Black Friday

I didn't spend a cent. I slept most of the day thanks to codeine and cold fighting. I should have a turkey carcass to make soup. That would be quite the ticket. Just my Welsh luck too. I'll sleep away the holiday week-end and be well just to go to work on Monday. Oh joy! And the chores will still be here awaiting my attention. Double joy! So Black Firday has something to do with retail sales? Bah, humbug! Might it be interesting to see who darkens the door of Brooks Brothers at 6 a.m.? NOT!

Tradition

Thanksgiving is about tradition. I can't remember how many times my Thanksgiving tradition has changed. My fondest memories are of going to visit the family in North Carolina. Thanksgiving in the country always meant lots of delicious food. I don't so much remember whether or not we ate turkey, but there was lots of accompaniments, as there always was in the country. It seems quite curious that abundance was typical without wealth, though, historically, that is what Thanksgiving is about also. Today, I stayed home alone trying to fight off a nasty cold. Over-the-counter cold medicine is worse than the cold. I surely don't want to make this a tradition, though I remember one year when I flew to Alabama to visit Mom for Thanksgiving, I was sick. Interestingly, I seemed to overcome it while in Alabama and quickly fell under its influence upon my return home. I had made homemade bread and kielbasa and sauerkraut to take to Thanksgiving dinner with my goddaughter and her parents. So that was Thanksgiving dinner for me, with the addition of some leftover barley and mushrooms. (I packed up most of the prepared foods and sent them on after church this morning.) I was thankful to use up leftovers. I was thankful to have been able to sing through the service at church this morning. I have much to be thankful for, though dealing with a cold and cold medicine seems to overshadow everything. Poor me, physically; I am SO thankful, spiritually.

By bread alone?

Mom gave me a bread maker some years back. I used it occasionally, but not particularly often. Part of the recommended diet for diabetes control is lots of whole grains. Diabetic diets often encourage whole grain bread, especially for breakfast. I've learned lots about using lots of different grains that I've never eaten before like millet. I've also become a really big fan of barley. Recently I found a couple of whole grain bread cook books for bread machines on Amazon and I've been testing the recipes. This is a delightful occupation because it is wonderful to fill the house with the smell of bread baking. And indeed, eating whole grain breads helps to keep the blood sugar regulated. Shoppers, which is the grocery store I can walk to, carries a line of Bob's Red Mill flours and I can get all sorts of flours that are generally not avilable in the run-of-the-mill grocery store. For Thanksgiving I made Autumn Harvest bread, which uses pumpkin, carrots, applesauce and whole wheat, and Zuni Indian bread which uses whole wheat, cornmeal and molasses. Usually, I only need to make a loaf of bread every other week or so. I cut it into slices and freeze two slices in sandwhich bags that I can take out and toast for breakfast. It is wonderful to have fresh homemade bread rather than store bought. Actually, I've made home made bread alot even before Mama gave me the bread maker. But now I can enjoy the scrumptuous flavors and beefy textures of whole grain breads and have it all just by measuring ingredients into the bread maker. It can be done any day or night of the week - how convenient! It makes it easy to take home made bread when invited to dinner too! But, again even with my advancing age, I am learning to use whole grains in bread as I would have never imagined. All with the additional pleasure of an aromatic house and eating with gusto! And for years I always skipped breakfast because it made me sick. No more!

Victory Plate

I suppose one should not be surprised in our materialistic society when just days after the election some tacky company wants to produce and sell a "limited edition" Victory plate to celebrate the president elect. It never ceases to amaze me that such tackiness offends me in my increasingly conservative old age! I collected stamps in the days of my youth. I don't even remember what happened to them. I remember people who collected souvenir plates and had them on their walls. I remember someone who collected beer steins. But please, a souvenir plate of Barack Obama just days after the election is just too tacky. But only $20 a pop for a limited edition fine porcelein with solid gold edging is just too good an offer to pass up. I hope he is more classy in his presidency than these dweebs that would seek to capitalize - oh, a pun - on his election. Give me a break!

Bail me out too

Are we all tired already of bailouts? How many years worth of taxes are going to who knows who? - and they just keep lining up. I wonder where the breaking point is. When will we reach the point of no return where we have bailed out so much of corporate America and the country collapses because there is simply no more money to be lent to bail out? And when it all collapses, who gets the worth of what's left? Is that when China comes in a sets up its proprietary government? And when all of these corporations have failed, what happens to the debt of people who owe them money? How much "faith of the American people" can we live on? I think everyone in the country should get automatic debt consolidation to lower payments AND interest for all outstanding debt. But that would be socialism. So why is it not socialism when you give it to fat cat corporations? I am simply amazed as I hear the news everyday. So we bail out the banks, then the auto industry, then the airlines, then the pharmaceutical industry etc., etc., etc. And quelle grande surprise that the Federal Reserve and the Treasury are just making things up as they go along with the money that Congress has already authorized. And now they want to authorize more and call it a stimulus package. I am sick. I am befuddled. I am troubled. I am getting old. Depression stories haunt. What a way to go!

Grandma's Feather Pillows

One of the disadvantages of traveling for work is that I never sleep right the first night in a stange bed. I've always believed one reason is that when I first left home to go out on my own, my grandmother gave me two feather pillows that have been on my bed low these many years. Hotels always have those synthetic stuffed pillows which never allow me to sleep properly. And usually they are too soft. So yesterday I went to the allergist to discover that I need to intervene more seriously with the spring and fall pollen allergies. This year the ragweed was the worst season in many years the doctor told me. I also described a night when I awoke with my sinuses all stuffy and was laboring to breathe. She asked about my bedding and I had to fess up that I had my grnadmothers very old feather pillows and the doctor told me I can no longer use them on my bed. So today I had to go to Bed Bath and Beyond and get hypoallergenic pillows and hypoallergenic pillow covers to refit my bed so that it is more friendly to my allergies. I don't know how long it will take to adjust to the new pillows, but I am sure it will not be tonight. I'll just have to put grandma's feather pillows on the futon. After all, they've been with me all these years. I just have to remember not to fall asleep on them, especially during allergy seasons. Stay tuned for when I get my first good night's sleep! Oh, and yes, I love spending money on things that I never thought I would have to spend money on. Hypoallergenic pillows - bah, humbug! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz - soon - I hope. And, uh, spare the getting older wise cracks!!

Election Day

I am not so much concerned about who wins the election as I am about CNN returning to reporting news instead of punditing us to death. I used to love CNN. I can't stand them now. Too many pundits; too much punditing too much of the time - virtually all the time. I've been thinking that they won't have a clue of how to report the news any more since they've basically slanted everything to punditing.
And, yes, I voted. Why do we have to vote for 8 judges when there are only 8 on the ballot? What is the point? And I am becoming more conservative with my advancing age. I voted for all of the bond issues, for the art gallery, the aquarium, the theater, etc. but voted against the community planning grants because I figured that was just money for the mayor to dole out to her friends for more useless "studies". I know that bond issues always pass anyway, but I just couldn't ethically give the mayor more power over more money since she has already been charged with ethical misconduct.
The wedding was interesting. It was put together quite well. They had a disc jockey who played music during the ceremony - classical pieces. He got them almost all wrong. I had to wonder whether or not I was the only one who knew. The bride and groom muct have chosen them. I didn't say anything, so I don't know what happened. The wedding was built around a wine theme that worked quite nicely for October. It was also interesting to be a part of the older crowd at the wedding. The young people were definitely their own crowd and uninterested in the older folk who were mostly family. But the family enjoyed the celebration of the day, and as we all age, these sorts of occurrences are treasured.
Hmmmm, only one post in October. Surely there are more musings than that! You bet! Notice there are actually three postings in this one. I just need to spend the time to write.