Planning Commences in Everyday Ramblings

Crocus, iris and daffodil shoots are coming up. It has been unusually warm and wet but it looks like we will have some ice and snow next week, so winter isn’t done with us yet.

We had a dry day yesterday and Charity and I made the long trek to the grocery store and back. I can’t carry that much home as we are basically walking back over what on the east coast would be considered a mountain but just the mere agency of being able to go to the store and make choices on my own is exhilarating.

I am getting a proper grocery delivery this morning that includes Tahini. My next baking project is the Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars from the new One Tin Bakes book from Edd Kimber. I have a bunch of “fresh” blueberries coming on Monday and will make the Blueberry Cornmeal Buckle. I splurged and bought a beautiful nonstick steel 9 x 13 baking pan from Williams Sonoma (again, you know, economic recovery) so I could make some of these simple recipes.

I figured out how to make “superfine” sugar in my food processor so that is cool because they don’t have any to order at my big grocery.

As you may have smartly ascertained by now, Charity is a bit eccentric. She has an old flip phone that is not smart at all and she hates to carry anything when she walks, no bag. But she really wants to know how far she walks and how many steps. When she is with me, we use my Fitbit. She guesses when we get home.

A number of months ago she bought what she thought was a simple electronic pedometer that she could carry in her pocket. It was supposed to be easy to use. We tried for a couple of weeks and could not figure it out. She sent it back and got a refund.

For Christmas I looked around and settled on a relatively inexpensive Chinese “Smart Bracelet”. It had a big readout and not too many features. The type in the instruction booklet was so small I had to use a magnifying glass, a lighted one and Charity has cataracts that she was supposed to have addressed in, umm, March.

We talked about the possibility we couldn’t make it work for her and she drafted my tech savvy upstairs neighbor who is 27 years old. She couldn’t read the instruction either! We got it charged but to use it she has to carry her phone and she doesn’t want to do that so…yesterday she gave it back to me. It made me sad.

Remember when there used to be analog pedometers? With the state control in China, you are basically required to have a phone so they can track you so it makes sense.

I offered to pay for anything she found that worked for her and she said no way, I just needed to keep giving her cookies. :) Hence the Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars.

We had a fun discussion about Fran Leibowitz and how Charity is saving the new Netflix documentary with her for dessert.

I took the printout I had from “Peak Finder” with me (obvious mountains highlighted as reference points) and gave it to her. It was hazy yesterday and Mt. Hood was glowing, but we couldn’t see the lesser peaks. She teased me about how of course I would figure out the names. I am particularly interested in Bob’s Mountain. The story behind that. This is my poetic mind at work.

My mind still works like a poet’s even if I am not specifically writing poetry.

I weighed the cats yesterday. Diego has put back on all the weight he lost over the last year. The vet is pleased. Now I need to start slowly incrementally cut back on what I am feeding Carlo as he is up as well.

This coming weekend is a bit concerning for a kind of political activism that might turn violent. It is a good time to hunker down and voice support on the side of reality and but stay safe.

I have a lot of planning to do for when we get to the other side of this in the year ahead.

Last updated January 15, 2021