Three Beautiful Things 07-30-2024: "You Are Very Immunosuppressed", Sube's New Brakes, Meatballs and Patio Yakkin'

1. I was being minimally facetious the other day when I wrote that I wished a home test for immune-suppression existed so that I'd have a better idea of just how strong or weak my immune system is on, say, a weekly basis.

Well, no such home test exists, but out there in the wilds of the medical world, a lab test to measure this exists. It's called ImmuKnow. 

Last week, the transplant team ordered ImmuKnow for me and today Nurse Jenn gave me a quick summation of the results. Here's what she said: "Your ImmuKnow test came back on the low side at 202 which means you are very immunosuppressed . . ."

Good to know. 

I'd hoped, as I close in on it being three months since the surgery, that by now I might be less immunosuppressed -- but that's not the case. 

That means that I'll continue to do what I've been doing: stay away from where there are a lot of people and protect myself when I go into public places and try to go into these public places when there aren't many people there. 

I'm not experiencing this as bad news. 

Just as news. 

I had another test done last week, called Prosper, to test my risk of rejecting my new kidney. The result of this test indicated a decreased risk of rejection. 

I'm experiencing that as good news -- not just news! 

So, moving forward, the transplant team has slightly lowered the dosage of one of my immune-suppression drugs, the Tacrolimus. I will have labs done again on Aug. 8th and that same morning I'll meet with transplant team members at the clinic. 

I feel great, by the way. 

I also feel patient. 

I've known from the beginning that it takes months to regain a less suppressed immune system following all the medication I've ingested to keep my body from rejecting the new kidney. 

2. After several hours in the shop at Silver Valley Tire Center today, the Sube's front brakes are now in tip top shape. I had similar comprehensive work done on the rear brakes back in March. 

I'm happy to get this work done. 

3. I cracked open a HelloFresh bag tonight and made Debbie and me a meatball dinner. HelloFresh laid out instructions for making a sauce that the baked meatballs would be coated with, but didn't send the sour cream that should have come. 

It was a blessing in disguise. 

I had white sauce left over from last night, the sauce I made for us to dip our calamari into.

It was much tastier than a packet of sour cream and, indeed, Debbie and I enjoyed the meatball sauce as well as the roasted carrots and beef of rice that I served the meatballs and carrots on top of.

After dinner, Christy and Tracy came over and we all yakked in the cool of the evening. We bade Tracy safe travels as she will be driving back home on Wednesday after a fun-filled visit at Christy's house, a vacation that included a trip to Moscow/Deary and making the Bovill Run, a large family dinner with much of Paul's family at Carol and Paul's, dining at the Snake Pit and the Outlaw, her introduction to Skyline Chili, a writing retreat in Carol and Paul's back yard, seeing Carol and Paul perform in the melodrama, a trip to see a longtime friend at his cabin on Chatcolet Lake, and, I'm sure much more! In other words, Christy and Tracy worked together to make her visit jam-packed with North Idaho sites, activities, longtime friends, and meals. 

My sense on the patio tonight was that Christy and Tracy had a blast! 

Three Beautiful Things 07-29-2024: Labs First Thing Today, Fun in Spokane and a Haircut, A Fun Snacky Dinner

1. Originally, after having labs done last Tuesday, the transplant team determined that I didn't need to have labs done again until August 8th. But, last week my Tacrolimus levels increased and the team decided they'd like to see another set of labs this week. I could have had these labs done in Kellogg, but, weirdly enough, I enjoy getting up around 4:30 in the morning, doing a few things, and then driving to Spokane at 6 a.m.

So that's what I did. 

I arrived for my labs around 7:15, got in immediately for the blood draws, and was back out of there so quickly that I didn't have to pay for parking in the parking garage (0-30 minutes is no charge)! (Or get my parking ticket validated at the transplant clinic!)

2. I like making this trip to Spokane, first of all, because if I have bloodwork done at Sacred Heart, the lab posts the results for everything but my Tacrolimus levels within about an hour of my blood draw (and the lab posts my urine sample results, too). The Tacrolimus results get posted later in the afternoon. In addition, everything is simpler at Sacred Heart with how the blood work order is processed and how they bill my insurance.

More than these things, though, I like making this trip to Spokane because I'm getting to a point with my compromised immune system where I think it's not too risky for me to go to some uncrowded places, masked, and indulge in some pleasure.

Today, I drove to the Great Harvest bakery on 29th and Southwest Blvd and purchased a loaf of Dakota Wheat bread and one of Cinnamon Burst bread. It being just past 7:30, I was the only customer in the shop.

I then drove a few blocks to 27th and ordered a latte and Danish at Dane Joe Espresso and enjoyed them while seated at an outdoor table. It being early, I was one of two customers at the counter. I was masked. I kept my distance. I headed outside. It was all good.

I was not far at all from Trader Joe's. I blasted over there, masked up, sanitized my hands and my grocery cart, and entered the uncrowded store with its wide aisles and had fun shopping for a handful of items I had on a list and doing some mad shopping, just picking up some items because I thought Debbie and I would find them fun.

I concluded my venture out of home isolation and into the world at the Supercuts shop in Ironwood Center in Coeur d'Alene. I decided that I'd trust that Robin, who cuts my hair at this shop, wouldn't come to work with a contagious infection. So I strolled in, unmasked, as the only customer present, and to my great relief got a ton of hair cut off after not having had a haircut for several months. 

3. I decided to fix Debbie and me a Trader Joe's dinner tonight! Last week, I purchased a bag of frozen calamari and a bag of frozen potstickers. Tonight, I steamed the potstickers and baked the calamari. I also made a dipping sauce for the gyozas with soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, molasses, honey, garlic, red pepper flakes, and maybe another ingredient or two. It rocked. So did the yogurt, cream cheese, and lemon juice sauce I made, amped up a bit with Old Bay seasoning, for the calamari. 

This was a fun dinner and I'm happy to report that we have gyoza potstickers and calamari left over, along with some leftover sauce, for snacks later. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-28-2024: LCC Theater Royalty, The Movie *My Own Private Idaho*, Salmon Dinner

1. I've been checking Facebook frequently to see if anyone posted pictures from Saturday's celebration of Joe Cronin's life in Eugene. So far, I've seen one photo and it touched me. In it were Sparky Roberts and Patrick Torelle with the extraordinary LCC theater program/Student Productions Association alum, Lisa Marie Malovoz. Lisa Marie, I'm almost positive, was the stage manager of our 2005 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. She was a student of mine at LCC. She has had a superb career in the theater. Currently, she is Director of Production at Fox Theater in Atlanta. Seeing Sparky, Patrick, and Lisa Marie together so many years after Lisa made her stellar contributions to LCC's theater life and reading her words of appreciation for Sparky and Patrick moved me and filled me with joy. 

2. After watching director Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy on Saturday, today I watched his next film, My Own Private Idaho. I experienced it as a movie about longing, longing for love, friendship, companionship, and family. Part of what I enjoyed about this movie is that it's so far out of the mainstream of movies in the USA. Most of its characters are gay, many hustling for money by selling sexual favors. It is also, in several episodes, a loose reimagining of both parts of Shakespeare's Henry IV, and it's also a road movie and we travel with the two main characters, played by River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves, to Seattle, Portland, unnamed places in Idaho, and to Rome and somewhere in the Italian countryside. 

As this movie roams between these different locales and as it takes us into an old Portland hotel where a bunch of young people along with an older man named Bob are squatting, it's a fair question to ask what holds this roaming, seemingly fragmented movie together?

Feeling holds it together. Emotion. The pain of loneliness, the desire for connection, the everlasting hope to find what has been lost, the irreparable suffering of broken families. 

I first saw this movie as a home rental some time after its theatrical release in 1991. 

I wasn't ready for it. I remember feeling indifferent as I viewed it around thirty years ago.

Something shifted in me over the last thirty years and, today, I was moved and intrigued by this movie and am certain that some of its scenes and striking images will stay with me for the rest of my life. 

I had a similar experience watching Midnight Cowboy. 

3. I made some white rice with sesame oil and sliced green onions and filled the bottom of two flat bowls with the rice. I baked two salmon filets, seasoned with za'atar, salt, pepper, and smokey red pepper flakes. I topped the fish with sesame seeds. Once the fish was cooked, I spread humus on top of my filet and set the fish on top of the rice. Accompanied by a green salad left over from yesterday, this was a fun and delicious meal. 

By the way, Debbie cut up about half of her filet, passed on the hummus, and turned her green salad into a salmon salad. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-27-2024: Eleven Weeks Have Passed, Walking With Anonymity in Portland, *Drugstore Cowboy* and Dark Comedy

This is my 6500th post here at kelloggbloggin'. 

1. It's now been eleven weeks since a third kidney was transplanted into my lower left abdomen. As far as my condition is concerned, if I could have one (impossible) wish come true, it would be for a home test that would measure my immunity. I trust that as the whopping doses of immune-suppressing drugs that were blasted into my system eleven weeks ago continue to wear off, my immune system grows stronger. I know that because I will continue to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of my life, my immune system will never be at full strength.

But, the goal of the whole transplant operation is for me to return to a similar everyday life that I lived before the surgery. 

What I don't know on this eleven week anniversary is how close am I to getting out and being around more people and having it not be as risky as it has been? 

I'm going to Spokane on Monday morning to have labs done again. Originally, I had this week off from lab work, but the uptick in my Tacrolimus levels last week moved the transplant team to want to have blood work done again this week. 

After the blood work, I'll do what I consider some low risk things on Monday -- I'll try another coffee shop.  I'll drop in at Great Harvest. I might do some pleasure shopping again at Trader Joe's. 

I haven't had a haircut for well over three months.

I'm thinking of dropping in at the Supercuts I go to in CdA and getting my messy hair looking a bit neater. 

2. Since its release in 1989, I've been curious about the movie, Drugstore Cowboy, but, until today, I hadn't watched it. 

Possibly because 2024 marks the 35th anniversary of its release, comments about this movie began popping up on either my Facebook or my X feed -- possibly both. 

More than anything, watching Drugstore Cowboy stirred up how much I've loved spending time in Portland over the years. In particular, I used to love walking in Portland, often aimlessly, and really enjoyed doing this when I used to take pictures in Portland. 

The movie didn't really zero in on streets I used to walk, but all the same, just having this movie take place in Portland brought back fragments of memories, of concerts, garden strolls, bookstore visits, eating Asian food, conferences I attended, movies I watched, but most of all, miles and miles of walking, thinking, hoping, regretting, dreaming, and, most of all, feeling, feeling a lot of invigoration. 

On occasion I walked with friends, went to a lot of concerts with friends, but mostly when I walked in  Portland, and when I went to movies in Portland, I was by myself, never getting lost in the city, but often getting lost in my thoughts, enjoying my anonymity.

3. This evening, I listened to most of an hour long episode of the podcast Soldiers of Cinema, hosted by two film professionals, Clark Coffey and Cullen McFater. That they were both enthusiastic about the movie made listening to their discussion enjoyable - to be honest, had they been negative or nit picky about the movie, I wouldn't have spent time listening to them. 

I'd read several reviews of the movie before tuning into this podcast. Each of the reviews, in one way or another, referred to Drugstore Cowboy as having many passages of dark comedy. As I watched the movie, I was much more caught up in the desperate lives the movie's drug addicts lived and didn't really step back from that to appreciate the darkly comic absurdity of much of what we see these characters do and what they say. Clark Coffey and Cullen McFater honed in on the comic/absurdist nature of scene after scene and then I got it! 

As I listened to them discuss what made them laugh in Drugstore Cowboy, I too laughed, a little embarrassed that I hadn't laughed while viewing the movie, but happy that I could experience the movie as the blending of looking at the dangers and corrosion of drug addiction and laugh at the absurdities of almost slapstick things that happen. Upon reflection, I thought of moments in Pulp Fiction when I laughed out loud at scenes that were gruesome because these scenes portrayed horror and absurdity as happening simultaneously. 

I thought, too, as I listened to this podcast, about how more responsive I was to dark comedy when I was younger -- it's been thirty years since Pulp Fiction first appeared in theaters. I was just turning forty years old. In the thirty years that have passed since then, for better or worse, I've become more serious. When I see these scenes of dark comedy pop up in movies or when I read them in books, the frightening, unsettling elements of these moments strike me much harder and tend to inform my response to them, whereas I used to respond much more immediately to the humor embedded in them. 

So, yeah, I enjoyed how these two podcasters took me back to a younger version of myself and freed me up a bit to laugh at things that happened in Drugstore Cowboy that were simultaneously chilling and, by being so incongruous, also very funny. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-26-2024: Bagel Surprise, Chicken Dinner, Yakkin' on the Patio

1. This morning Rebecca, baker and co-owner of Beach Bum Bakery, texted me. I haven't been to the bakery since before the May 11th surgery. Rebecca noted that she hadn't seen me for a while. She knows I love Beach Bum's bagels and she let me know that she had eight bagels left over from Thursday and wondered if I'd like to purchase them and pick them up in Silverton at the Silver Mountain Manor where Beach Bum's baking kitchen is located. 

I did want those bagels! I sent Rebecca an online payment and blasted up to Silverton and picked up the bagels a while later. 

That was a fun and unexpected morning delight! 

2. I thawed four chicken thighs today and by around 5:00 or so they were ready to bake. I put the thighs in a ziplock bag and insta-marinated them with olive oil, soy sauce, fresh squeezed lemon juice, salt, and pepper. I shook the bag, removed the thighs, put them in a baking pan and covered them with sesame seeds. 

About forty minutes or so into the chicken's baking time, I made a pot of couscous and I cooked a combo of white onion, zucchini, and frozen corn kernels seasoned with tarragon. 

As I hoped, the insta-marinate flavored the chicken deliciously and Debbie and I both enjoyed the side dish of couscous and vegetables with our meat. 

It was a simple dinner and a very satisfying one. 

3. Christy and Tracy came over to our patio and the four of us visited until, until SHOCK!, it got too chilly to stay outside. The days in Kellogg have cooled off and the evenings and night temperatures are plunging into the 50s! 

We yakked about a bunch of different stuff ranging from the relocation of Garrenteed BBQ to Smelterville to the Olympic Games to Paint and Pinot at Nocturn on Sunday to Christy and Tracy's plans for the next few days and Christy's plans for next weekend. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-25-2024: Breaking Through, I Dream of Playing Mike Ehrmantraut, A Tortellini Dinner

1.   A line from the movie The Earrings of Madame de . . .  has been ringing true for me over the last two months since Joe Cronin passed away and my mind has been occupied with thoughts, memories, gratitude, and love for his partner and my longtime friend, mentor, and inspiration, Sparky Roberts. Here's the line: "It's when we have the most to say that we can't speak." 

I've been unable to speak -- I should say write -- over these last two months, but today I finally broke through and began, via email, to express some of my thoughts, feelings, and memories to Sparky about Joe and about Joe and her. 

I'm sure now that I've broken through, more emails will be forthcoming. 

It's a grievous disappointment to me that because it's best for me not to be in situations with a lot of people that I won't be driving to Eugene and attending the celebration of Joe Cronin's life on Saturday at 11:00 at the Oregon Contemporary Theater. 

2. I have never watched full episodes of either Breaking Bad  or Better Call Saul, but clips from both shows pop up regularly on Reels on my Facebook account. Almost always, these clips feature Jonathan Banks playing the role of Mike Ehrmantraut. Every time I watch one of these clips I think the same thing: if I could be a real actor, I'd like to be Jonathan Banks and be able to bring to life a character like Mike Ehrmantraut -- he's a character that I, as a person, have next to nothing in common with, but I think it would be fun to occupy and bring to life this wholly other character. 

3. I've been cooking quick throw together whatever we have on hand dinners lately and tonight I took advantage of having five cheese tortellinis, a half a bag of raw shrimp, and cans of diced tomatoes on hand and combined them to make a dinner Debbie and I both enjoyed. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-24-2024: Getting My Tacrolimus Dosage Right, WiFi on the Patio, A Fun Pasta Dinner

1. The deeper I move into life after receiving a third kidney, the more I am in conversation with the transplant team about the anti-rejection drug Tacrolimus. Every time I have blood drawn and tested, my orders include a separate test to measure the level of Tacrolimus in my bloodstream. I'm not sure exactly what the Tacrolimus level sweet spot is, but as my levels go up and down, whichever doctor I'm working with adjusts my dosage. 

When I'm instructed to not eat certain foods or drink certain liquids -- like, say, grapefruit -- it's always because the food or drink interacts negatively with Tacrolimus. 

Today, Nurse Jenn contacted me to say that she and Transplant Nephrologist Natasha Barauskas were concerned that the bloodwork I had done on Tuesday showed that my Tacrolimus levels had shot up.

Nurse Jenn wondered if I'd been eating flax seeds or grapefruit.

My immediate was response was that I had not, but a little later I thought about the Killer Dave Power Seed Bread I'd eaten and the Killer Dave Everything Bagels I'd enjoyed.

I looked both products up on the World Wide Web and, lo and behold, both included flax seeds in their list of ingredients. 

I reported my findings to Nurse Jenn. 

I'll lay off these Killer Dave products. 

Natasha Barauskas adjusted my Tacrolimus dosage.

I hadn't been due for labs again until Aug 8th, but that plan has changed. 

I'll have labs done again next week. 

We'll see if my Tacrolimus levels come down a bit. 

2. Because our WiFi signal from the router in the Vizio room is weak and spotty on the patio out back, when he was here a couple of weeks ago, Patrick suggested we purchase a WiFi extender.

Debbie did that. 

Neither Debbie nor I could read the faintly printed tiny print on the instructions that came with the device, so today Patrick walked me through getting it set up via talking on the phone and joining each other on Google Meet. 

We had several false starts while we tried to create a screen share between Patrick and me so he could see my laptop's screen while I went step by step through the set up process. 

But, Debbie and Patrick connected through their phones on Face Time, Patrick watched me work on my computer screen by that means, and PRESTO! we got the extender up and running.

Now, I'm happy to say, the WiFi signal is strong on the patio! 

3. For dinner tonight, I made a mushroom white sauce augmented with chopped Brussels sprouts covered with Panko and poured this sauce over penne pasta. 

It worked! 

Three Beautiful Things 07-23-2024: Driving Alone with (GASP!) a Mask On!, Indulging Sweet Things, Contemplating the Holy Trinity

1. I blasted from Kellogg to Spokane a little after six this morning and checked in at the lab on the fifth floor of the Outpatient Health Center and had a handful of vials of blood drawn and left off a urine sample.

This morning, it had been just over ten weeks (about the length of a winter term at LCC) since I had been in either a coffee shop (outside the Outpatient Health Center) or inside a grocery store.

Following the guidelines set out for me by the transplant team, I decided to go to Rocket Bakery on 14th and Adams and then go shopping at Trader Joe's.

I always wear a mask anywhere I go at Sacred Heart. Knowing I would be going into other public places, I kept my mask on as I folded myself into the Camry and departed from the parking garage.

That's right. 

I wore my mask while alone in the car driving to Rocket Bakery and then Trader Joe's. 

Did I think I would pick up an infection alone in the Camry? Did I think I'd infect someone else while alone in the Camry? 

No. Ha! Of course not! 

Was I showing off, guilty of what is called virtue signaling?

No. 

The masks I wear have a clip that goes across the bridge of my nose. When I secure the mask on my face with this clip, not only does the mask fit snugly on my face, it keeps my exhaled breaths from fogging up my sunglasses.

If I take the mask off and put it back on again repeatedly, this metal clip becomes less and less effective and the mask becomes less and less secure.

So I leave it on.

While alone. 

In the car. 

I arrived at Rocket Bakery, didn't have to fiddle with my mask, and found just what I hoped I would inside: a nearly empty shop. I ordered a bagel and a latte, sat at a table with no one near me, and enjoyed being in a public place again.

I anticipated that Trader Joe's wouldn't be crowded -- and I was right -- and I anticipated that I wouldn't experience any customers at Trader Joe's teasing me, looking at me funny, or in any way confronting me because I was wearing a mask. (I've heard stories of other transplant patients experiencing this in stores  and it's an unpleasant response to mask wearing I don't care to deal with.)

I had fun shopping. I followed Debbie's advice. She recommended that I go to Trader Joe's and just buy stuff that would be fun to have. So I did. I bought cookies, domas, cinnamon raisin bread, calamari, bagels, cream cheese, and other items that weren't exactly necessities, but that I knew Debbie and I would enjoy.

No one hassled me, looked at me like I was a weird-o, or did anything unpleasant.

I loaded my groceries in the trunk. 

I started the car to drive back to Kellogg.

I removed my mask. 

2. If you read this blog, even from time to time, I hope you can tell that my mood over the last ten weeks or so has been upbeat. I've done all I can to enjoy being home, often alone, while I recover and while my immune system slowly improves.

That said, going to Rocket Bakery and Trader Joe's today sweetened my already upbeat mood. 

So did arriving home with a couple bagfuls of fun items.

I am aware that it's common for transplant patients to gain weight after surgery, in part because of inactivity, because of giving the surgical site the many weeks in needs to heal, and, in part because some of the medications stimulate some patients' appetites.

In keeping with the transplant team's wishes, I weigh myself every morning. 

I must say, I've done a commendable job of keeping my weight stable and look forward to when the time feels right to return to the Fitness Center. 

But, alas, today I know I carelessly and heartily and happily put on a pound or two as I ate chocolate bark, chocolate chip dunkable cookies, two bagels with cream cheese, toasted cinnamon raisin bread, and toast with newly purchased strawberry preserves.  Later in the evening, at Carol and Paul's, I had a scoop or two of vanilla bean ice cream and satisfied a craving I've had for weeks and resisted until tonight. 

It's been a long time since I cut loose and just indulged myself like I did today. 

And, you know what? Indulging in these various treats boosted my already very positive morale. 

Simple pleasures! 

3. Because of the heat on Monday, the huge family dinner Carol and Paul hosted had to be moved indoors.

It meant around ten or more people were sitting side by side around a single table with no way to create distance between themselves and so Debbie and I, exercising an abundance of caution, did not join in.

Tonight, however, was a different story.

The evening cooled off nicely. Carol, Paul, Kevin, Linda, Pat, Laurie, Debbie, and I could sit comfortably on Carol and Paul's patio, spread out a bit, and enjoy one another's company.

As so often happens when groups of people congregate, we talked about a wide variety of topics: the history of wildfires in Idaho and Oregon, golf at the Shoshone Golf Club, doctors who practiced in Kellogg years ago, school buildings of the past, the realigning of high school sports teams' classifications in Idaho, Debbie's lousy luck traveling, and more. 

At one point, Laurie talked a bit about her recent trip to London and told us about celebrating the Eucharist at St. Paul's Cathedral and that she and her companions heard a sermon on the Holy Trinity that has stuck with them and been a source of conversation in the days and weeks to follow. 

St. Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican house of worship. In the USA, those of us who are part of the worldwide Anglican communion, are, for the most part, Episcopalians. 

It's been nearly thirty years since I was confirmed as an Episcopalian after about fifteen years of worshiping in the Episcopal Church. (Side note: The closest Episcopal Church to Kellogg is in CdA since the two Episcopal churches in the Silver Valley closed. I sorely miss being close to an Episcopal church and hope as I recover that I will return to driving on Sundays to St. Luke's in CdA -- I've not worshipped there since 2020.)

In talking about the sermon, Laurie said something like this: "Growing up in a non-denominational church, we didn't really think much about the Trinity." That's not an accurate direct quotation, but I'm pretty sure it captures the gist of what Laurie said. 

It just didn't feel like the right time or place for me to ask questions and try to learn more about this statement, but that's what I wanted to do. 

I know that the non-denominational church the Roberts family headed up acknowledged and participated spiritually in the reality of each of the Trinity's three "persons", the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Ghost). 

So what, I wondered, did Laurie mean by saying (approximately) "we didn't really think much about the Trinity"?

I wondered this largely because the Holy Trinity is like gravity in the Anglian tradition: in the same way that we deeply trust moment to moment in our daily lives that gravity will keep us bound to the ground we walk on, as an Anglican I deeply trust that I am living in the presence of the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Ghost) and that these different dimensions of Supreme Being just are, keeping us bound to the nourishment, guidance, love, and vigor of God's multiplicity. 

So, last night I enjoyed the ice cream and strawberries and the talking we did about travel and hospitals and schools and golf and fires and other things, but I didn't go to sleep thinking about those subjects. 

I went to sleep contemplating the Holy Trinity. And church denominations. And non-denominations. All of them are subjects of contemplation way beyond my ability to really understand. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-22-2024: Sube Attention, Dinner at Home, Catching Up

1. I'm on a two week schedule now for having labs done for the transplant team. I'm on a four week schedule now for visits to the clinic. Because of a test the team wanted run this week to help assess whether any signs of rejection are present, I needed to have this week's labs drawn at Sacred Heart. 

No problem. 

I was going to go in today, but since I had some leeway and since I was getting the Sube's battery checked out at Silver Valley Tire Center and since Debbie needed the Camry today, I decided to wait until Tuesday to go to Spokane.

The Sube needed a new battery and I had an oil change performed while they had the car in. Later this week I'll have the front brakes checked -- I think they need some routine attention and I'll see (not at Silver Valley Tire) about getting the a/c running again in the Sube. 

2. Carol and Paul hosted a big family dinner this evening, but Debbie and I opted not to attend. Debbie isn't feeling 100% and, with the heat, I was pretty sure tonight's family dinner would be indoors, with as many as a dozen people seated around a single table, and I'm not ready for that kind of set up yet. 

So we stayed home and I fixed a delicious HelloFresh rice bowl that combined ground turkey, steamed green beans, chili sauce, a soy glaze, and fresh lime juice.  I served these ingredients over jasmine rice and topped it all with crispy fried onions and cilantro. 

I prepared this meal in the wok, a great idea.

It worked. 

3. I just can't seem to do everything. 

Ha!

I got absorbed by reading and working acrostic puzzles and my usual practice of working NYTimes crossword puzzles fell by the wayside. 

So, I spent my free time today getting caught up and completed last week's Thursday, Friday, and Saturday puzzles and got this week's Sunday puzzle started. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-21-2024: Covid Update, Historic Moment on ZOOM!, Sube Needs a Battery Test, *Maverick* (1994) Is a Rollicking Movie

Covid update: When I told the transplant team back on July 1st that I had tested positive for Covid, they all agreed that even though I wasn't symptomatic and even though I felt fine, as a fresh transplant patient, I might test positive for longer than most other people do. Before today, my last positive Covid test was on July 12th. I tested again this morning. I tested positive again. I have many reasons to believe that I'm not contagious. At the same time, I am going to be cautious about what I do and where I go because I, and the transplant team, do not want to see my immune system have to deal with another infection along with this Covid virus. So, I'll be cautious, but the really good news is that I feel great, continue not to have a fever, and my energy is really good. 

1. It had been quite a while since the Westminster Basementeers met on Zoom. This morning Bill, Diane, Bridgit, Val, and I jumped on the Zoom Machine and we were talking about retirement and service to others and other matters pertinent to our lives when suddenly the news came to us that President Joe Biden decided to withdraw from the 2024 Presidential Election. 

This news gave our discussion some instant focus! 

I was really happy to be in conversation with these forever friends, friends with whom I've had countless discussions about life in the USA, and we openly and vigorously shared our thoughts about this news and speculated on what we might see happen in the coming weeks and months. 

It was a pleasure to discuss this news in almost face to face conversation and to connect back with the countless previous conversations we've had over the years about history, policy, personalities, aging, and other matters that were all suddenly very relevant at this moment. 

2. Before our Zoom meeting at 10:00, I leapt into the Sube. Debbie had filled the back with cardboard and I was prepared to take it, and some other recycling, out to the transfer station. 

But, alas, the Sube wouldn't start. 

So, I loaded up the trunk of the Camry and got the recycling done.

Once our Zoom discussion ended, I called AAA and before long Brandon and his driver arrived, gave the Sube a jump, it started, and I drove around for about twenty minutes or so.

Two or three times later in the day, I went back out to see if the Sube would still start. 

It did. 

I'll have the battery checked on Monday at Silver Valley Tire and see if it might be time to replace it. 

3. I decided to take a break from magical realism and Ruby Ridge today and watch a fun movie instead -- one I had never seen. 

Recently, somewhere in the vast universe of the World Wide Web, a clip from the 1994 movie, Maverick, popped up. 

The clip featured all but the very ending of the last hand of the movie's monumental poker tournament.

Seeing that Mel Gibson, James Garner, James Coburn, Alfred Molina, and Jodie Foster were in this scene, I decided I had to see this movie, find out how things got to this climactic moment, find out how this last hand played out, and see what happened after the poker tournament ended. 

Did I ever do the right thing! 

I had a blast watching this movie. I gave myself over to its humor, its implausible turns of events, its suspense, and its action. 

I know many of the movie's inside jokes went right by me, but I enjoyed the ones I got and I also enjoyed the impression I had that the actors in this movie were having a lot of fun not only working together, but bringing this movie's wild story to life. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-20-2024: Copper's New Life is Working!, I Finish *Fire Season*, I Begin Jess Walter's Book About Ruby Ridge

1.  I spent much of the day in the cool of the bedroom reading, and finishing, Leyna Krow's imaginative, often wild, historical novel, Fire Season. I enjoyed reading this book -- more on that in a few minutes -- but as much, or maybe even more, I enjoyed Copper's contentedness. This new arrangement of dividing the ground level of our house into two areas divided by a barrier gives Copper the freedom to move between the bedroom and the Vizio room, where his litter pan is placed, and delivers him, most of the time, from spending hours behind a closed door. 

When I leave the house, I have to put Copper in the Vizio room and close the door. Otherwise, Copper might revert to his old habit of not using the litter pan. He uses it reliably when he's in the Vizio room while I'm gone and uses it reliably when I'm home and he can move back and forth between the bedroom and the Vizio room. 

Copper is getting old. He sleeps a lot. When we are together in the bedroom, he spends a lot of time in the bedroom's wide, open closet and sometimes he joins me on the bed as I read or write. 

He's relaxed. He's happy. Life has taken a much improved turn for Copper since, first of all, I got the green light from the transplant team to spend all the time I want with Copper and, second of all, since we divided the ground level of our house into a Gibbs area and a Copper area. 

What a relief. 

2. As she wrote Fire Season, Spokane author Leyna Krow researched the fire that ripped through the city of Spokane Falls (now Spokane) in 1889. 

Her novel, however, is primarily a work of her imagination as she brings to life characters of her imagining, not of history, to life and tells a story of the intersection of three main characters and how their lives progress in the aftermath of the fire.

In a good way, this book beguiled me because the woman character, Roslyn, has magical abilities. She is a seer. She can levitate herself and travel outside her body. In addition, Krow weaves into the novel's main story interludes, brief stories of characters outside the novel's main plot who also have magical powers.

So this novel occupies history. It also occupies realms of magic and spiritualism. 

The literary term often used for this approach to fiction is magic realism. 

My sense, from reading the novel and from reviews I've read, is that the magic in this book is a means by which Leyna Krow empowers Roslyn to have power over and control of her life in ways not commonly found in women characters in novels set in the American West. 

I hope as time goes by I can learn more about not only magic realism, but about how writers like Leyna Krow bend the conventions of genres, like the Western or historical fiction, to explore possibilities for story and characters outside of conventional expectations. 

3.  My next Leah Sottile listed book to read is by another Spokane writer, Jess Walter. Tonight I started his book length account of what he learned from his reporting and research about the Randy Weaver family and what transpired at their cabin on Ruby Ridge in the Idaho Panhandle. The book's title is Ruby Ridge: The Truth and Tragedy of the Randy Weaver Family. 

I'm just a few pages in and already I'm feeling the dark power of this story. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-19-2024: Bringing Debbie Home, The Positive Side of the Cancelation, Reading *Fire Season*

1. As I noted in this blog yesterday, Debbie called me around 7:15 this morning to tell me she was ready to be picked up at the Ramada Inn. One consequence of the world-wide tech outage was that her flight to Seattle was cancelled and she didn't feel up to trying to rearrange flights and so she canceled? delayed? her trip to Chicago and New York. 

I had a few things to tend to before heading to Spokane -- like get dressed, let Gibbs out for a while, feed Gibbs, put Copper in the Vizio room, and get myself protected from the sun. I filled the Camry tank with fuel on the way out of town, stopped at Silver Peak Espresso in Smelterville for a latte and a sugar cookie, and blasted over the pass and on to the airport complex to pick up Debbie. 

2. Yes, it was disappointing that Debbie's trip didn't happen. I looked at the positive side of it all, though. I had nothing going on this morning and it was no problem vaulting into the Camry and rocketing over to pick up Debbie. Our car is reliable. Its air conditioning works. I could listen to Peter Noone's Sirius/XM show, Something Good, via Bluetooth while I drove. Traffic on I-90 was moderate and sane all the way to the Ramada Inn. 

Most of all, if Debbie's trip had to be canceled, the timing was perfect. She never left Spokane and didn't get stranded, say, in Seattle and have to figure out what to do next while stuck in the SeaTac airport. 

Our drive back to Kellogg was also sane. 

Now Debbie could rest, recover, and take her time, maybe a few days, to figure out whether she'll try to make this trip again or just stay put. 

3. Back home, Debbie wanted to be left alone to rest, nap, gather herself. 

No problem. 

I retired to the bedroom and set Copper free from the Vizio room. He joined me. 

Last weekend at family dinner, all of our discussion about books along with Leah Sottile having published her favorite books of the early 21st century inspired me to get back to reading.

I finished Cougars on the Cliff and I decided to read my way through the books on Leah Sottile's list. 

I decided to secure books from her list two at a time and ordered Leyna Krow's Fire Season and Jess Walter's Ruby Ridge from Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane. 

I spent much of today with Fire Season, a historical novel set in Spokane during and following the horrendous fire of 1889. 

I'm realizing that I am attracted to books set in Spokane -- two pop immediately to mind: Tim Eagan's Breaking Blue and Jess Walter's The Cold Million.

And, now, I'm about halfway through Leyna Krow's Fire Season and it's a blast, very enjoyable, a story centered on three characters who scheme to profit from the fire. One's a banker, one's a con man, and one's a prostitute. It's an imaginative and insightful story. I'm enjoying its every page!  

Three Beautiful Things 07-18-2024: My New PCG Inspires My Confidence, Debbie's Flight Is Grounded, Gibbs Is Flexible

1. Bright and early this morning, I jetted to the clinic uptown to meet and yak with Melissa Rix. She is the next in a fairly long line of medical pros who've been assigned to be my primary care providers at Heritage Health and have moved on to other positions.  I have no idea what Melissa Rix's plans are, but I'll be very happy if she stays put in Kellogg for a good while. She listened intently as I described my transplant experience, asked me learned questions, assured me that she would be eager to work in conjunction with the transplant team at Sacred Heart if anything comes up, and instilled confidence in me that if I need her assistance at any point, she'll be great to work with.

As of now, I'm not scheduled to see Melissa Rix again until my next annual Medicare wellness exam in January,

2. At some point between 4 and 5 this afternoon, Debbie piled her luggage in the trunk and I blasted her in the Camry to the Spokane Airport Ramada Inn. She was scheduled to fly out of Spokane at 5 a.m. on Friday and then hop on another jet and fly into Chicago's O'Hare. 

As I write this blog entry, it's early afternoon on Friday. 

Why have I been delayed in writing a blog post today? 

Well, as you might have heard, airports, hospitals, banks, and other institutions today were thrown into chaos by a global tech outage. 

Debbie's flight to Seattle was cancelled. 

According to CNN, 2,499 flights suffered the same fate today. 

Rather than stick around in Spokane and try to figure out a new itinerary, Debbie, at least for the time being, cancelled her whole trip. 

I blasted back to the Ramada Inn this morning (Friday) and picked her up around 9:30. Whatever Debbie does next as far as travel, she'll figure out here in Kellogg. 

3. Okay. 

Back to Thursday. 

A big question was on my mind, and Debbie's, as we bade one another farewell this evening.

Would Gibbs be willing to spend the night by himself in the living room while Copper and I were in the bedroom? Gibbs is accustomed to being with Debbie upstairs at night, but with her gone, would he accept a different arrangement?

He did! 

He quietly spent the night on his own in the living room and didn't make a peep. 

After got out of bed this morning, he broke his silence when he spotted Copper strolling on the other side of the barrier we put up and revved up his special "Oh My God! There's Copper!" bark.  

I told him to back off and he did.

He barked at Copper a couple more times. 

Each time he stopped barking as soon as I told him to.

I'm happy to say that I woke up Friday morning feeling completely confident that this arrangement, especially at night, was going to work and that Gibbs was going to do fine sleeping on his own in the living room. 

So, if Debbie decides to reschedule her trip and take off again, I think with our current set up, Copper and Gibbs can co-exist pretty well.

Three Beautiful Things 07-17-2024: Separating Gibbs and Copper, No Health Drama, Flautas for Dinner

1. By putting a simple barrier in the doorway that leads from our living room to the hallway connecting the Vizio room, bedroom, and bathroom, we can keep Gibbs and Copper separated from one another and Copper can be in either the Vizio room or bedroom with the doors open. He can also roam between them. 

Now, if Gibbs cooperates by sleeping in the living room while Debbie is on her trip, I should be able to care for Gibbs and Copper on my own just fine (aside from relying on Carol to deal with Copper's litter pan.) 

2. I'm happy to report that again today I experienced zero health related drama. I am definitely feeling stronger, am hoping the time comes soon when I feel good about going to the Fitness Center and work on building up my wind. Everything that I can monitor continues to be stable. My weight has little variation, my blood pressure is right where the transplant team wants it, and I continue not to be running a fever. As I gain more confidence that my immune system is at a pretty good place, I look forward to being out and about in public, but remain leery of being where quite a few people are gathered. 

3. I popped open our second HelloFresh bag tonight and cooked onions, added ground beef to it along with Southwest seasoning, and cooked the beef and onions together. I added some water and TexMex paste to the beef and onions, let it cook down, and then added a scoop of this mixture along with some grated cheese to six flour tortillas and rolled them up. I baked these flautas for about 10-12 minutes, topped them with a combination of diced onion, tomato, and radish, and added red pepper crema over the top of it all. 

It worked! 

Three Beautiful Things 07-16-2024: Preparing for Debbie's Travels, Back to Acrostic Puzzles, Peter Noone on Sirius/XM

1. Debbie will spend Thursday night in a room near the Spokane airport and fly to Chicago early Friday morning and spend over two weeks visiting with family -- daughters and their husbands, grandchildren, brother, niece, nephew, and others. 

I assured Debbie that I'll do a good job taking care of both Gibbs and Copper while she's away and work out ways for all of us to be happy through the nights Debbie is gone. 

All I really need help with is Copper's litter box and Carol will come over once a day to tend to it. 

I'm confident everything will work out well. 

2. I experienced a flashback today. Ellie's birth in October of 2019 set in motion the need for Debbie to be in New York, off and on (mostly on), until I flew out to New York late in the summer of 2021 and we drove across the USA and returned to Kellogg.

During that time of both living alone and being cautious about the emerging pandemic, I spent a fair amount of time working acrostic puzzles created by Cynthia Morris. 

I realized today that at some point in the last few years, I bought another book of her CynAcrostic puzzles and hadn't worked any of them.

They take a relatively long time to complete and I had a relaxing and sort of a nostalgic time completing two of her puzzles today. 

It was fun! 

3. Today was uneventful. My post-transplant health is stable. I relaxed with the second acrostic puzzle while Debbie fixed us a salmon and salad dinner. Once I'd finished the second puzzle, Copper and I went to bed and I put in my ear buds and dialed up, for me, a new radio program on my Sirius/XM app. It's on the 60s Gold channel, hosted by Peter Noone, and is titled, Something Good. It was a fun way to go to sleep, hearing songs popular when I was in grade school and junior high. I was very impressed with the variety of styles in the pop songs we listened to back then. It's fun to have that music so readily available on the satellite radio. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-15-2024: Science and Doubters, Improving Copper's Litter Situation, Fun Chicken Rice Bowl for Dinner

1. I finished the book, Cougars on the Cliff today, a most satisfying reading experience. These books I read about animals, whether beavers, salmon, eels, whales, or cougars, always come down to the varying attitudes different humans have toward animals and fish. Cougars on the Cliff is, in part, the story of the conflict between men and women who regarded the cougars as vermin, as aggressive and ruthless killers of elk and deer and other animals valuable as commodities. Maurice Hornoker's research and careful observations of the cougars challenged these ideas about the cougars, concluding that they were a positive influence on the well-being of elk and deer by culling out weaker animals and by helping to move elk and deer way from overused land to land where they would feed better. 

I found his work fascinating and also found the harsh backlash his studies generated from hunters, guides, and others who distrust scientific studies interesting. I'm struck by how this distrust of science is always with us, maybe as strong or stronger right now than ever. 

2. Patrick and Meagan hung out with us until early in the afternoon. Patrick helped Debbie improve Copper's litter pan situation in the Vizio room, hoping that these improvement will keep the litter more contained in the box, meaning less litter on the floor. 

The one post-transplant restriction that bothers me the most is that I have to steer clear of the litter box. I don't like that I brought Copper and Luna (RIP) into our home, ready to take responsibility for their care, and that I have to rely, now, on Debbie and others (when Debbie travels) to do litter box duties. It can be an unpleasant task and I was totally committed to it. I don't like that I've had to break this commitment. 

3. I made Debbie and me fun sweet chili chicken rice bowls for dinner, compliments of HelloFresh. I put a bed of jasmine rice in each of our bowls and topped the rice with a combination of onion, yellow pepper, and pieces of chicken thigh all cooked together with a soy glaze and chili sauce. Over the top of this mixture I put the sugar roasted peanuts I made along with cilantro and each of us had two quarters of a lime to squeeze over our rice bowls. 

It worked. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-14-2025: Reading About Mountain Lions, Ordering Books from Auntie's, Skyline Chili Dinner

1.  Saturday night's patio discussion about books woke me up to how negligent I've been when it comes to reading books. It's fun when Patrick and Meagan visit (or when we see them in Portland), in part, because Meagan always spends the time we aren't yakkin' or going out to do something reading a book. 

So, today, I followed Meagan's example. Things slowed way down around the house this afternoon and I retired to the bedroom, invited Copper to join me, and I continued reading Maurice Hornocker's memoir, Cougars on the Cliff, a recounting of his early days sixty years ago studying mountain lions (or cougars) in the wilderness of the Salmon River basin. 

It's just the sort of book about a kind of animal I like to read. The more Hornocker studies the cougar, the more he's able to challenge and disprove long standing ideas about the mountain lion, observing that the cougar plays a key role in the ecosystem of its habitat, is a shy and secretive animal, and hunts elk and deer in ways that not only nourish them, but improves the overall health of the Salmon River basin ecosystem. 

He confronts hunters and guides who are skeptical and sometimes hostile toward him and his work, but Hornocker persists. I hope to finish the book soon and see how these conflicts get worked out and how Hornocker's work holds up. 

2. I pursued another outcome of Saturday night's patio book discussion today. I decided to make my first stab at reading the books on the book Leah Sottile published on her Substack blog. One thing I liked about how Sottile presented this list was she linked each book to an independent bookstore -- no doubt as a way to encourage people like me to buy from them. She linked Jess Walter's book on Ruby Ridge to Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane. I'd decided the second book I'd order would Fire Season by Leyna Krow, a Spokane writer. Sottile linked Krow's book to Powell's Bookstore in Portland, but I had a sneaking suspicion it would be available at Auntie's. I looked it up. It was. So I ordered both books from Auntie's and am eager for them to arrive. 

3. A few years ago, Patrick and Meagan introduced Debbie and me to Skyline or Cincinnati Chili. It so happened that we had some cans of Skyline Chili in the basement and Patrick and Meagan continued what feels like a bit of a tradition and fixed us each a bowl of spaghetti, chili, beans, diced onion, grated cheddar cheese, and oyster crackers. I also added hot sauce to mine. 

It was a great dinner, not only tasty, but it brought back fun memories of past Skyline Chili meals. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-13-2024: Intelligent and Difficult Afternoon Discussion, Family Snacks on the Patio, Discussing Books and Friends in Crisis

1.  Meagan, Patrick, Debbie, and I fell into a long and involved discussion this afternoon about having friends and family who are alcoholic. It's a difficult subject that we discussed calmly, thoughtfully, and honestly. As our discussion wound down and Patrick and Meagan left to have a bite to eat at Garrenteed BBQ and Debbie left to eventually meet up with Patrick and Meagan at The Lounge, I was tired. I have enjoyed the conversations I've had over the last few days with Terry, Ed, Patrick, Meagan, and Debbie. At the same time, over the last couple of months I've been spending a lot of time apart from people and suddenly having company and expending energy in multiple conversations has taxed me (in a good way), but it's good to be starting to get back into a bit of social life again.

2. I needed a late afternoon retreat to the bedroom and a little bit of a nap because at 7:00 Christy, Carol, and Paul came over and all of us got together on the patio for snacks, crackers, dips, chips, that sort of thing. Patrick unpacked his powerful (to me) telescope and different people took turns peering at the moon. We had a fun discussion of what Carol and Debbie have observed, working with children, the children's cultural frames of reference are as they absorb stories, characters, songs, and other aspects of YouTube videos, video games, and other sources of cultural influence. 

Not a single word of judgment was uttered. Rather, we discussed this subject in the spirit of fascination. 

3. We also had a long discussion of books. I subscribe to Leah Sottile's Substack blog. In response to a recent New York Times list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, Sottile wrote a response outlining where she thought the list fell short and she offered a list of her own books. Sottile's list focused quite a bit on writers from U. S. West and, I think we all agreed, hers was a gravely serious list of books dealing with difficult subjects ranging from Ruby Ridge to Columbine to missing indigenous persons and more.  I admire Leah Sottile and, in keeping with my admiration of her writing and her podcasts, I immediately wanted to start getting a hold of the books on her list and read away. I'll just have to decide where to start and see how far I get! 

(I've already read one of the books she listed: Jess Walter's superb Spokane tale, The Cool Millions.)

We also extended the conversation Debbie, Patrick, Meagan and I had started in the afternoon. We talked about the strong impulse it's easy to feel to try to get friends in crisis to change their ways, but how difficult or even futile it is to persuade these friends to change, leaving us to witness their demise. 

We can be present with these people, but rarely, if ever, do we have the magic words that convince the persons in crisis to stop being self-neglecting or self-destructive. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-12-2024: Positive Covid Test, Patrick and Meagan Arrive, I Cooked Dinner and Retired for the Evening

1. At the transplant clinic on Wednesday, the two physicians who met with Debbie and me made it clear that, as a recent transplant recipient with a lowered immune system, it was likely that I would continue to test positive for Covid for two weeks or more. 

I tested myself this morning, knowing Patrick and Megan would arrive in the afternoon. Sure enough, I tested positive again. Today was the twelfth day since my first positive test on July 1. 

As has been true, though, for these twelve days, I continue not to have a fever. I don't have any symptoms to speak of. Okay. About four times a day I blow my nose to clear out the most minimal of nasal congestion. For the rest of the time, my nasal passages are clear. 

So, I guess the best way to put it is that bits of the virus are hanging on, making the test positive, but they aren't having much of an effect on how I feel. 

2. Patrick and Megan arrived mid-afternoon and we all agreed that I would keep my distance from everyone. Fortunately, with the way we had our house remodeled, the opening between the kitchen and living room is wide. I could sit at the kitchen table while Debbie, Megan, and Patrick were in the living room and simultaneously maintain distance but feel like we were in the same room. We easily conversed. 

3. Before long, I put on latex gloves and cooked our dinner. I fried a batch of chicken thighs and accompanied it with a vegetable stir fry with brown rice and made a stir fry sauce. 

After dinner, Megan, Patrick, and Debbie went out to the patio and, at some point, Christy joined them. 

I was bushed.

The combination of socializing and fixing dinner wore me out and while the others enjoyed time together on the patio, I brought Copper into the bedroom with me, spent time in the Connections archives doing past puzzles, and, after a while, punched up the Sirius/XM app on my phone, put on Lou Simon's Jukebox Diner show, and listened on my wireless earbuds until I went to sleep, Copper at my side. Thanks to the earbuds, I couldn't hear the others on the patio just outside one of the bedroom windows and I have no idea when they called it a night and came back in the house. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-11-2024: Morning Visit With Terry, Relaxing Day, Pork Schnitzel HelloFresh Style

1. After Terry Turner left last night to return to his room, I wondered if maybe we could spend some more time together this morning, so I invited him over for coffee and a bagel. (I would have fixed a fancier breakfast, but we were in between shopping trips and low on groceries.)

Terry accepted my invitation and we had a great time yakkin', watching action from the first round of the Scottish Open, drinking coffee, and enjoying a bagel. 

An awesome morning -- after a couple of hours, Terry headed out. Next stop: Missoula. 

2. I continued to relax the day away with word puzzles and blogging. A lengthy heat wave is underway and I'm very grateful that our home cooling system keeps things both safe and comfortable inside. 

3. I fixed HelloFresh's version of pork schnitzel tonight for dinner. Rather than turn on the oven and roast the potatoes and broccoli, I boiled the spuds and steamed the broccoli. The schnitzel was easy and fun to make. I put sour cream in the bottom of flat bottomed bowl, coated the pork chops with sour cream, and then put the meat in a zip lock bag into which I had put panko, lemon zest, and garlic powder, and shook it up. I fried the coated pork and topped one side with a sauce made up of mayo, honey, and Dijon mustard.

I enjoyed eating this meal, but, even more, I liked learning a way to use panko and boneless pork chops to make a fun meal I'd never considered until today. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-10-2024: Protect Against Infection, Fitness Center Guidelines, Terry and Ed Join Us for BBQ

1. The primary message I heard during my visit to the transplant clinic today? "Be on guard against becoming infected, especially because you have Covid.  We don't want to add any more demands on your immune system." 

That said, how to proceed forward isn't always absolutely clear and I accept that. I'm in a fluctuating circumstance and have to decide what risks I want to take and what, for me, right now, is off limits. 

I'm not sure that I will be consistent, but, in fluctuating circumstances, inconsistency comes with the territory! 

The team didn't see any problem with Debbie and me having visitors in our home, as long as we were as certain as possible that the visitors aren't ill and as long as I keep distance from them, especially indoors. I might, at times, determine it wise to wear a mask when visitors are in the house. 

I asked about attending Ed's 70th birthday party at the Elks this Saturday. The team hated to say it, but they recommended I not attend an occasion with quite a few people in attendance and with so little knowledge if anyone might be contagious with something. I will comply with their recommendation -- it makes a lot of sense to me not to go. I'll simply have to accept the disappointment -- but, as they say, this isn't my first disappointment rodeo. 

The team gave me the green light to increase the amount I can lift, telling me that if I overdo it, my surgery site will let me know -- but I have no plans for lifting anything or anyone other than light things around the house and Copper when I need to move him. 

The team agreed with my reading of Monday's blood work. It looks terrific. And stable. 

I will not have labs done next week. I am moving toward an every two week schedule. It will be another month before I return to the clinic for a checkup. I think I am moving toward once a month visits. At some point later this year, I'll resume seeing Dr. Bieber, my nephrologist at Kootenai Health. 

2. I asked the transplant team if or when I could return to the Fitness Center. Dr. Murad thought it would be all right to return in the near future with two stipulations: 1. I protect my self with a mask/face covering and  2. I go to the gym when things are not busy. I think I will impose a third stipulation and wait until I test negative for Covid. 

When I was a regular at the Fitness Center, the gym was never very busy in the afternoon, say, around 2:00. I'll see if that still seems to be true. What I know will be true is that my visits will be much shorter, especially. to begin. My guess is that I'll start with a twenty minute work out, see how that goes for a while, and decide when to increase that. If if feels to me like the gym is getting crowded,  or if someone in attendance is repeatedly coughing or sneezing, I'll stop my session and leave. I can't say right now when I'll make my first return. I do, however, sure look forward to exercising and the care team unanimously agree exercise will benefit me. 

3. Terry Turner spent last night in Kellogg on his way to Missoula for Trout Unlimited meetings. He wondered if he could come over to our place for a visit and my answer was YES and our plan was to order food from the Garrenteed BBQ food trailer and dine on the patio. I also invited Ed to join us.

Our plans changed slightly because of the heat and we dined and yakked indoors. I dined in the living room and the others ate in the kitchen. Since we have a wide opening between the kitchen and living room it was easy to talk to each other. I think our precautions were sound. We enjoyed our takeout food and spent just over an hour talking about all kinds of stuff, ranging from Terry and Nancy's recent trip to Ireland to  Ed recounting stories from trips he has made to talking a bit about the kidney transplant and its aftermath. 

Ah! It was fun seeing lifelong friends and having some company pay a visit -- a welcome change of pace!

 

Three Beautiful Things 07-09-2024: Lab Report Looks Good, Movies Set in Times Square, The Opening of *The Player*

1. I have a Wednesday, July 10th, 11:30 appointment to visit with the transplant team at Providence Sacred Heart. In preparation for this appointment, I had blood work done on Monday and I read the results today. As I examined the results the doctors always focus on the most, I saw that my creatinine levels are stable, my potassium and magnesium levels are in range, and last week's slight increase in my tacrolimus dosage seemed to work -- the level of tacrolimus in my bloodstream came up. I'll find out on Wednesday if it's at a level the doctor is satisfied with and whether my dosage will change again. 

It looked to me as if my bout with Covid has not affected my kidney function. I hope I'm right. 

I anticipate a positive visit to the transplant clinic on July 10th. 

2. I had a lot of fun looking at trailers for movies featured on the Criterion Channel that are set in NYCity's Times Square. My first visit to NYCity was in 2012 and, by then, Times Square had been gentrified -- some would say Disney-fied! Many of these older movies, like, say, Midnight Cowboy, are set in the Times Square of 40-50 and more years ago. They are gritty. I look forward to watching some of them, especially a documentary that came out in 1999 that documents the transformation of Times Square. It's entitled, The Gods of Times Square.  

3. Today, a movie account in my Facebook feed raised the question, "What is your favorite opening shot in a movie?" Several people answered that their favorite was the eight minute opening uncut, tracking shot that sets Robert Altman's The Player in motion. It's a movie I love and I immediately went to the Criterion Channel and punched it up and watched that opening sequence a couple or three times. 

Watching Altman's fluid and jazzy direction of that opening scene and watching the focus of the entire movie be established in those eight minutes excited me again and took me back to the thrill, thirty-two years ago (!), when I watched The Player in the cinemaplex in Springfield, OR and thrived on the jolts of pleasure and astonishment I experienced watching that movie unfold. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-08-2024: Blood Draw and The Beanery, Moving Transplant Central, Whoa -- *Lethal Weapon*

1. For eight weeks, now, with two exceptions, Mondays continue to be blood draw days. The transplant team no longer needs the results immediately, so now I can have these labs completed uptown in Kellogg. 

I wasn't alone today. Debbie had a 7:00 a.m. appointment with her primary care physician. The lab opens at 7:30. We went to the clinic together and were done by 8:00.

Instead of going straight home, we stopped at The Beanery. I headed out in their big yard area to a picnic table in the shade. Debbie went inside and brought out our espresso drinks and a cinnamon roll to share.

This was a welcome change of pace. I hadn't been out for a coffee since the May 11th surgery. I've thought about stopping at The Beanery, but I haven't wanted to order inside, especially if they were busy. 

This arrangement, however, worked perfectly. The morning was refreshingly cool, I stayed out of the sun, and Debbie and I enjoyed a relaxing time together. 

2. Our kitchen table has been transplant central. My bottles of pills, pill box, transplant information, record keeping binder, and other paraphernalia have been dominating the table.

I've also had some piles of papers in the living room. 

Today that changed. 

I set up a card table in the room where I sleep and moved everything onto it.

I like this set up a lot. 

I'm very happy to no longer be foisting all my miscellaneous transplant stuff on our common living spaces. 

I get a kick out of that term "manspreading". I also like feeling much less like I'm manspreading my medical stuff throughout the house! 

3. I continued my viewing of 1980s action-comedy buddy movies today. 

I watched Lethal Weapon. 

I was glad that I watch movies as a believer. 

I enjoy having movies take me into the implausible. I never judge a movie by saying, "That would never happen in real life." 

Lethal Weapon built its story lines and its characterizations upon exaggeration and it was fun to give myself over to that and marvel at just how awful the evil characters in this movie could be, just how astonishingly fit and capable, even in the direst of situations, Mel Gibson's character was, and how manic the movie's different explosions, vehicle chases, and killings proved to be. 

Alongside the action scenes ranging from torture to shootouts to chases to hand to hand combat to explosions, this was a Christmas family movie of sorts and it was a story about a trust and friendship developing between Danny Glover's and Mel Gibson's characters. 

Given my predelictions for movies more of the art house variety, I could sure see why I'd never watched Lethal Weapon before. 

It's a whole different kind of movie making than I'm used to and it was fun to venture out into this movie's world of violence, heroic action, and heart warming scenes of family life and a budding friendship. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-07-2024: The Crucial Health Question, Sunday's Crossword, On Board with *48 Hrs*

1.  For at least ten years now, the crucial health question before me has always gone something like this: we see what the blood work numbers say, but more importantly, how do you feel? This question became especially important about ten years ago when my GFR dropped below 20. It's at this point that it's recommended patients with kidney disease begin the process of becoming listed for a transplant. It was Dr. Zakem, the last time I saw him in 2014, who told me it was time to enroll and that I should get that process underway once we moved to Maryland. Once in Maryland, my new nephrologist, Dr. Malik agreed. 

I had plans in the late fall and early winter of 2014-15 to help out with Mom's care in Kellogg, but once I returned to Maryland, I began the process and by about March or April of 2015, I joined the transplant list. 

Sometime, after that, in both Maryland and later in Spokane, my kidney numbers dipped to a range that, if we only went by the numbers, I would begin dialysis. 

But, the doctors always asked the same crucial health question: "How do you feel?" 

My answer was always the same: "I feel great!" 

So we never started dialysis. 

I bring this up because today, on the seventh day since testing positive for Covid, I took another home test. 

As I had on Monday, July 1, today I tested positive.

And then I asked myself the crucial health question: "How do I feel?"

I feel good. 

No headache. No body aches. No sore throat. No fever. No loss of taste or smell. No persistent cough. 

I occasionally sneeze and from time to time I need to blow my nose. 

I'm a little bit more tired than usual. 

Short naps restore my energy.

So, I'm disappointed that I didn't test negative, even though the transplant team told me I might test positive for as long as ten days (or more) as is common with transplant patients. 

But I'm heartened by how I feel. 

I'm heartened that I've never run a fever. I'm heartened that I feel stronger than I did even a week ago. It doesn't seem like my bout with this mild, but persistent, bout of Covid has done much to stymie my overall recovery from kidney transplant surgery. 

2.  I got caught up today. I went back and completed the Friday NYTimes crossword puzzle and then I tackled the Sunday puzzle and completed it, even though I didn't figure out the puzzle's theme/gimmick until I was done. I enjoyed working this Sunday puzzle, even as I wondered what the deal was with the odd theme answers. What did I think once I understood those odd answers and how they fit with the theme? I could see the cleverness it took to create this puzzle. It had an element of fun. I wish I'd enjoyed it more -- I mean, what's wrong with me? Maybe I'm becoming a crossword puzzle sourpuss in my old age! 

3. I might have been a sourpuss about the Sunday puzzle, but I was NOT a sourpuss this evening as I  about watched Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in the movie, 48 Hrs. I'm happy when this movie came out that I was, and continue, for the most part, to be a devotee to watching movies that I guess you'd call art house movies. But, recently, I've wanted to watch action movies, especially once I passed over back in the 1980s. I began scratching this itch with Beverly Hills Cop and enjoyed it so much that I had to go back to Eddie Murphy's first movie and watch him partner up with Nick Nolte in 48 Hrs. 

I'm glad I did. I not only got caught up in the suspense of the movie, in the way Nolte and Murphy played off of each other as mismatched, almost accidental partners in running down two ultra-violent cold-blooded killers, but I also thoroughly enjoyed the movie's atmospherics. I thought the opening scene featuring a work crew of prison laborers in oppressive heat was perfectly staged and, as the movie progressed into one sketchy, gritty San Francisco locale after another, I thoroughly enjoyed the cramped police precinct, the claustrophobic jailhouse holding Eddie Murphy's character, the rundown hotels the killers holed themselves up in, the redneck bar Eddie Murphy's character intimidates into submission, and the hazy final scene staged in a back alley in San Francisco's Chinatown. 

The movie's music soundtrack was also terrific, especially when the movie featured live bands playing. 

I'm a sucker for subway stations and trains in movies. I had a blast watching this part of the movie unfold.

I sure understood, as I watched this movie and thought about my movie viewing habits over forty years ago why I'd never watched it until now. 

Now, however, as I move into my 70s, I've loosened up. I'm more accepting. Whole new areas of movie viewing are opening up to me -- oh, I'll never stop watching art house movies and independent films, say, on the Criterion Channel. But, I'm ready to venture into movies I ignored in the past and am thinking that it might be time to watch Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon. I also have No Way Out on my radar. Who knows? I might enjoy Kevin Costner in 2024 after not enjoying him much in the 1980s. I mean how far will this accepting spirit take me? 

Three Beautiful Things 07-06-2024: No Covid Drama, Things Can Loosen Up, Wait! What Day Is Today?

1. Ah! Another day free of Covid drama. I continue to feel better. I'll take a home test on Sunday so I can tell Christie, when she draws my blood Monday morning, what the result was. 

2. Today, it's been eight weeks since I received a new kidney. 

Looking over the binder from the transplant program, I see that if I were working, I could return -- especially since I was not doing manual labor. Hard physical work would have to wait. 

I can most likely now lift up to twenty pounds safely. I'll be cautious about this, but I certainly can feel that my surgery site is stronger and has become more intact. 

I've read online that after eight weeks, a transplant recipient can exercise lightly. I'm going to double check with the transplant team about this, but it's sounding to me like I just might be able to return to non-strenuous exercise at the Fitness Center. I wonder: is my favorite machine, Nu Step, too strenuous? How about a stationary bike? I don't have much question about walking at a slow pace without much slant on the treadmill. 

I know I can be out in uncrowded, unpacked public places. I haven't done this yet, especially since contracting Covid, but I think the time is drawing near to make trips to the store and things like that. 

Slowly, surely I am moving out of the period of restrictions following my surgery and getting closer and closer to doing stuff I did before the transplant. 

3.  I have to chuckle at myself. The NYTimes offers, as a help to solvers working on the difficult Friday puzzle, an alternate list of easier clues. When I do the Friday puzzle, I put the difficult clues in one tab and the easy mode clues in another. I do my best not to refer to the easy mode clues, but inevitably I need their help to get unstuck. Well, today I thought I was working the Friday puzzle and not once did I refer to the easy mode clues. 

Turns out, I was actually working the Saturday puzzle. 

I'm really glad I solved it, but I'm kind of embarrassed that I'd lost track of what puzzle I was working and had easy mode clues ready to refer to for a puzzle I wasn't working.

Oh, well. I'll go back to the Friday puzzle on Sunday and see how I do. I've already started the Sunday puzzle. I'll return to it eventually. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-05-2024: No Covid Drama, AC/DC 101, Prescriptions Delivered by Mail

1. Ah! Just what I wanted today. No Covid drama. I felt good. Yes, I napped a little, but that probably had as much to do with an erratic night of sleep Thursday night/Friday morning. That's to be expected with liberty blasts going off around our neighborhood past midnight. 

2. AC/DC has been putting out records for nearly fifty years. I was always aware of their big hits -- many of those songs just seemed to be in the air and would get played on MTV, on classic rock radio stations, in watering holes I patronized, and other places. 

Today, however, was the first day ever that I decided to learn more about the band, watch and listen to interviews, seek out more AC/DC live performances on YouTube, and I totally enjoyed this plunge into their history, learning more about their approaches to rock n roll and performing, and how they've navigated tragedy and other challenges over the course of their band's history. 

AC/DC got to me in a wild way once before when Debbie's brother David took me for a high speed ride through the back streets of Arlington Heights, IL in his Mustang Cobra on a Taco Bell run with AC/DC as the soundtrack to his dare devilry. That day, Dave was definitely TNT. 

Today, I found the interviews surprisingly touching and I was also unexpectedly moved by the invigorating connection that was so apparent between the band and their huge followers. The energy, the joy, the pure fun of it all really got to me. 

3. To close, a few words of gratitude regarding my medications. Currently, following the kidney transplant, I am taking ten different medications in a variety of doses, some twice a day, some once a day, some only at 8 a.m., some only at 8 p.m. The transplant team changes my dosages from time to time and so I spend a bit of time making sure I have the right pills and the right amount in the right slots in the pillbox the transplant program issued me.

I'm not having any trouble keeping my medications straight as far as when to take what and I have an alarm set on my cell phone to remind me when it's pill time. 

Today, five bottles of pills arrived in the mail. 

I'm enrolled in the hospital pharmacy's program to have my medications mailed to me and I am very grateful for this service. 

The pharmacists who run this program take care of everything. I don't have to request refills, meaning I don't have to keep track of when refills are due. The pharmacists take care of that and, if they need to talk with me about a delivery, they call me. And if I'm concerned about anything regarding my prescriptions, I can call them and when I do, they are really really helpful.

Not having to call in refills, not having to pick up my pills, not having to worry about managing when refills are due is a huge relief and has contributed most positively to my feelings of deep satisfaction with how I'm being served by Providence Sacred Heart and the Credena pharmacy. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-04-2024: Tentative Covid Optimism, 4th of July Dinner Delivered, AC/DC "Thunderstruck" Blow Out

1. Mainly, I wonder if I'm contagious. As far as how I felt today, Thursday, after testing positive for Covid on Monday, I felt very good today. I wasn't as tired as I had been. My sneezing and nose blowing has subsided significantly. I hate to get ahead of myself, but I think I'm getting over this Covid episode. 

My main concern is whether I'm contagious, so I'm playing it cautiously here at home -- and I am staying home. I look forward to talking this over with the transplant team on Wednesday, but this week has made me think that my immune system is improving. Yes, it's suppressed, but not like it was just a few weeks ago, and I have to believe, as Saturday approaches and I reach the eight week anniversary of this transplant, that I'm getting closer and closer to being able to get out and about a bit more. 

2. Because of my concern about being contagious, I stayed home from this afternoon's 4th of July BBQ Family Dinner. Debbie stayed home, too, feeling fatigued. (Covid does that.) Christy delivered us each a meal on our front porch and so we got to have a Paul-grilled hamburger, Christy's potato salad, and slice of Zoe's cherry pie. 

3. While Copper presents himself as unbothered by the several hours of fireworks that boomed around town and in our neighborhood this evening, I kept him company just in case his indifference wore out. If I remember correctly, the fireworks bothered Luna and she would velcro herself to my chest while local people expressed their love of freedom and independence and bombs bursting in air by filling the air with mighty blasts and sprays of red, white, and blue. 

Earlier in the day, Jeri saw a picture in her Facebook feed of the all-women AC/DC cover band, Hell's Belles, and kiddingly wondered if that was Debbie's band. No, I responded, Debbie's bandmates weren't Belles, they were Babes, Babes with Axes. I joked that I would, however, love to hear Debbie sing the lead on "Highway to Hell" or play the guitar lead on "Thunderstruck" -- doubting that Debbie would agree with me. 

As Copper and I hung out together enduring the sounds of liberty thundering all about us, I went to YouTube and watched a video of AC/DC performing "Thunderstruck". Then I remembered having watched a video in the past of a bluegrass band performing it, looked it up, and found Steve 'N' Seagulls, from Finland, indeed, playing this AC/DC classic. I couldn't get enough of it. I watched it about four times, went back and watched AC/DC perform it again, and enjoyed another bluegrass band, Thunder and Rain perform a splendid cover of Guns N Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine". 

By the way, I never tire of going down the YouTube rabbit hole of rock classics being covered by non-rock performers, whether it's listening to 2Cellos, the Badpiper, other bluegrass bands or who/whatever else I can find giving a new sound and new life to rock songs that are familiar and famous. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-03-2024: Covid Receding, I Loved Theater Rehearsals, Patrick Torelle's Production of *Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf* Was a Masterpiece

1. I definitely felt more energetic today. I continued to isolate myself and wear protection when I was anywhere near Debbie, concerned that I'm still contagious. I would hate it if Debbie got reinfected.

So, even though I thought Covid's mild hold on me weakened today, I missed out on two family celebrations of Carol's 61st birthday. I missed brunch around 10:00 and a dinner around 4:00, but, thanks to Debbie, I did get to enjoy the superb scones, mini eggcups, and fresh fruit Zoe prepared for the brunch and later Debbie brought me home a bowl combining the Cobb salad, chicken pieces, and stuffed mushrooms Zoe prepared for dinner.     

Even with a welcome uptick in my energy today, I still needed sleep during the day and napped the entire time Debbie was over at Carol and Paul's for the birthday dinner. 

So, to sum up my current Covid situation: only the mildest symptoms (occasional sneeze), continued concern about being contagious, and I need more sleep than usual. 

2. I admit it. The myriad feelings of love and gratitude I feel when I think back on the four Shakespeare plays I got to be in at Lane Community College far exceed the contributions I made to these productions in the small roles I played. 

My feelings, though, don't have a lot to do with what happened on stage. 

I loved the whole process of preparing and rehearsing for these plays, starting with the initial read through, continuing as our director, Sparky Roberts, blocked scene after scene, as we moved toward costume fitting and eventually worked in all the lighting and sound cues. 

I spent a lot of time at the theater during rehearsal times waiting. Sometimes I spent that time running lines with others or rehearsing scenes independently from the director. 

Often I socialized or sat back and listened to other cast members yak with each other.

These conversations about everything from zombies to pirates to video games to movies to telling stories about ourselves forged bonds between us that not only significantly enhanced our work with one another on stage, they created the memories and the feelings of love that surfaced so strongly today and yesterday as I knew a number of the cast members I'd worked with were gathered in Tigard to honor Patrick. 

My onstage contributions may have been small, minor, but what I experienced to prepare for these performances and off stage during them with members of these casts was huge and will live with me always.

3. I thought a lot today about the Lane Community College production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? that Patrick Torelle directed in the winter of 1996. Patrick also played the role of George, opposite Linda Burden-Williams playing Martha. It was an arresting production and, for me got right to the core of what Edward Albee's play explores about the power of the illusions we create to distance ourselves from actual pain and tenderness in our lives and what George and Martha had to go through over the course of a single night in order to exorcise these illusions. I saw it three times. 

I began studying Edward Albee's plays in about 1980. I thought of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf as portraying Martha, especially, being estranged from her true self, what I thought of as home, and, by play's end, returning home again. 

At some level, I think, Patrick must have thought of this play in similar terms. 

I remember being astonished and thrilled by how Patrick opened the play with Martha in front of a mirror, making her self up for the evening's upcoming social occasion while over the Blue Door Theater's sound system the perfect song played: Supertramp's "The Long Way Home". 

I may not remember the details of the play's opening perfectly, but I'll never forget how that song prepared me emotionally to experience Martha, over the course of the entire play, taking the long way, fiercely protecting herself from her deepest fears and the tenderness deep within her, until finally, at the break of day, she returns home.  

Three Beautiful Things 07-02-2024: Covid Detente, Photos and Memories from Patrick Torelle's 80th Birthday Party, Copper Loves Covid!

1.  The Covid virus and I reached, at least for today, a detente. I continued to be tired and took short naps throughout the day after sleeping nearly nine hours Monday night. No new symptoms developed. I never ran a fever. I sneeze on occasion, blow my nose from time to time, and have the mildest of body aches. Nothing is getting worse. 

I heard from Nurse Jenn a couple of times. She informed me that Dr. Murad wants me to lower the dosage of one medication and slightly increase the dosage of another. Overall, my Monday blood work results were positive: on all fronts, the numbers were stable. That's just what we want. 

2. Photographs from Patrick Torelle's 80th birthday party began to appear on Facebook. For many many years, Patrick was a faculty member at Lane Community College where he headed up the theater program, directed countless plays, taught acting classes, and was involved as highly valued actor and director in theater companies throughout Eugene. 

I sorely wanted to travel to Tigard on Sunday at attend Patrick's party. Not only would I loved to have seen and celebrated Patrick, I also was fairly certain that any number of fellow cast mates from the handful of plays I appeared in at LCC and the one I was in at Brit. Theater would be there. I don't know if she made it, but I would have loved to have seen Sparky Roberts, too. 

But, even without first being exposed to Covid and then contracting it, it didn't feel safe to me, just yet, to be at a party attended by many people. 

The pictures I've seen stirred memories I cherish of rehearsals, performances, Shakespeare Showcases, acting classes, cast parties, long conversations off stage during performances and during rehearsal breaks. 

If anything ever taught me that great enjoyment and fulfillment doesn't depend on being great, my participation as a marginal person in the Eugene live theater world proved it to me. Being in those plays, working so closely with others in the plays' casts, making both temporary and lasting friendships made me very happy and my happiness and sense of fulfillment far outmeasured any contribution I made to these plays performing small roles, roles I enjoyed immensely. 

The photos I've seen and reading Patrick's comments on his party thrilled me, knowing that this was, for Patrick, one of the very happiest days of his life. 

All blessings to Patrick, his generosity, widespread influence, immeasurable gifts as an actor, director, administrator, and teacher, and valued friend to so many. 

3. So, from time to time, as we work our way through these days of Covid, Debbie asks me how Copper is doing. 

My answer is simple: "Copper loves Covid!"

Because I've confined myself to staying in the bedroom where I sleep for most of the hours of day and because I learned from Nurse Angela that it's fine for Copper and me to be in the same room together, Copper and I have had many hours of contentment together. 

Copper goes back and forth between relaxing on the bed with me and retiring to a corner of the bedroom closet that he's always enjoyed. 

I've been able, with Debbie and Gibbs' cooperation, to keep Copper's access open to the Vizio room where his litter box is located, so this part of Copper's life had not been a problem. 

So, the most positive thing, by far, about the Covid outbreak in our home has been seeing Copper be the happiest I've seen him in months. He loves having continual companionship and it shows in how relaxed and at ease he's been since he and I have been able to spend hour upon hour of basically uninterrupted time together. 

Three Beautiful Things 07-01-2024: Covid Update, Nurse Jenn's Message, Setbacks are Common

1.  In weekly meetings with Jenn, the Nurse Coordinator of my kidney transplant case, Debbie and I have repeatedly inquired about my vulnerability to illness and what precautions I need to take, especially in these early weeks after the transplant. 

I've been meticulous in following Nurse Jenn's advice, especially staying out of public places. She's told me things I could do, like, say, going to the store during times when business is slow, but I haven't done even that. 

I've been very cautious. 

Simply put, I haven't wanted to deal with illness.

Here's the other thing Nurse Jenn has repeated to me: "If you do become ill, you aren't doomed. It'll probably just take longer than usual for you to get over it." 

I kept this in mind when Debbie called me from Alaska a week ago to tell me she'd been exposed to the Covid virus. 

I kept it in mind when she came home and the next day tested positive for Covid.

Debbie and I isolated ourselves from each other, wore protection in common areas of the house, and did all we could to keep me from also contracting the Covid virus.

But, as I thought would likely happen, the sly virus found its way into my system and Monday I tested positive. 

I have braced myself for this virus to take a while to be done with me.

But, if you go down the checklist of Covid symptoms, so far, I'm not experiencing many of them. No sore throat. No fever. No headache. My senses of smell and taste are intact. No foggy brain. I have some minimal flu-like aches and pain.

Ii sneeze once in a while. I have an off and on runny nose. On occasion, I cough.

Mostly I'm tired. 

I don't feel doomed. 

I do feel patient. 

I iust hopę, as many of you have also said, that however long it takes to recover, that the symptoms remain mild. 

2. I tested after I returned home from having my weekly labs done uptown.

When the test came up positive, I immediately messaged Nurse Jenn and let her know.

To my relief, Nurse Jenn did not respond back with alarm. 

She didn't freak out. 

She told me to stay hydrated, monitor my temperature (be on the lookout for fever), and told me how much Tylenol I could take per 24 hour period. She also checked with the doctors to see if I needed any adjustments in my meds. 

(It's Tuesday. I just got word to reduce the dosage of one of my immunosuppression drugs. Makes sense.)

She also told me this will likely be a ten day process. 

3. Repeatedly, doctors, nurses, and other staff at the transplant clinic have told me that essentially everyone who has transplant surgery experiences setbacks or bumps in the road. 

The bump in my road (I hope it's not a setback) came seven weeks after surgery. 

I've been grateful for how well things have gone, but always in the back of my mind I've kept in mind what the transplant professionals have told me: sometimes things go back a few steps before they move forward again.

I accept that. 

I'm prepared within myself to rest, be patient, follow orders, and remain tranquil. I've never let myself get too excited about the good progress I've made and I'm not down in the dumps about having contracted Covid. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-30-2024: My Positive Covid Test, Condemn Them to Wealth, Sen. Fetterman, Cloning Dogs BONUS: A Limerick by Stu

 A July 1 note before I write about June 30: About Saturday, I'd say, my nose started to run just a little bit. I started to have a low grade dry cough. This morning, since this mild runny nose continued, I tested for Covid.

The test came up positive. I'll continue to lie very low for the next ten days or so. My hope is that the very mild symptoms I've experienced so far stay mild. 

Debbie's did. 

1. I spent much of today reading articles in the June 24, 2024 New Yorker magazine. I relished how each article, in its own way, gave me more insight into how complicated the world is. Each persuaded me that we get closer to the truth about things when we accept contradictions and reject purity or absolute thinking. 

The first article was about teen age gangs inn Gilbert, AZ. I think we are all pretty well conditioned to think of gangs being made up of youth from the underclass and youth from broken homes. 

These teens, however, are from wealthy homes, teens who are neglected not because of poverty, but by their parents enjoying the spoils of their wealth. These marauders have come to see themselves as bullet proof, protected by wealth from facing consequences, and in their insulation are unfeeling toward those they beat up and attack in other ways. 

I once had a professor in college who sardonically stated over lunch one day, with his tongue in his cheek, that criminals "should be condemned to wealth."

We all laughed, but his pointed remark held a truth about the contradictory nature of wealth. Wealth can be a source of material security, elite education, philanthropy,  traveling the world, and other experiences that are great fun and expansive. 

And, wealth can be a virus, a source of illness, neglect, insulation, isolation, and ignorance about the lives of most people in the world: a kind of condemnation.

I came away from this article thinking these Gilbert youth had been condemned to wealth.

2. The second piece I read was a feature story on Pennsylvania U. S. Senator John Fetterman. 

The story focused on Sen. Fetterman's support for many progressive positions like support for LGBTQ rights, universal medical care, aid to the homeless and more. 

But, unlike many who support these issues, Fetterman emphatically supports Israel in its war with Gaza and Hamas. 

If you were to make one of those checklists to evaluate Fetterman's progressive bona fides, he checks off one issue after another until the checklist includes support for Gaza.

I don't see how these contradictions can be reconciled. 

It's complicated. 

3. The last article I read explored the cloning of dogs.

I honestly had no idea so many dogs were being cloned or that cloning was so expensive.

This article, to me, was about the contradiction between life and death and how cloning enables some part of a deceased dog to live on in the animals cloned from the deceased dog's cells.

I didn't leave the article with a strong position either in support of or in opposition to cloning dogs.

I left it actually feeling overwhelmed by learning about yet something else that is over my head, complicated, and a great comfort to many whose dogs have died. 

All this reading happened on June 30th, but I'm writing about it on July 1st, Canada Day.

In honor of Canada Day, Stu wrote a limerick. 

Here it is:

This wonderful place has a day.

To rejoice in their own special way.

In the west lies BC,

Islands east in cold sea.

Yes, we're talking about Canada, eh? 

Canada Day