A Good Day

March 3, 2018March 3, 2018 chuck 1 Comment

It’s hard to imagine a better day than today.

Incredibly, the Wonder Dogs [1] slept until 5am. So we all got up and went down to get the paper, and the paper was actually there. Back up to the house and a delicious breakfast of dog food (for the Wonder Dogs) and oatmeal and reading the paper (for me).

Kicked off a script that takes 8 hours to run on the web portal, and then headed to the Y for my Saturday ‘Swim and Spin.’ I did 2 x 500 yards intervals hard in the pool, and then an hour spin class. I was pleasantly exhausted afterwards.

Back home to plan the menu for the week and put together a grocery list. Then I put my bicycle in my pickup to take it into Summit City Bicycles for a tune up in anticipation of the coming good weather and outdoor cycling.

I dropped my bike off at my favorite bike store (see above) and (after a lingering gaze at all the wonderful bikes and gear they have there) headed for the Coliseum to see Debbie [2] where she was working at the Home and Garden Show. I turned onto Coliseum Blvd at Lima Road and whoa! It was stopped dead. I sat between Lima and Glenbrook Mall for 20 minutes before deciding to give up. I pulled a u-turn and went back down Coliseum to Lima, turned left and then right onto Ice Way Drive and had lunch at Skyline Chili.

A small 5-Way and a Cheese Coney later I felt fortified to try to get to the Coliseum again. I cut through Glenbrook Mall and the neighborhoods south of Coliseum Blvd and dashed across Parnell and I was there.

Well, almost. Crazy busy for the Home and Garden Show. I parked way out yonder, where the Wizards stadium used to be. I hiked up to the Coliseum and used my super exclusive pre-paid pass to skip the line that was 300 people deep and walked right in.

Bonus! I clear the gate and walk in and here comes Debbie [2] motoring up the entrance ramp. “Debbie!” I shout and wave. She holds up a hand and says “I’ll be right back,” and motors on.

And she is right back and we cruise the Arbor Farms booth and some of the lesser booths. I’ve seen all I need to see and Debbie walks me out and then says, “Wait.” She walks over to the ramp and points out a shrub. “We need a witch hazel, don’t you think?” And I do, I do think we need a witch hazel, and honestly I’ve been waiting since 1973 for someone to say that to me [3].

Leaving the Home and Garden Show I swing by Wine Time to pick up a bottle of our favorite white wine, then to the grocery store to pick up our groceries for the week (see ‘plan the menu’ above). My cart is full of good things, veggies and fruits, and I get out of there for hardly any dollars.

Then back home and the Wonder Dogs are besides themselves with joy see me. We go out and start pruning the fruit trees in our orchard. We only have about 10 trees, but I don’t know what I’m doing, so it goes slowly. I get 5 trees done and it’s getting late and Debbie [2] will be home soon, so I go in to start supper.

Supper is lamb chops, Moroccan-style, marinated in spices and yogurt and then grilled, with farro with herbs and a green salad.

And now Purdue whips Penn State in the Big Ten tourney.

It’s hard to imagine a better day than today.

Except…

Tomorrow is Sunday, which means it’s color funnies in the newspaper, and it’s long run day [4] and we’re going to have homemade pizza for supper.

It’s hard to imagine a better day than tomorrow…

1. Spenser and Owen.

2. My beloved.

3. From Sometimes A Great Notion, the book that informed me as a young man.

And Viv, through a lock of hair, watches Lee as he pats uncertainly
at the dripping face of Joe Ben’s girl with a towel. He’s never washed
a little kid before in his life, she realizes; can you beat that? What
an odd boy, so gaunt and ghosty sort of. With eyes like he’s been
to the edge and looked over . . .

His shirt gets splashed as he washes the child, and he puts aside the
towel to roll up his sleeves. Viv sees his inflamed skin.

“Oh . . . your arms!”

He shrugs and blows on a smarting wrist. “They were a little too
long for my shirtsleeves. I’m afraid.”

“Let me put on some witch hazel. Squeaky, honey,” she calls to
the porch, “would you toss in that bottle of witch hazel? Here, Lee,
sit a minute. Old Henry hasn’t come in anyhow. Sit here . . .”

She dabs on the liquid with a folded dishtowel. Pungent smells
of spice and alcohol burn in the warm air of the kitchen. His arms
lie on the checkered tablecloth, as inert as two cuts of meat on the
butcher’s counter. Neither of them speaks. They hear the approach
of the motorboat, and old Henry’s drunken singing. Viv shakes her
head at the sound, smiling. Lee asks how she feels about having an-
other animal to care for.

4. ‘Long run day’ used to mean 20 miles. Now it means a 10K, but I don’t care. I’m still out there and on my feet.

The Tale of Super Pinky

February 17, 2018 chuck Leave a comment

In 2009 I bought a Super M.

My Dad was old and sick in 2009 and about the only thing in life that interested him was farming. The first new tractor he ever bought was a Super M, back around 1953. I came across one along the road with a “For Sale” sign on it and I thought, “Dad would like that.” So I bought it and brought it home.

Those old Farmalls have a very distinctive sound. You start one up and you know it’s an M or an H. Dad once told me he’d been the equivalent of around the world 3 times on a tractor at 3 mph [1]. Most of that on a Farmall M.

I’d fire that M up and drive it around the farmyard and Dad loved it.

Fast forward to 2012. Dad is really sick by this time and has moved to town where he can get better care. The Super M is languishing in the shed. I’m trying to keep the production machinery running and I just don’t have the time to keep the M going.

Late in 2012 I see this post on newagtalk.com. [2]

And I replied:

And the rest, as they say, is history. Randy came and got the tractor. They pull all over the Midwest raising money for breast cancer research. And despite putting endless hours of labor and many, many dollars into making my old beat-up Super M into Super Pinky…

… Randy still has “Zumbrun Farms” on it. If you zoom that picture you can see that on the left edge of the hood.

And to me, that’s what farming is. You take what the old fellas have done, you pour your heart and soul into making it better, taking it further than those old fellas could ever imagine, and you always honor them.

Well done, Randy, well done.

1. I come by my love of numbers and “doing the math” honestly.

2. And this is why you should never post anything on the Internet you don’t want someone to post for everyone to see years later. I didn’t save this post, I just went and searched for it today and found it in moments.

Playing the Odds

January 7, 2018 chuck Leave a comment

We’re about to chow down on romaine[1], the leafy greens of death.

I understand statistics, so I eat romaine and I don’t play the lottery[2]. My chances of getting sick, or winning the lottery, are vanishingly small.

1. The internet has been atwitter about 58 people have been sickened, possibly by contaminated romaine lettuce. If you do the math your odds of getting bad romaine are no worse than 1 in 1 million. By comparison, your odds of dying (not just getting violently ill) in an automobile are over 100 in a million. If you want to stay healthy eat your greens and stay off the roads.

2. The internet (and the statistically challenged) have also been atwitter over the $500 million plus Powerball jackpot. Odds, 1 in 292 million.

Blank Page

January 1, 2018 chuck Leave a comment

Suitable for Any

December 9, 2017December 9, 2017 chuck Leave a comment

Debbie works at Arbor Farms Nursery [1] and every year they have a company party to celebrate Christmas and the end of another nursery season. They do a white elephant gift exchange and this year I was lucky enough to get a good gift, a basket of Burmese goodies from one of Debbie’s co-workers who’s married to a Burmese man.

One of the items in the basket was something called Cake Mout Chout which was described as a dried butter cake to dip into tea or coffee. It was cold and dark and windy and snowing this morning, so I thought it would be a good day to dip some butter cake in tea.

I got the package out and noticed something on it I hadn’t seen before.

Down at the bottom right it says “Suitable for any race & Religion.”

“What a nice sentiment,” I thought, “what a good idea to think about to start my day.” Oh, I know what they mean, it’s kosher and not made with lard. But in these days when I can barely stand to open the newspaper in the morning I chose to see it as open and inclusive, a gentle greeting for my day.

Our country seems off the rails, there’s so much hate and bigotry and misogyny and religious persecution that seems to have become mainstream and acceptable. But I don’t believe that will last, I believe some day, some day soon, America will be a place that fulfills its promise, a place “Suitable for any race & Religion.”

1. Plants, not children.

One Year

December 3, 2017 chuck Leave a comment

One year ago on December 1st I made a change. Changed jobs, started working out on regular basis, started eating better.

Things happen slowly, that’s the hardest part. You don’t really notice the changes day to day or even month to month. But looking back over a year you can see good things have happened.

A year ago I weighed 234 pounds. Today I weigh 183. [1]

A year ago I was doing 2 miles at a 16 minute pace. Today I’m doing 4 miles at 9:40 pace.

A year goes by fast. Looking back at I what I did last year I’m wondering… what to do with the coming year?

1. I pointed out to my son Josh that being proud of losing weight is much like being proud of fixing a bug in my software. I conveniently forget that I caused the problem I solved. But I don’t care, both of those give me a lot of satisfaction.

When Life Gives You Cherries

November 18, 2017November 18, 2017 chuck Leave a comment

My mom moved to a smaller place and gave us her freezer. She cleaned it out, but she had a couple bags of frozen fruit that I said I’d like to have: a bag of pie cherries and a bag of blackberries.

Today’s a cold and rainy Saturday so with nothing else to do I thought it was a good day to do something with that fruit.

That’s, from left to right, cherry jam, cherry barbecue sauce, and blackberry barbecue sauce.

The cherry jam is tasty, sweet and tart and tasting like cherries. The cherry bbq sauce is great, hot and spicy with a sweet undertone from the cherries. The blackberry bbq is different, it has smoked paprika and chipotles and it’s smokey and spicy and fruity. I think it will be really good on the right dish, but I’m not sure what dish that is.

Sour Cherry Jam

From “Food In Jars” by Marisa McClellan
Ingredients

About six cups of mashed, pitted sour cherries. That takes about 3 – 4 pounds of pitted, frozen cherries
3 cups sugar
1 packet liquid pectin, or 2 tablespoons of sure-jell

Process

Combine the cherries, sugar, and Sure-Jell in a saucepan and boil for 20 minutes.
(If using liquid pectin add it at the end.) Skim off any foam that arises. After
20 minutes it should be very thick.

Process in a boiling water bath like any jam.

The recipe says this makes 3 pints. I don’t know what I did, but mine made about 3 1/2 half pints. It tastes right, not like it has twice too much sugar.

Sour Cherry Barbecue Sauce

From Serious Eats
Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium yellow onion
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 cups tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups roughly chopped frozen, pitted cherries
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground white pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Process
Saute the onions in the butter until soft, add the garlic and cook until fragrant
Add everything else and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until it’s thickened.
Process in a blender.

Makes about 2 pints.

Blackberry Barbecue Sauce

From Food & Wine

Ingredients

1 pound blackberries
2 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 medium onion, finely chopped, plus 1/4 cup minced
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons seeded and minced chipotles in adobo sauce
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 tablespoons oregano

Process
Saute the onion in the oil until soft, then add the garlic and cook until fragrant.
Add everything else except the 1/4 cup minced onion and oregano. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Process in a blender, then stir in the oregano and minced onion.

Makes about 2 pints.

My g-g-g-generation

November 16, 2017November 18, 2017 chuck Leave a comment

Fort Wayne used to have two newspapers. The News-Sentinel, the Republican newspaper, published in the afternoon, and the Journal-Gazette, the Democratic newspaper, published in the morning. Both were managed by the same parent company, Fort Wayne Newspapers.

I used to get both, but back in the late 1990’s when the Republican party went from being the party of small government and low taxes to the party of telling people who they could marry, xenophobia, and objectivism [1] I dropped the News-Sentinel because their editorial content had followed the party and had become too stupid to let into my house.

Fast forward to 2017 and the News-Sentinel has folded. Despite being in the reddest of red states, not enough people would buy it for them to be able to pay for paper and ink. So they stopped printing. But since they’re run by the same parent company, evidently the now unemployed and unemployable editors of the News-Sentinel needed work, so Fort Wayne Newspapers decided to include their opinion pieces in the Journal-Gazette.

Today they ran a piece by Kevin Leininger [2] about the woe that will befall us when the millennials come of age.

Will millennials’ views on God, economics threaten even Thanksgiving?

This piece of garbage will gag any thinking human being, so in the event you can’t get through it, let me summarize: the millennials, those born from the 1980’s through the early 2000’s, are godless socialists who are going to turn America into a Soviet gulag, or maybe even Sweden.

Well, Leininger can have his ignorance and his paranoia. I see a different a world.

I work in the computer biz, so I work with millennials every day. I’ve been working recently with high school kids doing a web design competition[3] .

And the kids are all right. They bring such passion and enthusiasm to their work. These high schools kids do such good work it makes me embarrassed to remember what I did at their age.

And unlike Kevin Leininger they want the world to be a better place: healthier, cleaner, fairer, inclusive.

I’m 60 years old and getting ready to step off the stage, and I couldn’t be more pleased to hand it off to these kids.

1. I.e., they went off the rails on a crazy train.

Crazy, but that’s how it goes
Millions of people living as foes
Maybe it’s not too late
To learn how to love
And forget how to hate

Even Ozzy sounds wise compared to the Republican party these days.

2. A “pompous strutting blowhard” from reputable sources.

3. You can see my company’s logo in the bottom right of the poster. My boss, Linda Passmore, is the best and gave me time off to do this.

I Wish I Was

November 4, 2017 chuck Leave a comment

It’s a cold and rainy night here. We have a nice fire in the fireplace, the heat and light radiating from the fireplace is so pleasant. It would be more efficient if I’d close the glass doors, but the crackle of the flames and the faint smell of wood smoke is comforting.

Except a few minutes ago one of the logs popped really loudly. We [1] all jumped.

Owen had been sleeping across the room and when the fire popped he got up and trudged over and flopped down beside me. Clearly I would make sure nothing bad would happen to him.

It was so touching, that complete and utter trust. It’s the stuff of country music songs, but I wish I was the man my dog thinks I am.

1. Debbie, Owen (the Wonder Dog), and me. Spenser, the other Wonder Dog, is deaf as a post. He missed all of this.

Just Another Manic Thursday

November 2, 2017 chuck Leave a comment

Dang, “Manic Thursday.” That doesn’t quite work, and “Manic Monday” is so catchy. Oh well.

Pedal to the metal all day at work, and then over to Mom’s to help with a few things. Home at 5pm and what’s for supper? We had a piece of salmon thawed out [1], a nice bunch of greens, and some frozen limas. Et voilà!

The whole plate is Asian themed. I tossed together a sauce of soy sauce, garlic, ginger [2], a squeeze of lime juice [3], and red pepper flakes.

Basted the salmon with that sauce and put it under the broiler.

Meanwhile I stir-fried the limas [4], then poured in a cup of chicken broth and cooked them until the broth cooked off. Tossed them with a bit of sesame oil and sesame seeds and we were ready to eat!

We’re eating lighter these days and this was a delightful meal. A bit of protein from the salmon, a lot of veggies, and spicy seasoning to make it all intense and interesting.

1. Thanks to Debbie’s good planning.

2. Minced garlic from a jar and ginger paste from a tube. Am I going to mince garlic and ginger when a deadline is looming? I think not.

3. We had half a lime in the fridge, otherwise I would’ve used a squeeze from that bottle of ‘Real Lemon.’

4. Note to self, thaw the limas first. Otherwise they splatter like crazy when they hit the hot skillet and then the oil in the skillet ignites and then you have a towering column of flame.