A Garage Is Really For Cars?

     Karin and I have gotten moved to our brand new digs in Lacey, Washington.  It’s been an amazing six-plus months since we first decided to leave our “starter” house after 43 years and being anew in this suburb of the state’s capital Olympia.  Perhaps the most difficult was deciding where to start, which room to clean first, what to save and what to give away or throw away.  That process began after Christmas 2017. 

     It was fun discovering things that we stored away and had forgotten about.  Like the box of dishes I had put in the attic (fortunately there wasn’t very much that was up there!).  I found this little box that when I opened it was amazed to find a partial set of dishes that I had bought through the Pacific Area Exchange (PACEX) before I came home from Phabulous Phu Hiep By The Sea in June 1970.  The rest of the set is still being used by my son Tim and his wife!

     We had to figure out where to temporarily store the boxes we began to pack with the stuff we wanted to keep and move to Lacey.  We had to find a realtor who could help us with eventually staging the house to elicit the most interest in buying our split level.  We had to do some minor repairs and one not-so-minor remodeling.  The bedroom that had been used as an office for the past several years needed to be changed back into a space that could be a bedroom once again.  The laundry room that I had built using space on the garage needed to be torn down and room be made for a car (a car had not been parked in the garage for Lord knows how many years).

     During all this we needed to make periodic trips 60 miles to south to check on the house we would be moving into.  The trip to the Olympia area usually takes about an hour when traffic is good, but this is the Puget Sound area where traffic is generally incredibly congested at many times of the day or night.  So the trip from Kirkland to Lacey down I-5 took anywhere from an hour to three hours!  Ugh!   I’m so glad we don’t have to make that trip any longer!

     But we finally were ready to put the house on the market, and, praise the Lord, it sold in about   20 days for more than we were asking for it!  In fact, we were able to pay cash for the new house (no mortgage!) with a little bit left over.  God has been so good to us!

     However, we may have problems with our cars….they have not been in a garage in many years, and in the new house they both fit in the room made for them.  I don’t know if they will start as they may be too traumatized!  

Beanie Weenies

Fifty years ago, when I was taking my all-expense-paid-adventure in Southeast Asia, our friend Doug Clark would be working the overnight in the Photo Lab.  He sent me the following article that he wrote for a church publication.  I had forgotten all about this delectable gastronomical delight until Doug reminded me of it!

I was stationed at a place called Phu Hiep Army Airfield in Vietnam 1969-1970.  I worked nights 7pm-7am.  Me and the guy I worked nights with would take turns every few weeks (9-12pm) & go to the unit’s Enlisted Men’s Club (EM Club).  On my nights I’d go to the EM Club to relax and socialize.  They served exotic beer there such as Schlitz, Fallstaff, and Black Label.  Beer was 11 cents a can and it was before aluminum cans or pop tops.  Almost every time I was there, Aretha Franklin was on the jukebox, and this guy, Mike Worley (one of unit’s cooks), would enlist 10/12 people to help prepare and eat beanie weenies.  We would all go to the Mess Hall and take orders from Mike Worley. We would prepare the beanie weenies using all huge Army grade food stuff:

• #10 can of pork & beans (13 cups)
• Chopped onions (probably 3)
• Part of a slab of industrial size butter (probably over 2 sticks)
• Pack of industrial size hotdogs 
• Massive amounts of Mustard & Ketchup

Those beanie weenies were heavenly. They were creamy and smooth.  They were a silver lining in a dark cloud and they took me far away.  I enjoy Phu Hiep Bennie Weenies today, except I prepare and eat them in Decatur, GA.