Three Beautiful Things 08-30-2025: A Harrison Creamery Milk Shake, I'm Almost a Legend (Ha Ha), Satisfying Return Home

1. I haven't felt great ever since I was biopsied, since the steroid infusions, and since I started taking a new medication a few weeks ago. It's nothing serious, nothing that's stopping me from carrying out my daily routines, nothing that's stopping me from doing what I want to do. 

I've discovered that the one thing that reliably helps me feel better is to jump in the Camry and go somewhere. It's helped me feel better to drive to the casino. My drives to CdA and Spokane for medical reasons have helped me feel better. So have our sibling outings. 

Today I searched online for places that sell hard ice cream in our area. I've been hankering for a hard ice cream milk shake for much of the summer and decided to finally do something about it today. 

My search drew my attention to a place I'd forgotten about, a place I'd never patronized: the Harrison Creamery and Fudge Factory. 

I thoroughly enjoy driving on Hiway 3 and 97, so a drive to Harrison for a milk shake sounded like a perfect way to indulge my senses and to feel more energetic.

I arrived, looked at One Shot Charlie's, felt a pang of sorrow that I no longer drink alcohol, but then realized that One Shot Charlie's was probably the reason I'd never been a Harrison Creamery customer before! 

I ordered a strawberry shake, my favorite, sat in the shade on a bench abutting the creamery, and spent about fifteen minutes or so blissing out on my milk shake, made with Cascade Glacier ice cream from Eugene, OR. 

2. Casino player cards have tiers and moving from a lower to the next higher tier translates into an increase of perks. I've had my player card at the CdA Casino for about a million years, but because I've played there very little over the years I lived elsewhere, I've been at the bottom tier for all of those one million years. 

Now I've accrued enough tier points on my card that I'm close to entering the second tier. 

So, I finished my milk shake, drove south to St. Maries and then west, through Hayburn State Park, to Plummer, and headed north to the CdA Casino. 

Today I spun reels for a couple of hours (left the casino having broken even) and I was playing primarily with the goal of racking up tier points. And, lo and behold, I'm now only about 160 points away from no longer being a lowly Premier cardholder to being a Legend. Ha Ha! A Legend. 

It's fun. I'm almost certain that next time I play, I'll move on up and will enjoy raking in all the perks that will come with my new loftier status.  (Again, ha ha!)

3. My outing served its purpose in boosting how I feel. 

Back home, I finished a pretty good-sized green salad I'd made earlier and I cooked up a couple of chicken tenders accompanied by four or five delicious Chicken Gyoza Potstickers from Trader Joe's.

Well nourished, I took on the Sunday NYTimes crossword puzzle and managed to knock it out, bringing a satisfying end to a fun, relaxing, delicious, and even energizing day. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-29-2025: Debbie's Been Elated, Bud Zero at The Lounge, Satisfying Red Curry Dinner

1. Debbie has been taking advantage of being in Virginia and of Molly being busy during the day with her home schooling tasks to get out and see people and go on field trips. On Thursday, she took a great trip to Fredericksburg and visited the James Monroe museum, the Civil War site, a yarn store, a Mediterranean restaurant, and a brewery.

But today was the crown jewel. 

Debbie returned to Dora Kennedy French Immersion school where she taught for three years. She hadn't been in the building since 2017 and the teachers and others who were on site were overjoyed to see her, and Debbie was overjoyed to reunite with them. 

When Debbie and I talked about her visit, I'm not sure I've ever heard her sound happier. Likewise, she beamed with joy in the picture she sent me of her with one of her fellow teachers and good friends. 

Debbie's excitement sent me on my own imaginary elated return to Greenbelt with an imaginary return to Washington, D.C., New York City, Nyack and Valley Cottage, and elsewhere back east. 

Thanks to Debbie's elation, my magic carpet ride back to the East coast was a source of great joy and I welcomed feeling sentimental. 

2. Ed and I met uptown at The Lounge this afternoon. I enjoyed a couple of refreshing Bud Zeros and Ed and I talked at some length about casino stuff and Ed told me about the trip Nancy and he made to Bonners Ferry and on into Montana and back to Idaho including a meal at the Prichard Tavern. Ed learned that the Prichard Tavern has steak nights on Friday and Saturday and that news definitely got my attention. 

3. Back home, I went to work to satisfy the yearning I'd had all day for some Thai curry. I made a red curry sauce and dropped a batch of Trader Joe's Thai noodles in it and also fired up the wok and stir fried chicken tenders, onion, celery, red cabbage, zucchini, broccoli, and cauliflower. 

I came pretty close to stir frying the chicken and vegetables just right and the curry sauce had a good amount of heat, but wasn't overwhelming -- just the way I like it. 

In other words, I satisfied my yearning and even had some leftovers so I can satisfy it again. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-28-2025: The Sube Will Help Cats, Servicing the Camry, In the Black

 1. As I was indulging my nostalgic memories and paying tribute to the reliability and durability of the Sube over the last twenty-one years, I forgot a very important part of the story. 

Wherever the Sube goes next -- tow truck operator BJ thought it might go to a Portland auction house -- the proceeds of its sale will go to the Cat Rescue and Adoption Network in Springfield, OR. From the moment Debbie and I agreed to donate the Sube, I wanted to contribute to an organization that looks out for animals and thanks to a glowing endorsement of CRAN from Debi Mc, this organization will receive whatever money the Sube raises. 

2. Today was another car day, as it turned out. I took the car into CdA for an oil change and an inspection which went without a hitch and I found out what I figured might be true: with nearly 50,000 miles racked up, the rear brakes and tires are showing some wear and sometime down the road will need to be replaced. For now, though, they are fine. 

3. I left the garage and zoomed straight to the Breakfast Nook for a bracing plate of corned beef hash, hash browns, scrambled eggs, and a biscuit. 

Nourished, I blasted down to the CdA Casino to relax for a little while and had fun doing a little machine hopping, spinning reels, and coming out a little bit ahead. I could have played longer, but I like it when I'm in the black, however modest the amount, so I called it a day and headed home. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-27-2025: Farewell to the Sube, An Inadequate Tribute to the Sube, Cincinnati Chili Comforts Me

1. It was a red letter day today. Around 4 p.m. tow truck driver BJ arrived to haul the Sube away. All morning long, I was unsure if today would be the day, so I texted BJ and he responded immediately, telling me he had just finished a job in northeast Washington State and would be heading to Kellogg as soon as he could. 

I'd already taken the license plates off. I had loaded the snow tires, cleared the very few personal items we had in the car out of it, written down the mileage, and, today, I filled out the release of the title and called the non-profit facilitating the eventual sale of the car to ask them what name to put down as the purchaser when I filled out the Relaease of Liability later. She told me: CARS (Charitable Adult Rides and Services) out of San Diego. 

I surrendered the title and keys to BJ. After he disappeared with the Subaru, I went online and filled out and submitted the Idaho Release of Liability form and I called the insurance office and took the Sube off our policy. 

2. That car. 

It was a workhorse and a life saver. 

We purchased it in April of 2004 and in July Molly suffered serious burns in a camp stove accident. Thank goodness we had that car. Our other car, a Honda Civic, had no air conditioning. We had to make several drives from Eugene to Portland and back in the hottest days of summer and Molly couldn't bear being in a room, let alone a car, without air conditioning. In addition to having the right climate, the Sube was reliable and was a life saver as Molly recovered from the accident and her injuries. 

In the ensuing years, we drove the Sube across the country several times and I'll always be grateful for how much I enjoyed driving it into Washington DC, on the New Jersey Turnpike, down to Jamestown, over to the Maryland coast, to Cooperstown, to New York City and in and around Nyack, to Cape Cod, Baltimore, and numerous other places when we lived in Maryland.  

Cincinnati. Chicago. Long Beach, Indiana on Lake Michigan. Battle Ground, Indiana and the Indiana Fiddlers' Gathering.  Kellogg. Spokane. Seattle. The Oregon Coast. Kettle Falls/Martin Creek. Nelson, BC. Billings, MT to hear Hiram play in the President's Own. Missoula. 

And all the places I didn't mention, no offense. 

If the Sube could sing, its theme song would be "I've Been Everywhere"! 

Well, at least it felt to me like it'd been everywhere! 

3.  Physically, I didn't do anything today to see the Subaru off. 

But I felt spent. 

It was mental and emotional. 

I craved comfort food. 

So, I boiled pasta. 

I combined a can of Skline Chili with a can of black beans. 

I diced about a third of a white onion.

I took out a bag of pre-grated sharp cheddar cheese.

I had the Frank's Red Hot Sauce at the ready. 

Pasta in a bowl, topped with sauce and beans, topped with onion and cheese, and heated up with Frank's Red Hot Sauce. 

No oyster crackers. 

Oh well.

The meal I fixed was a great comfort. 

It was my version this evening of Cincinnati Chili. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-26-2025: Our August Sibling Outing to Priest Lake

 1. Christy, Carol, and I continued our 2025 project of going out into the local area once a month together on a Sibling Outing. Today, Christy was in charge of guiding us on a trip to Priest Lake. 

We began our outing in Hayden, Idaho at Belle's Brunch House where we all enjoyed a sturdy and delicious breakfast to fuel us for the day. 

2. We wound our way up to the Priest Lake region and made our next stop at the cedar grove at Hanna Flat. We walked the short trail amongst the majestic cedar trees and other forest vegetation. It wasn't terribly hot, but my tolerance of heat is at such a low level, I headed back to the car to cool off before we reached trail's end. 

3. To enjoy a view of the lake itself, we seated ourselves at a table in the bar area at Elkins Resort. I had a simple and very refreshing bowl of vanilla ice cream and Christy ordered a Huckleberry Daiquiri and Carol enjoyed her Pomegranate Gin and Tonic. Christy and Carol also shared an order of Cajun pickles.  

Throughout the whole trip we talked about all kinds of subjects, making the site seeing and the ride itself all the more enjoyable. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-25-2025: Corolla Questions, Donating the Sube, Heat Withers Me

 1. Debbie bought a new Toyota Corolla in large part so she could help transport our grandchildren, Jack and Ellie, and to be able to independently get from one place back East to another and not have to rely on whether she could borrow other family members' cars. Already she's taken advantage of this independence by driving Jack to Woodbridge, VA so he could see his cousins and his Aunt Molly and Uncle Hiram and so she could spend more time with Diaz family and get around in Virginia and Maryland during her visit. 

Questions linger about when Debbie wants the new car to be in Kellogg and how to get it here. (It's also possible that Debbie will return to Kellogg, leave the Corolla in New York, and have it there waiting for her whenever she returns.)

Wanting to investigate several options, I used a website online to invite car shipping companies across the USA to either call, text, or email me with estimates of how much it would cost to ship the car from NY to Kellogg. 

I got a lot of responses and the prices ranged from about 800 dollars to about 1700 dollars.

2. That was interesting to find out.

My next concern was what to do with the Subaru.

I called Debbie and we agreed that if Debbie returns to Kellogg without the Corolla, we can manage with just one car, and that at some point, however we do it, we'll bring the Corolla here. 

We agreed that it was time to let go of the Subaru. 

I spent a pretty good amount of time today getting the process rolling for donating the Subaru to the Cat Rescue and Adoption Network in Springfield, OR, a non-profit that my longtime friend and tireless advocate for and rescuer and carer of cats Debi Mc has done a ton of work with. It's an organization she holds in the highest esteem. 

So, no doubt, by week's end, a tow truck will come to the house, load up this car that's served us beautifully for 21 years, and take it to auction or to a vendor or somewhere else to be purchased and to contribute to the efforts of the Cat and Rescue and Adoption Network. 

3.  To prepare the Sube for donation, I removed the license plates, took out the few personal items that were in the car, and loaded the car's snow tires in very back of the car, hoping they can accompany the car and help out the next owner. Although these were small tasks, simple ones, I had to come back in the house three different times while carrying them out in order to cool off, reinforcing the fact that I have become even more intolerant of heat  than I was, say, a year ago. The heat nauseates me. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-24-2025: A Grand Family Dinner, Little League Fireballers, Remembering Being Young and Supple

 1. Christy hosted Carol, Paul, and me for a grand family dinner. Christy fixed one of my favorite dinner entrees, stuffed peppers, Carol and Paul contributed pasta salad with garden fresh vegetables, and I didn't do much -- I just cut up a small watermelon and half of a cantaloupe. Christy fixed a snappy appetizer: bite-sized naan bread with huckleberry pepper jelly and cream cheese. We all enjoyed a refreshing creamsicle for dessert. 

It was a do you remember? conversation during and after dinner. Carol and Paul's recent trip to Moscow inspired a lot of talk about different branches on Mom's family tree and somehow led us to yakkin about Kellogg memories, the Sunshine Inn's fish feed, Campfire father/daughter banquets, the bowling league Dad was in for many years, and other fun topics. 

2. I had a lot of fun texting with Stu, Byrdman, Freddy, and Rog today about who we remember as fireballing pitchers in Little League -- the Kellogg guys, including me, named Stan Colson, Curt Berg, Dave Rowley, Steve Buckner, Mike Masters, maybe others.   

Later, Stu and I reminisced about our participation when we were each 12 years old in our respective Little League All-Star tournaments. Some things I remembered pretty clearly. So did Stu -- who, by the way, had a great tournament. Other details, though, have disappeared from my mind, making me wish I had access at home to the archives of the Kellogg Evening News! 

3. Our family dinner conversation also meandered for a little while to the Bunker Hill Zinc Plant. It was a toxic workplace, but something about working with other guys in such medieval conditions seemed to help us all get along. As a result, despite the conditions and demanding nature of the work, my memories of working there are similar to my memories of being on basketball or baseball teams or of playing in the band or singing in the choir: ultimately, what mattered most was yakkin' with other guys, helping each other out when need be, and joining with others in a common experience. To this day, conversation on occasion at The Lounge will turn to the Zinc Plant and it's always fun to remember crazy things about that place and tell stories about things that happened and the people who did them. 

On occasion, I continue to have dreams about working in the cell room. They are never nightmarish, but rather seem to be my way of remembering when I was young, strong, and supple, able to do jobs working in a plant producing refined zinc demanded of me. 

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Three Beautiful Things 08-23-2025: No Grumpy Old Men at Breakfast!, My First Ever Jackpot, Grooming Copper

1. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, Ed invited me to join him and Mike Stafford for breakfast in Cda at The Breakfast Nook. He also invited Stu. The four of us met and had a relaxing breakfast, replete with generous portions, friendly and efficient service, and plenty of news. We all have good lives and enjoy time with family, do some traveling when we can, and always enjoy a good laugh about different things. We weren't four grumpy old men. Aside from some observations about inflation, we kept our yakkin' positive and supportive of what's happening in our lives. 

2. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, Ed also invited me to head south after breakfast. He wanted to stock up on chew at Fightin' Creek and wanted to spin some reels at the CdA Casino.

So, we headed down.

I started playing some favorite machines and my bank was dwindling. 

Given the amount of money I bring into a session, I do not make maximum wagers on most machines. But, there's one exception. Both CdA and the Wildhorse have machines called Quick Hit with dollar fifty max bets. I always reserve a little money to play these specific Quick Hit machines (most Quick Hit machines' max bet is six dollars). The odds are very long, but handsome payouts are available if a player hits 7, 8, or 9 Quick Hit symbols with a dollar fifty bet. 

So, I was playing the 24 Karat Quick Hit machine and my bank was down to a dollar seventy. I had one spin left. I was resigned to either not playing any more or making a modest ATM withdrawl. 

On that last spin, I hit the game's bonus which gave me five free spins and the added bonus of added Quick Hit and Wild symbols to each free spin. 

Well, for the first time in the twenty-one years I've been spinning reels, I hit a jackpot. 

I hit eight Quick Hit symbols and the prize was $1548.59. 

I was astonished. 

I played out my remaining free spins and then the screen flashed this message: "Jackpot Call Attendant HAND PAY

I'm not sure what the threshold is for when an attendant comes out to pay off a win by hand -- 1100 dollars maybe? (If anyone knows what the figure is at the CdA Casino, please let me know.) 

So I pushed the service button on the machine and waited. 

A most amiable attendant came to my machine about ten minutes later, confirmed my identity, and asked me if I wanted the taxes taken out today.

I did. 

He left for a few minutes, came back with a W2-G form filled out and printed, and with a stack of bills which he counted out in my hand.

I tipped him. 

He wished me more good luck. 

And I went to the refreshment stand to pour myself a Coke and let my good luck settle in and let my baffled head clear a bit. 

Now I know how it feels, after all these years, to hit a jackpot and receive a hand pay. 

It's pretty good. 

3. Copper is a long haired cat and his fur mats easily. He's tolerant up to a point of me untangling his fur and cutting out mats, but he has limits to his tolerance. 

I ordered a dematting comb to see if it would help my efforts to home groom Copper and it arrived today. 

I spent time learning how to use the comb on Copper today and I might be getting the hang of it. 

If I let Copper bite any grooming tool I'm using, he's more willing to be combed or snipped. 

I succeeded in dematting some of his fur and I'll keep at it, in short sessions, but, believe me when I tell you: it's an uphill challenge! 

Three Beautiful Things 08-22-2025: Cameras in Plain Sight, Ed Extends Invitations -- I Accept, Chicken Dinner

1. I charged the batteries for my Nikon D3100 and my Pentax Q. Rather than store the cameras on a shelf above where my clothes are hanging, I put them out on the desk that's been out of action since the transplant. (That's another story for another time. Maybe.) I do better with all my belongings when they are out in the open, not out of sight. 

My next challenge, now, is to decide what I want to photograph. 

For now, I'll keep my struggles with what to photograph in and around Kellogg to myself, but I hope I can push myself to overcome these struggles and get back to taking pictures again, 

2. Ed called me this morning and extended three invitations to me. 

1. He was going to meet Mike Stafford in CdA at the Breakfast Nook on Saturday morning: Did I want to join him?

2. He wanted to head south after breakfast and pick up some chew at Fightin' Creek and then go a few more miles south and spin some reels at the CdA Casino. Did I want to join him?

3. How about getting together at The Lounge around 4 o'clock?

My answers:

yes

yes

yes

I look forward to Saturday's fun and I enjoyed drinking a couple refreshing Bud Zeros and yakkin' with Ed and Cas. 

Ed makes superb invitations! 

3. Back home, I fixed a pot of jasmine rice, fried frozen corn, frozen green beans, and sliced mushrooms in butter in the cast iron skillet, and baked four chicken thighs seasoned with salt, pepper, Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute, and sesame seeds. 

I ate two of the thighs which were flavor packed with a modest variety of textures and chilled the other two for tomorrow. 

I was very happy with the way the vegetables and rice complimented the chicken. 

Earlier today, for the first time in years, I bought a carton of ice cream -- French Vanilla to be precise.

At some point early in our marriage, Debbie scooped ice cream into a glass or a coffee mug, poured milk over it, and stirred the ice cream and milk furiously, making an instant milk shake. 

I'd never seen anyone do that and tonight, inspired by Debbie, I made myself just such a milk shake. 

I also had Bob Dylan's song, "If Not for You" pop in my mind and thought of all the things that would be missing in my life if not for Debbie, chief among them is a quick stir it yourself in a glass or a mug milk shake. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-21-2025: Decluttering, Sleep and Our Pets, Wildhorse Anticipation and Planning

1. I kicked myself into gear today and worked on making the living room less cluttered. I had talked with Debbie about what to do with her mail, opening the way for me to throw most of it away. I sorted papers I'd let pile up on an end table near where I work on my computer. I also got caught up on taking care of dishes in the kitchen. 

With things spiffed up, it's even more comfortable in the house. 

2. I've read that as we age, sleeping through the night rarely, if ever, happens any longer. 

That's true for me. 

My nights alternate between periods of deep sleep and vivid dreams and stretches of being wide awake, mostly petting Copper. As a result of these fragmented nights, I often nap during the day and this afternoon Copper loved that I came back to bed to sleep for a while. He drew close to me, which he does all the time now, enjoyed my attention, and we had a cat nap together. 

Gibbs has also decided he wants to be physically closer to me. About once a day, he jumps up on my lap and falls asleep, keeping me in my place for about a half an hour, relaxing and finding comfort as he stretches out across my thighs. 

3. Our biannual trip to the Wildhorse Casino and Resort in Pendleton is just over a month away, but today I could feel some excitement building. Terry sent out a text surveying the golfers about when they'd like to play. Ed and I talked about a conflict in his schedule that had come up and later in the day he told me he resolved it. Don confirmed that he'll be at the resort for two of the three nights so that he can be back home to welcome a family visitor. I spent time today looking at breakfast possibilities for Ed and me. We always like to stop to eat somewhere early on in our drive to Pendleton and I've been enjoying looking at places in the Spokane Valley we've never gone to before. 

By the way, my original plan was to stop at the Harvester Restaurant in Spangle, but, alas, it's closed on Monday and Tuesday.  Drats. We head out on Tuesday, September 30.

Three Beautiful Things 08-20-2025: Kellogg Connection at Kootenai, My (Now) Regular Wednesday Drive, A Terrific Talk with Debbie

1. I was up and at 'em first thing this morning. Today was a blood draw day at Kootenai Health.  Gibbs was slow to go outside to do his morning business. So that I could get on my horse and head out, I finally put him on his leash and walked him out, he took care of things, and I was off to CdA. 

Today, the phlebotomist who drew my blood was a pro I've worked with three or four times before. She's really good. Well, today she asked me to confirm that I was from Kellogg. After my confirmation, she told me she was, too. She graduated from Kellogg High about six years ago, lived not far from us in the Mullan St. cul-de-sac, and now lives up Moon Gulch. 

It was fun to have her come forward with this connection between us. 

2. After the blood draw, I headed west to Pines Road and then went south and east to Rockford, WA where I hoped to eat breakfast at the Harvest Moon Restaurant. I pulled up to the Harvest Moon only to discover that it doesn't serve breakfast on Wednesday. Its breakfast days are Friday through Monday.

No problem. 

I knew that less than ten miles away I could enjoy a tasty breakfast at the Red Tail at the CdA Casino and so I settled into a booth there and enjoyed biscuits and gravy with scrambled eggs. 

Then, as I enjoy doing on Wednesdays, I played machines for a short while, didn't build up any positive momentum, shrugged, as if to say, "So she goes", and rocketed back to Kellogg, feeling energized by my blood draw conversation, driving in the pine tree wheat fields beauty of eastern Washington and North Idaho, and by having breakfast and a little fun at the casino. 

3. First Debbie sent me pictures from the Water's End Brewery in Lake Ridge, VA. She ordered a three beer flight and I don't know how those beers tasted, but they were gorgeous to look at. 

Before long, Debbie called me.

We talked for nearly an hour about the last two months she's spent with family, a time of enjoyment and intense conversation. 

She's very happy, and so am I, that we live a life that affords her the time to be with family who live far away for such an extended time and that there's no pressure for her to return at any specific time. 

I was also happy to report that Copper and I are doing very well and that Debbie's beloved Gibbs is very happy and has been spending increased amounts of contented time on my lap. 

 

Three Beautiful Things 08-19-2025: Implant Finished, Superb Bagels, Beef and Mixed Vegetables Dinner

1. I had an upper molar on the left side of my mouth that was feeling flimsy so me. Back in January, I went to the dentist.  The dentist basically said, upon looking at the X-ray, and seeing how brittle and fractured the root was, said something like no wonder that tooth feels flimsy to you. I agreed to have the tooth extracted and replaced with an implant. 

Today, seven months later, almost to the day, the dentist wrapped up the implant process and the cavern I've been living with, that I haven't disturbed with chewing on that side of the mouth, and that I've treated every day by rinsing with salt water, is no longer a hole but has an implant there.

The left side of my mouth is functional again and I'm here to tell you that I enjoy it. 

2. Earlier in the day, I returned to Beach Bum Bakery. On Monday, Rebecca told me she'd have cinnamon raisin bagels available today, so I texted in an order for three of them. Once I arrived, I saw she only had two of these bagels left and I added them to my order. 

I returned home. I froze four of the bagels. 

I decided to give the one I didn't freeze a kind of pure taste test. 

I didn't toast the bagel.

I didn't put cream cheese on it. 

Eating this bagel was a perfect, you might say unadulterated, pleasure. 

The cinnamon and plentiful raisins complimented each other beautifully and, as always, this bagel, like all of Rebecca's bagels, was perfectly balanced between the firm exterior and the perfectly bread-y interior. 

I was thinking, as I enjoyed it, about how Debbie will be heading back to New York from Virginia some time next week and that while I pine for New York, miss New York, would love to be in New York, the one thing I don't have to long for is a New York bagel. 

Rebecca's bagels totally satisfy that longing. 

For me, they are that expertly formed and baked and that delicious. 

3. I had thawed a thick chunk of tri-tip beef and decided to cook it tonight for dinner. 

I covered both sides of the beef with a generous layer of Everything but the Bagel seasoning from Trader Joe's. 

While the beef cooked in the cast iron skillet, I stir fried a combination of white onion, green beans. mushrooms, and sweet pepper in the wok. 

I covered the meat with the vegetables and dug in. 

I was especially happy with the crust the Everything but the Bagel seasoning formed on the meat. 

This meal really worked. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-18-2025: Beach Bum Bakery Bread, Yakkin' with Cas, *Telford's Change* Takes Me Back to My First Marriage

1. After I mailed a package to Debbie, I dropped in at Beach Bum Bakery to see what Rebecca had available. She offered me a buttered slice of French bread she's just taken out of the oven and it was divine, especially the contrast between the hard, crunchy crust and the soft, delicious bread inside. I bought a loaf of this bread as well as one of her incomparably delicious chocolate chip cookies. 

Once home, I cut slices off the French bread loaf and made myself two Swiss cheese and beef sandwiches with yellow mustard. Later on, I decided to die and go to heaven and ate the chocolate chip cookie -- not all at once -- no, I broke it in half and pretended like I was eating two cookies at two separate times. 

2. When I left Beach Bum Bakery, as I rocketed down McKinley Ave., I noticed that Cas's pickup was parked in front of The Lounge. I squealed to a stop, parked, and as I sauntered across the street, Bob was coming out of The Lounge and he interrupted a very important errand he was running, invited me into The Lounge's inner sanctum, offered me a Bud Zero, and we yakked about fantasy baseball, especially his League 2 team's amazing come from behind victory over my squad the day before, casinos, and Debbie's purchase of her new car. 

It was really fun to yak away for a while and I look forward to when the MLBaseball playoffs begin and the possibility of watching some afternoon games in The Lounge.

3. I returned this evening to watching Telford's Change. I tried to resist thinking about my first experience watching this series on Sunday evenings in 1979 while travel with my first wife in the U.K. But, I couldn't. 

My mind went back to October of 1981. She and I walked down to the Prince Puckler's ice cream shop that used to be near the corner of Franklin Blvd and Villard St. and for the first time my wife told me she didn't think she wanted to be married any longer. 

This conversation over bittersweet nugget ice cream kicked off about two months of discussion and by December we separated. 

In the course of those two months, I asked my wife when she started thinking about ending our marriage. 

She told me she began thinking about it in 1979 while we were traveling those three months in the U.K. and Denmark. I would add, it was also when we were watching Telford's Change.

At the heart of Telford's Change is the tension that divides the two main characters, Sylvia Telford and her husband, Mark. 

As I watched tonight, I marveled at the how pointedly and eloquently Brian Clark's script brings marital tension to life, how superbly interactions between Sylvia and Mark often begin with both characters doing their best to keep things civil, but how some turn in their conversation pulls them back into the conflicts that exist between them, and once again they air out how each of them sees things and nothing gets resolved. 

In this ten episode series, I empathize most with Sylvia, but I recognize Mark's blind spots as my own. 

Forty-six years later, the old anger, disillusionment, confusion, and suffering I experienced for years in the process of our divorce and its, for me, long aftermath, are gone. I've come to my own understanding of the dissolution of that marriage, but only after coming to grips with what made me so difficult to live with. 

Two aspects of the power of art came to mind as I watched Episodes 4 and 5 tonight. 

Art often gives voice and coherence to ways we have felt but couldn't express or to unarticulated thoughts we've had swim around in our minds. Sometimes art can embolden us to take hold of and act on thoughts and feelings we have had but were afraid of. 

Art also can help us understand experiences not our own. Art makes it more and more difficult to say, "I've never experienced that and so I don't understand it." For example, I've never been a woman who felt trapped in a marriage. But, as I watch Telford's Change, as I listen to Sylvia and as her feelings get inside me, I develop empathy and understanding. Much of what I've come to understand about people whose experiences are vastly different than my own has come from reading, seeing movies and plays, and spending time with paintings and other art gallery pieces. 

I'll never know what impact Telford's Change had on my first wife back in 1979, whether Sylvia's articulation of her discontent gave voice and coherence to my first wife's discontent. 

I don't know. 

I'll never know. 

But, I can imagine it did.  

Three Beautiful Things 08-17-2025: George Washington's Home Church, I Nixed that Idea, Cooking Panko Crusted Pork

1. Debbie sent pictures today of the Diaz family, Jack, and her at Pohick Church in Lorton, VA, an Episcopal Church, notable for having been the home church of George Washington. Debbie texted Christy, Carol, and me a description of how she was moved by worshipping where George Washington also did and mused about his prayers for the United States as this new country was in formation. 

2. I thought it would be fun to drive to Montana this afternoon, but I got as far as Osburn and suddenly decided it wasn't really what I wanted to do. It's rare for me to feel this way, but I just didn't feel like driving. So I returned home, knowing the NYTimes Monday crossword puzzle would be available at 3:00 and I dove into it, figured out the theme before long, and worked the puzzle to completion. 

3. Overnight, I thawed out a small but thick chunk of pork and as I started preparing to cook my dinner, I decided to cut its thickness in half. I cracked an egg in a bowl, covered both sides of the two pork pieces with egg, and then rolled the meat in a mixture of panko, salt, pepper, and rosemary. 

While the pork cooked, I boiled fresh green beans.

In the skillet I used to cook the pork, I covered half of the surface with leftover jasmine rice and poured the rest of the egg over the rice and then covered this mixture with leftover panko, rosemary, salt, and pepper. 

What a great meal! 

Not only was it very satisfying, but I couldn't eat all the pork and I have a nice piece left over for Monday. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-16-2025: Restful Drive to the Airport, I Kept Going, Ah! Some Rain!

1. Niece Molly enjoyed a short and intense visit to Kellogg. She was deeply involved in her longtime friend Summer's wedding on Friday and enjoyed the post-ceremony festivities that evening. 

I picked up Molly at 8 a.m. this morning and drove her to the airport. We talked a little bit about the wedding and later she shared breaking news she just received from Brian about mice, but, for the most part, we travelled in silence.

I hoped that after about two and half days of talking a lot and tending to business in preparation for the wedding, that an hour of mostly silence was a welcome way for Molly to begin her weekend of rest and recovery.

2. Knowing I was driving to Spokane this morning, I'd imagined myself dropping off Molly and then going somewhere for breakfast. 

I didn't do that. 

I wasn't all that hungry and I had some driving momentum built up and didn't want to break it by stopping somewhere. 

Once home, I wrapped some refried beans, scrambled egg, rice, and sharp cheddar cheese in a flour tortilla and this breakfast satisfied me just as much as a meal at a cafe. 

3. I know we need some good strong rainfall here in North Idaho to slow down the fires.

We didn't exactly get that today, but I enjoyed the relief I felt driving to Spokane and back again in the rain. 

My hopes that the rain would continue throughout the day didn't come true, but the temperature today was much cooler, I welcomed the mostly overcast skies, and I began to think that it won't be terribly long until we won't have hot weather and unrelenting sunshine day after day. 

I'll enjoy that. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-15-2025: Roger Called Me, Organic Market Nostalgia, Navigating Google

 1. Every so often, when he strolls to the grocery store, Roger, my lifelong friend, calls me from Salem, OR. 

That happened this morning and we had a fun conversation about how machines on the casino gaming floor work, the 1970 Spokane Indians, and Debbie's purchase of another silver Toyota. I got kind of carried away telling Roger about our son-in-law Hiram's world-wide status as a euphonium player. I guess my endless yakking about Hiram arose because Debbie is back at the Diaz household again and I didn't know if Hiram had returned from a musical engagement he had in Portugal. 

2. Debbie sent me a picture today that sent me into a minor tailspin of nostalgic happiness. When we lived in Greenbelt, MD, from time to time I ventured over to the Hollywood neighborhood of College Park and bought groceries at Mom's Organic Market. Shopping there took me back to shopping at the Kiva in Eugene and now, when I shop at Pilgrim's in CdA, I get nostalgic for Mom's and the Kiva. 

Anyway. 

Debbie and Jack went to the Mom's Organic Market in Woodbridge, VA today.

Debbie sent me a photo of Jack outside Mom's. 

It sent me back to Eugene and College Park and over the 4th of July Pass to Pilgrim's. I was entranced. 

It's fun being someone who's easy to make all dreamy and wobbly kneed -- just over a grocery store. 

Btw, if Debbie reads this post, I want her to know I also mind traveled back to DC's Ivy City neighborhod and the Atlas Brewing tasting room and our conversation with that young couple. She'd gone to the U of Oregon. Had he? Can't remember. But we had a great talk and they had just finished shopping very nearby at Mom's Organic Market on New York Ave NE in DC. 

3. I think someone out in the world of cyber mischief making fooled with my primary gmail account. Google intervened. I wouldn't have known anything happened except I discovered Google canceled my gmail password. I did a little looking around, a little reading, got a grip on what I needed to do, and after a few Google-guided steps, I successfully changed my password. 

It's a relief for me whenever I navigate one of these processes, however simple it might be. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-14-2025: I Saw Dr. Bieber Today and Report on My Appointment

1. Shortly after noon o'clock, I met with Kootenai Health's Dr. Bieber, nephrologist, at the Shoshone Medical Center's Smelterville clinic. 

I'd seen the results of the labs I had drawn a week ago. I'd heard from the transplant team in Spokane. Dr. Bieber confirmed what I thought to be true: the blood work didn't raise a single red flag and while we might wish the protein in my urine would disappear, that situation is not getting worse. It's stable. The condition of my new kidney is very good -- we seem to have minimized the impact of the early signs of rejection that emerged about three months ago. 

2. Dr. Bieber and I had a good discussion of a problem I've never had in these twenty years of focus on and treatment of my kidney disease: low blood pressure. 

The upshot of our discussion was simple. I'm cutting back on a couple of meds, monitoring my blood pressure closely at home, and if it goes high again, I'm to contact Dr. Bieber for advice on readjusting my medicine. 

My cholesterol level has been a little bit high over the last few months. After letting that ride for a while to see if it would come down on its own, Dr. Bieber decided it was time to increase my dosage of Lipitor a bit. 

As I've said before, all the kidney pros I talk with are in agreement that, yeah, ideally I never would have had this episode of rejection of my kidney getting underway. 

But, it did. 

And the Spokane pros and Dr. Bieber are in agreement that stability is good and that when it comes to day-to-day performance, my transplanted kidney is doing its job very well. 

In fact, I now have a stretch of two months before having another kidney related appointment. I see the transplant team in late October and I don't need to see Dr. Bieber again until mid-November. 

Labs? I'll have blood drawn next week and then I'll find out whether I'll continue to go in every two weeks or if that schedule might also be relaxed a bit -- to maybe once a month....

3. This meeting with Dr. Bieber was low key. Yes, we discussed a lot of details, but in a relaxed manner. Dr. Bieber and I get along well.

Nonetheless, this appointment knocked me out. 

Fortunately, I didn't have anything I had to do this afternoon and so I could eat lunch, sit still for a while, and eventually go back to bed and enjoy a deep sleep in which I lost all sense of time and place and wasn't quite sure when I woke up just where I was. 

Copper straightened me out. 

My afternoon nap gave me a pretty good boost of energy and it felt good to be running on a fuller tank through the evening until I retired later. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-13-2025: Debbie Bought a New Car in New Jersey

1. When I woke up this morning, I thought I'd probably hit the road and enjoy the drive from Rose Lake to St. Maries to Plummer to the CdA Casino. I thought I might stop in St. Maries and eat breakfast at the Timber Lodge Cafe. 

I didn't think Debbie and I would be the proud owners of a 2025 Toyota Corolla.

Ha! 

But we are. 

Debbie and Adrienne went to somewhere (Ramsey maybe?) in New Jersey, Debbie texted me that she'd bought a car, and later she sent me a picture.

Now we have two silver Toyotas. 

2. Knowing now that Debbie had the fob to a new Corolla, I hit the road later than I thought I would. It was hazy in North Idaho from fires somewhere, but I enjoyed driving along the Chain Lakes and easing into St. Maries. Since I arrived in St. Maries too late to order breakfast, I didn't stop at the Timber Lodge Cafe, but I drove the scenic highway between St. Maries and Plummer and stopped in for another Winning Wednesday at the CdA Casino. 

Following my pattern over the last few weeks, I just relaxed on the machines, hit a few modest winning spins, and after a while and after spending the equivalent of dinner for two and a couple of beers at Radio Brewing, I headed back to the Camry. 

3. Debbie was going to call me later on, but I got the a/c going in the Camry and, instead, I called Debbie from my parking spot. 

We had a great conversation about Debbie's purchase, money, insurance, the to be figured out later future of the Subaru, and Debbie's plan to hit the road again on Thursday (Aug 14) to take Jack to Woodbridge, VA so he can see the Diaz family. 

It's all good. 

After Debbie and I hung up, I called the insurance agent in Kellogg with a billing question. That's all good. 

I drove home to Kellogg.

My mind wandered back to 1972. 

The Moody Blues released a single that year from their Seventh Sojourn album that struck me as fitting today. 

Remember it?

"Isn't Life Strange" 

Isn't Life Strange - YouTube

Three Beautiful Things 08-12-2025: Nurse Jenn Checks In, A Welcome Long Wait, I Call Debbie

1. Nurse Jenn from the transplant team messaged me a cheery report that the blood work I had done last week looks stable. I see Dr. Bieber on Thursday the 14th and I'll have some questions for him, especially about my blood pressure and the lower than usual diastolic readings. It's also not clear to me just yet if the new medication I started taking a couple of weeks ago is helping with the problem of protein leaking into my urine. 

2. On the spur of the moment, I decided I'd had it with my shaggy hair and so I drove to CdA, enjoyed lunch at The Breakfast Nook, went to Supercuts and came out relieved that I no longer looked like Fred MacMurray's sheepdog, and I bought a few items at Trader Joe's. 

It didn't take long for the heat to make me feel a bit shaky. All I had to do was walk across the Trader Joe's parking lot and put groceries in the trunk.

So I got back in the car, drove to Costco to fuel up, and I saw that a huge vehicle pulling another car was in the lane of the pump I prefer to use. 

I eased the Camry behind this behemoth, kept the A/C going, and relaxed to the music of Sirius/XM's Symphony Hall.

A woman tapped on the passenger side window. 

I put the window down and she told that I might want to gas up at a different pump because the leviathan in front of me was going to need about 65 gallons of gas. 

I made her laugh when I said, "Thanks, but I'm right where I want to be. I got too hot and I'm enjoying letting the air conditioner cool me off. I was actually happy to see that I was going to have a long wait so that I could listen to music here in the car and get more comfortable. Thank you for thinking of me."

Giggling, she said, "Okay! As you wish! I'm glad we could help you feel better!"

This worked out perfectly. I did get more comfortable. I loved the Tchaikovsky piece playing on the radio. And by the time I gassed up, I felt normal again and I had a most comfortable drive home. 

3. I got an email from Debbie that prompted me to call her just to clarify one thing and it took about a second to find out we are on the same page about some home business. To my surprise, on Thursday, Debbie will drive Jack (who just returned from a visit to his grandmother in Eugene) to the Diaz home in Woodbridge, VA for a weekend visit. 

I was staggered to hear that she is going to hit the road, especially given how very tired she was after her trip to Lake Michigan, Chicago, and to Woodbridge. 

But, Jack will get to see his cousins. Debbie will have more time with her grandchildren and with Molly. (I don't know when Hiram returns from his music trip to Portugal.) 

I told Debbie that I don't know how she's doing it. 

Her response, "Neither do I." 

Three Beautiful Things 08-11-2025: Gibbs Gets Spiffed Up, I'm On an Acrostic Streak, Easy Dinner

1. It's fun taking Gibbs to the groomer. He arrives eager to be cleaned and clipped and when I return to pick him up he jumps all over me with joy that he feels so clean and looks so handsome. 

2. I'm streaky. I go on book reading streaks. Movie watching streaks. Music streaks. I never break Joe DiMaggio's record. My streaks are shorter. Today, I continued an acrostic puzzle streak. For much of the day, it was all I wanted to do. It was a stimulating and challenging way to stay out of the sun and heat. 

3. I've neglected to take advantage of having these cans of tomato, corn, and okra that Debbie bought, but today I opened one of them, added a can of chickpeas, and stirred in some leftover jasmine rice. Fixing such an easy meal meant I wasn't pulled away from the acrostic puzzles too long (ha!). I thoroughly enjoyed this meal. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-10-2025: Catching Up with Debbie, Postmodern Jukebox Videos, Simple Dinner

 1. For the last ten or eleven days, Debbie has spent time with family on Lake Michigan and in Woodbridge, VA. Over those days, she kept me posted about how things were going with terrific photos and text messages, but this evening we had an extended phone call now that she's back in Valley Cottage, NY. 

Debbie's voice was exhausted from the travel and the intensity of concentrated time with so many people over a short time, but we talked for over an hour and we both have a much clearer picture of what's going on in each of our worlds. 

We are accustomed to dealing with uncertainty and here we are again. While we know things are solid between us, that things at home in Kellogg are going very well,  that Debbie is doing exactly what she needs to be doing, and that we both agree a hundred percent+ on that, we don't know just yet when we'll see each other next. 

2. From time to time, I thoroughly enjoy watching videos of Postmodern Jukebox covering well-known songs by transforming them into wholly different genres of music than how we know them.  Today I discovered a recently posted video of Postmodern Jukebox performing "House of the Rising Sun" in the style of soul music, featuring a superb soul singer I hadn't heard of named LaVance Colley. (I'm not very familiar with soul music on the whole.) 

Before I knew it I was happily watching Postmodern Jukebox on video after video enjoying songs like "Time of the Season", "Stayin' Alive", "The Chain", "Seven Nation Army", and others performed superbly in musical styles miles away from how The Zombies, Bee Gees, Fleetwood Mac, and The White Stripes originally recorded and performed these songs. 

3. A bed of rice, a generously peppered, salted, and garlic powdered ground beef patty, some fried (unbreaded) rings of white onion, and a vegetable loaded green salad turned out to be just the simple and tasty dinner I needed with so much on my mind after Debbie and I had our jam-packed conversation. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-09-2025: The Perils of Perfectionism Are On My Mind

 1. Online, its title is "The Pain of Perfectionism". In the hard copy August 11, 2025 issue of The New Yorker, it's titled "Enemy of the Good". It's an article by Leslie Jamison in which she interviews and discusses the work of two psychology specialists, Gordon Flett and Paul Hewitt, whose life work has focused on the problem of perfectionism.

On our sibling outing to Clark Fork, the subject of perfectionism came up and we discussed it in relation to how it can contribute to crippling chronic clinical depression. 

I was blown away by the timing of this New Yorker article arriving in my mailbox Friday and was grateful for how it added to my meager understanding of perfectionism and how Christy, Carol, and I were right on the money in ways we discussed it in the car. 

Flett and Hewitt's work goes back over thirty years. Rather than go into detail about it in this blog post, I'll just say that perfectionism contributes to mental illness, physical ailments, and suicide rates. 

I came away from this article assured of what I've contemplated in the past: perfectionism is a demon.

If you'd like to read this article, I can email you a PDF copy of it, or I can send it to you through Facebook Messenger. I cannot text it to you. 

I don't know if this article is behind a paywall. If you'd like to check it out, here's the link: https://tinyurl.com/v6rpvmsf

2. As I read this article, I realized that I've been more plagued by people I thought (rightly or wrongly) expected perfection from me than by perfectionist tendencies within myself. 

I'll leave it at that, except to say that feeling these expectations from others (whether they had them or not) has never done me a lick of good. 

3. I also thought today about how, when I was working, I grew increasingly resistant to the idea of rigor. I guess I began to think that possibly rigor, making high demands on students, might be an enemy of the good. Couldn't students learn and perform well, I used to wonder, without the pressure of rigorous demands on them? 

I suppose some of this questioning had to do with the ways that enforcing rigor, given my personality, didn't come to me readily.  

About thirty years ago, I first read the poem "Her Right Eye Catches the Lavender" and as Gerald Sterns' poem develops, the speaker of the poem self-reflects and asks: 

Why did is take so long

for me to get lenient?

From that point forward, that question repeated itself constantly inside me. 

Oh, for sure, I backslid into not being lenient from time to time, but much more than rigor, being lenient came to govern how I approached my work and my relationships with my students. 

I hoped back then that I could convince my students to be lenient with themselves as writers. I used to encourage them to sin boldly. Let it rip. I always thought I could help students more who were not cautious as they wrote than if they wrote cautiously. 

They didn't need me to expect perfection. 

 

Three Beautiful Things 08-08-2025: Restoring Blood Pressure, Yakkin' at The Lounge, All's Well Back Home

1. A couple of low blood pressure readings today led me to increase my water intake and eat a salted bowl of popcorn and it worked: my blood pressure returned to a much more acceptable level. 

2. With my blood pressure restored, the low level of lightheadedness I experienced earlier in the day lifted, and I not only felt much better, I rocketed up to The Lounge and met Ed for a couple of Bud Zeros and had a great time yakkin' with Ed, Cas, and then Pete Miller. 

It was a relaxing hour or so. 

Just right. 

3. Back home, I checked my blood pressure again. 

It was in good shape. 

I fixed myself a delicious shrimp and vegetable stir fry.

I also laundered some bedding, 

I then thoroughly enjoyed the comfort of crisp clean sheets! 

Three Beautiful Things 08-07-2025: Manual Bill Paying, Did You Get It?, Thanks Hon

 1. In the world of Zelle, Venmo, PayPal, auto payments, auto withdrawals, and so on that's grown and developed over the years, I am down to only writing three checks to pay bills every month. Today, I wrote and either mailed or delivered those bills so that I'll continue to have water come out of the tap, the collectors pick up my garbage each week, and my lawn mowed, trimmed, and blown when it needs it. 

2. Did any of you reading this blog post happen to work the Thursday, August 8th New York Times crossword puzzle? I was able to fill out the grid, but the theme of this puzzle was totally lost on me. After finishing the puzzle, I read the explanation of the puzzle that the NYTimes posts online for every puzzle and then I understood the theme. But did any of you figure out how the theme (dare I say gimmick?) of this puzzle worked? If you did, I heartily congratulate you -- my mind isn't quite flexible enough (yet?) to figure out puzzles that work like this one did. Maybe one day my mind will get more elastic. 

3. I have practical reasons for ordering groceries online at Walmart and having them brought to me in the parking lot.

But, you know what? 

Along with enjoying the convenience, I relish how nice, friendly, sweet, and helpful the employees are who bring the groceries out to the car. 

I can't remember, as I write this, if the grocery deliverer today called me "sweetie", "hon", "honey", "sweetheart", "darlin'", or was it another really nice name?, but it made our transaction very enjoyable and I wondered why I've never done this, ever. I've never said back to a server or a barista or a Walmart grocery delivery person anything like, "OK, hon" or "thanks darlin'" or "appreciate it sweetheart". 

Maybe it's just not in me. 

Sigh.

Three Beautiful Things 08-06-2025: The Gray Overcast Skies Uplift Me, Breakfast at Cougar Bay with Jeff, Scenic Drive to the Casino

1. Labs at Kootenai. Specialty labs at Sacred Heart. Lots of vials! 

It all went smoothly and the gray overcast skies greatly enhanced my enjoyment of driving to CdA and Spokane. I know it's common for people to be bummed out by gray weather and uplifted by sunny days, but I'm the opposite. The sun doesn't give me energy but saps it out of me whereas the cooler gray days energize me, raise my spirits. 

2. In between my stops at the two medical centers, I cruised to Cougar Bay on Lake CdA and visited longtime friend Jeff Steve at the lake house where he grew up, overlooking the bay and the lake. He fixed us a bracing and delicious breakfast. I got to meet his longtime friend, Kit, who is a longtime Eugene resident, but our paths never crossed there it seems.  I enjoyed getting acquainted with Kit and had a most enjoyable visit with Jeff, especially as he told me about new developments in his world as a builder of canoes, kayaks, surf boards, and standing paddle boards. 

3. I left Sacred Heart and made my way to Pines Road and drove south to Freeman, Rockford, and on into Idaho where I stopped in at the CdA Casino for an hour or so of Winning Wednesday fun. I relaxed, kept my losses low today, and, after I used the free play money I got for this week, I used my August food voucher and enjoyed a mushroom and Swiss burger on the house. 

My hour and a half playing and dining was fun. Even more fun and enjoyable, though, was the drive from South Spokane through pine forest land and golden grain fields through Freeman and Rockford. I enjoyed the drive so much that I'm thinking about adding some time to my next trip to the casino and driving this Spokane Valley to Rockford route again, possibly stopping at the Harvest Moon in Rockford for a bite to eat. 

Come to think of it, this might be a fun trip to make after my next labs at Kootenai. 

Unless I hear differently, that should be in two weeks. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-05-2025: Mark Telford's Change, Sylvia Telford's Frustration and Insight, Party Wings in the Wok

1. It's remarkable to me that at least in the early days of assuming his role as a local bank manager in Dover, after having been an international banker conducting business by hopping from one European country to another, that Mark Telford (played by Peter Barkworth), the titular character of the 1979 ten episode series, Telford's Change, is able to apply the crenative thinking and problem solving that worked so well in high stakes international deal making to the humble situations of everyday people looking to the bank for help in Dover. 

Beginner's luck? 

I'll keep watching to find out. 

2. On the domestic front, his marriage to Sylvia (played superbly by Hannah Gordon) is not proceeding well at all. Hannah Gordon's portrayal of Sylvia as insightful and frustrated, unwilling to move to Dover and eager to establish herself as a behind the scenes employee in the theater world of London is magnificent. I won't say much more except I find myself hanging on her every word as she expresses her frustration with her husband and examining myself as a husband now, yes, but also over years long gone, starting in 1976. I'm also wondering how closely I listened to her and how much I learned when I first watched this series, with my first wife, in England, in 1979.

3. I had fun for a few minutes at dinner time quick frying chicken party wings in hot oil in the wok and doing my best to get panko to stick to them as I enjoyed them for dinner. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-04-2025: *This Sporting Life* Taxed Me, Art and Darkness, *Telford's Change*: Ep 1

1. It's a great pleasure for me that The Criterion Channel keeps the collection titled The British New Wave available, maybe permanently? 

For starters, film critic Alicia Malone gives a superb introduction to the collection, focusing on the vision, directors, and actors of this short-lived movement in cinema.

These movies, made between about 1959 and 1963, for the most part, take as their subject matter the lives of working class men and women in industrial town and cities in the north of England. 

Most of these movies were shot in black and white and often feel as much like documentaries as fictional movies. 

I have to brace myself before I watch these movies. They often feature angry, disillusioned, and sometimes violent men in volatile relationships with women. The movies I've watched in this collection have been tense, sometimes brutal, often bleak. 

Some time ago, I had watched Albert Finney and Rachel Roberts in the British New Wave movie, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and after seeing Rachel Roberts in Murder on the Orient Express, I wanted to watch her in another movie. 

Therefore, today I clicked on This Sporting Life (1963) to watch Rachel Roberts perform with Richard Harris. 

I admired the honesty and naked emotional content of this movie as well as the imaginative ways the movie told its story and how it was filmed. 

I also had a lot of trouble enduring its tension and outbursts of violence. 

Both Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts portrayed the grief, despair, and disillusionment of their characters brilliantly. 

The movie focused primarily on Richard Harris's character, Frank Machin, a rugby player and a man divided between his hunger for love and companionship and his aggressive drive for control and power, whether on the rugby pitch or in his relationship with the widow Margaret Hammond, played by Rachel Roberts. 

Watching this movie to its end was taxing, but I'm glad I stuck with it, not because I enjoyed its subject matter or felt good about the story, but because as a work of art, as a showcase of great writing, acting, and filmmaking, and as a searing look at the lives of working class people in relation to moneyed people, this was an unforgettably superb movie. 

2. I thought a lot today about how when I was younger, I almost thrived on watching movies like This Sporting Life. I don't know when the change occurred, when it became more and more taxing for me to watch frank portrayals of brokenness, violence, and despair. 

I concluded today that when I was younger, I found these movies exciting because I found art itself exciting. 

Discovering that storytellers, poets, filmmakers, painters, and other artists could strike so deeply into the core of human experience thrilled me. I think I'd been led to avoid or deny darkness, to seek out stories and movies that make us feel good. But, there was plenty in life, even as a guy in my late teens and early 20s, that I didn't feel good about and through plays, poems, novels, movies, and other art forms, I discovered I wasn't alone. The experience of feeling connected to Shakespeare, Flannery O'Connor, Rembrandt, and many others exhilarated me so much that I couldn't get enough of this art, whether the content was uplifting or bleak. 

I would hear others say that dark stories were so depressing and within myself I'd think, "No, it wasn't. It was a brilliant portrayal of what is dark in life, but executed so brilliantly that it's not depressing."

Now that I'm older and possibly more aware of the weight of the darker elements of life, I still appreciate the artistic brilliance of a movie like This Sporting Life, but my appreciation of the art no longer exceeds the difficulty of confronting the difficult realities of human life.

As a result, I can't binge watch Broadchurch and I can't come to the end of This Sporting Life and do what I did when I was young and load up another similarly bleak movie.

I need time now that I didn't need when I was younger to recover. 

3. After fixing myself yet another vegetable stir fry for dinner, I did what turned out to be smart. 

I watched the first episode of Telford's Change. 

The setting, tone, language, and concerns of Telford's Change are very different from the movies of the British New Wave. 

But, like those movies, as this first episode developed, Telford's Change has at its core conflict between a man and a woman -- in this case, between Mark Telford and his wife Sylvia, played by the formidable Hannah Gordon.

The Telfords live in a world that contrasts sharply from the working class lives portrayed in the British New Wave movies. 

But wealth and comfort do not insulate Mark and Sylvia Telford from conflict and resentments in their marriage and as Mark Telford makes his change, as he leaves the world of international banking to become the manager of a small branch bank in Dover, the Telford's conflicts grow and the next nine episodes will examine what direction each of their lives moves in and whether they can find a way to resolve the difficulties that simmer and sometimes boil over between them. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-03-2025: Corn Casserole for Family Dinner, Olivia Colman in *Broadchurch*, OMG! *The Dresser*

 1. This afternoon I melted a stick of butter, let it cool, and added to it an 8 oz container of sour cream and two eggs. I whisked it all together. 

Into this mixture, I added about four chopped slices of bacon fried crisp, a can of kernel corn and a can of creamed corn, and a small box of Jiffy muffin mix. I stirred it up, sprayed Pam on a Pyrex baking dish, poured the mixture into the dish, and baked it at 350 degrees. 

After a half an hour, I removed this corn casserole from the oven. As I figured it would be, it was jiggly. I topped it, at this point, with grated sharp cheddar cheese, returned it to the oven, and twenty minutes later the corn casserole was baked and ready to rest.

Around 5:30, I showed up with my family dinner assignment completed to Carol and Paul's patio.  Christy was in charge of dinner. She assigned Cosette to make an appetizer and Cosette presented a plate of superb twice-baked potatoes. Christy made a summer cocktail. 

Upon finishing the appetizers, we dove into the main event: Christy prepared meat falling off the bones baby back ribs, Carol (and Paul?) prepared a fresh and tasty green salad, I offered the corn casserole I made, and Christy added garlic bread to our meal. We were all very impressed with how beautifully each part of the meal complimented the others and we enjoyed a cooling and refreshing dessert: Christy brought ice cream Drumsticks. 

It was fun having Cosette, Bucky, and Taylor with us and a most welcome relief that the temperatures were moderate and an occasional breeze made being outside even more comfortable. 

2. Having watched the stellar actresses work in Murder on the Orient Express moved me to want to watch one of my favorite contemporaries, Olivia Colman, this afternoon. She, along with David Tennant, are the leads in a British detective series, Broadchurch. 

From her first appearance in this series' first episode to its end, Olivia Colman filled me admiration and moved me to tears. I love her work. 

If I ever needed a reminder as to why, in general, I do not (maybe cannot) binge watch a series like this, Broadchurch provided it. 

The series opens with the death of an eleven-year-old boy followed his family, the town of Broadchurch, and the media finding out, all of which intensely unsettled me. 

At the episode's end, I couldn't go on to Episode 2. I needed time to settle down, to let my concern for Olivia Colman's character cool, and time to slow down my racing mind. Will I watch an episode a day? One or two episodes a week? I don't know. I only know that I won't be watching one episode after another after another in the same day. 

3. When I returned home from family dinner, a strong desire to watch The Dresser overcame me. I'm sure since this movie hit the theaters in 1983-84 that I've watched it at least a half a dozen times, maybe ten. 

Murder on the Orient Express inspired me to want to watch more Albert Finney, to watch him play in this move the role of an aging Shakespearan actor leading a traveling theater company during the German bombing of England in WWII.  The actor, known only as Sir, is experiencing a descent into madness similar to Shakespeare's King Lear and the tempest in his mind is not, as in King Lear, made external by a thunderstorm, but by the fire bombings and the savagery of the Nazis war on England. 

Sir, and Albert Finney's remarkable portrayal of him, is mammoth, attention grabbing, even dominant. It's awesome. 

But the movie isn't titled Sir. 

It's titled The Dresser. 

The story's dresser, named Norman, and played by Tom Courtenay, has been attending to preparing Sir's wardrobe, overseeing his application of makeup, preparing his baths, pouring his tea and his beers, and navigating Sir's volatility for many, many years. 

The dresser is not Sir's only devoted servant. 

The mighty Eileen Atkins plays the role of Madge who has been stage managing Sir's company's productions for nearly twenty years.

Sir's descent into madness and the passages of him acting on stage are loud, riveting, and unforgettable.

But, again, the movie is titled The Dresser, and by the end of this movie we see how it's been Norman's story all along -- and, Madge's, too -- a story of how they have been affected to the very core of their being by working in service to Sir all these years. 

I wish I could say more, but I don't want to spoil this movie if you haven't seen it and decide to watch one day. 

I will say, though, that Eileen Atkin's portrayal of Madge moved me and stuck with me long after the movie ended in a way that I had never experienced before. 

Wendy Hiller

Rachel Roberts 

Ingrid Bergman

Olivia Colman

Eileen Atkins 

What a weekend! 

Three Beautiful Things 08-02-2025: An Ideal Day in Indiana and Wallace, An Afternoon with Agatha Christie, My Bad and Good Luck with *Telford's Change*

1. I admit it. I tend to idealize. But, when photographs from Lake Michigan start flying into my phone and I see gorgeous weather, family members relaxing,  and bountiful snacks, and, then,  when Debbie sums up pictures she sent with the word "perfect", I think my sense that all those gathered at Brian's lake house are having an ideal weekend together is accurate! 

Likewise, Christy posted pictures of herself and Cosette, Taylor, Bucky, Carol, Zoe, and Paul at the theater in Wallace and everyone looked so happy that I had to believe they had an ideal evening together, too. 

2. Here at home, I didn't rely on seeing pictures of other family members' happy times to be happy myself. I returned, after a lengthy hiatus, to movie watching today. 

I did a Bing search for independent movies of the 1970s, thinking the result would be movies like The King of Marvin Gardens or The Last Picture Show, that kind of thing, but the list I read (it was one of several possibilities) included a movie I'd never seen, that I didn't know was independently produced, and whose stellar cast piqued my interest. 

So I watched the 1974 Sidney Lumet directed Agatha Christie mystery, Murder on the Orient Express. 

I got a huge kick out of this movie for at least two reasons. 

First, I loved watching this cast work together. Who was in it? I won't list everyone, but the cast included Albert Finney, Vanessa Redgrave, Ingrid Bergman, Wendy Hiller, Martin Balsam, Sean Connery, and one of my very favorites, Rachel Roberts. (Her presence in the movie made me want to rewatch two of her performances that are most memorable to me: her work with Albert Finney in Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings and her mighty turn in Picnic at Hanging Rock.)

Second, the storyline was audacious, and I completely believed in it every step of the way. No suspension of disbelief for this guy. I just believed and my belief rewarded me with fun, pleasure, and admiration. Maybe what I admired most was that these stellar actors all played characters who were themselves playing characters they invented. (I won't disclose why.) Characters playing characters is one of my favorite challenges to watch actors pull off in plays and movies -- it's like Doublemint gum: it doubles my pleasure and doubles my fun. 

3. After I made myself a delicious vegetable stir fry for dinner, I decided to find out after many months if a DVD set I purchased on Etsy was any good. 

I had my doubts about this purchase when I made it, but I decided you win some, you lose all the rest, and I bought three disks that I thought would have on them the entire season of the 1979 BBC drama Telford's Change, a multi-episode series that aired on BBC on Sunday evenings. My first wife and I were traveling in England from January to early April of 1979 and, on Sundays, we made sure before we rented a room that the accommodations included a TV lounge so that we could watch the next episode and, lo and behold, whether we were in Cornwall, Wales, London, or anywhere else, we succeeded in seeing Telford's Change to its conclusion. 

I've never found a streaming service that carried this program, so when I saw that this DVD set was for sale, knowing that it had been recorded off of a television (I guess), I decided to buy it. 

Upon inspection tonight, I discovered that all the episodes were not on these three disks. 

Crucially, the first episode was missing. 

Ha! Lose all the rest. 

I tossed my purchase in the dustbin. 

But, my failed online purchase story has a happy ending. 

Since I had last checked, someone posted the entire series on YouTube and when I cast Episode 1 on the Vizio, the sound and picture were superior to the crummy DVDs I bought.

So I'll watch the series this way and all will be right with the world. 

Hey, Kenton -- you have asked me in the past if I ever found Telford's Change online. 

Now I have and here's the link:  TELFORD'S CHANGE 1 

Ads included. 

I'll let you know if I find problems in this YouTube recording of the program.