Hugh's Blog

Jose’s

For our Friday Date Night, we went to Jose’s Mexican in Pearl. They have great tamales (seen), and good prices. It’s a family business, and we get treated like royalty. We don’t spend much money in the suburbs, but we make an exception for Jose’s.

Moving from Raleigh (where there are many great Mexican food options) to here (where there were not) was a difficult transition, but once we found Jose’s, we quit looking for other options.

We found it based on a recommendation from one of my Dad’s friends. who mentioned it at Dad’s memorial service. That I get to eat regularly at a place he enjoyed makes it more enjoyable – like another way we can connect.

That backsplash, though

When we made the decision to remodel our kitchen, I knew I wanted a strong feature backsplash.

Sometimes it still catches me by surprise, almost two years later.

Not the Northern Lights

We went to the Reservoir north of town to see if we could see the Northern Lights. Alas, the light pollution held us down.

There were lots of other folks looking too, and one lady thought she saw them, but it was just the Nissan Plant in Canton.

The good cheese

Over time, my cheese Overton Window has shifted.

For most of my life, the everyday cheese that sat in our refrigerator was the 1 lb. block of store brand “sharp” yellow cheddar. It was the default purchase every other week.

Then one day during the pandemic when things were hard to find sometimes, we bought the Cabot Creamery extra sharp cheddar cheese – which was only slightly more that we were used to paying – and were blown away at how good it was.

And then one day at Costco we came across this Cabot Creamery 3 year aged cheddar, and oh my god. Now we buy a block of this every month or so.

The bookstore

When I’m in a depression flare up, I try to go to the bookstore. There is a big Barnes and Nobles in the suburb here: I order a large hot cafe mocha (with whipped cream) and I turn off my phone and I just browse.

I will look at the business books to see what snake oil is selling now (it’s very AI focused at the moment). I’ll browse the prize winners, look at gardening or craft books, will browse the nature section, will look to see if my favorite fiction writers have anything new.

It really isn’t about buying something, although I usually do. It’s more like going to church and having my faith in the goodness of the world restored.

Stool number 1

I built my first staked stool today. It’s based on one designed by Christopher Schwarz – I first saw it in his rejected designs in The Anarchists Design Book.

When learning how to do something, I like to make a lot of them, quickly, to accelerate the mistake making. Like when I made 30 wooden spoons in 30 days.

I’m at odds right now, so I will make some more. I ordered some tools that should make things easier. But this is stool number 1.

A near-perfect Saturday

We went downtown for the National Folk Festival – it’s in Jackson for a 3 year stretch.

We watched some music, saw some folk making some crafts, bought some art, ate some street food. Then we came home and I worked in the workshop for a few hours. We spent the evening sitting in the living room, surrounded by cats, reading.

It was a good day.

Roosters

Friday night is our date night, and it has been for our whole relationship. Date night sounds a bit hyperbolic for what it is – we go out to eat in a restaurant. But we do it every week – we might miss 3 times a year, usually due to my work schedule.

There is a rotation of maybe six restaurants that are our “normal” ones, and we sprinkle in new places and sometimes, they move into the circle of six and one of the old ones drops out.

But one that has been in the circle almost since we moved here is Roosters. It’s burgers and salads and meat and two entrees with a Louisiana heritage. I love their red beans and rice, Renee their country fried steak.

All the colors

I had been working in the workshop after supper, and when I came up the back deck stairs, I was struck by all the colors in the screen room.

I catch a lot of shit because my clothes palette is limited, but I love a colorful environment. No greige for me, thank you!

Slider

It’s fuzzy and out of focus, but while on the walk today I saw this slider turtle in the creek. It was unseasonably warm today, and this guy was taking advantage of the sunshine to catch some heat on his favorite rock.

Normally, they sense the vibrations of your walking and swim away to escape, but this one didn’t -I stood and watched him for 3 or 4 minutes. I actually though he was ill, he was so still, but then he decided to slide into the water and get away right after I took this photo.