Beware The Impostor!

(plus thoughts about the cold months ahead)

When you come to my house the first thing you will be greeted by is my ghetto gate behind which my ferocious dog will be frantically trying to draw attention to you. We like to make guests feel welcome around here. The next thing you will notice is me standing on the porch looking smashing in my favorite chicken-

But wait!!! That isn't me! It's an impostor! BBQ Sue is a master at disguises. She stands around all day imitating me. How can you tell the difference between Sue and me?

• Sue has no ass. I have the equivalent of two.

• Unlike me Sue is not spazzy, she never waves her arms around wildly.

• Clothes hang sadly off of her skeletal frame. My clothes don't even fit over my thighs anymore.
  

• Sue was too chicken to get her nose pierced.

• Sue makes teenage boys hot*. As a woman raising a son who will one day be a teenager I am pleased that I do not share this problem.

• Sue cannot cook.

In spite of the funky weather we've had this year and the fact that I lamely planted tomatoes very very late in the season, I am getting some ripening in my yard. What to do with them all? I love it when people say they have so many tomatoes they don't know what to do with them. I always want to say "Are you retarded?! Give them to me you idiot!" Ha. No, I'm not so mean. But I can think of so many things to do with tomatoes. I can eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Today I'm using the tomato sauce I made this week to make a white bean and spinach sauce for pasta to which I'm thinking of adding some broiled or baked eggplant. I am also making a ricotta tomato gratin using all cherry tomatoes. I am thinking of putting the recipe for it up here. I made the ricotta yesterday. I am thinking of doing a tutorial for that as well.

My plan for the twenty pounds of romas my mom and I picked from my community garden row is to slow roast them and then freeze them. Wonderful to add to pasta in the middle of winter.

My dreams have been crazy vivid lately. I sometimes remember them as though they really happened and then have to flag them in my brain as dream snippets so I don't get continually fooled by them. The toy store has figured strongly in them.

I would very much like to know what this whole bank crisis is going to do to mortgage interest rates. Will they skyrocket? We were thinking of refinancing our home since there is supposedly nothing but worse economic times ahead. I am starting to hear the "D" word being tossed around. This is funny since our country has only recently acknowledged that we might actually be experiencing a recession. Some people like to think we'll never experience a depression like "The Great Depression" again. Why? Why not? It's the same as how so many people think we could never have another Holocaust, or Viet Nam (which we're currently in the middle of), or another civil war. Dudes, there are lots of people in the US who are still ardently waving their confederate flags.

Things will never be exactly the same. Certain details will change. But history repeats itself all the time with similar plagues, wars, and famines. The main thing we remember about the Viet Nam war was that half the country didn't think we should join that war, we spent years trying to win the war and couldn't, and finally brought the troops home battered-damaged-and not beloved by their people. The similarities are very clear. I know lots of people will say: "but it's totally different because that war was fought in Viet Nam not the middle east..." details. The political implications for our people here at home are very similar.

Anyway. Didn't mean to veer off there. It's just that I don't know exactly what our current crisis will mean for mortgages and not knowing makes it difficult to prepare for hunkering down. Will interest rates skyrocket? With the government not willing to acknowledge the truth of any current situation, it makes planning very difficult. What will credit card companies do in response? Will they crack down on card members? Will their rates be more or less competitive?

If we have another great depression, will me and my family be able to survive it? And where will the equivalent of "the dust bowl" be this time? If a depression comes, what kind of leader will be best equipped to steer us through it with the least amount of starvation and job loss? Now that I have a house I love, will I lose everything again?

What are the most depression proof jobs? That is something we should all really examine, isn't it? What can we do to protect ourselves?

I am already thinking about the cold winter months coming. Heating this house didn't seem exorbitantly expensive last early spring, but electricity prices have gone up.

I am working hard on reducing my water usage. I don't think we waste a whole lot of water except when I'm doing dishes. I use my dishwasher for most things yet because I cook a lot there are always a lot of things that don't do as well in the dishwasher that I must wash by hand. I am training myself to turn the water off while scrubbing. I like having a stream of warm water running over the dishes I'm washing because I can see what's left more easily and it's soothing. It wastes a lot of water though. So now I'm scrubbing heaps with just the soapy sponge and then rinsing all at once, if I miss something I can scrub again. I am also saving the water I use to rinse vegetables to throw on the garden.

It takes time to change old habits. But it's good to do it. I think we'll install a laundry line along the length of our covered porch too for drying some loads on a line even in winter. It's just about too late for installing a laundry line outdoors. We could do one in the basement too, though the ceiling is very low. I think I might do it anyway. This could really cut down on our energy bills this winter. Clothes take a lot longer to dry in damp weather, but who cares?

Time to make some extra blankets too. I think all of us here at the farmhouse should have snug robes to wear around the house and blankets to wrap up in. I don't have to buy any fabric for that either since I already have tons.

Lots to think about. Curtains to make too. I clearly have my head stuck in nest and hunker mode. How about all of you out there? Any thoughts to share? Preparations for the winter? Preparations for a continually sinking economy? Anyone out there found themselves accidentally addressing BBQ Sue instead of me? Anyone out there have too many tomatoes? Talk to me on this quiet Sunday.

*Philip overheard two teen boys gawking at Sue when she was outside our store. One of them said to the other "She's making me hot."