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! 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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! 

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. 

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. 

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

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. 

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. 

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.  

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.  

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.... 

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. 

 

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. 

Three Beautiful Things 05-04-2025: A Little More About Ghosts, Sunday Family Dinner, Our Family Dinner Conversations

1. After I wrote about the ghosts of Spokane that haunt, even taunt, me to this day, stirring up guilt and shame for harm I was responsible for causing  over forty years ago, I appreciated friends telling me that they, too, experience similar haunting and feel similar regret for things they did or that happened decades ago. 

These ghosts remind me on a personal level what I've been writing about on a broader societal level for quite some time. The past lives on. It's present. What was, is.  Now this is true for positive deeds as well as negative ones. I used to think, however, that the knowledge and the impact of the good things I've done in my life would outweigh, maybe even cancel out, the reckless and heedless things. 

I was wrong.

They all live on. 

2. Christy hosted tonight's terrific family dinner. 

For an appetizer, Christy made a Benedictine spread to put on crackers and also filled mini philo pie crusts with the spread. 

Carol built each of us a remarkable and beautiful looking wedge salad with toppings I'm unable to list because my memory is inconsistent. 

Christy baked delicious and tender bbq chicken drumsticks and thighs.

I brought roasted carrots and enhanced them with a butter, garlic, and honey sauce. 

For dessert, Christy baked scones and provided whipped cream and fresh strawberries to cover them with. 

3. We yakked for quite a while before, while, and after we ate. 

It was fun talking about colloquial and idiomatic language along with regional peculiarities, whether in North Idaho or southern Indiana/Northern Kentucky. It was also fun talking about accents. 

And, it was interesting talking about prejudices that sometimes come to bear on people simply because they talk differently and rely heavily on words and phrases not considered proper English. 

We all know a lot of very intelligent, perceptive people who do this. For all of us, many people with these habits of language were our students who we saw be underestimated because their language use didn't conform to standards of propriety. 

We discussed family news and updates and Debbie filled us in more on Samantha's baby shower in Arlington Heights, IL when Misty met for the first time family members she didn't know, until over a year ago, she even had. 

We also had an interesting conversation about vacations and how modest and unspectacular ours were when we were kids, but how much we enjoyed them. Our family went to Orofino to see Mom's family every summer and, at least sometimes, came back to Kellogg via Spokane to see Grandma Woolum.

As I look back, I do not remember ever thinking a vacation would be anything else -- I had no thoughts or dreams about Disneyland, going to the Oregon Coast, going back east, or doing any other kind of trip that might involve motels or popular destinations. 

I was eager to go to Orofino and swim in the city pool, frolic on the sandy beach at Beaver Dam on the Clearwater River's north fork,  hang out with the Stanley kids who lived next door to Grandma, and visit the Johnston's in Peck --- oh, and see our relatives. 

Back then, all of that felt to me as exciting as Coney Island or seeing the Grand Canyon! 

Three Beautiful Things 05-03-2025: The Continuum of History, Technology and Downtown Spokane, The Ghosts of Spokane

1. I don't know -- do I read a lot of history? Or historical fiction? I guess I read enough. 

I read enough to have concluded that history is not so much about what happened, but about what is always happening. I don't think history repeats itself so much as it moves on a continuum. What was, is. 

As I've mentioned, the book The Fair and the Falls is, in part, about the ongoing and never solved questions regarding the relationship between human beings and the natural world, the questions regarding to what degree is the natural world ours to extract from, harness, profit from, and spoil and to what degree is the natural world a source of well-being, beauty, spiritual nourishment -- in other words, to what degree is the natural world better if humans leave it alone.

The book also deals with the ongoing questions every city faces about how to make and keep its downtown core vital, safe, and alive as the heart of the city. 

Expo '74 emerged from years of city leaders, both elected and in the world of business, wrestling with this question as downtown Spokane, and the city itself, began to decline in the 1950s. 

While the particulars of the challenges of life in downtown Spokane (or Eugene, Portland, Seattle, and most cities) change, the essential questions remain the same. 

As I read about Spokane in the late fifties and on into the 1960s, it's fascinating to learn more about what people in Spokane and other cities were thinking about as far as attracting people back into downtown,  about the pros and cons of urban renewal programs, and about ways to resurrect the river and the falls and make them a centerpiece of downtown renewal. This would require dismantling the railroad yards that essentially covered the river and working to make the falls prominent again. 

2. Technological developments have had and continue to have a significant impact on the urban core of cities. 

In the case of Spokane, things began to decline downtown with the growing popularity of the automobile which was accompanied by the emergence of shopping centers, like Northtown, making stores available outside downtown and providing plenty of parking on large lots. 

Before the rise of the automobile's availability and popularity, downtown Spokane thrived on people coming into the downtown core via mass transit (bus, trolley, streetcar, etc) and people traveled away from and into Spokane by train, so travelers added to the bustle of downtown as they came and went from the train station down by the river. 

Before the emergence of television, downtown Spokane had multiple movie theaters and dance halls. Television, of course, contributed to people spending more time at home being entertained. 

This technological continuum continues today. I doubt I need to discuss it in any detail.

3. I'm enjoying reading this history of Spokane and closing the book and going on Spokane side trips with maps and looking things up online. 

Remembering my days living in Spokane (1974-78 & 1982-84) is both exhilarating and dark. 

I loved my life as a student and an employee at Whitworth. 

I loved my early days of marriage in Spokane.

I'd say that when I lived in Spokane between 1982 and 1984 that that was the most confusing, frightened, and troubled time of my entire life following the dissolution of our marriage in August of 1982, followed by the marriage being annulled about a year and a half later. 

The teaching part of my life was very enjoyable and I treasure the friendships I made during those years, especially the ones that have endured -- I am thinking especially of the Westminster Basement Study Group. 

But, any time I go to Spokane, read about Spokane, talk with Debbie about her days and my days in Spokane, the ghosts of 1982-84 haunt me. 

I confront them, wrestle with them, try to learn from them. 

Regret and shame live on, though. 

So do the fun and happy memories -- and there are a ton of them. 

As I write this, I'm reminded of how the Spokane ghosts often are accompanied by the singing voice of Linda Thompson as she and Richard Thompson perform the song, "For Shame of Doing Wrong". 

Two lines especially repeat themselves:

    I'm sorry for the things I've said, the things I've done

    I'm sorry for the restless thief I've been. 

One source of relief from those Spokane years exists, though.

I have no memory of having been wronged. 

I'm not haunted by what anyone might have done to me -- if I was wronged, I've rinsed it from my memory -- and that includes the anger and confusion I experienced for several years after the divorce and annulment.  

Those feelings are gone, as is the resentment. 

I'm not haunted by what anyone did to me.

I'm haunted by what I did to others. 

It makes reading this history of Spokane a complicated experience, but I welcome it. 

Yes, I would be happy if one day the ghosts of 1982-84 disappeared, but I don't want to forget what I did nor do I want to abandon that confused, frightened young man in his late twenties becoming thirty years old. I think he needs me to remember him. 

Not forgetting helps me continue to learn and I think what I've learned has helped me as a person in many ways, often very slowly, over the ensuing forty plus years be less confused, less frightened, less volatile, and less troubled.  

Three Beautiful Things 05-02-2025: May's Sibling Outing: Jundt Art Museum, Indigenous Eats, Grandma's House, Manito Park

1. Christy, Carol, and I agreed in December that we would do our best to go on a sibling outing once a month in 2025. Carol spearheaded this plan by making a calendar that assigned each of us a month and location to travel to together. 

May is Christy's month and Carol assigned her South Hill Spokane. 

I think the three of us agree that these assignments are flexible and today's outing exemplified this.

In April, Carol was in charge and she took us to the Museum of Northwest Art and Culture in Spokane. 

Upon seeing on Facebook that we had gone to the MAC, Kenton Bird wondered if we had been to the Jundt Art Gallery on Gonzaga's campus and seen the Fletcher Martin murals he painted for the Kellogg Post Office, one that the city rejected and the one that was deemed appropriate and acceptable. 

We hadn't and Christy decided we would visit the Jundt Gallery for our May outing -- not quite in the South Hills, but we'd get up there eventually! 

So, after a round of espresso drinks at Silver Peak Espresso in Smelterville, Christy drove us to the southwest corner of Gonzaga's campus and we spent time taking in the exhibition entitled, "Art U.S.A.: One Hundred Works on Paper, 1925-1950".

2. I mentioned last month after we'd seen a watercolor show at the MAC that I enjoy art the most that veers away from naturalism or realism and that is more expressive, even abstract. I have also always enjoyed portraits and art that explores social criticism. 

This exhibition at the Jundt is eclectic. It features a wide variety of mediums, subjects, landscapes, portraits, social criticism (some through pointed Biblical analogies), with, I thought, a special emphasis on everyday life in the USA from 1925-50, whether work, home life, recreation, sporting, or entertainment and whether rural and urban. 

At best, I probably took in about 15 to 20 percent of this exhibition. Knowing I wanted to absorb more of it, I bought the very handsome hardback book featuring all the artwork and the commentary posted by each work. 

I'm also thinking that I might go back to Spokane this coming week and return to both the Jundt and the MAC. I want to take in more of the "Art U.S.A." and, especially because I'm currently reading a history of Spokane, I want to return to the exhibition at the MAC focused on fire and revisit the room dedicated to the Spokane fire of 1889. 

This was only my second visit to the Jundt Art Museum. Like the MAC, it's an exquisite place. The building itself is elegant and the exhibit rooms are airy and peaceful. There's a seating area with huge windows looking out on the Spokane River and a stroll down a hallway off of this seating area leads to  more windows and a view of Lake Arthur, a small lake and registered wetland area I'd also enjoy exploring one day. 

3. Our minds and spirits could only absorb so much at the gallery. We all enjoyed what we did take in, but it was time to head a few blocks east to Indigenous Eats for delicious Indian tacos on fresh fry bread, loaded with terrific ingredients. I opted for a bison taco.

We piled back into Christy's Sube and drove up to E. Bridgeport and saw how things look at the house Grandma Woolum lived in for about forty-five years. The house has been worked on and it looked like an improvement project was ongoing on the front porch. That neighborhood has seen some rough times over the last thirty years or so and today, at least from the street, it looked like a mixture of houses cared for well and others that were run down. 

We sorted out E. 717 Bridgeport memories as we then headed up to Manito Park.

We strolled to the Lilac Garden. 

It's not in full bloom, but enough of the lilac trees were flowering to make our stop enjoyable. 

Just being in the park was relaxing and peaceful, so while we didn't get to enjoy the full splendor of peak lilacs, we did enjoy the early blooms and the majesty of walking in the natural beauty of the the part of the park we visited. 

We had a chatty and uneventful drive back to Kellogg. 

Three Beautiful Things 05-01-2025: Spokane Emerges, I Get Organized, A Box for Copper

1. It was fun and engrossing today to read about Spokane's remarkable growth around the turn of the century and to learn how impressed others outside the immediate area were with Spokane as a city, both for its industry and its beauty.

2. My paper life sorely needed organizing and after weeks and weeks of procrastination, I did it today.

3. Copper is very happy I took care of this paper organizing project. I emptied a shallow box that he fits into perfectly, put it on the bed, and he has contentedly been lying in that box about 95% of the time since I put it out for him. 

This suddenly available box is making him very very happy. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-30-2025: The Machine and the River/Falls, Spokane's Industrial Expo of 1890, Debbie Transforms the Casserole BONUS: Stu Writes a Batman Day Limerick

1. The angle that J. William T. Youngs takes in writing the history of Spokane, with special emphasis on Expo '74, is the crucial importance of the falls. You can see this in the book's title: The Fair and the Falls: Spokane's Expo '74, Transforming an American Environment. 

The first non-native people who settled in the area we now call Spokane found the falls mesmerizing.

By about the 1870's though, being mesmerized by the fall's natural beauty and power gave way to the idea that the river and the falls could be harnessed, could be a source of power for operating sawmills, flour mills, and, later, for generating electricity. 

The beauty and grandeur of the falls gave way to developing capital and I'm fairly sure this will be a thread running throughout this book, especially because Expo '74's theme was environmental and in order to create a space for such an exposition, the river and the falls had to be transformed from being a railroad yard, essentially, to being a park. 

2. It's probably needless to say that as Spokane, then known as Spokane Falls, began to grow as a center for commerce, preserving the original and natural beauty of the falls and river was hardly a priority and the river suffered what, at least from my point of view, were all kinds of indignities: sewage, sawmill waste, animal remains, and other sources of pollution were dumped into it and to accommodate the commercial needs for power, the course of the river and its original landscape were altered, not for aesthetic reasons, but to serve commercial interests. 

In other words, Spokane was a microcosm of the entire USA as this tension between development and the worth of the natural world's original beauty developed, whether in forests, waterways, or other natural sites. 

And now I've learned from this book that in October of 1890, just over a year after the great fire of 1889 reduced downtown Spokane to ashes and rubble, Spokane (Falls) hosted what amounted to a modest world's fair, the Northwestern Industrial Exposition. 

Builders worked feverishly to erect a huge exposition hall at what is now the spot downtown where W. Sprague comes to an end and Riverside takes over and Cedar intersects, just east of Maple and Walnut Streets. 

In contrast to Expo '74, this exposition did not have an environmental theme at all, but was a showcase of technological advances and of Spokane's mighty potential as a commercial center. 

It also featured cultural demonstrations and entertainments. 

It attracted thousands of people to this recovering and ambitious new city.

I find this chapter of Spokane's history especially fascinating having recently read The Devil in the White City. 

3. Debbie repurposed the great enchilada casserole we had on Sunday into what I'd call a bracing sauce, adding more ground beef and other ingredients. She also made a pot of brown rice and the whole transformation was awesome, especially when I topped my bowl of transformed casserole over brown rice with generous splashes of Franks's Hot Sauce. 

****

I'm publishing this blog post on May 1st. 

Until Stu sent me this limerick, I had no idea that May 1st was Batman Day. 

Stu commemorated this big day with the following verse: 

The Penguin and Joker are Wild. 

The Riddler’s strange riddles beguiled. 

But a “Biff” and a “Sock”, 

Made their heads start to rock. 

When the world of this hero they riled.