How To Keep A Parrot Happy - Don't Blink

I have had Oscar, my Orange Wing Amazon parrot since 1986.  It's entirely possible that he will outlive me.

That is common with the midsized and larger parrots, they have long lives, and there was a Yellow Naped Amazon who lived in Homer Alaska to the ripe old age of 106.

Yeah, Alaska.  Of All Places.

You end up having to find coping strategies with them.  You see, it's not like with a dog.  Dogs bond in a pack mentality, friends is a good way to describe it.  You work together as a team, even if that work is sitting on your lap and keeping you comfortable.   They do jobs, they give you companionship, they give you help in many different ways, and they give you love.  I have even heard a pretty good discussion as to how the Human Race would not have survived had it not been for the assistance of the dog.

But Parrots?  Well they're a very strange creature in their own right. 

You see where Dogs see you as a co-worker, Parrots see you as a mate.

Yes, for 29 years I have had a small green mate in my house.  It takes getting used to. 

There are better bonded parrots.  I had a Goffin's Cockatoo named Sonny who was so closely bonded to me that he would "get loud" until I opened the cage, and no matter where I was in the apartment, he would then hunt me down so that he could be near.  Then he would act silly.  Backflips, barking, chattering, and the like.

Squeak, my Grey Cheeked Parakeet used to ride all over Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia inside my shirt.  I would walk into shops, he would climb out just enough to see where he was, then if he liked the people there, he would climb out to say hello. 

But Oscar is somewhere in between indifference and bonding.  He is named Oscar because he's a bit of a

grouch.  It's a coincidence that he's green like the Sesame Street character and that was what got me calling him that. 

He will interact with you but only on his terms.  I am his favorite person, which is to say he won't shred me to pieces with that beak of his all of the time.  I can get him to go back into his cage when I say "Go Home", and he shows his appreciation by talking to me.

At sounds louder than a Jet Engine at 3 in the Morning.

So I have learned.  He is an intelligent creature and requires mental stimulation.  If he doesn't get it, he makes his own, learning how to bounce sounds off of walls for echo location, especially if those walls are three blocks away.

At least that is what I think he's trying to do.  I can't fathom why else 130 db are necessary other than to gauge distance.

But there his cage sits on the room divider.  I keep oddball things there to keep him from eating the room divider because anything that is wood will be chewed.  We would like to keep the divider in one piece since we are somewhat attached to the architectural element of it.

I found a long time ago that he will go quiet if I put toys on top of the cage.  Beach Balls are the best since they are light and too large for him to get his beak around.  They also won't destroy anything when they are ejected in his favorite game of "Make the Human Fetch".  Anything left on the room divider is fair game to be ejected, to the floor, post haste.

Don't leave anything "food related" on there because he does want to sample.  Usually at 130 db. 

Yes, the word Hello gets used loudly and often since he has figured out that I pay attention to it.  In his little world, Hello really means "I Want".

I want that food you have.

I want your attention.
I want a shower in the rain.
I want it NOW.

It's like living with a two year old version of Verucca Salt from the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movies. 

At 130 db.  A pain inducing one hundred and thirty decibels.

So if you see me covered in rain, parrot feathers, some scattered food, and a couple of scratches on my arms, it's a normal day in the life of a parrot owner.  Just don't blink.  He'll be into something else real soon.

Lemon Meringue Pie With A Tasty And Angry Recipe

Did you ever get started doing something and found yourself herded into a completely different direction?

I did because I was stubborn.  Bound and determined to make "something good" for dessert that night, I started while I was making Mango Jam and was frustrated at each step.

First thing was I had my face stuffed in the fridge.  I spotted what I was looking for, Key Lime juice.  I knew that there were no Key Limes in the house, the little golf ball sized things had rolled off into the sunset a long time ago so there would be no "Zest" in the pie.

That's a secret ingredient they don't tell you.  If you don't "Zest" your fruit, your citrus pie recipes won't be as complex tasting.  Its a small thing, only a half to a teaspoon per pie or less, but it really does add a LOT to the taste.

So I pulled the bottle and noticed that it was more than six months out of date.  Giving the bottle a shake, I opened it up and saw some weird looking slick on top.  The juice was tan leaning toward brown.  No thanks, I'll pour this one out.

The other bottle was the same, and there was a strange vacuum pressure thing going on.  Bad.

Ok, change in plans, I'll make Lemon Meringue.  It's really just about the same recipe.  The lemon juice was fresh, bought last week.

Pour out 1/2 cup into a measuring cup and slide that into the refrigerator.

Next, find the sweetened condensed milk. 

After 15 minutes of tearing the place apart, I gave up.  No sweetened condensed milk.  I had used it up making Dulce De Leche, or Caramel Sauce.  Good stuff, Explosively good actually.

Now what?

I went hunting for a recipe that needed no sweetened condensed milk, and I was not going to go out to the supermarket "Just For This".

Annoyed at myself, I found a great recipe that I adapted to use. 

There are actually two separate recipes. 

• The crust was a ready-made graham cracker crust because I was not in the mood to break up graham crackers, add butter, and bake that separately that day.  Shortcut, but it worked.
• The Filling was adapted from this recipe, and there were very few changes other than the way I made it. 
• The Meringue was from memory, and it's truly basic.    "One of the best I have ever tasted!" because it was just two ingredients.

One warning though, if you are making meringue, don't do it on a rainy day.  The meringue will sweat and get "goopy".  Nobody wants a sweaty goopy meringue.  This is best done on a sunny day in a dry house.


First - the Meringue.

• If there is any oil in the mixing bowl, the Meringue will refuse to "inflate".
• Add to the clean mixing bowl, 3 egg whites - COLD! (reserve the yolks for later)
• Add to the clean mixing bowl, 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar.

Using a whisk if you are into punishing yourself, or a stand mixer, beat the mixture to stiff peaks.
You will know when you have stiff peaks when you can fluff up a bit of the meringue and it will stay fluffed.

Note, if you want more Meringue, add egg whites and sugar at 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar to each egg white.  It will scale up, but don't go below 2 eggs.

Store the meringue in the refrigerator until ready, but it will deflate if it has been left too long.


Second, the Pie Filling.

Ingredients:

• 3 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups water (cold)
• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine (room temp is best)
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel (optional but recommended)
• 1/2 cup lemon juice

Process:

• To non reactive 3 quart sauce pan, add all of the ingredients at once.
• Turn on stove to medium.
• Begin stirring the mixture with whisk, mixing spoon, or spatula.
• The mixture will thicken at around 20 to 25 minutes.
• When the mixture begins to thicken, it will thicken seemingly instantly.

Third - Assemble the Pie!

• Add the pie filling to the pre-made pie shell leaving a little bit below the top of the crust for the meringue.
• Spoon out the meringue on top of the pie filling.
• Even out the meringue so that it reaches the edges of the pie.
• With a fork, make a few spots where the filling and the meringue will mix.  This optional step will keep the meringue from peeling off of the top of the pie as easily as some pies.

Fourth - Bake the pie at 350 for 8-12 minutes or until the Meringue begins to toast golden brown.
Allow the pie to cool and set in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Bread Machine Mango Jelly Revisited

I found this recipe and used it a couple years in a row. 

It works well with Mangoes and I have used exactly this recipe substituting Cherries or Strawberries in
season in the same amounts and got excellent results as well!  Oh and since it is a bread machine recipe, it's trivial to make.  Kick your shoes off and 1 hour later you have fresh Jam, if you want it hot.

So what's that you say, I'm done?  Not exactly.

There are a couple reasons.

First off, I did a substitution to drive the calorie count down.  Instead of 1 Cup of granulated Sugar, I substituted Stevia at the recommended amount of 1/3 Cup plus 1 Tablespoon.

Why?  The result was a less "cloyingly sweet" Jam.  It turned out slightly tart and sweet at the same time.  I love a good mango jelly/jam/whathaveyou.  But I wanted to make something a bit lighter.  In this case, I saved 774 calories across the three jars.  Each jar was about 6 ounces, so figuring a tablespoon serving, it would bring it down from approximately 50 to approximately 30.  Not exactly Earth-Shattering, but it made me feel better, and it gave me the taste I wanted.

If you want a traditional jam, go full sugar.  The texture and even the taste will be pretty much the same too.

Secondly, it's Mango Season.  Trees all over South Florida and other Northern Hemisphere tropical regions are bearing fruit.  One tree makes an amazing amount of fruit.  Literally by the bucket load.  I have harvested two full buckets from a mature tree, gave away a third to various people, and there are at least one or two more buckets up there just out of reach.

You just can't eat THAT many mangoes. 

The greenest ones I put in the refrigerator to slow down ripening.
The ripest ones went into me, and into this jam, and I know I will make at least another batch to can.
The ones in the middle I split between the fridge and the counter. 

While I really truly enjoy mangoes, even I get tired toward the end of season.

Thirdly, I had a house guest who I sent home with a dozen mangoes.  They should be just about ready to eat now, and this would be a good way to use up some of them if you have a bread machine and want an easy fix, or a big sauce pan and want a bit of a challenge.

Finally, while this is not a Canning Recipe, specifically,  I have made this up in the bread machine and then canned it and the jars were good for the typical 6 months to a year.  All canning recipes can go wrong in storage, so you do so at your own risk.

Since people don't really follow links, I'll reproduce the recipe from the above link here, word for word.


Ingredients:

• 4 Cups chunked ripe Mango pieces.
• 1 Cup Sugar or other granulated sweetener such as Stevia as recommended on the package for substitution.
• 1 Tablespoon of Lemon Juice.
• 1 Package of unsweetened or sugar free Fruit Pectin.

Process:

• Cut up your Mangoes into chunks until you have four cups of the fruit.
• Mash slightly the Mangoes, and add to the bread machine's bucket with impeller blade in place.
• Add 1 Cup of Sugar or sweeteners.
• Add 1 Tablespoon of Lemon Juice.
• Add 1 Packet of SureJell Fruit Pectin.
• Select Jam and Jelly program on your bread machine and press start.
• Alternately, this may be cooked on medium on the stove until the jam begins to set at about 30 minutes.

I did use this recipe to can some Mango Jam for later by boiling the jars and lids to sterilize, then boiling the jars to re-sterilize and set the lids.  With all Canning Recipes, you are on your own to decide how long to store the result.

An Elderly Couple Gets Pulled Over By A Cop

The wife is driving, but she has a bit of a hearing problem.
The officer notifies her that she was doing 38 in a 25 zone.

The wife turns to her husband and asks "What'd he say?"
The husband replies "He says you were speeding!"
The wife turns back to the officer and says "Oh, sorry officer."

The officer goes on; "License and registration please."
The wife again turns to her husband. "What'd he say!?"
The husband, growing irritated, says "He wants to see your LICENSE."
The wife replies, "Oh, sorry officer. Here you go."

The officer inspects her license and comments, "Ah, you're from Brownsville. I'll never forget that city... I had the worst sexual experience of my entire life in Brownsville!"
The wife once more turns to her right and yells "What'd he say!!?"

The husband replies "He says he knows you."

An Engineer Opens A Medical Clinic

An engineer who was unemployed for a long time decided to open a medical clinic. He puts a sign outside the clinic: "A cure for your ailment guaranteed at $500; we'll pay you $1,000 if we fail."

A Doctor thinks this is a good opportunity to earn $1,000 and goes to his clinic.

Doctor: "I have lost my sense of taste."
Engineer: "Nurse, please bring the medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in the patient's mouth."
Doctor: "This is Gasoline!"
Engineer: "Congratulations! You've got your taste back. That will be $500."

The Doctor gets annoyed and goes back after a couple of days later to recover his money.

Doctor: "I have lost my memory, I cannot remember anything."
Engineer: "Nurse, please bring the medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in the patient's mouth."
Doctor: "But that is Gasoline!"
Engineer: "Congratulations! You've got your memory back. That will be $500."

The Doctor leaves angrily and comes back after several days, more determined than ever to make his money back.

Doctor: "My eyesight has become weak."
Engineer: "Well, I don't have any medicine for this. Take this $1,000," passing the doctor a $500 note.
Doctor: "But this is $500..."
Engineer: "Congratulations! You've got your vision back! That will be $500."

What's Cookin' Dad? Hedgehogs?

You just can't make this stuff up.

My dog, Rack the McNab SuperDog (TM) has a thing for Hedgehogs.

When I say a "thing" I mean a "I'm going to carry this around the house until it falls off" thing.

Every house that has pets, or rather pets and kids because after a fashion they are the same thing, has toys.  Toys that go everywhere.

I have a dog and a parrot and there are toys, fur, and feathers here.  If you are expecting a 1950s Mrs Cleaver house where everything sparkles I suggest you try the house down the block.  The one where I dropped off the mangoes the other day?  That one.  They have a housekeeper.  I'm too busy trying to live something that passes as a normal life while keeping up to date on technology.

Ever feel like you're out hunting a moving target?  Yo.  That's me.

The other day I was migrating from the dining room where I had my laptop set up, to the big green chair next to the window.  It was late enough after the dog walk that I wanted to push everything away and actually do what passes for relaxation here.  Turn on the TV, set the laptop on the table, plug it in and sit down and I hear....

SQUEEEEEE!

That lump under my butt would be the hedgehog.

That noise called Rack over.  I didn't really mean to call him over, but it was going to happen.  He left his new hedgehog on the chair.  I say "New" because we had found one in a thrift store for a dollar and got it to replace the original hedgehog.  Then there were two.  Recently having the pleasure of a house guest, Craig, bring us two more hedgehogs, we're set for quite a while.  My little monster, Rack, is very gentle with his toys although he does have an unsettling habit of chewing the eyes off the stuffed beasts.

Handing the toy over to my dog with a cheerful "Hedgehog!  You've got a Hedgehog!", I went back to what I was doing not thinking too deeply about it.  Getting goosed by a stuffed toy is one of the hazards of having dogs in the house.

The next day I started cooking.  It was time to make some pork tenderloin for lunches.  Since you can get a really good slice of pork for much less than the price of some really cheap hamburger beef, I go for the pork.  Besides, it can be leaner.  Crock pot cooked to 140F in barbecue sauce and slice in the sauce will finish the pork by bringing the entire pot up to safe temperature and you have a meal better than Mrs Cleaver ever made.

But it has its own challenges.  It makes me hungry enough to chew my leg off.  It perfumes the house with whichever recipe I choose to make for that day, and usually a hint on the air for a day or three after.  It gets the parrot saying Hello every time I walk into the kitchen.  He begs.  Constantly.  I am a soft touch, so I usually toss a bit of fruit at the parrot because if he doesn't get what he wants, he can get loud.

Ear shatteringly loud.  Like Mount Krakatoa loud.  The noise that circled the world four times loud.  All from a pirate parrot bird.  SHADDAP!

But that merely brought Rack into the kitchen snuffling around.  He's looking for handouts as well.  I didn't want to get him started doing that begging thing but I'm used to it.  Practically every time I go into the kitchen, he's on task with the twin brown laser beams.

I turned around and stopped.  "How on Earth did you?".  He had a hedgehog stuck to his collar.

He also wanted some of that pork tenderloin that was swimming in the red Char Siu Barbecue sauce I had made up that morning.

Laughing I said "No matter how creative you are going to be with that toy, I am not giving out samples at this time!".

He merely licked his lips and went back to staring at the crock pot.

A loud "HELLO!" came from the other room.

I freed the toy from Rack's Collar and pet him on the head.  I was wrong thinking that would send him on his way.  He simply sat there and stared me down.

"Sorry, boy, you're out of luck this morning.  This is for lunch!".

It only takes 3 1/2 hours to get a 3 1/2 pound pork tenderloin to cook to temperature. 

Lunch was going to be a good one for me, and a sample for Rack.  Oscar the parrot? Nope.  Not happening.  I didn't have the right vegetables for him.  But we did all enjoy it.

Even the hedgehog.

No Good Mango Goes Unpunished

Mangoes.

There are two kinds of people.  Those who eat them and those who don't. 

By. The. Bucket.

There's a tree in the neighborhood.  It's on the property of an apartment building.  We know the owner and he told me to go pick my fill whenever I want to.

Well "Woo Hoo!" I said and have been picking that tree for a couple years straight ever since.  He keeps elevating the tree, trimming the lower branches, and that does make it difficult. 

With a Mango Tree, you do not want to do that.  The shape you should go for is an Umbrella - not very high but broad.  Why?  Keep the fruit as close to the ground as you can.  Since they can grow as large as two pounds a fruit, a solid Kilogram of sweetness, they can cause damage when they fall.

Imagine a melon falling from 32 feet in the air.  It takes a second to fall that distance.  21.9 MPH.  Imagine someone smacking you with an under ripe fruit at almost 22 Miles Per Hour.  An under ripe mango is about as hard as a rock...

Yeah, that's gotta hurt.

In Mango Season I go out with our trusty orange fruit picker pole and pick what I can.  When I get a bucket, I over-pick for my needs and hand some out to the neighbors.  Usually I keep a couple extra "dog bags" in my pocket so I can grab them when they fall.  The fruit tend to roll out into the street and make an awful mess if they haven't bashed in a windshield or dented someone's head.

But I have been watching our neighborhood tree.  It has been a good fruit year and there's plenty more where that came from.  It's going to take a ladder to get the ones up above the 20 foot limit of my reach at this point.

I got out there, picked my fill, and picked another dozen for a neighbor.  That's where my own size got in the way.  The neighbor's house is right around the corner, so I dropped the bucket on my porch next to the planter and pole and walked on over.   Up the drive to the front door.  I was in luck, there was someone inside cleaning.

Tapping on the window I said "Hey, I'm leaving this for the family here, can you bring this in when you are ready?".  

After all, the ants will get to a mango on the ground in 10 seconds flat, and it will be eaten away to nothing in a day.

I was greeted with a lot of yelling and hand gestures.  Ok, I can speak English, a bit of French, a tiny bit of Spanish, and a whole lot of Stupid.

As I started to turn and walk away, I draped the "t-shirt" bag on the doorknob.  "I'll just leave this here!"

More gesturing.  I don't think she can hear me.  She was yelling something in standard American English, I was wondering why she didn't just nod and smile.

"It's OK, I'll leave this for the family, bring it in when you can.  It's just a bag of Mangoes!"

More gesturing.  I spun to leave.

As it is, I'm a bit "top heavy".  High center of gravity.  I nearly fell off the porch.  At this point I realized it was either leave the fruit there and hope for the best or leave the porch and twist an ankle or worse.

I shouted at the door "It's OK, you don't have to open the door.  I'm going!".

Scratching my head in confusion I wandered down the drive.  The bag was left on the door until I was well out of sight.

That night I ran into one of the people there, Marc, and told him the story.   He laughed so loud that his dog looked up at him in some confusion, and my dog Rack dropped down to the ground.  I was told that the housekeeper was telling him about some giant guy that came by and left him some fruit but "She made a rather nice arrangement of them after all was said and done.".

So the moral of the story is that if you are going to spread the mango goodness, make sure it is jelly or jam.  Get a good recipe first.

Looking Out At The Everglades at 5 MPH

Of all of the activities that are available to people in an industrialized society, this is one of the more pointless ones.

We built a road through one of the most beautiful places in the world, the Everglades.  But true to form, it is not suitable to task so you end up sitting in traffic.

Actually, through all the years and the many trips, maybe even hundreds of trips, that I have taken to the Florida Keys, this was the first time I had been stopped in traffic at this particular spot.

By "this particular spot" I mean the 20 mile long corridor between the end of the mainland at the split for Card Sound Road in Florida City to the beginning of the Florida Keys at Key Largo.

You see, true to form, they widened the road.  But it is still just two lanes for the majority.  One lane up, one lane down.  Any traffic mishap and you're stuck until someone figures out a way to unstick it.  It used to be exactly one lane down and back.  It's a road built on an old railroad causeway after all.  Then it gained a shoulder because if it didn't have one you would have that same road blocked for hours.

The latest iteration was when the roadbed gained an actual barricade down the middle so that people falling asleep in the middle of the night don't drift over onto opposing traffic.  Improvements in drainage were made as well as the bridges were raised a bit.  This being Florida, they weren't allowed to say Global Warming or Climate Change because we have a state government infested with Republicans and other climate change deniers, but things were raised nonetheless - "Just Because".

However, the passing lanes were retained.

Instead of having two lanes down and two back, there are three separate Passing Zones.  Think of it as a place where the absolute best of driving habits come out to play. 

Mom and Dad in their giant motor homes trailing a regular car behind them can't maintain the speed limit which is theoretically 55 MPH.  They collect quite a few people behind them.  When the road widens for the passing zone, everyone behind the motor home floors it and tries to pass.  When they all reach the end, everyone tries to merge in front of the motor home.  The motor home slows and creates a new tailback behind it.  Each time this happens it gets a little worse.  You end up with a 20 mile section of road that has a permanent traffic problem on the weekends and holidays. 

You never want to drive to Key West on a Friday on a long weekend.

If it does happen to clear, it will happen again. Either a food truck, a motor home, or just some fool from the Midwest who is driving just a little too slow for everyone's liking will start it over.

My own personal favorite are those large trucks full of food going to refuel the restaurants.  The trucks are typically governed and under orders not to "maintain traffic speed", which is good and correct, but the cars stuck behind them will drive like fools anyway to get past them.

Since the entire road from Florida City to Key West is 125 miles, everyone everywhere tries to keep in front of those trucks.  All the food comes in on the same trucks.

So you end up checking the GPS for traffic information, see that the road is lined in red or dark red, and decide whether to head to the Keys or not.

When you get there and look out your window you see scenes of natural beauty unlike anywhere else.  You'll still be stuck, but it is still a beautiful scene.

Celebrating Craig's Birthday by the Sea

There has to be a reason, a good one, to drive 100 miles.

Actually it was drive 100 miles, get stuck in traffic for a solid hour at a walking pace, see some beautiful scenery, and finally end up slightly lost.

Yes, we had GPS.  But we had been there before.  We also knew where we were going, but like the saying goes "Not all who wander are lost".

While I'm dropping the old hackneyed sayings, sometimes the journey is the destination.

Plus I really do like going for a ride in the car.

Next time, we bring Rack, I promise.

You see, Craig came down.  He's a great friend.  We have known each other for years now, probably safe to say decades.  Knowing he's from up North, way up North actually, and had never been South of Orlando before, I had to get him to touch toes to the Keys.

I know of a great restaurant down there.  We all do if we go there enough, so I'll save its name.   Why am I not telling you?  Take me there and I will, but it was crowded enough.  It sits just on the South side of the key, on the water, in a cove.  Ok, so I have described about half of the restaurants in the Keys, from Key West to Key Largo and every place in between, haven't I?

Good.

You're looking at the view I had for lunch on Sunday.  I purposely put my arm on the railing, in the sun.  Just the right one.  I wanted a little bit of tan.   I can still see one arm darker than the other a couple days later, and I wasn't looking to sit on a beach. 

We sat there, I had my Fish and Chips (Mahi Mahi, actually), and a bottle of some rather excellent beer, and some incredible conversation with Craig, Kevin, the waitress, and some of the surrounding tables.  There was, typical to the Keys, plenty of things to watch that were natural.  Just below us were some small fish, and a fish I kept calling a Grouper.  It could have been a Grouper, but might not have been.  That doesn't matter, it would have made a great meal for two from the size of it. 

The children around us were thankfully well behaved, and I have no doubt that the waitress would have followed the instructions of the sign on the bar "Loose or Unattended Children will be fed to the Tarpon".

Keep your kids quiet, and at your table.  No matter how much you love them, others will find them annoying.

But we sat there taking in a 2 hour lunch watching the boats come in.  This was one of those places that while you're enjoying the jazz brunch, debating whether the singer is lip synching or not, and having fun telling R-Rated stories to the waitress, time goes on around you.  I'm not the kind of person who is used to sitting tight for a meal, I tend to be one of the first to finish and one of the first to want to leave.  But for once I was content to sit there and watch the little boats come by. 

Lucky dogs on that one there.  There were two.  One stayed with the owners, the other got bored and went back to the boat and curled up under the shade.  I'm with the dog, it would have been a great place to kick your feet up and watch things go by, slowly, at the Keys pace.

Having finished our main course, the waitress brought Craig a slice of Key Lime pie, and another waitress and the Jazz Singer to sing him a happy birthday while he sat there under the umbrella, smiling away.

You have to admit, if you're going to take two hours to get to lunch, sit in a 20 mile backup, and have lunch by the water, this was a great way to do it.

So, Craig, if you're looking for something to do on your next birthday, I know a great restaurant, by the water, with an amazing waitress, good food, interesting lip syncing or singing (we're not completely sure), and an entertaining view.

We'd like to have you back.  Besides, it gives me an excuse to take a good friend to a jewel that I won't readily tell people where it is.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is one of those home grown things.  There were many celebrations of remembrance that came to be around the Reconstruction period, after the Civil War.  People of the day realized that it was right to honor those who gave all in the fight to win the Civil War.

The State of New York was the first one to officially embrace the day in 1873 making it a statewide day of remembrance and by 1890 the rest of the Northern states had followed suit.  The South stubbornly refused to follow the trend and waited until after the First World War to acknowledge the day when it became a day for decoration for those who died in All Wars. 

In 1971 there was a congressional passage of the National Holiday that made it a three day weekend for Federal Workers, and therefore a holiday for all.  

No matter what the history of it, there has been a moment of silence at 3PM since 2000 to reflect on the sacrifices that were given in fighting for this Nation.  This is called the National Moment of Remembrance.

Have a safe day.  It's not all about the burgers and beers.