Sunday, November 21, 2010

Noteworthy

A while back I mentioned we would be living off our preps for the foreseeable future. It's been an interesting, telling time. A great opportunity to get creative, discover what "food fatigue" really means and discover the holes in your preps.

First, creativity. Who feels like being creative in the kitchen when their body aches in places they didn't know existed and they haven't the strength to lift a cast iron fry pan or operate a manual can opener? Not me.

Second, "Food Fatigue" is real and happened quicker than expected. We agree it's due to moving between two locations three times in about 4 weeks. This means either stocking cookware, dishes, etc. for two locations or living on sandwiches and canned fruit. We opted for the latter. Yesterday I made a huge pan of lasagna. You'd have thought we hadn't eaten in a month. We ate it three times yesterday. I didn't have the energy nor inclination to fix a vegetable. To heck with a balanced meal, I thought. We have plenty of variety in our preps but don't stock MRE type food. Even if we did the microwave was buried in a box someplace though they could have been made in a saucepan.

As for holes in our preps. Aren't there always holes in preps? Isn't it human nature to want what you don't have? My elderly friend asked me to pick up Bob Evans Chipped Beef & Gravy before coming to visit her. She's without a car, ill and has a daughter who only stops by to drop her garbage off. This was my first visit to a grocery in I don't know when. Seemed like a dream, the bright lights and shelves stocked to the hilt. When I looked at the prices it seemed like a nightmare. So, yes, we've kept our vow not to buy anything for ourselves but I left the store thinking of homemade donuts (this place has a great bakery), Cornish hens, chipped beef on toast, bananas, ice cream (any flavor at this point would be welcome) and how great a romaine salad would be. Sometime next month we'll go shopping. It will be like Christmas; in fact it may be Christmas.

In other news, I had the scare of my life yesterday. Sweetie began choking while sitting in his recliner eating a cheese sandwich. A few seconds later his lips curled outward and his face reddened. Maybe 10 seconds had passed when his eyes rolled back in his head and his entire body jerked. I grabbed the phone next to his chair to call 911 just as our phone rang. I was my elderly friend who said she'd do it and then call friends who live nearby.

I kept repeating Sweetie's name and suddenly he started choking again. The adrenaline rushed through my body as I yanked him up (my back feels like it today) and got behind him with my arms around him. Not an easy task while he was shaking and gagging! Next thing I knew our friends arrived; her husband grabbed Sweetie and the piece of sandwich flew out.

My elderly friend called again and said 911 was on their way. Sweetie - the infamous stubborn Irishman that he is - repeatedly yelled, "Call those suckers off." He was enraged and swearing and grabbed the phone. Our friends were in shock as he continued to yell and told the 911 dispatcher there was no need for help!!!!

After we ALL calmed down I told my friends, "Well, he's back to normal." They left soon afterward, just dumbfounded. Three hours later he said, "Your know, I lost you for awhile."

Truthfully, part of me wanted to hit him but all I could do was cry. His blood pressure remained low all day and he has no intention of seeing a doctor. Near as we figure, his airway was blocked long enough for him to loose consciousness and possibly even skip a few heartbeats until miraculously it started again.

Now you're probably wondering why I mention him choking after the paragraphs about living on our preps? Because I still cry when I think of how close I came to losing him - stubbornness and all.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sometimes it takes something like that to appreciate what we DO have.
Thank goodness he is fine. That sounds scary....for you and him. Only good thoughts coming your way. Take care as best you can.
B.

Sixbears said...

Close call. Glad you didn't lose him. Damn!

As for the preps getting tiring, I know, been there. Spices help. Having no energy to prepare food limits you. We'd come home from a long day, hungry and most of the stuff in the house had long prep times. It did help when I prepared a lot of bean dishes in the crock pot and froze them for later.

I do have an ice-cream maker and that helped a lot. I start with brown rice and make rice milk. Then I'd use rice milk, olive oil, vanilla, and sugar to make ice-cream. It's pretty good. Soy milk tastes richer, but we ran out.

Anonymous said...

Get your canned milk REALLY COLD ..use your mixer and whip it really well and you have whipped topping that will make you think of ice cream. B.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving !

2 Tramps said...

So very sorry for all the stress you are going through. It will be so good when you are settled in again...

HermitJim said...

Glad everything worked out for the good! Pretty scary to go through something like that, but what a blessing when it turns out for the good!

AginKajun said...

Follow your blog every day. I have never been where you are but my heart goes out to you. Wish you were closer to us. I would invite you over for Thanksgiving dinner. We're very fortunate and would love to share with someone else.