Getting the knack of Metro.

I cooked chicken chilli yesterday. Not really by any recipe. I used one for guidance, but that recipe didn't have chilli powder. How can it be called chilli if there's no chilli powder in it? It didn't add tomatoes, and I thought that was lacking. Also, I substituted chilli beans for lentils, and used chicken breas for turkey sausage. Besides that, I followed the recipe exactly as given. It's good and I've got enough of it for about 14 servings.



I found the secret to cooking: use a sharp knife. I've never cut myself with a dull one, but slicing just takes forever. 

Yesterday and this morning were committed to sustenance. I had to walk to two different stores for groceries (shopping by price) lugging a gallon and a half of liquid a half mile. The weather was cooperating more.  Just average cold rather than freezing. Note to self: buy more T-shirts. I sweat an incredible amount just from walking.


That was yesterday. This morning I went to my counselor, then went to the Metro Disability Office to get my disability discount ID. I took the bus and Metrolink. Then I took a bus to yet a third grocery store. I bought a monthly bus pass for April, which is a relief. It's feels so good not to have to put eight quarters in every time I need a ride anywhere, and then $3 for a multi-pass. 

The price of peanut butter at the neighborhood store is way out of range. I can't live without peanut butter, that is with the real peanut oil-- not the palm oil substitute that attacks the heart-- and bread. Those are my . . . bread and butter. So, I had to pick those up at a chain store. I also got soy milk and buttermilk.

I feel in love with buttermilk as a child. In those days I drank it oversalted, something I don't do anymore now that I have hypertension. Soy milk I just use for serial, and always the same type of cereal, store-brand grape nuts with a little sugar. Soy milk being expensive, I mix it with regular milk.

Somehow, I have to get my clothes to the laundromat tomorrow. I have a plan. I have three pieces of luggage including my backpack. The Laundromat is ten blocks away. I can pack up a backpack and some luggage and walk it. I definitely can't get all my laundry done like that. It would require two trips.

Without a car, provisioning takes more time and attention. I'm figuring that with money I save from doing without the car, I can ultimately get a bicycle. That won't help much with groceries, though. With gas, oil, insurance and repair, I'm probably going to save $120 a month for the year.

I'm putting off the inevitable: selling the car. That's my avoidant personality disorder. Here you can take a test and find out if you tend toward a personality disorder. The questions get rotated in, but if you come up consistently high on one type are another, the odds are, you have that personality disorder. However, both my counselor and psychiatrist have agreed that's one of my challenges.

Soon, I'll write a blog entry I have been avoiding. It scares me.