The Start of the Trip: Pittsburgh, Latrobe, and Ligonier

The majority of the 18th was filled with high altitude gawking out of windows for me, while Chauncey tried not to panic. We had two flights, one about 2 hours and one 1 hour, Fort Myers, to Charlotte, to Pittsburgh. My father rode first class, and Chauncey and I sat in business class, which was just fine with me, the passengers that sat next to us weren't any trouble.

For lunch we stopped at a Mexican restaurant in the Charlotte airport that had absolutely nothing vegan, my dad had tamales, and I had french fries from Burger King afterwards. I noticed something, as well. In the better paying restaurants, almost entirely white people were employed. At Burger King, all black people. You decide what point I am making.

By the time we got to Pittsburgh my nerves were shot. The retrieval of the luggage was delayed, and getting the van took forever, then, blessedly, we were off, heading towards Latrobe, where our hotel, Wingate by Windham resided.

We drove through several tunnels on the way, one under a river! I didn't get the camera out in time to take a picture of that, but perhaps the tunnel beneath the earth we drove through will suffice.  They were both fairly dark and eerie after such an exhausting day, and Pittsburgh was filled with industrialization.

I collapsed quickly at the hotel on a soft, cushy king bed.

Day 1:

I woke up at around 6 am, in a surprisingly good mood. I got some breakfast from downstairs, (they even had a waffle iron and batter so you could make your own waffles). Chauncey was still tired so I went back to bed to pass the time.

By noon we were both wondering why my dad hadn't come by, and were tired of sleeping, so I dropped by his room next door. He didn't look like he had been up long, though he insisted he had been letting us sleep. We were out the door an hour or two later.

The primary visit for the day was my father's childhood home. It is very lovely and I will include pictures shortly. When we arrived, my father was moved to tears at the sight of it. It was worth visiting for that reason alone. However, before we took a great deal of pictures, he wanted lunch.

My father had chosen the Ligonier Tavern for lunch, Chauncey and I figured there would be nothing for us to eat there, and were prepared to be disappointed. Instead, we were pleasantly surprised. We had hummus as an appetizer, with pita slices and veggies, and my dad had french onion soup. Then for lunch we had vegetable rosti, and my father had a panini reuben. I took some pictures of the food, if you are ever in ligonier, the place is definitely worth visiting.

Then it was back to my father's former home to take pictures. No one was currently at home, so we just trespassed up a storm. Apparently the former front door was now an elevator, and a former dining room window was now the front door. There was also an addition to the house and several other small changes. The largest change, however, was the trees. My father insisted that there had been no trees when he lived there, and condemned them regularly throughout the day, insisting that Ligonier needed to be cleared of these interlopers.

The deer above were in the neighbor's yard. How bold! Apparently they are safe enough here for that. Not like Florida where anything wild will be killed on sight by the first hunter to see it with a gun.

We visited several more houses from my father's youth, as well as a school, engaged in more trespassing, and then headed over to Johnstown. Johnstown is eerie looking, I don't have any photos though. I am heading back today and will update with some soon.

We also visited Laurel Mountain, and then last, an old rundown drive-in theater, where my father used to drink purple jesuses (1 part vodka, 1 part wine, in a big glass) with friends and dub over movies with obscene dialogue.

Here are a few photos from the theatre.

I'll either update today's travels tonight or tomorrow. Today is the last part of our Pennsylvania leg of the trip.

Update

Just a quick update.

I've been reading religiously, which I haven't done in years. I finished all the Song of Ice and Fire books up to date, which are very good. Read the God Delusion, also very good. I am probably going to start on A Brief Introduction to Neo-Liberalism next to get back into non-fiction, since the last book I read was book five of the Song of Ice and Fire. Then on to Capital. Neo-Liberalism is the concept that the market can drive the ethics of humanity and define them, not the usual definition of liberalism. It was a mistaken purchase, but will be an exciting read.

Something I also intend to read but do not expect to be impressed by is the short story, the Pre-Persons, by Philip K. Dick. It is  pro-life story. Apparently it is one of the better cases argued. Fiction, which makes it less appealing. It involves a society that allows for "abortion" up until the point when the soul has joined with the body, apparently when a person is capable of algebra. Obviously this is an absurd concept, but that is his point, no doubt. Still, I can't help but feel it will be emotionally based, and the concept of a soul being involved just screams religion, which is always the basis for pro-life arguments. Short of a few vengeful people who think those who get pregnant should have to reap the punishment for their actions, (as if children should be a punishment at any time. I can't see that making good parents or happy children.)

This was a hard story to hunt down, and you either pay ten dollars for the collection of short stories it is with, or search around for a free pdf, which I found, (unfortunately the words are too small on my kindle,) here.

I hunted for a viable or reasonable pro-life argument for a long time when I was in high school so that I could pose an argument/counter-argument case for a 'zine I did, (one whole issue, partly due to overhead costs,) in 12th grade. All that I found were emotional, religious, and reactionary arguments. The pro-choice side has its share of gut arguments, and I am full of my own gut feelings about choice, but there are logical arguments as well, which buffer these emotional pleas.

An interesting side debate, regarding reproductive rights, is China's forced abortions, sometimes at nine months, to prohibit more than one child. this has successfully controlled their population, however, so while it is morally possibly deplorable, it is sound in all logical senses. I struggle with the idea of forced abortions. The right to choose should go both ways, should it not? But we have so many people on this earth. Perhaps we should sterilise everyone and require certificates to breed. But no doubt only the rich and privileged would receive them. Who is in a position to decide who can breed and who can't?

Perhaps this has been more than brief. I might delve into the subject of abortion further at some point, but the New York vacation is in two days, and I will have much to report. My father has dubbed it the Ligchauboon vacation. For Ligoneer, Pennsylvania, Chautauqua, New York, and Boonville, New York, our choice spots to visit.

Recipe Time

In Lieu of anything deep, since I have been busy reading the Song of Fire and Ice books nonstop, I am going to share a recipe. It is a modified version of a magazine recipe, which I have worked over and reworked to eventually make my own. It is not in exact measurements, as I rarely measure things I am familiar with.

Pasta Shells Marinara

-Ricotta Cheese- 

1 container tofu (roughly 1 pound) firm
1 package frozen chopped spinach
1/4 to 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2-4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp garlic powder (optional)

-Sauce-

 6 cloves of garlic minced
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 large can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
Italian seasoning to taste, or basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, and sage to taste
salt (to taste)

one package large pasta shells

-You will need a large casserole dish, a food processor, hand or otherwise, helps as well.


Put at least 16 shells in a pot to boil, you shouldn't need them all. Some will break up, but 16 should be enough.

While shells are boiling, put the frozen spinach in the microwave for 6-8 minutes uncovered on a plate. Next, crumble tofu in big bowl using your hands, mix in oil, garlic powder, and yeast. When spinach is done, mix it in as well. If you have a food processor, you can process it all, though it can be done without processing.

To make sauce, saute garlic until golden, then pour both cans of tomatoes into a large pot with garlic. Pour olive oil and seasoning in. Olive oil should create a thin layer on top until mixed in, (which should take a bit of work.) You may need to add salt to lessen the sweetness of the sauce. Let cook for a bit to get the spices to cook into the sauce. 30 minutes on low after it has come to a boil should be enough.

Fill casserole dish with cooked shells, even broken ones (no reason to waste). You might want to wash them with cold water first so they aren't hot. Fill each with ricotta cheese and add extra cheese in between shells.

Pour sauce over shells. If any extra sauce remains, feel free to use for spaghetti later.

Bake covered in tin foil at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let stand 10 mins before serving.

Old Pictures

Got my colour pics back, still need the black and white ones. They were too professional a film for CVS. Need to take them to Harmon. The first is me about nine years ago? Eyebrowless phase, (Chauncey hated that.)

This is a picture of my cat Finch. I took a ton of these because all I had was a webcam pic before that was very blurry. This cat is an emotional and physical wreck now. She's gotten better, but she has an allergy to fleas and she gets separation issues if we leave for too long. She was originally deserted outside at some point. We rescued her after she started camping out on Chauncey's car before work, walking the ramp when he walked the dog, (and saying hi to her!) and standing sadly by the door.

 This is my last rat, Bomber. My dog, Adhara, loved her like she loved all the rats, mostly because she liked sniffing their butts. She had a friend named Pockets, but Pockets died a week after I got her to a severe respiratory infection. Fortunately, her death was quick, I had another rat that took weeks to suffocate to death (the vet actually suggested I not put her to sleep, or I would have. I'm not that cruel.)

This is me about 9 years ago, when a friend Jamie, put weave in my hair. We were under the mistaken impression that you took a lighter to the braids to get rid of the stray hairs. This created little globs of plastic that caught on the hair constantly, making this impossible to wear for long.

This is Adhara, dead for a little while now. Apparently the only Malamute in the world that got along with and even loved: cats, rats, children, and anyone that paid attention to her. In the end, she was still very with it, and physically she was perfectly fine, but her legs gave out, and she was in a great deal of pain despite as many pain killers as we could give her without ruining the quality of her life.

I still think about her a lot. She was pretty much my kid. I don't think I'll ever find another creature like her. If anyone deserved immortality in all the best ways, she would have been it.








Okay, so next post something besides personal photos. Maybe something of value, philosophy, economics, politics, whatever.

Music

I've been filling out my profile for this blog.

I just did movies, which took awhile and probably isn't complete, and only authors for books instead of actual books, because I have read a lot of books. Though, to be fair, it's been really hard for me to read anything at all lately, which has been rather frustrating. I just get antsy and fidgety. The music I haven't even started on, god I like a lot of bands, and cycle through what I listen to depending on my mood. Right now it is all folk and blues.

Robert Johnson is probably my favourite artist of all time. When I was able to drink, I managed to fit in a few good nights listening to him and downing whiskey, but that was shortly before my drinking days ended.

I just downloaded a fuckton of blues, both women and men, from Demonoid. I also have this great CD set (pirated sadly, if I ever get the money I will buy it,) People Take Warning. Some very old blues and folk. A lot of it is about some very old tragedies. One of the songs I recognised a few lines from from another folk song I knew, and wasn't sure which was recycled from which, but it was interesting how the songs merged from one another.

Blues is great, because it makes me feel pain that isn't mine, (though I have experienced poverty to a degree,) so it's a sort of positive low. That's difficult to understand, I realise. Plus the sound is often record quality, and the voices are rich and I love that. Big Momma Thornton and Ruth Brown are great examples of women with wonderful voices. Ruth Brown didn't originally stick to me, then I had Momma, He Treats Your Daughter Mean stuck in my head all day the next day!

I am having three rolls of film developed in the next few days, mostly very very old pictures. I'll share some if any are worth it.

First of the First

For some reason I have decided to undertake writing a blog. I don't actually have many friends to follow a blog, or many online friends, either. However, I think I have enough things going on at this point to entertain myself by recording them.

Around the 18th of July, I am going to New York with my father and my boyfriend, Chauncey. I will be visiting a number of restaurants, including Peek'N Peak, near Chautauqua, which has a total of one vegan dish, (naturally it is pasta,) and the Strong Hearts Cafe, in Syracuse, which has only vegan dishes. We are actually there to visit old stomping grounds, namely Ligonier in Pennsylvania, Chautauqua Institution in New York, and Boonville, New York. We'll drop by Panama Rocks and Old Forge, I think. I'll be writing from there.

This fall I will be attending the local (as in an hour drive to Fort Myers,) college via Pell Grant (assuming I am approved, no word yet.) I am going for a AS in computer programming. I would have preferred an AA, but trigonometry and calculus are simply out of my league.

Also, since my political efforts consist of the communist manifesto, various bits and pieces picked up along the way, listening to CNN and conservative talk radio, and a few online news papers, I have decided to read some proper literature on my political views. I picked up Das Kapital for the Kindle. Only, it's pretty heavy. Near the beginning, Marx is going into commodities, and he gets somewhat mathematical and I begin to lose him. I am considering getting A Companion to Marx's Capital, which helps explain it, and it is by a liberal enough author that it won't be a constant "this sucks because". I want to understand what Marx was saying, not whether he was right or wrong, Until then, I have some smaller essays by Trotsky and Marx.

I realise I sound somewhat uneducated with regards to communism, but I have a strong grasp of the basics from years of debating it. Whether my views follow the original views as strongly as they should remains to be seen, and I am still uneducated, regardless. Don't let the name of the blog fool you though, I am aware that Communism, (as opposed to communism,) went very bad. It is my belief it was always the difference of the building being built from the top down, rather than from the foundation up.