Liquid Mess

Had some errands to do, most importantly replace faulty smoke detectors.  Got two at Home Depot.  Total Whine has their main outlet in the same shopping center so I got a few things there as well.  My new car's trunk being pretty empty, I put the three bottles there but heard them shifting position as I drove.  Later in the afternoon I went to take them inside to find that a 1500 ml bottle of port had broken.  Not a big financial loss but a challenge to clean up.

I took the two intact bottles inside, wiped them off, and put them in a secure place.  Then took the largest fragment of the broken bottle and tossed that,  Next, separated big fragments for recycling.  Now the liquid.  Fortunately the Toyota trunk has rubber flooring, textured to capture liquids while retaining a dry surface, which is probably good for people who do a lot of water sports.  I don't have equipment that sops up 1500 ml liquid but a mop came closest.  Then a sponge.  Good enough for now.  See what's left, and try a towel or two today.  Big mess but with a trunk containing only the snow brush I will soon need, not much damage.

Hanukkah Arrives

First candle had its thirty minutes of flame.  Gift opened.  Latkes eaten with applesauce.  Turnover of events: Thanksgiving, Shabbos, Hanukkah.  Special kitchen effort for each.  Then Medscape, Doctor, platelets, Birthday, special guest, vacation.  All before the majority get their holiday.  Vacation sounds good.

OTC Sleep Aids

Sleep Hygiene captures the natural, from set times to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.  After getting by for a while, it became time to see what the chemicals could do, cheap stuff from the Dollar Store that undercuts CBT both in price and convenience.  Our Dollar Store offers two options, melatonin chewable tablets and diphenhydramine.  I had both on hand.  Having taken their melatonin twice at bedtime with a negative outcome, I tried one during the daytime, which makes more sense since melatonin levels were already elevated when I took them after dark.  Good result.  I didn't sleep during the day but could detect a relaxation that I might be ready for sleep.  A good horizontal four hours ensued, feeling a bit refreshed  by mid-afternoon.  At a prespecified normal sleep time, still reasonably awake but ready to call it a night, I swallowed two 25 mg tablets of diphenhydramine.  Within a half hour I was asleep.  Most importantly, I did not have awakening between sleep cycles like I usually do.  Often I feel dragged when I do this, but this morning I feel reasonably refreshed, not at all sleep-deprived.

This is not something to do nightly, even though the results seem favorable.  But either has its utility when I've been experiencing interrupted sleep over an extended time that carries forward to the day.

Post-Thanksgiving Dishes

Dinner went well except for the apple cake that fell apart when I tried to unmold it from its bundt pan.  As much as I try washing dishes as I go, priority needs to go to utensils used in early preparations that I will need later.  Except for the food processor used early, there are not a lot of One and Dones.

Just as executing a pre-planned menu takes some sorting and organization, so does cleanup the next day.  I start with what already soaks in the fleishig tub until it fills up the dish drying rack.  Then move leftwards to counter, stove, cutting board, and dining room table.  Some flexibility is needed.  There are utensils that cannot soak in a tub, others that need hand drying as soon as washed.  I do the glassware separately with a brush and skillets with a synthetic form of steel wool.

One rack at a time, this will take most of the day.  Yet I find it surprisingly relaxing.  Elements of frustration rarely emerge.  I can see my progress at every step.  Few things convey the gratification of accomplishment before completion.

Could Use Some Assistance

 

Even the housecleaners don't want to clean my house.  Since cleaning ladies of my mother's era have given way to cleaning teams, they have workers comp but don't want to take a chance using it.  Fortunately, where there's a market, somebody will fill it at the right price.  People want to or have to move, downsize, get ship off to Skilled Nursing Facilities, and depart this world without their stuff that somebody else has to cart off so the survivors can inherit a house of larger financial value.  And then there are that minority like me who have no intention of maximizing sale price but just want to live in the same house in a better way.

Cleaners abound on Angi's List and other sites that match contractors to home needs.  Organizers don't, but I seem to have latched onto somebody willing and at a price that I expected.  We begin next month.

Dark and Cold

Only two weeks since setting the clocks back an hour. It's still dark when I make my first cup of coffee and retrieve the newspaper from the end of the driveway.  Most mornings there's a poor soul walking the dog amid the dawn chill.  They have playtime later but some probably have second thoughts about their obligations to their Best Friend.  My own short stroll outdoors remains brief, too brief to justify adding to my night clothing.  With poor light, I've not been dumping the recycling en route to the newspaper, as it is not always obvious which is the bin with the green lid.

Which deters me more, the dark or the cold?  Probably the dark. It should be chilly this season.  That's what keeps my geographic setting invigorating.  I should not need supplemental illumination at my usual waking time ever.  That is how our brains and sleep patterns evolved.  The cycles of nature include sunrise, sunset, and seasons.  Definition of when we should be up and about based on a clock that drives a consistent wake time sometimes runs contrary to the mechanisms that we have to best cope with the world.

I expect it to get darker and colder as we move from fall into winter.  I could change my wake time, as my personal schedule in retirement has few external contingencies, but responding to that 6:30AM buzz on my left wrist irrespective of how I feel that morning has helped enormously in framing the day that follows it.  I could delay retrieving the paper until dawn has progressed sufficiently to let me put the recycling in the proper receptacle at the same time.  As Thanksgiving approaches, I could express appreciation for my schedule that part of each year allows me to partake of the transition from night to day.

Soon the temperature will fall below freezing.  Outdoor containers may need to spend their nights indoors.  The strolling dogs and their owners may be in more of a hurry to get the business done quickly, with exercise and playtime expanded indoors.  The newspaper will still arrive each morning, with its obligatory retrieval while the first k-cup brews.  And it will be even darker and colder.

End Points

Thanksgiving week has given me a very empty whiteboard where my wife and I record our weekly appointments every Sunday.  Dentist and OLLI class on Monday, then Thanksgiving.  No other fixed appointments.  My weekly list of things I either intend to do or hope to maybe do remains as long as ever but absence of appointments means I can direct my attention to a few, particularly those with firm end points that never reappear on these lists once completed.  Those One and Dones.

It's not always straightforward when many of my desired tasks reach completion, though.  If I clean the kitchen, isn't there always one more thing I could have done?  Go fishing but when I have achieved adequate recreation by doing it?  End points are sometimes elusive.  I can check off when each Medscape submission reaches the editor or when I've made my monthly donations to Jewish causes.  If I set myself a target of reading two chapters a day from The Book of Mormon, I know when the task can be checked off that day, though not for that week.

So much of what I perform has short term finite completion criteria but often stay on with another intermediate landmark to prod me along the next day or the next week, often indefinitely.  Most projects, though, go better with some defined end point, at least for that day, but a surprisingly large fraction lack even that guideline.  We do what we can measure.

Those Snoozed Have Returned

While op-eds of the toxic or intrusive nature of social media abound, I've not been inundated by anti-vaxxers, anti-Semites, not an alarming input from Trumpists or proselytizers.  I use my ability to regulate what appears on the screen pretty well, though unwelcome advertisers each get a second or two to imprint my cerebral cortex in exchange for the fees that support my access to what has been more useful than harmful.  I do less well creating a barrier to nudniks, those people who have some personal merit, ranging from a smidgen to a lot, who have nothing better to do than incessantly fill up my FB feed.  When it gets out of hand I snooze them for thirty days.  As much as I enjoy the interactive nature of the Post-Dispatch and the thoughtfulness of its reporters, I really don't need to scroll through thirty posts.  Even more so for somebody I don't know at all but who found me somewhere and for somebody who I also have never met but knows other family members who can sometimes post provocatively and sometimes abhorrently.  They all get snoozed more due to excessive volume than repulsive content.  

Apparently a month ago my patience must have reached its limit, as all three of those snoozed have returned on consecutive days.  So far none are out of hand, though the P-D's volume is skirting the edge.

Or I could snooze myself, which I have, something with its merits and limitations. Not yet.

Converging Tasks

FB sent me a memory reminder from two years ago.  At the time, I had been making preparations for Thanksgiving, but several other projects needed some juggling at the same time.  For some reason the latter half of November might emerge as my busy season in retirement. My Thanksgiving menu has taken form, ingredient list available, with next step to confirm what I have and what still needs purchase. But before that I committed to a medical presentation, now completed except for the thank-you notes.  My monthly Jewish donations come due.  Monthly financial status review precedes Thanksgiving.  I have a Medscape column to compose and submit, a few more OLLI classes before the semester concludes.  Right after Thanksgiving we have Hanukkah with my wife's birthday and daughter's visit during that interval.  And then a somewhat overdue vacation that still needs preparation.  Somewhere in that interval I need to establish a new safe deposit box and decide what goes in it.  

No single project seems daunting but their accumulation in a short time definitely alters the time flow of retirement.

Lower Desk Functional

In my pursuit of having something to show for my effort each day, I devoted attention to my lower desks.  First, my two desks are part of my identity, not fully attained until I entered private practice where I purchased a massive wooden executive model at a DuPont company clearance sale.  As an employee I had a desk to call my own.  At home I purchased a top and two metal files from Conran's as my primary work space which serves as the focal destination of My Space now.  And our living room has a nook just right for a secretary style desk, pleasantly styled but not frequently used, to demarcate the part of our living room that I consider mine.  The desk in My Space has a dedicated place for lighting and for my laptop and for my coffee cup.  The wooden downstairs desk has been more an invitation to place stuff that needs a flat surface when you enter the house from the nearby front door.  It also functions as a receptacle for papers that need to be relocated from the kitchen table to enable eating.  For weeks, maybe even months, it has housed a pile of papers on the right half surface, books and assorted non-papers on the left half.  Making it functional has been on my daily task list almost as long.  Finally, clearing this became the afternoon's principle initiative.

Taking some unused files and adhesive file folder labels, I took all the papers off the surface, sorting and filing as I went.  A few things needed to go upstairs, either for filing or to be placed in a more proper location, a few things could stay.  Not only do I now have a surface suitable for sitting and enjoying the massage unit on that desk's chair, but I have sorted papers that can go in usable files.

Despite my possessiveness about that nook, I do very little there.  Write checks, mostly.  It is an attractive space though, nicely decorated, pleasant to look at, and the massage cushion keeps it as a destination.  And most importantly, perhaps, I retain possession.

Fully Absorbed

My minimal, difficult to maintain attention span took a sudden reversal.  I had been watching some YouTube's on religion, more anti than pro, of late, scrolling past anything that took more than 15 minutes.  Comments by the late Christopher Hitchens repeatedly captured my interest, so I proceeded to check his most prominent book, God is Not Great, from the library.  The transfer of an e-book electronically failed so I requested the print version which I began reading.  And reading. And reading some more.  About a third of the book, when my intent was a chapter a day for ten days.

He writes of a more global attrition, or maybe a wishful attrition that has not happened yet, unlike my focus on decline that has already occurred.  He takes the view that religious institutions with the discipline they impose on adherents generate evil, which they do.  They also generate art, literature, music, and intricate discussions.  My spin seems more that the experience of being there falls short of other options that can be pursued instead.

After interminable Hebrew School flashbacks while I sit at services in my own congregation, with a Rabbi feeding me strings of interAliyah Sound Bites, though not at all evil, it's good to have my mind challenged in this more profound way, not so much about the merits of the Judaism that I have inherited, but the idea of deity and its historical legacy that we make so many often unconvincing excuses to defend.

Perhaps even more importantly, I had begun to doubt if I had the capacity to focus on any ideas or undertakings without the use of a timer to keep me captured on what I was doing.  This reading went on for hours, only needing short breaks to better absorb what I had just learned.  I really do have the capacity to grant full attention and derive pleasure.  I wasn't sure before.

Following Sleep Hygiene Protocol

When my wrist alarm buzzes, I arise from bed.  Almost no lapses.  For any sleep hygiene recommendations, a uniform time to depart bed serves as the core.  And it has helped.  Gentle wrist alarm from low end smartwatch was a good purchase.  Middle of the night insomnia has been more intractable.  After mostly unsuccessful riding it out in bed, one of those shouldn'ts, I've started getting up, walking across the upper hall to My Space, and turning on the big screen TV.  The browse option comes in well here, as I can usually select something that I know to be boring.  Within a half hour, I've dozed off in the lounge chair, just like the sleep hygiene guru's recommended.  Mostly I re-awaken before the iTouch buzzes me to start the day, returning to bed feeling a little better, though not always in store for one more sleep cycle.  For the most part, following this protocol has enhanced my perception of rest.  I'm more ready for the day ahead.

Staying at Home

Not a whole lot of reason to leave my house this week.  I should get a haircut and set up a new safe deposit box but not much would happen if I delayed these.  The library book I requested has arrived, so that needs a personal appearance to retrieve.  And in all likelihood I will need something from the grocery store.  But there's I can fulfill most of this week's agenda within the rooms of my home except for tending to the snowblower which forces me onto the driveway.  Yet my private escapes have been to quiet time at a couple of county parks.  Nothing adventuresome or even unique, more familiar.  But it's outdoors.  So even if I could pursue this week's activities fully indoors, I still need some exposure to this season's chill, if only for a few short bursts.

Affirming Good Times

My perspective on religion as an institution has been floating between synapses for a while, the institutional side not faring very well, the ability to generate thought imprinting more favorably.  Not just my religion, something inherited and socialized more than sought out and purchased.   But it does deal with death better than secularism once death has occurred.  Judaism acknowledges death, but we really affirm the life that was.  

Some memorials have clustered of late.  First a Jewish pillar of my childhood, a synagogue stalwart who would be the first to greet me on my return any shabbos morning, long after I had relocated.  This week also brought the Yahrtzeit of another beloved congregational lady, a woman of talent, pleasantness, and commitment, whose surviving husband brought stability to our congregation in precarious times.  He needed a minyan so he and his son could recite Kaddish in her memory.  Though I could have been doing other things, I helped assure ten men attended.  We gathered far o than that.

This shabbos, I recite Kaddish for my father, it being my custom to do this on the Saturday preceding yahrtzeit, then light the candle on the actual day later in the week.  I assume ten men will come to enable this, but in recent months it's not been a slam dunk.

Along a similar theme, the Post-Dispatch, which I've been reading since college since only they and the other P-D the Plain Dealer had color comics on the back, accessible in the student lounge from University subscription, ran a FB notice inviting nominations for favorite teacher.

Our icon by overwhelming consensus was the Senorita, that pillar of Spanish who really turned us into mensches.  I tried to nominate her posthumously but was blocked, not because of her passing but because she did not teach in the Post-Dispatch's circulation region.  Still, I searched for her obit and found it.

 https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/lohud/name/norma-rodriguez-obituary?pid=149373359

I hadn't known of her PhD or her brothers or her age or her short term parochial school experiences before becoming the fixture in my school.  She generated many  highly distinguished alumni, much indebted to her.  She had come as a distinguished invited guest at our high school reunion, where I had the privilege of not only chatting but updating her on who else in the class had become physicians, a few very prominent.  She also indicated that she was on chemotherapy and making end of life arrangements with another classmate who had become an attorney not far from where she taught us.  She apparently passed away within a few months of that event.  Another pillar whose life contributed so much.

So I'll observe Kaddish and Yahrtzeit as scheduled.

Working with a Timer

My attention span, which has always been paltry, seems to have really tanked.  Yesterday, I undertook some things I really wanted to do: write an essay, sort papers on the family room couch, exercise on the treadmill, create a psycho-path to make navigation in my bedroom safer, make macaroni & cheese for supper, attend an Osher lecture.  Some have set durations, like cooking continues until it is done or a class has a fixed duration even if my fidgeting diverts me to check e-mail or FB posts while the Zoom session continues.  Others are better done by deciding in advance how long I want to spend, then setting the timer for that duration.  Treadmill always goes to completion, as the countdown offers landmarks.  Tidying and writing just could not engage me for more than a fraction of the interval dedicated to it. For the paper sorting I got frustrated quickly and abandoned the task.  For the bedroom I did better, not completing the duration but satisfied with what I did.  For the writing, I set an hour, lasted about a third of that using the library's timer, but just ran out of thoughts to keep me in synch with the outline that I had successfully placed before pursuing text.  

Some productivity experts recommend a Five Minute Rule, setting a timer for that interval, starting the project, then deciding whether to continue or abandon.  I usually last more than five minutes, so that may be worth a try, at least to avoid the procrastination that results in not pursuing an initiative at all.

Picking the Must Do

As age related frailty becomes more evident, my capacity to do a lot of things on my daily task list has faltered.  As compensation, though perhaps with benefit, I have been picking one or two things that require attention.  Yesterday that was my platelet donation, last week the transition from old to new car.  Treadmill sort of anchors my Must most days but does not comprise the designated highlighted task.  Sometimes it's writing, especially towards a Medscape submission deadline, sometimes it's making something slightly elaborate for supper, sometimes I target an area for cleaning.  More importantly, I usually successfully tackle what I designate for the day's focus.  And if I can do one successfully, why not expand to two?

Could Use an Adventure

Our Covid-19 pandemic becomes gradually less intrusive with each passing week.  Delaware Choral Arts held a live concert with restrictions on attendance.  In-person worship has returned to my synagogue.  Osher Institute plans to open its building and conduct live classes with the coming semester.  In-person dining remains shvok, though travel has become more commonplace.  I do not know how our theme parks have done or if campers, hunters, and explorers have resumed their personal challenges.  Thrill experiences were put on hold.  Those who seek them out must be eager to move forward.

I've never been a real thrill seeker.  I used to like amusement parks, especially the roller coasters, until my inner ear judged otherwise a few amusement parks ago.  At the water park, I will try a tame slide but devote more time to the lazy river or wave pool.  On the highway I drive at the speed of traffic and defer to the aggression of the NASCAR wannabes.  No hang gliding, bungee jumping, or parachuting.  No taking my chances as a pedestrian in an unsafe neighborhood to experience diversity up front.

It's not that I reject adventure, just define it in a risk averse way.  I regret not having set a day of white water rafting as one of my day trips or going out deep sea fishing, or even snorkeling at a resort.  There are suitable thrills that go beyond simply new experiences.  Covid-19 should not serve as an excuse for what is really being timid.  

A Mind Focus

While sipping my first cup of coffee ordinaire, looking over the intended tasks highlight as components of my semi-annual initiatives, a few themes emerge.  I can work on the house, or I can tweak my intellect, or usually some combination.  It tends to work better if I select one.  Since both have been underperforming for a few weeks, I think I'll spend the bulk of today in My Space producing great thoughts in the form of commentary, maybe a NEJM article, my OLLI class, get back to my Consult Maven blog neglected for an extended time.  Minimize errands or shopping.  If I do housework, it will need to be project focused instead of maintenance.  And exercise as the calendar demands.  

I can do this successfully today, if not every day.

Not Very Smart Watch

To maintain sleep hygiene, I pretty faithfully arise when my wrist alarm buzzes.  This being clock change, I expected it to adapt as my cell phone does.  However, it links to the cell phone, which I left downstairs on the kitchen table.  The watch buzzed when it said 6:30 just as programmed.  However, it was really 5:30 but I got up anyway and went to the kitchen to begin my day with coffee.  The cell phone had adjusted automatically and the watch then linked, only to go off again in another hour when it read 6:30 a second time.  I can count of the alarm.

Plodding Towards Winter

Been sleeping through my wrist alarm a couple of times this week.  The buzz seems less jolting, even when it arrives when I am already awake, too weak to interrupt my final snooze if I am not already awake.  When buzz appreciated I get up.  Looking out the window it's dark.  Retrieving the newspaper from the end of the driveway, it is not only dark but with a chill.  When I sleep through the signal, when I look to the window, light has begun.  My biological clock runs a little differently than my exogenous electronic reminder, though I tend to adapt quickly, perhaps even have a better day when I arise in response to the smartwatch.  

This is the final shabbos on Daylight Saving's Time for the season.  During my work years, I would make chicken before heading to work on Friday mornings during Standard Time.  I still might, though being retired, I could allot time for this in the late afternoon.  It seems better just to have it all done, awaiting assembly on a suitably set shabbos table, as candle lighting precedes customary meal times.  

My plants need some consideration.  I've mostly set the outdoor gardens for winter, plucking all plants but rosemary, sage, and parsley.  They can take their chances though I may cover the rosemary.  Front entrance containers leave me more options.  Next year my herbs will only be in containers except for sage and rosemary which do better in the backyard beds.  Those square foot gardens, whether or not they remain square foot patterns or go back to rows, will be allotted to vegetables.  Container mints seem indestructible.  Don't know about chives, which still look straggly enough to replant next year in a container with better drainage.  Parsley grows easily and can be replanted.  Container sage did not grow large enough to harvest.  Dill and thyme could have done better.  Maybe just leave them to nature and try again next spring.  

And then there's the snow blower.  A must this year, as it failed the one time I needed it.  My ability to use a snow shovel safely has passed.  I'm even willing to follow the repair suggestions on the internet or have it revived professionally.  Not willing, yet, to purchase and assemble a new one.

Winter clothing has been transferred except for the wooly hats and gloves.  And next week, Standard Time, the wrist alarm matches window daylight.

Thanksgiving Preparation

Thanksgiving, while a small gathering, takes place at my home.  It also challenges me with preparation, both as chief chef and as host.  Three weeks remain, to include cleaning, shopping, meal preparation, some lessons in small talk, maybe a few YouTube sessions on family congeniality, with shabbos and dishwashing to follow.  Thus far I do not know who will need feeding or transport.  My daughter had been joining us but delayed her return to the East Coast by about a week.  My son and daughter-in-law now live within driving range but have not announced their plans.  It is unlikely I will need a turkey.  The single breast half should get us through shabbos.

In past years, I've made both soup and appetizer.  I think I'll omit the latter this year.  That brings menu categories to:

1. Motzi
2. Soup
3. Salad
4. Dressing
5. Turkey
6. Cranberry 
7. Sweet Potato
8. Vegetable
9. Dessert
10. Beverage 

Basic categories allow a lot of flexibility, laws of Kashrut providing the most restriction, along with practicalities of expense and ease of preparation.  I don't need any new utensils or appliances.  I will need to decide whether to use cookbooks or online recipes, though I really like the bread from one of my cookbooks.  Probably alcohol-free unless my son comes.  Having banned the evil soda from my home, I think wine would be his preferred substitute.  

I tend not to decorate as a theme, even for Hanukkah which this year follows Thanksgiving by only a few days and has its own cuisine.  

If my Thanksgivings now have a paucity of people, they retain the abundance of food and my satisfaction with assembling the parts to make the weekend festive.

Electronically Challenged

It's been a tough time for me with Hi Tech.  My computer got hacked.  My new car has too sophisticated a front screen for me to use properly.  My GPS of 2011 vintage leads me to places that no longer exist without the ability to track the locations that replaced them.  And my cell phone, trouble free for the three years that I've had it, made paying the monthly bill a hassle, then used up my monthly allotment of 10G a week before the next payment.  I don't even know what counts as 10G, or really even what 10G is.  And my bottom rung tablet does not charge as it should.

There are resources, some Geeks, some company representatives, that come to the rescue, some expertly, some the NP extenders for the Geeks who really aren't up to the tasks that get hard.  After a few calls, my computer email has returned to baseline less the years of Sent Folder, which I rarely look at but still miss having.  Toyota cell phone app got downloaded and appears on the screen, only to discover that the GPS program which I need the most, requires a $25 annual subscription.  And I still don't know how to get my cell phone screen, which has a GPS, to appear on my car screen, or even how to mount my cell phone onto the dashboard so I can see its Waze GPS App safely while driving.  After trying to update my Magellan Roadmate GPS map online, I deferred to Customer Support which I expect to be forthcoming.  T-Mobile has one more month of service before I consider other plans that for comparable price annoy me less.  And the tablet can stay in its charger longer.  There's a reason why it cost under $100, and I rarely use it.

No Appointments

Blank day on my whiteboard.  No OLLI classes.  No Jewish stuff to do.  No medical appointments.  No concerts to attend.  Those all appear on my weekly whiteboard but today has no entries. Not even an appointment with myself, other than maybe to do that extra treadmill day that comes following months that have other than 30 days.  

I've had some success designating days as housework or writing, though they usually end up as hybrids.  There are my semi-annual projects, all with designated deadlines, now in their final third of time allotment.  Some have reached completion, most perking along.  Today would be a good day to focus on one or two.  Physically I feel as well as I have for a few weeks, citalopram seems to have restored my disposition if not my mood, and nothing on email or FB to pose a serious distraction.  The best day to move myself head.

Broken Cap

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pie Spice only comes out in the fall.  It sells out before Thanksgiving.  I missed out  year and largely used up the previous year's as its versatility livens up coffee as well as making a useful cinnamon substitute.  It's back, so I got a jar.  When I took the jar home the cap split and the plastic that separates the cap from the jar dislodged, leaving a sprinkle of spice in the reusable shopping bag.  I pack my own groceries at TJ so I cannot point a finger at the cashier, but I would have expected a more durable cap.  This is the second that split that way, a previous one when dropped.  I taped that one together.  This time I moved the good cap from the almost empty Pumpkin Pie Spice jar to the new one and notified TJ on line.  However, I now have a fresh jar to last another year or two.  The plastics manufacturer will need to design a sturdier cap, especially if TJ insists on it.