A Day in the Life...

have you ever lived a day and imagined a reporter covering the day for a magazine article? it'd be like "a day in the life of the esoteric viking!" you'd have a respectable NPR reporter that would hang out with you for a day to tell the world--who can't wait to hear--about what a day would be like in your world. well, i'm here to tell you, you are really missing something! here's what the magazine article would be like without the professional writing abilities.

crawled out of bed. stop at starbucks on the way to work (6:38 a.m). watch track Olympic trials on TV. decide the female track athletes must be the most beautiful women in the world. consider taking up track as a sport. feel giddy to have a day off. take the kitty-cat outside to remove a pound or two of excess fur. climb into bed before the day officially ends to the sounds of (illegal) fireworks and the smell of sulfur in the air.

ok,now, seriously... why doesn't everyone have a reporter following them for a day??

"some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm"

I feel so at peace after listening to a thunderstorm.

The sound of the rain drops smacking against the pavement and trees is a fascinating sound. Partly because it's such a familiar sound and also because it's rare to hear it. Behind the raindrops, far, far away is the low, sometimes cracking, sounds of thunder. It rumbles away giving away it's distance. It's almost life-like how you can hear it get closer and then move farther away. To sit and listen to it makes you feel like you're on a different planet... or maybe it just reminds you that you are living on a planet; like those in the sci-fi shows you watch on television. Sometimes I think we lose site of the fact that we are an anomaly on this Planet Earth and not just another life form wandering about on our minuscule portion of the world. There genuinely is nothing like a thunderstorm in true surround sound. It's wonderful. Poets and writers and composers have tried to mimic the visceral reaction you have when sitting in the dark doing nothing but listening to the earth go about it's business and yet, as close as they have come, there's really nothing like it.

It makes you feel so tiny on an enormous planet.

Look at the word THUNDERSTORM. Look at it as if you don't know what it means... it looks like a Viking word. Maybe that's why I like it.

Freedom Lawn

Without knowing it I have been a proponent and supporter of the Freedom Lawn! This term was coined by Hannah Holmes in a book titled "Suburban Safari." I read it a few years ago and wrote a review of it on this blog site. In a nutshell: I don't water, fertilize, pesticide, herbicide or do anything else to my yard but mow it. Frankly, lately even mowing has been a rare occurrence. This spring I've been particularly occupied. I visited the folks before they went on a month-long vacation, the next weekend I left for 5 days in Chicago and in-between I had a particularly busy week at work. That all meant that my yard was exceptionally neglected this spring. My front yard consists mostly of cool-weather grasses and the back yard consists of mostly warm-weather grasses. I keep hoping the buffalo grass will take over, but it's patches seem to get smaller and smaller each year. sigh.

Last year I chipped the blade on my mower. In fact, I think the blade has been bent. I knew that this year I couldn't mow the yard before fixing the blade... which likely means buying a new one. I also knew I would be out of town or busy for the critical 2-week period between winter and spring in Nebraska. So, before the yard got completely out of control, I found an ad on CraigsList.com of a guy who could mow my yard. The guy who replied was from "Get R Done" lawn care. I think "R" actually stands for "reluctant." I told him I needed the yard mowed within the next week. Over a week later, the lawn still wasn't mowed! I came home from a 5-day trip to Chicago and the grass was over a foot tall! Well, to make a long story short, I contacted a local garden center who tends to lawns and they agreed to do an "emergency mowing" on Tuesday morning. But when I arrived home 16 days after I originally contacted the lawn guy (on Monday), the lawn was mowed! It even looked pretty good!

I guess the only lesson is that as I left for work the day the prairie was mowed down, I noted a small patch of buffalo grass... it was a perfect 2-inch plot whereas the rest was 2-feet and seeding! Lesson: grow buffalo grass!!!

I still support the freedom lawn. And I also understand the absurd obsession that Americans have with their lawns; so, I will continue to mow even though I'd rather replace the grass with chamomile or thyme or cloves. Someday soon, this will all change...

Big Breakfast

From Consumer Reports health newsletter, "People who get lots of their calories at breakfast tend to have a lower body mass index than others, according to a recent analysis of some 6,000 people. The big-breakfast eaters, who consumed 22 to 50 percent of their daily calories in the morning, gained less weight over time than people who tended to eat more as the day progressed. That may be because breakfast lends itself to filling, higher-fiber foods like whole-grain cereal. Previous research suggest that successful dieters tend to eat breakfast every day."

My only question is this: For those people who are eating 50% of their calories for breakfast, what are they eating?! What do you have to eat to get 600-800 calories at breakfast? I mean, that's a MONDO bowl of cereal or oatmeal!

comments REQUESTED!