It's an Oatmeal Day

It's damp and overcast, a little breezy and cool, so it was the perfect day to cook up a bowl of old fashioned oats spiffed up with a few dried cherries and a little brown sugar.






I didn't have to set an alarm today so I slept until 7:30 which got me out of the sack just in time to take this picture of the gorgeous sky.  I like sleeping but I hate missing the sunrise.





I was a good wife after supper last night and whipped up a batch of breakfast burritos for Durwood.  He loves them and is willing to buy boxes of them frozen from the grocery so I don't have to make them but I suspect that those store-bought ones are filled with chemicals and SALT, and that they're nowhere near as tasty as mine.  It isn't really difficult to make them.  Here's what I do:  Brown a pound of pork sausage (or 2 packages of brown & serve sausages, cut up), add a cup of chopped onion and a cup of diced bell peppers to the sausage once the meat begins to brown. Stir until vegetables begin to soften.  In a large bowl scramble 12 large eggs with a little water, salt & pepper; pour over sausage, onion & peppers.  Stir slowly until eggs are set, remove from heat.  Grate 1/2 lb. sharp cheddar cheese.  Warm a 20-pack of 6" flour tortillas in the microwave.  Place tortilla on plate, spoon egg mixture down center, sprinkle on cheese, fold sides over, wrap up in plastic wrap, line up on cookie sheet to freeze overnight.  Makes 12.  To prepare:  unwrap plastic wrap (no need to thaw), wrap burrito in paper towel, place on plate in microwave, heat 2 minutes on High, let stand 1 minute.  Garnish with your favorite taco or hot sauce.  Eat.  Of course you can eat them immediately after making them, but I'd hold them in a warm oven so that the first one isn't ice cold when you get the last one made. I usually figure about 1 egg per burrito, but you can stretch it or pile it on to taste.

When I got home from work yesterday there were orange flags and paint streaks along the retaining wall.  Durwood said that guys came to say that they had to dig up the sewer line for the building behind us and the lateral runs through our yard.  So this morning they came with a cool Bobcat digger and are making a big hole.  They must have found and fixed the line because another Bobcat just showed up with a bucket of gravel and it looks like they're filling in the hole.  It's supposed to rain later so they're in a hurry to get done before the rain comes.  That digger sure looks like a fun toy.  Maybe one day I'll take LC to Quarry Quest down in the valley and get to play with one of those big diggers.

October 23--Richard Pasley, Boat on Lake at Sunset.  Claire leaned on the rowboat's oars and drifted.  She had rowed out into the lake to get away from her family's bickering.  It had been bad enough with Mom, Dad, two brothers, a couple of shaggy dogs, and a random cousin or two all crammed into the three-bedroom cottage and an old pop-up for a month in the summer when they were kids but add in in-laws and grandkids and it was a disaster.  Claire made sure she got there early to claim the daybed on the back sleeping porch and she spent as much time out on the lake as she could.

I thought of a great next line just after I turned out the light last night but thought I'd remember it today.  I don't.  Oh well.  Got my next chapter packed, I'll shove this laptop into my back and off I go to the cafe to rewrite.  If I can't dig I guess I'll go write.
--Barbara