“I Tot You Were Hungry”
I was able to tolerate the Grammy awards on Sunday evening for about the first hour and a half – then what D would call “the nonsense” started. The highlight was Brandi Carlisle performing John Prine’s “I Remember Everything” – his gorgeous final song that earned two posthumous Grammys.
Diana and I started Monday with a run in the beautiful weather. I completed the 20 minutes of running that finishes out Week 5 of Couch to 5K and am excited to move on to Week 6. Only 2 more weeks after that and I’ll supposedly be ready for our first joint 5K race. I am going to need to improve my speed quite a bit if I’m hoping to cross the finish line at the same time as McD. Diana found an interesting race for us – the “Run for the Rose” in McKinney. It comes with a glass of sparking rose at the finish line, snacks from Zin Zen and Sugarbacon, a commemorative champagne glass and a medal. Sounds perfect for at least one of us.
Will, on the other hand, will not be running anywhere anytime soon. He had surgery to remove the meniscus from his knee. He’s had it repaired a couple of times before and this time there’s no choice but removal. “What did he do this time?”, I hear you ask. Well…he crouched down to install some computer cables under his new office desk and heard a pop when he stood back up again. Sounds painful just typing it. The surgery went well and Will is trying to be stationary for a few minutes to give things a chance to heal. Poor Christine must be on fulltime Ollie duty now.
Tuesday was the big day for Diana – her first COVID vaccine. I drove her over to the football stadium in Plano just in case there were any side effects on the drive home – about 25 minutes. The process was smooth and easy – my only concern being the amount of information that was scrawled on Penelope’s windows. No issue – they wiped it all off at the end of the flow through the parking lot. Diana didn’t experience any side effects other than a slight pain on her arm around the shot if she pressed on it – just like a small bruise. After that excursion, I enjoyed a nice swim at lunchtime.
We put Finn to work in the afternoon and he made a good start in painting the pool room. He had to cover up all the dirty prints form Alicia and friends, and the kids that lived here before us. Painting the entire wall ended up being the more efficient process.
I kicked off Week 6 Day 1 of Couch to 5K on Wednesday morning. With encouragement from Diana, I was easy to finish without too much trouble, while picking up the pace a bit.
We watched a documentary on Netflix called “Made You Look” on Wednesday evening. It’s about a multi-year art forgery scheme and the folks who were fooled by Rothkos and Pollocks created by an immigrant Chinese math teacher. The top names in art authentication were all taken in until some special science ultimately showed them all to be forgeries. The forgers ability to emulate the quite different styles of those masters, while creating original “lost” works was quite amazing.
Diana lost interest a bit as the documentary continued, and so she and Finn whipped up some delicious lemon bars from a recipe that she uncovered from her archives at Finn’s request. You can tell it’s pretty serious business.
The bars didn’t turn out exactly as Diana had hoped and so another batch was created on Thursday night – the head chef thought they were much better.
I love this picture of my friends Wash and Zoe enjoying Saint Patrick’s Day on Thursday.
Diana and Finn started Friday with a “run/walk” and then Finn continued with his painting project. It’s almost finished – just some spackling work to be done before all painting can be completed. Finn and I made a run over to Rudy’s in the afternoon to pick up pulled pork for Benedicts I was planning to make for Sunday breakfast.
We decided to show Finn that there’s a lot more fun to the Dallas Fort Worth area than just what McKinney offers. First stop – the Velvet Taco on Knox/Henderson Street, just north of downtown. We laughed telling Finn the story of our first visit there – a late night stop after Keb’ Mo at the Kessler for my birthday. Poor Patty and Brent waded through a torrential downpour to retrieve tacos for us.
Finn selected the chicken and waffles brunch taco and I had a shrimp and grits one. Diana stuck with her favourite – loaded tater tots with a fried egg on top. All enjoyed in the sun at an outdoor table.
I had an after lunch surprise in store – Finn and I had seen “Pickletopia” on a lunch time TV show and thought it looked like a fun place to visit.
Pickletopia ended up being a highlight of the day for us. So many barrels full of delicious pickled things. We came home with two kinds of olives, mushrooms, and “bread and butter” pickles. Lee, the owner, shared lots of samples and stories. Our favourite was his story about the origin of the “bread and butter” pickles. Lee’s grandmother passed away and he selected a 1920s vintage cookbook of hers as a memento from her home. The binding of the book was in very bad shape and he took it to the “Book Doctor” in Oak Cliff for repair (we walk past that shop on our way to Nova for dinner pre-Kessler concerts). The repair took close to six months, and somewhere in that time the store owners called Lee to tell him they had found some recipes sandwiched in the pages that he might want. One of them was the “bread and butter” pickle secret recipe. He said he made it and tried it out on his uncle who remembered his grandmother’s recipe. His uncle said, “You nailed it.” This business is Lee’s retirement hobby and he shadowed “The Pickle Guys” in New York’s Lower Eastside to learn the business. So nice to meet somebody that is a great story teller and loves what they do.
Next stop was Trinity Groves for a picture on the Trinity levee with the Dallas skyline as the backdrop:
We couldn’t resist stopping into Kate Weiser’s chocolate shop while we were there. So many other places I had planned to put on the itinerary had closed – Bolsa (although opened under a different name) and the amazing charcuterie place from the Lucia guys (opening soon as a larger Lucia) – so it was good to see the chocolate shop still in business. Patty’s favourite cupcake shop next door was also doing a very brisk business. The chocolates and Easter eggs from Weiser really are works of art – those “Chick-a-dees” on the left really are edible chocolate. We have several eggs to choose from on Easter Sunday. And individual candies for each of us – key-lime pie for D, salted caramel for K, and strawberry for F.
A short drive later and we were searching for parking near the “Wild Detectives” book store and café – one of my favourite stores in all of Dallas. I picked up “The Midnight Library”, thinking it could be a nice change of pace from the Obama book that I’m working through just now, and we all enjoyed a coffee in the lovely outdoor patio area. What a beautiful day – perfect temperature and no humidity. We walked around the Bishop Arts district briefly, noticing all the new construction and a massive, fancy new restaurant, and then drove over to Nova for a snack before driving home.
Nova is such a casual place but turns out such delicious and creative food. Diana started with smoked salmon potato skins which were phenomenal. Finn and I both had a cup of shrimp bisque with crab hush puppies. That’s a cup? The waiter said we could swim in the bowl size. The soup was so good and I have some for leftovers today.
What a fun day all around!
Diana and I made an early morning (8am) trip to Market Street on Sunday to pick up supplies for the week. This is the time to go – 5 cashiers standing out in front of their aisles waiting to check us out. After that excitement I dug out and replaced a water sprinkler – time to turn the system back on for the spring and bring the grass out of hibernation. Diana was busy upstairs doing some spackling work in the pool room – such a home repair enthusiast. I helped sand and paint the taller sections.
I had promised Finn my special pulled pork Benedict for Sunday breakfast. They turned out quite well with the “bread and butter” pickles adding a nice new flavour element.
The patrons at my diner counter seemed to enjoy the offerings.
I enjoyed this gaggle of turtles that Diana snapped on her virtual walk with Alicia after breakfast. Gaggle – is that the right term for a group of turtles? I’m pretty sure it’s not even close. Let’s check. A bale, turn, dole, or nest is the correct term, with a bale and turn applying exclusively to turtles. Who knew? We’ve never seen even a single turtle by that pond before. It’s like walking along the river in Austin with bales (see how I quickly incorporated my learning to try and reinforce it) of turtles everywhere.
I enjoyed an article in The New Yorker this week about “How Parties Die, Will the G.O.P. go the way of the Whigs?”
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/15/what-is-happening-to-the-republicans
This piece digs into the history of political parties and how they either adjust to the times or eventually wither out. This section about George Washington, the only Independent President in history, and his views on parties, really caught my attention:
“George Washington reluctantly ran for the Presidency in 1788. He remains the only Independent elected to that office. His farewell address, of September 19, 1796, provides the framework for the peaceful transfer of power. (It is read aloud in the Senate every year; this year, that event occurred a week after Trump’s impeachment trial had concluded there.) In the address, Washington, like a father chiding his bickering children, advised his countrymen, no matter what their political passions, to consider the fundamental bonds that connected them as Americans. Political parties were useful to check the worst instincts of a monarch, he wrote, but, in a democracy, a party
What an interesting and prescient commentary on recent events from over 200 years ago.
Another article about corporate takeovers of trailer home parks and the injustices being foisted on individual trailer owners included this sad commentary:
“According to a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there isn’t a single American state in which a person working full time for minimum wage can afford a one bedroom apartment at the fair-market rent.”
I realized this was true in states like New York and California but didn’t realize that was the situation in all states. Very sad. Not a political or social commentary – just sad when you think of youngsters trying to start out on their own these days.
I really got hooked on “A Promised Land” by Barack Obama this week. I’m appreciating his candor and writing style more and more. Talking about starting to contemplate a Senate run:
“I realized, our politics would never truly change. It would always be too easy for politicians to feed the stereotypes that pitted Black against white, immigrant against native-born, rural interests against those of cities.
Ultimately wasn’t this what I was after – a politics that bridged America’s racial, ethnic, and religious divides, as well as the many strands of my own life? Maybe I was being unrealistic; maybe such divisions were too deeply entrenched. But no matter how hard I tried to convince myself otherwise, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was too early to give up on my deepest convictions.”
Upon more contemplation:
“You could make a difference from such a narrow political base; with some seniority, you could secure better services for your constituents, bring a big project or two back to your home district, and, by working with allies, try to influence the national debate. But that wouldn’t be enough to lift the political constraints that made it so difficult to deliver healthcare for those who needed it, or better schools for poor kids, or jobs where there were none; the same constraints that Bobby Rush labored under every day.
To really shake things up, I realized, I needed to speak to and for the widest possible audience. And the best way to do that was to run for a statewide office – like, for example, the U.S. Senate.”
The insights into Michelle’s opinion along the way are quite interesting. Here she’s concerned about how the finances of a Senate bid could work:
“‘If you lose, we’ll be deeper in the hole,’ she said. ‘And what happens if you win? How are we supposed to maintain two households, in Washington and Chicago, when we can barely keep up with one?’
I’d anticipated this. ‘If I win, hon,’ I said, ‘it will draw national attention. I’ll be the only African American in the Senate. With a higher profile, I can write another book, and it’ll sell a lot of copies, and that will cover the added expenses.’
‘In other words’, Michelle said, ‘you’ve got some magic beans in your pocket. That’s what you’re telling me.'”
Describing his landmark speech at an anti Iraq war rally in Chicago:
“‘I don’t oppose all wars,’ I said. ‘What I am opposed to is a dumb war.’ I went on to argue that Saddam Hussein posed no imminent threat to the United States or its neighbors, and that ‘even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.'”
As Obama worked to refine his stump speech for the Senate run:
“‘Here’s the thing,’ I would say. ‘Most people, wherever they’re from, whatever they look like, are looking for the same thing. They’re not trying to get filthy rich. They don’t expect someone else to do what they can do for themselves.
But they do expect that if they’re willing to work, they should be able to find a job that supports a family. They expect that they shouldn’t go bankrupt just because they get sick. They expect that their kids should be able to get a good education, one that prepares them from this new economy, and they should be able to afford college if they’ve put in the effort. And they figure that after a lifetime of work, they should be able to retire with dignity and respect.'”
How Hurricane Katrina and the abysmal government efforts to help convinced Obama that he needed to speak more frequently on the National stage. One of the most poignant passages for me in the book so far:
“A few days later, I joined George H.W. and Barbara Bush, along with Bill and Hillary Clinton, in a visit to Houston, where thousands of people displaced by the hurricane had been bused to emergency shelters set up inside the sprawling Astrodome convention complex. Together with the Red Cross and FEMA, the city had been working around the clock to provide basic necessities, but it struck me as I moved from cot to cot that many of the people there, most of whom were Black, had been abandoned long before the hurricane – scratching out a living on the periphery without savings or insurance. Forgotten people and forgotten voices remained everywhere, neglected by a government that often appeared blind or indifferent to their needs.”
“If I’d been on the edge of feeling content, thinking I was in the right job, doing the right thing at an acceptable pace, Katrina and my Iraq visit put a stop to all that. Change needed to come faster – and I was going to have to decide what role I would play in bringing that about.”
In the matter of 20 pages or less, we quickly move from Obama’s Senate career to his contemplation of a run for President. Michelle’s early reaction to that idea:
“Michelle lifted her eyebrows as if to suggest she didn’t believe me. ‘If that’s really true, then the answer is ‘no,’ she said. ‘I don’t want you to run for president, at least not now.’ She gave me a hard look and got up from the couch. ‘God Barack…When is it going to be enough?'”
And then, in answer to Michelle’s question ‘Why do you need to be president?’:
“I know that the day I raise my right hand and take oath to be president of the United States, the world will start looking at America differently. I know that kids all around this country – Black kids, Hispanic kids, kids who don’t fit in – they’ll see themselves differently, too, their horizons lifted, their possibilities expanded. And that alone…would be worth it.
Michelle stared at me for what felt like an eternity. ‘Well, honey,’ she said finally, ‘that was a pretty good answer.'”
Here’s a great guitar song from Dave Alvin’s new album of outtakes from over the years. I really like his guitar style and remember when I dragged D to see him at the Kessler – might have been the first time we went. Her comment still tickles me, “You know this is country music, right?”
If you enjoyed that, here’s another from the same album with a Rumba guitar style. Such a versatile artist:
This Widespread Panic song popped up my Discovery Weekly playlist. I really enjoy this band, but they get too into their solo jams when playing live. I watched them really lose an excited New Orleans jazzfest audience with too much noodling.
Stay safe, kind and patient. So many of our friends are getting vaccines this last week – very encouraging.