Snow, More Snow

Last week's snow storm dropped 29" of snow in our neighborhood. Less than half of it melted before we got our next storm of 14". The forecast for the next couple of days has been reduced to the possibility of only 7-14 more inches! I have a lengthy pile of snow in front of the house that was shovelled from the driveway. This mound is about 6 feet tall and 20 feet long. I wonder how long it will take to melt. Because of the position of our house, our yard is the last one on the block to lose its snow. It doesn't get as much sunshine as the neighbors.

Speaking of Grand Marshals

Gerald Ford was one of three presidents to act as Grand Marshal of the Rose Parade. The others were Hoover, Nixon and Eisenhower. Nixon hadn't been president yet when he was Grand Marshal in 1953 and 1960.

I looked through the list of past Grand Marshals and see only a few people who did it more than once who were not parade organizers. That was a common practice before about 1920. Since then, these people have done it more than once:

Shirley Temple in 1939, 1989, and 1999
Bob Hope in 1947 and 1969
Richard M. Nixon, 1953 and 1960
Earl Warren in 1943 and 1955

George Lucas will be the Grand Marshal for 2007.

Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford was defeated in his only run for the office of president. He lost to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election. That was the first presidential election that I ever voted in. I was a sophomore at the College of DuPage at the time and I remember how happy a number of teachers were that Carter had been elected. They were even handing out peanuts as part of their celebration. Carter was known as a peanut farmer. I voted for Ford.

Gerald Ford is also the only president I have ever seen in person. I only had a glimpse of him as he rode by as Grand Marshal of the 1978 Tournament of Roses Parade.

While a student at the University of Michigan, I recall that he was to do a lecture for some class in Angell Hall. It just so happens that at that time I happened to have a class in that same building not too long before he was supposed to be there. I didn't get to see him, but I do remember the secret service guys hanging around. As I walked down the hall, one of them was keeping an eye on me through his sunglasses.

Laser Pointers

Laser pointers have more use than pointing at things. They make great cat toys, too! Cats will chase the little piece of light all over with gusto until they are completely tired out. Good exercise for cats. They'll even try to run up the wall to get it.

But they do wise up after a while. I suppose they get frustrated after a while so you give it a break and bring it our sometime later.

Snow Topped Off

The snow topped off at 29" at our house. Worked from home both Wednesday and Thursday. Took the day off Friday and did get out in the Pilot. Most of the main roads were okay but the side streets were interesting with only one lane plowed if that. Parking lots varied from poor to bad with the worst one being at Target where the plowing was mediocre. Best Buy had plowed their snow from one side of each lane to the other so the available parking was a little more than half of what is normally available. There just wasn't anywhere to put the snow. Saturday, it's going to be a zoo at the stores.

Let It Snow

When I shoveled the snow at 4 pm, it was 15 inches deep. It is still snowing.

The New Goal

As the year nears a closing, I find that I have reached my revised mileage goal of 3700 miles on the odometer. That's 1204 in 2006 - by far the most I have ridden in one year. I think my goal for next year should be at least that much and if I can make 1300 miles that would put the odometer at 5000. So, that's the new goal.

That's only an average of about 108 miles per month. One of the keys is to get a head start during the coming winter months when riding is limited to weekends when there is no snow and it is at least 40 degrees (like today). Today it was a little chilly when the sun was behind the clouds and I found my toes to be rather cold. Fingers, too, but not as bad. This seems to be the lower limit on temperature for me to be riding.

Cashews

I was reading about cashews and got a kick out of the interesting words:

The Cashew is a tree in the plant family Anacardiaceae. Anacardium occidentale is a small evergreen tree with leathery textured leaves that are elliptic to obovate. The flowers are produced in a panicle or corymb.

On the tree you will see what appears to be a pear-shaped fruit. However, it is actually a pseudofruit or false fruit that develops from the receptacle of the cashew flower. The false fruit is called the cashew apple.

The true fruit of the cashew tree is a kidney shaped drupe that grows at the end of the pseudofruit. The drupe develops first on the tree and then the peduncle expands into the pseudofruit. Within the true fruit is the cashew nut. The seed is surrounded by a double shell containing a caustic phenolic resin, urushiol, a potent skin irritant toxin (also found in the related poison-ivy).

So, there you have it.

Nuts I've Eaten

peanuts, almonds, cashews, filberts (hazelnuts), Brazil nuts, macadamias, California (English) walnuts, black walnuts, pistachios, pecans, chestnuts, pine (pignolia), coconut.

Some interesting things about nuts:

Peanuts: It is rare to find one with 3 nuts in the shell. But I have had as many as 5 nuts in one shell!

Brazil nuts: The nuts grow inside a hard, woody fruit rather like a coconut shell. When it is broken open, you might find as many as 24 nuts inside.

Cashews: Some people think they have no shells because you never see them in the store with their shells. The truth is that the shells are very caustic. Nobody would buy them more than once in the shell. More about cashews later.

Chestnuts: Roasted on an open fire or not, blech.

Coconuts: My father could not swallow coconut. One time he tried to eat a cookie that unbeknownst to him, had coconut in it. After chewing it for a long while, he ended up with a wad of coconut in his mouth!

Filberts: According to one web site I found, filberts are similar to but NOT the same as hazelnuts. Go figure.

Macadamia: From Hawaii. Yes, but they are native to Australia.

Pecans: Come from the state tree of Texas. There are numerous varieties. Good in Chinese stir fry if deep fried for a short time. Top the Chinese dish with the nuts. Use some hoisin sauce.

Pine Nuts come from numerous types of pine trees. They are good on pizza with ground lamb and feta cheese on a spinach crust. Maybe a little cinnamon.

Black Walnuts

I am rather fond of nuts. Nuts are plentiful in grocery stores this time of year and we have had a good supply to snack on here at home. I especially enjoy nuts that are in the shell rather than those in jars or bags. There is a fun element to cracking nuts and then eating them.

Of the common nuts found in grocery stores in the shell, I like filberts, brazil nuts, and almonds the best. Peanuts are good. Then there are walnuts and pecans.

There are different varieties of some nuts. Walnuts are the main subject of this blog posting. The ones you find in the grocery stores are California English Walnuts. These are popular because they are plentiful, tasty and have an easily cracked shell.

They are not as good as black walnuts. I have never seen black walnuts in the shell in any store. I have seen small bags of shelled black walnuts on occasion.

My father liked black walnuts. When I was a kid, on at least two occasions, we drove out to Rock Falls, Illinois where we knew of some black walnut trees. After the first frost, the walnuts would start falling from these trees and that was the time to pick them up. However, they were not ready to crack or eat. The black walnut shell is about the same size as a typical store walnut but when you pick them up off the ground, they would normally still have their husk on them. Black walnut husks are about the size of a small peach and the juice that is in them will stain just about anything it touches. After the nuts fall from the tree, we would use our shoes to roll them on the ground and that would remove the husk leaving the nut exposed.

Black walnut shells are very hard and a typical nut cracker will not work. We used a hammer to crack them. We'd end up with a large box of de-husked black walnuts which was stored out in the garage. My father had a piece of flagstone that he setup on a shelf in the garage and it was out there that the hammer would be used to crack and shell the nuts.

Invariably, some of the nut meat would be left inside the remains of the shells. These we threw out in the yard for the squirrels. You could hear them trying to crack the remains up in the trees.

The edible part of the black walnut looks a lot like a typical walnut but the taste is quite different and unique. Maybe I'll see if I can find some.

I Really Like Our New Church

This was a wonderful sermon about "The Dearest Place on Earth".

It is by Senior Pastor Bill Oudemolen of Foothills Bible Church.