Rice And Natto Run

 

Song:  Freebird

Group:   Lynyrd Skynyrd

I decided to go to the Asian Market in Colorado Springs this early afternoon

to pick up as much rice and Natto as my shopping cart would hold.

As it was in the high 50s...

I had a good time all the way there and back with the windows open 

and my hair flying free.

I was driven by two things...

stocking up on my favorite foods...

and looking forward to eating at McDonald's on the way back.

I had awakened with this mad craving for McDonald's cheese burgers specifically.

They may not be the best burgers...

but they are the simplest.

There is just something about that simple taste that I sometimes madly crave.

I used to love them as a child...

and for whatever reason...

I just wanted to eat some again.

I was just a little ways down my mountain ridge line here.

I was in Woodland Park heading to Colorado Springs.

You can just see the restaurant...

Peak View...

in the bottom center front of this photo.

(It is in the Safeway complex parking lot).

I arrived at the Asian Market...

one of my favorite places to food shop.

Pikes Peak from the Asian Market parking lot...

just before going inside.

The market is huge...

and so many different Asian races' foods are represented here.

At the end...

and to the left is their large veggie and rice area.

They...

literally...

have tons of rice in 50 pound sacks there.

I had at first talked with a stock person about getting many shipping boxes of Natto...

but they only had a few boxes in the stockroom...

but he had given me one...

and so...

I just about emptied out what they had in stock in the freezer.

I left one row of Natto...

only because I felt bad about taking everything...

....not really...

there simply was no room left in my cart  :)

I had also bought 100 pounds of Jasmine rice (just over 45 Kilos).

On my way home...

the above included song began playing from my playlist...

and, once again...

I played it over and over all the way home

(no exaggeration...when I hear a great song that I really love...

I will play it over and over for hours at a time).

The song just matched my feeling of complete freedom...

of my feeling so good...

in not just stocking up on food...

and not just in anticipation of my soon to be had meal...

but...

with the crisp air just flowing through the car...

washing over my face and sending my hair all askew...

I simply had to rock out to this great song from my High School days.

Pikes Peak from Colorado Springs.

For more than halfway home...

I can see Pikes Peak from different angles.

Pikes Peak from Woodland Park in the McDonald's parking lot.

Pikes Peak from the seating inside.

I had a goldilocks meal...

not too large...

not too small...

but just right.

I didn't want to stuff myself...

but I wanted to feel satisfied.

Those six cheeseburgers just hit the spot.

I have always eaten a lot.

Even when I was in elementary school...

I regularly ate five cheese burgers in one sitting.

Even at 66 years old...

I still have a very high metabolic rate.

I had gotten that from my mother.

She had also eaten quite a lot throughout most of her life without ever gaining much weight.

And...

both of us generated a lot of body heat...

especially after eating.

We simply converted our excess calories into body heat.

I remember when I was young...

whenever my mother wanted to cuddle next to me...

I would squirm out...

as with both of us being like little furnaces...

it was simply too unbearably hot.

It is also why I feel so comfortable in cold weather...

and why I suffer in hot...

and especially in hot and humid conditions.

This is another reason why where I live is paradise to me.

I love crisp cold arid air.

This allows me to dissipate my body heat easily...

and why I feel so good driving with all of the windows down...

even in conditions most others would find uncomfortably cold.

To me...

it all feels so refreshing.

The community center near home.

Heading up my mountain ridge line towards home.

Almost home here.

I store most of my dry goods in containers in my storage room just on the 

other side of the hallway next to the kitchen.

I can store 150 pounds of rice per container.

I now have just over 200 pounds of rice

(I have another container with another 50 pounds of rice)...

and I will pick up another 100 pounds of rice next time I go to the Asian Market.

I just love to keep essentials stocked up at all times.

I moved items from the upper kitchen freezer shelf to the bottom portion

to make room for some of the Natto I had just purchased.

This is the upper kitchen freezer shelf filled with Natto.

And this is the washroom vertical deep freeze.

I filled up the rest of the door shelving...

...and I put the rest into an open space in the main body of the freezer.

----------

Tonight I will just rest in bed...

but...

tomorrow...

I think I will start on some indoor projects.

But...

as with everything in life for me now...

I just go by the feel in the moment.

That...

is freedom  :)