Day 19.050: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #545

Exile #2 writes...

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus, or, Happy St. David’s Day! We celebrated appropriately enough with Welsh cakes and a big, thankful sigh that there was no rugby this weekend.

In honor of the day, I bought some daffodils and noticed that they came with a very clear warning that they were not edible. Apparently there have been occasions when people have used them in place of onions, so labeling is now general practice, as they are actually fairly toxic. Funnily enough, the Welsh word for “leeks” is “cennin”, whilst daffodils are “cennin Pedr” or in other words, “Peter’s leeks”, so I guess the resemblance has been noted for some time. It struck me that cennin Pedr could actually be a bit of dark humor, referring to St. Peter, due to their toxicity, but Pedr’s identity seems to be lost in the mists of time, and as far as I know, he was just a Welshman with a field.

Day 19.048: It’s sugar of course

…but I wasn’t the only one who wondered for a moment what was in this bag of “Florida Crystals”. 

Day 18.312: How much cheese is too much?

Yesterday, as I was getting home from work there was a report on the radio from the world cheese championships in Switzerland. The report described a hall the size of a football field full of cheeses to be judged. 

In a different lots-of-cheese event today, Exile #2 noticed this block of pecorino. The wedge shapes in the foreground are sensible portions. The large block is ten pounds of cheese. 

I believe it’s still available for now. 

Day 18.307: Includes…

Exile #3 and I spotted this while killing some time at the mall a couple of weeks before Halloween.

I thought it should have read, “Includes everything pictured except everything except the sweater.”

Day 18.218: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #535

Exile #2 writes...

Having begun the day in nature yesterday, we (slightly reluctantly) continued it by heading to the DIY store. Neither the landing nor the upstairs laundry lights have been working reliably, so I have mostly been doing the laundry by the light of a camping lantern! Not ideal.

On arrival, we discovered there was actually plenty of nature to be found at the DIY store. The couple of sparrows that occasionally find their way in through the automatic doors have increased to a whole family of sparrows that seems determined to take over the store.

Meanwhile, the turkeys continue to trail through our backyard on a daily basis and there have been a couple of great white shark sightings very close to our local beach - only about 20 feet from the shore in one case. Maybe the seal we saw yesterday on the river rock had the right idea!

Day 18.181: New wheels

In a surprise move, Exile #2 and I bought a new-to-us car this evening. We've been vaguely in the market for replacements for both our cars (bought in 2011 and 2012), with the idea that the old sedan might become transportation for Exile #4. Yesterday, we test drove a possible small-car replacement but were not overly excited by the particular vehicle. Today, we tried a possible van replacement and ended up buying this rather fancy Subaru Outback.

I had no idea it was possible that would drive out in it about two hours after seeing it for the first time, but that is what we did.

Day 17.361: Exile #2's Sunday Column #507

Exile #2 writes...

One of the things we first noticed when we arrived in the US was the ubiquity of the US flag. It is flown at every school and public building, over sports fields, and many private homes. You can even find one at our local supermarket.

As a consequence, you are constantly reminded when they are being flown at half staff, such as they are now and will be until January 28th, to honor Jimmy Carter.

I don’t remember much about Jimmy Carter’s presidency. I was really too young, but his face was one of the first US faces I knew, and in recent times I have been impressed by the way he has continued to work for organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, and globally towards the eradication of diseases, and the promotion of democracy and women’s rights - an inspiring figure.

Day 17.207: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #488

Exile #2 writes...

Being basically a seaside town, we have some businesses that only open during the summer. In fact, the opening of certain ice cream stands are as much a sign of warmer temperatures as the sight of a robin. The ice cream stand has, of course, historically been a source of limited excitement for the non-dairy members of the household but these days, there are multiple stands offering vegan ice creams (not just sorbet!) and sometimes even a choice of flavors. We headed to one of these for a treat and an antidote to the heat yesterday. But we have since discovered that a local farm offers oat milk soft serve, so we might have to force ourselves to make one more trip before the summer is out!

Photo by Jean Balzan on Pexels

Day 16.315: How did this happen?

At around 5:50 pm this evening, I left Exile #2 like this:

Yes, she's sitting on a car seat on the sidewalk by the mall.

So, how did that happen?

It started with a text from my pastor yesterday showing a box that was six and half feet long and four and a half feet wide containing a large TV intended for our new church building in place of our projector/screen arrangement. When I replied to her out of context photos with a joke, she replied, "Well, it won't fit in my car. Do you think you could fit it in yours?"

We realized that this evening was our only window to try since Exile #2 will be traveling in our large vehicle to collect Exile #4 for Thanksgiving tomorrow, so off we went to try. Neither we, nor the very obliging young men who came to try to load it were confident and there was no chance it would go in with the middle seats in place, so out the came. In went the TV (just!) and this was how I left Exile #2 while I went to deliver it (with some hastily arranged assistance at the other end).

Exile #2 was getting quite cold by the time I returned 25 minutes or so later. Her most common interaction with passers-by (after weird looks and a wide berth anyway) was "It was either me or the TV!"

Day 16.310: Empty box

This arrived the other day:

I looked quite exciting and not like anything we were expecting. However, on opening the box it appeared to be empty. 

On closer inspection it proved to be only almost empty. 

This was the content lying in the bottom of the box with no additional packaging or anything:

All we can imagine is that this was the only box available that was long enough for the curtain rail. 

Day 16.267: Soda, soda and … more soda

Spotted by Exile #2 in one of our local supermarkets:

Aisle sign reads, “soda, diet soda, local soda, even more soda”

Day 16.235: Off-road minivan

It was laziness rather than adventure that led to this:

For the purpose of unloading this:

Day 16.054: Exile #2's Sunday Column #430

Exile #2 writes...

When we first arrived in the US, food shopping was a bit of an ordeal. There were so many options for everything and I didn’t yet know what all the descriptive words implied. Well, it turns out that it’s not just a problem for the newbies.

The other day at the supermarket, I found a guy staring at the cheese fridge. He turned to me and just said the word “cheddar”. It wasn’t even a question. Just an expression of dismay.

The previous day, I had been stopped by a slightly forlorn looking gentleman who wanted to know if the bag of chocolate chips he was holding was the “normal” kind. When I paused, trying to imagine which of the many options (milk, semi-sweet, extra dark, white, dairy free, etc. etc) he might consider normal, he added that last time he’d gone home with really tiny ones and they were not right. I reassured him that the ones he had were not the tiny ones, although I decided not to muddy the water with any other details.

Sometimes, less is more and more is a lot.

Some regular-sized chocolate chips in a jar

Day 16.047: Exile #2's Sunday Column #429

Exile #2 writes...

It’s been a topsy turvy kind of week. Exile #1 spent the first part of it in Georgia, which would usually be the cue for the skies to unload a bounteous fall of snow, and true to form it did, but for once kindly waited until he had returned.

E5N1 spent most of what was a school vacation week with a grotty cough and cold. The rest of us picked up a version of it but mostly only enough to feel tired and achy.

Exile #3 continued the work of figuring out what on earth is going on with her head by going to the optician. He declared that there was nothing wrong with her vision but that she seems to have trouble focusing. “You don’t know the half of it, mister” was her later comment to us.

While she was busy being examined, I went and picked a few things up at the supermarket, where to my delight I found this:

Functional Granola

I wonder if they also make dysfunctional granola. I think that might be more our kind of product.

Day 15.272: Exile #2's Sunday Column #411

Exile #2 writes...

Although the night times are getting decidedly chilly, the days are still managing to be quite warm and almost summery. So much so that when we walked into the DIY store in search of washers and the like yesterday, I was not prepared for the full-on Christmas tree array. I know it’s October, and that in this country that means the Halloween decorations have already been largely replaced by holiday décor, but it definitely caused some sensory confusion.

We beat a rapid retreat - it was just too soon - and headed for the shop vac filters instead!

Day 15.258: Exile #2's Sunday Column #409

Exile #2 writes...

Our local supermarket is full of weird and wonderful things. I often find myself grabbing a random packet of British biscuits that they have in that day but then will never ever have again. Sometimes, they don’t quite tempt me to buy but I have to snap a photo. I couldn’t stop myself when packets of “Entertaining Crackers” appeared on the shelves. However, sometimes things are a bit more unsettling, such as when I rounded the corner on Friday to find this waiting for me.

Well, I guess when the Halloween candy has been on the shelves since August, you have to up the ante somehow.

Day 15.228: Home testing

Everyone expects to do their testing at home these days - whatever the tests are for:

(Spotted in the discount section at the supermarket by Exile #2)

Day 14.322: Exile #2's Sunday Column #372

Exile #2 writes...

I had read that Christmas trees might be few and far between this year - a reflection on the state of the economy ten years or so back when the trees were being planted. It seemed a little surprising, bearing in mind that Maine largely consists of trees but I thought I’d better take a look and see how our local tree farm was doing. Just as well that I did. It turned out that today was going to be their last day of the season. We jumped out of bed and into the car to see what they had left.

In the end it was a quick trip. We arrived at opening time - about 2 minutes after 9:00, staggered a few yards from the shed where we had checked in, found a pretty good looking tree, paid for it, tossed it in the car, and arrived home before 9:30. It’s not even beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, and the tree, as yet, is bare but it’s smelling wonderful and that, in itself, is lovely!

Day 14.315: Exile #2's Sunday Column #371

Exile #2 writes...

It’s Thanksgiving week this week. The young Exiles only have school and college on Monday and Tuesday, and even Exile #1 has Thursday and Friday off.

I’ve seen numerous memes joking that the beginning of this week is the period when all Americans families are deprived because the food in the fridge is for Thanksgiving and not to be touched because we are NOT going back to the store! I can understand. It does get hectic. But it in no way rivals the pre Christmas rush of a British supermarket!

Editor's note: Not my photo (obviously!) or my meme

Day 14.158: One for the Maine-est things files

One of my colleagues stepped outside this afternoon to take delivery of 34 lbs of live lobster - delivered by the lobsterman directly from his truck into this cooler. They were quite active until the cold atmosphere (helped by some sealed frozen bottles of water) calmed them down.

Apparently they will stay alive (and therefore fresh) like this for a few days - and then someone is going to have a lot of lobster to eat.