The Too-Much-Food Diet

Beautiful Daughter has me on a diet.

(Well, thank goodness SOMEONE put me on one!)

There are a few principles with this diet. First, you don't go more than 2 hours without shoving some kind of protein in your mouth. This apparently gets the body to understand that no, you are not starving to death, today or any day, and that it does not need to convert any part of what you are eating into fat.

Second, you eat healthy stuff. Like greens. All kinds of greens. Not as much as you want - waaaaaayyyyyy more than you want!

Complex carbohydrates. They take a lot of calories to digest! And give you practically nothing in return except vitamins.

This morning's breakfast menu read:

3-egg omelet with potato latke
3 eggs, 1/2 cup mushrooms, 1 cup spinach 1/4 onion

1 large potato grated with skin, fried

So I cheated a tiny bit. I mixed some of the beaten eggs in with the potato and added 1 tablespoon of flour and a bit of the onion. I fried it without fat in a non-stick pan and it came out beautifully.

But I think maybe my large potato is a bit larger than Daughter's potatoes! This is a full-size frying pan!

(I did NOT eat the whole thing. I cut it in four and am freezing the other 3 sections.)

Oh, and grating potato first thing in the morning lends a whole new meaning to the phrase "with skin!"

Anyway, omelet was made, and I dutifully set about trying to eat the thing. Dear god, I'm so full I could barf!

I know this is the point of this "diet," but it does seem so counter-intuitive! I cannot move, even to clean up the dishes, because I'm so stuffed, which is why I'm sitting writing a blog while my gorge goes down! Dog and I might even have a waddle, as soon as I can move without throwing up.

I don't know if I'll have enough room in 2 hours for the snack of 5oz of yogurt with 1/2 cup of blueberries!

Apparently this is going to make me lose weight.

Our Daily Bread

When I was a teenager, and a born-again, there was a small devotional pamphlet that was making the circles of christians in this part of the world, called "Our Daily Bread."

The concept being that a daily devotion would help one become a "better" christian.

I did my best, but there was always a part of me that rebelled against being ordered to do something every day of my life. It was one of the weakest links in my spirituality, which I finally worked out had been imposed on me without my consent from day one; and it was the first thing to go when I started to examine my life and beliefs.

My spirituality - my own spirituality, my own journey - the one that came from my heart, from my innermost being, and grew outwards, said "you do not have to believe any particular thing; you do not have to practice any particular thing; you do not have to associate with any particular group of people." The flip side of which is: "I can believe what grows from within; I can practice that which moves me; I can love and associate freely with those who resonate with me."

That's my kind of religion! But I digress...

Within every religious or spiritual group I have learned about, there still exists this concept, that to be a "better" whatever, one needs to "practice" something every day.

This still doesn't resonate with me. It still feels like something imposed from outside.

But then something happened that caused me to understand on a personal level where this daily practice thing probably came from, helped me to see it from a different angle.

I learned to knit. Rather strangely, actually - from a recurring dream. Every night for four nights I had a dream where I would see one knitting needle and some yarn being cast on. About five stitches would cast on, slowly enough that I could see and understand what was happening with the knot, then the dream would reset and start again.

On the fifth morning I got up, found a barbecue skewer and some string, and tried it. It worked, and now I have a whole other place to spend my money!

Hats, scarves, and now socks aside, this new passion started something of an internal process in me that went like this:

Over my morning coffee (which is absolutely sacred!) I would pick up my knitting and get some rows in, either just a couple of rows if I had a day that began early, or dozens of rows, if I had time to spare.

But in either case, it was ME TIME. Time for me to be alone, without distractions like things I was supposed to do, things people wanted of me, television on, animals to tend...This was only for ME. It was mine alone, my special time to do what moved me, to do something that gave me pleasure, and it came first. Before the day got away from me.

First thing. Every day.

And I loved it. It was nourishing my soul.

And then I made the connection. This "zen-and-the-art-of-knitting" thing was a daily practice, and it was feeding my soul, in a way that no bible study, no daily reading of any type of spiritual book, no attempt at daily prayers, had done.

So now, when my brain starts to surface after my second coffee (there's a joke somewhere in there about the "second coming...") and after a few rows, I wonder in amazement that everything in the universe has conspired to bring this yarn, this beautiful, colorful, soft, superwash yarn, to my fingers. All the animals that have been raised for their wool. All the techniques from the days of cave dwellers through to today's methods for bringing this long staple wool for me to knit something for the people I love...what an amazing process and journey! I marvel at the steel needles in my hands and how soft the wool is and this gift of such pleasure that sprang from my own dreams... I thank the lady Universe for bringing it to me, for allowing me to make something, for giving me this time to myself, where it can be just the Universe and me, having coffee, being at peace, getting ready to face the day.

This then, is the source of the concept of a daily devotion: something that resonates with the individual, that gives them inner peace, that creates a sense of gratitude, of amazement at this marvelous world, of pure pleasure at being allowed to participate in life. Whatever one's religion or spirituality is called, this is the thing we are driven to seek.

A moment alone with the universe.

The Wrinklies

The Wrinklies: Superbeings of the Aged

These Aged Avengers protect the world… well, they wander it, anyway…Using their amazing superpowers to annoy the innocent and confound evildoers everywhere they go, just going about their business! None of them asked for these powers, they simply lived long enough to obtain them! They are Evolutionaries! And they are inescapable! 

Crochetina: Your granny would be proud! Crochetina spins her webs like spiderman, wrapping her prey up in webs of doilies, with the added superpower of shoving her needles in their eyes! Beware – she has an unlimited supply and travels at lightning speed along her yarns!

The Blank When he enters a room, everybody slowly becomes confused and forgets what they were doing, why they were there, when they’re supposed to leave, where they’re supposed to be next, and how they’re getting from this place to the next – wherever that is!  Beware The Blank – he’ll make you forget everything – right down to who you are!

Ammoniac: This innocent-looking sweet old lady is anything but harmless! When deployed, her superpower is deadly! She walks into the room full of people, and the miasma from her ammonia-filled underwear creeps out into the air…Beware! One whiff of this, and you either run, or you’ll drop like a stone!

These are just a few of the worldwide wonderfolk known as The Wrinklies – and they’re coming for you – sooner than you think!

The Trailer, the Car, and the Hitch

With retirement just a few short days away, A and I embarked on an "adventure."

We decided we both enjoyed camping...but...

Neither of us enjoyed a half-mile walk to the bathrooms in the middle of the night, or its alternative, peeing one's pjs in the bushes hoping not to step in poison ivy or startle a skunk...

Neither of us enjoyed the long setup that came with the "pop-up" trailer - which, incidentally, is ANYTHING BUT pop-up! It's "lie on the ground and don't hit yourself in the head with the jack, get up again to make sure the door opens, lie down again and lower the roof, don't forget to level the trailer using pads and blocks of wood, and one leg is stuck..." sort of sweaty action done in the summer heat with the mosquitos feasting happily...

(Not that I ever did that kind of work, you understand. THAT job has "man" written all over it!)

Having to wait till everyone in the campground has had a shower...buying ice every day...hoping the roof won't leak...

Hmm. I don't seem to be painting a very pleasant picture of our only "sporting" activity here!

So we made a decision: we decided to sell the pop-up and get a real trailer.

One with a bathroom, shower, large refrigerator, double sink, three-burner stove, oven, and heated beds.

And air conditioning.

We were over the moon that we could afford it! (Well, ask me in ten years if we could afford it, anyway!)

Then all we needed was a vehicle to pull it.

And that's where everything bogged down.

See, we were focused on towing capacity. Based solely on towing capacity, we bought a beautiful car, a 2016 Kia Optima - Hybrid, no less! Heated everything, backup camera, double sun roof, new car smell. One owner. In absolutely beautiful condition.

It brought us SUCH joy! For a couple of days anyway, till we worked it out that towing capacity is meaningless with regards to hitches and trailers.

You have to have the structure in the vehicle. Not all hitches are equal. We quickly learned we'd have to give up the Optima if we wanted the trailer, and go bigger.

Which was a sad week for us, because we felt we'd made a boo-boo that would cost megabucks to put to rights, because the car the dealer now put on hold for us was older, had fewer bells and whistles, and guzzled gas like there was no tomorrow.

But last night it finally all came together, and we now have a 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe sitting in the driveway. With a class 2 hitch on it.

And we're off to talk to the trailer people today.

So it looks like it's finally going to come true!

Wish us luck!