I forgot to blog yesterday. When I miss a day it’s usually because of time management, I start and then get lost doing other things. Not yesterday, I never started; because of that I’ve been on two expeditions since I last wrote. Sunday’s expedition was to Stop & Shop for my Pesach needs. That just means I bought my annual 5 lbs of matzoh. Bought is not the right term since it came free with a $25 purchase. It would have only cost $5 if I had bought less. Even if you are a gentile you should take advantage of this, matzoh is good and it lasts forever. I grew up on Streits as I am guessing most of my Jewish Gentle (not Gentile) readers did but I am now a convert; I prefer Yehudi. As I was buying an awkward large box of matzoh I did something I rarely do, I used a full-sized shopping cart. I can’t remember the last time I did that. I’m not talking about the cart you use in the store; I mean the one that you take to and from the store. People who shop with cars don’t know of such thing. I’m not sure how prevalent they are outside of New York City. When you get to the store you fold it up and hang it from hooks on the front of the supermarket cart. I took a picture of it to show you. That’s not quite accurate. I turned on my phone camera, I aimed at the cart on the cart, pressed the button, but no picture was taken. I should have checked to see that it came out. Why didn’t I? Two reasons. The first was that I’m an idiot, you already knew that. The second is I felt I was in the way, so I rushed. Did I buy anything else interesting? Shaved steak was on sale, so I bought that, I see cheesesteak in my future. I didn’t walk this time because I had the cart with me and walking the stairs on the way would not have been pleasant.
Without saying anything else you should know what I had for breakfast yesterday, yes, it was matzoh brei to make your bubbe cry. The recipe for that will soon be available from the Common Ground Coffeehouse cookbook. That was my contribution. You want to cook like the legends of folk music, I’m not a legend but other contributors are, you should buy it when it becomes available.
When I got home, Lena informed me that Krispy Kreme was giving away a free glazed doughnut to anyone that can proved they were vaccinated. This is not a one-time deal. You can do this every day, multiple times a day if you visit different stores, for the rest of 2021. This is the best thing to happen to my health in a long time. What? Huh? Doughnuts are good for your heath? Are you crazy? Are you an idiot? Well yes, I am crazy and an idiot but that doesn’t make what I just said wrong. The nearest Krispy Kreme is a little over a mile away. This gives me the motivation to get out of the house and take a walk, that’s exactly what I did yesterday. I had a session with psychiatrist yesterday; I told him about my concerns with sleeping all the time and my suspicious of narcolepsy. He laughed at me and said I needed to go out into the sunshine. I told him about the free doughnuts, and he thought walking there was an excellent idea. I was just following doctor’s orders. I am going to try and go every day. On the way there I started on a new project, photographing the neighborhood. Taking the picture of the shopping cart, well attempting to take a picture of the shopping cart inspired me to take pictures of daily life in the Bronx. Some of these will seem familiar to everyone, others that I take equally for granted, might seem exotic to you. I’ll never forget giving my friend a tour of New York on her first trip to the city and how surprised she was that groceries display their produce on the sidewalk in front of the store. I’m trying to show the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly. It’s going to take me some time to edit them and put them in a proper shape for a photo essay.
I didn’t know how the free doughnut would work but it was as simple as possible. The two people in front of me both ordered one. You pretty much say “Free doughnut” and the guy behind the counter puts it in a bag and tells you to show your vax card to the cashier. I was in and out in a minute. That’s good as I didn’t wear one of my high quality KN95 masks. If I’m going to go out every day I don’t want to spend a dollar a day on a disposable mask. When you are outside a simple cloth mask is sufficient, so that’s all I wore. When I went shopping I wore the KN95, and I ordered more online. The New York Times recommended Powecom. These are certified KN95s, not the fakes you have to beware of. Now I feel gipped, they are selling for $8.50 for a pack of 10, I paid $9.25 a few days ago. I’m fully vaccinated but that doesn’t mean I don’t need to wear a mask when I’m indoors away from my house.
On the way home I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. It is not on the way home, it meant extra walking. That’s a feature not a bug. When I got home my health app said that I walked 3.85 miles and burned 342 Calories. The doughnut is only 190 Calories. I told you this was healthy, not just my mental health but my physical. The doughnut is my reward for getting exercise. This is good old-fashioned operant conditioning.
I ended up spending much of yesterday ripping CDs that I had previously ripped but lost the files when my hard drive burned. There are also some gems that I never ripped. This is exciting. Being a DJ has cost me classical music listening time. Even though it’s easier to write to classical music I need the time to go through my new or rediscovered music. I need to start putting some of it on my phone so I can listen as I walk. The problem with that is I like being more aware of my surroundings when I walk. If I listen to something while I do other things and it grab me I then have to relisten giving it my full attention. I just did that for an album sent to me by Liz Simmons. Liz is a friend that I’ve known for years but I somehow missed that she released a new album earlier in the month. I didn’t know what to expect as I’ve only heard her play with bands. That is an antsy situation for me. I know I like her as a person, and I know she can sing, that doesn’t mean she has what it takes to be a singer/songwriter. The fact that I like her is what makes it tough. That’s what always makes it tough for me. I don’t like disappointing people. She was good and didn’t ask me about it. To my delight I loved the album, Poets, and will be playing it next week.
Today is Tuesday and that means tonight Gord’s Gold airs on Folk Music Notebook at 11 PM EDT. I enjoy the fact that things are aired and broadcast, even though that’s not at all how the shows are distributed now. Language is conservative. We still dial phones even though they haven’t had a physical dial in 40 years, more for some people. We still film things, without using film, and tape things without using tape. Language preserves history. Those last few sentences are my favorite part of this entry. The rest is things I did, this is something that I thought.
Wise Madness 