I am dieting again.  Shit.

I blame the winter and seasonal affective disorder.  I love living here in the upper left corner of the US of A.  But that love is contained in a period extending from Early April to late December.  True winter here is usually a damn fine reason to be depressed and attempting to eat the blues away.

But spring is wending its slow way here...sunny days are getting more frequent and a desire to get out and move happens more often.  Hiking and being out in the summer both decreases my appetite and increases my energy burn.  Weight always drops in the sunny times.

I suppose that somewhere in my ancestry, there were forebears like me, hunkered down in a squalid cabin somewhere waiting for the snow to melt and the wolves to leave.  I envision this hypothetical ancestor hanging around the hearth and eating the stored food and drinking autumn ale.  The probably did a lot of brooding too.  Considering where my ancestry comes from (the Alto Adige, Scotland, and around Mecklenburg) It is not all that big a reach.

I truly wonder how a person's genetics and upbringing affect things like this.  I suppose that to posit a connection between the genetic and nurture is always a shaky deal.  Especially when it is fraught with societal myths as to beauty and status.  

So, being of senior citizen status and not really at all interested in the idea of the dating game or using my “looks” to improve my social status, I have come to the conclusion that I will be more bearlike in my approach to life.  I think that this year kinda shows how I want to approach the whole “weight” deal.  I will plan on taking off fifty pounds this summer, and then when next winter hits, I will try to keep my weight gain to less than thirty-five.  

I suppose it is a long way down to the recommended percentage body fat.  But Rome wasn’t built in a day.  If I hew to this plan, I will be skinny when I die.

Last minute note:  I also have to watch how quickly I ramp up on the exercise thing.  Muscles and ligaments will never be as good as they were in the long ago.  Today and for a couple of days I will concentrate on not eating more than exercise.  My right knee is not happy about the load I am putting on it.  I will listen to it complain with a sympathetic ear.

Neo-Pop Art / Wang Guangyi/ Materialist’s Art

I have been holing up lately.  This “atmospheric river” nonsense has taken the weather here in PDX back to the way that it was thirty some-odd years ago when I moved here.  Spring is coming, but the rivers are getting close to normal and the rain doesn’t seem to be stopping.

It is amazing just how quickly you start getting used to things and start thinking that they are “normal”.  The last couple of years taught us that dry, nice weather leads to fires that blot the sky a different way.  I am kinda thinking that this year is telling us not to worry about fires, but that might be a vain hope.

Screed

I am gonna do some very preliminary pondering about the nature of “consciousness”.  I think that the pondering will be pretty short lived, because right now, unless the epiphany fairy comes down and bludgeons me over the head, I got nothing.

I am mulling over the idea that maybe that shit we call consciousness isn’t located in the individual organism.  Now, this isn’t all Manziotti, where we are causally connected to what we see/interact with, but maybe, just maybe, what we call consciousness/perception isn’t just about “me”.  I am always suspicious of Decarte’s extended foray into hand waving, so that cogito ergo sum bit has to go.

I think that I will start with the idea that consciousness and communication are one in the same.  I have no idea where this will go, Just gonna ponder it for a bit.

https://www.wikiart.org/en/vincent-van-gogh/hand-with-a-pot-the-knob-of-a-chair-and-a-hunk-of-bread-1885

One of the first things that I will need to do is figure out baking.  It really isn’t all that hard, I can bake bread, but I do have a lack of knowledge about the hows and the why’s of the process.

Now, there is always a temptation to go to the University of YouTube and let someone tell me a recipe and show off their “skills’.  But I can’t really say that such a thing appeals to me.  I have the time now, so I am thinking that I can autodidact the process to see what happens when I just do it.  

Now, there is a pretty good chance that I will be eating quite a few loaves of bread that have problems.  But they will be edible and probably not at all up to the standards of the culinary snobbishness that has become de rigueur in this shallow time.  

One of the things that we have cast aside in our consumerist rush is the idea of good enough and simple.  Bread made at home now has to be comparable to what you get at the Boulangerie Moderne and be presented with an élan that marks you as one of the culturally anointed.  

Nope.  Not for me.  I am just gonna work on how to turn simple ingredients and a little time into something tasty that I can make into a decent meatloaf sandwich.  The crumb might not be absolutely perfect.  The crust might not have that oh-so-satisfying chewiness and tear that makes going to a bakery worthwhile.  But for the day to day, it will end up being 90+ percent of all of that.  

Endnote:  

Bread works out OK.  Tasty, but I was a little undisciplined and forgot to oil the top of the loaf.  Top crust isn’t all that shiny and cool.  Crumb is good.  Makes a mean meatloaf sandwich.

Social Realism / Charles Wilbert White/ The Gospel Singers

Friday.  Just glad this week is over and I am a week closer.  Nuff Said.

Heat seems to diminish my desire to put my fingers on a keyboard.  Last night when I went to bed, it was still over 100℉ outside.  Cold shower and sleeping au minimum on top of the bedspread.  Still managed to get a decent night’s sleep.

The ride home yesterday got me to thinking about electricity.  I will need to start addressing my electrical use in a serious manner in the future.  I don’t think that we will have access to as much as we can flip the switch for now.  

My main uses are 1) lights, 2)fans, 3)cooking 4)phone/laptop/tablet.  I do have an electric coffeemaker as a convenience.  I also have a still and a food dryer with intermittent use.

Appears that my electrical usage is in the 178 to 250 kwh a month.  I am thinking that this needs to go down to the 150 kwh range.  

According to the EIA (sorta kinda trustworthy):

How much electricity does an American home use?

In 2019, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,649 kilowatthours (kWh), an average of about 877 kWh per month. Louisiana had the highest annual electricity consumption at 14,787 kWh per residential customer, and Hawaii had the lowest at 6,296 kWh per residential customer.