Low tide at Broken Glass Beach.

If you ever spent time with me shopping for food you'd get to hear me rant about the common myth that eating healthy food is too expensive. But since only my immediate family is saddled with that burden, I'm going to share the love right here.

Now, as I've mentioned, we tend to buy a lot of our staples in bulk, which definitely lowers our cost-per-meal, but, the truth is, if you're willing to go the route of grains and beans, even shopping at the grocery store is pretty cheap. Also, we've started using more dried beans (rather than canned) which cuts their cost in half. One other thing: we're actually at a disadvantage in that we only have one grocery store. We compensate for this deficiency by buying food through a co-op and a farmer's collective. Kind of gives you a bit of that off-the-grid feeling, so, in the end, it's a net positive. Plus, as everybody knows, local is better.

Pulling myself back from that digression, what I would simply like to do here is point out the cost of a typical meal in our household. Keep in mind that it costs a family of four about $22 to eat at McDonald's and that our meals are quick and easy to prepare. OK, so last night's ingredients:

Quinoa .50
Beans .65
Spinach .99
Diced tomato 1.25
Garlic .15
________________________
Total: $3.54

And we had leftovers!

OK, I confess. I have a cold. I wasn't supposed to get sick because I drink my apple cider vinegar. In fact, I haven't been sick all winter so I was convinced the folk remedy was working, and, in fact, perhaps it was helping to reduce the incidence and severity of the usual common cold. Yet, in the end, perfection will not be mine. As if ever...
But, the thing of it is, I have always had this strange predilection to blame myself whenever I get sick. I don't, like a normal person, think, oh, I got a bug. Instead, I badger myself for some self-perceived bad habit or behavior. Even now, truth be told, I can't help but think these sniffles could have been avoided.
You see, on Wednesday I came home from work and told Cara that I felt like my body needed a rest. But then I felt like I'd be letting Jake down if I didn't go out to the shed and do the Dan John workout. Well, as I probably mentioned, that particular workout left me feeling like an over-cooked strip of bacon. So naturally my immunities were down, and, bam, here I am, lost in a pile of tissues.
Not that anybody cares. We ALL get colds. But hasn't it been fun, prowling around inside my neurotic mind?

View from the tree-stand of the back forty. I took my repose and listened to the trees. How infrequently do we do nothing? You know what I'm talking about, the humanbeing thing. And it's not nothing, when you think about it; perhaps, in fact, communing with nature is the highest ideal. Puts me in a good place, that's for sure.

Today I finished the last of the blackberries we picked and froze last summer. There is something about eating fruit in winter that fills you with a special brand of sunshine.

The last couple of days could only be classified as a fake-out spring, so warm and sunny, to be followed tomorrow by double-digit snowfall and single digit temperatures. Hey, but that's Mother Nature's job: to keep the human folk guessing.

I guess I'll just have to spend the day feeding the fire and putting the water on the boil for black tea--harmless vice or first step on the slippery slope? Reminds me that once upon a time I wanted to open up an espresso bar called Caffeine Dreams. That was back in the day when people read books and sat in coffee joints actually talking to each other and not on their cell phones. So long, long ago...

Front page story in the Bangor Daily News today said that 30% of children in Washington County live in poverty. No surprise to me, but sometimes when you see something in black and white it hits you sort of different. I remember when I first moved here how much it blew my mind how people could live with "million dollar views" but have no food in the refrigerator. Well, nobody will ever accuse anybody around here of being part of the "1%", but don't go thinking this is an isolated problem: 1 out of 5 children in America live in poverty. Shame on us.

You know how I love my Jack LaLanne quotes. I came across one today I hadn't heard before: "Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together and you have a kingdom."

The elixirs will, however, keep you running to the bathroom. I go from green tea to water to apple cider vinegar to red wine to just plain having to go...

Yeah, I know, too much information.

Today was workout #11 of the Dan John program. Though the man is my son's guru, if I ever have the honor to meet him I will have to let him know that his prescriptions are just about killing me. But then you know how it is with the bitter pill... it's bitter.

I stand alone re: Madonna. Everybody I talk to tells me she was fabulous. Years ago Cara and I saw her in a Broadway show. Afterward we stood at the stage door and watched her come out and get into her limo. There was quite a scrum and it was lucky she had burly bodyguards. The price of fame, I suppose, but to us it just seemed kind of scary.

That's why I've limited my blog to 34 followers. Too much attention makes me nervous.

I'm an ice road walker. Thank goodness for Yaktrax.

Let me give you an example of how you can take the boy out of the city but you can't take the city out of the boy. I eat rolled oats for breakfast most mornings. I especially enjoy them with blueberries, banana and dates. But every time I dump a few dates out of the bag I look at them and think, "man, do those look like cockroaches." Not the most appetizing thought, I'll grant you that. But it's beyond my control.

Do you know why you give your bride-to-be a diamond ring when you ask for her hand in marriage? Because she's going to be your "rock" for life. That's what I've come to realize, at any rate.

Madonna. They should have had a billboard behind her with her plastic surgeon's phone number. I mean, for real. You see, I have this fantasy that when I turn 50 (in just a shade over a year) people will say, "but doesn't he look good for his age." But who the heck can look like that?

No matter, a few miles on the odometer gives you that je ne sais quoi. Which is why I tell my wife not to bother dying her hair. Gray is sexy.

This is our new truck farm. We're growing micro-greens on the windowsill so we can have fresh micro-nutrient rich salads even when it's cold and crusty outside. Thanks to a timely suggestion from Stan, we'll most likely be doing a "gutter garden" this summer--more on that later. And, hard to believe, it's just about time to be thinking about the 2012 maple syrup season. Oh, don't we abound in nature's pleasures!