Eat like a bachelor

When I first retired, I went on a cooking spree. All those recipes that pile up and never get tested got tested. And then suddenly, I was done. I discovered better things to do than cook and wash dishes.

Here is a typical day's worth of meals for me now:

Breakfast: (paleo) bacon and egg and vegetables, plus OJ
Lunch: meat and vegetables
Snack: popcorn with a little butter and Parmesan
Supper: yogurt, fruit, nuts
Bedtime snack: Cheerios, banana, nuts, milk

The source of my midday serving of meat is the freezer. I bake about eight boneless, skinless chicken thighs, then freeze them individually. Or I cook a 4-lb pork roast in the slow cooker and freeze that in individual sizes. Or I might fry up four quarter-pound hamburgers and freeze those. Or I eat a (paleo) hot dog.

The veggies are also cooked in batches, but not frozen. For example, I'll nuke a baking potato, but get three meals out of it. Or I'll cook a whole package of green beans or peas and eat them a serving at a time, until they are gone.

I don't mind eating the same thing for several days in a row. Since I live alone, there is no one else here to complain. And since I mix up the meats and veggies, it doesn't seem all that monotonous to me. It's just plain.

I do eat out two or three times a week, usually at Panera or Freshii or Penn Station or Culvers or even McDonalds, so rest assured I am getting some SAD (Standard American Diet) food stuffs, too. Today I went wild and crazy and substituted a ciabatta roll and cheddar cheese for my snack and supper. I even had a beer last Saturday, with Lays potato chips and a Snickers bar.

So now I have a kitchen full of equipment that rarely sees the light of day. If I were downsizing, most of it would probably go, but there is a chance that some time in the next 20 years, the cooking bug will resurface. I still make my own yogurt, after all.

Is email passe?

I used to be rather anal about email, constantly checking it, responding quickly when necessary, cleaning out the detritus with regularity. At some point, I segregated my friends and family to a gmail account while preserving my yahoo one for everything else. Notifications are turned on for both, but only the gmail one is audible.

Maybe it is because I am retired, but I barely pay attention to the yahoo account anymore except for notices of bills that are not paid automatically. I try to unsubscribe when possible, but a lot of junk just keeps showing up. Instead of dealing with it, I ignore it. The inbox is beginning to look like I am deceased.

Texting, however, is alive and well, at least on my phone. In many ways, it has replaced email, just as email replaced phone calls. Anything that helps eliminate the need to actually talk to a living person is okay by me.

Is FB passe, too? My FB friends do nothing but repost other posts or post links to articles, videos, quizzes, games, etc. When FB started showing me everything each of my FB friends "liked", I found it overwhelming. So I stopped "following" almost all my friends and even some family members. I can still visit their pages and see if there is anything worth knowing (rarely is there), but at least my news feed is relatively clear. I would quit FB altogether, but for the groups and businesses that make use of it.

I do Instagram and Twitter, intermittently. I especially like taking Twitter surveys, to let them know I did not notice any of the ads at all. I know there are other, more recent social media sites out there, but I think I've reached my quota. Besides, there are so many other, more interesting things to do. Like make chalk art with my g'daughter.