Category: Travel

When the Temperature “feels like”

The temperatures dipped this week in California and we are cold, real cold and not the fake California cold. We keep getting blizzard warnings, snow at the Hollywood sign and rain, lots of rain. When we actually get weather we check out the weather channel to see how many layers of clothing we need  since a sweater and jacket will clearly not be enough and we will need to wear a warm coat, that’s if we even own one.  But the temperature report does not only consist of what the thermometer says, they also include information about what the temperature feels like, feels like to whom?

That’s what made me wonder- when they say it’s 46 and feels like 42 degrees, Who is the person that works for the forecasters and tells everyone what the temperature feels like. What if that person’s internal thermostat is broken and they run cold or hot. Today it said 42 degrees but feels like 41, now really will I be more cold with that extra less degree?

If there was a 10 degree difference , I might feel it again depending on the circumstances. Let’s say it says 70 degrees but feels like 80, I would. But if it is  10 degrees formally but they say  it  feels like 9 or 11, I believe I will be freezing cold regardless.

So my mission now is to find that person that reports the “feels like” aspect of the weather report, find them and see if that person’s internal thermostat is accurate and then go find the people who report the temperatures and ask them if really anybody cares about this and does it really natter.

My dislike of 10 best lists

The internet is full of lists – 10 things you should not buy at costco, 10 things you should, 10 things you should or shouldn’t buy at trader joes, target or whatever store you go to.

As much as I love lists like any other person (I hate lists!) These people who write the lists either have too much time on their hands to go from store to store or they must enjoy the constant travel from store to store and forget to add the shopping time or the gas as a cost.

My time is limited and even if I love a great deal and really I do,I have to also  account for my travel time and the time it takes me to go from one place to another to find the bestest deal. Driving time comes at a cost. Many of us discovered that when we moved to work from home when tha pandemic closed everything that without driving we had time to play with our kids, cook and even give the dog an extra walk. So even if I am on the hunt for my next great deal I have to calculate my driving time. What will I miss if I spend more time in the car plus in some cases the cost of gas adds up. 

Not to mention that we all value our products differently, what I see as a great bargain or the best product ever, does not mean anything to someone else with different preferences. There is a reason I buy a specific brand of  toilet paper despite an article telling me that a different brand is better, better for whom I ask?

So read these lists, take what you want from them, But don’t let them rule your universe as at the end of the day you have your own list.

The weird things I like to read in my local newspaper

My local newspaper publishes a  list of restaurants that have had health violations the previous week, each week I think to myself do I check the list or do I not. Do I really want to know? And yet every week I go to that list and read it, hoping and praying that I did not go to any of these places. It’s like a traffic accident that you see is about to happen and you can’t turn your head to avoid looking. 

There really is no point in reading  that a restaurant I went to last week or two weeks ago had a cockroach infestation or no sufficient hot water and yet I still read it. Maybe its a form of self torture, who knows.

There usually have some normal and reasonable closures, but when it said the closed CVS and only allowed prepacked foods at this particular CVS I started to wonder what exactly they sell, we have several CVS’s close by and none of them sell fresh food or ice cream. So I went to the official county website to see if there is any further information but alas there is none.

What should we do with the information about health department closures,do I go to a place that was cited and closed with the belief that it is cleaner now, with immodium in my purse just in case or do I avoid going to a place I like as they frequently have issues. This is going to be a tough decision!

Enjoying the sunset

We are busy planning our trips for the next couple of years, trying to decide on where we would like to go and what we would like to see. This is great because we both really like to travel and did not have any destinations planned for 2023 and beyond.  Planning big trips is a lot of fun but we should not forget day trips and hikes and local amazing places that most of us have close to home. Sometimes our own backyard can be amazing as well. Today we  decided to go down for a walk and went down to our local  beach. The weather was perfect, low 70’s (20C) and just beautiful. I haven’t gone to the beach in the last  3 months, no special reason, just did not get a chance, which is a real shame. 

The weather was amazing and we were blessed with a great sunset. And we really enjoyed our walk as did Sagey girl,our Airedale,  she behaved well and did not bark or terrorize the other dogs either. So what have I learned from this? 

I learned that I  have  to remind myself to enjoy the simple things. Grand plans are great, but sometimes local things are great as well. I also had to remind myself to pause a little and take a break, walk the dog on different paths and just enjoy being away from work even if it’s for an hour.

When you finally have weather

We have been having some weird weather in california lately, we actually are experiencing a winter. I know, shocking! I guess this is payback for the great weather we had on Christmas day when the rest of the country was freezing. I knew  posting those short sleeve pictures will come back to haunt us.

Yes, we need the rain as we have had a drought for the last couple of years. But as we were on  day10th of the rain with no end in sight it really was starting to affect my doggy and me. I am originally from a country with cold winters and extremely hot and humid summers, so living in California for me is great. It’s either t-shirt weather or t -shirt with a cardigan weather. I do have some rain coats but their primary purpose is to look cute.

I was starting to get Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), this is common in places where sunlight is limited, places with real winter and not so much in California where we have lots and lots of sun and natural vitamin D. Even if it was real or perceived, so much rain and clouds is not good for my mental health plus I really hate being cold.

I keep thinking about Dr Suess -The cat in the hat. I wonder if he had the same dreary days that we were having. The sun does not shine and it’s definitely too wet to play, but as opposed to him I am not writing a book about it, I am just complaining about the rain!

We got sun yesterday and the next couple of days as well, so for now I am just going to enjoy it!

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Shopping cart mishaps

I went to Costco last week, I usually don’t have a grocery list with me but this time I was organized and not only wrote a list but also remembered to bring it with me.There were plenty of shopping carts available. I parked my shopping cart and turned to the other aisle to get  a product. I turned around and my shopping cart with my list was gone! I really turned my back for less than a minute.

Yes, I could get another shopping cart but my list is what I really wanted. I started  following people with empty carts to see if they stole my cart. My husband thought I was crazy. But stealing someone’s cart is  a serious offense especially when there is a list in it, what kind of person does that! This is the same offense as walking your dog next to a dog who’s taking care of their business instead of waiting patiently for the business to be done.

I did forget to buy some things and will need to go again, not that anyone has to twist my hand to go to the Costco again as it is one of my favorite places to go.But going to Costco before the Holidays is a little crowded and the samples are gone way too quickly.

So I shall return, hold my cart close to me and put my grocery list on my drive and I shall be watching for all those grocery cart mishaps.

Gluten Free trip to Japan – Part 1

I am a Celiac who loves to travel, this is not always easy especially when I travel to countries that love wheat. I returned from a trip to Japan last week and yes, I was hungry. For me being a GF with a mostly vegetarian diet was not easy, I also avoided pork for religious reasons which made my trip a little harder.

This was part of an organized group tour so I did not have an option to cook for myself. Thankfully, all the hotels had a refrigerator so I had somewhere to keep yogurt and fresh produce that I bought at the convenience stores.

Japan loves gluten, gluten is in many products. The hotels we stayed at (3 star budget hotels) all had their breakfast clearly labeled with all allergens which helped immensely. As I mentioned before, Japan loves gluten, which is why I could not even eat the eggs at breakfast as they had gluten in them as well, still for the life of me I can’t figure that out.

I researched my food options before we left and knew what to expect mostly. There is an excellent group on Facebook called Gluten- Free Expats Japan. The group has many posts and tricks on how to figure out what and where is safe to eat and has a list of restaurants and recommendations that were extremely useful. I also carried a GF card and used google translate during the trips as many Japanese did not speak English.

In the suitcase I took bread with me, several GF brands like Schar and BFree have vacuum sealed smaller bread packaging and GF instant oatmeal, granola bars, GF soy sauce packets and my favorite chocolate covered rice cakes from Sprouts (trust me, they are so good it’s scary). Convenience stores are on every block in Japan, this is also excellent as they all have clean bathrooms and trash cans, there are no public trash cans anywhere on the streets and you need to carry the trash with you. 7-11, Lawson’s and Family mart are everywhere. In them I bought drinkable yogurt, rice snacks and onigiri. I did research beforehand what onigiri I can eat and went to our local Mitsuwa ahead of time to get familiarized. In Japan, packaging is labeled with all allergens, however not always in English and you need to recognize the Japanese symbol for wheat. Most of the 7- 11 rice and potato snacks had English wording and that made it easy for me and now I am addicted to the waffle potato ones, they are so good and not greasy.

The only reason I did not starve completely was the many Indian and Nepalese restaurants we found, we always found an English speaker in them so my allergies were easy to explain and for me this food is mostly safe and usually Halal so pork free. Using the restaurant lists we also found a great ramen place with gf ramen in Tokyo Station, Soranoiro Ramen. This was a complete joy for me as all my group could eat together and not look at my sad eyes while they ate dinner and I was stuck with plain rice and edamame.

Conquering my own mountain

My life started as a complication. I guess my husband was right when he called me complicated when we started dating. Mind you we have known each other for years before we started dating so truthfully me being complicated should not have been a big surprise.

I was born complicated as I started my life with Spina Bifida and back in the ancient world when where I was born that did not mean an easy future and my parents were worried about all the complications that can affect the quality of my life.

Thankfully they raised my like any other normal child and never told me that I can’t do this or I can’t do that and I learned at a very young age to explain my condition. As I grew older the Dr’s continued to tell me of all the issues I would endure, got many warnings with no positive options. But I am a fighter and every time someone told me I will not be able to do something, I just did! It was not always easy and yes required effort on my part and sometimes Costco sized pain medication but I endured anyways. I even gave up and started again a couple of times and I learned to forgive myself during this process and not see these as failures but rather as a challenge to conquer. The last couple of years have been medically challenging but I will continue fighting, and as the Sound of Music song goes “Climb every mountain” I will continue to climb physically and mentally . Last week I made it to Mt. Fuji! There will be more mountains and that’s ok- I will conquer them one mountain and one peak at a time.