Food

Typical lunch:  A ham or turkey sandwich with lettuce and onions (actually usually just a half sandwich), surrounded with some crunchy veggies and tomatoes, green tea and half a Coke.  Usually a mug of chocolate milk too, but I had cheese on the sandwich.

Typical dinner:  3-4 oz of meat, a green veggie, a yellow/orange/red veggie, a tossed salad, 2 small glasses of wine.  I only make shrimp rolls about once a week though.  Pic is from last year, but the best one I could find.  And assorted fresh fruit for dessert.

I seldom make breakfast.  When I do, it is usually 2 fried eggs on a pancake with maple sausage.  I have the pancake down to a science.  3 spoonfuls of commercial mix, stirred with enough milk to leave it thick but pourable.  Small non-stick pan, heated to 375F (I have an infrared thermometer, sprayed with extra-virgin olive oil).  Pancake mix poured in immediately.  Two minutes on each side.

Turning the pancake can be tricky.  I can't just flip it up and have it come down centered in the pan, but I have a very thin flexible spatula that helps.  Another brief olive oil spray and both eggs go in.  The instant the egg whites are set, I turn off the heat, flip them, and count to 10.  I like a slighty runny yolk, but I can't stand runny whites.

I have both maple and country link sausage.  Maple goes with the pancakes and eggs.  On the rare occasions when I just make pancakes with maple syrup (the real stuff), I use the country links or bacon.  I pre-cook and freeze them, so it is just a matter of thawing them out.

Probably more than you ever wanted to know about my diet, but I had the first picture and wanted to use it.  And all the rest just naturally followed.  😁

One Day Leads To Another

Not much different today than yesterday.  The ugly shoulder bruise is fading, but the ones around the hips/lower back are deeper purple (I can't show you THOSE pictures, LOL).  They will begin to fade in a few days, I guess.  At least bruises don't actually HURT!  The muscles under them do though.

There may not be much change from yesterday, but there sure is from last Wensday.  Getting up from a chair or bed was a willful act of pain then.  Now I can pretty much just stand up (one hand on a kneee still helps).  One day soon I will just stand up like normal and not even realize it at first.

You would think that using the walker would make my arms hurt/tired since I'm putting a lot of my weight on them, but it is actually the hips that wear out first.  

Deb came over to see how I was doing.  She returned my laundered pants and picked up my grocery list for when she goes out later.  I have lots of the other stuff clean.

She gets a kick out of my grocery list and refrigator supply.  She says I am the healthiest-eating person she ever met.  Today's list was all fresh fruits and veggies.  Not a twinkie or even potato chip in sight.  

She likes my shopping list itself too.  I made an Excel spreadsheet list of all my usual stuff years ago.  I fitted it 2 per page and printed out 50 copies and cut them in half.  So there is 100 lists.  I keep them on a strong magnetic clip on the refrigerator and just check off items as I run out.  She thinks she may do the same.

It can be funny about lists though.  You know what each item means to YOU, but no one else quite does.  Like, one item just says "lettuce" .  I know that means green leaf or buttercrunch.  To Deb, that meant "iceberg".  She LIKES iceberg (I don't), so I explained and gave it to her.  Same with tomatoes.  To me that means grape or cherry tomatoes.  To her it means the larger regular hothouse tomatoes. I know beggers can't be choosy, but I guess I'm a bit of a "foodie"...  So todays list was handwritten in more detail.  She understands.

She insisted on doing some quick cleaning in the kitchen.  I said OK as long as it was just exposed counter space not oven-cleaning and she could NOT even look into the bathroom.  But I think I better do some cleaning in there myself today.  She is VERY determined to help and I do have SOME pride!  But I am the kind of person who couild walk into an abandoned cabin full of cobwebs and a dead squirrel in the corner and think "Home Sweet Home", LOL!

The Mews are adapting to the situation.  They have the Big Bowl of kibble, and I managed canned 2x a day now.  Ayla has been more active lately, coming into the main rooms of the house.  I even saw Ayla nappin on a living room chair yesterday.  And she comes to visit me at the computer frequently.  They still fear the walker.

Thanks for the continued good wishes, POTP, etc.

My Personal CoVid19 Situation

This is partly to organize my own thoughts and partly to keep friends and family informed...

I am prepared for a long stay at home.  Some of it is just routine habit; some of it is in response to concerns about food and energy systems.

I am a homebody.  I routinely don't leave the yard for days at a time.  Granted, "day's at a time" is not weeks at a time, but I could manage.  I routinely have weeks  of home-cooked meals in the freezers (kitchen fridge and older basement fridge). 

When I heard that CoVid19 ad escaped China months ago, I added more canned goods to my pantry.  Nothing I wouldn't use up eventually, but stuff I normally wouldn't eat except in an emergency.  I even bought bottled water for the first time ever. 

As things have gotten worse, I have added to that.  A pack of TP here, a 3-pack of kleenex there, a few more cans of soup, a few cans of fruit, cans of tomatoes.  Bags of potatoes and oinions (I can't cook without them).   I missed out on the antiseptic-wipes, I thought for sure I had several packs of them from when Dad was here.  Maybe I sent them with him.

If the electricity doesn't fail for more than a couple hours, I actually have enough food for 3 months, and I'm not talking about frozen TV dinners.   If the electricity fails for 24 hours, I'm screwed!

One never knows what will happen in the face of social disruption.  I trust that we will all get through this OK with some cooperation.  People in democracies tend to rise to the challenge.

The thing that might challenge me most is not having fresh fruit available.   I like meat.  Small amounts are fine.  But 75% of what I eat is veggies and fruit.  Its not a diet, just my taste preference.

I have mentioned before that I have been immune to influenza virus since childhood.  This CorVid19 is not that virus.  I might be as vulnerable to it as anyone.  That's oddly scary.  After a lifetime of seeming-immunity to viruses, I'm not sure about this one.  It is entirely possible that the genetic reasons I have been free of them in the past makes me equally or more vulnerable to this one.

There is an ancient Chinese curse that say's "May you live in interesting times".  This is an "interesting time".  I don't want to live in "interesting times" like this! 

But I also look at this in another way.  Some bad things happen randomly.  The dinosaurs were wiped out by a random meteoroid.  There have also been other extinction events.  Shit happens sometimes. 

But I offer a word of hope.  This Corona Virus is not going to kill us off.  It is individually- threatening, but not species-threatening.  There will be some unfortunate individuals who die from it  (and probably fewer than from the regular seasonal flu). 

Be careful, but don't panic...  Always keep a towel nearby.

Politics

I try to avoid politics here.  Everyone has their opinions and I don't really want to upset my friends.  But I just have to say something today. 

I've voted both Republican and Democratic over the years; "party" hasn't historically mattered much to me.  I'm not especially liberal or conservative.  What I AM is "progressive".  I believe that government has a legitimate function in organizing society to advance The General Good.  I believe in empowering the will of the citizenry to improve the lives of as many people as possible.  I believe that democratic (small "d") government is a protection against the sometimes overwhelming influence of the very powerful.

And I have a degree in "Government and Politics", so I know a little about the inside game.  And heck, when the local newspaper  is 'The Washington Post', you can't help but stay informed about the political games. 

But some things are going on politically that just baffle me.  FLOTUS (First Lady Of The United States, Michelle Obama) is being attacked for (please don't snort milk out your nose) "supporting healthy lunches for schoolkids"!  What a shockingly outrageous idea...  How DARE she!

Well, that's how current Republican politicians are reacting anyway.  "Governmental over-reach", "Nanny State", "Regulations", they are screaming.

OH COME ON...  Now its a political crime to suggest that kids should eat healthy lunches?  This is a controversial idea?  For many children, the lunch they get at school is the best meal they get all day.  Who can be against healthy meals for children?  I probably don't have to tell you (except by mentioning I haven't voted Republican lately)...

And then the MSNBC (yeah I watch that a lot) host mentioned something I had not thought about.   Those kids who only get their one healthy meal at school have been getting them there during the Summer too.  Never occurred to me (and I am embarassed not to have realized that).  Now Republican politicians want to stop THAT too.  For URBAN kids...  Wait, don't all children need healthy meals equally?  They want to continue it in their rural districts of course.  Where they consider government support contemptible...

I want all children to be fed well enough to grow and thrive.  Children are growing brains as well as bodies, and healthy children grow up to be more productive and skilled adults.  Even if I just looked at it selfishly, healthy children today are going to support the world I live in tomorrow.  Of course, I'm not just looking at it selfishly.  Children should be helped to a healthy adulthood for their own sakes.  I cannot conceive contesting such a basic premise.

But I want to close on the politics of this idea.  The proponents of this idea of reducing the schoolyear quality of childrens' lunches and the idea of eliminating their lunches during Summer vacation are all conservative Republican polititians.  Can't we at least agree that children are not to blame for the poverty or lack of parenting skills of their parents and agree to feed them enough decent food to help them become mentally and physically healthy adults? 

I don't even care what political views they have when they reach adulthood.  I just want them to be healthful and mentally clear-thinking adults.