Slept pretty well. Remember having a long dream overnight, in which I wasn't present, it was like I watched a movie, that had 2 young autistic men falling in love with each other and building to a climax where finally one of the young men asked the other one for a date.
Now it's time to get my brain starting to function. Let's start with decaf tea and a banana.
I'm still fairly well in a state of shambles but Ginza is now eating her breakfast by the fridge. She was definitely hungry and didn't want to take too long with the initial greetings on the outside step.
This nap is a more serious snooze for Ginza. Her first after breakfast nap was lighter and keeping an eye on me while I prepared and ate my oatmeal. Now she has the head tucked down. Maybe because she knows I'm on the job of watching over her
She played with the new toy I got her yesterday, a wand with a creature that has long tail feathers and a bell. She's a little bit suspicious of it, but she has charged at it and swatted it once hard enough to make the bell jingle...and cause her to jump back. But it's good to teach her to play and have fun with me.
She jumped briefly into the recliner with me in there, then jumped back out.
Today marks 35 straight days that Ginza and I have done these sit and chats. Obviously she now considers them an essential part of her days and looks forward to seeing me.
I also thought it was notable this morning that one point she got a bit excited and swatted at my hand with her paw...
but no claws. She didn't use any claws when she did that. I think though if she got too excited and swatted, she might still use claws, but I'm proud of her having learned to avoid using them on me.
Not exactly sure what I want to do today. Right now I just feel pretty lazy and entertainment is watching a video of a Finnish man doing a hiking trek in northern Finland.
I feel inclined to cook pork chops in the afternoon, First put potato, carrot, onion, and celery in the bottom of cast iron pan, stick that in oven, when the veggies start to soften, layer the pork chops on top of the veggies and cook the chops until the meat starts to peel away from the bone.
Been a long time since I've eaten pork chops, probably not any since last year.
One thing I'm certain of though is that pork chops of today aren't as good as pork chops that were sold back in the 1980s. Those pork chops had a lot more fat on them, these days they don't fatten the pigs like they used to, plus their diet is probably skewed by industrial style farming.
Ha ha! That was cool. I was listening to the Finnish man narrate about his hike and I heard him use the word harju. Harju in Finnish means a ridge, like a land feature, ie a ridge of hills.
That happens to be my middle name. So my ears perked up when I heard him use it a couple of times.
Think I'll end up taking a nap here. I'm going to listen to what my mind and body want here and do it. Of course during workweek I have ignore the urges to nap, but here and now I have no obligations to be awake.
Once I start feeling more awake, I will start working on getting today's idea for cooking veggies and pork chops going. That sounds good, I'm going to be hungry.
Felt like I really slept hard during that nap. Maybe I've been learning good lessons on how to nap now that I've been watching Ginza nap in her bed. This morning her long nap was certainly one where she was really snoozing, completely lights out.
The veggies have started cooking in the cast iron pan in oven. Once they are turning pretty soft, then I'll layer pork chops on top. The hardest part is done, cleaning and peeling the potatoes and carrots, chopping up 2 celery stalks as well.
If there's going to be a goodbye swim to the pool season, it's going to be tomorrow because I simply don't have enough spoons for that today. Just cooking a good meal that'll provide leftovers is plenty enough effort today.
It's funny watching videos of the Finnish man who goes on hikes in Finland and Norway. I'm watching a recent one now and he's showing part of the driving to the site and he's just driving a tiny car.
If he were an American man, he'd thundering about in a giant pickup or SUV because you know masculinity can't survive without a ginormous vehicle that shows how big and manly you are.
I can smell the potatoes, onions, carrots, and celery cooking now. Pretty soon they should be tender enough that I can layer the pork chops on top and get those cooked up to where the meat easily peels away from the bones.
Flipped the pork chops over. Things are starting to smell delicious and I'm looking forward to serving up the largest chop along with a portion of the potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions. Should be a very satisfying meal.
Not surprising that I'm hungry. I've only eaten breakfast today which was a total of 2 bananas and a bowl of oatmeal with milk. Perhaps I should have eaten a small lunch when I woke up from the nap, but I simply wasn't hungry then.
Now with the effort of cooking, plus taking garbage out, unloading Magic Washing Box and putting dirty dishes in it, I'm very hungry.
Other than the hunger, I feel good and fairly relaxed. Absolutely no stress and blood pressure has been good all day long.
Chops need another 10 minutes to be fully cooked but not overdone. Nothing too fancy with this. The only seasoning I used was black pepper. I used a fair amount of butter. Which I will continue to do so long as my cholesterol results in labs look good. That's at least one lucky thing I have with my body's systems. I've never had a high cholesterol problem.
The pork chops may have slightly overcooked or it might have been a case of how today's pork just doesn't have the same kind and amounts of fat. But still quite good, especially the meat near the bone where there was more fat.
Potatoes were the best part, they basically slowly cooked in butter for almost 2 hours and then they also had some pork drippings soak into them.
I've put away the leftovers, finished loading Magic Washing Box and it's now cleaning up.
Because Princess Mononoke is leading in the poll about which Miyazaki movie I should rent and watch next, that's what I'm going to do when this video by the Finnish guy finishes. In this one, he's been doing a winter cross country ski trip. It's so pretty to see all that snow that doesn't get fouled up with rock salt and other pollution like you see where I live. Here the beauty of snow is only briefly lived.
I felt proud of the dinner I cooked and served up on the plate, so I took a picture of it. This was the largest pork chop of the 4 that were placed atop the veggies that had been cooking in the cast iron pan. The veggies on the plate consist of potatoes, onions, carrots, and celery.
It really surprised me this morning when it was still dark and no sign of sunrise yet that I looked out through the blinds on the front windows and saw the smol bean Ginza Totoro sitting outside and looking up at the windows. I wonder why she came so early. Always before when she has arrived early, there is at least the start of daylight.
Princess Mononoke is a film that's, I don't know how to describe it, bigger than the other 3 Miyazaki movies I have seen before.
The story is certainly complex and layered. I've enjoyed much of it. But somehow I enjoy more My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away which have a less grand sense to them, but still hint at bigger things.
Not exactly true, but it is real that old law and regulations created a perverse incentive in United States to build pickups and SUVs. That fact along with America's form of toxic masculinity has led to this cultural situation of relentless upsizing of vehicles, mostly to assuage men's egos that their masculinity is intact.
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