Three Beautiful Things 06-29-2022: Moving Stuff Out of the House, Old Reliable, Seve Wins The Open in 1984

1.  I derive great pleasure from removing things from our house. I like having as little as possible in the house -- and the garage -- and today I made a trip to the transfer station and dumped some metal, wood, rugs, and unneeded blood sample boxes. The garage is a little less cluttered and the basement load is a little lighter.

2. Debbie suggested we dine out today and I replied that I was thinking about cooking up some curry. My offer ended the dine out talk, to my great pleasure. 

So, I got to work. First, I grabbed a handful of frozen raw shrimp out of the freezer and simultaneously thawed them and started to cook them in butter. In the meantime, I put a plug of yellow curry paste in the Dutch oven and heated it up while chopping half a white onion, the last of our bok choy, and several baby potatoes. I poured two cans of coconut milk over the paste, stirred it, and added equal amounts of fish sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar. I removed the shrimp from the cast iron pan and replaced it with the bok choy which I sautéed in the leftover melted butter and shrimp liquid. I added the potatoes and onion to the curry sauce along with a few dried Kaffir lime leaves and then added the sautéed bok choy and the liquid it had cooked in. 

I heated this sauce up to a slow boil, turned down the heat, and let the raw ingredients cook until tender. I fixed a pot of white rice. Once the potatoes and onions and bok choy pieces were tender, I added the shrimp bits, hoping I wouldn't over cook them, let the sauce heat a bit more and, voila!, once the rice was cooked we enjoyed the meal known between us as Old Reliable.

3. I watched some news programming around 8:00 tonight and once I'd heard the discussions I was interested in, I switched over to the Golf Channel and its show, "Golf's Greatest Rounds". Tonight's episode featured the fourth round of the 1984 Open at St. Andrew's.  Seve Ballesteros' and Tom Watson dueled on the back nine. Watson played in the twosome behind Ballesteros. The tournament's outcome hinged on a dramatic moment when, with the two players tied for the tournament lead, Ballesteros sank a 12 foot putt for birdie on 18 while Watson pushed his second shot on 17 just off the road in back of the green and nearly up against a wall. Local rules offer no relief for a player who hits a shot to this wall and Watson had to punch an awkward shot, with nearly no backswing, onto the 17th green. He ran it about 25 feet past the hole and missed the putt. 

Suddenly, Ballesteros was in the clubhouse with a two stroke lead.

Watson did not hole out his second shot from the 18th fairway. 

Ballesteros won his second Open. 

I loved watching this episode of golf being played nearly forty years ago. I felt weepy. Ballesteros was one of golf's most charismatic, energetic, and imaginative players. He died in 2011. I grieved watching him play in 1984 knowing the immeasurable impact he had on elevating Europe's competitiveness in the Ryder Cup, the inspiration he gave other international players, and the excitement he gave fans of golf with his bold and creative play. I missed him. I enjoyed the feeling of having him back, even though I knew he wasn't. 

 

Three Beautiful Things 06-28-2022: The Cake's Not Baked, Health Talks, Citrus

 1. Back when I was in my fifties, I frequently tuned into Bob Valvano's show on ESPN radio. Valvano frequently uttered a saying, or a maxim, I really like and that I try to keep in mind all the time. Valvano was a proponent of letting things play out, whether in sports or in other aspects of life. He advised against rushing to judgment, advised against thinking we could know what the future would bring, advised against getting worked up about things we don't know are true just yet. 

His saying was "Let the cake bake." 

I watched today's unexpected Select Committee hearing and listened to a lot of discussion about Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony.

There are more hearings to come.

I don't know where the committee's work will lead.

I don't know what the Department of Justice will ultimately do.

I listen. 

I contemplate. 

I respect those willing to testify under oath and under great pressure not to do so.

And, well, I am of the let the cake bake mindset. 

I have no predictions.  

I'll continue to pay attention and see how this all works out -- and I don't really know what "all works out" means. 

2. Debbie arrived home after being out and about much of the afternoon. She's been socializing for a while over at The Beanery and had a little bit of news about life in Kellogg. Debbie and I have been in conversation for nearly twenty-five years now about our health, our physical health and our mental health. Our conversation this evening turned toward talking about mental health and we caught each other up on how things are going in that aspect of our lives. It didn't take long, but it was sure enlightening and further strengthened our mutual understanding of each other.

3. Debbie and I reached an easily reached agreement this evening: we should always have plenty of lemons on hand -- well, we should always have plenty of citrus fruits on hand, especially oranges, limes, and lemons.

I was all for this because I enjoy drinking a short pour of gin combined with fresh squeezed lemon juice.

Debbie enjoys bourbon combined with fresh squeezed orange juice. I would like this too.

Debbie also really likes it when I mix her a Bourbon Renewal and a key ingredient of this cocktail is fresh squeezed lemon juice.

We also enjoy gin and tonics and a squeeze or two from a slice of lime enhances our pleasure of this favorite cocktail of ours. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-27-2022: Shopping for Family Dinner, Chopped Salad Prep, Salads for Dinner

 1. I woke up this morning thinking that Debbie and I might go to CdA and so some grocery and possibly other kinds of shopping. When we decided to stay home, I reconsidered my plan to make a Japanese rice salad for family dinner and, after a fun consultation with Debbie, decided to make a no recipe chopped salad. I needed a few items for the salad and scooted over to Yoke's and purchased them. Once again, the checker at Yoke's who always asks what I'm preparing for dinner was available to ring up my groceries and she expressed delight when I told her about the salad.

2. I arrived home, spiffed up the kitchen, and got to work on the salad. I turned discs of salami into ribbons. I chopped up green onion, bok choy, red pepper, and yellow pepper. I cooked frozen corn kernels and cooled them. I put all of these ingredients in a bowl along with two cans of drained black beans and crumbled feta cheese. Debbie stepped up later and dressed the salad with a no recipe vinaigrette. I had bought a loaf of Ciabatta bread at Yoke's for dinner, but I forgot that Christy has also assigned Debbie and me to bring wine. Turned out that Christy had some wine on hand and we were off the hook! 

3. For family dinner tonight, Christy planned a dinner of salads. Christy made us each a root beer flavored cocktail to start -- I never quite got it straight what all she used to make this drink.  Debbie and I brought the chopped salad and bread, Paul made a pasta salad, and Christy made chef salad on skewers. Carol brought pub mix as an appetizer and Molly chopped up watermelon to accompany the salads. For dessert, Christy served us Drumstick ice cream cones.  

Carol and Paul will have a house full of family at their house later this week and then Carol's birthday dinner will be on Sunday. We had a lot to talk about regarding where people are staying, how dogs will get along, and what this busy period of time might look like. We also talked quite a bit about popular music. Christy played music while we were together from three different Pandora stations so we heard 80s summer music, music from the Summer of Love, and music under the heading of Soul BBQ.  The music gave us a lot to talk about. 

All the eating and talking and music made time flew by. I looked up at the clock at around 8:00 and realized I hadn't fed Copper and Luna. So I came home and got that done. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-26-2022: Intense Conversation on ZOOM, Bourbon and Captain Sharon Raydor, Foyle and Wartime PTSD

1. Bill, Diane, Bridgit, and I joined on ZOOM today for a riveting and serious discussion of the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health decision, made public on Friday. Out of respect for confidentiality, I won't detail our discussion. 

I can say, though, that our discussion was, for me, a continuation of conversations that began with my mother nearly sixty years ago and that continued with women fifty years ago when I was a student at NIC and then as a student and an employee at Whitworth and these conversations continued in grad school, my years of employment at LCC, and at St. Mary's Episcopal Church. 

My life has been rich with friendships with women willing to talk with me about their experiences within themselves and in the world that are unique from anything I experience as a man. These friends have significantly influenced some of what I read, some of the music I listen to, and many of the movies I watch.  When the Zoom conversation ended, Debbie and I had the next of countless conversations we've had over our twenty-five years together about matters similar to what Diane, Bridgit, Bill, and I discussed this afternoon. 

2. Debbie and I also partied together for a while late this afternoon. I opened the new bottle of Bulliet bourbon I walked down to the liquor store and bought around noon and we enjoyed a couple of drinks together. After eating some leftover turkey soup, I retired to the Vizio room, fired up the Fire stick, and consulted the catalog of different shows and movies Debbie has purchased over the years. 

I decided to watch an episode of Major Crimes, a show Debbie has loved to watch and one that, along with The Closer, Mom and Debbie used to enjoy watching together. 

The actual crimes committed and solved on Major Crimes don't stick with me as much as the superb characters this show develops and their fascinating interactions. Mostly what sticks with me is Mary McDonnell's work bringing the complex and intriguing character Captain Sharon Raydor to life. Captain Raydor is by turns enigmatic, savvy, compassionate, calculating, and firm in her resolve. I might forget from one episode to the next what the nature of the crime she and the officers under her supervision worked to solve, but I never forget the fierce intelligence of Captain Sharon Raydor.

3. After I finished watching an episode of Major Crimes, I was stimulated, feeling energetic, and had it in me to watch one more crime show.

I haven't yet watched every episode of every season of Foyle's War, so I picked up where I last left off and watched the second episode of Season 6. 

It was sobering. Entitled, "Broken Souls", this episode focused primarily on psychologically damaged soldiers having returned home from WWII and the doctors who treat their trauma.

So while the murder cases Foyle investigates and solves are an important part of the story, the devastating impact of the war on surviving soldiers and upon the marital lives of these soldiers -- as well as other aspects of their lives -- and the difficulties their cases present to those who would treat or comfort them, is what is most memorable about this story. As is always the case in Foyle's War, we see that the devastating effects of WWII press down upon life in and around the town of Hastings whether the actual bombings and battles are near by or far away. In this way, Foyle's War parallels the point Yehuda Amachai's poem, "The Diameter of the Bomb" which I posted last week. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-25-2022: Beliefs? Hmmm, Checker Checks Up on Me, Back Yard Charcuterie

1.  I've been thinking a lot about the words "beliefs" and "believe" for a long time. I took a long and blissful shower this afternoon and thought about these words even more. In short, when the time comes in the liturgy at church to recite the Nicene Creed, within myself I replace the words "I believe" with "I experience". I don't believe in sunshine or gravity or the color green, I experience them. It's the same with the Trinity. When it comes to policy in the world of government, I don't really have beliefs either. I think of myself as supporting policies and positions, but I don't know that I have beliefs. For example, I don't say "I believe in small government" nor do I say "I believe in big government". In some matters, I support less government involvement. In others, I support government programs and agencies. I resist ideological purity -- except when I support it.  

So, that's how my shower went today.

It was a meditation upon my inconsistencies. In the words of Walt Whitman and Bob Dylan, I contain multitudes. Whitman precedes this declaration by saying, "I am large." Hmm. "I am large. I contain multitudes." 

In Shakespeare's Richard II, the king states:  "Thus play I in one person many people."  King Richard goes on to say, "And none contented." I see myself as containing many people. I'm not experiencing Richard's turmoil. Several of the many people in my one person are contented. 

2. A few weeks ago, I went shopping at Yoke's for something I was cooking for family dinner. My purchases that day intrigued the checker and she asked me what I was cooking. I told her and now, any time I come through her line, she examines my purchases and asks me, "What wonderful thing are you cooking today?" 

Today, she once again rang up my purchase, and she was excited that I was headed home to put together a dinner of cheese, salami, crackers, grapes, olives, and other cold finger foods with wine and told me how much she and her husband also often enjoy a dinner a cheese, bread, and wine, especially as the weather gets hot. We agreed it's a perfect way to dine on occasion.

3. Debbie purchased a table umbrella. She invited Christy over and the three of us sat under our newly umbrellaed back yard table and ate a couple kinds of crackers, a variety of Murray's cheeses and some Vermont white cheddar from Cracker Barrel, hot bread and butter pickles, pepperoncini peppers, Kalamata olives, celery sticks, baby carrots, blue cheese dressing, and a few other things. We shared a bottle of red wine and started a bottle of white. 

It was relaxing, especially as evening descended and the air cooled down. Riley and Gibbs had the yard to themselves. They palled around some, but mostly relaxed at some distance from each other. 

We had a lot to talk about. Subjects ranged from what happening in our family in July and what happened a year ago to how we help others with their writing to some (sometimes oddball) news around town. And more. 

We had a fun time!

Three Beautiful Things 06-24-2022: Working on the Reunion, Kirk Douglas as a Tortured Detective, Kirk Douglas as a Conflicted Colonel

 1. I volunteered to turn the reunion registration forms into a couple of lists. One is a list of people who've registered. The other is a list of who is coming to dinner and their menu selections. 

This is exactly the kind of volunteer work I enjoy most. I'm making a contribution and am able to do it behind the scenes and from home.

I thought today about Bridgit. She has volunteered to help out a kitten rescue organization by writing rescue stories for their Facebook page. Her work will help the organization have an appealing online presence and help find homes for orphaned cats.  Bridgit lives a ways away from the facility, but the organization can send her pictures of and outlines about individual cats and Bridgit will turn them into stories.

Bridgit's volunteer work and my experience helping out the reunion committee from home has got me thinking about other volunteer work I might do -- and do it the way I enjoy.

2. I mentioned the other day that I watched Lee Grant's documentary movie about the lives of Kirk and Michael Douglas (A Father, A Son: A Hollywood Story). 

I also mentioned that I didn't think I'd ever seen a Kirk Douglas movie.

I remedied that this evening.

First, I not only watched Kirk Douglas, but also Lee Grant, in director William Wyler's movie Detective Story (1951).

The movie centers around an 8-12 hour period of time in the detective room of the 21st Precinct in New York City.

Much like the television show, Barney Miller, perpetrators and victims from all walks of life come through the precinct, ranging from a shoplifter to a serial burglar to a one-time thief (and desperate lover) to an illegal abortion doctor and more. 

The movie moves quickly, alternating between scenes of hilarity and danger and moving between several subplots.

At the center of the story is a rigid, quick tempered, sometimes abusive, haunted detective, Jim McLeod, played with verve by Kirk Douglas. 

As the movie develops, Detective McLeod work on a case raises suspicions in his supervisor, Lt. Monaghan. The lieutenant does some investigating and suddenly the McLeod's private life, his marriage, and his detective work collide. 

I'll leave it at that, except to say that this collision forces McLeod to come to grips with himself as a detective and as a human being. He faces an existential crisis. 

3. I wasn't quite done with Kirk Douglas tonight after watching Detective Story.

I turned to Paths of Glory (1957), a movie Kirk Douglas's own production company made, independent of the major studios.  Kirk Douglas hired Stanley Kubrick, then in his late twenties, to help write the screenplay and direct the movie.

It's a WWI movie, shot in black and white, alternating between stark scenes from the trenches and of combat in No Man's Land and opulent scenes from the palatial structures where French generals make decisions about war strategies and angle to burnish their reputations and receive promotions.

Kirk Douglas plays the role of Colonel Dax, ordered by his superiors to capture and hold a German stronghold with undermanned and exhausted troops. 

In the aftermath of this attack, the movie dramatizes a court martial hearing and its outcome.

I don't want to give what happens away, but I will say that throughout the movie, I kept thinking about Breaker Morant. 

Both movies portray soldiers as scapegoats, pawns put to trial as a way of covering up the corruption of their superiors. Both movies also contrast the brutal conditions of combat with the detached comfort of the lives of the officers at the highest levels of command.

Neither movie uplifts its viewers. 

Both are brilliantly written, directed, and acted. 

 

Three Beautiful Things 06-23-2022: Reunion Committee is Golden, Relaxing at Rose Lake, "A man gotta have a code"

1. I leapt into the Subaru and blasted out to Jake and Carol Lee's place on Rose Lake feeling confident that things were in pretty good shape as we prepare to set our 50 year Kellogg High School reunion into motion on July 15-17. 

I had good reason to feel good. As our reunion meeting convened, we ran through what needs to be done. Different people volunteered to carry out tasks or had already volunteered in past meetings.

Everyone is ready to do their tasks and we all know what is going on.

The meeting was calm, intelligent, fun, and efficient. 

It almost made me think about reconsidering my determination, upon retirement, never to be on a committee again! 

This one's been awesome!

2. Once we finished our business, we broke out food. Jake mixed me a gin and tonic. Then a second. We listened to Greatest hits from the 70s on the Jacobs' Echo Dot. We fell into fun conversation about a variety of subjects, bemoaned that we wouldn't be seeing several classmates at our reunion, and enjoyed a relaxing time on the Jacobs' balcony overlooking a most peaceful and quiet Rose Lake.

3. I didn't turn on today's Select Committee hearing at noon because I didn't want to have to leave while it was underway to go to Yoke's and head out to Rose Lake.

I forgot to record it, but discovered an NBC channel that replayed the entirety of today's hearing at 8:00.

As today's broadcast ended, I thought about the character Omar Little from The Wire who famously said, "A man gotta have a code."

I thought today's hearing was about competing codes. Those testifying from the Justice Department made decisions late in 2020 and in early 2021 based on the code that guided their work and their understanding of the law. They were up against those in the administration and supporters of the administration who operated according to a competing code of conduct. Much like the men who testified on Tuesday, the men from the Justice Department held fast to what they understood the rule of law to be.

They prevailed. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-22-2022: Easier Time at the Transfer Station, Kirk and Michael Douglas, Memory and the Sprinkler System

 1. I made two much easier and more comfortable trips to the transfer station today to recycle cardboard. I arrived just before the gate opened with my first load -- it was cool and shady and cardboard is much less heavy than trash bags filled with wet garden waste! I didn't pant, have to rest several times, or anything like I did on Tuesday.  

I returned home, loaded up more cardboard and our plastic bottles and beer/soda cans and newspapers. I took the cardboard to the transfer station and, before that, the other stuff to the recycle bin at the bottom of Jacobs Gulch. 

I like taking care of these things. It felt good to get our recyclables out of the garage and to take care of Christy's cardboard.

I will readily admit: I miss having yard waste and recyclables picked up at the curb - that was a benefit of living in Eugene. In Greenbelt, we had recycle stations on site at the apartment complex. I liked that, too.

But, I'm not complaining. The transfer station has no fees, it's not far away, and, at least when I've been there, it's never been crowded. 

It's all good.

2. I think the collection of Lee Grant directed documentaries go off the Criterion Channel at the end of June. So late this afternoon, I watched her film about Kirk and Michael Douglas entitled, A Father, A Son, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2005). 

I got called up short by this documentary. 

I haven't watched many Michael Douglas movies. I haven't seen Wall Street, Fatal Attraction, China Syndrome, Basic Instinct, War of the Roses, or others. I think I saw Romancing the Stone. I saw A Chorus Line, I think. I definitely was a regular viewer of The Streets of San Francisco!

Likewise, as the documentary showed clips of one famous Kirk Douglas movie after another, I couldn't remember seeing any of them -- I've never seen Spartacus, Tough Guys, Detective Story, Lust for Life, none of them.

Kirk Douglas was at the heart of this documentary. The movie detailed his upbringing, star power as a movie star, marital infidelities, insights into acting and film making, his recovery from a serious stroke, and his inconsistencies as a father. 

In turn, Grant's movie examined Kirk Douglas's sons and his wives' experiences with him and delved in some depth into Michael Douglas's career as a producer, actor, and humanitarian. 

It's a deeply personal movie, chronicling the arc of Kirk Douglas's maturity over the years, his spiritual awakening, and the forgiveness that took place within his family. Likewise, the movie explores Michael Douglas's personal life and helps us see how he, too, matured over the years and how he and his father grew in their affection for one another.

3. My memory isn't, by any means, shot, but I sure do need to go back and review things often. For example, quite a few years ago, Mom had a sprinkler system installed in her back and front yard. It's getting close to the time to start running it. This evening I went out to the control box to set up a watering schedule and, I swear, despite having worked with that control panel for four years, when I looked at it today, it was like I'd never seen it before.

I put settings in place, but just to make sure I'd done it right, I watched a YouTube video about the operation of the kind of system Mom purchased. 

Ah! It pretty much all came back to me.

As I write this blog post on Thursday morning, I thought the system was going to run today.

One problem. 

I thought yesterday was Thursday as I adjusted the settings. 

So, I didn't set the system to start on Thursday, but on Friday.

I'll find out Friday morning whether I really did things right.

Sigh. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-21-2022: Recovering at the Transfer Station, A/C and Loading Cardboard, Drinks at The Beanery

1.  I helped Christy bag up some yard waste and added her bags to several bags Paul had put in the pickup bed from his and Carol's yard. Christy also had some trash to go to the transfer station and I loaded that into the truck. I tolerate sunshine less and less the older I get. The same is true about heat. After a long stretch of wet weather in Kellogg, today the sun shone and temperature was, I think, higher than it's been this calendar year. 

As a result, I struggled at the transfer station moving and emptying the bags of wet green waste and mud. I had to take frequent breaks. At one point, I opened the passenger door to the truck and sat in the door frame, panting, trying to cool down, holding my face in my hands with my elbows on my knees. A thoughtful guy who was also emptying yard waste checked on me, asked me if I was all right. I told him I thought I was, I just needed time to recover. I knew I needed to hydrate. That turned out to be true. 

Once I was done emptying the bags of yard waste and disposing of the bags themselves, I backed into the trash emptying area of the transfer station. It was, mercifully, in the shade and I did much better tossing the bags of trash, worn out cushions, and other random stuff of Christy's into a trash pile.

2. Driving back home, I was very grateful for the A/C in the pickup. Once home, I cooled off in the house with the help of our A/C. I arrived home about 3:30 with one or two loads of cardboard still to take to the transfer station. The station closes at 4:00. I'll return on Wednesday in the morning. But, after I cooled down further, and while Christy took Riley for a run, I loaded Christy's cardboard along with a couple big pieces of ours into the pickup so that my next load is ready to go.

3. Now the entire Bean/Depot complex is called The Beanery. Debbie and I went to The Beanery around six or so and sat at a picnic table where we joined Mike Fitz and Deanne. I thoroughly enjoyed a couple of Maker's Mark and ginger beer with lime cocktails and had a great time talking with Mike about today's hearing and about the current state of Major League Baseball and the Dodgers, teams past and their current team. Debbie and I returned home to a pot of Mama Leone's chicken soup she made with leftovers from family dinner and this simple dinner capped off my day perfectly.

The only downside to going to the Beanery and arriving back home around 7:45 was that I missed the live stream of Bill Davie's Poetry Break. Drat! I know I can watch the archived video of it, but it's always fun to watch in real time. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-20-2022: Copper and Luna Say "Meh", Mixology, Comfort Food Family Dinner

 1. Today was a big day for Luna and Copper. They took it in stride -- in fact, I'm not sure they noticed! Today, I completely replaced the litter in their Vizio room litter pan, a task which also included washing out the pan. I was very happy to provide Luna and Copper with a freshened up place to use to do their business, but they were blithely indifferent to my efforts. Ha! 

2. Over the weekend (I think), the solution to the Wordle puzzle was "cacao". Christy, Carol, and I discuss the Wordle puzzle on Facebook Messenger every day after we solve (or fail to solve) it. In discussing "cacao", we decided it would be fun for me to purchase Creme de Cacao and a bottle of brandy and some whipping cream. I would then mix up Brandy Alexanders for our family dinner dessert.

And that's exactly what I did today. I bought the ingredients and we loved our after dinner cocktail. 

For our pre-dinner cocktail, I extended a tip of the hat to Dave Veldhuizen and Val Sanford. Dave introduced Val to the cocktail Bourbon Renewal and, about two years ago, Val sent me a care package with the ingredients: a bottle of Buffalo Trace Bourbon, a bottle of Creme de Cassis, and a bottle of Peach Bitters. 

Today, I purchased a fifth of Bulleit Bourbon. The bottle of Creme de Cassis Val sent is not empty, nor are the Peach Bitters. I bought lemons. I had simple syrup on hand. So, I combined the bourbon, Creme de Cassis, fresh lemon juice, and simple syrup in an ice-filled shaker, shook it until the drink was was really cold and poured it over ice cubes in a cocktail glass. 

It's a great drink and you can find a recipe for it right here: https://jeffreymorgenthaler.com/bourbon-renewal/

3. For dinner, Christy prepared out appetizer. It was a layered shrimp dip to put on crackers. A few years ago, when Debbie and I lived in Maryland, the family had a shrimp themed bake off and this appetizer was Everett's entry. Our dinner today fell very close to the one year anniversary of Everett's Celebration of Life and the appetizer was a way we could deliciously memorialize that sad and celebratory day in our family's life. 

Debbie took charge of the main course. She expertly roasted a whole chicken and made a pan of no recipe scalloped potatoes. She intended for this to be comforting dinner and it worked. Carol contributed a fresh green salad and made a superb vinaigrette for a dressing. 

We were in drinking mood tonight! Before we ate, some of us drank a second cocktail. During dinner, we drained both bottles of wine Paul and Molly brought and we not only enjoyed our post-dinner Brandy Alexanders, but continued to draw from the bourbon and brandy bottle after we finished those.

As a result, we talked longer than usual - I think until about 10:00. Much of our conversation centered around Woolum family history and that time Christy and Carol both had surgeries at the Paulsen Building in Spokane. And much more. I hadn't thought about and relived stories Christy and Carol told for a long time and some very good memories of how good our parents were to us resurfaced and I enjoyed that a lot. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-19-2022: Superb US Open, Imitating Master on *Midnight Diner*, Drinking Pale Ales

 1. Once today's fourth round of the men's U. S. Open golf championship concluded, after feeling pleasant tension for much of the afternoon, I exhaled and said to myself, "I just witnessed what makes major golf tournaments so enjoyable." 

It's tricky. I want to see a golf course set up to challenge the players by requiring that they keep their drives on the fairway, have to play many of the clubs in their bag, and must think their way around the course. I don't particularly enjoy seeing players, as the saying goes, brought to their knees by the course's difficulty. I enjoy knowing that pars are not easy, but achievable; birdies are uncommon, but not impossible; eagles are a rarity and astonish us viewers. 

So, today, the course did not own the players and the players did not dominate the course. The Country Club at Brookline played a bit softer today thanks to overnight rain, so scores were lower, but every player faced difficulty if their drives veered off course and the variety of lengths of the holes required players to execute a variety of shots, whether trying to blast the ball far down the fairway into a favorable position on the over 600 yard 14th or drop a delicate gap wedge from an elevated tee onto the 11th green just over 100 yards away. 

The final round today was especially fun because the three leaders, Matt Fitzpatrick, Will Zalatoris, and Scottie Scheffler didn't flinch, didn't wilt, didn't succumb to the pressure of the long afternoon. Yes, they all had imperfect holes, all registered bogeys, but, on the whole, they played sharp, precise, cerebral, courageous, scintillating, and entertaining golf, never backing down, pushing each other to excel, and rising to the occasion and its demands. 

In the end, Matt Fitzpatrick won this tournament by a stroke. He teed off the 18th hole with a one stroke lead and made a terrible mistake when he hooked his drive into a fairway bunker, leaving himself about 150 yards, out of the sand, to the green. Zalatoris, on the other hand, hit a laser that stayed on the fairway, leaving himself a superb opportunity to reach the green and putt for birdie.

It was out of this bunker that Matt Fitzpatrick demonstrated his self-control and courage. Using a nine iron, he lofted a perfect parabola out of the sand and stuck the shot just over 20 feet from the pin. 

Zalatoris then answered with a beautiful second shot that landed and spun toward the hole, inside Fitzpatrick's ball and about 18 feet from the hole.

Fitzpatrick cozied his putt close enough to tap in for his par. 

Zalatoris studied his putt, needing it to tie Fitzpatrick for the lead, struck it firmly and right on the line he'd read. 

It cruelly slid by the hole. 

Zalatoris now has three second place finishes in recent major golf tournaments. He strikes me as a tough-minded, resilient, mature athlete. I think it's highly likely that his time will come, not to be a groomsman but to be the groom and loft the cup of one of these majors or slip into the Masters' green jacket.

2. When each episode of Midnight Diner opens, we see a pot with pieces of bacon sizzling in oil combined with chopped pieces of onion, celery, carrot, and mushrooms. We watch Master pour broth over all these ingredients and then he lowers a ladle with Miso paste into the pot and, using a wooden spoon, dissolves the paste into the broth.

I've thought for many many months that I could do something like that and tonight I cut up some bacon, fried it in hot olive oil and dropped chunks of onion and celery along with baby carrots on top of it. I cooked this until the onions softened and then added chopped potato and sliced mushroom and cooked it up some more. 

In a separate bowl, I dissolved four tablespoons of Miso paste into a quart of chicken stock and poured this mixture over the other ingredients and brought it to a slow boil. Once it was boiling, I let it simmer for a while.

Oh my! 

What a delicious soup! 

I doubt it would rival Master's, but for me here in the Little Cameron Diner, it was awesome.

3. While I watched the U. S. Open, I drank two more of the beers I bought for myself at Fred Meyer last week.

The first was Georegetown's superb pale ale, Johnny Utah.

The second was GoodLife's Pacific ale, Sweet As!

When I first started drinking craft beers back in about 1996, when I drank a pale ale, the hops made the strongest impression on me. Today, however, after having enjoyed many intensely hopped IPAs over the years, I appreciated more than I ever have the great balance between hops and malt in these two ales. Today I tasted sweetness in both beers I had sort of missed in the past. In fact, the Sweet As! tasted as if it had honey added to it. Wait! I'll look it up. Nope. No mention of honey. No problem -- my main takeaway is that I thoroughly enjoyed the hop/malt balance in these beers. 

I know what will happen after today.  Next time I drink a hop bomb, I'll appreciate the hop blast even more in relation to the balance I enjoyed so much today. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-18-2022: Blustery Third Round, Drinking Mirror Pond Ale, Father/Son Golf -- Sorry Dad!

 1. Father's Day weekend is  also always the weekend of the men's US Open golf tournament (unless there's a pandemic). This year's host for the open is the most venerable course called simply The Country Club in Brookline, MA. Much of the pre-tournament chatter about this year's Open has had to do with how well an aged course like this one would hold up with today's players and given the way contemporary golf favors players who rocket the golf ball once unimaginable distances off the tee.

Today, the course won. 

The course had help from the weather. 

It was blustery and the wind robbed these top flight players of what (I think) they value most as they play: control of the ball. When the telecast of these tournaments lets us listen in on players talking to their caddies, we learn than these players are so skilled they want to know how far to hit shots to the yard -- is it 121 yards or 122 to the landing spot?

Winds make that kind of control difficult. In addition, in preparing this course, those in charge of the course's conditions let the rough grow tall and thick and they surrounded the greens with heavy grass. 

Every player suffered one way or another under these trying conditions. I saw shanks and chunks. After holing an eagle from the fairway on the 8th, this course humbled Scottie Scheffler. He flew the green on the par 3 11th and his ball landed in a jungle of thick grass and other vegetation and by the time he chunked his ball out of there into the tall apron of rough surrounding the green, he made a double bogey, lost his cool, and bogeyed the next three holes. In similar fashion, Jon Rahm teed of the 18th atop the leaderboard by a stroke. His wayward drive came down to earth in a fairway bunker. On his first swipe at the ball, Rahm didn't lift his ball, it struck the bunker's lip, and rolled back into the sand. He lofted his next shot out of the hazard, but his shot fell far short of the green and looked like a fried egg in bottom of sand trap in front of the 18th. Rahm popped his sunny side up shot out of this trap, but couldn't get it close to the pin, two putted, double bogeyed, and lost his lead.

With these trying condition, things can go downhill fast. 

The greens are fast and heavily sloped; the rough is tall and thick; fairway lies are tight and require precise ball striking; the pressure is suffocating.

I look forward to spending much of Father's Day watching this tournament and finding out what player will prevail.

2. Since I was watching golf on a venerable course, I thought I'd enjoy what I now consider an old school, venerable, classic craft beer: the indefatigable Mirror Pond Pale Ale from Deschutes Brewery. I might be mistaken, but I think Deschutes has been brewing Mirror Pond from the beginning. I loved this can of beer this afternoon. It adroitly balances citrus-y hops with the caramel sweetness of malt and has a pleasingly subtle touch of bitterness. I have two more pale ales in the fridge for Father's Day and I already know I love them both: Georgetown's Johnny Utah and GoodLife's Sweet As! (which the brewery actually calls a Pacific Ale -- okay -- but I think it worships in the church of the pale ale!). 

I can hardly wait until it's beer o'clock on Father's Day so I can cannon ball into these tasty ales! 

3. Watching the US Open today took me back to, I think, 1977.  It was Father's Day. The Esmeralda Golf Course in Spokane set up a father/son scramble tournament in which father and son hit alternating shots over eighteen holes. I remember that my golf game was pretty shaky and, stupidly, I was trying to work out some adjustments to my golf swing on the course. It meant rather than just freely swinging and striking the ball, my head was filled with stuff I'd read recently in a Ben Hogan instructional book. 

Dad and I had a terrible first hole, as I remember, and we trudged to the second tee. Dad must have made the last stroke on the first hole because I teed off on the par 3 second. It's about a 145 yard hole and I probably had a six iron in my hand when I yipped. I pulled back on my downswing, my fear of failure overwhelming me, pulled back so far that just the tip of my iron's blade nudged the ball and it traveled about eight yards, mainly because the tee box was slightly elevated and it rolled a short distance downhill. 

I don't know if Dad was humiliated, having to hit a second shot on a par 3 hole from about the same distance away as the tee box itself. 

I know I was both humiliated and ashamed. 

I couldn't begin to tell you what else happened over the course of the next 16 holes we played that day.

But I'll never forget yipping and, essentially, whiffing on hole #2. 

We returned to Grandma Woolum's house after our father/son round and watched the last holes of the US Open. Dad and I always enjoyed when we could do that together and it helped ease me of some of my profound embarrassment. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-17-2022: Roof Done -- Patio Next!, Funeral for Eddie Joe Miller, Potluck and Reception at The Lounge

 1. Rodney finished building the roof over our patio area. Now we'll see if we can get things moving on getting the patio itself finished. 

2. Byrdman swung by at around 4:15 and then we buzzed over to the Trail Motel and picked up Don Knott and the three of us attended Eddie Joe Miller's funeral mass at St. Rita's Catholic Church in Kellogg.

Eddie Joe grew up in a Roman Catholic family. He requested that his funeral be a full mass. Father Jerome Montez officiated with just the right blend of solemnity and good humor. The Mass was, as far as prayers and liturgy, by the book, but other elements reflected Eddie Joe's unique wishes for what he wanted to transpire during the service. For example, the processional was not accompanied by the singing of a church hymn nor by solemn organ music. Rather, the priest, deacon, and Knights of Columbus Honor Guard processed in, bearing Eddie Joe's remains, to "In My Life" by the Beatles. Later, the Mass celebrated communion and while the participants were eating of the bread and drinking of the wine of life, they were accompanied by Fleetwood Mac performing "Landslide".  When the service ended, we left the sanctuary while Marty Robbins sang, "A White Sports Coat". 

Members of Eddie Joe's family contributed significantly to the service. His nephew Simon read from the Book of Wisdom and led us in a responsorial Psalm. Eddie Joe's sister Teresa read from Paul's second letter to Timothy. (Digression: the passage Teresa read had also been recited in testimony at the 1/6 hearings on Thursday -- I wondered if others in the congregation made that connection.) Eddie Joe's brother, Pete, and his daughter, Monica, both eulogized Eddie Joe with heartfelt tributes. I learned more than I had ever previously known from Monica about what a devoted father Eddie Joe was. She did so through tears and by also telling funny stories. (Sidebar: Don't buy cheap plastic wrap!)

Earlier, Father Montez delivered a homily focused on the joy and happiness Eddie Joe brought to so many people's lives, with particular focus on the togetherness and good times patrons of his bar, Eddie Joe's, experienced. 

To conclude, the funeral balanced the formal and the informal. Father Montez set the tone for moving back and forth between being casual and official right from the start. The funeral offered each of us the room to mourn, pray, laugh, reminisce, contemplate, and feel unity with all those gathered. 

3. After the service ended (it was a nearly ninety minute ceremony), scores of people packed into the Inland Lounge.

Spirits ran high as friends of Eddie Joe's used to seeing each other as well as visitors from out of town shook hands, called out each other's names (Jake! Donny! Mayo! Byrdman! Billy Boy!) and told each other it was great to see one another. About an hour or so into the reception, family and friends of Eddie Joe presented a slide show that spanned all seventy-one years of Eddie Joe's life -- pictures of Eddie Joe with family, with his daughter, on golf outings, working and relaxing at Lake Coeur D'Alene, posing with softball teammates, enjoying patrons at his bar, and much more. 

Those gathered contributed to a generously supplied potluck dinner where we all could choose from plates of wraps, fried chicken, various casseroles, a variety of bean, pasta, and other salads, baked beans, chips, dips and salsa, scalloped potatoes, vegetable plates, cookies and other sweets, and much more. 

I paid my own form of tribute to Eddie Joe by drinking a couple of bottles of Miller Lite. I enjoyed seeing so many people enjoying each other, marveled at how many people knew and loved Eddie Joe, and left the party, with Debbie, after about 90 minutes or so.   

My hometown lost one of its most beloved and fun-loving citizens, a life long resident, whose passing inspired grief and laughter, great sadness and unforgettable stories. 

To me, it was a High Holy Day in Kellogg, Idaho.

Three Beautiful Things 06-16-2022: Roof Work Continues, CdA Shopping Spree, A Welcome Surprise at Daft Badger!

 1. Rodney went right to work at 7 this morning and continued putting a roof over our patio area.

2. I went to Yoke's a couple of days ago. The only parmesan cheese available was the Kraft kind in the green cylindrical can. I bought one -- and I enjoy this product in a nostalgic way! --, but we like to grate parmesan cheese from a block. Yoke's was also out of the coconut milk I like to buy. 

No problem. 

I understand stores everywhere face difficulties keeping any number of products in stock. 

BUT, I thought, I enjoy going to Costco, Fred Meyer, and Pilgrim's Market. Why don't I rocket over to CdA and make a stock the pantry shopping trip?

So I did. 

I had a great time in Costco. I was under no time pressure and I meandered all over the store, picking up things that were on my list and adding to my list -- we now have a bag of shrimp, a huge jar of peanut butter, bags of walnuts and cashews, a generous supply of antacid tablets, more ground Peet's coffee, and other items. I exchanged pleasantries with several shoppers ("the croissants are just past the meat counter", "no, you go ahead", "good! how are you?") and enjoyed casually observing what people buy and was impressed with how cooperative many children were with their shopping parents. I also bought a small block of hard cheese to grate for pasta! 

I always enjoy Fred Meyer, especially the Murray's cheese counter and checking out the beer selections; likewise, I had fun buying more beer at Pilgrim's and meandering around that store, picking up this and that. 

3. I finished at Pilgrim's and realized that about 3.5 to 4 hours had passed since I arrived at Costco in the middle of the afternoon. 

I chuckled. 

I had one more stop to make.

Daft Badger.

Debbie asked me to pick up a six pack of Daft Badger's Blood Orange IPA. 

I found out immediately upon entering the brewery that Daft Badger had sold out of Blood Orange IPA -- so I'll go back in a week and try again.

But, I slipped onto a chair at the front counter and ordered a Mosaic Smash IPA, brewed with only mosaic hops. Oh, my! It was a fresh, clean, refreshing, and flavorful beer -- not a juice bomb, not all that bitter, and a great pleasure to smell and drink. I finished my pint and asked for a taster, a four oz pour, of Daft Badger's superb Imperial Stout, Josiah's Revenge. It's a powerful beer, weighing in at 11% ABV, and it's packed with chocolate-y sweetness complimented with flavors of dried fruits. It's a bit thick, feels great in my mouth, and is among my very favorite of all Imperial Stouts. 

But, of course, I drink this beer with great caution. That's why I ordered such a small pour. 

As I was finishing up at Daft Badger, I thought I saw Jeff S's former partner and the mother their two daughters. As I left, I checked the tables in the room, but didn't see Jeff, but once outside I spotted Jeff and his future son-in-law's parents and others talking in a small knot in the parking lot.

I surprised Jeff with a pat on his shoulder and he introduced me to the father of the groom -- the wedding is Saturday -- and we had a great chat for about ten minutes. 

It fired me up.

I grabbed bite to eat as I left CdA and arrived back in Kellogg shortly before 9:00. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-15-2022: The Roof is Going Up, Debbie Comes Home, Back in the Sack with Copper and Luna

1. Things got busy late this morning and on into the afternoon as Ron and Rodney made good progress on building a cover for our future patio.

2. Debbie drove to Kellogg from Portland today. I drew upon one of my favorite books, No-Recipe Recipes, and, after a trip to Yoke's, I cut up three or four slices of bacon and cooked them until crisp in a puddle of heated olive oil. Once it was crisp, I used a slotted spoon and removed the bacon and put it on a paper towel covered plate. To the bacon grease and olive oil, I added a chopped onion and cooked the pieces until they were soft. In the meantime, I put salted water on to boil. When the onion was tender, I added two cans of diced tomatoes and returned the bacon to the pot. While I heated up this sauce, I cooked a pot of spaghetti. I drained the spaghetti, returned it to the Dutch oven, added a chunk of butter, and, once it melted, I added to sauce to the pasta. 

From here, it was a matter of taste -- want some fresh herbs on top? Some parsley? Some parmesan cheese? 

3. With Debbie home, Gibbs now spends the nights with her upstairs and so Copper and Luna were back with me tonight. More aggressively than ever, Copper sought my affection. He drew close to me, leaned into me, made it very clear that he wanted me to pet him. As always, Luna perched herself for a while on my chest, then began her all to familiar back and forth from one side of me to the other, unable to decide if she wanted to burrow under the covers or sleep on a corner of the bed near my head. At some point, Luna began to paw my arms, even lightly scratch them. She crossed a line! I put her in the Vizio room, but then, around 3 a.m., Copper began to insist on being served wet food. I dragged myself out of bed, fixed them each a bowl of wet food, served them in the Vizio room, left the door open, and eventually they made their way back to lie with me again, a little more settled after eating, and we all got up around 7 a.m. 

My guess is that in the next few nights, reaccustomed to their Debbie's back/Gibbs is upstairs routine, Copper and Luna will become more and more relaxed at night. 

I'll work with them, no matter what! 

Three Beautiful Things 06-14-2022: Breakfast with Jeff and Martha, Costco Stop, *Poetry Break* with Bill Davie

 1. I tumbled out the door this morning, leapt into the Sube, and blasted over the hill to see Jeff Steve at the house he grew up in overlooking Cougar Bay on Coeur d'Alene Lake. Jeff''s daughter is getting married on the beach this coming weekend. I got to have breakfast with Jeff and his sister, Martha, this morning before Jeff drove to Spokane to pick up his daughter and her fiancé.

While Jeff prepared a delicious breakfast of homebred potatoes, eggs, English muffins, and Peet's coffee, the three of us yakked non-stop. As best I remember, I'd never talked with Martha before and learned, for the first time, that she, too, graduated from high school, from CdA High, in 1972 and, like me, enrolled at North Idaho College in the fall of 1972. We never met, but our paths must have crossed back then and I'm even more sure of it as we talked about places we each hung out things we did around town. 

Jeff and I talked about the many people Jeff and I both know from Coeur d'Alene, Whitworth, and Eugene. The three of us discussed recent events in Coeur d'Alene, days past and present at Art on the Green (which Jeff and Martha's mother helped found), spirituality -- especially how our spiritual lives have changed over the past 40+ years, and so much more.

Jeff is an accomplished woodworker and builds kayaks, canoes, and paddle boards. He transported from Ventura a canoe he recently built and the three of us ended our visit by going out and looking at Jeff's gorgeous handiwork. Jeff's plan is to take the canoe on its maiden voyage on the waters of Lake Coeur d'Alene, the waters he so deeply loves, that so fully nourish his soul.

I left after a couple of hours or so feeling stimulated, grateful, and nourished by the superb conversations Jeff, Martha, and I enjoyed. I know more about Jeff and Martha's family, about Martha's life, and about how Jeff and Martha both are thinking about spiritual, political, social, and other matters. 

I was very happy that we could all find time to break bread and yak together before things start getting very busy with family arriving and preparations for the wedding moving into overdrive.

2. I buzzed up to Costco after leaving Jeff's. I fueled the Sube.  I replenished our butter supply as well as our paper towels. We were out of salmon burgers and cartons of chicken stock. Until today, I'd never seen ground coffee available by the bag, but found a two pound bag of Peet's French Roast. I also paid the membership counter a visit and the woman I talked with was very helpful answering a few questions I had about membership details and a rebate check that should be coming one of these days.

3. I thought about hanging out for a while longer in Coeur d'Alene, possibly grabbing a beer somewhere,  but decided to return home. Gibbs wakes me up between 4:30 and 5:00 these days and I wanted to return home and catch a few early afternoon Zs. 

At 7:00, I tuned into Bill Davie's Poetry Break broadcast. 

Listeners to this broadcast email Bill superb ideas for poets to read and some people send them their own work. Bill read poems from "the mailbag" before reading poems in progress of his own he wrote over the past week. He ended his presentation with two great poets: David Ignatow, who died in 1997 after a long and productive writing life and Campbell McGrath, a contemporary poet, a member of the Walt Whitman family tree. 

Bill read poems by a contemporary poet in Ukraine. Her name is Yuliya Musakovska. 

When I listen to Bill read, I enjoy having other poems spring spontaneously to mind. As I listened to Bill read from Yuliya Musakovska's recent work, a 20th century poem paid me a visit.

It's by Israeli poet Yehuda Amachi (1924-2000)

Here it is:

The Diameter of the Bomb

The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters

and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters,

with four dead and eleven wounded.

And around these, in a larger circle

of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered

and one graveyard. But the young woman

who was buried in the city she came from,

at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers,

enlarges the circle considerably,

and the solitary man mourning her death

at the distant shores of a country far across the sea

includes the entire world in the circle.

And I won't even mention the crying of orphans

that reaches up to the throne of God and

beyond, making a circle with no end and no God. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-13-2022: Civil Conduct, Family Dinner/Birthday Party, Warriors Win

 1.  I don't always succeed in doing this, but my preference in social situations is to let people have their say and try not to interrupt them or just immediately say, "Well! I don't agree with that!". 

I'd say I'm successful much, but not all of the time. 

It's been a relief to me, watching the Congressional hearings investigating the 2020 Presidential election and its aftermath, that those testifying have spoken without interruption and that the committee has stayed focused on the business at hand. The civil nature of the hearings has opened the way for me to listen to and assess the testimony rather than be distracted by drama generated by committee members' conduct. I don't care if the hearings are "good TV" or not. I want to hear what those giving testimony have to say.

2. We got together this evening for a boisterous family dinner. Carol and Paul's Keeshond, Cleo, turned one year old today, so our dinner was also a canine birthday party. I left Gibbs at home. Riley came and he and Cleo had fun playing outside and were both pretty excited with Cleo's gifts -- both treats and toys.

We started dinner with potato chips and Carol's homemade onion dip along with Cosmopolitans that Carol gave a dog name --something like Double Dutch Keeshonds. For dinner, I brought an apple, carrot, and cabbage cole slaw enhanced with a rice vinegar, vegetable oil, honey, and Miso dressing. Carol prepared a brisket with bbq sauce, Christy made Mac and cheese, Betty Crocker style, and we finished off dinner with root beer floats, a fun and delicious rarity. 

3. Back home, I watched much of the fourth quarter of Game 5 of the NBA Finals. From my limited perspective, I thought the Celtics looked not quite ready for the mental demands of playoff pressure. The Warriors, on the other hand, having several key players with quite a bit of playoff finals experience, looked more assured, were able to overcome Steph Curry's poor shooting night, and won this game, 104-94. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-12-2022: Family Dinner Prep, ZOOM and Aging, Googling My Dreams

 1. It looked likely today that I would be going to CdA on Monday to pay Jeff S. an afternoon visit. It turned out, though, that we are going to have breakfast on Tuesday morning. I learned that after I made the cole slaw I'm taking to family dinner on Monday. I'll reveal details about the cole slaw when I write in my blog tomorrow. I want the ingredients of this cole slaw to be a surprise at dinner -- I will say, though, that it is an oil and vinegar cole slaw, not dressed with a creamy dressing. 

2. Val, Bridgit, Bill, Diane, and I met on ZOOM this afternoon and much of our discussion involved topics around aging. Diane is on the cusp of ending her employment at the Univ of Washington by retiring. She told us about her retirement party -- it took place on ZOOM -- and how great it made her feel that people appreciated her over the years for being such a loving person, not merely for being good or useful at her job. 

We talked some about Medicare and Bill and Diane's persistence in getting things straightened out as they enroll in the program. It was sobering to also talk about the increase in our vulnerability as we age. We discussed what a difference it makes in so many aspects of our lives that we are so much less mobile than we used to be and knowing that we cannot as easily remove ourselves from certain situations makes us all the more cautious. 

Val will be traveling soon. Toward the end of the month she'll be in the Seattle area and will visit Bill and Diane and, as she heads east from there, she'll be coming through North Idaho and she and I will be able to meet for coffee or lunch. 

I haven't seen Val in person since the day of Dave V.'s wedding back in about 1993 or '94. We've had a lot of great contact since then on Facebook, on ZOOM, through email, through snail mail, and by other means, but not in one another's actual presence. It will be delightful to see Val, no doubt right here in the Silver Valley.

3. I had a funny and revealing experience today. On Saturday night on into Sunday morning, I had a series of dreams. I woke up with a sketchy memory of these dreams, but I wanted to recover more of the details. 

For just a few seconds I thought I'd figure out some key words and enter them into the Google search engine.

Then I suddenly remembered -- my dreams are not searchable on the World Wide Web. 

I turned sheepishly to other tasks. 

Has anyone else ever realized that you are so accustomed to being able to find stuff on the World Wide Web that you had a moment of thinking the details of your dreams would be there? 

Three Beautiful Things 06-11-2022: Creamy Vegetable Soup, Sverwood at Timbers Roadhouse, Update on Gibbs and Copper and Luna

1. As I pondered what I might do today, I realized that I had vegetables on hand and a recipe for creamy vegetable soup pinned under a magnet on the fridge. 

It was still morning when I chopped up half an onion I had left over along with some celery and carrots and cooked them in a puddle of olive oil and melted butter. After they cooked for about six or seven minutes, I added a couple cloves of chopped garlic, cooked it until fragrant, and then add chopped baby Yukon potatoes into the pot and covered it all with a box of chicken broth and tossed in some dried basil and oregano. When it came to a boil and cooked with the lid on for a while, I added frozen corn, frozen green beans, chopped zucchini, and chopped broccoli to the soup and let those vegetables cook for a short time. In the meantime, in another pot, I melted butter, added flour to it, whisked it, let it cook for a while and then added milk and cooked this mixture until it began to thicken. The last thing I did was add the milk/flour/butter mixture to the soup and heated it up at a low temperature. 

I peppered the soup in my bowl and, since I enjoy creamy soup a lot, this soup really hit the spot.

2. Shortly after 4:00, I leapt into the Sube and blasted out to Timbers Roadhouse in Cataldo and met up with Ed, Sue, and Sue's longtime nursing friend, Ruthie. Out behind the joint, Wallace Brewing, Radio Brewing, and Firestone Walker were selling beer and barbecue was available. 

The afternoon's prime attraction, however, was the band Sverwood, a local ensemble featuring lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, drums, male vocals, and a woman who sang on occasion. Sverwood is a cover band.  Their covers of Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Steve Earle, the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynryd, the Marshall Tucker Band, Credence Clearwater Revival, Bad Company,  and many other artists were energetic, precise, and uplifting. 

This band is really good. I'll follow them on Facebook, keep track of where they are playing, and get out to see them again whenever I can. 

3. This is as good a time as any to report that having Gibbs stay home with me and Luna and Copper while Debbie's been gone has worked out wonderfully.  I take Gibbs to bed with me at night and that's when Luna and Copper come out of the Vizio room and they do the same thing every night. Luna plants herself on the ottoman and Copper relaxes in the chair I sit in most often in the living room.  I spend time with Copper and Luna in the Vizio room whenever I watch games or a movie and not once have they seemed stressed out by our current arrangement. The other good news: the first night Gibbs was with me when we went to bed and the cats were out in the living room, Gibbs was restless and frequently barked at the cats from behind the bedroom door. 

After that first night, he barked like that again. He's been relaxed about the cats roaming on the other side of the door and has slept comfortably every night since that first restless one. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-10-2022: Iceland Burgers, Celtics Go Cold as Ice (Foreigner), Listening to Henry Winkler

 1. Ed and I blasted into the Elks Club dining hall, grabbed a table, each ordered in a beer, put in our burger order, and had a relaxing time. Ed told me about his trip to Iceland and showed me pictures of the mild weather they lucked into, the shimmering green of the Iceland spring, staggering waterfalls, and a fascinating horse breed unique to Iceland. Mike and Ed definitely made the most of their several day trip and Ed was very happy with how things went.

2. Back home, I tuned into Game 4 of the Celtics/Warriors NBA Championship Series. Byrdman, Terry T, and I were on the texter at the same time. Terry laid down a small wager via the Oregon Lottery regarding the game's total points and points scored by Jayson Tatum and Al Horford. He lost his bet, but it sure was fun rooting for his success along with keeping track of the game itself. I'm not quite sure what happened to the Celtics late in the fourth quarter, but they picked a lousy time to suddenly hit an ice cold shooting streak. While the Celtics froze, Steph Curry heated up and his 43 points carried the Warriors to victory, 107-97. The Celtics squandered a platinum opportunity to maintain home court advantage and go up 3-1 in this series; instead, they head to San Francisco, having lost their home court advantage, with the series tied 2-2.

3. After the game, I tuned into MSNBC and, to my delight, I hit the newscast just as the program took a break from current events. Stephanie Rhule conducted an interview with Henry Winkler that lasted at least ten minutes. His positive outlook on life, his commitment to gratitude, and his love of his work as an actor uplifted me. I didn't know until tonight that both Stephanie Rhule and Henry Winkler are dyslexic. Both of them talked a bit about their experience with dyslexia and spoke in general and positive terms about how they got to where they are in life in spite of the challenges dyslexia put before them. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-09-2022: Texting with Debbie, True Nostalgia or Imagined?, Sharing Wordle with Christy and Carol

1. I had a text chat with Debbie today and learned that she's decided to accept some more work in Eugene's school district. She will most likely return to Kellogg some time next week - it's possible that Monday will be her last day subbing, but that could change.

2. It's not remarkable that for breakfast today I fixed myself a fried egg and placed it on top of a toasted slice of Dave's Good Seed Killer Bread. It did, however, take me back to when we lived at 14 E. Portland and somehow I got permission to cook for the first time and I made egg in the hole toast. Now, it might be that I never did this. It might be that I thought about wanting to do it and that I've romanticized my desire into a deed. But, whether I made this egg in the hole 60+ years ago or not, I felt tinges of sweet nostalgia as I ate my breakfast this morning. I mean it is possible for us to experience nostalgic feelings for things that never happened -- right?

3. A few days ago, upon completing the daily Wordle puzzle and seeing on Facebook that Christy and Carol had also finished it, I sent them a message listing the sequence of words I put into the puzzle before I arrived at the correct answer. I asked them to share their sequences, too. 

For example, here's the sequence of words from the 06-09 puzzle I solved:

POINT

TIGER

GIRTH

I thoroughly enjoy seeing what random word my sisters used to start their puzzle and how they worked their way to the correct answer. We are sharing our sequences daily, once we know we've all completed the puzzle, and, for me, it's like a mini-sibling assignment. 

Just for the record, I get my Wordle puzzle started by scanning tweets on Twitter until I find a five letter word to put on the first Wordle row. 

I enjoy the challenge of starting with a new word each day, but sometimes it's tempting to start with the same word every day, one loaded with vowels. So far, I haven't given in to that temptation -- I think largely because I'm not trying to "beat the puzzle" and solve it in as few guesses as possible. Every time I succeed, I'm happy, no matter how many guesses I needed. 

By the way, I often connect my opening word to daily news events. I won't give away the 06-10 puzzle, except to say that after watching the televised Congressional hearing last night, I began today's puzzle with the word VIDEO! (Imagine that!) 

Three Beautiful Things 06-08-2022: A Quick and Positive Doctor Appointment, Solid Visit to CdA, Puzzling Out NBA Basketball

 1. I write the same thing every time I report on my latest visit to the nephrologist.

Unless your kidney disease is at Stage V, you don't want my kidney function numbers.

That said, for reasons I think having to do with the fact that I'm not diabetic and don't have heart disease or any other ancillary complications, my kidneys are doing a great job filtering my blood despite functioning at only 16% of normal functioning capacity.

So, when I met with Dr. Bieber today, his words as we looked at my lab report were, "This is fantastic."

I'm not experiencing water retention, my weight (and I weigh too much) is remains stable, and I'm not suffering from the symptoms of kidney disease (short of breath, metallic taste in my mouth, fatigue, etc.).

My blood pressure was high, 156/82, in the office, but when I got home, it was down to where it should be, 126/78. I really must monitor my blood pressure more closely so that if it is reading higher on a regular basis, I can let Dr. Bieber know.

2. As I thought I would, I left Dr. Bieber's office very happy that this disease I live with is remaining stable.

I wouldn't say that I decided to celebrate by going to Coeur d'Alene, but I drove over and paid off the heating/cooling installation bill, ate a terrific eggs Benedict breakfast at the Breakfast Nook, bought Christy a couple of fifths of Crown Royal Peach Whiskey (and some gin for me!), got a haircut, and met up with Byrdman for a couple of beers at Growler Guys.

Growler Guys is the perfect place to meet early in the afternoon. The room is big, it's not very busy, and it's easy to grab a chair and for Byrdman and me to get in some serious yakkin' about sports and current events. 

I enjoyed drinking Pelican Brewing's Updrift IPA, a decidedly not hazy ale, a hoppy one with a fairly high bitterness rating, just what I was in the mood for.

Byrdman mentioned that the daughter of a hiking buddy of his, along with her husband, had recently opened an establishment nearby called Stylus Wine and Vinyl Bar.

We decided to pay this place a visit.

We made ourselves at home, seated on the comfortable stools at the bar. Behind and above the bar sit shelves of lp albums and just to our left, behind the bar, sit two turntables and a stand on which sits the album cover of the current lp being played.

I immediately loved the velvety sound of the vinyl being played and from their short, high quality tap list both of us ordered a Johnny Utah, a superb pale ale from Georgetown Brewing. The Johnny Utah is a single hop pale ale and it just so happens that I really enjoy the grapefruit-y flavor released by the Citra hop! 

3.  Back home, I finished the delicious crab stock fish-less chowder I made yesterday and relaxed by watching the Boston Celtics defeat the Golden State Warriors, 116-100. I don't watch a lot of NBA action and, to be honest, a style of play has developed in recent years in the NBA that I don't understand very well. Maybe as I watch more of this playoff series, I'll be able to explain myself better.

I can say, though,  that tonight the Celtics' somewhat hobbled Robert Williams impressed me with his defense, shot blocking, and strong play around the rim on both ends of the floor. I continue to be blown away by Steph Curry's versatility and his almost surreal talent, especially his long range shooting. Derrick White, for the Celtics, is a kind of player I've always enjoyed - he plays very good defense, is more than willing, unlike the dude in the Steely Dan song who says he's a fool, to do the Celtics' dirty work (but not play dirty). I'm also enjoying it when Payton Pritchard comes off the bench for the Celtics, especially when he buries a shot or hands out an assist in ways that remind me of his stellar play at the Univ. of Oregon.

So I enjoy these things, but the way the game is played in 2022 is a style I'm trying to learn to enjoy more, but I haven't quite reached that point yet -- but I want to! 

Three Beautiful Things 06-07-2022: New Fire Stick and *Double Indemnity*, Crab Stock Dinner, Back to *Foyle's War*

 1. I decided back in 2018 to enhance my smart Vizio viewing experience by purchasing an Amazon Fire Stick. Last week, after nearly four years, my Fire Stick crapped out. I bought a new one. It arrived on Monday and today I read the installation instructions emailed to me by Amazon, watched a video, and read the printed materials that came with the product. 

I over prepared! 

Installing my new Fire Stick was a breeze. 

With the Criterion Channel back in action on the Vizio, I decided to dip into the channel's featured Bill Wilder collection and watch Double Indemnity, a movie I've heard and read much praise for over many years, but had never seen. 

In it, Fred MacMurray plays a vain insurance salesman who joins forces with an unhappily married woman played by Barbara Stanwyck to cash in on an accident insurance policy they tricked the woman's husband into purchasing. 

I won't spoil the movie by telling how the two got into cahoots in the first place nor will I reveal how the scheme they plotted works out. 

I will say that if you enjoy black and white movies, especially one like Double Indemnity, in which the interplay between light and shadow, between spaces of openness and confinement are an external portrayal of the inward lives of these characters, then you will probably enjoy the visual artistry of Double Indemnity and the way it explores the dark inner regions of both of these characters. The look of the movie significantly enhances the twists and turns of the plot. 

2. Last week, I got out the crab shells I put in the freezer back in February when Debbie, Christy, Diane, and I enjoyed the Elks Crab Feed at home. Over a few days, I made a batch of crab stock.

I used one of those quarts today to make a chowder, not a fish chowder, but a potato, corn, onion, carrot, and celery chowder. It was kind of a cross between corn chowder and potato soup. It was easy enough. I made a pool of olive oil in the bottom of the Dutch oven and heated it up. I added the chopped vegetables to the oil, sprinkled some flour over them, and cooked them until the onion was soft. I then poured the crab stock over the vegetables and brought the liquid to a boil, turned down the heat, and let the vegetable cook until they were no longer hard, but not mushy either. My last move was to add whole milk to the pot, heat the chowder some more, and, within an hour, I ladled myself a bowl of this comforting concoction, not too thin, not too thick, seasoning it only with some black pepper.

3. As I have written in this blog about 4,000,000 times, for the most part, I rarely ride the binge watching train. Another series I love, along with Midnight Diner, that I have never binge watched, and that I've been watching episode by episode for about six or seven years now is Foyle's War.

This evening I took some time to figure out what the last episode I watched had been and I tuned into the first episode of the fifth season.

Entitled "Plan of Attack", this story begins with Foyle's life after having left the police force, the struggles the department is having in his absence, and zeros in on the death of a devout Roman Catholic mapmaker who is, deep within himself, a conscientious objector to the war, but, despite the moral conflicts he experiences, continues to contribute his expertise to the war effort. He seeks counsel from a local priest, a German refugee, who escaped Nazism before the World War II broke out.

As with so many episodes of Foyle's War, this one deftly ties together story lines which at first seem unrelated, but which work together to unfold shocking developments in and around Hastings. 

One more thing: I got so absorbed in cooking, eating, and reading film scholars' reflections on *Double Indemnity* that I forgot tonight was Poetry Break night. Bill Davie's reading starts at 7:00, but I didn't tune in until about a quarter after seven. I'm not sure what I missed, but I got to hear some astonishing poems and I know I can go to YouTube and watch what Bill read before I tuned in. 

This life of movies, cooking, and listening to poetry can be hard to keep straight at times! 

Three Beautiful Things 06-06-2022: Lunch with Deborah and Scott, Retirement Thoughts, Bake Salmon Family Dinner BONUS: A Limerick by Stu

 1. At about 9:15 this morning, I vaulted into the Sube and blasted over the pass, fueled up at Costco, and rocketed on into Browne's Addition in Spokane. 

I met Deborah and Scott at the Elk for lunch. Deborah and I first met at Whitworth about forty-eight years ago. We've kept in touch with each other over the years, aided significantly by electronic communication. Now that Deborah and Scott live in the Treasure Valley and because they have longtime friends in the Spokane area, they travel up this way on occasion. 

Deborah, Scott, and I last saw each other back in October of 2019 when we spent much of a morning and afternoon together centered on attending the annual Whitworth University President's Leadership Forum. The speaker that year was Bob Woodward. We enjoyed coffee at the Rockwood Bakery before the talk and debriefed over a beer at The Onion when the talk was over.

Since then, we've had other plans to see each other in Spokane not work out for a variety of reasons, but today, everything clicked and we enjoyed a relaxing, stimulating, sometime nostalgic, comforting, and loving time together, full of good cheer and vitality. 

I was at Whitworth as a student, chaplain's assistant, and an instructor for about six, almost seven years (1974-78; 1982-84). Those were times of significant awakening for me, certainly intellectually, and also spiritually. Whether in the classroom, listening to visiting speakers, participating in worship, or having great discussions with fellow students in the dining hall and the dorms, during those years I learned how to examine myself, learned how try to come to grips with why I saw the world the way I did, and, when unsatisfied with myself, learned how to revise my worldview. I was far from alone in this process. That's why the discussions with fellow students were so dynamic -- many of us were focused on trying to work out big questions about human nature, the human condition, faith, service, our futures, and how we might live out our ideals as we moved out from behind "the pine cone curtain" of Whitworth's campus into the world.

Those days and nights in the Whitworth classrooms, in the dorms and the dining hall, and in worship on campus and off combined with my many interactions with faculty at Whitworth (in all three of my roles at the college) shaped my reasons for studying literature, especially Shakespeare, in graduate school and shaped my fundamental ethos as a longtime community college English instructor.

Being with Deborah and Scott today brought that all back. Over lunch, we talked about things in ways that were deeply familiar to me, deeply rooted, in my view, in Deborah's and my experiences as students and employees at Whitworth.

Whatever that Whitworth spirit is, whatever that deep familiarity is, I love it and I feel its profound presence when I jump on ZOOM with the Westminster Basementeers. I felt that spirit enfold Mark Cutshall and me as we dined and talked for nearly three hours at Voula's. I felt it when I visited Bill and Diane later that day. I could feel that spirit animating my conversation over coffee with Colette. It's vibrated through email exchanges with David C, text messaging with Rich, and, in my view, animates Bill Davie's Tuesday night poetry breaks on Facebook Live. That spirit will be alive when I see Jeff S. next week, the next time I see Val, and as I get out into the world a little more and renew relations with other people I knew, taught, and taught with from Whitworth. 

I'm especially fortunate because this experience of deep familiarity exists in my friendships with people from other contexts, too: forever Kellogg friends, friends from the U of O days I see in Eugene, fellow employees from my days at Lane Community College, and the many people I worshiped and served the community with at St. Mary's Episcopal Church. 

The ongoing Whitworth experience is living in the front of my mind today because of seeing Deborah and Scott and having the other recent experiences I've had with other Whitworth people over the last weeks, months, and, in the case of the Basementeers, years. 

2. Driving home from Spokane, glowing after such a scintillating lunch, I thought about retirement. I guess it's about time. After all, I retired from LCC eight years ago!

My recent trips to Eugene, Pendleton, Gladstone, and Seattle combined with today's drive over to Spokane and in concert with road trips I've taken with Byrdman, local outings I've gone on with Ed,  the vacation I to Glacier National Park I went on with Patrick and Meagan, and outings I've been on with Christy and Carol all got me thinking that, more than anything else, in my retirement, I want to be with family and friends. I really enjoy traveling with family and friends and making trips to where friends live. 

I thought about the tv commercials financial institutions run during golf tournaments marketing not only financial products, but marketing the experience of being affluent and retired.

Not one of those commercials advertises the joy of traveling to where friends are -- none of them feature two men in their late sixties, like Mark Cutshall and me, sitting in an old diner in a not very shiny neighborhood on the edge of the Univ District. None of them advertise the joy of sitting in a condo with longtime friends, like I did with Bill and Diane, listening to Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson, Richard and Linda Thompson, Steeleye Span and other folk-rock music after eating spicy 10 vegetable soup and crusty bread. In none of them, do they advertise sitting with lifelong friends in a living room in Gladstone, OR watching the NCAA men's basketball final or sitting in another living room in Eugene with a longtime friend, in this case, Jeff Harrison, listening to back to back radio shows, the first focused on Bob Dylan, the second on the Grateful Dead and related jam bands. I've never seen one of these companies present a day with siblings at Manito Park as something to dream about in retirement. 

None advertises a retired married couple driving across the country with a little Mal-Shi, stopping at dog friendly breweries, relaxing with family and new friends in a lake house at Lake Michigan and drinking beers in an obscure little brewery called Burn 'Em.

None advertises sitting on an outdoor table at a Post Falls pub with lifelong friends from high school telling old tales and listening to Pink Floyd. 

Those two nights I spent in Seattle visiting with Hugh and Carol, Mark, Bill and Diane, and Colette epitomized what I most enjoy now that I'm retired. 

I will continue to make that sort of thing happen as often as I can. 

And continue to jump on ZOOM, chat online,  and exchange emails and text messages with friends near and far. 

It all makes these retirement years full of vitality and enjoyment.

3. Christy hosted family dinner tonight and to use a favorite old Kellogg phase, it was a dandy.

We started with a peachy keen cocktail -- very peachy in fact. Christy mixed Peach Jim Beam with Peach Vodka and peach flavored sparkling water and added a fresh peach garnish. 

For an appetizer, I toasted English muffin halves, put some olive oil on them, and then spread hummus on each muffin and added crumbled feta cheese, Kalamata olive pieces, and a couple thin slices of cucumber. It worked! 

For our mail meal, Christy perfectly baked salmon chunks topped with a Dijon mustard sauce. 

Carol prepared asparagus spears topped with lime and white miso sauce. 

I had fun making my side dish contribution. 

I melted a slab of butter in the Dutch oven and added about a cup of broken pieces of uncooked spaghetti. Once the spaghetti bits were brown, I added couple cloves of chopped garlic, about three stalks of green onion, and a cup and a half of raw long grain white rice. I cooked all of this for another minute and then added a quart of homemade turkey stock (instead of store bought chicken broth) and some salt, pepper, thyme, and turmeric. 

I brought all of this to a slow boil/simmer and then covered the pot and turned the heat down to low. In about fifteen or twenty minutes, the rice had absorbed the liquid, the spaghetti was soft, and, if you are still reading this, I was ready to take Homemade Rice-a-Roni to family dinner. 

We had red and white wine available to sip on during dinner and over the course of the evening we talked about a goat rescue on Silver Mountain, other tops stories coming in Tuesday's Shoshone News Press, the Godfather movies and the series The Offer, and the history of television viewing, mostly in the Woolum household as we were growing up. No one ever said it, but I think we all agreed within ourselves that we had some awesome options even though we only had three, and later a fourth (PBS), channels. 

Much of this television discussion took place during dessert. Christy made Sour Cream Banana Bars served with Ben and Jerry's Whiskey Biz Ice Cream.

Like I said, tonight's dinner was a dandy! 

Here's a limerick by Stu:

The headlines scream out every day!

About fiends who don’t get their way. 

They stab, punch and shoot, 

Or burn stores up and loot. 

And innocent folks seem to pay.

Three Beautiful Things 06-05-2022: A Day of Routs, A Third Pork Roast Meal, My System Has Limits

1. It was a day of routs in the sports world and I watched parts of all of them. Rafael Nadal crushed Casper Ruud to win the French Open for the mind-boggling 14th time, bringing his total of major wins to 22. In the Memorial, Billy Horschel cruised to a four stroke win over U of Oregon Duck alum Aaron Wise. Later, in another golf tournament, in the U. S. Open, Australia's Minjee Lee cakewalked to her second major victory winning the cup by four strokes over Mina Harigae. Lastly, to round out this day of runaways, the Golden State Warriors flattened the Boston Celtics, 107-88. Both teams have won one game in this NBA championship series. 

2. I thought I might enjoy that sauce left over from the Thai yellow curry braise I cooked the other night poured over penne pasta. I was correct. Just for the record, that little sirloin pork roast provided me with three meals. 

3. Alas. I did not, as planned, mix myself a dry gin martini and listen to the third Deep Purple album. While watching the suspense-free golf tournaments and NBA game, I drank a can of Little Hazy Thing and a can of Cold Smoke Scotch Ale. I then ate dinner and I've simply reached that stage in life where I cannot drink a martini after eating Thai curry over pasta. I was too full and my digestive system didn't want any more work to do! 

Three Beautiful Things 06-04-2022: My Enjoyment of Juzo Itami Deepens, Martini and Deep Purple Again, *Inspector Lewis* and Living in Greenbelt MD

 1. In the past week or so, I've watched and loved two movies written and directed by Juzo Itami (Tampopo and The Funeral). I was in the mood for a matinee movie today. I decided to find out if three might be a charm, so I went to the Criterion Channel and selected Itami's A Taxing Woman. Like the first two Itami movies I watched, A Taxing Woman featured the versatile pair of actors Nobuko Miyamoto and Tsutomu Yamazaki. 

One of aspects of Itami's moviemaking I enjoy is that he makes absorbing films out of unlikely subject matter. In Tampopo, he transmutes the making of ramen into a witty, erotic, and sometimes touching satire. In The Funeral, he turns the sudden death of a family's patriarch into a fascinating study of characters, Japanese rituals and customs, the impact of modernity, and of the love between the deceased and his widow that is it once mystifying and tender. 

In A Taxing Woman, Itami invites us into the corrupt world of accomplished tax evaders and the governmental tax inspectors who work to uncover and arrest these criminals. 

Nobuko Miyamoto plays the role of a brilliant and tenacious tax inspector, Ryoko Itakura. Her antagonist is a seasoned and accomplished organized crime lord, Hidecki Gondo, played with complexity by Tsutomu Yamazaki. 

The movie is not only suspenseful, a really fun face off between brilliant law breakers and those who would uncover their schemes, but it's also a fascinating character study of both Ryoko Itakura and Hidecki Gondo and the intriguing relationship (not romantic) that develops between them. 

2. I finished the leftover ham stock and vegetable with beans soup I made the other night and then ate a bowl of rice mixed with pork slices and the yellow curry sauce that was a result of braising that pork roast yesterday.

In between these two courses, I mixed myself a chilly and stiff dry gin martini and listened to Deep Purple's 1970 masterpiece, In Rock. Yes,  the supersonic stylings of guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Gillan's powerful, wide-ranging vocals fire me up; but Jon Lord's work on the keyboard and organ is what moves me, touches my emotions. This evening, I hit my peak of gin and Deep Purple bliss when Jon Lord's deft prelude got the astonishing track, "Child in Time" underway and the band spent 10 minute and 20 seconds exploring this track's beauty, passion, and power.

I plan to relish a third straight night of Deep Purple and Tangueray on Sunday. I will listen to the first Deep Purple album I ever owned. Some call it simply Deep Purple. Others refer to it as Deep Purple III. It might be best known for its cover, a detail from Hieronymus Bosch's fantastical masterpiece "The Garden of Earthly Delights" -- a cover, by the way, that rattled Mary Idell West Woolum when she took a moment to examine it! 

3. Until tonight, I didn't realize that Debbie had subscribed to Masterpiece on PBS. Once I realized this fact, I took Gibbs, my laptop, and the wireless speaker to the bedroom, reclined on the bed, and, for the first time in a few years, I watched an episode of one of my very favorite programs, Inspector Lewis. 

I don't remember what episode of what season I watched. The story centered around a drug trial of an anti-depressant and one of the members of the trial being murdered. 

My pleasure watching Inspector Lewis definitely comes from how much I enjoy the relationships between the characters, especially Lewis and Hathaway, their contrasting backgrounds and personalities, and their (sometimes begrudging) respect for each other. 

In addition, I began watching Inspector Lewis in the living room of our apartment home in Greenbelt, MD. My feelings of nostalgia connected to living in Maryland are strong and persistent. I found it peaceful living in our modest apartment. On chilly evenings, I enjoyed mixing brandy or rum with hot water, being with Maggie and Charly, and sitting with Debbie while she watched programming on her laptop or knit or did whatever she needed to do to rest up from the unrelenting demands of her teaching job. Often I spent those evenings watching Inspector Lewis or A Touch of Frost and when I return to watching them here in Kellogg, the music on these shows and the characters themselves take me back to to the many feelings of enjoyment I experienced living in such a beautiful place full of so much activity and vitality. 

It's been nearly five years since we left Maryland -- five years since Mom moved to Kindred and soon it will be five years since Mom passed away. 

It's sobering. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-03-2022: My Kidney Function is Stable, Braising a Pork Roast with Coconut Milk, Deep Purple and Gin and Heidelberg Beer

1. It was that time again. To get ready for having labs done this morning for Dr. Bieber, I drank a lot of water so that I would be able to readily produce a urine sample (TMI?) and because I've become convinced that my renal panel numbers benefit from me being as fully hydrated as possible.

My last lab work was done around March 1st and my numbers were solid and stable. My kidney function was at 18 percent, the best I'd seen in a while (it's been as low as 12%).

My results from today's lab work came back overnight and I am very happy to report that my renal health continues to be stable. My kidney function is at 16% and, aside from BUN and creatinine, which are always high (but stable), all but one of my readings is within range. My phosphorus reading was just slightly low and barely out of range. 

I see Dr. Bieber on Wednesday. I anticipate the main question I'll want answered is whether he'll want to see me in person in three months or give it six months. I last saw him face to face in November, 2021 when he thought it would be fine if I had lab work done in three months and only meet if he saw a problem. That arrangement worked out perfectly. 

2. A day or two ago I'd taken a small sirloin pork roast out of the freezer and this afternoon I went to work braising it.

I started by heating up a puddle of olive oil in the well of the Dutch oven and then browning the roast's entire surface.

Once it was browned, I put in on a plate and onto the leftover oil I put chopped onion, a plug of yellow Thai curry paste, mustard seeds, and a tablespoon of brown sugar. I cooked all of this until the onion was softened and then added two cans of coconut milk over the top and added dried kaffir lime leaves along with some fish sauce and soy sauce to the braise. 

I dropped the roast into this aromatic, creamy braise broth and brought the liquid to a boil. 

I covered the Dutch oven and put the roast in the oven at 325 degrees for two hours.

Ah! The pork was tender and so I added a handful of baby Yukons and several cremini mushrooms to the braise, let them cook for about 20 minutes and then added chunks of zucchini. After about 15 minutes, all the vegetables were cooked through and I removed the Dutch oven and let it sit on the stovetop for a while. 

I removed the roast, cut it up, took a bowl out of the cupboard, place pork slices in the bottom and over the  meat I ladled the sweet, spicy, salty braise broth along with a few potatoes, mushrooms, and zucchini pieces.

Heavenly. 

I have plenty left over.

I get to return to this meal again -- and, no doubt, I'll enjoy this braised pork and its broth served over a hillock of rice. 

3. While the pork roast slowly cooked, I made myself a dry gin martini, stirred, up, and garnished with three green olives. 

To make the drinking of this cocktail a perfectly hedonistic experience, I put on Deep Purple's mighty album, Machine Head. 

I succeeded in creating flawless pleasure for myself as the Tangueray and vermouth relaxed me and I softly uttered "Praise the Lord". 

It might be blasphemous, but I was not praising the Lord of the Hebrew Bible nor of the New Testament. 

I was praising Jon Lord, Deep Purple's masterful keyboardist, especially his awesome work on the Hammond organ. 

During this ecstatic late afternoon interlude, I heard from Adam out in Massachusetts who informed me that it was 52 years ago today when Deep Purple released their thrilling album In Rock.

My plan, at that moment, was to mix myself a second martini and pair it with In Rock.

But, my yellow Thai curry braised pork roast got in the way -- I ate dinner and had no room for a second cocktail.

But, I'll have room on Saturday! 

Okay.

There's more. 

As if the combination of the martini, Deep Purple, and braised pork roast with vegetables was not blissful enough, I experienced another most unexpected source of delight this evening. 

I was scrolling through Twitter and a tweet appeared on my feed posted by a woman who was quarantined with Covid and was enduring her isolation by drinking Heidelberg Beer!

WHAT?

I thought Heidelberg Beer ("Everything's premium except the price!"), the very beer my father Pert Woolum drank every day, the beer that was as much a part of our household as pork chops and gravy or Sunday night fresh baked bread and ham and navy bean soup, the beer that came in keg bottles as well as tall boy cans was dead.

But it's not!

7 Seas Brewing of Tacoma (and Gig Harbor) has replicated the recipe and is selling it in their taprooms and at selected retail outlets in tall boy cans.

I now have a dream.

I won't sail the 7 seas to make this dream come true, but I'm going to do all I can within reason to score a case or two of Heidelberg Beer so my classmates and I can relive the glory days of drinking Heidelberg (and other glorious ice cold cheap beers),  often with Pert Woolum himself. 

I've contacted the brewery and told them my dream.

We'll see what happens. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-02-2022: Reunion List is Growing, Ham Stock Soup, Return to Blissful Thursday

1. For our KHS Class of 72 50 year reunion, we made the fee a little less costly if a person registered by May 31. We got a good response. I'd been asked to post a list of who registered in May and today was the day to put that list up on our reunion Facebook page and now I'll send it out by email to people on the email list I've been compiling. 

2. I was scrounging around in our basement freezer the other day and saw that I had a quart of homemade ham stock in the freezer. I thought a simple soup would taste good so this afternoon I chopped up half an onion, a celery stalk, and an especially plump carrot. I cooked these for a while in olive oil and then added a can of cannellini beans and then poured the ham stock over it all. 

I didn't add any meat. The stock had plenty of ham flavor. I didn't season the soup either -- well, not in the pot. In my bowl, I added soy sauce, a move that made me very happy.

I loved this soup. I sure look forward to making ham stock again one day. All I need is a ham bone!

3. I missed out listening to Hard Rain and Slow Trains last week because I was devouring Japanese food in Seattle and relishing Carol C's pumpkin cheesecake back at hers and Hugh's house. 

I tuned in tonight, though, and listened to Dan's detailed account of his visit to the newly opened Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa and his descriptions of what treasures are contained there. 

Jeff followed Dan's show with a Grateful Dead tribute to summer weather beginning to arrive by playing the Grateful Dead performing "Dancing in the Street". He moved on to play some bittersweet tunes from the June 2, 1995 Shoreline show, performed just two months before Jerry Garcia passed away.

Jeff hadn't played Zero for a while and my bliss kicked into overdrive as he Jeff filled much of his second hour with live performances of Zero, a string of transporting tunes and superb jams.