Restocking My Alcohol Supply

My consumption pattern took an odd trajectory.  In the past six months or so, I've taken to a late afternoon's sherry or port, the cheap stuff from mass producers.  At a rate of about a wine glass, or even a tasting glass, before supper, a 1500 ml bottle lasts about two weeks, though really a little longer when sherry and port alternate.  In exchange for that I drink less beer.  The craft offerings have accelerated in price, leaving me to alternate with a few favorite brands:  Moosehead & Squirrel, Molson's, tried Lion's Head which I found too bitter.  And since I never have beer with any other alcohol on the same day, the usual purchase of twelve bottles lasts a while, even though I've abandoned soda other than seltzer from my supermarket cart, irrespective of an attractive sale price.  Spirits last even longer.  In the winter, I will make a hot toddy after supper, though never in the same day as anything else.  I am pretty good at limitation to a single serving in any day except when we have wine with dinner, when I am more generous with refilling my glass at the meal.  Though dinner wine is a special occasion, other than weekly kiddush.

So it came as a surprise when the last drops of several of these things poured all within a week.  Wine for my wife's birthday, Manischewitz at the last shabbos, last bottle of Molson's this week, sherry a couple of weeks ago not replaced since I still had about a liter of port remaining, and even the bourbon emptied in a recipe for coulibiac that I baked for my wife's birthday.

So off to Total Wine, my preferred megastore.  Kiddush wine was first priority.  Usually I get Mogen David based on price but they didn't have any.  I bought Manischewitz plain Concord Grape, the type made from kitnyot that cannot be used on Pesach.  Then more sherry, 1500 ml of cream style.  For beer, I found Anchor Steam variety pack, $15 for twelve bottles.  Interestingly, not only is price zooming, but availability of bottles seems to be giving way to cans, even among the better brands.  Cans apparently have advantages of shelf life, storage, shipping, and production for the manufacturers and improvements in canning have enabled less effect on the product.  I bought twelve bottles.  And for real booze, I started with replacing bourbon.  This has also gotten rather expensive, at least the brands I've heard of.  I settled for 750 ml of one I've not heard but had a pleasant color and attractive rectangular bottle with cork top.  While pushing my cart, I saw some Irish whiskey, something I did not have at home.  Browsing the shelves for the lower priced offerings, again with the brands I've heard of mostly above my willingness to spend, I selected a 750 ml cylindrical bottle with  attractive shiny green label.

Onward to the cashier, credit card debited about $75, then home.  When I arrived, my wife's car was not in the driveway.  Unknown to me she had gone out for her own replacement from a decent store around the corner.  Her wine, my preferred Mogen David Concord.  Since mine is not suitable for Pesach, we'll use mine now, then probably be ready to open hers for Seder.  She also replaced sherry, same brand as the one I chose but a smaller bottle of the dry variety.  And a bottle of dinner wine.

We are now fully stocked for a while.  The novelty being the Irish whiskey, I screwed open the top last night, put a zets of sugar in a stem glass, three ounces boiling water with one ounce of Irish whiskey for a somewhat bitter but relaxing hot toddy while I watched a recorded travel show in my Man Cave.  Decent ending to a mostly busy day.

Pursuing Wellness

This may be the best I have felt physically in about four years.  Within the last year or so I have regimented a few things where benefits are emerging.  My treadmill schedule has become fixed to essentially two days on, one day off, with an adaptation to transition of months.  I set a time and speed with a cool down time and speed.  Days missed have been few.  If anything that has created the biggest payoff.  Sleep comes next.  I reviewed current recommendations for sleep hygiene with fixed bed and not bed times.  I've done very well with arising, rarely lolling in the morning seeking more time.  The evening has been more problematic.  Among sleep hygiene recommendations is not to toss and turn for more than a half hour or so but to get out of bed and go someplace else.  My recliner and big screen TV in my Man Cave have come to the rescue.  I usually return to sleep and get up at the fixed time feeling rested.  Staying out of bed at the times other than specified sleep has been harder, as I like to read there.  The overhead lighting is ideal, the temperature better than anyplace else, and reading reclining rather than sitting has been a habit dating to college.  I rid the bedroom lounge chair of clutter and should try that as an alternative to the bed.

Eating and weight control have responded to a few shopping decisions. Snacks are minimized, or at least selective.  No chips or national brand cookies.  No squishy bread.  No soda other than seltzer.  I glass of sherry or port each afternoon.  Coffee more rigidly rationed, with additional liquid via hot spiced apple cider or herb tea.  I've started buying portioned fish which can be taken out of the freezer the day before and made into a quick low fat, low carb meal.  Some starch control still needs attention but this is serious progress, probably contributing to my current well being.

I've given up some medicines, most notably citalopram which I used to be more restrained when among people.  I'm not really among people.  Flonase is gone.  Omeprazole went on an unsuccessful holiday, though.  And I am faithful to daily use of what I should take for cholesterol and for blood pressure control, each with reinforcement when the lab results and home BP readings confirm efficacy.

Despite the physical improvements, my quest for wellness still has some loose ends.  My mind wanders, which has its benefits but I often abandon tasks short of completion.  This is especially true in some of the reading and expression initiatives I've set for myself.

Connectedness languishes, my most serious deficit.  While independence of thought and to a lesser extent of person have been virtues, there are limits.  I assign myself a quest for organization affiliation, never achieving the acceptance I seek.  OLLI has gone virtual.  FB has people but considerable attrition for good reason.  Events like birthdays or my son's wedding get a lot of responses, presentations of ideas and initiatives don't.  Twitter and FB have lost their potential, places that people carry their placards for which others present some slogan as a poor surrogate of responding in thought.  KevinMD rarely has two responses to any article.  My synagogue has become the USY Clique transposed in time with inbreeding and not a lot of curiosity among those of title or the Rabbi on how to maximize engagement.  There are more substantial forums like Disqus where people can respond to articles in a substantial way and others can respond in kind.  I've basically shut them off, except for KevinMD as the responses of strangers too frequently are more hostile than enriching.

If I have a deficit of connectedness to people, I have compensated a little with connectedness to places, and even to things.  This month I've ventured to a few new places, Harford County, MD. the Philadelphia Italian Market, Laurel and Millsboro DE.  Each place has its visual impression, reinforced by wandering around there and peering from my car window en route.  I purchase very little, but early in Covid-19 I went to stores a lot as that was the only venue open.  The novelty has worn off but at least there are people around.  And I drive around the neighborhood or to a park, mainly for scenery.  It's not connectedness but a boost to my spirit, which can often benefit from that boost.

I've given up toxic food and overt sloth with good effect.  I should redirect to a little social butchery perhaps.  FB has attrition because it deserves attrition.  Ditto for my shul. But as my loss of squishy bread acquired a pumpernickel replacement. and undesired wakefulness led to TV time as replacement, I don't have a good replacement for shul or for twitter that would serve a better purpose.  Until that happens, wellness, or at least its social component, remain unfulfilled.

Not Been Fishing

After a spring's anticipation and some misadventures like having a good rod and reel slip off the dock at Lums Pond, my quest of catching anything has deflated.  I devoted some effort to replacing and restoring equipment, made a few visits to Bellevue State Park's pond, but as the summer heat and humidity became more oppressive, my interest in casting for an hour or so largely disappeared.  I could have worked on some knots but didn't.  I might have expanded the adventure to one of Delaware's downstate angler destinations but haven't.

While I've yet to hook any of those wriggly critters, I have derived satisfaction from some of my skills and underlying efforts.  I can now cast competently with a spinning reel, tie a leader with a nail knot if I have an illustrated guide, replace a broken rod tip, spool an empty reel, and tie a hook with a clinch not, though not yet a palomar knot.  Some limits of near vision, finger dexterity and hand-eye coordination have become apparent but have enhanced my resolve to complete the tasks that require this.

What fishing may have given me is time alone, something amply replaced between my Man Cave and coronavirus limitations that have kept me more alone.  That element of escape, time to set my angling strategy, and patiently wait for a result now goes to my screens, either big screen TV where I can stream and watch laptop where I can escape to a Curiosity Stream experience not otherwise available to me.  Just me, my vision, and its cerebral connections.  All without humidity, safety masks, or tangle frustrations.  

Eventually as the outdoor environment returns to a more seasonably pleasant experience, I'll give the various ponds a second chance.