Pat Riot, SASS #13748

When I was in third grade I was 7 years old at Christmas time. A package came for my Nanny (grandmother) from one of her cousins. It was a heavy round tin. She laughed about how she ended up with “the family fruitcake” this year. Anyway, she put it on “the Christmas goody table” where all the candy dishes and fruit bowls were so anyone could help themselves. One evening I ask d my Mom if I could get something off the table. There were chocolates, pastries, fruits, nuts and other goodies. She said yes so I grabbed a plate and opened the fruitcake tin, pealed back the layers of plastic and wax paper a cut a hunk out of it. I sat down in front of the TV and had my first fruitcake. It was delicious. The next day I had more. That evening my Nanny noticed the lid on the fruitcake tin was askew. She took the lid off and blurted out “Who’s been eating this fruitcake?”. I thought I was in deep trouble. I told her it was me. She said something like “Honey, do you feel okay? Did it make you sick?” I told her I felt fine “Why?” At this point my Dad and Mom came over. My Dad asked “Mom, is that the old fruitcake everybody has been sending around to each other year after year?” My Nanny said “Yes, this thing is old as the hills!” She tested it and said “Well I’ll be. It seems fine and tastes great!” Apparently that fruitcake was a family joke. Every year it got sent to a different family member. No one ever opened it. It would be put on display for Christmas then stored and then around Thanksgiving it would be boxed up and shipped to someone else. My Nanny told me she thought the thing had been made possibly 15 years before. That was the last year for that fruitcake. I ate it. I have never had a better fruitcake since.

I like fruitcake. I always have. This morning my wife asked me what I wanted for breakfast. I decided I wanted fruitcake. She gave me this look of “How can you eat that stuff?” Currently I have 3 lbs of Claxton fruitcake in the freezer. I just finished up a pound that was in the fridge. It’s pretty darn good, but my favorite is this fruitcake made in a bakery in Atlanta Georgia. It comes in plain plastic wrap with this generic looking gold label. This one can only be found at Christmas and usually it sits in supermarket chains near the produce and bakery section in its own little shelving unit. I guess they have no idea where it should be. I couldn’t find that fruitcake around here and I couldn’t find it online. I am pretty happy that Sam’s Club carries the Claxton fruitcake. It’s pretty darn good with coffee in the morning. So, who here likes fruitcake?

I took a snapshot of it last evening.

Oh, I wouldn’t be scared, just very very leery.

When I think of best Western movie villains I consider them like this: If I met them in real life would the job they did as a movie or TV show villain make me want to steer clear of them even though I know they were just acting? Only a few make that list: Bruce Dern Gene Hackman Eli Wallach Lee Van Cleef

I went to a mini family reunion in October. I saw cousins, nephews and nieces that I haven’t seen in years. I wouldn’t have recognized most of them if I was passing them on the street.

It’s funny, funny odd, not funny ha-ha , as I was reading this thread yesterday evening it dawned on me that I don’t have enough water stored up in case of emergency. I like having bottled drinking water set aside but I also like to have 20 or so gallons in a sealed drum or in 5 gallon containers. Last evening around 7 the neighbor kid came over and asked if we had running water. Theirs was off. So was ours. Turns out the was a water main leak and the Utility had to shut the water off in the neighborhood to fix it. It is back in now, but I am going in search of containers today. I hate not being prepared.

Chicken tastes good…

TRANSLATED " UNITED STATES The small line located in the northeast on the photo is the famous Air Force Base of Edwards in California! Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force air base located in the Mojave Desert. We remember in particular the flights of the mythical X-15 or the landings of the space shuttles! Franz - ISS83 January 27, 2022"

That’s hilarious. I wonder how many people go at closing time just to hear his announcements?

Glad you got it set up.

I have a Clock app on my iPhone that has a timer, stopwatch, alarm and clock. I use that a lot, but there’s no verbal command to it. My daughter has one of those Google things like an Alexa. She tells it to set her timer for whatever and she can add or subtract time, but I seem to recall her saying that she had to set something up in her phone settings or it would just stick with the original time. Not sure if that might be something you could look into.

I am still looking for my favorite breakfast place here. I found a little place called “Grandma’s” in Westover. I have to go back there. I think it could become a favorite.

Right now it’s 46. It might reach 54. Friday night it was 10 with a breeze. The “feels like” temp was 0. Right now I am getting ready to take a ride on my motorcycle.

Holy Cow, Mark! That looks like a serious piece of hardware and fun too!