Doing a friend a favor, or strange things I saw this week

     I think it was my friend Trish who took me to the grocery last, the time I broke down and bought two out of season tomatoes.  The smaller tomato of which when I sliced into it for my tomato, egg and cheese sandwich, had sprouted seeds inside.  Either that or there were little green wormy seedy things growing inside the tomato and either way they didn't improve the taste of the bland vapid love apple.  Guess it's time for canned.  And speaking of which I recently read an article "Five things experts won't eat", and canned tomatoes was one of them.  Seems the plastic lining has some sort of biphenol that leaches out of the lining because of the acidic nature of the tomatoes.  The expert said eat only tomatoes canned in glass, which you can't find in the store, only on the shelves of home canners.  I'm not a home canner, and I'll brave the biphenol,  perhaps that's what improves the taste of canned tomatoes over the frankenmato we find in the stores most of the year.
     I picked my friend Jack up at the Pittsburgh airport Friday night,,,always a pleasant chore, but this was late (10:30) at night and I had trepidation.  One of the reasons the trip to the airport is pleasant is that they have a pretty good newsstand.  But being so late I thought they would be closed..They were open...yeah...but the only newspaper I saw was "USAToday".  I picked up a copy, looked around for "Games" magazine.  None to be found, so I got a copy of "Golf Digest"  my reasoning being I could read it for tips to playing Tiger Woods Golf on my Wii.  I checked out and the cashier Chris asked me if I wanted a bag, I said no, and as I said that I spied a large blue plastic  basket back behind him that seemed to be filled with newspapers.  Couldn't tell which one, they were all the same but they didn't seem to be the USAToday, unless they were yesterday's issue.   So I asked him what they were and he replied Pittsburgh Post Gazette.  Well that's cool I thought, "I'll take it".  Then the cashier asked if I  would you rather have  the  Tribune-Review.  "Both" I said, "do you have the New York Times?"  His answer made my heart soar like an eagle.  "Yep, got it.  You want it or the New York Post?"  "Both" I gleefully responded.  Bingo I had struck it rich.  Thanks Jack.  But damnit it was too late for coffee, all the shops were closed. That's another good thing about the airport in Pittsburgh, the coffee not too bad.
      I had gassed up in Mannington before the trip so I didn't need gas, but for all of you who have been to the Pittsburgh airport, have you noticed that the gas station there is internal, and if you stop for gas you have to go all the way around again,,,about three miles worth of going round again...what's up with that.
      Jack hadn't eaten all day so we stopped at Quaker Steak and Lube near Robinson Township.  Always a treat because the place in filled with automobile memorabilia, and Jack is fluid in Car Talk.  Eating hot wings and having Jack talk cars is pleasant enough, but this time we got into a discussion about the Harley with the Santa Claus rider hanging from the ceiling directly over a couple next to us in a booth.  While Jack went on about the speedometer half-way up the left front fork, and if the small tube on the right side of the machine was an oil filler tube or the oil pressure gauge, or both and just where was the shock absorber for the rear wheel, none being evident.  While all this is going on the couple under the motorcycle are sure were talking about them as they can't hear us, the TV drowning our voices out, and all they notice is we're looking in their direction with great animation.  The guy's bigger than both Jack and I together and I'm thinking take a hit on my inhaler now, or wait till he says something.  I wait, he doesn't do anything and I eat my fill of sub-Atomic wings and some really good fries.  Oh and a Small Guinness.   Small...I was driving.  Oh and at the door as we were leaving was a big thick newspaper "Pittsburgh City Review".  Icing on the cake.
     Only saw three deer all the way back to Mannington, then spooked three in my driveway as we pulled in.  No horns so they won't be pulling the load in a couple of weeks.