Three Beautiful Things 10-14-2024: Blood Work and Gallivanting, Fixing Food for Family Dinner, A Pet Gate! and Good Yakkin'

1. I left the house at 6 a.m. this morning, excited to have blood work done at Providence Sacred Heart and then gallivant around Spokane, Spokane Valley, and Coeur d'Alene for a little while. 

As I write this entry on Tuesday morning, I haven't heard from the transplant team yet regarding my blood work. I've studied it and I really like about 95.7% of what I see and the one result I have questions about might not be that big of a deal. I'll know that it's not a big deal with the team if they don't address if when they message me later. 

I read many of my test results on my phone at Great Harvest as I blissed out on a Morning Glory muffin and a couple of cups of coffee. To my surprise and delight, Great Harvest was selling bread on a buy one get one free special and I purchased a loaf of Harvest Blend and a loaf of Dakota bread. 

I then popped over to Trader Joe's to pick up a few items related to family dinner tonight and some other fun things.

I left Trader Joe's and wound my way downtown to Auntie's Bookstore and picked up two books I'd ordered and they were holding. 

Kenna Morgan spotted me in the store and stopped me to say hello. We chatted for a few minutes and, as I got into the car, I thought of at least two things I wanted to say -- so I'll send her a message. 

I was actually so shocked to hear someone in Spokane, not at Sacred Heart, call out my name that my mind went kind of blank when we visited. 

Outside of the hospital complex, when I roam around Spokane, I never expect anyone to know who I am. And, until today, no one has known me! 

I blasted onto I-90 and after several miles glided on to Indiana Avenue in Spokane Valley and made a quick stop at Barnes and Noble to purchase a paper fold out, old-fashioned, but current, street map of Spokane and vicinity. I've been wanting to get some details about Spokane's layout and roadways clearer in my mind and I find the paper map is far more helpful than looking at maps online. 

I ended my string of stops at Pilgrim's Market in Coeur d'Alene where I bought more produce for dinner, a bag of ground Craven coffee like they serve at Great Harvest, and a few other items. 

I enjoyed all my stops, maybe more than a reasonable person ought to!, and it was time to rocket back to Kellogg and get family dinner preparations underway. 

2. Back home, it was time to spiff up the house a bit,  focus on chopping vegetables, thawing chicken tenders, fixing a green curry sauce, and, a bit later, getting out the wok and preparing tonight's noodles and stir frying the chicken for our dinner. 

For dinner, I steamed three different kinds of gyoza, potstickers, and dumplings. I also stir fried a variety of vegetables in the wok and added fresh basil and cilantro to the stir fry and blended in the chicken and noodles. 

I made a Trader Joe's dipping sauce and Trader Joe's Peanut Satay available to dip the potstickers in and Debbie, Molly, Paul, Carol, and I could choose to use the dipping sauce or the green curry sauce I made as sauce for the stir fry. I also put out peanuts for the stir fry. 

I love fixing food in the wok and I love experimenting with stir fry sauces so this was a fun dinner for me. Luckily, the rest the family enjoyed it, too. 

We missed Christy, but for the best of reasons: she has been away in the woods of North Idaho, staying at a rental cabin, resting, relaxing, retreating, and recharging her energy.  

We also missed Brian who had important matters elsewhere to tend to. 

3. As I've mentioned about 70 million times since Debbie put it up in July, we've had a game changing pet barrier up to make life more peaceful for both Gibbs and Copper. 

As an instrument of peace and contentment, it's worked magnificently.

One problem: Debbie and I have had to climb over it for the last nearly three months.

A few weeks ago Debbie said the magic word: ENOUGH! 

She purchased a pet gate. 

After dinner, Paul installed it. 

What a difference for Debbie and me! No more anxiety about falling as we climbed over that barrier. We can walk through the gate. 

Not only that, but conversation tonight that ranged from Tina Turner to pet care to teaching challenges to family news to care of the soul to life at Kellogg's latest food and wine and oddities joint, Nocturn -- where Molly is the manager -- was fun. 

Three Beautiful Things 10-13-2024: Nitty Gritty on ZOOM, Mural Restoration in N. Yorkshire, Superb Chicken Dinner

1. I joined Bill, Diane, and Bridgit on ZOOM this morning for a somber and often intense conversation largely focused on the complications that develop when a death occurs in a family. I involved myself in this discussion by listening and occasionally asking a question as the others talked about tensions between family members, financial complexities, thorny dilemmas, estate difficulties, grudges, settling old scores, and the exhaustion of taking care of business after a parent or a sibling dies. The discussion left me divided between feeling sorrow and frustration for my friends' trying circumstances, past and present, and feeling gratitude that my sisters and I navigated our mother's death so well.  

2.  Today, I started reading a book that is, so far, without assault, without violence, without a court trial.  It's a small book. Its title is A Month in the Country. It's about a physically and psychologically damaged WWI veteran who has taken a job in a small North Yorkshire village painstakingly uncovering a church building's medieval mural that has layer upon layer of paint and other obscuring materials hiding it. 

I'm not a hundred percent sure where this novel is going.  I'm not even ten percent sure. In fact, I have no idea.

3. Debbie fixed dinner again tonight. She dreamed up a way of baking chicken with surprising seasonings and made penne with red pepper pesto and a bean salad to go with the chicken. The chicken, pasta, and salad worked together flawlessly. Dinner deeply satisfied me.

Three Beautiful Things 10-12-2024: I Finished *Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil*, I Enjoyed the Movie, Delicious Canned Salmon and Pasta Dinner

1. I finished reading the intriguing book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil first thing today. I only had about twenty pages to go. 

This book came out thirty year ago. I left it wondering, knowing that many of the principal figures in the book (but not its author) have died, whether the commitment to preserving itself, whether adamant resistance to change continue to be a prominent social value in Savannah. 

I didn't have this question on my mind at all in 2016 when I traveled to Savannah. My mind was mostly on the task of officiating Scott and Cate's wedding. In 2016, I wandered in the historic district one day, took some pictures, but I didn't have an understanding of what I was seeing or of the history of the place. 

If I discovered a book or an article examining Savannah in the 2020s, looking at the similarities and differences between this city in the 1980s, when most of this book took place, and now, or even the last ten years, I'd read it.

2. I was very curious to see how Clint Eastwood, as director and producer, in collaboration with the movie's screenwriter, John Lee Hancock, adapted the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil into a movie. 

I'm not going to, nor am I able to, say which is better, the movie or the book. 

I'm more interested in the adaptation itself. 

I think what Hancock/Eastwood did tells viewers, especially those who've read the book, what Hancock and Eastwood see as making a movie work. 

First of all, there is the challenge of time, of the movie's length.

Hancock and Eastwood condensed and rearranged episodes in the book to tighten up the story. Otherwise, they would have had to make a season or two worth of hour long episodes, that is, make a series out of the book.

Therefore, the movie had fewer characters and changed some characters' names. The book featured four trials, three in Savannah,  the last one in Augusta, and the movie condensed them into a single trial in Savannah. The movie created a lukewarm love interest, an addition to the story. 

Tighten. Rearrange. Add in some kissing and hand holding. 

The movie took us inside some of the vintage homes/mansions, brought us into Savannah's black cotillion, took us into a graveyard at night (the garden of good and evil), but, did not extend the movie by taking us to several locales the book did. 

The trial was, to me, the center of the movie.

Savannah was the center of the book. 

Trials make better movies, but the book's exploration of Savannah's quirkiness, spirit, and darker dimensions were perfect for the book. 

I enjoyed both, but I cannot compare them -- can't say if the movie "lived up" to the book. 

The movie was its own work, based on, but not wholly dependent on, John Berendt's book.

Again, I enjoyed both.  

3. Debbie made a superb dinner tonight that featured canned salmon, pasta boiled in chicken broth, garlic, green onion, sour cream, and maybe other ingredients into a spaghetti dish that we both loved. When I eat canned salmon, I don't compare it to fresh salmon. They are two different food items connected only by both being a kind of salmon. Not comparing canned to fresh opens the way for me to enjoy canned salmon for what it is for me, a delicious, versatile, and convenient food item that always works. 

Three Beautiful Things 10-11-2024: Wealth and Justice, Voodoo and Psycho Dice, Jazz Is Just Right

1.  Any contact I have with wealthy people almost always only happens through reading about them. 

As I near the end of the book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, I'm reminded page after page that the wealthy, yes, can possess and I think, at times, they might even enjoy, copious luxuries. 

Their wealth can also have a sizable impact on the courtroom, primarily because the wealthy can afford to spend, spend, spend, spend, spend, and spend some more on mounting a defense when indicted for a crime, spend, spend, spend spend, and spend some more on appealing each and every guilty conviction, and, can afford to keep a court case continuing for years.  

The wealthy can afford to run out the clock. 

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is about more than Jim Williams' lengthy effort to be acquitted of murder. It's also about the social goings on in, oh, let's say the 1980s, in Savannah, GA, the eccentricities of the wealthy and the peculiarities of those who aren't wealthy at all, and about grudges, petty spats, power struggles, sexual mores, hypocrisies, and secrets, racial realities, and other aspects of life in Savannah.

But, this book would have come to a much earlier conclusion if Jim Williams were of modest means. Instead, it covers a span of nearly ten years because Jim Williams can afford to be tried repeatedly for having killed Danny Hansford. 

I have about twenty pages left to read and the trials are not over, nor do I know what the future holds for Jim Williams. 

2. A dimension of this book that I find fascinating (from afar) is that Jim Williams seeks help in the midst of his trials from Minerva, a woman living in Beaufort, South Carolina, who practices voodoo. The book's author, John Berendt, takes us into Minerva's world of voodoo, her world of roots, powders, rituals, incantations, graveyards, and more.  

Not only does Jim Williams seek spiritual aid from voodoo, he is also certain that through mind control, through sustained mental concentration, he can bring about results he desires in his life. He practices this commitment by spending hours playing a game of his own creation called Psycho Dice in which he exercises his mental concentration to bring about the dice rolls he desires.

3. While I've been reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, I've had the Sirius/XM station Real Jazz playing at a low volume in the background. Mostly, I don't really hear it, but somehow it's perfect, even if at a subconscious level, as accompaniment to this book. Every once in a while the music pulls me away from the book. Say Dave Brubeck's combo is playing "Take Five". Or say the station suddenly features the vocalist Samara Joy. I surely do not know if jazz music is popular in Savannah, but in my little world of reading and having jazz music on, the fit is just right. 

Three Beautiful Things 10-10-2024: Hold On Partner, Things Darken in Savannah, December Trip -- Maybe

 1. Every day this week, until today, I seem to have forgotten that I had quite a bit of laundry to wash and dry. I was all set to leave the house this morning when suddenly the laundry lightning bolt struck me. 

"Hold on, partner!" I uttered to myself. 

Then over the next few hours, I got my laundry done. 

2. While my clothes spun and tumbled and dried, I met a few more eccentric Savannahians in the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and began to get more and more peeks at the corruption in many of these wealthy people's lives. Violence began to rear its ugliness and suddenly, at the of the book's Part One, a murder occurred. 

I'm fascinated to see where things go from here. 

3. I'm not sure how public the news I received today is, so I'll keep it vague. 

I'll just say that the news gives me a really good reason to travel to Eugene in early December.

I don't think it's a very good idea, just yet, to fly.

But if I continue to recover from the transplant well, if my immune system seems to be improving, and if the weather is decent (safe for driving), I definitely want to drive to Oregon soon after Thanksgiving weekend and be a part of the event I learned about today. 

I'll discuss it with the transplant team -- see what they think. 

On the positive side, I'm happily encouraged by not having any problems after the birthday party at Trout Creek, MT, gathering with people at Don Knott's Celebration of Life after the service, and spending three nights at the Wildhorse Resort. 

My hopes are high.

Three Beautiful Things 10-09-2024: Mandated Flu Shot, Cardboard Out, Eccentric Citizens of Savannah

1. My recent visit to the transplant clinic, on September 30th, included this conversation. My white blood cell count had been low and I wanted to make sure I didn't do something dumb. 

Me: Should I go in for a flu shot?

Dr. Murad: Yes! Absolutely! As soon as possible. But wait a couple of weeks or so after the flu shot for a Covid shot. Contact us before you go in for that shot and we'll review your blood work and tell you if the time is right for it. (Note: I have a clinic visit on Oct 28th. I'll discuss the Covid vaccination then.)

Me: Sounds good. 

I was leaving for the Wildhorse Resort the next day, so I didn't call the clinic uptown until Monday and made an appointment to get a flu shot today. 

It was easy and I was especially happy that the woman who vaccinated me was learning her job, so I got to be a part of her education. I always like being involved in sort of helping new professionals gain experience. And learn.

2. The cardboard had begun to pile up just a bit too much in the garage and so I loaded up the back of the  Sube and blasted out to the transfer station and tossed the boxes and other pieces in the cardboard bin. It is always a relief to me when I make the garage a bit tidier. 

3. As I reached about the halfway point of Chapter 6 of Part One of John Berendt's book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, I realized, in kind of a duh! moment, that Berendt devotes each chapter in Part One to a different eccentric Savannah resident. 

It's fun. 

Through his descriptions of and stories about these citizens, his portrait of Savannah itself fills out. 

My sense is that he is setting the foundation for a more dominating Savannah story to come -- maybe it will develop in Part Two of his book. 

I'll soon find out. 

Three Beautiful Things 10-08-2024: Blood Work and Ultrasound and Results, Blueberry Muffin and Hustling Back Home, Dreaming of a Return to Savannah

1. I hopped into the Camry at dark o'clock (6 am) this morning and soared into the metropolis of Spokane for another visit to the Sacred Heart Outpatient lab for bloodwork and, a bit later, to the Radiology department for an ultrasound of my new kidney. 

The blood work encouraged me. My creatinine levels continue to inch down, my white blood cell count is back in range, my potassium and magnesium levels stayed in range, and everything else, with one exception, was stable. 

Later in the day, my tacrolimus results parachuted into my smart phone. The transplant team would like to see the levels of this immunosuppressive drug be a bit higher in my bloodstream, so they made a small adjustment to my dosage. 

I'll be interested next week to see if or how much this slight increase in my tacrolimus dosage brings down my white blood cell count. My fingers are crossed that the white blood cell count will stay in range. 

The ultrasound results were positive, overall. The only small concern is with the pressure on my artery in the transplant area is.  When I take and log my blood pressure twice a day, if my systolic number consistently goes over 150, the team wants to know. So far, over the last twenty-one weeks since the transplant, this hasn't happened.  I'll have another ultrasound in a month as a way of keeping an eye on this arterial pressure. 

2. I left the Sacred Heart complex and roared straight to Great Harvest for a muffin and coffee. For about two seconds it dismayed me that Great Harvest wasn't selling Morning Glory muffins today, but, my slight disappointment gave way to joy when I saw they were selling Blueberry Oat muffins instead. 

Bliss. 

While out and about, I got word that Keith would be swinging by some time today to blow out our sprinkler system. I let him know I'd be back in Kellogg around 1:30 and then I hustled into Trader Joe's and grabbed a few items -- I didn't poke around like I often do -- and then rocketed downtown and picked up Fire Season,  a book I'd ordered from Auntie's Bookstore. 

I fueled up at Costco in CdA and arrived home ahead of Keith swinging by, which he did about an hour later, and our sprinkler system is ready to hibernate. 

Everything worked out just right. 

3. I'm very happy that I'm not getting distracted and that I'm moving further and further into Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I officiated Scott and Cate's wedding in Savannah back in 2016, in October, and this book moves me to want to go back. Thanks to John Berendt's book, I would see Savannah and its many squares with more informed eyes and it would be fun to trace the footsteps of this book's forays into Savannah. 

I enjoyed Savannah a lot in 2016,  even in my ignorance. Today, I can imagine travel scenarios that would get me there, especially because Debbie's cousin has a vacation condo in Hilton Head, SC, not far from Savannah. 

Three Beautiful Things 10-07-2024: Buying More Books, Business Day, Fun Chicken Tenders

1.  Update on reading through the Leah Sottile book list: Right now I do not have any of the remaining books I will read from her list in my possession. I ordered them all today, buying every book I could from Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane and the other two from Better World Books. Since I make regular medical trips to Spokane, I'll pick up the books I order from Auntie's, all but one were not on their shelves, at their store. 

While I wait for these books to come in, I'm sticking with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil  by John Berendt, a book I've started about three times before getting distracted by who knows what! but I can tell that I won't back down this time. 

It's what's called a non-fiction novel. It's set in Savannah, GA. So far, Berendt portrays Savannah as an eccentric city. It's fun early on.

2. I bore down today and took care of some business: flu shot appointment -- as ordered by the transplant team --, appointment for sprinkler system blow out, and some money matters. It's always a relief when I don't procrastinate and just jump on this kind of stuff. 

3. A week ago, I bought a package of Trader Joe's Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Basil Chicken Tenders and gave them a try tonight with broccoli and brown rice. 

It worked!

Three Beautiful Things 10-08-2024: Mickey Haller Must Cross Examine Himself, Family Dinner at Sam's, Braving the Excellent US Movie *Girl with a Dragon Tattoo*

1. If you've seen the movie, The Lincoln Lawyer, you know that the central character, Mickey Haller, must face troubling ethical questions about the nature of his work as a defense attorney. In the book, The Fifth Witness, he has to confront similar unsettling questions. In my opinion, to lay out these questions in this blog post would also give away the story. So, I won't dig into these questions -- only to say that I found the book absorbing and very enjoyable. 

2. Paul and Carol had a jam-packed weekend and were also scheduled to host family dinner. To make things a bit easier on themselves, they hosted dinner down the street at Sam's, Kellogg's diner. Carol, Paul, Christy, Debbie, and I sat around a table. We were not lively. Ha!  It was a good idea to let Sam's do the cooking for our tired selves. At the same time, eating away from home served as a reminder to me of how much I enjoy preparing meals at home and enjoy the meals Christy and Paul/Carol prepare for family dinner.  

3. I returned home eager to finish reading The Fifth Witness and did so. 

Upon competing this book, I thought I'd be ready to call it a night, but I wasn't and so I decided to watch the US movie version of The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. 

I had misgivings about watching this movie because the story includes acts of violence I did not enjoy in the book.  I dreaded seeing them played out in the movie. These scenes were skillfully executed in the movie and they unnerved me.

Here's why I went ahead and watched the movie:  I've enjoyed whatever I've seen Daniel Craig act in and the rest of the cast looked very solid. I also anticipated that the movie's frigid, snowy, sometimes bleak atmosphere would work for me (and it did) and I was curious to watch Rooney Mara take on the titular role of the girl with the dragon tattoo, the troubled savant Lisbeth Salander. 

To my great pleasure, the casting of Craig and Mara worked superbly and the entire cast in support of these two leading roles was also superb. I thought it might be this way knowing that Robin Wright, Christopher Plummer, and Steven Berkoff played key supporting roles along with a cast of actors who were also compelling but not as familiar to me. 

Lastly, and I didn't expect this at all, I loved it every time Lisabeth Salander jumped on her motorcycle and  raced it in the movie. 

I am about to make a list of movie motorcycles I have loved -- remember when Maud swipes the police officer's motorcycle with Harold seated behind her? 

That's a good start! 

Three Beautiful Things 10-05-2024: Mickey Haller's Roller Coaster, Produce Shopping, Wah Hing to Go!

1. Now that I'm back home after a three night jaunt to Pendleton, things settled down comfortably. I spent much of the day riding the roller coaster of Mickey Haller's life in and out of court in the book The Fifth Witness as he faces a formidable prosecutor and a strict judge in the courtroom and, outside the court, deals with family, Hollywood movie makers, thugs, and the difficulties of his temperamental client and a scammer who wants to make money off of her story. 

Honestly, never a dull moment! 

2. I mean this was a really quiet day. 

Debbie enjoyed herself getting some work done at school and the most exciting thing I did was take a break from reading and blast over to Yoke's to replenish our supply of produce. Now I have plenty of vegetable to use for salads. 

3. Debbie had told me earlier in the day that she had a dinner planned for tonight. Then she texted me from school, told me she was going to drop in at The Lounge for a little while, and buy an order to go at Wah Hing. That definitely worked for me. The Broccoli Shrimp and Ginger Beef entrees she brought home boosted my already uplifted mood.  

Then I returned to reading Michael Connelly while listening to a soft jazz playlist on Spotify. 

Three Beautiful Things 10-04-2024: Leaving Pendleton, Returning to Kellogg, Enjoying *The Fifth Witness*

1. I sprang out of bed a bit early this morning to finish packing, take the car to the travel plaza near the resort to fuel up, do some word puzzles, and meet Ed and Mike in the hotel lobby. Back in April, we ended our time together at the Wildhorse with a delicious breakfast at Roosters Country Kitchen.

Our plan was to return. 

We arrived at Roosters this morning, however, they were closed because of a plumbing problem -- or so we heard that was the reason. 

Right down the street from Roosters sits a Denny's and we piled into a booth and agreed: our breakfasts were superb. I really enjoyed my fresh spinach, caramelized onion, mushroom, and Swiss cheese omelet. Ed and Mike ordered slams and were very happy. 

2. I enjoyed being away, talking with Colette, dining, relaxing in my hotel room, reading a Michael Connelly book (The Fifth Witness), taking a scenic drive to Meacham, and so on. I have decided to lay off alcohol for the time being -- I don't know if or when I'll drink it again -- and I missed having drinks at the steakhouse, drinking a beer or two at the lobby bar, and joining the guys for whiskey and b.s. in one of our rooms. 

I also enjoyed returning home. Copper has found a new source of contentment by curling himself in a laundry basket in my closet. Debbie fixed us a great meal of tilapia, yellow summer squash, and curry out of a Trader Joe's packet over rice. 

I enjoyed dining out while away, but home cooking is the best. 

3. Michael Connelly is an accomplished writer of highly readable crime stories, whether he's writing detective stories or legal fiction. As I move deeper into The Fifth Witness, I'm enjoying how chapter by chapter he introduces another complication in the case Mickey Haller has taken on and, in doing so, continues to add dimension to the characters involved. 

This is a murder story, so it's a dark story because of that. But it's not as dark and gruesome as, say, Lost Girls or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and I am welcoming the relief from the grisliness of those novels.

I will, however, be returning to Leah Sottile's book list when I'm done with this novel -- and the books I have left to read will be dark. 

I know that!  

Three Beautiful Things 10-03-2024: Lunch in Meacham, Gaming and Yakkin' in Ed's Room, Happy Hour Nachos and Generous Tipping

1.  After a morning drinking coffee, working word puzzles, and reading Michael Connelly's The Fifth Witness, I leapt behind the wheel of the Camry and drove Ed, Mike, and me out to Meacham, OR for lunch at the Oregon Trail Store and Deli. I ordered a terrific Patty Melt with a cup of homemade turkey soup. Ed and Mike loved their cheeseburgers and fries. We had a great time yakkin' with the deli's proprietor and talking amongst ourselves about this and that. Normally, we drive up to this off the beaten path gem of a diner for breakfast, but we changed things up today and we were very happy that we decided to have lunch instead. 

2. I decided to give the gaming floor one more try. I had some flashes of success, but never could build any momentum and, after a while, I retired, for this trip, from playing machines. Soon after leaving the floor, I joined Ed and Mike in Ed's room for some robust conversation while Ed and Mike enjoyed sipping a little whiskey.

3. After yakkin' for a while, Ed, Mike, and I moved our party to the Wildhorse Sports Bar for half price happy hour nachos. We continued our ongoing conversations and extended kindness and a nearly 100% tip  to our server who was friendly and sweet to us while working under very trying circumstances as part of an understaffed crew working a resort bar's happy hour. One of the things I really enjoy about joining my lifelong friends at the Wildhorse or when we go anywhere else is that all of us are generous tippers -- and all of us sympathize with and are patient with overworked servers and do all we can with kindness, patience, humor, and great (I hope) tips to try to make their work shifts less stressful. 

Three Beautiful Things 10-02-2024: Productive Day in My Room, Bookstore Run, Blackened Salmon at the Plateau

1. Along with being unlucky so far, my other reason for not spending much time gaming is that even with a mask on and wearing disposable vinyl (not latex) gloves, I am simply limiting my exposure to other people. 

So, today, I relaxed for quite a while in my room, doing my morning word puzzle routine, messaging with Stu and later in the evening, Alex, catching up on my blog, writing a bit to Colette about Leah Sottile's book list, enjoying a short exchange with Leah Sottile on Substack about her list (she gave me a book or two to add to it!), and preparing a document with the text of Saturday's Celebration of Life for Don Knott and sending it out to those who requested it. 

If you are reading this and would like a copy of the service (it doesn't include things said that weren't typed out), let me know. All I need is your email address. 

2. I knew that I'd neglected to bring a book with me to the resort, so I looked online to see if any bookstores were in business in Pendleton. An independent bookstore recently opened: Brett's Books. 

I decided it would be fun to drive into Pendleton and check out Brett's Books. 

It's funny. I had Michael Connelly in mind and quickly discovered that the store had quite a lineup of Connelly's novels. Almost randomly, I plucked one of Connelly's Lincoln Lawyer books off the shelf and I bought The Fifth Witness and read the first chapter before dinner. 

3. As is our tradition when we come to the Wildhorse Resort, Lars, Jake, Ed, Mike, and I sat down at a table at the Plateau Steakhouse. For the first time in the last many years of coming to the Plateau, I didn't order a steak. I opted for a delicious Blackened Salmon served on jasmine rice with a carrot puree and rosemary. I decided to go all out with eating fish and ordered a bowl of crab and corn chowder to start. 

It was a delicious meal and I enjoyed the table talk with my lifelong friends a lot. 

I ended this most satisfying day back in my room for a little bit of reading before dozing off for the night. 

Three Beautiful Things 10-01-2024: On the Road to Wildhorse Resort, Protecting Myself, Invigorating Thai Dinner with Colette

1. Adrenaline shot through my system around 5:00 this morning as I leapt out of bed in anticipation of driving today with Ed as passenger to the Wildhorse Resort near Pendleton, OR. Since the kidney transplant in May, most of my travels have been between Kellogg and Spokane, but I did take one trip to Trout Creek, MT.

I picked up Ed around 6:30 and we blasted over the 4th of July Pass on into CdA for a filling and delicious breakfast at the Breakfast Nook. We made a couple of rest stops and stopped at Starbucks in Ritzville for lattes. It was an easy, uneventful drive and our check in at Wildhorse went beautifully.

2. I spent some time on the gaming floor, protecting myself by wearing a mask, playing machines where no or few people were around, and by wearing disposable latex gloves.  My luck was mixed. After a fairly lucky start, my luck started going downhill, so I returned to my room.

I had some medical matters to straighten out and exchanged messages with Nurse Jenn. Everything is in order, is clear in my head, and I'm ready to return to Sacred Heart on Tuesday for labs and an ultrasound. 

3. Every time I travel to the Wildhorse Resort, I meet up with Colette Marie for dinner in Pendleton. We've been friends for forty-two years now, ever since the fall term 1982 Shakespeare course I taught at Whitworth. 

We once again met for delicious Thai food at Thai Crystal (I loved my Spicy Noodles with tofu) and we plunged right away into deep conversational waters. 

First topic: organ transplants. Colette's brother, Kent Klingman, has survived a complicated and experimental stem cell transplant for over twenty-five years and Colette told me stories about the transplant itself and what's happened in the years since, including when he met and became close friends with Mathias, his donor from Germany, in 2006. 

In addition, Colette's first husband's brother lives on as a heart transplant recipient. Colette and I had a fascinating discussion about how both Kent and her one time brother-in-law, Stuart, have been altered by their transplants. Kent, for example, now has food allergies he didn't have before, ones that Mathias has always had. Remarkably, Stuart's heart transplant seems to have altered his personality. It's as if along with his donor's physical heart, he also received some of her admirable personality traits.

I'll say, as a footnote to Colette's stories, that the only thing I'm aware of having received, in addition to my donor's kidney, is the BK virus and it is being treated and is barely detectable now, if at all. 

Second topic: Colette has read some of the books I've read as I make my way through Leah Sottile's book list. She's also worked with one of the writers, Sharma Shields (especially via Fishtrap) and she's heard Leyna Krow read and present. We had a great conversation about women writers and also talked invigoratingly about the book, All the Light We Cannot See. 

Colette has been working on a novel that she tells from five characters' points of view. We had a great conversation, then, about how much we enjoy books that not only have multiple narrators, but that jump around in time. 

I had been looking forward to this conversation, especially since I started reading Leah Sottile's list of books. 

Our time together was just the stimulating, even electrifying, time of talking and sharing insights and ideas that I'd hoped it would be. 

BRAVO! 

Three Beautiful Things 09-30-2024: The Post-Transplant Medicine Dance, Longtime Friends Dine at Capone's, Goodbye HelloFresh! (For Now)

 1. I was up and at 'em around 4:30 this morning and before long I vaulted into the Camry and popped over the 4th of July Pass, eased into Spokane, and nestled the car in the cozy confines of a Sacred Heart parking garage. 

I had blood drawn without incident and then, after a muffin and a latte, met with transplant nephrologist Dr. Haris Murad. Murad's main concern was my low white blood cell count. This problem is not related to anything I've done at home or on the road. It has to do with the drugs I take to suppress my immune system. He completely took me off of the immune-suppressive drug Myfortic, the latest adjustment to my medicine. 

So we'll see. Will the reduction in drugs that suppress my immune system  help raise my white blood count? I return to the medical center on Tuesday next week for more blood work and a kidney ultrasound, all in service to securing more information. 

By the way, none of this is unusual post-transplant. Finding the right balance between lowering my immune system so I don't reject my new kidney and keeping my immune system, at the same time, as vital as possible, is a dance common for transplant patients, especially, well, older recipients like me! We have to deal with how my aging system responds to medication and, as you can tell, the transplant team and I are keeping a close watch over things! 

Dr. Murad addressed the white blood cell matter and told me, as I thought he would, that everything else in my blood work looks superb -- not only that, he likes how my blood pressure is reading, liked the sounds of my lungs and heart, and had no concerns about fluid retention in my lower legs and ankles. 

Once again, a very positive visit! 

2. A small and mighty contingent of guys from the KHS Class of 72 met for lunch today, seated at an outdoor table at Capone's in CdA's midtown. I hadn't seen Steve Jaynes for several years. It was uplifting to see him today.  Steve joined Roger Pearson, Stu, and me for some solid food and great conversation. We looked back at highlights from our younger days and updated each other on our lives in 2024. 

3. I had meant to cancel this week's HelloFresh box, but forgot to. I decided, with Debbie's agreement, to cancel our subscription. So, the box I forgot to cancel arrived today and I decided to mix the two meals into one and made a mushroom penne with ground beef. If this is our last hurrah with HelloFresh, it was a fun and delicious one!