Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 06-09-2025: Resilience and My Delusion, *Spotlight* is a Mighty Movie, Sloppy Joe Wrap

1. Coco Gauf dropped the first set of her championship match with Aryena Sabalenka at the French Open over the weekend and then came back to win the next two sets and the match. 

As often happens in sportswriting and discussion, observers rightly praised Gauf for her resilience in the face of a superb opponent, dicey weather conditions, and other factors. 

Coincidentally, I had reasons I'll keep to myself to remember back to 1982 and the dissolution and eventual annulment (1984) of my first marriage. 

It came back to me how delusional I was during this time and in the years to follow. 

But, I'd heard the word "resilience" so many times used to describe athletes and teams who overcame difficulties, even doing so gracefully, that I got it in my head back then that I, like them, was resilient in the face of this shattering change in my life. 

I wasn't. 

I almost thrived on telling people how resilient I was. I wasn't lying so much as I was delusional. I was saying what I wanted to be true, but it wasn't. 

Why mention this in a list of Three Beautiful Things? 

Admitting delusion, recognizing how lost I was and how frightened and reckless, owning up, within myself, to harm I caused, and examining myself further regarding the many, many times when what I thought and said about myself was not in keeping with who I actually was nor with many of my actions is a good thing. 

So here it is, the first of today's Three Beautiful Things. 

2. Having watched the last half an hour or so of All the President's Men on Sunday moved me today to look at clips from the movie Spotlight. While I deeply admire the story of All the President's Men and think it is among the most brilliantly written, directed, acted, and produced movies I've ever seen, it's never moved me to tears. 

Spotlight does. 

I had some tearful moments with scenes from Spotlight today. 

3. After dinner on Sunday, Christy told a story about how celebrity chef Michael Symons, in a pinch, used Sloppy Joe mix to make tacos. 

We have flour tortillas on hand and tonight, when Debbie and I ate leftover Sloppy Joes for dinner, I decided not to use a hamburger bun. Instead I made a Sloppy Joe wrap. 

It's possible that I preferred my wrap to the classic Sloppy Joe on a bun. 

My jury is still out, but that Sloppy Joe wrap scratched an itch I didn't know I had! 

Monday, June 9, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 06-08-2025: Sloppy Joe Family Dinner, Zags at the NBA Finals, July Plans Up in the Air

1. Honestly, I enjoy every approach we all take to hosting family dinner. 

Debbie and I hosted tonight's dinner. Heading into the weekend, Debbie told me she had a plan and she'd take care of everything.

I knew this would be good.

And it was.

Debbie made a smashing Sloppy Joe mix along with a potato and bacon salad and a vinegar-based cole slaw. 

That meant tonight's approach was to turn back the clock, have a dinner we would have loved as kids, and it meant we kept this dinner simple. 

Christy made surprise pinwheels and initiated a relaxed contest to see if we all could guess what ingredients, all from her pantry and fridge, she wrapped inside of these terrific appetizers. 

Debbie's final contribution to dinner was awesome and another throwback to what we loved as kids: vanilla ice cream cones! 

2. With two recent Gonzaga grads playing as starters in the NBA finals on opposite teams, Paul raised the question as to whether any past Zag hoopsters had been on NBA championship teams. 

It was fun to guess and we were all wrong. 

Theo Lawson reported in the Spokesman last week that two players who were bench warmers were on championship teams and did not log any Finals minutes: Adam Morrison with the 2009 and 2010 Lakers and Austin Daye with the Spurs in 2014. No minutes, but they have rings. 

John Stockton, Ronny Turiaf, and Kelly Olynyk, playing for the Jazz (1997, 1998), Lakers (2008), and Heat (2020) all played in NBA Finals, but their teams lost the championship series. 

So, who will join Adam Morrison and Austin Daye?

The Pacers' Andrew Nembhard?

The Thunder's Chet Holmgren?

Right now, the series is tied at one game a piece. 

We'll see. 

3. After Zoe, Carol, Paul, and Christy went home this evening, Debbie and I started an earnest conversation about our plans for July. When will Debbie return from Virginia? When will I leave to travel to Eugene? What are the possibilities for a trip to Fairbanks, Alaska? 

It was a good conversation and, before long, we'll have things figured out. 

Sunday, June 8, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 06-07-2025: Celebration of Life, Thursday Puzzles, "You're missing the overall."

1. At noon today, Debbie and I attended the Celebration of Life for Dawn Arnhold McLees. The service paid tribute to Dawn's life of faith, love, laughter, creativity, travel, enjoyment, and more.  Many of Dawn's friends, including a contingent from the KHS Class of 1973, and members of hers and her husband's family were in attendance to listen to stories, reflections, and music and to see a wide variety of images of Dawn's life displayed in three different videos/slide shows. 

Christy composed and clearly and confidently read a "Where I'm From" poem that perfectly and cogently, with vivid specificity, captured the depth and breadth of Dawn's life. 

It was perfect. 

2. If you work NYTimes crossword puzzles day to day through the week, you know that the Thursday puzzle always is a themed puzzle and often features something unusual. It's never a straight ahead conventional puzzle. 

Over the last several years, I've come to dread the Thursday puzzle. 

I've groaned at some of them, feeling they were more gimmicky than witty. 

But yesterday and today, I decided to make a genuine effort to make peace with the Thursday puzzles. 

I went back in the archives and found several Thursday puzzles I hadn't tried to solve yet and focused time and effort and a change in attitude on them. 

These Thursday puzzles (I think) always feature one clue, often near the bottom of the Across list of clues, that, once solved, reveals in some direct or indirect way what the theme and often the trick of the puzzle is. 

So in these unsolved puzzles, I've been starting the puzzle solving process by going straight to this clue that, once solved, gives the puzzle solver some idea of what the deal is with this puzzle. 

It's helping. 

My attitude is improving!

3. From time to time, in talking about things and the need to see the big picture, Debbie and I quote Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat in All the President's Men when he admonishes Bob Woodward with the famous line: "You're missing the overall."

Tonight we decided enough with quoting the movie. 

Let's watch the last part of it.

We had watched most of it a few months back and tonight we resumed where we'd left off before and, sure enough, we got to watch Woodward and Deep Throat have what the movie presented as their last conversation and confrontation with each other. 

We nearly cheered when Deep Throat told Woodward, "You're missing the overall."



Saturday, June 7, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 06-06-2025: Learning More About "Tech Bros", A Good Walk, Debbie Plays Odd Videos

1. I read a long interview/article from the latest issue of The New Yorker focused on the Dark Enlightenment/Neo-reactionary influencer Curtis Yarvin and followed that up by listening to a half an hour interview that Heather Cox Richardson conducted with Gil Duran whose newsletter and podcast, The Nerd Reich, focuses on the anti-democracy efforts in the world of high tech and the influence that the so-called Tech Bros have had and are having on our government, especially the executive branch and Elon Musk. 

It was a sobering afternoon of reading and listening. 

The article in The New Yorker is here

The interview with Gil Duran is here

2. I left the house again today! I decided to wait until the sun went down before I walked to the high school and back home again, racking up the most steps I've registered in a while. I felt a bit stronger today. 

3. Friday. 

The end of Debbie's second to the last week of her teaching job at Pinehurst Elementary. 

I sat in the living room after walking, working the NYTimes Saturday crossword puzzle while Debbie watched, and I listened to videos of llamas being sheared, rescued dogs being groomed, a horse being rescued from being stuck in mud, a standoff between an elephant and a hippo, a passenger refusing to deboard a flight, and other unusual stuff I would never think to look at. 

Crossword puzzle solving plus off the wall videos made for a relaxing evening, especially since we'd had popcorn earlier. 

Friday, June 6, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 06-05-2025: Walking in West Shoshone Park, Excellent Recovery, Wraps for Dinner

1. I left the house today for the third day in a row! Who knows? I might be developing a new habit! 

I saw a post of Facebook featuring multiple photographs of the West Shoshone Park in Pinehurst. 

In the 9,000 different years I've lived in or been visiting Kellogg and the Silver Valley, I had never been to this park. 

Today I decided to try it out as a place to go for a walk. 

The park struck me as a great place for multiple activities: baseball, pickleball, volleyball, picnics, large group gatherings under shelters, tennis, and more. 

I don't think I'll return to West Shoshone Park just to walk, though. 

I have not one complaint. 

My reasons for not returning to walk are peculiar to me. 

I'd like to have a trail or a path to walk on out of concern for my balance. I don't want to stumble or trip. 

Ideally -- and this is a challenging desire on my part -- I'd like to walk in mostly shade. 

I did walk among some trees today in some shade, but I hope to find an even more shaded place to walk. 

(Once I build up some stamina and return to hiking, then I'll be in more shaded areas.)

So, without question, if I were looking to get a group together for a picnic or if I were still somewhat athletic and wanted a place to play the sports I mentioned above, this park would be awesome. 

I also thought it was a relaxing park. 

I'm really glad I went, got some steps in, and, after all these years, finally visited this excellent facility! 

2. As I wrote yesterday, I was very happy with how smoothly all the procedures I submitted myself to at Kootenai Health went on Wednesday. 

At the same time, that visit to CdA wiped me out. 

I've had other experiences with getting wiped out like this before and had the fatigue linger for a few days. 

Not today! 

I didn't walk for a long time at the park, but my short walk energized me, I felt great when I returned home, and I slept really well Thursday night. 

Recovering so well from Wednesday's fatigue and feeling so good today was very encouraging and motivating. 

3. I thawed one of our packets of ground beef today. 

I was in the mood for some kind of a ground beef/vegetable combo wrapped up in a flour tortilla. 

So, I sautéed onion and red pepper, added the ground beef to the electric frying pan, seasoned the beef with a southwest seasoning I put together some time ago, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, and added fresh spinach and mushrooms to the pan. 

Debbie and I each made our own wraps. I added uncooked purple cabbage to mine along with Frank's Hot Sauce and some shredded sharp cheddar cheese. 

It was just the dinner I'd dreamed about all afternoon! 

Very satisfying. 

Thursday, June 5, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 06-04-2025: A Morning at the Clinic, Lunch and Errands, Recovery at Home

1. I blasted (and crawled!) over the pass first thing this morning for an easy and smooth four hour visit to Kootenai Health. 

Right now I have two standing bloodwork orders at Kootenai and today I needed to fill them both. The transplant team told me, after my May 12th visit, to get once a week labs after they took me off of a medication, so I had that lab drawn.  I see Dr. Bieber next week, so I had labs done for him in preparation for our appointment. 

Next I did some ultrasound preparation and skipped over to the west entrance of the clinic where it was time to have pictures taken inside my body. 

First, I descended into the basement and had a chest x-ray performed and then an ultrasound of my native kidneys and my bladder. 

Then I rocketed up the elevator to the third floor where my hip and lower spine were scanned to check out my bone density. 

2. I enjoy the Breakfast Nook's Frisco Burger, so I dashed over there and had lunch. I had a complimentary car wash coming at Squeaky's, got that done, and I fueled up at Costco and went in the store to replenish our supply of olive oil, paper towels, and toilet paper. 

3. I was drained. 

The sun was having its draining effect on me. 

Even though things went beautifully at the clinic, having procedures done fatigues me. 

I was more than ready to go home.

I put the Grateful Dead station on the satellite radio, stayed alert behind the wheel from CdA to Kellogg, arrived home, let Copper out of the Vizio room, brought the Costco purchases in the house, tended to Gibbs, and then flopped on top of the bed's covers and passed out. 

I fell into a double coma nap with Copper at my side and, even when I woke up, spent the rest of the afternoon and evening getting my energy and oomph back. 

It returned. 

I then had a replenishing night's sleep. 

 

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 06-03-2025: Hey! Get Out of the House!, St. Vinnie's and a Sunshine Muffin, *Deadish* Abides

 1. Warning! 

I'm going to write about being peculiar, about being odd. 

First of all, I believed what I read and heard a few years ago that the new virus going around was highly contagious and that some one like me who was in his late sixties and lived with pulmonary damage and progressing kidney disease was likely at greater risk of not only contracting Covid, but getting hit hard by it. 

Maybe that's not too peculiar, but sometimes, I felt like an oddball, out of the ordinary. 

(What's new? Ha!)

So, in light of what I accepted as highly likely about this new virus, I stayed indoors a lot, and alone, especially when Debbie was helping Adrienne and Josh with their kids in New York. 

The really peculiar thing, you see, was that I enjoyed this time of solitude, not because I'm anti-social, but because I spent my days doing things I REALLY enjoy: reading books, listening to podcasts, watching movies, working puzzles, listening to music, blogging, cooking, and maintaining contact with friends via text messages, emails, Zoom, Facebook Live, occasionally the telephone, and sometimes visits outdoors. 

The oddness is compounded now by how, even though the virus's communicable powers seemed to have weakened, I often will go a few (or several) days and not leave the house. 

I read, blog, work puzzles, cook,  listen to music -- well, all those things I did indoors when I was, without complaint, quarantining myself. 

Today, I told myself that I had to get out of the house! 

Enough is enough! 

So, I went uptown to Beach Bum Bakery and loaded up on bagels, had a splendid conversation with Rebecca, and accepted her gift of a Sunshine Muffin she was concerned had become a little too old to sell.

2. Debbie had collected a small pile of things to donate to St. Vincent de Paul's. 

So not only did I leave the house and go uptown, I drove all the way to Osburn and dropped off the donations. 

After putting them in a shopping cart at St. Vinnie's, I crawled back in the car and decided to give the Sunshine Muffin a try. 

Maybe, maybe maybe maybe, it was a tiny bit dry, but the muffin sure worked for me and eating it reminded me that when Beach Bum Bakery first opened as a small portable shack parked at the Furniture Exchange, the first purchase I made was a Sunshine Muffin. 

It's an awesome treat. 

And, as Beach Bum Bakery reminds people every day: Don't panic! It's organic! 

3. Wow! This getting out of the house was working pretty well. 

I invigorated breaking out of my hermitage in the car by playing Jeff's May 29th Deadish broadcast via the KEPW.org archive.

He played an eclectic mix of tunes recorded live across the nation, all on May 29th over the years, and so not only did I get to listen to Grateful Dead tunes, but also to Miles Davis, Zero, The Yardbirds, the Chambers Brothers, and more, while driving the wild streets of uptown Kellogg, cruising the open highway to Osburn, and sitting back at home in the living room with Jeff's voice and his ingenious music selections playing on my wireless Bose speaker.  

Staying home is good. 

But leaving the house for something other than grocery shopping and blood draws and transplant follow up appointments is pretty good, too. 

I might just try it more often! 

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 06-02-2025: The Summer of '84, Air Fried Food, Starting *Lonesome Dove*

1. I have solid reasons to believe that with Don K. and Michael Q's help, I moved from Spokane back to Eugene on June 1, 1984. 

Almost immediately, upon arriving in Eugene, a brand new friend offered me a ticket to see Laurie Anderson (unknown to me) on June 3rd at the recently built Hult Center. I accepted the ticket. The show blew me away. So did the Hult. 

Michael, Don, and I were obsessed with the Celtics-Lakers NBA championship series.

The Race II was held the first weekend I was back in Eugene and the route went right by my new residence.  I was back in Track Town USA. 

I joined the YMCA. 

I returned to strolling around at Saturday Market and worshipping at St. Mary's Episcopal Church. 

Over the twenty months I was away from Eugene and taught at Whitworth College in Spokane, a group of Eugenians launched a newly weekly (and free) publication called What's Happening -- later to become the Eugene Weekly

Also during that time, a squat rectangular metal building that was kind of a food truck and trailer hybrid sprang up at 13th and High.

It was a burger joint. 

In the explorations I've been doing since hearing from Scott Taylor, I got it in my head that I remembered one of his fellow Big Time Poetry Theater mates, named Gary, working at that place. 

I also knew that the first time I saw copies of What's Happening was one day when I dropped into this joint for a burger. 

Today I became determined (obsessed) to find the name of that establishment. 

I began a search, first in archived copies of the Register Guard, Eugene's city newspaper.

I was looking for an ad from this burger joint. 

I didn't find any ads in the issues of the Guard I inspected.

I turned my attention to the Univ of Oregon's student newspaper, the Oregon Daily Emerald

Aha! 

Success! 

It was the Great Oregon Burger Company.

Today wasn't the first time I'd tried to remember the name of that business, just the first day I searched in earnest for the name. 

Finding it, putting that missing piece of my life in Eugene in 1984 in place, gave me raising-my-arms-in- victory styled pleasure! 

I don't remember the burgers. 

I remember discovering What's Happening, a significant milestone in my Eugene life, and I remember this guy who worked there and I wonder if he was Gary. 

2. Now I'm remembering, as if I could ever forget, what a dizzying year 1984 was: I had some of the best and some of the most painful times in my entire life. 

I'll leave it at that for now. 

Here at home, on June 2, 2025, I wasn't dizzy nor was I experiencing polarized swings of feelings like I was in 1984. 

No, in my current well-balanced state, I quite placidly thawed a pound of chicken tenders, marinated them in an oil, lemon, and a spices/herbs mixture and sliced a few yellow potatoes, poured olive oil over the slices, and seasoned them with Everything but the Bagel seasoning mix. 

I got out the air fryer. 

I air fried the potatoes and then the chicken tenders and I steamed a mixture of corn kernels and green beans. 

The food turned out pretty good, making for an enjoyable dinner.

3. My mind was too jam packed with countless memories of and questions about my life back in Eugene in 1984-87 to return today to reading Lonesome Dove

But I did start reading it on Sunday.

I've kept myself in the dark about Lonesome Dove's storyline.

All I can say as Larry McMurtry gets this thick novel underway is that in short order early on he's established a handful of vivid characters and has beautifully set the physical scene of the book's early action in and near the fictional town of Lonesome Dove, TX.

I'm enjoying his unrelenting attention to detail, whether to the Texas landscape, the frontier town of Lonesome Dove, the peculiarities of the characters he's begun to develop, animals, or saloon life. 

I've probably got a couple or three weeks of reading ahead of me to finish Lonesome Dove and already McMurtry has succeeded in giving me that great feeling of I can hardly wait to get back to reading more of this book! 

Monday, June 2, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 06-01-2025: I Was a Spectator/Outsider, Allann Bros Coffee Near Campus, RIP Marilyn Divine

1. I wrote yesterday about a student, Scott Taylor, from 1982, emailing me. He added to his initial email and gave me a quick rundown on what he's been up to over the last 40+ years. I invited him to become connected on Facebook and now we are. 

A reminder: starting when I moved back to Eugene from Spokane almost exactly 41 years ago today, I paid some degree of attention from time to time to people who hung out at Lenny's Nosh Bar and did other interesting things, like form a performing group called Big Time Poetry Theater. Scott Taylor was a founding member of Big Time Poetry Theater. I attended one of Big Time's (or a spin off of Big Time) performances at the U of O Honors College and I remember loving it. 

Whether historically accurate or not, what has stuck with me is how much I enjoyed this troupe's combination of irreverence and pretension, both of which I got a big kick out of,  and some degree of reverence and homage. They loved poetry. I don't remember what poetry anyone read that evening, but I know from doing a little digging that these performers wanted to bring Richard Hugo, Louise Gluck, James Wright, Shakespeare, and many other poets to life in public performances in bars, theaters, University halls, and elsewhere. 

My overwhelming feeling, however, as I left Chapman Hall that evening was a wistful desire to be like Scott, Steve McQuiddy, Curt Hopkins, and the others who performed that night. They were loose, free, funny, improvisational, willing to have bits flop, and, above all, smart and smart asses. 

But, I was a serious and frightened graduate student, always up against my fear of failure and always under the illusion that if I just studied more and read more, I could overcome my deep insecurities by outworking my fears. 

Approaching my studies this way cut me off from, say, hanging out at Lenny's Nosh Bar or from even thinking about being a part of a performing troupe -- and who would I do such a thing with any way? 

2. Some of these Nosh Bar regulars also hung out at an Allann Bros. coffee house near campus.

I went there often myself for coffee and to read books and grade papers. 

My attention was casual but I enjoyed seeing these Big Time Nosh Bar people come in and, on occasion, I caught and enjoyed bits of their conversations. 

Having become Facebook friends with Scott Taylor, I decided to check out his friend list today and as I clicked on names that were familiar to me, I enjoyed looking at photographs from the Big Time Poetry Theater days and reading articles about them that appeared in What's Happening and The Daily Emerald

I found out that other people I never knew, like Ty Connor and Lydia Yuckman, but was aware of, were involved from time to time with Big Time Poetry and it was fun digging into this bit of history. 

3. As I scrolled through Scott Taylor's list of Facebook friends, I most unexpectedly came across one of my favorite Shakespeare  students from the spring of 1985, a great student who also cut hair. I was a customer of hers for a few years until she moved to Portland. 

It was an eerie coincidence, in a way, that this evening I came across my former student and old friend, Marilyn Divine. 

Within the last week, Marilyn had flashed in my mind. I remembered when she approached me after Shakespeare class one day and told me my hair was a mess and that she'd like to improve it!,  conversations we had at the salon, the time she read tarot cards for me during a hair appointment, the time I was walking near the salon on Willamette around 15th Street and she was panicking on the sidewalk because a dog wandered out into Willamette Street's heavy traffic (the dog didn't get hit, thank God), and the evening we went to see the movie Radio Days

If I remember correctly, on one of my ventures to Portland in the early 1990s, I was strolling in NW Portland -- maybe on my way to see a movie -- and I think I ran into Marilyn, a joyous encounter. 

I never saw Marilyn again.

This evening I learned she died of cancer on November 28, 2020.

Learning she'd died shook me.

In my shaken state, I went digging. 

I learned she continued to work as a hair stylist and owned Leepin' Lizards Salon. 

I learned she also taught improv and performed. 

I learned about her devotion to dogs, especially elderly ones, and of her compassion for and generosity toward people in need. 

I found wonderful pictures of Marilyn and of the Celebration of Life held in tribute to her several months after she died. 

And, most satisfying, I learned that Marilyn Divine was beloved. 

The grief I feel knowing she has died is offset significantly by learning about her vivaciousness, love for others, humans and animals, her work in the world of improv, and the love and care she extended to those who put their hair under her care.

Many referred to her as a "hairapist". 

I experienced that, too, 35-40 years ago.  



Sunday, June 1, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-31-2025: Reading Books, Living by Illusions, I Receive an Unexpected Email from a 1982 Student

1. I finished reading East of Eden today. Upon closing the book, I thought less about the book itself -- that came later -- and more about my reading habits since July, 2024. 

Committing myself to read all the books Leah Sottile posted on her Substack account last July enhanced my discipline and while I worked my way through her list, I took occasional breaks from her books and read others. 

Over the years, aside from the several months when I pretty much quarantined myself because of my sense of uncertainty about the pandemic, I've started to read any number of books (including East of Eden) and got distracted or sidetracked and never finished them. 

I'm finishing books now. 

Finishing East of Eden has moved me to tackle another thick, even longer book, Lonesome Dove, a book I've heard a lot about -- a lot of praise -- and that I have no familiarity with. I didn't watch the Lonesome Dove television series and everything that happens in this book will be a surprise for me, just the way I like it. 

2. While East of Eden is doubtlessly a study of psychopathy and the human struggle with evil, it's also a study of idealism. Steinbeck created some characters who impose idealistic fantasies upon others -- especially men idealizing women. He also tells stories about characters who don't live according to what's actually happening in their worlds, but by what a professor, Clark Griffith, I worked a lot with over forty years ago, called the Grade B movie in their minds. 

The Grade B movie metaphor is a way of understanding a character's illusions (or delusions). 

It's a source of failure in these characters' stories. While the men in this book who idealize a certain woman might think that their high and illusory regard for the women would be pleasing, in fact it's a weight, a pressure, a burden that the women, at a certain point, can't stand any longer and must escape from.

When the illusion, the idealizing crashes, it crushes the idealizing man. 

It's a source of intense suffering. 

3. Back in August of 2021, I discovered the Facebook account called "Long Live Lenny's Nosh Bar" and it transported me back to my life in Eugene from 1979-82 and 1984-85 and my memories of wishing I'd been a Lenny's Nosh Bar regular. 

I wasn't. 

But Lenny's Nosh Bar had my attention and I paid quite a bit of attention to what was happening there and people who hung out at Lenny's. 

I blogged about all of this on August 27, 2021 and I wrote a remembrance of a WR 121 student of mine from 1982 who was part of the Lenny's Nosh Bar scene. 

His name is Scott Taylor.

To my astonishment, Scott Taylor emailed me today. He'd been doing some poking around online about Lenny's Nosh Bar and came across my 08-27-2021 blog post, figured out I was the Raymond Pert who wrote it, and secured my email address.

He wrote me to make sure I was the person who writes the kelloggbloggin' blog.

I wrote Scott back and confirmed that I am Raymond Pert.  

Hearing from Scott made me very happy and once again I thought back to those days and remembered how much I enjoyed Scott's presence and his writing in WR 121 and the times I visited the bookstore he worked at in the Fifth Street Market and chatting a bit with him there. 

I do not remember the bookstore's name -- but other Eugene bookstores have arisen in my memory: Hungry Head, Foolscap, Perelandra, Smith Family, Mother Kali's, J. Michael's -- there were many more -- but my memory weakens and I just cannot remember that bookstore Scott worked at. 

Saturday, May 31, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-30-2025: Steinbeck and Shakespeare, Deep Thoughtful Conversation, BBQ!

1. I can't remember if I've already posted in this blog how much reading John Steinbeck's East of Eden is giving me many of the same pleasures and sufferings that I have experienced over the years being absorbed in the plays and poems of William Shakespeare.

Two pleasures come to mind immediately: both Steinbeck and Shakespeare create beauty with their use of language and both writers are devoted to copious explorations in their beautiful use of language of the details of the external world and the inward landscapes of the characters they create. Their shared dedication to vivid and poetic description and dialogue rewards us as readers (or viewers) with vivid characters.

The other pleasure I experience with both writers concerns their depiction of what is timeless in the human experience. As Shakespeare and Steinbeck explore good, evil, guilt, free will, fate, denial, delusion, family relationships, conscience, power, and a host of other inward human experiences, yes, they do so in well-defined and described points in place and time (Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt, prehistoric England, Vienna, Northern California, brothels, farms, castles, urban settings, pastoral settings and many more), but they tell stories that are for all times and places, stories that repeat themselves in the Book of Genesis, the plays of the Ancient Greeks, the theater of the English Renaissance, silent movies, Marvel movies, The Wire, The Crown, and countless other plays, poems, novels, movies, television shows, stories, essays, and other works over time. 

I experience this great pleasure alongside suffering. 

As Shakespeare and Steinbeck move their stories more deeply into the conflicts and tragic experiences of their characters, it's painful. I have been unable to read East of Eden as a page turner. Countless times, I've reached the end of section within a chapter or the end of a chapter and I couldn't continue. I had to put the book down, stare for a while, feel what the story was churning up in me, whether dread, sympathy, compassion, bewilderment, or other inward responses. 

I'll repeat what I wrote yesterday. 

I know that the events of East of Eden never happened.

But in the ongoing flow of human experience, they continue to happen. 

Shakespeare, yes, based many of his plays on events that happened, but his primary focus is not on what happened, but on what happens, say, when a young man discovers that his new stepfather was his own father's murderer. As we move more deeply into Hamlet, it's not the historical accuracy we are concerned with, it's Hamlet's inward struggles, the inner conflicts that happen when a person, in this case, an intellectual, philosophically minded young seminary student,  is suddenly confronted with unimaginable horror. 

Hamlet must reckon with the truth he arrives at late in the play and declares to his good friend Horatio: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

2. I've rambled on enough about Shakespeare and East of Eden for one blog post, but I will note, with great pleasure, that Debbie and I had an epic conversation about American literature, the limits of our free will, some of our own inner struggles, and other deep subjects this evening. 

When we had these kinds of conversations early in our marriage, as a younger man, I was keen on proving points. Sometimes I'd get agitated if Debbie didn't seem to be buying what I was saying. 

I was terribly insecure.

Thankfully, those days have passed. 

I reveled in our conversation this evening. Neither of us had anything to prove. We were honest, trusting, and open. 

I think we stretched each other's minds and came to a deeper understanding of one another. 

After a while, I returned to East of Eden and Debbie watched a crime show. 

I lay on the bed, reading and petting Copper. 

Debbie sat on the couch with Gibbs at her side or perched behind her neck. 

3. Midafternoon, Debbie came back home after working at school for a few hours. 

She carried a surprise: sandwiches, beans, and Fire-crack Mac macaroni and cheese from Garreneed BBQ. 

What a great late lunch/early dinner! 

Friday, May 30, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-29-2025: Vet Report -- Copper is Stable, Fiction Tells What Happens, Decluttered the Garage

1. Copper's doctor, Dr. Cook, called me today to report that Copper's blood test to examine his thyroid was stable and I should continue with the same dosage of his medication that I've been giving him for the last month or so.

When I had Copper weighed on Wednesday and the vet tech told me the result, I mistakenly thought he'd dropped another pound of weight over the last month.

I was wrong. 

He lost some weight, but not even close to a pound and Dr. Cook and I decided that I would bring Copper in toward the end of summer to have him weighed again -- I'm not sure if we'll do another blood test then. 

This was all good news to my ears. 

Yes, Copper is probably in a decline that comes with aging, but as his manner, contentment, appetite, agility, and other positive signs indicate to me, he's getting along well presently and there's definitely no emergency.

2. I took a break today from reading East of Eden. I thought about the story and Steinbeck's explorations, letting what I've already read sink in some more. 

I thought a lot also about the nature of fiction itself. 

I know that what occurs in this book didn't happen. 

But that's not what fiction deals with -- non-fiction deals with what happened. 

Fiction deals with what happens.

Fiction brings to life truths about human character, struggle, triumph, and other shared elements of being human through imagined characters and events. 

It's powerful.

3. Now it's time for me to post what might be the oddest beautiful thing in my day to day life.

It's my obligatory cardboard recycling beautiful thing.

I went to the transfer station today and recycled cardboard, relieving the garage of a small pile of clutter, a chore that gives me pleasure beyond reason. 


Thursday, May 29, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-28-2025: Copper's Physical and Spiritual Health, Hamburgers Hit the Spot, Digging Into Good and Evil

1. Around a month ago, Dr. Cook instructed me to bring Copper back in to be weighed and to have his thyroid checked again with blood work. The doctor will call me on Thursday with the lab results, but I don't need a lab report to see that Copper continues to lose weight month by month. 

I'll see what Dr. Cook says, but it's possible, in my amateur's view, that Copper's weight loss is not related to his thyroid. I've been with older cats over the years and have seen them begin to diminish as they grow older -- much as other beings do -- and Copper might be experiencing that. 

I'm happy that despite whatever Copper's body is doing, his spirits are in great shape. He's content. His behavior hasn't changed. He has the strength and agility to jump up on the bed just like always. He's eating regularly -- he's a slow eater, but eventually he eats both bowls of food I feed him, one at 8 a.m., the other at 8 p.m. He eats about a quarter cup of dry food a day out of the feeder. 

He always appreciates it when I pet him and rub his underside and take care of his fur. 

If Copper has moved into a late stage of his life, he's doing it contentedly. 

It's his contentment I care the most about. 

2. I thawed a small zip lock bag of ground beef today, ready to prepare any kind of meal Debbie requested. It made me very happy that Debbie answered me decisively when I offered to prepare any meal. 

"I'll go to the store and buy some buns and pickles. I want a hamburger."

Debbie raced to the store. 

I got out the electric frying pan and started frying

Red onion. Dill pickle chips. Tomato. Condiments. I added bacon and sharp cheddar cheese to my burger. 

We rarely have hamburgers at home and this dinner really hit the spot, especially with a side of Debbie's awesome bean salad.

3. I moved into the fourth and final section of East of Eden. It opens with one of the book's narrators ruminating on the eternal riddle of good and evil. It was as if Steinbeck wanted to make sure we realized that this epic saga is, in its own way, an updated version of the very mysteries of human behavior the Book of Genesis addresses. 

I might be mistaken, but here goes: I don't think Steinbeck is inviting readers of East of Eden to contemplate what is good and what is evil so much as he's raising questions about why does evil exist and why are we sentenced in our lives to live with it internally as well as socially. 

East of Eden is unquestionably takes place, to put it theologically, in a fallen world. 

 It's a long story of degrees of human fallibility, not in a philosophical or abstract sense, but in the concrete ways characters in this story behave and it explores what they feel or are unfeeling about, leaving us, as readers, to wrestle with why they are the way they are, to examine what can be attributed to the nature of human beings and what is attributable to the makeup, history, and experiences of the individual. 

No easy answers. 

Possibly, no answers at all.

It is, after all, to me, at least, an interrogative novel. 


Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-27-2025: Surprise! Blood Work!, Brief Money Chat, I Couldn't Read On Tonight

 1. First thing this morning I was off to Kootenai Lab Services for the next of my weekly blood draws. Two more weeks to go. Everything went smoothly and the results that have appeared so far are consistent with what the numbers were last week. That's a relief. I hope this pattern continues as more results pop up this week -- certain tests have to go to other labs outside of Kootenai's to be measured. 

2. Back home, I called our financial advisor in Bellevue and in short order we took care of the business we are dealing with right now and, if all goes well, we should be finished with the task at hand. 

3. East of Eden is a sprawling novel that John Steinbeck divided into four parts. I reached the end of Part III last night and it was devastating -- so much so, that I closed the book, let what I'd just read settle down inside of me, and gave myself a break from the Hamilton and the Trask families until tomorrow. 

I admire a writer, like John Steinbeck, who can structure a story in such a way that when a specific unnerving episode concludes, I'm left nearly paralyzed, able to do little more than stare into the deep of the night and with a combination of grief and bewilderment wonder why life seems to have to take such painful turns. 

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-26-2025: Ah! Sprawling Fiction!, Sprawling Questions, Not Really a Sprawling Dinner!

1. Yes. I appreciate the appeal of a novel that can be read quickly, that is confined to a specific and narrow time period, whose plot moves in chronological order, that involves basically a single generation of characters, told from a single narrative point of view, limited to a particular place or setting. 

It's these features that make many (not all) crime novels exciting. Their focus, their tightness contribute to their momentum and they are often real page turners. 

I also really enjoy, and maybe even prefer, sprawling novels, novels that cover multiple generations of characters over the course of many years, even decades, sometimes centuries, novels that take place in multiple places, and that might even jump around -- a quality many readers who comment on Goodreads and Amazon and elsewhere find frustrating and confusing. 

East of Eden is a sprawling novel. It's multi-generational. It crosses the USA, explores various locations in Northern California, will seem to have erased certain characters from its story, and then almost out of thin air, the seemingly forgotten character pops up again, and increases the story's tension.

Novels can also be philosophical, take on eternal questions of human existence, explore questions of good and evil, justice, human freedom, exploring to what degree freedom even exists, the nature of God, human forgiveness, love, happiness, and a slew of other timeless questions that are essential elements of being human. 

2. The key word in my favorite novels (and plays, movies, poems, essays, and other kinds of writing and art) is "questions". The best works, to me, are not declarative, but interrogative. 

I've been wrestling with questions implicit in Steinbeck's  book as well as in the book I read about the Columbine shootings, the Long Island serial killer, the murders in North Dakota's oil fields, and other books, fiction and non-fiction, which feature individuals who have little or no conscience. 

Are they free? Is an individual with no (or little) sense of good or evil able to do what many consider the foundation of freedom? Are they deliberating? Are they making choices? And if they aren't making choices but acting from a hard-wired inner desire or a pathological compulsion to have power over others, to take control of others, to mete out retribution to those who confront them, who try to curb their power, what does it mean to hold such shameless persons accountable for their actions? 

I haven't finished East of Eden, but I think two of its many characters are irredeemable, unable to stop themselves from injuring others, destroying those around them, and are unmoved by efforts to hold them accountable. On occasion, each of these characters experiences inklings of humane feeling, but either they push these feelings out of existence or come to realize these softer feelings are impotent. 

In a sprawling novel like East of Eden, Steinbeck can give us long, nearly unbearable examinations of such characters and he has the space within the freedom afforded by writing fiction to explore these characters in depth and to confront his readers with jarring realities so many of us wish weren't possible. 

3.  I don't really know that I'd say I took a break from this sprawling novel to prepare a sprawling dinner, but I sure enjoyed my return to the kitchen and getting the wok back in action again. 

I fixed a green curry sauce and put a couple packets of Thai wheat noodles in the sauce, an approach I'd never tried before.

In the wok, I stir fried onion, red pepper, broccoli, and cauliflower, pushed them up the wok's sides, and stir fried chunks of tri trip beef. .

I combined the sauce, vegetables, and beef together in well of the wok and Debbie and I liked how the curry helped clear our sinuses but did not move us to call the fire department and both of us experimented with augmenting the flavor of the curry with touches of different sauces I'd bought over the last few months at Trader Joe's. 

Monday, May 26, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-25-2025: Trip to the Emergency Vet for Gibbs, Family Dinner Prep, Lively Conversation

 1. I don't know what Gibbs swallowed, but he came in the house honking and upset that that he kept making sounds as if he were trying to clear his throat or throw up. He was breathing fine. His appetite was unaffected. But, something wasn't right. 

No vets are available in the Silver Valley on Sunday, so I drove Debbie and Gibbs, first to the emergency vet in CdA where the wait would be two hours and then to the emergency vet in Post Falls where Gibbs got right in to see the vet.

X-rays showed no obstruction in Gibbs' esophagus or windpipe. 

The vet said that he had gotten rid of whatever he'd swallowed, but that his windpipe/esophagus was irritated and that's why the spasms continued periodically, why he made sounds like he was going to vomit. 

She prescribed meds for this inflammation/irritation and we returned to Kellogg. 

Gibbs is more relaxed. 

He continues to make the sounds that alarmed us much less frequently. 

I'm pretty sure Debbie will make a follow up visit to our vet in Kellogg later in the week. 

2. We were back home from our trip to Post Falls very early in the afternoon and had plenty of time to get ready to host family dinner. 

Debbie wanted to prepare today's meal and she cooked Mississippi Kielbasa in the crock pot and fixed fried corn and mashed potatoes to go along with it. She bought some frozen fig and orange stuffed phyllo snacks that I air fried as an appetizer. 

Christy brought a refreshing cucumber, lime, and pineapple salad and Paul and Carol provided fizzy water and wine for beverages.   

This was a very tasty and satisfying meal and, for dessert, Debbie and I served  frozen coconut bars. 

3. Our conversation ranged all over the place. Gardening. Debbie's job. Books, especially American fiction -- how John Steinbeck, Arthur Miller, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Toni Morrison, and many other American writers tell stories that provide American readers a way to self-examine the contrast between assumed American values and the realities of American life. 

I'm getting a big dose of this kind of exploration as I read more deeply into Steinbeck's East of Eden and am experiencing deeper appreciation than ever for this kind of self-examination and inquiry. 

Sunday, May 25, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-24-2025: Myfortic is Back, Revival, Debbie's Superb Dinner

 1. The reintroduction of Myfortic to my system gave it a temporary jolt, but I played it smart: I rested, let the light headedness pass, took a late morning nap, monitored my blood pressure -- which came back up to normal in short order and stayed there -- and by early afternoon I was fine. 

2. I don't want to give away plot details, but East of Eden takes a turn in Part 3 when Adam Trask finally faces a truth he had ignored or been unable to see for many years. At least for the time being, he's revived -- I have to wonder how long this revival will last. 

3. Debbie told me she wanted to cook dinner tonight. She made a delicious rub of paprika, thyme, onion powder, salt, and pepper for boneless pork chops, baked them, made (or heated up) white rice, and made a superb bean salad. 

I know I say it every time this happens, but as much as I love to cook, it's always a great pleasure when Debbie says she's in the mood to prepare a meal -- and, as a bonus this weekend, she also wants to cook dinner Sunday night when we have Christy, Carol, and Paul over for family dinner. 

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-23-2025: Return to Myfortic, Year #2 Is Shaping Up, A Wok Dinner

This is blog post #6800 at kellogg bloggin'.


1. Nurse Jenn messaged me today. Overall, my blood work from Tuesday looks great. The transplant team decided to make one adjustment: I am going back on the anti-rejection/immuno-suppression medicine Myfortic. The dosage is half what is was about a year ago and it will help keep my white blood cells from getting too frisky and trying to impose its powers on the unfamiliar kidney at work in my system. As always, medicines that suppress the immune system also increase, however moderately, the possibility of infection, so I'll monitor all signs by taking my temperature daily and being aware of how I'm feeling day to day. 

I will also have labs drawn once a week for the next three weeks. 

2. So, my second year of post-transplant medical care is falling into place. I'm all scheduled on June 4th to have a bone density scan, ultrasound on my native kidneys, chest X-ray, and before the imaging pros work their magic,  I'll have blood drawn. 

I see Dr. Bieber on June 12th. 

I think I'm keeping it all straight....

3. I had a blast in the kitchen late this afternoon. I had purchased one of my favorite items at Trader Joe's, a package of Balsamic Rosemary Beef Steak Tips. Today, I got out the wok and stir fried, until about half cooked, sliced mushrooms, zucchini, and yellow pepper. Then I added in the steak tips and while they cooked, I eventually removed the vegetables so they didn't over cook. I had made a pot of white rice and when the steak tips were close to being cooked through, I returned the vegetables to the wok, added a bunch of chopped cilantro and cooked rice, and sprinkled chopped green onions over the top. 

It worked. 



Friday, May 23, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-22-2025: Walking, Walking with *Deadish*, J. J. Cale and Dire Straits

1. I walked up the trail to the high school as far as the steps going down to the medical center parking lot and strolled down to the 4-way stop at Cameron and Bunker and then on home. 

My reward was a deep and satisfying night's sleep.

2. While I walked, I started listening to the May 15th  Deadish radio show and enjoyed how Jeff dealt with a wide variety of Deadish music, including the Grateful Dead, that had been performed and recorded on May 15th over the years. Jimi Hendrix. One of my favorite bands, Legion of Mary. Zero, another favorite. And more. It was a great program that not only made my walk more pleasant, but gave me great pleasure as I kept it playing in my ear buds after I arrived home and rested my legs. 

3. While I'm on the subject of music, this morning when I woke up, I was happy that I'd let Spotify play all night long. It all began on Wednesday evening when I played J. J. Cale's anthology album and when it was over, Spotify continued to play blues and other hybrid genres of music in the general spirit of J. J. Cale. Eric Clapton popped up, including cuts from the thrilling album he and J. J. Cale collaborated on, The Road to Escondido.  So did a variety of other artists and some J. J. Cale repeats. 

My favorite cuts, though, were about three or four from Dire Straits' first album, titled simply Dire Straits.  

I knew from reading I've done that Mark Knopfler regarded J. J. Cale as having had a vital influence on his songwriting and his playing. 

Now, Spotify did not play the mighty "Sultans of Swing" from this album, but played three or four other tracks that, even though I don't remember the song titles, helped me hear more clearly than I ever had before the J. J. Cale influence on Mark Knopfler and on the band. 

My already immeasurable respect and enjoyment of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler grew -- and I didn't know until this morning that it could get any higher! 

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-21-2025: Sobering Reading, Ed Called Me, Chicken Dinner and Television Memories

1. I'm over half way through John Steinbeck's East of Eden and it's clear to me that much like other 19th and 20th century US fiction writers, Steinbeck is calling freedom, that most cherished and believed in American value into question, examining what might be determined in us through the traits we inherit from the family members who precede us and by social and economic factors that are external to us. 

Steinbeck also explores how the consequences of past actions live on, take on a life of their own, and questions to what degree we are free to do anything about them. 

Reading East of Eden is sobering. 

I don't know how the stories of the different characters he's created are going to end, but I can say that in page after page I feel the power of inevitability, that several, if not all, of these characters are trapped in or sentenced to a future they don't have much control over. 

I've been down this road many times whether in works by Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Thomas Hardy, Toni Morrison, or Edith Wharton, to name a few, and it's always unsettling. 

But, these writers unsettle me so poetically in their use of language that as emotionally difficult as their stories can be, the esthetic experience of reading them is fulfilling -- and the experience is doubly fulfilling because their writing  has the integrity that comes with courageously seeking truth, however bitter and painful their explorations can be, and however incomplete. 

2. Ed called me this afternoon and it was heartening that both of us could report to the other that we are both doing pretty well -- Ed's cancer treatment has been and continues to be successful and my post-transplant blood work has been solid, as I've written about 1,000,000,000 times on this blog. 

Yes, I've been a broken record about my test results and progress, but tiresome repetition doesn't diminish my happiness and, likewise, I cannot hear Ed tell me enough times that his treatments have been successful, he continues with the medication he's not finished with, and, all in all, he's getting along great and, like me, I'll say, is maintaining a positive and grateful frame of mind.

3. First thing this morning, I discovered that Debbie had taken a package of chicken thighs out of the freezer for me to prepare for our dinner. 

Awesome. 

I enjoy experimenting with the seasoning blends I like to buy at Trader Joe's and today I decided to season the chicken with Ajika, a Georgian seasoning that is spicy and garlicky and I added some garlic powder to the chickens for good measure along with salt and pepper. 

I sliced three yellow potatoes and seasoned them with Montreal steak seasoning and put a ring of white onion on top of each chicken thigh. 

I filled a baking pan with the chicken, potatoes, and onion.

While they baked, I steamed a couple handfuls of Trader Joe's frozen green beans, seasoned with Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute. It always works! 

Everything turned out beautifully and Debbie and I relaxed with our delicious and simple dinner and had a fun conversation about actors and cable television multi-season programs we've watched over the last 15-20 years. 

Great memories. 


Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-20-2025: Success at the Kootenai Lab, My Pleasure Tour, Salads for Family Dinner

1. No kidding. 

When I strolled into the Kootenai Lab Services suite this morning, inside myself I was still laughing at myself for getting things so fouled up yesterday. 

On the outside, though, I approached the counter like a pro as if nothing had happened yesterday and told the woman at the counter I was there for blood work ordered by Natasha Barauskas.

It was a long list of tests and that list tested the inexperience of the employee who was helping me. 

She had to enter these orders for the phlebotomist and invited me to take a seat while she did so.

As I said, she was inexperienced and some of the order confused her and, from my seat in the waiting room, I could see other more seasoned employees coming over to help her. I'd say about six patients who arrived after I did had blood drawn ahead of me -- no problem -- and then I heard the inexperienced employee say the magic words:

"Wow! That was a learning experience!"

I loved it. 

Yes, I had to wait for longer than usual, but it heartened me to know that this kind employee not only solicited help understanding the order, but will, no doubt, understand things better the next time a transplant recipient needs her help that she didn't understand before I sauntered in today.

Oh, by the way, the results of my tests started to roll in a couple of hours later and, so far, the results look solid, stable, encouraging. 

2. I had a very pleasant session with the woman who drew my blood and then I went out into the world and successfully sought pleasure. 

I had a 20 oz triple latte at the coffee stand just outside the lab and read more of East of Eden.

I drove to Elmer's and enjoyed a garden vegetable omelette with hash browns and a flaky biscuit. 

I gassed up at Costco.

I stopped in at Trader Joe's and bought fruit for my contribution to family dinner tonight and a few other items that I was sure Debbie would enjoy. 

Then I had an easy drive back to Kellogg listening to indie pop rock from the late 1980s and 1990s., beginning with what's becoming, after listening to it for nearly twenty years, one of my favorite albums, Luna's Bewitched.

3. Christy and Carol attended a PEO state convention over the weekend, leading us to have family dinner on Tuesday. Carol organized a dinner of salads. I used the fruit I bought at Trader Joe's to make a fruit salad and served it with a Greek yogurt and fresh lemon juice dressing. Christy made a superb pasta salad using ingredients already in her pantry at home and think I ate three, maybe four helpings of it -- it was that good! I also had multiple helpings of Carol's fresh and artful Cobb salad -- it, too, was that good! 

We discussed a lot of things tonight with some special attention on local businesses and our efforts to support them and we talked about coffee, how we brew it, the beans we purchase, and the challenges (for me at least) of grinding our own beans. 

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-19-2025: I Misunderstood, Fun at Trader Joe's, "Draggin' the Line" Radio

1. Honestly, I just had to shake my head, laugh, and say to myself, "of course I did". 

I left the transplant clinic on May 12th with instructions to have labs done once a week for the next four weeks. 

I thought I would be repeating the extra labs I had done after my May 12th appointment ended.

I thought this meant no fasting, no urine specimen, no tacrolimus trough, and no early morning blood draw. 

To quote Richard Thompson: I misunderstood. 

Of course I did -- 🤣🤣🤣.

First I talked with the superb counter employee at the Kootenai lab and we both realized something wasn't right.

(That something was ME!)

So I called the transplant center, talked to Nurse Jenn, which was fabulous, and I learned what I'd misunderstood. 

These weekly labs over the next four weeks are the full meal deal -- and they have to be drawn in the morning because they have to come about 12 hours after my evening dose of tacrolimus and before my morning dose. 

Now I understood. 

I went back to the counter. 

My closing words with the superb employee: "Thanks for all your help. See you tomorrow morning!"

2. It had been a while since I'd gone on a buy what looks fun spree at Trader Joe's and I also wanted to buy purchase a few items, like coconut milk, that I like to have around. 

So I strolled the aisles and grabbed some cheese products and multigrain crackers here, Everything but the Bagel seasoned cashews and almonds and frozen chicken tenders there, along with some other treats and by the time I reached the check out stand, I could hardly remember that I'd been so confused about my labs and, as I left the store, I was beaming and walking on air. 

All I needed now, and I purchased it, was a 20 oz triple latte at Lean Bean Coffee, making my drive back to Kellogg epicurean. 

3. I had reached a place Sunday evening in East of Eden involving child birth that I could tell was going to be dark and unsettling and I decided I just couldn't face it tonight.

I did, however, turn my attention to Jula, a Canadian woman whose father died and left her thousands of record albums. On Instagram (@soundwavesofwax), Jula posts short videos of herself pulling an album randomly off her late father's shelves and she plays a sample of a cut and comments on what she experienced listening to it. 

In a video I watched last night, she played a sample of a fantastic track off of Tommy James' 1971 album Christian o the World

She played "Draggin' the Line". 

Oh my! 

I was suddenly joy struck, supremely happy I'd taken a temporary break from John Steinbeck.

So I went to Spotify andplayed the entire track of "Draggin' the Line". Awesome song! 

Then I noticed that a playlist of songs under the title Draggin' the Line Radio was available on Spotify.

What, I wondered, was on this list?

Some of my favorite pop music from junior high and high school, that's what. 

I listened to more Tommy James and the Shondells.

Then the Buckinghams.

Then the Grass Roots. 

The Turtles.

Sugarloaf.

The Ozark Mountain Blue Devils. 

The entire playlist comprises vault of immature and uncontrolled teen age feelings and fantasies for me. 

Susan, looks like I'm losing.
I'm losing my mind
I'm wasting my time.

And this one:

If you don't love me
Why don't you tell me
Instead if runnin' around
With all the other guys in town

And for me, there were The Turtles long before there was Bob Dylan and when I hear this song, it ain't you Bob that I hear, oh no, no, no,  it ain't you, Bob -- it's the Turtles!

Go away from my window
Leave at your own chosen speed
I'm not the one you want, babe
I'm not the one you need

No, no, no, it ain't me, babe
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe


Monday, May 19, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-18-2025: After the Fall, The Contradictory Experience of Reading Steinbeck, Debbie the Chef

1. To me, the phrase "east of Eden" is another way of saying "after the fall", referring to life outside the Garden of Eden. In his novel, East of Eden, John Steinbeck tells the story of two families who are, in some ways, trying to recapture the beauty and perfection of the Garden of Eden, but they live in a world of good and evil and this conflict is constant. 

I find this novel painful. 

I dread when I can see the evil in the novel at work and it's painful to witness the idealistic characters who are oblivious to the evil in their midst and, I'm thinking, must inevitably suffer tragedy. 

2. I don't remember exactly how it worked, but I am pretty sure it was at Whitworth where, as the semester was drawing to an end, we had what was called Reading Day -- or maybe even Reading Days -- to have time before final exams to read and prepare. 

Well, whether I am remembering that correctly or not, today was a reading day for me and thankfully it was not connected to any final exams. 

It's definitely a contradiction that I can find a day of reading so relaxing and enjoyable even as I'm reading this long novel with its dark under and over tones and its sense of doom vibrating through it. 

I don't know how East of Eden turns out and I have a long way to go to finish it.

But, as of now, as I read the early stages of the book's Part 2, I'm feeling the story's sense of inevitable tragedy.

And, yet, I'm enjoying the book -- I don't enjoy the darkness, but I enjoy the act of reading itself and I enjoy savoring Steinbeck's language, imaginative powers, ability to draw characters, and his storytelling gifts. 

3. My reading day progressed largely uninterrupted because Debbie got creative in the kitchen and made a superb pasta sauce combining ground beef, a Trader Joe's can of eggplant, tomato, and onion, some chopped onion, and a small can of spicy V8 juice and we ate it over some twisty pasta. 

I hope we remember how she did this. This sauce turned out to be one of my all-time favorites. 

Sunday, May 18, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-17-2025: Secular Seminary, Steinbeck's *East of Eden*, Saturday Salmon Dinner

1. I only knew two things as I started and progressed in graduate school at the University of Oregon back in 1979: I wanted to teach at the college level and I wanted to learn more about what it means to be human. To make a long story short, I had decided in the nearly three years after I graduated from Whitworth that I was not, for a variety of reasons, cut out for church ministry, but the idea of theological studies at a seminary was very attractive to me. 

As much as I loved the experience of studying and teaching at Whitworth, a Christian liberal arts college, I was unsure of my ability to succeed in graduate school, but, at the same time, I very much looked forward to studying at a secular university where I expected to encounter a wide variety of perspectives on literature, writing, and life in the USA and the world. 

That's what happened. I loved the cosmopolitan energy of the university. 

I pursued my studies as if I were in a largely non-theological seminary, always focused on what I, at least, considered the human (not so much holy) spirit content of what I read, discussed, wrote papers about, and eventually taught. 

2. Why is all of this on my mind today? 

Well, I started reading John Steinbeck's East of Eden today. Early on in the book, as Steinbeck begins to explore the inner life of the characters he introduces, as he invites me (at least) to contemplate the complicated and undefinable nature of human nature that he explores, I found myself feeling as if I'd been transported back to graduate school, back to the thrill of entering into the an epic story populated by deeply flawed and complex characters, back to being in my own peculiar seminary again. 

I didn't focus on 20th century American fiction as a grad student. I focused on composition theory, 20th century American drama, 19th century American and Victorian literature, and the literature of the British (English?) Renaissance, with special emphasis on Shakespeare. 

Now John Steinbeck has me thinking this would be a good time to read more 20th century American fiction than I ever have before. 

Stay tuned. 

3. I had thawed out a couple of chunks of salmon and tonight I baked them, steamed some carrots, fried some zucchini, and made a pot of rice and Debbie and I enjoyed this delicious and simple dinner. 

Then I returned to the early days of the Hamilitons and the Trasks, the two families featured in Steinbeck's East of Eden


Saturday, May 17, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-16-2025: Duties, Filters, Bedroom Cleaning

1. On this uneventful day I focused my efforts on domestic duties. 

2. I took care of furnace and heating/cooling filters. 

3. I vacuumed the bedroom and laundered bedding and now have clean sheets and bedspread. 

Boring stuff, but uplifting in the end.  

Friday, May 16, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-15-2025: Beach Bum Cinnamon Raisin Bagels, Lunch with Jeff/Ted and Marcos, The Sube Has Headlights

1. Rebecca at Beach Bum Bakery knows that my favorite of all bagels is the cinnamon raisin bagel. In fact, some of you who are longtime readers of this blog might remember that in the early days of Beach Bum Bakery, I politely suggested or requested that Rebecca start baking the cinnamon raisin bagel. 

And she did. 

Now, the cinnamon raisin bagel is a bit more difficult to make than the everything, sesame, or plain, but when Rebecca decides to bake a batch of cinnamon raisin, she always lets me know. 

She had a batch ready to go today! 

So I drove uptown to 311 South Main and bought this batch -- I think it was eight bagels -- brought them home, halved them, and froze most of them, except for the one I held out for Friday morning. 

I slice the Beach Bum Bakery bagels in half because they are bigger than most bagels and a half a one is close to being the same amount of bagel as either store bought ones or ones I've eaten over the many many years from other bagel bakeries. 

And Beach Bum Bakery bagels are organic! 

After dinner, I could not longer resist -- I changed my plan to wait until morning to try a bagel from this batch and I savored a half of a cinnamon raisin bagel. 

Wow! 

That one half raisin cinnamon bagel brought back all the great pleasure and uplift of spirit I enjoy so much when eating one of these bagels! 

I'm really happy that Beach Bum Bakery has made the transition into its shop in uptown Kellogg and is back in business again and that their bagels, all of them, will once again provide great taste and texture and good nutrition to my daily life. 

2. Christy, Carol, and I piled into Christy's Sube and we rocketed out to Timbers Roadhouse in Cataldo and met lifelong friend Jeff (to me and my siblings he'll always be Ted or Teddy) Turnbow and his husband Marcos for a fun and fascinating lunch. Ted and Marcos were up from their home in Las Vegas, relaxing in North Idaho.  

We talked about a lot of things and I enjoyed every subject, and, I admit, I was especially happy to learn more about Marcos' studies as a pre-med student and to find out, through our conversation, what a deep understanding he has of transplantation and life after transplant. Usually, when this subject comes up, I'm the one who explains things. Not with Marcos! We were on the same page in our understanding and he told me about what researchers are working on as the field of transplantation continues to develop.  Fascinating! 

3. On Wednesday, Debbie discovered our front right headlight was out on the Sube. 

After lunch, having made an appointment at Silver Valley Tires, I dropped by and the fellas there fixed it. 

I liked getting that job done right away. 

Thursday, May 15, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-14-2025: North Idaho College in 1974, Whitworth in 1974, Did I See Debbie at Expo '74?

1. I finished reading the absorbing and totally enjoyable book The Fair and the Falls this evening. Reading this book took me back to 1974, one of the most memorable years in my entire life and almost nothing that made it memorable had anything to do with Expo '74. 

I was preoccupied with all kinds of other matters in my life and it's odd to me now, looking back, that an event with the magnitude of Expo '74 was so unimportant to me. 

So what was I so preoccupied with? 

I was totally absorbed in my studies at NIC, especially the modern literature course I was taking from Virginia Tinsley-Johnson, and the way I was falling deeply in love with poetry, especially modern poetry. 

I was also falling in love with the woman I would marry two years later. I might be remembering wrong, but, as I look back, I'd say those early months we spent so much time together were centered on discovering poems together. We drove to Seattle to attend the annual Theodore Roethke reading at the University of Washington and heard Elizabeth Bishop read. Richard Hugo gave a reading at North Idaho College. A few car loads of us went to Cheney to hear David Wagoner read.  I'm pretty sure James McAuley gave a reading that spring at NIC. Nelson Bentley might have, too. 

2. I was also preoccupied and indecisive about what college/university to attend after I graduated from NIC. My future wife was keen on enrolling at Whitworth College north of Spokane and I joined her on a visit to the campus. I especially liked what I learned was going on in the English Department and I wanted to be where she was going and so I applied and Whitworth accepted me. 

Once I arrived on campus in Sept. of 1974, I became obsessed with the college. I was the happiest I ever remember being. I met one awesome peer after another. My professors and my classes invigorated me. I went all in intellectually and spiritually in pursuit of a Christian liberal arts education and was further invigorated by the college's ideas and practices around the idea of student development. 

Honestly, I experienced Whitworth College in 1974 and the ensuing years I was there as a kind of heaven on earth -- under the tutelage of Whitworth's professors I explored a wide range of ideas and ways of thinking and loved doing this within the context of a Christian education. 

Expo '74 was, at best, on the margins of my consciousness and concern. 

3. Having read this book, I now have a much clearer understanding of what I missed. Oh -- I went to the exposition a few times. Our NIC choir performed at Expo. (Or maybe it was the Cardinal Chorale.) That fall, I took a course in the history of Russia and our class went to hear a speaker from the Soviet Union on the site. I went to a USA/USSR basketball game that was a part of Expo and I went at least once to the Opera House for a presentation by the Royal Shakespeare Company. 

I saw the famous dizzying film at the IMAX theater. 

And I often wonder if I saw Debbie working the booth at the Bureau of Reclamation. 

Long after Expo '74 ended, memories of the AmTrak booth and its next door neighbor, the Bureau of Reclamation booth, stayed with me. I can understand why train travel stuck in my memory, but why did I remember that there even was a Bureau of Reclamation booth? 

Maybe it was because of a woman who worked there -- Debbie Diedrich. 

When I first saw Debbie in Eugene either on stage singing or working at Ritta's burrito booth at Saturday Market, I had this sense that I'd seen her before. 

I'm enough of a romantic to think she made a very early impression on me at Expo '74 over twenty years before we actually met and first talked to each other. 

And even if this romantic possibility didn't happen, it's a fun story to have going through my head and I'm enjoying how things turned out for Debbie and me. 

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-13-2025: Mirror Repaired, Petit Breakfast, More Positive Results

1. I was out the door at 7 a.m. this morning after saying farewell to Meagan and Patrick. I took the Camry in to have the side mirror I clipped about ten days ago replaced and so that episode has come to an end. 

2. I went to Breakfast Nook and tried something different for me. The Nook serves generous portions and I decided to try one of their petit breakfasts: 5 oz sirloin steak, one scrambled egg, a small portion of hash browns, and a piece of sourdough toast. 

It was just right. 

3. When I have blood work done in advance of an appointment at Sacred Heart, some results take longer to come into my patient portal. 

Some of those results came in today and they were all good news. 

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-12-2025: *Deadish* Makes I-90 Enjoyable, Six Hours at Sacred Heart Medical Center, Great Harvest Propels Me Back Home

1. I was out the door shortly after 5:30 this morning for a drive to Sacred Heart for routine blood work in advance of my appointment at the transplant center, not only to be checked on, but to gladly submit to simple protocols associated with my one year transplant anniversary.  

I made the drive to Spokane all the more enjoyable by listening to Jeff Harrison's May 8th Deadish program, archived at kepw.org. He played live music recorded by different artists on May 8th over the years, so I got to listen to Frank Zappa, Ten Years After, and the great acoustic duo of Jerry Garcia and Davie Grisman. 

I would turn the drive back to Kellogg into a magic carpet ride with the phenomenal tunes Jeff played from the Grateful Dead's legendary May 8, 1977 show at Cornell University. 

2. Today, I saw PA-C Natasha Barauskas. I saw her on my last visit to the transplant clinic in February and one other time and we are at ease with each other.  

If you ever decide to have an organ transplant, among the chief concerns of your transplant team will be  to prescribe you medicines that keep your immune system from rejecting the transplanted organ and, since such medicine weakens one's immune system, to prescribe other medicines that help prevent infection and protect you against certain viruses. 

It's a little bit tricky. 

Right now, the primary anti-rejection drug I take is Tacrolimus. 

My system's response to this drug changes from time to time, so with every set of routine labs, there's a Tacrolimus test and the transplant team checks the level of Tacrolimus in my blood, looking for a high enough level of Tacrolimus in my system to prevent rejection while keeping the level low enough that my immune system is not overly compromised.  So, from time to time, my dosage changes. 

It's a balancing act. 

Two viruses are of special concern. One is called the BK virus and the other is known as CMV. 

I've been taking a prophylactic drug for a year now to protect my system against CMV. 

Today, the PA-C, in agreement with Dr. Bieber, removed this medication from my pill box. 

Going off of this medicine poses some risk, so I had more blood work done after this appointment and will have labs done once a week for the next four weeks to check the following:

  • Is the virus known as CMV taking advantage of the medication change and appearing in my blood?
  • Are there signs of any antibodies in my blood that could attack my transplanted organ?
  • Are there any signs in my blood of a risk of my body rejecting the transplanted kidney?
  • What is the health of the transplanted kidney? This test helps making this assessment without a biopsy.

After I answered a list of what things have I had or not had done recently, in keeping with the one year anniversary protocols, Natasha Barauskas ordered the following: a. bone density scan b. a chest X-ray c. an ultrasound of my native kidneys -- she told me my native kidneys are no longer functioning, but the ultra sound will provide an image of whether any growths or anything else untoward has sprung up on them. 

OK. 

More blood work once a week for a month. 

Imaging. 

Return to Dr Bieber on June 12. 

I listened to music by Ten Years After. 

This is what I have ahead of me one year after!

All of these procedures that lie ahead are important, but I thought the most important thing to come out of my appointment with Natasha Barauskas was her giving my condition an A+. 

My transplanted kidney is filtering well, the protein in my urine has come down, my calcium is back in range, my blood pressure was great in the office today, consistent with my daily readings at home, my lower extremities are not retaining fluid, and so on. 

I need to do all I can to bring my weight down and exercise regularly again to ward off the possibility of entering the pre-diabetes stage -- a common development for kidney transplant patients. 

After Natasha Barauskas finished with me, I saw the pharmacist, dietician, scheduler, nurse coordinator, and social worker. I had especially helpful and buoyant conversations with the dietician and Helen, the social worker I've been in conversation with now for nearly eight years and who has been a great support and, when I wanted it, a comfort to me. 

3. By the time I left the transplant center, went back to the hospital lab for the added blood work, and returned to the Camry, I'd been at Sacred Heart for six hours. 

I decided the perfect response to being poked, questioned, examined, reported to, and told what to do would be a delicious beef sandwich on Dakota bread at Great Harvest followed by an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie with coffee. I was right. 

I enjoyed this lunch, stopped at Costco in CdA for fuel, and headed back home, tired, but feeling good about what I learned, what lies ahead, and how I'm doing after one year with a transplanted kidney. 

Monday, May 12, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 5-11-2025: Walking Normally, Meagan and Patrick Arrive, Wah Hing Blowout

1. My back stiffened up early in the week, seemingly out of nowhere, and now it's back to being almost completely loose and I'm able to walk normally.

2. Meagan and Patrick decided, on Saturday, not to drive all the way to Kellogg, spent the night in the Tri-Cities, and arrived in Kellogg this afternoon, tired, but happy to on the road, journeying toward their eventual move into an apartment (with a view) in Cincinnati. 

3. We had a great blow out family dinner tonight as we dug into multiple entrees of Chinese food, served potluck style, from Wah Hing. We threw a little Mother's Day celebration into the evening and it was fun having Christy, Carol, and Paul over to enjoy dinner and spend time with Patrick and Meagan.  

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-10-2025: Transplant Anniversary, The Push to Make Expo '74 Actually Happen, Chuck Roast Dinner

1. I'm writing this blog post on the morning of May 11th. Today is Mother's Day. Patrick and Meagan will be arriving later today on their way to Cincinnati where they will soon take up residence. 

And today marks the one year anniversary of my kidney transplant. 

I have my one year check up with the transplant team in Spokane tomorrow, May 12th.  

2. Speaking of Spokane, I've just finished the section of The Fair and the Falls narrating the last minute rush to finish constructing the fair site and take care of countless other details. On top of that,  a mighty swirl of activity buzzed around Expo '74's opening day ceremony and all the logistics involved in hosting  President Richard Nixon who officially opened Expo '74. 

I learned more about how with less than a year to go before the scheduled opening date, Expo '74 faced a lack of sound management crisis and a man from Maryland, Petr Spurney, swooped in, took over the general manager position, made some sweeping changes and got the whole project on track and had a significant impact on Expo opening on time and being a successful World's Fair. 

It's a dramatic story and I had no idea back in 1973-74 that so much frantic activity was going on and so many conflicts and difficulties were being ironed out to make the whole thing happen. 

I've also enjoyed learning more about the ongoing counter cultural gathering at what became known as People's Park -- how that gathering came about, the story of the two guys in Spokane who spearheaded and organized it, and how the police and the campers at People's Park worked out compromises that made it possible for this months long gathering to thrive. 

3. Originally, Patrick and Meagan planned on arriving in Kellogg on May 10th, but the process of getting out of Portland took longer than they'd planned so they'll arrive on Mother's Day. 

Debbie put a chuck roast in the slow cooker and added noodles to it. With Patrick and Meagan delayed, she and I enjoyed our helpings of this terrific meal on our own. 

They could enjoy some leftovers on Sunday or Monday if they want.

Our Mother's Day family dinner, however, will be a fun take out blowout prepared by Wah Hing. 

Saturday, May 10, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-09-2025: Physical Transformation in Spokane, Remembering Sarah, Podcast Story Told By Sierra Crane Murdoch

1.  I've reached the point in time in the story of Expo '74 when the railroad tracks, trestles, viaducts, businesses, and other structures in the what would become the exposition's site as well as on Trent Ave. are being demolished and a whole new riverfront is being constructed. 

It's astonishing. 

2. As I was reading the history of architectural planning for the site and the buildings that would become Expo '74, I had a most pleasant and welcome memory come back to me. 

The chief architect for envisioning and planning the transforming of the industrial site into what we know now as Riverfront Park was Thomas Adkison. 

Then I remembered. 

In either the late 1990s or early 2000s, Thomas Adkison's daughter, Sarah, was a student of mine at Lane Community College. She must have been in her mid to late 40s back then and brought to the classroom kindness, great energy and intelligence, and fascinating stories. She was a 1966 graduate of Ferris High School in Spokane and through a little bit of searching online, I discovered that in 2016 she attended Ferris High School's 50 year reunion and so I saw a couple of pictures of her. 

If I had found a way to contact her -- or if I do in the near future -- , I would write her a note reminding her that once she knew I had lived in Spokane and was from North Idaho, she told me about growing up in Spokane and about her father's work. I'd also like to remind her how much I enjoyed working with her in the classroom and running into her on the city bus and, from time to time, on campus. 

If any of you who live in Eugene read this and have contact information for Sarah Adkison, I'd appreciate hearing from you. 

3. The last thing I did tonight as I crawled under the covers was listen to an episode of This American Life entitled "How to Tell a Dumb American Story". 

This episode focuses on a couple in Lake County, Montana on the Flathead Reservation. Their daughter was struck and killed in a vehicular incident on a state highway. The couple, Carissa and Kevin, become frustrated with the lack of urgency on the part of law enforcement and the District Attorney's Office to investigate the incident and bring justice to their deceased daughter, Mika.

So, they take matters into their own hands and begin a campaign to pressure law enforcement to act. 

I won't spoil the story by telling how it concludes. 

What I will say, though, is that as the episode wrapped up, host Ira Glass gave credit to the reporter who presented the story.

I was thrilled to find out that the reporter was Sierra Crane Murdoch. 

When I read all the books on Leah Sottile's reading list, one of those books, a gripping story, was entitled, Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country.

Its author is Sierra Crane Murdoch.

I also learned that Sierra Crane Murdoch has a second book forthcoming that I can preorder entitled, Imaginary Brightness: An Autobiography of American Guilt. 

Who knows? Maybe she'll come to Spokane when she goes on tour to promote her new publication. 

I know now that she promoted Yellow Bird in Spokane when it was published. 

I will do all I can to be at her Spokane presentation, should it happen. 

Friday, May 9, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-08-2025: Expo '74's Story is Our Story, My Back Loosens Up, Fun Cooking Pork Chops

1. Among my favorite kinds of books to read are ones that focus on a specific person (like Gary Gilmore, in Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song) or one specific event (like Spokane's Expo '74) and the focus or the book is a microcosm of the USA and the many issues that face us day to day. 

As I read more of the book The Fair and the Falls today, many of our ongoing conflicts as a country continued to emerge in the Expo '74 story. 

As is always the case, conflicts arose over taxation, industry in relation to environmental concerns, whether Expo 74 was going far enough in representing its ecological theme or whether the exposition was going too far, did stakeholders like local Native American tribes or environmental organizations have a meaningful voice in the planning and execution of the World's Fair, was urban renewal going to trigger local population growth -- in other words, was the number of outsiders going to increase? --, would an increase in outsiders mean more crime, a higher cost of living, and a degradation of the Spokane people felt they already knew and loved?   

Sound familiar? 

What was, is.

The history of Expo '74 gives those interested an insightful look at what always has been and continues to be our chief societal and political concerns as residents of the USA, a keen insight into what divides us and occasionally what unites us. 

2. My movement as I glided around the house today continued to be freer as my lower back continues to loosen up. 

This is great news. 

3. With my back loosening up, I felt kind of frisky in the kitchen tonight. I had thawed a package of boneless pork chops and I had fun preparing them. I scrambled a couple eggs in flat bowl and dipped each chop in the eggs and then, in another bowl, I poured the rest of our panko and the chops were ready to fry once covered with egg and panko.

In a small bowl, I mixed sour cream, a little water, crushed garlic, salt, pepper, and a packet of some kind of hot sauce and made a topping for the meat. 

In another pan, I fried red onion, chopped potato, chopped red pepper, and mushroom slices.

Panko breaded pork chops. 

An improvised sauce. 

Pan-fried vegetables. 

Pretty tough to beat! 

A delicious simple meal. 

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-07-2025: A Staggering Minor Miracle, A Walking Aid at Yoke's, 2 Swabbies!

1. As I read deeper into The Fair and the Falls and learn more about the mighty obstacles the organizers faced locally, nationally, and internationally, it's a minor miracle, a staggering one,  to me that Spokane's Expo 74 happened. There were a lot of tense moments when the whole thing could have collapsed, but the organizers' commitment was strong and the Washington Senator duo of Warren Magnuson and Scoop Jackson was powerful and in full support of Expo '74. Their support was crucial. 

2. My tightened up lower back is not painful, just inflexible. I went to Yoke's for a few things today and I enjoyed how the grocery cart was a splendid aid to my stroll around the store. 

3. I took a break from reading about Expo '74 and poked around the World Wide Web looking at commercial businesses in the Spokane area that one thrived and are no longer around. I don't think I ever went to the huge discount store on E. Sprague and N. Divison called 2 Swabbies, but my unreliable memory tells me that 2 Swabbies sponsored local television programs and had prominent ads in the Spokane newspapers. 

It added to my fun that last summer Spokane author Jess Walter wrote a fictional account about a pretend basketball game between a low level Russian team and a collection of local Eastern Washington castoffs whose team was sponsored by 2 Swabbies. 

It's a fun story and reminded me of when Dad and I went to the Spokane Colesium in late summer 1974 and watched a U.S. National Team featuring such players as David Thompson and Quinn Buckner defeated a Soviet All-Star team.

I don't remember if 2 Swabbies helped sponsor this game.... 

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-06-2025: Stiff Back, Flexibility and Expo 74, Looking at Pictures

1. All of a sudden this morning the lowest region of my back stiffened and so started my Amos McCoy day. I gave myself multiple heating pad treatments and was able to get a few things I wanted to accomplish done around the house. 

I think the stiffness is subsiding.

The other good news is being slightly immobilized gave me all the more time to read more deeply into The Fair and the Falls

2. In my reading today, I learned much more about the obstacles the City of Spokane and the leaders of private enterprise had to confront and overcome to secure the land for Expo '74 and to secure finances for the making this dream come true. 

I can't sum it all up here -- and, besides, I have more challenges to read about. 

I will say, though, that had the business leaders and elected officials of Spokane and Washington State assumed inflexible ideologically defined stances toward working with the federal government and taxation, the fair never would have happened. 

At one crucial point in time, after a city wide bond measure failed, a signifiicant number of Spokane business leaders wrote letters to city council members in support of a Business and Occupation Tax, a tax these leaders found odious. It would tax the businesses' gross, not net earnings, and would be a tax on the businesses themselves, not on the consumers. The city council, despite their general opposition to the tax, put it into effect, unanimously, and four of those council members faced a primary election the very next day, knowing that their "yes" votes might cost them their seats. They were all victorious in the primary, remarkably. 

Voting in this tax cleared the way for the project to move forward. 

3. While reading this book, I also looked up pictures of what the area we now know of as Riverfront Park looked like with the train trestles, train stations and warehouses, and other businesses dominating it. What is now Spokane Falls Boulevard was Trent Avenue and I have been working at getting a better visual sense of what it looked like before the transformation of Expo 74. 

It all was dreary. 

Try as I might, though, I don't have my own memories of that area. I have memories of parts of downtown south of the train yards -- I remember The Crescent and J J Newberry and the Bon Marche and P. M. Jacoy's and  other stores, but not the tracks and places razed and transformed as Expo 74 and Riverfront Park came into being. 

 

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Three Beautiful Things 05-05-2025: *Tales from the Golden Road*, Expo History and *Deadish*, Steak and Bagels

1. I drove to CdA first thing this morning to have the damage assessed that I inflicted on the Camry's sideview mirror a weekend ago. 

I made the easy drive over more enjoyable by listening to Dave Gans' radio show, Tales from the Golden Road, on Sirius/XM's Grateful Dead channel. It's a call in show and listening to caller after caller tell stories of shows they went 40-50 to almost 60 years ago and marveling at the detailed knowledge many of these callers have about show tapes was really fun and reminded me yet again why I do not consider myself a Dead Head. All I do is listen to the band. I don't have detailed knowledge, great stories, a long history of having gone to a ton of shows, or any tapes. I don't have any tie dyed clothing either! 

I love listening to Dead Heads tell stories and discuss the Deadiverse, but I cannot count myself one of them. 

I was also happy to hear so many of these longtime Dead Heads express their enjoyment of Dead & Company, giving special praise to what John Mayer has brought to this band. 

2. I checked in with a service advisor and then settled into a comfortable chair in Parker Toyota's waiting area and read more in The Falls and the Fair about what happened, thanks to King Cole's ingenius outreach to the many groups in the city of Spokane to discuss how downtown Spokane might be improved, resurrected even. 

I made reading this most enjoyable book even more pleasing by putting in my earbuds and listening to Jeff's May 1st Deadish show featuring a heavenly acoustic set from May 1, 1970, a recording session on May 1, 1969 in which Bob Dylan and George Harrison got together with other musicians and performed in a studio together, and then some May 1st electric Grateful Dead from, I think, 1981. 

The car was ready within about an hour -- I return next week for a new mirror to be installed (and more Deadish! --  and so I listened to some of Jeff's show in the waiting room, more of it on my drive back to Kellogg, and caught Jeff's After Show at home as he played songs the Grateful Dead performed on May 2nd as a tribute to a friend and regular listener whose birthday is on May 2nd. 

That was fun, especially when Jeff ended the set with the Beatles and "Birthday"! 

3. On Sunday, Debbie dipped into our basement freezer and brought up a steak to thaw and, this evening I cut this thick hunk of beef in half and fixed us a fun and delicious meal of steak, roasted potatoes, and steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and green beans combined. 

Earlier in the day, the first thing I did when I arrived back in Kellogg was buzz up to the newly opened Beach Bum Bakery on Main Street and buy three sesame and three everything bagels. The Beach Bum bagels are, at least from my perspective, huge so I eat them one half at a time and buying a half a dozen of them is, for me, equivalent to buying a dozen of other bakers' bagels. 

I'm ecstatic that Beach Bum Bakery is back. Having these bagels in my life again is a source of deep joy for me.