Shaving The Mango

Boy, doesn’t that sound like the title to a bad 1970s porn movie? Not that I’ve ever seen a porn movie, mind you, but I had a friend who saw one and he told me all about it. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

First, let me tell you about yesterday morning. You all know that we seldom get to bed before 1 or 2 AM, and usually wake up around 10 o’clock in the morning. But yesterday morning I had to be up by 9 because I had to be at the Ford dealer at 10:45 to have them look at the rusty part of my Mustang’s door hinge. But for some reason, the darned alarm clock didn’t go off and I woke up at 10:15.

If there’s anything I hate, it’s being late for an appointment. Well, that’s not true. I also hate vegetables, guys who have man buns, religious fanatics, French poodles, and other yappy little dogs. I’m sure there are other things I hate, too, but you get my point. At any rate, I jumped out of bed, brushed my teeth, splashed some water on my face, was glad for once that I don’t have hair to comb, threw on some clothes and was out the door in about seven minutes.

It’s about a 15 or 20 minute drive to the dealership, so I thought I would be fine. That was until I pulled out onto US Highway 1 from our little subdivision and found traffic down to one lane and barely moving. They’ve been installing new power poles along this section of the highway and a long line of construction vehicles were parked in the right lane. Using the hands-free feature in the Mustang, I called the dealership and told them I would be a few minutes late, and they said not to worry.

I had assumed it would take them a couple of hours to do their thing and I would be out the door and headed back home. But when I got to the service department they had several vehicles ahead of me and I was told it would probably be somewhere around 2:30. They have free shuttle service, so I caught a ride home, figuring that Miss Terry would bring me back that afternoon to pick up the car.

Back at the house, we had brunch and then I started making corrections to the several chapters in my new Big Lake book that I had done in the last few days. I’m somewhere around 72,000 words now and closing in on the end.

When I had not heard from the dealership by 3 o’clock, I called to check the status on my car and was told that the replacement part for the door hinge would not be in until sometime this morning. I had the choice of bringing it home and going back again this morning, or just leaving it there overnight. I chose that alternative.

Okay, now let’s talk about the shaved mango. You may remember that a while back I bought a NESCO Snackmaster Pro food dehydrator, and in our first attempt at drying fruit, the apples and pears came out perfect, but the mangoes and bananas needed more drying time. We skipped the bananas this time around, but bought more apples, pears, and mangoes. We also decided to put the mangoes on the top of the stack in the dryer, closer to the heating element.

If you’ve ever tried to peel a mango, it’s not easy. I think they are about 99% water. But never fear, Terry’s here. After she realized a very sharp knife wasn’t cutting it, literally, she got out her Kyocera Advanced Ceramic Horizontal Y Peeler. The thing looks like some kind of futuristic shaving razor (hence the title Shaving The Mango), and it made easy work of getting the peels off the mangoes.

Since Terry had already gotten dressed and put on her makeup to take me to the Ford dealer, I decided she at least needed dinner out. I mean, after all, when a lady shaves a mango for you…

One of our favorite places to eat around here is Dustin’s Bar-B-Q, a small family-owned chain similar to Sonny’s but with better prices and food in my opinion. We had a nice meal and then came home to an evening of relaxing in our recliners watching TV.
Today I will be back to making corrections in the new book, and when they are done I hope to get a couple more chapters finished. Barring any unforeseen problems, I should have it done sometime this weekend and then will print it out so Miss Terry can begin the first round of editing and proofing.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is autographed copy of my pal Donna McNicol’s 3-in-1 C’Mon Inn Hawaiian mystery series trilogy, Paradise at a Price, Paradise Dead, and Paradise Drift. To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.

Thought For The Day – I had my patience tested. I’m negative.