Three Beautiful Things 01-30-2020: Finished *The Meadow*, Buck O'Neil and Baseball/Jazz, Providence Prevails

1. This afternoon, I finished The Meadow and my first thought was that I'd like to go back and reread it. I think I'll do that another time, but I have other books I want to read right now, so I'll move on to them. 

The Meadow intrigued me. It's a series of vignettes verging on prose poems about ranch life in the often brutal conditions along the border of Colorado and Wyoming. The book's series of episodes, which jump around in time,  cover several decades, combine actual occurrences with imagined ones, and explore the permanence of some things, like weather patterns, that is, the way seasons come and go, but mostly the book explores impermanence, mortality, and aging.  It's a remarkably concrete book. Its author, James Galvin, has a remarkable grasp of the details of the topography and meteorology of the book's setting (he lives here part of the year), of the inner workings of ranch life, of how to build things, like log structures, or manufacture things, like tools or wheels, and of how any number of things work. Out of this attention to detail emerges detailed portraits of the book's main characters as each of them contends with the demands of the psychological and physical demands of living in such rugged conditions with long periods of isolation. 

Jeff Harrison passed this book on to me. I would have never known it existed otherwise. I'm grateful beyond measure that he sent me back to Kellogg with The Meadow during our trip to Eugene.

2. Upon finishing The Meadow, I decided to read a book entirely unlike it. Some time back, Cas dropped me off the book The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip through Buck O'Neil's America. The book is set in 2005. In it, Joe Posnanski chronicles a baseball season he spent with 94 year old legendary Negro League player Buck O'Neil. I first experienced Buck O'Neil's vibrant personality and passion for baseball history and storytelling when I watched Ken Burns' superb documentary series, Baseball. I'm eager to deepen my knowledge of Buck O'Neil and to read more of his stories and reflections on both baseball history and jazz as I read deeper into this book.

3. Before I returned to reading, I spent a couple of hours this morning watching a superb college basketball game between two of my very favorite teams, Marquette and Providence. Today these teams played hard. They defended one another with steely determination. On offense, both teams were aggressive, doing all they could to penetrate one another's defensive walls and get to the hoop. I wanted both teams to win -- and since they both could not, I enjoyed every second of these two teams scrapping with great intensity.

In the end, after being behind most of the game, with 45 seconds left to play, down by point, Providence's agile and muscular center, Nate Watson, prevailed when a teammate missed a shot. He rebounded the carom in thick traffic, exploded to the cup, and slam dunked the put back. He was also fouled. He converted the free throw, giving the Friars a one point lead. Justin Lewis for Marquette and Noah Horchler for Providence then both went 1-2 at the free throw line. Marquette had possession with twenty seconds left in the game and called a time out with fifteen seconds to go.

Marquette's Tyler Kolek got a step on his defender and drove to the tin, but Providence's interior defense denied him an angle to the hoop and he put up a short jumper and missed.

Justin Lewis, though, rebounded Kolek's miss and slightly rushed his short shot near the rim and misfired, a heartbreaking miss. 

Providence prevailed, 65-63.

It's hard for me to determine Providence's razor thin edge in this game.

I'll try.

Providence's interior players out rebounded and outscored Marquette in the paint, led by Nate Watson.

Providence kept Justin Lewis in check, holding him to 4-12 shooting from the field and 13 points. 

It's more difficult to quantify experience, but I thought Providence's older players, their deeper experience in close games, was decisive. I liked seeing this. Part of what is making this year a most enjoyable college basketball season for me is the number of older players who stayed in college, many as transfers, and are adding maturity to their teams' performances. Providence is an older and more experienced team than Marquette and, in the end, this might have been the factor that made them today's slightly better team.

Well, it also helped, in my opinion, that this was a home game for Providence in front of a packed and raucous house, fans undeterred by the blizzard that had buried Rhode Island the day before! 

Three Beautiful Things 01-29-2022: *The Meadow*, Cafe Mam, Eggplant is Back!

 1. I ventured over half way into the book, The Meadow. It's rare to read a book and find it unlike any other, but that's the case with The Meadow. It's lyrical and non-linear. It doesn't feature a central plot, but is a series of vignettes, told from different points of view, all telling stories about ranch life on the Wyoming-Colorado border over several decades. 

2. It's fun to order coffee straight from roasters and our visit to Eugene inspired me to order a couple of pounds of French roast coffee from Eugene roaster Cafe Mam. The order arrived today. Ordering different coffees is fun and heightens the pleasure of waking up every morning. Sigh. Now if only it were legal in Idaho to order beer online from breweries. (If I'm mistaken about this, please get a hold of me and let me know!)

3.  Debbie roasted a chopped eggplant. I heated up some jasmine rice in sesame oil, added pieces of eggplant, and cracked an egg over it and seasoned it with soy sauce to make a nifty meal that was delicious and satisfying. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-28-2022: Extended Morning Routine, Starting *The Meadow*, A Tasty Dinner Bowl

1. My so-called morning routine lasted until 2:00 this afternoon. My blog post was a long one and I wrote a longish email to Jeff detailing some of what I enjoyed so much about his radio show (Deadish) Thursday night. As a result of my blog post, I heard from Daniel. He was really pleased that I enjoy his Dylan radio show so much.  I'm hoping our exchange initiates further correspondence between us about his Bob Dylan show and other things on our minds. 

2. I started reading a new book, The Meadow. Jeff gave me his copy when I visited him at his home in Eugene. I didn't make a lot of progress today. The book is, at least in the beginning, a prose poem. Its style of storytelling stands in contrast to The Cold Million. I simply need to adjust my reading brain to the way James Galvin writes. I'm getting there.

3. In Eugene, Debbie bought, among other things, a jar of Vietnamese sauce. It's the most lemongrass forward sauce I've ever eaten. She mixed it with spinach and other things. I made a pot of jasmine rice. I added the sauce to a bowl of rice and mixed in the last of our salmon from Thursday night.  It was a delicious bowl of food, minty and mild, and for some reason moved me to want to follow it up with a mini-can of Coca Cola and it was the perfect way to wrap up dinner. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-27-2022: A Novel About Reading a Novel, *On the Bowery*, Bob Dylan Followed by Zero and the Dead

1. As I've written all week long, Debbie and I are being cautious at this stage of the pandemic and spending most of our time at home. For the first couple of days of this lying low, after we returned home from Eugene, I was unusually unmotivated, even listless. I might have been tired from driving from Eugene to Kellogg and might have been feeling a depletion of adrenaline after so many days of seeing treasured friends and getting out and about quite a bit in Eugene.

Today, though, I returned to creating the kind of day I made happen a lot early in the pandemic. Back then,  I had decided that I was going to make the most of staying close to home by reading books, watching movies, Zooming, attending Bill Davies' weekly concerts online, listening to Billy Collins' online poetry readings, messing around in the kitchen and cooking food I enjoy, taking in sports on television whenever they were available, and keeping myself stimulated and eager to figure out ways to be invigorated inside the house.

Today's full day of stimulation and invigoration began, once I wrote a blog post and solved today's Wordle. 

I finished reading Jess Walter's novel, The Cold Million. In the end, I experienced this story as secondarily about the labor strife in Spokane and primarily as a coming of age story about the book's central character, Rye. Moreover, it became a story, to me, about the powerful impact of reading. Rye's maturity, his sense of himself, his sharpening ability to critically examine his world, his brother, and himself is pushed forward by his reading of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. I'll leave it that, unexplained, in case you read The Cold Millions. I'll just say that I found it satisfying that Jess Walter deepened the development of Jess's character by exploring how War and Peace was not merely entertaining him, but was getting inside him, helping him see his world more clearly and fully, and helping his moral development. It's no surprise that I would focus so keenly on this aspect of the story. It brought to life exactly what I find the most valuable in reading fiction. I enjoyed that The Cold Million was, in part, a work of fiction exploring the power of fiction itself.

2. I gave my head some time to clear after I finished The Cold Million and looked at the current offerings on the Criterion Channel. Right now, the channel is featuring a collection of New York stories and I decided to watch a 65 minute work of docufiction, On the Bowery, directed by Lionel Rogosin, released in 1956. 

It's a dreary slice of life study of two dissipated men living on the Bowery in Manhattan that documents life in dive bars, flop houses, a mission, and on the street in the Bowery. If this was such a dispiriting portrait of alcoholism and poverty, why did I watch it all the way through? The film's photography kept me watching. It's shot in black and white and while the subject matter is not beautiful, the quality of the film's pictures is beautiful. I used to enjoy doing street photography, always hoping to snap a picture of a memorable face or a vivid street scene. On the Bowery presents the viewer with a steady stream of unforgettable and masterfully shot street photographs, all in black and white. I might go back and watch this film again, and, yes, feel the depression of the movie's story and subject matter again, but take in its superb photography. 

3. As happy as I was to finish reading a book for the first time since late summer and as happy as I was to be a subscriber to the Criterion Channel and have access to On the Bowery, the best part of my day got underway at 8 p.m. and lasted until 11 p.m.

Eugene's low-powered, non-profit, listener supported radio station, KEPW-FM streams its programming online simultaneously with broadcasting it. KEPW stands for K Eugene Peace Works and if you'd like to listen to programs looking at the world from a peace and justice point of view, this would be the place to go. You'll find it here:  www.kepw.org

I tune in online to KEPW at 8 p.m. Thursday to listen to Daniel McKay's hour long program devoted to Bob Dylan called, Hard Rain and Slow Trains: Bob Dylan and Fellow Travelers. At the end of this post, I'll put up a link that will take you to an archive of Daniel's shows. 

I met Daniel several years ago when we both taught English at Lane Community College. I soon learned that Daniel has devoted much of his intellectual energy to the life, music, films, books, and thinking of Bob Dylan and his Thursday night hour long program brings Daniel's love of all things Bob Dylan to life.

Tonight, his show focused on one Dylan song, "The Times They are A-Changin'". Daniel played different versions of Dylan performing the song and also played several different artists, ranging from Me First and the Gimme Gimmes to Nina Simone, from Mountain to the gospel singers, The Brothers and Sisters of LA and many others performing their cover versions of "The Times They are A-Changin'". In addition, Daniel put the song in the context of the musical traditions Dylan drew upon when he wrote the song and offered verse by verse analysis of how the song works. 

It was a stimulating and very enjoyable hour. 

Jeff Harrison and I have been friends since September of 1986 when he started his graduation work at the University of Oregon.

Over the years, Jeff and I have gone to countless live music concerts together. We've been to shows put on in Oakland, Portland, and Eugene by the Grateful Dead, Zero, Nine Days Wonder, Little Women, Richard Thompson, The Floydian Slips, to name some of them, and, most recently, in May of 2019, we saw Neil Young in Eugene. 

Like Daniel, Jeff has devoted a great deal of his time and energy to the world of Bob Dylan. He offers a Bob Dylan literature course at LCC.

Jeff has also been devoted over the years to the vast universe of the Grateful Dead and to jam band and other forms of music related to the Dead. 

His two hour show, Deadish, is a weekly dive into this world.

One of Jeff's favorite bands (and one of my favorites, too) is Zero. Zero is going to play in Eugene on Feb. 5, 2022 at the WOW Hall and so tonight he focused most of his show on recordings of Zero playing at WOW Hall in the late 80s and early 90s.

So Jeff did what I enjoy the most and what he can do because KEPW-FM is such a non-commercial station.

In the first hour he started playing Zero and, if I remember correctly, just four or five tunes covered the whole hour as Zero put on a stunning display of virtuosity and versatility, drawing upon their roots in jazz, rock, blues, and even some boogie woogie (and maybe more) as they jammed away, transporting me not only back in time to all those Zero shows in Eugene, but also moving me in a spiritual way the way their jams build and build, combining lyrical and romantic sounds with jazzy bluesy jams and sometimes moving into passages of sonic rock and roll.

Jeff played a part of a January 27, 1967 show from the Avalon Ballroom to open the second hour and closed his show with more of the divine sounds of Zero.

If you'd like to hear Jeff's show, go to kepw.org and click on Listen Now in the green rectangle. A grid of past shows will pop up. Scroll down this grid until you come to Deadish and you'll see a small rectangle to the right  that says Play. Jeff's Jan 27th show will be available to play until Feb 8th.

Right under Deadish, you'll see Daniel McCay's show,  Hard Rain & Slow Trains: Bob Dylan and Fellow Travelers and you'll see the "play" rectangle to the immediate right. It, too, will be available until Feb 8th.

But! Wait! 

There's more! 

Daniel McCay stores all of his Dylan shows in one place and if you'd like to play past shows you can.

All you have to do is go to https://player.whooshkaa.com/shows/hard-rain-and-slow-trains-bob-dylan-and-fellow-travelers and you'll find over 150 of Daniel's episodes! 

If you can't click on the URL I provided for Daniel's archive,  just copy and paste it into your browser. 

The URL also appears on the show's Twitter page: https://twitter.com/RainTrains

Three Beautiful Things 01-26-2022: Our Family Dinners Featured in the *Shoshone News Press*, Power in Spokane, The Big East BONUS: A Limerick by Stu

 1. Tuesday's edition of our local newspaper, the Shoshone News Press, introduced a monthly feature, "Foodie".  News Press publisher, Keri Alexander, invited our sister Carol to write the feature's first piece, accompanied with pictures and recipes, describing our weekly family dinners. 

Carol put the word out on Monday evening that her feature would be in Tuesday's paper. We don't subscribe, so this morning I strolled down to the Gondolier's convenience store and bought one. 

Carol did a great job describing how we all came to live in Kellogg, how our family dinners got started, how we go about making the dinners happen, and the kinds of meals we've prepared for one another. 

If you'd like to read the story and see the pictures, here's a link to a document that includes these, but not the recipes. (I hope this works!): Go here.  

2. For as long as I've been a thinking person, I've thought, read, and watched movies and documentaries about how union organizing and working for justice in the world of labor is an uphill effort. I have about 100 pages left to read in The Cold Millions. So far, Jess Walter's story has reaffirmed how and why labor organizing is difficult and, in this story, dangerous. Consistent with the other reading I've done and films I've watched, this book portrays how the business/company owners have great power at their disposal. They own the police, for starters, and the police are uninhibited and unchecked in their use of intimidation, physical force, disruption, and violence. They have deep pockets for hiring men called "detectives", violent men who work their way inside the labor movement and often serve as hit men, carrying out orders to kill not only organizers, but to kill or maim law enforcers and make it look like the crime was committed by the labor side. The daily newspapers side with the company/business owners. So do the courts. 

As I close in on finishing this historical novel, I don't know what's going to happen to the story's central individual characters. I do know, however, that I am experiencing this story as a study of entrenched power and influence and the lengths those with power and influence go to preserve and expand their control over the labor market and the governing of the places they live -- in this case, the city of Spokane.

3. I set everything aside around 3:30 this afternoon to watch four teams from my favorite conference, the Big East. First, I watched Xavier and Providence. Xavier has developed a bad habit of getting off to slow starts in their games and they did it again today, trailing Providence at halftime, 35-29 after having fallen behind by as many as 14 points in the second half. Xavier pushed back hard against Providence in the second half and with 54 seconds left in the game, seized the lead 62-60 on a Paul Scruggs trey. Al Durham sank two free throws for Providence to tie the game with 36 seconds remaining. Xavier called a time out, ran the clock down to 12 seconds and Paul Scruggs shot a short contested jumper from within 10 feet of the hoop, but it was a little strong and Providence snagged the rebound. Providence was out of time outs and hustled the ball up court. Jared Bynum, from just behind the three point line, faked a jumper. The Xavier defenders went by him. Bynum calmly took one dribble to the left, rose up, and nailed a trey with two ticks on the clock. Xavier's second half effort was valiant. Providence's cool at the game's end was impressive. It was a superb game.

Next up, Marquette extended its win streak to seven games by running Seton Hall off the court. Yes, Seton Hall made a couple of come backs, but overall Marquette's hustling, swarming, hassling defense combined with the stellar play of their remarkable forward, Justin Lewis (33 points), prevailed and Marquette won this game, 73-63.

Endnote: If you are at all interested in watching talented college basketball players, I recommend that you try to catch the Marquette Golden Eagles on television a couple or three times and watch Justin Lewis play. He's a complete player. He's strong, a fierce defender and rebounder. On offense, he's quick, capable of imaginative and powerful moves to the basket and a remarkably accurate shooter from outside. His range extends beyond the 3-point line. He's a joy and a pleasure to watch. 

Here's a limerick by Stu:

We take it for granted, we do. 

And folks really don’t have a clue. 

What’s now done inside, 

Had a half moon to hide. 

On the outhouse where they had to Poo! 

Thomas Crapper Day

Three Beautiful Things 01-25-2022: *The Cold Millions*, Stuffed Peppers, Wild Night in Men's College Basketball

 1. I enjoy reading many different kinds of books and, when I read a particular genre, I often wonder why I don't read more books of this kind. I read more of The Cold Millions today. I wondered why I haven't read more historical fiction in my lifetime, couldn't really answer that question, set my question aside, and enjoyed reading this story of labor conflict and activism, police brutality, and business corruption in Spokane in the very early years of the 20th century. 

2. Debbie fixed meatless stuffed red and yellow peppers today. I loved the wheat berries and feta cheese in the stuffing and thought her idea to top the stuffed peppers with mashed red potatoes was ingenious. Debbie has always made the best cabbage salad dressed with vinegar and oil and she made another one today. I loved this meal.

3. This evening I wasn't expecting the following in men's college basketball: I didn't think injury-depleted Illinois would defeat Michigan State, but they did. I didn't think Missouri would take Auburn down to the wire before losing by a point, but they did. I didn't think Mississippi State would take Kentucky into overtime before losing a close game, but they did. I didn't think Clemson would make Duke sweat before losing a close tilt, but they did. I didn't think the Ducks would lose to Colorado at home, but they did. 

I really didn't think Arizona would have an epically cold shooting night against UCLA, nor did I think UCLA would crush the Wildcats, 75-59.  But they did.  This was the game that I thought would be a nail biter, but UCLA locked down and discombobulated Arizona with rugged defense and enjoyed a night of balanced scoring and excellent overall play. I hadn't seen UCLA play since Coby Riley returned from injury and I thought his presence back in the staring lineup solidified the UCLA effort.

When UCLA got creamed by Gonzaga back in November, Riley was on the shelf and several Bruins were weakened by a flu.

I'd love to see a UCLA/Gonzaga rematch with the Bruins at full strength and with Gonzaga having grown and improved over the last two months. 

Who knows? Maybe they'll meet in the NCAA Tournament in March/April and have another epic battle like they did in the 2021 tournament! 

Three Beautiful Day 01-24-2022: Back to *The Cold Millions*, Stuffed Squash, The Johnnies Are Alive!

1. After getting on my own case a little bit about how I'm spending my time at home these days, I laid off hours of solving word puzzles online and returned to reading Jess Walter's book, The Cold Millions. The bookmark I once had placed in this book was gone. I tried to recover where I left off when I put this book down a couple of months ago. As I spot-read places in the early chapters, I suddenly realized I couldn't remember what happened in the book, so I started it all over again. I'm happy I did. I enjoyed returning to this novel about labor conflict in Spokane over 100 years ago and my plan is not to get sidetracked this time.  

2. Last week I made a batch of creamy tomato sauce using crab stock and seasoning it with fennel seeds and tarragon. Later, Debbie added beans, mushrooms, and zucchini to this sauce and we ate it over spaghetti. Yesterday, she combined the last of the sauce with ground beef to make a squash stuffing. She baked hollowed out acorn squashes with this sauce in the cavity and it was perfect, especially on Sunday with cabbage salad and today with green beans and wheat berries. 

3. I was in for a big surprise tonight when I fired up the Vizio to watch St. John's play Seton Hall. The game was played on Seton Hall's former home floor, Walsh Gymnasium, a cracker box of a gym where Seton Hall hadn't played since 1984. (Tonight's game was a rescheduling of the teams' postponed game on December 20th. The game couldn't be played at the Prudential Center because of a concert.)  Not only was Seton Hall playing at home, the Pirates just defeated St. John's on Saturday in Madison Square Garden. I really thought Seton Hall had the upper hand. 

I figured my beloved Johnnies were in big trouble and that the difficulties that have marked their season so  far would continue.

Was I ever wrong.

I don't know what happened between Saturday and tonight; I don't know what happened on the short trip trip the Johnnies took between Queens and South Orange, NJ; I do know that St. John's, from the get go, played this game with a surge of energy and tenacity that surpassed any of their efforts to date.

The Johnnies pressed and hounded Seton Hall ruthlessly all game long, creating numerous turnovers, getting multiple deflections, and generating chaos that befuddled the Pirates.

Moreover, St. John's leading scorer, Julian Champagnie, only scored five points. He looked lost in tonight's game. His teammates, though,  more than covered for him and St. John's crushed Seton Hall, 84-63. 

Was this a turning point game for the Johnnies? Will they build on this victory? I have no idea, but I'll be watching.

I'm sure most college basketball followers were not watching the Johnnies because Kansas was playing Texas Tech in the same time slot. I had been keeping an eye on the Kansas game, but lost track of it until Byrdman alerted me that it was a nail biter.

I watched the end of regulation and the TWO OVERTIMES and, against my wishes (!), Kansas prevailed, 94-91. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-23-2022: I Enjoy Marquette's Basketball Team, Deep Trust on ZOOM, Returning to Better Habits

 1. I'm hooked on watching basketball games in the Big East Conference. This morning, I camped out in the Vizio room and enjoyed an intense game between Marquette and Xavier. I'm not very partisan about these Big East games -- not even when St. John's plays! -- and so I watched this game free of the tension that I might feel if I was emotionally invested in rooting hard for one team or the other. As the game progressed, I began to feel increasing admiration for Marquette. I enjoy the way they pressure their opponents on defense (kind of similar to St. John's!) and they have three players I really like watching. Their sophomore forward, Justin Lewis, impresses me as a multi-dimensional player. He's a solid outside shooter, makes quick and athletic powerful spin moves driving to the iron, rebounds fiercely, and plays rugged defense. 

Likewise, I get excited watching Darryl Morsell. Morsell was a tireless and effective defensive player when he played for Maryland (he was last year's Big 10 defensive player of the year), but at Maryland he was a fourth or fifth option on offense. Since transferring to Marquette, Morsell has become a featured scorer in Marquette's offense and he has risen to the occasion. He's a reliable three point shooter and a terrific scorer near the basket. Moreover, Morsell is this team's anchor. He anchors the defense. If you watch him when the team huddles up during pauses in play, he's vocal in directing his teammates and encouraging them. Transferring to Marquette opened the way for his overall game to blossom and it's fun to see.

I've been watching Greg Elliot for three years at Marquette. He's not a starter, but a valuable defender and streaky shooter who comes off the bench. I enjoy how hard he plays, the joy he brings to playing basketball, and the way he has a knack for nailing shots at crucial junctures in Marquette's games.

So how about the Marquette/Xavier game? 

Marquette triumphed, 75-64. It was a tightly contested game. I think Marquette's defense made the difference. Xavier missed a bunch of shots inside, not so much because of bad shooting, but because of how Marquette's interior defense pressured those shots. Xavier's coach, Travis Steele, commented after the game that Xavier also fired up some ill-advised shots, what Steele called "hero shots". Again, I think the pressure of Marquette's defense affected the judgment of Xavier's shooters and made the difference in their win.

2. This afternoon I jumped on the ZOOM machine with Bill, Diane, Val, and Bridgit and we had an absorbing two hours of trusting, honest conversation. Val told us about starting a new business, Soaps for Good. We talked about the wearing, wearying impact of the pandemic. Bridgit's, Val's, and Diane's work lives have been altered significantly by the pandemic. We discussed these difficulties. I'm holding much of what we discussed in confidence. We also discussed retirement and the challenges we face to resist thinking that our identity and value as persons is connected primarily to working, to our jobs. Jobs matter. Income matters. We get that. But we have to curry a sense of self and identity beyond our work lives. If a thread ran through our discussion today, I'd say the experience of loss was that thread. We are getting older. It helps us to navigate the experience of aging by being honest about the losses we are experiencing and how we feel about those losses. We are extending a lot of deep trust to one another. 

3.  I keep up quite a bit on what different insightful people have to say about how to live one's life at this stage of the pandemic. Since returning home from our visit to Eugene, I've been staying home most of the time. Doing so feels right to me at the moment. When I stayed home a lot for months starting in March 2020, I didn't waste time at home. I wrote. I read. I watched movies and television series. I tuned into lectures and readings on the World Wide Web. I experimented some with cooking. I watched college basketball games. Over the last few days, while mostly staying home, I've been sluggish, not very motivated, and haven't taken advantage of being in -- aside from watching college basketball!

So, I'm going to try to change that. I've got a wonderful stack of books I received as gifts in December. Jeff Harrison sent me home with a book he deeply enjoyed. I want to return to watching movies on the Criterion Channel. 

Maybe I needed some time to recover from driving all day last Tuesday and from dental work on Thursday. I think my recovery is complete. It's time to get my mind working again and do more than solve word puzzles all day online! (But I am not giving up Wordle!) 

Three Beautiful Things 01-22-2022: Saturday Hoops and a Pantelis Xidias Tribute, Dinner Bowl, Imperial Stout and a Hazy IPA

 1. My challenge today? Seize the day while feeling sluggish. I tried to fire myself up watching Auburn defeat Kentucky in what could have been a barn burner, but when Kentucky's mercurial playmaking point guard TyTy Washington rolled his ankle in the first half, left the game, and never returned, Auburn exploited his absence, erased a ten point Kentucky lead, and powered their way to an 80-71 win. Auburn is a balanced team. Inside, today, they got strong play from Walker Kessler. Away from the hoop, Jabari Smith, Wendell Green, and the enthusiastic K.D. Johnson looked exceptional. I wish Kentucky had been at full strength. I didn't really care who won this game -- I just hate injuries and wanted to see these two superb teams go at it with all their players available.

Later in the day, I enjoyed watching Creighton come from behind and defeat the wildly inconsistent, but entertainingly talented DePaul squad, 60-47. You'd never know, given the lopsided final score, that DePaul dominated the first half of this game, but true to their team's erratic play, DePaul was outscored in the second half, 37-15, and, after looking like a sharp, superb team in the first half, they looked awful in the second half. 

I keep an eye on DePaul and keep hoping they'll turn this season around because I'm rooting for their coach, Tony Stubblefield, to succeed. Coach Stubblefield served as an assistant to Dana Altman at Oregon for eleven years and worked at other assistant coach jobs for seventeen years before coming to Oregon. He's paid his dues. He took this job at DePaul knowing that the Blue Demons have struggled for years. It's been seventeen years since they earned a bid in the NCAA Tournament. I'm not sure Coach Stubblefield can get this wobbly program back on its feet, but, for whatever it's worth, I'll be pulling for him to do so.

Ah, heck! While I'm on the subject of DePaul basketball -- there's one player I wish DePaul could have kept forever and that's the goggle wearing, cheerleading, totally animated and excited walk on benchwarmer from a couple of seasons ago, Pantelis Xidias. If you ever watched DePaul play around 2018-2020, you know that however DePaul played, Pantelis Xidias brought his enthusiasm, encouragement for his teammates, and unmatched look every game, jumping up and down, raising his fist in elation after every good play the Blue Demons made. No one on the end of any bench on any team in the whole USA gave more effort and passion to cheering on his team than Pantelis Xidias. I don't think I ever saw Xidias play a second on the court, but along with Mark Aguirre and Rod Strickland, he will always be, for me, a DePaul Blue Demon I'll never forget. 

2. Debbie cooked a batch of wheat berries and I sautéed chopped mushroom and zucchini in olive oil and garlic, combined it all, and seasoned in with Braggs Liquid Amino. It was a superb dinner in a bowl.

3. Early in the evening, Debbie and I cracked open a couple tallboys we bought at 16 Tons. We have these eight oz glasses we like to use to drink beer and, for me, 8 oz of each of these beers was a perfect pour.

We started with Great Divide's Yeti Macaroon Imperial Stout. It was a perfect beer. When I took my first sip, I was struck by what a solid imperial stout it was. The mouthfeel was full and it was smooth tasting, mellow. After about a second, though, the coconut and almonds, the subtle Girl Scout Cookie sweetness of this beer asserted itself. Oh my! I loved this pastry stout. As it warmed, the flavors were even more defined and I felt euphoric.

We waited a while, let the Macaroon Imperial Stout taste fade away a bit, and grabbed a New York beer that we purchased at 16 Tons: Bolton Landing Brewing Company's Georgie, a New England IPA. At first, we both thought this beer was a little bit more bitter than we are used to in a hazy IPA. I found, though, as the beer warmed a bit, the bitterness mellowed and I enjoyed my 8 oz pour of this citrusy juice grenade. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-21-2022: Word Connect, Transformed Sauce, Sparty Defeats Wisconsin

1. I woke up happy that I didn't have anything planned today: no long distance driving, no shopping to catch up on, no dental or medical appointments. I spent way too much time playing, well, and enjoying an online word game called Word Connect. 

2. Debbie added mushrooms, zucchini, red pepper flakes, and cannellini beans to the creamy crab stock tomato sauce I made yesterday. I decided I'd like to use this sauce to make a bowl of something like Cincinnati chili, minus the chopped raw onions. I used Parmesan cheese instead of medium cheddar. I enjoyed Debbie's transformation of the sauce I made poured over spaghetti.

3. I watched this evening's Big 10 tilt between Michigan State and Wisconsin. Both teams came into the game with only one loss in conference play. The winner would occupy first place alone. Before the game started, I learned that Wisconsin's talented Tyler Wahl wouldn't play, thanks to an ankle injury. This was bad news for the Badgers because it opened the way for Michigan State's defense to load up on Wisconsin's terrific Johnny Davis. Not only did the Spartans load up on and frustrate Johnny Davis, they also had their offense revved up. Michigan State defeated Wisconsin emphatically, 86-74. It's turning out to be a wild year in the Big 10 Conference. Maryland defeated Illinois earlier today -- Illinois was playing without their powerful inside man, Kofi Cockburn. He's recovering from a concussion. Purdue lost to Indiana on Thursday. I don't know how anyone could even think they could accurately predict what will happen game to game in this crazy league! 

Three Beautiful Things 01-20-2022: Music and Prose at the Dentist, Creamy Crab Stock Tomato Sauce, An Evening with Luna and Bob Dylan and *Deadish* and the Zags

 1.  The dental work I had done today went fine, but the second best part of the whole visit was hearing Van Morrison, Pink Floyd, Heart, Credence Clearwater Revival, Cat Stevens, and other great recording artists on the office sound system. The best part was having a waiting period when I read essays on friendship in Volume 14, Issue 2 of Lapham's Quarterly, a Christmas gift from Patrick and Meagan. I thoroughly enjoyed reading pieces by Doris Lessing, Vivian Gornick, Tommy Orange, and Mark Twain. 

2. Yesterday, I thawed two quarts of crab stock. I used one in the chowder I made yesterday. Today, I had a whole different plan for how to use the second quart.

I dumped it into a pot, brought it to a boil, and then turned down the heat so it would reduce, the idea being that the crab flavor might be more prominent as liquid evaporates from it.

While the crab stock reduced, I crushed garlic cloves and chopped an onion and cooked them in a wading pool of melted butter until the onions turned soft.

I might have let the crab stock reduce more. I need to work on this. But, I poured the stock over the onion, butter, and garlic and then added three 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes, brought the mixture to a slow boil, and turned down the heat, once again reducing the liquid. 

A while later, I added splashes of half and half to this sauce and heated the sauce up again and then turned the heat on low. 

At some point in this process, I added salt, pepper, fennel, and tarragon to the sauce.

The result was a sauce that was not quite as creamy as I hoped, but a delicious blend of flavors.

I served the sauce over spaghetti and topped the dish with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

By the way, as I prepared this meal, I enjoyed a couple 12 oz cans of GoodLife Brewing's Sweet As! Pacific Ale and then really enjoyed about 8 oz from a tall boy of Block 15's Sticky Hands Imperial IPA, a treasure trove of flavors and pleasure. After dinner, Debbie and I split a second tall boy from Block 15: an Imperial IPA called Hoppy New Year! Delicious, really delicious. 

3. This evening I settled into some serious multi-tasking.

With Luna on my lap, I went to the KEPW-FM website (kepw.org), clicked on the "Listen Now" function, put on my headphones, and listened to the radio show, Hard Rain & Slow Trains: Bob Dylan and Fellow Travelers, hosted by Daniel McKay. We taught together at LCC. Tonight Daniel focused on music Dylan performed in The Village sixty years ago in January of 1962. He also focused on some fellow travelers, including John Lee Hooker, Rev. Gary Davis, and Dave Van Ronk. 

While I listened to the twenty year old Bob Dylan and fellow travelers perform, I also watched the Gonzaga/USF basketball game with the broadcast on mute. 

I thought this game followed a familiar pattern when the Zags play teams not as talented as they are.

USF exerted a lot of energy early on and seemed a step quicker than the Zags and roared to an early lead. I thought to myself, "The Dons cannot or will not maintain this level of play all game long." That's the pattern. Gonzaga opponents, often in conference play, start hot, the Zags seem a bit sluggish, but, in time, the opponent's heat cools off, the Zags tighten their defense, improve their shot selection, and slowly and surely assert their superiority. 

Sure enough, Gonzaga cut USF's early lead, then went ahead, and had a slim lead at halftime. 

As the second half progressed, Chet Holmgren continued his strong first half showing and Drew Timme scored 18 of his 23 points. Together, Holmgren and Timme scored 45 points, vaulting the Zags to their 78-62 victory.

While the Zags' game had some of my attention, starting at 8:00, most of my attention was on the music my longtime friend Jeff Harrison played on his radio show, Deadish, on KEPW-FM.

Jeff opened his show with a gorgeous, nearly 20 minute cover of the Dead's "Bird Song", played and sung by Mikaela Davis and her band, Southern Star. Jeff declared at the end of the song just what I was thinking while I listened to it: this is the most beautiful version of "Bird Song" I've ever heard. 

I don't know how many of you reading this blog enjoy The Grateful Dead and its universe of jam bands, bluegrass bands, jug bands, folk singers and bands, cover bands, tribute bands, post-Jerry Garcia reconfigurations of the Grateful Dead, and projects by the band's individual members, but if you do enjoy this kind of music, take some time and go to Mikaela Davis' YouTube channel and check out the series of Grateful Dead songs she and her band recorded last year at the Relix Studios, here. The band's combination of harp, pedal steel guitar, superb bass (and other instruments) and Davis' haunting vocals send me into another dimension of consciousness. You might see if you, too, enjoy their versions of these Grateful Dead songs.

Jeff then transported us all back to 1995 and a Zero show at WOW Hall. I don't know if I was at this show -- I went to a ton of Zero shows in the 1990s -- but I sure enjoyed the set of songs Jeff played without interruption and could feel myself back listening to Zero and dancing solo on the hardwood WOW Hall floor again.

Fifty years ago this month, Jerry Garcia released his first solo album, entitled, Garcia, and, starting at 10 o'clock, Jeff played the entire album straight through. Jeff knew when he opened his show with Mikaela Davis and Southern Stars' version of "Bird Song" that he would later be playing this album which featured "Bird Song". It was thrilling to hear these two approaches to the song, separated by 49 years, but joined in memorializing Janis Joplin and in their love for improvisational jamming. 

When Garcia drew to a close, Jeff played an excerpt from The Grateful Dead's January 2, 1972 show at Winterland, giving us a chance to hear what the band sounded like at the time Jerry Garcia was working on his solo project. Hearing this excerpt moved me to take some time in the near future and listen to this show in its entirety.

I'll close this post by saying that Jeff's show thrills me, not only for the music, but because of his honoring the deep history of FM radio. I thought during the nearly 20 minutes of "Bird Song" and the extended Zero set and while Jeff played the entire Garcia album that there was a time when this was exactly what I could tune into KREM-FM in Spokane and hear -- no commercials, a few comments by a DJ, and long, unmarket tested cuts from albums and tunes from tapes. Peak FM radio. And Jeff is reviving it for two glorious hours a week. FM radio was once maverick radio and Jeff's Thursday night show takes me back to the spirit and joy of maverick FM radio. 

 

Three Beautiful Things 0119-2022: Stocking the Pantry, Fish Chowder Night, Great Win for Marquette

 1. Our pantry needed replenishing today. I sent out an offer to my sisters to shop for them, too. They wanted a few things. For Debbie and me, I stocked up on everything from rice to canned tomatoes to pasta to olive oil, from vegetables to shrimp and cod, from crackers to mini cans of Coca Cola. I hustled around in Yoke's as quickly as I could, but fatigue from Tuesday's 9+ hours of driving was catching up to me.  I finished shopping. I dropped off the Roberts' items at their house and delivered Christy's. Once I brought in our groceries and put most of them away, I convinced myself that I wasn't becoming ill. I needed some restorative sleep. On the bed, Luna climbed onto my chest, Copper moved just close enough to me that I could put my hand on her back, and I took just the nap I needed to feel pretty good again.

2. Refreshed, I took over the kitchen. I chopped onion, carrots, and red potatoes and cooked them, with salt and pepper,  in a generous pool of melted butter until the onions were translucent. I added a quart of my homemade crab stock and some bay leaf pieces to the vegetables and slowly cooked them until the carrots and potatoes tenderized and the liquid reduced a bit.  I added a splash or two of milk and a little half and half to the crab stock and vegetables, let the broth heat up and thicken, and then added fresh cod and already cooked shrimp pieces to the pot.

I let this all cook slowly for a while and, presto, Debbie and I enjoyed a delicious fish chowder for dinner tonight. I like this way of making chowder without flour or another thickening agent. It's a more broth-y chowder, soothing and comforting to eat. Once again, tonight, the crab stock (thank you Elks Crab feed for the shells!) provided a delicious foundation for this simple and tasty meal.

3. I didn't watch any college basketball while visiting in Eugene, but I knew that men's teams like the U of Oregon and others were improving in January after having gone through some rough times in November and December. One of those improving teams is Marquette. Tonight Marquette went on the road to play Villanova and I got to see the way Shaka Smart's team has bought into the way Coach Smart wants his team to play aggressive, swarming, harassing defense with a variety of full court presses and hounding defense in the half court. Tonight, the former Big 10 defensive player of the year, Darryl Morsell (a transfer from Maryland), anchored Marquette's defensive effort with shot blocking help inside, especially from Kur Kuath. 

Marquette stymied Villanova's best shooters, Collin Gillespie and Justin Moore, and held the Wildcats to just 54 points. 

On offense, one of my favorite Marquette players, the energetic, hustling Greg Elliott came off the bench to score 14 second half points. That was really fun to see. But the offensive standout for Marquette was their powerful 6' 7" forward, Justin Lewis. He made some eye popping drives to the tin and also made five of eight three point shots, including the game winner with 11.5 ticks left on the clock. That game winning shot was remarkable. It looked like Villanova had broken up the play Marquette was trying to run, but Lewis kept Villanova from making a steal and then calmly rose up from behind the three point line and sunk a high arching dagger. Marquette's hounding defense had to make one more stop. They succeeded. They preserved a 57-54 win on Villanova's home court where the Wildcats hadn't lost a game since November, 2018. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-18-2022: Safe Return to Kellogg, Luna and Copper Are Content, Cheese Club

1. Debbie and I followed our plan and left Anne's house right around 7:00 this morning, stopped at Market of Choice for coffee, scones, and bottled water, and hit the freeway close to 7:30. Our drive to Kellogg was easy about 90% of the time. We hit some fog that hindered visibility and, as our driver, I watched I-90 like a hawk for potholes between Rose Lake and Kellogg -- I had read there were some really bad ones and today, at least, I managed to avoid them. All in all, we were on the road about nine hours.

2. I walked in the door. Copper and Luna were calm and content. I think they enjoyed having the whole ground floor of our house to themselves. Christy, Carol, and Paul took great care of them while we were gone. I'm indescribably grateful. Now Debbie and I are hoping we can train Gibbs to leave Luna and Copper alone so that they can continue to roam in the living room and occupy some favorite living room spots like they could the last two weeks. It won't happen right away, but we'll work at it. 🤞

3. I bought Debbie and three month membership to the Murray's Cheese Club. While we were away, the January shipment arrived. Debbie broke out the Fromager D'Affinois, a soft, creamy white cheese. It struck me as being akin to a brie, but much creamier. We plopped a bit of the cheese on saltine crackers and it was awesome. I could imagine this cheese being really good on a chunk of baguette or on apple or pear slices and with a white wine or champagne. I think this cheese club is going to be really fun over the next couple of months. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-17-2022: Kellogg Wildcat Basketball Reunion, Back to Cornucopia on 17th, Final Night in Eugene

1. Fifty years ago, Roger Pearson, Terry Turner, and I were teammates as seniors on the Kellogg Wildcats basketball squad. For much of the season, I was a bench warmer, but Terry and Roger logged in a lot of playing time. The Kellogg Junior Varsity coach and the Varsity's assistant coach was a brand new teacher at Kellogg High School, Dale Bachman.

Today, we three old Wildcats and our coach reunited at BJs Brewhouse at Valley River Center in Eugene.

Believe me, there were no awkward silences.

The four of us launched right into some serious yakking, remembering when Dale ran wind sprints along with us high school players, when Don Knott hit an amazing jumper at the buzzer in overtime and we Wildcats defeated the mighty Coeur d'Alene Vikings, when Dale jumped up and down as if on a pogo stick in his excitement when we won that game, when we faced Sandpoint's great John Andrews, and many other memories from those days at Kellogg High and other basketball memories as well. 

We also talked about other things, stories from the past, golf in the present, and on and on.

To my delight, the great yakking was enhanced by Terry, Roger, and me all deciding to be a part of my campaign (!) to SAVE THE PORTER. We all ordered a pint of BJ's PM Porter on Nitro, a smooth, kind of creamy, well-balanced, and delicious beer. 

For nearly two weeks, I've had the deep pleasure of sharing meals, tea, beer, and great times with friends I've known for many, many years in Eugene.

It staggers me with gratitude that Terry drove down from Portland, Roger buzzed down from Salem, and Dale risked being late for the women's basketball game at 2:00 between UConn and Oregon so that the four of us could break bread, drink beer,  recall times we loved, share some good laughs, encourage each other in our present lives, and continue friendships that have been ongoing for 50-60 years.  

I've posted two pictures of our esteemed group at the bottom of this post. 

2. After visiting Francoise and having a great talk with her, Debbie and I went to Cornucopia on 17th for a quick drink and an order of French Fries. Oakshire brews a delicious Pale Ale for Cornucopia called Frog's Wort and it had been about fifteen years since I drank one. Since I've recently been enjoying Pale Ales -- mostly when a PORTER wasn't available (they need to be SAVED!) -- I ordered and thoroughly enjoyed a pint of Frog's Wort. It's an easy drinking beer, made tasty by the Cascade hops that give this longstanding beer a citrusy feel. If you'd rather your pale ale not be too bitter, the Frog's Wort will be right in your wheelhouse. It has enough of a subtle bitterness to keep the beer from being too malty, but the bitterness doesn't linger -- instead the citrus-y flavors of the hops are what last. 

A former Cornucopia employee, Starr, is woman Debbie and I have known since she was a kid and hung out with Molly. Starr works elsewhere now, but, lo and behold, her husband, Paul (is that right?) was our server and so he showed us pictures of their child, their dogs, and moments in their family's life. We also got to see Cameron. We used to frequent Cornucopia regularly and Cameron was often our server or bartender and it gave me a jolt of excitement and appreciation to see him again and have a precious few minutes to tell each other how great it was to see one another again. He was busy and couldn't linger long. 

3. Anne returned to her house today after a weekend away and Debbie and I decided that we would end our visit after tonight and drive back to Kellogg on Tuesday, the 18th. 

I loved staying at Anne's house, not only because it was comfortable and welcoming, but because we also looked after her splendid dog, Poppy. Poppy was great company, quick with her affection, eager to alert us to people walking by the house, and always willing to have us pay attention to her, talk to her, and pet her. 

I'll miss Poppy.

Debbie, Anne, and I walked up the street to Joy and Bob's house and enjoyed a delicious pasta dinner and played a name that song kind of game that led to Debbie seizing control of the house piano and giving us an impromptu, delightful, and somewhat caustic performance of "(You Sure Would Look Cute in a) Paternity Suit". That was a blast and it was fun to meet and spend time with Bob and Joy. 

Here's a picture of the esteemed lunch group today. We might not be in anyone's basketball hall of fame, but we sure as hell have been enshrined in the Great Guys Hall of Fame. There are a ton of Kellogg guys in that sacred shrine!  

In both pictures you see, left to right, Terry, Roger, Dale, and me. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-16-2022: Solitude, Puzzles, Pacific Bliss from Alesong

 1. I've enjoyed every single friend I've visited and met up with this past week or so. Today, however, I stayed in. I wanted to rest. Debbie would be out seeing friends today.  I wanted to have some time to myself. It worked. It felt right.

2. I worked two acrostic puzzles and I completed today's Wordle. I wouldn't say I'm addicted to Wordle. I enjoy it, though, primarily because no clock is involved. I won't play word games that put me on a timer. Wordle relaxes me because I can take my time, consider possibilities, and eventually, so far, solve the puzzle. 

3. On Saturday, Jeff gave me a 22 oz bottle of Alesong's Pacific Bliss, a Farmhouse Ale aged in French oak barrels. Late this afternoon, I popped it open. As you can see from the picture below, it's a gorgeous beer. It felt like I was pouring champagne as I filled my glass. I loved this beer. It's a grisette, a French/Belgian farmhouse ale brewed with local ingredients for coal miners. It's a light beer, brewed so that a miner could drink some grisette over lunch and still be able to complete the rest of the day's labor. Alesong's Pacific Bliss is flavorful, lemon-y, a touch fruity, and a little bit peppery. It was deeply satisfying, a rare pleasure. Alesong didn't brew a lot of this beer, so I seriously doubt I'll ever drink Pacific Bliss again. That's fine. I'm grateful to Jeff for giving me this bottle.  I'm elated I was able to add to the pleasure and relaxation of this day with such a luxurious ale. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-15-2022: Yakkin' Over Breakfast with Jeff, Two Porters! at Hop Valley, Dinner with Patrick and Meagan

 1. After a couple of morning hours of coffee, Wordle, and writing, I leapt into the Camry with Debbie and buzzed her to the Friendly Street Cafe where she met up with Laura and I journeyed to the foot of Skinner Butte where Jeff lives. I'd hoped for another get together with Jeff, Margaret, and Michael today, but only Jeff and I were free to get together and we made the most of our time together. Jeff offered me a cup of coffee, we sat down at his dining table, and we yakked enthusiastically for nearly three hours about mutual friends, the world of jam bands, Jeff's radio show, books, our decades of shared history, and much, much more. Jeff cooked up a superb vegetable/cheese egg scramble with toast. I got to see work he's had done on his house. Some of our conversation was grievous. I didn't know that David, Jeff and Louise's son, died since I last saw Jeff in May, 2019. This came up when Jeff told me about a tree he planted in his back yard in memory of Louise (she died in 2018) and the three memorial trees he'd planted on the grounds of the longhouse at Lane Community College. 

I enjoy meeting with friends in coffee houses, cafes, and taprooms. In fact, I'd asked Jeff if he wanted to go to a local cafe for breakfast today. I'm elated that he wanted to get together at his house, a place where I've visited many times and where, today, we easily and comfortably slid right back into the flow of so many great sessions of yakkin' away we've enjoyed over the last 35+ years.

2. I left Jeff's house shortly after 1 p.m. and picked up Debbie at Laura's. Debbie wanted to do some solo thrift store shopping and so while she shopped I decided this afternoon would be a good time to SAVE THE PORTER!  

Earlier in the week, I'd looked at Hop Valley's website and, to my delight, I saw the brewery had two porters on tap in their tasting room.

The taproom server poured me a couple of sampler-sized pours and for no really good reason I decided to drink a half a pint of Payback Porter first. It was served to me fairly cold, so I drank it very slowly, letting it warm up a bit and, as it did, its dark chocolate and coffee flavors asserted themselves.  I did the same with my half pint of Sin Bin. The Payback Porter had a touch of subtle bitterness that I found pleasing. I also enjoyed that Sin Bin had very little bitterness. Like Payback, the Sin Bin was a dark chocolate and coffee porter. It was oh so slightly sweeter than Payback and its alcohol content was slightly lighter. 

My approach to drinking beer worked at Hop Valley! Summed up, it's "Love the one you're with."

In that spirit of drinking, I enjoyed both these porters, would not recommend one over the other, and it felt good to find two porters in one tasting room.  I haven't found a lot of porters on tap in Eugene (that's why I campaign to SAVE THE PORTER!) and slowly sipping on these beers until Debbie arrived was a pleasure.

3.  I've spent some time while in Eugene reading tap lists, hoping to find porters to save (!). By far, the most interesting porter of all is being served at Viking Braggot. They decided to make a porter that is a winter ale with a strong malt spine and with pureed (liquified?) winter squash. It's a stronger porter than many, weighing in a 8.4% a.b.v. I ordered one when Debbie and I arrived at Viking Braggot and, as I had hoped, this porter had a heavier mouthfeel than the porters I'd tasted earlier and it had the warming quality that I love in winter ales. 

My Winter Squash Porter was served in a 9 oz glass, a perfect amount, and it paired really well with the mushroom cakes Debbie and I ordered.  I was slowly relishing my beer and our appetizer when Patrick and Meagan arrived. Before long, we ordered dinner. I could only eat half of my Scandi Wrap, a combination of roasted cauliflower and potatoes along with goat cheese, smoked gouda, onion, lettuce, and red pepper-hazelnut sauce all inside a grilled flatbread. The other half will provide me with a great Sunday lunch or dinner. The Scandi Wrap came with a side and I ordered one of the tastiest beer cheese soups I've ever eaten, a great combination of IPA, cheddar cheese, smoked cheddar, and caraway seed seasoning. 

The dinner was delicious. I loved that Patrick and Meagan joined us. We caravanned back to Anne's house and yakked for a while. Patrick and Meagan had other plans for the evening and headed back into the night and Debbie and I hit the hay early, as we tend to do these days. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-14-2022: Visiting Rita, Visiting Roberta and Bruce in Oakridge, Thai Food Take-Out

 1. I buzzed the Camry down to Creswell this morning to visit my great friend and former team teaching partner, Rita. Rita called in an order of Chipotle Ham Breakfast Sandwiches and a Walnut Raisin Sweet Roll, I picked up the order, and we sat at her dining table, a familiar spot, and enjoyed our breakfast and talked about new times and old times. Rita and I began our team teaching partnership in 1993 and, as we were talking today, the passing of time played tricks on me. If felt like we might be about to collaborate on a creative philosophy/writing assignment, about to figure out yet another way we could take advantage of the innovative physical space we taught in. It was a classroom designed specifically with the idea of helping students work in groups, be able to get up out of their chairs (and away from the round tables) and perform dramatic scenes, and to do any number of fun activities out of which a deeper understanding of and deeper experience with philosophy and writing grew. 

I taught Shakespeare for many terms in this same classroom. I, too, used this space with my students in theatrical and other imaginative ways, doing my best to help get Shakespeare's plays off the published page and into the students' limbs and bones through acting out scenes and presenting their learning to one another in ways I thought were fun and invigorating.

So, today, I was in the present with Rita, talking about our families, Rita's life in retirement, our cats, and books and movies, but I was also transported to an energetic and stimulating period of time in my life as a teacher (not the only such period, by the way) when I was taking acting and improv classes with Sparky, bringing things I learned from her and from Rita into the classes I taught, and was feeling a kind of euphoria that came with being full of energy and fearlessness. 

2. Shortly after noon I gassed up the Camry and drove south and east along the Willamette River to Oakridge where I met up with Bruce and Roberta (Brainard) Garner. Roberta and I have sent a lot of messages back and forth through Facebook, first, when she published her book, Pay the Piper: Growing Up in North Idaho, and, secondly, as we've communicated about Kathy's medical ordeal and about Luna and Copper, Kathy's cats. Roberta and Kathy are sisters. I didn't know Roberta in Kellogg, nor did I know Bruce. We had a great time today, enjoying beers at the 3 Legged Crane Pub and Brewhouse and yakking for a couple of hours.

We fell into a comfortable yakking groove right away and covered a lot of ground. 

We yakked about the Silver Valley and the Bunker Hill Company; we talked about Kathy and I learned more about her life at the adult family home where she resides; I learned more about Roberta and Bruce's family; we yakked about life in Oregon -- and so much more. It was a great session. I really enjoyed 3 Legged Crane's cask conditioned Bitter and Stout. I loved getting to know Bruce and Roberta better and really enjoyed feeling the depth of our common roots in the Silver Valley. 

I had told Debbie I'd try to be back to Eugene by around 4:00. We didn't have a lot planned for Friday, but we both wanted me to drive back to town in as much daylight as possible. 

So I bade Bruce and Roberta farewell.

I didn't want to.

I wanted to hang out for longer, yak more.

The good news is that Debbie and I will return to Eugene at some point. I can visit Roberta and Bruce again. 

The added good news is that Roberta and Bruce have family reasons to travel to Montana, Idaho, and Washington.

So, one way or another, I hope to see them sooner than later.

Until then, there's Facebook!

3. Back in Eugene, Debbie and I decided to stay in for the evening. We ordered a Thai dinner from Tasty Thai near where we are staying. I enjoyed my order of Drunken Noodles and Debbie told me her Avocado Curry with Yakisoba Noodles was really good. We rounded out our order with Steamed Vegetable Dumplings -- I love steamed dumplings and these were delicious. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-13-2022: Visiting Sparky, The Billy Mac Band Reunites, Deadish Bliss

1. My day began beautifully. I visited Sparky Roberts at her house, the very house where ever since 1991 we have enjoyed many cups of tea and delicious dinners and worked on countless theater projects and other performances together. It was in the fall of 1991 that Sparky and I first collaborated on what would be known as the End of the Quarter Shakespeare Recital and later became The Shakespeare Showcase at Lane Community College and, later on, elsewhere.  That project shape-shifted many times.  My involvement also went through changes, but for several years, I helped out, alone sometimes, with Marcee Long other times, as the narrator for the Showcase. Sparky and I worked together on many other projects over the years. She included me in ensembles that put on performances for the entire LCC faculty and staff, in support of part-time instructors at LCC, and for the local Landlord Association. Once, about thirty years ago, I wrote a verse comedy in the form of a masque that was performed for, I think, donors to the University of Oregon library. Actually, I think we collaborated twice on presenting entertainment for that group. (Wait! Did Sparky direct the first one? I can't remember...)

It's fun remembering the four (I think) Shakespeare productions I got to act in that Sparky directed.

Most of all, it's a joy to know how we developed a lasting friendship out of all these projects we worked on. 

Our time together today, wasn't really so much about the past, but about the present. Sparky takes her new kitten, Oona, for a daily walk around her yard in a special cat stroller and I walked along. We then sat at Sparky's dining table, enjoyed a cup of tea, and talked about our lives today, what we know about mutual friends and acquaintances, the challenges we face as we age, and, yes, we dipped from time to time into the past. 

As I left Sparky's house and climbed back into the Camry, I thought today, as I often do, about all the profound joy I experienced in and around the theater, all of it made possible by Sparky's confidence in me, her encouragement, her openness to working with me, and our deep and joyous friendship.

2. Speaking of deep, enduring, and joyous friendships, late this afternoon Debbie and I met Lynn, Pam, Anne, and Linda at Community Fermentation Union for a food and drinks in the spirit of our many weekly get togethers over the years at the now-closed Billy Mac's. 

We had a spirited and lively time, talking about how we are managing our lives during this pandemic, how life is going at LCC and the challenges the college is facing during a time of decline. I learned about other people I used to teach with and their families. That we live in fluid, chaotic, unsettled, and unsettling times got reinforced over and over again this evening.  

Lynn and I hung around for a while after the others left and resumed conversations we've had over many years about movies and different series on Netflix. We've always discussed movies we enjoy that come out of countries in the Middle East. I miss these conversations. One consequence of not having them is that I'm not as aware as I once was of movies coming out of Israel, Iran, Palestine, and other places in that part of the world and Lynn suggested some shows to watch. 

I left tonight's get together happy to have seen Pam, Anne, Lynn, and Linda, but I felt a little sad that moving away from Eugene, of course, means that I don't get to stay current with my LCC/Billy Mac's friends, don't get to enter into conversations about our friends and families, about books and movies, about how we are all navigating the challenges of the day. 

3. Jeff Harrison had emailed me earlier today with a reminder that at 9:00 tonight his radio show, Deadish, would be KEPW. I went to the station's website, put on the headphones, and relished two hours of Mikaela Davis and Southern Star, Zero, Robert Hunter, Steve Kimock,  and the Grateful Dead themselves. Mikaela Davis was an especially wonderful discovery for me. She's a harpist and vocalist and her band's covers of Grateful Dead songs are enchanting, ethereal, and transporting. I loved listening to Jeff's entire show, but especially Mikaela Davis's harp playing and her singing.

Quick final note: I ran errands this afternoon and stopped in at Scribles for another pint of GoodLife's Sweet As! Pacific Ale and it was just as good today as it had been last night!

Three Beautiful Things 01-12-2022: Contact with Rita and Dan, Sweet As! With the Troxstar, Toshi's Divine Ramen

1. I made telephone contact today with Rita and Dan. Rita and I have arranged to meet Friday morning in Creswell. Now that Dan and I have each other's phone numbers, we can resume communication with each other over the phone. I understand, with the pandemic, why we can't get together now. I hope that the day will come when we can meet in person for conversation and maybe some Thai food again!

2. If I still lived between 10th and Broadway on Madison Street in Eugene, I'd be a regular at Scribles, the former location of AAA when I first moved to Eugene, of Cornucopia back until they moved to 17th and Lincoln, of Monroe Street Cafe, and of Whirled Pies until they moved downtown. I met the Troxstar at Scribles today and we yakked over beers. I drank GoodLife's Sweet As! Pacific Ale -- I thought of it as a Pale Ale -- but whatever it is, it's one of the best beers I've ever drunk. It's superbly balanced, kind of creamy, a tiny tiny bit sweet, and has just the right amount of soft bitterness. If it's not really a pale ale, I don't really care. I'm going to think of it alongside Hammerhead and Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale as among my favorite golden to bronze appearing ales that are not IPAs!

3. On the way home, I stopped at Toshi's Ramen. I kept things kind of simple ordering for Debbie and me by getting us each the same things: a bowl of Miso broth, Wakame ramen with a side order of Gyozas (I should have ordered twelve instead of six Gyozas). I brought the ramen back to Anne's and I was one very happy diner! I love miso and the combination of it with seaweed, pork, green onions, green beans,  bamboo shoots and the ramen noodles was divine.  I have been longing for a meal like this ever since I started watching Midnight Diner on Netflix and tonight my longing was both satisfied and increased! 

Three Beautiful Things 01-11-2022: Umping in 1988, Oakshire with Walker and Ingrid, SAVE THE STOUT at 16 Tons

 1. We needed a couple of things from the store and I went up to Safeway on 40th at the Edgewood Shopping Center. 

Back in the summer of 1988, I made a little extra money and found another way to avoid writing by working for Eugene Sports Program (now Kidsports) as a baseball umpire for games played by boys and girls of all ages. Spencer Butte Middle School sits close to Safeway and I enjoy driving by there and remembering the first game I ever umpired. Nothing traumatic happened. I don't remember messing anything up. Mostly I remember the coach for the Spencer Butte boys being a Kansas State alum, wearing a purple KSU shirt or sweatshirt or windbreaker, and that he called out encouragement to his players all through the game. It seemed like every player's name started with a "J". 

Come on, Jerod!

Atta boy, Jason!

Good hustle, Josh!

Okay, Jordan, swing nice and level!

Good peg, Jace!

So, today, as I drove by the ball field, I heard echoes of all those "J" kids being urged to make plays and being supported when they did it well.

2.  Late in the afternoon, Debbie and  met up with Walker and Ingrid at Oakshire and sat out in the covered patio area and enjoyed some beers and ordered some hummus and pita bread, salmon spread and corn chips, and poutine from food trucks on site. I started with a shorty glass of Oakshire's winter ale, The Ill-Tempered Gnome, a hoppy brown ale, and decided it was too bitter for my palate today. So, I switched to Oakshire's maltier and lighter Amber Ale and it was perfect, both for what I was in the mood for and to drink with our food.

The four of us had fun and fascinating conversation about travel, medical stuff, retirement, family goings on, and other things. 

Debbie and I are loving these different get togethers with Eugene friends. The beer is great, too!

3. Speaking of beer, we left Oakshire and 16 Tons was still open, so we stopped in for one short pour. I had never tried GoodLife Brewing's Mocha Caramel Stout. It's a coffee stout that nicely balances the coffee taste with the mocha and a hint of caramel. Our short session at 16 Tons was a nice way to wind down. We enjoyed our beers quietly. I took in bits and pieces of other conversations going on nearby. We left contented. I was ready to head back to Anne's and enjoy a good night's sleep. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-10-2022: Lunch with Linda, Great Session at 16 Tons, Nightcap at Trade Winds

1. Linda Schantol and I met at The Paddock in South Eugene for lunch today. Linda has worked as a vital staff member for the division (and its many title changes) I taught in for over twenty years and we became great friends, especially as fans of Oregon Ducks sports. Today, we didn't start talking about the Ducks until we were over half way through our lunch. Instead Linda updated me on things at LCC. We talked about retirement. We talked about the health of our kidneys. Eventually, we got to our hopes for the Ducks basketball teams and I'm thinking Linda must have been sweating it out last night when the Ducks needed Eric Williams, Jr.'s trey with thirteen seconds left to play to propel them to their 78-76 win over Oregon State. 

Linda and I had a blast talking about  many things, doing some reminiscing, and encouraging one another to keep taking good care of ourselves. A few years back, Linda and Wayne visited family in Kalispell and came through Kellogg and we met at the now fire-destroyed Best Shots for lunch. 

Next time they travel to Kalispell, my hope is to go up there so we can have a beer and a bite to eat at Sacred Waters Brewing Company where Roberta Brainard Garner's son-in-law is the head brewer. (I'll be seeing Roberta, by the way, on Friday in Oakridge at the 3 Legged Crane Pub and Brewhouse.)

2. I returned back to Anne's (where we are staying).  Debbie was on her computer. I had a couple of things to take care of -- nothing pressing. Suddenly we decided to go drink some beer. 

In no time, we decided to go to 16 Tons and that worked out perfectly.

For starters, Mike Coplin, the owner, was pouring beers and we had great conversations with him about beers, family news, people who have worked at 16 Tons, and a number of other things.

At 16 Tons, I sometimes like to drink memory beers, beers that take me back ten years or so, back to when I first started patronizing 16 Tons. I discovered Farmhouse Ales at 16 Tons and I wanted to have the 2011-12 feeling again of first diving into this remarkably versatile and tasty style of beer. So I drank some of Foreland Brewing's Tales of Petrichor and it really did the trick. The beer's lightness and blend of flavors kept me locked into the present moment of pleasure, but it also transported me back to the joy I felt having discovered 16 Tons back in 2011 and some great saison/farmhouse ale sessions. 

I then ordered a small pour of the very enjoyable Wayfinder's Italian Pilsner. I closed out today's session with two small pours of the extraordinary Block 15 Figgy Pudding Barleywine. 

Even better than these terrific beers was the conversation Debbie and I fell into with a retired couple who'd come to Eugene for the day from Roseburg. I might have this wrong, but I think I remember that their names were Brent and Corrine (sp?). We got to talking about retirement, travel, the fact that Brent graduated from LCC back in 1980, and that Corrine recently completed a program at Umpqua Community College. Brent and Corrine love riding bicycles. Brent recently went on a multi-day tour that included Idaho on his motorcycle. They have and are giving special care to a thirty-two year old horse. They have a house on the coast. It was all fascinating. 

I will utter these words until the day I can no longer roam for foam: conversation is the beauty of beer. Beer talk (not drunk talk) is the best talk, I swear, and once again, this evening, Debbie and I left 16 Tons happy with the beers we tried, happy with the beers we put in the trunk to bring home to Kellogg, and happy for the superb conversation we had with Brent and Corrine and Mike. 

It was an awesome session.

3. We ended our time out and about at Trade Winds where I enjoyed a gyro pita with Greek salad and French fries. Debbie and I had a great talk.  We can be pretty good at that. 

Three Beautiful Things 01/09/2022: Morning Glory Muffin, Talking About Material Things, Salmon Dinner with the Gibsons

1. I made a quick trip to the Market of Choice this morning to pick up a few things, highlighted by the Morning Glory muffin I enjoyed from their bakery, along with a cup of coffee. 

2. Colette, Bill, Diane, and I jumped on the ZOOM machine this afternoon and reconvened the Westminster Study Group. We had a sober and insightful discussion about what happens when parents die and leave their house and possessions behind for other family members to tend to. We discussed how thorny it all is, sharing experiences we've had, ones we've observed, and what might be coming in the future for those of us whose parents are alive presently.

It also got us talking about our belongings. Our discussion got me thinking that I need to help those who will survive my death by always paring down my possessions, working to leave as little behind as possible. 

3. Around 5:30, Debbie and I went up the hill behind where we are staying to the Gibsons' townhouse for a superb salmon dinner with a very tasty rice side dish and a fresh lettuce and sliced fruit salad. The food was awesome and our conversation with Steve and Debbie was incredible. We talked about music, playing music, old friends, family matters, family histories, the USA, books, and other wide ranging topics, all with intelligence and, when needed, good humor. It was a stimulating and heart warming evening, drawing upon our history as friends that goes back about twenty-five years. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-08-2022: Moke's and a Downtown Stroll, Coffee with Forever Friends, Medi Bowls from Trade Winds

 1.  Debbie used the Camry to drive to Laura's to visit and play music together and I opened up my Uber app, punched in a request, and before I knew it, an affable driver named Kent rolled up in front of Anne's house and drove me to Moke's Coffee and Kitchen at the corner of 13th and High, occupying the same building as 16 Tons. I ordered a very tasty tofu taco and washed it down with a pint of Breakside's Pilsner, a perfect pairing. I lingered for a while, relished my taco, slowly finished my beer, and then I headed out on an aimless walk in downtown Eugene.

Walking around Eugene was sobering and nostalgic. I couldn't keep track of all the places that have closed and seeing them brought back memories, odd and random memories, like getting a flat tire fixed at the building that once housed a Firestone center after talking with Father Ted Berktold about getting married, remembering about 35 years ago running into a couple of former Whitworth students at the long since closed Rose and Thistle, peeking in the now vacant building that once housed the Bier Stein and remembering some early Belgian Blow Outs and recalling that time I ordered an Old Speckled Hen and I guy from Britain remarked to me, "Now there's a man who knows what a good beer is!" 

I saw places I didn't know existed like Civic Winery and Wines and noted that the entrance to the Metro Cinema is not longer on Broadway, but is on Willamette. 

As I expected, not having lived in Eugene for nearly seven years, businesses have come and gone, new buildings, many of them apartment complexes, have been built, and Eugene has aged. 

I enjoyed taking in as much as I could -- even though I didn't like everything I saw -- and I'll go back later this week for more.

2. I don't remember when Jeff, Margaret, Michael, and I first started meeting up fairly regularly to drink coffee and talk about almost everything on our minds: movies, books, music, teaching, our families, politics, and so much more. 

Well, as they say, today we got the band together again at Perugino Coffee House and we fell immediately into easy and substantial conversation about books, movies, music, what we've up to lately, and any number of other things. 

It was awesome. I hope we can figure out a way to do it again before I return to Kellogg.

3. Debbie and met around 5:30 at 16 Tons. I enjoyed a couple of short pours of a Hazy DIPA from HenHouse Brewing and then Debbie and I shared a one pint can of IPA from Drowned Lands Brewing in Warwick, NY, a brewery Debbie visited when she lived in New York State. 

We also had the pleasure of seeing a former 16 Tons employee, Chuck, and he and Debbie reminisced about old times at 16 Tons and we caught each other up on what's happening in our lives.

We ended our evening most enjoyably.

Debbie called Trade Winds Cafe and ordered us each a Medi Bowl, a combination of rice pilaf, tahini sauce, Greek salad, and falafel. We picked up our order and once back at Anne's we devoured our superb food. It wasn't very late, but we'd each had full days and went to bed early. I retired very happy with all I'd experienced today. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-07-2022: Chillin' with Poppy, Great Beer at 16 Tons Cafe, Superb Evening with the Pendletons

1. Debbie and I did not get right up and at 'em this morning. It turns out that Wednesday's drive through the Columbia Gorge snow globe from hell exacted quite a toll on us and it hit us hard today. Oh! We're okay. We were just tired. Debbie slept a lot. I just rested and drank mug after mug of coffee. I kept a close eye on Poppy who had a lot of fun diving out the doggy door into the back yard, barking, drawing the attention of a next door neighbor, and getting treats and a lot of pets over the chain link fence.  I enjoy Poppy's sociability. Every time she returned to the living room, she put her chin on my lap and enjoyed my affection. Before long, Poppy needed some rest and lay down on the couch and relaxed and napped. 

2. Debbie and I got ourselves moving about mid-afternoon and got ready to visit Francoise, Herb, Miles, and Bryce. I recommended that we stop off at Oakshire Brewing on our way to the Pendleton's house, but we decided that it would be a more efficient use of time to stop off at the 16 Tons Cafe. 

Debbie and I each ordered an 8 oz pour. Debbie loves Block 15's Sticky Hands and I decided to SAVE THE STOUT (no porter on the tap list) and order ColdFire's Chocolate Touch, a very enjoyable chocolate stout. 

I was blissed out. I enjoyed that about ten other people were in the cafe, some pairs of people in conversation, others were by themselves, drinking coffee or beer, reading, working a puzzle, enjoying the quiet and peaceful vibe of the 16 Tons Cafe. 

As we left, a fellow LCC retiree called out to me. It was Dan Welton. Debbie and I talked with Dan for a little while. He perked up when we told him we had come to Eugene on Wednesday from Kellogg. Dan was born in St. Maries and knows the North Idaho landscape really well and we had a good time talking a bit about Idaho and about how we are each doing now that we are retired. 

It was a fun and welcome surprise to see Dan.

3. We visited with the Pendletons for nearly eight hours! Both Miles and Bryce were elementary students of Debbie's and Francoise and Herb were highly involved parents, strong advocates for their sons. Now Miles has graduated from the Univ. of Miami and has moved back to Eugene and Bryce is a sophomore at U of Miami. 

They've grown up a lot since their elementary school days. Ha! Wow! 

We fell right into passionate conversation about a wide variety of subjects with our hosts -- health matters, education, the racial divide in the USA, The Wire, and riffed on these absorbing subjects at length. We talked over a sturdy and delicious filet mignon dinner and continued to tell stories and explore big ideas until after midnight. 

If Debbie and I had been sluggish earlier in the day, this dinner party, this salon, this forum of intelligent and emotional conversation sent new bolts of energy through both of us and we relished having an evening together with our great friends the Pendletons.

(During our visit, my back got tired and I lounged on a recliner for quite a while. I had the house key in my pants pocket and it fell out while I was lounging. Debbie and I drove from near Delta Ponds out to South Eugene, beyond Fox Hollow Rd, got out of the car, and I realized I didn't have the house key. Debbie called Francoise. Francoise found the key. We drove all the way to the opposite side of Eugene, retrieved the key, and returned home. Poppy had been pretty excited inside the house the first time we arrived and didn't come in and was ecstatic when, upon our second arrival, we didn't zoom off, but came in the house. Poppy and we humans gave each other all kinds of most welcome attention and affection.) 

Three Beautiful Things 01-06-2022: Coffee and Market of Choice, Bier Stein with the Troxstars (and More), Perfect Nightcap at 16 Tons

 1. Debbie and I were a little slow getting around this morning. We were tired after our ordeal on I-84 yesterday, but it turned out to be a good thing that we persisted and came to Eugene on Wednesday. On Thursday, I 84 was closed out near Cascade Locks because of a landslide. UPDATE: Later in the day, the state cleared the freeway of debris and reopened it. Still. I'm really glad we didn't give up on Wednesday and didn't have to face Thursday's delay.

So, not only were we slow getting around this morning, we both took naps in the afternoon. But, we went out around 11:00 and enjoyed some premium coffee at the 16 Tons Cafe and then dashed into the Market of Choice next door and did a little shopping. 

Shopping at Market of Choice made my head swim for about five minutes. Yoke's is a solid grocery store and we find most of what we want and need there. Market of Choice, however, is loaded with tons of food, wine, beer, baked goods, freshly prepared dishes to eat at the store or take away, vitamins, supplements, and copious other offerings. I hadn't been in this store since May, 2019 and it dizzied me for several minutes, but I regained my equilibrium and we picked up some dairy products, ground coffee, granola, and a few other items. 

I drove Debbie to Cornucopia where she met a friend for lunch and I did a little driving around and stopped in for a few minutes at Hideaway Bakery and bought a cheese bagel.

Debbie returned to where we are staying. 

We napped.

2. Debbie made an appointment not too far from the Bier Stein for a haircut at 5:30. Refreshed by our afternoon naps, we piled into the Camry, parked outside the Bier Stein, and sat down with a beer. Today's tap list didn't include a porter, so I decided to SAVE THE STOUT and ordered Von Ebert Brewing's Waning Echoes, a wonderful American Stout that somehow transported me back to 1996-7 when I first dove into the world of craft beers and my early euphoric experiences with stouts.

Debbie had to leave and just missed the arrival of the Troxstar and Marla. The three of us fell into easy and fun conversation about our lives, our kids, our dog and cats, work, and any number of great stuff to yak about. Debbie joined us looking stunning with her new haircut and elevated the quality of our already superb conversations.

I went to the cooler, then, and found A PORTER! I have always enjoyed Pelican Brewing's beers and I bought myself a Midnight Malt, a superbly balanced Cocoa Porter. Upon finishing it, I returned to the bar and ordered a half pour of Left Hand Brewing's Milk Stout which paired splendidly with the dozen plain chicken wings I ordered for Debbie and me.  

When we first entered the Bier Stein, I saw Tim Shaner and we made a plan to be sure to enjoy a beer and some conversation next week. Then, completely out of the blue, Molly's childhood friend, Julia, strolled in with her guy. Julia's mask kept us from recognizing her at first, but she revealed herself and Debbie, Julia, and I had some rapid fire conversation getting caught up on Julia's life, her mom and dad who are longtime friends, and her sister -- all punctuated by our roars of laughter and the fortuitous randomness of running into each other this evening. 

I love to roam for foam in Eugene. Inevitably, we run into people we know, have fun conversation, and enjoy the great fellowship that develops out of drinking craft beer with others. That's sure what happened tonight! 

3. One more stop. 

We wanted to go drink some Cold Fire beer at 16 Tons Cafe, but it was closed, so we headed down to our favorite of all spots, 16 Tons Taproom and Bottleshop. 

I was pretty jazzed to see that Oskar Blues splendid PORTER, Death by Coconut was on tap and I ordered a short pour. Debbie and I fully entered into the world of craft beer fellowship at 16 Tons. Debbie initiated conversation with our server, Karen, and found out what she could about guys who used to work at 16 Tons and got to know Karen better. I fell into conversation with a guy about our age named Jeff, a retired educator, who told me about the book he was reading, entitled, A Higher Call -- a remarkable sounding book about two fighter pilots in WWII. Debbie joined us and we soon learned we'd all lived in Eugene for decades and we reminisced about things and Debbie gave Jeff info on how to listen to Babes with Axes over at bandcamp.com.

Great beers. Superb conversations. Longtime friends. New acquaintances. Just what we were hoping would happen when we agreed to house sit and help take care of Poppy.

We are off to a great start! 

Three Beautiful Things 01-05-2022: We Decide to Hit the Road, We Survived the Hell Gorge, Ah! Hammerhead!

 1. It took us most of the morning to decide that we'd hit the road for Eugene today, but after some hemming and hawing, we did our final bit of packing and spiffing up of things around the house and hit the road. We stopped in Ritzville for a coffee and I enjoyed an almond croissant.  Travel conditions were very good until we left the Tri-Cities. 

2. Just south of the Tri-Cities, I lost all sense of time and space. We headed toward and then eased on to I-84 and entered a world of snow, some wind, sleet, rain, slush, occasional blinding sprays of water and snow from other vehicles  on our windshield, darkness, and poor visibility. Fortunately, the Camry never slipped or slid on the roads. Most of the time, the tires were in contact with asphalt, but I had to contend with some slush and snow.  The conditions were arduous, but by maintaining a speed of 40-50 mph and by staying calm and patient and focused, I drove us through these 160 miles or so of the most demanding conditions I've driven in for many many years. 

Just before we reached Troutdale, the snow turned once and for all into rain. Visibility improved. By the time we reached I-5, the temperature warmed up, we had stretches of no precipitation, and the last leg of our drive was much easier, even enjoyable.

As it turned out, as hard as we tried to avoid stormy winter conditions along the might Columbia River, we failed to avoid them.

The beautiful thing is that the Camry performed well, we took our time, we laughed when The Who's song, "I Can See for Miles" came on the Sirius/XM satellite radio -- oh! the irony! -- , and we made it safely to Eugene. 

3. We arrived in Eugene about ten hours after we left Kellogg. Upon entering the City of Eugene, we drove straight to McMenamin's High Street Pub and Cafe. 

I knew we were going to do this and the promise of a pint of my favorite of all Pale Ales, the great Hammerhead, awaiting me at the pub strengthened my resolve to get to Eugene tonight. 

The Hammerhead was perfect.

So was the Happy Hour Cheeseburger with fries.

Driving in the Columbia Gorge had been an ordeal, but the beer was so perfect and the burger so satisfying that the difficulties of the day vanished, and my body and mind totally relaxed and, once we arrived at Anne's house, I was ready to fall into a comatose state of sleep. 

Oh! An added bonus. We are here to dogsit Anne's dog, Poppy, and she and I hit it off immediately and I'm going to love being with her for as long as we are here. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-04-2022: Uncertainty, Packed, Luna and Copper Can Roam

1. We stayed put, unsure about when we'll leave for Eugene. The dog we volunteered to look after has others looking in on him. That's good. 

2. I acted like we are leaving one of these days and packed my bags and updated the list of instructions 

3. Debbie also acted like we are leaving soon. She delivered Gibbs to Diane's house. Luna and Copper now have the whole living room floor to roam around in if they want to. This evening I enjoyed it when Copper lay for a while under an end table next to me and Luna climbed on my lap while I was sitting in the living room. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-03-2022: Delayed Travel Plans, Getting Stuff Done, Johnny Davis and Keegan Murray -- WOW!

1. Debbie and I have a house/dog sitting gig in Eugene and had planned on heading out on Tuesday (01-04), but today we decided to delay our departure a day because of weather. We hope the mess in the Columbia Gorge will improve and that leaving Wednesday (01-05) will work out better. Fortunately, if we are further delayed, backup plans are in place and the dog will be cared for. I am looking forward to seeing friends in Eugene (and possibly beyond) and will start working on making plans once we arrive.  

2. Today, I got a few things done to prepare to leave. I filled both cars with gas, tidied up the garage by going first to the dump and then to the bin up the street and recycling cardboard, plastic bottles, and cans. I dropped by Silver Valley Tire to get the Camry's new snow tires retorqued. I scrubbed out Copper and Luna's litter pans and put fresh litter in them. I went to the dentist. I made a quick trip to Yoke's. All in all, things are in pretty good shape for us to leave on Wednesday.

3. Debbie made a pot of comforting and warming beef vegetable soup with noodles, a perfect accompaniment to today's basketball action in the Big 10. Tonight's two games were especially fun because of the astonishing play of two players, Wisconsin's Johnny Davis and Iowa's Keegan Murray. 

Tonight, Johnny Davis scored 37 points and snagged 14 rebounds in Wisconsin's 74-69 upset of Purdue. Davis' performance was stunning. He's a great shooter from everywhere -- he buries threes, mid-range jumpers, drives to the iron, and can hit fade away shots from close to the hoop. His demeanor is calm and confident and he moves and shoots with grace, with an almost other worldly ease.

And he's not alone. Keegan Murray does much the same for Iowa. In the Hawkeyes' 80-75 win over Maryland, the unflappable, even tempered, graceful 6' 8" Murray scored 35 points, making an astonishing 5-6 from beyond the three-point arc and added to his deep shooting prowess and variety of shots from midrange and in the paint. 

Some players, when they have big scoring nights, seem to explode for their points. Somehow, Davis and Murray made scoring 37 and 35 points seem quiet. They scored within their teams' offensive schemes. Both made a bigh percentage of their shots attempted. Often high scorers are also what we used to call ball hogs. I didn't think either Davis or Murray possessed the ball a lot. They didn't dribble for seconds on end searching for shots. They were efficient, calm, and accurate. 

They made these two games a great pleasure to watch. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-02-2022: Bidding Patrick and Meagan Adieu, Test Driving the Camry, My First Vodka Martini

 1. Meagan and Patrick headed back to Portland today. They updated us frequently on their progress and, aside from snowy conditions that challenged them between Multnomah Falls and Hood River, they experienced clear sailing and arrived home safely. That was great news!

2. I took the Camry out for a fifty mile spin early this afternoon. I'd just had snow tires put on it a week or so ago. I wanted to find out how the Camry feels to me on wintry roads, especially on compact snow and ice. So, I drove to Smelterville and took the old road to Pinehurst and back again all the way into Kellogg. I drove to Wallace and cruised the gut. I returned to the Kellogg-Smelterville-Pinehurst area. I thought the Camry felt pretty good on the current road conditions. It was good to get some practice in. I felt unearned cockiness about driving in wintry conditions forty-five to fifty years ago. That's gone, thank goodness. I now humble when I drive in these conditions. 

3. Until tonight, I'd never tried a vodka martini. With no gin in the house, this evening I stirred myself one with a little lemon juice.  I enjoyed it, but given the choice, I am all but certain I would always choose a gin martini over vodka. 

Three Beautiful Things 01-01-2022: Recovering in the Vizio Room, Mutual Contentment with Luna and Copper, New Year's Day Family Dinner

 1. This morning, I was wiped out from New Year's Eve. I wasn't hungover. I was just tired. More than anything, I needed some time to myself, time not to talk to anyone. I needed to recharge. Luckily, this was easy to accomplish this morning. Everyone else slept in. So, before Debbie, Meagan, or Patrick came downstairs, I secluded myself in the Vizio room and watched Creighton defeat Marquette in a double overtime thriller, 75-69,  and the Villanova Wildcats defeat the Covid-depleted and feisty Seton Hall Pirates, 73-67.  From time to time, I snoozed during these games, not because of the action, but because I was worn out. I enjoyed the basketball completely. I love watching action in the Big East Conference and look forward to watching as many Big East Conference games as possible over the next two months or so.

2. After watching basketball, I wasn't quite ready to be social with the family and I retired to the bedroom. I lay down on the bed on my back, blissfully aware of what was coming next. First, Luna leapt up and got herself comfortable on my upper chest and curled herself close to my neck. At the same time, Copper positioned himself close enough to me that I could easily reach out and rest my left hand on his back. Both cats purred. I fell into a most restorative sleep. Together, Luna, Copper, and I were the perfect picture of mutuality and contentment.  Being this connected to each other relaxed us. It gave us peace. 

3. Rested, I took control of the Sube and drove Debbie, Patrick, and Meagan over to the Roberts' house for our family New Year's Day dinner. Over the years, we've reserved a day on or close to New Year's Day for a prime rib dinner together. This year, Yoke's was sold out of prime rib, so Carol prepared a handsome New York Strip Roast (did I get that right?) instead. We began with the cocktail Debbie has concocted over the last ten days or so, a mixture of Rye Whiskey, her homemade Cranberry Liqueur, orange juice, and a splash of club soda or, today, tonic water. 

Along with the cocktail, we enjoyed shrimp and cocktail sauce and yakked in the living room until called to dinner.

In support of the beef roast and au jus, Paul made a couple of horseradish options, Carol fixed Yorkshire pudding, Christy prepared a potato recipe in muffin cups and assembled a relish tray, and Debbie made a vegetable side dish. Christy provided superb wine that she brought home from her Thanksgiving weekend trip to Walla Walla. 

We loved our dinner and were really happy to have Patrick and Meagan with us. 

We retired back to the living room after dinner for Brandy Snap cookies and I mixed Brandy Alexanders.

After some robust after dinner conversation, Debbie, Patrick, Meagan, and I returned home. We had talked some at Carol and Paul's about The Beatles, so back home we put on music from The Beatles. Meagan returned to the jigsaw puzzle she and Debbie have going. Patrick continued to keep up with updates and online conversation about the James Webb Space Telescope. We talked a bit about caffeine! I enjoyed sipping on my favorite cold weather warm-me-up, rum and brandy mixed in hot water. We switched from The Beatles to Dark Side of the Moon, but I didn't make it to the end of the album.

I retired to the bedroom where I joined Luna and Copper for a restful night's sleep.