Povey Prattle

My birthday was on May 26th.  Today I received a gift from my friends Jack and Donna Chrisman, and from Ashley Lloyd.   Here it is. What kind of gift is this?    It is a deep cleaning of my kitchen and lanai; paid for by Jack, Donna and Ashley; then executed by Gusetta, the woman who cleans for them. Way to go, and thank you Jack, Ashley, Donna and Gusetta.  My kitchen and lanai are so clean that I will never use them again! Gusetta is a Seventh Day Adventist.  She and I sang a few bars of "We are walking in the light of God"  before I left my home so that she could work undisturbed. https://youtu.be/K9T7TUGp3WY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I had another wee "gift". My auto insurance is to be renewed in early July.  I have used AAA Insurance since I moved to Florida in 2006.  Their rates for my 2017 Kia Forte ...

Via Dave Macy Amperspam

I bought this Mantle Clock some forty years ago at (of all places) a J.C. Penney store in Holyoke, MA.  I have a yen for chiming clocks. This one has four settings: Whittington Chimes; Westminster Chimes; St. Michael's (Charleston S.C.) Chimes; and Silent. Four or so years ago I wound it up, but something went wrong.  The Clock ran and kept time, but the chimes were dead. I let it run down, and then the clock sat mute on a Table. Last year at a Ben's Bar in my home, my pal Gordon asked me why the clock never ran. I told him that the chimes were broken.  He told me about a Clock repair store on Bee Ridge Rd in SRQ. I did nothing apart from moving the mute clock to my spare bedroom there to gather dust. Today,  perhaps because of COVID 19 boredom, I took the clock to the repair shop.   The owner/staff member gave it a cursory look.  Within minutes she had identified the problem. The clock was not chiming 'cause I had it set to th...

Colston's  fall was on June 7th.,  but first please see this: Statue of King George III in New York City.  Toppled by members of George Washington's Army on July 9th 1776. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Statue of Saddam Hussein, toppled by U.S. Marines in 2003 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Statue of Edward Colston, (1636-1721),  toppled on 7th June 2020.  My home City in International news. --------------------------------------------------------------- The U.K. into which I was born in 1944 was a nation of white skinned people.  Most people had never seen a dark skinned person, except perhaps those who had seen American "Negro" troops (in a segregated Army) who were barracked near their cities (there were fights between black and white American soldiers who had visited pubs in Bristol). There were no dark skinned pupils in my Infan...

Seedless Water Melon, Chopped Basil, Crumbled Goat Cheese.  Chilled in the fridge. Great for summer days.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On another note    together with many of my Sarasota friends I have been feeling particularly gloomy in recent days. The reason for our gloom?  There is Covid 19,  and the Dangerous One on the White House -  of course you all know about this - but to add to our gloom we have been caught in a horrid weather pattern since Wednesday last.  Two or three times each day we've had intense and torrential rainstorms, each lasting for two to three hours  - maybe connected with Tropical Storm CHRISTOBAL  which is making its way up the Gulf of Mexico and is headed towards the central Louisiana Coast. Today,   for the first time in years, I have been unable to take Zion for our customary and daily four long walks. In between the torrents we've been able to get out just long enough for Z to "do his business". Many o...

"COMESTIBLES"  One of my favourite words. -------------------------------------------------------- TODAY  1     Pasta shells eh?   In truth "faux pasta" made from Zucchini and Lentils.  A gift to me from a friend. Good taste, and not bad for those who wish to minimize starches. ( But I eat so few starches that I do not need this as a substitute for genuine pasta shells). ----------------------------------------------------------------- TODAY 2 There is that dreadful youghurt with a messy blob which purports to be fruit at the bottom of the individual cup. There are the horrid 'flavoured youghurts'  with their flavours coming from a chemistry lab and not from actual fruits. There are the so-called "Greek Youghurts" which have but a minimal resemblance to the wonderful youghurt in Greece.  These American imitations should in truth be marketed  as "Greek Style"; not as "Greek" Then there is this f...