Tomatillos

By the end of the day, these tomatillos will be converted to salsa for my vet made tamales

tiny spaghetti squash and big butternut

As I sit here sipping my iced coffee fortified with crème d'erable, it is 92 f***ing degrees outside and the day is young. And the heat will continue into Tuesday. Fortunately, it was less humid early this morning than it had been so I wasn't so miserable running and biking. And no fog for a change so I wasn't covered with flashing lights.

Steve's grotesque pustules have morphed into scabs but he is still experiencing a lot of pain although it is on the inside now. He will feel like a knife is stabbing him. Many cases of shingles morph into 'post herpatic neuropathy' It has been more than 3 weeks since this mess has started and can continue for months. He is taking gabapentin for the neuropathic pain though it isn't 100% effective. He is happier during the day but does a lot of tossing and groaning at night.

Could this be true? A friend needed police assistance in a city neighborhood. Before the police could get there, the dispatcher asked her if she was wearing such and such. How did they know? They presumably could get a satellite photo of her in real time by plugging the address in of the yard she was standing in. Sounds rather Orwellian to me. Must investigate.

I went to the local Farmer's Market yesterday. Hot, hot , hot as this one is on late Friday afternoons. A man was selling Mexican food to benefit a certain veteran's association. I tasted some of his salsas, tasty, and decided to buy some tamales, which I will serve tonight with my yet to be made salsa. His hands were covered with grit and oil. I hope they were cleaner when he made my food. But from his apparent age, he probably was a Viet Nam vet. Had he been watching Ken Burn's series on the war? No, he knew all he needed to know already. His brother was sent over during the Tet offensive (next to shown in the series). He eventually returned from the war with a severe case of PTSD and poisoning from Agent Orange. When he applied to the government for assistance, he was given only 25% disability as they figured he was in the 'field' only 25% of the time. The rest of the time he was at a supply depot full of leaking tanks of the stuff in weather that would make our current conditions feel like an arctic blast. He appealed over and over. Finally during the Obama administration, he was allowed complete disability but died within a month of receiving it. When he returned from the war, he was greeted with throngs shouting 'baby killer' at him. The VFW, full of WW2 and Korean War vets,, did not allow Viet Nam vets at that time. 

So no, he wasn't going to watch it. He just wants to know why we got involved in the first place. I said the first 2 episodes do explain it. the reasons were not 'good' but it was explained. So he will watch those episodes. He did not talk about his own experience so it was not clear if he was a vet or just supported them.

I continue to plug away at my Spanish lessons though my competency level keeps dropping as I need to keep taking more and more refresher lessons. I guess I really don't need to use all those tenses: present tense and conditional should do.