Quintessential Portland

We spent Mother’s Day weekend in Portland with Lauren, Jana and Scott.  It was a weekend of small disappointments and mishaps, yet still surprisingly fun.We arrived midday on Thursday, Cinco de Mayo, and used our afternoon while Lauren worked to run a few errands.  The last one was to drive downtown to Penzey’s to pick up a few spices and get my free vanilla, a Cinco de Mayo gift with purchase offer.  Unfortunately we headed into downtown during rush hour and traffic was unbelievable getting into the city. We didn’t get to Penzey’s until 6:01 p.m. and they’d just closed. That was with me jumping out of the car and running the last block. Our first disappointment. I didn’t need the vanilla, but that’s not the point! So close and then to miss it….for a person who looks for ‘signs,’ that was not a good one.

Our Friday was spent picking up Jana and her friend, Andy, from the airport and driving back downtown to walk the 4T: train, trail, tram and trolley. This hike is a great way to experience Portland as you travel all around the city’s Southwest sector, but this was our third time for the hike and probably our last. It took us two or three days to recover from the 4-mile hike that turned into 6+ miles by the time we took a wrong turn on the trail (we’ll call this a small mishap), walked a dozen long blocks to Deschutes Brewery for dinner, and finally limped back to the starting point of our adventure where the car was parked near Pioneer Square. That hike is either getting longer and harder or we are getting older. I’ll let the pictures from the day tell the rest of the story.

Traveled the first T (Train) to the Portland Zoo - reading about the 4T

On the second of the 4T (Trail)

Waiting for the third T (Tram)

Our final T (Trolley)

 Walking to Deschutes Brewery

Scott and his family drove down from Seattle late Friday night with plans to stay through Sunday and celebrate Mother’s Day. Early Saturday afternoon they received a call informing them that their rescue puppy, Jazz, was missing. Ini’s cousin was pet sitting for the weekend and the dog had broken loose when they were out for a walk. Jazz was born to a litter of stray dogs and lived on the street for much of his first year. Scott and Ini adopted him around Christmas and have done a great job training him, but this was his first time separated from the family and he quickly reverted to his ‘street’ ways and ran away. The only solution to this quandary was for Scott and family to pile in the car and drive back to Seattle and help look for the dog. And that’s exactly what they did.Worried and disappointed (again).*

We all piled in our car a little later and went to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner. It wasn’t until we were back home that I realized we could have gone to one of our other favorite adult restaurants for dinner that evening…I originally suggested the Spaghetti Factory because that’s where we always go when we have kids in our group. We’ve been going there since Jana was a wee baby. It is the perfect restaurant for large groups with lots of kids. We’ve celebrated every birthday and Christmas holiday there for 30+ years and our adult kids have carried on the tradition. Not much has changed over the years (except for the addition of broccoli with mizithra cheese to the menu) and we all know our orders by heart.  It took a few bites before I realized the dressing on my salad was not my favorite blue cheese, but some kind of bland buttermilk dressing posing as blue cheese.  I ate it, but it set the course for a less-than-perfect dinner. Now, you have to understand that one of the things that makes Spaghetti Factory such a favorite is that everything is exactly the same every time we go. The bread with garlic butter is steaming hot, the iceburg lettuce salad is icy cold, and every family member always orders the same meal. So, when we go and something is different and doesn’t meet our expectations it’s a crushing blow. After missing out on my favorite blue cheese salad dressing, the rest of the meal just could not come up to scratch. Disappointed again.

Sunday was spent rearranging Lauren’s artwork. She’s a collector of books and collector of art from signed posters and reproductions to fine art she’s bought over the years. (Did I also mention she’s a book collector? That’s a story for another day.) She thought she’d run out of wall space until we did some creative regroupings and unique placements.  This was all part of her purging process and reorganization that’s underway. After reading the book “the life-changing magic of tidying up (the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing)” by marie kondo, she realized that her “life was cluttered with joyless objects” (her words) and has spent the past month going through every room’s drawers and closets and discarding unused and unwanted items so that only those that bring her joy are left. It didn’t take the book for me to realize Verne and I have a similar problem, but after reading my own personal copy (Lauren’s Mother’s Day gift to me), I realize I’ve had no idea how to tackle the horde of stuff we’ve acquired over three decades. Until now. I’m hopeful that the “konmari method” is just what I need to purge about 75-80% of our belongings this year and get us closer to the downsizing I keep promising.

All in all, our trip to Portland was a success. While there were many small disappointments and mishaps along the way, we had a wonderful time seeing Lauren, Jana and Scott for as much time as we were able with each. We did have an unexpectedly funny experience on one of our trips to Portland downtown over the weekend though. Verne was behind the wheel and we were stopped at an intersection. A 55-60 year old bicycler completely decked out in biking attire pulled around next to Verne’s open window, leaned his head in, and said the following in a loud, animated voice:

Sir. Sir. Sir.

2.2 pounds.

2.2 pounds of metal that says Wentworth Subaru Portland surrounding your California state license plate.

Sir. That added weight to your car decreases your gas mileage, increases the wear on your tires and tears up the road, harming our environment.

Two screws, sir! Only two screws and you can recycle that metal here in Portland.

Will you do it, sir? Sir. Sir. Will you commit to taking out those two screws? Do not take it back to California to recycle. Recycle it here in Portland, sir.

And that was our visit to Portland!

*In a good piece of follow up news, Jazz was found and is now home safe and sound with his family.  He is both in trouble and the king of the house all at once. 

Happy May Day!

It’s May 1st and happens to be May Day. If you want to know more about May Day, google it! This blog post is all about Verne. 

One-third of 2016 is over and this is the first time I’ve blogged this year. Shameful. I really don’t have a good excuse, so I’ll just admit that I’ve been a deadbeat and we’ll go forward from there. Fortunately for me, my (almost) 75-year old husband has the energy of two 40-year olds and he’s kept busy over the past several months with a number of unplanned and unrewarding projects as our lovely home in the country has begun to show signs of its age.

We’ve had a much-needed wet year with one storm after another. During one of the heaviest rains in early January I awoke to a wet bed and a dripping sound from the sky window that is directly over my side. Verne’s side was dry. Hmm…well, I showed him no mercy and sent him up on the roof in the rain to not only cover my window but also the one in the laundry room that we found leaking when we got up that morning. If that weren’t enough, we also noticed wet spots on the ceiling in the entertainment room, which turned out to be leaks along the ridge cap. With the fourth year of a record-breaking drought, we didn’t dare complain, just smiled (of course I was smiling…I was inside toasty warm by the fire) and carried on. Here’s a picture of my brave husband weathering the storm.

Verne covering my (leaky) sky window with a black trash bag...brrr!

At some point last fall we noticed several ‘soft’ spots on our deck. A call to Old Ted (not to be confused with Young Ted, who has been mentioned in several blogs over the past couple of years) and Verne had his next project. We met Old Ted a few years ago when we had the problem with the cabin floor and shower (combination of pine beetle and dry rot damage). They’ve formed a comfortable friendship since then and seem to have a good time working together on these projects. At least, I like to think Verne’s having fun working outside in freezing cold temperatures demolishing our deck, scrubbing and sanding those boards that could be saved, burning those rotted beyond repair, and then serving as Old Ted’s grunt as they rebuilt and restored the deck to its former beauty.  According to Ted, he’s the brains and does all the thinking (he does have a solid education and background in engineering/construction…for Amador County, anyway) and Verne’s the brawn. That would be insulting if it weren’t true.  Well, I say you need both brains and brawn in construction and they make a great team!

The “projects” don’t end there.  There are the dozen corral posts that have had to be dug up and replaced (I really wish I’d listened to Chuck Domecq when he tried to convince me to use metal posts and fencing for the corrals) and the walkway near the barn that had rotted and had to be rebuilt (again I should have listened to Chuck and had him pour a concrete walkway) and replacing the heating element in the oven after it started an electrical fire and the water heater that died one morning (thankfully we have a beautiful new shower at the cabin that we got to use for the second time) and the two 100+ foot trees that have had to be felled due to pine beetle and are now on the ground in rounds that need to be moved and split for firewood (each must weigh 75 to 100 pounds)… the projects go on and on. 

Verne working on corrals and walkway next to the barn...he looks likes he's having fun, right?

We’re ready for a new, low-maintenance home on a couple of acres a bit closer to town. We’ve been talking of downsizing for several years now. One of the reasons we haven’t made a move to move sooner is the barnfull of a dozen old cars Verne acquired over the past 30+ years. I’m finally beginning to see the light. Over the last year Verne has sold four of the cars with Scott’s old T-Bird and the white Corvair convertible sold this past month. Yahoo! 

Verne helping the buyer load Scott's '59 T-Bird onto a car trailer...

One last ride in the '62 Corvair...

We’re down to the '52 Chevy truck Verne and Keith restored two years ago and the basket case '50 Chevy pickup that has more sentimental value than scrap metal. The truck will be listed for sale this next month and the pickup will be restored to a point it drives and will then be shipped cross-country to Connecticut where my son, Jeff, lives with his family. He is pictured below working with Verne on the pickup about 30 years ago and feels some sort of attachment to the pickup and wants to make it a project car for himself and his boys.  

Verne and 15-year old Jeff  power washing the '50 Chevy pickup about 30 years ago...

When my honey isn’t working outdoors he’s in the kitchen working. Most of us would call bread making work, but he seems to find great pleasure in it. He’s been experimenting with his own sourdough starter…if you’re not familiar with the process involved in making sourdough bread, it takes a starter. A starter is a bit like having another pet in the house that has to be pampered and fed each week. Refrigerating it slows the process, but it still needs attention. Verne has also experimented some with different potato bread recipes. A few years ago we spent a morning with our friend Otti and learned to make her potato bread and the history behind the recipe (see earlier blog post), but Verne found a new recipe in one of our several monthly cooking magazines that claimed the “best ever” potato bread. It wasn’t even close. He made it twice to make sure that he wasn’t the problem and then after having shamed him by telling Otti that he was fooling around with other recipes, he went back to her recipe and had success. He made it the weekend the girls came home to celebrate my birthday and they both went home with bread and the recipe and intentions to begin making their own potato bread. It’s official…Otti’s recipe is the best-ever potato bread.

Verne using his new Staub pan for Otti's old potato bread recipe...nummy!

Speaking of the girls (this has been all about Verne so far)…both are doing well. Immediately following Jana’s last chemotherapy treatment in December she began participating in a trial drug study which has been found to reduce HER2 breast cancer recurrences by about 35%. It doesn’t come without side effects similar to chemo, but we all agreed that one more year of treatment to reduce the long-term risk of facing cancer again was worth it. As Jana says, “It’s her cross to bear…” and she does it with great strength and grace…and equally important, humor. Last fall both girls became very involved in hot yoga and continue to practice almost every day. Unlike many breast cancer patients, Jana has no loss of flexibility resulting from her surgeries and attributes that entirely to yoga.  

I’ll end this post now and continue with more about the family after our trip to Portland this next week and an update on me and my Master Food Preserving interests (I assure you my interest in jamming and fermenting and food preservation,  in general, has not waned!).

To be continued…