Three Beautiful Things 09-19-2026: Science, Stir Fry, Calming Sleep Sounds

 1. I spent much of the day reading Cassandra Leah Quave's book, The Plant Hunter and thought a lot about how difficult and challenging it is for scientists working within university systems to secure funding and places to do their work, especially if the research they are undertaking is outside the box of traditional approaches. Ever since I joined the Science/Nature book club, I've been learning a lot about the difficulties and obstacles scientific researchers face. The memoir dimension of this book is fascinating as is the learning about the ground she works to break in researching ways to combat persistent infections like MRSA and staph infections. 

2. While I read this book and relaxed at home, Debbie had a fun afternoon out on the town where she ran into and had fun interacting with former students, a former fellow teacher, and friends at The Lounge. 

She texted me that she was "in a groove" (great news!) and asked me to take care of myself for dinner. 

Gladly. 

I whipped up a very satisfying and easy vegetable stir fry with Thai wheat noodles and look forward to having the pork chop dinner we were going to have tonight on Sunday. 

3. I'm having trouble falling asleep at night. To help me settle down, I've been playing Spotify's offering called "Calming Sleep Sounds" once I'm in bed. It's helping. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-18-2026: Update on Christy (From My Perspective), Premium Yakkin at The Lounge, Chili Dogs at the Elks

 1. Today I drove Christy to the Shoshone Medical Center for lab work. We talked about the impact having been in sepsis continues to have on her system and how it helps explain the fatigue, reduced appetite, and other trying symptoms she has been experiencing. 

Things are going very well with physical therapy. The physical therapists have been encouraging Christy to increase the range of her walking, to walk up and down longer staircases (but not alone), and to engage in other activities. At the gym, they continue to work with Christy to strengthen her muscles, improve her balance, and other similar things. 

Knowing that recovery from being in sepsis can take months, I thought back to late 1999 and the year 2000 and how my recovery from having contracted bacterial meningitis took at least a year. During that year, I experienced fatigue, headaches, lightheadedness, depression, and other symptoms. 

I hope Christy's recovery from being in sepsis doesn't take a year, but maladies like sepsis and bacterial meningitis hammer one's system and the aftermath can last long after the condition itself has cleared up. 

So that's my update on Christy's recovery -- from my perspective. 

It's great to see her mobility progressing so well and, at the same time, sobering to know that she has much more than the hip replacement to recover from. 

Christy told me that having come to understand the complexity of her recovery has helped her feel more patient, knowing that the way she's been feeling lousy is not unusual given what she's been through and what the medical pros continue to monitor. 

I think that's a very good thing. Patience is a great help in nurturing the positive attitude and outlook that Christy has worked hard to maintain throughout this ordeal. 

2. Ed and I strolled into The Lounge around 3:45 and immediately engaged in some premium yakkin' with Abby, Fitz, and, when he wasn't busy serving customers, Cas. The guys told a lot of great stories. We had some high level talk about baseball. We thoroughly enjoyed our session.

3. So why didn't Ed and I stay longer? 

Well, tonight the Kellogg Elks served chili dogs so Ed and I went across the street and enjoyed a delicious chili dog dinner. Ed and I continued to yak about all kinds of stuff and we saw some people we've known forever.

It was especially great to see Tona. Her cancer treatment and has been rough on her. I thought she looked great with her new haircut (even knowing she'd rather have longer hair) and it was uplifting to know that after dinner at the Elks that she'd be doing some camping a short ways away. 

After dinner, Ed headed home and I returned to The Lounge. Debbie had arrived. She got involved in conversations with a couple different friends and I got to yak for a while with Rob Gillies. He filled me in on the spreading of Jack Lunger's ashes and we talked about some events that occurred when we were much younger -- like over fifty years younger! 

Three Beautiful Things 09-17-2026: Symphony Lecture, Pho and Spring Rolls, Rib Eyes and Plants

 1. Jetting over to Spokane to the MAC Auditorium this morning to attend Spokane Symphony conductor James Lowe present an hour-long lecture about the three pieces the symphony will play in concert over the weekend invigorated me. I knew very little about the three composers, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Amy Beach, or even the much more famous Sergei Prokofiev. 

James Lowe focused, in part, on the restraints each of them worked under. Kabalevsky and Prokofiev composed in the Soviet Union during the Stalin regime and its mandates regarding what was artistically acceptable and Amy Beach performed and composed under restrictions placed on her by her mother and husband. 

Learning about these restraints, learning about how these composers worked within them, and hearing some samples of the compositions we'll hear performed on Sunday made me very eager to hear this concert. 

2. After the lecture, I meandered up to the Garland District for a bowl of chicken pho and an order of tofu spring rolls at the cozy pan-Asian restaurant, Little Noodle. I enjoyed eating these Asian selections again after a long absence. I definitely hope to return to Little Noodle and try some other dishes featured on their menu. 

Part of why it's always a pleasure to visit the Garland District is the promise of Mary Lou's ice cream at the Milk Bottle. I topped off my lunch meal with a couple of scoops of Salted Caramel ice cream which left my never ending yearning for ice cream satisfied. 

3. Back home, Debbie fixed what for me was luxury dinner: thick rib eye steaks and a medley of roasted vegetables. 

What a great way to enjoy a day: a stimulating and delicious trip to Spokane, a superb meal at home, and reading an increasingly enjoyable book as I delve further into Cassandra Leah Quave's The Plant Hunter and learn more about medicinal plants and join Quaves as she learns more about plant-based cuisine in southern Italy and some of the accompanying spiritual rituals meant to enhance the healing qualities of the plants. Her teachers are very elderly women whose wisdom, practices, and knowledge is being lost, but Quaves is documenting their practices as a way to preserve and learn from them. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-16-2026: Insomnia Uncured, Electronic Keyboards, *The Plant Hunter*

1.  I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep Tuesday night on into very early Wednesday morning. I tried a music contrast that was very enjoyable, but didn't work as far as putting me to sleep.  First, I played the 4th Symphony by Johannes Brahms and it might have wound me up more than settled me down since I love it so much. 

Then, thanks to listening to "Sirius" and "Eye in the Sky" by The Alan Parsons Project during our Tuesday family lunch, I decided to play Eve, an Alan Parsons Project album that I listened to way too much during the time my first wife and I separated nearly forty-five years ago. Back then, the album encouraged the self-pity of my late 20s and it probably wasn't the best album to play as a way to settle down and sleep. But, I gave myself over to memories, mostly from 1982-84, and thought a lot about how lost and afraid I felt and how poorly I handled it. I'm happy to say I no longer have access to the self-pity, disorientation, grief, tantrums, and self-delusion I experienced back then, so while I remembered how I behaved and felt, tonight I did not feel it all over again. 

2.  Eve and other pop music I listened to today brought to mind how much the electronic keyboards and synthesizers made music from that general time period memorable. In fact, I didn't enter back into the self-pity and confusion I felt nearly forty-five years ago so much as I let the electronic keyboard sounds of The Alan Parsons Project and bands contemporary with that group wash over me and I thought how I enjoy that instrumentation way more now than I did in my twenties and early thirties, whether its jazz, progressive rock, New Wave music, pop, or soundscapes of Pink Floyd and others. 

3. I spent much of the day diving into the next selection for our Science/Nature book club: The Plant Hunter: A Scientist's Quest for Nature's Next Medicines by Cassandra Leah Quave. 

The book is a fascinating combination memoir and study of medicinal plants. In the early chapters, Quave tells the stories of her trips, as a teenager, into the Amazon River basin to not only search for medicinal plants, but to learn from indigenous experts about the powers of these plants, how to prepare them, dosages, and how to combine prescribing these medicines with exercises meant to calm and heal the patient's spirit. 

Going into the jungles of the Amazon helps Cassandra Leah Quave decide that she will not go to medical school, as she had always dreamed she would, but that she would study to become what she is now: an ethnobotanist. 

More on this fascinating book later as I read further into it and as I fill in more of Cassandra Leah Quave's back story. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-15-2026: Christy and Her Cane, Lunchtime Family Dinner, Debbie's Back

 1. After two weeks of the onset of her current fatigue, weakened appetite, and other symptoms, Christy continues to struggle with feeling lousy. But, she is making slow progress with her mobility thanks to her dedication to Physical Therapy. 

Today, thanks to work she and her therapist did on Monday, Christy used her cane, rather than her walker, to walk into the Shoshone Medical Center to have her heart monitor removed and she walked with her cane from the street to Carol and Paul's front door and back again, after dinner, when we went to Carol and Paul's for a lunchtime family dinner. 

2. Carol planned a Mediterranean meal. We started with Christy's Outrageous Stuffed Celery as an appetizer and then sat at the Roberts' dining table where we enjoyed Carol's Smashed Beef Kabobs over yogurt and cucumbers, Debbie's leafless Mediterranean salad, and lightly charred pieces of Naan bread (Carol knew the bread wasn't Mediterranean!).  Our dessert wasn't Mediterranean either. Carol and Paul have a variety of partially eaten containers of ice cream, and we enjoyed an ice cream buffet. 

3. The last time the five of us ate family dinner together was back in May.

It was fun having Debbie back at the table and she caught us up on different things as well as what's going on with Jack and Eloise at school. 

We talked about a variety of other subjects ranging from Plato to our family calendar and had fun listening to a couple of Alan Parsons Project tunes ("Sirius" and "Eye in the Sky") which led to a series of soft rock tunes by 10CC, Christopher Cross, Ambrosia, and others  from nearly fifty years ago.

Three Beautiful Things 09-14-2026: Labs Completed, Food for Two, Debbie's Dinner Rocks

 1. I blasted out of Kellogg around 7:30 this morning and rocketed to the lab I frequent at Kootenai Health to complete the blood work I started on September 4. There was a glitch in my standing order on the 4th. Several tests I needed done didn't get done. I whisked over today to get those tests completed. 

It took a minute or two to sort out with Teresa, the all-pro phlebotomist, what vials I needed drawn and which ones had been drawn on Sept. 4 and we efficiently got it straightened out and soon I was finished and could head straight to Blue Coffee for a fast breaking chocolate croissant and a latte. 

Good news! All the results that came in today were great. My Tacrolimus test can't be processed locally and I'll get that result in a day or two. 

2. Those of you who live by yourself might know what I mean: it's easy to fall into eating habits and not have a lot of culinary variety. Over the past three months, I enjoyed what I prepared for myself, but, I admit, I was fixing food within a narrow range of soups, stir fries, wraps, and eggs dishes.

With Debbie back, however, variety returns. 

Shopping for two of us instead of just for me made my trips to Trader Joe's and Costco today much more fun as I began to anticipate fun meals to come -- prepared by either one of us. 

3. And sure enough, for dinner tonight Debbie prepared Mediterranean ground beef and beans to put on top of white rice. I'm particularly partial to the flavors of cumin and cinnamon, which I loved in this dinner, and loved how the cranberry beans worked in this dish. Over the last few weeks, I've steered away from canned beans (which I love, btw) and have been soaking and cooking dried beans. That's what Debbie did for this dish. 

It worked! 

Three Beautiful Things 09-13-2026: Scam Alert Update, Canceled Trip, Discussions

 1. I have never seen with my own eyes the scam warning some followers of my blog get when they click on the link to my daily posts. I am understanding, however, that for many the alert has not deterred them from going forward and reading my blog posts. 

That's great news. 

I've learned that for others, the scam alert blocks them from accessing my blog posts. 

I am sending one of these people the link to my posts via Facebook Messenger and that works. 

If you are being blocked by the scam alert, let me know in the comments. I can send you the link via Facebook Messenger. If I have the right info, I can text you the link. I can also email you the entire blog post, if I have your emaill address.

2.  I had plans to drive to Spokane today for an event at Auntie's Bookstore featuring Meghan Jones, whom Debbie and I have met in the Science/Nature Book Club we attend. Meghan Jones is an artist. A few months ago, I went to the Chase Gallery at Spokane's City Hall twice to enjoy her paintings of deep ocean life. 

The Auntie's Bookstore event featured Meghan Jones' new book, The Unusual Ocean: Who Lives in the Deep?. Her book introduces children to paintings of twenty deep ocean inhabitants along with written text about each one. 

Alas, I woke up this morning with what turned out to be temporary unrest in my innards and decided not to risk having this unrest recur on the drive to Spokane or in the bookstore. 

It all cleared up this afternoon, merely leaving me a little fatigued.

3. Having been apart since late May, Debbie and I haven't had a chance to discuss all sorts of things ranging from family news to travel plans to taking care of things on the business side of our life together. 

We got started talking about some of these things today and these discussions will continue in the days and weeks ahead. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-12-2026: Debbie Returns, Fire in the Hole, Gibbs' Joy

 1. Early this afternoon, I picked up Debbie at the Spokane airport and we fell right into easy conversation about all kinds of things: how things are going in New York, books we've been reading, how things are in Kellogg, with special attention to Christy's rehab and recovery, and other things. Once home, Debbie assumed her usual spot on the couch, Gibbs was all over her, jumping and licking, and within minutes it was as if she hadn't been gone for three and a half months. 

2. Debbie wanted to have some food from a Kellogg eatery. I told her that ever since she'd gone to New York, I'd been hungry for a Fire in the Hole pizza from Zany's. Debbie had been thinking more about sandwiches, but after a while she agreed: we'll share Zany's chicken, pineapple, jalapeno pepper, and homemade buffalo sauce pizza. 

It was awesome. We have some left over. And Debbie not only brought home the pizza, she also checked out the scene at The Beanery and had a beer at Radio Brewing where she ran into Mike and Deanne Fitzgerald for some very enjoyable yakkin'. She also made a quick stop for a few items at Yoke's. 

She is already getting back into the swing of life in Kellogg! 

3. Gibbs is one very happy dog! 

On the phone, leading up to her return, Debbie and I joked about which of us Gibbs would choose to be close to once Debbie was home -- after all, Gibbs and I had become good pals in her absence. 

No contest! 

Debbie is definitely Gibbs' person! 

I'm always here for backup, but when Debbie's in the house, Gibbs wants to be with her! 

Three Beautiful Things 09-11-2026: Busy, Family Meal, Worn Out

 1. Christy, Carol, Paul, and I congregated at the Roberts' house at 2 p.m. today for family dinner. There's a lot going on among our family members for the next three months: play rehearsals for Carol and Paul and then performances, rehab and appointments for Christy, trips to Spokane for readings and classical music for Debbie and me, and out of town travel for Carol and Paul and, separately, a trip to Cincinnati for Debbie and me. 

Consequently, our accustomed times for family dinner aren't going to pan out, so we are getting together on whatever days and at whatever times we can to squeeze in a meal. 

2, As Christy rehabs and recovers, Carol and Paul's house works the best as our family dinner home base. 

I, however, was in charge of the meal and I made a beef stroganoff sauce to put over egg noodles that Carol prepared. Carol also prepared a leafless salad with vegetables from her garden and I made a side dish of lemon couscous and broccoli.

We began our meal with grapes Paul grew, recently picked pears, and mixed nuts. 

Carol and Paul had handful, at least, of partially filled containers of ice cream/gelato and all of us got to choose what we wanted scooped into our bowl from this buffet of frozen treats. 

3. I arrived home around 5:00 from our afternoon meal exhausted.

I had a lot of cleaning up to do in the kitchen, living room, and bathroom in preparation for Debbie's early Saturday afternoon arrival, and pushed myself to get some of it done. 

I took breaks. 

I fell asleep while resting. 

I gave up and resolved to go to bed and get right back to work first thing Saturday morning and complete the tasks I didn't finish today. 

My system seems worn out and in need of rest and sleep as it continues to work on my body's behalf to get rid of this bug that's been wailing away inside me for the last ten or eleven days. 

The bug is almost gone, but my need for rest and sleep, like the Dude, abides. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-10-2026: Stability, Bookstore Order, An Evening with Author Peter Heller

 1. Today I met with nephrologist Dr. Bieber to review my blood work and talk about my health in general. He confirmed that no doubt this cold I've had has lingered, in part, because of the medicines I take to suppress my immune system. He listened to my lungs. They are all clear. I'm nearly done with this cold. 

My renal blood test results are stable and I am, as of now, in very good kidney health two years and four months after the transplant. 

One glitch, though: for unknown reasons, the full order for blood tests didn't make it to Teresa who drew my blood. 

Dr. Bieber would still like to have my blood tested for cholesterol levels, Tacrolimus levels, and a couple other things. 

I'll go to CdA first thing Monday morning and have the tests run that got left out on Sept 4th. 

2. I drove to Spokane later this afternoon. 

One small accomplishment: I successfully paid for street parking using the ParkMobile app.

More important: I picked up a copy of our next book club I'd ordered at Auntie's Bookstore. Its title: The Plant Hunter. 

3. Until his name popped up on the fall schedule for Northwest Passages programs, I'd never heard of the writer Peter Heller. A couple of days ago I realized that his appearance tonight as a Northwest Passages featured writer coincided with his book, The Dog Stars, having been made into a movie and recently released into theaters. 

Just seven or eight months ago, I never would have attended this program. 

I hadn't heard of Peter Heller. 

I hadn't heard of his book The Dog Stars and the only things I knew about the movie were that Ridley Scott directed it and Josh Brolin, whose memoir I just read, is in the cast. 

But, in the spring of 2026, Debbie and I decided to attend these Northwest Passages programs every time -- unless circumstances outside our control stopped us. 

Along with joining the Science/Nature Book Club, committing ourselves to go hear these writers was a stellar decision. 

Peter Heller blew me away. 

I'll just mention two things he talked about that uplifted me. 

First, whenever writers of prose talk about the attention they give to the sound of their words, to the lyrical qualities of language, to often being as driven to write passages for the quality of their musicality even more than their literal meaning, I'm enthused. 

I loved not only Peter Heller's discussion of what his prose owes to his love of and devotion to poetry, I loved hearing him recite two poems:  a part of W.B. Yeats' "Prayer for my Daughter" (his father often read/recited this poem to the eleven-year-old Peter Heller) and Li Shang-Yin's poem, "When Will I Be Home?"

Secondly, when he talked about his book being rewritten as a screenplay by Mark L. Smith, he gave special emphasis to not minding at all that Smith made changes to his novel that he felt would work better as cinema. 

It was music to my ears when Peter Heller told us that he knows novels and screenplays/movies are different art forms. 

He told us that a movie based on a book is not the book. Inevitably, the two works of art will be different. 

He didn't go as far as I do when I watch a movie based on a book or play I am familiar with. 

My approach is to remove the original source from my mind, watch the movie for what it is, and not use up mental energy keeping track of changes and I find it impossible to declare which I liked better. 

But that Peter Heller was so open to having changes made to his book and that he articulated so clearly his trust in Mark L. Smith and that he so eloquently explained how a movie adaptation cannot be the book, well, it made my night! 

Three Beautiful Things 09-09-2026: My Energy, Christy's Energy, Chickpea Salad

 1. I'm not fully free of nasal congestion and sinus pressure, but the good news is that I have more energy and I'm not nearly as short-winded as I have been over the last week. 

2. Carol drove Christy for her physical therapy appointment this afternoon and afterward Christy reported that she had a great workout, leading to me write with some confidence that Christy is regaining energy, too, and feeling better. 

3. I had a can of Trader Joe's Greek Chickpeas with Oregano and Parsley on hand and combined it with radishes, carrots, feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, and Kalamata olives to make a filling and very tasty salad this evening. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-08-2026: Reflections on Kendra Langford Shaw's Novel *The Pillagers' Guide to Arctic Pianos*

1. I spent most of today finishing The Pillagers' Guide to Arctic Pianos. 

I didn't foresee at all how this novel would fit so perfectly with two aspects of my pursuit of the arts in 2026. 

First of all, Debbie and I have decided to attend every Northwest Passages presentation we possibly can in Spokane, whether or not we are familiar with the featured writer. So, in July, I learned about Kendra Langford Shaw and her new book. Committing myself to read these books I hear the authors talk about has greatly enriched my reading life. 

Second, Debbie and I have joined the Science/Nature Book Club at Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane and one of the great rewards of reading The Pillagers' Guide to Arctic Pianos was discovering, from the opening chapter, that while this novel is very much a character driven family saga, even more, for me, it's a book exploring the power of the natural world in the fictional Arctic site she created. 

2. Whether it's sea lions, moose, farming and eating octopuses, flooding rains, a rampaging river, fjords, reefs, goats, chickens, demanding trails and barely passable interior roads, vulnerability to disease and injury in the wild, and any number of other elements of the natural world these characters confront daily, this novel examines not only the power and grandeur of nature in the Arctic, it examines the indomitability of the non-human natural world in relation to human beings. 

As a result, this novel explores survival, the ever-present reality of death, and the combination of courage and foolhardiness of generations of characters as they move into this unforgiving land, working in a variety of ways to make the best life they can. 

And then there's the pianos.

And the piano hunters. 

You'll have to read the book to find out what this completely make-believe aspect of the novel is all about, but it's inseparable from the power of the arctic elements and the persistence and dreams of characters in his novel. 

3. I admit it. 

I'm not crazy about the idea that writers "kill off" characters, as if it's cruel or random or a punishment. 

When Kendra Langford Shaw spoke in Spokane back in July, an audience member asked her about "killing off" characters. 

Shaw never repeated the phrase "kill off" but talked about characters' deaths in her book as catalysts for change and as challenges that force characters to evaluate how they will move forward now that the deceased character is no longer with them. These deaths transform the ongoing story. 

I won't give away who dies in this novel, but I will say that as painful as it was to experience their deaths, each death moved the story forward in ways that never would have happened had the characters not died. The deaths deepened the story, gave us as readers insight into grief, love, flexibility, service to others, resolve, and other virtues. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-07-2026: Holding Pattern, Arctic Stories, Gibbs' New Life

 1. Monday -- the seventh day of my health not being quite up to snuff. I'm in a holding pattern right now. Slight nasal congestion. Occasional cough. No sore throat. Sleeping on and off during the day. Mild lightheadedness. This state of things is better than having these symptoms worsen, but I hope they clear up before long. 

The good news is that I can function, can get done what I need to. 

2. Today, I continued reading the adventures of life over the generations as told by Kendra Langford Shaw in her novel The Pillagers' Guide to Arctic Pianos. I enjoy the way Shaw couples fantastical storytelling with the development of characters whom I care about. I've got about a hundred pages left to read and look forward to seeing how the book's conclusion helps me understand what Shaw ultimately portrays about life, family, love, friendships, courage, endurance, and the other dimensions of human life her novel explores. 

3. I knew when Copper died, it would definitely change Gibbs' life. He's coming to realize that he has the whole ground floor of our house to himself now and this new development has drawn us closer together. I've been reading in the Vizio room, often stretching my legs out on our ottoman. Gibbs now can join me while I read in this room and he alternates between relaxing and sleeping on the ottoman and jumping up into the chair I sit in, pressing himself against me for more relaxation and sleep. 

Moreover, Gibbs also now fully realizes that he no longer has to spend nights alone on our living room sofa.

He can sleep with me at night, sometimes pressing against me, sometimes wanting to be alone and not making contact with me while on the bed. 

Debbie will be back home on Saturday and Gibbs will experience another huge change, one he will flip out over and love: he'll have the love and presence of Debbie back in his life again. 

He might go back and forth between being with both of us, but history says that once Debbie is back, Gibbs will devote almost all of his attention to her and this is exactly as it should be. 

She is his primary companion. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-06-2026: Updating Christy's Recovery From My Point of View

 1. I spent some time with Christy today. I picked up a grocery order for her and helped put the groceries away. I picked up a couple of packages for her that went to her former "residence" at Carol and Paul's house and helped put away those items. 

I thought Christy seemed a bit stronger today than she has the previous several days, but was still in a weakened state. She's been up and moving around with the aid of her walker and she got some work done in the kitchen and elsewhere in her house. Her voice sounded stronger. 

2. We talked about the renal panel results from her latest labs. Very strong! With other things going on, it's sure a relief to know that Christy's kidneys are functioning beautifully. 

Tomorrow I'll give Christy a lift to the Shoshone Medical Center where she'll be fitted for a heart monitor. Her PCP wants to determine if the AFib she experienced at the Kootenai Health Hospital was a temporary problem (that's what the doctor thinks) or if it's ongoing. She'll wear the monitor for about a week. 

Christy and I also talked about blood pressure and it looks like going off of blood pressure medicine is helping raise her low blood pressure up to more acceptable levels. 

3. Christy has been experiencing lightheadedness for the past several days. It's been more acute at night when she has to get up. She's been careful about getting up slowly, not rushing things, which is really smart. 

I, too, experienced lightheadedness for much of the day today (Sunday). 

Christy and I agreed that both of us must have caught a bug at family dinner Saturday. We both think it's part of what's had Christy down since about last Tuesday and we wondered if it might be the source of the lightheadedness we've both experienced. 

It just seems, since both of us are getting solid results when we measure our blood pressure, that the lightheadedness is not because of low blood pressure. 

Let's just say it's this bug that's kept Christy down. 

The resulting fatigue, lightheadedness, and loss of appetite have cut into Christy's efforts to rehab her new hip. 

Her next PT session is scheduled for Wednesday, and it'll be great news if she feels strong enough to make that appointment and get going again on her rehab program. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-05-2026: Returning, Recover(ed)ing, Reading

 1. Unless some unforeseen circumstances arise, I will pick up Debbie at the Spokane airport on September 12th early in the afternoon. 🎊🎊

2. I felt a lot better today and so began to deal with the clutter and neglect dominating the kitchen! 

3. Feeling better, for me, means being able to enjoy reading again and so I returned to Kendra Langford Shaw's epic, cross-generational, sprawling, and fantastical Arctic tale, The Pillagers' Guide to Arctic Pianos. For now, no words. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-04-2026: Labs, Low Energy, Bagel Cheeseburger

 1. Yesterday I wrote that I was determined to drive to CdA and have my labs drawn. 

I did it. 

The phlebotomists at the Kootenai Health lab I frequent are terrific. Today Teresa drew my blood and she is not only an expert at locating a vein and drawing the blood efficiently, she is kind and always strikes me as wise. 

The bloodwork reports that came in yesterday look stable to me. One important test result will come in later so I'll find out in the next few days how my tacrolimus levels look. 

Just to be safe, I always fast before these blood draws and I enjoyed today, as I have so many times before, a chocolate croissant and a latte at Big Blue Coffee, a modest reward for getting this task done. 

2. Overall, my recovery from this cold I've had all week is slowly coming along. Two symptoms persist: I'm a little short winded and my energy level is lower than usual. 

When I was done with labs, I wanted to drive to Auntie's Bookstore to pick up our book club's next book. It's waiting for me to pick it up and because I didn't go to our club's meeting on Tuesday it's still waiting. 

I decided I'd rather go home and sleep, if I needed to, and not sleep on I-90. 

So, the book will continue to sit on Auntie's shelf. I know I'm going to Spokane for a Northwest Passages presentation on Thursday. I can secure my book then. 

3. I had one plain bagel left in the freezer. I thawed it and I thawed ground beef. 

It had been years since I made myself a cheeseburger on a bagel and that's what I ate for dinner. 

I enjoyed it.

I'd fix it again. 

That said, my preference remains using a hamburger bun, but the bagel was fun and added some welcome variety to my life of cooking myself dinners. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-03-2026: Christy Sees Her PCP, I'm Determined, Bagel Bonanza

1. I drove Christy to her post-hospitalization appointment with her PCP. The doctor made some adjustments in Christy's medications, talked with her about doing PT through the winter and possibly beyond, and addressed the array of problems Christy is dealing with. Christy found the appointment very helpful and will see her PCP again in a month. 

2.  I see the doctor in charge of my kidney health Thursday next week and need blook work done ahead of time. I'm determined to drive to CdA tomorow (Friday) morning and get this task completed. 

It's been three months since I prepared for a blood draw and getting ready this evening was like riding a bike for the first time after an absence: I set out a water bottle, put my morning doses of pills in an empty pill bottle, set out a mask (since I've been sick), and I set out my wallet, keys, and water bottle so I wouldn't be searching for them Friday morning, I am relieved it's been raining. I won't have to put on my protective gloves while I drive, wear a sunhat, or do anything else to keep the sun off my skin. 

3. A treat today. Rebekkah of Beach Bum Bakery texted me that the bakery produced a batch of cinnamon raisin bagels. She knows I love them and when I was in the day before, I said next time she made them available, I'd buy as many as she'd sell me. They freeze well and it's fun having a good number on hand. 

I zoomed up to the bakery. I bought ten of the bagels. This left a some for other customers who might like some. 

I'm really happy to have.this many of these bagels on hand and I'll try to make them last a couple of weeks or more. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-02-2026: Dreaming in a Dream, Cans to the Curb, Medicinal Bouillion

 1. I don't remember having a cold interfere so massively with my sleep at night before. The good news, though, is that this afternoon I fell asleep for about 2-3 hours had experienced that rare phenomenon where I dreamed about people who then had dreams in my dream. 

2. When I wasn't having dreams within dreams, I rested but rallied long enough to put Christy's and my garbage cans to the curb. 

3. I have a long history of treating colds (and the flu) with chicken bouillon and noodles or pasta. Today I enjoyed a bowl of it along with a plain bagel toasted with cream cheese. Then I fell into the coma nap with its double dreaming. A connection?   

Three Beautiful Things 09-01-2026: A Cold, Copper's Back, Cinnamon Knot

 1. Monday night, I could feel it coming on: sinus pressure, sinus congestion, mild sore throat, and coughing. I barely slept Monday night and I knew this morning that I'd be resting all day today, trying to sleep, and staying home from book club in Spokane.  Very disappointing. 

The good news: it's been several years since I've been sick. In addition, when I do get sick, I'm never a hero, trying to push myself through it. I take my time. Rest. Pound liquids. Give myself time to get better. 

2. I brought Copper home today in his urn and soon I'll find a spot for him and Luna to rest side by side. 

3. I thought a cinnamon knot from Beach Bum Bakery would help me feel better. I loved the treat, but it did not have the medicinal impact I'd hoped for! 

Three Beautiful Things 08-31-2026: Books, Correspondence, Soup

 1. I'm in a splendid phase of my reading life right now, reading books that I never would have read, except -- well, let me explain. Over the weekend, I finished Josh Brolin's memoir, Under the Truck, which I never would have read except Shelley gave me this book at Bruce Larsen's memorial because I had mentioned enjoying him when he was interviewed on the Criterion Channel and Shelley read about that in this blog. 

This weekend, I finished reading The Birds that Audubon Missed and l never would have read this book had Debbie and I not joined the Science/Nature Book Club at Auntie's Bookstore. Now I've read six books I never would have read thanks to being a part of this group. 

And now I'm starting Kendra Langford Shaw's novel The Pillager's Guide to Arctic Pianos thanks to having gone to Spokane this summer to hear her interviewed in the Northwest Passages series. I've enjoyed the first fifty or so pages a lot, especially as I marvel, page after page, at Kendra Langford Shaw's vivid imagination. Yes, there is such a place as the Arctic, but in this book she creates a world with place names that are imagined, writes about events that she invented, and has her characters doing things that fit perfectly in the world she's created, but did not happen in the historically documented world of the Arctic that lies outside her imagination. 

When I read or watch movies, I never say such and such could never happen or this or that is not believable. 

I read and watch movies as a believer. (Guess I'm a Monkees reader and movie viewer!)

2. I continued to send out emails and text messages today, doing my best to get caught up in correspondence. I'm still behind. 

3. Onion. Celery. Mushrooms. Zucchini. Broccoli. Frozen raw shrimip. Chicken broth. Old Bay Seasoning. Basmati rice. Salt. Pepper. 

I enjoyed a simple soup for dinner tonight. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-30-2026: Rest, Tickets, Gibbs

 1. I took a day of rest today. Quite a bit has been going on lately and it just didn't seem like I had any duties to fulfill today. I always have sweeping, cooking, dishwashing, and other spiffing up things to do, but I didn't do a lot else today. 

2. I did, however, purchase our symphony tickets for the three concerts we'll attend this fall. I had already lined up our tickets for this fall's Northwest Passages events and I'm expecting the season tickets I won for the Spokane String Quartet to arrive in the mail before long. 

Honestly, I have sorely missed going to live classical music concerts this summer. I'm stoked for the music to start up again and eagerly look forward to the book talks and other lectures. 

3. Now that Gibbs has the entire ground floor of our house at his disposal -- no more gate -- he has been spending quite a bit of time with me in the Vizio room where I've been writing, doing puzzles, and reading. He is now a;so going into the bedroom and jumping up on my bed in advance of my arrival. I miss Copper. Gibbs doesn't. It helps compensate for having lost Copper, though, to have Gibbs being such a willing companion during the day and at night. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-29-2026: Family Dinner with Guests, The Menu, Old Dried Black Beans Cook Slower

 1. Starting at 5:00, Carol and Paul hosted a delicious and fun-filled family dinner. What made this evening especially fun was having three lively, funny, and fascinating guests: Renae Costa, Dick Costa, and Kathy Yamamoto. 

So many stories! So many history lessons, especially about Kellogg! So much catching up on travel, health, pets, mutual friends, and more. 

It was as close to a perfect culinary and social occasion as I can imagine. 

2. Carol planned this evening's menu and built it around a Cuban theme. Every dish was superbly prepared, filled with great flavors and love. We enjoyed the following: 

Plantain Chips with Salsa 

Slow-cooked Cuban Mojo Pork

Cuban Black Beans

Yellow Rice

Cuban Salad

Goya Cookies and Gelato

3. I admit it: I am fastidious about getting a very early start when preparing food for a scheduled dinner -- especially family dinner. 

I always cook with the assumption that everything is going to take me longer to prepare than the recipe says it would take a normal person.  

My assignment for this evening's dinner: Cuban Black Beans

Over the last several weeks, I've been committed to using dried beans, not canned ones (which I think are great, by the way), when I fix hummus, refried beans, or any other recipe calling for beans. 

So Friday afternoon, I put about five cups of dried black beans in water and soaked them for about seven hours (I made a conscious decision, for no good reason, not to use the quick soak method). I drained them, refrigerated them, and soaked them for another hour or two Saturday morning. 

I changed the water, brought the beans to a boil, and cooked them at a low heat. 

Normally, black beans, having been soaked, take about an hour to soften and be ready to eat. 

Not this batch! 

These were stubborn black beans and I ended up cooking them for over three hours or so before they finally softened up and I could move forward to combine them with sauteed onion, red pepper, and garlic seasoned with oregano, cumin, red wine vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper. I then cooked this combination for about a half an hour or so. 

I wasn't satisfied with how they tasted. I added more oregano and more cumin. I put bit more sugar in what I'd cooked. I added a splash more of vinegar and I added the juice of a whole lemon. 

Finally, around four o'clock, I decided the Cuban black beans were family dinner (with guests) ready to go -- getting these beans right took about nine hours of soaking, three hours of cooking without the added ingredients, and at least another hour of cooking when I combined everything. 

The recipe stated that it would be quicker -- ha! 

It's a good thing I gave myself a huge cushion of time for something to go off the rails. 

This time it was just stubborn black beans that I think were old that slowed me down -- I've had old dried beans in the past require much more time than usual to cook and today it happened again. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-28-2026: Copper's Bequest, Christy's Drive Down Cameron Ave., Yakkin' at The Lounge

 1. Copper lived a simple life. He ate from a feeder and from a bowl. He had a good litter box and he could depend on it being scooped out. He had a portable litter box ready to assemble if we ever had to evacuate our home. He always had a reliably stocked supply of dry and wet food. He even had a suitcase to rest and sleep in which he often  occupied for hours at a time. 

Paul and Carol volunteered to take the things I just mentioned, except the suitcase. I disposed of it -- it was great for Copper's use, as was the towel he lay on in the suitcase but neither was  suitable for human use any longer (all that hair!). 

Paul and Carol have two cats and they will keep the things Copper bequeathed them that they can use and find ways to donate the things they won't need. 

One other thing: I was very happy with our pet gate since Gibbs and Copper had to live in separate parts of the house. 

I took it down today, though, and while the reason I took it down is sad, at the same time it's true that it's nice to walk freely out of or into the living room. 

2. Together, I assume, Paul and Christy decided that she could give it a try to make the simple drive behind the wheel of her Subaru from her house to the vet's office (and back) where Riley had an appointment. It's a straight shot down Cameron Avenue, a good route for seeing how Christy might do behind the wheel. 

Paul told me Christy did fine. 

It's a first step, but it might still be a while before she can drive the car alone. 

3. Ed and I met up at The Lounge this afternoon. It was a relaxing time of fun and funny back and forth with Cas and I enjoyed hearing about Ed's very happy and busy time last weekend, all involving his grandson's wedding in Pinehurst, the reception, and a great family party at Ed and Nancy's house on Sunday. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-27-2026: Immense Gratitude, 68-69 Kellogg Kittens Basketball Team, Gibbs' World is Bigger

 1. By far, having said goodbye to Copper, the best thing to happen was receiving countless messages from friends who were moved by the last hour Copper and I spent together and who extended comforting words of understanding and condolence about having a pet die. 

Thank you to each and every one of you for expressing your thoughts, feelings, and support so beautifully. 

2. A friend sent me a superbly preserved photograph of the team picture of the 1968-69 Kellogg Junior High School 9th grade basketball team. I posted it on Facebook and the many joyous responses people made to the photograph uplifted me and helped balance my feelings of grief. 

By the way, our junior high teams were the Kellogg Kittens! (The high school teams were the Wildcats.) 

The picture is below. 

3. Gibbs never did adjust to having Luna and Copper in the house. We put a gate up between the living room and the other rooms in the house. I think this was after Luna died. Now the gate is open and Gibbs is enjoying being able to investigate the rooms he was cut off from. I'm hoping that soon he'll figure out that now he can sleep with me if he'd like until Debbie returns home. 

I might just give him some help figuring that out by bringing him to my bed when I retire tonight (Friday). 

Here is the Kellogg Junior High 9th grade basketball team, the Kellogg Kittens, 1968-69

Back row l to r   Jack Dunn, Mike Farley, Tim O'Reilly, Mike Heglund, Terry Turner, Craig Comer, Mike Rieken, Dave Holland, Sam Cooper 

Middle row l to r Kirk Hoskins, Elvin Hansen, Al Wise, Dale Costa, Dave MacPhee, Coach Jim Currie, Harold Kurt, Neil Parkins, Jim Lewis, Scott Stuart  

Front row from l to r   Bill Woolum, Don Knott, Roger Pearson, Steve Jaynes, Bruce Larsen 

Three Beautiful Things 08-26-2026: Copper and I Share His Last Hour, Debbie and I Talk About Pets, Complexity

 1. I'm writing this blog post on Thursday, August 27th and will begin with what took place this morning. 

Shortly after 6:00, Copper staggered into my bedroom, collapsed, and let out two weak, but adamant wails. The wails woke me up.  I'd never heard him make this sound before. 

The sound of his wail made me all but certain that Copper's life was nearly over and he wanted us to spend the time he had left together. 

After over five years of not wanting me to hold him, Copper rested in my arms and on my lap. After a while, I wrapped him in a soft towel and placed him atop a soft ottoman and stroked him, encouraged him to let go, and watched his life slowly pass from his being. 

At about 7:10, Copper surrendered. He died at home. He died in the room where he spent most of his time. He died close to me. 

I took time to gaze upon Copper, to fix in my mind the assurance that he was resting in peace. 

2. Now back to Wednesday. 

Debbie and I had a superb telephone conversation. 

We talked about having Copper euthanized. 

We talked about timing, about when euthanasia feels merciful. 

I told Debbie that I hoped Copper would die at home, that we would experience the end of his life together, but that I would see how Copper was doing on Thursday morning and, if it felt right, I'd call Dr. Cook and schedule a consultation, asking him to assess Copper's condition and advise me on how to move forward. 

Copper took matters into his own paws and I didn't have to make that call. 

I felt great relief, having known for quite a few days that Copper's life was nearing its end, that he came to my room, woke me up, accepted being in my arms and on my lap, and passed away at home. 

3. I might write more about the book The Birds Audubon Missed another time. For now, I'll simply report that I finished the book and it further fed my wonder regarding how complex and mutable the natural world is, including human beings. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-25-2026: Christy Gets Good News and Encouragement, Heating/Cooling Checks Out, *Farewell, My Lovely*

 1. I drove Christy to her orthopedic appointment at Kootenai Health. She saw the PA who was in the room when Dr. Blease replaced Christy's hip. PA Fields has a complete understanding of the condition of Christy's hip before surgery and talked with Christy about how things look three weeks after the procedure. 

Her assessment was positive. She cleared Christy to be able to bend down if she needs to pick up light things, say, off the floor. She encouraged Christy to spend time in her garden and busy herself with other light tasks, emphasizing that Christy proceed with caution, to use the walker outside and not overdo anything. 

PA Fields' encouragement and the clearances she offered were in step with Christy's PT session on Monday. The physical therapist she worked with cleared her to use a cane when walking indoors, but not outdoors. This will make things more convenient for Christy, especially when she moves back into her home on Thursday, unless something comes up that nixes that plan. 

2. I'm always relieved when the technician completes the annual review of our heating/cooling system and our furnace and reports that everything looks good. That happened this morning. 

3. While keeping watch over Copper this evening as he rested behind my Vizio Room chair with regular strolls to the bedroom and to the bathroom where he lay down in favorite spots in those rooms, I satisfied an urge I felt to watch a 1970s movie. The other day I watched Tombstone, a 1990s movie, and Repo Man from the 1980s, and this evening I delved into the world of 1970s film noir and watched Robert Mitchum play the role of Phillip Marlowe in Farewell, My Lovely. 

The movie definitely scratched my film noir itch. Its moody portrayal of 1940s Los Angeles, its convoluted plot, the way it features Charlotte Rampling playing a most fatal femme fatale, and the cool, cynical wit and shrewdness of Mitchum's portrayal of Marlowe gave me pleasure and, at the same time, made me feel disgust as I witnessed killing after killing and experienced the movie's exploration of heartless ruthlessness. Oh! And greed. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-24-2026: Christy Tours Her Back Yard, House Cleaning, Copper Squirms

 1. Christy posted on her Facebook page that she took a tour of her back yard and posted pictures of some of her flowers. Right now, her plan is to move back into her home on Thursday. She also had PT today and if there's any news about her workout, I can find out about it on Tuesday, Aug 25 when I take Christy to CdA for her first appointment with her surgeon's office since her surgery. 

2. I spent quite a bit of time getting the house spiffed up a bit to make things easier for the heating/cooling system technician to service our system on Tuesday, August 25. 

3. I don't have any news about Copper. His Monday was not much different from the previous two or three days. He wanders some, lies down a lot, and when I try to hold and comfort him, he does the same thing he's done for the last five and a half years: he squirms and insists on being left alone! 

Three Beautiful Things 08-23-2026: Return to Family Dinner, Copper Holds His Ground, Aging and Piecing Together the Past Life of My Mind

1. If you read this blog even somewhat regularly, you know that Christy's had a difficult summer: visits to ER, going into septic shock, time in the ICU, a hip replacement, and hours of rehab (which continues).

Understandably, our weekly family dinners have been on hold. 

Today, we returned to the family dinner table at Carol and Paul's and enjoyed marinated beef kebobs, grilled summer squash, grilled corn on the cob, cucumbers and tomatoes in vinegar and oil, a potato, green bean, mushroom, and bacon side dish, fruit salad, and snickerdoodle cookies with Butter Pecan ice cream. 

The late afternoon temperature was moderate, allowing us to dine outdoors. 

Christy's recovery requires us to work together on scheduling who is doing what when with Christy and we reviewed what's coming up and everything is in place for helping Christy get to her appointments and shuttle back and forth between her house and Carol and Paul's. 

2. An update regarding Copper: he held his ground today. His day was very similar to the last couple of days. He's drinking water, has no appetite for food, is properly using the litter box, and goes back and forth between lying behind the chair I'm sitting in now in the Vizio room and a place he's found to hide and lie down in the bedroom closet. Sometimes he returns to the towel on the floor he enjoys lying on in the bathroom. He does a little more wandering during the night -- I don't know this, but I think he's confused by no longer being able to jump on the bed. When I pick him up and put him on the bed, though, he doesn't stay long and retreats to one of his hiding places. 

3. One of the facts about being 72 years old is that ideas I worked with, say in the 1990s and early 2000s, whether in my work at LCC or as a member of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, are no longer fresh in my mind. Carol, Paul, and I talked for a while after dinner tonight about philosophical and theological movements, eras, writers, and ideas and my mind went back to ideas Rita and I introduced to our Philosophy/English Composition in the 1990s.  My mind also went back to lectures I attended given by theological scholars like Marcus Borg, Houston Smith, Karen Armstrong, John Dominic Crossan, and John Spong. 

Tonight, fragments of those thinkers' ideas and fragments of the philosophy material Rita and I assigned began to rise up in my mind, but, unlike about twenty years ago when all of this was fresh in my mind and my memory was sharper, tonight I got some things right, forgot other things, and made mistakes.  

I've been spending time this morning (it's Monday) fact checking myself, reviewing thinkers we talked about, and working to get things straightened out in my mind. 

I enjoy recovering these days from my past and am enjoying that much of this work to recover what used to be at the front of my mind instead of being in storage has been inspired by what I'm reading and have read as a new member of the Science/Nature Book Club at Auntie's Bookstore. 

Science. Nature. Philosophy. Theology. World religions. They're all connected to each other. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-22-2026: Christy Shuttles Again, I Keep an Eye on Copper, Relaxing Chicken Soup

 1. I know that for the second day in a row, Christy spent much of the day at her house. She's sleeping at night at Carol and Paul's, so after dropping her off in the morning, this afternoon they took her back to their house. Wanting to respect Christy's time to herself today, after a quick note this morning, I didn't ask her any questions during the day and she didn't volunteer any news. Such silence is usually a positive thing, indicating things went fine today. 

2. I laundered compression socks and dealt with heating/cooling filters and kept a close eye on Copper.  Copper keeps living another day, but continues to eat very little food, drink water, sleep a lot, and shrink. I would like to hold him and comfort him, but he refuses to be held. (He has enough energy to let me know that!) At night, he sleeps close enough to me that I can pet him as I go to sleep. I will confirm tonight that last night he lost the strength to be able to jump onto my bed, so I'll help him with that, if he needs assistance. 

3. I boiled a packet of party wings with chopped onion. I let the cooked chicken cool off and removed the meat from the bones. I then made chicken vegetable soup and added Japanese noodles. I let the vegetables provide most of the flavor along with the chicken and broth, but I did add Brag Liquid Aminos to the soup and I enjoyed what it added to its taste.  

Three Beautiful Things 08-21-2026: Christy Rehabs at Home/Returns to the Roberts' House, *Tombstone* and *Repo Man*, Back to The Lounge

 1. Thursday, when Christy went to her house, Paul and Carol were there, too. 

Today, on Friday, Christy did rehab exercises at her house and hung out there for several hours with Riley as her company. 

Carol swung by mid-afternoon and took Christy back to hers and Paul's house. Christy plans to spend Saturday at her house again, rehabbing and enjoying the comforts of home. Once again, she'll return to Carol and Paul's later in the day. 

2. I hadn't turned on the Vizio all summer. 

I returned to watching the old television today. 

Lately, repeated clips from the 1993 Western Tombstone have been popping up in my Facebook Reels feed. I remember going to see Tombstone thirty-three years ago, remember coming away from it astonished by Val Kilmer's performance as Doc Holliday. Today, I was astonished by Val Kilmer again and I enjoyed watching the stellar cast of this movie at work. 

I have no explanation for this, but the older I grow, the more I enjoy punk rock. 

I don't exactly seek out punk rock, but when it pops into my life online, I like how it hits me. 

Therefore, I decided to watch Repo Man, a classic 1984 independent movie with a punk attitude, punk music, a delirious and fragmented plot line, sharp satire, and wild absurdity. 

The Big Lebowski doesn't feature punk rock, but watching Repo Man reminded me of it. Each movie features a meandering and absurd plot, encounters with wild people and violence, and surreal quests. 

I also wondered if Quentin Tarantino might have borrowed, whether consciously or unconsciously, the movie's mysterious glowing briefcase from Repo Man which features a mysterious 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu with a glowing trunk. 

3. Ed and I have had a string of busy Fridays over the last several weeks that have kept us from meeting at The Lounge. Today, however, we were both free to meet shortly after 3:30 and enjoy cold beverages, get caught up on what's been going on, and have fun yakkin' with Cas. 

It was a very good session. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-20-2026: Christy Visits Her House, Thinking About Mutability and Science, Memories of Enjoying Summer Heat

 1. After her session at Physical Therapy on Wednesday, which included a reevaluation of her condition, Christy returned to Carol and Paul's house and wrote out a tentative schedule for the rest of the month that included visits to her house. 

Today she made her first visit home since she went to the local ER on July 31st. Paul and Carol drove her over and made sure she walked up the stairs on her front porch safely (she did). Christy saw for the first time the results of all the work Carol and Paul have done over the last nearly three weeks making her house safer. 

I had a couple of things to deliver to Christy and dropped in for a short visit. Paul and Carol were continuing their safety efforts and were running ideas and decisions by Christy. 

It was a good scene. 

Christy will return to her house tomorrow for much of the day while Carol and Paul take care of things in other parts of their lives and I'll be at the ready next door if Christy wants or needs anything. 

2. I read more chapters today of Kenn Kaufman's book, The Birds that Audubon Missed. Like the other five books I've read since joining Auntie's Bookstore's Science and Nature Book Club, this is a book I would have never known about, let alone read, had I not joined this club. 

I'm going to make an amateur's statement regarding what the books we've read have me wondering. It's one of the pleasures of blogging. I can write inklings, ponderings, wonderings.  They can be the thoughts of an amateur. 

I'll begin by saying that I do not think the world of nature, which includes human beings, is immutable. I don't think there's a fixed, unchangeable order at work in the natural/human world. 

We humans, however, seek to make order of the world's disorder. All the fields of science contribute mightily and importantly to this effort. 

In the book I'm reading, Kenn Kaufman writes a lot about the centuries long efforts by students of birds and bird scientists to identify and name species of birds and it's been a long effort of mistake and correction. Some birds are hybrids, the result of interspecies reproduction. Some birds' feathers change colors depending on the season. Birds' habits can change. Birds do not necessarily conform themselves to some kind of immutable natural order, but, at the same time, birds do act out things that have endured over time:  patterns of behavior, singing, migration, and consistent appearance. 

I've got a lot more pondering ahead of me as I learn more about the work scientists do as the subjects of their studies, whether plants, animals, humans, air, atmosphere, water, viruses, and more mutate and change, while also maintaining some patterns of predictability. 

The best minds, I've observed, are those which are flexible. They recognize and work with mutability. They recognize and work with the unknown and are willing to see, when it happens, that they were mistaken, whether in part or wholly, about what they thought they knew.  

3. I accept that as I grow older, certain aspects of my life diminish. 

I do miss -- and I think about it often -- when I could tolerate the heat of summer. I miss when I actually enjoyed being active in summer heat, whether hiking, playing baseball, golfing, working in the yard, riding a bicycle, or going on summer walks. 

Yes. I'm grateful we can keep our house cool.

I'm grateful that I enjoy having to staying indoors, out of the heat and out of the sun, because I can read books and listen to classical music and enjoy other indoor activities. 

All the same, I miss when I enjoyed and could tolerate the summer outdoors. So now I do the next best thing. I call up happy memories of when I could enjoy the heat. 

They pop to mind all through each summer day. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-19-2026: Breakfast with Lifelong Friends, Winning Wednesday, Christy Returns to the Fitness Center

 1. Abby, Jake, Stu, Ed and I met for a delicious breakfast and an hour or so of fun yakkin' at Nosworthy's in Coeur d'Alene. I enjoyed my chili omelet and am once again convinced that I need to work on making chili at home and push my omelet making project to another level by trying to make something like Nosworthy's Blazing Saddles myself. 

I hope you can tell from this picture that we had a great time getting together: 

2. Wednesdays mean one thing at the CdA Casino: Winning Wednesday! Ed and I jetted down after breakfast and spun reels for a couple of hours. We had a lot on our minds going down and coming back and so our conversations were terrific. I had fun playing different machines, had some fun spins that won me some money, but I didn't end up ahead. That's right. It was Winning Wednesday at the casino, but not a Winning Wednesday for me -- but, I must say, the casino did not break my bank so I kept my modest losses within a range I can easily live with! 

3. Christy returned to the Shoshone Medical Center's fitness center in Smelterville today. The session began with a reevaluation of her situation and the setting of new goals. (I don't know what they are.) She got back to doing strength exercises and she worked on the stairs. Going forward, Christy will have PT twice a week. She came home today with a notebook of home exercises, a notebook the physical therapists will continue to add to as Christy continues to work at home and at the center on attaining her goals. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-18-2026: Christy Gets Settled, A Longed For Discovery, Improving Balance

 1. Around 9:00 this morning, I texted Carol and Christy, wondering what kind of night Christy had and how things were going this morning. Christy's mind raced during the night so she didn't sleep very well, but she wasn't in much pain. She was in good spirits this morning, told me she didn't need any help from me, and I didn't hear anything else for the rest of day. 

I took this as a good sign that Christy exercised and her day was uneventful. 

Hope I'm right! 

2. Reading our Science and Nature Book Club's next selection, The Birds That Audubon Missed, got me wondering what's going a with the Audubon Society in Spokane. Next I'll check out Coeur d'Alene. By doing this, I learned that there's a wetland area near Greenacres called Saltese Flats along with the Doris Morrison Learning Center. 

After reading about this area and looking at pictures on flickr taken by Jack Baratta, a superb amateur photographer, it looks likely that I've discovered a place to go to fill the void left by no longer living near Eugene's Delta Ponds, Alexandria, VA's Huntley Meadows Park, and Washington DC's Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens and Ponds, three of my very favorite places to walk and take pictures. 

All I have to do is plan a trip to the Saltese Flats when the air is cool -- like early in the morning. 

(Btw, looking at Jack Baratta's flickr albums also brought back to mind that ever since we moved to Kellogg I had been thinking about going to the Turnbull Wildlife Refuge and haven't made that trip so far. Gotta change that!)

3. Reading all day has one drawback: I spend a lot of time sitting. 

Throughout the day, I put down my book and do exercises designed to improve my balance and make it less likely I'll fall. I enjoy doing them and fervently hope they are working, are doing the trick. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-17-2026: Christy Heads to Carol and Paul's, Big Pharma Harmless Phone Farce, Canadian Football League Connections

 1. At about 1:00 this afternoon, Carol rocketed up to the Shoshone Medical Center and picked up Christy. Yes, you read that right. Today the hospital discharged Christy and she will continue her rehabilitation at the rehab center in Smelterville, starting on Wednesday. On Wednesday, she will go over what the PT staff will have laid out are the goals and the plan for the next stage of her rehab. In the meantime, Christy will exercise her legs by walking with her walker in Carol and Paul's house (where she is staying now) and do exercises the physical therapy staff has given her to do at home. 

2. So that Christy could secure a new prescription drug on a free 30 day trial basis, I spent forty minutes or so, in a pharmaceutical farce of sorts, working with Carly, the Yoke's pharmacist, who authored none of the farce, and then calling a helpful representative at Squibb Pharmaceutical Company who asked me the right questions and then pushed the right keys on her computer to get the free trial card activated and processed. 

I managed not to get frustrated and to remain jolly As I endured recorded corporate messages, the options trees ("if you are a medical provider, push 2"), having to answer questions spoken to me by a robot, and eventually getting to talk with the human rep, I managed not to get frustrated and to remain jolly by imagining myself as The Dude ("this aggression will not stand, Squibb"), playing it cool, and trusting that I would get back my rug -- er -- I mean I would secure Christy's pills. 

And I did. 

3. It's not every day that telephone conversation with Debbie sends me onto the World Wide Web looking up connections between the Canadian Football League and Wallace, Idaho and also Whitworth College, but that's what happened today. When I looked into former Whitworth head football coach Hugh Campbell's extraordinary success coaching the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos (FIVE Grey Cups), somehow that led me to check up on some people I really enjoyed at Whitworth during the years of Hugh Campbell's tenure and it looked to me like they are living happy lives and so I had the sparkly feelings that come with combining late 1970s Whitworth nostalgia with the uplifting realities of the people I enjoyed doing well in the present.  

Three Beautiful Things 08-16-2026: RIP Mary Woolum -- Nine Years Ago, Christy's Pain and Laughter, Back to Reading

 1. It's August 16th. Nine years ago today our mother passed away sometime after 10:00 p.m. One of the nurses told me earlier in the evening that she thought Mom was very close to losing her life. When Carol and Paul went in her room and sang to her, they left shortly before 10:00. She was alive when they left. The nurse had told me earlier that it was likely that four of Mom's senses had most likely shut down, but not her hearing. I like to think that the last sounds she heard before passing away were Carol and Paul's singing voices accompanied by Paul on guitar. 

2. I visited Christy late this afternoon and brought her a bottle of sugar free A & W root beer from Carol and Paul's house.  

Christy had had pain in her right leg during the night that had kept her awake. She thinks it was a result of the working out she did Saturday. Some heat on her right leg and a pill relieved the pain and today she wasn't in pain and she had a good workout in the afternoon with her physical therapist. 

She also had a lovely visit from Amy, a member of our lifelong friends the Holland family. 

She also had laugh-filled, boisterous visit from Peggy, Barb, and Janet from the Class of 74, joined by Joni from the Class of 75. Janet and Peggy have both had hip replacements and gave Christy some good advice about staying in motion. 

Christy will have more sessions of workouts tomorrow. She'll keep moving. She'll build strength. 

3. The fact of the matter is that I've found it difficult ever since Christy was in septic shock and then had her right hip replaced to read. I haven't been able to concentrate and I've wanted to sleep when I've been home after paying Christy visits.

I'm not complaining. At all. It's just the way things have been. 

That changed today. 

I had thought about leaving town this morning and doing whatever, but I didn't do that. 

I read. 

I cracked open our book club's next book entitled, The Birds that Audubon Missed and so far I've learned not only about John James Audubon, but about bird taxonomies, searches in the wild for different birds, the art of drawing and painting portraits of birds, and more. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-15-2026: Christy Comes Outside, Christy Climbs Into Her Car, I Fix a Fun Wrap

 1. Answering Christy's call to action, Carol and Paul brought Christy's Subaru to the Medical Center and I buzzed up in the Camry. Before long, Christy and the physical therapist, Morgan, she was working with, popped out of the hospital's main entry. 

Christy was walking slowly, deliberately, and with very little pain with the help of a walker. She had a belt around her and Morgan kept her hand close to the belt in case Christy lost her balance or had another problem. Morgan also was in charge of pushing a wheelchair in case Christy needed to stop walking. 

This part of Christy's therapy session today was to open the passenger door of her Subaru and get herself into the passenger seat. 

Morgan wanted her to sit herself in her own car. Paul, Carol, and I were there to witness Christy do this so we knew how she'd do it once she was in our care again. 

Christy completed this task beautifully. 

She then practiced stepping up from street level to the sidewalk, negotiating a curb. 

My observation in watching Christy complete these tasks, including walking with the walker, is that she's not in a lot of pain, but needs to keep working on building strength throughout her body. I told Debbie this later on and said that I thought she needed to strengthen herself from her chin to her ankles! 

It looks to my untrained eye like that that's exactly what her physical therapy sessions are all about. 

2. Christy went back the Physical Therapy room and continued to work out with Morgan. After a while, once the session ended, she texted me with a request for a dish with two scoops of ice cream, each a different flavor. 

I bopped over to The Beanery and purchased a scoop of salted caramel and another of honey churro in a bowl, delivered the bowl to Christy, and hung out. We gabbed for a while. 

3. I fixed what turned out to be my main meal for the day late this morning. I had leftover rice and some mushroom slices. In the wok, I heated up the rice and cooked the mushrooms. In a separate pan I heated a big burrito sized tortilla and when I flipped it over, I put a slice of Swiss cheese on the flip side and it started to melt. 

I cracked two eggs over the mushrooms and rice and cooked them together. 

I put the tortilla on a cutting board and put the last bits of leftover Trader Joe's eggplant, onion, and tomato I had in the fridge over the melted Swiss cheese and topped it with the mushrooms, rice, and eggs. 

I folded the tortilla into a wrap, cut it in half and enjoyed a wrap unlike any I'd ever eaten before and felt nourished when I finished my meal and felt the pleasure of moderate hedonism! 

Three Beautiful Things 08-14-2026: Rest, Documenting, Reunion

 1. Things. 

Slowed. 

Down. 

Today. 

Christy continued working out in rehab. 

I visited her this afternoon. 

I rested. 

Yesterday's fantabulous Class of 72 Turns 72 party left me depleted with the sweetest possible fatigue. 

I had two great conversations with Debbie. 

I fixed myself a rice and egg stir fry. 

2. I experienced some blogger gratification today. 

Stu and I had been trying to figure out when some breakfast/lunch get togethers with friends had happened and who attended them. 

I had a record of each one in kellogg bloggin'. 

It was great not to have to guess what happened when. 

I'd documented it. 

3. Carol and Paul brought Riley up to the Shoshone Medical Center for a reunion with Christy. 

I wasn't there, but Christy posted pictures of being in a wheelchair on a medical center patio sharing human/dog bliss with Riley. 

Peak joy. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-13-2026: Christy Progresses, Class of 72 Turning 72 Party, We've Mellowed

 1. This was an exceptional day. 

First, I learned from a text message exchange with Christy in the afternoon and a visit to her room in early evening that she had another day of successful exercises and walking in two physical therapy sessions and experienced added more success in her sessions with the occupational therapist. 

If you feel moved to ask me when her rehab time at Shoshone Medical Center will end, my answer will be, "I have no idea." 

All I really know is that Christy is doing a variety of exercises using a walker, rehab apparatus, and an exercise machine. 

She's getting help with strengthening herself above the waist, including her arms and hands. 

She's progressing. I don't know if it's speedy. I do know she's progressing. 

2. Starting at 11:00 this morning approximately forty-five people met at Carol Lee and Jake's home on Rose Lake to celebrate that in late 2025 and through much of 2026, members of the Kellogg High School Class of 1972 have turned or are turning 72 years old. 

Our birthday party was festive and merry with all kinds of conversations buzzing at many tables: catching up, talking about aging, sharing memories, reporting on current situations in our lives, missing those who couldn't make it and those who have passed away, stories about past escapades, and more. 

We enjoyed broasted chicken from Yoke's accompanied by a wide array of snacks, salads, fruit and vegetable plates, desserts, and other delicious offerings that partiers contributed to the potluck. 

The weather was moderate and comfortable, the lake gorgeous to gaze upon, and as the party progressed, the title of John Paul Young's mighty hit song, "Love is in the Air" kept popping into my mind. 

3. Yes, mortality presents us with many challenges. At today's party, I saw, and I include myself, longtime friends who have experienced any number of health difficulties whether from falling down, being injured at work, having had serious surgeries, having had cancer treatment, some degree of memory loss and cognitive decline, mobility difficulties, and more. 

That's sobering. 

But on the positive side, aging and confronting morality has also had a mellowing effect on us. It's slowed us down. It's increased our appreciation of one another. It's had a leveling effect. Whatever else we might have achieved or failed at in our lives, when it comes to knowing our lives will end, we are all equals, we are all in the same boat. 

I felt this presence of mortality during our party and it wasn't depressing. I felt the loss of the growing number of our classmates who have died, but this sadness was balanced out by my happiness to be with those who are alive and were together today. I cherished our fellowship. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-12-2026: Christy Bounces Back, Navigates the Hospital Room, Takes an Impressive Stroll Up and Down Hallways

1. In the world of sports is called a bounce back. Now Christy didn't have a bounce back game or a bounce back season, but she did bounce back from Tuesday's bout with the gout and had a very good Wednesday.

2. Today (Wednesday), Christy talked with several pros and had good visits with friends and with family. That all went very well.

After being in debilitating pain from the gout through the early and late hours of Tuesday morning and having it subside Tuesday afternoon, today the pain was gone thanks to medicine. 

So, now, get a load of what that being free of gout pain meant for Christy today: always under the watchful eye of a medical pro, Christy can pull herself up and sit on the edge of the bed; today, she used her walker to get to the commode and placed herself on it; again, with her walker, she walked to the shower stall, positioned herself to sit in the shower chair, and she showered. 

All breakthroughs. 

3. She had a most successful time with today's physical therapist. Under his attentive eye, using the walker, she walked out of her room, down the hall to the nurses' station, and down another hall to the Physical Therapy room. With the help of the therapist, in the PT room, she was walked up four stairs and back down those stairs again.

Then she walked back down the two hallways to her room. 

Now granted, it's a modest sized hospital and the hallways are of medium length, but going on these strolls today far exceeded anything Christy has been able to do for weeks coming into her surgery as well as in the four days or so afterward. 

If I were to be featured in one of those Dos Equis parody ads, I would be portrayed as the The Most Cautious Man in the World.

I can hear that iconic narrator telling my story:  

"He checks to make sure the stove's burners are off six times before he leaves the house."

"He has two smoke alarms in every room of his house." 

"He has never driven in the passing lane on the Interstate." 

"He washes his produce twice before putting it in the refrigerator, twice a day before he uses it, and two more times before he makes his salad and breaks or tears the vegetables because he won't use a knife." 

"He wears a hazmat suit when he goes out in the sun." 

"He is The Most Cautious Man in the World."

So, with that in mind, I'm cautiously optimistic about Christy's recovery. In bearing witness to her recovery, I am taking everything a day at a time, trying not to speculate the speed of her recovery or when she can be discharged, but today was encouraging. 

I'd sure like to see Christy continue to progress like she did today. 

No more setbacks! 

No more need for bounce back days! 

Three Beautiful Things 08-11-2026: Christy's Gout, Christy's Three Good Workouts, Yakkin' with Debbie

I'm writing this blog post on Wednesday morning, looking back on Tuesday and including a bit of Wednesday morning news. 

1. I woke up Tuesday morning to Christy's news that she'd had a painful night, but the pain wasn't coming from her right leg or her right hip, the location of so much pain over the last few months. 

No. It was coming from her left ankle/upper foot. Tests and x-rays revealed that gout had set in. 

This development set things back some, but not entirely. 

UPDATE: In a text message she sent this morning (Wednesday), Christy reported she was not feeling pain in her ankle/upper foot. I fervently hope the gout is clearing up and that the pain stays away. 

2. Christy's physical therapists had to trim back their original plans for what they wanted Christy to do on Tuesday, but they did not call off exercising her. She had two successful PT sessions with a session with the occupational therapist tucked in between -- her OT session focused on her upper body strength. 

I visited Christy in the late afternoon. I could tell in her face that the hours between my Monday visit and my Tuesday one had been hard for her and we talked quite a bit about how she's got a long haul in front of her, not a speedy recovery. 

My sense is that she's bracing herself with determination to do what she needs to do, however slow the process is. 

3. You might remember that Debbie has been in New York since late May. Debbie and I have become adept over the nearly twenty-nine years of our marriage at keeping things going between us pretty well during periods of separation. Our adeptness was very much at work Tuesday evening. Debbie called and we had a great conversation about a variety of things, including beginning to anticipate her return to Kellogg (sooner than later) and what we have to figure out about a variety of pragmatic things when she returns. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-10-2026: Christy's Last Ten Days, Christy Returns to the Kellogg Hospital, Christy Looks and Feels Way Better

 1. The focus on Christy's medical care keeps sharpening. When she was admitted into ICU on July 31st, the focus was on bringing her out of septic shock, raising her blook pressure, and possibly identifying the source of the infection her immune system went into overdrive in response to, putting her in sepsis. By Monday, with Christy out of sepsis, the focus switched to Christy's hip and the orthopedic surgeon planned to replace her hip on Tuesday -- but Christy was in AFib in pre-op, the surgery team postponed the surgery, and a new focus, in Christy's heart, took over. 

Her heart settled back into rhythm. On Friday, she was fit for surgery and it proceeded successfully. 

By Sunday, the pros at Kootenai decided she was ready to be transferred to Shoshone Medical Center on Monday where the pros over here in the Silver Valley could focus on her rehab through physical and occupational therapy. 

2. So, today, Monday, August 10th, the pros at Kootenai Health helped Christy into a wheelchair, wheeled her into a transport van, and she arrived at Shoshone Medical Center in the mid-afternoon. 

Her room in Kellogg is furnished with a comfortable recliner and when I arrived to visit Christy, she was in this recliner eating dinner. 

Today, she's been able to stand up from a seated position with the aid of a walker. Using the walker, she was able to walk the few steps from her bed to the recliner. 

Depending on staffing day to day, Christy will have one or two sessions of PT each day. I don't know how often she'll meet with the OT. Christy will sit with a physical therapist on Tuesday and answer questions and set goals and get to work. It would be great if they also set a schedule for the week tomorrow. 

3. Christy looked many, many times better today than she had over the last ten days or so. Her mental energy has increased. For the nearly an hour I was with her and Carol today, Christy's  pain levels seemed well managed. I'd say she's eager to get going with the rehab work, challenging as it can be, and is full of determination to be mobile once again. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-09-2026: Positive Numbers, A PT Workout, Highly Likely Transfer to Kellogg

 I visited Christy for a couple of hours or so starting at 11:00. Cosette and Saphire also visited. I left soon after they did and a bit later in the afternoon, Carol and Paul arrived. 

Here's a recap of Christy's day. 

1. It was a good day for Christy at Kootenai Health today. She had a list of questions for her nurse this morning and the nurse sat down, reviewed Christy's records with her, and assured her that her bloodwork has looked good, so have her heart numbers, her white blood cell counts, and the results of other tests. 

2. When Christy's physical therapist arrived this afternoon, she worked Christy out a bit. She helped Christy out of bed. After a trip to the bathroom, the therapist transferred her to a wheelchair and Christy turned the big wheelchair wheels herself and made her way down the hallway. Back in her room, Christy used her walker and was able to stand up at ten second intervals. She felt, in her words, "very little pain", but they brought this exercise to an end because Christy felt some lightheadedness. She sat back down in her wheelchair so she could sit up for a while -- I don't know for how long -- before she returned to bed. 

When I texted Christy about twenty minutes ago to confirm my sense that she'd had a good day, she said she had indeed because, in her words, "I felt accomplished." 

3. It's not 100 percent certain, but it looks very likely that tomorrow (Monday) Kootenai Health will transfer Christy to the Shoshone Medical Center where she will focus on rehabilitation. She will work with therapists who also work at the Shoshone Medical Fitness Center in Smelterville, therapists she's spent a lot of time with in the last few months and back when she rehabbed after her second knee replacement. 

We don't know how long she'll be at Shoshone rehabbing before she's released to (most likely) return to Carol and Paul's house. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-08-2026: Visiting Christy, Morning Housework, Learning to Enjoy Delays and Slow Travel on I-90

 1. I arrived at Kootenai Health soon after 1:00 and Christy had just finished lunch. Immediately, I observed she had better color in her face. That was good! She's being medicated at regular intervals for pain and as the time drew near for each of her pain pills this afternoon, taken an hour apart, her pain grew. 

Christy knew at some point today she would have a session with a Physical Therapist. When I left the hospital around 4:00, the therapist hadn't visited yet and Christy really needed exercise. 

A therapist, accompanied by a student nurse, arrived sometime after 8 p.m., thank goodness, and Christy messaged me that she was pleased with the exercises the therapist put her through and she told me she learned a lot as the therapist was teaching the student nurse. During these in bed exercises,  Christy experienced, in her words, minimal pain. 

It's Christy's understanding that after being in bed most of today, she will be helped out of bed Sunday morning. 

I don't know if she'll have added PT later in the day. 

I'll find out when I visit on Sunday. 

2. I didn't go over to CdAlene in the morning because I took care of some domestic tasks: laundering my over a dozen pairs of compression socks, cooking chickpeas in preparation for making more black olive hummus, laundering towels, and cleaning up the kitchen some more -- this kitchen clean up never seems to end. 

3. I listen to Sirius/XM's classical music channel, Symphony Hall, on my drives to Coeur d'Alene and back. Because of a few stretches of one lane highway in both directions, travel over the 4th of July Pass can be very slow and is a source of much consternation and complaining locally. 

I've decided to make the most of these delays by enjoying the additional amount of music I can listen to as I crawl over the pass. Luckily, I'm not on a pressing time schedule, so I have the luxury of turning what could be a frustrating, even maddening, slow drive into a source of enrichment and enjoyment. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-07-2026: Christy's Surgery a Success, Dizziness, Riley Hangs in There

 1. As it turned out, Christy's surgery took place around 7:30 as originally planned. The post-op news was all good and Christy returned to the room she's been in since leaving ICU. I arrived to visit Christy around 2:00. Paul and Carol arrived soon after that. Christy had eaten. She was animated and chatty. She also articulated a clear understanding of what had happened earlier in the day. 

Her pain levels seemed low to moderate and when she messaged me this morning (Saturday), she told me she was wound up overnight, making it a challenge to sleep, but she had, and I quote Christy, "not much pain". 

2. Friday afternoon, Paul, Carol, and I left her room when her positive-minded, invigorated, wide smiling Physical Therapist arrived. Christy messaged me after their session that she got up out of bed all right, but became dizzy, so they cut the session short. It's common, I later read, for blood pressure to drop some after surgery, and it was low blood pressure that caused Christy's dizziness. 

3. Usually, during this time of Christy's hospitalization, Riley spends the nights at Carol and Paul's house. But, the Barnes family is staying at Carol and Paul's with their dogs, so Riley is at his house both Friday and Saturday night. 

I sat with Riley for about an hour and a half this evening and completed the Saturday New York Times crossword puzzle. Riley rested comfortably. I hope he had a good night's sleep after I left.  

Three Beautiful Things 08-06 & 07 a.m.-2026: New (Tentative) Time for Surgery, Riley Groomed, Christy's Thursday

 1. I'm writing this post at 9:00 on Friday morning. The time of Christy's surgery has been moved from 7:30 a.m. to10:30 a.m. and it's possible that time might change again. 

2. Today was grooming day for Riley and returned home looking fresh and handsome! 

3. Once Riley was home, I went to CdA and visited Christy. She had had a moderate session with a physical therapist. Christy was in a wheelchair and a nurse moved her into her bed later on. By the time I left, a couple of pros had been in to help reposition her in her bed and she was enjoying the tuna fish sandwich dinner she'd ordered. Wednesday's more ambitious PT session brought about quite a bit of pain Wednesday night, so I hope the lighter Thursday session didn't cause her pain Thursday night. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-05-2026: Calm Hospital Day, Winning Wednesday!, It's Even in a Pampers Ad

 1. After Monday, when the orthopedic surgeon dropped the news of Christy having her hip replaced the next day and after Tuesday, when the surgery had to be postponed because Christy had gone into AFib, today, Wednesday, was a quiet, I'd say, smooth day. 

I visited Christy twice and we yakked about different stuff. When I returned for my second visit, Christy told me she'd had a Physical Therapy session which went well.  Christy learned more about her injured hip and leg and about the virtues of a two-wheeled walker and that it'll be a while before she uses a cane. 

Today, with the aid of a walker, Christy walked around her room and tomorrow the therapist will help her navigate the bathroom. 

As of now, Friday's surgery is scheduled for first thing in the morning -- 7:30, I think -- or was in 7:00?

2. I thought in the midst of all that's been going on lately, I might enjoy a short stint at the CdA Casino, spinning some reels and ordering the Winning Wednesday Wings special with a garden salad at the Red Tail Bar and Grill. 

I did enjoy it. 

I won some money to stick into my "stupid money" envelope and I enjoyed sitting quietly in a corner booth of the bar and grill munching away on five chicken wings and eating a green salad for the first time in a few weeks. 

3. Today, on the Symphony Hall Facebook page, someone at SiriusXM raised this question: 

Someone's who's never listened to classical music asks for one piece to start with. What do you recommend first? 

I would have to recommend the person first of all acknowledge all the classical music s/he's heard just by watching Looney Tunes, scores of movies, television ads, television shows, and other popular media that integrate classical music into their creations.  

Music from Bizet's Carmen was featured in Friends as well as on Gilligan's Island. I first fell in love with Bach's 3rd Brandenberg Concerto when I saw Hannah and Her Sisters. Multiple pieces by classical composers were featured in Looney Tunes cartoons. An Old Spice ad drew upon Orff's Carmen Burina. 

Even Pampers got into the act, accompanying a montage of infants' pooh faces with Richard Strauss' Also Spake Zarathustra, made famous by the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.  You can watch the Pampers ad here: Also sprach … Pampers poop commercial

I'd have to say to the person asking, don't look to me for recommendations. 

You have been and will continue to be introduced to classical music in countless works of popular culture. 

Pay attention to it. See what you like. Look for and listen to other works by these composers, ones not found in the old Anacin ad (Beethoven's 5th) or in Ordinary People (Pachelbel's Canon) or in Bugs Bunny's performance of Chopin's Minute Waltz. 

 

Three Beautiful Things 08-04-2026: Delay, Invigoration, Rapport

 1. Christy went into AFib in pre-op this afternoon and the surgery team decided to proceed with great caution and postponed her hip replacement surgery. It's now scheduled for Friday. A cardiologist will visit Christy in her hospital room. She's now hooked up to a heart monitor -- the early readings have been solid. Christy has never been in AFib before and the EKGs she had taken in the days since she was admitted to the hospital last Friday showed no problems. Today's did, however, and we are hoping she'll be back to a good heartbeat and ready for surgery on Friday. 

2. Smoke-filled skies. Reduced visibility. Northwest Spokane a natural disaster area. Did I want to go to Auntie's Bookstore downtown for our six o'clock book group meeting. 

I decided to go.

I made the right decision in a huge way. The discussion of Is a River Alive invigorated me. I felt free to share some of my thoughts. I was especially stimulated by our discussion of questions around different ways of arriving at knowledge, different views of reality, how humans decide what's ethical, and how all of these questions can be seen as applying to whether a river is alive. 

3. On my way back to Kellogg, I visited Christy and am happy to say he was resting comfortably (especially once a couple of nurses repositioned her in bed), appears to be feeling patient about the delay, and is full of hope that the surgery will happen on Friday. 

I've been in Christy's room when several different nurses and other pros have come to see her and Christy gets along really well with all of them. They are willing and able to answer the questions she and the rest of us have. 

It's encouraging to witness such excellent rapport. 

Three-in-One Beautiful Things 08-03-2026: Christy's Right Hip Will Be Replaced on Tuesday, August 4th

 1. 2. 3. Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 4th, Christy will have hip replacement surgery on her right hip. As I go to press, the surgery is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. 

Here's summary of what happened this afternoon: 

Sometime after 12:00 noon today, an orthopedic Nurse Practitioner came into Christy's room speaking on behalf of the doctor she works with and told Christy that now that she is out of sepsis and because of the avascular necrosis in her hip, the doctor wants to replace her hip immediately -- well, tomorrow. 

Christy agreed to this plan. She's ready mentally for the surgery and also ready to do physically whatever is asked of her afterward to promote the success of the surgery. 

I will post another blog post tomorrow evening when I arrive home from book club in Spokane to report what I know about the surgery and how Christy is doing. 

By the way, we don't know how long she'll be in the hospital after the surgery. For sure, she won't be discharged on the day of the surgery. 

Stay tuned. 

Three A Bit More Beautiful Things 08-01 and -02-2026: Christy's Out of Sepsis, Attention to Christy's Hip, Self-Therapy

 I'm writing this blog post on Sunday evening, August 2. I visited Christy for about four hours today and will once again combine two days, Saturday and Sunday, into one post. As always, if I've missed the mark to some degree in any of this summation, it's not by much and what I've written is in the ballpark. 

1. I learned this morning that sepsis is not a diagnosis but a constellation of symptoms resulting from the immune system's overwhelming response to an infection. On Friday, Christy's extreme tiredness, dropping blood pressure, perspiring, and disorientation were symptoms not merely of sepsis, but of septic shock. 

Christy came out of septic shock Friday and now has come out of sepsis. Her blood pressure is better, her heart rate is in range, her oxygen levels are in range, and she's not confused. I might have left out an improvement or two but you get the picture. 

What a relief. 

Still in question: where is the infection that triggered her body to respond the way it did?

It appears not to be in the tiny amount of liquid aspirated from her hip. 

I also might be that the antibiotics she's had infused into her system knocked out the infection and the source will remain unknown. This is not uncommon. 

2. Today, the medical professionals focused much more of their attention on Christy's ailing right hip and painful upper right leg. If all goes well on Monday, the orthopedic doctor she has an appointment to see on Wednesday will visit Christy in her room at Kootenai Health. Until the doctor talks with Christy, I'm going to hold off on writing about her hip and I don't know what kind of treatment lies ahead. (Oh! Before I arrived to see Christy this morning, a hospital orthopedic doctor had been in to see her, but I'm not very clear about what he had to say and the hospital doctor who visited Christy later on said his notes weren't available yet. So I'm putting that doctor's visit aside.)  

I do know, however, that while I was in Christy's room, two therapists visited her around noon, asked a bunch of great questions, washed her hair, helped clean her up in other ways, helped her get out of bed and into a wheelchair, apprised the nursing staff of how Christy ought to be helped physically while in the hospital, and were encouraged by how well Christy responded to the very limited kind of movements they helped guide and physically support her through. 

One of the pros was an Occupational Therapist and the other a Physical Therapist. 

Christy will be visited by therapy pros again on Monday and it looks to me like a larger plan for her treatment upon being discharged (don't know when that will be) is beginning to take shape. 

3. I've done a little self-therapy myself, mostly with food and caffeine. On Saturday it helped relax me after I left the hospital to eat tortilla chips, make myself a strawberry milkshake, eat a small bar of dark chocolate with almonds, and to put Trader Joe's eggplant, tomato, and onion on a piece of Indian flatbread and top that product with olive tapenade and crumbled feta cheese. 

I have enjoyed relaxing at the hospital at the Big Blue coffee counter with a 16 oz latte and a chocolate muffin both yesterday and today. I thought it was a very good sign today that Christy asked me to bring her a 16 oz vanilla latte which she said really hit spot. Christy's appetite hasn't been strong and I'm really glad the vanilla latte gave her pleasure.