Three Beautiful Things 03-07-2026: Curbside Shopping, Distractions on Saturday Afternoon, Sleep Wins

 1. After picking up an order curbside at Walmart this morning, I'm in good shape for making salads, soups, and stir fries.  I also picked up items for the food pantry uptown at the Elks and delivered them. 

2. My attention gets distracted by things around the house when I listen to The Concert of the Week on Spokane Public Radio on Saturdays at noon and that was true today. But, despite Gibbs barking at anything that moved outside our house (did the wind bend that grass?) and despite some concentrated texting and despite the bowl of lunchtime oatmeal with apple chunks and chunky peanut butter I enjoyed so much it put me briefly to sleep, I heard quite a bit of the replay of the Spokane Symphony concert I attended and loved a week ago. 

3. My hope this evening as I set two wall clocks and the oven clock ahead an hour and got ready to go to bed a little early was that I'd be up and at 'em on Sunday morning in time to tend to Gibbs and Copper, have a morning latte, and get properly cleaned up and dressed to leave house early enough for the 10:30 Eucharist at St. John's Cathedral in Spokane.  

Here it is Sunday morning. 

My difficulty falling asleep last night led to my need for extra sleep in the morning and I surrendered to the demands of my physical self and got more sleep rather than nurture the desires of my spiritual self and head to Spokane earlier this morning. 

I will leave later on today and enjoy the matinee performance of the Spokane String Quartet at 3:00, but worshipping at St. John's Cathedral will have to happen another time.   

Three Beautiful Things 03-06-2026: Rocket Writes a Letter, Friday Yakkin' at The Lounge, Gibbs Likes Broth

 1. When I first met him in South Warren at Whitworth College in 1974, Rich didn't have a nickname. At some point, though, he was christened "Badger". Then at some point (after Whitworth) he became known as "Rocket". 

Today (or was it Thursday?) I was excited to see that Rich "Badger" "Rocket" Brock had sent me a second multi-page correspondence via snail mail. I think Rich would like to hand write his letters, but I'd have to consult with an expert in decoding the handwriting of those suffering from dysgraphia to read them. 

Fortunately, the USPS could read what the chicken he borrowed from a neighbor scratched out as my mailing address on the envelope, so his missive arrived. 

Rich and his wife Amy have now endured two Middle Tennessee winters, winters that have been much more punishing than they expected when they moved from northern California.  Ice storms. Power outages. Snow, Freezing temperatures. Working from home. And soon it will be tornado season. 

I think Rocket's next nickname should be Crockett. 

Like Davy, he's become a heroic Tennessee figure. 

2. Speaking of nicknames, a lot of people around the Silver Valley, especially those who worked with him, know Ed as "Rooster". He's always been Ed to me, but when Ed and I met in The Lounge yesterday afternoon, some greeted him as Ed, others called him Rooster. 

Ed's had his own trials to endure this winter with power outage and a backed up sewer system, but none of that was on the table today. We yakked about current events in our lives, including our loss of Bruce "Lars" Larsen on Monday. 

Ed had a good evening ahead of him. Spaghetti awaited him at home and after a couple of beers, he mounted his horse and galloped to Walmart to buy some garlic bread for him and Nancy to enjoy with their pasta. 

3. I left The Lounge, paid utility bills, and was determined not to go to the grocery store. 

Good decision. 

I arrived home, realized I had a quart of chicken broth, a couple of strips of bacon, a whole white onion, a few chicken tenders, a quarter of a bag of frozen green beans, another of frozen corn, and fresh russet potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, and celery. 

I fried the bacon and sauteed onion slices in the grease.

I poured the chicken broth in a pot and as it heated up it thawed and cooked the chicken and turned the vegetables tender.

At some point, I poured the cooked onions and grease into the soup pot and broke up the bacon slices into pieces and tossed them in the pot. 

I salted it. Peppered it. 

A great dinner and, as a bonus, I put some of the soup broth in Gibbs' food bowl. 

He's been finicky lately about his wet food and his pickiness disappeared once he smelled the soup broth combined with his food and he gobbled up his dinner. 

Three Beautiful Things 03-05-2026: Happy 40th Birthday Molly, An Email for Sally, Good Chat with Debbie

1. When Debbie, Molly, Patrick, and Adrienne moved into my house in 1997, Molly was eleven years old. Today after I wished her a happy 40th birthday, she texted me back and told me she feels very loved today. Knowing that made me very happy and warm inside. 

2. I wrote Sally an email today in which I did my best to convey the wide range of people who have responded to Bruce's passing. Sally hasn't seen the numerous emails, Facebook comments and emojis, and text messages I've been privy to, and I wanted to give her a sense of the affection and high regard people feel for Bruce and of the kindness so many expressed in their condolences for Sally, Eric, and Dean. 

This outpouring moved Sally to tears and smiles. 

Thank you to all of you who posted emojis and wrote messages. 

Sally has told me and Stu how very much she appreciates all this support. 

3. While Debbie waited for Jack's meeting to conclude and to drive him home, she called me. 

Debbie sounded great. She and Jack had worked on some French together earlier and had had a bite to eat.

She knows from reading this blog what's happening with me, but she didn't know that I'm going to hear the Spokane String Quartet Sunday afternoon and I told Debbie that if I can get myself in motion Sunday morning, I'll very likely go to St. John's Cathedral in Spokane and worship at the 10:30 service. I would love to do that and so I've got to rev up my morning motor and get out of the house in time to do that! 

Three Beautiful Things 03-04-2026: I Thought It Said . . . , Enjoyable Haircut, Lunch and Spinning Reels

1. On my Facebook page I saw a Starbucks ad that said, "Better days start with the pop of a cap."

I thought it said, "Better days start with the poop of a cat." 

2. I spent the last couple of days by myself in the house, sending out news about Bruce, working crossword puzzles, comforting myself with food, listening to classical music, having some phone conversations with Stu, doing some kitchen clean up, and napping. 

Today, I was determined to leave the house.  

I drove to CdA and went to Supercuts for a trim.

I happened to arrive in a gap between two rushes of customers and Maggie, working the shop alone,  ushered me to her chair so she could be finished with me before the next rush ensued. 

She was a terrific conversationalist and our non-stop talking back and forth helped make my time in the chair go by quickly. 

3. Today was Winning Wednesday at the CdA Casino. 

I left Supercuts around 1:00 and I hadn't eaten yet. 

I decided it would be relaxing to have a mushroom and Swiss cheese burger with fries and a half a garden salad at the Red Tail Grill and so drove to the casino.

I went to a kiosk, swiped my player's card, found out how much free play I was entitled to, got a five dollar dining voucher, and enjoyed my leisurely lunch which would turn out to be the only meal I'd need all day. 

I spun wheels for a while and neither Lady Luck, the Luck of the Irish, nor Dumb Luck were with me today, so I decided not to try to stage some kind of epic Joe Montana-style comeback to recoup my modest losses. 

Instead I returned home without having to drive in the dark and felt mildly rejuvenated just by being out in the world a bit. 

Another Solemn Day 03-03-2026: Outpouring for Bruce Larsen, Comfort Foods, Kitchen Cleaning

1. The news of Bruce Larsen's passing away prompted a heartwarming outpouring of sadness, love, support, and memories.

2. I took comfort in hearing from so many people today via text messages, emails, and phone calls and in having Gibbs and Copper nearby. And, for better or worse, I've comforted myself over the last two days with chocolate infused trail mix, Ben and Jerry's Salted Caramel ice cream, popcorn, and peanut butter on apple slices.

3. I felt inert most of today, but snapped out of it for a while and went to work on cleaning the kitchen stove and will continue freshening up the kitchen beyond wiping down counters. 

RIP Bruce Larsen 03-02-2026

 1. At about 10:05 p.m. on March 2, 2026, Bruce Larsen passed away. 

 I will post more when his obituary appears and when the time and place of his memorial is established. 

All blessings to all of you who have sent prayers, positive thoughts, and healing energy Bruce's way. 

Please take time to lift up Sally, Eric, and Dean in similar fashion in this grievous time. 

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.