Three Beautiful Things 10-16-2024: Ahhh! A Retreat Into the Green World Via a Novel, Double Checking, A Surprising and Perfect Dinner

1.  Back in July, I started reading the list of books Leah Sottile posted in response to a NYTimes list of the Best Books of the 21st Century.

Sottile's recommended books are, without exception, dark, often chilling, always unsettling. 

I've taken a few breaks from her list and wouldn't you know it! The books I've read that are not on her list have been -- well, dark, chilling, always unsettling. 

That changed this week. 

As a good luck with your recovery gift, Scott and Cate Shirk gave me two books. One is a collection of P. G. Wodehouse stories -- I know that anytime I want to read the best in comic upper class British nonsense, Wodehouse is always nearby. I love reading him and really loved the Jeeves and Wooster television series from the early 1990s. 

I either hadn't heard of or had forgotten about the other book they gave me.

It was published in 1980, written by J. L. Carr, and its title is A Month in the Country. 

I'm an old hand at reading, and back in olden days, teaching, books set in the country, in forests, in what many refer to as the green world. 

The green world, in contrast to the busy rush and feverish pace of urban areas, is portrayed in these books and plays and movies as a place of retreat, refreshment, healing, a place to slow down and gain a better perspective on life. 

So, was A Month in the Country such a book?

YES! 

In short, it features a traumatized WWI veteran whose marriage is collapsing (or has it collapsed?). He leaves London to take a job in a North Yorkshire church restoring a medieval mural that exists underneath centuries of whitewash, candle smoke and grease, and other forms of grime. 

So can meeting people in a rural setting, doing a painstaking job in a church, drinking in the smells and visual beauty of the Yorkshire countryside, and uncovering a beautiful mural provide solace, help heal a broken heart, restore happiness to a damaged soul and more?

The book is very worth reading to find out -- if you are into this sort of thing! 

2. I'll double check later in the day on Thursday, but I'm taking it as good news that I haven't heard from the transplant team about the blood work I had done on Monday. I'm assuming that my medicine dosages should remain the same and the team, as I was, are pleased with how stable my numbers were this week. 

I definitely will be double checking as to whether I am to stay on the once a week blood draw schedule so I'll know if I will be going in next week so I can have blood work done and pick up another book that's come in at Auntie's Bookstore and enjoy some good things at Great Harvest and Trader Joe's and maybe more.... 

3. On her way home from school, Debbie picked up a pack of four delicious sausages. I heated them up and, at the same time, sautéed a mixture of red and white rings of onion and added leftover basmati rice to the onions. We had bean salad in the fridge from a couple days ago. 

Both of us added some Trader Joe's Chili Onion Crunch to our rice serving, giving it some heat and texture. 

What a winning combination! Sausage, rice and onion, Chili Onion Crunch, and bean salad. 

We'd never had this meal before and we were stoked as we dove into it! 

Three Beautiful Things 10-15-2024: I Slowed Down, Obits and Happy Memories, Stir Fry Again -- with Variations

1. After having such a full day, starting when I got up at 4:30 a.m. and lasting until I went to bed after 10 p.m., today my pace was much slower. I had some cleaning up left to do after Monday's family dinner. I napped some. In slowing down, I also had some restful and contented time with Copper. 

2. I also had some happy memories stirred by learning about two people who died recently. 

A local man I never knew named John Thompson died recently. His daughter, Phyllis, has been a wonderful help to us at Kellogg Insurance. 

There are also further connections between John Thompson and Debbie and me that I hadn't really put together until today, even though I think Phyllis explained them to me when we first moved to Kellogg. 

If you read John Thompson's obituary, you'll learn that starting at 12 years old, John became a part of Warren and Ailie Van's family. Warren and Ailie's son's name was Mike Van. 

As an adult, Mike Van lived in Eugene. He taught art classes at South Eugene High School and he showed his own work in Eugene and elsewhere. I never knew Mike, but his wife, Maron, was a deacon at Eugene's Resurrection Episcopal Church. I can't remember if we ever met, but I worshipped once in a while at Resurrection and was aware of her dedication to the Resurrection parish and to the Episcopal Church at large. 

Mike and Maron's daughter, Kim Still, managed the Saturday Market main performance stage in Eugene. She and Debbie were closely acquainted. Debbie not only performed at Saturday Market, but Kim also scheduled children Debbie worked with musically to perform on that stage. It was a thrill for the kids and their parents and a delight for the audiences. 

And that's not all. 

Kim's son, Victor Schramm, was a student of mine at LCC -- I think he was in a World Literature course I taught in winter term of 2005, but I might have that wrong.

And, there's more. 

Periodically, I read through the obituaries in Eugene's city paper, the Register-Guard. 

The connection between John Thompson, the Vans, Kim Still, and Victor Schramm moved me to look through Eugene obituaries today. 

I learned that Denise LaCroix, a theater director who, thanks to AnnMarie Maurer, invited me to replace an actor who left the cast of a 1995 local production she was directing of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, died in August. 

I loved being in that play. 

I deeply appreciated, as a very inexperienced actor, how Denise took several moments to pull me aside and give me encouraging comments about how I was doing as Polonius. 

I also got to work with some of Eugene's finest actors who were dedicated to their work in the play and were also a lot of fun, along with being fascinating people to get to know off stage. 

Learning of Denise's death saddened me and, at the same time, awakened memories of how much I enjoyed being a part of that cast and performing under Denise's direction. 

One more thing: in a rehearsal very close to opening night -- was it the night before? -- a terrible accident occurred as our original Claudius fell while carrying our original Ophelia, played by Denise, off the stage. The accident disabled both actors, confronting Denise and our cast with a mammoth challenge. I was deeply moved and impressed with how our company overcame this terrible event. Our run of plays kept growing and improving. Eventually, Denny and Denise recovered from their serious injuries, but not quickly, certainly not in time to return to the cast. Denise, however, shouldered on as our director -- I thought her efforts were heroic. 

3. Debbie and I enjoyed our stir fried dinner on Monday so much that I made another one tonight featuring a combination of chicken, red onion, green onion, cabbage, bok choy, yellow summer squash, cilantro, fresh basil, and peanuts.  Instead of noodles, this dinner featured basmati rice and we poured leftover green curry sauce from last night over the top of it. 

It worked! 

I mean, it REALLY worked!

Three Beautiful Things 10-14-2024: Blood Work and Gallivanting, Fixing Food for Family Dinner, A Pet Gate! and Good Yakkin'

1. I left the house at 6 a.m. this morning, excited to have blood work done at Providence Sacred Heart and then gallivant around Spokane, Spokane Valley, and Coeur d'Alene for a little while. 

As I write this entry on Tuesday morning, I haven't heard from the transplant team yet regarding my blood work. I've studied it and I really like about 95.7% of what I see and the one result I have questions about might not be that big of a deal. I'll know that it's not a big deal with the team if they don't address if when they message me later. 

I read many of my test results on my phone at Great Harvest as I blissed out on a Morning Glory muffin and a couple of cups of coffee. To my surprise and delight, Great Harvest was selling bread on a buy one get one free special and I purchased a loaf of Harvest Blend and a loaf of Dakota bread. 

I then popped over to Trader Joe's to pick up a few items related to family dinner tonight and some other fun things.

I left Trader Joe's and wound my way downtown to Auntie's Bookstore and picked up two books I'd ordered and they were holding. 

Kenna Morgan spotted me in the store and stopped me to say hello. We chatted for a few minutes and, as I got into the car, I thought of at least two things I wanted to say -- so I'll send her a message. 

I was actually so shocked to hear someone in Spokane, not at Sacred Heart, call out my name that my mind went kind of blank when we visited. 

Outside of the hospital complex, when I roam around Spokane, I never expect anyone to know who I am. And, until today, no one has known me! 

I blasted onto I-90 and after several miles glided on to Indiana Avenue in Spokane Valley and made a quick stop at Barnes and Noble to purchase a paper fold out, old-fashioned, but current, street map of Spokane and vicinity. I've been wanting to get some details about Spokane's layout and roadways clearer in my mind and I find the paper map is far more helpful than looking at maps online. 

I ended my string of stops at Pilgrim's Market in Coeur d'Alene where I bought more produce for dinner, a bag of ground Craven coffee like they serve at Great Harvest, and a few other items. 

I enjoyed all my stops, maybe more than a reasonable person ought to!, and it was time to rocket back to Kellogg and get family dinner preparations underway. 

2. Back home, it was time to spiff up the house a bit,  focus on chopping vegetables, thawing chicken tenders, fixing a green curry sauce, and, a bit later, getting out the wok and preparing tonight's noodles and stir frying the chicken for our dinner. 

For dinner, I steamed three different kinds of gyoza, potstickers, and dumplings. I also stir fried a variety of vegetables in the wok and added fresh basil and cilantro to the stir fry and blended in the chicken and noodles. 

I made a Trader Joe's dipping sauce and Trader Joe's Peanut Satay available to dip the potstickers in and Debbie, Molly, Paul, Carol, and I could choose to use the dipping sauce or the green curry sauce I made as sauce for the stir fry. I also put out peanuts for the stir fry. 

I love fixing food in the wok and I love experimenting with stir fry sauces so this was a fun dinner for me. Luckily, the rest the family enjoyed it, too. 

We missed Christy, but for the best of reasons: she has been away in the woods of North Idaho, staying at a rental cabin, resting, relaxing, retreating, and recharging her energy.  

We also missed Brian who had important matters elsewhere to tend to. 

3. As I've mentioned about 70 million times since Debbie put it up in July, we've had a game changing pet barrier up to make life more peaceful for both Gibbs and Copper. 

As an instrument of peace and contentment, it's worked magnificently.

One problem: Debbie and I have had to climb over it for the last nearly three months.

A few weeks ago Debbie said the magic word: ENOUGH! 

She purchased a pet gate. 

After dinner, Paul installed it. 

What a difference for Debbie and me! No more anxiety about falling as we climbed over that barrier. We can walk through the gate. 

Not only that, but conversation tonight that ranged from Tina Turner to pet care to teaching challenges to family news to care of the soul to life at Kellogg's latest food and wine and oddities joint, Nocturn -- where Molly is the manager -- was fun. 

Three Beautiful Things 10-13-2024: Nitty Gritty on ZOOM, Mural Restoration in N. Yorkshire, Superb Chicken Dinner

1. I joined Bill, Diane, and Bridgit on ZOOM this morning for a somber and often intense conversation largely focused on the complications that develop when a death occurs in a family. I involved myself in this discussion by listening and occasionally asking a question as the others talked about tensions between family members, financial complexities, thorny dilemmas, estate difficulties, grudges, settling old scores, and the exhaustion of taking care of business after a parent or a sibling dies. The discussion left me divided between feeling sorrow and frustration for my friends' trying circumstances, past and present, and feeling gratitude that my sisters and I navigated our mother's death so well.  

2.  Today, I started reading a book that is, so far, without assault, without violence, without a court trial.  It's a small book. Its title is A Month in the Country. It's about a physically and psychologically damaged WWI veteran who has taken a job in a small North Yorkshire village painstakingly uncovering a church building's medieval mural that has layer upon layer of paint and other obscuring materials hiding it. 

I'm not a hundred percent sure where this novel is going.  I'm not even ten percent sure. In fact, I have no idea.

3. Debbie fixed dinner again tonight. She dreamed up a way of baking chicken with surprising seasonings and made penne with red pepper pesto and a bean salad to go with the chicken. The chicken, pasta, and salad worked together flawlessly. Dinner deeply satisfied me.

Three Beautiful Things 10-12-2024: I Finished *Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil*, I Enjoyed the Movie, Delicious Canned Salmon and Pasta Dinner

1. I finished reading the intriguing book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil first thing today. I only had about twenty pages to go. 

This book came out thirty year ago. I left it wondering, knowing that many of the principal figures in the book (but not its author) have died, whether the commitment to preserving itself, whether adamant resistance to change continue to be a prominent social value in Savannah. 

I didn't have this question on my mind at all in 2016 when I traveled to Savannah. My mind was mostly on the task of officiating Scott and Cate's wedding. In 2016, I wandered in the historic district one day, took some pictures, but I didn't have an understanding of what I was seeing or of the history of the place. 

If I discovered a book or an article examining Savannah in the 2020s, looking at the similarities and differences between this city in the 1980s, when most of this book took place, and now, or even the last ten years, I'd read it.

2. I was very curious to see how Clint Eastwood, as director and producer, in collaboration with the movie's screenwriter, John Lee Hancock, adapted the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil into a movie. 

I'm not going to, nor am I able to, say which is better, the movie or the book. 

I'm more interested in the adaptation itself. 

I think what Hancock/Eastwood did tells viewers, especially those who've read the book, what Hancock and Eastwood see as making a movie work. 

First of all, there is the challenge of time, of the movie's length.

Hancock and Eastwood condensed and rearranged episodes in the book to tighten up the story. Otherwise, they would have had to make a season or two worth of hour long episodes, that is, make a series out of the book.

Therefore, the movie had fewer characters and changed some characters' names. The book featured four trials, three in Savannah,  the last one in Augusta, and the movie condensed them into a single trial in Savannah. The movie created a lukewarm love interest, an addition to the story. 

Tighten. Rearrange. Add in some kissing and hand holding. 

The movie took us inside some of the vintage homes/mansions, brought us into Savannah's black cotillion, took us into a graveyard at night (the garden of good and evil), but, did not extend the movie by taking us to several locales the book did. 

The trial was, to me, the center of the movie.

Savannah was the center of the book. 

Trials make better movies, but the book's exploration of Savannah's quirkiness, spirit, and darker dimensions were perfect for the book. 

I enjoyed both, but I cannot compare them -- can't say if the movie "lived up" to the book. 

The movie was its own work, based on, but not wholly dependent on, John Berendt's book.

Again, I enjoyed both.  

3. Debbie made a superb dinner tonight that featured canned salmon, pasta boiled in chicken broth, garlic, green onion, sour cream, and maybe other ingredients into a spaghetti dish that we both loved. When I eat canned salmon, I don't compare it to fresh salmon. They are two different food items connected only by both being a kind of salmon. Not comparing canned to fresh opens the way for me to enjoy canned salmon for what it is for me, a delicious, versatile, and convenient food item that always works. 

Three Beautiful Things 10-11-2024: Wealth and Justice, Voodoo and Psycho Dice, Jazz Is Just Right

1.  Any contact I have with wealthy people almost always only happens through reading about them. 

As I near the end of the book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, I'm reminded page after page that the wealthy, yes, can possess and I think, at times, they might even enjoy, copious luxuries. 

Their wealth can also have a sizable impact on the courtroom, primarily because the wealthy can afford to spend, spend, spend, spend, spend, and spend some more on mounting a defense when indicted for a crime, spend, spend, spend spend, and spend some more on appealing each and every guilty conviction, and, can afford to keep a court case continuing for years.  

The wealthy can afford to run out the clock. 

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is about more than Jim Williams' lengthy effort to be acquitted of murder. It's also about the social goings on in, oh, let's say the 1980s, in Savannah, GA, the eccentricities of the wealthy and the peculiarities of those who aren't wealthy at all, and about grudges, petty spats, power struggles, sexual mores, hypocrisies, and secrets, racial realities, and other aspects of life in Savannah.

But, this book would have come to a much earlier conclusion if Jim Williams were of modest means. Instead, it covers a span of nearly ten years because Jim Williams can afford to be tried repeatedly for having killed Danny Hansford. 

I have about twenty pages left to read and the trials are not over, nor do I know what the future holds for Jim Williams. 

2. A dimension of this book that I find fascinating (from afar) is that Jim Williams seeks help in the midst of his trials from Minerva, a woman living in Beaufort, South Carolina, who practices voodoo. The book's author, John Berendt, takes us into Minerva's world of voodoo, her world of roots, powders, rituals, incantations, graveyards, and more.  

Not only does Jim Williams seek spiritual aid from voodoo, he is also certain that through mind control, through sustained mental concentration, he can bring about results he desires in his life. He practices this commitment by spending hours playing a game of his own creation called Psycho Dice in which he exercises his mental concentration to bring about the dice rolls he desires.

3. While I've been reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, I've had the Sirius/XM station Real Jazz playing at a low volume in the background. Mostly, I don't really hear it, but somehow it's perfect, even if at a subconscious level, as accompaniment to this book. Every once in a while the music pulls me away from the book. Say Dave Brubeck's combo is playing "Take Five". Or say the station suddenly features the vocalist Samara Joy. I surely do not know if jazz music is popular in Savannah, but in my little world of reading and having jazz music on, the fit is just right. 

Three Beautiful Things 10-10-2024: Hold On Partner, Things Darken in Savannah, December Trip -- Maybe

 1. Every day this week, until today, I seem to have forgotten that I had quite a bit of laundry to wash and dry. I was all set to leave the house this morning when suddenly the laundry lightning bolt struck me. 

"Hold on, partner!" I uttered to myself. 

Then over the next few hours, I got my laundry done. 

2. While my clothes spun and tumbled and dried, I met a few more eccentric Savannahians in the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and began to get more and more peeks at the corruption in many of these wealthy people's lives. Violence began to rear its ugliness and suddenly, at the of the book's Part One, a murder occurred. 

I'm fascinated to see where things go from here. 

3. I'm not sure how public the news I received today is, so I'll keep it vague. 

I'll just say that the news gives me a really good reason to travel to Eugene in early December.

I don't think it's a very good idea, just yet, to fly.

But if I continue to recover from the transplant well, if my immune system seems to be improving, and if the weather is decent (safe for driving), I definitely want to drive to Oregon soon after Thanksgiving weekend and be a part of the event I learned about today. 

I'll discuss it with the transplant team -- see what they think. 

On the positive side, I'm happily encouraged by not having any problems after the birthday party at Trout Creek, MT, gathering with people at Don Knott's Celebration of Life after the service, and spending three nights at the Wildhorse Resort. 

My hopes are high.

Three Beautiful Things 10-09-2024: Mandated Flu Shot, Cardboard Out, Eccentric Citizens of Savannah

1. My recent visit to the transplant clinic, on September 30th, included this conversation. My white blood cell count had been low and I wanted to make sure I didn't do something dumb. 

Me: Should I go in for a flu shot?

Dr. Murad: Yes! Absolutely! As soon as possible. But wait a couple of weeks or so after the flu shot for a Covid shot. Contact us before you go in for that shot and we'll review your blood work and tell you if the time is right for it. (Note: I have a clinic visit on Oct 28th. I'll discuss the Covid vaccination then.)

Me: Sounds good. 

I was leaving for the Wildhorse Resort the next day, so I didn't call the clinic uptown until Monday and made an appointment to get a flu shot today. 

It was easy and I was especially happy that the woman who vaccinated me was learning her job, so I got to be a part of her education. I always like being involved in sort of helping new professionals gain experience. And learn.

2. The cardboard had begun to pile up just a bit too much in the garage and so I loaded up the back of the  Sube and blasted out to the transfer station and tossed the boxes and other pieces in the cardboard bin. It is always a relief to me when I make the garage a bit tidier. 

3. As I reached about the halfway point of Chapter 6 of Part One of John Berendt's book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, I realized, in kind of a duh! moment, that Berendt devotes each chapter in Part One to a different eccentric Savannah resident. 

It's fun. 

Through his descriptions of and stories about these citizens, his portrait of Savannah itself fills out. 

My sense is that he is setting the foundation for a more dominating Savannah story to come -- maybe it will develop in Part Two of his book. 

I'll soon find out. 

Three Beautiful Things 10-08-2024: Blood Work and Ultrasound and Results, Blueberry Muffin and Hustling Back Home, Dreaming of a Return to Savannah

1. I hopped into the Camry at dark o'clock (6 am) this morning and soared into the metropolis of Spokane for another visit to the Sacred Heart Outpatient lab for bloodwork and, a bit later, to the Radiology department for an ultrasound of my new kidney. 

The blood work encouraged me. My creatinine levels continue to inch down, my white blood cell count is back in range, my potassium and magnesium levels stayed in range, and everything else, with one exception, was stable. 

Later in the day, my tacrolimus results parachuted into my smart phone. The transplant team would like to see the levels of this immunosuppressive drug be a bit higher in my bloodstream, so they made a small adjustment to my dosage. 

I'll be interested next week to see if or how much this slight increase in my tacrolimus dosage brings down my white blood cell count. My fingers are crossed that the white blood cell count will stay in range. 

The ultrasound results were positive, overall. The only small concern is with the pressure on my artery in the transplant area is.  When I take and log my blood pressure twice a day, if my systolic number consistently goes over 150, the team wants to know. So far, over the last twenty-one weeks since the transplant, this hasn't happened.  I'll have another ultrasound in a month as a way of keeping an eye on this arterial pressure. 

2. I left the Sacred Heart complex and roared straight to Great Harvest for a muffin and coffee. For about two seconds it dismayed me that Great Harvest wasn't selling Morning Glory muffins today, but, my slight disappointment gave way to joy when I saw they were selling Blueberry Oat muffins instead. 

Bliss. 

While out and about, I got word that Keith would be swinging by some time today to blow out our sprinkler system. I let him know I'd be back in Kellogg around 1:30 and then I hustled into Trader Joe's and grabbed a few items -- I didn't poke around like I often do -- and then rocketed downtown and picked up Fire Season,  a book I'd ordered from Auntie's Bookstore. 

I fueled up at Costco in CdA and arrived home ahead of Keith swinging by, which he did about an hour later, and our sprinkler system is ready to hibernate. 

Everything worked out just right. 

3. I'm very happy that I'm not getting distracted and that I'm moving further and further into Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I officiated Scott and Cate's wedding in Savannah back in 2016, in October, and this book moves me to want to go back. Thanks to John Berendt's book, I would see Savannah and its many squares with more informed eyes and it would be fun to trace the footsteps of this book's forays into Savannah. 

I enjoyed Savannah a lot in 2016,  even in my ignorance. Today, I can imagine travel scenarios that would get me there, especially because Debbie's cousin has a vacation condo in Hilton Head, SC, not far from Savannah. 

Three Beautiful Things 10-07-2024: Buying More Books, Business Day, Fun Chicken Tenders

1.  Update on reading through the Leah Sottile book list: Right now I do not have any of the remaining books I will read from her list in my possession. I ordered them all today, buying every book I could from Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane and the other two from Better World Books. Since I make regular medical trips to Spokane, I'll pick up the books I order from Auntie's, all but one were not on their shelves, at their store. 

While I wait for these books to come in, I'm sticking with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil  by John Berendt, a book I've started about three times before getting distracted by who knows what! but I can tell that I won't back down this time. 

It's what's called a non-fiction novel. It's set in Savannah, GA. So far, Berendt portrays Savannah as an eccentric city. It's fun early on.

2. I bore down today and took care of some business: flu shot appointment -- as ordered by the transplant team --, appointment for sprinkler system blow out, and some money matters. It's always a relief when I don't procrastinate and just jump on this kind of stuff. 

3. A week ago, I bought a package of Trader Joe's Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Basil Chicken Tenders and gave them a try tonight with broccoli and brown rice. 

It worked!