Posts Tagged "family"

Salt, sugar, trans-fats, have all been in the news lately as Michelle O leaves her backyard vegetable garden and takes to the mean streets on her crusade against body fat.  In her wake, there’s a deluge of  federal, state, and local law initiatives rising up against obesity.  What I refer to as the “food police” others call progress.  OK, we are probably the fattest developed nation in the world.  We have access to a wide variety of colas, cakes, breads, cookies, candy bars, chips, carbs and sugars limited only by our grocery budget. But never fear, our great protector and omnipotent caretaker, the all knowing, all seeing, government will swoop in and save us all from plaque buildup, strokes, and a wide assortment of heart ailments. How will...

We’ve lived in Pennsylvania for about 13 years.  Traveling West on Rt. 322 about 20 miles, one encounters a step back in time.  Horse drawn carriages with Amish hats and simple dress, expanses of farm land with serene ponds, barns, silos, and corn fields, a scenic crop of soy beans, dot the countryside which creates a relaxing drive out of the “city.”  Kathy and I have traveled the 30 minute calm ride into the countryside for about 13 yrs each Saturday morning.  We’ve used that time to talk, refresh, and reconnect from the busy, frazzled week while listening to “Car Talk” on PBS.  Shady Maple has been a landmark in our area for a number of years.  The restaurant is gigantic and serves  literally hundreds of tourists for...

Experiences of childhood affects many facets of our adult life. Recently I was thinking about my political beliefs of limited government and my dislike for government expansion with entitlement programs. I grew up in a middle class neighborhood. My parents did not have a lot of money, they never gave me a lot of money, but growing up, I never did without the basics. Sure, I would have liked to have been given additional spending money to purchase more clothes, Beatles albums, ballgame tickets, swimming club memberships, junk food, you get the picture. My parents and grandparents grew a lot of our food in vegetable gardens. We ate them fresh from the garden in the summer, and out of jars and freezer bags in the winter. My grandparents kept the neighborhood...

Whenever our “land line” phone rings at any time of the day, and I answer it, a cheerful voice on the other end greets me with “Is this Mr. Creeecy?”  (they always mispronounce my name) I won’t take the time to phonetically spell all of their machinations and mispronunciations.  As soon as I’m asked this question, my  primary sphincter muscle begins to contract and tighten because I know what follows.  DO NOT ANSWER THIS QUESTION if you receive these solicitation calls.  As soon as you say “yes, who’s calling?” they begin their monologue selling their wares without taking a breath. For some mysterious reason, once I’ve  answered “yes” to “Is this Mr. Creeecy?” I feel like it...

Now that I’m “retired” from my regular day job, I’m on different routines.  For example, I might be at the grocery store during the day instead of on the weekend or at night as was the case today, after returning home from vacation, our cupboards were bear.  I got up later than usual and started to the gym.  Traffic patterns are different at 8 am  vs 5 am.  No joke.  School buses and school mom’s tried to kill me several times with their unexpected starts and stops.  At 5 am, there is no traffic to speak of, so I had the road to myself, but not so at 8am.  The gym is a bee hive at 8am compared to the 10 of us there at 5am. So now, I’m off to the store.  Ok, first lesson, never, never shop at Wegmans on Monday...