Mindful Chickens (eight-eighteen-eighteen)

Mindful Chickens are (for people who don’t know why I call them this) about three things.

1. Being Cheap (cheep, cheep).
2. Being thoughtful about how choices affect our community and our earth.
3. I just like chickens. I don’t know any personally, but I respect how small, weak, and tasty they are – yet they live each day persistently, doing the best they can under their circumstances.  They are not embarrassed by their odd figures or floppy head parts or splayed feet.  They are generally but not totally sociable. They like to sleep in a cozy place with their friends.  Most of them seem to regard a sunny day as a good day.  Works for me.

ONE – I have been donating blood for years.

 I often complain about the process. Why are donation centers nicer than clinics in the developing world? Why do they ONLY offer one service? Why do they not advertise their potentially life and health-preserving side-benefit – fast no-cost blood pressure readings, iron levels check, and more?

I got an email from the blood center. Would I like to participate in a focus group for $100. Yes and yes. Yes I would like to say my opinions and yes I would like a hundred dollars.  

TWO – On the super-sale shelf at the grocery store they had our brand of toothpaste in messed up boxes, for $.59. I bought all they had.

THREE – Other people spend a less than Len and I do on groceries. I just micro-looked at our groceries receipts for August. Half of what we’ve spent has gone to dairy (as I’ve said before, a lot of our dairy is from farmer-sustaining co-op brands so it costs more), produce, and meat. Len is the one who keeps pointing out whatever we buy we eat - so we waste very little. In the past week I’ve ditched onions skins, 3 mealy apples from a farm stand in Michigan (I think they were selling last year’s apples), 2 dried-up limes, and a quarter cup of homemade hummus that had seriously gone round the corner. Bones from meat meals are in the freezer waiting for Fall, when simmering broth will be a pleasant thing.

FOUR – Buying and drinking seltzer water instead of beer. Mostly.

FIVE IS A FAIL – Took my Little Sister to see the Christopher Robin movie. What the?? The entire plot is that Christopher is now an overworked, over-stressed father in post-WWII London. He doesn’t spend time with his wife and daughter, doesn’t even go away for the weekend with them. Winnie the Pooh and the Others (Tigger, Eyore, Roo, etc) convince him to slow down and play. This is a KIDS’ movie?  My 9-year old Little who lives in Hard Times America (I don’t know how else to say it respectfully) was so polite to me and so squirmy during the movie. It did not relate to her world (it’s a new world, movie-makers. Not every kid has an onsite father). I don’t think much of anything grabbed her attention except that she got to see a different part of town.

Conclusion: Read this in Non-Consumer Advocate and laughed. “Linda Gertig: My son says getting rid of stuff in the house is like those plate stacks in buffet lines that have a spring under them. Stuff keeps popping up so it looks full until you get to the last plate.”