So many customers couldn't understand why, if they used their insurance, the insurance company didn't get the sale price. I got into trouble, though, when I suggested to customers that, if their insurance was less than optimal, use the sale rather than their insurance.

I bought my RGP hard contact lenses online for DECADES. Better price than even the annual sale prices at the shops I worked at. Half the price of what an independent optometrist would charge me.

I'm still doing the daily version of intermittent fasting — I can eat from noon-1:00ish until 8:00 p.m. Then it's only water, black coffee or tea until noon-ish the next day. But, since the start of the pandemic, I cheat. Back in 2020-2021 it was compensation for so much else being taken away. Alas, I got into the habit of cheating and, while I've been trying to get back on track, it's still a struggle. If I get really pecking, though, late ate night while reading, I can "legally cheat" by snacking on something that is very very low on the glycemic scale, such as lettuce or greens, or (as I prefer) kimchee.

My use of intermittent fasting isn't so much to lose weight (although that's a nice benefit — I lost 40 pounds painlessly in seven months) — it's to avoid the diabetes that runs on my mother's side of the family.

My snack cravings go towards the salty and crunchy side rather than sweet. My favorite daytime snack is almonds — I mix "roasted with salt" and "roasted/no salt" to keep the sodium level down. I haven't eaten potato chips since 1992 when a friend and I had a consultation with "The Mad Russian" (Yefim G. Shubentsov) in Boston. (Tom had seen him for smoking cessation, but the Mad Russian also dealt in food issues.) I saw him to get rid of my urge to find the perfect food that would solve whatever problem or mood I was beset with. After explaining to me that my body shape is the preferred standard of beauty almost everywhere in the world, he asked that I give up one food. I chose potato chips because they weren't my favorite snack; I saw them mostly as a vehicle for dip.

Coffee's ready and I hope to have a postponed weekly phone conversation with a friend who winters in Florida.

Linn