Post holiday...

First of all, I know I've been absent from these here parts for about a week. I have been having problems staying on line. It has been frustrating. I tried a few days ago to catch up on some blog entries and suddenly I would lose the connection to the web. However here I am, hopefully until I finish this.

I hope my U.S. friends had a fun 4th. Mine was fairly quiet. A cookout gathering next door at Arlene's. Driving around was a combination of spooky and nice. Spooky because normally there's a lot of traffic and there was hardly any when I went to the store. Yes I went to buy some beer. Nice, because this suburb of Boston suddenly looked like Mayberry. There is much road work going on in the area, not just my city but the whole metropolitan area. I'm sure the awful winter had something to do with it. The 9' of snow is still very fresh in our memories. The 4th turned out beautiful. I tried to convince Arlene to take a ride down to the river where there is a clear view of the Boston skyline.
This would be a good spot to view the fireworks downtown but she wanted to stay put. I didn't eat much except for a piece of a 3 layer cake. It was tasty. I had nary a hot dog or hamburger. The last time I had a hot dog was 3 years ago on the very same day. At that point I hadn't had one since 2007. I am very sodium conscious. I am in good health but I do need to watch my sodium. I haven't used a salt shaker since 2007. That was a wake up year for me. I went to the doctor for a check up for the first time in probably 20 years. The main reason for that was, one day, back then I had a problem with my waist size. Suddenly the waist size I had had since high school was expanding. I knew I was out of control. Long story short, I dropped 30 pounds.

When I do work, on a part time basis, in a deli in a supermarket, I see people ordering the reduced salt items thinking that they are eating healthy. They will ask about salt content. I am pretty familiar with most of the items. What people don't seem to grasp is the number of milligrams of sodium in a cold cut is broken down to a 2 ounce servings. on some items that could be about a slice and a half to 2 slices. Imported ham is amongst the worst with 700 to 800 milligrams per 2 ounce serving. American cheese is about the worst cheese when it comes to sodium. A serving size for cheese is 1 ounce and American cheese can range from 350 to 400 milligrams per 1 ounce serving, depending on the brand. You could have a ham and cheese sandwich and consume up to 30 to 40 percent of your daily sodium intake. And American cheese is not really cheese. It's proper name is "American cheese food product". Doesn't that sound tasty. Swiss on the other hand is naturally low in sodium. About 60 to 70 milligrams per one ounce serving. Fat content on the other hand is a different story but I don't feel like getting into that at the moment, All I'm saying is that if you are watching your intake of sodium or fat you have to be aware how the numbers are broken down. Foods are marked, "low sodium", "lower sodium", "reduced sodium", "less salt" and so on in an effort to get you to buy their product. All I'm saying is be aware of the serving size when reading the break down of ingredients.

Ok. I don't know how I got on that kick. Sometimes these things just happen. Within a couple of weeks I will be making plans for our next trip to the island in September. I heard this morning that the President will be going back in late August. I would love to be there when he and his family arrive but we are going in September. While working one day last week I saw one of my regular customers wearing a "Black Dog" t-shirt. That's a store on the Vineyard sort of made famous by James Taylor back in the early '70s. We started talking about different places on the island. She told me she was there the last time the President went. Her daughter was in Nancy's Restaurant...

...when the secret service came in and told everyone that the President was coming. They could all stay but nobody else was being let in. Arlene and I have eaten there twice. It was very good but very pricey. Now you could almost say that of every place on the island but this was the most expensive place we ever ate at. I'm sure there even more expensive places, especially in Edgartown. That's where very well heeled people live. We tried to get into the place next to Nancy's, behind the flag pole, but it was full. So we gave Nancy's a shot. We ended up on the outside deck. I know I've posted these pics before, but they are such nice memories that I like to relive them. It was wonderful to be one the deck overlooking Oak Bluffs harbor and watching the sun go down as we ate, and yes drank.

So we will miss the President again by about 3 weeks. As the French say, "C'est la vie". If that's how it's written. We are lucky to be able to do this in the first place. This will be our 11th trip since 2010.

Getting back to the 4th, there was an emergency at the gathering at Arlene's house. The whole shebang was thrown by Arlene's brother and his wife, who live in the second floor. The emergency? They ran out of toilet paper, now of course referred to as bathroom tissue. Arlene came to me and asked if I could spare a roll of toilet, bathroom tissue. Now even though I live conveniently next door and am well stocked in said item, as I left my place and walked down the sidewalk I wondered how I could explain walking down the sidewalk with a roll of toilet paper if asked? Of course I could just say the truth and maybe share a chuckle with someone or the police, it still was a little weird.

Ok so far so good. I have not been thrown off line. It's time to get on with some of many domestic chores. So far all I've done today is eat, take the trash out and write this.
Ciao!
I'm outta here.