The best, most nutritious way to eat nuts is from the shell, if they have one. Nuts in the shells have less oil, less fat, less sodium, and other unmentionables than packaged nuts. But shells are hard to crack open on most nuts and old fingers aren’t the best shell splitters. There are professional nut-cracking tools*, but they are expensive. A trip to the tool section in the local Dollar Store revealed a tool called “slip joint pliers”, and they really were a dollar. ** If you google the pliers you’ll see how perfect they are for my favorite nut, peanuts. And if any joints come loose…righty tighty, lefty loosey. Except for certain “nuts”. Ahem.

A past essay revealed my hack for reading glasses: buy a lot from the dollar store and leave a pair every where you need one. Like the cheap winter gloves. But with glasses, after buying ten pairs, my eyes decided to get worse with age. Surprise. My 1.5 magnification readers from 20 years ago, no longer magnify enough. Worse, my left eye is badder (sic) than my right eye, now. And if I buy ten more 2.0 readers, will I have to buy 2.5 readers the next year? Maybe. At least the dollar stores are still selling readers for a dollar. Walmart and Walgreens want ten times as much. Sadly, there appears to be state and/or federal regulation about selling any reader larger than a 3.25 magnification. I didn’t research the rule, but no dollar store has any over 3.25 and Amazon and Walmart don’t stock or ship them, either. Wonder if I’ll have to go to a doctor when nearly-blind.

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) hastens the need which reminds me: GET YOUR EYES CHECKED. Put the Amsler Grid on your refrigerator. Now. Go. Print it and tape it up.

And donate blood. If you can. It’s been a surprise learning how many old people cannot.

And check your hearing. You heard me.

As we age, we lose things gradually, often to the point of not noticing how much we have lost. Catch your loses early and most of them can be slowed or even stopped.

For fun, grab the lever of your recliner, lean back, put your feet up, and imagine being blind. Or deaf. Or nearly crippled with arthritis. Seriously, take the time to think about it, especially if you have one or more of those afflictions, already.

You’ll think of other things, too, other blessings you may have forgotten to notice.

What was this essays point, again?

Oh, yeah. Chicken. Chicken and Tuna have become staples of my diet but how does an old, single person cook and eat both? And how do we buy it so we can have both when want either?

There are lots of name brands offering several ways to get inexpensive tuna–and other seafood– into a single, non-cookers diet. In the grocery store look around for the canned tuna aisle and pick your favorite form the large assortment. Try one of the conveniently packaged options and if you don’t like it, try another.

Chicken is a little harder, but there pre-cooked rotisserie chickens in every grocery store you visit. If you don’t like the greasy, messy bone that’s left, one grocery chain pulls the meat off the bones and packages it into inexpensive, under 1-pound packages for sale the next day. And think of any chicken supplier running national advertisements for their products. They all are trying to make off-the-shelf products for the cooking-dysfunctional. I currently buy a refrigerated 16 ounce package of roasted breast meat for snacks, sandwiches, and casseroles. Be careful, too, of really liking a product because it may not be around next time you shop.

Warning: read labels for the particular nutrients and ingredients you want, or need to avoid.

Gotta go. The end.

*And a ballet about named after them.