The Web

It’s Saturday and it’s time to remember what it was like to work for a living. Today would be my day off. I was reading yesterday’s Time Goes By floggings and I could see myself in there, sort of. My days start earlier and I drink a little more coffee. We both play with the cat. And I’m certainly not one to get all dressed up anymore.

When I was working, I didn’t have one of those great jobs where you can hardly wait to get to work and then you stay late because you love it. No, I had a good job, but I had to travel a lot and I had to do things the ‘corporate’ way and not my way. So now, for me, the best part of retirement is the freedom. What a great feeling! But it’s also a curse. I’m a terrible procrastinator anyway and retirement has given me the license to do what I wish… and sometimes that is absolutely nothing. This brings on guilt. That doesn’t motivate me as it should, so now I’m a guilt ridden procrastinator. The worst kind! OK, time for more coffee and maybe play with the cat…

The cat can’t be seen at this early hour; being black and all…but I’m pretty sure she is sleeping on the purple cushion that she recently claimed as her own. Bad cat!

We had no time for procrastination yesterday; starting with my usual coffee and the news at Cal-Java and then on to some moving chores with Denise. After that, we went to a mini-celebration of Karlee’s birthday at Marie Callendar’s (Karlee’s choice). Then a trip over to the Cal-State Chico Agriculture department. The Meats lab to be exact. This is where the Ag students learn butchering and meat processing; selling the resulting products to the public. We bought some Andouille sausage, pastrami and 3 Tri tip roasts and all at a great price. It’s all freezer wrapped and deeply frozen. This store is only open on Thursdays and Fridays and you have to be early for some products, such as lamb or pork ribs.

Once we got home, it was time to go into town; go to the library before it closed, get the mail and then a few things at the store; ice and orange marmalade. Those were the important items needed for my next project; the making of marmalade ice cream. Well, it wasn’t the most successful thing I’ve ever done. Despite 1-1/2 hours of rotation in a brine solution, the ice cream was barely frozen. Not enough salt? Anyway, I removed it and put it in the freezer. Time for bed.

While I was waiting for the ice cream to become ‘ice cream’, I began reading a book I had picked up at the library; Web of Deceit, by Barry Lando. Mr. Lando is a former 60 Minutes producer and has a good writing style. It’s quite easy to get into the book and his end notes are complete. A well documented book. Which is a shame; as when you read it, you can only hope that it’s fiction. No such luck; it’s history. (Scroll down and read the first review)

I’ve already read a lot of this history in books by other authors, but Mr. Lando adds to my knowledge. And it’s this fact; that the history of Iraq is well known, which makes the actions of this administration so reprehensible. They couldn’t possibly have had their heads stuck in the sand. They knew!