Sugar, Sugar...

 

If you said, "The Archies, 1969," you get 10 bonus points.  If you said, "Ron Dante is an American singer, songwriter, session vocalist, and record producer. He is best known as the lead singer for the fictional cartoon band The Archies, as well as the one-hit wonder group The Cuff Links," you get 50 bonus points.  If you thought The Archies were a real band, you lose any bonus points you may have accumulated over the years, and someone should slap Yo Momma for raising a dummy.

On my last visit to the doctor, my blood sugar was high.  High enough that the doctor prescribed something to lower it, and recommended a change of diet.  Joan has been very diligent in finding low or no sugar alternatives for us.  By cutting about 80% of the sugar in what we have been eating, it has managed to lower my will to live by almost 90%.

Yes, I'm kidding.  Mostly.  One of the first things she made for me was a small breakfast muffin to replace the singular mini powdered donut I have when I first get up.  This muffin has no sugar, but makes up for it by having the flavor of sawdust.  Same texture, too.  But I appreciate her efforts.

Adding to the fun of eating sawdust, our weather here in the Tropical Tip has been shit: cold, windy, and drizzly.  For a week.  We haven't been getting out.  'Cause the weather sucks.  Did I mention that?  I can't even wile away the hours by eating cookies... 'cause I can't eat cookies... unless they are made with sawdust.

Here's a look out the glass door to our deck...

 Can you guess what that is?  It is a cover over our patio table and chairs.  It is weighted down with a brick to try to keep it from billowing and beating itself to shreds due to the wind.  Even though the cover is tied down to the chair legs.  Because that cold north wind continues to blow like stink.

Joan asked me if I wanted to go with her to the grocery store... "to get out of the house."

"Absolutely."

We turned on the heated seats in the Equinox.  47º, light drizzle, wind out of the north at somewhere beyond 20 mph.  Still, it was a nice change to get out of the house.

When we grocery shop together, my job is to push the cart and open the plastic bags that come on a flat roll for meats and produce.  Oh, and I say, "That sounds good," when she suggests anything particular.  All I had for breakfast this morning was a piece of toast.  I was hungry when we went to the store.  Everything looked tasty.  I could actually hear cries of, "Eat me!  Eat me!" as we passed the cookie aisle.  Joan could not hear the voices, but she did spend a lot of time reading labels on food that looked good... then sayiny, "Nope - that has too much flavor."  Those may not have been her exact words, but that was the gist I got from label reading.

With my belly growling, we headed for the Self-Check area, because Walmart had only two check out lanes with a cashier open.  It made me wonder if we were going to be invited to the Self-Check Employee Christmas Party?  But, I digress.  While Joan ran our stuff through the scanner as fast as any professional cashier, I looked at the stuff they have for sale around the check station...

 No Sugar Coke Zero.  I like Diet Coke, can't stand Coke Zero.  This is a "Limited Edition Dreamworld Coke Zero"... that according to the label on the bottle is "Dream Flavored."  I have no idea what "Dream Flavored" tastes like, but I can tell you about the broken dream flavor of sawdust muffins.

Yeah, I'm kidding.  I miss my chocolate covered peanuts and my solitary powered sugar mini donut, but I'm doing fine.  And my blood sugar number is down significantly.  And that's a good thing.