The Low Hanging Fruit

Low Hanging Passion Fruit ModI’m voting tomorrow & I have no idea who I’m voting for. What am I concerned about? I like Canada’s healthcare system & I wish it was better funded. All the main parties say they’re going to improve it so I think that’s all good. They’re all going to do something slightly different for education, but generally that’s good too. Daycare isn’t a big deal for me but I know it is for a lot of people so I guess that’s a good thing. I’d generally like things to be cheaper in Ontario. I would prefer to pay less taxes & to have a more vibrant economy. They all say they’ll make those things happen. One will tax the rich, one will tax everyone, the other will have everything appear, at no cost, by some miraculous deed. Okay, I’m being a little silly but here’s one thing I don’t understand …

One perspective is to have the rich & corporations pay a bigger, some would say a fairer, share. Others want to give tax breaks to those same people & companies to attract business, with the promise that the money will trickle down. I’ve never had any money trickle down to me that I was aware of. But I wouldn’t want our Ontario companies heading off to greener pastures either. I need to educate myself on this. Have both theories ever been tested & pitted against each other in the real world?

Anyone got any recommendations on what I can read to understand which of these perspective is correct?

And give me a quick resume of your take before I have to go vote tomorrow!!!

Paul

Fat, Food & Weight Loss

One of my favourite topics of conversation is food. I love to talk about food. And I love to cook food, & to eat food. Though perhaps it would be more appropriate were I to focus on weight loss. I think I’m an expert at it. Despite that expertise, I’ve just hit a new all time high recently. And I’m blaming that on having quit smoking. Again. I just quit about 4 or 5 months back. If you force me to recommend a favoured diet, I would have to go with some of the low carb regimens. I was an early fan of the original Atkins program & I lost a ton of weight on it. I was even a little sloppy with how well I adhered to it, but it all worked out well anyway. I shed over 100lbs & I was looking so hot (or is that cool for a guy?) again! That all happened as part of my coming to that perfect storm: the turning forty mid-life crisis. While I added a rebound 12 or 15lbs at the end of the weight loss phase, I kept most of it off for about 8 years. I think that qualifies as success in the dietary world.

So how did I get back to a new all-time high? It doesn’t matter, I just did. And now I’m starting over. I’m far too embarrassed to say how much I weigh at the moment, maybe later. I did try to stop my inexorable rise to the top. But I just couldn’t. I did make several attempts, using my tried & test low carb approach from before. Nothing worked. Actually everything worked, I just couldn’t do it for more than a week or two before relapsing into a carb orgy again. I’m kinda daring myself to do it this time, by putting this out. And I’m going to try something a little different. I just can’t live my life without French fries, ice cream & other goodies of that ilk. It all sound a little crazy but if this works out, I’ll share more along the way. My expectations are low. They say ninety nine point something percent of dieters fail, then relapse & go back to square one. Or square one plus. I have to say that, historically, I resemble those remarks!

Wish me luck!

Paul

PS … Still haven’t got a clue what I’m doing but I’m going to try to get this stuff connecting to my social media accounts. I’ll start with Twitter!

Am I a Blogger Yet!

As usual, after months, maybe years, of procrastination … I’ve jumped headfirst into one more thing, totally unprepared. This site & blog is focused on those of us who are middle aged. OMG … I can’t believe I just said that out loud. Crap! Though that might not have been the word that first came to mind!

I’d like this to be a place to swap notes with others who are chronologically challenged. But who are really waaayyy younger on the inside. Some of us are smarter than our kids when it comes to tech toys but some of us are not. It might be nice to have a place where we can ask questions & maybe pick up some tech tips. Without having to make like we’re idiots in front of our now-adult, eye-rolling, children. There may be a few of us looking for something that prevents our slowing metabolisms adding a bit of girth. And maybe some of you have found the answer. Discussing politics is such a combat sport these days. Perhaps we can do some of that without having to call in the army. Who knows what it will turn into. If enough of us find a groove where we like to hang out, then that’s probably what it’ll be.

By now, the younger set & the very partisan will already have been bored stiff & stopped reading. I’m hoping those that continued will hang around. Now we can talk about our kids. Share stories about how we totally screwed up raising them. And try to figure out, together, if there’s anything we can do to fix things. Maybe we can even talk about how we’re not yet ready for retirement without getting embarrassed. Are we emotionally ready for that? How about financially? Most of us are probably carrying a cartload of guilt on all the things we did wrong. Hopefully here is where we can share the horror stories. And laugh at them together.

Welcome!

And please hang around long enough ’til I get the hang of how to do a 2nd & more posts before making your mind up.

Scoff

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

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