Three Beautiful Things 08-25-2026: Christy Gets Good News and Encouragement, Heating/Cooling Checks Out, *Farewell, My Lovely*

 1. I drove Christy to her orthopedic appointment at Kootenai Health. She saw the PA who was in the room when Dr. Blease replaced Christy's hip. PA Fields has a complete understanding of the condition of Christy's hip before surgery and talked with Christy about how things look three weeks after the procedure. 

Her assessment was positive. She cleared Christy to be able to bend down if she needs to pick up light things, say, off the floor. She encouraged Christy to spend time in her garden and busy herself with other light tasks, emphasizing that Christy proceed with caution, to use the walker outside and not overdo anything. 

PA Fields' encouragement and the clearances she offered were in step with Christy's PT session on Monday. The physical therapist she worked with cleared her to use a cane when walking indoors, but not outdoors. This will make things more convenient for Christy, especially when she moves back into her home on Thursday, unless something comes up that nixes that plan. 

2. I'm always relieved when the technician completes the annual review of our heating/cooling system and our furnace and reports that everything looks good. That happened this morning. 

3. While keeping watch over Copper this evening as he rested behind my Vizio Room chair with regular strolls to the bedroom and to the bathroom where he lay down in favorite spots in those rooms, I satisfied an urge I felt to watch a 1970s movie. The other day I watched Tombstone, a 1990s movie, and Repo Man from the 1980s, and this evening I delved into the world of 1970s film noir and watched Robert Mitchum play the role of Phillip Marlowe in Farewell, My Lovely. 

The movie definitely scratched my film noir itch. Its moody portrayal of 1940s Los Angeles, its convoluted plot, the way it features Charlotte Rampling playing a most fatal femme fatale, and the cool, cynical wit and shrewdness of Mitchum's portrayal of Marlowe gave me pleasure and, at the same time, made me feel disgust as I witnessed killing after killing and experienced the movie's exploration of heartless ruthlessness. Oh! And greed. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-24-2026: Christy Tours Her Back Yard, House Cleaning, Copper Squirms

 1. Christy posted on her Facebook page that she took a tour of her back yard and posted pictures of some of her flowers. Right now, her plan is to move back into her home on Thursday. She also had PT today and if there's any news about her workout, I can find out about it on Tuesday, Aug 25 when I take Christy to CdA for her first appointment with her surgeon's office since her surgery. 

2. I spent quite a bit of time getting the house spiffed up a bit to make things easier for the heating/cooling system technician to service our system on Tuesday, August 25. 

3. I don't have any news about Copper. His Monday was not much different from the previous two or three days. He wanders some, lies down a lot, and when I try to hold and comfort him, he does the same thing he's done for the last five and a half years: he squirms and insists on being left alone! 

Three Beautiful Things 08-23-2026: Return to Family Dinner, Copper Holds His Ground, Aging and Piecing Together the Past Life of My Mind

1. If you read this blog even somewhat regularly, you know that Christy's had a difficult summer: visits to ER, going into septic shock, time in the ICU, a hip replacement, and hours of rehab (which continues).

Understandably, our weekly family dinners have been on hold. 

Today, we returned to the family dinner table at Carol and Paul's and enjoyed marinated beef kebobs, grilled summer squash, grilled corn on the cob, cucumbers and tomatoes in vinegar and oil, a potato, green bean, mushroom, and bacon side dish, fruit salad, and snickerdoodle cookies with Butter Pecan ice cream. 

The late afternoon temperature was moderate, allowing us to dine outdoors. 

Christy's recovery requires us to work together on scheduling who is doing what when with Christy and we reviewed what's coming up and everything is in place for helping Christy get to her appointments and shuttle back and forth between her house and Carol and Paul's. 

2. An update regarding Copper: he held his ground today. His day was very similar to the last couple of days. He's drinking water, has no appetite for food, is properly using the litter box, and goes back and forth between lying behind the chair I'm sitting in now in the Vizio room and a place he's found to hide and lie down in the bedroom closet. Sometimes he returns to the towel on the floor he enjoys lying on in the bathroom. He does a little more wandering during the night -- I don't know this, but I think he's confused by no longer being able to jump on the bed. When I pick him up and put him on the bed, though, he doesn't stay long and retreats to one of his hiding places. 

3. One of the facts about being 72 years old is that ideas I worked with, say in the 1990s and early 2000s, whether in my work at LCC or as a member of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, are no longer fresh in my mind. Carol, Paul, and I talked for a while after dinner tonight about philosophical and theological movements, eras, writers, and ideas and my mind went back to ideas Rita and I introduced to our Philosophy/English Composition in the 1990s.  My mind also went back to lectures I attended given by theological scholars like Marcus Borg, Houston Smith, Karen Armstrong, John Dominic Crossan, and John Spong. 

Tonight, fragments of those thinkers' ideas and fragments of the philosophy material Rita and I assigned began to rise up in my mind, but, unlike about twenty years ago when all of this was fresh in my mind and my memory was sharper, tonight I got some things right, forgot other things, and made mistakes.  

I've been spending time this morning (it's Monday) fact checking myself, reviewing thinkers we talked about, and working to get things straightened out in my mind. 

I enjoy recovering these days from my past and am enjoying that much of this work to recover what used to be at the front of my mind instead of being in storage has been inspired by what I'm reading and have read as a new member of the Science/Nature Book Club at Auntie's Bookstore. 

Science. Nature. Philosophy. Theology. World religions. They're all connected to each other. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-22-2026: Christy Shuttles Again, I Keep an Eye on Copper, Relaxing Chicken Soup

 1. I know that for the second day in a row, Christy spent much of the day at her house. She's sleeping at night at Carol and Paul's, so after dropping her off in the morning, this afternoon they took her back to their house. Wanting to respect Christy's time to herself today, after a quick note this morning, I didn't ask her any questions during the day and she didn't volunteer any news. Such silence is usually a positive thing, indicating things went fine today. 

2. I laundered compression socks and dealt with heating/cooling filters and kept a close eye on Copper.  Copper keeps living another day, but continues to eat very little food, drink water, sleep a lot, and shrink. I would like to hold him and comfort him, but he refuses to be held. (He has enough energy to let me know that!) At night, he sleeps close enough to me that I can pet him as I go to sleep. I will confirm tonight that last night he lost the strength to be able to jump onto my bed, so I'll help him with that, if he needs assistance. 

3. I boiled a packet of party wings with chopped onion. I let the cooked chicken cool off and removed the meat from the bones. I then made chicken vegetable soup and added Japanese noodles. I let the vegetables provide most of the flavor along with the chicken and broth, but I did add Brag Liquid Aminos to the soup and I enjoyed what it added to its taste.  

Three Beautiful Things 08-21-2026: Christy Rehabs at Home/Returns to the Roberts' House, *Tombstone* and *Repo Man*, Back to The Lounge

 1. Thursday, when Christy went to her house, Paul and Carol were there, too. 

Today, on Friday, Christy did rehab exercises at her house and hung out there for several hours with Riley as her company. 

Carol swung by mid-afternoon and took Christy back to hers and Paul's house. Christy plans to spend Saturday at her house again, rehabbing and enjoying the comforts of home. Once again, she'll return to Carol and Paul's later in the day. 

2. I hadn't turned on the Vizio all summer. 

I returned to watching the old television today. 

Lately, repeated clips from the 1993 Western Tombstone have been popping up in my Facebook Reels feed. I remember going to see Tombstone thirty-three years ago, remember coming away from it astonished by Val Kilmer's performance as Doc Holliday. Today, I was astonished by Val Kilmer again and I enjoyed watching the stellar cast of this movie at work. 

I have no explanation for this, but the older I grow, the more I enjoy punk rock. 

I don't exactly seek out punk rock, but when it pops into my life online, I like how it hits me. 

Therefore, I decided to watch Repo Man, a classic 1984 independent movie with a punk attitude, punk music, a delirious and fragmented plot line, sharp satire, and wild absurdity. 

The Big Lebowski doesn't feature punk rock, but watching Repo Man reminded me of it. Each movie features a meandering and absurd plot, encounters with wild people and violence, and surreal quests. 

I also wondered if Quentin Tarantino might have borrowed, whether consciously or unconsciously, the movie's mysterious glowing briefcase from Repo Man which features a mysterious 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu with a glowing trunk. 

3. Ed and I have had a string of busy Fridays over the last several weeks that have kept us from meeting at The Lounge. Today, however, we were both free to meet shortly after 3:30 and enjoy cold beverages, get caught up on what's been going on, and have fun yakkin' with Cas. 

It was a very good session. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-20-2026: Christy Visits Her House, Thinking About Mutability and Science, Memories of Enjoying Summer Heat

 1. After her session at Physical Therapy on Wednesday, which included a reevaluation of her condition, Christy returned to Carol and Paul's house and wrote out a tentative schedule for the rest of the month that included visits to her house. 

Today she made her first visit home since she went to the local ER on July 31st. Paul and Carol drove her over and made sure she walked up the stairs on her front porch safely (she did). Christy saw for the first time the results of all the work Carol and Paul have done over the last nearly three weeks making her house safer. 

I had a couple of things to deliver to Christy and dropped in for a short visit. Paul and Carol were continuing their safety efforts and were running ideas and decisions by Christy. 

It was a good scene. 

Christy will return to her house tomorrow for much of the day while Carol and Paul take care of things in other parts of their lives and I'll be at the ready next door if Christy wants or needs anything. 

2. I read more chapters today of Kenn Kaufman's book, The Birds that Audubon Missed. Like the other five books I've read since joining Auntie's Bookstore's Science and Nature Book Club, this is a book I would have never known about, let alone read, had I not joined this club. 

I'm going to make an amateur's statement regarding what the books we've read have me wondering. It's one of the pleasures of blogging. I can write inklings, ponderings, wonderings.  They can be the thoughts of an amateur. 

I'll begin by saying that I do not think the world of nature, which includes human beings, is immutable. I don't think there's a fixed, unchangeable order at work in the natural/human world. 

We humans, however, seek to make order of the world's disorder. All the fields of science contribute mightily and importantly to this effort. 

In the book I'm reading, Kenn Kaufman writes a lot about the centuries long efforts by students of birds and bird scientists to identify and name species of birds and it's been a long effort of mistake and correction. Some birds are hybrids, the result of interspecies reproduction. Some birds' feathers change colors depending on the season. Birds' habits can change. Birds do not necessarily conform themselves to some kind of immutable natural order, but, at the same time, birds do act out things that have endured over time:  patterns of behavior, singing, migration, and consistent appearance. 

I've got a lot more pondering ahead of me as I learn more about the work scientists do as the subjects of their studies, whether plants, animals, humans, air, atmosphere, water, viruses, and more mutate and change, while also maintaining some patterns of predictability. 

The best minds, I've observed, are those which are flexible. They recognize and work with mutability. They recognize and work with the unknown and are willing to see, when it happens, that they were mistaken, whether in part or wholly, about what they thought they knew.  

3. I accept that as I grow older, certain aspects of my life diminish. 

I do miss -- and I think about it often -- when I could tolerate the heat of summer. I miss when I actually enjoyed being active in summer heat, whether hiking, playing baseball, golfing, working in the yard, riding a bicycle, or going on summer walks. 

Yes. I'm grateful we can keep our house cool.

I'm grateful that I enjoy having to staying indoors, out of the heat and out of the sun, because I can read books and listen to classical music and enjoy other indoor activities. 

All the same, I miss when I enjoyed and could tolerate the summer outdoors. So now I do the next best thing. I call up happy memories of when I could enjoy the heat. 

They pop to mind all through each summer day. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-19-2026: Breakfast with Lifelong Friends, Winning Wednesday, Christy Returns to the Fitness Center

 1. Abby, Jake, Stu, Ed and I met for a delicious breakfast and an hour or so of fun yakkin' at Nosworthy's in Coeur d'Alene. I enjoyed my chili omelet and am once again convinced that I need to work on making chili at home and push my omelet making project to another level by trying to make something like Nosworthy's Blazing Saddles myself. 

I hope you can tell from this picture that we had a great time getting together: 

2. Wednesdays mean one thing at the CdA Casino: Winning Wednesday! Ed and I jetted down after breakfast and spun reels for a couple of hours. We had a lot on our minds going down and coming back and so our conversations were terrific. I had fun playing different machines, had some fun spins that won me some money, but I didn't end up ahead. That's right. It was Winning Wednesday at the casino, but not a Winning Wednesday for me -- but, I must say, the casino did not break my bank so I kept my modest losses within a range I can easily live with! 

3. Christy returned to the Shoshone Medical Center's fitness center in Smelterville today. The session began with a reevaluation of her situation and the setting of new goals. (I don't know what they are.) She got back to doing strength exercises and she worked on the stairs. Going forward, Christy will have PT twice a week. She came home today with a notebook of home exercises, a notebook the physical therapists will continue to add to as Christy continues to work at home and at the center on attaining her goals. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-18-2026: Christy Gets Settled, A Longed For Discovery, Improving Balance

 1. Around 9:00 this morning, I texted Carol and Christy, wondering what kind of night Christy had and how things were going this morning. Christy's mind raced during the night so she didn't sleep very well, but she wasn't in much pain. She was in good spirits this morning, told me she didn't need any help from me, and I didn't hear anything else for the rest of day. 

I took this as a good sign that Christy exercised and her day was uneventful. 

Hope I'm right! 

2. Reading our Science and Nature Book Club's next selection, The Birds That Audubon Missed, got me wondering what's going a with the Audubon Society in Spokane. Next I'll check out Coeur d'Alene. By doing this, I learned that there's a wetland area near Greenacres called Saltese Flats along with the Doris Morrison Learning Center. 

After reading about this area and looking at pictures on flickr taken by Jack Baratta, a superb amateur photographer, it looks likely that I've discovered a place to go to fill the void left by no longer living near Eugene's Delta Ponds, Alexandria, VA's Huntley Meadows Park, and Washington DC's Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens and Ponds, three of my very favorite places to walk and take pictures. 

All I have to do is plan a trip to the Saltese Flats when the air is cool -- like early in the morning. 

(Btw, looking at Jack Baratta's flickr albums also brought back to mind that ever since we moved to Kellogg I had been thinking about going to the Turnbull Wildlife Refuge and haven't made that trip so far. Gotta change that!)

3. Reading all day has one drawback: I spend a lot of time sitting. 

Throughout the day, I put down my book and do exercises designed to improve my balance and make it less likely I'll fall. I enjoy doing them and fervently hope they are working, are doing the trick. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-17-2026: Christy Heads to Carol and Paul's, Big Pharma Harmless Phone Farce, Canadian Football League Connections

 1. At about 1:00 this afternoon, Carol rocketed up to the Shoshone Medical Center and picked up Christy. Yes, you read that right. Today the hospital discharged Christy and she will continue her rehabilitation at the rehab center in Smelterville, starting on Wednesday. On Wednesday, she will go over what the PT staff will have laid out are the goals and the plan for the next stage of her rehab. In the meantime, Christy will exercise her legs by walking with her walker in Carol and Paul's house (where she is staying now) and do exercises the physical therapy staff has given her to do at home. 

2. So that Christy could secure a new prescription drug on a free 30 day trial basis, I spent forty minutes or so, in a pharmaceutical farce of sorts, working with Carly, the Yoke's pharmacist, who authored none of the farce, and then calling a helpful representative at Squibb Pharmaceutical Company who asked me the right questions and then pushed the right keys on her computer to get the free trial card activated and processed. 

I managed not to get frustrated and to remain jolly As I endured recorded corporate messages, the options trees ("if you are a medical provider, push 2"), having to answer questions spoken to me by a robot, and eventually getting to talk with the human rep, I managed not to get frustrated and to remain jolly by imagining myself as The Dude ("this aggression will not stand, Squibb"), playing it cool, and trusting that I would get back my rug -- er -- I mean I would secure Christy's pills. 

And I did. 

3. It's not every day that telephone conversation with Debbie sends me onto the World Wide Web looking up connections between the Canadian Football League and Wallace, Idaho and also Whitworth College, but that's what happened today. When I looked into former Whitworth head football coach Hugh Campbell's extraordinary success coaching the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos (FIVE Grey Cups), somehow that led me to check up on some people I really enjoyed at Whitworth during the years of Hugh Campbell's tenure and it looked to me like they are living happy lives and so I had the sparkly feelings that come with combining late 1970s Whitworth nostalgia with the uplifting realities of the people I enjoyed doing well in the present.  

Three Beautiful Things 08-16-2026: RIP Mary Woolum -- Nine Years Ago, Christy's Pain and Laughter, Back to Reading

 1. It's August 16th. Nine years ago today our mother passed away sometime after 10:00 p.m. One of the nurses told me earlier in the evening that she thought Mom was very close to losing her life. When Carol and Paul went in her room and sang to her, they left shortly before 10:00. She was alive when they left. The nurse had told me earlier that it was likely that four of Mom's senses had most likely shut down, but not her hearing. I like to think that the last sounds she heard before passing away were Carol and Paul's singing voices accompanied by Paul on guitar. 

2. I visited Christy late this afternoon and brought her a bottle of sugar free A & W root beer from Carol and Paul's house.  

Christy had had pain in her right leg during the night that had kept her awake. She thinks it was a result of the working out she did Saturday. Some heat on her right leg and a pill relieved the pain and today she wasn't in pain and she had a good workout in the afternoon with her physical therapist. 

She also had a lovely visit from Amy, a member of our lifelong friends the Holland family. 

She also had laugh-filled, boisterous visit from Peggy, Barb, and Janet from the Class of 74, joined by Joni from the Class of 75. Janet and Peggy have both had hip replacements and gave Christy some good advice about staying in motion. 

Christy will have more sessions of workouts tomorrow. She'll keep moving. She'll build strength. 

3. The fact of the matter is that I've found it difficult ever since Christy was in septic shock and then had her right hip replaced to read. I haven't been able to concentrate and I've wanted to sleep when I've been home after paying Christy visits.

I'm not complaining. At all. It's just the way things have been. 

That changed today. 

I had thought about leaving town this morning and doing whatever, but I didn't do that. 

I read. 

I cracked open our book club's next book entitled, The Birds that Audubon Missed and so far I've learned not only about John James Audubon, but about bird taxonomies, searches in the wild for different birds, the art of drawing and painting portraits of birds, and more. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-15-2026: Christy Comes Outside, Christy Climbs Into Her Car, I Fix a Fun Wrap

 1. Answering Christy's call to action, Carol and Paul brought Christy's Subaru to the Medical Center and I buzzed up in the Camry. Before long, Christy and the physical therapist, Morgan, she was working with, popped out of the hospital's main entry. 

Christy was walking slowly, deliberately, and with very little pain with the help of a walker. She had a belt around her and Morgan kept her hand close to the belt in case Christy lost her balance or had another problem. Morgan also was in charge of pushing a wheelchair in case Christy needed to stop walking. 

This part of Christy's therapy session today was to open the passenger door of her Subaru and get herself into the passenger seat. 

Morgan wanted her to sit herself in her own car. Paul, Carol, and I were there to witness Christy do this so we knew how she'd do it once she was in our care again. 

Christy completed this task beautifully. 

She then practiced stepping up from street level to the sidewalk, negotiating a curb. 

My observation in watching Christy complete these tasks, including walking with the walker, is that she's not in a lot of pain, but needs to keep working on building strength throughout her body. I told Debbie this later on and said that I thought she needed to strengthen herself from her chin to her ankles! 

It looks to my untrained eye like that that's exactly what her physical therapy sessions are all about. 

2. Christy went back the Physical Therapy room and continued to work out with Morgan. After a while, once the session ended, she texted me with a request for a dish with two scoops of ice cream, each a different flavor. 

I bopped over to The Beanery and purchased a scoop of salted caramel and another of honey churro in a bowl, delivered the bowl to Christy, and hung out. We gabbed for a while. 

3. I fixed what turned out to be my main meal for the day late this morning. I had leftover rice and some mushroom slices. In the wok, I heated up the rice and cooked the mushrooms. In a separate pan I heated a big burrito sized tortilla and when I flipped it over, I put a slice of Swiss cheese on the flip side and it started to melt. 

I cracked two eggs over the mushrooms and rice and cooked them together. 

I put the tortilla on a cutting board and put the last bits of leftover Trader Joe's eggplant, onion, and tomato I had in the fridge over the melted Swiss cheese and topped it with the mushrooms, rice, and eggs. 

I folded the tortilla into a wrap, cut it in half and enjoyed a wrap unlike any I'd ever eaten before and felt nourished when I finished my meal and felt the pleasure of moderate hedonism!