Monday, February 13, 2012

I was not prepared

Quote du jour: It's innocence when it charms us, ignorance when it doesn't.
-- Mignon McLaughlin

Site du jour: On the Mark Reads blog, Mark is blogging about the experience of reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time. Interesting to see it through the eyes of someone who's never seen or read the tale.

I never posted about the January challenge of going 30 days without going near a store. I did not do well. Lasted almost three weeks before I had to pick something up. I made it through the month with a couple of quickie FAILs. I know this is a learning experience, but I still felt guilty. I should adopt the motto from Mark Reads:You Are Not Prepared. I did try to be prepared. Even so,I ran out of almost everything, overstocked on a few things. I still have loads of frozen vegetables stuffed in the frig... want some? Yeah, that's what I thought. I suppose I should eat them up.

It was a tremendously useful challenge in terms of how much I learned. There are organized people out there. I am not one of them. But at least I am much more self aware. I thought I needed a lot more veggies than I did. I want to try that challenge again in a few months, see if I can do any better.

Note: the jury is still out on using Dpad. I'm getting better at working with it, but blogging on an iPad is always going to be a frustrating experience unless you have a wireless keyboard. It's better than straight HTML coding... I guess... But I'm not thrilled with it.

Still going to go Cold Carrot today. In more ways than one.

Exercise du jour: one gentle walk at lunch.

Posted from DPad on my iPad

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

You did well to go as long as you did.

We've been snowed up for a week and I had to walk into the village on Tuesday to get some shopping.

SP

EcoCatLady said...

I am musing over the idea of feeling guilty about "messing up" a self-imposed challenge. Not that I don't do this sort of thing myself, but when you really look at it, there's something nonsensical about the entire concept of feeling guilty about doing something that has no effect on anyone but oneself.

Sounds like you learned something, and it sorta seems like that was the whole point, wasn't it? In my book this counts as a rousing success!!! So I hereby offer my congratulations on your successful no shopping challenge! :~)

McB said...

Just because you didn't get the result you had hoped for doesn't mean you failed. Experiments aren't about pass/fail; they're about discovery.

EcoCatLady said...

p.s. CatMan and I are reading LOTR in Spanish, and I must say, it is quite an adventure in every sense! I've never read the books before, though I did see the movies (which, to be honest didn't make that much sense to me having not read the books.) I fear the songs and poems really lose something in translation... and I bet you never realized how many tree and plant names are in those books! We keep having the experience of looking up a word only to discover that its English meaning is some bizarre tree that we've never heard of!

Anybody know what "buckthorn" is?

messymimi said...

Trust me, you did a great job compared to us -- i'm in the store for more milk sometimes twice in the same day if the kids are really going bonkers.

Hope the back is better.

Julie said...

Mimi, I was there as well, during the witchlings-all-at-home years. Ever been to the store three damn times in ONE freaking day?!

Merry, I'm with everyone else here, no fail. Lesson learned, and that's always a win.

Scaling back on movement time out-and-about in the next week, as a sort of tester here in The Burrow. That cop over there (the one at the other desk, singing LOUDLY, which kind of cancels out the headphones) had some success with an experiment similar. We'll be blogging the results, if they are good ones. ;)

julia said...

So you can't buy anything for a whole month? Does that include milk? I'm trying to get my head round it. Nothing at all for a whole month...

DOES it include milk?
Petrol?
I think my freezer and my car's fuel tank are too small for me to try this but you've made me think!

JavaChick said...

I like McB's comment...and I could never do that - I like fresh produce too much.

I'm reading along with Mark Watches Buffy; it's a hoot.

The Merry said...

Mouse, milk and I don't get along. I suppose one could go with dehydrated milk. I specifically bought a house in a neighborhood that has alternatives to driving for transportation. In December, I went car-free for a month.
Fresh greens was my main worry; I bought a load of flash-frozen veggies (too many, really, for one month) and sprouted mung beans for fresh veggies. Did you know that you can grow celery from store-bought stalks?

JavaChick, I'll have to check out his Buffy series!

julia said...

that sounds like an excellent challenge, if I get my bike back from France....

I like the sound of growing celery from stalks but admit to being unsure... I mean, how does that work?

I am still pondering on the fact that the top of a redwood, if it breaks off, will fall to the ground and take root.

I suppose you wouldn't want to be in the way in that event!

(Apologies, stress and strain are making me nuts)