1. Obviously the big story for many of us living in the greater Boston area is the water main break which burst on Saturday morning in Weston, MA. For anyone reading from afar the recap is that there was a "catastrophic" pipe break (to give you a sense the pipe is 10 feet in diameter) that supplies water to 30-something towns/cities including Boston.
Some 2 million people, 700,000 households, have been affected and are being asked to boil all water used for drinking, brushing teeth, washing hands, doing dishes, etc. 8,000,000 gallons of water spilled per hour for quite some time. That is one big ass pipe and that is a lot of people who have no clean water. I have to admit, I've heard news stories in past where there has been a water contamination and household have to boil water for safe consumption. I felt bad, but like many others probably didn't give it a second thought. Now my home, along with so many others, is realizing just how dependent on clean water we are. Mind you, I could give up drinking water and substitute soda for a few days without a problem. What is the BIGGEST inconvenience to me is the whole issue of food preparation and cleaning. You all know what a crazy germaphobe I am...well this is a total psychological nightmare for me. I'm terrified not only I but my small child is going to end up with ecoli or a parasite if one drop of contaminated water touches our lips, food, hands, etc. Ordinarily this would have been a perfect diet assistance...you can't properly prepare your food, so go into starvation mode. For me it just meant lots more bites of junk processed food including some of that dreaded Easter basket candy. I have all but taken a tomato to be prepared and dipped it into boiling water on the stove to avoid illness. I took my first shower in three days a short while ago (at my gym with my daughter as they are not under a boiled water order). They say it's OK to use water to shower, but really, if it's not safe for hand washing and I'm suppose to be vigilant about keeping my mouth shut in the shower, there is NO way I'm stepping food in that water! I have to say after a few days you don't really notice the dirt and grime. Nor do you require an elastic to keep your hair out of your face...the grease more or less takes care of that on its own! I am pretty sure that the majority of my readers are in the same boat and all I can say is that I hope in the next day or two we can start to use our water in normal ways again. Otherwise, I may end up in the loony bin.
2. It was a big weekend of chores, much of which utilized the fabulously warm weather to work on the outside. Lots of garden bed preparation, seeding, mowing, clean-up. Both my husband and I are tired sore puppies after a lot of manual labor. It makes me realize that I'm not only getting older, but I'm painfully out of shape. I say this every year and every year I feel a little worse about my physical condition. Oh well, it sort of serves as motivation for us both to keep up with our activity level. On a plus side, I have to think that some of all this labor can be counted as "working out."
3. We did not get to use the kayaks this weekend. In large part because my husband (after a 2 week absence) was in slave driver mode. He was desperate to "get stuff done" which meant no time for fun. Sigh. Furthermore, with the damn water situation we really couldn't justify cleaning/disinfecting the kayaks that had been left to the outdoor elements for 2 years. Hey, I guess it was probably a good thing, I think I have my hands full of germs with just the house water alone much less dirty kayaks!
4. My husband and I have set ourselves on a pretty strict financial diet if you will. We are trying life on a budget for a change. I love to garden and generally don't think too hard about what I spend on our summer decor. However, this is a new time for us and calls for desperate measures. We decided to steal rocks from the woods to edge our garden. I should have brought my camera but he was such a nut about it insisting that what we were doing was probably illegal I'm sure there would have been no time for photographic memories. I didn't see what the big deal was...I mean, who likes all those pesky rocks you trip over on hiking trails anyway? I'm sure the woods won't miss a few. Now if I've done something really bad, I hope you'll all pretend I never wrote this at all! The point being, this contributed to my weekend exercise program as well. We hauled out with the help of our 3 year old (perhaps we've inadvertently started her on a life of crime at an early age) one large bucket and four reusable grocery shopping bags full of rocks. Unfortunately we are going to have to play "rock bandit" again next weekend as we still need more for the garden edges.
5. I actually managed to exceed my exercise goal of two swims this past week and did three. I do have pool stories but those have to stand on their own. I was happy to have swam a total of 6 miles and hope it helps with the weight loss this week. For some reason I'm predicting a very low loss or no loss. I just feel like I am overdue for a plateau and I'll bet it will be the week I'm ready to crack into the 50's. We'll see tomorrow. Given the water situation and the clean showers available there, that could be a motivator for me to swim everyday this week!!
6. My husband made a "real" dinner on Saturday night. After all day laboring in the yard and in the house I was too tired to finagle his menu too much. Luckily he'd run a few ideas by me and I picked what had low to no point ingredients. I wish I had taken a picture because the food was very good and it was easy to eat a "regular" meal. Added bonus, I didn't have to cook. It was a pork tenderloin with a rhubarb chutney. A stuffed tomato with a lime cilantro corn/roasted red pepper mix (I'm going to try to use this as a base and do some new recipe for future to make more of a main course) and an artichoke. The only struggle was that I "ruined" the artichoke by using I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray. I'm surprised the artichoke police didn't come and take me to food jail. Really, an artichoke is the perfect vehicle for butter, garlic infused butter even better! And right now at Whole Foods they have those JUMBO artichokes which are so damn good. I have to go stock up and train myself to think spray butter tastes the same as real butter. Anyway, the point is that I loosened up a little (although I think my husband would beg to differ as I still measured and weighted things) and found I could eat "real" food.
As you can tell, I had lots to say despite the fact I'm so tired I don't even know how I can find the energy to walk up to my bed. It was a good weekend, a productive weekend. Let's hope that will translate to a productive Monday weigh-in tomorrow! Until then, hope everyone has an enjoyable remainder of this fine Sunday night!
1 comments:
I plateaud last week and actually went up a tiny bit. Boo! But I'm having some (ahem) stomach problems and hoping that this week makes up for it. We'll see! Good luck with the water situation. That sucks.
Post a Comment