Three Beautiful Things 05-17-2026: Christy is Back With Riley, Folk and Classical Music, Debbie Improvises a Dinner

 1. Today was my last day dog sitting Riley. He showed signs of becoming a bit more attached to me today. He was more enthusiastic than he had been when I arrived and when I returned home, he followed me to the gate and whimpered a little bit when I left. Christy was on the road returning to Kellogg until about 10:00, so I spent more time with Riley in the evening and waited until he relaxed and fell asleep before I left. 

2. Debbie and I blasted over to Spokane for this afternoon's Spokane String Quartet concert. In a very good way, it was intense with the music ranging from minimalism to Nordic folk music to the explorations of Antonin Dvorak inspired by when he lived and worked in the United States for three years. 

I learned more this afternoon about how much classical music and the performance of it has its roots in folk music and hearing that connection come to life again this afternoon was invigorating. 

3. Back home, Debbie whipped up an intriguing combination of potstickers, shrimp, and broccoli seasoned with a ramen seasoning she concocted a while back. Debbie is a superb innovator and improviser in the kitchen and she totally nailed it tonight. 

Three Beautiful Things 05-16-2026: Good Day with Riley, Mind Boggled by Mosquito History, Revisiting *Ways of Reading*

1. I spent several hours today keeping Riley company over at Christy's house. Riley moved closer to me today, often lying on the floor near my feet. I'm not an animal psychologist, but I'll act like one for a second here. Riley seemed kind of stunned the first day or so of Christy's absence, but today he shook off the lethargy that came with being puzzled and moved around the house a bit more and approached me more willingly. 

Dog sitting him has been easy. 

2. For much of the day, both while dog sitting and back home, I continued to read The Mosquito by Timothy C. Winegard. Honestly, as he details the life of the mosquito and its impact upon human life going back really deep into antiquity, I have trouble grasping the huge amount of time, way before homo sapiens emerged, that not only the earth, but the mosquito has existed. 

I began to feel like I was on somewhat more familiar ground as Winegard explored the impact of the mosquito on life and on military actions involving the ancient Greeks, Romans, Macedonians,  Carthaginians, and others, but I had no idea that the devastating impact of the disease carrying mosquito shaped much of the history and development of these entities and of what we call the western world.  It's mind boggling. 

3. Debbie and I converse frequently about what we're reading. Debbie reads with a notebook at her side and writes out passages and other notes. (I did quite a bit of this today as I tried to keep timelines and other facts straight while reading The Mosquito.)

Our conversations got me thinking about my teaching life about thirty years ago. 

For two academic years (1995-97) I assigned my students readings out of a book entitled Ways of Reading. 

For an hour or so this evening, I couldn't remember that book's title, but I did some halfway creative search engine work and found the title. In the process of looking for it, I had memories I enjoyed a lot return to me of as I read other book titles of textbooks available back in my teaching days: A World of Ideas, Rereading America, The Bedford Reader, The Norton Reader, The Shape of Reason, and many others. 

What I really wanted to find, though, was the introduction to Ways of Reading. 

I found it online. 

And I familiarized myself again with a concept I have had on my mind for over thirty years now. 

Readers often read with a pencil and pen and mark what they are reading. 

This introduction turns that around and posits that, at the same time, what we read marks us. 

I began to think, yeah, what I read underlines me, puts notes in my margins, puts question marks, exclamation points, and asterisks on my inner life of memory, experience, ideas, and values and those marks invite me not just to read a text but to converse with it, question it, open myself up to ways it is impressing (or marking) me. 

Looking back, I have no idea if this concept made any kind of mark on my students. 

But as I taught from Ways of Reading, I became a student of its (back then) editors, David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky, and this evening their introduction reminded me how they inspired me to work at becoming what they call a strong reader. An active reader. An attentive reader. 

It invigorated me to revisit those two academic years, to remember the countless conversations I had with fellow instructors about Ways of Reading, and the stimulation I enjoyed thanks to the difficult and mind stretching readings Bartholomae and Petrosky included in their book. 

Three Beautiful Things 05-15-2026: Hanging with Riley, Reading *The Mosquito*, Chef Debbie

 1. I don't know if it matters to Riley that I hang around Christy's house for much of the day while she's in Boise. We don't do much together. He comes over to me occasionally and I pet him, but mostly Riley has been going to places in the living room he finds comfortable and relaxing and sleeping. I like to think he'd rather have company in the house than be alone -- I'm that way about dogs and cats. 

2. Mostly, while with Riley, I've been writing, reading, and working the puzzles I go to daily. Our next book club book is The Mosquito, a substantial book tracing the history of this deadly insect all the way back to deep pre-history. The mosquito is an extraordinarily resilient insect and a frighteningly lethal one. I am anticipating that this book will be informative, but so far it's not fun to read. (No problem.)

3. I love to cook. So does Debbie. She's been on a fantastic tear lately, fixing all kinds of delicious food. Today, she used strips of steak as the foundation for a superb beef stroganoff and served it with these great noodles she buys at Walmart. I fixed myself an excellent green salad to accompany this dish. Later in the evening, I finally made a contribution to our life of eating by popping a batch of popcorn that we both enjoyed a lot. 

Three Beautiful Things 05-14-2026: I Enter the Life of Riley, Replicating a Scrambled Egg Dish, Impromptu Book Club with Debbie

 1. I began my dog sitting stint today, so I entered into the Life of Riley. 

I don't have any funny stories to tell. 

All day long, Riley relaxed, looked out the window, slept, and just had an easy dog day. 

2. When I lived in Eugene, I used to occasionally have breakfast at a Mexican restaurant near the U of O Bookstore. I used to order a scrambled egg entree. The scramble included, as best I remember, jalapeno peppers, grated cheese, corn chips, and salsa on the side. 

I made a decent replication of that dish for breakfast this morning. 

It worked! 

3. Debbie and I had an impromptu book club discussion this evening. She's astonished by John Vaillant's book, Fire Weather. It's about the 2016 Ft. McMurray fire in Alberta. We talked at length together about fire and what huge conflagrations feed on. 

I haven't read Fire Weather yet, but I read Timothy Egan's Big Burn several years ago and I talked with Debbie some about what I thought were central ideas in his book. 

I think the two books are different from each other, but both seem to overlap in their descriptions and discussions of the ways fire behaves, what it feeds on, and how powerful fire is. 

A quick coda: we have John Vaillant's book in our home because when I told Leah Sottile I was reading my way through the booklist she published about three years ago, she almost immediately responded that I had to add two books to her list, both by John Vaillant: Fire Weather (2023) and The Golden Spruce (2005).

At our last book club meeting, Debbie and I learned that the club had read Fire Weather and some of the club members had also read Vaillant's 2010 book The Tiger. 

Three Beautiful Things 05-13-2026: Ed Had an Appointment, Winning Wednesday, No Damage (As Far As I Know)

 1. Ed had an appointment for a consultation at Northwest Specialty Hospital early this afternoon. I picked him up way early because high winds and possibly pounding rain were in the weather forecast and I'm a guy who likes to play it safe and leave plenty of times for things to go haywire and then recover. 

Nothing went haywire. 

We arrived at Dr. Sarkis's office plenty early. Ed had several pages to fill out, so our being extra early allowed him to take his time getting through them. 

Ed had a good talk with the PA and will be coming back to the hospital the last week of May for a colonoscopy. 

2. I thought a good way to relax after this consultation would be to rocket down to the CdA Casino and enjoy a meal and the fun we always have on Winning Wednesday. 

Ed and I both fully enjoyed a bowl of beef stew with a garden salad and our plan to relax was working. 

No, neither of us had much luck on the gaming floor, but the machines entertained us and we both had fun. 

3. Good news! Yes, some strong winds kicked up. It was blustery at times. Overall, though, it wasn't that bad. I had no problems driving and we both were relieved that apparently the winds didn't cause any damage or power outings. I might find out later there was damage I don't know about, but it didn't happen in our neighborhood in Kellogg nor Ed's in Kingston. 

Three Beautiful Things 05-12-2026: Body and Mind and Soul, Quietness, Improvised Bacon and Tomato Sandwiches

 1. When I check in at the transplant clinic, for the last year or so it's been a really good guy named Brandon who takes my temperature, weighs me, takes my blood pressure, checks my blood oxygen, asks me a series of questions about medicines and if I've been having any problems. 

We yakked a bit and I told him about going to the symphony and how I've been slowly reading Lonesome Dove and he told me how much he enjoys listening to cello music. 

Nurse Jenn had the day off Monday, so Brandon also checked me out and was very impressed that my exit papers were so brief -- as I wrote yesterday, no medicine changes and only a few appointments over the next year. 

"Wow!" he said, "That's great."

I responded, "It's all that Bach and Beethoven."

He answered, "Yeah. Good for the soul."

He nailed it. 

I will always be convinced that my daily efforts to be good to my soul by writing daily about three beautiful things that day, listening to great music (jazz, classical, jam bands, alt country, classic rock, yacht rock, 90s alternative rock, and more), watching movies I love, learning more about the natural world, reading substantial books, having Copper and Gibbs as companions, being invigorated at book club, spending time in communication with great friends, whether online or in person, enjoying outings with Debbie, and having scheduled time with my sisters to dine together (with our families) and go on Spokane outings to enjoy food, art, sites, museums and other positive Spokane offerings have all combined to boost my health and to nourish the connections within me between body, mind, and spirit. 

2. After such a full and wonderful day yesterday, I drew in today and spent much of the day focused on quietness. I wrote a couple of emails to the Class of '72 and began to reach out to three people about a few things that will help me when I am the host/MC of June 13th's Celebration of Life for Bruce Larsen. 

3. Debbie's been jonesing for a BLT lately and tonight she fried up some bacon and sliced tomatoes and red onion and both of us built ourselves a sandwich. We both passed on the lettuce -- BT sandwiches, I guess -- but I souped mine up a bit by spreading olive tapenade on one slice of bread and topping it with crumbled feta cheese. I also passed on the freshly sliced red onion and, instead, put pickled red onion on top of my tomato slices. 

Great simple meal.

Maybe even good for my soul. 

 

Three Beautiful Things 05-11-2026: A Very Happy Two Year Transplant Anniversary, Quick Camry Battery Service, Ooops! Back to Sacred Heart and Ice Cream

1. Two years ago this evening, a nineteen year old man's kidney was transplanted into my urinary system.

Not long after midnight, the surgeon and his team released me to the ICU and right from the get go, all signs looked good that my body had accepted the new organ and that the kidney was waking up nicely and beginning to function.

I drove to Spokane this morning for a two-year anniversary appointment with Dr. Monita Poudyal, the same transplant nephrologist who spent a generous amount of time with me in the hours before the surgery talking me through what I would experience in surgery and what I could expect in the following days, weeks, and months. 

Today, Dr. Poudyal beamed. 

She told me my new kidney was "functioning beautifully". 

We went over everything -- my recent labs, how I was taking care of myself, whether I was having any problems (I'm not), my exercise habits, my weight gain, my medications, everything. 

Her final verdict: no changes. 

Medications and dosages remain unchanged. 

She expects this kidney to function well for many years. 

On June 4th, Dr. Bieber, who is my primary nephrologist at Kootenai Health, and I will decide how often I'll have labs drawn and how often I'll see him. My guess, if memory serves me correctly, is that I'll have labs drawn every three months and see Dr. Bieber every six months. 

My next appointment at the transplant clinic is in a year. If my kidney's function and my health continue to be good, the transplant team will cut me loose and I'll be under the sole care of Dr. Bieber. 

When the results of the labs I had drawn last Monday began to parachute into my patient portal, I thought they looked awesome. Prostate normal. Cholesterol in great shape. No diabetes. My GFR looked strong. My creatinine levels looked acceptable. I saw no problems and my visit with Dr. Poudyal confirmed that I read those results correctly. 

Ah.

What a relief that this surgery was a success and that I'm doing so well as I move forward from it. 

2. Today started really great before I went to Spokane. 

I called Silver Valley Tire Center around 7:20 to report the Camry's dead battery.

Within five minutes, one of their guys came to the house and removed the dead battery. 

Ten or fifteen minutes later he returned with a new battery. He installed it. It worked(!), and I knew well ahead of my appointment in Spokane that the Camry was ready to roll. 

Great service. Great guys to work with. Much gratitude. 

3. I knew coming into today's appointment that after Dr. Poudyal and I were finished that I would be going over to the Sacred Heart lab for specialty labs to be drawn. These labs assess whether I'm at risk for organ rejection. 

Wouldn't you know it. I left Dr. Poudyal's office on cloud 9 and I was hungry and I forgot all about having those labs drawn. 

I glided up North Monroe to Zozo's Sandwich House and ordered a Hungry Hungry Hip-Pea sandwich, a combination of a mashed chickpea mixture, avocado, tomato, pickled red onion, spinach, and vegan mayonnaise along with a cup of chicken enchilada soup. 

I was about three bites into my sandwich when I suddenly remembered that I didn't have the specialty labs drawn. 

I finished my lunch and eased back up to Sacred Heart and the blood draw went quickly, smoothly, economically (!). I was back to the parking garage within and half an hour so didn't have to pay to park! 

I ended my trip to the metropolitan Spokane area at Belle and Pete's ice cream parlor and celebrated having a new battery and the great news at the clinic on my two year transplant anniversary with a scoop of Extreme Oreo ice cream in a bowl. 

Three Beautiful Things 05-10-2026: Dead Battery and Christy's Generosity, In my Soul and Not My Head, Our Return to Kellogg Breaks Our Silence

 1. I guess you can say I don't read Toyotas very well. I sensed that the Camry's battery might be weakening, but this afternoon as Debbie and piled into the car to take off for this afternoon's Spokane Symphony concert, I wasn't expecting the battery to be dead. 

But it was. 

If we were going to attend the symphony, we didn't have time to do anything about the battery, so I sent out a calm, panicked text to both Christy and Carol wondering if one of them could let us use her car. 

Christy could! 

I learned a lot about the Camry today and I left the car in our driveway and Debbie and I rocketed off to Spokane, hoping we might still hear some of James Lowe's pre-concert talk. 

2. We missed the first five minutes of the talk, but enjoyed the rest of it. 

Now it was time for the concert featuring pieces by three composers, each of whom left the country of his birth and came to the USA: Sydney Guillame, a contemporary and living composer, left Haiti; Sergei Rachmaninoff left Russia; Bela Bartok left Hungary. 

In a discussion online about classical music, Stu referred to me as cerebral. That's true, to a point, but I do not engage classical music concerts cerebrally. So, on the cerebral or intellectual level, much of this concert mystified me. But I put that aside and let the music nourish my soul, not with comfort, not with inspiration, but with intensity and grief, with longing and confusion, with fire and calm. 

Afterward, Debbie and I couldn't talk about the concert. We didn't have words for what we'd experienced, a depth that left us not only inarticulate, but mute. 

3. By the time we got to Kellogg and drove Christy's car in her driveway and saw that Carol and Paul were at Christy's house, not having returned to their house after the three of them had dinner together, we both started to be able to say a few things about the concert. 

Evren Ozel, the twenty-seven-year-old piano soloist for Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini was incomprehensibly talented and charismatic. 

Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra left us saying, in a positive way, "What was that?" OMG!

We could talk, too, about the mixture of musical styles and the rhythms of Haitian street music in Sydney Guillame's superb composition, commissioned by the Spokane Symphony, Between Homelands. 

Three Beautiful Things 05-09-2026: Loafing, Debbie's Invigorating Time Uptown, I Fix Myself a Delicious Soup

 1. I'd had a busy week leading up to today -- labs and three separate trips to Spokane for book club, symphony lecture, and our sibling outing. Debbie and I will return to Spokane on Mother's Day for a symphony concert. 

So I pretty much rested today and beyond doing puzzles and writing in my blog, I didn't do much. 

2. I made a brief shopping trip to Yoke's and dropped off Debbie at Radio Brewing, a place she likes to go to read. For Debbie, it was the start of a terrific afternoon and evening. She ran into friends at Radio. She dropped into Zany's just to find out how the uptown pizza business was going. She strolled on down McKinley to The Lounge and had great conversation with Bob and Tracy and then a miracle happened. 

A French speaking man from Mali, how living in Spokane, was at The Lounge and Debbie approached him, asked if he spoke French, and for at least a half an hour the two of them yakked in French, a rare and most uplifting experience for Debbie. 

When I went uptown to give Debbie a ride home, believe me when I say she was invigorated! 

3. I interrupted my loafing briefly by making a soup I thoroughly enjoyed this evening.

I combined frozen shrimp, potstickers, chicken bouillon, green onion, celery, and mushrooms in a pot and seasoned it with soy sauce and a chili paste. The chili paste gave the soup a bite, the shrimp sweetened the broth, and the mushrooms made it all kind of meaty. I love potstickers in soup -- it's kind of like having dumplings -- and this simple meal gave me a lot of pleasure. 

Three Beautiful Things 05-08-2026: Enthusiasm and Invigoration, Sibling Outing to a Market/Fair, Leaving Texas

1. When we messaged back and forth this morning, I told Stu that when I arrived home from the symphony lecture I attended on Thurday, I was so pumped and was talking so fast (and loud?) that it was as if I'd just drunk five pots of coffee. 

Stu responded that he was glad that I could be so enthusiastic about what I'd experienced. 

Later I realized that the adrenaline rush and joy and sense of being fully alive I've been feeling since I was about eighteen years old about lectures, certain books I've read, superb conversation, classical and many other genres of music, and other sources of vitality in my life is, yes, to a degree, enthusiasm, but, even more, it's invigoration. 

I mean, I can be enthusiastic about going down to the CdA Casino on Winning Wednesday, but I don't feel more alive when I spin reels. My sense of being alive is not heightened nor do I see the world more clearly and fully than I did before. 

But when I listened to James Lowe's lecture on Thursday, when I listened to speakers and other presenters at Forum at Whitworth College decades ago, when I hear a transporting version of the Grateful Dead playing "Uncle John's Band" or Richard Thompson performing "Beeswing" or "Galway to Graceland", when I watch a stirring movie like Henry V (1989) or Stop Making Sense, when I hear a great sermon or when an Episcopal liturgy moves me to tears, when book club discussions turn toward addressing big questions, when I'm in the presence of paintings and other art that moves me, or when I read a great novel like Middlemarch, my inner vigor grows stronger, my awareness of being a thinking, feeling, seeing, hearing, curious human being is electrified and that's what I think of as not only enthusiasm, but invigoration. 

Over the approximately thirty-five years I worked as an instructor, discussing big questions with Whitworth, University of Oregon, and especially Lane Community College students invigorated me, sometimes beyond my ability to control my electrified behavior! 

I'm grateful for all the sources of invigoration in my life. I write about them often in this blog. 

I'm not what's known of as an adrenaline junkie. 

I'm simply open to having music, lectures, books, poems, conversations, movies, beauty, and other similar things I seek out and enjoy invigorate me. 

Growing old has not diminished this a bit. 

It might be stronger now than ever.  

2. I was in charge of organizing our sibling outing for the month of May.

I wanted to see if I could find something for us to do that was unlike anything we'd done on these outings before. 

If I remember correctly, I did an online search of events in Spokane during the month of May and I discovered the Spokane Night Market and Street Fair. 

I guess depending on your sense of Spokane geography, this market/fair's location is at any one or all of these landmarks! 

• The Spokane U-District
• The Gateway Bridge
• At Sprague and Sherman
• At 508 E. Riverside Ave

Once in this general area, it's easy to find.The market/fair's tents, booths, and attendees are conspicuous! 

This event happens on the second Friday of each month starting in May, ending in October. 

It's put on by The Wavy Bunch. You can learn more about this organization by clicking on the link I posted above. 

When Christy and Carol visited Eugene when I lived there, they enjoyed going to Eugene's weekly Saturday Market and Farmer's Market. 

I thought this Spokane market/fair was definitely in the same spirit as the Eugene markets and that they would enjoy looking at what vendors sold, the food being offered, the organizations who had booths, and listening to live music. 

I was right! 

I spent much of our time at the market/fair standing in front of the music stage listening to B Radicals, a self-described existential experimental rock funk jam band and they invigorated me! 

In fact, they made me tear up because their style of jam music transported me back to my frequent evening and late night visits to Eugene's WOW Hall from about 1989-1995 to listen to and dance to the really invigorating jamming of bands like Zero, Nine Days Wonder, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Little Women, and others. 

B Radicals took me back to the Grateful Dead shows I went to in Oakland and Eugene. 

It's rare for me to hear live jam bands since I left Eugene. I didn't hear any such bands in the DC area when we lived there and I haven't  heard any in Kellogg. 

But this evening I did and I especially enjoyed one memorable moment. 

The B Radicals had been playing all original tunes since the beginning of their first set, but as they closed that set, the lead singer said, "We're going to do a cover now. See if you can guess whose song this is."

They started to doodle a bit and I thought they were about to launch into the Grateful Dead's "Shakedown Street", but, no, they launched into Stevie Wonder's "Boogie On Reggae Woman", replete with a joyous funky psychedelic break out jam and then they segued seamlessly out of Stevie Wonder into another original tune. 

And then, to my utter disbelief and joy, whoever ran the sound system to play recorded music during the band's break played -- I'm not kidding -- the Grateful Dead's "Shakedown Street". I wouldn't say I felt exactly like Moses standing before the burning bush, but it was close! 

I had a small order of Suya, that is, Nigerian barbeque, for dinner. Carol enjoyed an Ethiopian combination plate and Christy entered new culinary territory and ordered a Shawarma wrap.

Christy purchased an opal necklace and Carol purchased a garment to wear in this fall's production of Blithe Spirit. 

We left the market/fair happy -- were all of invigorated? Maybe. I know I was. We headed back to Pete and Belle's on North Argonne Road for delicious scoops of ice cream before gliding back to Kellogg.  

3. It's taken a while to pull everything together, but the cowboys in Lonesome Dove have now rounded up their cattle and are heading out of Texas and beginning their long trek to Montana. Jake and Lorena, at least for now, are not part of the official roundup party, but riding close and camping close to Call, Gus, Deet, and rest of the boys heading north. 

Three Beautiful Things 05-07-2026: Symphony Lecture in Spokane, Great Food and Memories at Great Harvest, A Vegetable Sandwich

 1. I left the house shortly before 10:30 this morning, eager to arrive in Spokane and take a seat in the Museum of Arts and Culture's auditorium to hear Spokane Symphony Music Director and Conductor, James Lowe, give a stellar lecture on the concert the orchestra will give this Saturday and Sunday. 

Debbie and I will go on Sunday. 

For this program, James Lowe commissioned a composition from Sydney Guillame, a Haitian-American composer he has worked with in the past a few times. He began his lecture by interviewing Guillame about the piece he wrote to fulfill this commission and we learned about Guillame's experiences being between homes, between Haiti and the United States, while living in New York, Los Angeles, or Portland and how those feelings and his connection to Haitian culture helped shape the piece we'll hear this weekend. 

James Lowe organized this weekend's program around three composers, Sydney Guillame, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Bela Bartok, all who came to the United States from other countries (Haiti, Russia, and Hungary) and in their works we can hear evidence of their love for their home countries and the influences of living in the USA. 

2. In the months immediately following transplant surgery, after my many visits to the transplant clinic for labs and visits with the transplant team, I happily got into the habit of going to Great Harvest for a muffin, a cookie, or another baked good and a cup of coffee. If I arrived at Great Harvest at lunch time, I ordered one of their superb sandwiches. 

I decided after the lecture that it would feel good to return to Great Harvest. 

So I did. 

I bought two loaves of bread for home.

I ordered a blue cheese beef sandwich on Dakota bread with a cup of chicken rice soup and a fantastic oatmeal cookie for lunch. 

Every time I came to Great Harvest in 2024 and 2025 it was after a positive visit to the transplant clinic. I associate their physical space and their food with celebrating another positive visit, with feeling great that life after the transplant was proceeding well. 

Those feelings returned today, not only because my lab results this week have looked good, but because I was invigorated and stimulated by James Lowe's lecture and by knowing that I'd be back in Spokane Friday for an outing with Christy and Carol and would return on Sunday to hear the symphony concert. 

(I'll also be back on Monday for a visit to the transplant clinic.)

3. It's been a superb time recently for sandwiches! Steak sandwich at the Snake Pit. A half a beef sandwich at the casino deli at Wildhorse. We had grilled cheese sandwiches Sunday with tomato soup. I had a very tasty chicken sandwich before Tuesday evening's book club. We ate at Kindred on North Monroe. Today I loved my soup and sandwich at Great Harvest. 

I am especially fond of vegetable sandwiches and so tonight I took out two slices of the 5 Fiber Wheat Bread I bought at Great Harvest and made myself just the sandwich I wanted: cucumber, mushroom, zucchini, red onion, and red pepper between the slices of bread, with one slice covered with Olive Tapenade. 

All that was missing was a cup of soup! 

Three Beautiful Things 05-06-2026: Book Club at Home, Off to Montana Soon, More Lab Results and More Encouraging News

 1. Today, I was wishing that our book club were meeting again today so that we could further discuss The Botany of Desire. Connections within the book and to other things I've read over the years came back to me today. That we wouldn't be meeting again today, though, was no problem. Debbie and I had a spontaneous discussion of the book and continued our ongoing discussion of the act of reading itself and how we go about reading a book or anything else. 

2. As I might have written before, a months long gap of time passed between when I started reading Lonesome Dove, got as far as Part II, and then got distracted by who knows what. I've returned to reading it again, having started over again, and today I made solid progress toward getting back to where I was the first time I dove into this epic. It's all coming back to me: the arrival of Jake Spoon, the Irish guys, the non-stop yakking of Gus, and, pivotally, the emerging plan to drive cattle from southern Texas to Montana. 

3. Tacrolimus is one of the immuno-suppressive medicines I take and my lab results show that the level of Tacrolimus in my blood is within range, but it's the lowest it's been for quite a while. I trust that if I need to increase my dosage, I'll hear from Nurse Jenn or someone else on the transplant team. I also know that I have an appointment at the transplant clinic on Monday and that the doctor and I can talk about Tacrolimus then. 

In other bloodwork news, the two viruses we always check on are not present in my system. 

Things look good to me. 

I think all of the results of the labs I had drawn are Monday are in. 

My next move is to visit to the clinic on the two-year anniversary of the transplant, have labs drawn at Sacred Heart that check for signs of rejection (labs that can't be drawn at Kootenai), and find out if I need a kidney ultrasound or any other tests run at this key time in my post-transplant life.  

Three Beautiful Things 05-05-2026: Discussing *Botany of Desire* at Auntie's Bookstore, The Act of Reading, Dinner at Kindred Public House

 1. Debbie and I cruised to Spokane this afternoon for the monthly meeting of the Science/Nature Book Club at Auntie's Bookstore. Today we discussed Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire and discussed whether plants have consciousness, not like human consciousness, but a kind of consciousness outside human understanding. We also focused on a central emphasis of Pollan's, the process of co-evolution, the way human beings in their interactions with plants contribute to plants' evolution and how plants affect our evolution as humans. 

I think our group agreed that it's common for humans to see themselves as separate from nature, to see the natural world as a commodity, a source of economic development. We discussed the impact of this way of thinking, how, as consumers, our demand for perfect looking French fries, shiny nearly uniform shaped apples, potent pot, and predictably colored tulips inform how growers manipulate these plants. This led to our reflections upon monocultural tracts of land over and against biodiverse plots and the problems that arise from monocultural farming. 

2. Having never been in a book club before, I'm understanding more deeply something I've always known: people read books very differently from one another. Today at least twenty minutes or so passed before I spoke up, mainly because I was fascinated by how my clubmates approach reading a book. 

One thing (I think) is certain: I'm a more lenient reader than many others and given a chance to enter into a discussion of a book, I don't immediately want to comment on what I had problems with or on what I didn't like. In fact, I rarely think about these two matters when I read. 

Maybe in another post, I'll talk a bit more about where my more lenient approach leads me as a reader -- I tend to view movies in a similar way. I've written about that somewhere in the deep past of this blog! 

3. On purpose, Debbie and I arrived in Spokane a couple hours ahead of the book club's six o'clock meeting time. Debbie had found out online that on Tuesdays, there's an event in the Garland District called the Global Food and Art Market. 

We found the market but didn't stay long. Nothing being sold grabbed our attention. No problem. I was very happy we checked it out. 

After discovering Ferguson's Cafe had closed at 2 o'clock, we made our way down Monroe to Kindred Public House where Christy, Carol, and I had eaten lunch in April. 

We had a great time in casual conversation with our server, Kam, a terrific conversationalist and attentive man who moved to Spokane from Georgia several years ago. I enjoyed how he didn't seem under pressure to take our order and dash off, but relaxed with us, told us how much he enjoys Spokane even though he hasn't quite adjusted yet to the colder and snowy winters. 

I enjoyed the Lemon-Herb Chicken Sandwich I ordered with its fascinating combination of flavors, including pickled fennel, heirloom tomato, and lemon-basil aioli all adding zest to the chicken breast that had been marinated in a lemon and herb mixture. The sandwich came on a fresh and toasted ciabatta bun. 

Three Beautiful Things 05-04-2026: An Encouraging Visit to Kootenai Health, Beelining Around CdA, Back to the Vizio Room

 1. This morning I rocketed over to Coeur d'Alene for labs and a chest x-ray, both in preparation for next Monday's two-year kidney transplant anniversary visit to the transplant clinic. 

About a couple of hours later, results began to parachute into my cell phone. I felt some low grade anxiety as I opened the app since I hadn't had bloodwork done since February and it had been a year since my last chest x-ray. 

No need to worry! 

From my non-professional point of view my bloodwork numbers looked stable, that is, very similar to the results Dr. Bieber was so happy about back in February. In addition, my annual PSA is a great number and the chest x-ray report was, to use the magic term in the world of imaging, unremarkable. 

Just what I wanted to read! 

2. I broke my fast with a latte and chocolate croissant and then I got a haircut, went to the car wash, fueled up at Costco and shopped, and dropped in to get some items at Trader Joe's. 

It was fun beelining from one place to another and I was back home by about 1:00. 

3. Back home, I relaxed in the restored Vizio room. I had puzzles to catch up on. I listened to the Bach station on Pandora. I watched more of David Attenborough's Private Life of Plants and learned more about how plants find nutrients and how they grow. It was fascinating. 

Today was a superb one filled with good news, good food items, music, and learning. 

And all the time I was in the Vizio room, Copper was resting near my chair in the suitcase he finds so relaxing and safe right beside the ottoman I use to stretch my legs.  

Three Beautiful Things 05-03-2026: The Return of the Vizio Room, Retro Family Dinner, Music and Movies and Russian History

 1. If you've been reading this blog for the last several years, you might remember that we kept our television in our house's front bedroom (which we've never used as a bedroom) and I called it the Vizio room. I won't go into the mind-numbing details, but a few years ago we moved the television into the living room. 

Today, March 3, 2026, however, marked the resurrection of the Vizio room. I won't numb you with all the details of this development but suffice it to say that I am very happy. Debbie bought a cover for the chair and ottoman in this room. I'm using them again. I have speakers hooked to the television. I now have the hang of casting content from my laptop or phone to the television. 

I returned to the Criterion Channel today. I watched about ten trailers on Netflix. I cast the first episode of David Attenborough's documentary series, The Private Life of Plants from archive.org to the Vizio. 

I watched the first twenty minutes of an hour-long cat documentary on Netflix entitled, Inside the Mind of a Cat. 

During the heyday of the Vizio room, I listened to music, read books, watched ball games, movies, and other stuff on television and it's awesome to have it back in operation. 

It's also Copper's room and while he's never wanted to be on my lap, he does like finding spots to relax and sleep close to where I'm sitting. We'll enjoy sharing the Vizio room. 

We have more things to do to further develop the Vizio room, but it's a boon for me to have brought it back to life again. 

2. This afternoon rearranging of our household came about because as I was vacuuming the living room rug in preparation for family dinner tonight, we suddenly decided to dispose of this old and dog/cat worn rug and Debbie brought a much smaller rug she had upstairs in its place. 

We had time to do this on a family dinner night because Debbie had decided to keep dinner very simple. She combined Campbell's tomato soup, a box/carton of tomato soup, and fire-roasted tomatoes together and she used bread she'd baked on Saturday to make grilled cheese sandwiches. Carol and Paul brought chips. Christy brought ice cream sandwiches. 

And PRESTO! 

We had a throwback dinner, a retro dinner and it was superb. 

In fact, later in the evening I confided to Debbie (and now to all of you!) that I would be ecstatic if every family dinner were a simple soup accompanied by a great sandwich.

I don't really want that to approach to come to pass, but I hope one day we'll come back to some variation on the dinner Debbie fixed us tonight. 

3. Paul and Carol took one of their students to the Fox Saturday night to hear the Spokane Symphony play the soundtrack to Batman (1989) while the movie played. 

I could hardly wait for them to arrive for dinner so I could listen to Paul and Carol talk about their experience and what a good time their student had. 

Later on, we learned that Carol and Paul are reading Crime and Punishment with an adult friend of theirs. They recently read The Odyssey together and seem to be in a groove of slowly working their way through massive and complicated works of literature. 

Before we knew it, thanks, in part, to another book Paul is reading, we started talking about Russian history and its many contradictions and complexities. 

A couple weeks ago, the Great Course I've been listening to delved into Russian composers and the lecturer explored Russian history and surveyed Russia's folk music tradition. 

I never dreamed I'd have the opportunity to contribute some of the things I learned from the Great Course and from the Russian History course I took at Whitworth in 1974, but, lo and behold, some of the things I learned were relevant tonight and it felt really good not have a chance to talk about it rather than just have what I've learned stuck head untalked about. 

Three Beautiful Things 05-02-2026: Walmart Order, Relearning What I'd Forgotten, *Celluloid Closet*

 1. Last night I submitted an order to Walmart for curbside pickup and around 8:00 this morning I picked up, meaning we now have a good supply of produce, cat food, milk, and other staple items and the order included products that I dropped off at the Elks food pantry. 

2. It had been quite a while since I cast anything from my laptop to our Vizio. This evening, Debbie and I decided to rent a movie on YouTube and when I tried to make it play on the television, I couildn't do it. I had totally forgotten the steps necessary. So, I put on an instructional video and relearned the simple process and we were back in business! 

3. When the movie was over, neither Debbie nor I could remember what we'd been talking about that led us to want to watch the 1995 documentary Celluloid Closet, a study of how gay, lesbian, and trans characters were portrayed in the movies over the course of the 20th century. The movie featured clips from a wide array of movies and numerous interviews with screenwriters, actors, and others who provided expert commentary on this subject. 

I don't know if Debbie had seen this movie more than once. I know I had which is just to say that I had remembered it as a superb documentary and I had that uplifting experience this evening of finding the movie even better than my very positive memories of it. 

Now my hope is that I always remember the easy steps necessary to cast stuff from my laptop to the television. About an hour ago, I brought up a YouTube video of the London Symphony Orchestra performing Brahm's 4th Symphony, not only to enjoy the music, but to make sure I still remembered the next day how tp cast YouTube from the laptop onto the television! 

And I did! 

Three Beautiful Things 05-01-2026: Breakfast with Rooster at Rooster's, A Fun May in Spokane Coming Up, Debbie's Travel Plans

 1. For many in and around the Silver Valley, Ed's name is Rooster, a nickname he picked up many many years ago. It's only fitting, then, that Mike, Ed, and I enjoy ending our stay at the Wildhorse Resort and Casino by stopping off at Rooster's Country Kitchen in Pendleton as we start our drive back home. 

We had a delicious breakfast and good conversation at Rooster's. I was especially happy with my pot roast hash, scrambled egg, and biscuit. If I were a younger man, I could have eaten the entire generously loaded plate of food, but I'm getting old and I decided I wanted to drive back to the Silver Valley feeling comfortable, not stuffed. 

Turns out that was a great decision. 

2. For many many months starting in 2020 and then again for several months after kidney transplant surgery in 2024, I was very cautious about going out into the world, especially in places with a lot of people. Eventually, I eased up on the caution and as I started to widen my world a bit, Debbie asked me several times what I wanted to do at this stage of my retirement. 

"Don't you want to travel? Aren't there places you want to go?' 

My answer was always the same: I'd like to go see friends in Seattle and Eugene. 

I'm hoping that will be possible sooner than later.  

I have decided I want to stay fairly close to home as Copper ages in case he begins to need special attention the way Luna did when she began to die. Copper is shrinking, losing weight. His appetite is off and on. He seems comfortable and he is strong enough to, say, jump up on my bed, but I'm keeping a close eye on him. I've seen several other cats slowly progress toward dying and I'm seeing some signs in Copper's appearance and habits that he might be doing the same. 

I'm also mindful of staying home with Gibbs when Debbie goes away to help out family members or to be a part of celebrations. 

As 2025 became 2026, I decided that a great way to enjoy my retirement would be to make trips to Spokane. I'd go to classical music concerts whether the Spokane Symphony, Spokane String Quartet, Gonzaga Symphony, or other ensembles. I'd go to lectures. I'd go to art exhibits. Debbie and I decided we'd go to Auntie's Bookstore on the first Tuesday of every month at 6 p.m. and be a part of the store's Science and Nature Book Club. 

To top it all off, I proposed to Christy and Carol toward the end of 2025 that we think about making all twelve of our 2026 monthly sibling outings trips to Spokane. They agreed. It's been awesome -- we've gone to the Garland District, Whitworth University, places on Monroe Street, the Spokane Falls, St. John's Cathedral, Cannon Park, and we've sampled different ice cream shops along with different cafes and restaurants. 

Today, I wanted to be sure I knew what all I'd be doing in Spokane during the month of May whether alone or with Debbie or with my sisters. 

It's going to be great month: sibling outing to the Spokane Night Market and Street Fair, two symphony performances, a lecture, one string quartet concert, an evening with author Craig Johnson, book club at Auntie's, and who knows what I might do on May 11th in addition to having an appointment at the transplant clinic for evaluating how I'm doing on the two year anniversary of the transplant. 

3. One last terrific event in May: Debbie recently decided to fly to Chicago on May 29th to join other family members for Rosie's first birthday party.  Rosie is our niece Samantha's daughter. Debbie already had plans to be in New York in June. That plan won't change -- she'll just have a fun time with family in Illinois before making her trip to New York. 

I'm very happy this all worked out and I'll definitely find ways to occupy my time while holding down our little fort in Kellogg. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-30-2026: Breakfast at the Oregon Trail Deli, Relaxing in My Room, Spinning Reels

1. All of us who've been hanging out at the Wildhorse Resort and Casino this week buzzed about thirty miles east of the resort to Meacham, OR in order to do eat at the awesome Oregon Trail Store and Deli. The couple who operate this business put out great food. We've had superb breakfasts at the Oregon Trail and fantastic lunches, too. I indulged in today's breakfast special and enjoyed a platter of biscuits and gravy with sausage links. 

Jim headed back to Nampa today so we bade him farewell, very happy that he made the trip up and that we got to spend time together. 

Terry also headed back and I rode back to the resort with him and we know we'll see each other again pretty soon, possibly in May and for certain in June. 

2. I had catching up to do this morning and this afternoon. I needed to blog and work puzzles, the things I usually do first thing in the morning at home. I also napped after eating such a great meal at the Oregon Trail and having had a so-so night's sleep.

3. Ed, Don, Mike, and I got together in the afternoon at the Wildhorse's Sports Bar and had a good session of solid yakkin'. We agreed we were unsure when or if any one of us would want an evening meal, so we agreed we'd all be on our own. 

I spun reels for a while and then ate a half a deli sandwich and then spun reels some more. It was fun to play a ton of different games and by the time I quit and ate some ice cream at the deli and headed to my room, I was happy that my luck ran pretty good. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-29-2026: Breakfast Together, Some Pendleton Streets, Steakhouse Dinner

 1. Before we went our separate ways afterward, Jim, Don, Mike, Terry, Ed, and I met for breakfast in the Traditions restaurant and yakked about all kinds of things over a delicious breakfast served by a witty and fake-cranky server who made us laugh and we returned the favor. 

2. My separate way was to return to my room and solve puzzles and blog before I spent some time spinning reels. Later on, I drove to Pendleton and spent time trying to get a better sense of the lay of the land. I haven't spent enough time just getting to know Pendleton better and made some progress today. 

3. We old men gathered again at the resort's Plateau Steakhouse for a delicious dinner together and more conversation and storytelling. We enjoyed our meals and continued to learn more about what we've all been up to. We also raised a toast to our great friend Bruce Larsen and had fun telling stories about him and remembering the great things about him that made our long friendships with him so enjoyable and significant. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-28-2026: Breakfast at Dave's Bar and Grill, A Fantastic Country Drive, Dinner with Colette

1. I picked up Ed around 6:30 this morning and we beelined straight from Kingston to Spokane Valley for breakfast at Dave's Bar and Grill. I hadn't eaten at Dave's since last October and it all came back to me how much I enjoy this place. First of all, it's a morning hangout for codgers like Ed and me and so, as before, we sat and let snippets of great bs come our way and even though we were near the intersection of East Sprague and Pines Road, it felt like we were at any one of the Silver Valley's bs joints -- like The Lounge, for example. 

Then the excellent quality of the food came back to me, especially the fried potatoes covered in gravy. 

I finished the plate of potatoes and gravy, scrambled eggs, sausage patty, and English muffins with strawberry jam and knew I wouldn't need to eat anything until dinner around 5:30. 

Dave's Bar and Grill sent us off to Oregon nourished and happy. 

2. We drove from Spokane to Colfax to Dayton, Waitsburg, and Dixie, continuing on through Walla Walla and Milton-Freewater, and ended our drive just after noon at the Wildhorse Resort and Casino.

It was a spectacular drive. We enjoyed being off the freeway and the variety of landscapes, much of it farm land.

Upon arrival, I took a nap, started to get caught up on word puzzles and blogging, and headed downstairs where I found Ed, Mike, Don, and Jim relaxing at the lobby bar. I spun a few reels and then returned to my room to get ready for dinner. 

3. As we try to do every time I come to Pendleton, Colette and I met at the Thai Crystal and we enjoyed delicious food and nearly three hours of scintillating conversation about Colette's work, her family, classical music, books, podcasts, and writers. 

Our conversation uplifted me. 

When I returned to the resort, Ed, Mike, Terry, Don, and Jim were enjoying whiskey time in Ed's room. I couldn't join in the whiskey sipping, but I did join in the conversation and we Silver Valley boys had a lot to talk about from the past and the present. 

We couldn't help but feel the presence  of our lifelong friend Lars. His death is fresh in our minds and on our hearts, but I think we took some comfort in telling stories about him and enjoying great memories.