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Monday, March 11, 2019
I’ve created a new exercise.
That makes me a star.

Of course you want to know what.
I call it the Spurt.

Here’s what it is.

I walk the same route day after day.
I am perhaps the city’s expert on the timing of the traffic lights along the way.
As we all are on our personally-tailored walks.

When I look ahead to the next street crossing I take note of the lights and can make an excellent guess as to whether the lights will be in my favor when I reach the intersection. Very often a short run will be the difference between proceeding continuously across the street or having to wait for a light-cycle, a negative often exacerbated by unpleasant weather or time pressure.

This short run is my Spurt.
The difference between a simple ‘short-run’ and a Spurt is that we’re forced into the former, whereas we formally incorporate the Spurt into our walk.
Not a tangible difference but we don’t have to convert anyone to our routine.

Why Spurt?
We Spurters wrest control of our walk from the passionless traffic lights coldly signally us to stop.
I say, “You stop. I’m going to Spurt you.”
And I do.
And I win.

Of course I win.
My typing here is proof of that.
If you don’t see a posting one day you can rationally assume I’ve lost the game.

Which brings me to the penultimate point: incentive.
Unlike other exercises, once the Spurt is started there is no tiring before completion.
The prospect of being detritus pasted over the grill of an eighteen-wheeler drives us across the street willy-nilly.

Is the Spurt ‘good for us?’
Yes, although my confidence in that is based on only anecdotal evidence gleaned from only a single experience, mine.
When I Spurt across the street my quads feel it.
They tell me that they know that I pushed them.
But they don’t go further than that.
They don’t seize up on me.
And if it doesn’t hurt usit must be helping.

So I think.

So that makes it a new exercise.
And me a star.

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Postings Count, Weather Brief, and Dinner
Monday, March 11, 2019

My 333rd consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.

Time is 12.01am.
On Monday Boston’s temperature will reach a high of 39* with a feels-like temperature of 32*, with mixed precipitation.

Dinner with daughter Kat at Grill 23, a restaurant week special.

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Tick Tock : Marking Calendars and Deep Weather

After 333 posts we’re at the 6.66% mark of my commitment,
the commitment a different way of marking the passage of time.

Sunday was wet but the next week promises to be dry and substantially warmer than our winter days.

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Question of the Day
Have you created a version of Manhattan Clam Chowder?

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Love your notes.
Contact me at existentialautotrip@hotmail.com

This from Tommie Toner from South Carolina in response the shoulder-season calendar.

Reading your blog is an education! Thank you. I learn from each post and save each post for further review and thought. 

We are having an unusual "shoulder" spring! It has been incredibly cold and rainy. Last weekend, we had thunder and lightning at the beach house and torrential rain and in Columbia- more like a summer storm! ( and destructive tornadoes in Ala. And Ga.) On the other hand, the camellias have been the most profuse of any season I can remember and the Carolina Jasmine, our State flower is ubiquitous. In the meantime, between rain, we were below the 20's F. Absolutely CRAZY! 

Web Meister Responds: Nice note. The extremes we can relate to. But the flowers? Not yet.
Count your blessings.

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Elephant jokes to tell at a bar.
How do you tell an elephant from a grape?
The grapes are purple.

What did Jane say when she saw the elephants?

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Answer to the Question of the Day
Have you created a version of Manhattan Clam Chowder?

Yes.

I started with this thought: a plate that will serve as a complete dinner.
And so instead of clams only, I added fresh fish.
And instead of quahogs, I used little neck clams, far more tender and no need to cut them up.
I introduced wine to the liquid in which to steam the clams.
I cut way down on the fat.
I substituted chick peas for potatoes.

Came out really tasty and we can eat gobs of it, everything good for one, especially the calorie count.

Manhattan Clam and Fish Chowder

Using a stockpot, soften the vegetables in 3TB of goose fat or bacon or pancetta:
Large dice (1/2” cubes) 2oz each of:
bell pepper
carrots
celery
5oz leeks, the whites and the very light green part, cut into ½” pennies
a chili pepper, chopped fine
3 garlic cloves, chopped fine
Add freshly-ground pepper and 1/2t of ‘fines herbes’ or any spice of your choosing.
Five minutes into the softening, add 1 ½ lbs of fresh fish cut into 2” pieces to the vegetables.

Separately, steam 24 little neck clams in a cup of wine and ½ cup water
Remove the clams from the shells and add to the vegetables.
Strain the broth and reserve.

Also prepare and reserve:
A can of chick peas, drained
Equal parts of fresh parsley and basil, chopped coarsely and totaling 1 cup.
1 28-ounce can San Marzano tomatoes in juice, chopped in a food processor

When the vegetables are softened, add the broth and the rest of the reserved items.
If not enough broth, add ½ cup more white wine.

Simmer the pot for thirty minutes.
Serve hot.

Voila!

Good Morning on this Monday, the Eleventh of March.

Today we talked about a new exercise, the Spurt. For crazies only.
We talked about weather and time.
We read a nice piece from Tommie Toner that illustrated a southern USA version of a shoulder season.
We presented another elephant joke and presented our own version of a chowder, Manhattan Fish and Clam Chowder.

And now? Gotta go.

Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?

See you soon.

Your Love