Breakfast burrito, Whole Foods

There are a whole bunch of different kinds. Apparently they're popular. This one has the most stuff in it. A bit more expensive because it has bacon.

And it's not your typical bacon. Not your typical eggs. Not your typical cheese. While utterly ordinary potatoes. Come on. There is only so good a potato can get.

Needs more sauce.

Heirloom tomatoes on sourdough bread

Boy, I sure hope my doctors can figure out why I'm so lazy. 

It's been a real trial. I finally went shopping after a doctor visit, Whole Foods is quite close to the office, and I was reminded again how gorgeous the people are and how eager they are to engage conversationally, both customers and workers. 

It's not at all what everyone says that it is.

No matter how busy, the workers are into the food and eager to discuss details. 

And so are the customers.

And I'm glad that I found genuine sourdough bread at Whole Foods because I'm too lazy to make it myself. It's a massive pain in the butt. And a huge mess. And it takes several days, but it's all worth it. 

But only when you have the energy for that. 

Oddly, the guy at the baking counter doesn't make bread himself. He knows about it, he's just not into baking it. I'm all, "Just as well. It really is involved." 

But this sourdough is more Wonder bread-like with its soft texture. Mine is a lot more firm and the crust a lot crunchier. The difference is this bread has safflower oil added. It also has rosemary, but not enough. I cannot taste it. 

And that came from a conversation I had with a woman picking out heirloom tomatoes. 

That's what I waited for too long this year. The whole summer is nearly done and I'm only just started. I've just really hated the idea of shopping and cooking and cleaning. And that's w-a-a-a-a-y out of character to just let everything go. 

These sandwiches took two heirloom tomatoes.

I scarfed this like a starved pig.

Black Forest honey ham sandwich

The ham must be eaten quickly. No languishing around in the refrigerator. It goes off in just a few days.

Fruit plate

Fruit and berry saucer to be exact.

I thought these were blueberries.

Because they were with the blueberries, and whoever sells grapes like this?

GAWL! Now I am forlornly blueberryless.

And I already bought other grapes.

Notice I changed the lens? 

The micro 60mm fixed cannot do this. This close, its wall of focus becomes too narrow and everything beyond the narrow wall goes out of focus.

Excuse me, I meant to say "depth of field." 

We photographer types are a technical lot.

Hey! Would you like to play around with my Nikon 14-24mm f 2.8 wide angle lens? It's awesome. It's larger and heavier and much more expensive than the camera. 

Yes! I do want to play around with your 14-24 wide angle. Gimme. 

See, we photographers are artists at heart. We're as conscious of what we purposefully leave out as much as what we put into the frame. Just so. We push clutter aside. Dust up the whole area.

This plate is on a work surface cluttered with crap. I'm too lazy to put it away. It could be part of the art. It's not so bad after all. But it's something that must be considered. Do I want this crap in the frame or not? 

Now, with this in mind, go forth and make art.

ARTS!

The whole point was to buy Colorado peaches in season and these are not ripe and they are not flavorful. 

They were pushing nectarines. I should have taken the hint and bought those. What's wrong with me? Sometimes I cannot take a hint.

Chicken tenders, bacon-cheeseburger with jalapeño

From Burger Fi next door.

Paper straw. 

Because Denver is liberally socially responsible, environmentally ultra conservative. 

Because plastic straws are killing our planet!

Although you get a huge fat plastic straw when you order a milkshake. They're so thick that you blow out your cheeks trying to suck them up through a big fat plastic straw. They're ridiculous. You have to wait until they melt just to suck some delicious chocolate milkshake into your over pressurized boca. 

The opposite of playing a trumpet.

I was set to take photos of customers. A lot of people came in after me. There was always a fairly large group of people ordering and reading the overhead menu. 

Except they were all very odd looking. 

All totally off the wall. 

I was the most normal looking person there.

Actually, at Burger Fi, abnormal is very normal.

As I finished my meal a very large man took up at a table near mine. 

Situationally aware, without watching me, he knew I was preparing to leave.

Apparently I'm more obvious than I think that I am.

As I stood up and put on my backpack I was looking at his deplorable shoes. 

Damn. Those are some disgusting shoes. Who even picks those?

The kind of trainers that are ill-fitting and get pushed out of shape by massive feet and great weight. His white socks are white-guy anti-style pulled over regrettable leg tattoos. His legs are thick as tree trunks.

The man is unusually large, much taller than myself and I'm tall, a bit misshapen as giants tend to be, huge legs, huge arms, oversized torso, and regular head. His head is too small for his body. His hair is uncut his blond beard is long and untrimmed. He is somewhat handsome in the face with no trace of vanity, above a wildly out of true confirmation body and very badly dressed and sorely unkempt. He is sloppy.

Like this guy except less muscular, longer unkempt beard, sloppier pants, ugly tattoos and failing shoes. The guy was a mess.

He said to me kindly, me a perfect stranger,  "I can throw that away for you."

He waited for me to compute what he said and to respond. 

He took away my tray for me and disposed the trash and set the tray in its place. Like a busboy.

"Are you going out this backdoor?"

"Yes."

He walked over to the back door ahead of me and held the door open that leads to patio seating. He waited there with the door opened for me to make my way to it. I'm slow. He is patient. He stretched out his massive arm and opened the gate to the sidewalk and kept both doors open for me to pass through them. 

Basically, I walked into his stretched out arms without touching him. 

I cannot believe this man is doing all this.

I can easily get through the doors on my own. They're easy to open, easy to manage. 

It's no problem at all. 

None at all. 

Yet I am loath to deny these people their good deed. I want them to feel good about helping others. So I do not dismiss their grace extended. I say, "Thank-you for all this. I do appreciate this. You are very considerate." 

I think God wants me to be kind to people who want to be kind to me. 

This happens

all 

the 

time. 

Everyday.

This must be the spiritual lesson for me: that people are generally filled with grace. Even the gigantic Viking goofballs. That people want to express grace. People are incipient angels. People are angels being made on imperfect Earth. This is the thing that I think that I'm seeing.

I must now pray.

"Jesus, is this the lesson for me? Amen."

Jesus: "Yep." 

The Magnificent 7

Pizza from Denver Pizza Co. and it really is magnificent.

The guy who delivers these looks like Jesus.

If Jesus was 5'6". 

And he's such a nice young man. Not nearly so pedantic and didactic as Jesus while equally patient and kind.

The Urantia Book. 

128:6.2
Jesus was one of the most robust and refined specimens of manhood to appear on earth since the days of Adam. His physical development was superb. His mind was active, keen, and penetrating—compared with the average mentality of his contemporaries, it had developed gigantic proportions—and his spirit was indeed humanly divine.

141:3.1
The Master displayed great wisdom and manifested perfect fairness in all of his dealings with his apostles and with all of his disciples. Jesus was truly a master of men; he exercised great influence over his fellow men because of the combined charm and force of his personality. There was a subtle commanding influence in his rugged, nomadic, and homeless life. There was intellectual attractiveness and spiritual drawing power in his authoritative manner of teaching, in his lucid logic, his strength of reasoning, his sagacious insight, his alertness of mind, his matchless poise, and his sublime tolerance. He was simple, manly, honest, and fearless. With all of this physical and intellectual influence manifest in the Master's presence, there were also all those spiritual charms of being which have become associated with his personality--patience, tenderness, meekness, gentleness, and humility. 

Old Santa Fe

I think. Maybe it's Old El Paso. Whatever.

Old Santa Fe is right next to Floyd's. 

I got a haircut today and I must say I look dashing. 

And I mean duh-s-h-i-n-g!

I love these young people to death.  And they love me. 

You see, I buy them a pizza each time. Now that's my thing. And kids are so easy to please. Because older adults are always giving them the s-h-hockey stick-t ... shLt. 

Just last week I turned out the front door of our building and made my way to the end of the block.

From behind me a woman said, "Hello there."

I turned and saw two women approaching, walking faster than I do, they're about to overtake my pace.

They saw I did not recognize them.

"I cut your hair." 

Now they're both next to me at my left side. "Ha! Oh. Thank you for that. " 

Now in front of me and looking back to say, "And thanks for the pizza!" 

Ah, now it's all clear. I'm associated with pizza. They do appreciate that. It sticks out. Plus the pizzas are very good but I'm not so sure that makes any difference. I'm not sure they can tell the difference between an excellent pizza and a standard pizza. It's all in the details. They know hair, not necessarily pizzas. Plus the pizzas are cold by the time they get to them. After all, they're all working.

At any rate, a new woman there today cutting my hair and we had an interesting conversation. And she said so. 

Then they fronted my haircut. 

Monetarily, with two generous tips, the pizza delivery and the haircut, that doesn't make it even but it does make it worthwhile as the episode on the street shows. 

The waiter at Old Santa Fe was a young man I hadn't seen before. Another customer entered after me. The waiter and the guy behind me are both Latino. Whereas the waiter was incredibly soft-spoken with me, he was much more communicative with the second guy.

I look like my dad. I look like an Air Force officer. That's how young people respond to me. They don't quite know how to act. So it's all very stilted. It's up to me to remove that barrier and demonstrate that I'm not what I look like.

At the end he asked me if I'd like to have more chips. 

I told him, no thank you, I'm taking some home. 

I'm showing above the two small containers of chips that I put in my backpack. 

The bill with my signature sat on the table for a long time. "Would you like more Coca-Cola?" 

"Sure."

Then later, "Would you like more chips?" 

"No thank you. I'm taking some home." 

He didn't know that I put the two containers in my backpack. He returned with a bag full of chips. Then returned again with a take-out container of salsa.

Apparently he saw the tip was more than the lunch and he was responding in kind to that. 

I said, "I wasn't signaling for more chips. I was telling you that I already packed some. See?" 

I pulled out one of the containers.

"Oh! That's alright. Keep them." 

See what I mean? These small gestures are noticed and appreciated and reciprocated where possible. Young people are adorable when given a chance.

I will only mention the young man who delayed his own entry to hold open the door for me.  

I will only mention the young gentleman who offers his bathroom with the huge sign "Bathrooms for customers only" because I am a customer at other times and they know I'm not taking advantage. And thank God for that because at my age bathroom signal misjudgment can be catastrophic and the internal physical hint "now" means now!

Chicken Salad

Taste of Philly.

Potato salad

Taste of Philly.

Steak sandwich with mushrooms

Taste of Philly.

Tuna sashimi

1) Wasabi powder

2) Water

3) Soy sauce

4) Mirin

Tuna steak. Not sushi grade.

Short grain rice.

Burger Fi, chile cheese dog, jalapeño burger, chocolate milk shake

The hotdog is burnt with chile and cheese pouring out of the container. It's a mess.

The fries are undercooked.

The milkshake is too thick to suck through a very thick straw until it melts. 

Will I go back? 

Of course!

The hamburger has hits of jalapeño throughout. 

The people there are sweet as can be. Both the workers and the customers.

I walk past the large windows to get to the front door. I could go in the exit door and walk through the restaurant to the counter, but I'd rather do it the right way, the long way around.

As I approach the front door two large young male customers are watching me through the glass door.

One literally jumps up from his table nearest the door and rushes forward to open it from the inside. For me.

He is about three inches taller than myself. I am six feet tall and wearing boots. He is heavier than me. And at least half my age. As I walk past him holding open the door I say, "Thank you." 

He says, "Nice shirt." 

I don't know why the pattern on this shirt gets so much attention, but it does. At first I thought it was ASL fingerspelling configurations, but they are not. Young people notice this shirt. This is the third time in a few weeks they've said so. And I don't go out that much. These are very short walking trips, brief episodes.

There are only three signs repeated. An orange "10," the hitchhikers thumb, a green "Y," the Hawaiian shaka "hang loose" sign, and silver "F" or "3," the Chef Boyardee "Ok" sign. So you could make this shirt easily by hand printing a dark blue with ink stamps. 

Cut out the unwanted portions. 

The hieroglyph ones look good too. 

The emoji stamps are cute.

So then in there at Burger Fi they hand you an electronic buzzer to tell you when to come up and get your order. But whenever I go in there they tell me to find a place to sit and they bring my order to me. 

Now, this is 1/2 a block from my apartment. In that short distance and  brief period I have two instances of young people being acutely situationally aware and outwardly considerate toward me. I cannot overstate the how immediate and personal this is. The grace extended to me every moment of my interaction around here is quite impressive. By young people 1/2 or 1/3 my age. Every single time I step out. And the amazing thing is I can do all these things myself. 

Macaroni and cheese, bacon and jalapeño.

There is parmigiano reggiano, Maytag bleu, Tillamook cheddar, and crap Kraft pre-shredded mozzarella. 

The bacon is from the deli that you buy separately. The jalapeños are tinned and a little bit gross. 

A béchamel is made from the bacon grease and additional butter and lifted off and brought together with vermouth and then milk. 

The cheese is added off the heat so that it doesn't separate.