Three Beautiful Things 02-28-2024: Day of Rest, New Couch Arrives, Baked Penne

1. I realized late this morning that I needed a day to rest and so I didn't go to the Fitness Center. It was a smart move. 

2. Debbie bought a new couch and the Furniture Exchange (under new ownership) delivered it today efficiently and in a most friendly manner. 

3. I enjoy eating baked pasta and today's HelloFresh bag contained the ingredients for an easy to assemble and bake penne dish and on a day when I was hungry all day and couldn't seem to satisfy my hunger, this tomato-based zucchini enriched lasagna-like dish satisfied me. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-27-2024: I Needed a Snack, Follow Your Bliss, Corn Chowder

1. Evidently, my brown rice scramble, with two eggs and grated cheese on top and a side of cottage cheese was not a sufficient breakfast this morning. I finished my workout in CdA feeling wobbly. I sat for about 10-15 minutes. Claudia offered me a 4 oz container of orange juice in case my blood sugar was low. The juice helped, I rallied, and drove, without a problem, to Fred Meyer. When I finished my small shopping trip, I chomped greedily into a Cosmic Crisp apple and ate some nuts. I drank a pint of water.  Ah! Before long, I felt totally revived. 

Going forward, I am going to pack some food to take with me to both the rehab gym and the Fitness Center, probably a cut up apple, some cheese, and some almonds or cashews so that if I have this experience again, I'll have some fuel on hand to energize myself. 

2. I've been thinking a little bit about Joseph Campbell's famous imperative, "Follow your bliss".  My mind has been traveling back to when I was in graduate school, especially the years following my two school years (1982-84) working as an instructor at Whitworth. I was doing two things that energized me, that roused my passions, that gave me a sense of purpose and joy: I was teaching as a grad student and I was learning how to cook. 

I never did find bliss in writing scholarship. 

I enjoyed studying primary works and reading scholarly treatments of those works, but translating my studies into the substance of what I taught in class blissed me out far more than writing papers or trying to write a dissertation.

I didn't have a car from about 1982-1988. I borrowed others' cars sometimes, but mostly I got around either by foot or riding a bicycle. 

I lived near downtown Eugene close to two natural food stores -- Kiva and the New Frontier Market. When I shopped for groceries, I carried them home, some items in a backpack, others in a bag. 

Often when I should have been researching and writing, my mind was more occupied with what I would cook when I arrived home, what recipe I would try out from Recipes for a Small Planet, any one of Mollie Katzen's cookbooks, from Laurel's Kitchen, or from Nikki and David Goldbeck's American Wholefoods Cuisine. 

Not once did I think I'd try to turn my bliss for cooking into a vocation. Nor did I ever have any aspirations to cook gourmet food. I enjoyed then, as I do now, cooking simple meals.

A couple days ago, I learned on Facebook that Mark Stern, a former student of mine, who also became a friend, is retiring.

Mark followed his bliss for cooking. When he was a student of mine in the early 1990s, if I remember correctly, he was cooking food for a food bar at Sundance Foods in Eugene. Later, he operated a very successful food cart, serving soup, on the U of O campus and later he opened a brick and mortar restaurant  near 5th and High called Soup Nation.

Concurrently, Mark also ran a superb catering business called Carte Blanche and, in the last few years, as best I could tell, Carte Blanche was the sole focus of his work in the food industry.

"Follow your bliss."

I did that for all the years I taught. I sometimes found administrative things outside the classroom less than blissful, but working with students, whether as a group or in individual conferences always vitalized me with some degree of bliss. 

I have further followed my bliss at home as I continue to cook non-gourmet meals, try out new things, and return again and again to the meatless cooking that got me started forty years ago.

I don't know this, but I imagine Mark Stern's retirement will come as a disappointment to his customers and clients who, over the last thirty years or so, have enjoyed his superb soups and his artfully presented and delicious catering offerings. 

I also know that sometimes following your bliss means leaving a long experienced bliss behind. 

That's what I did when I retired. 

I wonder if Mark is having a similar experience. 

I won't presume to know, but I've always been very happy for his terrific career, for the way Mark followed his bliss. 

3. Thanks to HelloFresh, we enjoyed another simple, delicious, and meatless dinner tonight. And it was blissful to prepare. I fixed corn chowder and Old Bay toast. The chowder's combination of green pepper, scallions, sweet corn, and russet potatoes made it both flavorful and comforting. I could easily make this chowder on my own, especially with the help of the HelloFresh recipe card. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-26-2024: I Return to Rare Earth's Live Album, Throwback Stir Fry Dinner, Vitality Again!

1. Over the last few days, while working out, I listened to Chicago: Live at Carnegie Hall. I'm ecstatic that I gave this album another listen all these fifty some odd years later after dismissing it when I was a teen. 

I got to thinking about live albums from my high school years. All in all, I avoided them with one scintillating exception: Rare Earth: Live in Concert. I played that album repeatedly in high school and today I dialed in up on Spotify and listened again while I worked out.

I loved it again today. I got to thinking that, in a way I'd never thought about until today, that this album was a gateway to my future enjoyment of the Grateful Dead's recordings live on tapes and their Europe '72  album. I listened to that album, thanks to Jeff Harrison, for the first time in late December of 1987 in Jay's apartment in San Francisco. I would go to my first Grateful Dead show on 12-31-87 and Jeff was tutoring me in the history and the sounds of the Grateful Dead to help me prepare to go to the New Year's Eve show.

I didn't think about it then, but now, having listened to Rare Earth's long jams on their live album -- especially their nearly twenty-five minute wide open jam version of  "Get Ready" -- I realized that what I loved about Rare Earth might have been in a different pew from the Grateful Dead, but it was in the same church. 

Next up? I'll be seeing what I think over fifty years after the fact of Three Dog Night's live album, recorded at the Los Angeles Forum.

2. Maybe it was thinking about my entree into the music of the Grateful Dead in 1987 and the years following that made me suddenly have a hankering for a vegetable and tofu stir fry with brown rice. I was single and had moved into a basement apartment in Eugene in the late fall of 1984 and I went from being casually committed to cooking for myself to making it a nearly everyday effort. I was especially devoted to vegetarian cooking -- it was fun, less expensive, and much easier on the tiny kitchen I had. 

I cooked and ate a lot of tofu from about 1985 forward and today I went back to those days. I baked cubes of tofu and then added the cubes to a stir fry of white onion, red pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes, seasoning it all with black pepper and fresh basil. I also cooked a pot of brown rice and, as I prepared this food,  I felt some of the excitement I experienced 30-35 years ago when I was determined to become an independent cook, not rely on anyone else to cook my food, and not to dine out very often. 

Debbie and I loved this stir fry and if I can keep my wits about me and remember to do it, I think I'll whip one of these up every one or two weeks! 

3. Those two weeks of illness threw some of my routines out of whack. I'd say I'm almost fully recovered and I'm getting back to longer workout sessions and back to the hydration schedule I was on before. It's hard to describe just how much I'm enjoying the return of my energy and a renewed sense of physical and mental vitality. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-25-2024: Burning Calories, Delicious Family Dinner, Great Conversations

1. Often what I hope to do at the Fitness Center is burn more calories than I ate for breakfast. If I push and pull, huff and puff,  pedal and often stride for an hour or so, I can usually achieve this goal. Today I arrived at the gym early enough to exercise for a full hour before it closed at noon and I accomplished my goal. 

2. I'm guided by an app on my cell phone that stipulates how many calories I should consume in a day to meet my next weight loss goal. I enter, as best I can, what I eat and how much, keeping track of calories. The app also tracks the calories I burn when I exercise. 

Today, knowing family dinner would include a cocktail, some wine, an entree, some bread, and a dessert, I did my best to keep my calorie intake down during the day -- and it worked. 

Christy hosted family dinner tonight. 

It was awesome. 

Carol and Paul brought naan bread and hummus to start and Debbie fixed her current favorite cocktail, a blend of gin, Cointreau, fresh orange juice, and fresh lemon juice. 

Christy prepared a superb spinach feta lasagna. No store in the Silver Valley had lasagna noodles in stock, so she used radiatori pasta, to great success as far I was concerned. I think I enjoyed these bite sized radiator looking pasta bits better than I like the thicker lasagna noodle. That said, I would never turn down lasagna made with the bigger strips of pasta! 

Debbie made a unique and tasty celery salad and Molly brought a loaf of garlic bread that Christy heated in the oven. 

I drank a small pour of very satisfying red wine with my meal and then totally enjoyed a bar of Christy's chocolate oatmeal pan cookies with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

3. We talked about a lot of things tonight as we ate and after we were finished -- books, book groups, the soon to occur opening of Nocturn, human aggression, how people resolve conflicts (adults and children), theological questions, and more. 

My mind was a buzzing hive of mental activity when I returned home! 

Three Beautiful Things 02-24-2024: More Energy, Unexpected Dinner Pleasures, Fact and Fabrication

1. Because Gibbs was out of dog food and we needed a few other items this morning, I delayed my visit to the Fitness Center until I finished shopping and put the groceries away.

I'm back to having the energy to work out for at least an hour again, even though I fell a bit short of sixty minutes today.

It's encouraging. For about two weeks, I only worked out a very few times thanks to that stubborn bug that wouldn't go away. Yes, I'm still a tiny bit congested, but mostly I've recovered and it feels great to be able to huff and puff, pedal and pump, and burn calories again.

2. Debbie and I had what turned out to be an unexpectedly fun dinner tonight -- even if it doesn't sound like it! I'd thawed a couple of tilapia filets. I seasoned them with dry dill and Old Bay seasoning. I also made a pot of basmati rice. Debbie was going to bring home dinner from Wah Hing. But, when through a text exchange, while she was at The Lounge, she learned I had a dinner planned, she decided to order Szechwan vegetables from Wah Hing to provide our meal with a side dish. 

I made a simple sauce for our tilapia, combining sour cream, yogurt, and fresh lemon juice.

But, lo and behold, when I bought the Nancy's yogurt at Pilgrim's last week, I hadn't noticed that it was vanilla yogurt.

Surprise! Surprise! The sauce for the fish was subtly sweet, along with being tangy, and it worked! My accident was a fortunate one.

And, the Szechwan vegetables had plenty of heat, so our simple dinner was a banquet for our taste buds and, to be honest, this unexpected pleasure made me a little giddy! 

3.  As I read further this evening into Bruce Chatwin's book, The Songlines, I thought back to my teaching days at Lane Community College and the work some of my fellow teachers were doing with creative non-fiction. I'm not entirely sure I ever fully understood the genre of creative non-fiction, but I THINK the idea was that not only could writers write non-fiction, say memoir, by telling things that happened, they could also employ the techniques of writing poetry and fiction, including in their non-fiction pieces imagined characters and events. 

For a writer like Hunter S. Thompson, this approach was called New Journalism or Gonzo Journalism.

Bob Dylan does it frequently. If you saw the movie Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, you know that the movie simultaneously documented conversations, behind the scene moments, and concert footage from Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue Tour. You know that it also included fabricated characters and fabricated events, creatively mixing the actual with the fanciful.

If you've read Bob Dylan's recent book, The Philosophy of Modern Song, you know that Bob Dylan fabricates stories and makes up "facts" from time to time and he makes assertions that sound like he's pulling his readers' legs. Dylan keeps those reading his work or watching him interviewed or listening to his commentary off balance with his blending of the actual with the made up.

I need to look into this more after I finish the book, but The Songlines is sure reading to me like a work of creative non-fiction. Chatwin creates a character named Bruce, ostensibly it's Chatwin himself, and Bruce goes on one foray after another into the Australian bush with a character named Arkady. I might be wrong, but I get the sense that Arkady is much like Hunter S. Thompson's sidekick, Oscar Zeta Acosta, his heavyweight Samoan lawyer. They are characters who serve both writers' storytelling purposes, but are made up. 

So, do Thompson, Dylan, and Chatwin get at truths about their subject matter in ways they couldn't if they stuck strictly to the facts? 

I think they do. 

For now, I'll leave it at that.  

Three Beautiful Things 02-23-2024: Chicago Live at Carnegie Hall in the Fitness Center, The Jolt of Blood, Sweat & Tears, Drinking a Classic Craft Beer

1. Kenton Bird recommended that I listen to Chicago: Live at Carnegie Hall after he read my recent comments about Chicago III. 

So, as I settled in at the Fitness Center for an hour of aerobic exercise, I dialed up this album on Spotify.

The album ignited a rush of activity in my mind.

First, I'd totally forgotten that Live at Carnegie Hall was Chicago IV. 

Then some facts came back to me. 

I bought this album immediately upon its release and then rarely listened to it.

Back when I bought it, as a senior in high school, I wanted the live performance to sound just like the studio albums, Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago II, and Chicago III.

Back then, I really didn't have much of a sense at all about how much more control a band and its producer and engineers have over the music created in a studio and I strongly preferred the clean, near perfection of the Chicago's studio sound.

Not so today! 

Over the years, my attitude about live performances has transformed -- I think in large part because of the love I developed over thirty years ago (and that continues into the present) for live jam band performances and my experiences listening to live performances of the Grateful Dead, Zero, Nine Days Wonder, Little Women, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, and other adventurous, improvisational bands -- not only rock bands, but jazz bands, too.

Back in 1971-72, when I probably only listened to Chicago IV about one time and rejected it, I was impatient with Chicago opening up their songs, turning songs into jam sessions, turning Terry Kath loose for long guitar solos, and featuring the band's other instrumentalists. 

I thought today, as I pumped my legs and arms on the Nu-Step machine, how, at 17/8 years of age, how could I NOT have been ecstatic about Robert Lamm's long free form piano solo at the beginning of "Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?" and the other forays into solos, improvisations, and musical fun the band performed on this album? 

The answer is simple: because it didn't sound exactly like the studio album.

Am I ever stoked that I took Kenton's advice and listened to the first hour of this album today. I can hardly wait to get back to the gym and continue to listen to it, to experience the vigor, the youth, the daring of Chicago live in concert. 

Is the sound quality of this album perfect? 

No! 

Are there rough spots?

Yes! 

Does the band seem more human, less edited, less engineered on Chicago IV? 

Absolutely.

Live performances consist of one leap of faith after another. Unexpected things happen. I sure learned this back when I performed in some plays. 

Listening to Chicago IV stirred up the thrills I once experienced in the handful of plays I performed in, thrills I don't feel when I listen to studio albums.

Ah! But studio albums give me their own thrills and I love them. 

I thought, as I drove home from the gym, about the nearly platonic perfection of Steely Dan's Aja and all the minute detailed work Donald Fagen and Walter Becker invested in that album, in the studio, with a steady stream of musicians and vocalists, working to make a perfect sound that could never be replicated live. 

Their work in the studio thrills me. 

So, do I love Chicago's first three studio albums? I absolutely do.

Am I discovering a new found love for their live performances at Carnegie Hall, as presented on Chicago IV? I sure am. 

Same band. Same songs. But not very much alike! 

2. Well, Kenton didn't stop with recommending that I listen Chicago IV!

He also posted, on my Facebook page, reviews of Blood, Sweat & Tear's first album, Child is Father to the Man, pointing out that Blood, Sweat & Tears fused rock and roll with jazz, classical, and other styles in advance of Chicago's first album and opened up possibilities for rock fusion that Chicago built upon and sustained for decades. 

Kenton's posting took me back to a summer day on the shores (or on the water) of Rose Lake.

I was in high school and Mom and my sisters and I were visiting, among other people at the Rose Lake compound of cabins, the Waltmans.

I can't remember if Clint and I were on the beach or in a boat, but I do remember that we got to talking about contemporary rock music. I didn't have the wherewithal then to disagree with him, but he spoke derisively about Credence Clearwater Revival. In time, our conversation moved away from what dissatisfied Clint to the music he enjoyed.

Soon, we were discussing who was better: Chicago or Blood, Sweat & Tears.

I don't remember if we answered this question. 

Now, in my dotage, it's the kind of question I no longer entertain -- it just doesn't matter to me. 

I love both bands.

Some of the review material Kenton sent me was a bit condescending toward Blood, Sweat & Tears' second album, the one that introduced David Clayton-Thomas as the vocalist and featured such awesome songs as "You've Made Me So Very Happy", "Spinning Wheel", "And When I Die", and other great tracks, including "Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie". 

Why condescending?

Some reviewers found this second album too commercial. 

Thank God that in the summer of 1969 when I bought this album, I wasn't thinking about music being too commercial. 

I just knew what moved me and Blood, Sweat & Tears' second album was a source of teenage ecstasy for me. I played that album repeatedly and the instrumentation along with David Clayton-Thomas' vocal stylings sent me into orbit.

Not long after I purchased this album, I heard Chicago's first album for the first time at Chuck DeAndre's house and I was nearly paralyzed with awe. 

I bought the album as soon as I could and had in my possession two albums that transported me, that introduced me to musical possibilities I'd never imagined before, to styles of music that woke me up, enlarged my world, and made me hungry for more.

And, now, over fifty years later, I can open the Spotify app on my smart phone, connect my phone, via Bluetooth, to my wireless ear buds, and love Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears all over again, with deeper appreciation and an even more open mind, with the added bonus of strengthening my body in the Fitness Center. 

3. What more could this stimulating day of music and memories and reflections hold? 

Well, I haven't been drinking much beer over the last few months, but Debbie and I met shortly after 4 p.m. at The Lounge. I had been thinking, as I drove to uptown Kellogg from the Fitness Center, that I'd like to have a classic craft beer, a beer that would take me back to the mid-90s when, after ten years of abstinence, I decided to drink alcohol again. 

Bob always carries one of the first craft beers of the craft beer movement, Sierra Nevada's sturdy, reliable, perfectly balanced, enduring Pale Ale (first brewed in about 1980).

Maybe, for me, Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale is the Blood, Sweat & Tears, the Chicago of craft beers. It helped introduce me to how beers can be flavor bombs and this Pale Ale does so without overwhelming bitterness and with a superb fusion of the hops and malt.

I drank one bottle. 

That was enough.

But that beer helped draw a scintillating afternoon to a close. I went home and rested my mind's buzzing of memories, pleasure, and reflections all brought to the surface by listening to Chicago's live performances and by reading and thinking about Blood, Sweat & Tears.  

Three Beautiful Things 02-22-2024: *Chicago III* Wow!, Restoring the Sube's Vision, Yakkin' with Debbie and Christy and Tracy

1. Today marked my fourteenth day under the influence of this bug -- and it marked one of the first days that I felt like I might be free of the cough, stuffed nose, sore throat, and fatigue. 

I had no reservations about driving to CdA for a session at the rehab gym. I dialed up the levels of resistance on the first machine and the incline on the treadmill, still below the pre-bug levels, but I'm getting closer to where I was over two weeks ago.

I had listened to the first several tracks of Chicago III at the Fitness Center in Smelterville on Wednesday and today I finished the album.

Chicago III was released in January of 1971 and I purchased it soon thereafter, either in a store or through the Columbia Record Club. 

I loved this double album from the first time I listened to it. I remembered today how when I was a teenager I loved George Gershwin's American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue. I never told any of my friends about listening to George Gershwin privately in my bedroom -- I mean, yes, I enjoyed the music my friends enjoyed -- Cream, Santana, Rod Stewart, Credence Clearwater Revival, The Beatles, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and other great albums -- but I had some other tastes in music that I thought were peculiar that I kept to myself (Al Hirt pops to mind, too!). 

My deepest musical satisfaction from about the 8th grade forward came from Gershwin and, in addition, from lab band music. I didn't get to listen to lab band music very often, but at least once or twice I went to Moscow, ID and listened to bands at the new festival that was getting underway, a festival of high school lab bands, the festival that eventually grew into the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.

I remember being blown away by the lab bands from Hermiston, OR and Lewiston, ID -- Lewiston's band leader was Eddie Williams, father of Gary Williams who was two years ahead of me at KHS and a terrific drummer. 

Listening to Chicago III today, I thought, "Man. This band got to record another double album that didn't have one cut on it composed with commercial success in mind. Is this album an incoherent mess or is it a buffet of a variety of musical styles, a fearless expression of the band's eclectic talents and refusal to be predictable?" 

If it's a mess, I love this mess.

If it's a buffet, I'm ready to go back for thirds and fourths. 

The album's cuts are all over the place: the jackhammers and cars honking on "Progress" took me back to Gerswin's "American in Paris". Other tracks were non-melodic dives into what I now think of as the fragmented sounds of some 20th century classical music. One track is the recitation of a poem, "When All the Laughter Dies in Sorrow" (I remember copying in out in the journal required in Mrs. Faraca's English class). I think I also copied out the romantic lyric, "At the Sunrise". This album rocked and rolled. It featured passages of improvisational jazz as well as some country folk and some Latin American sounds. It had tracks that sounded to me like the epitome of the lab band sound I loved so much in high school.

As it turned out, Chicago III did have two hit singles, "Lowdown" and "Free".  

That's not, however, what made this album one of my very favorites.

I loved the album's adventurous explorations, its unconventional incoherence, its scintillating exhibition of the band members' love for classical music, the blues, rock and roll, folk, poetry, jazz, social commentary, romantic love and longing, and what I'll call the lab band sound. 

Until my last two workout sessions, I'd all but forgotten about Chicago III. 

I hope to never forget about it again. 

2. I began to think on Tuesday evening that one of the Sube's headlights might be out and today I confirmed that the left headlight was gone. 

I bolted down to Silver Valley Tire and within about twenty minutes, one of the guys replaced the burnt out bulb and restored the Sube to full vision again.

3. After dinner, Tracy and Christy came over to visit Debbie and me and we had a wide ranging discussion of everything from dog training to Christy's book group to the KHS Class of '73 to working in elementary education to putting on Brigadoon in high school to organ transplants to the writing coach program getting underway at Kellogg High School. And more. 

Our conversation had about the same amount of variety as Chicago III! 

Three Beautiful Things 02-21-2024: The Slow-Go Years, Back to the Fitness Center, Coconut Curry for Dinner

1. If, as Byrdman has told me, the 60s are the go-go years and the 70s are the slow-go years, I surrendered to that trend today. Today was day thirteen of feeling the effects of this persistent bug I've had. Yes, for sure, I was better today than I was a week ago, but I decided it would be wise to stay home this evening rather than drive to Whitworth University for Ron White's 7:00 p.m. presentation. If the presentation had been in the afternoon, I think I could have mustered the energy to go, but I wasn't ready to be out this evening, even if I spent the night in Spokane.

And, sure enough, when 7:00 rolled around this evening, and Debbie and I were listening to the BBC podcast, Obscene: The Dublin Scandal about two murders that rocked the country of Ireland in 1982, I fell asleep listening to it. 

I'm not quite fully recovered.

2. I suppose one reason why I fell asleep in the chair I sat in was because I went to the Fitness Center this afternoon. I only exercised for thirty minutes. It was a light workout on the Nu-Step machine.  I loved that I was in motion, even if I wasn't pushing myself, and I knew I'd reached my energy limit after thirty minutes. 

3. Back home, I popped open a HelloFresh bag and fixed Debbie and me a mild coconut curry dish, featuring a curry sauce combined with chickpeas served over basmati rice. I enjoyed the flavor of the garam masala and I always enjoy eating chickpeas and basmati rice. Were I to cook this recipe again, however, I'd add spice it up with a moderate amount of heat. I don't want curry to give me a swift kick, but I wish I'd punched up this recipe a bit with some red pepper flakes. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-20-2024: My Return to Rehab, Cashing In Our Super Bowl Wagers, We Loved Our Crab Melts

1. I decided that I felt recovered enough from this persistent bug to go to the rehab gym this morning. When I checked in, I said I'd be dialing back the intensity of my exercises and the staff I dealt with were in full support of that. I loved being back on the machines, loved having my legs moving again, and got through my light workout without any problems. 

2. I left the gym and buzzed a short distance down Ironwood Drive where Ed was waiting for me in the Ironwood Square parking lot. I piled into his Camry and we rocketed over to the Spokane Tribe Casino. We dashed to the cashier's counter and presented our winning tickets and we each got paid off for successfully wagering a very modest amount on the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl. 

For the rest of the afternoon, until around 4 o'clock, we goofed off on machines. My luck was not extraordinary, but good enough that I got to try a variety of games and still came home with most of my Super Bowl winnings. 

It was a relaxing afternoon.

3. I stopped at Yoke's before I came home and made sure I had what I needed to fix one of the best dinners we've had in recent memory.

I mixed the over two cups of crab meat we had left over from yesterday's dinner with mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, a bit of orange juice, orange zest, lemon zest, dill, Old Bay Seasoning, olive oil, and green onion. 

I toasted Debbie a plain bagel and toasted a Beach Bum Bakery everything bagel for myself, put the crab spread on the bagels, added a slice of tomato, and topped the tomato with a slice of Gruyere cheese. 

I put our dressed bagels under the broiler until the cheese melted. Our crab melts were superb.

I realized that while I enjoy cracking crab and eating the meat, I think I enjoy crab meat even more when it's an ingredient. I love crab cakes. This crab melt tonight was, for me, even more enjoyable than eating the crab straight out of the shell last night. 

I'd never thought about this preference of mine before, but it excited my imagination, inspired me to want to try other ways of using crab to make salads, bisque, dip, and who knows what else! 

Three Beautiful Things 02-19-2024: Crab Feed at Home, I Continue to Recover, *Songlines* Works For Me

 1. Harley swung by the house this morning and sold us about three pounds of crab legs, mostly, the last of the crab from the Elks crab feed. I put all the legs in our biggest bowl, covered it with plastic wrap, and later in the evening Debbie and I cracked crab legs, ate some meat, and also ate baguette slices and Debbie's delicious bean salad. 

When Debbie was finished eating, we still had an over half full big bowl of crab and I cracked them all, extracted as much meat as I could, and we'll have crab melts for dinner tomorrow night. I also have a gallon zip lock bag bursting with crab shells that I'll turn into stock. 

For us, the Elks crab feed will extend into Tuesday! 

2. I had hoped to feel recovered enough today to return to the Fitness Center, but late in the morning I went back to bed, needing more sleep, and I did the same later in the afternoon. I decided to wait until my appointment at the rehab gym on Tuesday, the 20th, to get back into action. 

Just for the record, this bug has hung on for eleven days and I'm ready to break up with it. 

3. Reading Songlines is going much better this time around. I'm focused. I'm enjoying Bruce Chatwin's writing style a lot. He's got an economic style and, at the same time, his descriptions of people and places in Australia are vivid, appealing strongly to the senses, and his brief chapters are focused and lively. 

He's a superb travel writer and, at the same time, a superb nature writer. He has a nearly encyclopedic mind when it comes to the plants and animals of the places he visits in Australia and is a keen observers of the pubs, bookstores, and other businesses he visits and is particularly observant of the wide variety of individuals he encounters. 

I fully expect that I will see this book all the way to the end this time and not get distracted from finishing it like I have before. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-18-2024: Quick Officiant Task, Back to *Songlines*, A Simple Dinner We'll Often Return To

1. In my role as officiant, I had one more small task to wrap up today and I bopped over to Carol and Paul's house where I took care of it. All I need to do now is mail the marriage certificate to Moscow, ID when the Post Office opens on Tuesday.

2. I fell behind working crossword puzzles and relaxed today getting those puzzles finished. I also brought Bruce Chatwin's book, Songlines, back out and started it all over again. On two or three occasions I've started this book and somehow got distracted from finishing it. I'm determined to read the whole book now and will do so with the help of listening to being read on Audible. 

3. Debbie and I have a new simple and very tasty meal to fall back on when we want something easy and delicious to eat. It's a combination of lemon, garlic, shrimp, butter, and pasta. Tonight was the second time I've fixed this meal lately and we officially enshrined it in our Simple Dinner Hall of Fame to be returned to time and time again. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-17-2024: Officiating Went Well, Cosette and Taylor Were the Soul of the Wedding, Happy Receptions

 1. So, when Paul and others set up the altar area for today's wedding, Paul asked me if I wanted a podium to stand behind. 

I did not.

I'm glad I didn't, but I wish I'd had somewhere at the front of the church to put a water bottle. 

I officiated today's service -- and it went well -- while not fully recovered from this bug I've had for going on for nine days now. 

I realized about three minutes into the service that the bug had dried out my mouth and a sip or two of water would have been a great help. 

I managed without the water. I was able to moisten my mouth from inside it. 

But water would have been perfect. 

All in all, I thought my voice was at about 85-90% and that was absolutely enough to officiate the ceremony. 

2. Here's what I knew going in: Cosette and Taylor would speak the most memorable words of the service while I was standing to the side. 

That's what happened. 

After saying "I do" to a generic vow I put before them and following their brief exchange of wedding rings, Taylor and Cosette took over the service.

They painted a board together, each with a different color of paint, and blended the two colors together on the board in a ceremony of unity. Taylor and Cosette once had a painting business together and so they were not only painting a symbol of blending their lives together, they were also letting us all experience a crucial stage of their history as a couple.

Taylor and Cosette had also written their own vows, vows which soared beyond the generic vow I'd had them say "I do"to a few minutes earlier.

Through their vows, Taylor and Cosette laid out the transformative impact each of them has had on the other and vowed to continue to grow in the love and acceptance that they've shared with each other over the past few years. 

They also wrote vows to Saphire, pledging to continue to raise her in a loving environment. 

This ceremony of unity and Taylor and Cosette's vows formed the soul of this ceremony, made the wedding an emotionally moving service, and gave the ceremony spiritual depth and dimension.

3. Two receptions followed the ceremony. The first featured snacks, cupcakes, and beverages and, once photographers finished taking wedding photographs, featured a quick game of trivia about Taylor and Cosette's biographies and the cutting of the wedding cake.

The second reception featured a buffet dinner and dancing in the cafeteria of the old Kellogg Middle School, now a community center. Cosette and Taylor danced their first dance as a married couple, Cosette and her father, Paul, danced together, and Taylor shared a dance with Saphire. Before the dancing, Paul and Carol sang a duet, performing a song from Les Miserables. Cosette was named after a character in this show.

Debbie and I didn't last long at the reception. We both needed to return home to rest and recover from our illness. 

We were able to stay long enough, however, to experience the post-ceremony joy, even giddiness, shared throughout the room and left knowing that those congregated at the church experienced the wedding as a beautiful, moving, and meaningful ceremony.  

Three Beautiful Things 02-16-2024: I Drove to CdA Today!, My Mindset as I Prepare for the Wedding, A Tasty Rehearsal Dinner

1. It Cosette and Taylor Wedding Eve today. I hoped, hoped, hoped as I got up and around that, on the eighth day of this cold that's been occupying my respiratory system, I could muster up the energy to pick up my dry cleaning (I did) and make a quick trip to Coeur d'Alene for a haircut and to pick up a few things at Costco (I did that, too). 

I didn't talk much in CdA or at the laundry, but when I did, my voice seemed about, oh, 80-85% healthy, giving me confidence that I had enough voice to make it through today's rehearsal. The trip to CdA was not very demanding, but, when I returned home, I fell asleep sitting in the living room and, thank goodness, woke up at 4:40 just in time to gather myself and head across the street to the church for the rehearsal.

2. As long as I'm yakkin' a bit here about the wedding, I'll just say or word or two about my mindset as I prepare to officiate Taylor and Cosette's ceremony.

As I see it, it's incumbent upon me to control myself, to stay calm, not get caught up in the excitement surrounding the wedding, and to keep things within myself low key. 

Within myself, I will play down my role and will do all I can to call as little attention to myself as possible. I hope to appear a bit bland, certainly solemn, and somewhat retiring. To me, it's the words that really matter -- the prayers, vows, blessings, pronouncement, and the short charge I'll give Taylor and Cosette. So, I'll be doing all I can to bring the words alive, hoping to focus the congregation's attention on the words and on Taylor and Cosette. 

Downplaying my role in this ceremony helps me stay calm. 

After our rehearsal this evening, I'm confident everyone knows what do do and, really, the ceremony is simple enough that it would be easy, if it happened, to overcome an error or to direct a person to the right spot if someone forgets what to do.

In short, I'm feeling good about the words and good about the ceremony.  I'm ready to carry out my duty seriously and warmly, in a low key way. 

3. Garrenteed BBQ catered a delicious rehearsal dinner. The beef brisket was beautifully prepared and deliciously tender. Garren's Fire Crack Mac and Cheese is awesome and he prepared a superb cole slaw. He also served pulled pork, but I focused on the brisket. The room was full of conversation, laughter, and reunions. 

Debbie had had a full day and, like me, is dealing with this draining bug. She left the dinner early and I followed suit not long after, looking to conserve my energy, save my voice, and get plenty of rest for so I'll be in at least decent shape at 4:00 on Saturday for the wedding. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-15-2024: Ron White Appearing at Whitworth, Will I Have a Whiskey-Marlboro Voice?, Plain Old Party Wings

1. When I was a Chaplain's Assistant (1976-77) at Whitworth College, the chaplain's name was Ron White. Ron White has recently published a biography of a Civil War general, abolitionist,  and former governor of Maine, a person I'd never heard of, named Joshua Chamberlain. Ron White has previously published books about both Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant. 

Ron White will appear at Whitworth University on Feb 21st and Debbie and I talked at some length this evening about attending. I tried to explain the many very positive influences Ron White had on me, both as a student at Whitworth and as a member of his chaplain's staff.

To put it briefly, I enrolled at Whitworth hungry for a deeper intellectual experience with the Christian faith. Until I studied at Whitworth, I didn't know anything about, say, 20th century theology or about the central conflicts between theologians and denominations in the United States. I hadn't experienced the Bible as a source of academic study. Being a student at Whitworth dizzied me with excitement and one of the most stimulating influences on my intellectual and spiritual growth at that time, starting in 1974, was Ron White, not only because of his preaching at campus worship and his teaching in a couple of study groups I joined that he led, but also because of the many stimulating speakers he invited to campus to speak at the college's twice weekly Forum program.

Later, and it was not his intention, Ron White was instrumental in helping me become engrossed in liturgical worship -- he put me in charge of Compline, a new worship service at Whitworth -- and my weekly leading of the Compline service led me, eventually, to become confirmed in the Episcopal Church. 

So, I'd like to hear Ron White speak again. 

I last saw him about forty years ago. He led the service of ordination at the Whitworth Chapel for Lorraine (Robertson) Stuart. Lorraine was the Associate Chaplain (not sure I have that title right) the year I was a Chaplain's Assistant. 

2. I wasn't feeling quite well enough to go out in the hours long blizzard that blew through Kellogg yesterday to shovel snow. I put out a call for help to Carol.  Zoe's pal Jason buzzed over and shoveled snow for both Christy and me. I was most grateful. 

I did, however, feel well enough to blast over to Yoke's and purchase beverages for the rehearsal dinner. I saw Patti Hei for a few minutes. I had hardly talked all day and was startled by how husky and miserable my voice sounded. 

Yes, this hoarse voice would get the job done on Saturday as I officiate the wedding, but I am hoping that by then I'll be more pleasant to listen to than I was at Yoke's! 

3. I thawed out a package of party wings today and took a low key approach to fixing them for dinner. I baked the wings, seasoning them only with lemon pepper and onion powder (an accident -- I had intended to use garlic powder). I also roasted Yukon gold potatoes and white onion and I steamed a batch of cauliflower. 

For being such a simple dinner to prepare, it sure was great! The whole meal was delicious and comforting, a perfect combination for Debbie as she fights off the early stages of a cold and for me as I keep hoping I'm nearing the end of having this cold for just over a week now. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-14-2024: A Day of Rest, Valentine's Day Fatigue, Unromantic Dinner

1. It's been quite a while since I've been laid out with illness for as long as a week and I don't remember the stages of illness and recovery. If a stage defined by just being flat out fatigued exists, I reached that stage today. I went back to bed twice. My cold symptoms seemed less severe, but I had very little energy. I gave in. I stayed home. I slept. I'm hoping all this rest pushed me closer to full recovery.

2. Debbie and I have a tradition as long as our marriage to not do anything with or for each other on Valentine's Day. When we had kids in the house, Debbie was very good about giving them Valentine's Day chocolate. At work, Debbie had an exhausting day. Valentine's Day was a party day with lots of treats and other things. The children were highly stimulated and excited -- fun for the children, exhausting for the teacher! Debbie survived and went to bed much earlier than usual. She's trying to keep the bug, similar to what I have, she's contracted from growing in strength.

3. With both of us fatigued, I cooked the easiest dinner I could think of. I cooked a pot of jasmine rice, added about four stalks of chopped green onions to the pot, steamed a mess of frozen green beans and corn, and cooked salmon burger patties. I broke the patties into smaller pieces, combined the salmon and the rice, and served the vegetables on the side. It wasn't an especially daring or creative dinner, but it was just what we needed. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-13-2024: My Common Cold Persists, A Superb Email Exchange, More Homemade Soup!

1. This common cold that's taken residence in my chest, throat, and nasal passages didn't move out today. Neither did I. I canceled my rehab session in CdA. I took two naps. I hydrated. I made a quick trip to Yoke's for some supplies like cough drops and Kleenex. 

2. I had one scintillating experience, however. Deborah G and I exchanged long emails and the great time I had writing to her about things present and a few Whitworth things in the past was surpassed only by the long email she wrote to me. 

3. Over the last few days, Debbie and I have been eating homemade chicken and then turkey soup. Today I combined the leftovers of the two soups into a chicken/turkey vegetable soup and it was awesome, and, as before, I ate it with the hope that it might also be medicinal.  

Three Beautiful Things 02-12-2024: Light Workout, Turkey Soup, An Up and Down Night

1.  I determined that I felt well enough today to return to the Fitness Center and exercise after three days off. It went very well. I didn't push myself much, worked on three machines for twenty minutes each, and left the gym feeling good.

2. I picked up a few groceries and two prescriptions at Yoke's and fixed Debbie and me turkey soup, hoping that it would be not only delicious, but medicinal.

3. I went to be feeling pretty good, but overnight the bug I've contracted reasserted itself. My throat became sore, making it difficult to sustain sleep, and I sneezed and had to blow my nose more overnight that I had at any time during the day. In anticipation of another similar night on Tuesday, I'll have throat lozenges on my bed stand. I won't go to CdA for my Tuesday workout. I'll rest, hydrate, eat fruit and protein, and trust that this bug runs its course soon. It's been with me for five days -- and, unfortunately, I know for some others this thing has hung on for a week or two.

The good news, though, is that if I had to officiate the wedding today, I could do it -- I might sneeze, blow my nose a time or two, or cough a bit, but I could do it!  

Three Beautiful Things 02-11-2024: Another Day of Recovery, I Won a Sportsbook Wager -- First Time Ever!, Loose Ends for the Wedding

1. This chest cold I'm waiting out isn't debilitating, but I decided to lie low for at least another day. I woke up this morning after nearly nine hours of sleep with almost no voice and having been up and down a bit, going to the fridge for cold water to ease the soreness in my throat. I don't have a fever. My voice returned after drinking some coffee. I decided to take at least one more day off from going to the Fitness Center. 

I rested by drinking hot liquids, black tea and chicken bouillon, working crossword puzzles, first finishing today's Sunday NYTimes puzzle and then going back to 2022 in the NYTimes archives and working on puzzles I didn't do back then.

2. No doubt I've mentioned it before in this blog, but about, oh, eight years ago or so, I lost interest in watching football. I casually keep up with things so that I can at least know what others are talking about, say, at The Lounge, but I haven't watched a Super Bowl since 2016 and I don't remember the last time I watched a regular season college or professional game.

BUT, I do enjoy going about once or twice a year to the Caesar Sportsbook at either Northern Quest or the Spokane Tribal Casino and placing small wagers.

This year, just shy of two weeks ago, Ed and I blasted over to the Sportsbook at the Spokane Tribal Casino and each made a Super Bowl bet. 

I had decided before we went that I would bet on the game's underdog and it turned out the Chiefs were the underdog, at least on the day we were there.

So, today, while working puzzles, drinking hot liquids, eating the chicken soup Debbie made, and coming up with a list of words to start Wordle puzzles with over the next couple of weeks, I peeked in online on the Super Bowl score.

Lo and behold, the Chiefs won and, voila!, so did I! 

I've made a handful of small wagers at the Sportsbook on the men's NCAA basketball tournament and lost them all.

I broke my losing streak today. Ed also placed a small wager on the Chiefs. 

One day, probably this week, we'll blast back over to Airway Heights, collect our winnings, and hang out for a while at the casino, spinning reels, no doubt, and basking in the glow of our good luck! 

3. In some online conversation with Carol, she let me know what else she needs from us for the rehearsal dinner on Friday and the wedding dinner after the ceremony on Saturday. So, I'm set. This week I'll purchase bottles of water, bottles of pop, and ice for the rehearsal dinner and then contribute a salad for the wedding dinner. 

All that's left for me to find out is what announcements need to be made as the ceremony begins, whether my black slacks really do fit me again, and if my dress jacket will make it back from the cleaners. If the slacks don't fit (I think they will) or if the jacket gets delayed, well, I'll have some shopping to do. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-10-2024: Nurse Karina Was Absolutely Right, In Memory of Joni's Dad, I Feed My Cold

1. Just for the record, when Nurse Karina told me that the transplant world would have to pass on offering me, as an alternate, the available kidney on Friday, I completely trusted her immediate decision. I'm writing this post on Sunday morning. I slept at least nine hours last night, a rarity, and was up and down from time to time to drink water to soothe a developing sore throat. I discovered when Debbie came downstairs and asked me how I'm feeling, that, in trying to answer her, I have lost most of my voice. 

So there. 

Karina was right. I had no business even entertaining the idea of a possible transplant on Friday and the fact that this bug has worsened a bit and persisted over the weekend confirms that. 

2. Last month, Bearl Carlisle, who married Joni (White) Sorenson's mother when Joni was about fifteen years old, and whom she regarded as her father for the next 50+ years, died. Today, Ed, Stu, and I met at Peace Lutheran Church in Post Falls and attended the memorial service for Bearl. The service focused on Bearl's role as Lee, Joni, and Jim's father, Bearl's service in the US Navy, his love of the outdoors and skeet shooting, and his constant and deep Christian faith. Stu, Ed, and I attended the luncheon that followed the reception, got to talk with Joni and Rick, and before long we left, knowing our presence in memory of Joni's father meant a great deal to her. 

3. I've been doing my best since I started going to the rehab gym and the Shoshone Medical Fitness Center to both exercise and lose some weight. I put that effort on hold today, not feeling quite up to working out and knowing that eating plenty of food has always helped me recover from illness. Debbie made my effort to "feed my cold" most pleasurable by fixing a batch of Spanish rice and I hope and I want to believe that deciding to chow down on it freely was a help in getting over this bug, while knowing that, almost without a doubt, I would be losing some ground in my efforts to lose weight. I hope I get rid of this bug fairly soon so I can get back to the regimen I so much enjoy. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-09-2024: Another Kidney Offer, Blood Draw for the Transplant Program, Trip to CdA and a Merry Visit to The Lounge

1. Copper usually starts meowing about 3:30 a.m. He wakes me up. When this happened this morning, I could feel a tickle in my throat. It was sore. I coughed and it was a raspy cough. I could tell that, at the very least, I was coming down with a cold. 

Copper eventually settled down, I went back to sleep, and I woke up around 5:45. I would drive Debbie to school this morning and was ready to start the day with a cup of coffee.The cold I felt coming on two and a half hours earlier hadn't gone away.

I didn't think much of this minor cold, but soon its emergence became critically important.

While I drove out to the Transfer Station to recycle cardboard, cans, and newspapers, I got a call, but I missed it because I left my phone at home.

The caller, it turned out, also texted me.

It was Karina, a nurse for Arrowhead Nursing, a company that calls prospective kidney transplant recipients when there's a match.

Yes, that's right. 

A donor had died and his kidney looked like a match for me. 

Immediately Karina told me I was a backup candidate, that three people would be/had been offered the organ ahead of, meaning that my chances of receiving the organ could be slim.

Turns out, though, it didn't matter.

Karina asked me about my health today and I told her I had caught a minor cold.

"Then we'll have to pass on you. If you go into this surgery with even a small cold, once your immune system is lowered so you won't reject the kidney, that cold could go crazy."

I replied, "Is that it? Are we done?"

"Yes, I'm afraid we are. Please be sure to call your transplant nurse next week and update her on the progress of your cold."

It was all cordial. And I'll follow up with the phone call next week. 

Oh! By the way, had the others not accepted (or not been able to accept) the organ, my surgery would have been tonight -- Friday night. 

Things would have moved along rapidly.

2. I got off the phone, sighed, gathered myself, and thought, "Hmmm. I guess I'll go up to the Shoshone Medical Center and have my monthly blood draw done for the lab in Spokane that serves the transplant program. 

So I did.

And, as it turned out, the phlebotomist who drew my blood was Carol and Paul's good friend Stephanie and we yakked a little bit about next weekend's wedding and, not incidentally, about kidneys and transplants. 

3. I picked up Debbie at school and we scooted on into Coeur d'Alene where she met a 4:00 appointment and I went to Costco and Pilgrim's to shop for some groceries. 

We blasted right back to Kellogg after Debbie's appointment and enjoyed a relaxed hour or so at The Lounge. It was hoppin'. I enjoyed a single cup of brandy and hot water, yakked with Ed when he came in, and marveled at all the people who were in The Lounge tonight and what a positive and relaxed vibe filled the room. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-08-2024: Resistance Bands, Chicago's First Album, Flautas for Dinner

1. The subject of resistance bands came up between Claudia and me on Tuesday and I asked if she would give me a demonstration of how to use the one they issued me. Today, she walked me through how to use it and now I understand that I can use it in lieu of having hand weights at home. Her instruction was helpful and opened up further possibilities regarding what I can do at home for exercise beyond what I do at the gym.

2. Until today, for some odd reason, I hadn't thought to listen to Chicago's first album (Chicago Transit Authority) while working out. The other day Rick Taylor posted a video of Chicago performing the song "Beginnings" live about fifty years ago and it inspired me to play the (double) album today at the rehab gym.

Immediately, Chicago's music transported me to another location in Coeur d'Alene: the Coakroach Castle near North Idaho College. This album was definitely on the rotation of lps we listened to at the Castle. As I remember, Bruce (Bacco) was especially nuts about Chicago and absolutely loved their trombone player, James Pankow, and often when a Chicago song featured a trombone solo, Bruce would rise to his feet and with great exultation cry out James Pankows' name, sometime play air trombone along with him, and bring anyone in his company into the joy of Pankow's brilliance. 

Listening to this album also brought back more recent memories of when Don Knott lived just down the street in the house he called Penny Lane (or Knott's Landing). From time to time, he hosted gatherings of the Hall of Fame of Great Guys on his patio in the back yard where we sat around and listened to music from when we were in our teens and early 20s, ate food, downed beer and liquor, and yakked and yakked and laughed and laughed. Songs from Chicago's album always popped up and opened the way for us to ask the eternal question: "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?"

3. Before long I was done at the rehab gym and living in 2024 again. I took out the remaining Hello Fresh bag and fixed Debbie and me Black Bean and Green Pepper Flautas. 

They worked! 

Three Beautiful Things 02-07-2024: Wedding Ceremony Ready to Go, Later Start at the Fitness Center, Leftover Pasta and a Fruit Salad Revives Me

1. Over the years, I've read one person after another claim that they work best under the pressure of a deadline and do their best work at the last minute. If that approach to things could be thought of as a train, it's a train I don't ride. Today, ten days ahead of Cosette and Taylor's wedding, I finished at least 95% writing the ceremony with the help from a template Paul gave Cosette, from the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer, and from the things I said at the other two weddings I officiated. I'll be 100% finished once I know what announcements I need to make and, possibly, after making some small revisions here and there. What I do know, however, is that if I got a call today from Taylor and Cosette telling me the wedding date had been changed, that they wanted to get married today, I'd have a ceremony written and ready to go! 

2. Because I bore down on getting the wedding ceremony all but completed, I didn't go to the Fitness Center until around 3:00. My energy level was down a bit, but I mildly asserted my wimpy will and got in 70 minutes on the NuStep and one of the stationary bikes. I was very hungry when I left the Fitness Center, but I drew once again upon the slight amount of inner strength I possess and went to Yoke's for a few items and bought Debbie a bottle of Cointreau at the liquor store.

3. Once home, I went right to work on dinner. All I had to do was dice a red pepper and roast it and add it to the leftover lemon garlic shrimp penne I made last night once it had warmed up. Debbie and I were both excited about how much we enjoyed this simple pasta dish and agreed that adding the roasted red pepper was just the right thing to do. 

I felt much better after dinner and then, after I fixed myself (and ate) an apple, strawberry, blueberry, and Nancy's plain yogurt salad, I felt even better and joined Copper in the bedroom so we could work on the Thursday NYTimes crossword puzzle! 

Three Beautiful Things 02-06-2024: No New Clothes Just Yet, Helping Relieve Copper's Anxiety, Lemon and Garlic and Pasta

1. So I had finished my workout on the two machines I use at the rehab gym. In between time on the machines I did my lifts with hand weights. In order to be released to go home, my heart rate has to slow down to a certain rate -- that was going splendidly again today -- and while I was cooling off, staff member Claudia asked me if I'd bought any new clothes. I was embarrassed. I thought she was referring to the fact that I've worn the same sweat pants nearly every day in that gym since early November. 

"What?" I replied.

"Bought new clothes since you've lost those twenty pounds!"

Ah! Her question was a compliment, another way of encouraging my rehab work.

"No." I replied, "I don't want to be cocky." (I've lost weight before and also gained it back and more.)

I continued: "But, I did buy a smaller belt. I can cinch my somewhat looser pants a little tighter so they won't slip off me."

We then talked more about further weight loss, goals, strengthening myself for a kidney transplant, and how I've progressed.

I have never lost motivation since I started this regimen. 

All the same, I welcomed another motivational boost from Claudia. 

2. Back home, I checked in on Copper. I had done some reading about cats feeling stressed and anxious and I have good reason to think Copper feels this way when he's alone, whether in the bedroom or the Vizio room. I read that sometimes cats who are stressed want more than one litter pan option. I moved the litter pan from the Vizio room into the bedroom so that Copper has two clean pans to choose from. When he spends time in the Vizio room (like he is right now), I'll simply move one of the pans in there and return it to the bedroom when he goes back. 

I spent a good amount of time with Copper in the bedroom this afternoon and evening. Our being together relaxes him, releases his anxiety, and helps him nap. 

Our times together today were a comfort to both of us. 

3. Pinehurst Elementary School hosted a 5 o'clock event for students and adults today so Debbie didn't arrive home until after 7 p.m. 

It turned out that pizza was part of the program. I had a dinner planned that would be ready to eat when Debbie arrived home. Once I learned she wouldn't need dinner, I went ahead and made it, ate a helping, and we stored the rest to have for dinner on Wednesday night.

To fix this meal, all I had to do was boil a batch of penne, melt butter in a large pan, cook a batch of raw shrimp until it turned pink, and add more butter, crushed garlic cloves, and the juice of one and a half lemons to the pan and then add in the cooked penne. 

Not surprisingly, it was called Lemon Garlic Shrimp Penne. I used more garlic and more lemon juice than the recipe suggested and I was happy I did: I enjoyed the stronger presence of both garlic and lemon in this dish.  For Wednesday's dinner, Debbie suggested I add roasted red pepper to the what I've made. I like that idea and that's just what I'll do. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-05-2024: Taxes Filed, Better Late than Never, Shawarma-Spiced Chickpea Bowl

1. Today, the last of the envelopes marked "Important Tax Information Enclosed" arrived in the mail. The two income reports were the final two I've been waiting for and I immediately filled out our tax returns and filed them. Whether we get a refund (we didn't) or still owe money, I am, within myself, adamant about getting tax returns completed and filed as soon as possible. It was satisfying (and a relief) to get this task off the table today. 

2. Because I buckled down and prepared our tax return right after the mail arrived, I didn't arrive at the gym until around 3:00 or so. Today's session confirmed the idea that when it comes to exercising, late is better than never. I got in a solid hour and ten minutes of pushing, pulling, and pedaling.

3. Shawarma is a warming and aromatic blend of turmeric, cumin, coriander, garlic powder, paprika, allspice, and black pepper and was the chief source of what made tonight's Shawarma-Spiced Chickpea Bowls so tasty. The bowls were a combination of roasted chickpeas, red onion, and tomato served over a bed of basmati rice cooked with butter, red onion, pistachio nuts, and garlic, topped with a lemon garlic sour cream and yogurt sauce, and further topped with more pistachio nuts and cilantro. It's one of our favorite meals and, for both of us, was both comforting and delicious tonight.  

Three Beautiful Things 02-04-2024: Not Overdoing It On Sunday, Family Chicken Dinner, Yakkin' Over Dinner

1. Unlike yesterday, this morning I had no difficulty motivating myself to go to the Fitness Center and I got in some good exercise on three different machines over about 75 minutes. 

Today's time in the gym was, in a way, a bonus. Debbie and I both sorely miss worshiping as Episcopalians and had tentatively planned to drive to St. Luke's in Coeur d'Alene this morning. St. Luke's is the closest Episcopal Church to Kellogg and the Silver Valley. 

Debbie, however, had a few hours of work to do in her classroom to prepare for the upcoming week and we were hosting family dinner. Debbie needs to rest and conserve energy over the weekend and is careful about not doing too much, especially on Sundays. So we didn't go to CdA this morning. 

For me, going to St. Luke's will be a return, but I haven't been there in about four years. For Debbie, St. Luke's will be a new experience. I look forward to  being back in the comfort and challenge of the liturgy and returning to the communion rail. 

Maybe next week.  Possibly by myself, I suppose, but I hope not. 

2. Debbie and I hosted tonight' family dinner and I volunteered to take charge of dinner and assignments. 

I knew we had a couple of small whole chickens in the freezer, so a few days ago, I put one in the refrigerator to thaw. 

Today I roasted this chicken and kept things simple. I covered the chicken with olive oil, garlic powder, and rosemary and roasted it in an oven bag.

Not only was I happy with how the chicken turned out, I was possibly even happier with how Carol so perfectly prepared the rice pilaf with dried apricots and slivered almonds, seasoned with cinnamon, turmeric, and cumin I assigned her. 

I asked Christy to add a steamed vegetable to our dinner and volunteered to steam whatever she brought at our house with my nifty steamer. She did just that. Christy brought over a generous amount of chopped cauliflower and I steamed it. 

3. So Paul, Carol, Christy, Debbie, and I sat down to this simple meal after a round of cocktails. Paul and Carol brought red and white wine to enhance this simple meal and we had a rousing time talking about the upcoming wedding, changes in the neighborhood, and a variety of other subjects. It was a fun evening and, I'd say, not adding a trip to CdA to our day worked out perfectly. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-03-2024: My Will Prevailed, Time with Crossword Copper, The Lounge and Comfort Food

1. I hemmed and then I hawed and hawed and hemmed some more, thinking I might like to take a day off at the Fitness Center. But, NO! While my flesh was weak, my spirit was willing and I scurried out the door, vaulted into the Sube, zipped out to Smelterville, and got in an hour of exertion before the joint closed. Once I leapt on the NuStep and got my arms and legs pumping, I enjoyed myself and, with the help of Spotify's Rock Hits of 1974, I completed forty minutes on this machine and twenty more on one of the stationary bikes. 

2. I had tried to get going on the Saturday NYTimes crossword on Friday evening when it came out, but those two Rainier beers I drank after delivering BBQ with Ed slowed my mind down enough that I couldn't come up with a single correct word in response to clues. 

This afternoon, however, I retired to the bedroom in the company of Crossword Copper, who relaxed into a motionless ball of contented sleep once I joined him. My mind had cleared. I succeeded, with some help from the WWWeb, to complete the puzzle. 

3. Debbie and I dropped in at The Lounge around 4:00. We joined Abby and Kate at the bar for a while until they departed and before long Becky and John took their place at the bar. It being quiet at The Lounge, I thought Cas might have some time to yak so I moved down the bar a ways and we had a good time discussing all kinds of things, including the challenges of drafting a solid fantasy baseball team. 

We departed just as The Lounge was starting to get busy. It was someone's birthday. We weren't a part of this celebration. When we got home, Debbie heated up the superbly comforting and delicious chicken enchilada casserole she had assembled, and we relaxed for the rest of the evening -- well, I returned to spend time in the bedroom with Crossword Copper and work on the NYTimes Sunday crossword. Later I had some relaxing time with Copper in the kitchen and living room after Debbie and Gibbs retired, and eventually went to bed with Copper, who kept his distance, but was within arm's reach so I could put my hand on his side and help him stay relaxed. 

Ah, what the heck -- one more thing. 

Each day at the rehab gym at Kootenai Health, one of the staff members brings me a handout and leads me through a brief educational presentation.

A couple weeks ago, Ashley brought me a handout about improving my sleep and pointed out that one smart thing to do is to turn of all screens -- phone, laptop, television, any screens -- about twenty minutes before going to bed.

I've been doing this and using those twenty minutes to clean the kitchen, either load or unload the dishwasher, wash any kitchenware that doesn't go in the dishwasher,  tend to my dental care, and do other small tasks. 

I don't know for certain that this has helped me sleep better, but Debbie and I both enjoy waking up to a sink and counters free of used dishes and sometimes to an empty dishwasher. 

 

Three Beautiful Things 02-02-2024: Stationary Bikes, Early Dinner, Food Delivery and The Lounge

1. I was tired this morning and I took a short nap before I piled into the Sube and rocketed to the Fitness Center. For the first time since I started going there, I didn't get on the treadmill and, instead, followed up my time on the NuStep with a couple of sessions on the two different kinds of stationary bikes and began to imagine myself back on the Trail of the CdA's huffing and puffing on my bicycle again. 

2. I dashed home and finished cooking dinner. I'd already made a pot of brown rice in the morning and now all I had to do was cook up some onion, cook a couple of salmon burger patties, break up the patties, and combine the rice, onion, and salmon in a single pan. I ate my dinner right away and put the rest of the food in a container for Debbie when she returned home from school.

3. Why did I eat dinner at about 2:30? Why wouldn't Debbie and I be eating together?

Well, every once in a while, Ed and I do Ed's son-in-law, Garren Taylor, proprietor of the GarrenTeed BBQ food trailer, a solid and deliver food for him out of town. Today Ed picked me up around 3:00 and we delivered to a family whose place is high on a hill about five or six miles west off of Highway 95, just south of CdA.  We had codes to the two gates we went through and wound our way up to provide food for someone's surprise party -- a birthday, maybe. I don't really know. 

We successfully found the place, made the delivery, made our way back to Highway 95, and blasted back to Kellogg and had a couple of refreshing beers at The Lounge. 

We hoped we'd find this somewhat isolated house without any problem and that's exactly what happened, so the delivery went smoothly, just as smoothly as the two Rainier beers I downed at The Lounge. 

Three Beautiful Things 02-01-2024: No Luck at Fred Meyer (No Problem), Copper Grows More Assertive, Zucchini Paninis

1. After a successful 45-50 minutes of working out at the rehab gym, I scooted up to Fred Meyer, hoping to find a white dress shirt and possibly a new pair of shoes for Taylor and Cosette's wedding. 

No luck.

I did find socks I liked and some groceries, but if the CdA Fred Meyer ever did sell white dress shirts or the kind of shoes I was looking for, those days are gone.

No problem.

I could have hustled up to Macy's or Kohls, but I decided not to. 

Instead, I went across the street and drove the Sube through the Hippo car wash and returned to Kellogg where I ordered a shirt and a pair of shoes online.

2. In answer to the question, "How is Copper doing since Luna died?", for a while it seemed he was doing fine. For a while, he seemed unaffected. In the last few weeks, though, I've concluded that Copper misses having Luna in the same room with him. Luna and Copper were never affectionate with each other. Copper always kept his distance and Luna could be briefly nasty with him, resulting in short spats that Copper walked away from. 

As our household's only cat now, Copper has become more vocal, maybe even more demanding. Luna was the alpha cat when she was alive and I think now Copper is asserting himself more in a couple of ways. He's much more vocal about wanting company, of not wanting to spend so much time alone. 

He's also more vocal about eating. 

Luna was on a kidney care diet and I don't think either she or Copper were crazy about the kidney diet food, but they did eat it -- no boycotts!

Now I feed Copper a variety of wet foods -- pates, pieces, bits, foods with "gravy", and he's loving it.

And, he's getting more assertive about telling me he wants more -- even at 4:00 a.m.! 

It's kind of a bother to have Copper wake me up that early demanding food, but, at the same time, I'm happy for him that he is becoming more assertive and maybe even flexing his muscles a bit now that he no longer lives in Luna's shadow.

3. Back when we lived in Maryland, I frequently fixed Debbie and me grilled eggplant sandwiches on ciabatta rolls.

We returned to that ballpark tonight because our HelloFresh meal was a zucchini, sun-dried tomato, and mozzarella cheese panini with a sour cream, mayonnaise, garlic powder, and parsley sauce on a ciabatta roll with a side of roasted potato spears. 

The melted cheese, sautéed zucchini, tomatoes, and sauce worked harmoniously to make this a terrific sandwich and the potato spears seasoned with Italian seasoning paired beautifully with it. 

It all worked! 

Three Beautiful Things 01-31-2024: Figuring Out My So-Called Wardrobe, Expanding My Regimen, Silky Penne

1. This morning, in preparation for Cosette and Taylor's February 17th wedding,  I got out a pair of black Docker pants that, for years, I've worn as a dress pants. The last time I tried to put them on, they didn't fit and I had planned to give them away -- but I never got around to donating them. Today, they fit me. Then I tried on my only white long-sleeved shirt and remembered that even when I bought it many years ago, the neck was just a little bit snug. I'll buy a new one. I have a dress jacket that fits me. It needs to be dry cleaned. When I shop for the white shirt, I'm also going to at least look at black shoes. It might be time to buy a new pair. I rarely wear the ones I have, but I've had them for between 10-15 years and I just might replace them. 

2. I went to the Fitness Center this afternoon and decided that I'm going to expand my regimen by adding more cardio machines to my routine and add time on resistance/weight machines. Today I pedaled for twenty-five minutes on a stationary bicycle-like contraption along with exercising on the NuStep and the treadmill. I did three sets of ten reps on the leg extension machine today, adding to the work I also did on an ab and a back machine. I enjoyed this expansion, especially because my afternoon was free and I was under no time limit as to when I wrapped things up.

3. I had fun this evening fixing a HelloFresh favorite of ours, Silky Sicilian Penne Tossed with Zucchini, Mushrooms, and Tomatoes. It's a simple recipe that only required me to cook the zucchini and mushrooms, put them aside, use the tomatoes and other ingredients in the bag to make a sauce, and then combine the vegetables and the cooked penne with the sauce in a pan.