You can blow up a peep!

You can blow up a peep! Really, when they get hard, blowing them up softens them and makes them grow!

20 seconds in the microwave at full power causes peeps to expand, and be delicious.

It is difficult to photograph due to the cold air that comes in when you open the microwave door; the colder air begins to deflate the peep. However, I can’t photograph with the door closed so I had to stop, photograph, and start again.

I can’t really show the full effect but the last photo shows you a cooked peep next to an uncooked one.

These have been sitting around since Easter, so they are not real old.

Seriously, it’s great fun and tastes delicious!

I woke up in the morning with a small itch on my right hand....

I woke up in the morning with a small itch on my right hand. When I looked at it I noticed it was swollen and red and hot. None of those things are correct for your hand. After further study I took it to be a spider bite, although I saw no spider.

As it grew over the next few hours, I realized my watch could not fit comfortably, and my daughter suggested that I remove my wedding ring before I had to remove my finger.

I got some antihistamine pills to see what they would do which wasn’t much except they made me very tired.

I called the doctor’s office for an appointment and was brought in immediately.

My doctor had a young substitute who was pleasant but not at all familiar with my malady, so we learned together. I believe she was way off base with a diagnosis, however, she moved me on to Urgent Care. This facility is great and they were delighted to see me and took me quickly.

I first spoke with an admission person and went to wait. I was then seen by a triage nurse and had to wait a bit, and was then seen by a doctor.

It had grown to look like a large lobster diseased hand, and I had little use of my now very hot fingers. It was a disaster and the redness was growing up my arm! I was alarmed as it began to look like my version of flesh eating disease. On top of everything else, my wife and daughter were away for a few days and I had the responsibility for walking Max, our dog, several times a day, not with my left hand! Thank God it was the left hand because as a right handed person, my left gets less use however, for texting and computing I soon realized how important it can be.

I was given antibiotics and an antibiotic drip as well, and we did the drip for three days and the meds for 10. Every day a different set of nurses would see me and a different doctor, but everyone, including me, seemed pleased. By the end of the whole experience, I was able to put my ring and my watch back on.

I was very relaxed and a friend said she saw me but didn’t want to disturb me as I was in the Urgent Care facility, asleep!

A Ghost in my House

I have written about Max, our dog, staring at the wall for hours, looking at the air intake for the heating system and figured it could be a ghost. It could be he hears voices or noises through the system and just likes it.

My daughters, when they have visited the local psychic, have both been told that an older spirit hangs around them, and both feel it’s their grandfather.

Last week as I walked by the upstairs bookshelves which holds my Royalty Tin Collection, I was way past the tins at the time, a large cookie tin fell off of the top and rolled across the floor. It has never done this before.

On Sunday, our coffee pot leaked out 10 cups of water, which it has never done, all over the kitchen counter while we waited to make coffee.

OK, no big deal here, just a simple bunch of stuff. It could be anything.

But now, after checking with my daughters, who swear they have not touched any of my guitars over the years, my guitar is out of tune. OK, I know, that’s normal, guitar strings tune down over time but, it is not possible for guitar strings to tune up!

My guitar was out of tune in such a way that several of the strings were higher than they would normally be, not possible without someone attempting to tune it up.

Ghosts tune guitars? I’m just saying……

Friday night at the fights....

One of the strongest memories I have is about an activity which has haunted me all these many years, for its true insanity. We had a friend, or as it would be my girlfriend had a friend for many years (they are still friends today) and we would often spend time at her house as a group. My memory of the event is a bit foggy, but clears enough.

The friend lived with her mother in a large, luxury apartment on Park Heights Avenue in Baltimore in the sixty’s. It was a low rise, perhaps mid-century structure that probably still stands today. We would often sit in her living room talking.

Several times we witnessed an event unlike anything I had seen (or actually heard before).

A low noise, undistinguishable, a grumbling noise started, and the excited regulars became aroused by it. The knowledgeable ones (friend and her mother) as I remember rushed to the center ofr the room and put their heads on the floor, ears to the ground and made hushing sounds so we all could listen.

Clearly, this was a regular event, an evening with the neighbors!

The screaming commenced, and it grew in level. There was name calling, crashing of things, and as it reached the crescendo, smashing fists into doors, a woman locked into her room or the bathroom, and death threats being hurled in several directions.

“I’m going to kill you!” was the battle cry as I remember. All this delighted the residents as it was Friday night at the fights!

I witnessed this at least twice, no more was needed and once would have been enough. When asked about it at the time, it was explained to me that this was normal behavior for the neighbors. It was just the psychiatrist and his wife who live downstairs!