Two Beautiful Things and A Solemn One 03-01-2026: Hospice Care for Bruce, Braising and Blanching, Asian Family Dinner

 1. I'm writing this blog post about Sunday, March 1st on Monday morning. 

On this Monday morning, Stu learned from Sally that Bruce Larsen will now be under hospice care. 

2. Bruce's condition occupied my mind and spirit all day.

Simultaneously, Carol had given me a family dinner assignment and I did my best to do it well. 

Carol asked me to turn a recipe called Braised Shiitake Mushrooms with Baby Bok Choy into an acceptable side dish. 

The only requirement of this recipe I had ever done before was make a stir fry sauce. 

I had never worked with dried Shiitake mushrooms. 

I had never blanched bok choy. 

I gave myself plenty of time for things to go wrong and got going on this. 

I started out by soaking the dried mushroom pieces I'd ordered from Amazon in warm water until they were soft.

I let them soak for about 45 minutes. I quickly sauteed minced garlic and ginger in the wok and then added the mushrooms and stir fried them for a little more than a minute.

I poured the sauce over the mushrooms, covered the wok, and slow cooked the mushrooms for about 45 minutes, stirring the mushroom pieces every fifteen minutes. Later, I made another cup of sauce (I did this outside the recipe) and after it heated up, I added corn starch and water. That thickened the sauce. 

While the mushrooms and sauce bubbled, I cut six baby bok choys in half, dropped them in boiling water for about two minutes and then bathed them in ice water for another minute.

I laid out the blanched bok choy in a baking dish and poured the mushrooms and sauce on top and my contribution was ready. 

(It worked.)

3. Carol planned tonight's dinner as an Asian meal. We didn't focus on the food of any one country. Carol prepared a superb Miso Congee with Honey-Miso Squash. She topped the congee with two medium boiled eggs. Congee was a new dish for all of us and I Ihope we'll bring it back. I know I want to make it at home. Carol also seasoned and air fried tofu and Christy brought a generous plate of pickled vegetables. Our dessert was All-American! Carol baked banana bread and it, too, was terrific. 

We had a lot to talk about: memory, developments at the Kellogg Public Library, PEO bookkeeping, classical music, and more. 

We ate at 3:00 in the afternoon. 

I liked this change from how we usually do things. 

Two Beautiful and One Solemn Thing 02-28-2026: Update on Bruce Larsen, Pre-Concert Fun in Downtown Spokane, An Invigorating Concert

 1. First the solemn news: Saturday afternoon, Bruce had his first dialysis treatment. Byrdman texted Sally to find out how Bruce handled it. Sally responded that Bruce doesn't know what's going on and probably handled the treatment as well as can be expected. On Saturday, Bruce couldn't communicate with the doctors, Sally, or anyone else. He didn't know who Sally was or that she was holding his hand. 

Bruce is now in acute care with the hope that the doctors can get a handle on Bruce's complicated condition. 

Bruce's brother Eric arrived in Spokane. Eric and Sally will return to the hospital Sunday. 

The current goal is to get Bruce coherent and aware. 

2. At 4:00 this afternoon, I met Kenton Bird at the Griffin Tavern. We had great conversation about an array of things, very much including a discussion of our classmate Bruce's situation. 

About forty-five minutes later, Kenton, Gerri, and I walked to the Mango Tree where we met Anne Franke. Kenton and Gerri know Anne from when Anne's late husband, Michael West, filled the pulpit at St. Mark's Episcopal Church and I knew Anne nearly fifty years ago when we both taught part-time at Whitworth in the late 1970s. In other words, it had been a long time since Anne and I had seen each other. 

Our reunion was a happy one. 

Mango Tree is a participant in the current Inlander Restaurant Week, and we ordered the appetizers, entrees, and desserts that were on the special Restaurant Week menu. We ate curry, naan, flatbread "pizza", noodles, chicken wings, different sherberts, and more and had plenty left over to box up.

Ours was a boisterous dinner overflowing with great conversation about books, music, our histories with each other, education, and more. 

3. We finished dinner and Anne drove us to the Fox Theater for tonight's concert performed by the Spokane Symphony. 

The concert focused on works by three great friends: Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms. The program featured guest conductor Shira Samuels-Shragg and guest pianist Wynona Wang.

It was, for me, a stirring concert featuring Robert Schulman's sweeping Manfred Overture, Clara Schulman's stunning Piano Concerto in A Minor and the, by turns, powerful, enthusiastic, and tender piano virtuosity of Wynona Wang, and Johaness Brahm's monumental Symphony No. 1. 

The music moved me. I had to restrain myself from moving my arms and hands and legs and head the way I would if I were alone and the music fed me emotionally, moving me to wish the concert would last another couple of hours. 

I am incapable of writing a critical review of a symphony concert.

All I know is that I love being in a beautiful theater like the Fox and enjoying the emotional peaks and valleys and contrasting tempos and dynamics of these inspiring compositions played live under the baton of an enthusiastic conductor and by vigorous musicians. 

Guest piano soloist Wynona Wang was especially vigorous, but also remarkably gentle when the score called for quiet restraint. 

Three Solemn Things 02-26 & 27-2026: Bruce to the ER, Visiting Bruce, Another Complication for Bruce

1. On Wednesday, February 25, around 10:30 p.m., Stu forwarded a text to me that he had received from our KHS classmate and lifelong friend. Bruce reported that in November, a biopsy revealed that the malignant melanoma, which had been in remission for many years, was back. He had two rounds of immunotherapy in mid-January and early February and at some time he caught a cold and it just kept worsening until on February 17th he went to the Valley Hospital ER in very tough shape. 

He's been in the Critical Care Unit ever since, but as you will read in a few minutes, on Friday or Saturday, he's being transferred to Deaconess Hospital in Spokane. 

2. Stu visited Bruce on Thursday morning with the idea that he and Bruce could have a talk about how Bruce felt and so on. 

That did not prove to be the case. 

Stu didn't know that Bruce was having a very difficult time breathing, that he could barely speak, nor did Stu know how tired Bruce is. He didn't expect Bruce to be out of it much of the time Scott was there. 

Scott and I worked to get the word out to our classmates and other of Bruce's friends just how seriously ill Bruce had become, with special emphasis on the fact that his cancer treatment was suspended and that the main concern was his respiratory difficulties. 

Today, Scott and I both visited Bruce. 

We both were glad that when Scott spoke to him, Bruce snapped awake and recognized us and looked happy to see us. Stu made some wise cracks about funny things from the past and while Bruce couldn't laugh out loud, it was clear from the look on his face that he enjoyed Scott's quips. 

On the other side of what we saw, Bruce had very little energy today and his breathing continues to be shallow and difficult. He managed to get some words out, but talking is very hard for Bruce. 

I came away from our visit feeling solemn about Bruce's condition.

I also came away very impressed with Sally's devotion to caring for Bruce. Bruce and Sally have been together for nearly 28 years and I could see how committed they are to one another and I thought I could see Bruce's gratitude for how Sally has been at his side for as many hours as possible during his time in the hospital.

3. As I was driving home from Cd'A after having the Camry serviced and eating lunch at Capone's, I pulled off in the chain up area at the bottom of the east side of the 4th of July Pass.

I knew some text messages had flown in.

Sally informed Scott and me that Bruce's kidney numbers were low and that he would be transferred to Spokane's Deaconess Hospital, I just learned, tonight (Friday). 

In light of this, she asked both of us not to visit Bruce. We both had plans to visit him on Saturday, Scott in the morning and I was going to be there in the afternoon. 

I left the chain up area and drove straight to the Inland Lounge and joined Jake and Ed at the bar where we talked about the serious matters at hand and enjoyed laughing about funny and wild stuff about Bruce in the past, the deep past and the recent past. I'm thinking of the golf lessons Bruce gave Terry Turner in Ed's Wildhorse Resort room just a year or two ago. I missed the lessons, but those who saw it agree: it was an epic Lars performance! 

Three Beautiful Things 02-25-2026: I Join Ed and Stu for Coffee, More Symphony Preparation, Macaroni Worked in the Soup

 1. Stu had a mission to accomplish this morning in the Silver Valley. Ed accompanied him.  They completed their task. They invited me to join them around 9:15 at The Beanery and we had a great time chewing the fat over coffee drinks of one kind or another. 

2. Today, I repeatedly played Robert Schumann's Manfred Overture. I'm entirely unfamiliar with it and want it to sound as familiar as possible when I hear the Spokane Symphony perform it Saturday night. I've gained much more familiarity with Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto and Brahm's First Symphony, both of which are also on Saturday's program, but I'll continue to listen to them, too. 

Getting ready to go to a symphony concert is, for me, the opposite of watching a movie.

Before I watch a movie, I don't want to know anything beforehand. 

Before I go to an orchestral concert, I want to know as much as I can learn about what's going to be performed. 

3. Macaroni in a curry soup?

I've had some leftover macaroni in the fridge for a couple of days. Tonight I planned on eating the shrimp curry soup I made a couple nights ago and thought why not see how the macaroni works in it.

After all, I love shrimp, love curry, and love macaroni. 

Turns out it was a happy marriage.  

Three Beautiful Things 02-24-2026: Brunch at Bruncheonette, Paintings of Butte at Whitworth, Fun Shopping and Delicious Ice Cream

1. I loved living in Maryland, but those three years, of course, keep slipping farther and farther away and I sometimes wonder if all of my memories are trustworthy. 

For example, did I keep reading about restaurants that served shrimp and grits? I know I never ate them in Maryland, or any other state along the Atlantic Ocean, but I kept thinking I ought to.

Today, I'm happy to say, I did it! I ordered shrimp and grits and I loved them. 

A little context: Christy, Carol, and I went on our monthly outing to Spokane today and I was in charge of today's activities.  

We made one essential group decision. I had two main activities in mind and wondered if Christy and Carol would like to have breakfast first and then go to our next activity or begin with the art gallery and then eat lunch. 

It was unanimous: breakfast first.

Actually, we had brunch first on W. Broadway, just off of Monroe St, at Bruncheonette. 

It's low key, simple medium-sized restaurant with daring and creative food choices and a full range of cocktails. 

I wondered, should I try Tamale Waffles, Chorizo Breakfast Tacos, Smoked Brisket Hash, or maybe Chicken and Waffle? 

My answer: none of the above. 

I ordered Shrimp and Grits. 

The shrimp were Cajun spiced accompanied by Andouille sausage, red peppers, and onion served atop a bed of creamy cheddar grits. I also ordered a side of two scrambled eggs and another side of toasted brioche with honey butter and strawberry jam. 

I loved this meal and decided to extend it into the evening by not eating all of my shrimp and grits, but bringing some home in a small container. 

That was smart. 

Christy enjoyed her Carrot Cake French Toast and Carol was very happy with the Roasted Veggie Scramble she ordered. 

I think we'll continue to try different restaurants on our monthly outings to Spokane, but it sure would be tempting to keep returning to Bruncheonette and work our way through more of the menu.

You can check out the menu here: Spokane Brunch Menu | Voted #1 for Brunch! | Downtown Spokane

2. We ate our brunch at a leisurely pace and then crawled up Maple St, Country Homes Blvd. and Wall Street, with a detour on Mountain View Lane, where my first wife and I lived fifty years ago, and on to College Road and made our entry into the Whitworth University campus.

I've been spending a lot of time over the last year or so exploring truths expressed non-verbally, primarily through visual art and instrumental classical music. `

Today, we visited the Lied Center for the Visual Arts, a most handsome facility,  at Whitworth and looked at Kelly Packer's paintings of Butte, MT in the Bryan Oliver Gallery. Accompanying most of the paintings were lines of poetry composed by her husband, Adrian Kein. 

Her paintings, to me, worked in two ways.

First of all, the painting represented the world of everyday houses in Butte as any one of us might see them. 

The structure of the houses, the things in the yards like trailers or a mini-trampoline, were all recognizable, as were power wires, street lights, slanted roofs, chimneys, awnings, and other details.

But the color schemes of these paintings did not represent what we might think of as photographic reality.

Packer painted yellow yards, pink sidewalks, multi-colored house exteriors and multi-colored windows, purple clouds, and used other unexpected colors to paint things otherwise familiar. 

How did I experience these unusual, vivid, and beautiful color schemes? To me these were the colors of dreams, longings, memories, hopes, disappointment, aging, and other elements of life in Butte expressed not in words but in the ways colors can help us feel different emotions, hopes, dreams, and grief. 

In other words, in much the same way as music, Kelly Packer made external what we experience internally. 

Were there one-to-one relationships between certain colors and certain emotions?

I don't think so. 

I did my best to let the paintings work on me in whatever way they did, trusting that the sadness I sometimes felt, the humor I experienced at other times, or the joy of possibilities that also hit me was genuine. 

I didn't wonder if my responses were right or wrong. 

3. After a stop near the intersection of Nevada and Hawthorne to drop off Christy's charitable donations, we buzzed to CdA and extended our outing a bit. 

Christy fueled her car at Costco. 

We did some shopping for fun and staple items at Trader Joe's. 

We then ended our day of fun visits at Panhandle Cone and Coffee in Midtown Coeur d'Alene. 

I crave ice cream all day, every day.

I resist these daily cravings and rarely buy ice cream for home and try to steer clear of places that serve ice cream.

Today, however, it was my idea to go to this teriffic ice cream shop in CdA and I thoroughly enjoyed my single scoop of ice cream that I've forgotten the exact name of, but it had "salted" and "peanut butter" in the title (I think). Christy was very happy with her Salted Caramel and Brown Butter Cookie ice cream in a waffle cone. Carol opted for a cup of green tea, in keeping with her current dietary plan. 

What an outing! Delicious food, some peering into our past, fascinating paintings, relaxing shopping, and a sweet conclusion. 

I am very happy we agreed to make our 2026 monthly outings centered on exploring and experiencing different aspects of Spokane. 

 

 

 

3. Christy had brought multiple bags of donations that we dropped off at a Goodwill near Hawthorne and Nevada and then we swooped into Coeur d'Alene for a fuel stop at Costco and some shopping at Trader Joe's.

We ended our Sibling Outing at Panhandle Cone and Coffee in Midtown Coeur d'Alene. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-23-2026: The Kenny Easley Story, I've Never Done A Lot of Things -- But This Week . . . ., Shrimp Curry Soup

 1.On Sunday I listened to Jeff Pearlman's podcast episode on Seattle Seahawk Hall of Fame inductee the late Kenny Easley. 

Kenny Easley died recently. 

I could make a long list of what Kenny Easley and I do not have in common: as a young athlete he was fast, quick, cerebral, passionate about football, and one of the best to ever play the safety position. 

We did, however, have one commonality: he did and I do deal with living with a kidney transplant because of Chronic Kidney Disease -- and in his case, kidney failure. 

His case was radically different from mine because he played football and the physical punishment and pain he experienced led him to take massive amounts of ibuprofen, a drug that can cause, especially in high doses, kidney damage. 

His failing kidneys forced him to retire at 28 years old in 1987 and fortunately he received a kidney transplant in 1990.

In telling Kenny Easley's story, Pearlman emphasizes the neglect Easley and other players experience while playing with injury, illness, and pain and how Easley responded to this neglect after his transplant. 

As it turns out, he also explains, without knowing it, why about ten years ago or so I quit watching football, a move I feel no self-righteousness about, that I would expect no one to join me in (football games can be riveting and very entertaining), and that had nothing to do with my kidney disease.  

I simply couldn't enjoy watching a game that was causing its players so much pain and serious injury.

When I quit watching, I didn't know a thing about Kenny Easley's story, but it is the next of many stories that moved me to make my decision. 

("Wait a minute!" you might be saying. "Didn't you watch this year's Super Bowl?"

"Yes I did. I decided to put my misgivings aside and join the family dinner party that Carol planned that day and it included watching the game.)

If you'd like to watch Jeff Pearlman's podcast, it's here: The NFL does NOT want you to know why Seahawks legend Kenny Easley died

2. I'm 72 years old and I've never watched a baseball game in Wrigley Field; never climbed to the peak of any of Oregon's Three Sisters; never cooked shrimp and grits; I've never seen a play at The Globe Theater in London or heard The Academy of St. Martins in the Field play live; I've never seen a ghost, gone deep sea diving, skied, dunked a basketball, bowled a 300 game, or drunk a pint of Pliny the Younger Triple IPA. 

And it took me this long, over 72 years, and it's only happened this week, to listen to the music of Robert Schumann and Clara Schumann and I was deep into my 71st year before I began listening with any focus to Johannes Brahms. 

I don't think I'll ever see the Mona Lisa or the Egyptian pyramids, go to Augusta, Georgia and watch The Masters or break bread and shoot the breeze with David Gilmore, but I am thrilled that when I shuffle off this mortal coil, I'll know I spent very fulfilling time listening in earnest and with joy to the music of Robert and Clara Schumann and devoted hours to enjoying Johannes Brahms. 

In fact, these three will be featured at this Saturday's (and Sunday's) Spokane Symphony concerts. As I've mentioned, I'll go on Saturday and my preparation this week to hear the three compositions, one by each composer, on the program has me eager to move beyond listening to them on Spotify and listening to music experts talk about them on podcasts and hear their masterpieces live. 

3. I wasn't sure my dinner soup idea would work tonight. 

For over ten years now, I've been making curry sauce with paste, coconut milk, soy sauce, fish sauce, and brown sugar. 

Tonight, I wondered what would happen if I made this sauce and then added a cup of chicken Better Than Bullion and turned the curry sauce into a broth for a soup. 

And, I wondered, how about if I sauteed white onion and celery, poured the curry soup broth over the top of it, and then added pieces of potato, cut up cabbage, green beans, and broccoli, cooked them slowly, and when these vegetables were tender, how about if I added about, oh, eight or so shrimp?

I got my answer tonight. 

It rocked my world. 

Scratched my itch. 

Bowled me over.

Swept me off my feet. 

Jolted me. 

Amazed me. 

Astonished me. 

It worked.  

Three Beautiful Things 02-22-2026: Mortality and the Divine in Classical Music, Listening to Leonard Oakland's Program, Preparing for Saturday's Symphony

1. To declutter the living room before Family Dinner a while back, I moved the book Christy gave me entitled Year of Wonder by Clemency Burton-Hill about five feet from the table next to the chair in the living room where I sit to read, write, and work puzzles over to the bottom shelf of our tv stand. The book is a day-by-day exploration of 365 pieces of classical music. The idea is to read Burton-Hill's reflection on the daily piece either before or after playing it (or both). 

Well, when I moved that book away from the chair, I might just as well have moved it to the top of Mt. Fuji. 

Today, I recoiled when I saw the book in a pile of book under the television. 

I realized I was just over two weeks behind, so I started to catch up. 

The music I listened to and read about ranged from explorations of the Divine to expressions of human confusion and suffering. 

This session of listening and reading felt autobiographical and expressed my experience with the Divine as well as my many periods of confusion and suffering better than any words could. 

The sacred music felt just right for Sunday and I experienced awe and wonder, including feelings associated with the gravity of all of our mortality, especially as I took in, for the very first time, a piece by Stefano Landi (1587-1639) called Homo fugit velut umbra which included, when translated, these lines: "We die singing, we die/playing . . .yet die we must./We die dancing, drinking/eating . . . yet die we must."

2. I started my day of listening in earnest when Leonard Oakland's weekly Sunday classical music show came on KSFC 91.9, the Classical station on Spokane Public Radio. I'm not sure, but I think lately Leonard has opened each show with brass music -- like the Canadian Brass or the Empire Brass -- and he did so again today, to my delight. I also very much enjoyed hearing Vivaldi's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra No. 2. 

All of his selections were exquisite, but, as I write week after week, the greatest pleasure I derive from Leonard's Sunday program is hearing his voice and his mind at work, still strong, just as it was when I first heard him teach and speak over fifty years ago at Whitworth. 

3. I didn't listen to classical music every minute of the day -- I did eat and launder  bedding and check the weather in Valley Cottage, NY to see if I could get some idea of how the big storm in New York has hit Debbie and Adrienne's family. 

But, I did begin a focused project of music listening this evening. 

On Saturday, I'll be joining Kenton Bird and Gerri Sayler and Anne Franke, another person I knew and worked with back in my days at Whitworth, for dinner and a Spokane Symphony concert. 

I like to be familiar with the music I hear at symphony concerts, so tonight I listened twice to Robert Schumann's Manfred Overture. I'll listen to it more and I'll get familiar with Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto in A Minor. 

I'm somewhat familiar with the program's third offering, Brahms' Symphony No 1 in C Minor, but I'll listen to it more and I'll listen to Joshua Weilerstein's podcast episode on this composition over at Sticky Notes. If you'd like to hear his presentation, here's the link: Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast: Brahms Symphony No. 1

Three Beautiful Things 02-21-2026: 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.