Duncan's Blog

I used to think that my blog entries needed to be long and filled with sentences that carried noteworthy messages or grandiose humor. These days I am more in sync with being brief. Perhaps my attention span is shorter as I age. Or, perhaps since I never quite know if I have answered the question, "What's your point ?" I have to leave it up to my own sense and sensibilities that the writing is completed.
I don't write about broad-based subject matters. As a teenager and writer during my 20s and 30s, I wrote about things such as:

• love
• money
• the condition of my car
• friendship(s)
• family
• homosexuality
• education
• freedom
• spirit and/or soul
• organized religion
• conformism

In short, my topics ranged from abstract to concrete. My journals often had transcriptions from the texts that I would be reading and I would use the pages often times to confirm or denounce what the writer was saying or meaning.
There are other subjects that come to mind as I review the list that I have made. There are things that I have learned in very early years that I cherish knowing. I understand the parts of a scale and the components of a staff. I can balance a checkbook. I can follow the instructions of a cookbook. I am willing to weigh and measure the food I consume without argument.
I also engage in philanthropy. Mine might be somewhat different from yours. For example, when I am in San Francisco, I make a point of scheduling myself for a blood donation. I could, of course, donate in my own town, but I feel the need in San Francisco is greater. The population is smaller and there are many people who are unable/unqualified to donate. I support organizations that feed the needy (kitchens/pantries). I support an organization the plants trees in Israel and another that gives support to Ethiopian Jews who want to migrate to Israel.
I also keep a small savings account in a credit union in San Francisco's Chinatown. While I have a half dozen accounts with credit unions, this is the only one that does not offer personal checking accounts. If you need to make a withdrawal, you have to go to the credit union itself. The mission of the credit union is to help establish a credit history for people who might otherwise not have access to financial institutions.
My blog mission is actually somewhat fluid. Does it matter? I don't think so.

Ever have a word in your vocabulary, but were unable to provide a dictionary-like definition? Well, I'm not a lexicographer, which--if you were to look it up--is "a writer, editor, or compiler of a dictionary."
So I was chatting with a professional writer and I was talking about meal planning and I threw in the word pulse. It's "the edible seeds of certain leguminous plants, as peas, beans, or lentils." What makes it different from saying beans? Beans are pulses, but it seems the only part of the bean that is classified as such would be the seed itself (not the pod). Some pods are edible. I don't think I've ever seen the pod in which a lentil grows.

And after I had just written that I decided to look it up. Here it is. Not many seeds per pod. Looks labor intensive to harvest. But the outcome makes some good pickings.
One-half cup of cooked lentils has:

• Calories: 140.
• Fat: 0.5 grams.
• Carbs: 23 grams.
• Fiber: 9 grams.
• Sodium: 5 milligrams.
• Protein: 12 grams.

While I am not a vegetarian, I do make sure that there are fruits and vegetables in the daily choices. This one, I believe will be added more frequently.

I have a variety of beans in the kitchen pantry. Some are used for special dishes, but most are just kept in airtight jars to be boiled up and doled out for the meal. MORE times than not, I follow a simple process of boiling up the beans with bay leaves, savory, chervil, thyme, tarragon, and paprika. Today I chopped in a yellow onion and two cloves of garlic. After it boils, I lower the heat, cover the pot, and simmer for an hour.
It's been breakfast food for me for nearly two years. I scarf it down with a little pork and beans for extra flavor, about 50 g of cooked white rice and some crumbled crackers or crispbread.
I keep the portions small and I look at calorie counts. Today I picked up a protein mix (vanilla flavored hemp) to see if I could add some protein without getting unnecessary fat. It'll include some fruit. For now it's just in the experimental state.

I was a guest in the home of a long-term friend. We both live alone and are not in an LTR with an SO. When we were walking on a busy street he stayed behind me and--at one point--grabbed me from behind and pushed me to the side. I was startled and freaking out because when I'm in a city I don't like being touched (especially from behind). He said someone was trying to pass me and I was 'weaving' left and right.
Later that evening I was on the computer (as I am now) and he came up behind me, put his hands on my neck and began to squeeze. All the while, he was saying, "I'm sorry."
That time I really got weirded out. "Please don't choke me while you say you're sorry. In my culture that sends a very negative message," was what I told him as I grabbed his hands off me.
"I was just massaging you," he said.
I am reminded of the number of times he also says off-the-wall things and follows them with, "I'm just kidding!"
Sometimes I wonder what goes on in the minds of those who are needy. I mean, I'm sure each of us is needy in his own way and some express their needs with greater verbal clarity. I'm better at identifying when someone makes me uncomfortable.
I like to think of myself as the guest who says, "You won't even know I'm here." I guess my vision/fantasy of what that means is different from others. For example, while he was outside on his balcony smoking a Marlboro, I was washing two sinks' worth of dishes, bowls, and utensils that he had piled. He didn't like that I was cleaning something that he was too depressed to work with. He also claimed to be overly sensitive to the light (while outside?).
We only see one another once a year. Maybe I might have to consider visiting someone else next time.

Something there is that doesn’t love a stick shift,
That sends the the brain to counting 1-2-3 with it,
And glides and rolls when roads are sloping down
And stays in lane when ice and snow are gone.

I learned on a stick and whenever it was my total option to pick and choose and pay for the vehicle, it invariably was a stick shift. Finding a good American one has always been tricky. I owned a Chevy Vega and a Chevy Aveo and they were both a POS. I also had a Pontiac Ventura (that was fine). I wound up buying one of those stick on heating wires that were on a sheet of plastic and pasted it to the back window (there was no rear window defroster or built-in heating coils).

These days I have a FIAT 500. Folks tell me it's cute. What 60+ year old guy wants to be told that his car is 'cute'? It's powder blue and it has a sun roof and five on the floor. And on the dashboard I get pictures of snowflakes when the temperatures are in the 30s or the words POSSIBLE ICE or the message SHIFT when it's time to go to a higher gear. But what I love to do most in the car is to ride downhill while in neutral. I can keep my right foot close to the break pedal and let entropy take its course. Never have to worry about snow or about ice. Seldom have to worry about puddles.

The FIAT 500 doesn't handle the uphill incline as well. I think of those trips I take between the North and South and of the stretch of road known as [the] Grapevine, La Cañada de las Uvas, where the car seems to need to be as far right as possible and in a low gear for an uncomfortable period of time.



I've never ridden it in the snow and have no intention of ever doing that. The worst ride was one November between San Francisco and Reno in a 1973 Volkswagen Super Beetle that had big holes in the floor boards. Thankfully, the heater worked at full blast and we had plenty of warm blankets.

Still, I do love to remain in neutral. I feel as if I am winning against gas consumption. I merrily use the power afforded me by the hill and a slide along the way!