Walking The Dog

My Nine West boots are taking a beating this winter.  Salt, sand and snow. Most of the days, lately, have been miserable days to walk.  One was rain combined with ice.  One was below zero wind chill.  One was heavy snow.  Yesterday was delightful.  Breezy, sunshine, mostly dry streets.  Riley rode the snow piles, running along the tops, down the side, back up again. He'd be great on a snowboard. Later, while I was grocery shopping and Riley was guarding the car in the parking lot, it got dark and started snowing.  What a buzz kill.

G has a "soap opera" atmosphere going on at work.  Lots of people reporting in to him about "she said" and "he said".  G hates that.  He has already had one of the worst of them transferred to another location.  Now the secondary team is reporting in to G.  They are only prepping their own transfer tickets.  He will get rid of every one of them if they don't learn to mind their own business.  Which is selling hamburgers.

I had a plan when I went to the grocery yesterday.  To only shop the outside perimeter.  Unprocessed foods.  In my grocery the perimeter begins with fruits and vegetables, moves past the bakery to the deli, then meats, dairy, frozen foods and finally beer and pizza.  Other than the fruits, veggies and meat, most everything else IS processed.  I had to venture down a few aisles (2-3) to get pasta, Crisco sticks and Marsala wine.  Lucky for me these three items were very close to the edges, where the perimeter wasn't too far away.  I like Crisco sticks.  I love pasta.

I don't know how these things happen but I got onto a blog yesterday about Zero Waste.  Mostly about excess packaging but this blog writer has eliminated any excess in her home. Seven tops, seven pants, 2 skirts and 6 pairs of shoes (one bra).  When something needs to be replaced, she goes to the "thrift" and replaces that one item.  This family lives in Mill Valley, CA.  I have shopped at their "thrifts".  Imagine Rodeo Drive/Goodwill.  The family still has the large flat screen television, 2 cars and a vast amount of glass jars for storage in the high end kitchen and expensive fridge/freezer.  I think I have seen these jars in the William Sonoma catalogs.  Not cheap.  So this blog IS NOT about saving money.  It is about not having anything in the garbage can.  No paper, no plastic, no boxes, no junk mail.

Now, honestly, I think I actually wear only seven tops and seven pants (if I had seven that fit) in my winter rotation.  It might even be fewer.  White LS tees, the two cashmere sweaters (thrifted) and the three pair of thrifted men's corduroy pants.  I cover it all with a handpainted shawl I found in a bag of fabric remnants. So, if I was so inclined (and I am momentarily) I could fold and pack up everything else in the closet and drive over to Goodwill right now and "simplify" my closet.  It is tempting.

I was telling my daughter that I use the same mug for my coffee every day (and have 18 or more in the cupboard that never get used), use the same bowl for my cereal.  Why do I have so many bowls and cups?  I don't want to reduce things to what I used to find at my dad's.  His cup, plate, bowl, spoon, fork and knife in the dish drainer but I can see the value of it's simplicity.  I have more forks and knives and plates in use simply because of the dishwasher.  We only run it when it's full so that takes up a lot of dishes. My mug and bowl only go in on the day we are washing.

Yesterday was an amazing day for television.  Survivor.  Russell got voted off for the first time.  It was delightful.  And Top Chef was so good that no one got eliminated.  Five are going to the final four.  Add that to the delightful dog walk and I was very satisfied with Wednesday.  The UPS man delivered the risers for my Pilates machine (will it arrive today?), I have a haircut at 3 pm, the sun is shining even though it is VERY windy and COLD.  At least it isn't snowing.