Thoughts

There’s a saying in central Virginia (which could apply to many places in the world, but I don’t live in those places, I live here in Virginia), and the saying goes: “If you don’t like the weather here, just wait a minute and it will change.”

About 10:30 this morning I was Skyping with a friend who lives 180 miles west of me. I remarked about the weather here, saying, “It’s bright and sunny today, but that’s going to change soon.” And sure enough, as was foretold in the Prophecies, two hours later, at half past noon, I looked outside and saw that not only had the sky become cloudy, but rain was falling.

As yard work was now off the schedule, I decided to make a big bowl of Mexican rice for consumption later today (and tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that – and furthermore, it might be called Spanish rice. Latino rice? Hispanic rice? ¿Arroz español?) Whatever it is, when I make it I make enough for 4 servings. Usually Mexican rice is a side dish, but for me a serving is a full plate, a meal (and yet only about 310 calories – I did the math). As I mixed the ingredients, I reflected on how containers at the grocery store are shrinking. A 16 ounce can of diced tomato now holds 14.5 ounces. An 8 ounce bag of shredded cheese used to be standard; the bag I purchased holds 7 ounces.  Meanwhile, restaurant meals get ever larger, with big plates and heaps of food: all you can eat buffets … never-ending this or that … decadent desserts … free refills … ultimate deep-fried whatchacallits with extra dipping sauce, and so on. If you go to the restaurant’s website and look at the nutrition section, you’ll be amazed at how many calories are packed into those meals.

I used to eat a lot of lunches at Applebee’s. One of my favorite menu items was the Oriental Chicken Salad. A peek at their nutrition info told me that this innocent sounding meal was 1390 calories, with 1600 milligrams of sodium. The Oriental Grilled Chicken Salad, which sounds healthier, has 1290 calories and a whopping 2190 milligrams of sodium. (The American Heart Association recommends limiting your sodium intake to less than 2,000 milligrams per day.) To be fair, Applebee’s does offer “heart-healthy” menu items – or did when I last ate there. But there seems to be a balance between healthy and tasty, and the more you have of one, the less you get of the other.

The oven timer beeped and I took the arroz a la mexicana out of the oven. It will have to sit atop the stove and cool for a while before it can go into the fridge.

By happenstance, I found out that today, October 17, is Spirit Day. Everyone is supposed to wear purple to show they refuse to tolerate bullying or harassment of LGBT kids, who are frequent targets of bullies. Spirit Day is a fine idea. But there was already a Purple Day (March 26) to promote epilepsy awareness. Couldn’t Spirit Day have picked another color? Breast cancer uses pink, and St. Patrick’s Day uses green, but I think orange is pretty open. I mean, I haven’t observed crowds of people dressed in orange. Football fans, sure, but not regular people.

I’d better go check on that Mexican rice. ‘Til next time, adiós.