Sprouting, Sprouting, O'er The Ocean Blue

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My memories are stored in my emotions. That's why I had to fight to the death to keep my emotions for my own person. However much emotional (e-mo-shun-all) energy (the more of me than you can see) gets dulled or squashed in me is how much memory I lose in that process.

I had to fight to keep from being manipulated through my emotions by charismatics, and at the sa-me ti-me I had hold on to what they used to use me as if were everything the zombies are not. Zombies aren't brain-dead, they're emotionally dead, and can never rise to the occasion where empathy can make thangs right.

Writing about emotions is not the sa-me as responding or not emotionally. I use writing to explore drifting thoughts to see what I can mine from them. First, I have to capture those drifting thoughts with words. Once that happens I can contemplate their deeper me-and-thee-ing-s (meanings). It's a dangerous task. The fact that there has to be both a me and a thee to have meaning is somewhat of a paradox, and aggravating.

I have other aggravations presently. Trying to type with band-aids on my thumb and index finger on my right hand, On the very tips of them where I strike the keys on the keyboard. I cut the tips of those fingers while slicing up some potatoes on my fairly new mandolin(e) slicer. I thought I was being fairly cautious. Not cautious enough.

The first time I became aware of mandolin or mandoline slicers was just before I bought this one. At first I thought the term "mandolin" was a brand name or a play on the musical instrument. It was only when I did a web search that I discovered the term mandolin indicates a type of slicer that a lot of manufacturers use. Here's a link that shows a bunch of different brands of mandoline slicers:

http://www.creativecookware.com/stainless_mandolins.htm?gclid=CJKM7JLb6p8CFc8N5QodVkdCeA

It was definitely my own stupidity that I sliced off a quarter inch bit of skin on my index finger and simultaneously sliced a half inch hunk of skin part-way off my thumb. I didn't use the included implement to hold the last part of a medium sized onion to slice that had gone to sprout. What a dumb-ass I can be at times.

Cooking is not my forte. No matter what my friends and neighbors try to teach me about it I mess it up. Mostly, I don't do what they tell me often. I intend to, but in the heat of the kitchen I lose my mind and end up with the same ol'/same ol' barely edible... hmmm... food. It keeps me alive, and not very alive at that. I blame all my illnesses on my lousy diet.

I just got an unexpected call from my youngest brother. He and his wife are back from India, and very nearly home from the Raleigh/Durham airport. He told me they would be gone for two weeks, and it's only been a week and a half. I'm very happy they made it back from India. I probably won't hear about it for a couple of days. He said they were totally exhausted, and were going straight to bed. No blame.

The greenhouse my brother built for his wife has been there for a few years. I'm not sure how long it's been there, but it's not been used as much as was sorta planned in the beginning. I looked out for the plants while they were gone, and tried to make sure the heater was fired up on the nights the temperature got ten degrees below freezing.

The last couple of nights it got that cold I went over and lit the stove, but the next morning the fire was out. The first night I figure the stove had a thermostat and had turned itself off when the sun came out and heated the greenhouse in the morning light. Last night I lit the pilot light and turned the volume knob up a bit, and the flame lit, but didn't seem strong.

The fire was out when I checked it this morning, so I looked to see if there was natural gas in the tank outside. Out! I called the gas company, and they told me my brother's account was on a "will call" basis, so they would come out today and fill it up. I'm glad my brother is back. I don't like messing with other people's business affairs. It wasn't a big deal. Both of us went to school with the guy who owns the gas company.

The sun flower seeds I'm sprouting are slowly coming out into sprouts. It took lots longer than I thought. It takes some planning to make the sprouting thing happen. It's not complicated from what I've been reading online and from watching the Youtube videos on sprouting.

The seeds have to be soaked for a while to get them started to germinating, and then they have to be rinsed with fresh water a couple of times a day until they're fully sprouted. I have no idea how long that takes. The real problem is that various seeds take different lengths of time to become the edible product that I can store in the refrigerator once they mature.

I don't know what the final product looks like because I've never done this myself before. From what I've read so far the different plant seeds take different amounts of time to become what you eat. I germinated some black beans I bought at the grocery store.

They didn't bust out into sprouts fast enough to please me, so I put them in a tray of potting soil just like I do the wheatberries, and they've grown into small plants that are tasty. Yesterday I used my scissors to harvest them and I included a loose handful of them in my wheatgrass juicing. They added a bolder taste to the usually sweet grass.

I was at the grocery store again yesterday and bought a small bag of lentil seeds to germinate into sprouts. I don't particularly like lentil beans themselves, but the sprouts are reputed to taste pretty good. I got some of them soaking since last night to see if they'll sprout.

I ordered ten quart jar lids and a sample pack of a variety of sprouting seeds from Amazon that have stainless steel screens instead of the normal sealing lids to do sprouts in. The lid only cost $1.30 a piece, but the shipping costs was even more that the cost of the lids. The seed sampler costs $34 and had separate shipping costs.

Between the lids that come from one company partnering with Amazon, and the seeds that come from a different Amazon partner the whole deal cost over $60. That's ridiculous. The lids are a one-time deal (as of yet), but the seeds are possibly a constant reorder and the shipping costs for seeds are over the top for me. There are at least ten different kinds of seeds, however, and I should be able to tell from this sample kit what sprouts might appeal to me.

I checked my marking post to see when I quit eating meat. It was the first day of December of 2008. A little over two months. I'm doing this diet to see if it might help with the arthritis, but it might be a case of closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. If nothing else, I've learned a lot about magnesium.

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