Three Beautiful Things 10/30/2021: Watching a Refashioned *Henry IV, part 1*, How Did Atlanta Win Tonight?, Shakespeare Awe BONUS: A Limerick by Stu

1. To prepare for Sunday's Zoom session with the Westminster Basement Study Group, I watched Episode 2 of The Hollow Crown. It's a shortened version of Henry IV, part 1. The way the makers of this film presented HIV, 1 intrigued me, especially their move to open the play with Prince Hal and Falstaff and not the way Shakespeare opened it with a monologue by the troubled and somewhat incoherent King Henry IV. 

I'm not sure how serious I am about what I'm about to write, but here goes. 

Back in the fall of 1974, I took my first Shakespeare class, at Whitworth. Prof. Dean Ebner taught the course and, for reasons I'm not sure of, the first play we studied was Henry IV, part 1.

As a complete novice, I opened my Signet edition and started to read the play and couldn't make any sense out of King Henry's opening monologue. For starters, I didn't know anything about the royal "We", so when Henry begins his speech, "So shaken as we are, so wan with care", I didn't know who the "we" might be and I'm sure I didn't know that "wan" simply means pale. 

I'd have to say I was also used to stories beginning with a "once upon a time" opening, but Shakespeare didn't begin the play this way. He begins it in the middle of things and it's only later that he the play goes back and fills in details about the different rebellions going on in Henry's kingdom. In addition, I hadn't read Richard II, so I didn't know that Henry had hoped to launch a crusade to the Holy Lands as an act of penance for seizing the throne from King Richard II and I had no idea why he was talking about the Holy Lands in this opening speech.

So, I wondered today, as I watched Episode 2 of The Hollow Crown get underway if those who edited and rearranged the play thought viewers might be eased into the play more readily by beginning it with Falstaff and Hal.

Ha! I wondered if they had viewers in mind who might be like that 19 year old kid in Westminster Hall back in Sept. of 1974 who, upon trying to understand the opening of Henry IV, part 1, couldn't and thought about dropping the class, genuinely thought he wasn't intelligent enough to "get" Shakespeare.

Well, that 19 year old hung in there. I went to the library. I listened to the play on audio tape -- a great help -- and, in time, the words, the lines, the passages, the plays clicked and my lifelong immersion in these plays began.

2. As if I needed further proof of how differently teams approach baseball games than they did even, say, ten years ago, Game 4 of the 2021 World Series came on the Vizio.

The Braves, thanks in part to the broken lower leg suffered by Charlie Morton, are fresh out of what we used to think of as starting pitchers. The Astros lost Lance McCullers to injury in an earlier playoff series and they are also short handed when it comes to "starters".

But, in today's game, unlike for decades previously, starting pitchers are expected to pitch a limited number of innings, throw a limited number of pitches.

And, now, teams don't even pretend to roll out a traditional starting pitcher, but sometimes parade several relief pitchers to the mound from the first inning until the ninth.

So, tonight, the Astros started 38 year old Zach Greinke, a former Cy Young Award winner, a pitcher with a long history as a starting pitcher, but who is now in the twilight of his career. The Astros started him hoping he'd give them about three innings of work and then they'd turn the game over to a bunch of pitchers coming out of the bullpen.

The Braves started the game with Dylan Lee, a pitcher who threw his first major league pitch on October 1st. Over the course of his career, including post season play, Greinke had pitched 3,219 innings in the major leagues; Dylan Lee had pitched 4.2 innings -- and he was assigned to start a World Series game!

The Braves sent Lee to the hill to do one thing: get three outs and then be done for the night.

Well, Lee didn't do that. He retired one batter. He surrendered an infield hit, struck out the struggling Alex Bregman, and walked two batters.

Top of the first inning. One out. Bases loaded. The Braves pulled Dylan Lee and replace him with Kyle Wright who pitched all of 6.1 innings during the regular season and had pitched one inning in this year's World Series.

Miraculously, Kyle Wright wiggled the Braves out of this potentially disastrous first inning by giving up only one run. The inning foreshadowed the Astros' failure to drive in runs for the rest of the game. Tonight, they left 11 runners stranded over the course of the game.

The Astros got four solid innings out of Greinke and Kyle Wright pitched 4.2 innings for the Braves and the game became a battle of the bullpens, a common sight in 2021. I don't know if we'll ever see a starter pitch a complete game in the World Series again -- I mean in game 3, Ian Anderson pitched no-hit baseball for five innings and, so he wouldn't face the Astros hitters a third time in one game, was pulled. 

Relief pitchers aren't relievers very often in today's game. They are either game openers or game continuers. It's a huge change -- driven by numbers, percentages, and analytics.

Game 4 turned in the Braves' favor thanks to back to back home runs by Dansby Swanson and Jorge Soler in the bottom of the seventh off of the fireballing Christian Javier. Javier had been untouchable up to this point.  He had not surrendered a single run in the 37 postseason innings he'd pitched in the playoffs and World Series. 

Wild!

Then, in the top of the eighth inning, with two outs, Jose Altuve, who'd homered already in the top of the fourth smashed a line shot to deep left field. Eddie Rosario chased it and at the last possible nanosecond stuck his glove out toward the ball's flight and to the astonishment of all viewers -- and to Rosario himself -- caught it. 

Closer Will Smith put down the Astros in order in the top of the ninth, securing the Braves' 3-2 win, putting them up 3 games to 1 in the World Series.

Honestly, a reasonable person would say the Braves had no business winning this game given all the runners the Astros put on base and given the pitchers the Braves turned to early in this game.

But, baseball is not a reasonable game.

It's whacky.

And on this night, whacky worked in Atlanta's favor.

3. During the early innings of the Astros/Braves game, I also wrote and published some thoughts and questions on on our Westminster group website, questions we might talk about in out Sunday Zoom session. 

I had an old and familiar feeling return. 

When I taught the Shakespeare course at Whitworth, U of Oregon, and LCC, I often felt a sense of failure, a sense that these plays of Shakespeare were way beyond our ability to fully comprehend, to fully examine, to fully discuss and write about. 

I know our Zoom discussion will be really good and the class discussions we had in my classes were really good.

At the same time, we always left so much about the plays untouched on, so much unexplored.

The closest I ever got to feeling like I got to work with others and come to a comprehensive experience with these plays was when I was cast into plays as an actor and our director, Sparky Roberts, worked with the whole play, word by word, line by line, scene by scene, act by act to arrive at how to bring each moment of the play alive on stage.  

And even with all of that work on a single play, after weeks of rehearsal and multiple performances, we could have always done more. 

The plays were and are always much bigger than our efforts to fully understand them or even bring them fully to life on the stage.

Happily, I was pretty good at turning this mild sense of futility into wonder and ended up doing my best to trade the sense of being overwhelmed for the feeling of awe I feel every time I read, teach, act in, or watch any of Shakespeare's plays. 

An October 31st  limerick by Stu: 

It’s a day to be costumed and seen. 

And apples made tan, ‘stead of green. 

For girls cut in half, 

Ring the bell, run and laugh. 

Yes, it’s way more than just HALLOWEEN! 

Halloween, National Caramel Apple Day, National Doorbell Day, National Magic Day

Three Beautiful Things 10/29/2021: Matinee Fiction Talk, PORTER at Radio!, KHS Class of 72 at The Lounge

 1. On Sunday, the Westminster Basement Study Group will discuss the second episode of The Hollow Crown. Episode 2 is a slightly condensed version of Henry IV, part 1. 

I was all ready to watch it this afternoon, but accidentally got into a superb discussion with Debbie about reading fiction. It had been a long time since I'd had such a great conversation about forms of narration, point of view, the reliability and unreliability of a narrator, genre and vision, and other aspects of reading fiction. We also talked about the value of reading fiction as a way of learning about things that lay well outside one's own lived experience and the possibility, if the reader is open to it, of fiction increasing one's ability to empathize with and have compassion for others, for experiences beyond what the reader has experienced in life. 

So, watching Shakespeare performed on television will wait another day.

Having this impromptu and fascinating discussion with Debbie was the much better thing to do today.

2. At some point this afternoon, I mentioned how much I had enjoyed getting together with Debbie,  Debbie, and Steve on Thursday and that I had thoroughly enjoyed continuing my campaign to SAVE THE PORTER.

Debbie's response? 

Let's go to Radio.

So we did.

We plopped down at a table near the front window. It turned out to be a private place to sit -- and being there gave me a front row seat to watch the fantastically costumed and made-up Wardner Witches as they cruised by on a trailer pulled by a pickup truck. Turns out, they were on their way to the Elks for burgers.

I ordered a porter and Debbie did, too. Hers was a chocolate peanut butter porter. Yes, that's right!  Right now Radio is pouring TWO porters! I'll order one of those chocolate peanut butter porters another day. I tasted Debbie's and as with all the beers Fred and Ashley brew at Radio, it was really good - the peanut butter and chocolate flavors are subtle and the beer has a nice light bitter finish. 

Our conversation at Radio was awesome, the porters were terrific, and we got to talk a bit with our niece Molly who works at Radio and was taking orders and pouring drinks. 

3.  Wow!

Great living room conversation with Debbie about fiction.

Superb porters and more first-rate yakking with Debbie at Radio Brewing.

Could this day continue to be awesome?

Yes!

This evening, starting at five o'clock, members of the Kellogg High School Class of 1972 met in the non-smoking back room at the Lounge to begin planning for our 50th High School Reunion.

We had a good turnout.

And we got our business done.

If all goes according to plan, we'll start the reunion on Friday, July 15, 2022 with an informal get together at Diane's vacation rental, continue with an evening dinner on Saturday, July 16th, and I think some classmates are planning to play some golf on July 17th.

More details will be forthcoming, but, unless we have to make a change for some unforeseen reason, as of now, if you are a KHS Class of 1972 member, please come to Kellogg the weekend of July 15th so we can all celebrate that grand night fifty years ago when we graduated from high school and the chance to see each other again. 

I'd like to add that apart from our dicussion in the back room, the Lounge was abuzz with happy people. Debbie didn't join in our reunion planning session, but she had great conversations with a number of people including Fitz, Deanne, Ginger, Ron D, and, once we had finished our business, she joined our table in the back room and added her vitality to that party. 

I had a great time, sustained by a delicious order of Seafood Lo Mein from Wah Hing, talking with my classmates and also talking with people at the bar. I hadn't seen either Mike Grebil or Ron Delcamp for a long time and enjoyed our conversations. I learned that Dick Goodson and Stu were Little League teammates for a season on the Canyon team. And, among all these conversations, I was also able to keep pretty close track of Atlanta's masterful 2-0 victory over Houston in Game 3 of the World Series.

Cas was very busy working the bar, but we managed to squeeze in some superb bits of conversation about the World Series and, since I was wearing my "Wait a minute Chester" hoodie, we had a great talk about The Band and especially the late great Levon Helm. 

What an afternoon!

What an evening!

What a great day! 

Three Beautiful Things 10/28/2021: Steve and Debbie at Radio, Toasting Pert Woolum (SAVE THE PORTER), Trying to Calm Copper

1. This afternoon, just before 2:00, I drove up to Radio Brewing and at almost exactly the same time, our longtime friends, Debbie and Steve, arrived, too. This month they have been driving across the USA. They started by driving from Eugene to Charlottesville, VA and then made their way north to Rochester, NY and headed back west. Much like what Debbie and I did in September, they didn't west in a straight line, but headed north through Michigan and traveled across the UP, and, like us, eventually drove across North Dakota and into Montana. 

They were visiting their adult children and grandchildren back east. They visited friends along the way and had spent the last two nights in Missoula before stopping in Kellogg on their way to Spokane to visit another adult child and her family.

The three of us launched right into easy conversation and waited for Debbie to arrive from Wallace where she was participating in the monthly book club Christy spearheads. 

Our conversation kicked from high gear into overdrive when Debbie arrived. 

We talked about travel, family news, books, music and musicianship (Steve is a member of an acoustic trio, Cross Currents), and a bunch of other stuff. 

As we were sitting there this afternoon, my mind occasionally wandered back to when I first met Steve and Debbie at the Rainy Day Cafe in Eugene, not long after Debbie and I started doing stuff together. Debbie performed on stage that night and Steve and Debbie were avid followers, not only of Debbie as a solo performer, but of her band, Babes with Axes.

Over the years, we had fun get togethers with Steve and Debbie -- movies, dinners, concerts -- and both of us were participants in two of their daughters' weddings. I helped serve communion at the rail in one wedding and Debbie sang at the other. 

We'll see each other again before too long -- either when Debbie and I make a trip to Eugene or when Steve and Debbie return to Spokane to see their daughter and her family. 

I can hardly wait. It's a blast spending time together! 

2. I haven't been going out much in Kellogg over the last 18-19 months and today I enjoyed being at Radio Brewing again. 

I'm on a private eccentric imaginary mission within myself when it comes to beer.

When I first started drinking craft beer back in about 1997, IPAs hadn't yet become as wildly popular as they did later on. Back then, I enjoyed all kinds of beers: brown ale, porters, ambers, lagers, stouts, ESBs, winter ales, etc, along with IPAs. 

I especially liked porters -- but porters, it seemed to me, as time chugged along, were offered less and less on tap lists.

Soooo, my private eccentric imaginary pretend mission is to SAVE THE PORTER!

At Radio today, it made me very happy that TWO porters were available on tap: a traditional porter and a peanut butter and chocolate porter.

I loved drinking the traditional porter today. 

I imagined (ha!) that I was helping SAVE THE PORTER by ordering it and look forward to ordering more of them.

The very best moment, though, involving the porter was when I told Steve, Debbie, and Debbie that today was an important day for me and asked them to join me in a toast.

We raised our glasses and I announced that were he alive, today would have been Raymond Harold "Pert" Woolum's 91st birthday. 

Dad died before I got together with Debbie -- in fact, both of our fathers died before we got together. 

So, I was the only one raising a glass who knew Dad, but I loved honoring him with Debbie and our good friends and I thought about him all day today.

3. I'm happy to report that for about three days now, Copper has not secluded himself in the basement. Yes, sometimes he hides for a while under the bed on the main floor, but he and Luna have been spending a lot of time in the Vizio room and I'm experimenting with letting Copper spend more time in the bedroom where he has a history of making messes on the bed. So far, this month, he hasn't done that. 

Especially when he's in the bedroom, I'm spending more and more time petting Copper. He purrs. My hope is, not really knowing how cats' minds work, that as I give him more petting attention, he'll feel more secure. We do all we can to keep Gibbs away from the Vizio room and bedroom because he loves to bark at the cats. He doesn't get aggressive. He just barks.  His barking unnerves them, especially Copper. 

I don't have to reach out to pet Luna. Any time I sit in the Vizio room, she attaches her self to either my lap or my chest and, in bed, she often sleeps very close to me, sometimes under the covers, sometimes near the pillows. 

Copper has only climbed into my lap once over the last 9 months, but he does sometimes inch closer to me at night. 

Slowly, I hope surely, maybe Copper will become more relaxed, less nervous and afraid. 

I hope simply keeping him on the main floor and petting him more often is helping. 

Three Beautiful Things 10/27/2021: New York City on Film, Astros Come to Life, New York City Short Films

 1. I subscribe to the Criterion Channel and right now it offers about 59 movies as a collection entitled, New York Stories. I thought, and I was wrong, that Dog Day Afternoon was a part of this collection and I spent quite a bit of time poking around and satisfying myself that I was wrong. In the course of my poking around, I found other collections of films centered on New York, including one called New York Sounds.

Within this collection, I spotted a forty-five minute film made by Martin Kirchheimer, released in 1981, entitled, Stations of the Elevated. It's a non-narrated documentary featuring graffiti on trains that run above ground in the New York subway system. You might know that a Clean Car Program started in 1984 and that five years later, the system was free of graffiti painted cars. You might also know that to many the graffiti was regarded as a nuisance, at the very least, and as vandalism at its worst.

Martin Kircheimer, however, saw beauty and artistic achievement in the graffiti and this film focuses on pictures of the graffiti intermixed with other kinds of visual creations along the train lines, especially images from billboards. Kircheimer also includes scenes from decimated parts of the city, with special emphasis on abandoned high rises built as project housing. 

So, the film juxtaposes the visual aspects of some of NYC, as seen on trains and along the routes of trains. He accompanies these images with music by Charles Mingus and Aretha Franklin.

I didn't visit NYC for the first time until 2012. I have no nostalgic attachment to what the city looked like in the 1960s and 1970s, the city portrayed in this film.

But, for some reason, I seek out movies, both fictional and documentary, that depict this time period in New York City -- movies like The French Connection, Serpico, The Panic in Needle Park, among others. Likewise, when I've visited museums in both New York City and Washington, DC, I've come across video exhibits that were made during this time and I can't get enough of them.

I think it has to do with watching images recorded on film, not recorded digitally, and enjoying the quality of texture of their images.

After watching Kirchmeir's movie, I watched a longer and more traditionally constructed 2019 documentary called, The Hottest August. In it, filmmaker Brett Story traverses the five boroughs of New York City and interviews people in their homes, in parks, in workplaces, on a boat, in bars, on stoops, and other places, asking them to talk about their lives and their thoughts about the future of the USA. 

The interviewees touch on their thoughts about climate change, the impact of Hurricane Sandy, racism, social isolation, their anxieties about the future, and a variety of other things. Brett Story's approach was purposeful as she interviewed a variety of people, people without power or wealth, people of many backgrounds and ethnic origins, and they trusted her to speak openly about the present and how they look at the years to come. 

Everything else I watched today was a short film, but The Hottest August was a full length documentary, running about 90 minutes or so. 

2. If the Braves caught the Astros napping in Game 1 of the World Series, tonight, in Game 2, Houston definitely woke up.

Until Jose Altuve homered in the 7th inning, the Astros scored by keeping the ball in the park with a series of doubles and singles mixed in with a couple of out of character errors by the Braves' defense.

To me, it was a vintage performance by the Astros. Their hitters were disciplined, selective in the pitches they swung at, and weren't trying to blast the ball for a home run on every swing. 

I admire this quality in the Astros, particularly in their left fielder Michael Brantley who is among baseball's most efficient and elegant hitters. Over the years, he has developed the skill to, as they say, take what pitchers give him. If they work him away, he can hit pitches to left field. If they pitch him inside, he can pull pitches. He's not all a big home run guy, but can be relied on to not only get on base regularly, but also keep rallies alive and drive in runs. He's among my favorite players in baseball to watch at the plate. 

Now the World Series moves to Atlanta for three games. In the first two games, both teams have performed below par in one game and looked nearly unbeatable when they won. 

As was true when this series began, I have no idea what to expect next. 

All I know is that I enjoy watching both of these teams play a lot, even while keeping in mind those factors that move some fans to refuse to watch either team. I get why that's true and I cannot explain why I  both understand what's objectionable regarding both teams and enjoy watching the way they play the game.

3.  After the game ended, I returned to the Criterion Channel and explore another New York collection entitled New York Shorts.

In just under six minutes, in his 1953 film entitled, "Daybreak Express", D. A. Pennebaker strings together a series of evocative images shot from inside a train. He edited the images to the movement and rhythms of Duke Ellington's composition of the same name, "Daybreak Express". 

Shirley Clarke also created a montage of images. Hers were of New York City's bridges and captured their strength, grace, and beauty in her four minute 1958 short films "Bridges-Go-Round 1" and "Bridges-Go-Round 2". The difference between #1 and #2 was the music soundtrack to each -- the first was electronic music and the second was a jazz score. 

The Bowery is street and a neighborhood located in the southern portion of Manhattan.

Its history is long and colorful. For decades the Bowery was known for its dive bars and saloons, houses of prostitution, tattoo parlors, cheap eateries, cheap clothing stores, flop houses, cheap movie houses, and, for fans of music groups like The Talking Heads, the Ramones, Television, Patti Smith, and others, was the location of the famous music venue CBGB.

When Sara Driver's short film, "The Bowery" was released in 1994, the bars and saloons were closed. The Third Avenue El no longer ran above the Bowery. The Bowery was on the verge of being somewhat gentrified. 

I watched Driver's nearly eleven minute cinematic postcard of the 1990s Bowery. In a short period of run time, Driver's film captured the variety of the Bowery -- its dereliction, poetry, friendliness, misery, pride, and its physical aspects. 

It moved me to want to take my Joseph Mitchell book off the shelf and dive back into it again. 

Three Beautiful Things 10/26/2021: Gibbs Teaches Us About Himself, Lynrd Skynrd Documentary, Atlanta Dispatches Houston

1. For the most part, life around the house was quiet and uneventful -- aside from Gibbs shocking us by dashing out the front door when a package arrived, Debbie opened the door to retrieve it,  and Gibbs dashed out the door and chased the UPS truck as it pulled away. We didn't know Gibbs had this in him, but Debbie sprang into action and coaxed him back toward the house, into the Sube in the driveway,  and then carried him back into the house. In the future, we'll be more mindful of Gibbs' movements, for sure,  when we need to open the front door.

2. I like to spend time in the Vizio room with Luna during the day. This afternoon, I settled in by watching the documentary, If I Leave Here Tomorrow on Netflix. Combining contemporary interviews with band members who were still alive when the documentary was filmed with archival film footage and interviews mostly from the 1970s, the movie charted the band's very early days in Jacksonville, FL and told the story of how they slowly built a following and eventually became famous, admired, and beloved for their straight forward song lyrics and their infectious sound, a blend of country, blues, and straight ahead rock n' roll. The movie also went behind the scenes and documented conflicts within the band, the band's propensity for partying hard and being reckless, and, in the end, the 1977 plane crash that killed Ronnie Van Zandt, the band's front man and leader, and guitarist Steve Gaines and backup vocalist Cassie Gaines. Other band members survived the crash and described, as the movie ended, what they experienced.

3. Game 1 of the 2021 World Series opened loudly as the Braves' leadoff hitter Jorge Soler launched a rocket on Famber Valdez's third pitch into the left field stands. Three batters later, Austin Riley doubled home Ozzie Albies and Atlanta blasted to a 2-0 lead and never surrendered it. In the third inning, Adam Duvall lined a frozen rope out of the park, swelling the Braves' lead to 5-0 and Atlanta seized this opening game, 6-2.

While the Braves won the game, they also lost veteran pitcher and team leader, Charlie Morton. In the bottom of the second, Yuriel Gurriel hit a sharp bouncer off of Morton's lower leg. It ricocheted to first baseman Freddie Freeman for an out. At first, there didn't seem to be any indication that Morton was hurt. He struck out Chas McCormick and Martin Maldonado hit a liner to Freeman to end the inning. Morton returned to the hill as the bottom of the 3rd got underway and he struck out Jose Altuve with a masterful curve ball. But, on that pitch, Morton grimaced, limped back to the rubber, and signaled to Atlanta's dugout that he couldn't continue.  Soon after, the training staff x-rayed Morton's fibula and discovered he'd suffered a fracture. 

In case you missed what happened, Charlie Morton struck out two hitters and got another one out with a broken leg. 

The relievers who took over the game, A. J. Minter, Luke Jackson, Tyler Matzek, and Will Smith stymied the Astros, preserving Morton's superb effort.

In the bottom of the 8th inning, though, the Astros began to rally. Yordan Alvarez struck a mighty blow to deep center field and legged it out for a triple. Three batters later, Yuriel Gurriel hit a bullet to left center that struck the wall just below the yellow home run line. Eddie Rosario played the carom perfectly and fired a strike to second base as Gurriel tried to turn his wall banger into a double. Gurriel slid poorly. Somehow the dirt around second base slowed down his slide and Ozzie Albies fielded Rosario's perfect peg and laid a tag on Gurriel just before he reached second base, ending the inning. 

I thought this was the play of the game. It killed the Astro's 8th inning surge and, even better, it was thrilling to see Rosario play the ball so beautifully off the wall and make a perfect throw. 

Three Beautiful Things 10/25/2021: Another Vaccination, The Red Sox and I Join Luna, Family Dinner and a Toast to Everett

1. Debbie and I had a few items that needed to go to the Post Office and I took them up and got them sent off. I was especially glad to send the defective EZ Pass transponder back to New York and, since I don't see us driving on toll roads any time soon, I included paperwork that will close our EZ Pass account.  

I also stopped off at Yoke's to pick up some sour cream and a couple containers of kitty litter and checked in with the pharmacy to see if flu shots were drop in or if I needed an appointment. I guess you'd say I landed in between. They are doing flu shots on a drop in basis, but, because the pharmacy was a little backed up, the woman at the window took my name and phone number and I went home, only to return a short while later when the pharmacist called me and said I could get my flu shot right away. 

For the time being, I think I'm done with vaccinations for a while, having been administered both a Covid booster  and a flu shot this month.

2. Because Gibbs, without malice, barks at Luna and Copper, unnerving them, and because he will pluck turds out of their litter pans if he has access to the Vizio room or the basement, Luna now spends much of the day in the Vizio room with the door closed and Copper hangs out in the basement -- and we keep Gibbs from going down there. Some time during the day, and sometimes against his will, I carry Copper upstairs to the Vizio room where we can hang out together and once Debbie and Gibbs go upstairs to bed, Luna and Copper can roam around the main floor and they both sleep with me at night. 

During the day, I often watch something on the Vizio so Luna will have company. 

Today, I flipped on a 30 for 30 episode, Four Days in October. It chronicles the stunning comeback the Boston Red Sox made in the 2004 ALCS. Before 2004, no team had ever come from 0-3 games down and won four games in a row to win a playoff series. 

Boston did it in 2004. They did it against their fiercest rival, the New York Yankees. They advanced to the World Series and by winning it, put an end to what's known as the Curse of the Bambino -- the Red Sox had not won a World Series since 1918 and, according to the Curse of the Bambino, the reason was because Boston sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920.

Watching this hour long documentary today, the number of wild things that happened as the Red Sox swept those four games came back to me. 

David Ortiz delivered two game winning hits, one a home run in the bottom of the 12th inning to win Game 4 and, in Game 5, he delivered a run scoring single in the bottom of the 14th. 

Curt Schilling had an injured ankle. He was treated for it in the Red Sox's training room and, in great pain, pitched a stellar seven innings in Game 6, a performance made more dramatic by how the procedure on his ankle bled. The blood on his sock was clearly visible and Game 6 became known as "The Bloody Sock" game. 

Game 6 also featured one of the low points in Alex Rodriquez's baseball career. In the top of the 8th inning, Rodriquez hit a dribbler toward first base. Boston's pitcher, Bronson Arroyo pounced off the mound, fielded the ball, and with the ball in his glove reached out to tag Rodriquez out.

Unbelievably, A-Rod slapped the ball out of Arroyo's glove, a move that was both bush league and against the rules of baseball. The slapped ball trickled up the right field line. It appeared that Derek Jeter came all the way around from first to score and that Rodriquez picked up an extra base, advancing to second.

Finally, though, cooler heads prevailed, and despite A-Rod's protestations, claiming that he knocked the ball out of Arroyo's glove legally, that it was the natural motion of his arms that dislodged the ball, Rodriquez was called out and Jeter had to return to first base. 

Replays clearly show that Rodriquez intentionally slapped the ball out of Arroyo's glove. The motion of his slap, by the way, was not very athletic, not at all flattering. 

It's hilarious to look back at this play and watch A-Rod futilely argue his case and then petulantly pout about it. 

The Red Sox won Game 6 and then buried the Yankees in Game 7. Ortiz homered with a runner on early in the game; Johnny Damon homered twice, the second a grand slam; the Red Sox vaulted to an early and wide margin in this game and were never really threatened and so completed their historic comeback over the course of four days in October.

3. Tonight Carol, Paul, Molly, Debbie, and I all went to Christy's house. Tonight, she hosted family dinner.

Christy centered our meal around stuffed peppers. She made green peppers stuffed with hamburger and rice and other items and Debbie baked a batch of vegetarian orange peppers stuffed with black beans, rice, and other items. Carol made a superb apple, cranberry, and almond coleslaw and, before dinner, we enjoyed tonight's very tasty cocktail, a lemon meringue sangria that Christy mixed.  In addition, we loved the appetizer Molly prepared, a most flavorful olive tapenade served with naan. Christy also served fresh and crisp stuffed celery sticks. 

We had a lot of fun yakking, telling stories, and getting caught up on recent family and community news.

At Christmastime, Carol had given each of us narrow shot glass with one of Everett's famous sayings inscribed on it. 

Tonight, we all brought our Everett glasses and raised a toast to his memory, one of our many family dinner's sweetest and most touching moments. Here's the picture Carol snapped of us toasting Everett's well-lived life:

Three Beautiful Things 10/24/2021: Fall Food, Cheese Plate Party, 1988 Notre Dame/Miami Football Documentary

 1. I stocked up on groceries today at Yoke's, in large part because Debbie wanted to prepare a warming, comforting fall dinner: chicken and dumplings. We invited Christy for dinner. We had a good time enjoying Debbie's delicious meal and yakking about any number of things.

2. Before dinner, I prepared a cheese plate with cave aged cheddar, stilton, blue cheese, white goat cheese and other cheeses, mostly from the Murray's counter at Fred Meyer in CdA. The cave aged cheddar was from Costco. We also had apple slices and Breton multi-grain crackers. The cheeses are full of great flavors. They are rich. A small amount of cheese goes a long way and it's a great pleasure to dive into the variety of textures and different strengths of the cheeses. 

3. Pretty much by accident, I stumbled upon the 30 for 30 documentary, Catholics vs. Convicts (2016), filmmaker Patrick Creadon's insightful treatment of two concurrent stories. First, it covers the emerging college football rivalry between Notre Dame and the University of Miami, focused mostly on their epic and historic game in 1988 in South Bend when Miami was undefeated and the top-ranked team in the USA and Notre Dame was also undefeated and ranked in the top five. The bitterness of the rivalry stemmed from the two teams' 1985 contest in Miami. Miami creamed Notre Dame, 58-7. Miami ran up the score, taunted the Notre Dame players, danced and pranced when they scored or when they made great defensive plays. From the perspective of Notre Dame, Miami's victory was unsportsmanlike and humiliating. With a new head coach, Lou Holtz, by 1988, the Notre Dame program was elite again and, in the titanic 1988 game the Fighting Irish had assembled a team talented enough to possibly avenge the 1985 humiliation. This film explores what transpired in that 1988 contest.

The movie also covers a second story. As the 1988 Miami/Notre Dame game approached, earlier in the year, the Miami program had about three players run afoul with the law. The Fighting Irish's basketball captain, Joe Fredrick (his nephew CJ played basketball for Iowa and now has transferred to Kentucky) came up with a t-shirt idea that would nickname the 1988 game Catholic vs Convicts. The t-shirts were an underground effort. Notre Dame's administration had banned the making and selling of "black market" t-shirts -- an entrepreneurial effort that a student, Pat Walsh, had had great success with in the past. The t-shirts were a sensation. The slogan Catholics vs Convicts heightened the bitterness of the rivalry. The documentary explores how the t-shirts came to be produced, their popularity, and the consequences the students who produced them suffered for violating the university's policy about renegade shirts like this one. 

I enjoyed the fact that the filmmaker, Patrick Creadon, was a senior at Notre Dame in the fall of 1988 and he was friends with the t-shirt makers and some of the football players.  So, not only were the interviews with the coaches and players involved in this game fascinating, so were the interviews with the students who created the Catholics vs Convicts t-shirt and the way that slogan turned the football game into a morality play on the gridiron. 

Three Beautiful Things 10/23/2021: Creating Space, Chillin' at the Lounge, Braves Win in a Thriller!

 1.  As part of a small spiffing up the living room and kitchen project, I made more space in our living room by moving a piece of furniture to the top floor. I enjoy having as much empty space as possible in the living room and the kitchen and enjoy our efforts to keep our kitchen counters as empty as possible. I also enjoy keeping the garage as uncluttered as possible and, in support of that cause, I made a trip to the recycling bin across from the medical center and took a handful of cardboard boxes out to the transfer station to be recycled.

2. I hadn't been to the Inland Lounge since traveling in September and Debbie suggested we go up at 3:00. We had a lot of fun seeing Cas and I had a good visit with Chuck Hansen and later with Eddie Joe. I also got to see Ginger, briefly, but she and Debbie had a good visit down at the other end of the bar. 

Back about 55 years ago, give or take, I knew Chuck Hansen as Larry Chuck. His dad, Larry, was our Farm League coach when I was eight years old. I was on the Twin City Hardware team. Chuck and I got to talking about playing youth baseball back in the 1960s and Eddie Joe joined our conversation. Chuck was trying and trying to remember who coached his Little League team. He played for KPs (sponsored my the Knights of Pythias). We remembered any number of coaches in the Kellogg league, but we couldn't come up with Chuck's KPs coach. If that fact should ever surface, I'll let Chuck know next time I see him.

3. If you follow baseball at all, you know that the Dodgers organization has deep pockets and they are willing to shell out a lot of money to sign free agents and to pay players they want to keep on their team a generous salary. 

In fact, in 2021, the Dodgers had the largest payroll in Major League Baseball, almost 195,000,000 dollars (staggering isn't it?).

But, there are at least two factors that all that money cannot protect a team against: aging and injuries.

As the playoffs in general and the NLCS in particular got underway this fall, the Dodgers got hit fairly hard by injuries. By the time tonight's game 6 rolled around, they were without Dustin May, Clayton Kershaw, Justin Turner, Joe Kelly, Max Scherzer, and Max Muncy (did I miss anyone?). All but May and Kelly have been all-stars and Scherzer and Kershaw are shoo-ins to be voted into the Hall of Fame. 

But, age or injury or both caught up to these players and they were all unavailable as Game 6 rolled around. In addition, the Dodgers had paid a lot of money to sign David Price, a past all-star and member of the World Champion Red Sox, but he, too, was unavailable. His effective pitching days lie in the past.

Now, all that said, the Dodgers came into Game 6 as a formidable team, capable of defeating the Braves. The Dodgers' bullpen is deep. Even without Turner and Muncy, they were still a very productive team on offense. They were battered, yes, but those injuries did not guarantee the Braves a victory in this series.

So, tonight, with Game 6 tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning, there were two outs and Walker Buehler walked Travis d'Arnaud. Braves manager Brian Snitker trusted his gut feeling that a rally might be at hand and pulled his starter, Ian Anderson, and sent a pinch hitter, Ehire Adrianza,  to the plate and he hit a broken bat double down the right field line.

Now the Braves had runners at second and third with the red hot Eddie Rosario coming to the plate. 

Should the Dodgers walk Rosario, since he was so red hot, and then bring in a lefty reliever to face the next hitter, Freddie Freeman? Or should they stick with Buehler?

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told the press after the game that he liked how Buehler was pitching so he had him pitch to Rosario.

It was a titanic confrontation between Buehler and Rosario.

Rosario swung at and missed Buehler's first two offerings.

He stayed alive at the plate by fouling off a pitch, taking a ball, and then fouling off two more pitches.

Buehler's seventh pitch to Rosario was a cutter that Rosario got around on and he hit a laser to right field, out of the park, for a dramatic three run homer, putting the Braves up 4-1.

The Dodgers threatened that lead in the top of the seventh when the Braves' once effective but now struggling reliever Luke Jackson took to the mound and faced the Dodgers' crackling bottom of the lineup. 

Chris Taylor boomed a rocket to left that nearly left the park, bounced off the fence, and resulted in a double.

Jackson then walked Cody Bellinger, bringing up AJ Pollock.

Pollock lined a double down the left field line, scoring Taylor. Bellinger advanced to third base.

Things looked bleak for the Braves.

The Dodgers had runners on second and third with no outs.

That was it for Luke Jackson. Mercifully, he left the game and southpaw Tyler Matzek ascended the hill.

Matzek struck out future Hall of Famer (but aged) Albert Pujols.

Pinch hitter Steven Souza strode to the plate.

BOOM! Matzek struck him out.

Two outs. Runners still on second and third.

All-star and past MVP Mookie Betts dug in at the dish.

Matzek fired two straight heaters for strikes that Betts didn't even swing at.

Matzek served up a third fastball at 98 mph and Betts took a mighty swing at it and missed.

The Braves survived the 7th inning, shut out the Dodgers in the 8th and 9th innings and won the game 4-2.

The World Series matchup is secured.

On Tuesday night, the Astros will host the Braves and the Fall Classic will get underway. 

Three Beautiful Things 10/22/2021: I Have the Sube Back, Beers at the Outpost, Houston is Fire and Boston is Ice

 1.  Late this morning, I called the automotive shop to check up on the Sube. The technician had arrived at a conclusion that I thought might be coming. Because the funny sound the Sube makes is so short lived and erratic, it never lasted long enough for the technician to keep the noise going when the Sube went up the lift. The verdict: bring it back in if and when the noise worsens and lasts longer. That made good sense to me and I left very pleased with the all the effort the shop gave to the Sube and with my conversation with the service technician as I picked up my car. 

2. Over the last several years, I've enjoyed patronizing a tap house/brewery at 5th and Spruce in CdA. It used to be called Slate Creek. When Byrdman and I first visited Slate Creek, they were serving all local and regional beers and they provided peanuts and encouraged us to drop the shells on the floor. Slate Creek experienced a change in owners a few years back and started brewing small batches of their own beer. Any time I had an appointment or errands to run in CdA, I enjoyed going to Slate Creek -- the help was friendly, patrons were fun to be with, and the beer was always fresh and tasty. 

The new owner's name back in 2018 was Danica and, at some point, she closed Slate Creek, but formed a kind of social group for moonlight bike rides, Bingo nights, and other get togethers under the Slate Creek name.

Now Slate Creek is called Outpost Brewing.  

Byrdman and I met up there after I picked up the Sube. 

I really enjoyed what the new ownership has done with the place inside. Soon, Outpost will brew their own beer, but for now they offered a terrific selection of local and regional beers along with Coors Light.

Byrdman and I each drank a couple glasses of Paragon's Idabow English IPA. Paragon is near Government Way and Dalton and is another favorite spot of Byrdman's and mine. They began brewing their own beer a while back, but because I haven't been out and about much over the last 18 months or so, I don't think, until today, I'd had any of their beers brewed on site.

Paragon's English IPA was great! I love variety in beers and unlike the more aggressively hopped West Coast IPAs or the more juicy New England IPAs, this Idabow was a milder IPA, easy to drink, with a kind of bready or biscuit-y quality that I really enjoy. 

Byrdman and I also struck up a conversation with Chris who owns Outpost and he was a great guy, happy to tell us a bit about himself and how his new business venture is off to a solid start. 

I can see why -- I found Outpost, like Slate Creek before it -- a neighborly and comfortable spot serving up an excellent selection of beers. I'm eager to return. 

3. The Boston Red Sox's season ended tonight, not with a bang but a whimper. Early in the ALCS against Houston, the Red Sox looked unstoppable, a behemoth, rocketing grand slam home runs, scoring in a variety of other ways. Their offense was on fire up and down their line up.

And, then, they went into a deep freeze. 

I hated to see it, but, at the same time, the Red Sox's sudden shift from fire to ice provided more evidence of what an unpredictable and endlessly surprising game baseball is. 

In game 5, Houston's Framber Valdez pitched a gem and tonight Luis Garcia did the same. For 5.2 innings, Garcia just didn't give the Red Sox good pitches to hit. His offerings were varied and often on the edges of the strike zone. He made few mistakes and, once he surrendered a triple to Kike Hernandez in the sixth inning, he left the game and four relievers picked up where he left off and stymied the Red Sox.

Houston also continued to rev up their offense. Over the course of this series, Yordan Alvarez powdered the ball and continued doing so tonight with four hits, including a run scoring double and a triple. A quieter hitter, Kyle Tucker also had a productive series and his three run blast tonight helped seal Houston's overpowering 5-0 victory.

So, Houston advances to the World Series and either Saturday night or Sunday night, we'll know if they'll face Los Angeles or Atlanta.  

Three Beautiful Things 10/21/2021: Making Thai Curry, Props to the Dodgers, Gliding Around YouTube

 1. This afternoon I made a ton of Calrose rice and then heated up some green Thai curry paste, added a couple of cans of coconut milk to it along with soy sauce, fish sauce, and brown sugar. I dumped chopped onion, orange pepper, some green beans, some spinach, and dried kaffir lime leaves into this sauce and it bubbled away until the onions and peppers were tender. 

I had a blast making Thai curry again, especially knowing that it provides a tasty meal that both Debbie and I enjoy a lot. This curry performed beautifully.

2. The green Thai curry I made was little bit hot to the mouth, but not as hot as the Dodgers' Chris Taylor and AJ Pollock. Good Lord! AJ Pollock slammed two home runs and drove in four runs and Chris Taylor, baseball's latest version of Mr. October, blasted three round trippers and racked up six RBIs. Early in this high stakes scrimmage, Freddie Freeman hit a rocket out of the park and staked Atlanta to a 2-0 lead and Atlanta's ace, Max Fried was on the hill for the Braves. I thought the Braves might be sitting in the catbird seat, but I was so wrong, so very wrong, as the Dodgers erupted for 11 runs, fueled by Taylor and Pollock's goners. 

I've reached a point in my sports viewing life where I don't have a lot of emotion invested in the outcomes of games. Now, this general trend of mine didn't hold up when the Nationals won the 2019 World Series or when Virginia won the 2019 NCAA men's basketball tournament -- and I still get riled up when the Oregon Ducks' basketball teams succeed and feel genuine pain when they lose.

Okay.

That's where I'm at.

That said, I've never been a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but when it comes to Major League Baseball,  the animosity I felt toward the Dodgers in my youth has evaporated.

So, tonight, I enjoyed being able to feel awe when Chris Taylor launched his third missile out of the park. I'd love to see Atlanta advance to the World Series, but watching the Dodgers pepper the park with timely hits and those five home runs filled me with admiration and respect. Major props to the Dodger Blue.

3. After the game ended, I dived down a really fun YouTube rabbit hole. I continued my recent fascination and enjoyment of Norm Macdonald appearances on late night talk shows and also watched videos by The Eurythmics, Cheap Trick, Robert Palmer, Cheap Trick, and other groups and watched a couple of very entertaining clips of Kevin Pollock doing celebrity impressions.

Three Beautiful Things 10/20/2021: Learning to Live with Gibbs, Astros and Braves Explode, Popcorn Party BONUS: A Limerick by Stu

1. I guess today is as good a day as any to update how things are going with Luna, Copper, and Gibbs. Gibbs is a friendly, good-natured dog. He barks at the cats, but doesn't go after them. Luna accepts this, for the most part, and isn't freaked out by Gibbs' barking. Copper is freaked out and prefers not being on the main floor of the house when Gibbs is there. So Copper hangs out in the basement, but I carry him upstairs and bring him to the Vizio room at some point during the day, especially when I'm watching television. Copper is comfortable with me in the Vizio room. The room is equipped to meet all his needs. Luna spends a lot of time in the Vizio room, too. It's good for all of us.

Both cats sleep with me and once Gibbs and Debbie head upstairs to go to bed, I can leave the bedroom door open and Luna and Copper can roam around the main floor during the night and in the morning. I'm usually up in the morning 1-2 hours before Debbie and Gibbs, and Copper enjoys lying in familiar spots in the living room, eating in the kitchen, and just poking around. Once he hears Gibbs coming down the stairs, he bolts to the basement, which is also equipped to meet his needs, and hangs out there until I carry him up to the main floor later in the day.

I hope the day will come when Copper regards Gibbs with the kind of shrug Luna gives him. But, Copper is more inclined to be nervous, easily stressed, and afraid -- so we'll see.

2. The once blistering Beantown Bombers have completely cooled off and today Boston got thumped by Houston, 9-1. Houston got just what they needed from their chucker, Framber Valdez, who only gave up three hits and one run over eight innings. Over the last few years, it's become rarer and rarer for starting pitchers to pitch deep into games. The analytics used to evaluate players' performances consistently reveal that pitchers are more vulnerable when they face batters for a third time in a game. As a result, starting pitchers get pulled earlier than they used to and teams rely on their bullpens more than ever. So, while I would like to see Boston win this series, I also enjoyed seeing Framber Valdez pitch like "an old-timer" and his performance was a real boon for Houston because its bullpen got a lot of much needed rest.

Not only did Framber Valdez pitch a gem, Houston's Yordan Alvarez was on fire at the plate. He drove in three runs with a home run and a double, helping ignite the Astro's powerhouse offensive display.

Out in LA, it looked like the Dodgers' twenty game winner Julio Urias was spent. It looked like the Dodgers have overused him and the Braves jumped on him early with three solo home runs and a stellar performance by Eddie Rosario. Remarkably, it seemed, going into the game, that Atlanta might be at a disadvantage. The Braves' scheduled starter had to bow out of his assignment with a shoulder ailment. It wasn't until the afternoon that Atlanta's coaching staff really knew that the Braves would have to piece together a bullpen game -- a game pitched entirely by relievers.

But, not only did Atlanta's bats scorch the Dodgers, the parade of pitchers Atlanta employed performed most admirably, especially Drew Smyly as he pitched 3.1 solid innings, only surrendering two runs. Most importantly, he ate up a substantial number of innings, opening the way for the next four hurlers to hold the Dodgers scoreless.

Atlanta now leads this series 3-1 after their 9-2 win in Game 4.

3. When Debbie and I lived in Greenbelt, MD, I really got the hang of popping popcorn in a particular pot we had and we enjoyed popcorn nights often.

Since moving to Kellogg and with Debbie having been away many months, first teaching in Eugene and then helping out with Ellie, we haven't had a popcorn night for a long time.

Tonight, though, with the baseball games over, I snuck into the kitchen and quietly put oil in the Dutch oven, popped a few kernels, and then, knowing the oil was hot, I put more kernels in the pot, but I couldn't keep my secret for long. As the frenzy of popping got underway, Debbie cried out, "Oh, my God! Are you making popcorn?" 

I confessed I was and before long, just like the good old days(!), we had a popcorn party.

Here's a limerick by Stu: 

Some people can surely drone on.

Seems they’ll talk until you are gone! 

Blather on, mindless chatter, 

Subjects don’t seem to matter. 

Can be politics, war, or their lawn! 

Babbling Day

Three Beautiful Things 10/19/2021: Good Day with Ed, Baseball Rallies, Happy Birthday David Diedrich and Rest In Peace

 1. I leapt into the old Sube this morning and zoomed to CdA and dropped it off at the shop. Ed had said he'd pick me up and bring me back home and we came back to Kellogg the long way. We stopped off for a filling and tasty breakfast at the Breakfast Nook and then zipped south and spent a few hours spinning reels at the CdA Casino where the entertainment didn't cost me any money at all! 

It was a clear and golden, vermillion, and red October day, making the drive to Worley and back over the 4th of July pass gorgeous.

2. Back home, I tuned in to both baseball playoff games. They both astonished me. The Dodgers suddenly came to life in the bottom of the eighth inning. Cody Bellinger pasted a three run homer and, later, Mookie Betts followed it with a run scoring single and the Dodgers came from three runs behind to defeat Atlanta, 6-5. 

On the other side of the USA, the Beantown Bombers' bats went quiet and in the top of the ninth inning the suddenly hot hitting Astros tallied seven runs on their way to crushing Boston, 9-2. 

Both wins were crucial. The Dodgers, with two home games remaining, are down two games to one now -- for much of today's game it looked like they would fall into a three games to none hole. The Astros evened their series with Boston at 2-2 thanks in large part, not only to their stunning ninth inning rally, but to a pitching staff that cooled off the BoSox despite not being at full strength. 

3. After Houston's rally and after watching and listening to Bill Davie's superb Tree House Concert -- his 64th such show! --, Debbie and I broke into a fifth of Maker's Mark as a way of commemorating Debbie's brother David's 63rd birthday and to remember his life. David passed away in 2009. It was fun remembering David, telling stories, remembering our trips to Arlington Heights to see him, Muffie, Bill, and Samantha, and knowing that across the family, others were also commemorating him and posting pictures of what they were doing in his memory. 

Three Beautiful Things 10/17/2021: Great Trip to CdA, Back in the Kitchen, Great Photo Taken at 16 Tons

 1.  The Sube is making an unusual noise in the engine that comes and goes. Today, Debbie had a haircut appointment in CdA and while the woman cutting her hair was doing a beautiful job, I drove the Camry up to Silverlake Automotive and talked with Ryan about the Sube. He suggested I bring it in on Tuesday and leave it overnight so one of the technicians/mechanics could start the car cold Wednesday morning and try to figure out what the cause is. 

I also made a stop to make an Amazon return at the UPS Store and when I arrived back at the salon, Debbie, looking really great, was ready to go and we stopped in at Bear Paw Cookies and split a delicious apple caramel flavored cookie and I had an Americano with steamed milk.

Together, we made a trip to Fred Meyer where I love the Murray's Cheese counter and I picked out a few small chunks of high quality cheese to bring home. 

I bought a few other things and, happy with what we got done in CdA, Debbie and I headed home. 

2. Debbie's been doing a lot (all?) of our food prep since she returned home, but tonight I cooked dinner. I chopped orange pepper, onion, broccoli, and cauliflower, put the pieces in a bowl and seasoned them with olive oil, pear balsamic vinegar, tarragon, thyme, salt, and pepper. I roasted the vegetables in the oven and made a batch of pearl couscous to accompany the vegetables.  

I thought the pear balsamic vinegar was a terrific decision as it gave the enhanced the subtle sweetness already present in the orange peppers and the cauliflower. 

As I ate my dinner, I watched the bombing Boston Red Sox crush Houston, 12-3. The Red Sox's firepower was staggeringly impressive.

3. Later this evening, I clicked on my Twitter tab and the first post on my feed was from 16 Tons. To my delight, 16 Tons posted a picture, going from left to right, of Richard (Dick) Lennox, Cliff Jenks, Don Macnaughton, and me. We met every week at 16 Tons-- was it on Thursdays? -- for matinee beers and great conversation. I sorely miss these guys and our weekly beers. Our meetings were a blast and always stimulating. 

Three Beautiful Things 10/17/2021: The King Richard ZOOMfest, Thawed Baked Beans, Atlanta Forces the Action

 1. At 10:00, Diane, Bill, Colette, Val, and I vaulted into ZOOMworld and for just over two hours talked about Shakespeare's Richard II and that discussion seemed to open the way to swim together in a tributary of the Shakespeare River as talk turned to writing itself, the challenges of writing, and how songs, poems, plays, stories are often understood in ways entirely different from anything the writer had in mind.

This discussion came about, in part, because we had talked some about what a reader or viewer of Richard II is supposed to experience when reading or seeing the play. It's a good question -- and very legitimate analyses of the plays done within the framework of rhetoric or genre explain how the plays create emotional expectations and our responses to the action can be seen in terms of how those expectations are met or frustrated. 

But, in our ZOOM discussion, one thing we talked about was how those who produced The Hollow Crown decided to enact the ending. I won't give it away, but I will say that this question came up: "Was I supposed to see Richard as a Christ figure as he was being killed?" My answer went something like this: if you did see it that way -- and the action gave us good reason to see it as similar to Christ's martyrdom -- then it works. I don't think any of us can be sure what the creators of this ending were intending, but we should trust our responses -- especially when they are visceral -- and then raise this question: if Richard's death connects with the crucifixion, why? What in the play is illuminated by his death being portrayed this way?

We also discussed the Richard's spiritual awakening, but agreed that it wasn't inevitable. We could cite any number of leaders who, having lost everything, were not refined by their suffering but were hardened by it, some even plunging deeper into denial, delusion, and feeling victimized, eschewing rather than embracing suffering as a means to self-examination, a reckoning with oneself, and as a possible path to insight and wisdom.

Today I felt especially gratified that our study group had spent so much time earlier in the year discussing the genre of  comedy. When I was a young person first teaching Shakespeare, I mistakenly thought that suffering was the key to self-reckoning, to the gaining of wisdom. I still think suffering can be a source of awakening, but I no longer inflate its importance as I once did and have come to see how love, reconciliation, forgiveness, mirth, laughter, jolliness, being bonded with others in relationships and in community, and the other foundational experiences of comedy also are significant sources of wisdom and insight. 

2. Back in May, I made a batch of homemade baked beans for our picnic style family dinner with Cathy, Dave, and April Vergobbi and Dave's wife and daughter and April's husband. 

I had a quart left over and froze them and while I was at the Wildhorse Casino, Debbie thawed them out and today I warmed up a bowl of them. They are really delicious. It was fun to eat them and have that family dinner at Carol and Paul's return so vividly in my memory.

3. I don't know how many times tonight I thought the Braves were surely going to lose Game 2 of the NLCS to the Dodgers. But both times the Braves fell behind, they clawed back to tie. It was especially thrilling when they came back from a 4-2 deficit on the strength of daring and aggressive base running by Eddie Rosario and Ozzie Albies and a huge clutch laser to the center field wall by Austin Riley. In the bottom of ninth, Eddie Rosario matched his stunning base running exploits with a smashed line drive that ate up Corey Seager and drove in Dansby Swanson, giving Atlanta a 5-4 win, making it two straight nights that the Braves beat the Dodgers on walk-off knocks. 

The series resumes on Tuesday in Dodger Stadium. Can the ageless Charlie Morton craft another superb outing for Atlanta? How deep into the game can Walker Buehler chuck for the Dodgers -- deep enough to give the Dodgers' relief pitchers some rest? We'll see, but one thing is for certain:  it's nearly mandatory that the Dodgers win Game 3, or their chances of winning this series will have nearly vanished. 

Three Beautiful Things 10/16/2021: Catching Up, Watching *Richard II*, Reflections on Shakespeare in My Retirement

1. Because of Friday's trip from Pendleton back home and the party out at Rose Lake, I got a day behind on my blog, so this morning I made coffee and hung out in the Vizio room getting caught up here at kellogg bloggin. 

2. Once caught up, I turned my attention to getting ready for our Westminster Basement Study Group's discussion on Zoom of the first episode of the first season of the BBC's The Hollow Crown. 

The first episode lasts just under two and half hours and is a judiciously condensed version of Shakespeare's sobering play, Richard II. 

I loved this production of Richard II. Not only was it a thrilling and naturalistic cinematic production, expertly costumed and featuring great location shots on seacoasts, open fields, in castles, and other sites, it was exquisitely acted. When performed, Shakespeare plays are at their best when those producing his plays cast expert actors not only in the lead roles, but in the small parts as well. In particular, I loved how beautifully David Bradley played the Gardener, Lindsey Duncan played the distraught and desperate Duchess of York,  Lucian Msamati played the prophetic Bishop of Carlisle, and James Purefoy played the doomed Thomas Mowbray.

These (and others I didn't mention) so-called lesser roles gave depth and character to the production and the story. Shakespeare's "lesser" characters ground his plays, provide a foundation upon which the greater roles are built. The casting of the primary roles was brilliant. Both Patrick Stewart and David Suchet brought gravity and pathos to their roles as John of Gaunt and the Duke of York, two elderly uncles of Richard II who are essentially helpless as they bear witness to the seismic changes afoot in England, as they see the world order they have known for decades eroding and politics by force taking over. Likewise, Rory Kinnear plays the deeply offended, shabbily treated, and painfully conflicted Henry Bolingbroke as divided between his quest for justice, love of country, ambition, and growing guilt for having deposed King Richard. 

Most of the play's focus is on Richard, the weak, impulsive, impractical, deluded, and poetic king and the multiple dimensions of his character, including how he matures into wisdom and self-awareness, even as he loses all his earthly power. Richard is brought to life unforgettably by Ben Wishaw. He completely inhabits Richard's petulance, mercurial mood shifts, self-pity, pathos, profound insecurity, incompetence, selfishness, and eventual spiritual growth. Watching Wishaw bring all of the complexities to life was stunning.

I am eager to see the next episode, Henry IV, part 1, especially because Jeremy Irons plays the aging and suffering King Henry, plays how Henry is affected by having seized the kingship and having, at least indirectly, been the cause of King Richard's death.

3. When I retired, I wanted to see if I could experience the plays of Shakespeare anew -- for many, many years, my experience with Shakespeare's plays was primarily academic: I read his works, took classes, and read Shakespeare commentary all in service to writing papers, taking exams, and, most of all, teaching college level courses. 

When I got to act in a handful of Shakespeare's plays between 2005-2011, I got to experience a whole new and exciting way of experiencing these plays and I loved it. The plays came alive to me in ways that never happened in the classroom or as an audience member in the scores of productions I watched over the years.

When I left Eugene, my days of being in theater productions were over -- although I did travel from Maryland to Oregon, via Kellogg, and got to help narrate Shakespeare Showcases at the Wildish Theater in Springfield.  That was a blast.

But, could I watch plays, maybe even read plays, free of experiencing them as material for academic achievement and classroom instruction?

Possibly.

But, recently, the Westminster Basement Study Group -- Val, Colette, Bridgit, Bill, and Diane -- asked me to, in a sense, be their teacher -- for Bill, Colette, Val, and Bridgit this meant being their teacher again. I'd been their teacher at Whitworth. Bill was a student of mine in 1977 and they were all in classes of mine at some point between 1982-84.

I agreed to provide content and raise questions, first about the genre of comedy, and, now, about the four plays that comprise season 1 of The Hollow Crown. 

It feels right. We are doing this study free of the apparatus of academia: no syllabus, no course objectives, no credits, no papers, no grades, no course evaluations, no assessments.

We are watching the plays and discussing them out of love (for learning and each other), out of curiosity, motivated by joy. 

So, after I watched Richard II yesterday, I went to our study group's webpage and posted some things we might talk about -- the nature of tragedy, Shakespeare's creation of confusion in the play, the arc of Richard's development as a character -- and earlier I had sent out an email recommending we think about how this play portrays the violation of custom and ceremony as Bolingbroke and his allies force Richard out of office and don't wait for him to die and for the rite of succession to kick in. We'll be discussing Shakespeare's exploration of power, his portrayal of Machiavelli's theory of politics. 

And this doesn't feel academic to me. No. We Westminster Basementeers enjoy discussing ideas, expanding our understanding of what it means to be human and talking about the ways of the world. 

I'm happy they've asked me to be their "teacher" again -- but, fortunately, this doesn't feel like school at all.

I loved teaching college level English all those 35 years or so. I loved working with students. I loved working with my fellow instructors. But, I retired to free myself from the demands of the institution. In our Westminster project, there are no such demands. 

We're just going to learn and talk with each other. 

A heavenly educational experience! 

Three Beautiful Things 10/15/2021: All Good Things Must End, Candy Shopping, Party at Rose Lake

 1. After a fun breakfast at Traditions in the Wildhorse casino and after I tangled one last time with the Money Honey machine with some success, we bid Mike and Terry farewell and Ed, Jake, and I piled into Jake's truck and hit the road.

2. As we often do, Ed, Jake, and I stopped at Country Mercantile just outside Pasco and I bought some black licorice and and milk chocolate covered almonds.

3. At around 2:45, we arrived back at Jake's and Carol Lee's. Debbie, Diane, and Nancy were already there, having a party with Carol Lee, and Ed, Jake, and I joined in. Carol Lee had prepared a superb spread of appetizers and, later on, the clam chowder and beef stew she cooked were ready and we dove into that for dinner. We all gathered on the balcony-like porch at Carol Lee and Jake's place at Rose Lake, overlooking the placid waters of Rose Lake and enjoying the moderate heat of the Jacobs' outdoor heater. We all gabbed, made plans for the future, told stories, laughed, ate, and enjoyed each other until early in the evening. For me, this comfortable, nourishing, and fun party was the perfect way to cap off a great getaway and return. 

Three Beautiful Things 10/14/2021: Breakfast in Meacham, Bruce/Lee Porter and an Afternoon with Colette, Memorable Steak Dinner

 1.  Mike, Terry, Ed, Jake, and I started the day by piling into a couple of rigs and heading east to Meacham, Oregon, home of the Oregon Trail Store and Deli. It's a cozy spot featuring a handful of tables and a modest selection of groceries. A very friendly couple run the place. The man acts as the server and his wife is a superb cook. We got settled in and I ordered the day's special, a half order of biscuits and gravy with a couple sausage links and I added a side of hash browns to my order with a small bowl of gravy.  

Every plate of food we ordered was generous -- the guys' eyes really popped with shock when my platter of biscuits and gravy came out. Not one of us could believe that these light, flaky, freshly baked biscuits swimming in and covered by sausage gravy was a half order and my side of hash browns was also hefty. I was blown away by how delicious it all was!

Every one of us thoroughly enjoyed his breakfast. We had a blast making each other laugh and the man who runs the place got off a few good wise cracks himself and enjoyed having us in his and his wife's joint.

This couple has run this place for about four years. Since this group of us come down to Pendleton at least once a year, we are hoping they stay in business a long time. We'll drive out there every time we visit, whether for breakfast or their famous burgers and fries for lunch or dinner.

2.  The day just kept getting better after this terrific start.

I decided around noon to have a beer at the buddy bar near the hotel desk and noticed that this bar had a porter on tap, the Bruce/Lee from Pendleton's Prodigal Son Brewing.

The Bruce/Lee was awesome. Terry and I had ordered a flight of beers at Prodigal Son back in 2015 and we didn't think they were all that good.

My guess is that, as often happens, Prodigal Son has improved their brewing methods because this Bruce/Lee porter was a perfect balance of chocolate and coffee balanced by a subtle bitter finish. This beer felt substantial in my mouth, not thin, and I loved that its texture and its taste were both so pleasing. 

Ed contacted me not long after I finished one Bruce/Lee and wondered if I might be in the mood for an early afternoon beer. I was. We sat at a table and I thoroughly enjoyed my second Bruce/Lee.

A couple of hours passed by and, right at 3:00, fellow Basementeer and long long time friend Colette drove up outside the hotel and picked me up. As we've done for the last few years, we arranged to get together for a couple or three hours in Pendleton.

We went to Pendleton's superb distillery, the Oregon Grain Growers Brand Distillery and decided to take a table in the outdoor seating area, near a heater. 

Colette ordered a Caesar salad, the terrific Marilyn Monroe pizza (white citrus and mozzarella cheese, and artichokes dotted with ricotta cheese stars that looked like they'd been squeezed out of a cookie press).

Because I had a big dinner coming up later, I only ate one slice of this heavenly pizza.  I sure enjoyed my cocktail, the Ginger Grant (named after the actress character played by Tina Louise on Gilligan's Island). The Ginger Grant was a delicious blend of gin, strawberry puree, lime, and ginger beer over ice. 

Colette and I had a superb conversation. We talked about Brian Senter, killed six years ago in an auto/pedestrian accident in the Walla Walla area. Brian was a student of mine twice at Whitworth in Jan term and spring term of 1984 and we had seen each other three times in the 1990s. Once I saw him in the play Bus Stop in Seattle and the other two times we got together in Eugene.  He directed the theater program at Walla Walla High School and was a deeply beloved teacher. 

Talking about Brian led to conversations about Colette's daughter, Gabriella, and her high school experience (she attends Walla Walla High) and we also talked at some length about both of our families and the challenges of depression and other mental illnesses. For a variety of reasons, Colette has deep and broad knowledge about psychological issues and I enjoyed listening to her stories and insights and it meant a lot to me to talk a bit about my history with depression and how things have improved so much over the last 10-12 years. 

After Colette dropped me off back at the Wildhorse and I joined the other guys at the casino's fine dining venue, Plateau, I got a text from Colette remarking that unlike other times we've met, we didn't talk at all about books! (I did, however, learn just what Colette has left to do to finish her Masters of Fine Arts at Eastern Oregon University.) So, she promised to post a list of books she's been reading and we'll have to talk about books when we meet up again.

3. For the grand finale of this fantastic day, Jake, Ed, Mike, Terry, and I sat down to order dinner at Plateau.

This is a tradition every time we go to Pendleton and is always a highlight of our trip.

I loved my dinner tonight. I started with a dry gin martini and I ordered the thick and delicious Pendleton Whisky Steak, a New York strip steak peppered and dressed with a light whiskey sauce. It was divine. So were my sides, crispy Brussels sprouts and sautéed wild mushrooms. I enhanced my dinner with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon and we decided to top off our meal with a couple orders of carrot cake with cream cheese icing, rum raisin sauce, and pineapple sorbet. I also enjoyed a cup of coffee.

We had a great time dining, joking, praising the food, and enjoying each other's company. I kept saying over and over again that I thought we should stay three nights at the Wildhorse instead of only two. I didn't want this visit and this party to end! Of course, if we ever decide to stay three nights, I'll start lobbying for four.

Three Beautiful Things 10/13/2021: On the Road to Pendleton, Beer and Appetizers, Nightcap

 1. Ed picked me at 6:30 this morning and we blasted out to Jake's Rose Lake home, piled into Jake's truck, and took off for Pendleton for a two night stay at the Wildhorse Casino. We stopped at the Breakfast Nook in CdA, enjoyed a splendid breakfast, and arrived at our destination around noon. Mike and Terry had arrived and they headed off to the golf course. Ed, Jake, and I put our things in our respective rooms and met up at the mini bar on the main floor, enjoyed a beer, and headed out to play some games on the casino floor.

2. I quit playing after a while and spent a few hours in my room writing and napping. Late in the afternoon, having finished golfing, Terry and Mike met up with Ed, Jake, and me in the mini bar for another beer and we decided to go to the sports bar and eat half price appetizers for dinner. The food was terrific and the buzz of conversation and picking on each other was a blast.

3. We ended our evening in Ed's room for a round of caramel toasted Black Velvet whiskey. We told each other about our successes and failures over the course of the day and had a fun time relaxing and making each other laugh. We have great plans for Thursday. We'll go to Meacham for breakfast. I'll see Colette in the afternoon. Terry, Mike, and Jake will golf. We'll have a fancy dinner in the Plateau Steakhouse at 6:30. 

Three Beautiful Things 10/12/2021: Copper Update, Emotional Tree House Concert, Busy Baseball Day

 1. Copper did some exploring in the living room this morning before Debbie and Gibbs got up and came downstairs. He immediately dashed to the basement once they started down the steps. In the early evening, he came upstairs on his own and was eating dry food in the kitchen even though Gibbs was in the living room.  He also ate wet food I put down for him. He wouldn't leave the kitchen on his own and cowered under the dining room chairs after he ate, once he saw and heard Gibbs in the living room. So that he could be in the Vizio room, safe behind a closed door, I carried him there. Later, I helped him get to the bedroom by carrying him there so he could be on the bed with Luna and me for the night.

2. All of this happened after Bill Davie's Tree House Concert, a performance that featured Bill reaching back to his 1988 Phobia Robes album and playing three songs from it (three, right?): "Mornings", "Meat of a Dream" and "Civil Disobedience".  I'm at a loss to explain why the songs from this album touch me so deeply, why they call up old feelings and vague memories. I can say with some certainty that they transport me back to days in the 1990s when I went to several of Bill's performances in Eugene, Corvallis, Yachats, and Deadwood and remind me of the fun I had with the great people I hung out with listening to Bill. They also bring up memories of the one time I went to Seattle to hear Bill perform live at the Backstage. He opened for Peter Himmelman. 

For tonight's poetry break, Bill read poems by W.S. Merwin and although Merwin wrote the poems Bill read near the end of his life, I enjoyed remembering when Jenny and I went to hear him read on the U of O campus back in 1983. I don't remember any details of that reading, but like so many sweet memories, even if the details have vanished, the uplifting feelings remain.

3. I was in and out of the Vizio room today, keeping an eye on the baseball games. I missed Freddie Freeman's game winning round tripper, a shocking blast at the expense of the usually unhittable Josh Hader. The Braves beat the Brewers, 5-4 and now advance to the NLCS. I watched parts of the Astros methodical crushing of the White Sox, 10-1. They advance to the ALCS to meet the Red Sox. I didn't see a lot of the Dodgers/Giants, but enough to be disappointed that the Dodgers had their way all game and cruised to a 7-2 win, forcing a Game 5 in that series. 

Three Beautiful Things 10/11/2021: Copper Stays Inside, Family Dinner Has a Fall Focus, A Good Walk

 1. Is Copper slowly adjusting to life in our home with Gibbs? Well, today, he spent most of the day in the basement, nesting in a cupboard. When Debbie, Gibbs, and I went to Carol and Paul's for family dinner, at some point Copper came out of the basement and lay under a chair in the Vizio room. That's where he stayed for the rest of the evening until he bravely dashed from the Vizio room to the bedroom when I started getting ready to go to bed. 

As I write this post on Tuesday morning, Debbie and Gibbs are upstairs and for the first time since we arrived back home, Copper is exploring the living room and relaxing in one of his favorite spots. Is this a sign that he is getting some of his nerve back? That he's slowly accepting the change in our house? We'll see. My guess is that once Debbie and Gibbs come downstairs, Copper will dash to one of his spots out of sight where he feels more at ease. 

2. Family dinner was superb tonight. We now have dinner on Monday rather than Sunday so that Molly R. can join us and Carol and Paul can take care of things they've decided to accomplish on Sunday. 

We arrived and Debbie broke out the sweet potato hummus she made with thin baked slices of ciabatta bread and baby carrots and zucchini slices to scoop hummus with. Carol made a delicious cocktail: a Cranberry Whiskey Sour with a sprig of rosemary. We gabbed together in the living room and then paraded to the dining table for an autumn dinner.

Christy assembled a superb Autumn Chopped Salad, a perfect blend of fresh apple and pear, greens, dried cranberries, sweet walnuts, a perfect apple cider dressing, and other tasty ingredients. For me, it was like having a dinner and dessert dish at the same time and had this salad been our entire meal, I would have been happy!

But, I was also happy to have other food for dinner! Carol made an intriguing and very delicious main dish called Squash au Vin. It featured a broth made of white wine and miso (genius!) in support of baked pieces of squash and a perfect quantity of barley all in a bowl.  I loved the sour notes of fermentation in the broth and the hearty girth of the squash slices and barley. 

As a side dish, Molly served baked soy and maple tofu. I love tofu and this way of cooking it was really, really tasty and the tofu's texture was not squishy, not crunchy, but almost meaty and heavenly to eat. 

After such a bracing and delectable meal, I didn't have dessert, but Carol served apple slices to dip into Cajeta Goat's Milk Caramel, a product made by the proprietor of the getaway spot Christy went to in Montana at the end of September. 

Fun and scintillating conversation continued throughout the evening and having Molly be able to join us moved us into areas of discussion that were new and stimulating. I welcomed the change to eating on Monday night and the fact that it makes it possible for Molly to join us will enhance the pleasure of our weekly get togethers.

3. I took advantage of the clear sunny October day and went on a walk, my first real walk in several weeks. So that I'd have a reason beyond exercising to take this walk, I dropped off a couple of pieces of mail at the mailbox at the "Stein's" building and then walked to Yoke's and bought a half a gallon of milk. I've been getting too easily winded walking up the stairs from the basement recently and I thought this walk might also leave me short of breath, but it didn't. 

It felt really good to get moving again and even a short-ish walk like I took today helps my appetite, sleep, and my overall sense of well-being. 

Three Beautiful Things 10/10/2021: Copper Reappears and Surprises Me, Bizarre Baseball in Fenway Park, Debbie Transforms Beans and Rice

1. I went out two or three times this morning, looking for Copper, hoping he had come out from under Terry's porch/patio. The third time, for no good reason, I walked through the side gate to our back yard and, wow!, Copper was near the gate, meowing to me. He made a half-hearted move to escape, but I was able to pick him up and carry him into the Vizio room, close the door, and fix him a bowl of Friskies pate and a bowl of dry food. 

He wolfed down both bowls.

I turned on the Red Sox/Rays playoff game and Copper stayed with me in the Vizio room for the next eight hours. 

At some point, he jumped up into my lap. Since coming into our home in February, Copper had never done this. I began petting him and he stayed in my lap for well over a half an hour.  I could hardly believe it!

This was totally unprecedented. In the past, I had picked him up and put him in my lap, but he never stayed long. I was astonished and ecstatic that he wanted to have this long session of being held and petted. 

Finally, I had to put him down so I could go to the bathroom. Copper stayed in the room with me until the baseball games were over and slept on the bed. Luna joined us in the Vizio room at some point and we all spent a peaceful night together sleeping. 

Copper has not overcome his fear of the living room and Gibbs yet --- but here's hoping we might one day see a change.

His behavior today gave me some hope.

2. The Red Sox won an extra inning teeter totter thriller over the Rays today, 6-4. The game featured a play in the top of the thirteenth inning that I had never witnessed in my over 60 years as a baseball fan, a play that contributed significantly to the Rays' doom.

With Yandy Diaz on first and two out, Kevin Kiermaier pasted a Nick Pivetta delivery into the depths of right center. His blast was a whisker shy of leaving the park for a homer. Then came the weirdness. The crushed ball fell shy of the fence, bounced against it, ricocheted back, and, upon striking right fielder Hunter Renfroe, it hopped over the short fence out of play. 

Chaos ensued. 

What's the rule when such a keystone cop occurrence unfolds?

The umpires huddled.

They viewed the replay. They consulted with the rules guys in New York City. 

Correctly, the umpire ruled that Renfroe had not intentionally interfered with the ball's ricochet off the fence and off of him. When a ball bounces off a player and goes out of the field of play, the rules clearly denote that the hit is a ground rule double.

The umpires sent Diaz back to third base. A stunned Kevin Kiermaier remained at second base. 

Nick Pivetta completed his stellar four innings of extra inning relief by fanning the powerful all or nothing  Mike Zunino, whose pattern is to either homer or strike out, and the game moved to the bottom of the 13th.

And wouldn't you know it -- ricochet man Hunter Renfroe walked with one out and then Christian Vazquez hammered the first pitch he saw, a  Luis Patino 98 mph four seamer, over the Green Monster for a jubilant walk off two run homer.

The Red Sox cashed in on their bizarre good fortune and how lead the series 2-1.

Over in the American League, the Chicago White Sox woke up from their two game coma, erased an early 5-1  Astro lead on the strength of home runs by Yasmani Grandal and Leury Garcia and crushed Houston, 12-6, keeping Houston from sweeping the series and possibly snatching the series' momentum from the Astros. 

3. On Saturday, Debbie fixed a delicious dinner of black beans and rice.

This afternoon, she put the leftovers in a cast iron skillet, topped it with corn bread dough, baked it in the oven, and this meal was even better than what we ate on Saturday.

Christy came over for dinner, but I was so entranced by the Red Sox and Rays and so dedicated to trying to build Copper's sense of security and confidence in our home with all of its recent changes that I didn't join Christy and Debbie for dinner, but remained confined to the Vizio room. 

Debbie later told me that she and Christy had a great time drinking cocktails and dining together, a way of assuring me that they were just fine in my absence! 

Three Beautiful Things 10/09/2021: Gathering Intel on Copper, Braves and Dodgers Win, Late Night with Debbie

 1. Now I know why I can't find Copper when he goes outside. He loves it outside. In fact, I think he might prefer to be an outdoor cat. This morning he went out the door. No problem. Having found him a couple of days ago near Terry Douglas's porch, I strolled the two doors down that way later in the day and, sure enough, Copper was was sitting in a rock garden area right up against Terry's front porch/patio. I approached Copper and he suddenly disappeared. Some time this summer he learned that he can very easily hop through an opening and hide under Terry's porch. As I walked back home, next door neighbor Jane told me that Copper sometimes hides out in her garage. Now I knew a little more about Copper's wanderings. She also told me that Terry is out of town. Later in the day, I returned to check on Copper at Terry's again and, once again, he hopped under Terry's porch.

On the one hand, I'm relieved that I know where Copper hangs out when I can't find him outside. On the other hand, I have no idea what Terry Douglas thinks about this. I'll talk to him when he returns home. I also don't know how hungry Copper gets when he's away from our house for stretches of time without eating. I'm hoping the colder weather and his hunger will move him to return to our house.

I'll be keeping a vigilant eye and ear out for him.

2. I love watching masterful pitching performances in the major leagues and today Atlanta's Max Fried dominated the Milwaukee Brewers over six innings, striking out nine, not surrendering any walks, and making the Brewers hitters look helpless with his command of a combination of fastballs, changeups, and spinners. I'll admit, I found myself wishing I could turn the calendar back to the days, not that long ago, when starting pitchers dominating another team like Fried was doing stayed in the game, finished what they started. My guess is that Fried, too, would have loved to do this. But, it's not the way things are done in contemporary baseball and Atlanta manager Brian Snitker lifted Fried in the top of the 7th for a pinch hitter -- Fried had only thrown 81 pitches -- 58 of them for strikes -- and relievers Luke Jackson, Tyler Matzek, and Will Smith shut out the Brewers the rest of the way and with its 3-0 win, Atlanta tied this series a game a piece.

Out in San Francisco, the Dodgers' astonishing lefty Julio Urias also twirled a gem, just giving up one run to the Giants over five innings and, like Fried, managed to keep the Giants off balance and struggling for most of his time on the hill. The Dodgers aided Urias with some stellar defensive plays. A parade of relievers sealed Urias' win, but, to me, the bigger story for the Dodgers was how their slumbering timber awoke. Logan Webb shut out the Dodgers on Friday, but today the Dodgers slammed balls all over the park. The slumping Cory Bellinger hit a loud two run double; A. J. Pollock's bat came to life as he also doubled and looked more sound of legs as dashed to second on that hit; Will Smith his a laser to left that crashed into the stands for a home run; in short, in defeating the Giants 9-2, the Dodgers looked dangerous at the plate and if their offensive prowess carries over to the two games, starting Monday, at Dodger Stadium, they will be very tough to beat. 

3. After the Dodger/Giants game ended, Debbie and I sat up until past midnight talking about life in Kellogg, something Debbie could talk about and tell stories about since she's back now and had a hot time on the old town Friday night. I didn't have any real news about life in Kellogg -- I don't go out much these days -- but I do know a little bit of Kellogg history and could fill in some gaps about who's related to whom and tell a few stories about things that have happened with different people over the years. 

It was a good spirited session of yakking, made even more pleasant by the way Luna and Gibbs were each in the living room, not that far apart from each other. For the most part, they were quiet, peaceful, and accepting of one another. 

Three Beautiful Things 10/08/2021: Copper in the House, Errands in CdA, BoSox and Giants Launch Missiles

1. If you are reading this blog pretty regularly, you know that a chief concern of mine, day to day, is the comfort and well-being of my nervous and sensitive cat, Copper.

Thursday evening, after I carried Copper into the house -- I hadn't seen him since Tuesday -- he spent time with me in the Vizio room, spent other time in the basement, and ended up spending most of the night on the bed while I slept.

Friday morning, he dashed to the basement and settled in on the bottom shelf of the cupboard, a place of refuge for him when he's anxious.

I fed him in the basement and let him be for much of the day while I took care of some business in CdA and until Debbie and Gibbs left the house to visit Diane -- around 4:00.

Once Debbie and Gibbs departed, I carried Copper upstairs  and he spent several hours with me in the Vizio room watching baseball games. My hope is that he can learn to relax like this when Gibbs is in the house, but that might be a ways off. For now, I enjoyed Copper spending more time than he ever has in my lap, letting me pet him, and I enjoyed that he and Luna shared the Vizio room without any conflict.

At one point, later in the evening, Copper dashed back to the basement, but, to my surprise (and pleasure), he returned to the ground floor and joined me and Luna on the bed. He had a restful night, I thought, and even pressed himself against my lower legs. He hasn't done that since before I traveled to New York. 

I'm writing this blog post on Saturday morning. This morning, with Gibbs on the top floor of the house with Debbie, Copper ate his morning meal in the kitchen for the first time since Debbie, Gibbs, and I returned from our trip. Soon afterward, he wanted to go back outside again and that's where he is now -- I hope he'll want to come back in at some point during the day on Saturday.

2.  I had planned to make a trip to CdA on Thursday, but I wasn't feeling quite up to par. This morning, I felt better and hopped into the Sube and blasted over the pass to CdA. It was an uneventful trip, but a good one. I dropped of a package at the UPS Store to be returned to Amazon, gassed up at Costco, bought some cheese at Costco, bought more cheese and a few other items at Fred Meyer, got a haircut at Supercuts, and finished my day buying some produce and other a few other things at Pilgrim's. Normally, I like to include a beer stop when I go to CdA, but when I'm not feeling at my best, alcohol doesn't work for me. I also had be back to Kellogg by 4:00 and my errands went slower than usual -- I didn't wrap them up until around 3:00. I did, however, head over to Outpost Brewing just to see, for future reference, if they were open around 3:00, saw that they were, and, with a little research later on, discovered they open at 2:00 daily.

Outpost used to be Slate Creek. Its location is close to Pilgrim's, Byrdman, and the 4th street exit to I-90 -- a great location for ending a day of errands in CdA with a beer. It's a cozy tap room with an atmosphere I enjoyed a lot in the Slate Creek days and I look forward to finding out if the Outpost gang has kept the place cozy, friendly, and a spot for some good locally brewed beers.

3. Originally, Debbie, Gibbs, and I were going to pay Diane a visit at 4:00, but once I returned home from CdA, I realized that I wanted to stay home, rest, drink hot fluids, tend to Copper, and watch baseball. 

All of this went swimmingly, especially my time with Copper and the baseball games.

I enjoy both Tampa Bay and Boston a lot and was happy that their game didn't begin until after I returned home. 

Boston started the game hot, scoring two runs in the top of the first inning, but they ended the inning with bases loaded and I feared that they might suffer the consequences of not scoring more runs right off the bat.

In the bottom of the first, it looked like my concerns were justified. 

The Rays exploded with five runs, four of them coming on a Scud missile that Jordan Luplow launched to deep left field with the bases loaded on a Chris Sale's pitch that seemed to be at chin level. Luplow crushing a pitch out of the strike zone the way he did gave me fun memories of the 1970s Pittsburgh Pirates who had a slew of free swinging hitters ready to hit any pitch, in the strike zone or not. I understand the wisdom of being a disciplined hitter, very selective about which pitches to swing at, but I love seeing players do what Luplow did -- send a wandering pitch Sales was trying to get him to chase and miss out of the park. A robot hitter would have never swung at that high ball, but Luplow saw something he liked and blasted it for an electrifying grand slam. 

But, as it turned out, Boston answered Bruce Cockburn's song, "If I Had a Missile Launcher" by making it clear they had plenty of them. Xander Bogaerts launched a homer. Kike Hernandez fired his missile launcher. So did J. D. Martinez, Alex Verdugo, and Rafael Devers. Not only did the Red Sox erase the Rays' 5-2 first inning lead, they annihilated it and cruised to a stunning 14-6 victory. 

Over in Oracle Park in San Francisco, runs were more scarce, but Buster Posey muscled an opposite field  parabola into McCovey Cove with a runner on base on a 3-0 pitch in the first inning, Logan Webb and two relievers stymied the Dodgers, and, for good measure, Kris Bryant and Brandon Crawford also slammed round trippers. The Giants won the first game of their playoff series with L.A., 4-0.