It's National Hot Dog Day

• 3 Tips Yield 26 Bucks
• National Hotdog Day
• Mango Day

Today, mangoes went on sale, 5 for $2, at Rouses Market. This eclipses, even, the deal at The Ideal Market, which was 69 cents per mango. They were large, sweet,  juicy and delicious, the ones from Ideal. The ones that I just got at Rouses Market, I will have to wait until ripe before being able to compare. The Rouses Market mangoes are labelled as coming from Mexico, so it is not like I will be comparing apples to oranges.

26 Dollar Thursday

I got to the Lilly Pad so early that the sun was just setting.

I set my spotlight up where it shone a circle of light just barely brighter than the ambient light from the dusk.

I had no money in my tip jar.

A couple of young ladies came along who were from Oklahoma and became interested in the "tiposaurus" sign. I explained the concept to them.

"That's worth a dollar," said the one who turned out to be Laura.

Laura wanted me to make up "a funny song," and told me that I didn't need to do it just then; she may have been thinking that she would come back and hear it the next night; after I had worked on it.
I played a favorite chord progression and then sang about myself being a fool for living "12 feet below sea level," in New Orleans; and then contrasted it with "At least I don't live in Tornado Alley," and Laura handed me a bill that turned out to be a 20.

So, my tip jar remained empty as the 20 went in my pocket.

Another dollar and then a five went into the jar, and it was only 10:20 PM when I broke a string; feeling like I needed a break, myself.

I wouldn't return to playing, as I surmised that I had caught lightning in a bottle in making 26 bucks in an hour and a half, and that I might play another hour for just 5 more dollars; given that I was out of creative energy for the time being.

Hot Dogs And Mangoes

I had set my alarm in order to wake up for a "community" meeting to be held in the "Community Room." Something unnerves me about my implicit "membership" in that "community" which is the "Sacred Heart Apartment" community.

I prefer to think of us along the lines that some people think of The United States of America  -a bunch of totally independent, unrelated autonomous entities, that just happen to share the same geopolitical space...

But, I was hoping to talk the the Department of Health people that were supposed to be there. They were there, but I was late, and they had already spoken. I was briefed with the fact that they had only spoken about hurricane preparedness. I'm going to buy one of those blow up plastic floats that are used in swimming pools; and that will bring me up to full hurricane preparedness. Oh; and a paddle.

Sugar Skeezers

It is National Hot Dog Day, and, immediately following the community meeting was to take place some kind of hot dog feeding.

It was going to turn my stomach to witness the festivities in honor of National Hot Dog Day, I just knew it.

During the community meeting, for which cookies and coffee had been laid out, there arrived a couple of older black men who live here and who picked up the empty sugar canister from nearby the coffee pot, shook it and then began to insist: "Hey, you gotta get more sugar...Hey, we're out of sugar!!"

Coffee and sugar are supplied as a courtesy to the participants at the meeting. Nowhere is it stated or implied that anyone is obligated to ensure an endless supply of sugar. It irks me to see the "hardwired" skeezers show up at these functions only to avail themselves to something for free; and then to complain when it runs out.

It reflects a mentality that has been conditioned after a lifetime of availing themselves to free things; many of which are provided by volunteers whose job it is to, perhaps, make sure the sugar doesn't run out. The tone of voice that the guy used when yelling "Hey, you need to put more sugar here!" was kind of a "Someone's not doing their job!" tone of voice.

I realized the folly in my eating a hot dog with a bun after I had undergone water fasted for 5 days and then had carefully begun to reconstruct my diet, beginning with watermelon and arriving only at baked potatoes last night.

I am eating: Celery, cabbage, carrots, cayenne pepper, chia seeds, cilantro, coffee, dates, flax seed, garlic, ginger, grapes, honey, lemons, lettuce, limes, mangoes, maple syrup, oats, parsley, potatoes, quinoa, Serrano peppers, tea (green, black, oolong), water.  

That's it. My diet in its entirety. In a nutshell. Throughout the past couple weeks. No hotdogs.

....Man, I can just imagine the scene: "...You ain't got no brown mustard, no relish?!? God damn! Hey, put some more onions on there!"  

I am impressed by the patience and restraint and even-headed dispositions exhibited by the staff members here at Sacred Heart. I'll bet that, at the end of their shifts.

Edible Suspects Identified?

I am starting to think that a food that I had been consuming almost every day for years is linked to the stiff and achy small spine and upper back areas that have been a chronic condition for at least as many years as I have been consuming this thing.

I used to make sure I had it by my head when I slept outdoors; I would spend about a quarter of my food stamp money just on it, each month.

The stiffness started to recede on about the 4th day of the water fast.

It has been continuing to do so, giving me much better range of motion, and making me feel more graceful, even when playing music. And this improvement has forged on even while I start to eat; adding foods to my diet as I go along.
This kind of addresses an issue, postulated by the water-only fasting group, that any ailment will eventually clear up if a fast is prolonged enough. Even cancerous tumors will be burned by the body after it has run out of fat and before it starts to burn muscle.
I had wondered if I should have continued on the water fast after having experienced the drastic improvement on the eve of the 5th day.

 I still find myself saying "ouch" out loud, when I initiate a movement that has given me pain for so long. To twist my body to reach over to a bookshelf from my bed, or to reach across my body to put a gallon jug of water on top of the fridge, I will utter the groan of pain, just in anticipation of feeling it.

Now, the soreness is going away, and I have restored my diet to what it had been, with the exception of anything "animal," and with the exception of the thing that I was a crazed fiend for...

Corn Syrup vs. Peanut Butter 

I am talking about "high fructose corn syrup," "corn syrup," or "corn," in general.

Amazing, that I would have overlooked that ingredient, even though I have come close to subsisting on it for years. An energy drink before busking, after busking, and first thing the next morning has been routine for me -energy drinks loaded with high fructose corn syrups.

The Nature of Food Allergies

I know the nature of allergies. One ingredient can be prerequisite in triggering an "allergic reaction" to another ingredient.

Once, in my mid 20's, I had done something as unwitting as drinking orange juice not long after having had milk in some form. This spiked my histamine levels and made my nose run and my face itch.

I then petted a cat.

I then put lotion on my itchy face -without having washed the "cat fir oil" off my hands first- and it set my face on fire with what felt like thousands of biting mosquitoes; I'd never felt such an intense irritation in my life. I ran to the kitchen sink to rinse my skin off.

I'm perfectly fine with cats now, in fact I own one.

So, the possibility that I could be allergic to corn, and could have been for a long time; or that corn could be the trigger for other allergies; is mind-boggling.

Yet, I am feeling better day by day and have yet to add it back to my diet.

It could possibly be the co-allergen that combines with the foods that I had concluded that I am allergic to. Maybe without the corn, I could more readily digest things such as soy oil, partially hydrogenated soy oil, eggs, dairy and whatever it is that's in white bread that messes with me... 
  
I haven't had any corn products since the start of the water-only fast. The stiffness which had conditioned me to limit the radius when I turned my head to look around, for example, has loosened to the point where I am just more lithe; and can feel it even walking down the street.
  
I had suspected that the bingeing on peanut butter that I had been doing for a couple months had something to do with the worsening of the stiffness and pain, as, once I had discovered the fast and easy and protein rich diet that peanut butter, bananas, all fruit jam, coconut milk and honey is, it became just about all I was eating for a while. But always with energy drinks at other times of the day; and sometimes with high fructose corn syrup jam, instead of all-fruit...

I now own about 12 mangoes.