Three Beautiful Things 02-27-2023: Preparing the Potatoes Gratin, Preparing Cocktails and Salad Dressing, Peppering the Steaks and Seasoning our Family Conversations

 1.  I was in charge of preparing tonight's family dinner. Inspired by our first HelloFresh meal last week, Beef Au Poivre and Cheesy Potatoes Gratin with a Pear and Pecan Salad. (I forgot about the pecans.)

I thought I could reproduce this meal, inspired by, but not dependent on, the HelloFresh box of ingredients. 

I went to Yoke's on Sunday and didn't find any cuts of beef tenderloin that were similar to what HelloFresh shipped to us, so, instead, I purchased six petit sirloin steaks.

I began my day of meal preparation late this morning by peeling nearly five pounds of russet potatoes, cutting the spuds into pieces about a quarter inch thick, and boiling the pieces until tender. 

I layered a baking pan with potatoes topped by crispy bacon, a sour cream, garlic powder, and water mixture, and sharp cheddar cheese. On top of that I created a second layer of the same ingredients with the addition of Parmesan cheese. 

2. I put the pan of Cheesy Potatoes Gratin in the fridge. I took them out bout an hour before they went in the oven to bring them back to room temperature.

This afternoon, I mixed a carafe of Sidecars, a tasty cocktail combining cognac, Cointreau, and fresh lemon juice.

I also made a honey Dijon dressing for the salad, combining Dijon mustard, honey, olive oil, fresh lemon juice, and minced garlic. Later, I put store bought spring mixed greens in a bowl with two pears thinly sliced and added the dressing I made. 

3. Christy, Carol, Paul, and Molly arrived. After I poured them each a Sidecar, I put the potato dish in the oven and got to work on preparing the steaks. The others snacked on the cheese and crackers Carol and Paul brought.  I had taken the steaks out of the fridge about 90 minutes earlier so that they were at room temperature. 

I got out our cast iron skillet and the cast iron Dutch oven and heated them up before pouring olive oil and putting chunks of butter in each of them. Meanwhile, I poured a generous layer of black pepper on a platter and pushed both sides of five of the steaks onto the pepper, creating a coat. I then seared the steaks for about two minutes on each side and then put them in the oven at 400 degrees for about five minutes. 

I put an aluminum foil tent over the steaks so they could rest and, with no heat under the the pan, then poured most of the fat out of the cast iron skillet and poured a half a cup of cognac in the pan and scraped up the steak bits with a wooden spoon. I then added a cup of heavy cream to the cognac, turned on the heat, brought the mixture to a boil, and then let it simmer and thicken. I was supposed to add butter to the cognac and cream and forgot. I am eager to make this sauce again with the butter -- it was tasty without the butter, but my guess is that the butter would raise the taste to another level.

We had red and white wine at the table.

We dug into our poivre steak with sauce, gratin potatoes, and mixed greens and pear salad and agreed that this was a splendid dinner and that I had succeeded in creating a HelloFresh meal on my own without the box -- a meal, by the way, that I never would have thought up on my own. 

Tonight our conversations were especially scintillating. We yakked about the challenges of public education, the ways landscapes (or cityscapes) can work figuratively to deepen memoirs, fiction, poetry, and drama, and ways of understanding the Bible as a source of inquiry into the nature and workings of the Divine. It's a relief and a source of great satisfaction that we are not polarized as a family and can discuss these things enjoyably and experience the uplifting experience of helping one another see things afresh, with new perspectives. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-26-2023: Pillowy Snowflakes in Kellogg, Mini Charcuterie, Hoosiers Rip Off Rockford's BBQ Grill

1. Pillowy snowflakes fell for a few hours today. I was going to wait for a break in the weather, but decided, instead, to shovel our walks before it piled up much more. It was a good workout and, as it turned out, my timing was decent. Before long, the clouds parted for a while, the shone, and the sidewalks were clear.

2. I will be Monday's cook for family dinner and I think I bought everything I need at Yoke's today. Before the Yoke's stop, though, I dropped by Beach Bum Bakery. Good news! Beach Bum had baguettes available. I purchased a couple. It turns out that when Debbie ordered last week's Hello Fresh box, along with the two dinners she ordered a small pack of prosciutto and mozzarella cheese. They paired perfectly with the baguette Debbie sliced and we enjoyed a light dinner.

3. We watched one episode of The Rockford Files this evening and it was a doozy. We marvel at the big messes Jim Rockford entangles himself in episode after episode and tonight the big mess involved a stolen diamond, violent negotiations for its return, a family from Peru, Indiana seeing the USA in an RV, and the family's son ripping off Rockford's barbecue grill. 

Wild.

The bad guys learned by the end, never never ever tangle with Jim Rockford when he's behind the wheel of any vehicle -- whether he's driving his Firebird or an RV! 

Three Beautiful Things 02-25-2023: 70s on 7, Great Night at The Lounge, Popcorn and Lt. Columbo and Jim Rockford

1. Debbie and I relaxed late this morning and late this afternoon listening to Sirius/Xm's 70s on 7 channel. I don't know if the host was choosing the music or if the company has a pre-recorded set list for her to play, but the selections leaned toward soft pop songs by the Bee Gees, Stephen Bishop, Debbie Boone, America, and others and soul music (with an occasional hint of funk) by the Stylistics, the Spinners, and others. I found the time traveling the music inspired in me more enjoyable than most of the music, meaning that I had a lot of fun being transported back to KHS, NIC, Whitworth, summers in Kellogg, and other fun times, mostly in my twenties.

2. Debbie warmed up the left over chicken thighs, rice, and mushroom sauce from last night and after we finished our early dinner, we piled into the Sube and roared up to the Inland Lounge. We had a fun time yakkin' with each other and with Cas and Tracy. Around 5:30, people began to pour in to celebrate Sid Armstrong's 70th birthday in the back room. Ed and Nancy attended. So did Buff and Kathy. We didn't go back to the party, but we knew it was a who's who of movers and shakers in Kellogg. Sid is on the city council. So is Buff. Council member Terry Douglas was in the house. So were many other local power brokers, but we didn't see them all. 

I had a fun talk with Doug Yrjana about his grandson, Kolton Mitchell, who plays for the stellar Lake City High School basketball team. Doug will watch Kolton play at the state tournament this coming week and then will follow his grandson's exploits next year when he plays for Idaho State. 

Talking about Kolton Mitchell led us to remembering the 1966-67 KHS Wildcat team. They went to state, won their first game against Minico and then lost to eventual champion Caldwell. It was fun remembering being a 7th grader and watching that team play and listening on the radio to their games at state. 

3. Back home, I popped popcorn for Debbie and me and we settled into an enjoyable evening of Columbo and The Rockford Files and I checked online from time to time to see how Gonzaga was faring against St. Mary's and saw that the Zags defeated the Gaels and captured a share of the WCC title. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-24-2023: Mushroom Sauce Dinner, Beach Bum Cornbread, A TV Detour with Amos Burke and Starsky and Hutch

1. When I went to Yoke's today, I suddenly thought that it would be fun to fix Debbie and me a chicken and rice dinner with a mushroom sauce. I hadn't consulted a recipe before going to the store, but I figured once I bought mushrooms, I'd be able to use what I had at home to make a sauce.

That turned out to be pretty much true, given that I could make some substitutions. 

For example, I didn't have heavy cream at home nor did I have any white wine. But, I did have half and half and plenty of chicken stock. I also didn't have any fresh thyme, but dried thyme worked just fine.

I made the sauce well ahead of Debbie arriving home by cooking mushrooms until golden in a combination of olive oil and butter. Once golden, I added a couple of minced garlic cloves to the pan and cooked them until golden.

Not having wine, I glazed the pan with a quarter cup of stock, then added another half cup of stock, a cup of half and half, and a half cup of grated Parmigiana-Reggiano cheese. Since the half and half would result in a thinner sauce, I popped some corn starch into the sauce to thicken it.

A also added ground thyme to the sauce. 

I set the sauce aside and warmed it up when I baked the chicken thighs, seasoned with salt, pepper, Old Bay seasoning, and garlic powder. 

I fixed a pot of white rice.

2. As I left Yoke's, I couldn't resist making a stop at the Beach Bum Bakery. Well, I didn't actually try to resist! At least once or twice a week, I want to give this bakery my business. It would appear that I am far from alone! I had hoped to snag a loaf of bread (it wasn't the bakery's day for bagels), but Beach Bum was sold out of everything I wanted to purchase and for my purposes today, challah bread just didn't fit. 

BUT, Beach Bum Bakery did have thick, good-sized rectangles (or squares!) of cornbread available and I decided a couple of these might go really well with the baked chicken, rice, and mushroom sauce.

I was right. 

The cornbread rounded out our little blue ribbon meal and I had a blast preparing it -- with the help, I might add, of gin and V-8 juice, spiked with Frank's RedHot Sauce and a squeeze of lime juice, sipped from a glass rimmed with Old Bay seasoning. 

3. Growing up, I don't remember watching Burke's Law, but for the heck of it, I clicked on it once I got our smarty pants Vizio warmed up and Debbie and I watched an episode. 

Gene Barry plays a millionaire who is also a homicide detective. In contrast to Columbo who putters around in his beat up Peugeot, Amos Burke glides from place to place in a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II, chauffeured by his driver, Henry. 

I don't know if this episode of Burke's Law was typical, but if it was, each episode featured superb guest stars. The episode we watched featured Tammy Grimes, Keenan Wynn, and Burgess Meredith. This episode also developed a convoluted plot and included unusual, if not surreal, details. The episode opens with a prostitute who discovers not only the murdered victim lying fully clothed under a shower, but also discovers a buffet of gourmet food and instead of calling the police, ravenously dives into the turkey drumstick, caviar, and other culinary delights. Each time Burgess Meredith appears, he's tending to, and feeding, his collection of meat eating plants. Keenan Wynn plays a goofy used car salesman ("Give 'Em Away" Murphy) whom we see making tv commercials. We also meet a wine snob and an old Japanese friend of Burke's whose loves ancient Japanese music and playing poker. 

Burke is suave, standing in stark contrast to the oddballs he investigates and the situations he walks into -- he has to keep from having his arm eaten by the carnivorous plants and, at one point, joins one of the suspects in a steam bath, fully clothed in his tailored millionaire suit.

Burke's Law was a trip -- I don't know if we'll return to it, but it was a fun detour.

So was Starsky and Hutch. I never watched this show either and the episode we watched tonight featured a  married couple in their, oh, 70s I guess, who are unhappy with the group home they live in and pack their car's trunk with dynamite and plan to blow up their residence. 

But, while they are seated at a coffee shop, two criminals steal their car, not knowing its packed with TNT.

It's quite a challenge for Starsky and Hutch to run down the criminals and to try to get the car to a remote place to blow up.

It's an hour of car chases, hand to hand combat, gunfights, and a car blowing up, engulfed in flames.

I didn't know how much excitement I missed nearly fifty years ago when I never watched Starsky and Hutch.

Wow! 

 

Three Beautiful Things 02-23-2023: Vet Visit, Hello Fresh Again, Columbo and George Carlin

1.  I hauled Luna and Copper, despite their protests, to the veterinarian today for their annual check up. They got a nail trim. Logan, one of the techs, and Dr. Cook both removed a bunch of the knots in Copper's fur. I won't know until Monday the results of their blood work. I learned that Luna has a heart murmur. This combined with her slight loss of kidney function and her brief brush with diabetes all point to Luna showing her age. She's about fourteen years old. Copper is younger and seems to be doing well.

2. Back home, I prepared our next Hello Fresh meal, spinach ricotta ravioli in a vegetable sauce. It was simple to make. I peeled strips of zucchini until I got to the seeds and chopped up the core. I chopped a tomato and some scallions. I zested and quartered a lemon.

At the same time, I brought a pot of salted water to a boil and dropped the raviolis in and slow boiled them for about five minutes.

I heated some oil is the cast iron pan and cooked the vegetables, seasoned with Italian seasoning, for a couple of minutes until tender. I poured a packet of vegetable stock and a quarter cup of pasta water in with the vegetable, stirred them, and added sour cream and butter. 

The sauce was soon thickened and then I put the zucchini ribbons in the pan followed by the raviolis.

I cooked all of this at a low temperature for a couple of minutes, topped it all with Parmesan cheese and the scallion greens and dinner was ready to eat.

It was a good meal and one that I think I could prepare on my own now that I've done with the help of Hello Fresh.

3. Debbie and I returned to Columbo tonight for our evening of relaxed television viewing. Trish Van Devere played a television producer who thought she'd perfectly planned the murder of her ex-lover. But, she couldn't outfox Columbo! 

I closed out the night by watching over an hour of another one of those YouTube videos focused on one guest's repeated appearances on either or both of David Letterman's show.

Tonight, I watched George Carlin from 1984-1992. 

Great stuff. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-22-2023: Uptown with Muffin and Latte, My Low Key Hedonism, Rockford and Richard Belzer

1. After a stock up trip to Yoke's, I dropped by the Beach Bum Bakery's little trailer on the south side of Furniture Exchange hoping to buy some bagels. They were sold out. No problem. I bought what's called a Sunshine Muffin and an oval loaf of Artisan Sourdough Bread. 

The Beanery is near Beach Bum Bakery and I blasted over there and bought a 16 oz double latte and asked for it to be a little extra hot. I do this so the drink will still be kind of hot as I finish it. 

I drove uptown, made sure not much was going on -- and it wasn't -- and ate pieces of the muffin and drank about three quarter of my latte and returned home. 

The muffin/latte treat raised my already happy spirits.

2. I put away the groceries and sliced off the crusty end of the sourdough bread and put a generous slab of butter on it. 

Delicious.  Not only did it taste splendid, I loved the sensation in my mouth its thick texture gave me, both the bread and the crust. 

Because the bread is organic -- I'd call it, to use a beer term, craft bread -- it's a bit costly.  I didn't care. I was after pleasure and am always happy to pay a bit more for Beach Bum's baked goods. 

By the way, in my beer tasting/drinking hey day, I felt the same way about beer. Why not pay a few extra bucks for pleasure? It's fun and good for my soul to be an occasional hedonist! It's not like I'm not keeping our bills paid when I indulge!)

3. Debbie and I have switched gears as we relax together in the evenings. Lately, in her need for relaxing television programming in the evening, Debbie has found that The Rockford Files is just right -- the suspense of the dangerous situations Jim Rockford entangles himself in is balanced by the program's humor and by James Garners' impeccable delivery of his witty lines and by Rockford's unending faithfulness to Angel Martin and his affection for Rocky, his dad. 

After a couple episodes tonight and after Debbie hit the hay, I opened the bedroom door so that Copper and Luna could enjoy the living room and chow down on some wet food in the kitchen.

I also watched much of a ninety minute video on YouTube featuring the great Richard Belzer's appearances on David Letterman's two shows. Belzer first appeared in 1982 and his last appearance, at least on this video, was in 2008. 

Every time Belzer was on Letterman, upon being introduced, the band struck up The Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up" and Belzer entered strutting and dancing like Mick Jagger. 

Belzer's appearances were awesome. Letterman loved having Richard Belzer on the show, the two were funny together, and Letterman made sure, always, to highlight that Richard Belzer was multi-talented, that he was not only an accomplished stand-up comic, but was a gifted actor, especially in his role as John Munch on both Homicide: Life on the Street and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. 

I don't know who made this Belzer/Letterman video, but I enjoyed it every bit as much as the series of similar videos I watched featuring Norm Macdonald's many appearances on Letterman's shows. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-21-2023: Why These Heart Tests?, The Tests Went Smoothly, No Winter Storm!

1. I returned home this afternoon not long after 3:00 after being at the Kootenai Heart Clinic in Coeur d'Alene for a few hours. After I broke my fast and talked with Debbie when she arrived home from work, I did a little more reading about why transplant programs require that candidates for a kidney transplant must have their cardio health tested.

I wasn't wrong when I thought these tests were to assess whether my heart is healthy enough to withstand the transplant surgery.

BUT, what I hadn't realized is that about 30% of those transplant recipients who die, say, in the first year after the transplant, die of heart failure of some sort. 

So, yes, the tests are evaluating the heart's capability to withstand the surgery, but also attempting to determine if it's likely cardiac complications might happen after the surgery.

This post-transplant concern hadn't sunk in my slow learning brain until today! 

2. Yes, the testing required me to lie still a lot. I had to lie still during the echocardiogram. I had to stay put for about a half an hour after the tech inserted radioactive material into my circulatory system as part of the nuclear stress test to give the nuclear stuff time to circulate in my system. I had to lie still for sixteen minutes while a contraption, a big camera, slowly moved just above my chest and took 32 pictures. I then spent time on the treadmill in order to get my heart rate elevated and then it was back to lying still under the camera contraption for another twelve minutes and 32 more pictures. The idea is to have pictures of my heart before exercise and compare them with the pictures after the exercise.

One note: this was my fourth cardio stress test (2015,16, 19). I experienced more difficulty on the treadmill with each test. Today, for the first time, the nurse giving the test informed me that if the speed and steep tilt of the treadmill in the last three minutes of the test was too much for me, they have a medicine to administer that opens up the heart's arteries. I made it through the first treadmill speed up and tilt and nurse asked me if I were laboring. I said I was and she said, "No problem. Let's do the shot." 

After the shot, I walked for about a minute and a half at a reasonable pace to give the medicine time to circulate and do its work. 

I so preferred the shot to enduring a faster, steeper treadmill! 

I was happily relieved.

3. When I went to bed last night, North Idaho was under a winter storm warning and I was uneasy about having to drive to CdA on snowy, possibly icy, roads and that it might be windy.

The storm didn't come. 

The roads going to CdA and returning were great. I was very grateful that my trip over and back was easy and that the procedures at the Heart Center went so smoothly.

It all worked out.

Now I will await word from the committee evaluating my case to see if I am healthy enough to stay on the transplant list. 

If the transplant program keeps me on the list, I'll have to decide whether to remain inactive or switch to active -- if I switch to active, it's likely I'd be offered a new kidney in the relatively near future because I have accrued so much time on the transplant list. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-20-2023: Debut of Hello Fresh, Surprise Zinc Plant Talk, Jim Rockford and the Real Peter Falk

1. Monday, our first order from Hello Fresh arrived. Debbie decided it would be fun to give this service a try. Two meals were in our first box. One centered on ravioli. The other dinner, which I prepared late this afternoon, is called Beef Au Poivre and Cheesy Potato Gratin with Pear and Pecan Salad.

I'm happy to report that if I wanted to, I now know I could prepare this meal by buying the ingredients at the store myself, but having everything I needed in the Hello Fresh box along with the recipe on a good sized card was convenient and fun. 

I started by cutting the potatoes in quarter inch thick pieces and boiling them for about ten minutes in salted water. While they boiled, I cut a pear in half, lengthwise, cored it, and cut it into this slices. I also chopped up the packet of chives and ground the peppercorns.

I fried the bacon that came in the box and set the pieces on a paper towel to cool and broke the pieces into bits. 

I boiled the potatoes until tender and scooped the pieces out with a slotted spoon and put them in a layer at the bottom of a baking pan. I topped the potatoes with bacon bits, sour cream, garlic powder, and cheddar cheese. On top of this I created a second layer of potatoes with more bacon bits, sour cream, garlic powder, cheddar cheese, and Parmesan cheese. 

It was ready to bake.

In the midst of these efforts I tossed mixed greens with the pear slices with the packet of honey Dijon mustard and topped it with crushed pecans and chives.

As the Cheesy Potato Gratin cooled, I heated up oil in the cast iron skillet and cooked the beef tenderloin, doing my best to make it medium rare. 

As the beef tenderloin rested, I combined the packet of poivre sauce concentrate with some water, let it simmer until it thickened and then added a chunk of butter. 

I cut the beef into slices and poured the sauce over it.

Debbie and brought the salad, potatoes, and beef a poivre to the table and dug in.

2.  The All-Class Reunion committee met this evening. Things seem to be coming together. After the meeting I conversed with Tony Teske who was a boss at the Zinc Plant as a young man and remembered details of the accident I survived in one of the flash roasters.

3. Back home, I joined Debbie to watch episodes of The Rockford Files and after she went to bed, I watched two interviews with Peter Falk, the first with Charlie Rose, the second with James Lipton (Inside the Actors Studio). I thoroughly enjoyed how authentic and unpretentiously Falk shared his vigorous intellect, sharp wit, kindness, appreciation, and splendid stories. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-19-2023: Zooming About Aging and Ailing, Columbo Solves Two Cases, Watching "The Legacy of *All the President's Men*"

1. Yes, we talked about movies and other interests we share. On ZOOM today, though, Diane, Bill, and I eventually got right into the meat of our lives as we discussed our thoughts and frustrations with aging and the pros and cons of medical intervention. All three of us are leery about getting too involved in the medical industrial complex, leery about the vortex of procedures, prescriptions, and appointments, of a life dominated by staving off death. It was a superb discussion. 

2.  After enjoying the delicious meal Debbie created out of our leftovers, combining spaghetti, sauce, and beans in a pot with freshly browned ground beef, we settled into a couple of strong episodes of Columbo. The first featured Ruth Gordon as a murdering mystery writer, a criminal Lt. Columbo grew to feel affection for, but whom he had to put under arrest. The second featured Louis Jourdan as a murdering food critic, a criminal Columbo didn't like at all. On the positive side, Columbo's investigation of this homicide included him savoring one elite serving of food after another and we got to see Columbo exercise his talent as a cook. 

3. Debbie didn't have to go to bed when we finished watching Columbo. President's Day is a holiday in the local school district. So, we stayed up another 90 minutes. I punched the YouTube app on the Vizio, got properly signed up to broadcast it, and, thanks to Diane's recommendation, we watched a panel discussion put on by the University of Texas' Harry Ransom Center (where the All the President's Men papers are archived). The LBJ Presidential Library hosted the event.

The panel featured Robert Redford, Bob Woodward, and Carl Bernstein. The name of the program was "The Legacy of All the President's Men". 

Redford, Woodward, and Bernstein discussed when Redford first got interested in making a movie about Woodward and Bernstein, the obstacles he faced trying to get this project off the ground, how Bernstein and Woodward got involved in the project, and what Redford's hopes were for the movie. They told fascinating stories and, in wrapping up the evening, talked about the decline in the quality of investigative journalism from 1972 to the present day. This panel was given in 2011, the 35th anniversary of the movie's release.

It seems hardly a week, and sometimes day, goes by when Debbie and I don't watch something or listen to a podcast having to do with the break-in at the Watergate Complex and the repercussions of the Nixon Administration's efforts to cover it up as a part of a larger cover up of covert actions designed to undermine the Democrats, covert actions that had been going on for at least a year before the break-in at the Watergate. 

This panel discussion was fascinating, thoughtful, provocative, and, at times, very funny. 

All three panelists offered cogent insight into the movie and into the practice and decline of investigative journalism. 

If this discussion sounds interesting to you and you'd like to watch it, just click here. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-18-2023: Versatile Beans, Merriment in Uptown Kellogg, Watching *Bonnie and Clyde*

 1. Those crock pot baked black beans I made for our family crab feed Friday tasted awesome this morning as a final layer atop a combination of bacon, fried potatoes, scrambled egg, and sharp cheddar cheese. 

2. Debbie and I blasted uptown around 6:30. I wanted to have a beer with Ed, Nancy, and Stu, so I waltzed over to the Elks Crab Feed and Debbie dropped in at The Lounge. Once Harley called the Crab Feed to order and the line formed for crab feeders to be served dinner, I slipped out the front and joined Debbie at The Lounge. 

We had an awesome time. For a while, things were quiet enough that Cas and Tracy had time to yak with us. We ordered appetizers from Wah Hing and upon finishing them, people started filing in from the Elks, having had their fill of crab. We yakked with Keri A. for a while. I popped off my bar stool and joined Ed, Nancy, and Stu for some yakkin' and laughin' and Debbie continued to talk with Keri and Anita W. joined them. 

It was a merry evening at The Lounge, lots of good cheer and good company.

3. As we were yakkin' with Cas, the movie Bonnie and Clyde came up and Debbie and I returned home and rented it.

I can't quite nail down why, as I watched Bonnie and Clyde, I kept thinking it was a work of genius.

Maybe it was how the movie blended slapstick buffoonery, sexual frustration, guns, crime, violence, cruelty, Kodak moments, the soundtrack's return again and again to Flatt and Scruggs, scenes of Great Depression poverty, revenge, the way the whole movie was centered around the automobile, and the way Bonnie and Clyde become national celebrities that made me think this was as intense a study of America as I've ever watched in a movie. 

For now, that's all I've got. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-17-2023: Piling Up Steps, Seeing Longtime Friends at Yoke's, Crab Feed at Carol and Paul's House

 1. I shoehorned myself into the Sube and hightailed it over to where there are parking spaces across the street from The Beanery. I squeezed myself out of the car and walked on the Trail of CdAs to the resort parking lot, made my way to Noah's, stopped in for a bathroom break, and then walked through the parking area for the condos to Emerald St. and strolled to Yoke's. I couldn't see my Fitbit numbers very well outside, so I went into Yoke's and took a seat near the prescription pickup window, read how many steps I'd taken, and rested a bit. I gathered up a head of steam and strode out of the store, walked south on Hill Street, and before long I was back to the Sube. Combined with steps I accrued around the house over the course of the day, I piled up just over 4000 steps today. I'm increasing my daily step count day to day and already feel a bit stronger and have more stamina.

2. In Yoke's, I had two pleasant conversations with people I've known since I was a very little kid. First, Wendy Hei and I enjoyed catching up and then Rick Chapman and I had a good visit. We've all reached that point in life where the one topic we can be sure will keep conversation going is medical updates and reports on visits to the doctor and being tested, scanned, and evaluated. All three of us had tales to tell about kidneys, heart problems, asthma, Covid, pneumonia, and other medical challenges. The good news is that we are all upright and chugging along. 

3. Molly, Christy, Debbie, Paul, Carol, and I decided a couple of weeks ago that we'd like to dine at the Roberts' house and have a family crab feed rather than join the crab feed at the Elks. 

I had purchased dine out tickets a week ago. This afternoon, I drove up to the alley between the Elks and the YMCA building and exchanged my tickets for eight fresh crabs. 

I dropped the crabs off with Carol and about 90 minutes later returned with Debbie to the Roberts' house and our crab feed family dinner got going.

We started with Red Snappers, a cocktail combining Bloody Mary mix with gin. Christy made the mix herself from scratch and it was superb. We each combined ice, gin, and the mix in a red Solo cup and then selected from a range of garnishes: green olives, black olives, celery stalk, asparagus spears, cocktail onions, Tabasco sauce, lemon wedges, lime wedges, and possibly more (did I forget something?).

After some conversation in the living room, we all staggered to the dining table where Carol had put the crabs in a bowl, put out other bowls where we disposed of our shells, and laid out our crab crackers and picks.

To compliment the crab, Debbie made a superb cabbage/carrot slaw/salad and I fixed a batch of crock pot baked black beans. Molly's contribution, sourdough bread from the organic bakery trailer, Beach Bum Bakery, rounded out our meal. 

I gotta say, we planned this meal masterfully. The cocktail, salad, crab, beans, and bread worked together perfectly and, as a bonus, the Pinot Gris Carol and Paul contributed also worked sublimely for me.

But there's more!

Christy made lemon curd tarts in tiny filo cups and I don't think I've ever before seen family members so eagerly dive into a dessert and repeat so often how good it was as I witnessed tonight. 

What a night! 

Conversation ranged from talking about the behavior of children in classrooms to men and women in the movies to the fine points of interior design and how to deal with material things in our households that we need to clear out. It was a night of robust conversation along with a fantastic meal. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-16-2023: Recycle and Walking, Walking for Medicine, Party Time with Debbie

 1. In my compulsive effort to keep the garage uncluttered, I gathered up beverage cans, plastic jugs and bottles, and newspapers, sprang into the Sube, and bolted to the recycle station across the road from the medical center and put everything in its proper spot. 

I coupled this trip with my determination to reestablish a walking routine and walked from the medical center parking lot to the high school parking lot and back again and finished by walking around the circumference of the the hospital lot. 

2. I'm wanting to do a beneficial amount of walking, but not overtax my ill conditioned body. Not long after I returned from my first walk, Yoke's pharmacy texted me that I had pills ready to be picked up. So I piled back into the Sube and darted to the Trail of the CdA's across the street from The Beanery. I walked from this spot down to State Street, turned right on Bunker, and entered the Yoke's parking lot from the south. I purchased my medicine and completed my walk by strolling south on Hill and turning right on Railroad and leaping back into the Sube.

3. Friday is not a day of instruction for Debbie, but it's an online professional development day and she can complete the tasks required of her from home. 

So, Debbie and I partied in our mild old people's way. We enjoyed a few tastes of liquor.  I drank a bracing cup of hot chocolate spiked with dark rum and then enjoyed a few sips of straight rum out of my chocolate lined mug. 

We talked about the near future, the unknowns (my kidney situation), our house, Debbie's employment future, and other topics. We punctuated some of our discussion with lines from All the President's Men and I brought up the movie online and played Jason Robards' greatest hits from the movie. Then, as if we were putting music on, we decided to put the movie on again and we continued our party. We stayed up late. We drank. We talked more. We focused on favorite scenes from the movie ("Howard, they're hungry. Remember when you were hungry?"). 

Before long, of course, we ran out of steam. Debbie hit the hay. I let Copper and Luna out and fed them some wet food. Soon, I sacked out, too, and Copper and Luna joined me. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-15-2023: Cardboard Recycling, Snack at The Beanery, Easing into a Walking Routine

 1. Debbie ordered a new couch and it came in a big cardboard box. I broke it down and took it as a sign that I should go to the dump today. I had a few broken down boxes in the garage. Christy had some cardboard and a bag of packing materials that I added to my little load and I took it all the the Shoshone Transfer Station. It makes me way too happy, this compulsion of mine to keep cardboard from piling up in our garage. 

2. Earlier, I bought Copper and Luna a bag of their Kidney Care dry cat food and I scheduled them both for annual exams next week. On my way home, I stopped at The Beanery for a delicious snack: a peaches and cream Danish and a pint sized double latte.

3. Last week, I went for a walk and, even though it wasn't terribly long, it was evidently too much. My back was seized up for the next two or three days. Today, I restarted a walking routine, but I took it much easier. I walked for about ten minutes. I strolled a short distance on the Trail of the CdAs and then walked east on Bunker Ave, south on Hill, and back to the Sube, parked on Railroad Ave. I got in nearly 4,000 steps for the day with other stuff I did. My back survived. I'll head out again on Thursday and gradually try to work up to longer walks and more steps. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-14-2023: More Prep Before Dawn, Waiting and Waiting and BOOM!, Breaking My Fast

 1.  I vaulted out of bed at 4:30 a.m. and skipped merrily to the icebox and took out my last pint of laxative solution, drank it, took a couple of Gas-X pills, and then drank a quart of water. 

Thus concluded my colonoscopy preparation, aside from drinking no fluids after 9:30.

2. Carol barreled over to pick me up at about 11:45 and blasted me up to the Shoshone Medical Center where I checked in and then sat quietly and patiently in the waiting area for, well, quite a while. I daydreamed, thought about the many fun and energizing aspects of my life. A nurse apologized to me about the delay. Another assured me it wouldn't be too long. I was probably in the middle of remembering a great hike Byrdman and I took to Stevens Lake a few years ago when it was time for me to go into an exam room, disrobe, put on a gown, answer questions, and submit to having my vitals checked and an I.V. port stuck into my arm. 

Lying on the gurney, I had plenty of time to remember how fun Little League baseball was, how much I enjoyed hearing the Pink Floyd tribute band Pigs on the Wing, and the last time I performed in Shakespeare play. I was just about to replay the last Babes with Axes reunion show in my head when the anesthetist walked in and explained how his wonder drug works. 

A nurse wheeled me into the procedure room. The anesthesia put me into a blissful state of sedation. And before I knew it, I was back in the exam room, awake. 

The colonoscopy revealed no bad news. Because, like when I had my 2018 procedure, there were some polyps, I will continue on the five year plan. 

Carol rocketed back up to the medical center, I crawled into her car, and she rushed me home. 

3. I've lost track of time, but it must have been around three o'clock when I staggered into the house. I wobbled to the icebox, took out half a white onion, our last couple of pieces of bacon, and a couple of eggs. I had already taken out pancake mix in the morning and I grabbed about half a dozen baby Yukon Golds.

I hadn't eaten solid food since 6 p.m. on Sunday -- it had been over forty-five hours.

I fried the bacon and chopped the onion, and potatoes. I made about five small flapjacks and put butter and real maple syrup on them.  I relished this meal, relished breaking my fast, relished being done with today's colonoscopy and the preparation leading up to it. 

Then I napped, got up, napped again, and this evening Debbie and I put on All the President's Men and, at certain points in the movie, recited lines along with the actors, and relaxed until time to go to bed. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-13-2023: Procedure Prep and Word Puzzles, *The Suspect*, *Phantom Lady*

 1. Well, I'll be heading up to the Shoshone Medical Center for a colonoscopy on Feb 14, so today, Monday, I centered the day on preparation. No gory details. I just tried to figure out ways to make time go by enjoyably. I spent quite a bit of time playing word games online, trying Wordle-like games I hadn't tried before, and I got out a book I bought quite a while ago of Jumble puzzles and worked some of them.

This approach worked. 

2. In addition, I decided to take a day off of reading about American extremism, and watched two movies from the 1940s. The Criterion Channel is offering a four film collection of Robert Siodmak movies, a film noir pioneer. 

First, I watched The Suspect (1944). It's a murder story centered around an ordinary man, Philip Marshall, played by Charles Laughton, who is in a loveless marriage and engages in a string of Platonic dinner and theater meet ups with a woman named Mary Gray,  played by Ella Raines. Marshall's wife dies in what the coroner determines was an accidental fall, but an inspector from Scotland Yard isn't convinced it was an accident and Philip Marshall becomes a suspect. 

As far as plot, I'll leave it that. 

I enjoyed watching The Suspect. I enjoyed its often shadowy atmosphere, the way the apparent mismatch between Philip Marshall and Mary Gray developed, and every scene when the crafty and, for Philip Marshall, pesky Inspector Huxley popped up. He's an ingenious detective with superb instincts and was an astute judge of character. 

3. Next, I watched Phantom Lady (1944), a darker movie than The Suspect and a much deeper examination of criminality, darkness, and deception. The movie centers around a man named Scott Henderson, played by Alan Curtis. He's accused of murdering his wife, but his secretary, Carol Richman, played by Ella Raines, can't believe he did it and goes to work, with the aid of a police officer, Inspector Burgess, played by Thomas Gomez, to prove Henderson's innocence. 

I had a great time watching Phantom Lady, not only for its storyline, but even more for its portrayal of Manhattan night life and for its moody and shadowy cinematography. The movie takes us into a cozy bar and grill, the production of a Broadway music and dance revue, and into a cramped jazz club. It is as if Carol Richman's search for the truth about the murder of her boss's wife leads her into the dark reaches of Hades where she faces grave danger, but is never deterred. 

If you decide to watch this movie, Franchot Tone's work as Scott Henderson's close friend is memorable and deepens the darkness of this early film noir. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-12-2023: Reading Kathleen Belew, Cornbread From a Box, Macaroni and Cheese and Spirituality

 1. In my current rush of curiosity to better understand extremism in the USA, I've listened to Leah Sottile's podcasts and just finished her book, When the Moon Turns to Red. I discovered Kathleen Belew, a professor at Northwestern University, a few years ago on Twitter. I've followed her ever since and I've listen to interviews she's given on radio shows and on television. Now I'm reading her first book, Bring the War Home, her scholarly and carefully documented examination of what she terms the white power movement, focusing on the years from about 1970-1995. 

Her study begins with emphasis on the small percentage of disillusioned veterans of the Vietnam War who, as her book's title suggests, brought the war home. Now, a certain number of disillusioned veteran's came home and organized as part of the anti-war movement. The disillusioned veterans Belew focuses on came home and organized like-minded people (mostly men) to oppose the government, justifying the use of violence in opposition to taxation, civil rights, immigration, abortion, gay rights, gun control, multi-culturalism, and other elements of American life they regard as a threat to freedom and to the survival of white people. For some, these changes in the United States that they opposed were signs of the end times and so, for these people, their mission is not only patriotic, but holy. 

In these two paragraphs, I've only scratched the surface of Belew's work. I have many chapters left to read, but you get the idea of what her study entails.

2. Carol assigned Debbie and me to bring cornbread and cabbage salad to tonight's family dinner. Because of dietary limitations that began today in preparation for my colonoscopy on Tuesday, I wouldn't be eating the cornbread. Originally, I planned to make cornbread from scratch, but I decided to make things easier on myself and I baked six large cornbread muffins, using a Krusteaz box mix instead. Luckily, everyone seemed happy with the cornbread, but, I swear, next time I bake cornbread it will be from scratch! 

3. Molly went to a Super Bowl party, but Christy, Carol, Paul, Debbie, and I were uninterested in the Super Bowl and proceeded with family dinner almost as if the game weren't happening. (Christy checked the score of the game on occasion.) We began with an appetizer plate made up of many of the items left over from the Greek Maze platter Carol brought to dinner last Monday.

Paul was tonight's mixologist and we could choose between a Dark and Stormy or a Horsefeather. One drink was a "Chiefs drink" the other an "Eagles drink".  The Horsefeather is a Dark and Stormy with bourbon and bitters instead of dark rum. Until this evening, I'd never drunk a bourbon cocktail that featured ginger beer and I liked it a lot. If I remember correctly, the Horsefeather was the Eagles drink. 

Dinner was simple and awesome. Carol consulted Betty Crocker and cooked up a pan of creamy macaroni and cheese and substituted sharp cheddar for American cheese. It was both comforting and had a bite to it that I enjoyed immensely. Debbie found a recipe for a Mediterranean cabbage salad and it was superb. (I look forward to eating more of it after my colonoscopy on Tuesday. The recipe included toasted almonds and my preparation instructions forbade me from eating nuts starting today in advance of the procedure.) The cornbread muffins rounded out the meal. 

We talked about a lot of things. I'd have to say that my primary take away from our discussion is that when it comes to our spiritual lives, not one of us is intensely focused on any one aspect of our faith and none of us are motivated, in our spiritual lives, by fear. It was a pleasure to talk about God and church and our experiences knowing that none of us give concentrated attention to any one dimension of spirituality or the Christian faith. Since I've been reading a lot about people with laser like attention on and obsession with the end times, I welcomed discussion that was not fervent, not singly focused, but generous and balanced. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-11-2023: I Finished Leah Sottile's Book, Living Room Improvement, The Lounge and Hot Wings

 1. I finished reading Leah Sottile's When the Moon Turns to Blood. It tells the story of how Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow's fixation on preparing for the end times and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ became homicidal. I don't know if Leah Sottile would invite this coupling, but, to me, her book and Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven are both primarily concerned with the dark side of religious devotion, with how such devotion, such fanaticism, can motivate cruelty, inhumane action, evil itself. Faith-based violence has a history as long as the history of religion itself and is not confined to any one religion. 

So, while both Sottile and Krakauer tell stories of people who regard themselves as Latter Day Saints, both writers make it clear that their stories are not about people in the mainstream of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Moreover, I came away from both books having learned (or having reinforced) that faith-based violence is not particular to Latter Day Saints,  but is acted out by people devoted to sects of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and more. 

Inevitably, Sottile's and Krakauer's books cause me to turn my attention inward. I've never (or rarely) been drawn to enthusiastic churches and have (almost) always lived a life blending secular and spiritual wisdom. My formation as a person has been shaped as much by the works of William Shakespeare as by what I've learned from the Bible. My experience as a student, chaplain's assistant, and an instructor at Whitworth College (now University) strengthened this blending, and was, to me, at the heart of a Christian Liberal Arts education. 

2.  While I read, Debbie assembled a small buffet for our living room. I wasn't any help with this, but I could help out spiffing up our living area and admiring how this new piece of furniture enhances our living room both aesthetically and functionally. 

3.  Debbie and I returned to The Lounge after I did some shopping at Yoke's. We relaxed, had a great talk, and returned home. I immediately went to work in the kitchen dipping chicken wingettes in salt and peppered flour, frying the wingettes in butter, and then dipping them in a mixture of melted butter and Frank's RedHot pepper sauce. I also cooked some broccoli. 

Wingettes aren't available often at Yoke's. My guess is that these were out today in support of Super Bowl parties. So, when we have hot wings at home, it's a special occasion and today's batch was fun to cook and delicious to devour. 

Butter. To me, it's the key ingredient when preparing wings, whether hot ones, teriyaki, or another style. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-10-2023: Visions and Prophecies, Debbie's Class on the Front Page, Fun at The Lounge

1. In her book, When the Moon Turns to Blood, Leah Sottile details the origins of Chad Daybell's unique expressions of faith and his participation in a web of books he's read and written, lectures he's heard and given, retreats, websites, podcasts, and other means of learning about and communicating to others his visions, prophecies, beliefs, and other expressions of his connections with the supernatural. Lori Vallow joins him, both spiritually and carnally. The book becomes a deep dive into Daybell's and Vallow's certainty about past lives, light and dark spirits, the ability to make the elements like fire, wind, weather, etc. obey their commands, the power of near death experiences, and a host of other experiences most of us do not have. 

Yesterday, I wrote that my recent spat reading and listening has returned me to learning more about different people's lives on the edge. I certainly spent most of today on the edge, on the fringe, at the extremes, whatever you want to call it, by reading more chapters of Leah Sottile's book.

2. Today's Shoshone News Press ran a front page feature, written by our niece, Molly Roberts, about the Kellogg Elks Club giving Debbie's third grade class members each a new dictionary. The students were grateful and excited. They wrote thank you letters with the help of two day a week classroom volunteer Christy Woolum. I hope this story is not behind a paywall and is readily available to you if you'd like to read it. All you have to do is click here. 

3. Ed and I headed up to The Lounge around six o'clock and spent two hours at the bar, enjoying a few beers (and I drank some 1910 Pendleton Rye Whiskey), and yakkin' with each other, with Cas and Tracy, and other merry making denizens of The Lounge. The vibes were mirthful. I enjoyed yakkin' and laughin'. It was a splendid session, uplifting and invigorating. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-09-2023: Back to Life on the Edge, Impending Civil War?, The History of the Game Monopoly and a Slight Connection

1. Today memories of the spring and summer of the year 2000 suddenly rose up and occupied my thoughts. Starting in late March through early June of that year, I was on the only sabbatical leave I ever had during my teaching career. I'd proposed a project involving researching Richard Hugo in Seattle, but those plans got waylaid when I contracted bacterial meningitis in the November of 1999 and by my mother being diagnosed with breast cancer around the same time my sabbatical began.

Some time in early 2000, Debbie's brother, Brian, sent me a copy of Jon Krakauer's Mt. Everest book, Into Thin Air. Without going into a lot of detail, suffice it to say that Krakauer's book, to me, was a story about what things look like on the edge, when living on the fine line between life and death.

Consequently, I changed the focus of my sabbatical, rode a Greyhound bus to Kellogg to be with Mom,  and read book after book about living on the edge and of people who live by extremist beliefs. I jumped right into Krakauer's Into the Wild.  I read more books about mountain climbing, books about Antarctic exploration, the Charles Manson family, true crime books, the OJ Simpson trial, and more. 

(By the way, my sabbatical reading led to my starting the Copia Lecture series in Eugene and I kicked off the series with a lecture that grew out of those months of study. The lecture series lasted about two and half or three years. In the fall of 2004, primarily because of my struggles with fatigue and depression, I decided to terminate the series.) 

I bring this up because I realized today that without really thinking about it, I've returned in the last month to the kind of study I did on my sabbatical through podcasts, documentary films, and books.

I've mentioned podcasts and documentaries along these lines in recent posts. Right now I'm reading Leah Sottile's book When the Moon Turns Blood. In it, Sottile tells the story of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybed, accused of having killed Vallow's children, JJ Vallow and Tyler Ryan. They haven't gone to trial yet. 

To put this story in an historical and religious context, Sottile explores the history of the Church of Latter Day Saints and, more specifically, individuals and their followers who have splintered away from the mainstream church and embraced more extreme views, especially of the end times and the return to earth of Jesus Christ. 

Some of what Sottile writes about splinter groups is familiar to me because about 15-20 years ago I read Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven, a deeply disturbing book about the murder of Brenda Lafferty and her infant daughter, Erica. Brenda's two brothers-in-law, both adherents to extremist LDS ideologies, committed the murders in the name of God. Krakauer devotes a good chunk of his book to writing about his research into the history of the Church of Latter Day Saints and fundamentalist communities guided by extremist ideologies. 

I won't stop with this Sottile's book. It really does feel like I'm back on that sabbatical leave again. 

2. Debbie was fried this evening after having dental work done this afternoon. After we ate some leftover spaghetti and sauce from Tuesday night, we decided not to watch television but listen to podcasts.

We listened to two episodes of Throughline, an NPR podcast. 

The first featured a three member panel composed of Ann Applebaum, Malcolm Nance, and Peniel Joseph. The podcast's moderators posed questions to the panel about polarization in the USA, the increase of people drawn to authoritarian/autocratic governance, extremism, and whether the USA is headed to  some kind of Civil War. 

3.  That podcast was fascinating, but it was draining listening to an hour of this discussion.

So, we changed gears a bit and listened to a Throughline episode digging into the history of the board game Monopoly. 

Hearing the Monopoly origin story and controversy surrounding where it came from was fascinating, as was learning more about the game's popularity and its significance as a cultural artifact. 

About half way through the episode, I realized that not many degrees of separation existed between the episode's storyteller, Mary Pilon, and me.

Her name rang a faint bell when she introduced herself and the bell rang a little louder as the episode continued. 

I suddenly thought, "I think Mary Pilon is from Eugene!"

I was right, as confirmed by a quick look at her bio.

Then I slowly figured out that her dad, Myron Pilon, worked as a Horace Mann insurance agent and I worked with him for several years, starting with the purchase of the house at 940 Madison. Mary's mother, Carol Morse, was also familiar to me for her work at LCC in the counseling department and with a program called The Saturday Circus.

None of this means much. After all, Mary Pilon wouldn't know me from Adam or Eve, but I liked working with her dad. I vaguely remembered when Mary Pilon wrote as a Churchill High School student for the local paper, The Register Guard. We never crossed paths. 

But, I admit, this podcast episode meant a bit more to me, thanks to this small connection, than all of the episodes I've listened to where the degrees of separation between me and podcasters are more numerous. 

Now I must read Mary Pilon's book: The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-08-2023: My Amos McCoy Day, I Follow Shaq's Lead, A TV Detour

 1. As I write this post on Thursday morning, my back has loosened up significantly and I'm going to take a walk later and see how it feels. But, on Wednesday, as happens on occasion, my lower back was tight, seized up, stiff (pick your adjective) and when I got up from the chair, I walked like Amos McCoy for several steps and then I gradually straightened up. Luckily, I'm not in pain. Luckily, applying heat to the offended area felt good and seemed to help. And, luckily, I was able to get household chores done -- kitchen clean up, laundry, litter pan scooping, and cooking dinner.

I also read quite a bit! 

2. Speaking of dinner, I remembered we had a chunk of ground beef in the freezer and it brought to mind an afternoon I spent watching television with Mom. Shaquille O'Neal was a guest on Rachael Ray's cooking show and he demonstrated how he combines ground beef with egg and hot sauce and I don't remember what else to make something akin to hamburger steaks.

So, I got out a bowl, sautéed leftover chopped onions from our family dinner, and combined ground beef, an egg, some Frank's hot sauce, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. At the same time, I boiled a handful of baby Yukon gold potatoes. 

Once the hamburger "steaks" were almost cooked through, I topped them with shredded sharp cheddar cheese, also left over from family dinner. 

This simple dinner turned out to be perfect. It was delicious, comforting, and satisfying. 

Thanks, Shaq.

3. Debbie and I veered off the Columbo highway this evening and randomly decided to give the George Peppard vehicle, Banacek, a try. The episode we watched featured a handful of NFL players from the late 60s and early 70s, including John Brodie, Deacon Jones, Ben Davidson, Gene Washington, Tom Mack, and Clancy Williams. When Banacek was watching the football game during which the episode's crime was committed, Curt Gowdy and Charlie Jones were at the mic. 

We agreed it was fun giving Banacek a whirl, but I doubt we'll return to it.

Next up, The Rockford Files. I enjoyed watching James Garner at work, but I really got a kick out of seeing John McMartin (he's the Washington Post's Foreign Editor in the movie, All the President's Men ["It's a dangerous story for this paper, Ben."] play a professional assassin. McMartin is solid character actor and even if this was not a great Rockford episode, I enjoyed watching McMartin in a role way different than what he plays in All the President's Men. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-07-2023: The Original Blogger, Spaghetti Dinner, Columbo the Magician

1. I got in a solid stroll this afternoon. I headed over by the old S & R, then walked west on Cameron to the 4 way stop, and trudged up to the Shoshone Medical Center. I checked to make sure I knew where the Outpatient Services door is located. It's the door I'll enter next week to check in for my colonoscopy. I sauntered over to the steps that lead up to The Trail and tiptoed down The Trail on the hard pack ice and snow down to Riverside and ambled back home. I won't be returning to The Trail until it thaws.

I enjoy Slate's podcasts called One Year. Each season devotes a series of episodes to different things that happened during the chosen year of that season. I listened to the last episode focused on 1995 as I walked. It featured the story of Carolyn Burke who decided in 1995 to post her daily diary entries online. Eventually, her diary became widely read and discussed and out of her bold move the online weblog or, as we know it, the blog emerged. 

I've been posting on kelloggbloggin since October 1, 2006. It was fun to listen to the original blogger herself talk about why she started her diary, why she gave it up, and how she's been living her life in the 21st century. 

2. I cooked too much spaghetti for our Monday night family dinner, so this afternoon I combined tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, some tomato paste, leftover chopped onions from Monday night, oregano, basil, fennel seeds, salt, pepper, and garlic paste in a pot and slow cooked it until the onions were tender.

Debbie and I fixed ourselves a bowl of pasta and sauce for dinner and settled in for this evening's wind down.

3. We started the wind down with the first episode of the fifth season of the podcast, Slow Burn. Season 5 is entitled, The Road to the Iraq War. It sets out to explain what propelled the USA to invade Iraq and go to war. 

Debbie realized after about twenty minutes that she was too mentally fatigued to listen to this podcast.

Therefore, we put on an episode of Columbo.

It was awesome. Jack Cassidy played an illusionist, The Great Santini, who is also a murderer. 

Columbo teaches The Great Santini that a shrewd detective can, like a magician, create illusions and use them, not to entertain an audience, but to prove that the great illusionist is guilty of homicide. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-06-2023: Gin & Sin and an Appetizer Spread, Cincinnati Chili and Cookies/Ice Cream, Talking About a Transplant with Debbie

1. Family dinner got off to a roaring start at 5:30 this afternoon. I had mixed a carafe of a variation on the cocktail Ward 8. A Ward 8 is a combination of rye whiskey, fresh squeezed lemon juice, fresh squeezed orange juice, and grenadine. The other night, Debbie and I gave this cocktail a test drive, enjoyed it, and then I recommended we try the same drink with gin. We both preferred the gin, so tonight's cocktail, I just learned a few minutes ago, is called a gin & sin. We all enjoyed the gin and, well, the sin, too! 

Carol and Molly were responsible for putting together an appetizer plate roughly guided by nibbles that comprise a Greek Maze Platter and they nailed it. Carol spread out feta cheese, domas, a pickle mix, cheese bread sticks, artichoke hearts, and other delights. I wish I'd written it all down, but you get the idea. Our evening got off to a boisterous start with gin, sin, and this platter! 

2. I boiled a pot of spaghetti while everyone noshed on the nibbles in the living room and around 6:00 or so, having drained the pasta, I got out bowls and dished out everyone a helping of spaghetti topped with the Cincinnati Chili I made yesterday and heated back up today. From this foundation, everyone could decide what to add to their bowl: any combination of black beans, chopped white onion, grated sharp cheddar cheese, and oyster cracker. I also put sour cream on the table in case the chili was too spicy for any one (it wasn't!) and Frank's RedHot Sauce in case any one wanted to add heat to their dish (I did!). 

Cincinnati Chili is a unique dish. For starters, until I heard of the restaurant Skyline Chili, I'd never heard of putting chili sauce over spaghetti. The chili's spice combination is also unique, Mediterranean, in fact. I love the way the cloves, cumin, cinnamon, allspice, sugar, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and garlic powder work with the water, vinegar, tomato paste, unsweetened chocolate, and ground beef to create layers of flavor. 

In assigning each family member's contribution to tonight's family dinner, I thought vanilla ice cream and a cookie would be a suitable way to finish our meal.

Christy brought vanilla ice cream and baked cookie bars featuring chocolate chips and other ingredients that I heard Christy mention, but that have now slipped my forgetful mind. The cookies were superb and I found the ice cream a refreshing complement to the Cincinnati Chili.

3. Once again tonight, conversation over dinner bounced between many topics. After Paul, Carol, and Molly left, Christy stayed for a while. Christy volunteers her services to Debbie's class on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so she and Debbie had a lot to discuss. By now, I was worn out after working on Cincinnati Chili for a couple days, so I rested and listened to Christy and Debbie talk about working with third graders. 

Christy had a phone call to make and returned home. I didn't really see what happened next coming, but I'm glad it did. Debbie and I had a long talk about my kidney situation, about the tests I have taken and those coming up, and about the process of determining whether I'm healthy enough to stay on the transplant list. 

We also talked at length about our meetings last week with the three members of the transplant team and what we were thinking about now, four days later, after Dr. Zafar made such a strong appeal to me to be transplanted as soon as possible.

By the end of our conversation, we agreed that, for now, everything is on hold until my heart tests on Feb. 21 and until the committee at Sacred Heart meets to discuss whether I am healthy enough for kidney transplant surgery. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-05-2023: Preparing Cincinnati Chili, Six Hours of *Fiasco*, Winding Down

1. I was going to surprise Christy, Carol, Paul, and Molly at not say ahead of time what I was cooking for Monday's family dinner. But, here I go: I'm writing about it right now, spoiling the surprise! To get the Cincinnati Chili started, I combined the water, tomato paste, and unsweetened chocolate in a Dutch oven and heated it up for a few minutes. Then I added the seasonings and other ingredients: chili powder, cinnamon, garlic powder, cumin, allspice, cloves, red pepper flakes, black pepper, salt, sugar, and vinegar. After I crumbled about a pound and a half of ground beef into the pot, I brought all of this to a boil and then turned the heat way down and the chili simmered away and thickened for a few hours. 

I accidentally put 3/4 of a teaspoon of red pepper flakes in the chili instead of 1/4 of teaspoon. Out of concern that the chili might have too much heat, later in the evening, I fried more ground beef and added it to the chili.

Cincinnati Chili has some cooling ingredients in the final bowl. The spaghetti, the grated cheese, the option to use oyster crackers, and maybe even the beans might help make the dish less spicy (if it's too spicy for any family members). In addition, I'm going to have sour cream available at the table. It's not, at least traditionally, an ingredient in a bowl or plate of Cincinnati Chili, but it would taste good, I think, and would definitely help the dish if I have created a problem of too much heat. 

The funny thing is, I'll also have a bottle of Frank's RedHot Original Sauce on the table for anyone who might like their Cincinnati Chili spicier than what I've prepared. 

2. I discovered that Epix, the maker of the docuseries Slow Burn, also made a docuseries called Fiasco, a six hour plunge into the Iran-Contra mess that occurred during Ronald Reagan's second term as president. The docuseries efficiently and insightfully provided context for the Iran-Contra mess by looking at the Iran Revolution of 1979 and the taking of U.S. hostages in November of that year and looking at the civil war in Nicaragua which resulted in a regime change in 1979. 

The hostage situation was particularly important to this story because Ronald Reagan made a lot of hay on the 1980 campaign trail criticizing current president Jimmy Carter for being unable to bring about the hostages' release.

During their second term, Reagan and his administration suddenly faced hostage situations of their own in Lebanon and, concurrently, were conducting covert operations in Nicaragua in support of the Nicaraguan Contras as they fought to take the country back from the Sandinistas who had seized control of the country from the strong-armed dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. 

The Iran-Contra debacle was a consequence of the US selling arms to Iran (to help them in their war with Iraq) with the understanding that Iran would, in exchange for the purchase of arms,  help negotiate the release of the hostages in Lebanon.  Then, members of the Reagan administration diverted funds made from selling the arms to Iran to the Contras, as a way of working around legislation forbidding such governmental support. 

How all of this covert negotiating and arms dealing with Iran, covert support of the Contras, and the diversion of the arms sales monies to the Contras came about and how it came to light for the public to see was fascinating to revisit.

Debbie and I couldn't pull ourselves away from Fiasco and watched all six hours of this series from the middle of the afternoon until about ten o'clock in the evening. 

3. Reliving those years covered in Fiasco from about 1979-1987, I needed some time to wind down before going to bed. 

My mind was reeling with memories, not only of the conflicts around the world and the powerful impact of Reagan's presidency and policies on life in the USA, but also of the upheaval in my life as I started graduate school, suffered through divorce and the annulment of my first marriage, and entered into a long period of instability, confusion, and uncertainty. I'm grateful that the chaos of my life was balanced by the stimulation and success I enjoyed in my work as an instructor at Whitworth, U of Oregon, and Lane Community College and by the company of friends, friends with whom I talked, drank countless cups of coffee, watched movies, ate many meals, listened to music, danced, discussed ideas, and went on long walks, whether in Spokane and Eugene or into the great outdoors. Thankfully, many of those friendships are still alive and thriving to this day.  

So how did I wind down? 

I watched about an hour of yet another tournament on the World Poker Tour on Pluto TV with Luna velcroed to my chest. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-04-2023: Income Taxes Filed, An Afternoon Reading *The New Yorker*, Grilled Sandwiches and Tomato Soup and Democracy

1. Our taxes aren't complicated. Getting the forms filled out and filed isn't that big of a deal. That said, I like getting this task done as soon as possible and today I wrapped up the process. 

2. This afternoon, I plunged into the latest issue of The New Yorker. Jelani Cobb wrote this week's lead editorial, reflecting on the current status of African American studies, with emphasis on developments in Florida. From a piece by Alec MacGillis, I learned more about ways cities like Baltimore and Chicago and Louisville have been and are today involving people who are not police officers (many are former criminals) to try to curb violent crime, largely by interrupting potential perpetrators before they retaliate or protect turf or act out their rage or despair and shoot someone. The success of these efforts, as one might expect, is uneven for any number of reasons. Last, I read Louis Menand's essay on the gradual erosion of our country's trust in the press (and in television news) over the last 55-60 years. Menand's piece is a review essay. He draws upon seven different books, some recently published, others published around fifty years ago, to examine the history of journalism and the difficulties of objectivity. I made a list of the seven books and am going to see which ones I can secure through the library and which ones I might purchase.

3. Debbie and I enjoyed a delicious dinner. I once again used the Great Harvest bread Debbie picked up on Thursday and made us each a grilled havarti cheese and bacon sandwich accompanied by a bowl of tomato soup.

Debbie had listened to the podcast on Watergate, season 1 of Slow Burn, but hadn't watched the television documentary series of the same material. We watched the first two episodes.

It riveted me again, especially after reading Menand's essay in The New Yorker and having the questions he raised and the assertions he made about the role of journalism in a democracy. Taken together, his essay, entitled, "When American Lost Faith in the News" and the episodes of Slow Burn underscore the vulnerability of democracy and raise thorny questions about the role of journalism when the ideals of democracy are attacked and being undermined. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-03-2023: Gratitude, Taxes and Suspension Rods, Great Harvest Bread for Dinner

 1. On Friday morning, I posted a summation of Debbie and my visit to the Kidney Transplant Center at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane. 

All through the day, friends and family responded with supportive sentiments and emojis, prayers, best wishes in my deliberations, insight into transplantation itself, an understanding of the thorny nature of the decisions I'll be making, appreciation for Debbie being with me in the discussion I had scheduled, encouragement about the excellent quality of the transplant team I'm working with, and some sound advice.

All of this positive response strengthened my efforts to remain calm, deliberative, and hopeful. 

Thank you. 

Everyone. 

2. The last W-2 form I'd been waiting for arrived today and I have the taxes ready to e-file on Saturday. In addition, Brock arrived today with four new suspension rods for our washing machine and it should keep the machine from rockin' and rollin', from shakin' and bakin', a great aid to the machine spinning properly. 

3. I might have mentioned yesterday that while I was in radiology and at the lab on Thursday, Debbie rocketed all over Spokane's South Hill, including a stop at the Great Harvest bakery on S. Regal. Tonight, I fixed myself a grilled Havarti cheese sandwich with bacon, using Great Harvest's Farmhouse White bread and I made Debbie a bacon and tomato sandwich on toast, using Great Harvest's Asiago Sourdough bread and we loved every bite. 

I first ate Great Harvest bread about 35 years ago in Eugene. I hadn't eaten any for several years and tonight I enjoyed a rush of great memories associated with not only Great Harvest's bread, but with the stunning blueberry muffins I used to buy on occasion at their bakery on Willamette St. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-02-2023: Procedures at Sacred Heart, A Different Perspective on Getting a Transplant, Beer and Bread Back Home

 1. After a stop at The Beanery, where I purchased a lemon scone and a 16 oz double latte, Debbie and I blasted over the clear and dry 4th of July Pass and swooped into Spokane. Debbie dropped me off at the Main Hospital building at Sacred Heart. 

I checked in at radiology and before long one technician took an x-ray of my chest and another escorted me to the CT scan room where she took pictures of my abdomen.

I sauntered to the elevator, returned to the main floor, and found the right place to check in for my lab work and an EKG. Before long, I sat while the phlebotomist drew about ten vials of blood out of my arm and I succeeded in producing a urine sample. 

After a short wait, I reclined on a gurney and submitted gladly to an EKG.

2. With these procedures finished, I strolled over to the Doctors' Building and the Kidney Transplant Center on the first floor.

I was about a half an hour early for my three appointments scheduled to start at 2:00. No problem. Almost immediately, a nurse popped into the waiting room, weighed me, and took me to a consultation room where she took my blood pressure and blood oxygen and asked me a few questions.

Soon, Debbie arrived. The transplant nurse coordinator popped in and we started to talk about my situation. A change in rules is being enforced. Those of us on the transplant list categorized as inactive now must be evaluated annually. It doesn't matter that it fine with me, but, it is! 

Next, one of the program's transplant nephrologists came in.

Dr. Zafar's perspective about my situation was very different from that of my primary nephrologist, Dr. Bieber.

In short, this doctor strongly urged me to return to active status once I've cleared my cardiac tests on February 21st. Because I have so much time on the list accrued, he's confident I would be offered an organ fairly quickly and he urged me to have transplant surgery as soon as possible.

The phrase he repeated is one I was familiar with: preemptive transplant. The idea is to boost the patient's kidney function with a transplant as soon as possible, preempting the patient going on dialysis.

He argued more forcefully for a transplant as soon as possible than any other nephrologist I've worked with. 

Up until now, Drs. Bieber and Jones here in Idaho and Dr. Malik in Bethesda have emphasized the stability of my numbers and have counseled me to ride out this stability for as long as possible before being transplanted.

Today, though, Dr. Zafar posed a contrasting argument and seemed puzzled why I would turn down an offer for an organ if I became active again.

Dr. Zafar didn't rattle me. I listened earnestly to what he said and I'm turning it all over, slowly, in my mind. I will wait until my heart tests at the end of this month are finished, make sure I am still healthy enough to remain listed, and then I'll decide, in consultation with Dr. Bieber, how I want to move forward.

I was especially happy that Debbie was with me for this appointment. I'll be able to double check with her that I heard Dr. Zafar's argument the way I think I did. When I see Dr. Bieber next time, Debbie will join me -- that was her idea -- and it's a superb one.

Our last appointment of the afternoon was the best one of the day.

Debbie and I talked for nearly an hour with Helen Hedges who is a social worker with the transplant program.

She reviewed nuts and bolts sorts of things with us about what it means for Debbie to be my support person if I do get transplanted and she talked with us intelligently and insightfully about our visit with Dr. Zafar, making it clear that when it comes to making decisions about a transplant and its timing, it's ultimately my decision. I'll quote Helen: "You are the boss."

3. While I was being scanned, x-rayed, poked, and electrocardiographed, Debbie toured south Spokane. She got a haircut. She dropped in at Target. She made two stops that made me ecstatic: she bought four loaves of bread at Great Harvest and at Huckleberry's she purchased us each a can of pFriem beer, a hazy IPA for herself and a pilsner for me. 

We arrived home, each ate heavenly slices of asiago sourdough bread with butter, and settled into watching an episode of Columbo. 

The bread, the beer, the risotto Debbie prepared for dinner, and watching Columbo helped us ease out of a fairly intense day at Sacred Heart. 

I stayed up longer than Debbie and enjoyed watching an hour of WPT Poker on Pluto TV and then watched the first episode of the Watergate documentary Slow Burn, a fascinating examination of Martha Mitchell. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-01-2023: Lightroom Tutorials, Appointment Errors, Nixon's Resignation

1. I continued to watch Lightroom videos and I'm still not clear on this question: if I edit a picture from a folder on my hard drive, do the changes automatically get saved on my hard drive file or do I need to do something to replace the old file with the edited one? 

2. I think one of the doctors, or a staff member,  from the transplant program at Sacred Heart read "Kennewick" instead of "Kellogg" when ordering my heart tests. I got two calls from Richland today to schedule tests I already have scheduled in CdA. These calls threw me for a loop, but all's well that ends well. The Richland employees canceled the orders, I don't have to go to Richland (ha!), and my appointments in CdA are still in place for February 21st.

3. The last episode of Slow Burn was fascinating. It focused on what became known as "The Saturday Night Massacre" when President Nixon wanted Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor, fired and his Attorney General, Eliot Richardson and Richardson's deputy, William Ruckelshaus, both refused to do it and resigned. Robert Bork, the Solicitor General, agreed to Nixon's order and soon the FBI occupied the Special Prosecutor's office. The story got even better when Nixon appointed a new Special Prosector, Leon Jaworski, and Jaworski turned out to be as determined as Cox had been to make the White House release the tapes Nixon had recorded while conducting business in the White House. Eventually, the question of releasing the tapes went to the Supreme Court and the court unanimously ruled that Nixon had to turn over the tapes.

Nixon's term of service was doomed. 

    

Three Beautiful Things 01-31-2023: Washing Machine Update, Watching Amateur Retirees Play Poker, *Columbo* and Late Night with Watergate

1. Brock came by and determined that a couple of suspension rods in our washing machine need to be replaced. Watts Appliance doesn't have these parts on hand (no problem), so Sherri will put in an order and once they come in, Brock can replace them. 

2. I almost never clean up the kitchen in the evening, so late this morning I took care of dishes and cleaned counters. For the first time, I moved the television onto the dining table and tuned into King of the Club, a WPT show on Pluto TV that I'd never heard of. It's fun. The show features everyday players, not pros, who get a chance to play for some pretty good prize money and experience what it's like to play on television. I especially enjoyed the episode I kept an eye on today because all but one of the players were about my age -- it was fun to watch old very appreciative players bring their skills and temperament to the table.

3. After I whipped up sesame chicken breasts and jasmine rice for Debbie and me and after we watched Jamie Lee Curtis' mom (Janet Leigh) as the guest star on Columbo, I fired up All the President's Men for about the 98th time. Debbie retired for the night before the movie ended, but I savored the entire movie, marveling again at everything about it, but especially Gordon Willis' cinematography. 

A while back, Debbie purchased the entire first season of the documentary series, Slow Burn. Like season one of the podcast of the same name, this season dives deep into how the break-in at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters metastasized into the uncovering of covert operations and cover up efforts that resulted in Richard Nixon's resignation.

This series features lengthy interviews with several behind the scenes people involved in the investigation of Watergate. It's fun learning more from members of the army of staffers, both Democrats and Republicans, who worked tirelessly in support of the members of the Senate Select Committee by interviewing people who would testify and organizing how the Senators would approach each day of questioning. 

I've listened to the first season of Slow Burn as a podcast a couple of times and it was fascinating to watch much of the same material structured into a series of hour long made for television documentary episodes.