(no subject)

[rejectomorph]

There are tiny flying insects in my room. Like the trees and flowers they think it is spring. It won't be long before I get my first mosquito bite of the year. This afternoon I noticed a single daffodil blooming. There are several other daffodil plants but they have only leaves, none of the stalks the flowers grow on, so it's possible that the current blossom will be the only daffodil I get this year. I ought to be getting some shade pretty soon, though, because some of the oaks have started growing new leaves.

It's all just surpassingly weird. The day was warm, and the evening is mild, with only the slightest breeze stirring. There must be some wind higher up, though, as the vapor trail of a jet that flew by after sunset began to deform rapidly, soon becoming a series of pink squiggles reflecting the light of the vanished sun. It shared the cerulean sky with bright Venus, which is sinking toward the horizon, soon to be followed by the red dot of Mars. Meanwhile, Jupiter is rising in the east, though I won't be able to see it until it clears the pine trees. Venus and Mars will be in conjunction on the 21st, and I have little doubt of being able to see that event. The forecast predicts mostly clear skies for days and nights on end.

Today I didn't wake up until noon, so lunch was late, and a while ago I decided that, in lieu of dinner, I would have a slice of that key lime pie I bought Friday. It turned out not to be one of those lime-based things that I find unpleasant, so I'll probably buy another one eventually, though not of the same brand, which I found much too sweet. As for dinner, I might have something later, after eleven o'clock. From ten to eleven my television will be showing me English people murdering one another. That might cause me to work up an appetite.

The waking up at noon was a bit distressing, as I have some busy days coming up this week, and will have to be awake pretty early in the morning to deal with them. I'm thinking I really need to replace my broken alarm clock. Maybe they have something at K-mart. I'll see if I can arrange to get there tomorrow. It's Presidents Day, so maybe they'll even have a sale.

Oh, here's another one of those tiny flying insects, buzzing my monitor. How annoying the premature spring is.




Sunday Verse

Somewhere There is a Simple Life

by Anna Akhmatova


Somewhere there is a simple life and a world,
Transparent, warm and joyful. . .
There at evening a neighbor talks with a girl
Across the fence, and only the bees can hear
This most tender murmuring of all.

But we live ceremoniously and with difficulty
And we observe the rites of our bitter meetings,
When suddenly the reckless wind
Breaks off a sentence just begun —

But not for anything would we exchange this splendid
Granite city of fame and calamity,
The wide rivers of glistening ice,
The sunless, gloomy gardens,
And, barely audible, the Muse's voice.

–translated by Judith Hemschemeyer

Comments

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

There's something wrong with me -- I can't get into to Akhmatova. Let's blame Alvin Rosenfeld!

Key limes are lovely things, and yellow. My parents used to drive down to the Keys and winter there, before they became too touristy and built-up. I went a few times and was introduced to what key lime pie really is. That said, I've always liked that nearly-violent lime sherbet you can buy in grocery stores. No doubt it's phony flavor.

Across the little side street beside my building is a Walgreen's. Its two little trees beside the sidewalk have flowered out in purple. Stupid things. It's FEBRUARY. I noticed yesterday that both the Olympics and the Cascades are hazy blue instead of shining white. It's discouraging.

By the way, I saw that the second season of Endeavour is available on Amazon now. I love Endeavour and his DI Friday. Fictional English people have to die for my pleasure, I'm sorry.

[rejectomorph]

Rexall drug stores used to serve a fountain drink called the lime ricky which I really liked when I was a kid. It was just simple syrup, the juice of one lime, and carbonated water, all over crushed ice and with half the squeezed lime tossed into the glass, and a maraschino cherry on top. At fifteen cents it was half again as costly as a bottled soft drink, but it seemed so special that I didn't mind paying the extra nickel. I could probably replicate the drink easily enough at home, but I've never done so. I'd miss the atmosphere of the soda fountain, which was a big part of the experience.

Akhmatova has a very deep melancholy which does not often suit me, but sometimes it seems fitting. Still, she makes me glad I was not born Russian. Had I been, I'd probably have long since killed myself.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

That sounds good! Main Street in my tiny Indiana hometown had a Rexall. Also a smaller mom & pop drugstore that wasn't nearly as plushy. Both had soda fountains, though. I will tack on here a photo of my older sister and me at Rexall, having ice cream, somewhere in the mid-'50s. That Rexall's specialty was a cherry phosphate with marshmallow fluff. It was too tart for my taste, though.

[rejectomorph]

What a splendid photo. Your sister (she's the one in back, right?) doesn't look too happy with her treat, though. Maybe she was hoping for a chocolate sundae. As I recall, Rexall made a good one. But my favorite was the vanilla malt. Rexall malts had a nutty flavor unlike any other malts I've ever tasted.

The Owl Rexall store in Alhambra was long gone by the time I left Los Angeles, but Drug King Rexall still had a store with a fountain on Hollywood Boulevard into the 1980s, and I would sometimes go there for malted nostalgia. I intended to get one in the summer of 1986, just before I moved, but never got around to it, so I think the last Rexall malt I ever had was in 1985. I think the whole company is gone now, so I'll probably never have another. I probably look like your sister with her ice cream whenever I think of that.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's my sister with the beautiful raven hair. She reminded me, when I put this photo up at FB recently, that my parents hadn't realized yet that she was blind as a bat, and her eyes always look dreamy in photos pre-glasses. She also has never been quite the gourmandizer that I am -- give me ice cream, and I'm a happy camper. :D

Mmmm, malt. It was probably something to do with the way the supplier roasted the barley. I love that flavor in general. It gives a rich undertexture and taste to a milkshake. Now I'm dying for one and tomorrow's Ash Wednesday. Woe is me. Ha. I'll give up arugula for lent.

Our Rexall carried Franklin Pangburn candies, if I remember right. Those big red Valentine's boxes. Not too long ago, I googled for Russell Stover, which I like, and was surprised to see that it's in the same family as Pangburn. You're lucky to be in California where they make See's. Right? Their butterscotch squares are to die for.

[rejectomorph]

I don't think Pangburn's ever made it to California, and I don't remember ever seeing Russell Stover candy here either. The main boxed candy in markets and drug stores was Whitman's, but we rarely had that because there was indeed at least one See's store in almost every part of town. My mom was a big fan of See's, and she almost always had a box or bag of it on hand. I absolutely loved a maple-flavored cream with chocolate sprinkles called the Bordeaux.

You're in luck, because See's has expanded into the northwest and they have three stores in the Seattle area. I haven't been to See's in years because their only store near here is in Chico and I hardly ever get down there. They've never saturated northern California the way they did the area around Los Angeles.

However, there's a remarkably good local candy company called Joy Lyn's which is comparable to See's. They are only open during the mild months, though. They usually shut down from early June until October (they might have to close earlier this year if this weather continues.) I've been intending to try some of their beer brittle, but haven't gotten up the nerve yet. I'm afraid I might become obsessed with it.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

The See's at Northgate isn't far. I'll have to go stock up on those butterscotches! Thanks. :)

Joy Lyn's candy looks great. I'd never heard of it before. Back in Maryland, the local grocery chain sold refrigerated boxes of select varieties of Fannie Mae, and I discovered on visiting home that a mall in Terre Haute had a boutique. The Truffles and Trinidads, oh man.

Beer brittle, though, I don't know. I had to give up popcorn and peanut brittle and hard pretzels when my teeth began to get fragile (from jaw clenching in my sleep and resulting hairline cracks). Isn't that sad? Oh, to be young again with great teeth, a strong back, and perfect digestion. ;D