Valentine

Happy Valentine’s Day, my dears.  I hope that you’re surrounded by family, friends, fur babies — basically, that there’s love in your life.  The tiny monster is contentedly chewing on his dog toy, and had a great time out today.  It was a sunny, warm day — it was 5C on average, and some brilliant sun.  We had an appointment at the hospital today, and it was so spring-like!  You know that spring is coming when the sun is still up at 4:30pm!  It doesn’t get dark until almost 6pm now, which is much nicer than the darkness that prevails at the start of winter.  Don says that his head cold is improving, so that’s also good.  

I’m horrified at the prices of food these days.  I stopped in at the supermarket for a moment this afternoon, and I intended to get some fruit.  But apples, which are normally $3.99/4 lbs were $12.99!!  I know that prices have been doing some high jumps in the past few months, but this was extreme!  Butter was $10.49/lb; I normally pay $3.79.  I didn’t even look at the prices of meat, because the last time I looked they were almost double what normally they would cost.  As a result, restaurant prices are also higher.  The last few weeks of not being able to eat certainly reduced my shopping bill, but it’s worrisome.

There was a news item about a decline in sales for valentine candies this year.  Apparently many people are waiting until tomorrow when prices drop, although in the supermarket there was evidence of a flower wrapping station that was empty except for some sheets of paper, and a friend mentioned that Costco’s flower stand was almost picked bare by 3pm.  So it seems that flowers are the preferred gift this year, anecdotally.  It seems also that restaurants are overflowing with reservations, and patisseries are well stocked.  After all that, Don got some chocolates, and a package is ready to be shipped to the small people from auntie.  I got some excellent news from my endocrinologist, who said that my blood sugar readings are the equivalent of a person who does not have diabetes, so I’m basically off insulin on a routine basis; I don’t need to return to the clinic for a year.  So party hearty!  No, I’m not about to celebrate with a large chocolate cake; at least not tonight!

My endocrinologist raised an interesting point in our conversation today.  He said that there’s apparently research that suggests that your outlook on life is about 50% genetic.  So if you’ve got a positive outlook on life, there’s a 50-50 chance that you inherited it; the rest is nurture.  We sat there discussing it for a few minutes, since there are also studies that show that having a positive outlook on life leads to better health outcomes overall.  We wondered whether it was possible for very negative people (you know the ones; the ones who, if they got into heaven would complain about the shade of blue in the sky) could raise optimistic children.  We also wondered if part of having a happy outlook on life ties to a level of pragmatism— these are the cards you’re dealt, and you play those, instead of wishing away the hand.  We didn’t come to any clear conclusions, but it was certainly something to ponder.  And on this artificial day to celebrate romantic love (incidentally, a product of the Victorians, who were some of the saddest, most repressed people around after the Puritans and their ilk) it’s certainly more interesting than, “how can I dig myself into debt to conform to societal expectations of romance?”  (I know, that’s somewhat cynical of me.)

OK, we’re off to have dinner (Chinese, because we’re classy and exotic that way! 😆) and the tiny dictator is sitting on high alert, waiting for the delivery guy to show up so he can make some noise!  (He does that.  Noisy puppy!)  Enjoy your evening, and let me know, please, whether you think that cranks and grouches can give rise to Pollyanna (who has been grossly misrepresented by Disney; I think that her character in the book is more nuanced.  Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.)  Good night!