What I Want To Know Is...

... how come whenever I turn on the TV or change the channel there's five minutes of commercials?  It never fails, I can switch in the middle of a show and find a never-ending string of commercials on the other channel.  Sometimes it drives me a little bit batty.  (but it's not much of a drive)



Even though winter seems to be never-ending this year I saw signs that eventually summer will come today in the form of this male goldfinch. See how bright yellow his feathers are?  In the autumn they turn from yellow to a kind of avocado greenish yellow and then in spring their feathers turn back to yellow.  The females remain the dull avocado color so that they're camouflaged on the nest.  This guy was a welcome sight on a chilly and overcast day.


I placed an online order on the Meijer app today and got to pick it up today which amazed me.  They did push my pickup time back a couple hours but that's not a big deal.  I miss being in the store and making my own choices and seeing things I forgot to put on the list (like a bag of frozen corn which I just remembered six hours after I picked up the order) but I don't miss being able to buy ice cream or snacks that I don't need because those are always impulse buys for me.  Don't get me wrong, I love those things but I don't need them and am trying to limit my consumption of them.  (Like right now I could go for a pint of Haagen-Dazs Belgian Chocolate ice cream and a bag of Snyders of Hanover Honey Mustard & Onion pretzel bits but I'm staying out of the grocery so I won't hop in the car and go get some.  No, I won't and I won't put them on my list.  I'm determined to make the best use of this stay-at-home time as I can without making myself crazy.)

I had some bananas that were extra ripe so I mixed up a batch of cocoa-almond smoothie bowls.  I make a double batch which WW thinks is two servings but I divvy it up into half-cup servings and freeze it so it's kind of like ice milk.  It isn't creamy enough to be ice cream but it has bananas, frozen cherries, PB powder, cocoa, almond milk, and honey in it so it satisfies.  It'd be creamier if I was patient enough to let it thaw more but I'm not.  I like it and one of these little cups is two points.



Two points is my snack quota so I sat this evening and counted out 16 dark chocolate M&Ms into little plastic bags so I don't overserve myself.  (I only ate about three of them while counting them out. Really.)  The next thing I need to count out is chocolate animal crackers.  I know that a handful of those is too much but can't seem to set myself down and portion them out.  I'll do it tomorrow.  Cross my heart.


22 April--Start Here.  

Write down a prompt from a list
Just one word, maybe two
Frown at the blank paper
Stare out the window
Look for birds
Watch trees sway in the wind
Run an errand
(run away from the page, that is)
Get poetry books from the basement
Read a little
Go back to the page
Make a list of avoidance tactics
Start here.
~~~~~

Digging out books of poetry reminded me that there's one poet whose style really speaks to me.  Ted Kooser was Poet Laureate of the US for a few years in the early 2000s.  He lives in Iowa and writes a conversational style of poetry that I find very accessible.  He isn't obscure in his references or too elevated in his language, in other words, I understand what he's saying so his work doesn't make me feel dense like a lot of others.

I delivered half of the scones to DS this afternoon so I got to have fifteen minutes of human contact, at a distance of 6' of course.  It's amazing how that little bit of humanity can brighten up my day.  I confess that I figure out a reason that I have to go see him at the brewery once a week.  He's a very patient man and a good son.  I like him a lot.
--Barbara