Food, The Government Shutdown and Congress

The sunshine disappeared, the skies turned gray and the winds picked up. All that means is the weather is about to drastically change again. This time we are headed for temperatures back in the teens by the weekend and possible snow by Tuesday. That change was off to a good start as the hounds and I stepped outside after their lunch. As you can see neither hound was too enthused about staying outside. I could feel a very cold wind coming from the west, whereas the weather channel shows the front blowing in from the Northwest at first then a big western front early next week. No matter what, our routine will stay on course.

Stella and Heidi waited for me to return from the mailbox. Besides my small card for the water bill, a bill that has not increased in the last four years, mail was nothing more than added fodder to my recycling bin. Those landscape bricks are going to be swapped out for something taller this spring OR I am going to have a load of dirt dumped in this corner then rebuild the yard. I have lost that much ground in the 20 years I've lived here. Meaning, the ground use to be level with the carport floor. Too much erosion? Or not a concern? Let me know what you think.

So I was ready to go back inside where it's warm ... so were they.

Heidi wanted to do something most of the day but was having a hard time conveying to me exactly what she wanted. She acted like she wanted to play but that wasn't it. She didn't want outside again. She had been fed. She had fresh water and she had plenty of attention after she woke from her morning nap. By late afternoon we still didn't have an answer. She finally gave up and went to sleep.

A little after 2:30pm Stella and I decided it was a perfect time for an afternoon walk. I had some pasta for lunch/dinner and I need to walk off some of those extra calories. That meal brings up some of my recent thinking about food the past couple of days. Since I have blood pressure below the normal range for someone my age, height and weight, plus a low resting pulse rate, and I get some sort of daily exercise ... what if I really don't need to lose weight?

What if my body has decided this is where I need to be just as long as I stay away from fast food, junk food and sodas? What would happen or what would the results by the end of December 2019 if I will have eaten nothing but healthy food minus the cookies, candy, sodas and quarter pounders with cheese? I've not eaten like that since my mid to late 20s. Would I still lose weight?

Obviously I cannot follow the Keto way of eating because after one banana and one apple I am already over their 15-20 grams of carbs. I can't go strictly vegan or even lacto-vegetarian because when I tried that last year I felt lethargic most of the time. If I follow meals similar to the Mediterranean Diet I gain weight because there is too much pasta or too much bread or grains. What if I forgot about counting carbs and calories, fat or protein and just ate good healthy food every day. No processed foods, just food from the produce and meat/chicken/seafood isles? Except for coffee.

As far as calories go, those are tracked in the food apps I've used and use today. Most tell me, along with medical articles, that a man my age, height and weight needs 2200 calories per day. That is more than enough food for me. Overall I average somewhere between 1600-1800 per day. There will be days I go both extremes of 1200 or 3000 depending on what I eat that day. I try to shoot for 1500 but with that number I am too hungry after 7pm. 1800 calories seems to be the best ... still those 1800 calories do not include any packaged food, maybe a can of tuna for spreading on a salad, or pasta sauce from a jar (no I'm not making my own). Meaning, my cabinets are not filled with packages of cookies, chips, crackers, candy, breads, ice cream, etc. It has been months since my last gouge on bad food.

I read the other day a study showed that a high carbohydrate diet was good for longevity .... as long as your lived in Okinawa.   :)

The path was wet this afternoon. Since it was 30° that is still cold enough to keep the ice around.

So I am leaning to do what I have been doing. I'll eat when I am hungry with my biggest meal of the day no later than 4pm. I'll keep eating bananas, apples carrots, other fresh fruit and veggies because they are good for you  and carbs don't matter when it comes to good healthy fruit. I'll have a lot of salmon because I love salmon plus I have a great source nearby for fresh caught wild salmon.

I will still have a steak occasionally along with a burger every 3-6 months because they taste good, high in protein and fat - no carbs to speak of. The BIG KEY will be, to resist that urge for a candy bar, a package of oatmeal raisin cookies or "just one" container of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. This spring and summer will be the hardest time of year to stay away from that kind of food.

I will not care knowing that if I had any amount of pasta to my day, most likely that will shove my calorie count over 2200 for the day ... who's counting? who cares?

I know my limits. I have to stay away from any kind of cows milk, any kind of cottage cheese and even the best of the best yogurt. Why? I can drink milk nonstop and within 24 hours a gallon of milk in my house is gone! I know with a container of cottage cheese that it will not last much longer than the milk does, once I open the container. Same with the yogurt ... only a difference ... I have yet to find a yogurt yet that does not give me some sort of indigestion. So  ... none of those kind of dairy ... Kerrygold butter, yes. Eggs, yes, cheeses, yes.

am I am anxious to see how these new thoughts on food shows on my monthly spreadsheet. I'll adjust my food intake from what I see there.

I've must have turned on my tv and off within 5 minutes a million times the past few weeks ... trying to listen to the news, since I do not sit and watch the news. For those that have never worked in government, let it be known that things operate a little differently than a job in a company. I have been in both worlds, corporate and government in the accounting field.

There is so much more to government finances than the media lets on. So much that I cannot even cover all the points of differences here. I'll just mention a couple of things that make this 'shutdown' confusing.

As a government contractor in 2013 I was sent home during a shutdown in the Obama administration. It wasn't long, a week to ten days. By the time my boss called me to come back to work I told him I am somewhere between Arkansas and Missouri driving and being at work by 8am the next morning was not possible. "After all YOU are the one that told me to go home" :)

I was still paid on a regular basis during that shutdown because I took vacation days as did EVERYONE ELSE I worked with!! There was no hardships by those married with kids - they were happy to have the time off!!!

I have also been in a government position. In most cases throughout government nationwide, funds to pay people salaries are already on the books in THEIR department, especially in January the start of the second quarter in a fiscal year. So the shutdown isn't a money thing, there is money available within their departments to pay salaries.

There might be some people in between projects, or a new hire that doesn't have funds set aside for them but I know from personal experience those kind of employees are paid on time with the project money already on the books. The kicker is, depending what type of funding it is, they will have to spend all of it some way by September 30th or lose it as DC takes back the balance. When people are not paid, those balances grow astronomical.

From the personal side ... I'm sorry I don't agree with the "sob story" of food lines, trying to feed my kids, missing a mortgage payment ... etc.

WHY??? "That's terrible" "You suck saying that"

Even the new employee hired a week before the shutdown, they make good money. Very good money. IN MY OPINION after being in their shoes ... the people who are crying to the heavens that Trump or the shutdown is destroying their life .... really???? ONLY BASING THIS ON WHAT I HAVE SEEN WITH MY OWN TWO EYES WHEN WORKING ... those kind of people have a house that they couldn't  afford when they bought it. I mean, they mortgaged out more than they could afford. God bless them if they don't have a fixed rate mortgage. They stretched that monthly payment as much as they could within their budget .... called income and expense.

See along with that house are one or two NEW cars, trucks or suv's. They have $700-~$1,000 per month going out for car payments. "Ah you want at that $65,000 pickup truck but can't afford that monthly payment ??? Let me help you and stretch that loan out 7, 8 or 9 years. Is that better?" says their friend car salesman.

I haven't even got to the credit card mess yet. For those government workers that are strapped for cash driving an older car and bought an older cheaper home or even renting ... I'll bet all the money I have that their credit cards are max'ed out to the maximum balance and there is no more money available .... why??

WHO BUYS GROCERIES WITH CREDIT CARDS THAT HAVE INTEREST RATES OVER 20% ????? Who? .. More people than you can imagine.


Again, based on my personal experience of working for the government, having lunch with co-workers and even having some co-workers show up at my desk more times than I can count saying -----

"I hear you do spreadsheets. Do you think you could make one for me that can tell me where all my money is going , I never seem to have any money left after I get paid?"

Those were people making over $65,000 per year, with kids usually, possibly a single parent. Or a young graduate just starting. Or someone as old as me that just figured out they really want to retire but has not saved a dime for retirement and could see they were not going to have enough to live on after working for the government all their life. They had refinanced their house to keep their lifestyle of the 'rich and famous' going strong all those years.

Now there are those that are innocent, have a savings accounts, have paid for college tuition for their kids, are responsible for their money and stays within budget ... but those people are not the ones crying to the heavens how they are getting screwed.

BTW do you know that most airports hire their security checkers from private firms and not all are TSA employees?

Do you know that 4 out of 6 illegal immigrants have an education level below high school? What kind of job can you get with that?  (Yes, I know Gates nor Zuckerberg finished college) Do they deserve a "living wage" or $15 per hour minimum?

So it's a mixed bag of thoughts for me on this shutdown stuff. I am guessing that Congress will come to some sort of agreement, after both of their bills fail to get passed this afternoon. It will be a deal behind closed doors ... then all the whining and bitching can move to another topic in the media. Just like referees in ballgames, the media reporters make me puke!!!

I did well playing Mahjong today. I also found a new tv series I love on the History Channel called "Project Blue Book" ... my DVR had taped three shows for me. I watched them all back to back. If you like true stories, if you like UFO's, you like history ... then you will like Project Blue Book on the History Channel. Another show I mentioned a few posts ago, is about the start of the internet, the anti-trust suit against Microsoft that they lost, the destruction of Netscape (my favorite browser in the 90's) ... Valley of Boom, their last show is on Sunday night.

Stella of course is not affected by the government shutdown but you can't say she hasn't thought about it. That is a look of some deep thinking from a bloodhound.

While playing Mahjong at the kitchen table I noticed the water rising from the flooded creek that borders both fields across the highway.

By 5pm there were signs of unexpected snow. No urge to nap after that pasta I ate. No urge to read ... just urges to hang out and enjoy another day of retirement. Tell me what you think about my food thoughts or my thoughts on the government stuff.

It's been another nice day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

In The Middle Of The Night

4:10am ???

My eyes are wide open in a room filled with darkness and two sleeping hounds. There isn't a sound anywhere. No wind, no rain, no trucks on the highway, nothing. I can remember something about a dream but nothing of what it was about. I tap my watch face and can't believe the time of day.

I'm wide awake.

I give it my best shot to get back to sleep but I know within seconds, it's not going to happen. No, I didn't go to bed at 7pm nor 8pm, not even 9pm but here it is now 4:25am and I am flipping on the light and changing clothes. I'm wide awake and well rested! Within the 15 minutes I spent trying to get back to sleep, Heidi had woke up and did her normal full body shake with the sound of her ears flapping. It happens every morning, no matter what time it is. Stella for once was not moving, not awake and she is usually the first one of three of us to wake up. Obviously in a deep dream state as her paws were moving in a high-speed run through the field.

What am I going to do at 4:30am?


Same thing as always. Hounds out, kibble poured, they eat, I make coffee, they go back to sleep in the bedroom, I am on my computer reading.

Flipboard is a free app where you can choose what categories of news or articles you want to read. I do not have any categories that deal with news ... sports news, yes ... not news. A lot of these articles are what I call "off stream media" ... Flipboard does all the hard work it would take me to find these articles.

The only other option would be, signing up for a newsletter from a hundred different magazine, blogs, sports sites, dog sites, camping sites, technology, gadgets ... you get the picture.

All my reading was finished by 6am. I was a little surprised how active the highway is at 5am with people going to work 12 miles away or catching the Interstate and heading to work 30 miles away. I remember there were times 13 years ago where I would be one of them. I'd be at my desk by 6am, getting more work done between 6am - 8am, then I would between 8am - 5pm.

Winston was just a puppy then and Sadie had not been born yet. Bertha was the bloodhound of the house at that time. On Friday's they could go to work with me and meet the other dogs from 20 different co-workers. All but a few had dogs for pets. Or, I'd make a trip home for lunch and let them out mid-day. They probably spent more time alone than with me ... but they were inseparable.

So sitting here a little after 6am, I asked myself, what am I going to do now?

I could and am writing this blog post, at least up to this point but that presents problems. I now have to insert one picture at a time between the paragraphs that I choose. It is much faster to post all the pictures first and then type content between them. Really it's faster than what I will be doing today.

Another reason I started this early ... it's been raining lightly the past hour. It's strange that the Intellicast Radar shows the whole southern part of the state free of any rain, snow or clouds. So maybe our walk at 8am will not be postponed after all.

What am I going to blog about? It's only 6:33am and I have nothing to do.

What I ended up doing was scan some pictures of a basset hound I had in the past. I will be blogging about her and it will be the post this evening. Maggie was a lot like Heidi or I guess I could say that Heidi is a lot like Maggie was 17+ years ago.

The radar was clear, but there were signs it had rained sometime. I could tell that by the landscaping blocks in front of the carport. Stella and I decided we would at least start the walk and see how wet it was. I am going to pull those four stepping stones up and have the landscaping business bring me a large rock to place there. It's a place where the rain has aways dripped from an overflowing gutter or collected heavy rain. That rock will help keeping the ground a little more stable.

These boots are too good to being labeled snow boots. I wear them as rain boots or muddy field boots too. They are very lightweight, comfortable and fit much nicer with a slightly thinner pair of wool socks.

Stella was back into exploring on her own, at her pace. It was wet and cold but no wind, so it wasn't that bad. I did not catch her eating any deer scat and most of her 'nose to the ground' work was collecting scent data. Instead of following her this morning I decided I'd let her go while I stayed on the path and hopefully we would meet at the point where I would turn and head for home. She was close as she walked just a few feet in front of me, not quite to the final turn.

As you see, she was back in the brush. A place that still has sharp thorns, and enough wild growth that she can get tangled up trying to get back out into the field. Being strong, she just marches through any thick thorny brush.

We are mentally preparing for this Sunday's single digit temps. Not 'we' really ... 'I'is more like it. Where last year we went for over 30+ days straight not having a high temperature more than freezing at 32°, this year almost all of our high temps have been 38° and higher. This is almost exactly the same kind of winter we were having in January 2016.

There she goes ... let's see if she and I can meet up after taking two different paths with no verbal herding.

She is there ... can you see her?

She thought she was headed for the fence line, the path the deer take, but I told her I was going home so she stopped, stared at me and then turned left to follow me on the path homeward.

A foggy day for that AT&T tower.

The walk always seems slower than the last, as she spends more time exploring but by the time I turn off the Activity App, total time is always within two minutes each day.

With me already having a post put together for publishing tonight, I'll be out doing some shopping today. The last of the coffee was used this morning so that dictates a grocery store run no matter what I want to do. I have added the 'new' way to shop to my Any List app so I'll not forget coffee or the water filter. If I did not have a grocery list on my phone, I wouldn't remember half the food I need to buy. With both hounds sleeping until lunch, it's the perfect time to sneak away. I'll be back in time before Stella could go nuts wanting lunch and attempt another breakout.

There may be a government shutdown going on but I received both of my government sourced funds this month electronically and an email notice that my Federal Tax Return was received by the IRS. It's interesting how they pick and choose what will be closed. When I worked for the government they use to keep 'essential personnel' working even when a department was shut down like this. It sounds like Trump is not giving in and the 'tag team' of Chuck and Nancy aren't either. They must have deepened their tan in Puerto Rico last week with all the other Democrats that decided to leave DC instead of work. Can government personnel file for unemployment? Honestly I don't know.

Well I am out of words ... scrambled thoughts ... and I've lost my train of thought ... that happens when I have things to do I guess.

It's cold, wet, foggy and quiet this morning in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.