Month: October 2016

Random thoughts: Boiled peanuts

/ Jim McDonald / 8 Comments

Random thoughts: Boiled peanuts

boiled

I found this picture on the internet.

I’ve been traveling down to North Carolina and Georgia for years now. “Boiled Peanuts” are for sale everywhere and I finally ate one yesterday. Honesty, I wasn’t impressed.

 

I’m sure I eat stuff that others might not like. For instance crabs; what was going through the mind of the first person who ate a crab? Maybe he was hungry and eventually figured out how to steam them. I’m from Maryland and I’ve eaten so many crabs, that I’m tired of them. Now a days, after two crabs I want a hamburger.

20150909_083651_hdr

The lonely crab I wrangled in that morning, off of my houseboat.

I love peanuts; all kinds of them. It’s very difficult for me to eat them with most of my teeth gone. It takes me forever to get through a small hand full.

 

As I said, when I tasted my first boiled peanut yesterday I did not enjoy it. It was soggy, mushy and had an odd after taste. Later, I realized that I was not picking little pieces of nuts out of the few teeth I have left and it was real easy to chew. Maybe, just maybe, the first person to boil peanuts liked them, but didn’t have any teeth.

How ya like my hat? Home Depot hat

/ Jim McDonald / 14 Comments

How ya like my hat? Home Depot hat

20161007_104734_hdr-1

I’m sure you can’t make out what’s written on this hat; so I’ll tell you, it’s a “Home Depot” hat. I paid a dollar for it in Waldorf, MD., but haven’t worn it till we were in Murphy, NC.

 

I wore my “Home Depot” hat; while shopping for thumb tacks, roofing nails and water filters in “Lowes”. We walked right past the thumb tacks on aisle three heading to the fasteners on aisle five. After we picked up the roofing nails, I stopped a Lowe’s employee and said, “Thumb tacks?”

 

He thought for a second then told his boss, Mike, “He’s looking for thumb tacks.”

 

Mike said, “They’re right over here sir, on aisle three.”

 

I asked Mike, “Why didn’t I see them when I walked in?”

 

He replied, “You might be blinded by that hat you’re wearing.” We laughed and I was happy that he noticed my hat.

 

As we were hunting for the filters, I mentioned to another employee, “You know my aunt Betty died a couple months ago.” She looked a little befuddled, then I said, “Sometimes you would sit next to her in church.”

 

She said, “Is she the one that…”

 

I cut her off and told her, “I’m messin’ with you. I just wanted to flirt a little.” She smiled as I walked away.

 

I didn’t get as much fun out of this hat as thought I would, but I got enough to write this little story.

Marble, NC trip: day 1

/ Jim McDonald / 6 Comments

Marble, NC trip: day 1

My buddy, Raymond, has enjoyed genealogy for decades and through his research he found a lot of his family tree in the mountains of western North Carolina and Georgia. This prompted him to buy a vacation spot twelve years ago in Marble, NC., that he visits a half a dozen times a year.

He asked me to go with him this week and of course I said, “Yes.” When we left Southern Maryland on Wednesday at 3 am, it took us twelve hours to get to Marble. However, I let him down because I wasn’t able to drive, at all. Poor guy caught thirty minutes of shut eye half way down so he could finish the trip.

Hurricane Matthew was getting ready to pound the eastern shore of Florida and Raymond’s son lived directly in the deadly storm’s path. This added heartache on top of the exhaustion. After much worry and prayers, we found out that his son was alright and never even lost power.

After we arrived in town; we cut the water on; plugged in the refrigerator and checked a few other items off of his check list. Being a glutton for punishment, but a lover of ice cream we went out to a town called Murphy to satisfy our sweet tooth.

20161005_163930-11

Amie Sue

Raymond knew of a place called “No Name, Old Fashion Ice Cream Parlor”. Fantastic place with a charming shop owner named Amie Sue. We sat at the counter of the fifties styled business establishment and enjoyed two delicious banana splits. Met some nice people then went home and recharged for day two.

20161005_165935

No Name, Old Fashion Ice Cream Parlor

20161005_165948

No Name, Old Fashion Ice Cream Parlor

Guest blog: Teach Me To Walk by Gwyn Dooley

/ Jim McDonald / 5 Comments

Teach Me to Walk

Teach me, Lord, to walk in Love
Lord, teach me how to Live
To walk by faith and not by sight
And help me to forgive

20161003_151349-1

Guide me with Your still small Voice
Lord, light the way for me
And chase the dark clouds from my path
And still my stumbling feet

By: Gwyn Dooley

20161005_130310-1

 

How ya like my hat? Skin’s hat 2

/ Jim McDonald / 2 Comments

How ya like my hat? Skin’s hat 2

fb_img_1475374890307

I was sweating so much, that I was afraid to put my hats on their hips.

As you can see this hat attracts women and I used to wear it everywhere I went. I knew; it hypnotically charmed the ladies, but no one else did. I kept it a secret, because I was alright with it.

A couple of years ago, I was enjoying one of my favorite joys in life; yard sailing, when this lady was getting closer and closer to me. She gently rubbed her right side against my left side and of course I was enjoying every minute of this. However, her boyfriend wasn’t and he made his objections known when he yelled, “WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?”

fb_img_1474602044812

I turned while shrugging my shoulders, when I saw how big he was. A huge young man and I wanted no part of him. I tried to say something, but all I could do was stutter.

fb_img_1474601952089

I knew how to fix the problem though, so I simply took off the hat. The young lady all of sudden moved to her left and looked at me with disgust, while saying to her boyfriend, “What?”

Again, I shrugged my shoulders and looked at her in dismay. When they started arguing, I slipped away to safety, to my right and never looked back.

Just messin. Can’t remember when or where I got the hat, but I retired it when it ran out of room to add anymore game pins on it.