2009.1 Encore!? A Bunch of Thoughts Strung Together To Set The Crazy-Soup Tone For The New Year

A'ight, here we go again.  Let's see.  Second verse, same as the first?

I do hope not, but one does wonder whether one will become a repetitive bore after a while.  I looked in my archives to see what I did last New Year's Day, and all I did was have a stash sale.  No "Happy New Year," nothing.

That is a funny exercise, going back and looking through my archives.  I will sometimes go, "Wow, that was a pretty good post," or "Hey, I remember thinking that photo was crap, but it's actually not so bad," or "I do not remember that at ALL. I'm so glad I blogged it."  But then sometimes I go back looking for something good or interesting and say, "Huh?  All I did last New Year's Day was have a stash sale?"

Nutso. 

Crazy soup.

I thought about it a bit more and wondered why such a banal post for New Year's Day?  And then I remembered:  Abigail was home for a much-needed breather and serious soul-searching and decision time about whether she would keep on acting or not (she is not any longer -- she loves acting, was meeting with excellent success, but hates the actor's life, so now she's applying to law schools), and my little Vincent was suffering pretty badly.  I was carrying him up and down stairs, he was in a great deal of pain, and I was facing his final days.  Now I'm all teary-eyed, remembering.  I miss him a lot, still.  He really owned my heart, that little guy.  I still accidentally say his name when talking to or about Mr. Jefferies, and David, who claimed to only ever "tolerate" him all those years, still recalls fond memories about him, too. He actually brings Vincent's name up more often than I, and uses the following words, "I loved it when Vincent......"  Just tolerated? I think not.  Funny how that works, eh? 

Everybody in my extended family loved The Vincent, and everybody misses him terribly.  My mom is a dog person, and she is already smitten by little Mr. Jefferies.  At our last visit with him, she said to me, "Next thing we know, you'll be getting one of these little dogs."  I know that is a whole lot of wishful thinking on her part, because she adored Vincent and loved to watch him often, without the responsibility of pet ownership.  Me, I'm not ready for another.  My life is too busy, too unpredictable, my days sometimes too long, I like to be free to travel on a whim, and a dog, especially a little dog, needs routine and consistency. 

Speaking of long days, that Ally of mine is going to be getting me up at oh-dark-thirty for the entire month of January.  Seven-blech-thirty lectures every morning!!!  When she first told me, I grabbed my throat and made GACK sounds.  Made a very big spectacle of myself, I did.  But I love it, and as we all know by now, if I set my mind to something..... well, either I'm going to be fine or someone's gonna DIE; not sure which.  Hahaha.  It'll be all right.  Most days I will be able to get home early and take a nap.  I hope I will pull out the reserves and get my arse to the gym. 

I love this article, mostly the title.  Backwoods Vermont.  Yeah, I guess that's right.  I guess I shall have to try some of those restaurants. 

Here's another title I recently read to a travel article:  "Road to Happiness Has No Itinerary."  Love it. 

The other day when I was wheeling my overfilled cart out of a certain healthy food emporium I frequent, I stopped at the bin of donations for the food shelf.  I am forever stunned at what people will buy and put in there.  Of course pasta abounds, which seems like it could be a good food -- unless you're like me (and many other people) who don't do well at all with wheat, and there is no protein or any other nutrition, really, in a box of plain white pasta.  If I were hungry and that's all there was, of course I'd eat it, but it would be detrimental to my health, leading to all kinds of other problems for a person of limited means.  Ever wonder why there is so much obesity amongst the poor?  But this one takes the cake:  Rice cakes.  About four bags of rice cakes.  Someone actually put that in the food shelf bin.  I mean, I guess it's something -- kudos for the thought, I guess -- but man, if I'm hungry, you might as well give me a bag of air. 

A jar of peanut butter or a can of tuna would have cost probably the same amount, and would be filled with oh, so much more nutrition.  A box of oatmeal would cost less.  Where are people's heads?  Honestly!  I had so hoped that Vermont had built up an immunity to stupid people, but alas, it is not so.

So to counteract the rice cake dumbass, I went and bought another one of those very convenient "Fund A Meal" boxes that the Hannaford supermarkets are now selling.  Yes, there is pasta in there, but there are also protein-filled items and vegetables and fruits. 

Of course, the better thing is to just send money.  We do that on a monthly basis, but the rice cakes really just made me snap. 

 

Comments

[sue b]

all the best for the new year to you and those you love

[sandy]

Happy New Year, Norma! Bring it on, 2009! It seems like yesterday we were all getting ready for Y2K and waiting to see if planes would crash out of the sky and nuclear bombs going off willy nilly. Time flies, huh?
LX
(I think of Vincent often, poor babe. And I say FIG all the time. ALL the time)
LXLX

[Kristen]

Happy new year!

[elizabeth a airhart]

happy new year i like haveing you around
you are like a fortune cookie never
know when you open it what will be written

[AnnaMarie]

I always figure that rice cakes are like those styrofoam packing peanuts with flavoring. I suspect they'd have the same nutrition count.

I'm glad to hear I won't miss my daily Norma this year. It was a bit of a worry....

[marianne]

Odd as this may sound, when I open your blog I always take a tiny pause and glance at the banner, say 'Mornin' Norma, lovely as ever' and end with looking at Vincent, hiking his leg, which always makes me smile. I always have something to say to him also. I can well imagine how much you miss him. Like you, I've not gotten another dog or cat, for various reasons, but... Aardron and his family got a 10 month old basset hound, Katie, from Santa. She's huge. I am so very smitten by the lass.
I remember your stash sale, with great fond memories. Seriously, rice cakes? What were they thinking? Never mind.
Happy New Year (the 1 Jan one), with best of wishes to you and your loved ones. Plus, I want to come to Vermont, great article.

[Debbie]

Happy New Year!
A few years ago I volunteered to sort through donated food items during a food drive. I was shocked by how many donated items were outdated. That is why they needed a volunteer to sort it all out.

[Nora]

The last time I volunteered at the Hunger Task Force packing boxes for various shelters, I was appalled to see what some people were donating - clearly, they were using the opportunity to clean out the dark recesses of their pantry cupboards, and coming up with things like tea bags from Chinese takeout, jars of gravy with date stamps from the 80s, and cans of Slimfast.

May I be the first of 2009 to say this is why we hate people?

[Carole]

Did you really think Vermont would be exempt from stoopid people? They are everywhere. Happy New Year, Norma!

[Anne]

Maybe the rice-cake donation person was a tourist. Yeah. That's it - a tourist.

Here's to a happy 2009 for you and yours, m'dear! One of my 2008 highlights was getting to see you!

[CindyCindy]

I always get the most wonderful kick when I look at the banner with Vincent marking the garden. It cracks me up. As for the food? It really just shows us how uninformed Americans are about nutrition, doesn't it? Happy 2009, Norma.

[Renee]

Yeah, thanks for letting me start 2009 with a little bit O'Norma for Jan.1!
Have a fabulous first day of the year.

[Ann]

Happy Vermont New Year, Norma! May you have many stories to make us laugh our asses off and Pee our pants! Rice cakes and styrofoam peanuts-I loved your readers analogy!

[Leslie]

Happy 2009, Norma. I look at that banner Dave made you every day and smile. It really is a good representation of you except there's no gym oriented photo...

I walk past that fund a meal display in my Hannaford's and wonder if that's $10 retail or wholesale?? The way prices vary between my local store (only grocers in town) and the one in the next town over (local store's prices are a BUNCH higher) makes me doubt any humanity on Hannaford's part. Cynical? moi? You betcha!

[margene]

I call my dogs Murphy all the time. They are ever in our hearts. GIving money to the food bank is a great way to go. They can turn a dollar into $9 of food.
Happy New Year, my friend. At least we'll have you to read daily. I'm going to miss Sandy and Terry and everyone else who doesn't continue!

[Barbara M.]

When I was teaching at a homeless shelter, the food drive people said what they really needed was tiny jars and cans of prepared food, like soups or stews. Seemed crazy to me.... I always tried to donate BIG jars and cans, figuring it was more food. But they said a lot of people lived in single rooms with no heating or storing (i.e., refrigerators!) facilities, and that the tiny cans meant they could be heated by holding them under running hot water, and no leftovers meant less food poisoning from eating improperly stores leftovers. I never would have thought of that! So sometimes what seems foolish to us is what really makes sense for the needy. But rice cakes! I'm with you on the peanut butter, which doesn't need heat or refrigeration, and is full of protein.

Happy New Year, Norma! I was so pleased to open up and find you're still here!

[Elizabeth]

All the best in the coming year Norma!
I always enjoy a bowl of crazy soup.

[Mary K. in Rockport]

Yea, you're here! Now my morning feels right. (By the way, I was thrilled to see my name at the top of your yesterday's post. I am blogless and intend to remain so but am not without ego...)Have you heard of Plumpinut? "60 Minutes" has done several pieces on it; it is a mix of peanut butter, dried milk, oils and vitamins, as I recall, doesn't spoil, doesn't need possibly contaminated water to mix, can be dropped from airplanes, and can be licked or eaten with a finger. It is aimed at starving children to enhance their nutrition before they can even be rehydrated. The gap between our world and the third world is unimaginable. Rice cakes, yikes.

[--Deb]

Lovely post (and agreed about the idiots donating empty calories), but that first line? Don't you DARE put that song in my head!!

Happy new year!

[Cookie]

Where's the stash sale? Isn't that how you always start a new year?

I miss him, too. And Fig and my Precious. It was a hard year on us for pets, wasn't it? Hopefully, this year will bring us comfort.

Happy New Year, The Norma!

xo

[claudia]

I just laughed my ass off seeing you come up on my Bloglines with a post today.

BAA (Blog Addiction Anonymous), anyone?

;-)

[gayle]

A big bowl of crazy-soup is just what a body needs!
I was going to point out the ricecakes = styrofoam connection, but someone beat me to it... Seriously, do people really eat those things?
I'm so glad you're going to roll on with the posting!

[kmkat]

Do not denigrate your 2008 January 1 post. I was the happy purchaser of some of your yarn: Brooks Farm Acero and a whole load of red superwash worsted. And someday I will actually take photos of it and update my Ravelry stash page. Someday. Have a happy 2009! You have my sympathies on having to get up at the butt-crack of dawn (that is my new favorite expression), but think of all the lovely sunrises you will get to see! ::ducks and runs::

[Julie]

Not only do I love your posts, but I love E. Airhart's comments. I've seen food donation boxes with jello in them. I mean, c'mon! I prefer sending money to the food bank - they know how to use it better than I ever would.

[Beebs]

What a great start to 2009! Thank you for continuing to blog.

[Marilla]

Happy New Year Norma. I was happy to see you are still blogging. I used to run a food pantry and it was an eye opening experience for me. I think people can't bear to throw food out, even if it is dated three years ago, and they figure that poor people are so desperate that they will eat anything. Another thing that people don't think about when donating to a food pantry is that paper products and personal care products are a good thing to donate because they cannot be bought with food stamps, nor can diapers. So people with food stamps can buy food, but no soap, detergent, toilet paper, etc. I agree that the best thing to donate is money, because then the food pantry can buy what they need.

[Manise]

Happy New Year Norma!

[Birdsong]

Happy New Year! It's hard to make room in your heart for a new doggie when it is still feels bruised from the loss of the dear favorite... I love to see Vincent in your banner too. Bless your bleedin' heart for bringing up the food pantry... now is certainly the right moment for people to be keeping donating in their thoughts, as it looks like it will be awhile before things get much better economically.

[Jane]

Happy New Year, Norma!

[dana]

mark bittman is great!!
lucky for me i can and do live in california. at least, i think it is lucky. even in today's fog.

15 years have gone by and i still miss my rosie dog. three dogs later. i love the ones i have now, and miss the ones that are gone.