The sky is falling

I did not wake up at 6:00 this morning so my daughter and I went on a four mile walk at about 9:00. Normally she puts up a big fight because she doesn't like the stroller but today the stars were in line for me: it was ridiculously windy, like "Auntie Em, Auntie Em" windy. In fact we saw huge sheets of tar that flew off the roof of a building. She was happy to sit in the shelter of the stroller with the canopy fully extended and Pooh Bear swaddled snugly in her lap. We strolled around a strip mall and a "Mr. Miyagi" man complete with white goat-t muttered to her in a southern-mainland Chinese dialect. She looked at him, giggled, and said, "No, not that, that's so silly." With the wind came new jewels from the sky--fresh pecans from the tree in our back yard. We have a lot of fun collecting the nuts in buckets; it is also a great cool-down after a long run. I started eating a LOT of them; they are crispy on the outside and then melt in your mouth, kind of like fried butter (That’s a REAL thing). Cracking pecans is also good therapy, like punching a pillow which plays as a really irritating nemesis. Sometimes I get too into the cracking process and the whole nut splinters into a million pieces, and I all I have to show for it is the short-lived high that I get from destruction. "I am doing so well, snacking on pecans, running every day," then I burst my own bubble: I looked up pecan nutrition facts online. 10 nuts (20 halves) have 20.4 g of fat, and 196 calories. I can no longer pig out on these delectable tree-gifts, so I still crack them, but I am saving the little devils for pies, pies to thwart anyone else's goals to become thin. Next time you are outside, look out for flying pecans and a meticulously baked treat that will make me feel like I am losing weight by making you fatter, enjoy!