Three Beautiful Things 04-01-2025: I Finished *Bridge of Birds*, A Healthy Dose of the Dead on *Deadish*, Fun in the Kitchen

1. Today I finished reading Barry Hughart's fantasy novel, Bridge of Birds, set, quote Hughart, in "An Ancient China That Never Was". I am about 97.90826% positive that this is the first fantasy novel I've read to completion, unless, around fifty years ago, I read the entirety of The Hobbit.

Bridge of Birds challenged me. I had some trouble remembering what I should have known from earlier chapters about characters who returned to the story after some period of absence. I also had trouble keeping the several adventures of the central characters, Li Kao and Number Ten Ox, remembered and straight in my mind as to what happened in those earlier adventures. 

These challenges do not embody flaws in the book.

Like Li Kao himself, I am a character with a slight flaw. (Well, with many flaws.) But the one I have in mind at the moment is that my short term memory is weakening. 

I'd like to do two things: First of all, find a larger copy of Bridge of Birds with larger print.  Second, one day I hope I'll take the time to reread this book. I think a rereading would help me keep its details straighter in my mind and help me remember the riddles, songs, games, and other delights that season this story and lend wonder to its elegant and moving conclusion. 

2. Of all the odd parallels to have go through my mind, I experienced the newness and my unfamilarity with Bridge of Birds to my experience going to see and hear the Grateful Dead live in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

I was with Jeff and his great Grateful Dead loving friends who were intimately familiar with everything the band did and could discuss nuances, breakthroughs, surprises, and other pleasures (and some criticism) with great fluency.

Most of the time I was lost -- and unlike a book where I could go back a few chapters and re read passages for clarity, the Grateful Dead shows, of course, just kept moving forward! 

I remembered this experience tonight as I went to the archives and listened to Jeff's Thursday, March 27th Deadish show. 

Jeff opened his radio show (on KEPW-FM, streaming at kepw.org) with a superb tune played by the Steve Kimmock Band and then he launched into a huge dose of the Dead that lasted, thanks to the addition of the After Show, over two hours. 

For me, two deep pleasures stand out as I listen to the Grateful Dead over a a couple of hours any time and especially tonight. 

First of all, I always need (and want) to gain more familiarity with their songs and that happened tonight. It was a fun magic carpet ride.

Secondly, for me, any sustained amount of time listening to the Grateful Dead is a way of entering into the history of much American music. As the Grateful Dead moves within songs and from one song to the next, they play rock n roll, jazz, bluegrass, folk, psychedelic, world, country, blues, soul, rhythm and blues, and, well, did I miss anything? 

They play plenty of songs original to them and they play riveting covers of rock n roll classics, as well as Bob Dylan, and other artists. 

In the course of all of his weekly Deadish programs, Jeff plays a euphorically eclectic bunch of songs and artists largely because so much music, ranging from Billy Strings to Led Zeppelin is Deadish, and the possibilities of what he can play within his show's title seems bottomless. 

And if, like tonight, he plays cuts from live Grateful Dead shows for over two hours,  the eclecticism is very much alive because that's the nature of band itself. 

3. Monday night, I cooked a batch of jasmine rice with mushrooms and green onions in the rice pot and added in soy sauce and sesame oil. I combined this rice mixture with chicken stock and enjoyed a simple and tasty soup.

Tonight, I cut up some boneless pork chop meat into small pieces, cooked the meat in the wok, and added zucchini, cauliflower, celery, mushrooms, and red pepper to the meat. Then, instead of making a new batch of rice, I combined the now nearly brothless soup from last night with the pork and vegetables. 

It turned out to be a great idea! 

It worked!  

Three Beautiful Things 03-31-2025: Copper Wants More Assurance, Reading May Sarton Aloud in 1990, Chores and a Debi Mc Connection

1.  Our vet, usually Dr. Cook, and I have never been absolutely sure about Copper's age. I tried after taking Copper in to get a better understanding of both Copper and Luna's ages, but the best I could find out -- and Dr. Cook's examinations of the two cats confirmed it -- was that Luna was the older of the two. In early 2021, Dr. Cook estimated that Copper was probably about twelve years old. 

It's been just over four years since Copper and Luna moved in. 

It's been about fifteen months since Luna died. 

Let's say, without absolute certainty, that Copper is now about sixteen years old. 

He is communicating instinctive awareness to me that he is aging. 

At night, he sleeps next to me. I usually sleep on my side, either one. 

Recently, as the night progresses, if I turn over and try to go back to sleep with my back to Copper, he meows. Sometimes he bats me with a paw or tickles my face with his whiskers, letting me know he wants me to face him. Copper seems to have figured out that if I face him, I can more easily and readily pet him or rest a hand on his back or belly. 

This contact between us moves him to purr with deep contentment. 

Copper's insistence that I turn over is a significant change in his behavior. 

He wants a higher and more frequent level of comfort from me now than he ever has. 

I think he feels what many of us humans feel as we age. 

Time is slipping away, increasing our feelings of vulnerability. 

2. I needed time today to let yesterday's ZOOM discussion and my reunion with Debi Mc sink in. 

I enjoyed having memories of my early days of teaching at LCC come back and remembering what a welcome source of support and encouragement for me as her instructor Debi was in the classroom and in our conversations outside of class. 

I am all but certain that Debi was enrolled in an Intro to Fiction course I taught in the summer of 1990.

I think that class met for two hours, maybe three, per session --- I'm not sure how many days a week we met.

The class took a short break after the first half of class and, when the students returned, I turned off the lights, stood near a door where light came into the classroom through a small window from the hall, and read May Sarton's book, The Fur Person, aloud. 

I loved doing that. It was comforting and relaxing. It took us all back to when we were in elementary school and, if we were lucky, had a teacher who read aloud to us after lunch. (My 6th grade teacher, Miss Kero, read us A Wrinkle in Time and The Hobbit, both entrancing to listen to.)

I hope my students that summer found The Fur Person entrancing. 

Debi did, as I remember. 

So did I.

I don't know why I never did a read aloud at the break of one of my courses again. 

3. I let the happy intensity of Sunday sink in today by getting domestic chores completed. 

Copper and I have clean bedding after today and it's always good to spend time washing and drying my clothes. 

I would have gladly experienced today another day like Sunday. At the same time, I enjoyed a day of rest and letting awesome memories of the past stir up, wash over me, and sink in thanks to Bridgit, Diane, Bill, and Debi. Oh! And Roberta! She and I had a brief exchange online about Debi Mc -- Roberta doesn't know Debi personally, but is very aware of Debi's cat rescue efforts in and around Oakridge, OR -- the town they both live in or near. 

Three Beautiful Things 03-30-2025: Debbie Is in New York, A Superb Time on ZOOM, Amazing! I Hear From Debi Mc

1. What a day! 

First of all, Debbie got out the door this morning around 3:30 or so, arrived at the Spokane airport, returned her rental car, got through the TSA line in time, and eventually arrived in Newark and then Valley Cottage, NY this afternoon. She experienced delays, but nothing that threw her schedule totally out of whack like on Saturday. 

2. At 10:00, Bill, Diane, Bridgit, and I joined together on ZOOM and yakked for over two hours about a wide range of topics. I enjoyed everything we discussed. In particular, our conversation about buddy movies transported me back to graduate school when I lived in a house with two fellow grad students who immersed themselves in feminist theory and was friends at school with other women who were doing the same. I enjoyed listening to what these friends helped me see as feminist perspectives on a variety of subjects and their critiques of movies, the movie industry, and of buddy movies in particular stuck with me and opened up ways of seeing things I hadn't thought of before. 

This turn in our conversation today came after we also discussed retirement, a favorite topic of ours, especially as Bridgit makes her transition out of the workforce into the early days and weeks of her retirement. 

Thanks to Bridgit and Diane, I'm reading the book Bridge of Birds. I haven't finished it yet, so I forbade us from talking about this particular book in any detail, but we did talk about our experience (and my INexperience) reading fantasy and science fiction and speculative fiction. I really enjoyed how this discussion also veered into Arthur Conan Doyle and P. G. Wodehouse territory as we discussed the buddy elements of Jeeves and Wooster, Watson and Holmes, and, in Bridge of Birds, Master Li Kao and Number 10 Ox. 

Ah! Right! It was the buddy relationships in these books that sent us into the movies and got me reminiscing about the stimulating thinking and analysis of my feminist friends. 

What a great couple of hours! 

3. So, Bill and Bridgit were students of mine at Whitworth and lo and behold, out of nowhere this evening I received a text on Messenger from Debi Mc wondering if I was the same Bill Woolum who had been Debi's teacher in a handful of classes in the early 1990s at LCC. And, was I the same person who became wonderful friends with Debi?

Well, I am that same person and Debi and I had a most heartening exchange of messages.

To my wobbly memory, it had been over thirty years since Debi and I had communicated with each other and I thoroughly enjoyed learning what, in general, she's been doing all these years and finding out that she is a devoted cat wrangler, fosterer, and rescuer, among other things. 

Another cherished memory came up as we messaged back and forth. 

Back around 1990, Rita Hennessey formed a learning community at LCC called Alternative Visions. 

I didn't have anything to do with this enterprise, but Debi Mc was enrolled in it. 

I vividly remember Debi telling me, when she was in one of the classes I taught, that she thought I'd be a great teacher in a cross disciplinary, team taught project like Alternative Visions and she highly recommended that I get to know Rita. 

Not too long after that, I did get to know Rita, got to know her really well, and we became team teachers in a project, a learning community, she spearheaded and oversaw called Fast Forward. 

We team taught composition and philosophy. It was a challenging and most rewarding experience and hearing from Debi Mc today reminded me that she is the one who first recommended that I get to know Rita and that suggestion resulted in Rita and my friendship that began in 1993 and was central to my life until Rita died in December of 2022. 

Three Beautiful Things 03-29-2025: Debbie to the Airport, Debbie Back to Kellogg, Great Lunch and Browsing

1. Debbie will spend spring break and an additional week at Adrienne's house and hold down their fort when Josh and Adrienne take Ellie to Baltimore and Washington, DC for tests and other medical business. I drove Debbie to the airport late this morning, we said farewell, but little did we know that our farewell was premature. 

2. Debbie boarded the flight for Minneapolis/St. Paul and due to a problem (I don't know what), the plane had to stay put for a while. After a while, Debbie realized that if she stayed on this plane, she would not make her connection in Minneapolis/St. Paul for Newark, NJ. 

So she got off the plane.

After some deliberation, she decided to rent a car, come back to Kellogg, and return to Spokane early Sunday morning to catch the flights to Minneapolis and Newark the airline pro rescheduled her on. 

Debbie arrived in Kellogg, wound down for a while, and once her head cleared a bit, we had some great conversation about our good fortune to have worked with such gifted artists in Eugene -- Debbie  had this good fortune playing music and I had it in my theater experience. 

3. After leaving the airport, I buzzed to Great Harvest and savored a delicious turkey sandwich and a fresh oatmeal and chocolate cookie. I drifted over to New Look Books to see if a couple or three titles I was looking for were in stock. They weren't. I then decided to head back to Kellogg. 

It's too bad I didn't hang out a bit longer in Spokane. 

Had I done that, I could have returned to the airport, picked up Debbie, and brought her home myself -- and taken her back to the Spokane Airport early Sunday morning. 

(By the way, as I write this post around 10:00 Sunday morning, I know that Debbie has arrived in Minneapolis, so things are working out better on Sunday than they did Saturday!)

Three Beautiful Things 03-28-2025: Remembering Bob Cummings, Chillin' at The Lounge, Quick Pasta Dinner

1. I joined Christy, Paul, and Carol at the funeral home uptown to attend the service celebrating and memorializing the life of Bob Cummings, a neighbor who lived two doors down from our family for over 60 years and, when Christy moved into the house next door, Bob became her next door neighbor on the east side of her house. 

The service featured some recorded funeral songs, a display of Bob's art work, a short homily by the pastor, and a string of stories told by Bob's son-in-law highlighting Bob's hobbies, his love of the Coeur d'Alene River, his years long defense of the high quality of Lucky Lager beer, his skill as a mason, his gift for story telling, his love for his now deceased wife, Lynne, and his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, and more. 

Outside, after the service, I chatted for a while with two American Legion teammates, John Lund and Steve Twidt, a real pleasure. 

2. I didn't attend the reception at the Elks. Instead, I dropped in at the Inland Lounge and it turned out to be a great move. I tried Budweiser's Zero Alcohol beer and found it very tasty. I got to visit with Cas, Brett Faraca, and Dave Oates and a little later on Ed popped in and so did Debbie. 

I sat far away from any smokers. 

That felt safe to me. 

My concern is that if a smoker is ill, exhaling cigarette smoke broadcasts their contagion further away from themselves. I'm cautious about exposing myself to contagion, although my sense is that my immune system has become more robust over the last ten months since the transplant. 

I had a lot of fun yakkin' and watching South Carolina battle Maryland in a tight Sweet 16 game, win the game, and keep my wager for them to win the women's NCAA basketball tournament alive. 

3. Back home, I hadn't done any preparation earlier in the day for dinner tonight, but dinner turned out pretty good when I boiled a pot of pasta, cooked a pan full of shrimp, and sautéed mushrooms. These ingredients combined with butter and black pepper turned out to be a quick and satisfying meal for Debbie and me. Debbie made her bowl of pasta even better by adding tomatoes and garlic. 

So, we got to have it all: fun at The Lounge and tasty food when we got home. 

Three Beautiful Things 03-27-2025: Baseball at The Lounge, Surprise Visitors Stroll In!, A Tranquil Evening

 1. I was wrapping up my morning routine of puzzle solving and writing when an angel with sugar coated wings gently dropped a surprise text message into my cell phone. 

It was from Cas. 

Did I want to join him and Seth at The Lounge to watch the Pirates and Marlins play on Major League Baseball's Opening Day?

You bet I did.

I walked in The Lounge. 

Ron Delcamp was also there. 

It was an awesome afternoon. 

Baseball games.

Baseball yakkin'. 

Stories.

Laughs.

Burgers from the Uphill Grill.

Flawless. 

2. Debbie dropped in after she wrapped things up at school for the day. The one of our fantasy baseball league members whom I'd never met strolled into The Lounge. Awesome!  I got to meet Steve Ivie. Steve's wife, Stephanie, was with him. She teaches at Pinehurst Elementary. So does their daughter, Tarah. So I also got to meet Stephanie and she and Debbie got in some high quality yakkin' about their work and the upcoming spring break. 

This surprise development added more fun to the fun of the afternoon.

3. Debbie and I returned home and enjoyed a peaceful evening. 

I retired to the bedroom and kept Copper company while finishing crosswords.

Debbie sewed and watched another episode of Inspector Lewis. 

No hustle.

No bustle. 

Very little yakkin'. 

All was mellow. 

Peaceful. 

Three Beautiful Things 03-26-2025: My First Experience in the Dead-iverse, Yes! Debbie Wants Home Cooked Food, Talking Heads at Yokes

1. I wrote Jeff an email of gratitude for his superb March 20th Deadish show and mentioned that in his After Show selections, hearing Jerry Garcia perform "Mission in the Rain" hit me hard and deep.

Jeff records his show in advance of the Thursday broadcast, so on Thursday evening last week,  he was free to go to WOW Hall and hear the Garcia Project perform. 

He told me in a return email that he was so moved by the Garcia Project's performance of "Mission in the Rain" that he left the show -- it sounded to me like he didn't want any other songs to interfere with the emotional experience "Mission in the Rain" roused in him. 

I went to my first Grateful Dead show in Oakland on Dec 31, 1987. 

It was not only my introduction to seeing and hearing the Grateful Dead live, but I arrived in San Francisco on Dec 27th, my 34th birthday, stayed with Jeff at Jay's apartment, and met a bunch of people from across the USA who were Jeff and Jay's equals in their knowledge of and devotion to the Grateful Dead. 

So Jeff and his pals schooled me. 

We listened to recordings, they gave me history lessons, told me stories about the Grateful Dead and Haight Ashbury, showed me books, posters, and other Grateful Dead memorabilia, and did other generous things to help prepare me for my maiden voyage into the Grateful Dead scene and the show itself.

In addition, Jeff gave me a Jerry Garcia Band show tape. 

Jeff had me listen to it and he told me to be sure to listen intently to one song that he cherished. 

"Mission in the Rain"

I did.

It hit me deep and hard in December of 1987, got me again Tuesday night when Jeff played it on Deadish, struck Jeff's soul at the WOW Hall on March 20th, and continues to be one of several songs in the Dead-iverse that makes the world stop whenever I hear it. 

2. Debbie finds it relaxing to find a quiet spot at Radio Brewing and work school tasks. 

Often she then brings home an entree for us to share. 

I had a dinner planned tonight, but texted Debbie that if she'd rather eat food from Radio, no problem.

She wanted home cooked food.

Awesome! 

So I got out the wok and fixed us a Thai wheat noodle stir fry dinner featuring cut up tri trip steak, red onion, carrots, celery, mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, broccoli, fresh spinach, and fresh herbs. 

My timing was pretty good as far as cooking these ingredients evenly.

I set out different bottles of sauces.

We dove in and enjoyed one of my favorite meals to prepare and eat.

It worked. 

3. I made a quick trip to Yokes today.

My mind wandered to the music that plays in the store while I shop.

It didn't happen today, but every once in a while the playlist at Yokes plays the one song that moves me to find a spot in the store underneath a speaker, try to stay out of other shoppers' way, and listen to it to the very end when the song features one of my all-time favorite guitar solo outros ever.

The song appeared on the Talking Heads 1985 album, Little Creatures.

The song?

"And She Was" 

Jerry Harrison plays that solo and any time that song comes on at Yokes, I never have anything more important or more urgent in my life to do than to stop everything, listen to this tune, wait for the outro, and clench my hand into a victory fist. 

Three Beautiful Things 03-25-2025: Cautiously Taking It Easy, Feeding Tired Debbie, Surprise! That Was My Voice on the Radio!

1. Have I mentioned in this blog that I am a cautious person? 

Lately, I've been feeling small tugs, not painful, in the general area of where I had surgery. I did a little reading about this and I'm persuaded what I'm feeling, just on occasion, is normal and not a reason for concern. 

All the same, I've cautiously been taking it easy, giving whatever is happening there a chance to work itself out and I'm cautiously confident that my decision is a sound one. I'm feeling fewer of those little tugs and pulls and I'm cautiously thinking I just might be able to pick up my activity again soon.

2. Debbie has had conferences with parents/grandparents/guardians over the last four school days. She held after school conferences last Thursday, yesterday, and today and her entire work day on Friday was a conference day.

Debbie arrived home this evening around 6:30. 

Tired. 

I fixed a flexible dinner, one that could be cooked up and then easily kept warm without overcooking in the electric frying pan. 

It was a combination of red onion, cabbage, zucchini, yellow squash, Yukon golds, green beans, broccoli, corn, and ground beef seasoned with red pepper flakes and Everything But the Bagel seasoning. 

I don't know what to call this mess of vegetables and ground beef. 

All I know is that it's one of my favorite meals, especially when I pour Frank's hot sauce over it. 

And I know it worked for Debbie at the end of a run of long work days. 

3. For an after dinner treat, I enjoyed a sonic 🎶🎶 dessert!

Eugene's KEPW-FM broadcasts Jeff Harrison's radio show Deadish on Thursday evenings at 9:00, but I often listen to it at a different time by going to the station's archives. Jeff's show stays in the archives about two weeks. 

So, tonight, I tuned into the Thursday, March 20th Deadish show and whose voice did I hear? 

MINE! 

Ha! 

I think it was in late 2023 that Jeff recorded me doing a brief welcome to Deadish spot and tonight he used that spot to introduce his show! 

That was a fun surprise! 

As it always is, Jeff's show was also full of fun surprises as he went back to a Zero concert from 1988 and played a cut and then went back to the 1970s to play live Pink Floyd ("Embryo") and live Led Zeppelin ("No Quarter") -- both were extended versions, full of all kinds of jamming and fun surprises. 

In the second hour of Deadish, Jeff turned to the Grateful Dead and played two historic performances, first of "Box of Rain" and then of "Scarlet Begonias". When the Dead played "Box of Rain" in Hampton in, I think, 1986, it was the first time they had performed the song in thirteen years. The Winterland "Scarlet Begonias" Jeff played from 1977 was the last time the Dead played that tune as a stand alone. For the rest of the band's existence, Scarlet Begonias was paired, most often, with "Fire on the Mountain" (Begonias ->Fire). 

Jeff ended the second hour by going deeper into the past of the Grateful Dead so listeners got to hear a solid run of tunes from the Pigpen days, including Pigpen delivering a down and dirty performance of "Good Lovin'".

Jeff then took us into overtime, his After Show,  and played about thirty minutes of Jerry Garcia Band tunes, including my all-time favorite, "Mission in the Rain". 

Three Beautiful Things 03-24-2025: Life Change, Perfect Family Dinner, Asparagus Tales

1. Molly and Brian arrived safely today in Boise. Soon 🤞they'll find a suitable place to move into and, before long, Molly will start her new job. So far, so good. 

2. For us oldsters in the family, Molly and Brian's departure means fewer people around the board at family dinner, just Carol, Christy, Debbie, Paul, and me. Tonight, Carol prepared a superb beef roast (in the chuck roast family of beef cuts) with mashed potatoes, Christy prepared awesome candied parsnips and carrots, and I assembled about three quarters of the Yokes' produce department 🤣🤣🤣 in a large bowl and brought a jam packed green salad with a honey lemon mustard vinaigrette I threw together -- and a bottle of Litehouse Blue Cheese dressing. 

It was a perfect dinner and we had a lot to talk about, especially with Debbie preparing for a two week trip to New York and the suburbs of Chicago. She flies out of Spokane on Saturday. 

3. While I was in the process of buying out Yokes' produce section, I have no idea who the somewhat older than I am man was who stopped at the asparagus display, saw me assessing onions,  and began to tell me about his uncle in Arizona who grew such delicious and costly asparagus that he hired armed guards to protect it. He also instructed me about the fine points of asparagus in the Twin Falls, Idaho area and told me things I'd never known about wild asparagus and driving around looking for it with scissors in the car and leaping out and snipping stalks upon finding some. 

Then we each toddled off. 

I was marvel struck.  

Three Beautiful Things 03--23-2025: Becoming More Literate, Back to the Litter Box, German-Irish Fusion Dinner!

1. Reading the book Bridge of Birds has challenged me to read with a different mindset than I've ever read with before. I am basically illiterate when it comes to reading fantasy. When I was an instructor and when I was a cast member in four plays at LCC, countless students recommended fantasy novels to me often. Bridgit, who recommended I read this book, Diane, who also loves fantasy/hero's journey books and expressed happiness that I was reading Bridge of Birds, and Val, who also loves such books, have all talked about different fantasy authors and books over our years on ZOOM,  but I never followed up until now. 

I spent much of today reading Bridge of Birds and if I made any headway as a novice reader of fantasy, it was slowly but surely getting this book's humor and having some laugh out loud moments. These moments occurred side by side with the main characters pulling off hair raising escapes and encountering evil beings of all sorts. Occasional sexual encounters also provided relief and some levity for the younger main character, Number Ten Ox, but in this arena of the story, the nonagenarian other main character, Li Kao, could only encourage and congratulate Number Ten Ox and remember back to days of when he was young and virile himself. 

2. I read more about toxoplasmosis today, the infection that can be transmitted to humans through cat feces.  Cats become infected by eating infected rodents and birds or through eating raw meats. Upon further reading, I learned that it's very rare for indoor cats to become infected. Indoor cats don't hunt rodents or birds and, in Copper's case, he only eats commercially sold wet and dry food. 

I've concluded that the only way Copper could become infected with toxoplasmosis is if an infected mouse or rat got into our house, then got into one of the two rooms Copper occupies, and Copper hunted and ate the rodent. 

I will always wear a mask. I will always wear vinyl gloves. I will always wash my hands vigorously when I'm done. 

With the knowledge I have and these precautions in place, I am going to take responsibility once again for keeping Copper's litter pan scooped out and, when the time comes, I'll also exchange old used up litter for new. 

I am a very cautious person about contracting infections, but I just don't think Copper, as a strictly indoor cat, will get infected with toxoplasmosis and then pass it on to me via his feces.

3. Debbie combined the pork cooked in mushroom soup gravy with the vegetables left over from Monday's corned beef dinner and the result was delicious. As I ate it, I playfully decided it was a German-Irish fusion dish!