kids in this world of turmoil is important to me. I am alive because I see them smiling and enjoying themselves. I hope you enjoy the pictures of my Grandkids and that their exuberance is contagious.








Anticipation

Swimming splashing having fun

Going to the lake







Jump in the water

We don’t want to leave this place

Cool and refreshing


Looks like a commercial shot for that wireless phone company

Peace to all

Ruby Tuesday 07/13/2010

Tuesday the thirteenth. Not part of the vernacular like Friday is, so I won't be concerned with it. What is important is that it is Ruby Tuesday. A Meme started by Mary T/The Teach, who pens the Work of the Poet blog. Post a photo of something Red on Tuesdays, pretty simple, but if you need guidelines, check this out. Otherwise, pay Work of the Poet a visit and see some wonderful photographs and maybe read a few good stories. I like to tell a story of the picture I'm posting. Some folks do very well with their beautiful photographs, all with the Ruby Red theme.

My submission for this Ruby event is food. Well, not all the food, but a placement of one of the items in a real modern day traditional Chicago style sandwich. I'm not sure when and how it got started, but the Italian beef and sausage combo laced with sweet peppers is a favorite of mine when I take the trek back home.

I'm from Chicago. I was born there and lived there for the first twenty five years of my life. The hot dog joints, or beef joints as they are called, are commonplace to Chicago like the Philly beef stands are in Philadelphia. At these hot dog joints, the Italian beef sandwich is served. It can be upgraded, "Supersized" if you will, by adding a link of broiled Italian sausage. This is called a combo for the simplification of the word combination. I like mine with roasted sweet peppers on top. I like hot and spicy food too, but I don't care for the hot giardinara. The hot giardinara is often added to top this great sandwich. HERE is a very short video of a Chicago style Italian beef sandwich with giardinara on top. Giardinara, by the way, is hot or mild. It is vegetables in a vinegar brine. You can get that in jars all over the country.


Jars of Italian Giardinara

My submission photo, below the bread and bakery sign shots, was taken around Christmas last season. We had Chicago style Italian beef and sausage combos as a selection for dinner. The beef is thinly sliced and cooked for hours in a salt. pepper and garlic au jus. The sausage is grilled outdoors on a charcoal grill. The bread is also an Italian style and prominent around Chicago. Hard to find just the right kind of bun for a combo where I live. The drive is a mere six hours to get back into the "Circle of Flavor", as I call it, for the right kind of bread for this delicacy. For that matter, I want Gonnella brand bread and sandwich rolls for any salami sandwich I might be making as well.


Advertised as "Good Good Gonnella"


An end of a loaf of Gonnella bread

The sweet peppers are simply bell peppers that are roasted by slowly frying them in a large black well-seasoned cast iron pan. I like to start them in olive oil to get a few burnt spots on them, then turn down the heat and cover them and allow them to "roast" in the pan. They get soft and hold their flavor. In this case, I used roasted green and red peppers. Hence the Ruby Red in the shot. I will enjoy Christmas and home again just looking at this photo. And today, my sister arrives from Chicago for a visit. She'll bring with her Italian beef, Italian sausage, some Genoa salami and Gonnella bread from the neighborhood. We'll feast tomorrow when my brother loins us for a day long visit.


The sandwich is put together, then the au jus is spooned over and it soaks into the bread. You can pick it up for the first bites, but if you have done it right, your fingers are sticky and the bun is falling apart by the time you are near the end.

Bon Appetit

Ahhhh, the Rubiness of the peppers on this delicious Combo sandwich

Peace to all

Monday Morning Mystery Tour

Let’s see, I need a subject. I want to write this morning. Ahhh, feels so good to be back in my routine of being up as the morning twilight starts to brighten the sky. Why before you know it, I turn to my right and it’s daytime. I’ve made it through another night. The last few hours, sitting at the keyboard, have been a life saver for me. I used to walk around the house, try to sleep, watch mindless TV, especially before cable! I've had a brief few days of sleeping in, that's all night until morning for me, so it's good to be back to getting up before Ole Sol brightens the Eastern sky.

Looks like I found my subject. It’s a generality. Everything in general and nothing in particular.

I started the segment by reading comments on my own blog. I posted some pictures with shadows in them from around my own home. This Shadow Shot theme or meme comes from Australia and I can’t remember how I got started in doing it. But I enjoy finding shadows and having the occasional cultural phenomenon of a “good” photo.

The people who participate are from all over the world. Some are fantastic photographic artists. Others just have great luck. But all of the photos are interesting. Some folks just post anything, then make the rounds of the other posts and make new friends. I have to say, I do get many hits on Sundays for the shadow shots.

I’ve made some new friends too. New readers that read my blog. And I’ve found some fantastic new blogs to go and read. So many creative people out there. Talented with their artwork and their writing. Some are really interesting and some, well, they are beautiful and have beautiful hearts. Not many men though. There are a few, but mostly women.

Some of the photos I have posted came from the recent trip I took, driving to the West coast. While in Nevada, I dropped my camera while it was on and the lens extended. After I dusted it off, I tried to take pictures, but every time I pressed the power button, the shutter would bind and not open. I used my fingers to pry the shutter apart. After all, I was on the first days of a three week journey. I needed to have a camera!

The following shots were taken with the shutter partially open. On a few of them, it gave it a strange but interesting look. Take a look for yourself. Different, to say the least. The next day, the camera had fixed itself and no longer groaned and made that binding noise when I flipped on the power. Anyway, here are the affected photos:


The long straight road ahead. US Highway 50 in Nevada.


The shutter almost opened fully on this long lonely road shot.


Sunset, straight up


Sunset, angular. I like this one, and it was an accident to say the least.


From my motorcycle, while stopped, looking downhill onto the road that twisted up the mountain. Austin, Nevada

I have to admit, I neglect many of the blogs listed on my side bar. I just don’t have the time to get to them all. Some days I start from the bottom. Many of those listed have been on my blog since I started blogging, and that’s some years ago now. Some are gone. Some have changed. Some don’t post as often or at all and are on Facebook. I had a friend request for Facebook from a guy I don’t even know only to find out it is the real first and last name of someone I have been talking to, cyberly. (is that a word?), via the blogs and e-mail, for years.

“So, that’s what he looks like?” I thought. “And that’s his first and last name?” I said to myself. I haven’t been to his blog as often as some of the newer ones I’ve discovered. I felt a bit ashamed. Yet another blog friend came to my place and wrote a comment. I remembered having an old e-mail from her. I went into my file, and as the moths flew out, (cyber moths, no doubt), I retrieved her letter and answered it.

Well, it’s daytime. No big plans today. No children to watch after. No errands to run. No projects nagging at me, well, there’s always projects. I do need an oil change on the Triumph, and a ride on the Beemer wouldn’t be a bad idea. When my friend calls to take a look at my younger daughter’s electrical system, I will need to go meet him there and let him in. I’ll ride the motorcycle there. The NOAA weather page says it will be a warm sunny day with a high of 78 degrees.

This evening, no plans. I will savor a day like today. I have been so busy that I’ll just keep the empty dayplanner page empty. I really don’t have a dayplanner except for the one in my head, and that one is empty. (That didn’t come out good, did I say I have an empty head? Oh well, I probably do, and that’s okay.) The title for this post is how I would start every Monday morning back a few years ago. I'll have to repost some of those old travel stories. My Grandson is starting to read my blog. After all, the writing is a legacy of sorts. I'm honored that he likes to read and especially honored that he likes to read what I have written.

Tomorrow, I embark on another journey of sorts. It is a soul journey. I have been asked to facilitate a support group meeting for returning Veterans. It will meet once per week on Tuesday evenings. I hope I can be of help to someone. I guess I’ll be thinking about how the meeting will transpire and how many, if any, will show up. I guess I’ll get those answers tomorrow.

Take care and be well. I hope you have Peace in your life today.

Pax Vobiscum

Shadow Shot Sunday, July 11, 2010

Hey Harriet is the blog that is all abuzz on Sundays with the Shadow Shots. Folks from all over the world are participating. Have a look, some fine photographs in this mix. For the guidelines to participate, check THIS out.

In the meantime, here is a collage of sorts from around my place. We call it Spadoville. Pretty obvious who lives here, DUH! Spadoman, that's who! One Summer morning the sun had risen and was casting shadows everywhere. I saw the sharp images and grabbed the camera. Pretty mundane things, really, but everything casts a shadow. The deck faces East, so the morning sun hits there first.

The deck itself has the boards, but I saw a geometric formation from the guardrail slats.




Then, the birdhouse. It's really the outside light, but the sparrows had built a nest in a small crevice behind the fixture. Even the straw used for the nest is casting a small shadow.




Next is the chair that sits in the shade in the afternoon. Pretty hot place to be sitting in the morning this Summer.




Inside the house, the back door casts its shadow on the wall.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

The sun is setting, we'll wait until tomorrow to see where it casts the next Shadows.

Peace to all.

Haiku My Heart Fridays, July 9, 2010

Haiku My Heart Fridays is a creation by Rebecca, who pens the recuerdo mi corozon blog. Here are the guidelines to participate. Some beautiful discoveries here, check them out.




First day Vietnam

Contemplating my future

Will I make it home?







Smiling all the time

Putting my best foot forward

Waiting to come home









Back in the world

In the neighborhood driving

Guess I made it home





I took some liberty with todays Haiku My Heart Friday posting. I wrote a short series of three Haiku, and placed a photo for each. The first photo was taken within a few hours after I arrived in Vietnam, on February 20th of 1969, the start of the Tet offensive. I wondered what the year would be like, especially arriving at such a volatile time during the year. The Tet offensive was notorious for increased attacks against our positions. I wondered if it would ever end, or if I’d die in battle. I didn’t. I made it home and have walked a line of Peace ever since. My only regret is that I didn’t have the courage to lay down my rifle and go to Leavenworth prison for 20 years. Instead, I stayed and did societies bidding, then returned home to another hell, living with the scars of battle, death, destruction and blood on my hands.

The next shot was taken at some random time during the year I spent there as an Army Sergeant in the American war in Vietnam, and the third was a month after I returned home.

While I served there in this strange land doing these strange things, I dreamed of going home constantly. I kept positive. These thoughts were gifts from The Creator, for without them, I surely would have died. I kept on seeing home. I worked hard to save the lives of my Brothers and keep myself alive.

I bought a new Plymouth Barracuda Gran Sport with a rockin’ big motor when I returned to what we Vietnam Vets called, "The World". I used to laugh at how I was dressed when I would pull this old picture out and look at it, but then in those days, that was the style. I met Mrs. Spadoman shortly after, (maybe how cool I dressed worked, eh?), and lost my license for too many speeding tickets. Mrs. Spadoman used the muscle car to commute to high school the last couple of months as I carpooled to work with a guy. I couldn’t drive with a suspended license.

All this is a part of me. It has made me who I am. I don’t want to forget anymore as I understand why it happened to me. It happened so I can tell you and all who will listen and hear that war is not the answer. Peace and forgiveness will set you free.

I hope dear friend Rebecca doesn't mind that I made up my own arrangement today. Just felt compelled to mention these things in this way, with explanations and such. Thank you Rebecca and thank the rest of you for reading and listening.

Pax Vobiscum

Sundry Words From Spadoville

A beautiful rainbow, captured on a recent trip, somewhere near the Black Mountain Hills of Dakota


I love this picture, and to me, it is a beautiful shot, but not even close to the fire in the sky that I saw in person. This is what was behind me as I looked ahead at that rainbow in the photo above.


I've been away a lot and not been doing all the posting, reading and commenting that I normally do. As the photos posted above attest, I've been on the road, a lot! Besides, I have actually been sleeping better when I am at home. This has a bearing on my blog as most of my work here takes place in the wee hours. Sleeping in, and that is like past 6:00 AM, has me away from the computer and jumping right in with family stuff as soon as i get up in the morning.

Mrs. Spadoman works a few days a week. She takes Yoody to a YMCA Summerpower day program most days. My daughter takes Gracie to a day care pre school when she leaves for work. That leaves me with the two older kids, Anna and DJ. They sleep in pretty much every day. I go about my business and usually end up at the coffee shop in town. When the kids get up, they call me on my cell phone to let me know they are awake and functioning. They have breakfast, cold cereal, juice and toast, and I come home. Some days we have an activity planned, and others we just hang out and clean house, do chores and run errands.

It's a nice life if you can get it. I didn't know how retirement would be. Now I do, and for right now, these days of my life are grand.

I have been riding my Triumph for most anything I need to do. 47 miles per gallon and the rush of adrenalin when twisting the wick on occasion. Then I ride the BMW when I have a chance to get to a dirt trail. On one of the motorcycle forums I read, a fellow bike enthusiast sent me some maps of a dirt and gravel road trail that runs from the Wisconsin/Illinois border all the way North to Lake Superior. I'm familiar with some of those roads in Northern Wisconsin, but I am anxiously awaiting a chance to check out the ones in the Southern part of the state.

There are plenty of opportunities for recreation and entertainment around here as well. Music in the park and in the outdoor bandshell at the University of Wisconsin which is virtually right out my back door, (and down a short distance on a walking/bike path). This week will be River Falls Days with a Woodstock theme called Kinnistock. Kinni refers to the Kinnikinnick River which is a class A trout stream that flows right through River Falls towards the Mississippi River, which is also not far from here. Plenty of beautiful bluffs and vistas along this stretch of the Old Man River.

I always wondered about that. Why it is called Old Man River, yet named Mrs. Sippi. I mean, shouldn't the Father of all Rivers be Mr. Sippi?

This brief post is my attempt at apologizing for not getting to the many blogs of the great people out there that come to mine. As I participate in Ruby Tuesday, Shadow Shot Sunday, Only the Good Friday and From the Heart Friday Haiku, I have made many new blog friends. Then there are the regular readers that banter back and forth. Add to that the blog friends I have known since starting the project, over five years ago, well, it can be overwhelming.

In my perfect world, I'd like to be able to stop by each and every one every day or at least every time a new post is up. I want to say something. Even when I don't have a comment, I want to say, "I was here". Just today I caught up with one of my all time favorite blogs, Beth's Blog. I've talked about her and her work before. She is a plethora of information. Civic, self help, recipes, inspirational, humorous, and on and on. She posted a piece about some spicy ketchup, (or do you spell and say catsup?)

Being the foodaholic that I am, I am always on the lookout for a fresh new taste or flavor. I know of a regional specialty called Toivo and Eino's U.P. Original Pasty Sauce. It is a spicy ketchup used on the Pasty. The Pasty is a regional food from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Brought to our shores by the Cornish miners that came in the late 1900's to work the copper mines. It was their Burrito, or their Calzone. Every labor, blue collar, peasant working class has a hand held food to carry to the workplace. The miners from Cornwall had the pasty. Ever had one? Here are some pictures of Pasties and a recipe to follow.


A couple of beautiful freshly baked Pasties, hot from the oven.


That sure looks good. Where's the Pasty Sauce?


Toivo and Eino's U.P. Original Pasty Sauce. If you need some, write and tell me, I'll send you some.

HERE is a good Pasty Recipe. Give these a try and let me know how you liked them. You may have to wait for the heat of summer to go away and wait until Fall. Those "Down Under", it's already that time of year.

In the meantime, take care and be well. I'll start sleeping less as soon as I start letting the world situation, the weather, global warming, BP, Fox News and the government et al bother me again. Then I'll have some time to get to your blogs again. I do love you all as you are such great friends. I will leave you with one tidbit that caught my eye just this morning, sent to me by a wonderful couple that stand For Peace every day of their lives As the title says, it is a wide and varied mix coming from me today.

The U.S. military purchases much of its oil from BP. In 2005 the military paid out more than $1.5 billion to BP alone and a total of $8 billion in energy contracts. B-52 bombers consume 47,000 gallons of fuel per mission. An F-16 fighter burns $200 worth of fuel a minute. The military buys 3 billion gallons of jet fuel per year. In 2008 the U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan used a staggering 90 million gallons a month. In 2009 the military spent $3.8 billion on fuel at posts, camps and bases overseas. --- Truth Out

Peace to all of you and all the world.

Ruby Tuesday 07/6/2010

Ruby Tuesday is a Meme created by Mary T./The Teach who pens the "Work of a Poet" blog. Check it out and see some fabulous Ruby themed photographs. If you'd like to participate, look HERE for the guidelines.

On a recent trip out West, I did some night driving. It was the time of a new moon and with the roads virtually empty of traffic, I spent a lot of time traveling in total darkness. Of course my headlights lighted my way, but there was not much other traffic to gauge distance or refer to. I relied on the white lines and delineators.

At one point, I picked up the camera as it was at the ready on the empty seat next to me, and I snapped off a shot of the long vacant road ahead. Low and behold, I see a red spot off in the distance. As I traveled further, the red spot became a set of truckers tail lights. I lowered the camera and snapped a shot of my instrument panel. Without taking my eyes off the road to focus and aim, I felt that the results were pretty astonishing.

So, today's Ruby Tuesday shots are from a long stretch of Interstate 25 just North of Cheyenne Wyoming on a hot sultry night in June. It was near midnight and the road seemed abandoned. I'm posting this on Monday evening as many of the viewers are in parts of the world where it is already Tuesday. So, without further adieu:


Click on any image to enlarge. You may have to to see the ruby in this long shot of highway



Upon closer examination, the ruby spot ahead became this set of DOT (Department Of Transportation) approved markers


I'm actually traveling below the posted speed limit and the effort showed in excellent gas mileage. Oh WOW, the tank is full!

Peace