Greg's General Store

We had a really great weekend. It was a very good day at the market and we got some much needed rain as well. After we left the market, we decided to stop in at “Charlestown General Store” to get some ham for our Sunday breakfast. They have the best ham there I have ever tasted. I believe it comes from North Carolina and it is out of this world. We have started having it every Sunday along with the fresh eggs that we get at the market. This week we got free eggs from the wonderful person who works the booth next to ours. Thanks Celeste. When I opened the case at the general store to get the ham, I noticed a key lime pie sitting there on another shelf. Key lime pie is one of my favorites so I just had to buy it. If you have never tasted real key lime pie you don’t know what you are missing. Many people make it with regular limes but the ONLY way to make it properly is to use real key limes. They have a unique flavor which is not as strong as regular limes. They are smaller too and usual...

Have you heard the news? Another woman has seen Jesus in her ultrasound I think if it were me, I would just want to keep it to myself and know that I had seen him. No I won't make a reference to the song Personal Jesus. Now that the couple has gone public, I really think it is just a publicity stunt. There is even some talk about selling the pictures on Ebay. Is it legal to sell pictures of Jesus? I don’t know about that one. Here is the picture. What do you think? I have a few problems with this story. First off, is she saying that she has Jesus inside her? Now in a rhetorical sense, I don’t have a problem with this but in reality when Jesus comes again it is supposed to be with a bang. No ladies, I am not under rating "giving birth", I am just saying if I hear a loud bang when I am in the delivery room I am going to run. I don’t think Jesus will be delivered by some doctor in some hospital. That’s just my opinion mind you. I would like to think that Jesus is inside of m...

In all the world's oceans, why would we think there would be only two? It's time for Jaws 3. Our day started out quite uneventful but by the time it was over, we came face to face with an actual man eating shark. I am not making this up. Keep reading, I have a photo to prove it. I took the day off to get some rest and relaxation and also do a little fishing. After a violent storm last night, we awoke to a cool morning and I quickly got our boat ready to head out into the deep blue water. Everything was ready so I headed down to a nearby creek to catch some bait. Despite the heavy rain the night before, the creek was full of nice sized shrimp. I caught around 5 dozen and then we loaded up and headed down to the river. We stopped at a favorite spot and settled in to catch some fish to eat. It was still cool and the water was calm but little did I know about the terror that lay just below the surface. I tossed my line out and sat back to catch some rays when suddenly my drag began...

“A good day at the Farmers Market” or: "Who let the freaks out, who who who who" I enjoy going to the Charleston Farmers Market, I really do. What I enjoy the most is meeting and getting to know different people. I also enjoy studying people because I find them very interesting. I have met people from almost every state in the USA and also from many far away countries. However using the adjective “interesting” to describe some of the people I saw this past Saturday is an understatement. Let’s start with the obvious. Well it should be obvious but obviously this isn’t obvious to the person I am talking about. After age 70, wearing a cheerleader outfit is not considered “HOT”. It may just be me but something about grey hair, varicose veins and sagging skin combined with a cheerleader outfit just doesn’t say “sexy” to me. If that is your thing and you want to wear something like that at home, have at it. But come on, in a public market? This person needed a reality check. And spe...

Many of you may not know about it so I will let the cat out of the bag for your protection. There is a blog curse. It is very deadly and destructive. It is worse than any internet virus and so simple, yet it can affect anyone. Here is how it works. If you blog about it, it will happen. It’s kind of like” If you build it, they will come” but different. If you write about something on your blog, you can expect something similar to happen. Well at least that is how it appears this morning. I recently blogged about not having AC when I was growing up and yesterday, without warning and for no good reason, our AC went on the blink. It just has to be the blog curse. I am thinking about giving up blogging altogether because it is just way to dangerous. I mean what else could cause a perfectly good AC unit to fail. It has been working just fine for the 20 years it has been installed. The cooling fins were only a little bit dirty. The temperature has only been in the 90’s so far this year. It’s...

Everyone wants to blame gas prices for the problems in the world today but the truth is, gas prices aren’t the problem. We have just become soft and lazy. We want the good things in life and we were willing to pay for the as long as the price wasn’t too high. Now that prices are soaring, we aren’t willing to give up the luxuries. Let’s face it people are just wasteful. But why not cash in on this….read on. When I was growing up in our little town in Florida, our house had no AC. Our car had no AC either. We would drive that car all the way to NY In July with 6 people in it. We never complained. We were happy just to be going somewhere other than home. Now days every car has air conditioning. Everyone wants room and comfort. They want cars that can go zero to sixty in just 6 seconds. They want individual air conditioners and individual DVD/CD players. I guess those days of three in the front and three in the back are gone forever. This morning, on my way to work, I stopped at a red li...

The little ones are gone now and the yard seems empty. There are still many visitors but it’s just not the same. Over the past few weeks, there has been constant activity in our yard as the proud parents prepared to send their children off on their own. It’s hard to believe that in such a short time, we grew accustomed to them being there. I remember seeing them building their nest in the little ceramic house that we put there just for them. It was mother and father working together, getting their home ready. When the eggs hatched, we knew it right away because of the change in activity. Then just a short time ago, we began hearing the babies calling out for food. The parents picked up the pace as the little ones began to grow larger. All day long we heard the constant calling back and forth from one parent to the other as the hunted for food. About a week ago we began seeing their little heads looking out of the tiny entrance to their home. (photo from internet) Then last Sunday, it h...

I hate shopping. I don’t mean, I don’t like it, I really hate it. It is one of the only things in life I can say that I really hate. In fact, other than spiders, I can’t think of another thing I hate more. It isn’t just one thing either; it is the whole concept of shopping. If I had my way, I would never shop again. In my opinion, putting the words shopping and pleasure in the same sentence is an oxymoron. It is like jumbo shrimp. They just don’t go together. Like I said there is so much not to like but the worst part is defiantly the check out ordeal. Last night, we went to Walmart. If Walmart isn’t bad enough, ours is a Super Walmart. For anyone that hasn’t had the pleasure of shopping in a Super Walmart, let me give it to you in a nutshell. There is nothing SUPER about it. You take a Walmart, jam 10 times the stuff in it, add groceries and then funnel everyone into the same number of checkout isles. It is a living hell I tell you. Ok so here is my problem with the checkout stations....

No, nothing big is happening today but It did on this date 26 years ago. Today is our wedding anniversary and we have beaten the odds by making it this long. When my wife says something like that I usually joke and say; “Day aint over yet” (a line from City Slickers) But to tell the truth, things are going really good for us. We have a lot in common and we both have similar goals in life and that is really important. If I could give one piece of advice to a couple starting out, it would be to sit down and talk about what you want out of life. So let me tell you a little about how we got started as a couple. We met on the Air force base at the club. It was in October and neither of us went there very often but somehow we both ended up there that night. She was with some really wild friends which I have to admit almost scared me away when I first asked her to dance. I was always a sucker for blue eyes and long hair and she has both and was also a great dancer. I remember we danced to...

After much deliberation, I have decided on a winner. Actually since I don't believe in losers, everyone is a winner. The person who actually got the correct answer was Wayfaring Wanderer . She called the plant a Mango Ginger or a Curcuma Amada. I had another friend (who visits but doesn't comment hint hint Beth) tell me that it was another Curcuma so I looked both of them up and they both looked like it. I found another web page which showed many varieties of these Gingers and to tell the truth, there were many that looked alike. Another website that I visited said that many of the varieties had been mixed and there were in many cases, several names for the same plant. I do know that it is a Curcuma Ginger though. so WW wins first prize. So here is what I have to offer to her and all the other winners. If you email me your address, I will send you something from my garden. It will be something easy to grow and I do think I have enough for everyone so if you guessed or if you ar...

***** Contest Alert ***** It's time for a contest here at Greg's General Store and there will be a prize involved. No it won't be gold but it will be something special. It also won't be small potatoes like the ones in this picture. It will however be something magical like these red white and blue potatoes. When was the last time you saw potatoes like this? They were even red, white and blue inside and man did they taste good. They were a gift from a really nice person named Celeste Albers. She is one of our island neighbors and our nextdoor neighbor at the Charleston Farmers Market. She sells naturally grown veggies, free range eggs, raw milk, and local shrimp right off of their family boat. We usually get to the market early to avoid the traffic so we help the other vendors unload when they arrive. From time to time they give us free stuff like these potatoes. The taste was great and I had forgotten how good real potatoes taste. Ok now for the contest. Several years...