Tag: homelife

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Home Life Living in Society Writing

Report From the County Seat

Schaeffer Hall, Iowa City, Iowa
Schaeffer Hall, Iowa City, Iowa

My birthday trip to the county seat included these real-world variations from yesterday’s plan:

Ordered a voter list for my precinct from the county auditor to start organizing for the 2018 election and beyond.

Noticed the new Zombie Burger and Shake Lab opened next to The Mill. It seemed wrong.

Renewed my library card. Rural residents can take advantage of the Iowa City Public Library. I check out eBooks from home using my card.

Walked past children playing on the pedmall. They were laughing.

Walked past Schaeffer Hall where I spent much time attending classes 45 years ago.

Viewed the Hawkeyes in Space exhibit at the Old Capitol Museum. It is a history of the University of Iowa Physics and Astronomy Department and their contributions to the national space effort beginning in 1951 with the arrival of James A. Van Allen.

Went to Prairie Lights Book Store and bought copies of The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion by Tracy Daugherty and Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen. I also read some remembrances of Burns Weston and called out a friend on her use of what I felt were excessive exclamation points.

Stopped at the HyVee grocery store on North Dodge Street to buy a few items for my birthday dinner. I also returned cans for deposit.

I arrived home in time to read and fixed a dinner which included a test run of a noodle kugel recipe I got from a Des Moines blogger’s web site. The recipe came out well and there are enough leftovers to last a week. Intended to be a side dish, noodle kugel includes a lot of protein which is needed in our vegetarian household.

The president-elect was busy on twitter again yesterday. Here’s my nascent idea on how to handle him from a Facebook post I made.

Donald J. Trump throws tweets out to media the same way chaff was used to foil radar in WWII. We are seeing what he wants us to see about his incoming administration. All the noise is obscuring the signal, which many of us are not going to like once it comes into focus.

The positive side here is no pretense of being a “compassionate conservative” like Bush II pretended he was. I expect Trump to throttle down immediately to rollback progressive reforms dating back to FDR. I’m keeping my powder dry until we know more specifics of his agenda

I’m taking my advocacy lead from Friends Committee on National Legislation. Diane Randall laid out an agenda which seems practical and makes sense. Her outline of how to deal with appointees who require U.S. Senate confirmation is spot on:

In these confirmation hearings, senators ask the nominees questions that establish a public record. One of the most effective ways FCNL can influence the public record is to encourage senators to ask particular questions. FCNL, along with many of our organizational partners, is preparing questions for senators to ask the nominees. These questions are specific to each nominee, concerning their positions on enforcing current laws and their positions with regard to the safety and well-being of specific populations, or on past statements they have made about the role of the agency they will be heading.

Based on the past public statements, or votes for the nominees who have served in Congress, we are particularly concerned about nominees who have stated their opposition to environmental regulations, full access to health care and protection of voting rights and religious freedom.

Following FCNL’s lead isn’t mutually exclusive, but would be a bit of sanity in what appears to the egregiously brazen impetus of the president-elect’s nominees who have track records running against the grain of progressive values.

It’s two days at the home, farm and auto supply store for me, followed by a three-day weekend. Stay tuned.

Categories
Home Life

To the County Seat

Picasso with Harry Truman in 1958 Photo Credit - Truman Library
Picasso with Harry Truman in 1958, Vallauris, France Photo Credit – Truman Library

Today I celebrate my 65th birthday.

Some baking will be involved — maybe homemade pizza for supper or an applesauce cake. Maybe both. Maybe something else.

I plan a trip to the county seat, a tour of our yard and garden, and a walk by the lake — the beginnings of a late winter to-do list.

It’s all about anticipation in 2016’s pre-dawn darkness.

Yesterday historian Michael Beschloss posted this photo in social media. Seeking a copy for my birthday present, I searched the internet for the Harry S. Truman library and found the file. An 8 x 10 colored, glossy (or matte) copy could be mine for $20. Now that the image is posted I satisfied the urge and can spend my birthday money on something needed more.

In yesterday’s newspaper author Anne Keene wrote about the U.S. Navy Pre-flight School and Iowa’s participation as one of the sites during World War II.

“Before cadets could fly they had to graduate from ground school, where the Navy used hard-hitting sports such as football to build speed, agility and power for combat,” Keene wrote. “Pilots learned to swim and to survive in the outdoors along the wooded shores of Lake Macbride.”

In May 1942 John Glenn swam in the same waters I later did. My outing to Lake Macbride with a church group fixed Father in memory. He drove a group of us in a caravan from Davenport to Lake Macbride. He was also a fan of Glenn and the U.S. space program, taking us outside to watch the Telstar satellite pass over in the 1960s. I now see the same lake, which like all Iowa waters feeds a river of memories and experience into the vast gulf of commonality.

Mom sent me some birthday money, just as her mother did. It would be too plain to spend it all on groceries, fuel or sundries. I hope to spend part of it at a shop in the county seat later today on something I wouldn’t normally buy — a fit birthday project.

With Hillary Clinton Jan. 24, 2016
Wearing My Blue Shirt

I may buy a new blue button-down shirt since there is only one in my closet. It is my go-to garment for attending events and eventually it will wear out.  I need socks which I last bought at the discount store on Highway One near the airport. If I feel up for a drive, I could visit Stringtown Grocery near Kalona. I want more dried chervil leaf and it’s the only local place that sells it. It would be a shame to use maternal gift money to make a payment on the credit card or buy dairy products.

It’s still dark outside.

Writing is brief respite and today’s birthday gift. Something to engage a mind resident in an aging frame, preparing for the day.

Would that writing were all that needed doing today. For now, it serves.

Categories
Home Life

Christmas Rain

Christmas Coffee
Christmas Coffee

Rain fell from the roof to the downspout then to the semi-frozen ground below. The sound of trickling raindrops was background for Christmas Day at home.

We did things together, and talked, sharing ideas, sharing video clips from the internet, and deciding a menu. Christmas dinner ended up being bowls of vegetable soup with cornbread left from our special Christmas Eve supper. We had Christmas cookies for dessert — Nestle Toll House cookies made with the recipe on the bag. Simple fare for plain folks.

It was a peaceful day in a dark year. Nonetheless, days are getting longer. New hope springs, bringing with it growth, new life, and new work beginning today.

I embrace the new days ahead and so should readers. What else is there to do?

Categories
Home Life Kitchen Garden

Cleaning House, Making Soup

Harvest Soup
Harvest Soup

Holiday tradition in our house includes cleaning and decorating beginning mid-December.

Dec. 18 is our wedding anniversary. This year we plan to celebrate 34 years of marriage with a meal at a local restaurant.

Our wedding anniversary is also when the Christmas tree goes up with decorating to be finished by Christmas Eve.

As we cleaned, I made soup using bits and pieces of leftover vegetables and pantry items. It was thick and savory — the way soup is supposed to taste.

The process for soup-making is simple.

Turn the heat to medium high and place a Dutch oven on the burner.

Drain the juice from a pint of canned, diced tomatoes into the Dutch oven and bring to a boil.

Add a generous amount of diced onions (2 cups or more), three or four peeled and sliced carrots, two stalks of sliced celery, and three bay leaves. Salt generously and steam-saute until the vegetables begin to soften.

Add the diced tomatoes.

Next steps depend upon what is on hand.

For this batch I put a quart of turnip broth from the pantry in the blender and added cooked Brussels sprout leaves, and fresh Swiss chard and kale, all from the ice box. I blended thoroughly and added the mixture to the Dutch oven.

Next was a can each of prepared black beans and whole corn from the grocery store.

I found an old box of marjoram in the spice rack and added what was left — about a tablespoon. They don’t sell marjoram loosely packed in boxes any more so it must have been 20 years old or more.

Peeled and diced three red potatoes from the counter and added them to the Dutch oven. I also added the thinly sliced the stalks of kale and Swiss chard.

From the pantry I took a cup of lentils, and a quarter cup each of quinoa and pearled barley and added them.

I submerged the vegetables in filtered water from the ice box.

The rest of the process was to bring to a boil, turn the heat down to a simmer, and cook until it is soup — adjusting seasonings until it tastes good, and making sure the vegetables are covered in liquid.

The effort produced enough for a meal with a gallon stored in the ice box in quart Mason jars. We’ll be eating on that until Christmas day.

Categories
Home Life

Retirement Milestone

Embers
Embers

Today is my first day on Medicare. It’s no time for rejoicing.

This category of mandatory spending by the federal government garners renewed attention with each new congress. With Republicans having majorities in the House of Representative and Senate, it will continue to be under attack from conservatives and wing nuts. There is little comfort having made it to the next milestone on the road to full retirement.

As with any health insurance, one hopes never to have to use it.

Categories
Home Life

Budget Time in Big Grove

McCann;s Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal
McCann’s Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal

BIG GROVE TOWNSHIP — The ambient temperature outside was 20 degrees this morning. It was time to break out oatmeal for breakfast and dig into the numbers behind our dreams.

At Thanksgiving we turn inward toward family and friends to work on a plan for next year.

That means being with each other and discussing our potential. Life is on auto-pilot as next year’s activities and budget are considered, determined and planned.

I enjoy budgeting as it relates to planning how our lives will change.

2017 will be the last year before I am eligible for “full retirement” with the Social Security Administration. Mainly, this means an influx of monthly cash beginning in 2018. We need to make it to that mile marker without incurring too much debt. I plan to keep my job at the home, farm and auto supply store at least until then.

Like many baby boomers, I plan to work for income long past retirement. The time since leaving my transportation career well prepared us for cutting expenses and making do with less — the new American condition.

Dreams persist in the real world. Writing a budget is tangible evidence of such reality.

It is easier to write an expense budget than a revenue budget. There is a baseline of fixed and variable expenses that doesn’t change much. Basic costs of living change without doing anything differently. The hard part is figuring out how to pay basic expenses to support our dreams and ambitions, hopefully in sufficient quantity to enable dreams made real.

There is a lot to consider and nothing but time during the extended holiday season.

Categories
Home Life Living in Society

Moon Rising

Moon Rising
Moon Rising

The moon rose behind naked deciduous trees.

Illuminated and bright white, the atmosphere blurred the view in a way vision did not.

Night is coming and with it restlessness and yearning…

For something once held in my hands… now gone.

People I know are disturbed about the election of Donald Trump as president. His transition team is a leaky bucket so we know some of what’s going on in Trumpland. His first steps don’t look good for anyone, including people who rallied around him. They will be freaking out sooner than expected as the president-elect struggles to deliver on campaign promises. It’s only five days after the election.

I live in a privileged enclave the affluence of which is driven by the largest of Iowa’s state universities and a few medium-sized businesses. Since moving to Big Grove Township in 1993 I’ve held the county seat at arms length as best I could. Iowa City is where I attended college, met my wife, got married, and witnessed the birth of our daughter. I have memories of my time there — most of them are good.

Eight of 58 precincts in Johnson County, including ours, voted for Donald Trump. Those who assert the county is monolithic in its liberalism paint with a broad brush. Their canvass looks neat — well contained within its edges. Like all products of imagination and technique such portraiture is more aspiration than reality. I’d rather live midst swing voters, small business operators, low-wage workers, and young men and women with imperfect lives. I’ve been with them so long it seems like home.

Tonight I’m drawn to the moon with its inconstant orbit outside the frame of a 24-hour day. As it sets over my shoulder this morning, giving way to sunrise, I’m reminded of this:

O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard.
Being in night, all this is but a dream,
Too flattering-sweet to be substantial.

~ Romeo and Juliet, Act Two, Scene Two in Capulet’s Orchard

Categories
Environment

Sustaining Saturday

Harvest Soup
Harvest Soup

The weekend began with a trip to the COSTCO bakery where I bought 2.2 pounds of cookies after my shift at the home, farm and auto supply store.

I am celebrating my first Saturday without a work shift since July 26 with, that’s right, cookies!

Saturday morning I made harvest soup from bits and pieces in the ice box, pantry and counter. With a sandwich it made a hearty lunch with three leftover quarts of soup for later in the week.

Hot peppers and kale
Hot peppers and kale

Gleaning the garden yielded sage, oregano, chives, kale, hot peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes.

After cleaning the vegetables there are bags of herbs and kale in the ice box, Bangkok peppers in the dehydrator, and a big bowl of Serrano and Jalapeno peppers in the ice box. More Bangkok peppers are ripening on the counter. Cucumber salad is in the works for Sunday as is an appetizer for the work dinner later in the evening. It is weird to be harvesting cucumbers and tomatoes in November.

I don’t fully understand the El Niño/La Niña cycle but the weather has been warm. Saturday’s harvest weeks after the normal first hard frost stands as evidence. Climate change is not about the weather per se but warming temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean impact Iowa.

Assorted kale leaves
Assorted kale leaves

Photos of fresh produce compliment each day and help us forget about the impacts of changing climate. There is something to be said for a warm Iowa winter. It would be welcomed by most people I know.

The hard frost is coming and with it the end of the gardening season.

In the meanwhile we harvest what we can and make a life for ourselves on the Iowa prairie.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Season’s End

Kale
Kale

Yesterday’s harvest yielded kale, some cucumbers and hot peppers.

I sent another box of kale to the library for workers. It has been filled with kale countless times in recent years. It’s better quality than what’s available at grocery stores and they use it almost every day — good use for an abundant crop.

The aroma of Bangkok peppers in the dehydrator pervaded the kitchen air as I prepared a simple dinner of spaghetti with tomato sauce made of canned tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil, olive oil and oregano. I peeled and diced cucumbers to make a salad with Kalamata olives, feta cheese, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. There was fresh apple cider from the orchard.

I tasted the pickled red onions and decided to stop at two half-gallon jars. There are plenty to last until spring. Three crates of onions remain — more than enough for our small family.

The solace of kitchen work occupies hands and mind to help us forget what seems intolerable in society. At season’s end it is welcome relief.

Categories
Home Life Writing

Last Bits of Work

Bangkok Peppers
Bangkok Peppers

Two hours before my shift at the orchard I was feeling punk. I went to work anyway.

While ringing up a dozen customers I felt light headed and a bit nauseous so my supervisor sent me home. She didn’t want whatever I had to infect other workers. Good call on her part.

After two four-hour sessions of sleep, I feel much better and am ready to head over again later this morning. Before I do, some last thoughts about this 96-hour staycation in Iowa.

I’m lucky to have worked a full career that paid our mortgage and helped put our daughter through college. There are plenty of people who work low-paid jobs like mine who don’t have that kind of financial platform for support. To make up the difference between income and operating expenses we’ve taken on some debt. We feel it’s manageable and have a plan to pay it off. Like most anyone should, we watch our cash flow. We also have been able to weather multiple challenges in recent years that would have sent others to the poor house if such a thing still exists.

Everything on my “deal-with list” has been addressed. Some things — car repairs, understanding and signing up for Medicare, writing about the Cedar River flood — came easily. Others — financial planning, longer writing projects, producing value from life as a sixty-something — present longer term challenges. What I wrote on Sept. 11 proved to be useful.

The key to dealing with this and everything else on my deal-with list is to take care of myself and not freak out. That I have this blog helps with the not freaking out part. There is solace in work.

I haven’t freaked out and am taking better care of myself as the staycation ends.

Sliced Red Zeppelin Onions
Sliced Red Zeppelin Onions

Canned goods were moved to the lower level where the storage rack is once again full. The production was less than in previous years, but focused on items we will use well over the coming months. Gardening is a perpetual process and this year produced in abundance. The trouble was August when I worked four jobs without adequate time to reap what I sowed. It was a learning point more than disaster and local farmers helped me make up for what was missed at home.

Remaining is fall yard work, home maintenance, financial planning, and most importantly writing. The reason for retiring in July 2009 was to enable my writing. I’ve gotten better at it and am ready for something longer, maybe book-length, which can be promulgated. That and ensuring our sustainability in a turbulent world remain on the deal-with deescalated to to-do list on my white board.

Better prepared to tackle today’s challenges, I’m hopeful. Hopeful about the lives of family members. Hopeful about the community of friends and acquaintances we’ve built here in Big Grove. Hopeful our country will make sound decisions during the Nov. 8 election.

Whatever the outcomes, the brief vacation this week helped get me back to who I am. I’m thankful for that and ready to engage in society again.