Gutter Talk

November 16th, 2020

Taking Ecclesiastes 10:18 to Heart

I learned something useful today. Putting a small amount of ginger in beef jerky really improves it.

I made another batch yesterday, and while I was mixing the marinade, I thought about teriyaki. My best guess is that teriyaki jerky requires replacing all of the Worcestershire sauce with soy sauce, but for some reason, I stuck with half and half, and I added about a quarter of a teaspoon of ground ginger. I didn’t have fresh ginger.

It made a big difference. I wouldn’t say it tastes gingery. It just has more zing to it. I think powdered ginger will actually work better than fresh, because it has a sharper flavor.

So that was nice.

I grabbed the wrong cut of meat by mistake. I wanted eye round, and I think I bought bottom round. Anyway, today, the surface of the jerky has oil on it. It’s not congealed fat. Just oil. They say you should use beef with as little fat as possible. This cut seems to have more fat than eye round. The danger of using fatty meat is that the fat will go rancid. Will that happen when the meat is still lean but slightly fattier than eye round? I don’t know, but it tastes better. I’ll keep an eye on it, and if it doesn’t go bad, maybe I’ll switch to this cut permanently.

I also got new gutters installed. This house had only one roof gutter when I moved here, and it was between the roof and the patio enclosure. There was no guttering over the garage, so big, fat raindrops fell directly on the driveway. They were starting to wear it away, and I couldn’t leave the doors open when it rained, because so much water splattered into the garage. I had them run guttering over both doors. Feeling smug about that.

There was also an issue over the front porch. The roof was designed in such a way that a huge amount of water was directed onto the porch roof when it rained. It caused some rot, and I had to spend a grand on repairs. Now there is some hope the new guttering will direct the rain elsewhere.

The strangest part of the roof design was the lack of guttering on the workshop roof. The rain fell straight onto the grass, in front of a concrete porch. The rain destroyed a strip of grass beside the concrete and washed out a lot of the dirt. I could not grow anything in front of the porch. Rain also threw dirt all over the concrete. Now I have a gutter that runs the length of the building, and I may go crazy and plant something in the ugly rut where the rain used to fall.

I don’t know what’s happening in the world, and that suits me very well. I have plenty of jobs to keep me busy. I don’t need to read fake news to kill time as well as my digestion. The election will have an outcome whether I read about it or not, and if the rapture comes, it won’t matter. It shouldn’t matter, regardless, because God looks after me very well.

It has occurred to me that readers may be confused because I say I feel like the rapture is upon us, but I also talk about planning for shortages, civil war, and so on. I’m writing about different possible futures. One involves me being here while leftists torch the country and force sane people to dig in and defend, and the other involves me being somewhere above, gleefully oblivious to everything that happens here. I keep feeling powerful indications that I won’t be here, but I have been wrong before.

Today I prayed God would see to it I never found myself in a situation in which I would truly need to use a firearm. I have asked for that before. I don’t want to be pulled down into the mire with the pigs. I don’t think Christians were put here to shoot people. I think when you find yourself in a situation like that, it means something has gone wrong in your relationship with God.

The ammunition situation has gotten even worse. I set up alerts so a search site would tell me when certain types of ammunition were available. This morning I got an alert, and when I checked before 8:30 a.m., the site was sold out. People are hovering by their computers, snapping ammunition up as soon as it appears. Either that, or George Soros has a bot doing it to keep patriots from getting cartridges. Of course, people have been storing up ammunition since the Obama years, so Soros and Bloomberg could bankrupt themselves and still fail to accomplish their goal.

I don’t really think billionaires are buying ammunition to cause problems, but it would make a great conspiracy theory.

I wonder what life in blue America is like. Hell, I suppose. Terrorism, lack, and irrational fear surrounding a mild disease. My cousin near Chicago still can’t buy disinfectant wipes, but they’re slashing them to $2.98 per can at my local Walmart, just to get rid of them. My cousin near Atlanta says they finally have meat in stores, although restaurants can’t get what they want because they’re last in line. My Illinois cousin is visiting my aunt in Kentucky, and she can’t get wipes there, either. Of course, Kentucky isn’t all that red. Not down deep, regardless of whom they voted for. They love government handouts too much.

There are two realities, and I’m very satisfied with mine. I have zero interest in experiencing or even witnessing the false, unnecessary reality of leftists.

If you think about it, the two-reality solution continues after death. It might as well start now.

5 Responses to “Gutter Talk”

  1. Alex Says:

    Adding ginger to teriyaki marinade is how you get Korean barbecue marinade — well, that and sesame oil & seeds. Korean BBQ beef jerky marinade is soy sauce, garlic, ginger, black pepper, brown sugar, sesame oil, and sesame seeds. Chopped green onion optional.

    You can use garlic / ginger powder, or you can use fresh garlic and ginger and blend the marinade with an immersion blender (before adding the sesame seeds).

  2. John Bowen Says:

    Speaking of ginger, I recently tried the Buffalo Ginger sold by Burlap and Barrel, among other things. It’s quite a bit more intense than all other dried ginger I’ve tried.

    I also tried the following:

    Purple Stripe Garlic – Intense, much closer in flavor to raw garlic than normal granulated/powders.
    Silk Chili Flakes – The closest thing I’ve ever found to the Aleppo chili flakes I brought home from Turkey back in the ’90’s.
    Black Urfa Chili – Interesting. Worth the price to try a new flavor. Probably not to everyone’s taste, but I like to add it to soups.
    Cobanero Chili Flakes – Bright and citrusy, with moderate heat. Also a great additive to soups. It’s currently sold out, if that’s any indication how much folks like it.
    Black Lime – Tastes like limes.

    I’m not affiliated with Burlap and Barrel in any way. Kind of wish I were. Retail is not a job to fill a person with joy at this particular juncture in history. I have to put on the garment of praise to drive off the spirit of heaviness several times a shift these days. It’s encouraging to see Christians who have progressed so much farther. It gives me hope, and something for which to pray.

  3. Ed Bonderenka Says:

    I’m glad I ordered cases of ammo before Covid.
    I shot a lot, and now am afraid to shoot the rest.

  4. The Malcontent Says:

    Trump should NOT concede, and hand this country over to people who stand by and allow this kind of violence to continue against innocent people with different viewpoints. If that sentiment scares you, sorry but it wasn’t the Republican Trump Supporters the was responsible for this…. . This may amount to calling for a coup, but I know of no other peaceful way to solve America’s issues (if you have any peaceful ways to bridge our seemingly hopeless divide, I’m all ears). The time for being nice and diplomatic has passed a long time ago. If people like me, who believe what we believe, are going to be engaged in this kind of violent manner, then we should respond in kind. Words have failed. Actions have consequences. These are the sort of things that drive good men to do bad things, and if that’s what it takes, then So Be It. .

  5. John Bowen Says:

    Your subtitle inspired me to read Ecclesiastes in it’s entirety today. Thank you.