There was a notice in the paper that Duane Sorrells of Macomb passed away on January 11th. This brought back memories of when he had a group called “The Wagon Wheel Opera”. Rod Tippy of Augusta, Danny Perez and Otis Henry were also part of that group. Otis Henry was from Plymouth and was a well known and beloved person. Recently I purchased several loads of items from his estate and I have some of his school books which he signed. If you would like a memento from Otis, please stop by Plymouth Rock Antiques and you may have a book for free in his memory.
When I got my electric bills, I noticed that there had been no gas consumption in one of my store buildings. I do not go there every day. I had noticed that it was cold in there but it is always cold as I have the temperature set just high enough that the walls will not freeze and thaw. Anyway the furnace had been checked earlier in the fall but assumed it was not working. When I actually checked, the furnace had been shut off. Easy fix, just turn it on! This lead me to remember another time last year when the furnace in my garage would not come on. It too had been checked in the fall. The second service call found that a switch had been turned off to the furnace.
As the store does not open until noon, I was able to watch quite a lot of the Inauguration ceremony on Wednesday. I love the news reporters on NBC so chose that channel to watch. Thought the performers chosen to sing were interesting-Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and Garth Brooks! Don’t feel so badly about wearing jeans to church after seeing Garth Brooks wear them to the inauguration. Was glad to see that all seemed peaceful at least to the TV audience. Felt that Vice President Pence did the proper thing by attending the ceremony and I respect him even more now for his actions.
Thursday was a lovely day for January. I even rode my bicycle before opening the store. Also got my first vaccine on Thursday in Carthage. While I was driving by Hardee’s, noticed they had cheeseburgers for one dollar. Well I love cheeseburgers and one dollar is just not to be passed up. Being “frugal”, decided to buy several and see if they could be microwaved later. I am very happy to report that if you just leave one in the wrapper and microwave it for 30 seconds, it is just like fresh. Will remember that for later.
Went to Augusta on Friday morning and was rewarded by seeing three eagles between Augusta and Plymouth. Two were in a field probably feasting on road kill and the third was in the grove of trees just outside of Plymouth to the south. It is just wonderful to see eagles in our area. That is a real win for conservation efforts on their behalf. Now we need to work on red wolves and other species.
As you know I have kitties. Got an ad from Chewy.com for self-cleaning litter boxes. Would you believe that you can pay from 99.95 to 648.99 for a self-cleaning litter box? Think my scoop cost less than one dollar.
Since COVID-19, people are not able to eat out as much so cook at home a lot more. Tried a new recipe this week. Lets call it creamy chicken. I used skinless, boneless chicken thighs but chicken breasts would also be good I think. Mix garlic powder, salt and pepper and next time I am also going to add poultry seasoning to sour cream. Coat the chicken with the sour cream mixture and then dredge it in crushed Ritz type crackers. Spray a baking dish with olive oil and place the chicken in it. You can drizzle melted butter over the chicken but as I would like to live a bit longer, I drizzled it with olive oil. Bake at 400 in a convection oven, 425 in regular oven for 45 minutes. This is surprisingly good and as I never cook for one, warms up well in the microwave.
I hope that each of you is enjoying a more peaceful existence. Hope that soon there will be increased vaccine production so that all can be vaccinated against COVID-19. I know that we all have enjoyed the warm winter thus far and certainly hope it continues. It would seem that there is a good side to global warming! Try to find some pleasure in each day and remember to give thanks. Scatter Kindness.