The pants I'm wearing now were held onto in a bin on my closet shelf over the last nine years or so. I can mark the time when weight started creeping on, with the aid of the stress hormone cortisol. That's when the new dean was hired at my university library and she immediately started doing everything she could to make people unhappy. Those who could left for other jobs after everyone was reorganized into inappropriate positions. Many of us who were older had a lot of disappointments when trying for other jobs, and I was finally able to retire. Getting over that awful situation doesn't happen in a day or even a year. And by then the knees started giving me trouble, and the thyroid. Now over the last three years I've managed to unspool all of those various setbacks; the knees are titanium, I'm taking Synthroid, and retirement four years ago has finally caught up with my brain.

That said, I will go put a few more of the larger slacks into the laundry room donation bin. I'm also realizing that a lot of my "office casual" knit tops are too large. I'll try them on this weekend and set aside those too large to wear. It'll be a trip to the thrift store soon to replace a few. I'd much rather buy there or at a deeply discounted outlet than try shopping online and I never shop in full-price department stores.

This morning I steamed a bunch of small ugly tomatoes from the garden and ran them through the food mill for a slurry of juicy tomato sauce. I went to bed before pickling okra last night so I'll do that this afternoon. It's a lovely rainy day, though the humidity is becoming a bit much.