Tag Archives: Kate

Family, Garden, Great Work, Health, permaculture

Dinner Straight From the Plant

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Summer                        Waxing Green Corn Moon

Dinner with vegetables straight from the garden is a treat and can be a surprise.  It was tonight.  We had potatoes, new potatoes-709042potatoes, dug just before cooking.  They had a distinct flavor, a nutty earthy  tone unfamiliar from the long since harvested potatoes typical of both home and restaurant cooking.  This meal included our garlic, our kale and chard, the potatoes garnished with our flat parsley and a bowl of sugar snap peas as an appetizer.

Digging potatoes involved a spading fork to loosen the soil, then searching around under the earth for these lumpy  treasures.  They grow well in the sandy soil here in Andover.

(pic:  potatoes before harvest)

Kate takes off for the Grand Teton’s tomorrow, a CME conference.  BJ is also out there, playing in the Grand Teton music festival as she has for the last several years.  The Tetons have an incredible beauty, the American Alps, a very young mountain range.  She’s back on Wednesday, then we go to see a micro-surgeon who has perfected the technique for cervical vertebrae.  He’ll evaluate Kate’s candidacy for that surgery.

Lots of weeding today and more tomorrow.  A normal task in late July, early August.

Aging, Family, Great Work

Zoos and Us

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Summer                              Full Summer Moon

Zoos have their detractors, but to this guy they stir a sense of wonder.  Two star tortoises walked their sandy space at an elegant trot.  Made me wonder what speed seems like to a tortoise.  Were they flyin’?  Hey, dude, slow down.  Not sure, but when the tortoise in front slowed, the other, tail-gating so close that his head was under the rear of the others shell, would bite the leader on the right leg.  This always made the other guy surge ahead.

Not far from these guys a lone komodo dragon hung behind a tree, his forked tongue flicking in and out, carrying scent inside to his olfactory sensors.  He looked ornery and ready to act on it.  Just beyond him otters slept next to each other, a couple belly up, legs splayed out, the picture of contentment.  Gibbons swung on their impossibly long limbs from branch to branch, occasionally letting out their ear piercing and maniacal cry.  Right next to them was a tree kangaroo.  You’ve never heard of them?  Neither had I, but there he was, up in the tree no less.

On the Minnesota Trail the wolverines were active.  They dug in a hole with great vigor, one pacing in the stream while the other worked, then shifting places.

Ruth and Gabe loved  the coral reef tank filled with all manner of fish in colors so exotic no painter could accurately depict them.  They would be called slaves to bright colors if they did.

After lunch we went on a mono-rail ride.  That’s ok, a novelty, but better for the little ones than for me.

Our last stop was the Grizzly Coast exhibit, a batch of animals native to the Kamchatka Peninsula.  The grizzly bears captivate every one.  One guy swam in the water, making a play for the salmon at the bottom of the pool, but not a  very serious play.  He had been fed earlier.  Just keeping his reflexes sharp.

We were there right at four hours which wore Grandpa out.  Now a nap.

Aging

A Pain in the Neck (and the Lower Back)

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Summer                         Waxing Summer Moon

Up to Elk River with Kate to see Dr. Bewin, a pm&r doc (physical medicine and rehabilitation).  He’s a tall, fit man with gray hair and a reserved manner.  His demeanor in the office was professional, taking careful notes and putting Kate through a series of movements to discern the current state of her pain and its sources.

In the end his news was sobering, that is, he said no surgeon will touch her back, “Just too complicated.”  That means more physical therapy and possible injections, but no long term fix.  Her neck, a somewhat less complicated area (but still her neck), might still respond to surgical procedure.  We’ll check that out in a month or so with a couple of neuro-surgeons.

She’s dealt with this ongoing problem since our honeymoon, when she carried two liters of water in her backpack and felt some pain the following day.  This degenerative disc disease did not start then, but its appearance in our lives did.  Now here we are, 20 years later, still deciding, still treating.

Kate’s ability to endure and to endure and get significant work accomplished staggers me.  It has its limits.  The combination of neck and lower back challenges even Kate’s Norwegian toughness.  I believe her conditions will ameliorate somewhat with retirement when she has more control over her movements on any given day.

Aging, Family, Woolly Mammoths

The Grandchildren Are In The House

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Summer                                      Waxing Summer Moon

Grandpas Bill Schmidt, Scott Simpson and Frank Broderick (Woolly Mammoths all) prepared me for the wonder of grandchildren.  They were spot on.  Ruth came in last night and said, “Hi, Grandpop!”  She had me at coming through the door.  Gabe got transferred from Dad to me soon after Jon came in the house.  Gabe looked up and gave me one of his trademark smiles, Happy to see you Grandpop.  That’s what I heard, though Gabe’s 1 year plus mouth formed no words.

Herschel, their 6 year old German Shorthair, recently diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma, bounded in as if he had no stinking terminal illness.  He proceeded to pick up a small Ruthie sandal and run from one end of the house to the other with it in  his mouth.  This is Herschel’s way of signaling anxiety.

The Olsons stopped to see the Johnsons in Nevada, Iowa.  Zelma Johnson, Jon’s grandma, still lives in this small Iowa town where Kate and her sisters grew up.  Due to estrangement from David, Jon’s father, Jon had not seen his grandma in a long time.  Jen got to meet Zelma and Zelma got to meet her great-grandchildren, Gabe and Ruth.  David and Kate were high school sweethearts.

Kate got two cloth bags full of kiddy stuff at the dollar store.  Ruth opened her hers and took out each item and showed it to me, exclaiming happily as only small children can.  Retaining the  young child’s sense of of awe and wonder at simple things is a goal worth keeping at the forefront of our maturity.  Who needs a Lexus when she has a bubble maker?  Who needs a fancy house when there’s plenty of chalk to draw on the sidewalk?  Who needs fine clothes when a small electric fan with lights can entrance you?

These visits, back and forth, them here, us there are critical to family cohesion.  They are why I still travel to Indiana and Texas for family reunions.  As Grandpa Frank put it, “You don’t have a family if you never see each other.”  True.

Aging, Travel

Traveling Together. How?

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Beltane                         Waning Dyan Moon

Speaking too soon.  Right after I posted the last entry Kate got sick.  She lay on the couch in our deluxe room, sweating and feeling miserable.  This concerned me, both for her and for what it might mean for our travel together.

I felt we had established the train as a good means of transportation for the both of us, then this sudden onset.  Perhaps it was dietary, perhaps motion sickness (to which she is prone), whatever it was, it seems to rule out the train, too.

Traveling with Kate is so much more fun, more pleasurable in a lot of the big and small ways you might expect.  The shared burdens of travel:  watching luggage, listening to announcements, finding the right exit become easier.  The shared joys of travel:  people watching, running commentary, being together also multiply.  So, I wanted the train to work.

My reaction to her illness was complex.  Of course I felt concern for her and empathy, but, too, I experienced disappointment, upset, some anger.  Just when I thought we had the travel thing licked, here she was, sick again.  Not fair on my part, no.  But, it was what I felt.

Not a pleasant moment for either of us.  Our job now, today, is to work out new wrinkles, perhaps scopolamine patches or different dietary choices.

Here’s the overall problem.   A difficult and painful ride back from Turkey six years ago, in which Kate suffered agony from the long haul, tipped me over from a reluctant flier to an only if absolutely necessary flier.  The thousand small insults of air travel combined with Kate’s difficulties to make me say, enough.  That was when I resumed taking the train, a practice begun long ago and abandoned for a time in favor of air.

A trip to Denver last fall made it obvious that Kate can’t take long rides in vehicles, either, so that ruled out car, truck or RV as modes of travel.  Note that none of this is her fault, underlying health issues from degenerative disc disease to an intolerance for certain motion stimuli just cause problems.

It does however leave us with diminishing options for traveling together, something  we hope to do more when she retires.  We’ll just have to see where this goes.

Aging, Travel

Only 2 more hours

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Beltane                  Waning Dyan Moon

Empire Builder, Winona, Minnesota around 8:00 pm

We just ate dinner with a couple who retired 5 years ago from IBM. They’re headed for Glacier National Park, then onto a cruise up the Northwest Coast to Alaska, thence to Denali. All the retirees we’ve met have said how much they enjoy retirement. Positive news for us with Kate’s impending retirement.

This trip, a quick one, has only 2 more hours to run. It has however established the train as a means of transportation suited to Kate. We pulled out the beds and napped our way between Chicago and Milwaukee. Before supper Kate lay down, then while we ate we had the cabin steward restore the seats. There is a toilet and a shower in this unit. That would make a longer trip more fun.

The Mississippi flows just to our east with the ridges of southern Minnesota and Wisconsin lifted up from the river valley. We just passed the Billy Carneal, a barge tug (even though it pushes), with 9 barges in tow (even though they precede rather than follow the tug.) There were waiting on the tainter valves to drain a lock.

The eastern sky, toward Wisconsin, has a pink blush. This long summer day gives more time to see the river on the ride home. In the winter night has fallen by Winona and the river passes by in the dark.

Travel

Lounge Lizards

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Beltane           Waning Dyan Moon

Metropolitan Lounge, Chicago, Illinois

Once again in this pleasant wood lined lounge with comfortable chairs and internet access.  Here they check baggage until your train boards, have treats and drinks.  They also guide us out to the train by a back route before the boarding of coach passengers.  It is a civilized addition to train travel.  It is superior to the Acela Lounge in D.C. on the criteria of friendliness, user services and comfort.

Kate and I ate lunch up in the food court.  I had my necessary Italian beef  with hot peppers and extra juice.  In Indiana I also had three pieces of sugar cream pie, an indulgence only available commercially in the south.  It’s on my list of things I can cook, but I don’t make it often.

After lunch we went out on the plaza and watched traffic on the Chicago River, one of the least appealing water ways in the US.  Straight across the river from Union Station the Sears Tower rises 104 stories.  Once the tallest building in the world it has not held the record for quite some time.

Our train boards in the next 45 minutes or so.  Kate seems to be a convinced rail traveler now, so we might end up seeing more of the US and Canada by train.

Family, Travel

Went Down the Sunday Throat

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Beltane Waning Dyan Moon

Amtrak Cardinal north of Renessalear, Indiana 8 am

Kate and I woke up at 4:30 this morning, showered and finished packing. We headed around the corner to the train station. As we got there at 5:15 or so, the station master had just begun to announce boarding. We walked up the double staircase. The door to our car opened right at the top of the stairs. We went up three steps, went forward as the car attendant asked and sat down. Less than 10 minutes after leaving our hotel room, we were in our seats and ready togo. Try that at the airport.

We had a discussion of Hoosier phrases with Diane yesterday. When somebody chokes, we would say the food “went down the Sunday throat.” We also ate supper, not dinner. I referred to one of my aunts as being “a caution,” a phrase the others had not heard.

As the train now heads north, I find, as I always do, that I’m glad. The north refreshes me, invigorates. Mostly, it is home. Indiana is where I’m from and a place that holds the precious memories of childhood, but it is no longer home, except in the sense of that familiar place where I grew up.

We ate breakfast today with a former Marine corps A6 Intruder pilot and his wife, a librarian. He was not a person I would have chosen for conversation and that made this another wonderful moment. We found both him and his wife delightful company. He expressed a keen interest in the Kindle. They are on their way from Lynchburg, Virginia (they are Episcopalian) to California where his lt col son will hand over command to another officer.

The pace of the train, the sound of its whistle, plaintive and sometimes forlorn and the comfort of the seats combine with good company and friendy attendants to make the trip a joy.

Next stop, the Metropolitan Lounge in Union Station, Chicago.

Aging

Mid-Autumn

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Beltane              Waxing Dyan Moon

We’ve had rain all day, a gentle steady rain.  Nice.  Temps have stayed in the high 40’s, it’s 49 right now at 4:18 p.m.

It rained on Penny’s birthday party.  A 70th.  The party makers moved the whole thing inside and all was fine.

Here’s another way to know where you are on life’s great wheel.   What kind of events do you attend?  Is it retirement parties?  7oth birthdays?  50th wedding anniversaries?  Funerals?  Getting more mail from the Social Security Administration than family members?  You’ve reached at least mid-autumn.  That’s where Kate and I are now.

Next year we’ll celebrate Kate’s retirement and I want to do a big party again.  I gotta think it through though.  Not sure just what form it should take.  We had a 50’s sock hop at a Maid-Rite restaurant for her 50th; I planted her the purple garden and we had the breast cancer fund-raiser for her 60th.  Gotta noodle this one.

An inside, cuddle up and read day.

Friends, Garden

Peas, Turnips and Parsnips Oh, My

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Beltane                    Waxing Flower Moon

Many daffodils bloom outside the writing area.  No tulips yet, but they should bloom in the next few days.

Snow peas, sugar peas, garden peas, snap peas all went into the ground this morning.  This took a while because there were several steps.  First, loosen the soil with a spading fork.  Rake smooth.  Create a taut twine line marking the location of the trellis.  Scratch a half inch to one inch furrow on either side of the twine.  Lay down inoculant in the rows.  Then, one by one, place the peas.  Do this over and over until 4 rows run parallel to each other.

In between the 1st and 2nd rows and the 3rd and 4th rows, reachable with ease from the bed’s edge, white globe turnip went into the same soil.  Turnips like pea companions.

Another bed, this one with a nice daisy and a star-gazer lily, got loosened up, too.  After a smoothing with the small garden rake, parsnip seeds fluttered down onto the scratched surface, tiny space ships with feathered brown edges and a cockpit containing the parsnip seed.  The parsnips, after thinning and trimming, get a mulch and then remain in the ground until next spring, achieving their nutty flavor through hard frosts and a hard winter.

At that point the noon sun had made me hot so I came inside to write, have lunch and take a nap.  Later this evening I’ll plant greens, beets and carrots.

One more thought on garage sales.  Here in Minnesota, after a hard winter, they are also the equivalent of a  social event for post-hibernation bears.  Minnesotans love the winter, but during the winter our travels outside of our home usually have a distinct purpose and almost always head away from the house.  There are no yard parties in the winter.  Well, not many anyhow.  Some folks just gotta barbecue.

When the weather warms up, though, lawn mowers come out.  Lawn chairs.  And, garage sales.  Neighbors drop by to say hi, see if you made it through the winter, and coincidentally, to check out your stuff.