The Great Pumpkin

• 30 Dollar Friday
• Pumpkin Loaf (new creation)

Friday night, I made 30 bucks but, just like sports games where it is deemed that "the game was closer than the score would indicate," it felt like a pretty dismal night. It was a 20 dollar bill from one random person, that had kept me from having a 10 dollar night on almost 3 hours of playing.

It comes by the can, not very expensive at all, probably because it isn't really sweet, but rather fibrous, with a taste somewhere between squash and eggplant.

I acquired my very first ever can of "pumpkin" recently, at the dollar store. I was thinking that I would use it in my meatless meatloaf, or my turkey meatloaf which is the former with ground turkey added.

Pumpkin would perhaps make a good substitute for the juicer pulp that is called for in the recipe, my gut told me.

Then, I was visiting my caseworker, Tim, in his office, a couple days later, who led me to a box of sundry food items that had accumulated inside it, having first been donated through some agency, and then eschewed by residents whom, I guess, knew that they were never going to eat whatever it was. There was a can of pumpkin there.

Of course there was a can of pumpkin there (it isn't very sweet and has a taste somewhere between a squash and an eggplant).

It was sharing space with a 3 pound bag of oatmeal, an equally copius bag of nutritious, but still unpopular, lentils; and lots of canned vegetables which aren't eaten here, I think, because there is nobody here to force them upon us; we being adults now.  Either green beans or sweet peas could be the flagship vegetable of that group.

I feel pretty good this morning after having used a whole can of pumpkin, mashed in with the oats, ground beef and all the other ingredients of the loaf, minus juicer pulp.

Pumpkin actually has protein in it, I was surprised to learn. I am also keeping alive the "fiber craze" that exploded in the late 80's, about 5 years after I had already adjusted my personal diet to a very fiber rich one, using instinct alone.

It looks like a busking night, despite the original forecast being for rain throughout this weekend. The radar shows it to be pretty clear around us, at least right now. It is possible, though, for a light misty rain to be falling without it showing up as green on the wunderground© weather map (above).

I stepped out into 75 degree temperatures with a light breeze and partly cloudy overhead. I made a note to myself to appreciate it as being "that 20 degree day in January when you wish you could snap your fingers and it would become 75 degrees and pleasant." It's that day, today.

I'm going to put 20 bucks on my card, maybe get a 5 dollar bud of weed, a can of cat food, gallon of spring water, and probably feed my addiction to Monster "Absolute Zero" energy drinks, before coming back here.

I'm still hesitant about getting more blank CD's to load music in the key of the new harp onto.

Whatever camcorder or tablet I wind up getting to record on will most likely have the capacity to have music stored on it and played back, which would allow me to circumvent the skip prone, impossible to erase and re-write over, CDs that are only 6 bucks for a box of 10.

The Oscar Schmidt guitar is up and running, with the new bridge pins holding the strings in place, and plays very well. It would be good enough to busk with for certain. It has a slightly wider and flatter neck than my Takamine, which makes certain things easier to play. And the sound of it is a little brighter.