Three Beautiful Things 09-13-2024: Returning to the Pentax Q, Stir-Fried Pork and Vegetables, Copper's Trusting Relaxation

1.  Through flickr and the Mac Photos app, I looked at many, not all, of the pictures I've taken over the years with my Pentax Q. I purchased this camera in November of 2013. Overall, I was happy with many of these pictures -- in fact, I thought I had taken many of them with my Nikon 3100. I'm puzzled why I've let this fine and conveniently sized camera languish unused for so long. 

I turned on the Q and began to teach myself once again how its buttons and dials work, what its capabilities are, and so on. I have a ways to go as far as learning and re-learning the versatility of the Pentax Q, but I'm glad I have it back in action again. 

2. A couple of nights ago, I fixed Debbie and me boneless pork chops baked with a mustard and panko and poultry seasoning topping. I baked half the pork chops in the package and a little later Wednesday night I found a simple recipe for a delicious Asian marinade and put the remaining chops in a zip lock bag with the marinade I mixed up. On Thursday, I took the marinated pork chops out of the marinade, cubed them,  and stored them in the refrigerator.

Today, I chopped up white onion, yellow squash, yellow pepper, mushrooms, carrots, and celery and stir fried them in the wok while a pot of brown rice cooked. I added spinach leaves and red pepper flakes to the vegetables along with the marinated pork cubes and I made a stir fry sauce. Once the rice finished cooking, I blended it in and poured the sauce over it. Our dinner was a tasty blend of sweet, spicy, lemony, and, thanks to the brown rice, nutty. 

3. Some of my friends, for various reasons, have accepted my always standing offer to send them my blog posts via email. Some of these friends are not on Facebook, so when they comment on a post, I'm the only one who reads it. 

Today, Deborah, my longtime/forever friend, starting in 1974 during our time at Whitworth, wrote me the perfect response to the picture I posted of Copper resting on the spot on my bed where I like to lie when I read. 

For starters, here's the picture again: 

Deborah wrote: "Oh, my. The epitome of trusting relaxation. Gorgeous. . . "

She added: "If there is another dimension beyond this one I so hope all the creatures are there, in peace."

Deborah's response moved me, touched one of my deepest desires. 

More than anything, with Copper (and the other animals I've lived with) and with my friends and family, I want them to experience trusting relaxation. Developing this trusting relaxation with Copper has taken some time, especially during the month or more when I was under the impression that being in the same room with Copper was risky because of my post-transplant condition. 

Thank goodness I double checked on that understanding and learned it was my misunderstanding. 

In the time this summer since Copper and I have spent many hours together in the bedroom and since we put up a gate to keep Copper and Gibbs apart, Copper's trust toward me has grown, slowly and surely. 

He's been increasingly willing to make physical contact with me, pressing himself against my legs while I read, resting his face on my palm other times, sometimes even pressing himself against my side above my waist. He licks me on occasion. When I pet him he purrs more willingly and happily than ever. 

When I read Deborah's words, "The epitome of trusting relaxation" it thrilled me that in this picture Deborah could see what I've been experiencing over the last couple of months and loving with Copper. 

Today, Copper lay on a hooded sweatshirt of mine I had lying on the bed. 

I tried out my Pentax Q and took some pictures of him. 

I was rusty. 

I decided to edit one of the photographs by cropping it and making it a monochrome picture. 

So, here it is: my first published picture in the Copper Project 2024 taken with my Pentax Q! 

 

Three Beautiful Things 09-12-2024:RIP Em, Encouraging Photo Review, Get Together at Corby's, Copper Takes My Spot!

A mournful note to begin. 

Today the Coeur d'Alene Press published Bob Emheiser's obituary. To many of us, he was known as "Em" or "Coach Em". He was our Kellogg Wildcat basketball coach when I was a senior and I'd been in his Civics class at Kellogg Junior High my freshman year. 

If you'd like to read Em's obituary, it's right here. 

1.  I spent time today looking back at a set of pictures I took in October, 2019 when Byrdman and I went on a drive. The first pictures I took that day were in the vicinity of Bull Run and after some time there, we headed up the St. Joe River and drove up some of the creeks (or was it one creek?) that feed the St. Joe. 

My mind changed in two significant ways as I revisited these pictures. 

First, I'd always thought my pictures from that day were cliched. Run of the mill. Boring. 

I felt differently today and they made me think that with the weather cooling down and the leaves about to turn, that I ought to take pictures outdoors around North Idaho again. 

Secondly, I had it in my head that I took lousy pictures with my small Pentax camera. I haven't had it out for a few years. That day, I divided my shots between the Pentax and my Nikon and, lo and behold, I not only liked the Pentax photos, I urged myself to get that camera back in action again. 

2. This afternoon I participated in my first (I think) social outing, outside of family gatherings, since the kidney transplant. 

A bunch of guys from the KHS Class of '71 meet from time to time at Dave Corbeil's Post Falls bar, Corby's. (Dave is a 1967 KHS grad.) 

Those guys had a get together planned for today, Byrdman (Class of 1970) let me know about it, and I decided to join in. 

I decided that I'd trust that none of the guys who came today would have a contagious illness. I decided that I'd drink a Pepsi and I didn't want to wrestle with a mask between sips, so I didn't wear one (although I carried one in my pocket, just in case). I brought a small bottle of cleansing foam with me and washed my hands after any handshake -- and tried to do it as inconspicuously as possible. 

So, the next couple of days will tell whether this was such a good idea.  Did I contract any illnesses at Corby's today?  I have to say, though, I'm happy I gave it a shot and, if going to Corby's turns out to have been okay, I'll sure welcome a boost of confidence that, even in my compromised condition, I can do this sort of thing from time to time in the weeks to come. 

Next test: Friday I will go to Trout Creek, MT and join about 20 other longtime friends in a huge house to celebrate our 70th birthdays. 

I enjoyed yakkin' with the guys who got together at Corby's. Aside from phone calls and texting, I hadn't had in person yakkin' time with longtime friends for several months and I'm really glad I decided to take part. 

3. I am a lie on my back reader for the most part. Today, I delayed returning to reading Perma Red because Copper decided to take over my reading spot! 

Note to myself, and feel free to read it along with me: I'm doing better with focus and shutter speed/aperture settings. Now I need to give better attention to the composition of my photographs. Composition has always been challenging to me and I can see, especially before I edit/crop pictures, that lately I haven't been very mindful of how I'm composing what's inside the frame. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-11-2024: Feeling Better Than Ever, Great Afternoon in the Kitchen, The Bedroom is Not a Photo Studio!

1.  Ever since I woke up from transplant surgery on May 11th, I've thought, "Hmm. I'm feeling pretty good." And I was right. I haven't been in pain, my mental state has been positive, I've been able to get around almost from the beginning and take care of myself, cook, and do other light tasks around the house -- and with time, the tasks I've done have become heavier and heavier.

Over the last couple of days, however, I've felt even better. My already good mental state has improved, I've felt small surges of joy, and I've enjoyed the last few days more than any others over the last four months. 

2. I think my efforts today in the kitchen contributed mightily to my sense of uplift. After picking up groceries curbside at Walmart at 7 a.m. and then enjoying a latte from Silver Peak Espresso (always a boost!), I had the ingredients on hand to fulfill Debbie's request that I bake a batch of Morning Glory Muffins. I had a blast organizing the wet and dry ingredients, mixing them together, spooning out the batter into baking cups, and producing a couple dozen muffins. It's a great help to Debbie to have grab and go food to take to school in the morning. These muffins perfectly fit that need.

This morning I took a pack of boneless pork chops out of the freezer to thaw. Once thawed, I laid them out on a baking pan lined with aluminum foil. I made a mixture of panko and poultry seasoning of my own creation and roasted it in a pan on the stovetop. I put a layer of Dijon mustard on each pork chop and added some hot Chinese mustard to the Dijon, hoping to satisfy Debbie's and my enjoyment of a little heat in our food. I spread the panko mixture on top of the mustard mixture. While the chops baked, I made a pot of jasmine rice and a mixed vegetable stir fry. 

It was a simple dinner to prepare. It was very satisfying as well. 

Uplifting. 

 3.  As I continue the Copper Project, it hit me today that sometimes I expect myself to take studio quality pictures. Ha! My bedroom is hardly a studio. I don't have highly controlled sophisticated lighting in the bedroom and I'm often unsatisfied with what lies in the background of pictures I take of Copper. 

Often, I take pictures of Copper from near the foot of the bed and my heap of nighttime pillows at the head of the bed are part of the background. I don't always like this. So, today, I moved the two blue pillows from the head to the foot of the bed, thinking I'd take pictures of Copper without those pillows behind him. 

Well, of course, Copper immediately rested himself in front of the pillows in their new spot. 

So, I gave in and took a few pictures of Copper in front of the pillows. Here's my favorite: 

 

Three Beautiful Things 09-10-2024: Renewed Vitality, Educating Myself, Quick and Very Delicious Dinner

1.  If you read this blog and grow weary of my Copper project, please indulge me. I am feeling better than ever these days and one thing that is boosting my mood, is invigorating my vitality is taking photographs again, especially trying out different ways to take pictures of Copper. (I think he's a great model and taking pictures of him in the lighting conditions of my bedroom presents me with challenges I enjoy facing.)

2. Not only am I enjoying taking photographs, I'm enjoying educating myself again about how my Nikon 3100 works, some of the ins and outs of Photos for Mac (all my previous work with pictures was on a PC), and what I'm finding to be the improved performance of flickr. It's all stimulating, vitalizing. 

3. We try to always keep tilapia on hand. I thawed four filets today, not knowing that Debbie was going to be leaving the house soon after she arrived home from school. She would be blasting over to Teeters Field to watch present and former students play soccer.

I told her I'd have dinner ready the second she walked in the door -- and I did. I fixed a mixed vegetable stir fry, a pot of golden couscous, and fried the tilapia filets. For a fish sauce, I threw together the rest of our Trader Joe's lemon pesto along with sour cream and yogurt and topped it off with chopped green onion. I hadn't tried this combination before and Debbie and I agreed: it was an awesome sauce for dressing the fish. 

It was a quick dinner and a really delicious one. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-09-2024: The Sube is Home, Searching for Home, Copper Project at flickr

1.  I drove the Sube home today after its weekend away at the repair spa and the air conditioner once again blows cool/cold refreshing air into the cabin. 

2. As I move more deeply into the novel, Perma Red, Louise White Elk is developing into a restless character, eager to be and stay on the move, and in her wanderings she experiences, as a young teenager, shocks that catapult her into something like adulthood while she very much remains an adolescent. I'm wondering if this novel is developing as a story about Louise White Elks' mighty sense of displacement and not belonging and is becoming about her search for home. 

3. I continued to take a few pictures of Copper today and I reacquainted myself with my flickr account and familiarized myself with some things that are new, to me, at the site. I thought I'd post a picture I liked of Copper, but that kind of bugged me because of the blue pillows in the background. I cropped the picture -- the edited version is the second on here -- and I'm undecided which version I prefer. I've begun an album at flickr called Copper Project 2024. 

I can tell as I add more photos to it that gradually I'm knocking the rust off and my photographs seem to be improving incrementally. I've got a lot of work to do, as always. 

I'll continue to post this link to the album periodically in case you'd like to look at it.  Just click here. 

By the way, clicking on the photos in the album will give you a larger view. 

 

Three Beautiful Things 09-08-2024: Copper's Closet Spot, Reading *Perma Red*, Carne Asada for Dinner

1. I'm enjoying taking pictures of the various ways Copper spends his days and the various ways he presents himself to the world.  Several years ago, Mom purchased a cloth laundry bag with the word "Laundry" printed on it. I had it lying on the floor of my closet, empty, flat to the floor, and, many months ago, Copper started to lie on it, sleep on it, relax on it. He's claimed it as his own. He seems to enjoy being in the closet and just likes having this bag underneath him. I admit, it doesn't make for an artful, attention grabbing picture, but photographing Copper in the closet presented me with some challenges and I got out my kit lens for the first time in forever, snapped a picture I can live with after several attempts, and here he is: Copper sleeping on the laundry bag in the closet! 

 

2.  I'm into the next book I'm reading from the Leah Sottile list. Once again, I'm reading a book that takes place on an Indian reservation, but Debra Magpie Earling's Perma Red is not set in North Dakota, but in Montana on the Flathead Reservation near and in the towns of Parma, Dixon, Paradise, and others. The book takes place in the 1940s and tells the story of a teenaged girl becoming a woman. Her name is Louise White Elk. She is a fiery teenager, determined to forge her own way in life, not to be defeated by the abusive schools she attends, the cruelty of adults she can't avoid, as well as the cruelty of poverty and the all too ubiquitous intrusion of death in her young life. 

3. At Trader Joe's this past Wednesday, I purchased another hunk of beef that is marinated in a package. This one was a Carne Asada which I grilled on the stovetop. I also made a pot of white rice and cooked up a mess of vegetables in butter -- zucchini, white onion, yellow pepper, and corn -- seasoned with the Southwest Spice Blend I made, patterned after the blend found in several HelloFresh meals. 

Currently, I am on a low potassium diet, so I'm steering clear of potatoes, tomatoes, avocados, bananas, and other potassium rich foods. 

But, Debbie isn't restricted, so I boiled a couple of potatoes for her, just in case she thought they might taste good in place of or along with the rice.

This was a successful meal and I have a small container of Carne Asada bits left over and, as I peer into the future, I see some street tacos for lunch on Monday. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-07-2024: Copper's Comfort, I Finished *Red Clocks*, Ginger Beef from Wah Hing

 1. Since we put a barrier up dividing the small area in our house where the two bedrooms sit from the living room, Copper no longer has to be behind closed doors to keep Gibbs from scream barking at him. We've had this arrangement for several weeks now. Copper loves it, loves moving freely from room to room, loves having the the two rooms' doors open.  He's been content, and, as you can see from this picture, relaxed. I hope you can tell that Copper is near peak comfort when he stretches out on his back on my bed. 

2. I had taken a little time away from the very serious, often dark, list of books on the Leah Sottile list I've mentioned several times since July. Today I returned to Red Clocks by Portland, Oregon's Leni (rhymes with RAINY) Zuma, a novel set in the not too distant future in a small fictional Oregon fishing town on the coast. In this future, the U.S. Constitution has been amended to outlaw all abortions and legislation has passed that allows only married heterosexual couples to adopt children.

Zuma tells the interlocking stories of four women who live in or near this small town: a high school student, a high school teacher and biographer, a stay at home mother, and a mender who lives in the woods and treats people who come to her with concoctions she makes from herbs, barks, and other natural sources. The novel also includes the story the biographer is writing of a 19th century woman who was an Arctic explorer. 

Through these characters and their stories, Zuma explores different dimensions of womanhood -- marriage, being single, having an accidental pregnancy, professional ambition, professional sacrifice, motherhood, being an outsider, living as a battered wife, and more. 

I found the stressful and often dark storylines in Zuma's book to be offset by the lyrical beauty of her writing. I particularly enjoyed how she took her readers into the details of the natural beauty of the Oregon coast and the forest lands just east of the ocean. 

Over the last month or so, I've had strong yearnings to visit the Oregon coast and so I relished doing about the next best thing, enjoying the beauty of coastal Oregon through Puma's descriptions and poetic attention to detail. 

3. Debbie paid the Inland Lounge a visit this afternoon and returned home with a bag of Ginger Beef and rice from Wah Hing. I always enjoy cooking dinner for Debbie and me, but tonight I was so absorbed in Red Clocks that I welcomed how I only had to put the book down for the short amount of time it took me to enjoy this delicious dinner and then I returned to the suspense of what was going to happen to these characters in court, in pursuit of an illegal abortion, in marriage, in the Arctic, and in the midst of professional and moral decisions as a teacher -- and more.  

Three Beautiful Things 09-06-2024: Copper and I Grow Old Together, Good For My Soul, Viruses and Medication

1. I've haven't ever nailed down Copper's age. I've looked into it a bit and Dr. Cook made his estimate, but I'm not absolutely sure. It's no problem that I don't know, but let's say Copper is about 13 years old.  That's the equivalent of nearly 70 years old in human years. In other words, Copper and I might be at about the same stage of life. 

Today, I pulled back the curtains in the bedroom, hoping to photograph Copper using more natural sunlight. I took a couple pictures I enjoyed, but with the manual focus lens I'm using, I forgot to get the pictures in focus. 

I did, however, snap one picture in focus and it's a picture that portrays many hours of Copper's days and portrays what I also enjoy doing as a seventy year old! 

2. Today my lifelong friend Roger Pearson called me. He and Don Knott grew up together in the same neighborhood, both attended Lincoln Elementary and Kellogg Junior High and Kellogg High School together. They played guard together in basketball, were golfing partners recreationally and teammates on the KHS golf team, and were best of friends, like brothers to each other, over the years. 

It did my soul a lot of good to talk with Roger about Don, especially as we discussed all the things we admired about him: his intelligence, generosity, concern for others, determination, and athletic skill, to name a few. 

Later in the evening, in a group text, Roger, Terry Turner, and I reminisced about a wild afternoon and evening we spent on September 6, 1980 in Eugene, first at Autzen Stadium watching the Oregon/Stanford football game and then remembering how at Taylor's we watched John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors go toe to toe in a semi-final US Open tennis match. Terry and I got pretty rowdy watching the match, beating on the booth we were seated in and, looking back, I don't remember clearly if we were warned to settle down or leave or if we were actually escorted out. 

I do know one thing: Taylor's was not our last stop that evening! Man -- forty-four years ago we had stamina and we could get loud and obnoxious and careless! 

3. I like to use this blog as a way to write about what's going on with my kidney transplant. 

The results of three of my blood tests came in on Thursday and Friday -- the results of these particular tests always take a little longer. 

A reminder: the transplant team monitors either weekly or bi-weekly the levels of immune-suppresion drugs in my system. I need to have enough of these drugs in my system to prevent my immune system from rejecting my new kidney, but if my levels are too high, I'm vulnerable to viruses and infection.

What I'm about to write is not alarming. 

My dosages of immune-suppression drugs have been a bit too high and two viruses have exploited my suppressed immunity and shown up in tests.

One is the BK virus, the other the CMV. 

The levels of BK and CMV in my system are very low. 

Ever since the transplant, I've been taking a medication to prevent CMV infection and this drug, along with the lowering of my immune-suppression dosages, will likely take care of this infection. Likewise, this lowering will help my immune system deal with the BK virus. 

I do need to be vigilant. 

I need to keep washing my hands, being careful about the social situations I enter into, and keep wearing a mask when I'm unsure about whether there might be people around me who are ill.

I also need to be monitoring myself for flu like symptoms, fever (I take my temp morning and evening), infections, and diarrhea. 

I've been doing all of this anyway over the last four months, but with the appearance of these low level viruses, I'll be even a bit more attentive to how I feel and how I move through the world. 

One last thing: you might wonder why the doctors didn't give me the exact right dosage from the get go. 

First of all, we humans are not machines. We all respond to medication differently. Until some time passed  and the doctors saw how my system was responding to the medications, they've had to make education estimates regarding the dosage of my immune-suppression drugs and adjust dosages as we move forward. This is routine, normal, to be expected. 

Second of all, reality isn't stable. We live in a reality of continuing flux. In such a reality, a reality that my renal health is very much a part of (!), things are going to change, doctors need to make adjustments, and the whole process of testing, monitoring, and responding will continue on. 

I'm confident and optimistic that this process is going well. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-05-2024: Back to Exercising, Terrorism on *NCIS*, Spaghetti Dinner and Flexibility

Quick note: It didn't work to photograph Copper today -- that just happens some days. 

1. It felt great to return to the Fitness Center today after five days away. I am in the process of figuring out just how far and how hard I can push myself on the cross training machine and the recumbent bicycle. After thirty minutes of exercise today, I was a bit winded, but the great news is that I felt no discomfort in the surgery site. 

2. Debbie and I haven't watched television together for quite a while, but this week we watched a four episode NCIS story. The NCIS team faced an international terrorist group that recruited children and these episodes included the most intense moments of danger, violence, injury, and death I've ever seen on NCIS. Right in the middle of it all, Mimi Rogers appeared in a guest star role as a CIA agent whose son was killed by this terrorist organization. I enjoyed seeing her as seasoned actor in her 60s. She was superb. 

3. I learned at my transplant appointment on Wednesday that my potassium levels have crept a bit out of range on the high side again. To my relief, the doctor and I agreed to address this problem without another medication. So, tonight, Debbie requested pasta for dinner and I made her spaghetti with a tomato sauce and ground beef that I couldn't eat because tomatoes are a high potassium food. She was very happy with the sauce I made. I very much enjoyed my plate of spaghetti with Trader Joe's lemon pesto and a bit of sour cream, a combination I dreamed up and that worked for me. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-04-2024: Spending the Morning at Sacred Heart, A Full Day of Fun, The Copper Project

 1. I hopped in the Camry around 5:45 this morning and jetted to the Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center for blood draws and a series of conversations with the transplant team. It was a superb morning at Sacred Heart. The blood draws went smoothly. I met another nephrologist, new to the staff, Dr. Samer Abdulkhalek. He was a calm, reassuring, easy going doctor, easy to talk with. 

As I've written before, right now, as I enter the fifth month since my surgery, the primary concern with my condition is getting the immune suppression medication correctly dosed. I need these drugs as a safeguard to keep my immune system from rejecting my new kidney. I'll take them for the rest of my life.

So, if the dosages are too low, rejection is a possibility.

If the dosages are too high and my immune system is over compromised, viruses can exploit that situation. 

For a while, my dosages tested on the high side and, as I've written before, the BK virus manifested in my system, but with a very low presence. The hope is that having reduced my dosages, my system will take care of this virus. 

When I have blood work done again in two weeks, the doctor will have me tested for a second virus, CMV. I already take a medicine to prevent this virus, but if we discover the virus snuck into my system anyway, we'll increase the dosage of this medicine which should eliminate it. 

These developments are unremarkable. It's all part of the post-transplant process of recovery and adjustment. Going forward, I'll continue to have my blood tested every two weeks and return in a month for another visit to the clinic. 

By the way, I also had a splendid conversation with Helen, the social worker I've talked with ever since I enrolled in this program back in 2018, and I had a quick conversation with Nurse Angela who encouraged me to get out more, keep washing my hands, do all I can to avoid being in the presence of people who are sick, and to wear my mask in situations where I'm unsure, like in stores or other public places, if people around me might be ill. 

2. I left the Sacred Heart complex feeling encouraged, feeling happy after the tests and conversations. 

I then embarked on the busiest and fullest day I've experienced since the surgery. 

Here's what I did:

I dropped in at Auntie's Bookstore and purchased a copy of the book Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling. It's on the Leah Sottile list I'm reading. 

I enjoyed a most delicious turkey sandwich at Great Harvest and bought a big oval loaf of Asiago Sourdough bread. 

I roamed the aisles of Trader Joe's. I bought some items. 

I visited the Camera Corral in CdA and dropped off my favorite 50 mm lens, hoping their technician could repair a lens cap problem. I'll find out next week after the woman whom I talked to returns from a short vacation. 

I filled the Camry with gas at Costco.

I went to Hippo for a car wash. 

I ordered a grande latte at Starbucks. 

I left the Camry for Debbie at Pinehurst Elementary and drove home in the Sube. 

For the first time in over four months, I was out and about from about 6 a.m. until I returned home at 3 p.m. 

3. So, because I took my auto focus 50 mm lens in for lens cap repair, I got out my other 50 mm lens tonight, a totally manual lens, and started to get reacquainted with it. I'm posting these pictures I took last night of Copper. I can tell I need to relearn getting the aperture and shutter speed working together better.If I succeed, I should be posting better, I hope sharper pictures, but even though these phots are not great, here they are! If I am going to make progress, I'd like to have a record on this blog of my less successful efforts.  (I had some fun with the first photo using the vignette editing feature.)