Armchair travel and pesto

My Chopped basket. I think I’ll make pesto and homemade pasta!

Today is one of those days where everything feels hard. It seems like everyone out there is mad at everyone else. The news is horrible. I go for a walk, and I have to dodge people left and right to keep six feet away. And, oh, if I want my favorite masks for golf tomorrow, I’d better run another load of wash. I had an appointment to swim laps, but I canceled. Swimming has become such an ordeal.

I decided to stay home. Isn’t that crazy? It seems like most people are itching to go out and do normal things, but sometimes I think we still need a respite from the madness. For me, it means retreating to what’s comfortable. Simple pleasures.

First thing’s first. Lunch. While I eat mostly healthy unprocessed food, I do love me some Cheez Whiz on fresh celery. I’ve been quite the cookie monster lately, so that was my meal, but a tasty one it was. Lunch at home always seems like such an indulgence after years of poking down something at work. It’s actually one of my favorite things about retirement. Well, and breakfast.

Have your lunch habits changed since you retired? I hope you are enjoying something delicious …

Next step was downloading what is turning out to be a pretty good book about hiking the Appalachian Trail. A little armchair travel is good for the soul. I don’t actually want to hike the AT, but I love to walk and am always looking for inspiration. Over the years, I’ve given a lot of thought to doing some sort of long walk, but I have so many caveats I usually give up.

In the Great Big Picture Book of things that scare me about a long walk, here they are in no particular order:

  • Peeing
  • Cliffs and drop-offs
  • Wild animals
  • Pooping
  • Murderers
  • Rapists
  • Bad knees
  • Bad back
  • Weather
  • Sleeping
  • Eating
  • Social distancing

That’s just for starters. For now, I’m gradually increasing my mileage with the idea of doing a long day hike that starts after breakfast and ends before happy hour. That seems doable.

Dinner is always a topic of high interest at our house. Since I decided to avoid the world today, I wanted to cook. I was going to make Chana Masala, but we didn’t have all the ingredients. And it’s not like going to the store is easy.

However, we did have some lovely basil from the garden, so I’m making pesto. I’m also making pasta from scratch. I’ve made pasta before with great success, but I don’t do it enough to feel as though I’ve mastered it. I always make sure we have back-up pasta.

That should get me through the day. And it’s Tuesday! Chopped night on the Food channel. Thank you, universe.

18 thoughts on “Armchair travel and pesto”

  1. I’d be happy to hike every day though it might kill me now, if I had real bed and shower every night. And I dont mean in a group hostel home. Just saying.

  2. Not a retirement change, but since the plague began, we only eat twice. A light breakfast and then “linner”, lunch/dinner between three and five.

    1. Interesting. I’m not sure I could go for linner. I do sometimes skip breakfast or lunch if I’m playing golf, and I look forward to making up the difference when I stay home.

  3. I totally agree about lunch at home being an indulgence. When I first retired, I was a master at great lunches to celebrate the indulgence. Now, after a few years, it’s a little rockier. Some days I still master it, while other days it leans toward grilled cheese. I just try to keep my inner child from winning at every meal, in favor of the responsible adult who is promoting a nice salad. My interest in the hikers of the long trails started with Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. I would add feet to the list- mine would never make it, sad to say. But I can walk along via books and YouTube.

    1. I love, “I just try to keep my inner child from winning at every meal.” We struggle with that.

      Bill Bryson’s book was great. There are some not very good ones out there. One of my favorites is “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed. The one I’m reading now is “The Unlikely Thru-Hiker: An Appalachian Trail Journey” by Derick Lugo. Better than most, IMHO.

  4. I too love to read/watch books/shows about long gruelling life-changing thru-hikes. My imaginary badass self is out there doing it. But I like soft beds and hot showers too and share most of your fears, and at almost 61 years old I think that ship has sailed, for me. Day hiking is more than good enough, for the foreseeable future!

    Deb

    1. One of my favorite long distance hiking books as a child in the 70’s was The High Adventure of Eric Ryback. One of the first PCtand CTD thru hikers. He then lived a traditional life but got reacquainted with the PCTA a few years ago . The book might be available or out of print, not sure

      1. What a great tip … I will check it out. Thank you! Another oldie but goodie is Lost on a Mountain in Maine.

  5. Add to the list, poison ivy, mosquitoes, a heavy backpack and sleeping in a tent. To put us all to shame, or maybe inspiration, read Grandma Gatewood’s Walk.

  6. So glad for these hiker book selections. I will definitely check them out. YouTube is also great (Homemade Wanderlust, Darwin on the Trail, Mary Mansfield, and others). These hikers haul video equipment along and take some amazing footage as they hike the PCT and other trails. 2020 has been a bad year for them, as the trails are officially closed (although some are still hiking despite requests to stop). But you can go back and watch someone’s entire long distance hike from several years ago.

    1. Wow — I might have to check that out. Prove to myself that it really is too scary for me.

  7. It’s another rainy day here and I’m thinking about food prep. Homemade pasta seems like a lofty challenge. I’m thinking mini quiches with pre-made shells. What I eat since retirement hasn’t changed so much; it’s usually last night’s leftovers or homemade soup. The timing has certainly changed. Breakfast is usually closer to 10 AM followed by an early supper, like David’s “linner” leaving me wide open for evening snacking. Donna, have you checked out Retirement Reflections and the 30 hikes in 30 days? I really enjoyed the movie A Walk in the Woods. The soundtrack was excellent and introduced me to the Indie band, Lord Huron.

    1. I do read Retirement Reflections, but I missed that. I will hop on over there and check it out.

  8. Your pasta and pesto sounds very yummy. We live in Arizona and so staying home is pretty essential right now.. our numbers are awful and getting worse. Our Gov. just does every measure half way and so..we are suffering. I did let myself go to Trader Joe the last 2 weeks at senior hour, but this week decided to go back to instacart.. I miss being able got go out at will. The things we took for granted!!

    Outdoors: We are actually afraid to drive too far.. in the event of a car wreck, our hospitals are almost at capacity,getting care would be very iffy.Sounds a bit too cautious? We are following our intuition on this one and staying at parks within a mile or so from our home. SO MANY PEOPLE HERE WON’T WEAR THE MASK! Frustrating!

    Meals and cooking are a huge hobby for me, but I am thinking like one of your readers of going to two meals a day..and eating a bit earlier.I am not a nighttime eater so maybe I will lose some weight that way. We’ve been exercising MORE during Covid so I have not gained any weight, but I have some I need to lose.. so that is our new project—we are getting ourselves back to Whole Foods Plant based eating.SInce March we have been craving and eating comfort foods..meatloaf, pasta with sausage and peppers,baked pork chops.. oh my! And we need to squelch the sweet tooth once again. Not checking our cholesterol till NEXT YEAR. Today is hubby’s birthday so his birthday pie will be the last pie for a while.. boo hoo..After we get a good start in a better direction I can go back to OCCASSIONAL baking.

    Stay well.. sorry you can’t swim.. my husband had to give up his laps too.. but got this weird contraption that let’s him swim laps in our pool.. a cheapie thing from amazon.

    Peace.

    1. The pasta turned out great. I learned it doesn’t stick together if you let it dry out some before cutting it. To reward myself, I ordered a pasta drying rack for future endeavors.

      I try not to get too spun up about the masks, but I just don’t get it. If you were having surgery, would you tell your doctor not to bother with a mask? As for being told what to do, this is part of life. We give up some freedoms for the greater good of the masses. Think traffic laws. So annoying.

      We’ve been indulging, too, but so far all is good in the weight wars. Cholesterol might be another story!

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