Donuts: Scarcity = Specialness

Melinda with the Toyota Echo named Spot

Several years ago my beloved Toyota Echo started to fail me while we were at a bird festival in Salt Lake City.  I spent the day in the Toyota dealership where they worked on the Echo.  Melinda spent the day with other sisters. As the day wore on I decided to ask about other cars, after all I had been looking online for a new car for more than a year now.  I drove out with a new leased Rav4 complete with navigation system.  I don't know if it was user error, programming fairies, or magic but the first address we found in the Nav system was for a donut shop in Wichita Falls TX.  We'd never been there nor how or why it was in the system. So in 2017 Shanna and I decided that we might as well find out what was up with this donut shop.

Toyota Rav4 Hybrid named Rafe Jr with travel buddy named Skittles

It did exist and made very yummy donuts.
Texas Donuts
1208 Holliday St
Wichita Falls, TX 76301

This year on our way to Texas for Christmas I made Texas Donuts one of my targets with the new Nav system.  (Yes of course we've transferred the address to every new car since the first Rav4.) We were making regular stop and stretch your legs breaks and Wichita Falls made a good stop.  The donuts were just as good as we remembered.

I've been working in my life with the concept of scarcity = specialness.  If you have popcorn all of the time it no longer keeps it's cachet as special.  The same can be said of a lot of food in our modern world.  We lose our wonder at the deliciousness of a strawberry in part because of its abundance.  Another aspect of our modern world that I feel we lose connection with is the turn of the seasons.  Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, all blur together in our heated/air conditioned offices/cars/homes.  Yes we might change some of our clothes, add a coat or swimsuit but our day to day living is still so much of a sameness.

Shanna with the new Hybrid Highlander aka Macleod 

I have added those two concepts together and have for the past bunch of years worked to move what I eat to the appropriate season. This is easiest to do with fruit. Strawberries are May and peaches August, grapefruit in the winter and apples in the fall.  It isn't that these fruits are available here because of Idaho's growing season, but because they are available fresh and flavorful at that time from the farmers far and near.  Yes I prefer to get fruit from Farmers Markets & Stands, but that's not possible in the winter and I need that fruit.  I'm also finding over the years that this concept of food for a season really works.  I crave stews, chili, soup, and oven fresh bread in the fall and winter.  Hamburgers, pasta salad, lemonade are summer foods, and quiche one for spring.   By making these choices I make the food more important to the season and to me.  They become treats again.  Those first May strawberries that taste of early summer are delicious and delight my soul as much as my taste buds.  August peaches which my daughter finds amusing as I spread them out on the counter as a number-line from most ripe to least ripe are a celebration of the hot summer and beginning of school.

So what does this have to do with donuts?  Well, what if the only donuts I will eat come from that shop in Wichita Falls TX?  Since they are the best donuts why would I eat any others?  Maybe I find a few other such places where I only go once a year.  Maybe I enhance my enjoyment and reduce my overall caloric load by only eating donuts at such places.   Something to think about?  Definitely.

I did think about this when I saw the email last week announcing that someone had brought donuts in to work.   I remembered the yumminess of cream filled maple bars from Texas and decided that today I could give a pass to the ones in the break area.  Apparently I'm saving my donuts not to a specific season, but to a location.

-- Jenny

Books found and read in 2018

New Favorites
I found several new series to read this year along with a new genre - Alaska mystery.

In the Alaska Mystery genre I recommend most highly the Dana Shugak novels by Dana Stabenow.  They center around an Alaska native woman who is a former law enforcement investigator who has retreated back to the village of her birth.  Mysteries then ensue along with a bit of romance and a cast of quirky characters reminiscent of Northern Exposure.  I LOVE these novels.  'Breakup' is probably my favorite.

The second series in this genre is by Sue Henry (Alex Jensen & Jessie Arnold series).  This series is missing the cast of ongoing characters but is still a fun read.  Both authors live and work in Alaska and bring their perspective and knowledge on the location to the books. 

I also read all of the Tony and Anne Hillerman novels set in the desert southwest. I had read the first novel in the series before and it just didn't capture me.  I think they get better as the series develops and Anne Hillerman who takes it over from her father brings a new perspective, that of Jim Chee's girlfriend Bernadette Manuelito.  I really enjoyed reading about the Navajo and Hopi cultures and the southwestern locations.  I bought 'Navajoland' a guide to the locations of the Hillerman novels arranged by location name.  This meant I could read that book and remember the novels during the big drive to Texas for Christmas that we did. 



Shanna introduced me to the Circle Universe young adult novels by Tamora Pierce which is a charming fantasy series with a unique take on magic. 

I've had the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris recommended to me on a few occasions. I finally read it and loved it.  It was hard to put down.  I also got the Midnight Texas series in which several minor characters from the Stackhouse novels show up. I recommend it if you like supernatural mysteries. I particularly enjoyed the Texas series since I drive across west Texas on my way to visit family near Dallas. 

I also read the Sherlock Holmes oeuvre. I found it as a collection on audible read by Stephen Fry. It includes brief introductions to each novel or collection of short stories. These were interesting and I enjoyed the whole thing.

I also read a bunch of nonfiction.  Most entertaining biographies I read this year include "Never Have Your Dog Stuffed" by Alan Alda, and Elephant Whisperer" by Lawrence Anthony.  Mike Meyers' "Canada" is both about Mike and about Canada and has one of the best ideas I've heard for living well.  'How soon can we make this funny' when life deals you a difficult time, this concept can help you over the bums.  And speaking of humorous books, I read "My Life and Hard Times" by James Thurber to a colleague on one of our trips across to Boise.  Arlene introduced me to Thurber and this one is always a good one.  Lastly the most inspiring self help book I read in 2018 is "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do" by Amy Morin.

I read a LOT of books this year.  As long as you define reading as both listening on audible and reading on kindle/paper.  On average I read just over a book a day.  I know that seems excessive, but I read fast and can listen at what my daughter calls chipmunk speed (2-3 times the normal speed of the audiobook).  My reading goals for next year include more new series and fewer overall books.  We'll see how that goes.