What We Are Up To + A Few Musings

(Remember, to see better images of any of the pictures herein, just click on them.)

It is time for another report from me, whether you asked for it or not! 😃 This posting will be somewhat "all over the place." We are enjoying the transition to fall and winter, although global warming trends seem to find us now doing lots of things in our yard that we surely did much earlier in years gone by—raking or mulching leaves, covering selected plants, and trimming back growth on other plants. A hard freeze finally stopped our single amazing "Better Boy" tomato plant dead in its tracks. We brought the small plant home from a favorite nursery near our cabin in Wisconsin, and it produced like crazy. Kathie harvested every last bit of fruit near the end of the plant's life, as you can see below. Some of these tomatoes are still turning red, and we have prepared a few as fried green tomatoes. Many were shared with friends too. Going back to those store-bought tomatoes with the texture of an apple will be disappointing.

 

 

For a recent family gathering, I made a big pot of vegetarian chili, which ended up being some of the best tasting chili we have ever had. You can click here for the recipe if you wish. I'd like to say I used some of our tomatoes, but the truth is that I followed the recipe to the letter and used canned whole tomatoes with their extra juice.

 

 

 

As a preview of coming attractions (spring 2023), pictured below are our choices for new cabinets and countertops in our kitchen.  After living in our new house for about 1½ years, we have decided that the original cabinets are too dark and worn. Some of the hardware is failing, sliding pullouts have broken, and the finish is badly deteriorated here and there. Plus, there are presently two different styles/colors of countertops (a different one on the island), a backsplash along only a portion of the counters, and no accommodation for a microwave except by taking up counter space. The wood we have chosen is hickory. Everyone these days seems to be choosing white cabinets, but we still like wood. This hickory is going to be much lighter and varied than the present cabinets, and the countertops will be a nice light color too. Stay tuned! I'll provide more details second quarter next year.

I can't help talking about my children and grandchildren—something I suppose many of us do. So please pardon a little bragging here. Will's son Anders has become quite the athlete, specializing in cycling and cross-country skiing activities. He recently won the Minnesota state championship in mountain biking in his age group. Bicycles can get pretty muddy in such events! Riders too!

Rob's oldest daughter, Eleanor, has become quite the thespian, having performed now in three different productions with a lead in two of them. Here she is posing with an advertising banner for the Iowa City City High production in which she played the part of Peter. A contingent of grandparents, cousins, and an uncle attended one of her performances recently.

A couple of weekends ago, around the time of Kathie's birthday, Will and some of our grandchildren stayed with us. This was homecoming weekend for The University of Iowa (I won't let Ohio State get away with capitalizing "The" in front of their name if I can't do it for my university!), and some attended the game against Northwestern (which Iowa won—not a given this particular season!). Cousins Anders and Henry, who seem to have formed a special bond these past few years, sat together. (By the way, Henry has just been accepted as a student at the University beginning in the fall of 2023.)

All of the grandkids present helped in preparing for a breakfast birthday celebration for Kathie the following morning. They all helped with the cooking and table preparations.

We survived another Halloween! For us in our new home and neighborhood, "Trick or Treat" night is a very different thing. At our prior home in the country, we rarely had anyone come to the door. Here we get dozens! Kathie camped out near the front door while a steady stream of cute, clever children came by—81 in all!
 

Meanwhile, the grandkids were out and about in their respective neighborhoods. Here are Eleanor, I think as a Barbie Doll, and Penny as Elton John.

Henry was a three-hole-punched sheet of paper with other references to "The Office", Frederick was Darth Vader, and Clara was a snow boarder. I think I have this right!?

I want to mention a couple of very interesting NASA-related web sites to you. First, you may find it interesting, as I do, to know about "passes" of the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS is a very bright object in the night sky, and it is fun to watch it arrive somewhere in the western sky, pass overhead, and then disappear in the eastern sky. These passes can take several minutes. In order to know when to watch for them, one can register with NASA in order to receive emails that inform you of passes that will occur the next night. These include details regarding where in the sky to watch for the appearance, maximum height above the horizon, and duration of the pass. I find this very fascinating, even after having watched many prior times. Click here to learn more. The second NASA web site I wish to draw to your attention is called "Astronomy Picture of the Day." The web site is located here. I like seeing these different day-to-day pages so much, that I have made this my browser's home page—that way, I cannot fail to see different things from time to time. One page in particular recently affected me. This was the September 26th picture of the day (by the way, the site offers access to an archive of its past postings). If that day's picture doesn't make you stop to think about how precious our planet's water supply is, then nothing will. Click here to see what I mean. If you do, you will learn that if one were to gather up every atom of water on the planet, fresh and sea water both, and form it into a sphere, that sphere would be quite tiny compared to the sphere which is the earth itself. The fresh water only version is even more diminished. When you think about what we have done to our water resources with pollution, runoff, introduction of micro-plastics, and more, some of the water that is tears in your eyes may appear.

Reading is one of my favorite things to do. Since 2010, I've kept a record of all the books I read, so I can tell you that I read between 70 and 100 books each year—mysteries and other novels, history, biographies, science, mathematics, and others. I always enjoying getting recommendations and sharing same, and I thank those of you with whom I share a periodic report about books. Here are a few of the 2022 books I've read that I highly recommend:

• Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South by Winfred Rembert (Only read a paper copy of this book!)
• Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen (Best book I read this year! Thanks, Luther!)
• Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• God Is Not Great by Christopher Hutchins
• The "Broken Earth trilogy" by N.K. Jemisin
• UNIX: A History and A Memoir by Brian Kernighan
• Code Girls by Liza Mundy (Tidbit: I learned that Bill Nye, the "Science Guy", is the son of a "code girl"—one of numerous women who made an enormous difference during World War II to decode enemy communications.)
• What if? 2 by Randall Munroe (His What if? is also very good.)

A bit more about this last one: Munroe draws a funny online cartoon at the web site xkcd.com. Most of the cartoons are about science, mathematics, etc. People have written to him for years asking often ridiculous questions. In these two What if? books, he has taken many of these questions and developed serious, accurate, but often very funny answers. For example, in What if? 2 he takes up "What if my phone was based on vacuum tubes? How big would it be?" (The answer, by the way, is about five city blocks, but the several pages of explanation are quite fun.) Another example (for you, Margaret and Murray): "How many pigeons would it require in order to lift the average person and a launch chair to the height of Australia's Q1 skyscraper?" 

I have a few woodworking projects underway but nothing to show yet. Some pieces for that folding Confederate War era chair I mentioned previously have been cut out, but I have a long ways to go on that project. In the meantime, I'm just finishing up a walnut hall tree for our home. I'm also designing a quilt rack to display a gorgeous quilt that Kathie made, with some help from her sister. She made the quilt from many of my old work neckties. I no longer need to wear them! Yay!

I've been thinking about writing to my readers about the political climate for some time, especially with the elections as they approached. I know this topic can be touchy. Honestly, I have been quite depressed about the state of our nation and the state of my state of Iowa, for that matter. I don't feel a lot better after the election! My concern is mostly for my children and grandchildren and their futures. I am pleased that the so-called "red wave" didn't appear to happen, although Iowa became a shade redder! I strongly dislike that Iowans voted (three to one!) for a constitutional amendment that further enshrines gun rights with language that will make it exceedingly difficult to enact sensible laws that protect us from gun violence. I also dislike that Iowa, which elected President Obama twice, has now become so staunchly Republican. I dislike that some of Iowa's Republican candidates (for governor, senate, and house) gladly accepted alliances with a former President who, in my mind, is simply a bad individual (dishonest, unprepared for leadership, divisive, and prejudiced). I dislike that so much of our political environment is based on lying and misrepresentation—I suppose this has always been present, but it seems so much worse today. I dislike that the Internet, something I helped advance in a small way, is today a vehicle for much of this. I dislike that politics is getting in the way of appropriate and decisive attention to the problems our environment and our planet are facing.  And I dislike that we seem to be turning away from civil rights, the value of diversity, and towards such public, pronounced prejudice. All of this hard line liberal versus conservative thinking isn't helping. Can't we find a way to work in the middle somewhere? I don't think it helps anyone to think that we have to be strictly one way or the other.

In closing, permit me to leave you with a few quotes that a best friend shared with me recently. These are, I think, especially appropriate for we retired, aging folks:

• People who ask me what I'm doing tomorrow probably assume that I even know what day of the week it is. (Amazing how this happens when you retire and keep busy!)
  
• Some call it multitasking. I call it doing something else while I try to remember what I was doing in the first place. (Kathie is a good multitasker. It seems like she can literally listen to and absorb one thing and think about another all while doing something constructive. I, on the other hand, much prefer things one at a time—don't assume I've heard what you said until you're sure you have my attention! I'm flawed!)
  
• Funny thing about getting older: Your eyesight starts getting weaker but your ability to see through people's bullshit gets much better. (And let me personally add...especially politician's!)