Hey all,

I’m here in Southern California, enjoying the sun, relative warmth and friendship of familiar faces, at least til Thursday. I’ve been fairly self-indulgent, I think. My friends have plied me with high quality booze and good food. And it would be impolite to spurn their hospitality, right? I have always maintained that I have better friends than I deserve, and this trip has once again reinforced that idea. So, in summary, I’ve had a good week.
so this morning I was driving back from the gym. Yes, my vacations include the gym and running. It’s something else that I enjoy.

Shoot me.

so as I’m heading “home”, I pass by a place called “Zombie Donuts”. If you’re familiar with Voodoo donuts in Portland, you know the gig. Their claim to fame are these over the top, fancy-smancy donuts.
That’s not the attraction. I’ve actually sat across from Voodoo donuts and just watched the line of tourists, waiting to get their box of peanut butter /chocolate / captain crunch covered cronuts ( a Cronut is the love child of a donut & a croissant. Go figure)

Not my cup of tea.

However, the fine folks at Zombie have something that is most definitely my cup of coffee with Coffemate and 2 fake sugars.
A maple glazed old fashioned donut.

No. Old fashioned doesn’t mean a plain donut. Old fashioned is a specific kind of donut. With the crinkly, crunchy outside. And they have a certain, umm, heft to them.

Add to that a maple glaze and you have, at least to me, donut heaven. They don’t always have them. Some days they only have the plain, or the chocolate glazed. Both of which are fine but not deep fried nirvana.
A proper, maple glazed old fashioned donut.
I can’t find them, like. ANYWHERE ELSE. Not in LA, not in Cincinnati, not in Lancaster, Pa. And they have an Amish population, for heavens sake.
So, the argument today was. “ you’ve been pretty self indulgent during this little vacay. Do you REALLY need this? You like the feeling of fit & healthy, yes? You know that weight management is at least 80 percent diet. You know you can work out all you want but you can’t exercise away a bad diet, blah, blah, blah….(yes I actually use all of the hackneyed motivational phrases on myself)

But there is a happy ending, readers.
I stopped.

They had the maple- glazed.

I made the purchase.
When am going to be back to LA? A year or so? And honestly, at one point or another I have to trust myself. I have to realize that this is not the first step down that slippery slope. I have metaphorical trail shoes. I’ll do the work and make the choices. The last 30 years have shown me that. And sometimes….

…. you gotta buy the donut.
That’s the message for this week.

Sometimes you gotta buy the donut.
See you on Thursday Cincinnati.

Talk later,

Bob