Sunny Day
What a beautiful day in middle Tennessee. The sun was out all day and Linda and I took advantage of the rays. In the mid morning I cut down some more trash trees and reduced them to either firewood size or brush pile size with the chainsaw. Great work out with the saw if you can look at it in that manner, sometimes it is just work, but it felt good to enjoy the sun today. The crocus are still out and now the daffodils are just on the edge of bursting open. So Spring must be close.........
We headed to the gym in the afternoon and she swam and I did some running, but I had little gas in the tank. I was dehydrated from the saw work, so I really worked on the stretching and ran some slower events on the treadmill. I was in Mexico this week at 8000 feet elevation with quite a bit of air pollution and that really drags me down. We were working just NE of Mexico City in the volcanic high lands. There is a very large active volcano this about 40 miles from where we were working that was completely snow covered with some steam rolling out--the one clear day--it was quite a sight. After the gym we took a nice walk to soak up some more sun and check out the new park up the street. I love these days--maximizing the time outside.
I have been fooling around with a garden this winter and we picked some Kale that come on after the cold snap. I was wonderful in the salad we had with our fresh salmon. Yummy stuff. Linda and I had been discussing bread making for a long time and finally today, she gave it the first shot. She had a little goof early but recovered nicely to work up enough dough for a pan of rolls and a loaf. The recipe uses a lot of fiber and that was the idea, get more fiber into the old guy. I have to get fiber or there is trouble, and not the kind I really care to deal with.
The section of Mexico I was in last week- Hidalgo State--is a very industrial area with a very large working class population. The working class in Mexico makes about 1/10 of what an industrial worker makes in the US, but most of the expenses are similar. Cars, fuel ($ 4 US/gallon), clothes, hotels, etc is similar to what I would pay. 90% of the cars were 30 years old or more, this stuff will not die, amazing how long a clunker can go. Food is quite inexpensive and it is all local, in a town of 25,000 I did not see one chain of any sort. One McDonalds near the airport, that was it for chains. The airport had some chains, but they did charge would it would cost to eat in any US airport.
The locals eat very simple meals of fruit, some veggies, meat ( their chicken is the best of their meat) peppers, beans and something with real sugar. Then a choice of green or red sauce. The green chili or red chili is like our salt and pepper-which is absent--and served at all meals. I have to plant some green chili peppers this year, when pureed, they are tasty without burning your mouth off. The red chili pepper sauce, just kicks your ass when you eat it-literally. They use very little processed food --high fructose corn syrup was scarce-- and little is processed until it is time to prepare for service. The variety of food was limited, but I think the summer would present much different food options.
Breakfast at our hotel was interesting. The breakfast meat was ham--which was sliced lunch meat. No bacon, sausage, biscuits or cereal to be found. Eggs were available. I like to have my roughage for breakfast, raisin bran is my favorite, and that cereal was not to be found. I will take some next trip. The breads were delicious, but all processed white flour. Their menu's had a total lack of fiber available in the forms that I typically consume. No whole wheat anything, which I use a lot. OK,OK, I might be whining some, but that is a big change for me. How you get past that fiber problem is to eat enough hot stuff--green or red sauce-- which will keep you lower GI healthy by that method of expulsion. I worked for 4 days, but I think a couple weeks would be a strain on my system.
I would struggle to survive in Mexico. Simple concrete houses, very little heating if any, no yard to garden, stinky open water, rough roads with corrupt cops. Bad air, really bad air. Not for me, I will stay in the US and fight my battle here. And more importantly, a sun you can see and feel on the days the clouds allow, that is a big deal that makes it worthwhile.
We headed to the gym in the afternoon and she swam and I did some running, but I had little gas in the tank. I was dehydrated from the saw work, so I really worked on the stretching and ran some slower events on the treadmill. I was in Mexico this week at 8000 feet elevation with quite a bit of air pollution and that really drags me down. We were working just NE of Mexico City in the volcanic high lands. There is a very large active volcano this about 40 miles from where we were working that was completely snow covered with some steam rolling out--the one clear day--it was quite a sight. After the gym we took a nice walk to soak up some more sun and check out the new park up the street. I love these days--maximizing the time outside.
I have been fooling around with a garden this winter and we picked some Kale that come on after the cold snap. I was wonderful in the salad we had with our fresh salmon. Yummy stuff. Linda and I had been discussing bread making for a long time and finally today, she gave it the first shot. She had a little goof early but recovered nicely to work up enough dough for a pan of rolls and a loaf. The recipe uses a lot of fiber and that was the idea, get more fiber into the old guy. I have to get fiber or there is trouble, and not the kind I really care to deal with.
The section of Mexico I was in last week- Hidalgo State--is a very industrial area with a very large working class population. The working class in Mexico makes about 1/10 of what an industrial worker makes in the US, but most of the expenses are similar. Cars, fuel ($ 4 US/gallon), clothes, hotels, etc is similar to what I would pay. 90% of the cars were 30 years old or more, this stuff will not die, amazing how long a clunker can go. Food is quite inexpensive and it is all local, in a town of 25,000 I did not see one chain of any sort. One McDonalds near the airport, that was it for chains. The airport had some chains, but they did charge would it would cost to eat in any US airport.
The locals eat very simple meals of fruit, some veggies, meat ( their chicken is the best of their meat) peppers, beans and something with real sugar. Then a choice of green or red sauce. The green chili or red chili is like our salt and pepper-which is absent--and served at all meals. I have to plant some green chili peppers this year, when pureed, they are tasty without burning your mouth off. The red chili pepper sauce, just kicks your ass when you eat it-literally. They use very little processed food --high fructose corn syrup was scarce-- and little is processed until it is time to prepare for service. The variety of food was limited, but I think the summer would present much different food options.
Breakfast at our hotel was interesting. The breakfast meat was ham--which was sliced lunch meat. No bacon, sausage, biscuits or cereal to be found. Eggs were available. I like to have my roughage for breakfast, raisin bran is my favorite, and that cereal was not to be found. I will take some next trip. The breads were delicious, but all processed white flour. Their menu's had a total lack of fiber available in the forms that I typically consume. No whole wheat anything, which I use a lot. OK,OK, I might be whining some, but that is a big change for me. How you get past that fiber problem is to eat enough hot stuff--green or red sauce-- which will keep you lower GI healthy by that method of expulsion. I worked for 4 days, but I think a couple weeks would be a strain on my system.
I would struggle to survive in Mexico. Simple concrete houses, very little heating if any, no yard to garden, stinky open water, rough roads with corrupt cops. Bad air, really bad air. Not for me, I will stay in the US and fight my battle here. And more importantly, a sun you can see and feel on the days the clouds allow, that is a big deal that makes it worthwhile.
He man, I guess I'm not the only old sprinter with a blog.
ReplyDeletehttp://sprintforever.blogspot.com/
Hey, I will check you out. Maybe see you at the races.
ReplyDeleteJack