Carl – Page 23 – Tech in the Trenches

Refreshment Center

On July 17, 2020

Described by my wife as “Peak Carl.”

I am laying in bed watching 75 minutes of drive-in movie ads and laughing my head off at some of them.

There’s a Dr. Pepper ad where men “ride horses” and it looks like they’re on pogo sticks (without the pogo sticks).

Lots of ads reminding me to go to church. So many hot dogs and children taking big bites of them. Popcorn. Coke. Popcorn. Dr. Pepper. Coke. Popcorn. Candy. Popcorn. Coke.

Pepsi. For those who think young.

There are a disturbing number of clowns. Especially early on. Not nearly as many racist animations or pictures as I feared.

So many car speaker and car heater ads and instructions on use. Bernz-O-Matic will allow this theatre to stay open all year. Do you have a drizzle guard? It will keep rain off your windshield. It will save your battery and wear & tear in your car. Don’t sizzle in a drizzle!

If you have information on drive-in speaker theft, report it for a $50 reward.

Lots of brands Toddy. Flips. Watch the Manley machine work it’s magic on Manley’s popcorn! Nepco Frankfurt. Flavos Shrimp Rolls. They’re Shrimply delicious! Deeds Bros. Dairy.

There was an ad decrying the horrors of Pay TV! Not enough people signed the petition to keep Free TV from turning into Pay TV!

One instance of pop-corn. And a final reminder to Vote. Tell your friends to study the records of all candidates and choose the best one!

I was disappointed to learn there is a drive-in theatre near where I grew up but somehow never learned about it as a kid. Possibly because a movie ticket was $5 and a $20 could buy you dinner, a movie and snacks.

It wasn’t until years later I learned the Family Drive-in was in Stephens City. I’ve now been a number of times and enjoyed it every single time. I can’t say watching these ads tonight made me nostalgic for the ads when I was younger. But I do dearly miss going to the movies.

A flan story

By Carl

On July 13, 2020

In snapshots

My wife made a flan tonight. At the urging of her sister who has made this recipe four times. She continues to rave about it and ask if we’ve made it.

Tonight she did. It’s a good flan.

A History Lesson

By Carl

On June 27, 2020

In Observations

“The way we are taught this in school, Lincoln “freed the slaves,” and then the nearly four million people who the day before had been treated as property suddenly enjoyed the privileges of being Americans like everyone else. We are not prodded to contemplate what it means to achieve freedom without a home to live in, without food to eat, a bed to sleep on, clothes for your children or money to buy any of it. Narratives collected of formerly enslaved people during the Federal Writers’ Project of the 1930s reveal the horrors of massive starvation, of “liberated” black people seeking shelter in burned-out buildings and scrounging for food in decaying fields before eventually succumbing to the heartbreak of returning to bend over in the fields of their former enslavers, as sharecroppers, just so they would not die. “With the advent of emancipation,” writes the historian Keri Leigh Merritt, “blacks became the only race in the U.S. ever to start out, as an entire people, with close to zero capital.””

‘It Is Time for Reparations’
via Instapaper

We have been lied to. History lessons in school are made to reflect the winner and taught with an agenda to maintain the statues quo of whiteness. Reading this tonight has been a minor history lesson and filled in gaps in the story we were never taught.

It it enraging to see our country once again exploit anyone who wasn’t a white European. Not surprising but enraging. This country was built on the backs, literally, of slave labor. People who toiled for idle whites to generate vast wealth in their name. Meanwhile earning nothing for themselves or to pass to their children.

The US Government has a debt to pay.

“To this day, the only Americans who have ever received government restitution for slavery were white enslavers in Washington, D.C., who were compensated for their loss of human property.”

Dove

By Carl

On June 16, 2020

In Observations

I noticed a small nest in the scrub trees and weeds along the fence line. I looked up at it tonight and it looked back. There was a head and neck of a bird in the nest. I think it was a dove, but it was well-hidden and hard to make out. I didn’t want to disturb it any further (as I have been removing some vines and cutting back some branches).
I told the dove I meant it to no harm and I would leave her and her eggs alone. I hope the dove hatches little baby doves. They’re such goofy, plump birds. I love watching them waddle around. They have a charm pigeons will never capture.

Dove standing on concrete path. — Dove, at attention

Day 92

By Carl

On June 14, 2020

In Introspection

The weekend is here again. Or is it gone already? How is it already 7pm on Sunday? They fly by without a trace.

Well, there is some trace. The new butterfly bush we planted yesterday after finding Country Nursery, a lovely little nursery. It meets my internal passing grade of a quality mom-and-pop nursery because you can never quite tell whether you’re supposed to be where you’re standing or not. Everything flows together.

Butterfly bush with purple flowers in green grass. — Butterfly bush, pre-planting.

We didn’t know this nursery existed until passing it on the way to Meadows Farms, the only nursery I know from frequenting one near the farm where I grew up.

Their prices on everything were far below anything Meadows Farms or Home Depot/Lowes can offer. As we talked to the woman behind the counter, she said “We order what people want to buy.” Which seems like a perfect way to do business.

We did buy a selection of indoor plants form Meadows Farms. A found a pair of cacti I allowed myself to buy after keeping the one I bought last year alive and doing well. Add to that a coleus (the red fuzzy one).

Annie got a Snake Plant and a ZZ Plant. Both hearty for shady indoor climates, which is our house.

This is our life now. Watching the birds at the feeders. Clearing areas to plant more bushes and flowers around our house. Annie is on a mission to remove anything that’s only green. It has to flower. It has to look pretty. And if it’s going to, it has to look pretty for as long as possible.

She lived in California when she was young and remembers the flowers everywhere, all the time. So while Maryland isn’t the same climate, replicate as much beauty as possible.

Carl T. Holscher fights for the customers.

Author: Carl Page 23 of 152

Refreshment Center

A flan story

A History Lesson

Dove

Day 92