Saturday, July 12, 2008

Summer Perfection


I thought it was strange that my pedometer was recording an average of 34,000 steps for the last week instead of the average 25,000 steps that a work shift had usually entailed. I discovered I had the mode on calories all week. Whew! Still, I walk about 20 km. per shift but it's a bit more sane that 28.

A cool front arrived a few days ago taking the humidity away. Since then, sleeping has been wonderful. I swear that when it was so hot and humid I was averaging four or five hours of sleep in total per night. With no humidity the clear blue skies with big fluffy clouds show the bright red and green colours of our landscape at it's best.

Three more weeks till my family comes home. A friend is getting married that day too but I won't be attending any weddings or partied. I'll be hugging my kids and grandkids. Having four days off work in a row will be great too.

I've long been a fan of the great songwriter Leon Russell. I saw him live in '70 in Massachusetts and in Toronto in '71. I've featured him a few times. I was reminded of him yesterday by another blogger mentioning that Russell wrote This Masquerade that he had up with George Benson singing. This link is from my post in April. I too love this version by Benson. Leon Russell's most famous song that has been covered by so, so many is Singin' This Song For You. Here's the original by him and another version where he is the pianist and gets some help from Willie Nelson and Ray Charles.

8 comments:

Kat said...

Cuidado,
We too are enjoying cooler days, no humidity days. I'm glad you're getting a chance to sleep and rest up.

The sky is just so blue it's almost unreal. Lovely!

Ralph said...

Thanks for (oblique) ref, my dear.

Unfortunately the promised cool front didn't stay long here. I was hoping our dinner party tonight could be held outside tonight, but we're moving it in. And I definitely agree on the sleep issue!

Cuidado said...

It's summer perfection, Kat. We wait all year for this.

Cuidado said...

Sorry the reference was not direct. Morning blogging does not work as I'm going at triple speed. It was amazing that I even searched out the Benson link.

Was it too hot to be out or raining?

Ralph said...

Too hot. We had a great time inside, though! We had crabcakes. BTW, I've started brining the crab meat when I freeze it, on your recommendation. Works like a charm, the meat is exactly as if it was just picked. That was great advice!

Cuidado said...

Would you believe I recently heard not to brine lobster but to freeze it just covered in plain cold water? Try that way too for comparison.

Ralph said...

I have, and the results were awful. As the water thawed, it took all the flavor of the meat away with it. Brining solves that problem and preserves the body of the meat very well. To me its a great answer to the problem of preserving crab meat, hands down. The only precaution you have to take is to dry the meat well before you use it.

Cuidado said...

Good, then. I'm going to ask my friends who own a crab plant the next time I see them how they do it. Their product is perfect.