Three Beautiful Things 12-22-2024: Gibbs Improves, Cooking for One, A Little Touch of New Orleans Arrives on the Porch

1. Even when Debbie is home, Gibbs likes to perch himself on the back of the couch and look out the picture window. He seemed less winsome today and he even crawled off the back of the couch and spent some house sleeping on the couch proper. 

He ate. 

He seems to have ended his hunger strike. 

He had a handful of fits of manic barking when delivery people dropped things off in the mailbox or on the porch. 

And, a sure sign he's feeling better, he dashed to the pet gate when he heard Copper using the litter box and hassle barked at him until I swooshed him away, giving Copper free reign to return to the bedroom.

Gibbs' interest going out back is down a bit, but I'm hoping that will get better soon. 

All in all, my life as animal husbandman is going pretty well, so far, while Debbie drinks East Coast Hazy IPAs as well as a Dogfish Head Imperial IPA from Dover, Delaware. 

I am vicariously stoked that she's where she can drink the beers we came to love when we lived in Maryland and visited New York. 

2. My goal in the kitchen during this time of solo dining is to use what I already have on hand, knowing I'll need to make some small supplements. 

Tonight I thawed a single strip of Tri-Trip steak, cut it into cubes, and sizzled the cubes, seasoned with Everything but the Bagel seasoning in hot oil in a cast iron pot. I added green onion to the pot, along with carrot strips, chopped zucchini, and sliced mushrooms. I also cooked a small batch of basmati rice and opened a can of black beans and seasoned them with Trader Joe's Chili and Lime seasoning mix. 

At first, I thought I'd turn this mixture into a stew, but I remembered we had a single flour tortilla on hand, so I rolled the rice, beans, and vegetables into a cheese-less burrito and what wouldn't fit into the tortilla, I ate out of a bowl. 

It all worked.  Beautifully, in fact. 

3. After I finished dinner and was relaxing in the living room near Gibbs, he suddenly erupted into double manic barking.

I realized it was an Amazon delivery! 

A Christmas gift arrived from Adrienne, Josh, Eloise, and Jack. 

I opened the parcels and, to my surprise and delight, the Langfords gave me three boxes of Cafe du Monde beignet mix and a can of Cafe du Monde's French Roast coffee. 

I had beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans back in 1997. 

Mmmm.....unforgettably delicious. 

 I never thought I'd ever be making them at home! 

Now I will! 

I read the cooking instructions and impulsively decided that the best way to fry the beignets in hot oil would be with an electric frying pan.

If you happen to be a longtime reader of this blog, you might remember my love affair with the electric frying pans I owned in Eugene and Greenbelt.

I hesitated to buy one when we moved to Kellogg because of our limited storage space, but this evening  I threw all such caution to the howling garbage can tossing winds of North Idaho and, on the spot, ordered an electric frying pan and it'll arrive on the porch on Monday, December 23rd! 

I haven't decided when I'll combine the mix with water, roll the dough out on a floured surface, cut the dough into rectangles, brown the rectangles in hot oil, and cover the beignets with powdered sugar -- oh! and fix myself a French roast cafe au lait. 

It won't be long. 

This is as close as I'll get to going back to New Orleans now and, who knows? -- maybe forever.  

Three Beautiful Things 12-21-2024: Debbie Flies to Newark, Bread and Muffin at Great Harvest, Gibbs Misses Debbie

1. Debbie had a full day today. For starters, she turned 74 years old. Then, as if that weren't titanic enough, she flew across the country from Spokane to Minneapolis to Newark. She decided, when she made her reservation, that flying first class wasn't that much more expensive, so she made things much easier on herself and flew in luxury! 

Debbie's flight didn't leave until the early afternoon, so we had a relaxing morning and an easy drive to Spokane and around 9:00 in the evening, Kellogg time, Debbie texted me that she was in the LangfordMobile and on her way to Valley Cottage, NY where she'll stay at Adrienne and Josh's until, I think, January 4th. 

2. Predictably, after I dropped Debbie off at the airport, I drove straight to Great Harvest. I picked up a loaf of Asiago Sourdough bread and decided I wanted a muffin, not a sandwich, and enjoyed a gingerbread muffin and a cup of coffee. 

Refreshed, I cruised to Costco in CdA and fueled the Camry and decided that if I wanted to do any other shopping at Costco, Trader Joe's, or Pilgrim's Market, or anywhere else, I'd return in the next couple of days. 

3.  Debbie and I are very experienced at spending time calmly apart -- we've spent many holiday seasons on opposite sides of the country and we've had other long stretches when, for professional and family reasons, we were not in the same place. 

So, we take these separations in stride. 

Not Gibbs! 

Ever since Debbie left, Gibbs has been sitting or lying on the back of the couch in front of the picture window peering out, expecting Debbie's return. 

He's not been his usual animated self. 

He came to life, however, around 4 a.m. and started manic barking. 

I got up to check on him, looked outside, and saw what he saw: a black cat jogging east on Little Cameron. 

Then Gibbs wanted to go out in the back yard.  

I couldn't turn our little ball of (I hope temporary) misery down, but after he'd been out a few minutes he resumed manic barking.

As quickly as I could, I slipped shoes on and went out to see if I could corral him back in the house.

He cooperated! 

Right away! 

To my utter relief, any neighbors he might have awakened could, I hope, go back to sleep.

I'll keep an eye on Gibbs, try to reassure him that things are all right. 

But Gibbs is not a seasoned veteran of separation from Debbie and while I'm a nice enough guy and do my best to look after and comfort Gibbs, let's face it: 

I'M NOT DEBBIE!!! 

Three Beautiful Things 12-20-2024: Remembering Lois Dahlberg and the Dahlberg Family Legacy, A Splendid Luncheon, A Good Evening at Home

1. Today I joined several members of the KHS Class of 1972 and the congregation of other mourners to join in a memorial service paying tribute to Lois Dahlberg, mother of our classmate, Susan Dahlberg. Susan's brother, John, delivered a comprehensive, detailed accounting of Lois Dahlberg's long, courageous life of missionary service, with her late husband, Dr. Keith Dahlberg, in Thailand, Burma, and Papua New Guinea as well as her tireless service to the Silver Valley and to her family and friends over the nearly sixty years she lived here.  

John Dahlberg detailed the inextricable connection between Lois and her father-in-law, Edwin Dahlberg, a titan of the American Baptist Convention, a past president of the American Council of Churches, and a devoted pacifist. The American Baptist Convention created a peace award in his name and, in 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. was the first recipient of the Edwin T. Dahlberg Peace Award. 

John's detailing of Dahlberg family history and the legacy of his grandfather did not detract from his tribute to his mother's courage, faith, integrity, joyful spirit, or tireless service. Rather, John helped us understand the context of service and bravery his father and mother's service to the endangered and the impoverished grew out of. 

John's tribute uplifted and stirred awe in me. 

2. Following the service, many of us gathered in the Mountain View Congregational Church's fellowship hall for a delicious buffet luncheon featuring chicken, salads, and desserts. 

I especially enjoyed talking with classmates -- Sharon W. told me how her mother is doing, Susan K. and I reminisced about a (now closed) fish and chips shop in Brooklyn, the Atlantic ChipShop, we both enjoyed, Stu gave me a detailed update that I fully appreciated on his brother's recovery from two recent surgeries, and I got to join in some other really good conversation and story telling. 

It was heart warming to me that so many of us from the Class of 1972 turned out today to honor Lois Dahlberg and support Sue in her time of loss and grief. I felt proud to be a member of such thoughtful, kind, and generous classmates. 

3. Back home, Debbie arrived after she had a fun visit at The Lounge, and we enjoyed leftover curried chicken wings from last night along with basmati rice. We yakked about a lot of stuff, including our plans for Saturday, December 21, Debbie's 74th birthday and her day of travel from Spokane to Newark to begin a holiday visit at Josh and Adrienne's house, to eventually see almost all of our family (I don't think she'll see Hiram), and to enter into the buzz and excitement of the holiday season with all of them. 

Three Beautiful Things 12-19-2024: I Cruised the Uptown Gut, More Fun With the Wok, Watching the Wildcats Play Priest River

1. I vaulted into the Sube for a quick trip uptown to the Post Office. Some new life is and has been stirring uptown. Uphill Grill is open more days. Zany's Pizza is preparing a spot on McKinley to reopen after leaving the old Sunshine Inn building. Philly Cheesesteak is open -- I don't know how business is going. Beach Bum Bakery is working on locating its operations on the west side of Main Street. There might be more going on, but these are the stirrings I know about and observed when I cruised the gut today. 

2. I got the wok back out and used it to fry a package of chicken party wings. I took them out and in the melted fat at the bottom of the pan I added rings of white onion and sliced mushrooms, and, at the same time, steamed baby potatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower. In a bowl I mixed two cans of coconut milk and two tablespoons each of red curry paste, soy sauce, fish sauce, and brown sugar. I returned the chicken wings to the wok, covered the chicken with curry sauce and added lime kefir leaves along with Thai Wheat Noodles. Last of all, I added the broccoli, cauliflower, and the potatoes, halved. I let this all simmer in the wok on low for about a half an hour and the result was a bowl of something like curried soup with curried chicken wings to remove and eat with our hands. 

Not entirely a convenient meal to eat, but the flavors and the curry sauce heat were nearly perfect. 

3. Ed swung by and we went to Andrews Gymnasium (I called it The Drew) at Kellogg High and watched the hometown Wildcats play the Priest River Spartans. 

From my point of view, the 'Cats played hard, hustled, did their best to push the ball up court and pick up the pace of the game. Two things stymied the 'Cats, I thought. The 'Cats committed quite a few turnovers and they struggled to score. Tonight, at least, the 'Cats didn't have a player or two they could turn to as reliable scorers and so despite holding the Spartans to 50 points, the Wildcats only scored 43 points and suffered a loss. 

I plan on returning to The Drew to watch this team some more, hoping that they commit fewer turnovers, continue to force their opponents into turnovers, and that they shoot better -- both their shots near the hoop and their outside shots. 

Three Beautiful Things 12-18-2024: Stir Fry on the Spot, No Parking at the High School, I Was Victorious Tonight

1. As you can imagine, the last week of school before the Christmas/winter break is challenging for classroom teachers -- at least in elementary schools. 

Today, Debbie arrived home earlier than usual to rest up a bit after an intense school day. Her students would be performing at 6:00 at the high school as part of a concert featuring students in grades 3-12 in the Kellogg district. 

Her early arrival home gave me a start, a good start, I might add, and I wondered how soon she wanted to eat dinner. 

"I'm really hungry."

"Okay. I'll get right on it."

One reason I love cooking with the wok is that I can have a dinner ready to eat in 20-30 minutes.

Tonight, I took out a large frying pan with vegetable and sesame oil, got the Trader Joe's Thai Wheat Noodles heated up and ready to eat.

I then did some chopping and slicing. 

I'd thawed a couple of small, thick strips of tri-tip steaks. I sliced them into small pieces. 

I sliced a red onion, chopped a half a red pepper, sliced and chopped an eggplant and half a yellow squash, and had sliced mushrooms on hand, ready to go.

I heated oil in the wok and then stir fired the beef with the onion and red pepper, added in the eggplant and yellow squash, and saved the mushrooms for last. 

I dressed the noodles with soy sauce, added ginger and red pepper flakes to the stir fry and PRESTO! in fairly quick order, Debbie and I had a delicious dinner ready to eat -- Debbie nourished herself and had some more time to rest before the concert. 

2. Debbie left for the high school and then, a short time later, she called me from our driveway. At the high school, so many people were attending the concert that Debbie couldn't find a parking spot. 

No problem. 

I hopped into the Camry and drove her back to KHS and dropped her off with a plan that she'd try to find a ride home or would call me to pick her up. 

She found a ride. 

3. Debbie wanted to go with potables more powerful than Hazy IPAs when she came back home and asked me to go to the liquor store and pick her up gin and Cointreau.

Which I did.

This led to me experiencing a small but exhilarating triumph. 

You see, I'm not a skilled handyman. 

I'm especially lousy when it comes to doing tasks requiring fine motor skills. 

I'm clumsy, especially with small batteries, clips, screwdrivers, and other tiny things.

Well, on my trip to the liquor store, I had both Debbie's and my fob in the car. 

I'd had an experience on my trip to Oregon that led me to believe my fob battery was getting low.

This evening, a message came up on the control panel telling a fob's battery was low.

Only mine?

Debbie's too? 

I didn't know. 

When I got home I found a YouTube video I've watched in the past for instruction, got new fob batteries out, and slowly, clumsily, inexpertly, and patiently removed each fob's battery, replaced each one, tested them by locking and unlocking the doors to the Camry, popping open the trunk, and testing the ignition. 

Success! 

I don't know what runners feel like when they finish Bloomsday or the Boston Marathon or an Ironman race, but my sense of accomplishment and triumph at completing this task must have been pretty close to those athletes' joy. 

Three Beautiful Things 12-17-2024: Lower on the Triage Ladder, Vivid Dreams!, Leftover Meatloaf Dinner

1. A lot happened on Monday: labs at Sacred Heart, checking results as they flew into my portal, a Great Harvest coffee and muffin stop, shopping at Trader Joe's and Pilgrim's Market, lunch at The Breakfast Nook, car serviced at the Toyota shop, and hoping the snow falling didn't stick to the roads. (It didn't.) We had family dinner on Monday. 

Monday was a cyclone. 

Today I balanced out the whirlwind of Monday with very little activity on Tuesday. 

Tuesday was a zephyr.

I have not heard from the nurse coordinator about my labs and I take that as a very good sign -- I'm assuming there are no problems to address and that my medicine dosages will remain the same.

For about six weeks now, I've been pretty sure that I've moved down the triage ladder, that I don't need and will not receive the kind of immediate attention and response I got when I had labs done in the early post-transplant months. 

To me, this is good news.

It's a ladder I'm happy to descend. 

2. When I went to sleep Tuesday evening, for the entire night I experienced one vivid dream sequence after another. When each sequence ended, I was too stoked to go back to sleep and I played the dreams in my mind over and over, hoping I would soon fall back to sleep.

I loved my first very intense dream in which a group of actors, including my first wife, and I were working hard in rehearsal (I was the director), preparing to perform a period piece involving royalty, broken marriages, forbidden attractions between characters, as written in the script, and deep character analysis as we talked together to figure out the roles and the action. I woke up and was talking out loud (what did Copper think?), telling the actors to work with the tension between strong transgressive sexual attraction and restraint. 

I've never been a play director -- don't ever plan to be -- but, in the world of dreams, it was fun working these things out with talented and experienced actors and negotiating the uncertainty of working on a project with my first wife with whom I've had no contact for right around forty years. 

My second dream involved a welcome and unexpected reunion with a Eugene friend I haven't seen for over ten years. The third enmeshed me in a madcap trip from our former residence at 940 Madison in Eugene to the Eugene airport to drop off Patrick and Meagan who were going on an international flight, but we and a herd of other family members who were piling into the Sube, a thousand clowns style, just couldn't seem to get going and once we did, I kept missing turns, making U-turns, and being unable to take the correct route to the airport. 

This stressed me out and I woke myself up and talked myself down, doing all in my power not to return to that disoriented dream once I fell back to sleep. 

I succeeded. 

3. I had to wonder as I climbed out of bed this (Wednesday) morning: were these intense and fascinating and, regarding the last one, stressful dreams a result of my delicious Tuesday night dinner?

Ha! I don't know why some warmed up leftover delicious meatloaf and sautéed mushrooms, red pepper, red  onion, and yellow squash and a sliced cosmic crisp apple would lead me to the stage, a Eugene reunion, and a labyrinth of a drive to the Eugene airport from 940 Madison in Eugene.

I don't need to know.

It's just fun writing about what was a fun, wild, and a bit stressful night of dreams and talking out loud to my pillows (and Copper!). 

Three Beautiful Things 12-16-2024: Blood Work Very Encouraging, Frisco Burger Elicits (Pretend?) Memories, Early Birthday Celebration at Family Dinner

1. As it turned out, driving on I-90 this morning from Kellogg to Spokane was not a problem, but just in case the roads got dicey, I took off at 5:30.

I arrived at Sacred Heart in plenty of time, the phlebotomist drew eight vials of my blood, and I dashed to the basement of the hospital, went to the Thomas Hammer coffee counter, and ordered a most enjoyable 12 oz double latte. 

It wasn't too long before results of my labs began to drop into my patient portal online. 

Markers that I consider key really look good. My BUN number is in range -- it's been many many years since this was true. 

My creatinine number is now the best it's been in many many years and is inching its way toward being in range. 

My GFR over the last 6-7 years had dipped as low as 12 (it didn't stay there), but the GFR has been in the teens ever since my last labs in Eugene in 2014.

With my new kidney, today my GFR hit 50 and if it should improve to 60, it'll be in range. 

More results will come in later this week, but, so far, my numbers are either stable or improved -- so far, none of the numbers sound any kind of alarm.

My recovery continues to go well.

My recent trip to Oregon had increased my confidence that my immune system is strengthening. Today's blood work gives me reassurance that my new kidney is doing its job. And how! 

2. The cafeteria latte bolstered me to vault into the Camry and rocket up Grand Blvd and head east on 29th to Great Harvest. Normally, Great Harvest sells Morning Glory muffins on Monday, but the bakery popped a cool surprise on its customers today with Lemon Poppyseed Blueberry muffins. I ordered one, loved it, and enjoyed a couple cups of Cravens (no apostrophe) Earth and Sky dark roast coffee. 

As I sat by myself contemplating the encouragement this day offered me so far, snow began to fall. 

I didn't rush out, but once I finished my refreshments, I drove right past Trader Joe's, eased downhill to the freeway, joined the other travelers, and drove without incident to Coeur d'Alene.

I had quite a bit of time before my oil change appointment, so I went to Trader Joe's in CdA and popped across the street to Pilgrim's Market and now the trunk was stocked with excellent groceries for home and an armful of Hazy IPAs for Debbie -- that's her favorite beer.

As I drove north on 4th, I suddenly decided to have lunch at the Breakfast Nook -- for the first time. All of my many many other meals at the Breakfast Nook have been breakfasts. 

I ordered a Frisco Style Burger -- a cooked through ground beef patty on grilled sourdough bread with Swiss cheese and 1,000 Island Dressing. My memory is not trustworthy, but I enjoy my fantastical trips to my past to things that might never have happened, but make me happy -- so accurate or not, this burger reminded me of dining at Original Joe's, a longtime eatery on 8th and Willamette in Eugene and also reminded me of what I remembered as the Rennie Burger at Rennie's Landing, a watering hole and eatery just north of the bustling University of Oregon corner of 13th and Kincaid in Eugene.

For all I know, those Eugene burgers from the 1980s and possibly on into the 1990s had nothing in common with my Breakfast Nook burger, but isn't that the beauty of nostalgia and memory? That the memories that rose up in my mind at the Breakfast Nook counter might have little basis in reality, but still gave me all kinds of pleasure, inspiring me to eat my lunch with what was probably a dopey grin on my face? 

3. The crew finished servicing the Camry within the time they promised. I stopped at Starbucks for a triple grande latte to help me get over the 4th of July Pass and, once again, to my relief, the travel conditions were not a problem.

Tonight we celebrated Debbie's and my upcoming birthdays. Debbie will be in New York on her birthday and I think there's a family craft day for those about to craft (we salute you) with Saphire on my birthday. 

For our birthday dinner, Carol fixed food that Debbie and I love. We started with mini won tons and then moved to the Roberts' new (to them) dining table (it had been Paul's mom and dad's table and his mom let it go) for a pork tenderloin and vegetable stir fry with rice (was it jasmine? basmati? white rice?). It was superb. We also had a tray of vegetables and a dip. 

For dessert, Christy prepared a sinfully delicious apple, cranberry, and golden raisin pie.

Then Debbie and I opened our gifts. 

Carol gave me a bag of treats: fruit cake, salted caramel pear butter, and Revival Northwest Breakfast tea  (did I miss something?).

Christy gave me a long sleeved T-shirt emblazoned with the movie title, The Last Waltz, on it. Coincidentally, as I opened it, I was wearing my gray "The Weight" hoodie featuring the members of The Band and the line, "Wait a minute Chester" on the front. We'd talked earlier about the movie, The Last Waltz and other rock music documentaries and this gift brought our whole evening full circle. 

It was unbroken. 

Three Beautiful Things 12-15-2024: Jury Is Still Out, Awesome Meatloaf, Pre-Blood Draw Giddiness

1. I spent a good chunk of this afternoon reading about current events, like in Syria, but also about things like how otherwise obscure people gain fame via the World Wide Web. I know more now about the world than I did this morning. My inner jury is still deliberating whether I understand things better. As of now, that jury is deadlocked, unable to reach a verdict. 

2. Debbie found a meatloaf recipe that interested her and this evening she made it. I'm afraid I'm unable to report with any detail or accuracy what made it so delicious, but I sure enjoyed it. 

3. I started feeling kind of excited this evening. I last had lab work done at Sacred Heart on November 25th and since then I've felt really good, had a great trip to Gladstone and Eugene where I put my immune system to the test in a variety of ways, didn't get sick, and felt terrific. 

I go to Spokane first thing tomorrow morning (Monday) morning and I hustled around this evening getting  what I need pulled together, feeling hopeful that my numbers are going to look good, that I'll enjoy a muffin and coffee at Great Harvest, and that I'll find other fun ways (Trader Joe's maybe!) to fill up time before taking the Camry in at 12:15 to be serviced. 

Big day ahead! 

Three Beautiful Things 12-14-2024: Copper Makes Contact With My Shoulder!, RIP Jack Robert (1946-2024), Mongolian Noodles

1. It wasn't really jet lag, but I had what I'd call auto lag today. I spent a lot of time lying down, resting and napping,  on the bed with Copper and, lo and behold, Copper positioned himself close enough to me that he made actual physical contact with my shoulder. Until today, Copper limited his contact with me to my thighs or calves, most often when I was under the covers. 

February 3rd will mark the fourth anniversary of Copper and Luna coming into our home. Luna died a year ago and now, after nearly four years, Copper has made contact with my shoulder! 

What else might be in store for Copper and me?

2. I'm going to take a break for a little while from strictly beautiful things and write a few words about a something sad I learned today.

Every so often, I go to Eugene's local paper, the Register Guard, and scan the obituaries. I usually find out about fellow parishioners from St. Mary's Episcopal Church who have died in the twice a week email I receive from the church. 

But, it's through these obituaries that I learn about people I worked with at LCC or that I studied with at the U of O, sometimes fellow graduate students who either stayed in or returned to the Eugene area. 

Today, I learned that on December 9th, a fellow faculty member from the English, Foreign Language, and Speech division at LCC, Jack Robert, died. 

Jack taught speech. 

I almost immediately recalled a Saturday afternoon in 1998, when I was the chair of the division, and Jack and Mike Skupsky and I played snooker downtown at Luckey's Club. 

We drank a lot of beer. Mike and Jack introduced me to the game of snooker. We had a great time together. 

As time went along, though, Mike, Jack, and I would never hang out together again, thanks largely to disagreements about hiring and other things at LCC. 

Jack and I didn't have disagreements about hiring -- we worked very well together on (I think) two hiring committees in the Speech department and I admired his insights about candidates and how he articulated his thoughts about whom the committee should hire. 

But, hmmm, what I would call Jack's libertarian worldview was often at odds with the emerging culture at Lane Community College. 

For example,  Jack was a prominent voice on campus in opposition to a campus wide smoking ban. 

I supported the ban, but I also respected Jack's point of view, although I doubt he ever knew I did. 

I heard through the grapevine that Jack was disappointed in my support of division and department governing principles like arriving at decisions by consensus, my support of Affirmative Action, and of what was and wasn't suitable language in the classroom, among other things.  

I thought we were always friendly with each other in the hallways, but I knew a chill had also moved in between us, so we never played snooker again nor enjoyed beers together. 

The sadness I experienced when this chill moved in about twenty-five years ago returned today.

But reading about Jack's life relieved me of this sadness. 

I'd always heard that Jack had many talents and passions that we never saw on campus.

His obituary highlighted the things Jack loved to do: cook, host an annual Polish Christmas celebration, work with wood, restore and refurbish structures, throw pots, host and design sets for a readers' theater, travel with his partner Martha, and, I'd have to say, play an accomplished game of snooker! 

When I was at Russell's retirement party on December 5, I was in conversation with Speech instructor Jay Frasier, and suddenly Jack Robert popped into my mind and I wondered how he was doing, wondered if he were still alive. 

I didn't ask Jay. 

The party was a joyous occasion and I just didn't feel like bringing the subject of who's dead and who's alive into the conversation. 

Now I know he was alive on December 5th, but died on December 9th.

Learning this felt eerie to me -- I hadn't thought much about Jack over the years and I'm not sure why concern about him popped out of nowhere into my mind at the party.

Tonight, though, as I read his obituary,  it made me happy to read that Jack's life in retirement and his life away from the college sounded fun, fulfilling, adventurous, and socially alive and satisfying. 

Rest in peace, Jack. 

By the way, if you'd like to read Jack's obituary and see a picture of him as a much younger man, here's a link: https://tinyurl.com/yvkpnhts

3. Debbie found a recipe on Pinterest for Mongolian Noodles. She combined ground beef, Thai Wheat Noodles, soy sauce, ginger powder, Hoisin sauce, chopped green onion, red pepper flakes,  and I'm not sure what else and created a superb dish for our dinner tonight.

I hope we won't forget this meal and that Debbie brings it back again on down the road some time. 

Three Beautiful Things 12-13-2024: Happy Copper, How I Like to Travel, A Night of Nostalgia

1. Back home. Rest. Napping. Laundry. 

A lot of time lying down with Copper who communicated many signs of being happy that we are back together again. Copper doesn't cling to me (like Luna did), but Copper moved as close to me as he is willing to do and purred almost without ceasing as I stroked the top of his head, the top of his neck, and his spine. He also enjoyed it when I scratched his chin. Normally, Copper moves around. He leaps off the bed, jumps into a laundry basket, or saunters into the Vizio room and hangs out on or behind the soft chair in there. 

Not today.

He spent almost the whole day on my bed, relaxing, awaiting my return when I left the room, luxuriating when I paid him the attention he let me know he longed for. 

2. I thought a lot today about how I like to travel. 

I've never had a bucket list and I don't see one in my future.

I have greatly enjoyed every trip I've taken with Debbie, especially the several time we have driven across the USA to see family and our trips back. When we drove from New York to Kellogg in 2021, we organized our drive around stopping at dog friendly, mostly small town or medium sized city breweries and that was a blast, sampling beers outside and getting acquainted with parts of the country we'd been unfamiliar with, like the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

More than anything when I travel or think about traveling, I want to see family and friends -- in Portland, Seattle, Eugene, Valley Cottage, NY, New York City, the DC/Maryland/Virginia region -- and, I have to admit, hanging out in Washington, DC, going, say, to the National Gallery, driving to places I enjoy in Maryland,  and walking the streets of Manhattan by myself feels like I'm in the company of great friends -- and I am in the company of great friends when I stroll New York City with Scott or Mary or roam around New England with the Troxstar.

Similarly, I feel like after three visits, I've made a new friend with the city of Nelson, British Columbia and areas around Nelson and I'd enjoy returning to Nelson, alone or with family.

So, my trip to Portland and Eugene and to the ocean suited me perfectly. 

I spent many hours with longtime and beloved friends and, for me, there's no better reason to take a trip, no better way to spend my precious travel time. 

3. When I was ready to fall asleep last night, Debbie was out in the living room listening to different things online. I put ear buds in and fell asleep listening to Luna's superb album Bewitched on Spotify. When the album was finished, Spotify then played a mix of songs by alternative rock bands of the late 80s and on into the 90s. 

I didn't listen to this music when it came out around thirty plus years ago, but it's sure working for me now in 2024.

I especially enjoy a song by Miracle Legion: "The Backyard".

I slept through Bewitched, but "The Backyard" woke me up and suddenly I felt the most enjoyable nostalgic feelings in response to a song I've only known for about a month, but it's gotten inside me and has become one of those songs that it seems like I've been listening to forever.

It ended and I realized Debbie and Gibbs had gone upstairs to bed. 

I got up, made sure the front door was locked and that the heat was lowered, returned, put my earbuds in their case, fell back asleep, and later I had dreams about being with former Whitworth students in about 1983 and we were discussing the possibility of working out and performing a dance piece together to the music of the Eurhythmics. 

Nostalgia ruled my sweet night of sweet dreams (are made of this) and music.