#59 - The simpler life

Saturday, March 3

Today I am thankful that everything is starting to feel normal again.

For my first few weeks here, things were frantic.  Work, switching hotels, all the house stuff in Beaverton going on, trying to get in a rhythm blogging, starting to learn a new set of roads and landmarks - a huge change overall.  This weekend, it has finally all come together.

As I was driving around looking at houses today, I started to recognize places and roads and not need the map so much.  Half a dozen times I thought, "I know EXACTLY where I am!"  Exclamation points included.  I was surprised at how un-disoriented I felt.  I got a hair cut, went to the cheap-o grocery store for supplies, stopped at the Walkway Over The Hudson state park, and finally sat down to a dinner at the Wappinger Buffet.  I had a plan, accomplished it as expected, and ended up at home around 8pm.  I sit down now knowing that I have cupboards stocked to get me through breakfast for 3 weeks, dinner for nearly 3 weeks, plus some snacks and things.  So my life is simpler - a little less hectic, maybe with a little more time for reflection.  It certainly will have less uncertainty.

A few necessary words about the Wappinger Buffet.  It is unassuming.  And, like Superman, it defies all expectations.  Christopher Reeve would be proud.  The buffet is a few miles North of the Rt 9/I-84 interchange on Rt 9.  It's in a strip mall, next to a GoodWill and some other smaller shops.  The restaurant advertises as Chinese and American cuisine + sushi.  It is false in every way.  They serve only Heaven in that restaurant.

Let me 'splain.  I have come to expect a certain set of conditions at buffets - not much in the way of good fruit, not much in the way of differing tastes (nothing very spicy, nothing very different or interesting), and hit-and-miss performance on most dishes.  The WB exhibits none of these negatives.  I'm sure there's lot of stuff that comes out of a package.  But they had fresh sliced strawberries, quartered kiwi, and pineapple on the buffet.  I ate jumbo shrimp in the cold w/cocktail sauce style and the cooked-with-lime style.  A salmon steak done almost perfectly.  A hot and crunchy/soft miniature cherry strudel, and most of a plate full of fresh-never-frozen non-melon fruit.  At a buffet!  Who knew??

As an extra bonus, they have french fries, pigs in a blanket, and other picky-kid-friendly things as well.  Drinks and dessert are included in the price.

There is just one catch - the price for kids is high.  I get my money's worth for sure, but taking our whole family there would be 50% more than Pizza Caboose.  And they don't have pizza.  But it's going to make a great date night.  I can't wait!

In other notes that I did not get a picture of: the GoodWill Super Store here has a lot of clothes and not much else.  Large selection, good quality.  Prices are higher than I expected for the few furniture pieces they have.  CDs are only $2 - Boyz II Men, Cranberries, and John Rutter's Requiem are mine today, as well as Mirror Mirror (Maguire) for $2.  Also - there is a Kebab place that has lunch buffets for $8 and a mexican place that has a 3 course meal for $12.50 Sun-Thu.  Also, Asian here refers to Indian and SE Asian.  Not Chinese or Japanese like it does on the West Coast.  I visited an Asian grocery today - lots of coconut and mango.  They don't carry any short-grain rice at all, and I saw no products from Japan at all.  They do have halal meat, though.