December

What Does It Mean?

It means it's the 10th month of the Roman calendar, (Pope Gregory XIII didn't bother with changing the name when he changed it to the 12th month).

The beginning of our meteorological winter is December 1st.

This rose last Monday didn't seem to care about winter. 11/29/10

Sharp Eyed Shopper

This evening I stopped at the store to pick up a few food items and a tube of toothpaste. I discovered over the course of my browsing, putting on my glasses and examining various items that I was considering for consumption, that I was putting more things back on the shelves than I was putting in my shopping cart. I think it was putting on my 'readers' and examining the ingredients, descriptions, and expiration dates that did it.

Like Rembrandt toothpaste. I think it gets down to business when it comes to slowly lightening my teeth, so I alternate between baking soda, and dabs of the high priced stuff. I picked a box off the shelf and wondered just how long it had been sitting there. I fumbled in my inside jacket pocket and retrieved a suitable pair of magnifiers so I could read the indentations of the expiration stamp on the end of the carton. 9-6-04. I tried reading it different ways like it might be written inside out like the military, or Norway, but I kept coming back to the guesstimate that it was 6 years past the expiration date. I put it back on the shelf and decided I would go to Walgreens in the next day or two and check the dates on a couple of packages of Rembrandt to see what numbers they have for expiration.

I considered some baked goods on the other side of the store, but the only thing that had been baked today were the packages of croissants. I knew this because I had my glasses so I could read the dates on the stickers. I dug through the bag 'o veggi packs to find the freshest broc and carrot mix, and reached to the back row in the cooler to get the best date on a container of organic yogurt. I was on a roll. I had 2 items in my cart. Woo Hoo!

It was when I went looking for dessert that I encountered the label that caused me to be writing these observations at 2:00 in the morning. There was a special on frozen Bavarian cream eclairs. The price was right so I picked up a box and began to read it. It all seemed benign until I read that these new and improved eclairs would now keep 7 days at room temperature, and 14 days refrigerated after thawing. I put them back in the freezer display.

Just thinking about all the processed, non-spoiling, 'stays fresh longer', products that are sold as food made me wonder how my digestive system feels about that stuff that wont decompose. Packaged food is made to resist bacteria and chemicals. This seems like a good idea until you remember that our body uses chemicals and bacteria to break down our food into its basic components so we can assimilate it. 

 

The easier it is to break down the stuff we eat, the more nutrition we can get out of it. If it wont decompose, rot, get moldy, or become a colony of bacteria, our body cant use it!

I settled on a frozen pumpkin pie that seemed pretty close to the real thing. It takes 75 minutes to cook and should not be left at room temperature for more than an hour once it cools. I look forward to cooking and eating this pie that will spoil easily in my gut like food is supposed to.

John Gets A Les Paul

John found this special Les Paul in a magazine and now has it in hand.

The Phil Seymour Band will be playing at the Round Mountain community center for the Montgomery Creek New Years eve party. It looks like John will be using 2 guitars that night. His vintage Stratocaster, and this vintage Les Paul that he just got. We will hear how it sounds later this week at rehearsal.

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;

Nice