Giving Up

Two Sundays ago my car was covered in ice, and the doors were frozen shut. We had just had a discussion about my tendency to ask himself to do things for me that I could do myself. So instead of asking him to solve the problem, I got the brilliant idea of getting a pitcher of hot water and pouring it over the door handle and around the rim.

It worked and I was able to open both doors. Yay! I went back in the house very proud of myself and told himself, and he laughed and said “Well, they will just freeze up again…” So I went racing out there, and the passenger door opened (barely) and I was able to get my driver’s license out of the glove box (it locks), which is where I keep because I do not normally carry a purse. The driver’s side had indeed already froze shut again. I drove one of the cars that lives in the garage to church.
 

More weather came, and the car hasn’t moved since. I haven’t left the house except to feed the birds since last Sunday (church was cancelled). Richard has managed to get out to the highway and go to town, and we will leave a little later to get the second COVID shot and make a pass at the library to return books, which would have been overdue yesterday except she renewed them for me over the phone.
 

I have had no exercise at all since last Friday. I have not been to the aerobics class (although I do plan to go back Monday), I  have not  taken a walk (when we had the dog, I would bundle up and take her for a walk when it was single digits, but not now), and I have not gotten on the recumbent cycling machine. I feel like a blob.
 

The church I grew up in did not “do Lent” and I don’t recall any of the Baptist churches we attended mentioning Lent either. However, the Presbyterians do “do Lent” and so this has been a new experience for me. Lent is a time for personal reflection that prepares people's hearts and minds for Good Friday and Easter and often involves “giving up” something to help remind folks to focus on their relationship with God. However, in past seasons of Lent I have not given up anything with that purpose in mind.
 

This year is different though. I can see that I do need to deepen my relationship with God, and I have figured out what I am giving up to help me do that. Or at least will try to do. And that is uncontrollable snacking after dinner. About 2.5 hours after dinner (we eat very early), we usually have a salad, which is mainly vegetables and usually no lettuce (not at $1.99 a head). And we eat that while we watch television. Then I sit in my recliner and read for another hour or so. But I don’t just read. I graze – peanuts…crackers and cheese… and then yogurt with fruit.

I have decided to stick with the salad and yogurt and give up the “grazing.” Perhaps I can lose a little of the weight I have put on by exercising my elbow.

Giddy-up

Once upon a time, if I mailed a letter on Monday to my parents in Gardena, CA (a suburb of Los Angeles), it often arrived there by Thursday.

But times have changed.

My little brother’s birthday was on Jan 21 and I remembered to send him a birthday card with some money.

Here he is on Super Bowl Sunday. 

I imagine he was disappointed at the outcome of the game.

Last year when I mailed his card, I left one number off the address on the envelope, and even though I had included the extra digits on the ZIP code that should have sorted the letter to his house, it did not arrive. I got it back in the mail several weeks later.

This year I was very careful to write the correct address but was little late getting it in the mail. I forgot the post office would be closed on the Jan 18th for MLK’s birthday, so the letter was not postmarked until the 19th.

I knew it probably would be a little late.

A little late?

My brother called me 2 days ago (on the 9th) to let me know the card had arrived. It took 20 days.

Now when the Pony Express was delivering mail in the 1860s, they managed to get a letter from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in 10 days. That’s about 1800 miles. It is 1500 miles from here to my brother’s house in Lakewood. 

We obviously can’t reactive the Pony Express, but my goodness. Something definitely needs to be done about the U.S. Postal Service. And I don’t think we can blame it on COVID.

Silence is Golden

Thursday is our meatless meal day. I fix things that have a complete protein but don’t use meat. Frequently what I end up making is vegan, but we are not vegans. We like meat. A lot. 

I usually end up making enough for 6 people, so I eat the leftovers for lunch for the next several days. 

Tonight we had dal (Indian recipe for rice and lentils), which I got from a great vegetarian cookbook that I have used so much that it is starting to fall apart...

last week we had black bean and quinoa salad, which I got off from the Allrecipes website.. and the week before we had vegetarian chili and cornbread. 

I used two different recipes when I made the chili and got the spices fouled up. I’m not sure what I did exactly, but it was probably the worst-tasting chili I have ever made. 

After we finished, I asked Himself what he thought of the chili. “Oh,” he says, “it was great.” All I said was “Good, I am glad you liked it.” 

As my sweet sissy says “I have found if I don't point out flaws, he won't notice either.” 

I was able rehabilitate the chili by adding some more canned tomatoes and some more chili powder and that did the trick.