Father's Day

It's Father's Day and I miss my dad.

My dad always encouraged me to write.  He was always interested in what I was writing at the time and he was always bringing home Writer's magazines.  In a lot of ways he really fueled that passion for me.  He also came to almost every band concert, stood up and cheered for me regardless of my embarrassment, and always called me his "Little Doll".

When I was pregnant with my first child, he decided that I must need some clothes (I did) and he took me shopping.  He bought me a red dress.  Just like he did before I was born.  I think I never really grew up in his eyes.

He loved the Three Stooges and was adept at doing the "curly shuffle".  He loved the Dallas Cowboys, vanilla ice cream mixed with an ungodly amount of chocolate syrup, and dogs.  He didn't like the beach but he loved the mountains and almost every summer, he took us all for a trip into the Colorado Rockies.  I think that was where my love of geology was born.  Almost every place we camped and every gift shop we went into had some kind of gem or mineral laying around.  He instilled in me a love of the outdoors and of travel because of those summertime forays into the mountains.

He liked fishing and would sit in his armchair on the weekends with a paper in his hands while a fishing show was on.  I never understood the appeal of watching fishing on tv, but now that I have a fourteen year old son and River Monsters comes on, I get it.

He taught me how to bowl.  I still like to go bowling even though I don't have the opportunity to do it often.

Probably the most important thing my dad did for me was teach me, through his example, that it's never too late to learn.  He worked as a lineman for TXU and decided he wanted more, so he went to school at night and got a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering.  He continued working towards his master's and became an electrical engineer at TXU.  He loved his job.  Designing sub-stations and working on the nuclear power plant were a couple of projects that he talked about often.  He was wicked smart and lived up to his potential in that regard.  Because of him and because of that example, I know I can live up to mine, too.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy.  I love you and I miss you.

Quote of the Day

Dear Pessimist and Optimist,

While you were standing there arguing about whether the glass was half-empty or half-full, I drank it.

Sincerely,

The Opportunist

The End is Near

I'm not a "doomsday prepper".  I don't own 1,000 cans of pork and beans and I haven't dug an underground bunker in my back yard.  BUT.  Something happened the other day that made me think that perhaps a little more preparation might be a good idea.  I never like taking things to extremes and I hate assuming the worst...but sometimes, people who assume the worst are the ones that don't get burned in the long run.

In the course of my job I had an opportunity to talk to someone who was in Northern California.  We got on the subject of weather, and she talked about how the drought there was affecting them.  She went on to say that her father owned a cattle ranch, and that because of the drought, they were having to slaughter six months early, which meant they were losing thousands and thousands of dollars.  "Your food, " she said, "Is about to get very, very expensive, because they are going to have to make up for what they're losing right now."  

Not many people actually stop and think about where food comes from.  It sounds stupid, but we've gotten so accustomed to drive-throughs, carry-outs, and grocery stores that we don't stop and think about what it takes to get the food to where it is.  Someone had to grow it.  Someone had to make it. Someone had to load it onto a truck.  Someone had to drive the truck to get it to a distribution center.  Someone else had to go to the distribution center to pick it up and bring it to a store.  (I used to work in a grocery distribution center; I know.)

What happens if at any time, there is some sort of catastrophe along the way?  Think of food production as a giant spider web, and you're the spider at the center. Think of farmers, cattlemen, truck drivers, grocery stores...they're all the strings that hold the web in place.  Have you ever seen what happens to a spider web if you wipe out one of its supporting anchors?  It becomes unstable.  Eventually, it collapses.  The spider has to rebuild or go somewhere else and start over.

The point of food storage and preparation is not, necessarily, to survive the apocalypse, although many people are preparing for that.  It's to survive the personal catastrophes that sometimes rear their ugly heads in our lives.  If, for example, you live along the coast, and a Hurricane decides to blow through town, then that is a personal catastrophe.  It won't affect the entire United States, but it might interrupt the flow of goods and services to YOU.  So you need to be ready for that.  If you lose your job, and it takes longer to find employment than you thought...again, preparation can get you through that.  I know of one man who was unemployed for a year and his family survived off of their food storage.  If a cattle raiser in California has to slaughter his animals due to lack of water, thus losing tons of money and then having to charge more to make up the difference...then food will still be available.  It just might cost more than you want to pay...or more than some people CAN pay.

If what my colleague in California says is true (and I have no reason to believe she would make it up), then now might be a good time to get ready.

Quote of the Day

It's the Little Things

The "check engine" light has come on in my van and the power steering is whining.  Because of this, we took it to the shop yesterday and left it there.

Want to know how I felt?

Secretly relieved.

Having the van in the shop during the summer means that I have this excuse:  "Can't.  Van's in the shop."

It's like having permission to goof off.

It means we are housebound, for a day or two, which means movie time, swimming hole time, play outside time, don't go anywhere or stress about anything time.  For a mom, it's almost the same as turning off your phone.

Did I mention my phone's in the shop too?

I'm kidding.  Sort of.

Happy Summer, y'all.

Almost Vegetarian

Recently I went through this phase where I just stopped caring what I ate.  So, I started drinking chocolate shakes and diet Cokes again, and eating burgers and all kinds of junk.  And the pounds started to pile back on and I felt miserable.

I knew I was doing it because I was depressed, and because I had lost my focus.  I've never been a skinny girl, but I've tried, more often than not, to take care of myself, because I have four responsibilities.  And, of course, when you have a special needs child, you have to live forever...but that's a different blog.

So, anyhow, the other day I got this cookbook offer through Bookbub. It was for a book called "Feast" and it was a vegetarian cookbook by Sarah Copeland.  It promised meals that would actually leave you feeling full...unlike many vegetarian recipes that leave you feeling dissatisfied and still a little empty (Where's the beef???)

I decided to give it a try, and the first thing I did was buy a blender and make a kale shake.  Sounds gross, right?  I won't share the recipe because that wouldn't be fair to Ms. Copeland...but suffice it to say that it was good.  Surprisingly so.  I had it for breakfast.

Soon after that I was trying different oatmeal recipes, vegetable pot pies, eggplant parmesan, and paella, to name a few.  And I started to feel better.  

It wasn't a miracle cure for weight loss, but that wasn't what I was looking for.  What it did do was give me a greater awareness of food.  It made me stop and ask myself, what's actually in this thing that I'm putting in my mouth?  After about a week or two of doing this, I had a chili cheese dog.  It was disgusting.  I also had something else...I can't remember what it was, except that it was some kind of dessert...and it was horribly sweet.  Not delightfully sweet, but sweet in a way that I could taste the synthetic stuff that was in it.  

Now, lest you think I've turned into some kind of health nut, I want to make it clear that I love to eat and I enjoy really good food.  The point of this is not to tout a vegetarian point of view or to say that hamburgers are evil.  It's to say that developing a greater appreciation for the foods that are in season, and the foods that Heavenly Father actually created for us to consume, can really pay off in the way we feel physically, emotionally, and mentally.  I challenge anyone to try this, within the limits of what they can physically handle...give up the diet drinks and sodas, give up sugar. drink lots of water, add more vegetables than meat to what you're eating...and be surprised.

Quote of the Day

"I am not who I once was...We become who we must to overcome pain and make things right again."

-Sir Gorrann, Queen of Hearts:  The Wonder by Colleen Oakes