Sinatra and Granola

Today's favorite moments included . . .

. . . dancing with my sweetheart.  A friend invited Phillip and me to a dinner with ballroom dancing afterward, and though we've forgotten most of what we learned from our dance class last year, some of it came back once we were out on the dance floor.  It was fun to swing, cha cha (very poorly), and even learn a simple line dance to a Frank Sinatra song.  I would love to go out dancing more, even if it is at a venue where the average age is three decades older than mine.

And another thing . . .

. . . in my youth, my concept of a hippie was a long-haired, underwashed pacifist with loose morals, swaying to the music at Woodstock.  I never really identified with that image, yet lately I've started to wonder if I'm turning into a hippie in some ways.   Among other things, that movement had a counter-culture, back-to-nature vibe that I see reflected in my increasing number of do-it-yourself projects.

I bake my own bread and make my own yogurt, and today I washed two similar loads of laundry to compare the performance of my old store-bought detergent and a simple homemade laundry detergent with no grated soap in it (they seem to perform the same, so I'll stick with the homemade one which is much cheaper).  As the clothes were washing, I made my own granola.  While listening to Jimi Hendrix.  OK, I'm kidding about Hendrix, but not about the granola.

I'm not sure how I transformed from a teenager who was content to buy everything from professional "experts" to a thirty-something who likes to make an ever-increasing number of things myself.  Perhaps it's because as a college freshman I had friends who asked what would happen if some disaster took those professionals out of the picture, and I had to fend for myself with my own skills.  I recall driving past nearby farmland and realizing that I could be stranded on the most fertile land on Earth, and I'd starve because I wouldn't know what to do with it.  I didn't freak out and go sign up for an agriculture class, but the desire to be more self-reliant has stayed with me.  There are still many things I prefer to leave to the professionals, but I derive a certain satisfaction from slowly but steadily learning to make more things myself.

Maybe I'll tackle cheese next.