Things to Do - It’s Tomorrow Already

I am a creature of habit. There are things I have been doing for decades and have no intention of changing. As I age, I am beginning to understand some of the traits I saw in my ancestors. They were set in their ways too.

When I got up this morning, I went through my usual routine to prepare for the day. Naturally, the obligatory ‘checking my phone for messages’ was included. There were six! goes down, so do I. Because of this, I can get up early and get more work done in those few hours before breakfast than all the combined hours of the rest of the day.

So I reconsidered and read all the comments to make sure there wasn’t something urgent happening. Thankfully, all is well within the realm of our shared atmosphere.

My second thought was a bit more complex. How can I use this for an article or story? Then I realized; this one is easy.

It’s not only tomorrow already, it’s next week already, soon to be followed by it’s next month already. We are right on the edge of a new chunk of time called 2023. Do you realize it’s next year already? Has anyone noticed how it feels like time seems to continually speed up?

What’s so odd about that? Nothing when it is an email from another time zone. But these were all in a group chat of coworkers. Noticing the time stamp was what really caught my attention. They all came in from 11: 42 PM to 12:17 AM.

My first thought: Don’t you people realize it’s tomorrow already? Of course, they are equally confused by my schedule. You see, when the sun

Sometimes I get busy and tired and think about how nice it would be to have time for doing nothing. Then I think about how my parents and grandparents reached the age when they weren’t able to keep busy. That’s all it takes to keep me going. Life is too short to waste time on nothing. So now when I do that, I call it recharging or rejuvenating. However, we might as well call it what it is: resting.

Do you remember not wanting to go to sleep because you didn’t want to miss out on something? Nowadays I look forward to not being required to participate in every activity which is offered. Life is simpler this way.

Speaking of easy, I also continually look for shortcuts anywhere I can find them when cooking. The following does not save any time, so it can’t really be considered a life hack. But it is just too good to keep it all to myself.

Recently, I discovered two new variations of old favorites. It has been said that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but I’m not so sure. For example, due to dietary allergies, we found it necessary to substitute one ingredient in our green bean casserole for Thanksgiving dinner. The result was quite delicious! In fact, so much so, we repeated it for our Christmas dinner. All you have to do is substitute one can of cream of chicken soup with herbs for the original can of cream of mushroom soup. Phenomenal! (True confession: I did reduce the amount of black pepper I added due to the already present seasoning in the soup.)

My second discovery came from a coworker who made fresh cranberry salad for a work luncheon. I had eaten this type of salad for years because it was tradition. However, I plan to start making this much more often now that I know about this replacement ingredient. Our family recipe calls for fresh ground cranberries, marshmallows, pecans, whipped topping and crushed pineapple. This variation was made exactly the same way except for using chopped apples instead of pineapple.

Maybe this is not new for you, but I really enjoyed eating this version rather than sampling it simply because it was something we always did every year.

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions, but I do make plans. And for this new year, I have every intention of exploring some new ingredient choices for some old favorites. With any luck, I just might hit upon that perfect combination of nutrition, convenience, time saving, and flavor.

One of the best ways to stay young is to continually learn new things. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Dog? What dog? Does anyone see a dog? Not me. Especially not an old one.