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Back On The Diet

The Truth Be Spoken!  “I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.”- Noël Coward

So it is exactly 69 days until October 17th meaning I have 69 days to walk 134 miles to fit in a 750 mile year.  That means at least two miles per day from now on…that should be fairly easy.

Good walk this morning as Paul is up to 616 miles than ks to CVS Pharmacy and Staples. No doggie visits today but Paul waived at some doggie friends who were across the street from where he was.  Paul was off to obtain the only item on the shopping list today – Ecotrin aspirin which is coated and dissolves farther down the digestive path than normal aspirin.

Today we went to lunch with Robin as she is now on a 4×10 work week and her hours are 5:00 AM until 2:00 PM meaning lunch should be about 10:00 AM but alas, no place is open for lunch at 10:00 AM.  She decided we ought go to The Yucatan Grill at 11:00 AM sharp which is always good!

Hot hot got plus Paul adds habanero sauce on top! Burns the calories away!

Did You Know? The habanero chili comes from the Amazon, from which it was spread, reaching Mexico.  A specimen of a domesticated habanero plant, dated at 8,500 years old, was found at an archaeological site in Peru.  An intact fruit of a small domesticated habanero, found in pre-ceramic levels in Guitarrero Cave in the Peruvian highlands, was dated to 6500 BC.

The habanero chili was disseminated by Spanish colonists to other areas of the world, to the point that 18th-century taxonomists mistook China for its place of origin and called it Capsicum chinense (“the Chinese pepper”).

Today, the largest producer is the Yucatán Peninsula, in Mexico. Habaneros are an integral part of Yucatecan food, accompanying most dishes, either in natural form or purée or salsa.

After returning home, Paul hit the yard for a couple of hours with most energy used on straightening up the corn.  For some unknown reason, it fell over…never happened before? Thanks to steel posts and a mess of sisal twine, they are all standing tall…hope I got them in the nick of time!

Did You Know? Sisal, with the botanical name Agave sisalana, is a species of Agave native to southern Mexico but widely cultivated and naturalized in many other countries. It yields a stiff fibre used in making various products. The term sisal may refer either to the plant’s common name or the fibre, depending on the context. It is sometimes referred to as “sisal hemp”, because for centuries hemp was a major source for fibre, and other fibre sources were named after it.

The sisal fibre is traditionally used for rope and twine, and has many other uses, including paper, cloth, footwear, hats, bags, carpets, and dartboards.

We watched some TV from about 3:00 PM until 5:00 PM at which time get got ready to go to the Phoenix Club for an evening of dancing and cavorting with frfiends!

We got all sorts of nice comments from the band and others about the web page we did for the birthday party last week!  Makes the work worth the effort when people appreciate it!

We had a great time dancing the night away

We departed a little early this evening, around 9:30 PM as we are still resting up from the visit of Hannah and Lisa. On the way out of the parking lot, we could see the fire almost 25 miles to the south-east of us…I mean we could see the flames on the top of the mountains above Lake Elsinore!

It was a little spooky to see the flames this far away knowing it was a good 20 miles away!

Heading home we watched the Disneyland fireworks which are always spectacular.  Funny…flames in the sky behind us, BAD…flames and explosions in front of us, GOOD.

Random Memories: It’s funny how I can remember smells from events that happened decades ago.  When I was in the 5th grade, my mom picked me up from school one afternoon which was odd…I usually walked home.  She told me that Number 5 Pico Store had had a fire!  Dad was in the dime store business and we had a store on Pico and La Cienega in Los Angeles.  I grew up in that store working there every summer and watching my dad working there since I could remember.  I had never had been around a fire so I had no idea what to expect!

The store had a basement and a second floor warehouse.  The second floor and ground floor were burnt to a crisp while the basement suffered from water damage. Four feet of water sat in the basement soaking all the merchandise.

Dad and I went into the building, walked up the stairs, and looked into the offices and they were “toast”.  I do remember taking some partially melted crayolas home. The smell of that day 60 years ago stays with me to this day.  ‘Phantosmia’ is the medical term for an imaginary odor (phantom smell). It is also known as an “olfactory hallucination”. Luckily, I only smell this when I think hard about the events of that day!

That is a little off I know but I can also smell opening day at Disneyland when the blacktop on Main Street had just been poured a few days earlier and the small of that hot day in July and the blacktop is still quite vivid in my mind!

We watched NCIS, had our tookies at 11:00 PM and crashed about midnight! Paul controlled himself and had only one and that was the smallest of the batch!


About Paul

Just an old retired guy trying to finish out my last years on this planet. I lost my best friend and wife in early 2020. I was blessed again by reconnecting with Dr. Mary Côté, a long-time friend. Mary and I got married July 28th, 2021, and are enjoying life together and plan to spend the rest of our lives being a blessing to our friends and family.
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