Three Beautiful Things 02-22-2026: Family Dinner Crab Feed, "What a Dump!", Delicate Balance: My Sleep and Gibbs' Needs

 1. Lately, most of our family dinners have been on Sunday, but this weekend we met on Saturday because it's the weekend of the Elks Crab Feed. I drove up to the Elks around 3:30 and purchased our crabs and Christy, Paul, and Carol arrived at 5:00. 

Christy brought a superb crispy fresh Caesar salad, Romaine lettuce with Parmesan cheese over the top and we had the choice whether to add croutons (awesome croutons) and anchovies (I loved anchovies on mine) and whether we wanted Caesar (my choice) or Italian dressing. 

Carol brought fresh and delicious ciabatta bread seasoned with terrific herbs. 

Our crab was fresh, tender, moist, and delicious and we had a great time cracking, pulling, making noises of satisfaction, and talking about a wide array of topics. 

2. I admit it. 

I'm self-conscious about how the house looks when I host family dinner. This is only a problem because I regard myself as a lousy house cleaner. I gave the sweeping, vacuuming, cleaning of surfaces, spiffing up of the bathroom, and clearing up of the piles of papers and books and other things I like to have out in plain sight a strong effort, but I look at the areas I've cleaned and always think the job could be done better. 

No one hassles me these days about how crummy I spiff things up, so this sense of falling short is coming from within me. 

Luckily, when Christy, Carol, and Paul arrived, not one of them drew upon the movies and said in their best Bette Davis (Beyond the Forest) or Elizabeth Taylor (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf) voice, "What a dump!". 

3. Here's what else is on me. 

First of all, the good news. Sleeping later than I used to has helped improve the mild vertigo/dizziness/lightheadedness/brain fog I've been waking up with over the last eight months. 

But, there's another complicating factor. 

His name is Gibbs! 

Now, for me this is sleeping in: Saturday morning I didn't get out of bed until about 8:45. 

I discovered that Gibbs had needed to go out earlier.

I could tell from the quantity of what he voided that he'd been holding his solid and liquid waste for a long time. 

He rarely goes in the house, by the way. 

So, I need to continue to get the sleep I need and also I need to do whatever it takes to make sure Gibbs goes out back in a timely manner. 

Gibbs and I can work together and make this work! 

He's a very good boy. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-20-2026: Recorded Marches Return to My Life, Tax Returns Accepted, Friday Afternoon at The Lounge

1. Leonard Oakland played two or three marches at the end of his classical music show this past Sunday. A day or two later, Preston Trombly played a march on his show. 

I hadn't heard marches played on classical music radio before and it uplifted me. 

Why?

Hearing these marches transported me back to when I was a youth and, through the Columbia Record Club, our family possessed an LP of marches called The New Andre Kostelanetz Wonderland of Sound: Star Spangled Marches. 

From the time that album came through our front door on through high school, if I had the house to myself, from time to time I played these marches and would watch myself in a mirror we had in the living room conduct Kostelanetz's orchestra. 

I loved playing marches in band, loved the baritone horn parts in these marches, and loved hearing them played on this LP. 

So, hearing Leonard Oakland and Preston Trombly play marches on the radio made me wonder if our family still has the Star Spangled Marches in its possession. 

I texted Carol, our family archivist, and she looked at the LPs archived in hers and Paul's basement and lo and behold, yes!, we have the album. 

I don't have a turntable, though. 

But, no need to mope around about that. 

There's YouTube! 

Someone uploaded this album being played, with the great pops and hisses our vinyl LPs made, on YouTube and it won't be long until I play the album, let it get me fired up, and, who knows? -- I might resurrect my orchestra conductor fantasy from when I was a boy and a teen! 

Want to check it out? Here's the link: The New Andre Kostelanetz – Wonderland of Sound Star Spangled Marches

2. I like to file our income taxes as early as I can for no other reason than I don't enjoy having that task hovering over me when I put it off. 

I dutifully started a Taxes 2025 folder and as each income report came in the mail, I put it in the folder. 

But Debbie's W2 from the Kellogg School District never came, so earlier in the week, Debbie called the district office and I went over and picked up a copy of it. 

So today I got them done and before long I got that most welcome message from both the federal government and Idaho's: Return Accepted.

3. Taxes filed, the two Bud Zeros I drank when Ed and I met at The Lounge were especially refreshing. It was a good hour at The Lounge. Seth and Cas were talking baseball when I arrived and I got in on a little bit of it. It was Wallace Day at The Lounge and so I got to yak a little with Rob Gillies and Don Beehner, baseball teammates from the American Legion days. Doug Y. wanted to know what was new in the Sunnyside neighborhood this week -- he asks me this on Fridays -- and I could only report that a logging truck that had spilled its load and was parked up by McDonald's on Wednesday. 

I got caught up on the timetable for Ed's cancer treatment. He's getting close to having a pill treatment come to an end at the end of April. It's good news. This treatment has been effective and has been a source of ongoing discomfort for Ed. He continues to push through it, but it'll be good not to have to push himself when this therapy concludes. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-19-2026: (Valerie Saari's Obituary) Gibbs Gets Groomed, Great Appointment with Dr. Bieber, Learning More About Music

A brief prologue: Our beloved KHS Class of 1972 classmate Valerie (Saari) Young died on February 7th and today her obituary appeared at the Yates Funeral Home site. Her Celebration of Life will be held on March 21st from 1=3 at the Blackwell Hotel, 820 E. Sherman in Coeur d' Alene. Here is the link to Valerie's obituary:  Obituary information for Valerie Joyce Young

And now, today's blog post: 

1. We should all have a place to visit in our lives where someone is as glad to see us as Robin is glad to see Gibbs at Mutley Makeover. 

I think in his own canine way, Gibbs picks up on the boisterous welcome Robin gives him and he is happy and excited to be at the groomer. 

I always feel good leaving him with Robin. 

And, when I returned to pick up Gibbs up a couple hours or so later, he was leaping nearly as high as my waist, happy to feel clean and groomed and happy at the prospect of returning home. 

For Gibbs, it's all good. 

2. Dr. Bieber, the nephrologist I see at Kootenai Health (he comes to Smelterville once a month), is  much more low key than Robin. 

When I walked into the exam room, he didn't say anything like, "Oh! Billy, Billy, Billy! It's sooo good to see you" in a special voice reserved for his patients. 

No, Dr. Bieber got right down to business and I told him that when I get up in the morning, I continue to feel -- well, I don't know exactly what to call it - dizzy? foggy brained? light headed? groggy? wobbly? 

This sensation is not as strong as it was last summer and into the fall. Back then, I sometimes couldn't walk straight and the sensations in my head would last much, sometimes most, of the day. 

I used to try to be out of bed in the morning between 6 and 7 o'clock, but it's helped this problem to sleep longer in the morning until about 8 or 8:30. 

Dr. Bieber thought it might also help if I reduced the dosage of one of my meds. 

I'll try that. 

It would be fantastic if this experiment works, even though these sensations have not kept me from doing the things I want and need to do, I'd be very happy to feel clear-headed first thing in the morning. 

Now the awesome news: as Dr. Bieber and I reviewed my lab results, he not only told me how happy he was with them, he said he couldn't imagine me doing much better. 

Most of my numbers are stable, others have improved (cholesterol and protein in my urine), the viruses they always check for are negative, the tests I've taken to assess rejection risk have shown me to be not at risk, and my tacrolimus levels are right where the docs want them. 

Everything looked great. 

I see the transplant team in Spokane in mid-May for my 2nd anniversary check up. 

I'll see Dr. Bieber a couple of weeks after that so that he and the transplant team and I are all on the same page. 

I might very well be moving toward the promised land of labs every three months, Dr. Bieber every six months, and the transplant team once a year. 

Dr. Bieber was all smiles as we wrapped up our short and most positive appointment. 

I was so happy I drove straight to Silver Peak Espresso and bought myself a 16 oz triple latte. 

3. I listened to couple more Great Courses lectures today and it's starting to sink in what made Beethoven such a titanic figure in the development of classical music and I'm beginning to understand the impact he had on composers who came after him and formed what we now call the Romantic Period. 

I learned how composers, following Beethoven's lead, put self=expression ahead of writing compositions within the demands of forms they had inherited and figured out ways to make these compositions coherent while working outside of traditional structures. 

I learned more about Schubert and The Elf King, a gorgeous piece of program music.

I learned more about Chopin devoting himself to miniature compositions and the intricate beauty of his etudes, preludes, nocturnes, and other genres. 

I'm not sure I'll ever be able to take in and remember all the technical details about structure and form that Professor Greenberg covers in these lectures, but I'm learning more about music history and the genius of one composer after another, making the time I'm committing to listening to this course a most worthwhile undertaking -- in fact, it's a source of joy, just the kind of learning and enjoyment I had hoped I'd give myself over to in my retirement. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-18-2026: Early Morning Snow -- Should We Stay or Should We Go?, Easy Drive to Airway Heights, Spinning Reels and Eating Lunch

1. Big day today. 

Ed, Jake, and I all laid modest wagers on the Seahawks and our plan was to go to the Spokane Tribe Casino today and pick up our winnings. 

Then play. 

When I woke up around 7:00 this morning, nearly the first thing I did was check if anyone had posted on the Facebook group called 4th of July Pass Info/Discussion. 

At this hour today, people who'd been on the pass strongly recommended other drivers to stay home.

They reported jack-knifed semis and blocked lanes. One guy described it as a sh*t show. I texted Ed and then he called me to say Jake wanted to keep our plans, 

Ed agreed. 

He thought things would improve soon. 

I trust their experience and knowledge and had no problem agreeing that, yes, we would go. 

2. Before talking with Ed, I checked the sidewalks in front Christy's house and mine. 

I decided I wanted to shovel them, so I told Ed that I'd arrive at his place once I shoveled our sidewalks and I knew I also needed to take care of Gibbs and Copper and remember to take my morning pills.

I got everything done, arrived at Ed's shortly before 9:00, and we piled into his pickup and drove to Rose Lake Junction where Jake awaited us at the gas station on down Highway 3. 

Indeed, by now, the freeway was free of snow. 

Any semis that had been jack-knifed were no longer in sight. 

We had an easy drive to the casino.

3. We arrived and immediately cashed in our winning tickets. 

I beelined straight to the coffee stand for a big latte and a thick slice of banana bread with nuts. 

I then hopscotched around the casino floor, masked and wearing vinyl gloves, and enjoyed playing games that were new to me and revisiting old favorites. I enjoyed the suspense, the ups and downs of winning and losing I almost always experience. 

Around 1:00 the three of us met in the sports bar area and, like the last time we visited this place, I enjoyed a smashburger with Swiss cheese and a salad's worth of tomato, lettuce, and onion piled on it. I also enjoyed my fries. 

We messed around for about a half an hour after lunch. 

I had fun childhood memories wash over me as I played the Casper the Friendly Ghost machine and even managed to hit a wheel spinning bonus. 

Fun time. 

Easy drive back to Rose Lake and on to the Silver Valley.

None of us had big winnings to brag about, but no one came out of the casino wearing a barrel either. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-17-2026: Torn: On the One Hand and On the Other, Comforting Shrimp Stir Fry

1. I was torn between two things today: I wanted to drive to Whitworth University and hear Kelly Packer talk about her paintings of Butte, see the paintings, and read the poems accompanying the paintings, written by her husband, Adrian Kien. Christy, Carol, and I will go see this exhibit on Feb 24 and I thought hearing Kelly Packer's 5:30 talk would be illuminating and something I could share with my sisters. 

2. On the other hand, I was tired. 

I'd be going to Spokane with Ed and Jake Wednesday morning. 

I didn't know if I really wanted to drive from Spokane to Kellogg again in the dark. 

I stayed home. 

I rested. I started a kitchen cleaning job. I enjoyed Gibbs on my lap. I created a list of places Christy, Carol, and I might go for breakfast on Feb 24 and sent out that list. Copper and I listened to the beginning of a lecture on Beethoven. 

I went to bed early, disappointed not to hear Kelly Packer, but glad not only for the rest, but for the fact that our February Sibling Outing next week will include a visit to this exhibit. 

3. I also comforted myself with a delicious shrimp stir fry that included onion, celery, broccoli, mushrooms, spinach, chicken gyoza potstickers, and basmati rice. 

Such warming and delicious food took some of the edge off of my disappointment. 

I'm sure glad the occasional Thursday symphony lectures I enjoy take place at noon. 

I know if Kelly Packer's talk could have been earlier in the day, my energy would have been better and I would have gone for sure. 

It's all good. 

I could, but I simply don't push myself to do everything I want to. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-16-2026: Worship in London, Lab Results Look Promising, Anniversary Family Dinner

1. It filled me with joy to learn that Adrienne and Jack worshiped at Westminster Abbey on Sunday. 

2. Unless I'm forgetting something, I think all of my lab results from Friday are in and I'll be heading to my appointment with Dr. Bieber on Thursday optimistic that he'll tell me that the results show both stability and some improvement. 

3. We celebrated Taylor and Cosette's second wedding anniversary this evening. It was a special family dinner. Christy organized it around sirloin steaks that Paul cooked and in addition to the steaks, we started with shrimp cocktail and, for the dinner itself, I contributed a green salad, Carol fixed a very good potato dish, and, for dessert, Christy brought a strawberry swirl cheesecake. 

Bucky seemed grateful that his mom and dad got married and joined in the celebration by demonstrating that he can walk and by eating the different food items placed on his highchair tray. 

It was a fun evening full of conversation about a wide array of topics, both serious and jolly. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-15-2026: Christy's Flavor Packed Granola, Leonard Oakland Played Marches, Enhancing Saturday's Soup

1.  The granola Christy made at home and put in my Valentine's Day gift bag was loaded with flavor. I especially enjoyed the raisins, dried fruit, and walnuts. 

2. I listened to Leonard Oakland's classical music program on Spokane Public Radio at ten o'clock and the rousing conclusion of his show featuring "I Love a Parade", "Col. Bogey March", and "Strike Up the Band" came as a rousing surprise, not what I thought I'd hear after two hours of Beethoven, Baroque music, and other, to me, more expected classical pieces. 

3. I thought I'd see what it would be like to add Trader Joe's Chicken Gyoza Potstickers to the Chicken Thai Noodle soup I made yesterday and they were an awesome addition. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-14-2026: Gibbs Joins the Spokane String Quartet, About This Blog, Chicken Vegetable Noodle Soup

 1. I met the appointment I had at noon today to listen to Spokane Public Radio's program "Concert of the Week". This show features recordings of local and regional live concerts. 

Today, the featured concert was from Sunday, February 8th when the Spokane String Quartet played at the Fox Theater. 

The quartet opened with Haydn's String Quartet No. 66 in G Major and then played Bartok's String Quartet No. 1 in A Minor. The spirit and emotional content of these two pieces stood in contrast to each other, with the Bartok quartet being a much more solemn and melancholy piece.

The concert closed with Robert Schumann's String Quartet No. 1 in A Minor. 

Soon after this composition got underway, the quartet became a quintet: the fifth member was Gibbs, adding his protective barking to the more melodious sounds of the two violins, viola, and cello. 

Gibbs was protecting me from Christy who was delivering a bag of Valentine's Day sweets to me and next door neighbor Jane and, I think, Jane and Christy conversed for a while and Gibbs had to protect the house from the potential danger of spoken human conversation. 

Gibbs seemed under rehearsed. 

He also seemed to want to pull Schumann into the 20th century when composers experimented more and more with dissonance and irregular rhythms and tempos. 

But, the string quartet wasn't in the mood for Gibbs' avant garde contributions and I think that very dirty look from the cellist might have shut Gibbs up. 

2. Fellow Whitworth alum and forever friend Deborah and I texted back and forth today about posterity. She has written two books via Storyworth about her life, values, family, interests, pet peeves, travel, hopes. She had a set bound for each of her grandson's, hoping that at some point in their lives they would be curious what their grandmother thought, valued, and experienced. 

She asked me if I had considered doing something similar with my blog. 

I haven't. 

But her question got me thinking about what this blog has become to me. 

kellogg bloggin' and I will celebrate our 20th anniversary in October. 

I'd say that even though I've never come right out and said so, that this blog has been about what I was doing day to day while struggling with mental health problems until they miraculously vanished in mid-2009; it's been about my day to day life while living with Chronic Kidney Disease and then being listed for a transplant; in 2020 and on into 2021 it became a COVID blog, documenting how I kept my life meaningful and fulfilling while living very cautiously, mostly indoors, especially during the worst of the pandemic; more recently, I've hoped readers would see that I'm documenting how I've been living with a kidney transplant and all that come with it; and, finally, since 2018, when Debbie took a long term sub job in Eugene and then for months long stretches when Debbie has been helping family back east, this has been a blog about living alone for months at a time. I've been determined all this time, even when alone and quarantined (my choice), to make the most (or close to the most!) out each day and write about it. 

I have come ardently to believe that this positive writing, whatever its quality and whether or not it's interesting to others, has contributed mightily to the success I've had living on an even keel and enjoying so many things in my life, especially over the last, oh, eight years. 

By the way, one of the sources of great pleasure and happiness in my life from about 2011 until the transplant in May 2024 was drinking a wide array of craft beers in a most enjoyable variety of places. 

I miss that. 

But, thank goodness, hard as it might be to believe, there's more to life than beer! 🍻🍻🍻

3. After all, there's soup.

Last night, I had fun making a chicken and Thai wheat noodle soup.

I began with bacon. Once it had fried in the Dutch oven, I pushed it up the side of the pot and cooked chopped onion, celery, red pepper, chopped carrot, and a few chicken tenders. Later I added chopped zucchini and sliced mushrooms and when these ingredients had cooked up to my satisfaction, I added a quart of chicken broth, two packages of Thai wheat noodles, and frozen chopped spinach. 

I salted the soup, let it cook very slowly for a half an hour or so and ladled it into a bowl and added a few shakes of liquid amino. 

The vegetables and noodles worked great. The soup's warmth was a great comfort, as was the chicken. 

Christy gave me a bag of peppermint-y cookies, along with granola and a sweet chex mix, and the cookie was a perfect dessert. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-13-2026: Blood Draw and Stable Numbers, Will Vincent Van Gogh Help Me Keep Track of My Checkbook?, Burgers at the Elks

1. Unlike yesterday morning, today I unfolded myself slowly to a sitting position on the edge of the bed at 6:45 a.m. and gave myself a little pep talk, creaked liked the rusted Tin Man to my feet, brushed my teeth, ran a brush through my hopeless hair, and talked myself into getting on the ball and driving to CdA for labs. 

I let Gibbs out, put food in his dish and Copper's, filled a water bottle, gathered up the other things I needed and at just after 7:30 I blasted down Cameron Ave, merged onto I-90, and continued to wake up as I drove over the 4th of July Pass, into Coeur d'Alene, and eased into a parking spot at the lab. 

I'd been fasting for twelve hours and once I was in the waiting room, I could see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: soon after the blood draw and peeing in a cup, I'd be seated at a window, having made my order at the titanic Big Blue Coffee Co., and I'd be eating a heavenly chocolate chip croissant and drinking a velvety 16 oz latte. 

All that happened but the really gratifying payoff was still to come. 

A couple hours or so later, my lab results started parachuting into my phone and I am thrilled to say that from my non-professional, amateur nephrologist point of view, the numbers looked solid and stable. I rode the wave of joy I felt receiving that news on through the rest of the day. 

2. I didn't leave Cd'A right away. I had a few things to do: I fueled the Camry at Costco; I made some delicious purchases at Trader Joe's; I went through the car wash at Squeaky's; I drove home. 

I discovered yesterday that I have either misplaced my checkbook in the house or else it fell into the wastebasket near where I write out checks and is now in a plastic garbage bag deep in landfill somewhere. 

I had no problem determining what checks were unwritten in the book of checks I can't find and called the credit union and put a stop payment on those checks just to be on the safe side. 

Soon after that, a small parcel arrived on the porch. 

It was my new checkbook cover. 

My checks will now be in a cover decorated with Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night. 

My hope is that Van Gogh's bold colors and shapes will make my checkbook stand out in the midst of all the other mundane colors and shapes in the area where I pay bills and make it less likely that I won't be able to find it. 

3. Nancy, Ed, and I met at the Kellogg Elks tonight for burgers. It was a relaxing and fun time. We saw some longtime friends. We had superb conversations. And, the real topper? The burgers were awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed the fries. We strode across the street after dinner to The Lounge and had more fun. I saw Becky for the first time in ages. We had fun yakkin' with Bob. Men flew at high speeds on a tiny sled down a steep, curvy ice course on the television. 

Oh! And, by the way, after I returned home from CdA, Debbie called and we got to spend some time yakkin' and not figuring anything out. It's good we're both used to not having things figured out and can move forward not knowing what we're doing. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-12-2026: No Blood Draw Today, Updates from Debbie and *People* Interviews Our Niece, Tofu is Faithful and Came Through Again Today

 1. It's blood draw time again. I have an appointment with Dr. Bieber a week from today and, ideally, I would have gone to Coeur d'Alene this morning and had it done. 

I need to be finished with these blood draws by no later than about 9:00 a.m. because I can't take my 8:00 meds until the blood draw is completed. 

Haven't I explained this in other blog posts?

Starting in about July of 2025, I began waking up every morning with a mild headache and most mornings I was unsteady on my feet and my mind was foggy. These symptoms always diminished as the day progressed and didn't keep me from doing the things I needed to do: cook, feed Copper and Gibbs, shop, drive to CdA for blood draws and Spokane for appointments and specialty blood draws there, nor did these symptoms stop me from having fun on Winning Wednesdays! 

I did, however, discover at some point, that everything went better if I slept a little longer in the morning than usual.

For quite a while, it was my habit to be up and an 'em around six in the morning, sometimes a little later. 

That wasn't working any longer and it has helped me a lot to sleep until 8 o'clock or so.  

This morning I woke up around 7. It would have been a great time to get up, take care of Gibbs and Copper, and head to CdA.

I knew, however, I needed more sleep and I didn't get up until about 8:30 or so -- too late for labs. 

Therefore, I'll go to CdA tomorrow, no matter what! 

2. My need for more sleep turned out to be fortuitous.

Just as I was sitting on the edge of the bed, petting Copper, and clearing the cobwebs out of my head, Debbie called. 

She updated me on what's going on in her world, which I always appreciate learning, and I let her know that I was dong much better than I had been over the weekend. 

Adrienne and Jack will be away, starting Saturday, so for the following week she'll be taking care of Elloise and the dog and two cats of the house. 

Later in the day, I discovered, just as Debbie texted me about it, that our niece Allison is featured in a People online story. She just gave birth to her second baby and she had posted a video on Tik Tok about her postpartum meal prep -- 72 hours' worth of food. 

Someone at People saw the video. People reached out to her and the article is up. It's right here. 

If you follow this link, keep scrolling down. You'll see the video, a handful of pictures, and the story, about twenty paragraphs long. 

3. I hadn't had the wok out for a while. Today, I took a break from fixing soups and because I had tofu in the fridge, I fixed a vegetarian stir fry.

I tried something a little different in making this stir fry. 

I fried the tofu first and once it was lightly golden, I went to work on the white onion, celery, sugar snap peas, green beans, mushrooms, and yellow pepper. I also cooked a batch of basmati rice. 

Eating this stir fry, it made me very happy to know that my forty-two year relationship with tofu is secure and that tofu always comes through for me, even if I am neglectful and forget for months at time to buy some and bring it home. 

Tofu is faithful. 

Tofu is always in my corner. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-11-2026: Getting Out Again, Lunch and Reels, Dream Pop Group Luna Takes Me Back to LCC

 1. Driving to Spokane yesterday, navigating the night driving just fine, and feeling so much better being out and about than I had felt at home inspired me, on the spur of the moment, early this afternoon, to drive to the Coeur d'Alene Casino and enjoy lunch and spin some reels for an hour or so and drive back home. I felt great the whole time. 

2. I ate a simple and very satisfying lunch: beef stew, garlic bread, and a half a garden salad. I then had a fun time playing a variety of machines (low stakes, as always) and managed to come home with a little more money in my wallet than I left with. I did what I can to protect myself and others against illness. I masked up and wore vinyl gloves while on the casino floor. 

It was all very relaxing and I had an easy drive home. 

3. With some intensity, I've been listening to classical music daily, usually for hours at a time, and I've been listening to a lecture series, doing my best to learn how to listen to and understand this magnificent music. 

Today, I took a day off. 

I returned to a LoFi subgenre sometimes called Dream Pop and listened to one of my favorite albums, Luna's Bewitched. The subjects of several of the songs are low energy slackers. They actually remind me of some of the guys I got to know, especially at LCC, in the classes I taught starting 35+ years ago. Nice guys. Mellow.  Non-committal. Wanting to get along, enjoy music, play hacky sack, toss frisbees, smoke weed, eat shrooms, go to shows, play around a little with ideas in class, but, all in all, pretty much coasting. They were chill. Those with dogs treated them very well. 

Sometimes some of these guys would drop out and then reappear again and, in many cases, something clicked. They'd become hungry for something more than chillin' and slackin' and started to add some seriousness to their lives.  

They taught me a lot, without knowing they did, about being young, male, and a bit at bay -- cagey enough to find ways to get by -- get food, fuel, weed, digs, cds, cassettes, into shows -- and I found myself not wanting to set them straight with proclamations about "when I was your age", but actually you know, I envied them a little bit. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-10-2026: Marshalling Energy, Unexpectedly Superb Conversations, The Concert

 1. Today, for about eight hours, I fervently hoped that I would feel energetic and well enough to drive to Gonzaga University to attend this evening's Gonzaga Symphony. I ate a huge breakfast. I rested. I napped. I did all I could to charge my inward batteries.

I succeeded. 

By about 4:00 or so I felt a surge of confidence that I could make the drive, be awake enough to enjoy the concert, and return home safely. 

My confidence was warranted and I arrived plenty early to the Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center, purchased a snack, drank a bottle of water, and found the seat I had purchased for this concert. 

2. My good fortune increased when the woman whose seat was next to mine asked me if I was connected to anyone playing in the Gonzaga Symphony.

I replied, "No. I just love music. How about you?"

She replied, "No. I play violin in the Spokane Symphony."

It was about ten or fifteen minutes before the concert began, and we had a superb conversation about the Spokane Symphony's program on Jan 31, books, theater, Shakespeare, music, movies, Slings and Arrows, and other stimulating and fascinating topics until the conductor strode to the podium. 

We visited more at the intermission, making this a most unexpectedly satisfying evening. I thoroughly enjoyed these two conversations completely focused on the arts and nothing else. 

We didn't learn a single thing about each other on a personal level, aside from learning about books we'd read, music we'd listened to, movies we'd seen, and a little bit about our professional lives -- mine as an instructor, hers as a musician. 

So rare. 

3. I loved the concert. 

The orchestra was, at least to me, huge, and most of the musicians were students, joined by some professional musicians to help fill out sections that needed them. 

I enjoyed the youth of this orchestra and enjoyed their verve and spiritedness as they played Mozart, Mussorgsky, and Saint-Saens. All three compositions, The Overture to Don Giovanni, Night on Bald Mountain, and Danse Bachanale, were energetic, fun to listen to (and must have been fun to play), and made the first half of the concert full of vitality and energy. 

The second half of the concert delivered not only profound vitality, but exquisite virtuosity. 

It featured one of the world's very finest violinists, Gil Shaham, as the violin soloist in Brahms' gorgeous Violin Concerto in D Major. 

I'd love to be able to describe Gil Shaham's command of the violin and his enthusiastic playing of Brahms' masterpiece, but I don't have words. 

All I can really say is this: over the week or so preceding this concert, I listened repeatedly to this concerto on Spotify. I wanted to gain some familiarity with it -- I'd never listened to it before -- and those many listenings paid off as I was able to follow the concerto fairly well and anticipate a bit of what lay ahead as the piece progressed. 

I felt especially profound job being in a concert hall, hearing this concerto live. 

I shook inside hearing Brahms' concerto filling the concert hall. The live orchestra in support of Gil Shaham's masterful performance made the whole experience rich, full, and gorgeous and I simply did not want this concerto to end.