I dreamed last night that a Checkers hamburger joint opened up in Divide on Cedar Mountain road. This is, of course, preposterous, because we’re too far north for it to be a Checkers; it would have to be a Rally Burger. I ordered a Checker burger, seasoned fries, and a banana shake, and then Berck started cursing because the total was $18, and I was dismayed because there were children in the restaurant.
The closest retail establishment to our house is in reality a Pepsi vending machine, which is at the campground that is full all summer of people who are trying to get away from it all, that we pass on our drive to our house.
But now I want some fries the way Checkers batters them. Berck tried to make them in his deep fryer once, but the breading all came off and made a huge mess in the fryer.
It was about time to get a new COVID shot, and Novavax just came out with their updated vaccine (for Omicron, I think). So I looked to see where I could get it. The options in Colorado Springs were CVS and Costco. There’s a CVS a couple blocks from my office, so I went on their website to make an appointment. The questionnaire got as far as which vaccine I wanted, and when I selected Novavax, it said no appointment was necessary and to just walk in and talk to someone in the pharmacy.
So on Tuesday I clocked out for lunch and drove over to the Target that houses the CVS, the same one where we got Paxlovid. Even though it was the middle of the day, there was unfortunately, a line. I wasn’t sure if I was picking up or dropping off, so I just stood behind everyone else. It was finally the elderly woman in front of me’s turn, and it was taking the pharmacy employee at the pick up desk a long time to figure out the least expensive way to fill the woman’s prescription, running it through her insurance, with her coupon but without her insurance, and with both. The other pharmacy employee manning the drop off desk became available. I said I’d like to get a COVID Novavax shot.
“Uh,” she said, glancing at her coworker, still holding the elderly woman’s coupon, “You’ll have to talk to Nancy.” So I backed up to indicating that I was waiting in the pick up line again.
When Nancy had finally sorted the elderly woman’s issues, 20 minutes later, I finally had the opportunity to ask her for the COVID Novavax shot. “Have you made an appointment?” she asked. No, I explained that the website said for Novavax to just walk in and talk to a pharmacy personnel. “Just make an appointment for any time this afternoon, and we’ll go ahead and give it to you.” I checked the website on my phone, but it still said I couldn’t make an appointment for Novavax, but Nancy had rushed off to do something else. So I filled out all of the information on the website, and it told me I had an appointment for 3:30 for Pfizer. By the time Nancy had finished administering a shot to someone else, she came back and said, “Were you able to make an appointment?”
“Yes, I said, “But it would only let me make one for Pfizer.”
“That’s right,” she answered, “We only have Pfizer.”
“But it said you had Novavax?”
“You want Novavax?”
Turns out they did have Novavax, and I’m guessing this is the first one Nancy had administered, because it took her a while to find the information she needed on the packaging to input it in her computer system. I finally got my jab (I elected to go for the left arm to keep up the right, left, right, ones I’d gotten previously. It stung right away.
CVS gives you fancy bandaids
I was pretty happy the next day that I did not feel lousy at all, though my neck and lower back started aching. The next day my neck and back were really hurting, and the injection site had turned into a very itchy goose egg.
Five days later though, everything went mostly back to normal, with the swelling at the injection site going down and my neck and back stopping hurting.
Cheesecake is one of the few cakes that doesn’t need much alteration to come out lovely up here, but I still consulted my high altitude bible. Unfortunately, it only includes a recipe for orange cheesecake. So I took this recipe and altered it a little. It was wonderful.
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust
1 and 1/2 cups (180g) graham cracker crumbs (about 12 full sheet graham crackers)
1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
5 Tablespoons (71g) unsalted butter, melted
Cheesecake
32 ounces (904g) full-fat brick cream cheese (4 of them), softened to room temperature
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
1 cup (240g) full-fat sour cream, at room temperature
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
Instructions
Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 325°F
Make the crust: If you’re starting out with full graham crackers, use a food processor or blender to grind them into fine crumbs. Pour into a medium bowl and stir in sugar until combined, and then stir in the melted butter. Mixture will be sandy. Try to smash/break up any large chunks. Pour into an ungreased 9-inch or 10-inch springform pan. With medium pressure using your hand, pat the crumbs down into the bottom and partly up the sides to make a compact crust. Do not pack down with heavy force because that makes the crust too hard. Simply pat down until the mixture is no longer crumby/crumbly and you can use the flat bottom of a measuring cup to help smooth it all out if needed. It doesn’t need to go very high up the sides. Place on a cookie sheet and pre-bake for 11 minutes. Remove from the oven.
Make the filling: Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed in a large bowl until the mixture is smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract, then beat until fully combined, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl. On medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until just blended. After the final egg is incorporated into the batter, stop mixing. To help prevent the cheesecake from deflating and cracking as it cools, avoid over-mixing the batter as best you can. You will have close to 6 cups of batter. (If you screw this part up, you can whiz the batter in the food processor in three batches to make the batter nice and smooth. Just be sure to clean out all the graham cracker crumbs.
Pour the cheesecake batter on top of the crust.
Bake cheesecake for 70 minutes or until the center is almost set. If you notice the cheesecake browning too quickly on top, tent it with aluminum foil halfway through baking. When it’s done, the center of the cheesecake will slightly wobble if you gently shake the pan. Turn the oven off and open the oven door slightly. Let the cheesecake sit in the oven as it cools down for 1 hour. Remove from the oven, then cool the cheesecake completely uncovered at room temperature. Then cover and refrigerate the cheesecake for at least 4 hours or overnight. Or just eat it.
Remove the rim of the springform pan. Using a clean sharp knife, cut into slices for serving. For neat slices, wipe the knife clean and dip into warm water between each slice.
Serve cheesecake with desired toppings. Cover and store leftover cheesecake in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Like it’s going to last that long.
I cooked some frozen peaches in a little bit of sugar and butter and then some cognac, which I lit on fire by tilting my pan toward my gas flame.
Wedgie, Holly, Heather, Nikki, and I went to a rodeo up in Woodland Park yesterday. Evidently, Holly, Wedge, and Max won tickets to it at Cowboys the night before. It was a celebrity rodeo benefitting abused kids, which meant that the competitors were locals, who knew what they were doing, and celebrities, who we’d never heard of. They’d get out in the ring and totally screwed up whatever the event was taking place.
One lady, the people sitting near us called “Lori,” competed in some event where a man would run up, grab a young roped steer, and wrestle it to the ground while his female partner would grab a ribbon tied to its tail. Dennis looked in the programs Holly managed to steal and discovered that “Lori” has been in several movies I’ve never heard of (including _Pumping Iron II_) as well as Divorce Court. Dennis and I looked at each other and said, “Divorce Court? But… I thought that was real?” Lori returned to the stands we were sitting in and was congratulated by all for winning the event. “I better get a buckle,” she said, “Last time they gave me a plaque.” Out of the crowds of people in cowboy hats, Levis, and boots stepped a woman in stretch pants, heels, and a leopard spotted scarf. “Lori,” she smiled, “can we interview you?” A kid with a camera labeled with some local TV station came up, and they performed it right there.
None of us really knew what was going on, so a lady behind us clued us in about the events. “Team Penning is harder than it looks,” she said during the last event, “Three strangers who’ve never worked before have to go into a herd of calves and separate four of them wearing the same number (the announcer calls out), get them down the ring and into that little pen. If more than five calves that aren’t that number pass that imaginary line in the middle between those two guys with flags, the team is disqualified.” So we shouted encouragement to the participants and clapped when one team led by a lady in a matching red outfit finally got two calves in before time was called.
It was a fun time, even though we had to listen to country music all the way there, all the way back, and it was playing over the loud speaker in the stadium.
That night while we were picking out a movie at Blockbuster in Monument, Dennis whispered, “Hey, Jonah, wasn’t that lady in red over there in the rodeo?” Sure enough.
Turn 1: Make sure your tires are warmed up. Brake early, around the 2nd to last braking marker pylon. Once the right rear wheel settles, add gas. Be on the throttle before or on the apex. Mash the throttle between 1 and 2.
Turn 2: You don’t need to brake. Downshift to 3rd, making sure you’ve given the throttle a nice blip to get the revs up. Leave a car width from the inside, apexing a little late, which will help you have enough track to track out. Unless you’re side by side with Jean, in which case stay right up against the inside.
Turn 3: Take very fast
Turn 4: You’ve gone down the back straight with the throttle on the floor, checking the gauges and mirrors, shifting into 4th when 3rd has given you all it’s got. You’re at the end of the pavement and going as fast as this car will go. You’re terrified because now you have to turn to the right. Tell yourself it’s a fast turn, it’s a fast turn, it’s a fast turn. Lift. Pussy out and brake. Turn and realize you had plenty of track. Promise yourself you won’t brake next time, knowing full well that you’re going to be just as terrified next lap.
Turn 5: Aim the nose to the outside pylon. Brake, but not as much as you think you need to. Go deep, then turn. Track out. You didn’t use all the track. You didn’t need that much braking.
Turn 6: Go downhill, staying to the outside. Brake between the last two braking pylon markers, hard but smooth. Smooth is fast. Downshift to 3rd. Don’t apex until you see the blue and white curbing, then hit the edge of the curbing. Let the slickness of the paint on the curbing rotate the car as your right rear tire slips on it. Add just enough gas to use all the track to the other side, then it’s full throttle all the way uphill.
Turn 7: There’s no wrong way to take this in a Vee. Let 3rd take you uphill and shift up to 4th.
Turn 8: Brake hard between the last two braking pylons (sometimes the last one has been knocked down). Downshift to 3rd. You come nearly to a stop. Turn and ride the edge of the curbing. The Barrons like to drive on the curbing, but it’s so bumpy, and they have treaded tires. Track out to the curbing on the outside. The cut off between 6 and 13 is there, and you can use that pavement when you run out of track.
Turn 9: Go downhill as fast as you can, shifting into 4th near the bunker on the right.
Turn 10: Lift because you’re a pussy. The track flattens out right next to the apex. Hit that flat area, and you’ll be alright.
Turn 11: Downshift into 3rd between the last two braking pylons, giving the throttle a good bit of gas before letting out the clutch. Go a little deeper, then turn in, apexing a little past the beginning of the curbing. Between going uphill and the engine braking, you don’t need to touch the brakes. When you track out to the rumble strip on the left, using every bit of track, it feels like nothing else. “You know what feels even better?” says Jack, “when you put one wheel in the dirt!”
Turn 12: Ride that amazing feeling. Think that if everyone could experience this, they’d want to go racing too.
Turn 13: Don’t shift into 4th; just wring it out to the top. Brake hard. Go deeper than you think, then turn the car, hitting the curbing with your left tires, letting it rotate you. Then mash the throttle downhill.
Corkscrew: Bounce off the curbs as fast as you can. Shift into 4th once you’re going uphill. Think about how you’re not going to brake quite as much at the end of the straight heading into turn 1.
