Max Rempel, Ph.D.

32. A Typical Morning (part 2 Of 2)

Weather is a big thing for humans in most developed countries. There are few places with stably good weather, like California, but in most locations, people would check the weather forecast and dress accordingly. For the kids, my wife would pack the lunch. Depending on where they go she would use a lunch that can be warmed up or the one that is eaten without warming. Warming is used typically to melt the fats and soften the food; this helps better absorption of the food in the digestive system. If we forgot to clean food containers from children's' backpacks, this is a moment when they are taken out and spread the smell of rotten food. That would happen more in summer because food spoils faster at a warm temperature.

If it is winter, and if it has been snowing at night, we would come out in advance and clean the cars from the snow. Sometimes the road to the house also needs cleaning. Snow troubles are minor for us since we grew up in this kind of climate and are used to it. People from the warmer climate take the snow troubles with more disdain. Nowadays, my wife in the morning would go to the back yard to feed and water the chickens. This winter one of the coldest days one of our chickens died from freezing. We didn't eat it since we treat our live chickens as pets and not as food. We are eating their eggs and have much enjoyment from that. We believe fresh eggs are good for you, although they taste very similar to the ones from the store. Economically keeping our 3 remaining chickens is not profitable for us. The chickens and eggs are very cheap these days. But our friends from Belorussia told us that they used to grow rabbits for food on their balcony at tough times and that provided them with needed nutrients. In many countries, people keep chickens for eggs and meat. This helps some with nutrition. The food for chickens is cheap and they would also eat leftovers of human food.

We also have now two dogs and a cat. We feed them twice a day. Dog and cat food is cheaper than human food, maybe because food quality is not as critical for them since they live a shorter life.

Many people, likely the majority of people in civilized countries would have either the television or radio on all the time they are at home. The sound from these electronic devices certainly energies them and also make them more compatible and compliant to the society. Somehow listening to the news and commercials standardizes people and tunes them up to the same frequency. We don't do any of that by choice. We never had a television set in our house since we left our parents. We do watch movies via YouTube and Amazon subscriptions, but this is different since we make a choice of what and when to watch. And often we would change or stop what we watch because it wouldn't be what we prefer. Many others are so used to loud television and radio, that they wouldn't even notice it. They would feel uncomfortable turning it off. When we visit such people, sometimes we ask to turn off the TV, so we could focus on the conversation. I watch TV when I travel, typically hotels and houses of my hosts have television and I check local programs briefly to learn what local people are watching. When I drive in new places, I turn on the car radio and it is fun to listen to local music and news especially in an unfamiliar language. Just to get a taste of it.

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Max Rempel, Ph.D. | San Diego, CA | max@maxrempel.com