Three Beautiful Things 04-26-2025: My Wandering Mind, My Return to Folk Rock Music, My Return to *This American Life*

 1. I find that setting alarms on my phone, making lists and attaching them to my pill box, and writing occasional notes to myself helps my wandering mind remember my medications as well as Copper's and other things -- like I have a load of laundry sitting in the drier.  

As I age day to day, I try to stay mindful of the fact that my mind sometimes just wanders off -- obscure memories return, things that happened over forty years ago that embarrass me, sometimes haunt me.  I lose track of what's happening right now. It's ghostly. 

It's not really a problem when this wandering happens at home -- I do, after all, set alarms and write stuff down, but I'd like to reign in this mental wandering when I'm driving, especially when I drive alone. I'd like to learn to catch my mind drifting off as it starts to do so, not when I'm several minutes into having thoughts, remembrances, and dreams. The mental activity is good, in and of itself, but not when I'm driving or when the drifting distracts me from things that need taken care of. 

2. Jeff's Deadish show dedicated to British folk rock music will be on the KEPW-FM archive until either Wednesday or Thursday. His shows stay archived for two weeks. Today, while I worked puzzles, I went back to this April 17th show and jumped ahead to hour number two so I could listen again to Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, and Pentangle -- and maybe other ensembles from 55-60 years ago. I especially enjoy the vocals of Sandy Denny and Maddie Prior and the way these innovative groups worked electric guitar and other rock influences into their explorations of traditional British folk music tunes, whether traditional songs they rework or original songs they composed themselves in traditional styles. 

3. I'm hungry for mental stimulation. I honestly wish I could do multiple of these stimulating things simultaneously. I know this is foolish, but it's my blog and this is where I can write foolishness! 

I wish I could read several books at the same time. I wish I could read, listen to music, and watch movies at the same time. 

Tonight, as I retired for the night, one of my hankerings I enjoy came back to me and I knew I wouldn't be reading, watching movies, or listening to music, let alone taking in a sporting event, because I wanted to listen to voices, radio voices or podcast voices. What should I tune into? At first I thought I'd listen to Radiolab, but then a flash of memory pushed me a different direction -- it had been a long time since I tuned in to This American Life. I don't even remember the episode I put on as I fell asleep, but every so often I woke up and listened to bits and pieces of whatever was playing. At one point, I caught a segment, but didn't finish it before falling asleep again, about a grad student from India being harassed by U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. 

This American Life presented this segment as five days of diary entries and I stayed awake to hear about an email the student received, her refusal to open her apartment door when agents came pounding on it, her hiding out  in a friend's apartment, her frantic attempts to work with the University and the government to figure out what was going on, and her shock when suddenly Columbia University unenrolled her, canceled her housing, and terminated her grad student teaching position. 

I've got to return to this episode and this segment to see how it concluded. 

But as it played tonight, I simply couldn't stay awake. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-25-2025: Driving and Spinning and Clipping in Montana, Oh Man! Not the Side Mirror Again!, The Wonders of Jeff and *Deadish*

1. It's had been a week of dental work, concern about Copper, a dermatology exam, and getting the sprinkler system running and I decided I'd like some time to drive by myself to Montana. 

So, once I finished my morning routine of medication for me and Copper, scooping the litter pan, putting cream on my feet, eating some breakfast, blogging, and doing five puzzles (!), I piled myself into the Camry and headed east. 

As I came down Lookout Pass, coming out of a work zone, I misjudged the distance between the Camry and one of those looper tube traffic cones (picture below) as I came out of the work site and I clipped it. I didn't realize at first that I clipped it with the sideview mirror. I thought I'd done so with the bumper. 

In Saltese, I stopped in at the Montana Bar and Grill and played my favorite of all gaming machines, Wolf Moon (not available in Pendleton, Spokane, or Worley, to the best of my knowledge), got crushed, shrugged, and enjoyed a burger, fries, and a bottle of Bud Zero. 

2. I hit the road again and stopped in at Winki's Diner for a small ice cream cone, sat at a table outside, and noticed that the sideview mirror was collapsed, the cover was gone, and part of its workings was dangling below the mirror. 

I'd viewed this scene before -- one day I clipped the entry into our garage and damaged the mirror in similar fashion. 

I decided against continuing my Montana travels and I headed home. I tested the mirror -- I could adjust if from inside the car. The blinker light was working, but that blinking light was under the mirror, dangling. 

I wanted to return to Kellogg without the dangling part of the mirror falling off and succeeded. 

I stopped in at the local body shop to have it looked at, but it was closed. 

I'll try again Monday. 

I'm really glad the mirror and its operation are intact, but I want to get that dangling piece back in place and I want to replace the back cover that is now littering the roadside on the east side of Lookout Pass. 

3.  On this trip, until I left Winki's, I was able to use my phone and the car's bluetooth to listen to Jeff's April 17th Deadish program. 

I don't know why the connection that worked from Kellogg to Saltese and Saltese to St. Regis quit working as I headed west, but I didn't sweat it. I would finish listening to the program at home in Kellogg. 

Jeff replayed a program he had aired back in September of 2022 and for two and half hours he featured heavenly and fascinating music from the British Folk Rock Days, music recorded between about 1965 and 1970. 

He played, among others, Davey Graham, Trees, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Pentangle, The Incredible String Band, and more. 

This combining of rock and British traditional folk and other sources of folk music strikes a very sweet spot in me and I loved it. 

As a bonus, in his After Show, Jeff played a beautiful album I'd never heard before: Vashti Bunyan's Just Another Diamond Day. 

I then did some easy digging into the World Wide Web to learn more about Vashti Bunyan and maybe figure out why I didn't know her name or her music. 

Hers is a great story of wandering, disappointment, abandonment, discovery, appreciation, and revival. 

After I fixed Debbie and me some baked sesame seed, lime/chili, garlic, salt, and pepper chicken drumsticks to enjoy with Debbie's superb bean salad, I opened up Saturday's NYTimes crossword online and listened to Jeff's April 24th Deadish program while working the puzzle. 

The Grateful Dead played on April 24th in both 1971 and 1972 in Durham, NC and Dusseldorf, West Germany. In the first hour, Jeff played a couple of Peter Rowan songs performed by the Jerry Garcia Band and then played selections from the Durham show. In the following hour and a half, Jeff played Dusseldorf selections, including a wondrous "Dark Star" and when I heard the unmistakable sound of Keith Godchaux's piano playing I suddenly realized that at this time Pigpen and Keith and Donna Godchaux were all in the band at the same time. 

How did I not know that? 

It's because of such gaps in my knowledge of the band, and for other reasons, that while I've been listening to the Grateful Dead since I went to my first show on 12/31/1988 and attended about six more shows after that, I cannot accept the moniker of Deadhead. 

I love the music, but in too many ways when it comes to the Grateful Dead, I'm just out of it. 

And that's fine. I yam who I yam. 

The Deadheads I know are not, when it comes to history, names of songs, song writers, knowledge about specific shows, and other things, I repeat, they are not out of it! 

I am.

But I keep trying to be with it! 🌹🌹🧸🧸🧸💀💀💀🤣🤣🤣🤣

********

As promised, here's the picture. 

Until today, I didn't know these things were called looper tube traffic cones!

Three Beautiful Things 04-24-2025: Sprinkler System Running, Laundry Day, Salad Dinner

 1. Keith swung by and now our sprinkling system is up and running and he made the very small repair that it needed. 

2. I welcomed my first day this week without any appointments, whether with the dermatologist or the dentist or the veterinarian. So I did laundry much of the day! 

3. I very much enjoyed the green salad I fixed myself for dinner and the hard boiled egg I sliced and put on top. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-23-2025: Copper Visits the Vet, I Return to the Dentist, We Try Venison

1. First thing this morning, I loaded Copper into his crate and headed over to the vet for blood work a month after he'd started taking thyroid medicine. Good news: no troubling effects of the medicine. Copper's liver and kidney numbers are good. One mystery result, but not in the blood. Commonly, a cat that has been dropping weight will start gaining it back once on this medication. Copper, however, lost a pound. Dr. Cook cut his medication dosage in half. I'll go back in another month or month and a half. We'll do blood work again, but only to screen his thyroid numbers and we'll see if he's regained weight. 

I'll make a record of Copper's food intake. That might help.

To me, the really good news is that Copper is content, happy, loved, and doing the usual things Copper does. 

And he's getting old. 

I've seen more signs of his aging over the last several months and I accept that he could be moving into the beginnings of his last stage of life. One never really knows, but it's undeniable that Copper is getting up there in years and I will do my best to make his days comfortable and easy. 

2. I trudged back to the dentist's office today for a cleaning.

It went beautifully and I had a good conversation with Kathy and with the doc about caring for the area where the doc did work on Tuesday. 

I understand what to do, plan to be diligent, and will check back in next week, on Tuesday, for a post-procedure check up.

3. For many years now, Debbie and I have enjoyed dinners of ground beef and vegetables cooked in the electric frying pan. Monday, Debbie bought some ground venison, so tonight we had one of these potpourris with the venison and we were both very happy with the result. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-22-2025: Dental Work Continues, Gibbs Fails to Intimidate a Visiting Cat, Salmon and Asparagus

1. Luckily, my afternoon was free. This morning I went to the dentist. The doctor executed the next stage in the process of replacing my extracted tooth with an implant. It didn't take long, and thanks to anesthesia, wasn't painful, but I needed rest, sleep, and pain relief in the afternoon and evening. I experienced dull minor pain in the area he worked on and, as the dentist promised me (!), I had a headache all day and through the night. 

(As I write this, I feel about 95% recovered and pain free 👏👏👏.)  

2. What I would call a tortoiseshell cat, a cat I've never seen before, plopped itself and relaxed on a tree round that is taller than the fence in the northwest corner of our yard and Gibbs went nuts barking at the cat. Gibbs' barking bored the cat. The cat continued to relax and when I went out to check on things gave me a look that seemed to say, "Can you get this hyper mutt to shut up so I can continue to sun myself and relax in peace?"

Eventually, I persuaded Gibbs to leave the cat alone and, with the help of a shredded cheese lure, he came back into the house. 

About thirty minutes later, I checked on the cat -- no longer there -- the cat had moved on and I have no idea if the cat lives with someone nearby or is cat without a home. 

I'll keep a casual lookout for the cat and see if I can figure anything out. 

The cat is welcome here any time, as far as I'm concerned. 

I'm not sure Gibbs shares my sentiment! 

3. I rallied myself late in the afternoon and fixed Debbie and me a fun dinner of roasted asparagus spears and baked salmon accompanied by Jasmine rice. 

For how simple it was to make, this dinner delivered a lot of pleasure. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-21-2025: No Skin Cancer, *The Fair and the Falls*, Errands and Debbie Transforms Leftovers

 1. I blasted over to Coeur d'Alene this morning to meet a 9:30 appointment at North Idaho Dermatology for a routine examination of my skin as I near the one year mark since the kidney transplant. 

This was a precautionary visit, an examination to see whether,  in my immunocompromised condition, my skin showed any signs of cancer. 

My skin did not show any signs. 

Great news. 

Physician Assistant Ian Shupe did prescribe an anti-fungal cream for me to apply to my feet. 

I'll get going on that. 

2. After a delicious latte at the coffee shop outside the Kootenai Health Lab Services -- I made a special stop here because they use Doma Coffee and I think their lattes are terrific --, I buzzed over to Costco and fueled the Camry and then rocketed over to Parker Toyota for what they call an intermediate car service. 

While I waited for the technicians to finish -- all I needed was a new air filter and windshield wiper inserts --, I started reading the engrossing book, The Fair and the Falls. I read the very first bit of the book in which J. William T. Youngs introduces his readers to James Glover, regarded by some as The Father of Spokane. 

I read this material very slowly, letting myself be transported to a time when the land around the Spokane River and Spokane Falls was wild and James Glover saw the place with a double vision: the natural beauty left him spellbound and the commercial potential, the potential for development and profit, excited him. 

His first thoughts about this land paralleled the themes of Expo '74 itself. 

3. I continued to make the most of this day in Coeur d'Alene: haircut, car wash, Costco shopping, Pilgrim's shopping with another latte thrown in to wash down a chocolate croissant. 

Back home, Debbie prepared Italian sausages, turned her Easter dinner salad into a chicken pasta salad, and sautéed white onion pieces to add to the Easter dinner creamed spinach we had leftover. 

These transformation of Sunday's leftover were superb. 

Today I used up the remainder of a Costco cash card to stock up on beef, chicken, and pork and Debbie repackaged the meat and I loaded it into our basement freezer. 

This was a jam packed day and a satisfying one. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-20-2025: Episcopalian and Byzantine Catholic Worship, Easter Vigil and Handel's *Messiah*, Easter Family Dinner

1. I transported myself back to St. Mary's Episcopal Church a couple of time today on Easter Sunday. First, the deeply solemn and joyous Easter Vigil service came alive in my memory as Carol and Paul reported on their experience attending the confirmation and baptism of one of their students at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Church, a Byzantine Catholic parish in Spokane Valley. The confirmation and baptism rites were a part of the church's Holy Saturday service and I was fascinated by learning more about the Byzantine Catholic liturgy and how it looked in relationship to the Episcopal one. 

2. I was also transported back to St. Mary's after dinner. To my delight, the Symphony Hall channel on SiriusXM played the entirety of Handel's Messiah. The Easter Vigil liturgy is structured around selected readings from the Hebrew Bible (or the Old Testament, if you prefer) and on into the New Testament that bring worshipers into highlights of the biblical story that ultimately reaches its peak with the story of the Resurrection. Handel's Messiah, also brings elements of the Old and New Testament to life.  Both the Messiah and the Easter Vigil are journeys, helping us to prepare for and experience the Resurrection as the conclusion of a series of stories and poetry ending in glory. 

3. Paul, Carol, Christy, Debbie, and I gathered at the Roberts' house at 2:00 for Easter family dinner. 

We went immediately to the dinner table and enjoyed the superb deviled eggs Christy made as an appetizer. Before long, Paul brought the phenomenal London Broil he prepared on the grill and along with it we enjoyed baked potatoes, the creamed spinach I prepared, and an inspired salad built around bok chow and the scintillating flavor of tarragon that Debbie made. We enjoyed cupcake size pieces of cheesecake that Carol made for dessert. 

I had never made creamed spinach before today and I thoroughly enjoyed making the white sauce, enhancing it with green onion nd garlic, and wilting fresh spinach with bacon grease and later batches with butter. I thought the broken pieces of bacon I mixed in with the spinach and white sauce enhanced the over all flavor of the dish.

I really enjoyed eating at 2;00 and wondered it that time would work for other family dinners, even if the dinners don't fall on a holiday.........

Three Beautiful Things 04-19-2025: I Learn More About Rescuing Cats, Reassuring Copper, Symphonic Music Helps Me Worship

1.  I learned much more today, through our email correspondence, what a tireless advocate for the health and well-being of cats Debi Mc is in the Oakridge area of Oregon. She wrote in wondrous detail about rescues she's been a part of, her monthly efforts to see that cats in need are transported to Portland to the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon for spaying, neutering, vaccinations, and other health care. Debi also works closely with the Cat Rescue and Adoption Network in Eugene/Springfield. Over the last twenty years or so, Debi has coordinated and participated in the rescue, recuperation, and placement into welcoming homes of countless cats, all as a volunteer. When Debi was a student of mine, starting thirty-five years ago, she was committed to working on behalf of animals and now I know how her efforts have become focused primarily (but not exclusively) on cats and how she has become even more ambitious than when we first met. 

Debi's work rescuing, rehabilitating, rehoming, and, from my point of view, resurrecting cats will be the focus of my quiet and contemplative celebration of Easter Day. 

Thanks to Debi and the other volunteers she works with, these cats have risen. 

They have risen indeed.

2. Speaking of cats, I spent much of the day today reading about animal rescue efforts online, corresponding with Debi Mc, and working puzzles, all with Copper at my side. 

His contentment increased as the day progressed. 

He doesn't like it when I go gallivanting and am gone for a few days, but today he seemed to gain assurance that I was sticking around and that made him happy and nappy. 

At my side, he got in quite a few hours of relaxed and peaceful sleep along with deep purring when he was awake. 

3. As Holy Saturday became Easter Sunday overnight, I played SiriusXM's channel called Symphony Hall Playing this channel while I slept and having the music wake me up on occasion was a most enjoyable way to enter into the joy of Easter Day. 

The selections tended strongly toward the uplifting and the triumphant and brought to mind the many Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday services I used to attend and even be a part of at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Eugene and St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in College Park, Maryland.  

Overnight, I knew I wouldn't be driving to Coeur d'Alene to worship at the Episcopal Church, St. Luke's, closest to us, but somehow this music, my memories, and  the refreshment and fulfillment I experienced helped me experience the joy of this day. 

In my own way, I'm having a worshipful time and feeling connected to all those around the world also celebrating Easter in their own ways. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-18-2925: Our Trip Ends, Burning the Camry's Rubber, Reassuring Copper

1. These biannual trips with my lifelong friends to the Wildhorse Resort and Casino go by quickly. 

Here it was, Friday morning already. 

I had done most of my packing on Thursday evening. I cleaned up and finished this morning and descended to the hotel lobby. Upon checking out, my bill confirmed that my first two nights had been comped and my third night was discounted nicely, so I ended up only being charged about 27 bucks per night. 

I liked that and beamed as I drove next door to fuel up the Camry, returned to purchase a latte, and sat in the lobby. In no time at all Ed and Mike appeared and we took off for Roosters Country Kitchen in Pendleton for our final meal together, some more story telling, and our reluctant farewells. 

2. With one exception, when a driver ahead of us between Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene stopped suddenly on the freeway -- just because highway workers were parked in the shoulder? -- and I screeched the Camry to a rubber burning stop and veered right a bit, avoiding a collision, the drive from Pendleton went smoothly.  

I arrived home and immediately checked on Copper. 

He doesn't like me to leave. 

He was resting comfortably in a suitcase I no longer use and is a bed for him in the Vizio room. 

When Debbie arrived home from work, she reported that aside from eating, drinking, and using the litter box, Copper spent nearly all the time I was away in that suitcase. 

3. I left Copper alone for a couple of hours or so upon my return, thinking he might leave the suitcase on his own volition. 

He didn't.

So, once I was ready to settle into the bedroom to finish the Friday NYTimes crossword puzzle, I lifted Copper out of the suitcase and brought him in with me. 

That's what he wanted me to do.

For the rest of the evening and all through the night, Copper stayed close to me and if a rolled over and began to sleep with my back to him, he meowed, pawed me a bit, and reminded me that I am to sleep facing him. 

I complied. 

Gladly. 

So, all is well back home and now I have one project ahead of me: eat lightly! I indulged in more big meals on this trip away than I have in many many many months and lost ground meeting the doctor's orders that I continue to work on losing weight. 

Sigh. 

I enjoyed my indulgences, but now I've got to try to get back to eating in a somewhat disciplined way again! 

Three Beautiful Things 04-17-2025: Restful Morning, Lunch in Meacham, OR, Yakkin' with Mike and Ed -- Twice! Back at the Resort

1. I spent a leisurely morning in my resort hotel room resting and working puzzles. I had had my fill of food at the steak house last night and so I more than made due with coffee. A while back, some of us extended what used to be a two night excursion into a three night one to Pendleton and it's restful mornings like this one that make me very happy that Ed, Mike, and I were staying a third night. 

2. Around 11:30, I taxied Mike, Ed, and me up into the Blue Mountains to the tiny town of Meacham, OR. On every trip to Pendleton, as many of us that can cruise up to Meacham to eat either breakfast or lunch at the Oregon Trail Store & Deli, a way off the beaten path eatery that serves up superb food. 

I ordered a bacon cheeseburger that was so loaded with meat, cheese, lettuce, onion, and tomato that I could barely open my mouth wide enough to bite into it, but I did and I enjoyed every bite and the pleasant work it took to earn those bites! The hand cut fresh French fries that came with the burger were also superb. We hadn't had lunch here for quite a while and Mike, Ed, and I were -- well, I'd say we were jubilant that we came for lunch -- but we know a breakfast would have also been out of sight. 

Some time back, the Oregon Trail proprietors put Oregon Lottery gaming machines in a little room behind swinging doors in their establishment and the three of us hopped back there and spun some wheels. I came out six bucks ahead! 

3. Back at the resort, I had fun riding a gaming machine roller coaster that ended up working in my favor and then I joined Ed and Mike in the sports bar where I enjoyed a non-alcoholic beer. Around seven, the three of us congregated again in Ed's room and had a great time yakkin'. Over the years, these evening gatherings have been a time to drink whiskey together and Ed and Mike each had a cocktail and I didn't drink anything, but just joined in the yakkin'. 

I ended my night down at the casino's deli where I ordered a half a chicken Caesar salad, a small bag of Tim's potato chips, and a bottle of water, a nice light dinner after last night's big pork chop and today's super-sized burger in Meacham. 

It was an easy, relaxing, fun last day at the Wildhorse Resort.  

Three Beautiful Things 04-16-2025: Breakfast Storytelling Hour, Prison Blues and Wool, More Stories and a Steakhouse Dinner

1. Jake, Terry, Mike, Ed, and I met in the casino's Traditions restaurant and enjoyed breakfast and storytelling time together. No, we didn't have a storyteller come, like at a library, and read us stories, we told them. It's what this group of friends does really well and the combination of meat, eggs, potatoes, coffee, and tales worked perfectly to start the day. 

2. Later, Ed, Mike, and I piled into the Camry and I taxied us to downtown Pendleton to check out two businesses that carry clothes made by prisoners incarcerated at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton. One of the stores was closed, but we ambled down to Piece of Pendleton and looked over the Prison Blues line of blue jeans, jackets, work shirts, suspenders, and other products. Very impressive. 

Afterward, we stopped in at the Pendleton Woolen Mills store and admired their blankets, shirts, coats, and other products. 

3. Terry and Jake golfed. Ed, Mike, and I relaxed. I worked puzzles, played some machines, and eventually we all congregated in the sports bar for another session of storytelling and I enjoyed a delicious latte. 

A couple or three hours later, we all congregated again for dinner at the resort's steakhouse, The Plateau. We come to the Wildhorse Resort twice a year, usually in April and October, and always have a steakhouse dinner at The Plateau on Wednesday evenings. 

I used to automatically order the Whiskey steak, but recently I've switched things up a bit. Back in October I ordered salmon and tonight I savored a thick juicy pork chop accompanied by parsnip puree and beautifully prepared carrots. 

I miss the pre-transplant days when I started my steakhouse dinner with a martini and often enjoyed a glass of wine with dinner, but tonight I ordered a non-alcoholic Heineken Zero beer and enjoyed the taste of a cold beer, even though I didn't get to experience the slight euphoria that real beer gives me! 

We were all satisfied with and sated by our delicious dinners and ended our evening together wishing Terry and Jake safe travels. They will hit the road very early Thursday morning. Ed, Mike, and I will spend another day and night at the resort.   

Our host took this picture of us just before our drinks, bread, salads, and dinner came out:

Starting with me and going to my left and around the table, here are me, Ed, Jake, Terry, Mike

 

Three Beautiful Things 04-15-2025: On the Road, Dinner with Colette, Great Luck Before Bed Time

1. Ed and I piled into the Camry and blasted off for the Wildhorse Resort near Pendleton, OR. 

First, we ducked into the Breakfast Nook in CdA for a generous, delicious, and bracing breakfast.

I had a winning ticket to cash in at the Spokane Tribe Casino in Airway Heights, so we strolled into the casino. I cashed out my winning wager on the UConn women's basketball team and Ed and I hung out for a little while and spun a few reels so that I could return my modest winnings to the casino! 

Before long we were back on the Interstate and made the stop at the Ritzville Starbucks we always make, grabbed some Joe,  and were off to the resort.

We arrived, checked in, got situated, and after a bit all five of us, Terry, Mike, Jake, Ed, and I sat at the hotel bar and they enjoyed libations and I refreshed myself with a non-alcoholic  Bud Zero, giving me the welcome illusion that I was joining the fellas for a beer. 

2.  Colette and I met downtown, as we always do when I'm in Pendleton, at the Thai Crystal and yakked for about three hours over a Thai dinner. We had a great conversation about people we both knew at Whitworth, health, medical treatments, family news, and other great topics. We agreed that we could have yakked for another three hours, our conversation was so relaxed and easy, but Colette had to drive back to Walla Walla and I was starting to fade, having been up early and done a lot of driving. 

3. I returned to my room, took my evening pills, descended to the gaming floor, and played one machine. I had a lucky spin that put me in a bonus game that turned out very lucky and, having not only won back what I lost at the Spokane Tribe Casino, but increased my bank, I decided to end my evening on a positive note, didn't play any more, went back to my room, worked the Connections and Strands puzzles, and then called it a night. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-14-2025: Traveling Renal Care Bag, SLOW Packing, Youth Movement in Our Families

1. Packing for this week's Pendleton getaway has become more complicated since I became a transplant recipient: pills, vinyl gloves, masks, hand sanitizer, transplant notebook, blood pressure cuff, thermometer, and who knows what I left off this list. 

The great news, though, is that I am not now nor have I ever. been on dialysis and so I don't have to pack a machine with me that would clean/filter my blood at night. 

So, I'm not complaining, just stating a fact: packing is more complicated!

2. As I spent most of the day SLOWLY packing, every SLOW move I made, every list I SLOWLY composed, every note I SLOWLY wrote to myself, and every item I SLOWLY set out in the open as a reminder to pack it in the morning was a piece of my total scheme to defend against forgetfulness and my SLOWLY weakening memory. 

3. Patrick and Meagan's application was accepted and they will move into a terrific apartment in Cincinnati. Meagan's new library job in Northern Kentucky starts in about a month.

Molly and Brian applied to rent a house in Boise. Their application was accepted. Both ot them have jobs and I don't know when their move in date is. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-13-2025: Debbie Arrives on Schedule, My *The Fair and the Falls* Saga, Our No Buy Family Dinner

1. Debbie's flight out of Newark this morning was scheduled to depart for Salt Lake City at 4 a.m. our time. 

I put my laptop to sleep when I went to sleep last night and left a Delta Airlines flight status tab open.

I woke up at 5 a.m. to check on the status of Debbie's flight. 

She departed Newark on time! 

I checked her SLC to Spokane (GEG) and it was scheduled to depart on time and arrive just past noon.

Things looked great -- and they stayed that way. 

I picked up Debbie just past noon as scheduled. 

2. Over twenty-five years ago, I was shopping in downtown Eugene for a Christmas gift for Debbie.

I stopped in at J. Michaels Books and stumbled upon a book by Eastern Washington University professor J. William T. Youngs entitled, The Fair and the Falls: Spokane's Expo '74: Transforming an American Environment. 

Debbie is an EWU graduate. She worked at the BLM booth at Expo. We both had strong and deep connections to Spokane. 

I gave her the book for Christmas. 

Well, somewhere, some time, over the next dozen years or so, that book disappeared.

My guess is that it was the victim of one of our ruthless purges, possibly when we moved to Maryland. 

This book sprung back to the front of my mind on our sibling outing Friday to the MAC as I absorbed the photos on display of Spokane in 1899 and at the turn of the century in the museum's fire exhibition. Pictures in that room of the falls and a map of downtown Spokane prompted me to think about how that river area later became essentially a railroad yard and an industrial site and the natural beauty of that whole area, as described in Youngs' book, was (I'd say miraculously) restored as a way of creating the fair site. 

Back home, as thoughts and images of Spokane's history danced in my head, I happened to visit the Auntie's Bookstore website on Saturday and, to my utter surprise and delight, learned Youngs' book,  The Fair and the Falls, has been republished as a paperback after a long period of the hardcover edition being out of print. 

So, on Saturday, I immediately ordered a copy of The Fair and the Falls from Auntie's and today I dropped in and picked it up. 

Then, with over an hour to go before Debbie arrived at the airport, I blasted up to Great Harvest, ordered a strawberry and white chocolate scone and a cup of coffee and admired what a handsome, pretty large, and fascinating book I'd just purchased and began to feel a little giddy about taking it to the Wildhorse Resort to read while relaxing in my room when I'm not spinning reels, roaming around Pendleton, dining out, or joining the fellas at the bar and enjoying a non-alcoholic beer. 

3. This had been a full day by midafternoon. 

But there was more to come! 

Christy hosted family dinner tonight. 

Christy has taken on a sensible project called the No Buy Challenge as a way to take stock of what she already has in her possession (both food and non-food items), to not buy more of things she already has, and to refrain from going on buying stuff just for the sake of buying stuff sprees, however small. 

So, in that spirit, Christy made a plate of appetizers, drawing upon jars of pickled beets, dill pickles, smoked oysters, and other items she had on hand.

For our main dish, she combined chicken, frozen fried rice, canned mushrooms and water chestnuts, plus celery, almonds, and cream of chicken soup from her pantry and icebox into a delicious (and comforting) casserole of her own creation. 

I contributed a green salad and Carol and Paul brought steamed tender stalks of asparagus to compliment the casserole. 

For dessert, Christy made a crushed pineapple dump cake using ingredients she'd purchased in the past. 

As an added bonus, a friend gave Christy a sourdough starter and Christy baked her first ever loaf of sourdough bread and it was really tasty and had, for me, had an especially pleasing texture. 

We talked about a lot of different things, with some, I'd say, special focus on the early bits of news Debbie began to share about her trip to New York and Chicagoland and her report on the very happy weekend in Chicagoland when Misty met her step-siblings, her Uncle Brian, her cousins, and David's widow, Muffie, and members of Muffie's family, all on the occasion of David's daughter Sam's baby shower. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-12-2025: We Are Museum Members, Animal/Natural World Books, Why Leave Today?

1. I enjoyed the scale and the exhibitions so much at the Northwest Museum of Culture and Arts on Friday that today I enrolled Debbie and me as members of the museum.

2. The other day, Debi Mc posted a mountain lion blissing out in a cardboard box and it reminded me of when I read Cougars on a Cliff. I told Debi about that book and how much I've enjoyed the handful of books about animals and the natural world  I've read or listened to  since moving to Kellogg. She wondered if I'd send her a list of those books and I did. 

The Truth About Animals by Lucy Cook

Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller

Salmon, People, and Place: A Biologist's Search for Salmon Recovery, Jim Lichatowich

Fathoms: The World in the Whale, Rebecca Giggs

Grayson, Lynne Cox

Eager: The Secret Lives of Beavers and Why They Matter, Ben Goldfarb

World of Wonders, Aimee Nezhukumatathil 

Cougars on the Cliff, Maurice Hornocker with David Johnson

Soul of an Octopus, Sy Montgomery

3. I thought about cruising over to CdA and doing some shopping at Costco, but I was very comfortable at home with Gibbs and Copper. The NYTimes releases its Sunday crossword puzzle online on Saturday afternoon and I had a salad to make for Sunday's family dinner -- so, I stayed home, worked the puzzle,  made the salad, and decided Costco would most likely still be there in the next couple of days or weeks. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-11-2025: Fire Exhibit at the NW Museum of Arts and Culture, The Stirring Paintings of Andrea Joyce Heimer, Watercolors -- The Cambell House -- Frank's Diner

1. What a day! 

Christy, Carol, and I piled into the RobertsMobile and Carol blasted us to Browne's Addition in Spokane.

Today we enjoyed our next monthly sibling outing. 

Carol was in charge of our April trip and decided we'd go to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC).

My first impression (and all the rest of them!) was joyously positive. 

MAC is a modest sized, even small museum. 

Granted, I have enjoyed the mammoth museums I've visited over the course of my life whether in London, New York City, Washington, DC, San Francisco, or  elsewhere. 

But, I have a limited museum/art gallery viewing capacity mentally. 

I loved going to the National Gallery in DC, for example, but I always limited myself to visiting, at most, four or five rooms or focused on displays of a single style of art.  

If I tried to take in more than that, I was running on empty. 

Today, my ability to focus and enjoy the museum was spent after visits to two superb exhibitions. 

First, I slowly made my way through "Fire: Rebirth and Resilience", an exploration of the paradox of fire, its life giving qualities, like heat, and its destructive capabilities. 

The exhibition featured recent greedy fires in Washington state in Mabden and Medical Lake, for example.

It also featured multiple displays of the savage fire that ripped through Spokane in 1889. 

2. I reached a point where I couldn't absorb any more fire destruction, photographs, maps, written commentary, and human heroics and left the fire room. 

I then entered the gallery featuring Andrea Joyce Heimer's unusual and unsettling paintings. 

Heimer paints large pictures with long, narrative titles. Her paintings are not naturalistic, not in any way photographic.

Rather, she presents collages of scenes, often from her memories of being raised an orphan in Great Falls, MT, that are a mixture of dreams, fantasies, hopes, and events from her life, combining darkness with humor, all done in overwhelming detail. Sometimes her painting style struck me as prehistoric, like cave drawings, but in color, and each of her works was like looking at visual novel. 

I couldn't begin to take it all in, but the slow survey I did of Heimer's paintings transported me into experiences with life, death, wonder, memories,  and all the thoughts and feelings these experiences called up inside me. 

3. The three of us met up again near the museum's gift shop and strolled a short ways to the Helen South Alexander Gallery in the Cheney Cowles Center to enjoy the Spokane Watercolor Society's National Juried Show of thirty watercolor paintings. 

I'm not positive, but I think what I enjoy most in paintings took shape back in 1975 (fifty years ago!) when I first stood in front of the huge dramatic paintings of J. M. W. Turner in London at an exhibition in either the Tate or the National Gallery focused on his work.

I guess the best way to say it is that I became enamored with subjective paintings, like the French Impressionists, that were less concerned with painting objective portrayals of the world (resembling photographic likeness), but more with the inner experience one has with the outer world. 

It was the impact of Turner's paintings that also made abstract art wondrous to me. 

Watercolors seem to me to be a perfect medium for subjective renderings of subjects, whether still life paintings, landscapes, cityscapes, portraits, or anything else.

In the paintings we viewed today, those painting which were, to me, more dream like, where objects almost seemed to blur into one another, were the ones I enjoyed most. 

Some of the watercolors were more objective, more like photographs, requiring a tremendous amount of skill. The skill astonished me, but the paintings didn't stir me the way the more subjective ones did, where I thought color choices, presentation of scene, and degree of sharpness seemed much more determined by feeling than by objective observation. 

We closed out our visit to MAC by admiring the handsomely preserved Campbell House, built in 1898, for mining magnate Amasa B. Campbell.  One of the Campbell House's architect, Kirtland Cutter,  is well-known in the Inland Northwest for many of his designs, including the Davenport Hotel. In designing the Campbell House, Cutter partnered with Karl Malmgren. As of now, I don't know anything about Malmgren. And, for now, I'm wanting to finish this blog post, not look into the career of Karl Malmgren! Sorry, Karl....

We ended our outing to Spokane at Frank's Diner where I threw all concern about weight loss out of one of the vintage railcar's windows (the diner is housed in a railcar) and ordered a terrific Creole Bay Benedict, a lobster, crab, and hollandaise sauce entree,  with hash browns.  I said YES! when our server asked if I'd like my hash browns with grilled onions and gravy. 

What a fun meal, made a little more saucy by transgressing my weight loss project. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-10-2025: Kidney Appointment, Part 1, Kidney Appointment, Part 2, Acoustic Grateful Dead on *Deadish*

 1. I had an appointment with Dr. Bieber, the kidney doctor I see at Kootenai Health, early this morning. 

He was clearly happy that I was reaching the one year anniversary (May 11) of my transplant and told me things usually get easier after a recipient passes the one year mark. 

I blurted out something that might have sounded stupid, but I said it, "Wow! Things have been so easy so far. That's great news that they could get easier!"

No harm done. 

2. Our conversation then took a slight shift, one that I welcomed. 

Dr. Bieber said something to the effect of this: transplants are a great thing, but we do have do deal with things that suck (his word...I chuckled inside) post-transplant. 

We talked about my blood work and, at this point in time, my numbers do not indicate that I'm becoming diabetic, but kidney transplant recipients have to keep eye on this. I've been told this several times in the past year, including during my pre-op time at Sacred Heart. 

He encouraged me to continue to try to gradually lose weight. I had lost some weight  since the last time I saw him in March and it will help my system defend against diabetes if I continue to shed pounds. 

Then there's the cancer possibility.

I will always live with lowered immunity because of the anti-rejection drugs I take.

Dr. Bieber referred me to a dermatologist. That appointment is coming in two weeks. It'll be an exam to see if any signs of skin cancer are apparent. 

Lastly, it was good news that I'm having my prostate checked annually by my primary care provider and that I'm on a regular colonoscopy schedule. 

As I thought was true, the vast majority of my blood work looked really good, really stable. 

I return to Sacred Heart for a one year exam on May 12.

Back to Dr. Bieber on June 12. 

I am now on a once a month schedule for blood work, but that could always change. 

3. Jeff played a very healthy dose of the Grateful Dead on Deadish tonight. Part of his show featured different cuts from the Dead's April 9, 1970 show at Fillmore West which included a handful of acoustic tunes. 

That acoustic mini-set was purely beautiful, as close to perfectly played and sung

 acoustic music as I've ever heard.

If anyone ever doubted that the Grateful Dead's music has roots in American acoustic folk and blues music, a listen to these songs would surely erase that doubt. 

I don't remember, as I write this, if Jeff played "Viola Lee Blues" on his show (I'll go back and check later), but I know he played acoustic versions of 

Candyman

Friend of the Devil

Deep Elem Blues

Black Peter

It was sublime. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-09-2025: Hey Knucklehead! You Bought One!, Copper Sunning in 2021, Super Salad

1. On Tuesday, I discovered that Gibbs had urinated on our living room rug. I absorbed as much of it as I could with paper towels and I then treated the rug with an anti-urine spray as directed. 

I wished to myself that I still had the little rug cleaning machine we had back in Greenbelt. 

I woke up this morning and suddenly struck my forehead with the bottom of my hand's palm.

I bought one of those very rug cleaning machines back in January! 

I'd totally forgotten. 

And I stored it essentially in plain sight -- it's not hidden behind a door or in some obscure spot. 

So today, I vacuumed the rug and then I got out our recently purchased Bissell Little Green cleaning machine and cleaned that spot again. 

Maybe next time I'll remember that I have just the machine I want and need to clean up such occasional accidents. 

2. In my Facebook memories today, a handful of pictures popped up that Christy took of Copper. I was out of town.  Christy had come over to give Copper and Luna some company. Debbie was in New York and Gibbs was with her. So, Copper and Luna had the run of the entire house back then, in 2021, and I loved remembering the days in 2021, before Gibbs returned to Kellogg with Debbie, when Copper could sun himself, perched on our ottoman, soaking up rays and looking out the living room's picture window. 

3. Tonight for dinner I fried bacon until I could crumble it and put the bits in the last of my most recent huge green salad. I had already added brown rice to the salad. In the bacon grease, I fried three or four chicken tenders, let them cool, and chopped the pieces up, adding the chicken bits to the salad. 

The mixed greens, spinach leaves, apple slices, and various chopped vegetables in the salad, along with the rice, bacon, and chicken were so flavorful that I didn't dress this salad and enjoyed it immensely as was!  

Three Beautiful Things 04-08-2025: Recycling With a Dopey Grin, Led Zeppelin Flash Mob, A Shindig With Oysterband

1. If you read this blog much at all, you know that I find irrational and incomprehensible pleasure in removing cardboard boxes, newspapers, and aluminum cans out of our garage and taking them up the road to the transfer station's recycling area. 

I did that today.

With a dopey grin and a spring in my step, I made our garage a bit tidier. 

PEP. 

Private Eccentric Pleasures. 

2. I was looking up something, I don't remember what, on YouTube this evening and the words "Led Zeppelin Flash Mob" caught my eye and, being the sentimental sap that I am, I remembered that years ago I used to watch this video of a mob, men and women of all ages , slowly gathering in, I think, a German town, and performing an incredibly beautiful rendition of "Stairway to Heaven".  

If you'd like, see if it moves you. I tear up every time listen to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPHvwzyGwHA&list=RDQPHvwzyGwHA&start_radio=1

3. Well, I was now a YouTube goner for a couple of hours. 

I watched Dire Straits play a stunning live version of "Sultans of Swing".

I watched a band -- maybe a community band -- gather as a flash mob and play a fun and glorious instrumental version of "Bohemian Rhapsody". 

I suddenly discovered that Oysterband made a video of their rocking Celtic polka song "New York Girls" and watched it at least three times.

"New York Girls" is the opening song on Oysterband's riveting album, Ride, so I did what any reasonable person would do at 10:30, with Gibbs on my lap.

I played cuts from the album, remembering what a comfort Oysterband and June Tabor were to me as I listened to their album Freedom and Rain in the hospital as I recovered from my bout with bacterial meningitis in November of 1999. 

Tonight, though, the Oysterband topper for me was their song "Granite Years" from their album Deserters. Its refrain continued to play over and over in my head as I finally pulled myself together, joined Copper, and went to bed for the night:

Say that I was foolish

Say that I was blind

Never say that I got left behind

Three Beautiful Things 04-07-2025: BLOCK THAT METAPHOR!, Late Turnovers Doom Houston, Upheaval and Contentment

1. I miss some of the whimsy I used to enjoy in The New Yorker that the magazine has moved away from. 

One whimsical feature, so small and inconspicuous, tucked in, as I remember, at the end of articles,  that it would be easy to miss, was Block That Metaphor! It featured examples of figurative language and mixed metaphors abuses that appeared in other publications. They were unfailingly funny! 

Today, as I read some writers at The Athletic forecasting how they thought tonight's Florida/Houston game would come out, one writer mixed his metaphors in the following sentence, a sentence that suddenly made me leery about all the blood I've had drawn from my arm since the transplant, suddenly anxious that my mindset might have been drawn out with the blood! 🤣🤣🤣

So, here's the sentence. 

BLOCK THAT METAPHOR! 

Writing about the Houston Cougars, the writer asserted:

"These are grown men with a never-die mindset flowing through their veins."

2. I listened to the Houston/Florida game on the radio and, sadly for the Cougars, some of their never-die mindset must have leaked out of their veins. 

Houston committed four turnovers in the last 1:21 of the game and lost by two points to Florida, 65-63.

3. Maybe I should be somewhat restless. 

I write this because I've been spending the last few days since my Friday blood draw in CdA contentedly staying home, reading, working puzzles, cooking, enjoying Copper and Gibbs, keeping up on current events, and grateful that, for the time being at least, life in the small world of our home, family, friends, and pets is so calm, joyous even --I'm thinking of Debbie's experience with family in Chicago over the weekend and Carol and Paul's enjoyment of their visit to Moscow to see Bucky --while in the big world of government and finances, things are, as I see them, tumultuous, uncertain, uneasy.

Multiple realities are competing for my attention and for how I feel day to day.

I see Copper having curled himself into a ball, asleep at the edge of my small pile of flannel sheets that need laundered, and it helps my perspective to know he's not upset by wars, financial chaos, or even the NCAA basketball tournaments. He's content to be fed, have me shoo Gibbs away when Gibbs scream barks at him, have a clean litter box, and be provided with comfortable places to rest and sleep.

I've been more self-reliant during my days in the house than Copper can be, but, still, he helps keep my mindset balanced.

(My mindset, by the way, that is not flowing through my veins!)

Three Beautiful Things 04-06-2025: Letting Spiritual Variety Sink In, Helping Gibbs Relax, A Weekend of Vegetables in the Wok

1. I didn't start a new book today. I continued to let the stories and the unnerving revelations of Blazing Eye Sees All sink in. Debi Mc's comments on my blog were an affirmation to me of the joys of a wide reaching spiritual life, an openness to various traditions, and being spiritually grounded in particular foundational practices and ageless wisdom. 

2. Gibbs started scream barking and hopping and scratching at windows and then I heard the sound of leaf blowers. 

Ah! Ethan and his workers arrived to give Jane's, Christy's, and our yards a spring cleaning and a first mowing. 

The yard workers were here for quite a while blowing, mowing, and fertilizing -- well, and talking -- all human actions that Gibbs wants to protect me from! 

Luckily, if I simply put Gibbs on a leash, he calms right down, even jumps up and sits on my lap or beside me in a living room chair. 

Copper? 

I think he slept through it all, unfazed by the noise and activity, unbothered by Gibbs' cries of alarm.

3. For the nearly eleven months now that I have been (beautifully) recovering from the kidney transplant, the transplant team's emphasis has been on protein in my diet and I've enjoyed eating fish, beef, pork, and chicken. This weekend, however, I was in the mood for vegetarian meals. I fixed myself some bacon at breakfast today, but I fixed vegetable stir fries for dinners, served with couscous on Saturday and with basmati rice today.

I supplemented these meals with nuts by the handful to up my protein intake.

These stir fries really hit the spot and while I enjoy eating a variety of foods --I'm an omnivore -- I enjoy variety! -- , I have enjoyed the pleasures of vegetarian cooking for over forty years and enjoyed my weekend of cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, spinach, celery, yellow squash, green salads, and other vegetables both cooked and raw yesterday and today. 

For me, vegetarian eating is not only delicious, but it's (I'm not exaggerating) profoundly nostalgic and brings back happy memories I treasure, memories of decades in the past and the many times in recent months and years that I've cooked vegetarian meals. 

When I was in my thirties and forties, especially, vegetarian cooking was source of stability, a reliable source of pleasure and calm. Much else in my life was not so stable or very calm, but things were always reliably even keeled in the kitchen with vegetables. 

A  post script. 

Tonight, before I turned back the covers to crawl into bed, I sat up on the bed with Copper for a while and I wanted to go back to 1983, a turbulent and ecstatic year, when I was loving teaching but outside the classroom much of my life was in chaos. 

I wanted to feel some of the elation I felt during that year of my inward life being so polarized, so I went to YouTube and retrieved two different videos of Joan Armatrading singing, "Drop the Pilot". 

That did it. 

Forty plus year old invigoration returned, I beamed and I remembered how I used to fend off guilt and confusion and my deep sense of failure by dancing without inhibition alone in my apartment, often to Joan Armatrading. 

The second video ended. I turned to Copper, pet his welcoming head and spine, and re-entered the world of April, 2025, stretched out under the covers, and, with a hand resting on Copper, let his deep purring put me to comfortable sleep. 

Drop the pilot.

Try my balloon.

Drop   the   monkey

Smell

My

Perfume

ahhh zzzzzzzzz

 

Three Beautiful Things 04-05-2025: Thinking About Deliverance, Sickened by Abuses, My Enriched Spiritual Life

1. When I put down Leah Sottile's book, Blazing Eye Sees All Friday night, I made a firm resolution, as I obeyed Copper's urgent command to roll over and face him, to finish the book on Saturday. 

I checked in on basketball scores, learning that I missed one of the most thrilling finishes ever to a tournament game when Houston roared to 9-0 scoring run with just 42 seconds left to defeat Duke 70-67. I 

I ate. 

I tended to other domestic duties. 

But, I spent most of the day reading. 

Sottile's  book provoked me to think a lot about deliverance. 

I might not have this exactly right, but the words "New Age" don't refer so much to the time we live in, but to a time that is to come, a New Age of harmony, bliss, prosperity, reconciliation, beauty, and other utopian qualities -- a New Age humans can help bring about through attending to the teachings of deceased masters who speak through mediums, channelers, and other prophets -- like the mostly women leaders Sottile profiles. 

Again and again, Sottile told one story after another about individuals who became obsessed with, even manic about, a New Age commune or community/organization with a prominent New Age figure, often through online platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Skype, and other means of direct communication. Many of these people were looking to be delivered from the unhappiness of their lives or from the corruption of the world we live in. The leaders of these collective New Age entities effectively persuade followers with  paranoid conspiracy stories and theories. It's the cabals, the government, Jews, the illuminati, and other key players in these conspiracies that followers must be saved from and in the New Age, they will be vanquished. 

2. Sottile researches and explores the viciousness, greed, abuse, mind control, and exploitation that lies behind the pastel colored veil of universal love of the New Age entities she focuses on. 

It's awful.

It's disheartening. 

It parallels similar abuses in the Christian world.

Egomaniacal leaders in both worlds link their promises and manufactured joy to money, selling merchandise, seminars, and, in the New Age world, elixirs, potions, creams, and spiritual paraphernalia like crystals, candles, and other goods. 

3. I thought a lot today about people I know and others whom I've had conversations with or observed who I'm convinced have benefitted from and not been corrupted by their involvement either as individuals or with friends in New Age-y kinds of things. When it comes to reasonable and thoughtful readings of Tarot cards, to focus on inherent (but not exclusive) human goodness, the benefits of meditation and yoga,  connectedness, the power of cultural mythologies, and other similar things, New Age-y kinds of things have bolstered and enhanced my life long practices of Christianity, added dimension to my spiritual life, and have not led me down divisive or dangerous rabbit holes. 

My life continues to be enriched by a variety of spiritual influences and it's deflating to read a book like Leah Sottile's or to read stories from other sources about abuses of power and the greedy acquisition of money in spiritual movements and Christian churches and fellowships when the potential for goodness and meaningful service to others can be so strong and ought to be at the heart of these spiritual traditions. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-04-2025: Leah Sottile Writes Solid History, Extremist Intersections, I'm In the Money!

1. After attending the Northwest Passages event Wednesday evening featuring Leah Sottile, I wanted to read her new book, the one I came home with, Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets, and the Fever Dream of the American New Age. 

I worked my way about half through the book today and, as with any solid historical study, I'm seeing again that very little in our world today is unique or unprecedented, largely, I suppose, because human beings don't change much from generation to generation regarding what they are drawn to, what they become obsessed with. 

The particular obsessions Leah Sottile explores in the flow of United States history involve preoccupation with lost ancient, mythical,  and utopian civilizations and centering one's spiritual life around making mystical contact with these civilizations, like, for example, Lemuria, and seeking to elevate human existence to higher planes of reality, through love, seances, divine revelation, and a host of other means. 

Because a critical mass of people are drawn to New Age legends, practices, promises, disciplines, charismatic leaders/prophets, communities, and other aspects of this spirituality they find powerful, clever and mendacious con artists and charlatans exploit the power of New Age attractiveness and bilk people of money, valuables, and property -- much like a certain kind of Christian evangelical. 

Not all prominent New Age speakers, writers, leaders, etc. are charlatans, not all are fatally dangerous, but this book examines quite a few who are (or were). 

Sottile focuses on some of the more prominent false prophets in our country's history and the power they accrue(d) over countless followers. The growth of the power of the World Wide Web, especially the growth of social media and platforms like YouTube and TikTok has greatly increased the reach of these spiritualists and made it, of course, possible for followers to be in real time contact with each other through live streams, chat rooms, texting, and other means. 

I admire how Leah Sottile approaches these New Age practitioners and the history of this spiritualism without mocking or deriding them (for the most part). I admire the number of scholars in the world of higher education she's sought out for help in understanding this subject. I admire how Leah Sottile devoted herself to countless, mind-boggling hours of research in archives and other written records and books and more mind-boggling hours of watching online videos and live streaming presentations. 

The book is an unblinking combination of journalism and scholarship and to top it all off, Leah Sottile's writing is accessible, direct, and absorbing. 

2. Leah Sottile's focus as an independent, free lance journalist is mostly, but not entirely, on extremism in the USA. Blazing Eye Sees All is a study of extremism, and I'd like to add to what I wrote above that while the aesthetics and the manner of New Age spirituality appears to be very different from, say facism or militia groups or QAnon or other prominent extremists in the USA, these extremists often intersect at the junctions of anti-semitism, anti-science, anti-government, anti-vaccination, preoccupation with conspiracy theories or stories, and other similar flashpoints. 

I find this aspect of Leah Sottile's research and reporting fascinating -- and I was fascinated by her comments about this intersection on Wednesday evening. 

As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, I was in the company of people practicing some form of New Age spirituality daily when I lived in Eugene. In addition, and this is just one example in the Silver Valley, if you go uptown in Kellogg, you can shop for New Age/Metaphysical items at Positive Practice on the corner of Portland and Main.  Here's the link to this shop: https://tinyurl.com/5xe3tbxj

I have no idea what, if any, intersections between New Age spirituality and the far right exist at Positive Practice. I haven't visited the shop beyond exploring its website. My immediate impulse is to be happy Positive Practice is in business. 

Because I don't have to be scientifically accurate in an informal blog post like this one, I'll just post a few of my impressions. 

Yes, I would say that it's highly likely that people whose company I shared in Eugene and whose spiritual lives leaned toward the New Age/Metaphysical were suspicious of pharmaceuticals and medical professionals and were likely, in most cases, to look to naturopaths, body manipulation of one kind or another, acupuncture, essential oils, and herbs, tinctures, and teas, and other similar means for medical treatment. 

From time to time, I did the same. 

I trusted the integrative/holistic medical specialist, Dr. Andrew Elliott whom I consulted on several occasions in Eugene. 

I trusted him because he knew naturopathy had limits.

For example, Dr. Elliott fully supported the pharmaceutical therapy that saved my life when I contracted bacterial meningitis. 

Other naturopathic remedies he sent me home with successfully cleared up other medical problems I had. 

I never got the impression that Dr. Elliott's medical practice or his outlook on life intersected with the far right. 

If Leah Sottile's research, interviews, and observations are correct, the pandemic mightily affected the intersection of the New Age movement with far right perspectives. I'd sum it up by saying the intersection occurs in suspiciousness, distrust, investing one's hopes and dreams in a single idolized leader, and (I might be out on a limb here!) in a yearning for a return to an imagined golden past and the desire for ethnic cleansing of the population that accompanies such yearning. 

3. I had more on my mind today than extremism in the USA! 

A couple weeks ago, Ed and I buzzed over to the Spokane Tribal Casino and laid down modest wagers on NCAA tournament basketball. 

I bet on the women's tournament and decided to bet on two teams to win it all: the University of Connecticut and the University of South Carolina. 

Well, as luck would have it, guess who's meeting on Sunday, April 6th in the tournament's championship game.

That's right. 

UConn and South Carolina. 

I'm in the money no matter who wins -- I'll win a few dollars more if UConn triumphs, but no matter who wins I'll come out -- are you ready for this stunning news? -- about 30-35 dollars ahead! 

I'm not much of a high roller. 

Luckily, I have fun making small wagers! 

Three Beautiful Things 04-03-2025: Thinking About Eugene, The *Deadish* Variety Show, I Figured Out the Rebus!

1.  After attending the Northwest Passage's program Wednesday evening featuring Leah Sottile and after listening to her discuss her newly published book, Blazing Eye Sees All, a sweeping historical and contemporary study of New Age spirituality, its origins, its popularity in the USA, and some of its prominent leaders (Sottile focuses primarily on women), I was compelled to start reading it today. 

New Age spirituality is not grounded in creeds, doctrines, a single authoratative book, and has no structures that look like, say, Christianity, Judaism, or Islam.

It's amorphous. People who practice New Age spirituality have commonalities, but within the New Age movement exists much variety, many different emphases, and any number of self-appointed, for lack of a better word, leaders. 

I referred to Eugene in an earlier blog post as a robust city. I hear or read people typify Eugene as a hippie town, a university town, a town of anarchists, and any number of other things. The longer I lived in Eugene and the more years I taught at Lane Community College, the more variety I experienced in Eugene. It's a business center. A medical center. It has deep roots in logging and blue collar work. I saw close up how the police work as well as the DA's office when I spent a month of grand jury -- nothing hippy dippy about these pros. 

So, a lot was, and is, in the air in Eugene -- including New Age spirituality. 

Reading Sottile's book, so far, has kindled many memories, many conversations, many fragrances, many images, many visits to Saturday Market and a few visits to the Oregon Country Fair and I'm learning more about what might have lain behind the way many people  I encountered, taught, talked with, and was friends with over the years saw the world and their place in it. I couldn't and didn't buy in, but I listened and did my best to sort out the virtues from the wackiness of what these people had to say about their spiritual lives. 

2. I listened to Jeff's radio program Deadish tonight live. He arranged tonight's show chronologically,  playing cuts from live shows that were performed on April 3 many different years. He played Miles Davis, Santana, Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, Jerry Garcia Band, and treated us listeners to another good dose of the Dead. 

Variety. 

That's what I like. 

Tonight Jeff played a great variety of music, all connected to the Grateful Dead some (like Miles Davis) by improvisation, some by style (like bluegrass), some were  musicians who played with Jerry Garcia in projects like Old and in the Way or the Jerry Garcia Band, and some were musicians like, say, Carlos Santana, who were vital contributors to the the San Francisco/Bay Area sound over fifty years ago.

3. I was very happy to complete the NYTimes crossword puzzle I worked today. I figured out that the puzzle featured some rebus squares and I figured out the puzzle's rebus almost right away, a very rare feat for me. 

If you wonder what a rebus is, here's help from the NYTimes: "Rebuses are crossword elements where solvers are asked to write multiple letters in the same square."

Or in a single square. 

The rebus I figured out today appeared in six different squares. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-02-2025: Pre-Pandemic Cultural Safaris, I Meet Leah Sottile, I Listen to Leah Sottile and Walk and Think

1.  Back in the fall of 2018, Debbie started a school year long substituting job at Charlamagne, the French Immersion elementary school she taught at in Eugene for several years before we moved to Greenbelt, MD. 

In the fall of 2018, we'd been living in Kellogg for a year.

I was enjoying many of the aspects of Kellogg life I've written about over the last several years: living so close to Christy and Carol, family dinners, living close to life long friends, hanging out at The Lounge, hiking, exploring the area, and more.

But, after living near Washington, D.C., going to the New York City metropolitan area to visit Adrienne and Jack and coupling those visits with forays into Manhattan, and after leaving a robust smaller city like Eugene, the one thing I missed in Kellogg was living where a culture of arts and letters thrived, where such a culture is routine.  

So, I began making cultural trips to Spokane. I also made one such trip to Missoula in 2019 (to see Jerry Douglas and Tommy Emmanuel) and I drove to Billings when it was Hiram's turn to be a part of the President's Own Marine Corps Band touring group and attended their performance there. Billings was the closest the 2018 tour came to Kellogg.  

I had decided, by 2019, to lean on what was happening in downtown Spokane and through Whitworth University to fulfill my desire for attending lectures, plays, art exhibits, movies, live concerts, and anything else that captured my interest. 

I expanded this cultural safari in the fall of 2019 when I joined Mary Chase, Kathy Brainard, Linda Lavigne, and others to play trivia at different venues around Spokane. 

By mid-March of 2020, soon after I'd gone to hear tribute bands at the Bing play music by Cream one night and Pink Floyd the next night, the pandemic was upon us. 

No more trivia.

No more concerts.

No more cultural safaris. 

I would begin learning how to culturally satisfy myself at home with movies, live streaming content on the World Wide Web, and reading. 

It worked. 

2. I bring this all up because this evening I returned to my Spokane cultural safari. 

Between March 2020 and last night, I approached public events very cautiously because of my trust in medical observations that the caronavirus attacked diminished kidneys.

In addition, I didn't attend most public events after my May 11, 2024 kidney transplant because my immune system had to be shut down significantly to keep my body from rejecting my new organ and I didn't want to complicate my recovery by adding illness to it. 

But, a couple of months ago, when I read that Leah Sottile would be in Spokane on April 2 as she promotes her latest book, Blazing Eye Sees All, I bought a VIP ticket so that I would receive a signed copy of her book, get a complimentary (for me, non-alcoholic) drink, and have a chance to meet and chat a bit with Leah Sottile. 

When I introduced myself to Sottile, she let out a mild gasp, knowing from our brief bit of correspondence that I was the guy who set out to read the books on the list she published as a counter to the NYTimes' list of best books of the 21st century. She knew I had succeeded in reading every one of her listed books. 

She told me, as she had written to me, that she was honored that I had taken her book list so seriously.

Others were around to visit with Leah Sottile, so I didn't tell her how much that list of books expanded my horizons, both in terms of the world we live in and in terms of my world of reading. I'd say that, at most, only about two books on that list were books I would have read on my own -- most of them were books I'd never heard of. 

One author on her list, the only one with two books on it, and a writer who has helped Leah Sottile with her work, Spokane's Jess Walter, semi-interrupted my conversation with Leah Sottile (no problem) and then he and I accidentally sat side by side during the evening's program. 

I left him alone. 

While I might have wanted to tell him how much I enjoyed the three books of his I've read, I thought, no he's enjoying this evening with friends, talking about "civilian" stuff (like the upcoming Final Four). If I want to express my appreciation of what I've read, I can do so by other means or attend his June 10th program when he will promote his newest book. 

3. The Spokesman Review launched a project several years ago called Northwest Passages. Its mission is journalism and book focused. Among other activities, Northwest Passages hosts a far reaching online book club and hosts events like tonight in which an author presents a book of hers or his by being interviewed by a professional writer. 

This evening, Leah Sottile gladly submitted herself to the questioning of former Spokesman Review journalist Emma Epperly. Epperly asked a series of probing question about New Agism, the subject of Sottlie's newly published work, giving special attention to how Sottile, well-known and respected for her  journalistic integrity and stellar ethical standards, went about journalistically researching and conducting interviews about a subject that is as elusive and and, for some, a focus of derision, as New Age beliefs and practices. 

Leah Sottile answered these questions directly, intelligently, wittily, and humbly. She was humble in the face of such a huge subject, knowing that she can't tell the whole truth in a single book and aware that even has meticulously as she researched and sought out people's experiences and knowledge, she might not have gotten everything right. 

On her podcasts, I've listened to Leah Sottile conduct face to face interviews with a wide range of people, including police officers, Cliven Bundy family members, FBI agents, anarchists, extremists -- whether eco-terrorists or white supremacists--, and I'm always deeply impressed with how she gains the trust of those she interviews. 

This evening, she talked some about how she earns trust and I'll sum up what she said this way: she seeks truth, is genuinely and humbly eager to learn how those she talks with see the world, understand their experience, and want to discuss it. She doesn't rush those she interviews. She's not after soundbites. She's not what's known as a "gotcha" journalist. She invites those she talks with to tell their truth, however long it takes, and, with an exception here and there, these people then respond to Sottile's probing follow up questions. 

I parked down at the River Park Square and enjoyed my several blocks hike up to the Steam Plant's rooftop, where this event took place (indoors!), and back again. 

I love city walking. 

I miss the long walks I used to take in Seattle, DC, New York City, Portland, Spokane (when I lived there), and many, many years ago, London. 

I thought a lot as I walked and then drove back to Kellogg how I need to return to my cultural safari outlook of the fall of 2018-March of 2020.

With my immune system getting stronger, I need to pay more attention to what's playing, who's performing, who's reading, and what's happening through Whitworth and try to get back to leaning on Spokane and my alma mater, Whitworth, for cultural enjoyment again. 

 Here are a couple of links to conclude with. 

First of all, KHS Class of 1972 member, Kenton Bird was featured as the guest author of a Northwest Passages event on Sept. 6, 2024. He was interviewed by Spokesman Review reporter Jim Camden about the book he co-authored about Tom Foley.  You can watch and listen to them talk (and learn more about Northwest Passages) by clicking on this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTf9-KbHN98&list=PLO4UFBdqq__l8zIlFs_cYD29m9-S3l19v&index=12 

Second of all, if you'd like to see other videotaped programs presented by Northwest Passages, here's the link to their YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO4UFBdqq__l8zIlFs_cYD29m9-S3l19v

Leah Sottile's presentation hasn't been posted yet -- I hope to see it go up before too long. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-01-2025: I Finished *Bridge of Birds*, A Healthy Dose of the Dead on *Deadish*, Fun in the Kitchen

1. Today I finished reading Barry Hughart's fantasy novel, Bridge of Birds, set, quote Hughart, in "An Ancient China That Never Was". I am about 97.90826% positive that this is the first fantasy novel I've read to completion, unless, around fifty years ago, I read the entirety of The Hobbit.

Bridge of Birds challenged me. I had some trouble remembering what I should have known from earlier chapters about characters who returned to the story after some period of absence. I also had trouble keeping the several adventures of the central characters, Li Kao and Number Ten Ox, remembered and straight in my mind as to what happened in those earlier adventures. 

These challenges do not embody flaws in the book.

Like Li Kao himself, I am a character with a slight flaw. (Well, with many flaws.) But the one I have in mind at the moment is that my short term memory is weakening. 

I'd like to do two things: First of all, find a larger copy of Bridge of Birds with larger print.  Second, one day I hope I'll take the time to reread this book. I think a rereading would help me keep its details straighter in my mind and help me remember the riddles, songs, games, and other delights that season this story and lend wonder to its elegant and moving conclusion. 

2. Of all the odd parallels to have go through my mind, I experienced the newness and my unfamilarity with Bridge of Birds to my experience going to see and hear the Grateful Dead live in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

I was with Jeff and his great Grateful Dead loving friends who were intimately familiar with everything the band did and could discuss nuances, breakthroughs, surprises, and other pleasures (and some criticism) with great fluency.

Most of the time I was lost -- and unlike a book where I could go back a few chapters and re read passages for clarity, the Grateful Dead shows, of course, just kept moving forward! 

I remembered this experience tonight as I went to the archives and listened to Jeff's Thursday, March 27th Deadish show. 

Jeff opened his radio show (on KEPW-FM, streaming at kepw.org) with a superb tune played by the Steve Kimmock Band and then he launched into a huge dose of the Dead that lasted, thanks to the addition of the After Show, over two hours. 

For me, two deep pleasures stand out as I listen to the Grateful Dead over a a couple of hours any time and especially tonight. 

First of all, I always need (and want) to gain more familiarity with their songs and that happened tonight. It was a fun magic carpet ride.

Secondly, for me, any sustained amount of time listening to the Grateful Dead is a way of entering into the history of much American music. As the Grateful Dead moves within songs and from one song to the next, they play rock n roll, jazz, bluegrass, folk, psychedelic, world, country, blues, soul, rhythm and blues, and, well, did I miss anything? 

They play plenty of songs original to them and they play riveting covers of rock n roll classics, as well as Bob Dylan, and other artists. 

In the course of all of his weekly Deadish programs, Jeff plays a euphorically eclectic bunch of songs and artists largely because so much music, ranging from Billy Strings to Led Zeppelin is Deadish, and the possibilities of what he can play within his show's title seems bottomless. 

And if, like tonight, he plays cuts from live Grateful Dead shows for over two hours,  the eclecticism is very much alive because that's the nature of band itself. 

3. Monday night, I cooked a batch of jasmine rice with mushrooms and green onions in the rice pot and added in soy sauce and sesame oil. I combined this rice mixture with chicken stock and enjoyed a simple and tasty soup.

Tonight, I cut up some boneless pork chop meat into small pieces, cooked the meat in the wok, and added zucchini, cauliflower, celery, mushrooms, and red pepper to the meat. Then, instead of making a new batch of rice, I combined the now nearly brothless soup from last night with the pork and vegetables. 

It turned out to be a great idea! 

It worked!  

Three Beautiful Things 03-31-2025: Copper Wants More Assurance, Reading May Sarton Aloud in 1990, Chores and a Debi Mc Connection

1.  Our vet, usually Dr. Cook, and I have never been absolutely sure about Copper's age. I tried after taking Copper in to get a better understanding of both Copper and Luna's ages, but the best I could find out -- and Dr. Cook's examinations of the two cats confirmed it -- was that Luna was the older of the two. In early 2021, Dr. Cook estimated that Copper was probably about twelve years old. 

It's been just over four years since Copper and Luna moved in. 

It's been about fifteen months since Luna died. 

Let's say, without absolute certainty, that Copper is now about sixteen years old. 

He is communicating instinctive awareness to me that he is aging. 

At night, he sleeps next to me. I usually sleep on my side, either one. 

Recently, as the night progresses, if I turn over and try to go back to sleep with my back to Copper, he meows. Sometimes he bats me with a paw or tickles my face with his whiskers, letting me know he wants me to face him. Copper seems to have figured out that if I face him, I can more easily and readily pet him or rest a hand on his back or belly. 

This contact between us moves him to purr with deep contentment. 

Copper's insistence that I turn over is a significant change in his behavior. 

He wants a higher and more frequent level of comfort from me now than he ever has. 

I think he feels what many of us humans feel as we age. 

Time is slipping away, increasing our feelings of vulnerability. 

2. I needed time today to let yesterday's ZOOM discussion and my reunion with Debi Mc sink in. 

I enjoyed having memories of my early days of teaching at LCC come back and remembering what a welcome source of support and encouragement for me as her instructor Debi was in the classroom and in our conversations outside of class. 

I am all but certain that Debi was enrolled in an Intro to Fiction course I taught in the summer of 1990.

I think that class met for two hours, maybe three, per session --- I'm not sure how many days a week we met.

The class took a short break after the first half of class and, when the students returned, I turned off the lights, stood near a door where light came into the classroom through a small window from the hall, and read May Sarton's book, The Fur Person, aloud. 

I loved doing that. It was comforting and relaxing. It took us all back to when we were in elementary school and, if we were lucky, had a teacher who read aloud to us after lunch. (My 6th grade teacher, Miss Kero, read us A Wrinkle in Time and The Hobbit, both entrancing to listen to.)

I hope my students that summer found The Fur Person entrancing. 

Debi did, as I remember. 

So did I.

I don't know why I never did a read aloud at the break of one of my courses again. 

3. I let the happy intensity of Sunday sink in today by getting domestic chores completed. 

Copper and I have clean bedding after today and it's always good to spend time washing and drying my clothes. 

I would have gladly experienced today another day like Sunday. At the same time, I enjoyed a day of rest and letting awesome memories of the past stir up, wash over me, and sink in thanks to Bridgit, Diane, Bill, and Debi. Oh! And Roberta! She and I had a brief exchange online about Debi Mc -- Roberta doesn't know Debi personally, but is very aware of Debi's cat rescue efforts in and around Oakridge, OR -- the town they both live in or near.