You’ve probably seen the ads for home-delivered ingredients that you construct into dinner, or pre-packaged meals that you microwave or cook in a special oven. The concept of prefab meals is common in weight loss programs such as Jenny Craig or Nutrisystem. However, the new companies are targeted toward busy families.
The selling points of these companies are easy to follow recipes, less food waste, and less need to go shopping. Julian refers to these meals as “cook by number.” There are many limitations to these programs.
You’ll still have to go shopping for staples. Not all of the food you eat in a given week will come in the box. And these companies don’t deliver tissues, paper towels, or toilet paper.
Consider the capacity of your refrigerator and freezer. The standard-issue apartment freezer could easily get stuffed with meal constituents for a family of four.
While we’re on the subject of cold storage, these meals may be packed in dry ice in styrofoam containers. Dry ice could be a coveted commodity once Covid-19 vaccines get shipped across the country. One of these vaccines has to be shipped and stored at -94° Celsius (about -137° Fahrenheit). And how environmentally sustainable is all of that packaging?
The amount of food for a particular meal may not be sufficient for households with teenagers.
Families who have food allergies or intolerances may have problems finding meals that everyone can eat. Although a given meal may be “free” of allergens, the packaging machines may have been used in previous runs for allergens such as gluten, corn, eggs, dairy, or nuts.
While these companies offer portion control and easy recipes for novice cooks, it’s not clear to me that they save money. Sustainability is also an issue. Bottom line: Learn how to use a knife and make your own meals with ingredients you buy yourself.
The Seattle area has a relatively high percentage of people who wear masks. Unfortunately, many folks who drop masks don’t pick them up. On my short bike ride yesterday, I noticed at least two discarded masks along the trail.
In the words of the 1960s ad campaign, please don’t be a litterbug. Pick up your mask if you drop it and dispose of it properly.
Halloween is rapidly followed by All Saints’ Day and Day of the Dead. While these days commemorate those who have gone before, I think we need to honor the living who are enduring much in these times.
The “essential workers”: Police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, grocery workers, retail pharmacists, farmers, farm workers, and food processing plant workers..
Hospital personnel who have rejoiced when they’ve saved lives and mourned when they couldn’t.
Nursing home workers, who are doing their best to keep their residents healthy. Special props to the staff of my mother’s facility. NONE of the residents have developed COVID-19 to date.
Families who can’t gather for holidays, weddings, or funerals.
Children who have been forcibly separated from their parents – and who may never be reunited.
Teachers who are attempting to teach students remotely with iffy or nonexistent internet access.
I noticed a chain of origami paper cranes tied to a footbridge in the park across the street from our home. A note was attached to the chain. The cranes were folded in memory of an emergency room nurse who died of COVID-19. We’ve gone to the bridge twice since our initial discovery. The chain of cranes is still there, a little weathered but intact.
The challenger in Washington’s gubernatorial race is a virus denier. His whole platform seems to be that citizens of Washington shouldn’t have to wear masks in public places, that it’s an abridgment of freedom. I’d like him to be confronted by family members of the over 2,000 people in our state who’ve died of COVID-19, like this nurse. Only by sacrificing a little freedom in the short term can we gain control over the virus and resume our normal activities. Mask wearing and social distancing save lives.
Julian put our ballots in the drop box at Bothell City Hall last week. They were received at the Board of Elections on Monday, and had been counted on Wednesday.
If you haven’t submitted your mail-in ballot yet, I strongly suggest that you take it to an official drop box. The Postal Service has had difficulty getting mail delivered on time, especially in swing states. (Coincidence?) I’m expecting a package from a business in downtown Seattle that was mailed on Tuesday and still hasn’t arrived yet. Once you submit your ballot, use your county’s website to be sure it arrived in time to be counted. Washington allows ballots to be postmarked by Election Day; however, other states require ballots to arrive on or before Election Day. Make sure your vote is signed, sealed, delivered, and counted.
I know, I should be thankful to have a job where I can work from home. However, seven months of working from home with no end in sight can get anyone squirrelly. You know you’ve been working from home for too long when:
Business casual attire is clean pajamas or sweats.
Casual Friday attire is a 25-year-old Pearl Jam t-shirt you thought you’d thrown out years ago.
You don’t care about the unibrow because your overgrown bangs cover it.
You can’t remember the last time you shaved. (Razor? What’s that?)
The trip to the grocery store is the highlight of your week.
You’re on a first-name basis with the Grub Hub delivery person.
You haven’t had to hit up an ATM for cash or fill up your car’s gas tank for weeks, if not months.
You squint like a naked mole rat that’s come to the surface whenever you go outside.
You choose your virtual meeting background to send subliminal messages to your coworkers.
Paris, Hawaii, or some far-flung place. Damn pandemic! I’m supposed to be here right now!
Kitchen. It’s lunchtime. Let’s wrap up this meeting already!
Bedroom. What’s up with a 7 am meeting? Or, I live with stir-crazy banshees trying to do online school in the living room.
Outdoors. My home is a pit.
Bookcase. Look at this! I’m so well-read! (Never mind that I can’t get rid of anything, even my college textbooks or documentation for Windows 95, and I’ve never cracked the spines on many of these books.)
As I’ve mentioned before, Washington is a 100% vote by mail state. This is a highly civilized way to do things. You can sit at the kitchen table with the voters’ guides and your beverage of choice while you fill in the ballots. The state even picks up the tab for postage. Not only is this method civilized, it’s far less prone to the chicanery that can occur with other voting methods. There is a paper trail to confirm a voter’s choice. No hanging chads, either. We can track our ballots with the number on the stub that detaches from the sheet.
Our ballots arrived today. Both of us completed voting by 7:30 pm. Julian will take the ballots to the drop box at City Hall, to make sure that they get to the Board of Elections. Although Washington allows ballots to be counted as long as they’re postmarked by Election Day, we don’t want to take chances.
Whoever you choose to vote for, vote as early as you can and make sure your ballot is counted. If you don’t exercise your right to vote, you lose your right to complain afterward if things don’t go your way.
The fall onslaught of rain has begun here. We’re supposed to have back to back to back storms that are predicted to dump an inch of rain each. This afternoon’s storm had thunder, lightning, and hail. These are not usually part of fall rain in the Seattle area.
When the weather turns soupy, my thoughts turn to making soup. Last night’s soup was my reliable hot and sour Cambodian fish soup. Julian actually suggested making it. The recipe calls for catfish, but I refuse to pay $14 a pound for what upstate New Yorkers call bullheads. Rockfish is half the price and works just fine in this recipe.
Tomorrow I may make lentil soup and serve it with the rye bread I made today with Yeast Mode.
What’s up with all of the beards I’ve seen during the pandemic? Have razors become the latest shortage? Politicians like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, although Paul subsequently got rid of his. (One unruly mop of hair on his head was probably enough.) Football players. Apple Store employees.
The preponderance of facial hair can make it difficult to fit a mask properly. When we were at the Apple Store last week, about half of the male employees had bushy beards that pushed out their masks. This should be concerning, especially in areas where social distancing may not be feasible.
A friend of mine is a pediatrician who’s had a beard for 40 years. He recently downsized to a goatee to make sure his face masks would fit snugly when he saw patients and their parents. A word from a wise man.
Autumn arrived with a deluge right on the equinox. It rained most of the week. The Sun finally peeked out late on Friday. The plants on the upper deck are waterlogged. I think I’ve harvested the last padron peppers of the season. The tomatillo and golden berry plants did nothing. I should probably finish off the basil with one last batch of pesto. The only herbs showing much are the parsley and Vietnamese coriander. As many teams and farmers have said, wait’ll next year.
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