Gad, it's September already. Summer's just about over. Where did it go???? The days are getting cooler :) and shorter :( and the leaves are starting to turn.
I love autumn less and less. The colors are spectacular, yes, especially around where I live in upstate New York (our leaves blow visitors away), but those colors are the dying of the leaves and spell the hibernation of the trees for the long, cold, snowy winter. The older I get, the less I like winter. It's just cold. I need to win the lottery and have condos in Florida, in NYC and in London. I would love that. I could get out of the snow and out of the extreme heat and out of the rain but get to the theatre and the city's night life. But I'm here, living my almost ideal life in Schenectady, NY, which is cold and has snow in the winter. But thinking about it, I wouldn't want anything else, really: Schenectady may be cold in the winter, but it has Seasons. Four of them. We actually have spring here, and summer, and fall, and winter. And they are distinct and each has its own charms. The snow and cold of winter I don't like, but snow is beautiful to look at from an armchair by the window, and there's nothing cozier than curling up in a blanket in winter with a good book. That I do look forward to. Summer does not lend itself to curling up in a blanket; it's too damn hot to do that then.
Breakfast this morning was a bowl of raw oatmeal, Lactaid® and Splenda®. I ate it at breakfast time, just after getting up (which I did at 8), and I was mildly hungry. I'm still hungry, but I'll go for my walk and come home and have an Activia. My friend Michael tells me that I changed his life with my raw oatmeal; it never occurred to him that hey, guess what, you don't have to cook oatmeal to enjoy it. Just let it soak for a couple of minutes in the milk before you eat it, like you would müsli. I love raw oatmeal; in fact, it's rare that I cook oatmeal these days.
One of the major advantages of working for myself is that I can get up and go to bed whenever I damn well please. I'm not keeping someone else's clock. Other people seem to want me to get UP in the morning. Bleah. I am not a morning person at all, although I find that going for a walk around now is a Nice Way to Start the Day. Everyone else has gone to their offices and jobs and I can relax and have the river all to myself. And the Mohawk River is absolutely beautiful. Especially at the beginning of autumn.
I think I'll take my camera on my walk with me today.
I still haven't taken my walk, but will after lunch, which will consist of a peanut butter sandwich with two pats of butter. I don't have raisins or I'd do ants on logs (fill celery with peanut butter and squish raisins into the peanut butter; yum). I'm actually physiologically hungry at this moment; my stomach is growling and my blood sugar is dipping. It's time to eat.
Tonight's dinner is all planned out: stir-fried chicken, spinach, crumbled bleu cheese ... yum!
I went for a walk. 6.3 miles, 856.9 calories and 11,669 steps later, my legs and hips are downright tired, and my feet know they've had a workout, too. I didn't take my camera because I didn't go anyplace really pretty; I just walked to the bank and back. On the way, though, I met up with an old neighbor, G.R., a teacher in one of the local high schools. He and his wife, J.R., have a daughter, E.R., who is about Tess's age. In fact, the two kids started kindergarten at the same school; E.R. used to wait with Tess for the schoolbus in front of our house. She and Tess used to go trick-or-treating together on Halloween. It was nice to see him, but when I asked him how J.R. is doing, he told me that she's been pretty sick lately with a persistent pancreatitis, surgically induced Type I diabetes, and other associated gut-type problems. Yuck. She gets a get-well card from me, to say the least; these folks were good neighbors. E.R. is going into her sophomore year in college and apparently doing quite well.
I'm hungry having returned from my long walk. I ate an Activia and drank a can of diet ginger ale (Schweppes, if you're curious). That did the trick.
I wonder how ginger-ale yogurt would taste? Hmmm. I don't think I'll try it. Tapioca yogurt, though, might be interesting.
Dinner tonight, eaten late because I took a Power Nap, is quick and easy and actually good for me. Chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces, and stir-fried in a capful of olive oil, baby spinach leaves and Danish bleu cheese. Chicken thighs (I really don't like chicken breasts very much; I know, I know, the breasts are the best part of the bird, but they can be so dry) and bleu cheese is quite the tasty combo; I'll have to do this one again. Soon. Diet ginger ale to drink. Jim, my significant other, is a Diet Pepsi man, and I must go and get him a six-pack before he gets here on Thursday (in fact, I'll do that tonight while I'm thinking of it).
I'm going to finish off my healthful meal later with a bowl of Mint Chocolate Chip Lite Ice Cream. As I said, this week is about getting into the habit of walking and into the habit of writing this blog. I'm doing well on both of those fronts, so shut up about the ice cream. It will disappear from my diet when the ice cream containers are empty — which is taking a longer time to happen than it did before.
Thank goodness we're coming into apple season. My favorite tree-borne fruit is the pear/apple family, and they're never better than when they're fresh off the tree. I have an orchard not too far away that sells the best apples on the planet: Knights Orchard on Goode St. in Burnt Hills, NY. Apples and pears are the saving grace of fall for me. I particularly love Northern Spy apples, which are available for only a short time late in the fall, but they are DEFINITELY worth waiting for!!! Tart, firm, excellent baking and eating apple, but they have zero shelf life, so growers don't ship spies far. I find them at Knights.
My hips hurt. That's from that six-mile walk I took. I think I'll knock off tomorrow and not walk. Let the muscles rest and heal up from that one.
