I burnt the tip of a finger on a bagel this morning when I took it from the toaster oven.

 

When I have a bagel, with cream cheese, of course, I always eat the bottom first. Best for last, maybe?

Men cannot live on bread alone, sometimes he has to have a Bagel.

Toaster

   

  I have this toaster that was a wedding present - that makes it 47 years old. Used almost every day. Still works. General Electric and made in the U.S.A. They don't make them like that anymore. The problem is, it has one drawback. We can't toast a bagel. I have to use the toaster oven, but it doesn't do a good job. So, my wife bought a toaster at a yard sale. Cost her $5.00. White. Cheap. A piece of junk. But, it does toast a bagel. Guaranteed not to last 47 years.
      My bathroom was supposed to be worked on this morning. He called last night and said he was sick. Even plumbers call in sick. At least he didn't say he was working from home. The new date is set for Friday.
      It's supposed to rain all day, but it hasn't started yet. I'm on the road today. That's my term for taking my wife to do errands.

Breakfast

It seems the storm was for everyone else except around here. We had some wind and rain, nothing to get exiceted about. I wrote a story about breakfast and will post it on my other blog. http://originalmagazineads.com/flashfiction/
Since it is so close to the truth, I'll post it here also.

Raisin Bread Toast

Mmm! Morning again. At least I'm on the right side of the grass. With my head still a bit foggy, I hear the sounds of my wife busy making her breakfast. I smell raisin bread toasting. Since we don't climb out of bed at the same time, we have the habit to make our own breakfast. This works out well as no one has to wait for someone and each of us may sleep in if desired.

Today I have been sleeping late. Though I could say, I am not sleeping late; this is just my usual time to get up. Christmas is close so it is probably cold outside. Then I remember, the weatherman calls for a very cold day. My mind toys with the idea I could stay in bed longer. Being retired, I can't exactly say my dance card is full. But no, that's the formula for a bad habit so I best get up.

With this decision the door is opened to my first chore, decide on breakfast. I think breakfast comes off as the worse time in the day. Not breakfast itself, but the chore of having to decide what to eat for breakfast. There are too many choices. I could have a bagel, with many assorted toppings. Maybe cereal, but the choices seem endless. Not bacon and eggs, that's my Sunday treat. Then there's the old standby. Toast, and the jams and jellies for spreading on it.

Obviously my wife has decided on raisin bread toast. I like raisin bread toast, but it doesn't like me. The great taste is replaced with the not so great heartburn and indigestion taste. So, pass on the raisin bread. This disappoints me, as I like raisin bread, especially with coffee. I need another choice and I am starting to lean towards a bagel. At this point I could cheat and have a raisin bagel. But why fool myself; the result would be the same.

I wonder if rich people have this same problem. Do they decide what to have or does someone else make the decision for them? Perhaps all the choices have been prepared and laid out on a table. All they do is pick out what they want. I wonder how many choices they would have. Would they just pick at everything? Would they show concern about all the waste?

What about the predictions I heard when I was growing up? Looking ahead fifty years, they convinced us food would no longer remain as it is now. A roast beef meal they affirmed,would be replaced by a pill. Sure, I take a pill every day, but it's Lipitor, followed by a dessert, like Vitamin C and Omega oil. They were partly right, we do take pills.

Feet planted firmly on the floor, I sit on the mattress edge, pondering my naval and the breakfast menu. My mind is yet to be made up. Still rolling the choices, I walk downstairs and see my wife at the kitchen counter making toast. Easy for her. She doesn't seem to have the same problem as I do.

She greets me with a smile. "Good morning dear. I've made you coffee and raisin bread toast for breakfast."

1900 Electric Car Photo

Today it's supposed to be 28C/82F. Of course the humidity will be higher. We are waiting for the Power Co. to arrive. They are going to pick up my old humidifier and gve me $10.00. Considering that I bought an almost new one at a yard sale for the same price, its a win win situation. Then its off for a haircut. Also thinking that today I may switch motors on two lawn mowers. But that's to be seen since my wife hasn't given me my marching orders yet. On second thought, she did tell me something last night. I have to fix something on my daughters wheelchair. Better do that right now.

O.K. That's done. And the haircut too. As I was having a bagel this morning, I remembered the first one I had. I was visiting a cousin in N.Y.C. and Sunday morning after mass, we went to a bagel store. They had six cash registers and a lineup like McDonald's. Behind this was trays of different flavour cream cheese. That was my first experience with bagels and I was impressed. This reminds me of my first experience with large pretzels. Driving into Philadelphia, there were people at the stop lights selling large pretzels covered with course salt. My wife, being from Germany, had to have one. Soft pretzels, yum,yum.We went to Philly over thirty times and Pretzels were on the menu.

The big buzz on tv last night was the new Chev. electric car. As you can see from the photo, the electric car is not new. We had them over a hundred years ago and progress went nowhere. They were slapped down by the oil companies. As Sarah Palin would say,"Well, how did that work out for ya? Maybe not that well, considering oil supplies, pollution etc. Where would the electric car be now if had a hundred years to improve? Would the planet be a better place to live? That's something we will never know. Greed dictates how things go and the track record is not too good on that.

They have small videos on tv about Canadian history. One of them was about Jacques Cartier who is credited with claiming Canada for France in the early 1500's. In the video he is aboard ship and one of the crew tells him that they have trouble steering the ship because of the amount of cod. When he goes for a look, he says something like,"My God, we have enough fish to feed the world till the end of time." Well, how did that work out for ya?  The reason I mention this is that you can't fish for cod anymore. We all know that. But in Newfoundland, for the next two weeks, you can fish for cod. Not with a net, a fishing line. So it will be cod for dinner and fishcakes for the freezer. I guess forever came sooner than we thought.

My Sure Shot Wife

I think I'm in a rut. I've had a bagel and coffee four mornings in a row. That's a rut isn't it? Always read the paper first and any man type flyers. Canadian Tire had one so had to check it out. On the front page was that driveway sealer again for $19.00. Just trying to tick me off. I guess the planning dept. must have made a big blunder when they estimated how many people would do the driveway this year. Next year, they will underestimate and it will cost three times as much. Just like christmas trees. One year they are on every corner, the next year, hardly any.

Another thing I saw was a multi-knife. The big brother of the Swiss Army Knife. It comes with a sheath and you can wear it on your belt. Come on, who actually uses these things? So I walk around my back yard and see a branch that has to be cut off. But am I worried? No way. I am wearing my trusty multi-knife. I'll just flick out the saw and if I start now I could have that branch off, in say, 50 years. Even the Swiss Army Knife?  You can clean your fingernails and remove some mini screws.

Now the air pistol or BB Gun is another matter. I still have a Daisy Air Rifle. When my son was young fellow, we were out shooting at a target. My wife came along and I offered to show her how, thinking "Poor woman, she'll be lucky if she hits the target." I showed her how to cock it, she laid down and Crack, Crack, Crack, six fast shots and ..........six bulls eyes. My chin dropped so far I had to roll it up. I asked her how she did that? "I don't know, I just shot it." Since she is German, I was wondering if they have a shooting gene we don't know about. Told her that the Canada Games have this sport and she should look into it. "No, I'm not interested." Reminds me that I saw a picture of her once wearing an army uniform. When I asked about it, she said it was her brothers and she just had it on for fun. I believe it. Right? Right?

When I was young, I had a BB Gun. Shot my brother Peter with it. He was hollering that he was going to tell dad. So I tried change his mind and I had to make a deal. Told him he could shoot me once and we would be even. Pretty stupid eh? Gave him the gun, started backing away, he cocked it and I took off. Crack! he got me in the soft spot behind the kneecap. So I stopped and said "I guess we're even now." He cocked it again, I took off and he emptied the clip. A few years later I gave him the gun. He went and shot everyone and everything. My dad finally took the gun and wrapped it around a tree.