Three Beautiful Things 03-04-2025: Driving While Aging, A Long Drive with Sherlock Holmes, Reunion With the Frustrated Copper

1. The drive from Eugene to Kellogg (or Kellogg to Eugene) is a much more arduous task for me now than when I was younger, even, as today, with good traffic. When I was younger, I used to try to make good time, but now the only thought I have about making good time is the truth:  I won't make good time and it doesn't matter. 

I stopped several times en route to Kellogg today. I think I took four naps. I bought lattes along the way. I had fed myself so well in Eugene that all I ate on the road today were a couple scones. 

I arrived home safely after traveling for about eleven hours. 

I was tired, but satisfied that I didn't push myself, didn't try to make good time, and put safety first with my napping stops, whether in rest areas or parking lots. 

2. On my drive from Kellogg to Eugene last Thursday, I almost finished Erik Larson's inspiring and deeply troubling book, Devil in the White City. The inspiring storyline covered the many tribulations that confronted the developers of the Chicago World's Fair which, against many odds, opened in May of 1893 and closed in October. The deeply troubling storyline was the story of H. H. Holmes a seducer, swindler, con man, and psychopathic serial killer. 

I finished the book in Eugene, and for my trip home I wanted to listen to a book with a different tone, not such grisly subject matter, and something I had neglected over the years. 

Aha! 

I found just the right materials to download: over 70 hours of Stephen Fry reading novels and stories by Arthur Conan Doyle about Sherlock Holmes and his accomplice, Dr. John Watson. 

Stephen Fry reads this material most impressively, bringing to life a wide variety of characters, women and men, characters native to the UK, speaking in a variety of accents, and characters from outside the UK from India, the Middle East, the USA, and elsewhere. 

Fry expertly captures the contrasts between Holmes and Watson and between Holmes and the various officers of the Scotland Yard he consults with. 

Back in 1979-80, during my first year of graduate school, I competed three courses toward completing a concentration on Victorian English Literature. 

I enjoyed that curse of study most of all for the Victorian writers' mastery of the English language and for the often ornate writing style they employed. 

Arthur Conan Doyle writes in this Victorian style and at times it was akin to having music playing in the Camry. 

Now I enjoy reading books by American writers employing the more plain speaking and less ornate style of our ways of speaking and writing. 

But I get a special charge out of the Victorian style -- its heightened vocabulary the elaborate architecture of sentences --  and while my drive as long today, I loved having those hundreds of miles filled by the voice of Stephen Fry bringing the eloquence, imagination, knowledge, and affection of Arthur Conan Doyle to life.

3. I only spent five nights in Eugene, but that was about three nights too many for Copper. When I'm away, Copper often protests my absence by voiding his bowels outside the litter pan. 

When I returned last night, Copper immediately began to loudly meow orders to me to come into the part of the house where he lives.

Well, Copper had to wait a while, I brought my travel luggage into the house. I was very hungry and ate the dinner Debbie had ready for me. I chatted for a while with Debbie.

Finally, I joined Copper in the bedroom and his demanding meows turned into contented purring as I pet him, rubbed his underside, and simply rested my hand motionless on his torso. 

I could sense the frustration he'd felt while I was away melt and Copper's contentment grew when I put the newly laundered bedspread on the bed, turned back the covers, and it was time for us to spend the night together. 

I love taking trips.

I don't love my travels being so difficult for Copper. 

He's pretty much a one human cat, I think. 

Three Beautiful Things 03-03-2025: Breakfast with Linda, An Afternoon with Judith/Judy/Sparky, I Was Spent

1. Linda Schantol and I became great friends over the many many years that she worked in our division office at LCC until her retirement in 2023. It all started with our weekly reviews of the past weekend and our expert forecasts for the upcoming week of Duck sports, especially football and men's and women's basketball. 

Well, as coincidence would have it, we are also now both kidney patients and support each other as we go through the different phases of dealing with kidney disease. 

Linda and I met at Elmer's this morning and I learned a lot more about where she's at medically, the great work she's doing taking care of herself, and what lies ahead for her in kidney world. We also talked about my recovery from having had a transplant. 

We also had a great discussion of current events, especially in the USA. I enjoyed learning more than I'd ever known before about how Linda sees things and what most concerns her as we move forward as a country. 

2. I spent much of the afternoon with Judith/Judy/Sparky Roberts. We've been great friends ever since I started teaching Shakespeare classes at. LCC, beginning in the fall of 1991. Over the years we've worked together on Shakespeare Showcases, LCC productions of plays by Shakespeare, on entertainments for the U of O Library Foundation, the Landlords Association of Lane County, the faculty and staff of LCC, for part-time instructors at LCC, and more. We've gone to movies, plays, parties, poetry get togethers, meals out --- well, and we made a great trip to Seattle together to see Bill Irwin in Waiting for Godot. We went to the Seattle Art Museum. We saw Artis the Spoonman busking near Pike Street Market. I drove on that trip to Seattle and back and Sparky read the great Robertson Davies novel, Tempest-Tost aloud while we zoomed up and down I-5. 

And here we were today, 34 years after we first met, sitting at Sparky's dinner table, talking about everything from grief to cats to Shakespeare to medical matters to memories to our families to New York City to -- well you get the idea. We covered a lot of ground. 

Judy and I used to eat meals together at the Glenwood on South Willamette and we returned today.

It was a great comfort for me to be back there again, especially with Sparky,  after years of absence and Judy's and my stream of conversation continued, making it a warm and stimulating reunion. 

3. I drove Sparky back to her house and admitted that I was spent. 

I'd had a marvelous and intense long weekend in Eugene and Corvallis and. now I really needed some time to myself, time to be quiet and to rest. 

So, I did. 

I wish I could have visited with more people, maybe gone to a movie, but I was spent with a long day of driving ahead of me on Monday.

So I took it easy.

Three Beautiful Things 03-02-2025: Breakfast at Brails, 11:00 Worship, Pizza In a Building Full of Great Feelings

 1. The Troxstar ambled over to where I'm staying near downtown Eugene and we went to the great Brails for a solid and bracing breakfast. We've met up for countless Brails breakfasts in the 21st century and today was another great visit and delicious meal. 

2. Later, the Troxstar and I met up again and worshipped at the 11 o'clock service at St. Mary's Episcopal Church. I really don't remember the last time I worshipped on a Sunday at St. Mary's and it was a great comfort to feel the warm and familiar embrace of the liturgy, listen to Nancy Crawford's superb homily, and to see fellow parishioners from eleven years ago who were in attendance today and to warmly exchange the peace with those I was seated near. 

I first began sampling craft beers at Sixteen Tons back in 2011 when the Troxstar and I would stroll down to the taproom for a beer after the 11 o'clock service. I wanted to return to the taproom this morning, but now, as the New Tons Taphouse, the joint doesn't open until 2:00. 

So we adjusted and each drank a non-alcoholic beer at the venerable Bier Stein, a most satisfying substitute. 

3. Billy Mac's closed in December of 2021, but this evening a group of us who used to meet there for dinner on Thursday evenings met in the building, now a splendid pizza parlor called Hey Neighbor! I remember enjoying my pizza, but mostly my attention was focused on the stimulating conversation, just what I enjoyed most when I joined tonight's table mates (Kathleen, Russell, Michael, Anne, and Pam) at Billy Mac's during the last years I lived in Eugene. We discussed all kinds of things in the smaller world of our daily lives and in the bigger world of the USA. 

I enjoyed it all. 

That's been the thread that's run through this too short of a visit to Oregon. 

Great reunions. 

Great conversations. 

Great people. 

Three Beautiful Things 03-01-2025: Breakfast with Roger and Dale Bachman, Harold Lannom's Memorial, Noodles and Vegan Cookies

1. Back in the fall of 1971, a new energetic teacher joined the teaching staff at Kellogg High School, and, we all soon learned, he would be the varsity basketball team's assistant coach and the head coach for the junior varsity. 

His name is Dale Bachman and for the last over 40 years, he's lived in the Williamette Valley. He coached girls basketball at Cottage Grove and held a handful of different positions at Thurston High School. No doubt he did more that I don't know about or have forgotten.

Not long ago, Dale took note of the fact that I was traveling to Eugene and told me it would be great to see each other. 

On two previous visits, we've done just that and our company included KHS Class of 72 stalwarts Terry Turner and Roger Pearson. 

Today Terry was on the road and couldn't join us, but Roger blasted down from Salem and he, Dale, and I grabbed a table at Elmer's near Valley River Center and had an unforgettably superb time yakkin', sharing memories, catching up on news, and enjoying each other and, I will add, our food! 

Brief rundown on Dale: later this year, he'll turn 80. He's successfully recovered from prostate cancer and open heart surgery. He is in a Friday morning bowling league. He will once again play softball this summer in a league for players 70 and over. Being with Dale, feeling the strength of his spirit, tapping into his great energy, it almost felt like we were with him back in basketball practice and playing games once again in 1971-72! 

Our attentive, friendly, efficient, and eager to be helpful server, Jazzy, took pictures of Dale, Roger, and me. I put them up at the bottom of this post. 

2. After our invigorating breakfast, I gathered myself, vaulted into the Camry, and jetted to Corvallis and found Good Samaritan Episcopal Church. 

My primary reason for making this trip to Oregon was to attend today's memorial for Harold Lammon. 

I think Harold and I first became acquainted back in the mid-1990s when I served on the St. Mary's Episcopal Church vestry and Harold was our Senior Warden.

Over time, we became friends. I sang in small adult choir he directed for a time at St. Mary's. When I visited Eugene after moving to Maryland, Harold and I went to Billy Mac's together for dinners. The last time I saw Harold was three years ago. Debbie and I visited him in Corvallis and enjoyed a stimulating and delicious lunch together at Block 15. 

I loved being a part of his memorial today, hearing his son Craig eulogize him with a sweeping summary of Harold's one hundred years of life, listening to Father David Marshall riff in his homily on a poem Harold wrote about seeing the divine in every person we encounter, and taking in the dynamic music Harold had requested be played at his memorial as well as the stirring scriptures he requested to be read. 

As an added bonus to having been moved by how this service remembered Harold, afterward the Wilsons, Jackman and Heather, fellow St. Mary's parishioners from when we all lived in Eugene, approached me (I hadn't seen them in the church) and invited me to join them at the reception. 

When Debbie used to teach music lessons in our home, the Wilson's children, Jack and Brookie, were students of hers and it was fun learning from Heather and Jackman what those two no longer youngsters are up to now and I loved Heather telling me what a great and lasting impact Debbie's work with her children had on them. 

3. I drove back to Eugene. I sat silent for a while in the place I'm renting. I felt great satisfaction and fatigue. 

I rallied a bit and decided to eat chicken fried noodles at a place I tried back in December, Jade Dumpling and Noodle House. My bowl of noodles satisfied me. I stopped at the Kiva Grocery and Deli for a quart of milk and bought two very delicious vegan cookies. I'm not sure how bakers create vegan cookies. Similarly, when I ate a vegan donut at Veera's in Missoula I was astonished. How'd the bakers do that? Those cookies I ate tonight were perfect. I rarely eat dessert, but I yearned for a good cookie this evening and I went the extra mile and ate two....

Three Beautiful Things 02-28-2025: Book Shopping, Coffee Pals Reconvene, Burger and NA Beer

1. After a relaxing morning of writing and puzzles, I went in search of a couple books I wanted to buy. I'm finding myself engrossed in the Audible version of The Devil in the White City and I want to have a hard copy on hand to go back over passages I've listened to. I also want to wander off in a different reading direction and have decided that Lonesome Dove just might scratch that itch.

My first visit was to Tsunami Books. I enjoyed poking around there. I've always enjoyed this shop's vibe, but no luck. Before visiting the store, I popped into Great Harvest, across the street, and loved the Baja Turkey sandwich on Dakota Bread I slowly savored for lunch. 

In contrast to the cozier Tsunami Books sits the mighty Smith Family Bookstore downtown. It's a two story behemoth and with a little assistance from Smith staff, I found a copy of each book and accomplished my mission. 

2. I then rocketed to Margaret's house where Margaret, Jeff, Michael and I got the band together again. With any number of interruptions for any number of reasons, the four of us have been meeting for coffee for a really long time -- did we meet when we were all grad students at the U of Oregon? I think we did, but I also don't trust my memory the way I used to! 

Well, suffice it to say, we've had countless conversations over countless years together and now I'm the one who is absent when Michael, Margaret, and Jeff meet.

But today I was present.

And we had an invigorating time discussing movies, books, days gone by, days we're living in now, music, musical instruments, painting, plays, Trader Joe's, radio, a great 1987 party, and even took some time to discuss traffic patterns on Coburg Road! 

I was one mega grateful guy all through our time together and I felt like I was floating on my drive back to where I'm staying. 

I was that euphoric. 

3. For old time's sake, I had a mushroom and Swiss cheese burger at Cornucopia and enjoyed a can of non-alcoholic Sierra Nevada Golden Lager beer. 

Three and More Beautiful Things 02-26-27-2025: Travel Prep, Bob H Does the Job!, Blood Work Looks Stable, Many Hours of Driving, What a Book!, The Duplex and Time with Jeff and Zero

1. Preparing to travel is a bit more complicated for me after having a kidney transplant. I filled up a whole sheet of typing paper with lists: pills, thermometer, blood pressure cuff, electronics, clothes, and more and slowly and quietly, focused on keeping any anxiety at bay, spent hours today packing, organizing, checking, rechecking, doing my best not to forget anything necessary. 

I succeeded! 

2. The door that opens the back of the Sube (it's a station wagon) has been sealed shut for a while. I looked at YouTube videos about how to get it unstuck and it was all beyond anything I could do. It also looked like it could be complicated. Finally, today, after I had the air level in the tires checked at Silver Valley Tires, I stopped in at Hickey's Collision Repair and Bob Hickey had some free time and he came out and looked at the door. 

He had me back up closer to his shop, came out with some tools and some oil and greased the latch. 

That did it! 

With the tools he got the door to open again and then he generously greased the lever/latch and now Debbie and I have access to the back of the Sube again. 

I see a trip to recycle cardboard in my near future once I return home again! 

3. Thursday morning the cock crowed (not really) and I was up at the crack of dawn to load up the Camry and head to Sacred Heart for a blood draw. Afterward, I grabled a 16 oz triple latte down in the cafeteria and hit the road. I popped into the parking lot at the Sprague Rest Area. Blood results had come in. 

Things look stable. I liked seeing that my Creatinine levels crept a little closer to being in range and that my kidney function climbed another percentage point to 55%. That's sure better than the days when it ranged between about 12 and 16/17 percent! 

4. I had decided before leaving Spokane for Eugene that I wouldn't try to break any land speed records, fully expecting not to reach Eugene until 7 p.m. or later. 

I stopped in Ritzville for a triple grande Americano with half and half and a bagel with cream cheese. 

I stopped at the Rivertrap Pub in The Dalles and enjoyed a Thai stir fry for a mid-afternoon lunch.

I fueled up in Cascade Locks.

I crawled with my hundreds of travel companions down I-205 and then onto I-5 until the traffic congestion eased up south of Wilsonville. 

From there, it was an easy drive to Eugene. I guess I should say that driving in the congestion was also easy. It was just very slow, but nothing I didn't expect and nothing I didn't accept as the reality of coming into Portland-land around 4 in the afternoon. 

And, as I expected, I arrived in Eugene between 7 and 7:30.

5. From Spokane to Eugene, I listened, with some wandering of my concentration, to Erik Larson's book The Devil in the White City. I knew when I decided to listen to this book that I'd learn a lot of fascinating history of Chicago and of the machinations that simultaneously delayed and brought into being the 1893 Chicago World's Fair in Jackson Park.

I did not expect, however, to learn so much about Frederick Law Olmsted, the renowned landscape architect, the designer of Central Park and other superb projects, and the landscape architect in charge of transforming Jackson Park into a vibrant space worthy of a World's Fair. 

I also did not know, that by listening to this book, I would also be wading into the troubled waters (once again) of psychopathy.

This book has two main currents. One current is the story of the World's Fair and the city of Chicago.

The second current is the story of serial killer H. H. Holmes, an accomplished swindler, con man, seducer, and psychopathic murderer. 

This second current of the book has been difficult for me to listen to, but, at the same time, I admit to being on pins and needles wondering how this plot of the book will conclude. 

6. I'm staying in a duplex at 12th and Monroe, just a few blocks south and west of where I, and later, Debbie, Adrienne, Molly, Patrick, and I lived in Eugene from 1993-2014, with the kids growing into adults and leaving and, from time to time, coming back to visit and, for short periods of time, to live.  The duplex I'll live in until Tuesday morning is terrific. Handsome. Clean. Quiet. Appointed perfectly. I'm very happy with this place.

I didn't stay long in the duplex upon arriving. 

I leapt back into the Camry, went to New Frontier Market to grind coffee beans, buy milk, and purchase a pack of four bagels. 

Then I soared over to Jeff's house to listen to his radio show, Deadish. He records it at home on Sunday and it plays on KEPW-FM on Thursday at 9:00. 

Tonight's show was especially great.

It featured two straight hours of a February, 1995 Zero show performed at WOW Hall in Eugene. 

I'm pretty sure I didn't attend that show, but it was a deep pleasure to listen to two hours of it tonight and Jeff and I had superb conversations about books and music and podcasts and dogs and other stuff. 

Shortly after midnight, I fell into a deep and comfortable coma sleep. 

 

Three Beautiful Things 02-25-2025: Huff and Puff and Listen, Calendar Taking Shape, Sausages and Roasted Vegetables

1. Once again, not only did my workout late this morning feel satisfying, listening on Audible to the early chapters of Devil in the White City was fascinating. Erik Larson is setting several stories in motion early on, establishing profiles and deeds of several complicated persons, and I'm eager to see how these story lines and these figures contribute to overall story Larson is telling. Alongside these profiles of persons, he also develops a detailed picture of the stark contrasts between grandeur and noise, stench, filth and danger that define the city of Chicago.  (No doubt I'll learn a lot more about these persons and the story of Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th century  during my extended time listening to this book on the road on Thursday.)

2. My calendar for my Friday-Monday visit to Eugene is taking shape. I'm balancing spending time with friends with having time to myself to do some roaming around on my own. It's such a short visit and on Saturday,  after 11:30, I'll devote much of my time to driving to and from Corvallis in order to attend Harold Lammon's memorial and to be free to be a part of whatever follows the service. I'm very happy with what's taken shape so far and my guess is that there's more to come! 

3. One evening a while back, Debbie mentioned that one of the dinners I prepared was great and she thought it would also work with sausages. 

Well, for the life of me, I don't remember after which dinner she said that, but on my last visit to Spokane's South Side Trader Joe's, I picked up a package of sweet Italian sausages.

I cooked them for dinner today and also roasted Yukon gold slices, red onion rings, red pepper, broccoli, and cauliflower. 

Debbie and I enjoyed how much pleasure this simple meal provided and were very happy that the Trader Joe's sausages were so tasty.  

Three Beautiful Things 02-24-2025: Peter Himmelman Then and Now, After Twenty Years I Read Erik Larson, Family Dinner for Three!

1. Peter Himmelman's album, Strength to Strength continues to be one of my favorites, not only by Peter Himmelman, but favorite albums of all time. The two times I saw Himmelman in concert were two of my most enjoyable evenings of all time and his songs continue to move me nearly thirty years later. 

When I was in the hospital in May, I played Strength to Strength several times while recuperating and the songs inspired and comforted me and I enjoyed how nostalgic they made me, as memories of his concerts, of those with whom I shared his music, of playing his music while I gardened and traveled to and from the Oregon Coast, and of how his songs always got me thinking about life's big questions. 

For a while today, Peter Himmelman's music filled the house. I lived simultaneously in 2024-25 and the mid-1990s, enjoying being here now and being there then. 

2. When we lived in Eugene, I seem to remember we had a hardback copy of Erik Larson's non-fiction historical book, The Devil in the White City in the house, but I never read it. For some reason, the mere existence of that book has stuck in my mind for the last twenty years or so and today I finally did something about it!  

I downloaded the book on my phone and it will be my companion for about fourteen hours as I work out and when I drive to Eugene on Thursday. At some point, I'll purchase a copy so I can go back and read passages from books that I've listened to on Audible. 

The opening of the book has me hooked. I'm ready to learn more about the characters Larson introduces and am fascinated by the book's passages about the history of Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

3. Debbie passed a simple recipe on to me over the weekend and I cooked it this afternoon:  baked pork chops with onion and rice for tonight's Family Dinner. Carol and Paul are in rehearsal and Molly is working on getting ready to move to Boise, so Christy came over to the house and joined Debbie and me for our meal. Christy roasted broccoli with superb seasonings, using a recipe she'd just received from the NYTimes. It was unique and rounded out our meal perfectly. 

We enjoyed our dinner, yakked for a while, and after we wrapped up our time together, I was ready to go to bed, a result of my hour long workout earlier in the day. That exercise rewarded me with deep and satisfying sleep. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-23-2025: Wide Ranging Conversation on ZOOM, Reading *Bridge of Birds*, Confronting Human Darkness

1. Diane, Bill, Bridgit, Val, and I jumped on the ZOOM this morning and fell right into wide ranging and deep conversation about everything from life after retirement to the complications of a sudden death in the family and the importance of making arrangements for death before it happens to the Episcopal Church  to the importance to ourselves and those around us to find joy in our lives. 

2. A while back, on Facebook, Bridgit and Diane both wrote about their enjoyment and admiration of a fantasy novel set, in the author's words, "in an ancient China that never was". The book's title is Bridge of Birds. The author is Barry Hughart. I bought a copy about ten days ago and, inspired by our ZOOM conversation today, I started reading it. I honestly don't remember the last time a read a book in the fantasy genre.  So, now, I'm into this story of a young man named Number Ten Ox who puts his sage master, Li Kao, on his back and together they head out to find the Great Root of Power, the only possible cure for a plague that struck the village Number Ten Ox lives in. 

I'm about 100 pages in and already they've had perilous and humorous encounters with unforgettable characters on this adventurous journey.

3. The books I read from July to January or so on Leah Sottile's list were about 95% grim, with a little bit of humor here and there. Most of the time, though,  I was reading about dark and violent things people do. Likewise, Saturday I finished listening to Sottile's podcast, Hush, and it was a study of the darker elements not only of crime but of law enforcement and the judicial system in Oregon. 

Bridge of Birds is also, in part, a dark book. It features fantasy characters who are monstrous, but, at the same time, I sense that what drives Number Ten Ox and Li Kao to go in search of the Great Root of Power is noble, it's in service to those who have fallen ill, and this nobility emboldens them to confront the perils they face in this journey. 

So, this book is not an escape from the dark aspects of human life, but it's not solely focused on what is dangerous, cruel, greedy, and exploitative in the world. 

I'm eager to find out how Number Ten Ox and Li Kao's journey progresses and how it concludes. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-22-2025: Morning Work Out is the Ticket, Relaxing Afternoon, Mental Lapses and Spaghetti Sauce

1. This morning my workout at the Fitness Center sealed for me that my plan to go there around, say, 10 or 11:00 is my ticket to being active and sleeping deeply. I won't be able to return on Sunday because of a Westminster Basement Zoom get together, but I'll be back on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and maybe on Thursday before I drive to Oregon. 

2. I enjoyed a peaceful afternoon finishing up what has been my morning routine. I successfully completed the NYTimes puzzles Connections and Strands and the Sunday crossword became available in the afternoon and by the time I went to sleep, I had completed most of it. 

3. Debbie left for an hour or so late this afternoon to relax at The Lounge. On her way out the door, we agreed that I would use some of the ground beef I just purchased on Friday and make a spaghetti sauce.

I experienced two mental lapses. 

First, I forgot that Christy gave us a jar of her homemade tomato sauce and that I could have used it to make the spaghetti sauce. 

Next time! 

Secondly, when I went to the basement pantry to get tomato products, along with a can of diced tomatoes, I accidentally also brought up a can of spicy tomato soup. 

So, our spaghetti sauce was a combination of diced tomatoes, tomato soup, red pepper, onion, mushrooms, ground beef, garlic, and seasonings. 

But, guess what?

My mental lapse turned out to be awesome. 

The soup worked deliciously and Debbie and I were really happy with what a great spaghetti dinner this turned out to be. 

And now we can look forward to another one some time using Christy's sauce -- I'm hoping that writing about it will keep my on and off memory from forgetting we have it!