Exploring Tofu, Tempeh and Seitan

 If you're going to go whole-food, plant-based... you are likely going to come across three "meat alternatives": tofu, tempeh and seitan. And... just so you don't freak out... it's pronounced say-tan NOT say-ten or say-tun or sayt-in. Seitan is NOT evil personified. A very small but important phonetic difference!

Tofu

Going into this whole-food, plant-based eating thing... we kind of knew that we would eventually need to incorporate tofu into our diet. But... we had had a bad experience with a recipe that called for frying up a slab of tofu (basically half of a tofu block). It was a gross textural experience. Never to be repeated... or so we thought.

But... if you dice up tofu into 1 cm (or so) cubes, dust them with some corn starch and then fry them up... they are quite palatable... especially if you bury them in a curry or stir fry. You could almost think they were just a chunk of well-cooked, tender chicken. Almost...

We kind of actually like tofu now... but there are a few caveats... get the Extra-Firm Tofu... unless you are planning to make a dessert. Some people say you need to get a tofu press and squeeze out all of the extra moisture but... we just pat ours dry with a paper towel and run with it. Adding the dusting of corn starch also tends to help reduce the moisture. And... you can now buy pre-pressed tofu - the ones I've seen look like four smaller squares of tofu shrink-wrapped in plastic with no liquid bath. Drying out the tofu basically ensures that it will crisp up nicely in the frying pan instead of just turn into a sad, soft disaster.

We eat tofu at least once a week... sometimes twice if we have leftovers.

Tempeh

We discovered tempeh thanks to a FreshPrep (a meal service) recipe - General Tso Style Tempeh. I was a bit skeptical about this recipe once I opened the package of tempeh. What were the black flecks in there? Apparently just a normal part of the aging process of this fermented soy bean cake. Basically... good mold.

Ick.

But... I soldiered on with the recipe and didn't show my partner the uncooked tempeh... or the black flecks. Sometimes too much information can be a bad thing!

The final product was... absolutely amazing. We ate it gingerly at first... with our lips pulled back... nibbling tentatively at the chunks of tempeh. But... oh my god... it was super yummy!! The texture was more substantial than tofu and made for a more interesting eating experience. We gave that recipe 10+ out of 10!

I have since made the recipe again, on my own... FreshPrep helpfully includes all the measurements of the various ingredients in their recipes. The stumbling block was finding the tempeh. I had seen some nestled next to the tofu in our local grocery store's produce section. But when I wanted to buy it... there was none. What was there was flavoured tempeh in various processed forms... bacon tempeh, etc. Not what I was looking for. Another grocery chain also had none... nor did Superstore. But... I struck pay dirt when I visited the local health food store. They had four different varieties of tempeh cakes! Some in the cooler and some in the freezer. Yay!

I made the General Tso Style Tempeh recipe and... it was as scrumptious as the original. I delved into the internet and dug up several other tempeh recipes for us to try. I can see this being another one of our weekly staples... now that I know where to buy it... and that it can be frozen!

Seitan

We now come to the great unknown... seitan. What the heck is this stuff? It is made from vital wheat gluten... so if you suffer from celiac disease or are gluten intolerant... this is not for you. But... for those of us who can eat wheat gluten, it could be a serious game changer. Vital wheat gluten is 75-80% protein... so you can see why seitan would make a great meat-alternative.

Buying seitan in the store (if you can find it... and I haven't found it yet...) means you are paying a premium price. It is, apparently, not cheap. You'll also find things like Tofurky sausages which have vital wheat gluten as one of their primary ingredients... also not what I am looking for. We don't want to trade one type of processed food for another... if we can help it.

While seitan might be ridiculously expensive to buy... it turns out that it is quite easy to make... or so the internet says (here's one recipe). You just buy some powdered vital wheat gluten... mix it up with some water.... knead the resulting dough... simmer it in some sort of broth (for flavour)... and.. voila... seitan fit for a queen.

Seitan is the thing that is apparently most meat-like in texture and flavour (depending on your seasoning) and mouth-feel. I seriously want to try this stuff and just need to hunt down some vital wheat gluten. We could make beef style seitan... or chicken style seitan... mmm... shish-kabobs!

The thing I like about home-made seitan is... you know exactly what goes into the flavouring... be it soy sauce or miso or mushrooms or whatever. And, if you make too much... the remainder can be frozen. What's not to like?

Sooo... on my next foray to the health food store... I am going to have a look and see if pre-made seitan exists and... if I can find some vital wheat gluten... Down the baking aisle I think...

Stay tuned for our experiment with seitan! (Ya just really gotta watch how you pronounce that...)

To Crush or not to Crush

It's almost time for me to do a recycling depot run. I've got 4 huge bags of assorted cans and bottles ready to go to the depot for a deposit refund. I don't really relish the trip. You see... while some recycling depots have strolled into the 21st century... ours has not. In some depots, you just drive up, hand over your unsorted bags of beverage containers tagged with bar code labels from your online account and... that's it. After they have sorted and counted your offering, the funds accrue in your online account and can then request an e-transfer (min $10) or a cheque (min $50). Sounds super simple and civilized. But our depot isn't there yet... although it has rolled out in some nearby communities as a pilot program. I am waiting patiently...

I've also heard that our provincial ReturnIt system will be introducing reverse-vending machines in some locations which would be awesome! Can you imagine if they were more common... just bring your cans or bottles, pop them into a machine and have it spit out money.

I did a bit of digging and there's one ReturnIt recycling centre in Burnaby which has had a Tomra reverse-vending machine since... 2017 (see pic at right)!! Sigh... be still my beating heart! But we're not there yet either... Our local depot's process is still rather antiquated... here's how it goes...

Drive to the depot and park in the parking lot. Go and get some rolling carts, load them up with cardboard flats (from beer cans or pop cans) and take them back to the truck. Open the back hatch, which conveniently acts as a rain shelter, and dump a bunch of cans and bottles onto one of the rolling carts.

Before Covid, one would load up the carts with all the bags of cans/bottles, take them into the slightly heated depot building and sort on tables but... not during Covid.

Then, strategically arrange the other rolling cart(s) with a series of cardboard flats and begin sorting... beer cans in one flat, pop cans in another, brown beer bottles here... green cider bottles here... clear beer bottles here (than you Corona beer, why do you have to be different?)... wine bottles here... small pop and water bottles here... bigger pop bottles here... tetra packs here. Yes. I need a LOT of cardboard flats... and sometimes two or three rolling carts. Fill up a flat, put it on the bottom of the rolling cart and then start another one.

There are some items though which are sorting resistant... crushed cans and squished plastic bottles. How does one arrange these in nice tidy ranks in the cardboard trays? It's virtually impossible... although I try... I've noticed lately, on my forest strolls to various "hang-out" spots, that a lot of people seem to think it's a good idea to crush their beer cans... either crush them into little biscuits with their feet or just squish them with their hands. While I gather this might be fun as a display of strength... it's an annoyance for the sorting process! And let's not even mention the plastic bottles that get dirty because someone's tossed them out their car window and they've sat in the ditch for weeks. Apparently these are not well-suited for recycling into new food-grade plastics and will get down-cycled into something like plastic chairs.

On top of that... if crushed beer and pop cans end up in a one-stream recycling bin (a bin that has everything including paper, plastic and cans)... they can contaminate the system. A super-flat beer can (that's been driven over) can be sorted as paper... not a good thing. And crushed cans can also fall through the rollers of the conveyor system and gum up the works...

Sooo... for the sake of the environment... the recycling system... and the sorters who bring the cans to the bottle depot... please don't crush your beverage containers! And... I'm not sure what a reverse-vending machine would make of a crushed can either...

Neatly sorted...

All of this sorting of cans and bottles naturally takes time... but finally... I'm done and I very carefully and gingerly pull my rolling carts through the parking lot, over the threshold of the door (bump!) and into the big sorting room.

Thanks to Covid... no one really sorts in here anymore... those days are probably gone forever if the new systems get introduced everywhere.

I then join the line-up of other customers and make sure that all of the beer bottles haven't gone all higgle-dee piggle-dee thanks to the bumping they've endured from the car to this point. And let's not even talk about the smaller plastic bottles which aren't as stable as the heavier glass bottles. It's hopeless to try and keep them marching in ranks of 4 x 6.

But... it all pays off when the attendant scans my cart and very quickly tallies how much I've got of each variety. And... $50 is nothing to sneeze at! I have to say, I am looking forward to the future when the new ReturnIt Express & Go system takes off everywhere... or the reverse-vending machines. Our deposit-return system might not be perfect but it's a darn sight better than jurisdictions which have no system at all.

The Life-Changing Magic of AudioBooks

I don't know that I ever tried audiobooks before. Did I?

Well... maybe once. For a long, 16 hour drive from northern BC to Vancouver. Rather than just listening to my self-made collection of music cassette tapes, I borrowed an audiobook (on cassette tapes) from the local library. I think.

See, I can't really remember... it was that non-memorable an event. No idea what the book was... or if I even finished it. After all, rummaging around in a cassette holder, looking for the next cassette, while still maintaining eye contact with the 100 km/h road... well... not such an easy thing.

And so... audiobooks have never really been part of my "thing", so to speak. Until a few months ago.

My partner expressed an interest in getting an audiobook by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. This particular "book" was really a collection of talks that she had given and was only available in audio format. The question became... how does one listen to an audiobook nowadays and... where do you get them?

I, being the Research Digger in the family, did a quick scouting expedition.

Well... one could buy it from Amazon for $90 and get 6 cds. Which meant we would need a cd player...  or use a laptop. But that didn't really fit the need. My partner wanted something mobile.

So I was off to Audible... having seen a large number of Audible advertisements lately. Audible is owned by Amazon and is an app that you can install on your phone (mobile - check!). It is a subscription based service - pay $14.95/month and get one free audiobook credit per month. On top of that, you get a 30% discount on audiobooks while subscribed. And... the books you get via credit or purchase are yours forever. Sooo... via Audible, we could buy the Clarissa book for $60 (less 30%). Still seemed a bit pricey. And then I learned that Audible has a free 30 day trial! Sign up and get 30 days free... including one audiobook credit. Done!

So I used my Amazon account to install Audible on both of our phones... and my partner happily spent hours listening to the tranquil voice of Clarissa, while putzing around the garden.

But... I didn't stop with Audible... I installed Libby, the audiobook app that our local library uses, onto both of our phones as well. What's not to like about free audiobooks! Mind you, their selection isn't as comprehensive as Audible and one sometimes has to be patient waiting for a book... but still... they have quite a nice selection of Jodi Picoult books which my partner gobbles up like candy.

Watching my partner puttering around with ear buds, I decided to give audiobooks a try as well. I knew that Kobo had an audiobook app and also included a 30 day free trial. But before I could deliberate as to which book to get... my partner was already finished Clarissa's book and asking for another book... Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski. There went the free Kobo book credit! Which was fine because I wanted to listen to that book too. But because I had just used my Kobo account... we both had the same account on our Kobo apps... which meant that only one of us cold listen to Burnout at once. Otherwise the bookmarking got all wonky!

Still... we both now had Audible, Libby and Kobo on our phones and a treasure trove of audiobooks just waiting to be tapped. Mind you... Audible and Kobo would require an ongoing monthly subscription ($9.99 for Kobo) if we wanted to stay with them. And... $10-15/month for just one audiobook seemed a bit steep.

And then I remembered Scribd... pay a monthly subscription fee ($10 US) and get unlimited audiobooks, e-books, sheet music, journals and goodness knows what else. It seemed too good to be true but... I am on a 30 day free trial with them and so far... doing OK. I have two audiobooks and one e-book on the go in Scribd and loving it. Mind you, some people say that their ravenous book consumption has been, at times, throttled by Scribd. Remains to be seen if "unlimited" is really that. I guess the romance readers can go through a LOT of books in a month. The one thing with Scribd is that... you only have accesses to the audio books while you are a subscriber. End the subscription and access stops. Which is different from Audible and Kobo.

Will we get value out of Scribd? Is this just a passing fad thing for us? I've always told myself that I'm a visual learner, not so much an audio learner. I learn best when I can see things. If I just hear something, it can be a case of "in one ear and out the other". This might, however, be due to my habit of multi-tasking... doing more than one thing at once. Like listening to someone on the phone whilst typing up an email. Let me tell you... it doesn't work!

But... listening to an audiobook does seem to work well for my early morning jaunts around the neighbourhood. Whether it's just around the block (15 minutes) or up Beast Hill and down several other streets (45 minutes)... listening to an audiobook seems to dovetail nicely with a solo street walk.

I am currently listening to a book by Ken Ilgunas called Walden on Wheels. The story of a young 20-something American college student trying to get out of student debt and settling upon the idea of living out of his van. His narrative style seems to stick better in my brain than some of the other books I've been reading/listening. Marie Kondo's book - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying-up - rubbed me the wrong way mostly because the narrator sounded robotic! So I'm not so sure I got a lot out of that book... but I read it as a "real" book a few years ago anyhow...

Once our 30 day trials all run out... I'm not yet sure what we will do... Perhaps give Scribd a try? Does anyone out there have any tips or pointers? I like the idea of audiobooks and e-books from an environmental point of view... no trees being cut down... but I miss the permanence of a "real" book... and the ability to easily flip forward and find out what happens at the end!

Is a Gas Vehicle Worth it?

Well, hello there. Have you noticed how many e-vehicles are on the road? I'm seeing more and more of them. Nissan Leaf. Tesla. All of them without tail pipes and sometimes without a front grill. After all, you don't need air supply if you don't have an internal combustion engine. They aren't cheap though... the average new e-vehicle will cost you about $40,000 even including the $8000 rebates from various levels of government.

But... with a 25 year old Toyota 4-Runner... we are beginning to think it might be time to retire Clifford (the Big Red Truck) and look at an e-vehicle. Or... do we even need to own a vehicle anymore?

I have a friend in Winnipeg who relies on a few different means of transportation: cycling, transit and the Peg City Car Co-op, a car sharing service. She lives a block away from a Safeway parking lot that serves as a base for Peg City cars. Given that Winnipeg has some harsh winters I kind of thought cycling was a summertime activity but, no... people in Winnipeg ride their bicycles during the winter too. Hard core Canadians they are.

But... given that car sharing isn't widely available in our city and transit is not well developed in our area... could we just get by with taking taxis everywhere?

All of which got me thinking... how much does all of this cost??

I have to admit, the more I worked on this, the more options started to pop out of the woodwork - like ride-hailing options and car rentals and...more. Here are some numbers.

Owning a 1996 Toyota 4-Runner

These are probably the most solid numbers. Depreciation is based on 25 years of owning the vehicle, for which I paid $30,000. Easy number crunching. Although, does it depreciate by $1000/year at this point? Or is it now considered vintage and a desirable vehicle? Hard to say. But let's just run with that depreciation for now.

Then we have insurance, another easy number. As for maintenance, we put away $200 every month into a vehicle maintenance fund and, so far, we have had enough (and more) to cover all of our maintenance costs including oil changes, engine gasket thingies, new winter tires, new bushings and goodness knows what else. As for gasoline... again... that is a pretty easy number as we track our expenses. With gas being less thanks to Covid, we're probably more like $150/month but I'm leaving it at pre-Covid numbers.

That gives a grand total of $7200/year. Which isn't ridiculous. I tried out the CAA True Car Costs Calculator as well. It only went down to 2010... so I tried a 2010 4-Runner. But then it had added expenses which we don't have, like car loan costs and the depreciation is steeper. But, for newer vehicles... it's a handy tool.

Car-Sharing

We don't live in Vancouver or Winnipeg, but in a small city (about 90,000 people) so... our car-sharing options are slim-pickings. Modo is in town and has six vehicles, most of which are in the downtown core. I could walk down there in 45 minutes... if we wanted a vehicle for a getaway weekend or a day trip or something... but it's not the same as having it a block away.

There is a monthly subscription fee as well as a fee per hour of use. It caps off at $52/day which is roughly the same as a car rental place (for a small compact car).

If they were closer to our neighbourhood... it might be worth it, but I don't really see this benefiting us anytime soon, unless they expand their network. Even if it was as 15 minute walk, it might be worth it.

The numbers above are based on roughly 3 hours of use per week - mostly for grocery shopping, appointments or other errands. It's kind of a fluff number because, honestly, I have no idea how much I use the vehicle. Never had to quantify that...

Car Rental

Which leads us to your standard rent-a-car. In this case, Budget, which rents out for about $55/day for a compact vehicle. I'm presuming that includes all the taxes and service fees but you never know with car rental places. They always want to sell you the extra comprehensive insurance policies.

I was thinking this might be something for a weekend getaway as well but... we run into the same problem as with the car-sharing option. There are no car rental places nearby... they are all downtown. Which leaves me with a 45 minute walk again... or a taxi fare. Which is doable but not desirable.

Although, apparently the commercials are true and Enterprise will pick you up for free and bring you back to their car-rental office. Cool!

Taxi

Ugh... taxis... a necessary evil I guess. But damn expensive.

Last week, due to us double booking appointments, and only having one vehicle, my partner had to take a taxi home from an appointment. It's 4 km and about 8 minutes from home. It cost $13 plus a $2 tip. Eesh!

I'm not a big fan of taxis, in case that isn't clear. Unless I'm on a business trip and the company is paying for them. In which case, they are super convenient, mostly.

But... for personal trips... not such a big fan. Which leads us to something similar... ride-hailing!

Ride-Hailing

Ride-hailing is a bit of a moot point for us since we don't have Uber or Lyft or anything else. But it is apparently coming... fingers crossed. This could be a game-changer... maybe.

I just did some number crunching using Uber's trip estimator app and trying a few sample trips in Vancouver.

Huh... it seems to be cheaper than taxis but... still ain't all that cheap. A 10 minute, 4 km trip is around $12... Which isn't that far off from the taxi price above - around the same distance and same time of travel. Sooo... maybe ride-hailing apps aren't all that they cracked up to be.

We will have to wait and see how they shake out across the Lower Mainland and the Island. The thing is... in Vancouver, if you've got the time... you can always take the bus, which is super convenient and usually comes fairly quickly...

Transit

OK, this is a super easy calculation... a monthly bus pass costs $65. Boom, done. And... I do believe they are a tax deduction too, so that's a perk as well.

The only thing in our city, and particularly in our location in the city, is that bus service is not all that convenient. We have one bus that comes by every hour... and the connections to other routes aren't that convenient.

But... to be honest, I've never taken the bus in our city... despite living here for seven years. So, what do I know??!! We would have to actually try it and experiment with it for a while. Something as simple as getting to the ferry terminal, which is a 15 minute drive (more or less) would require two buses and 63 minutes. Not the most efficient mode of transportation but I guess it could be done... I could practically walk there in that time! Wait for it... it only takes 71 minutes to walk there. Sigh. And if I cycled, I could be there in 22 minutes... not that far off from the car trip.

Bicycle

Which leads me to ped-power... in this case an old fashioned bicycle that depends on leg power.

Here... we only have ongoing maintenance costs which aren't ridiculous. I bought my current bike in 1993. It's 27 years old and still going strong. So far.

But even if I bought a new bike for a few hundred bucks, it's not going to break the bank.

The only problem with biking is the hills. Goodness, everything seems to be uphill in our city, it's all humpety-bumpety... which, if you're just oozing out for a bike ride in March, is deadly. Jello winter legs and cycling do not agree.

e-Bike

But then... we have the lovely e-bikes! Buy one for around $2500, keep it for a decade or so and only pay pennies per charge. What's not to like? Oh... and it goes up any hills like nobody's business.

There are other costs obviously... the batteries only last through around 1000 charging cycles... and the batteries are not cheap to replace ($500) but... still. For the sheer comfort of zipping up hills with no effort... it might be worth it.

We don't have an e-bike but a friend of ours bought one and she raves about it. Soo... maybe one day... Once the pandemic is over and I can actually go somewhere just for fun... like Starbucks. Sigh.

Instacart

This isn't technically a mode of transportation but... if it saves me from having to drive 30 km round trip to visit Superstore and Costo and Walmart... well... it could count as an option.

Because, let's face it, with the pandemic and naked-faced people running around... shopping ain't no fun anymore. Particularly big places like Superstore and Costco. So... why not avail ourselves of Instacart where someone does the shopping AND delivers straight to our door!

I have used PC Express for Superstore, but I still have to drive all the way over there and then sit and wait a good 15 to 20 minutes for them to bring the groceries out to me. Not the most efficient use of my time.

We have yet to use Instacart but our behind-neighbour has signed up and loves it. Sooo.... something to consider.

Conclusions

 Soooo... where does this leave us? Well... our venerable 4-Runner costs about $600 a month to run. If I were to dove-tail ALL of the other options into our life, instead of the 4-Runner, we'd be looking at $800/month. But there is obviously some overlap in some of them... like Modo vs Car Rental and Taxi vs Ride-Hailing... not to mention Bicycle vs e-Bike. If I cut out Car-Rental, Taxi and Bike... we are left with $400/month, which is definitely cheaper than running a vehicle.

The real trade-off I guess is in convenience. If I need to grab a carton of soy milk from the local grocery store (30 minute walk, 10 minute bike ride, 4 minute drive)... it is obviously quicker and more convenient to just jump into the truck and go. Owning a vehicle is just so darn convenient... Getting rid of the vehicle and stitching in a diverse set of different options would require military-style planning and execution... as well as patience.

And... in case you're wondering... an e-vehicle would cost about the same (or even more) as our 4-Runner. Mostly because of the high purchase price which results in ridiculous depreciation costs. The Government of Canada did some number crunching of EVs vs ICEs (Internal Combustion Engines) and... considered all sorts of factors like how far you drive in year. For us, with about 15,000 km/year... an EV isn't going to offer great savings. If we drove 40,000 km/year... that would be much better. But, as EV costs come down... it becomes more realistic. It all depends on how far and how often you drive...

Which leads me to this... I really have no idea on our vehicle usage. How many trips do I make in a week? How far do I go? Given I am writing this on November 2... perhaps it's time to start tracking things for a month or so... just to get a sense of it?

Apparently it is. I just downloaded an app called TripLog to my phone and... we'll see what November reveals!

I'm a Hero

It's official... I am a Hero. I would actually prefer "Heroine" but... right now I'll take what I can get. It was Remembrance Day yesterday and I saved two lives, maybe even three. Nope, didn't risk my life running into a burning building or drag someone out of a motor vehicle accident.

All I did was sit in a chair with my legs up and let a phlebotomist poke me with a needle and draw some of my blood for 10 minutes. Yup... that's it... that easy. It's a pretty low bar to getting the "Hero" label... and I'm surprised that more people don't give it a whirl.

I asked a nurse, "Why don't more people donate blood?". Number One reason - They are afraid of needles. Afraid of seeing their life blood flow out of their arms and down into the pouch. I get it... needles aren't any fun and the ones that Canadian Blood Services use are larger than the ones from the medical labs. But, seriously, it's only a brief pinch and you don't even have to watch...

I did some more digging and here are some of the other top reasons why people don't donate blood. I borrowed this list (and tweaked it) from the University of Maryland Medical Centre website:

1. I don't like or am scared of needles; I am afraid to give blood. - Many people feel that way at first. However, most donors will tell you that you feel only a slight initial pinch, and 7-10 minutes later, you are finished and headed for the snack table. If you take the time (and courage) to make one donation, you'll wonder why you ever hesitated.
2. Others are donating enough. -  Nope. Only 4% of eligible Canadians actually donate blood (about 750,000). Of those, only about 400,000 donate blood on a regular basis. In reality, 50% of Canadians are eligible to donate (18,500,000). Canadian Blood Services currently has a 5-7 day supply of most blood types. There is never enough blood. Oh, and 52 per cent of the population reports that they or their family members have needed blood donations at one point in their lives. Huh...
   
3. I am too busy. - The entire process takes about an hour, and the actual blood donation time is only 7-10 minutes. If you stop to think that an hour of your time could mean a lifetime for a premature baby, someone with cancer undergoing chemotherapy, someone who's had an accident, or a woman who's given birth, you might decide that you can make the time to give the gift of life. You can even ask yourself... do you know someone who has ever received a blood donation? Weren't you grateful to the anonymous individual who took an hour out of their day and braved the needle to donate a pint of their life blood? You can return the favour to someone else. It's a nice little version of Pay it Forward.
   
4. No-one ever asked me ... I didn't realize my blood was needed. - Consider yourself asked! There is simply no other way to supply the blood needs of hospital patients but for the generous donations of people like you. Every two seconds someone in Canada needs blood.
5. I already gave this year. - Men can give every 56 days and women can give ever 84 days. Many donors give 4-5 times a year!
6. I am afraid I'll get AIDS. - It is not possible to get AIDS by donating blood to Canadian Blood Services. A new sterile needle is used for each donor and discarded afterwards. Trust me... they are super careful with each precious donor.
   
7. My blood isn't the right type. - Every type of blood is needed daily to meet patient needs. If you have a common blood type, there are many patients who need it, so it is in high demand. If you have a less common blood type, there are fewer donors available to give it, so it is in short supply.
8. I don't have any blood to spare. - The average adult body has 10-12 pints of blood. Doctors say that healthy adults may give regularly because the body quickly replaces the blood you donate.
9. I don't want to feel weak afterward. - Donating blood should not adversely affect a healthy adult because your body has plenty of blood. You will donate less than one pint, and your body, which constantly makes new blood, will replace the donated volume within 24 hours. Most people continue their usual activities after donating. Just don't drink alcohol after donating - not even that evening - trust me... not a good idea! Drink lots of water though! And... listen to the nurses when they tell you not to do any heavy lifting. Not even a grocery bag. Unless you want a spectacular bruise on your arm.
   
10. They won't want my blood. (I am too old. / I've had an illness.) - If you have doubts, check with your physician. The qualified staff on duty at a blood drive will also review your medical history with you. There is no upper age limit to donate blood with Canadian Red Cross, and a great many medical conditions do not prevent you from donating blood, or may have done so only temporarily in the past.
11. I have a rare blood type, so I'll wait until there is a special need. - Blood that is rare or special is almost always in short supply. There is a constant need for these blood types in order to avoid having to recruit specific blood types in a crisis.

Now there are some things that do disqualify you from donating blood - Did you get a body piercing recently? Do you have a new sexual partner? Are you underweight? Are you under the age of 17? Are you a drug addict? Are you anemic? Traveled outside Canada in the last 14 days? These are some of the reason why you legitimately are excused from donating blood. There are others... like working with monkeys, or having Ebola, or some other weird diseases. The nurses go through all that stuff with you in the pre-screening session. And a lot of these are simply deferrals... you might not be able to donate this time but... there's always next time.

Plus, they've stream-lined the intake procedure - you can fill out the pre-donation questionnaire online and get a Q-code that you just scan when you arrive.

Which means you get to complete the "lifestyle" questions on your own instead of being asked them by a nurse... here's a sample of some of the questions...

• In the last 6 months have you had sex with a sex trade worker or anyone else who has taken money or drugs for sex?
• In the last 6 months have you had sex with anyone who has ever taken illegal drugs with a needle?
• In the last 6 months have you taken money or drugs for sex?
• In the last 6 months have you taken illegal drugs with a needle even one time?
• In the last 6 months have you had sex with anyone who has HIV/AIDS or has tested positive for the HIV/AIDS virus?
• In the last 6 months have you taken care of or handled monkeys or their body fluids as part of your job?

And... you get to eat a salty snack before the donation (Hello, potato chips my old friend!) and a sweet snack (Good afternoon chocolate chip cookies!) and not feel an iota of guilt!! Plus... you get a sticker which says: "Be Nice to Me, I Gave Blood Today". Might come in handy at home...

So... what are you waiting for?? Be a Hero!! Save a Life... or Two... or Three! You have it within you. You have the Gift of Life. Why not share it with others? It's a small step for you that could be a huge step for someone else.

Covid Cravings

Have you gotten the Covid Cravings yet? The Meltdown Munchies? The irresistible craving for something salty, sweet or just plain fatty? Please say "Yes", so we know we aren't alone!

With the world upside down and our regular routines flying out the window, it's really easy to slip into old habits. Particularly when things go sideways. A friend and colleague for over a decade suddenly decides to unfriend, and even block, you over a disagreement on Facebook. A contractor says he'll be a week (or two... or three...) late in starting a project that you've been looking forward to for months. On a shopping expedition (and they are now "expeditions) to Superstore, where face masks are "mandatory", you see five naked-faced people within the first two minutes. People who aren't even trying to maintain social distancing either. An unexpected expense pops up on the radar. The phone company is overcharging your monthly bill. And... to top it all off... Halloweem AND Remembrance Day AND Christmas AND New Years (and any other holiday in the next few months) are likely to be very limp affairs. And let's not even mention the election south of the border. I could go on, but you get the idea.

It's just one thing after another... a never-ending supply of curve balls coming out of left field and... it's completely natural to crave just that little bit of food comfort. Chips. Chocolate. Ice Cream. Pick your poison. Just a little bit of normalcy in a world that seems to be slowly going off the rails. So nice to close the drapes, turn on the TV, find a movie and snuggle in for some good old snack time. For a few brief hours we are cocooned away from the world. But then... the world crashes right back in. The same things that were there yesterday... are there today... and tomorrow... and the next day. On top of that... you've now added a bit of weight gain to the mix. And the cycle begins again.

Cause, let's face it... there's always something. Some curve ball. Some monkey wrench. Something that just didn't go right. Your plans for the day are blown apart by a sick child or a vehicle that won't start or an appliance that goes on the fritz. Or maybe it's just the never-ending tedium of trying to work from home surrounded by all of the home distractions. A novelty for the first week and now a hard, long uphill slog. Maybe it's the subtle pressure of girding your loins to go out on a shopping expedition: Face masks - check. Lysol wipes - check. Hand sanitizer - check. Shopping list - check. And then the continual dodging around naked-faced people who seem oblivious to the reality of the world. I guess we all deal with stress in different ways and denial is not just a river in Egypt but one way that people handle the relentless pressure of a pandemic.

And all of this seems quite mild compared to other historical events: bombings, famine, earthquakes, hurricanes, war. A pandemic should seem like a minor blip in the grand scheme of world disasters and yet... this blip is affecting the entire world. Every single person on earth, except maybe Kim Kardashian (and her little birthday party flit to a private island so they could all feel "normal"), is affected by this virus. It is a relentless, every-present stressor - just enough to trigger our instinctive fight/flight/freeze response. Trigger our adrenal glands and get some cortisol flowing through the system. It triggers our "danger, danger" instincts and... it makes sense that some part of us thinks... danger - better stock up on some energy (eat) while we can because we might need to fight (be big and strong), flight (run like hell) or... if those two fail... freeze (and who knows when we'll be able to eat anything).

And so... we eat... we bake... we shop... we stockpile dried legumes and canned tomatoes. Still not sure what all the TP hoarding is about except... if you're gonna go whole hog on the eating front, it stands to reason that what goes in must come out too... 

The munchies seem to come in waves too. One week I'll be good and able to resist the siren call of salt, sugar, fat... but the next week is more of a struggle. Although, now, it seems like it's almost a daily thing. Good for a day or so and then ready to collapse and embrace chocolate like life-preserver. And maybe that's just the way it is right now. This virus has really fogged the future. We don't know what next month is going to look like, let alone 2021. It's really a matter of focusing on the here and now... or as Ram Dass liked to say - Be Here Now. Right here... right now. And take each moment as it comes, one small step at a time.

In the News - Tim Hortons & Burger King jump on eco-bandwagon

Well... on top of the Tim Horton's eliminating double-cupping... they are now jumping on another eco-bandwagon.

The company signed a deal last month with TerraCycle Loop to try out reusable cups and containers with deposits.

Customers buy their Timmies double-double, pay a small deposit, get their coffee in a reusable cup, which they can later return for a refund.

The cups and containers will then be professionally cleaned by TerraCycle and sent back out for reuse. And it's not just Timmies, Burger King has jumped on the bandwagon as well.

It's an admirable move... trying to reduce the amount of single-use plastics and single-use disposable packaging. I can't tell you how many Timmies cups I've found lying on the ground in local parks, often with a garbage can mere meters away. And let's not mention the number of cans and bottles (all with refundable deposits) that also clutter up local parks and roadways.

Sooo... if people still toss cans and bottles (which have deposits)... why do we think Timmies coffee drinkers will be any different? Or maybe it's just an incentive for litter-picker-uppers... one more thing that can be returned for a deposit and cold hard cash.

I'm a bit skeptical about this Timmies venture. Far better to encourage people to bring their own reusable cups (if Covid-19 ever loosens its grip on us) and or tiffin containers - be it a tiffin tin or just a rubbermaid container with a lid.

It remains to be seen how this will play out. I saw another headline go by, while researching TerraCycle, which noted that Loblaws had partnered with them in February 2019 in certain parts of the country (Toronto of course). The idea being that customers could return empty PC product containers (in a new durable, reusable format) via Loop. I haven't been able to find any recent news articles about the success/failure of this project... perhaps derailed by Covid-19.

What do you think... a success or not?