Turmeric and the Hood Rats

I am once again concerned about the neighborhood I live in. As Greg was walking up to the house two men (not guys, not boys) asked him if he had some marijuana. Then they bummed a cigarette from him. Later on they asked my daughter when she went out to her car to get her bag for weed. Moments later they asked her friend Bella for weed as she went out to the car to get her shoes. An hour later they are asking Greg if they can go out and party with them all. You male creatures cannot afford cigarettes of your own. You have asked everyone in my home but me and my 5 year old granddaughter for drugs and now you want to go out with them?  Apparently you can afford crack because you are thinking real crazy!!!! One more thing… quit spilling your margaritas all over my porch you drunk wankers!!!

I was looking at some of the benefits of Turmeric a spice that has been used in the Middle East and India for thousands of years. It is excellent for use as a medical anti-inflammatory. Great! We do not want inflammation. But according to the site I am on we do want some inflammation. To make it simple let me break it down a bit.

A sign of Inflammation is redness, pain, heat and swelling which can lead to a loss of function of the area inflamed.  Inflammation is actually part of the healing process. It is how your body will treat a foreign object to isolate it in an effort to protect your life.  Your body will send plasma and leukocytes (cells of the immune system that defend the body against infection and foreign objects) to the attacked or injured area. The redness and heat are caused by the increase in the flow of blood to the area as it deposits the plasma and leukocytes.  The swelling is caused by the now increased fluids at the injury site. Pain is from a release of chemicals during the combining of the plasma and leukocytes in the area that stimulate your nerve endings sending your brain the message that “hey! Something is wrong here!” 

Inflammation can be immediate or may take a couple hours to accomplish.

Some things that cause inflammation are….

Frostbite

Burns

Stub your toe

Cut your finger while peeling an apple

A splinter enters your skin while you are stacking firewood 

Alcohol and Stress to name just a few.

There is Acute (injury caused) inflammation and Chronic (viral infection, autoimmune reaction). You want acute. You do not want chronic which is associated with heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and several other health problems. Now that you have noticed the painful red swollen bump on your finger you realize there is a splinter sticking its tiny point into your skin. You can remove it, clean it, dress it and be on your way; Spiderman band aid firmly in place.

Without the inflammation, bacteria could enter our bodies wreak havoc, kill us and we would have no idea it was just a nick of a razor while shaving.

Turmeric is a powerful anti – inflammatory and is good for treating chronic inflammation. Chemicals in the turmeric actually seeks out and targets the sneaky little pathways in our system chronic inflammation travels upon and ambushes the bad stuff. An epic battle on a molecular level to rival Flodden commences. In this case we want Queen Katherine’s English troops to win.

                                             Flodden Field by Sir John Gilbert, 1878

Turmeric is also full of antioxidants which means it is also fighting the poisonous and destructive free radicals that roam our bodies looking for ways to kill us. By doing that great job of patrolling and destroying the free radicals it stimulates our own cells to step up their game and our own anti-oxidants become more efficient.

Bonus it increases brain power!!! Eating black pepper with the turmeric increases its effects.

I use turmeric in all my egg, potato and some meat dishes. It is served in abundance in curry.

Hungry now? I am !!!

Ye Ol' Grog

Once again the drivers in the area got together and decided that it was pull out in front of Tamara day. It happened twice. This incident stands out because this psycho female creature looked me right in the eye and leaped.

The speed limit is 40 which I am driving, or maybe it was 43, anyway, there are a few of us cruising along. I like to keep a couple car lengths between me and the unpredictable driver in front of me because most cars do not come equipped with turn signals and you just never know when they will veer from their chosen path and then change their course again; many of them slamming on their brakes in the midst of this erratic behavior.

I am passing the church when a minivan tears out across the oncoming traffic to land in the turn lane. This caught my eye because she charged during heavy traffic and was nearly hit and judging by her reckless behavior thus far her timing was going to bring her into direct contact with my car if she did not stop. There is a car beside me so I cannot change lanes and one behind me and the driver beside me. I have no where I can go. She actually paused a moment and I breathed a sigh of relief as I glanced up at her face. What I saw there was a snarl, grim determination and an ugly scowl women paste on their faces to overcome their feelings of “how dare you drive a luxury car while I am trapped in a minivan”.

 She was glaring at me, I knew then that she was going to go for it. I laid on my horn the moment she smashed her gas pedal, the car beside me swerved, the ones behind us hit their brakes and still I pressed down on my horn. Did she speed on up once she had created chaos no! She slowed way down as if challenging me to hit her. She had children in the car she had just picked up from school. Do you think she cared about their lives at that moment?  This was not just any school either, it was a Christian school. One would assume she would demonstrate Christ like behavior. Woman!! Just because you want to turn left, need to turn left does not mean that you should risk your life or jeopardize other lives (especially mine) to make that turn. Either wait for a moment for traffic to dissipate or turn right with the traffic, move into the left lane find a parking lot to turn into so you can turn around and pull out into the lane and head your desired direction or turn right at a light turn around and re-enter your desired lane with the assistance of a light. YOU are NOT entitled to turn into traffic simply because YOU want to go in a particular direction.  Bloody Hell!!!! What is wrong with people? It is a vehicle not a bubble of safety. Your wants and desires are of no interest to us. We are all going somewhere!! Some of us just want to drive in peace and not at the hands of your needs.

Then there was this fool. He is driving very erratic. He is in front of me trying to force the vehicle in front of him to speed up but there are four other cars in front of that car. A minivan to our left with cars behind and in front of her. As we enter an intersection the fool changes lanes, in the middle of the intersection causing the minivan to slam on her brakes. This sudden event also cause the car in front of the minivan to slam in his brakes. Foolboy now has to slam on his brakes, which he does for a half second before charging back over into my lane in front of me. The car in front of the van turns off the road and foolboy jumps back over in front of the minivan. Traffic slows down and guess what? Yep, foolboy jumps back over in front of me. He then sees a break and careens over in front of the car in front of the minivan which freaks out that driver who then brakes and again foolboy jumps back over in front of me. 

He then decides to create his own lane on the far right side of traffic attempting to drive by the car in front of him who happens to pull over to the far right side causing foolboy to have to slam on his brakes and come to a stop while he in very slow motion he takes his time to complete a turn. Foolboy is throwing up his arms in anger last I saw of him. I too was turning.  I am guessing he was late coming back from lunch?

    

                           

While we driving in Oregon I saw a sign that advertised a Grog Distillery. I have never heard of a Grog Distillery since grog is a kind of alcoholic mash up. We went to investigate. Out walks a guy in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts.

 He serves us up taste samples and lively conversation about the history of the Grog. 

It was like chatting with a guy who barely escaped California with his sanity intact.  He was wonderful and by the time we left he was calling us Geek Guy and Blonde Chick.

 We also bought some Grog which he gave to us in a rough burlap bag with a crooked, naked parrot head was sitting between two crossed bones. It is called Ye Ol’ Grog Distillery.  They make Dog Watch Vodka, Good Morning Glory Grog and Dutch Harbor Breeze Grog. 

It was a combination of Swash buckling pirate and World War II airplane hangar somewhere in the South Pacific.  He even had two flavors of ice-cream they had made using the Grog. 

I had Banana something… it was very tasty.

Grog ice-cream… this pirate loved it!!!!

Taco's Most Wanted

I am sitting in the most amazing soft, oversized chair, surrounded by squishy pillows and a cozy blanket. 

To my right is a window. I opened it up and the most remarkable symphony is being performed by the Pacific Ocean. Every now and then a bird will call out a greeting and a seagull will answer.  It is still very early in the morning. I am sipping coffee. The sky is an icy grey and where it meets the ocean I cannot tell; the line is blurred with a bank of fog. The waves are rushing in toward the beach as though there may be a competition with a prize being awarded to the one that arrives fastest, or loudest and with the most intensity. 

I can see them form off shore and roll toward the finish line -- some are short thin and dainty like young children. They skip and frolic cresting and peaking long before they reach the beach only to be gathered up and swept along by larger and stronger waves behind them.  

Some of them are tall and long and roll like an army charging a hill, waiting for the commander to give the order to draw sword. The order given you can see the first white foamy peak curl over and the rest of the wave follows, creating a beautiful charge of white plumed soldiers slamming with force onto the sand before them, scampering up the beach and to the edge of the cliff bottom right below the house.  I am going to miss them when I leave and it saddens me to think that I only have a few days left. I do not want to leave. 

The sun does not shine every day. There is a hint of chill in the air even when it is warm and the sun is shining. The sky was grey all day a couple of days ago and I have not felt so alive, so vital so vibrant in so long. The sweltering, oppressive heat of Texas wilts me like it does the Impatiens hanging on my front porch.

Withering me, sapping my sparkle, leaching away the muchness that is Tamara. I am afraid that one day I will wake up and be nothing but a pale version of myself that even I can no longer find.

I wonder if I sit here long enough can I soak up the energy coming from those waves.

I made breakfast tacos today. Seamus had never had one. He proceeded to fold it up like an eggroll. I informed him that if he were caught in Texas doing that they would string him upside down at a Quinceanera and beat him like a stubborn Pinata.  Who does that??  Taco abuse, desecration, VIOLATION!!!!!

I have informed the taco police and he is on watch list of their top 10 taco perverts.

I will continue taco school tomorrow!!

Boner of an Idea

You know how in Texas there is a Taqueria Jalisco 

or Bandera, or Guadalajara on just about every corner. Here in Oregon there is a coffee hut of some kind or another on every corner. Not a Starbucks or a Peets but some little hut with various coffee oriented names such as the Mojo, The Cup O’ Joe, and Drive by Coffee Hut. There are more of them here than there are Valeros in San Antonio. Do the cars here also function on coffee?

We ate at a place called the Pig and Pancake last night because Seamus thought a place with a breakfast name would be a good place to have dinner. Really???? 

He orders the seafood platter which consisted of shrimp, Cod and a Razor Clam. I assumed he had eaten razor clams before. No, it was his first one and I thought he was going to yak it all over the table. I thought I was going to yak all over the table watching him attempt to chew it. He looks at me and asks why, if these clams are so horrible to eat do people eat them? 

In all seriousness I tell him that perhaps it was the way it was cooked. He looks at me like I am an idiot. I try again. If you wanted a perfect medium rare piece of Angus prime rib would go to IHOP? Here is the scary part, well, yes if they are serving a prime rib special that night I would, he says. I choked on my last bite of over cooked shrimp. I try again. When you want some juicy tender BBQ ribs do you go to McDonalds for a McRib sandwich? He looks at me again like I have grown four eyes and says “No, those are not real ribs.” Implying that if they were real ribs he would consider that an acceptable place to eat BBQ ribs? I am just not sure…

There we were yesterday happily searching for Geocaches when viola! We find a rather large one. We are recording and tagging and doing Geocache stuff when I decide to head back to the vehicle to retrieve a token to leave in the canister. Off to my right I spy a flash of something 

white. Of course I veer from my course and go to investigate. I am the person who is in the middle of a conversation and all of a sudden screams look a chicken when I see one and then scampers off to see it. So it was with the white bone looking thing I saw. Except, when I got to it I realized it was a bone. My first thought is that it is a femur of a deer or dog or coyote. Hey, I say as I am conceiving a brilliant idea. Why don’t we leave the bone in the cache? I kick it over to Seamus and as I am about to use leaves to pick it up he reaches for it with his fingers, picks it up and deposits in the canister. UHMMM!!!!! Too late. It then crosses my mind as I survey the area we are standing in that it could….wait was is that white thing? Another bone. Cool!! No wait not cool, maybe. I look around us again and a chill shimmers up my spine. OK! I call, let’s go!  We drive on and a few hours later Seamus pauses to comment that perhaps he should not have touched the bone as he picked it up. Ya think?? He then wants to throw me under the bus as he records the search notes later claiming it is me who put the bone in the canister. NO YOU ARE NOT!! Well why did you give it to me, he asks. WHAT?? I did not give it to you - I just mentioned I found a bone and would it be humorous if we put it in the canister. It is at this point we both burst into a fit or laughter that takes us about 30 minutes to recover from. But then all either of us have to do is say the words humerus bone and the laughter starts again. Come to find out that when we looked up the bone later that evening it actually was a humerus bone and probably from a deer,

………maybe. 

Peanut Birthday Crown

I am on an airplane waiting to get up so I too can get off the plane. (I will get to that in a minute). As I am looking out the window to see the happenings around the plane by the ground crew I notice large white boxes sliding down the ramp to the waiting cargo team. They say Live Herb Plants - Keep Upright with 2 long red arrows pointing up on each side of the box. I counted 12 boxes. 4 came down the ramp on their sides and 4 came down the ramp upside down. One guerilla just plops them on the cargo trolley still sideways and upside down. The other guy turns a few the right way but when he notices the other guy leaving them wrong he leaves them turned wrong. I look at him and shake my head, so disappointed in his sheep like behavior. I am pretty sure he cannot see me. But after a moment of hesitation he goes back to the cargo trolley and turns every wrong box so they read right side up. He is not a sheep!! I am so proud of him.

5 times the flight attendants asked people to put the bags and items that would fit under the seat in front of them, UNDER the seat in front of them. I always do. I have used overhead stowing twice on my life because I had two carryon bags. These sheep were putting everything in the bins overhead. Little bags, big bags, jackets, everything. Yes some of them might have put other things under the seat but not that I could tell. They stowed overhead and then they sat. They did not bend over and put anything under the seat in front of them.  They all have this need to sit up front and so create a traffic jam for everyone getting on the plane. They all want to stow a huge suitcase in a space made for a pillow and they want to do it right above their seat. 

There are 3 people per row, each with a huge suitcase. DO the physics! This just will not work. So some of these people have to go back a few rows to stow their stuff. Eventually it all works out and off we go. We land and a new challenge now takes control.  The door to the plane is open, we can get off, except we can’t! We now have to wait for the bloody dolts to get up, find their suitcases, which in many cases means they have to back everyone else up, to get the bag they put in a bin four rows back and on the opposite side. RUDE! 

Flight attendant Sandy gets on the intercom and asks for passenger Tiffany Harris to turn on her blue call button. She says she has a message from her parents. The whole plane gets quiet. Very Quiet. Sandy asks us all to close our window blinds and turn on our call buttons also. We all do. It is very dark except for the floor runner lights and the overhead emergency running lights. Sandy then announces that it is Tiffany’s birthday and that we have now lit the entire plane with birthday candles and after we sing Happy Birthday Tiffany can blow them all out. We sing and after a 1,2,3 count she makes a wish and we all turn off our call buttons. They then presented her with a Birthday crown made out of little packets of peanuts and pretzels. It was really cute. I hope Shaggy’s Happy Birthday on the airplane was just as good. Mine involved the whole plane as well. Thanx Hobbit!!

Why does no one ever sit by me? The entire plane can be full of people with the only two seats left by me and people will desperately look around for any seat anywhere else. It has not happened once it happens all the time. Today for example. People sat 3 to a row rather than space themselves out and sit on my row.  Why???? What is wrong with sitting by me? I have showered, brushed and flossed my teeth, put on deodorant. I can see no reasonable explanation here. I am fluffy, friendly, and fabulous!!!! 

Maybe I should fly First Class! Anyone care to help me out with that?

Bondurant Cousins

I had warmed up my vegetable soup and just pulled the cheese biscuits from the oven. As I let them cool down I popped on the Netflix and started a search for something to watch while I ate. A movie called Lawless pops up in the search. 

I view more to get an idea about this movie I have never heard of and came out in 2012. It stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce and others. It is about the Bondurant Brothers.  I have never heard of them, nor had I read the book The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant the movie was adapted from. I pass it by. After I eat I get back to ghost hunting. I am chasing the Salle family. They are my Grandmothers people. Jane Salle is my 4^th Great Grandmother. She is named after her mother Jane. Jane Bondurant. What??

                                        Bondurants

Yes it seems that those adorable, moonshining, bootlegging Bondurant Brothers are my cousins, my 5^th Cousins 2 times removed, but still my cousins. We share a Great grandfather, John Pierre Bondurant II born in 1709, my 6^th Great Grandfather. I plan to watch the movie this evening when I get home from the family dinner out.

The three brothers in the story are Andrew Jackson Bondurant, they call him Jack, James Forrest Bondurant who they call Forrest, and Benjamin Howard Bondurant who goes by Howard. The year is 1931 and Prohibition is in full swing. These boys are stilling moonshine and selling it out of their gas station and the back of a truck.  A Special Deputy for the  Virginia Commonwealth Attorney, Mason Wardell shows up and tries to manhandle them into a piece of the their moonshining and bootlegging profits. Forrest stands up to him and refuses.

                                  Jack 

A few days later while Jack, the youngest of the boys by 10 years is pirating some distilling equipment from a known associate’s home; when he is brutally beaten by the Special Deputy to send his older brothers a message.  At one point Forrest is attacked by mobsters, from Chicago who slash his throat and rape his girlfriend. Here is how this went down. During a meeting with the mobsters they harass Forrest’s girlfriend with crude remarks and suggestions. The boys are not going to let them disrespect this girlfriend so they beat them up. The mobsters return to the scene and attack them both savagely.

The murder of their friend, Cricket sends Jack over the edge and he declares war. He takes off after the Special Deputy, his brothers go in hot pursuit of their little brother and then the rest of the men who were gathered in town to discuss the “shake down” the Special Deputy has been doing jump in their trucks and go after the all the brothers. There is a standoff and a fire fight and the Special Deputy goes down in a hail of gunshot. The local police department who have also had enough of the pompous, over perfumed, glove wearing, Special Deputy decide to let the brothers have their revenge. They were witness to the evil deeds by the man. He is the one who beat up Jack. He is the one who murdered Cricket. He ordered the tarring and feathering of a cousin of the brothers. He destroyed the stills and the men who would not bow to him.

                                         Unknown Moonshiner in handcuffs

All this happened in Franklin County Virginia. Moonshine exists in West Virginia too. Nobody talks about it. Many people drink it. My granny made wine with local wild grapes and my uncle, well…. let’s just say he introduced the boys to moonshine one summer afternoon.

                               Raid on a moonshine still in Boyd County, Kentucky. c1928.

My father’s brothers and their wives are here with my mom for a Pearis Boys reunion. They do this once a year and alternate which brother and wife play hostess. At dinner the other night an aunt informs me that I have the wrong name attached to the wrong face on a couple of kin folks. Really?? YIKES!!! Please tell me which ones so I can correct it! These are on a public forum so now others also have it wrong. She just stares at me with some weird deer in the headlight version of feigned superiority. This of course disturbs me. She then directs her attention somewhere else. I speak her name loudly and ask again for her to tell me which ones. She reluctantly looks back at me and then gets the uncle to agree. Waves her hand in the air and dismisses the whole thing with an “I can’t remember it was a while back!” WHAT!!??!! So they both bloody knew it was wrong and instead of correcting the mistake by telling me they did nothing?? Who does that?? What kind of people knowingly withhold that kind of information. INTEGRITY!!! People !!!! Get some!!! These are also your kin that are now going to go through the rest of history with the wrong name to their face. The photos are also on other public websites and have been in publications and quite possibly are wrong.

 Are these some I got wrong? Well then, who are they???

Pass the Pepper

Yes I rant about things that are silly but I also rant about myself. For example… I opened an email this morning that I received yesterday and much to my shock it was an invitation to a meeting.  My pulse raced. I looked at the date and in my mind it said today. That is what I get for waiting until today to open it. The first thing I saw was accept or decline. What???? What time does this meeting start? 10:00AM it is 10:00AM now! I am not dressed for a public appearance. I am at home working in my office. I am comfortable and ready to tackle the job.  Bloody Hell!!! I think as I dash into my room and grab some grey sweat pants. This will have to do. I swipe some gloss on my lips and off I dash. Good thing I am three miles as the crow flies from the meet. I park and dash in. I look at the receptionists and exclaim “I think I have a meeting with Jackie, Stewart, and Everett Calhoun.” We have not seen them around this morning. Well, the meeting started at 10:00. Wait, she says there is Jackie now. She gets her attention and in walks Jackie all smiles and I am all “when is the meeting?” She laughs and tells me tomorrow. Great! They laugh at me as I am being overdramatic (if you can imagine) about getting the date wrong. I regain my composure and announce with a flourish that dress rehearsal is over for today I will see everyone tomorrow. I wave and leave. I need a handler.

As I mentioned in another letter I found a clue linking us to Joan Crawford whose real name was Lucille Fay LeSueur. I am hunting this ghost now.  I have followed this trail which led me from Virginia to Tennessee through San Antonio to Abilene, Los Angeles and New York. John Hales Ayres is my 4^th Great Grand Father. Through his daughter ( my 3^rd great grand aunt) Susannah Hales Ayres who married a Charles Le Sueur we end up 4 generations later with Lucille Fay Le Sueur. My fourth cousin whose name was changed to Joan Crawford. The famous flapper, dancer, and Oscar winning actress. Dear Cousin Joan was born in San Antonio Texas. So what some of you may refer to as ….”She is crazy” is just my DNA with more whimsy and less drama.

I have been craving crushed pepper on everything. I mean I am putting pepper on everything, eggs, French fries, guacamole, lasagna, and even salmon. It is crazy. I am using black pepper because at the moment it is all I have but I would like to try other peppers like the pink or green or white. As usual this has me curious as to what is it about the pepper I am craving. So we will discover it together.

Black pepper which was once used as a sacred offering and even used as currency grows on a vine that can reach 33 feet. The plant thrives best in hot, humid conditions. When the new plants are about 3 years old they produce tiny white flowers. From these flowers come little round berries known as peppercorn. Grinding these dried berries produces what we put in a shaker and call pepper.

There is 15 calories in 2 teaspoons of pepper. It is high in manganese. 

Manganese is essential for humans to consume. A lack of manganese causes bone loss, or deformity. Bones need it. It also joins up with several other enzymes and helps to create healthy collagen which is necessary to healthy, youthful skin. This marriage of these enzymes and manganese also help the skin to resist UV damage.

Manganese also aids your digestion process by helping it turn digested fat into sugar that your body will burn as fuel. This adorable little manganese is also when teamed up with its friends a little warrior attacking toxins in your system, protecting you from free radicals that roam your body looking for something to attack. Once these marauding radicals and toxins are destroyed your stress levels go down, your skin glows and Asthma is improved.

The outside along with the inside  of the peppercorn when ground freshly on to your food and eaten does this amazing little destruction dance right in the middle of your fat cells. Breaking them down so your body can dispose of them.

Black, green and white pepper all come from the same plant, the peppercorns are just in various states of maturity. Oddly white peppercorns are the ripest. They are soaked in brine and the very black shell is removed leaving the white seed that was inside.

Pepper nigrum as it is classified stimulates your taste buds. Waking them up and encouraging them to notify your stomach that food is on the way. This in turn stimulates the hydrochloric acid that aids in digestion of food. If this acid is not produced your food will sit in your stomach for a long period of time leading to indigestion. Worse!!! The food can pass undigested into your intestines. This is where it gets ugly! This now rotting food will be very tempting to some really ugly, cranky, mean spirited gut bacteria. This bacteria is now feasting and that will lead to frolicking which does not sound bad unless this party is happening inside you. For you, the victim of no pepper on your food, is explosive gas, bowel irritation, constipation or diarrhea.

Well I am going to eat more pepper, thin, good skin, no farts and no stress. Oh yeah!!!