Breakfast lessons

Yesterday Gord requested that we have a 'nice breakfast' today, Sunday morning. This request is short form for a breakfast consisting of eggs, toast, hashbrowns, and maybe some fake bacon, or possibly Dutch pancakes or French toast. We have an excess of eggs at the moment, as well as some fake bacon to use up, so I opted for the first choice. I'm not a terrific cook by any means, but I can whip up a pretty good breakfast.

The breakfast itself turned out well: my homemade hashbrown patties were nice and crisp, I managed to make Gord's eggs over medium like he likes them, and my egg soft basted the way I like it, all at the same time as having the toast ready. And the fake bacon is always just bacon-y enough to satisfy one of my few cravings for meaty flavor.

I sat down with my breakfast, along with my tea and orange juice and dug in. My thought process went something like this:

"Gotta eat my egg while it's hot. Wait, gotta taste that hashbrown patty first to see if it's crisp this time. Oo...I need a swig of tea while it's hot too. My toast is getting cold, ack! My bacon is cold already, dang! Hurry hurry, dunk toast in egg yolk! No time for orange juice, gotta have hot toast!"

About 30 seconds into this, I realized that maybe a breakfast consisting of six items, including two beverages, is too much to appreciate properly. I was just gobbling it all up. Maybe it would be better to just have egg and toast OR hasbrowns and bacon, so I can enjoy everything while it's hot and not have to rush or gobble. This seems obvious, but until I actually paid attention to my thoughts, I didn't even realize I was rushing and gobbling.

Funny how this is a lesson that keeps popping up for me - probably because I haven't actually learned it yet. It strikes me that this is a lesson that our society hasn't learned yet either. We're still rushing and gobbling at the world's un-refillable buffet table, leaving little for those who are further back in line. Another lesson for me personally is that of humility: I continue to make the mistake of mindless consumption at my literal breakfast table and need to remain compassionate towards those doing the same at the metaphorical world buffet table.

Further, I need to continue to work on becoming mindful of these things beforehand, rather than just catching myself in hindsight. Doing so, and changing my habits accordingly, could serve as an example that sets off a chain of insight in someone else, and so on. Not that what I do is particularly exemplary, just that seeing someone do something differently tends to have more of an impact that just talking about it. Which brings me back to my 'resolution' for 2009, which is, in a nutshell, more action and less talk.

Picture of veggie bacon courtesy this blog.

CSA Bounty ! - Week Two

It was Tuesday evening and I was just getting back from an appointment after work, when it hit me: Tuesday is CSA pick-up day! AcK! I had completely forgotten. It was pretty late by then, way past the 4 hour pick-up window, and after calling the CSA farmers and leaving a message, I pretty much figured that was that. I re-read our introductory email from the CSA and was reminded that un-picked-up shares would be donated. I was glad my forgetfulness wouldn't lead to any waste, but irked at myself for forgetting something really important.

The next day, the CSA farmers reply to my email and say they've saved my share, and I can come and get it on Thursday. And once again I am thankful for the kindness and generosity of these people who are growing and harvesting and cleaning and keeping my food for me, until I can get my cluttered head emptied out of the things that don't matter, so there's room in there again for the things that do matter.

So yesterday I go to the farm after work and collect my share from the farm's harvest shed where it is patiently waiting for me. In the bag are a big bunch of chard and another one of kale, a large head of romaine lettuce, and another huge head of red leaf lettuce (I think). When I get home, I heat up my favorite frying pan and cook up all the chard the way I like it. When I feel the red lettuce I get a vision of "Dutch salad" from when I was little and I just have to make it. I call up my mom and get the recipe for this simple and delicious salad: red lettuce, oil, vinegar, and two boiled eggs - one to mix in the vinaigrette and one for garnish. A little ground pepper on top and with the first bite I am transported back to childhood. While talking to my mom on the phone she tells that I loved this salad so much when I was little that I even wanted to bring it to my elementary school when it was "bring food from your cultural heritage" day.

So it turns out my dinner had more than just almost all local ingredients yesterday: it also contained heaping helpings of generosity and nostalgia!

A type of hearing impairment...

We had made plans to go to the CSA farm yesterday to help with the Spring planting along with the other farm helpers. Unfortunately, we didn't end up going, for reasons that really pointed out to me how out of tune I am with what farming is all about.

It dawned on me later that farmers plant when the weather and the land say the time is right, and everything else is secondary. So next time, I will listen more to what nature is saying, and err on the side of generosity and taking a chance, rather than wait for reminders that are at a remove from nature, like extra phone calls and emails.

I shook my head at myself afterwards thinking, why do I need another email or phone call, when the gorgeous weather is calling out: "It's planting time! Come help with the planting!"

I found out later that there was lots and lots of planting going on, and that all hands were, and still are, welcome. Ah, farmers. They don't discriminate against people like me, who have the dreaded H.N.I. disorder: "Hearing Nature Impairment. " I bet they've got the cure for it, too: equal parts dirt and community.

Letter sent, letters planned

So I finally sent the letter to my Alberta MLA earlier this week, by email and regular post. I was able to get it down to one double sided page, with some creative editing and by simplifying the font and maxing out the page margins. I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out, in that it provides an overview of some the things involved in a 'joyfully moderate" lifestyle (as David Wann would say) while pointing out some specific concerns and ideas. We'll see what kind of response I get back, if any.

I have a couple more letters brewing in my head that I will be composing over the next few weeks. I really want to send one to the Premiere again, because I am extremely unimpressed with his handling of the matter of the ducks that drowned in a toxic, oily tailings lake. I will be sending a letter to the so-called provincial Environment minister as well. It will take some effort to keep these letters written in a civil tone, I can tell that already.

I'm also going to write to our municipal council and mayor about all the farmland that is being sold off around here to be turned into acreage subdivisions. We live in an acreage subdivision ourselves, and I guess the only thing that keeps me from being a complete hypocrite is that our subdivision is quite old and was never farmland. It was aspen forest though, so I'll need to tread carefully and take care to remain humble and not contentious. In both the letters and life in general.

Tao Te Ching, Chapter 8

The highest goodness resembles water
Water greatly benefits myriad things without contention
It stays in places that people dislike
Therefore it is similar to the Tao

Dwelling with the right location
Feeling with great depth
Giving with great kindness
Speaking with great integrity
Governing with great administration
Handling with great capability
Moving with great timing

Because it does not contend
It is therefore beyond reproach

As translated by Derek Lin

90% Reduction - Corrected Natural Gas Usage

I sure am glad I read other people's blogs - it's keeping me on my toes! And a lesson in humility is never a bad thing.

I was visiting over at Learning to Step Lightly yesterday and in perusing her natural gas usage numbers I noticed a large error in my own calculations. I've been mistakenly touting our household as having achieved a 90% reduction in our natural gas usage, for both 2006 and 2007. I was proud of this, proud about how frugal we were in our house, even before jointing the Riot For Austerity. In fact, just the other day I turned the gas fireplace on because I was a bit chilly and thought I could comfort myself with both the warmth from the fire and the knowledge there was some 'slack' in our numbers. So what the heck eh? Turn on the fireplace.

Well, it turns out I made a miscalculation when I was converting Therms to gigaJoules, and put the decimal point in the wrong place. I thought the average North American household used 106 gJ of natural gas per month, but it turns out the average is only 10.6 gJs per month! Our 2007 average of 9.29 gJs/month is under this, but just barely! So instead of thinking we were only using 8.8% of the North American monthly average, we were in actuality using 88% of it. Time for some re-assessment here. I'll have to cloak myself in a sweater rather than in smug self-righteousness.

I'm fairly certain the rest of the numbers are I've posted in the past are correct, but if anyone notices any strange anomalies (past or future), please let me know!