"It's Really Not That Bad"

Just as a quick follow-up for Valentine’s, I thought the Google logo put up for the special day really fit my wife and I. I can actually remember a time when images like this wouldn’t have even caught my attention. But, there we go, surfing or dog paddling the world wide web together as we head off into the sunset of our lives. I thought you might get a kick out of seeing it. Now to my story for the day, and you can be sure that I will be sticking to it!

Who would have ever thought Henny Penny and Turkey Lurkey would become main staples of my daily dietary consumption? But, alas, as Bob Dylan put it: “The times they are a-changin”. For me the new white meat is the old white meat, the white meat, and nothing but the white meat. Never in the history of humanity has anyone undergone a greater challenge in transitioning from the very foundation of enjoying the good life, to eating so differently for the privilege of postponing the inevitable. I’m not sure what that sentence says but it somehow does reflect this about the changes I’ve been dealing with: “It’s a real bummer!”

One would guess the yuletide classic would not have worked very well with the line, “While visions of chicken and turkey breasts danced in their heads”. I will have to give a shout out to my wife for trying to help. We’ve done the chicken strips just about every way they can be done from stir-fry to salads. She’s also made turkey chili, turkey burgers, and she surprised me one night with ground turkey meat sauce served over whole-wheat spaghetti. The good news is that nearly every time we’ve tried these dishes that are new to us we both have learned to say, “It’s really not that bad!” Wow! That’s a long way from when I used to drool all over myself just thinking about her smothered steak, mashed potatoes and gravy!

I also saw her come in the other day packing a huge bag of brown rice. That’s on nearly every one of the charts but I’m not so sure it’s that tasty. In fact, I had some in a light soup the other day, which must be something akin to what they served prisoners in the Dustin Hoffman, Steve McQueen movie, ‘Papillon’. At any rate, the other day I was eating this ‘lite’ soup, the one where the entire large can has only 120 calories, or 60 per serving to be exact. It contained those little brown rice kernels and they were all swollen up and looked like little plump weevils to me. To tell the truth, once I got that image in my head the taste ended up being nothing to write home about.

As you can tell, I am one label reading fool these days. I just hope I never have to get into that swapping deal where I try to figure out how many of one food group counts for the other food groups. I can just see myself all bent out of shape like a shopaholic at a swap meet. I’ve not even shared yet about the Butterball Turkey link sausage, or the Jimmy Dean Turkey sausage patties, and the Oscar Mayer deli-fresh varieties of chicken and turkey. We ended up having to dispose of one package of the deli-fresh because after being in the fridge way too long it was sporting a beautiful but tainted rainbow of colors. I bet you are getting very hungry about now. Bear in mind I am not complaining but just like Jack Webb used to say on the series ‘Dragnet’, as Sergeant Joe Friday, this is what I am saying: “Just the facts, ma’m, just the facts”. I am thankful to God that regardless of how difficult this has been, we are by His grace, at this time, and on this day, able to declare: “It’s really not that bad!”

Have a great weekend. Got that? Week ending! That would be Saturday, the 7th and last day of the week. Sunday is the 1st day of the week, a new week, a new day, and a new beginning. Try to get your new week started off by gathering with God’s people to recognize the significance of our Savior being resurrected on the first day of the week, and by thanking Him for the life we can have because He lives! Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, or in my case, pass the turkey! …..More later.