“Change of Plans”
After all the weather excitement last week we were ready to relax and enjoy some warmer weather at home. But, like the best laid plans, that all changed and we made a last minute trip to San Francisco on Monday. I needed to help Finn get back on a good life path and Diana flew with me and spent the week with her Mom and family.
We landed at SFO in the afternoon, stopped in to visit Adamo and family (including the now completely mobile Francesca), and then enjoyed a yummy dinner of chicken, rice, spinach and mushrooms from Chef Alicia who had driven up from San Luis Obispo.
Will and I went to collect Finn on Tuesday and stopped at Oyo in downtown Pleasanton for lunch in the sun on their patio. What a great tapas lunch. Here’s what their website says about the chef and her inspirations: “Her credo embodies the diverse heritage of Guyanese cuisine with its eclectic mix of flavors emanating from the ancestral homelands of the Guyanese people. Curries and Lo-Mein from Eastern Asian, Jerk Chicken and Rundown Fish from the Caribbean, Pepper Pot from West Africa and South American Paella all find a home here at Oyo.” We started with street food “Doubles” – chickpea stew, tamarind drizzle, coconut, cucumber and mango chutneys over bara pockets – the combination of flavours was outstanding. I followed that with the goat curry while Will had oxtail stew – the two dishes that the waitress recommended we try if we were only going to visit the restaurant once.
Oops – almost forgot to share a highlight from earlier in the day. I met my new “grandson” when I picked up Will in the morning. Ollie the golden-doodle (inaccurately described as a labra-doodle last week) is so cute and laid back – seems like a perfect dog for Will and Christine to practice parenting. They have him on a serious training program and are recording and monitoring just about every movement.
Ollie has a play area that most babies would envy. He’s sleeping in the corner with his favourite blue pillow.
He does manage to get excited sometimes:
Finn and I checked into an Airbnb house in San Mateo (about 10 minutes from Will’s apartment) that I had rented for us for the week. The place was great – comfy with lots of space, good wifi, and just as advertised. We enjoyed the care package of a host of great Trader Joe’s snacks that Alicia had put together for us.
Will visited us throughout the week and often worked a bit while he was with us. What a kick I got out of listening to him coordinate and facilitate meetings – so much energy and moving so fast from topic to topic – exhausting. He forgot his laptop multiple times and had to come back and retrieve it. Too many things running through his head at the same time – I’m not sure he ever slows down.
Finn wanted to do some laundry and Will “helped” see if he could remove some coins that seemed to be rattling around. He was able to remove something called the “bellows” on the front of the washer and had no idea how to put them back together. I found a YouTube video that looked pretty complex but we decided to have Christine bring over some tools and give it a try – complete no go – way too finicky and complicated. A Russian appliance repairman took the better part of an hour to complete the task the next day – not sure how the guy on the YouTube video got so expert, as it took him about 5 minutes.
While we’re on the topic of Will, I can’t believe how much food he can still consume – an extra large Philly cheesesteak sandwich with extra bacon from Jersey Mike’s was inhaled in a few minutes, and he was still looking for a follow up snack. He was most upset that, after specifically asking for rosemary bread, he unwrapped regular bread at home.
Finn and I enjoyed a Peet’s coffee on Wednesday morning – reminding me of my regular walks to the local Peet’s with Zumie in Los Gatos. It’s funny to see Finn with his very particular coffee order. Dinner that evening came from Village hummus just across the street from Peet’s – a tasty chicken, hummus, turmeric rice, salad and mushroom plate that we share.
I continued to enjoy extended one on one time with Finn on Thursday – we started with a walk to Peet’s, enjoying the beautiful morning sun, and then stocked up on some supplies for breakfasts and lunches at the Whole Foods next door.
Will joined us at lunchtime and brought the leftover A5 wagyu beef stroganoff that he had forgotten the day before. Not sure I’ve ever had or even heard of that specific wagyu classification but it was the most tender, melt in your mouth beef that I’ve tasted. Here are the steps followed in cooking this delicacy and the finished product (including a crunchy superfood Moroccan salad – Will’s specific description) from his photo stream:
Diana enjoyed dinner with Marco and crew at Grammie’s house. How would you like to have that dinner time view every night?
I cooked up some of my special breakfast tacos on Friday morning and it was great to see Finn enjoying them and having a healthy appetite again. Later that afternoon he surprised me by offering to add my dirty clothes to laundry he was doing – in the newly repaired washer. What have you done with my Finn?
I got a text from Anne letting me know that Jack and Mason’s team had won the Louisiana state high school soccer championship. What an achievement. There’s a video in this article that features great plays by both Ogan twins – you can pick them out by their long curly locks.
https://wgno.com/sports/lusher-boys-soccer-team-defeats-e-d-white-in-division-iii-title-game/
I got an email on Friday night inviting me to schedule a COVID vaccine shot. It didn’t come from my regular doctor, but from the folks that did my surgery to repair my broken leg – weird, but why not go for it? I logged on and scheduled an appointment for next Thursday morning. It will be nice to get that behind me.
Will and Christine came over on Friday evening with some yummy Thai food. Finn and I thought the green curry sauce was too watery but really enjoyed everything else. The new parents were nervous about Ollie alone in their apartment – checking the “baby cam” frequently – and so didn’t stay too long.
We started Saturday with a trip over to Pacifica to meet Alicia and Diana at Soul Grind for coffee and breakfast. Finn thought his Vietnamese coffee and ham and burrata quiche were the best he’d tasted. We walked along the beach path after breakfast and enjoyed the great weather.
After our walk, I made a stop at the local Pacifica bookstore to see if they had a book I was hoping to pick up and take to Clorinda. They were out of it and so I’ll have to ship it to her. I did have “The Paris Library” to share with her – more on that below. We had a nice visit with Clorinda, and Alicia made us some sandwiches for lunch. Some luggage for Finn’s trip to Texas next 
week was picked up at Target on the way back to the Airbnb. We also picked up a meal kit and cooked up some delicious lemon zest burrata raviolis with shredded chicken and pesto sauce – it turned out really well as we improvised a bit with the kitchenware we had available.
Here are a couple of pictures that I like from Saturday night on Gypsy Hill in Pacifica. Jude (Clorinda’s neighbour) snapped the picture of Diana and Alicia laughing about something as the sun sets behind them. Grammie and Francesca have a special bond.
Will picked up Finn on Sunday morning for a special car show in San Francisco. They seem to have had an amazing time.
This week we said goodbye to Beat poet, publisher and bookseller Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who died in San Francisco at the glorious age of 101.
Ferlinghetti was famous for — among other things — publishing the first edition of his friend Allen Ginsberg’s epic poem Howl, which got him arrested on obscenity charges. (A long federal trial eventually determined that the poem had redeeming social importance and was therefore not obscene.)
“I really believe that art is capable of the total transformation of the world, and of life itself,” he said in a 1994 interview. “And nothing less is really acceptable. So I mean if art is going to have any excuse for — beyond being a leisure-class plaything — it has to transform life itself.”
Ferlinghetti also founded the famous City Lights bookstore in the North Beach (Italian) section of San Francisco. I’ve always enjoyed browsing there and find their recommendations very helpful.
In addition to all of that, Ferlinghetti was the father-in-law of Joe Sasser – a very interesting character who worked for both Diana and me over the years. Guessing Sasser doesn’t have to work another day.
I read “The Paris Library” by Janet Skeslien Charles and am a bit nervous to say that I’m really enjoying it. Why nervous? – it reads a bit like a girly romance novel – but I’m ok with some of that while I enjoy the descriptions of Paris and what sounds like an amazing institution – The American Library in Paris (ALP).
The book oscillates between Paris at the beginning of World War II and 1980s Montana – in a town called Froid. I smiled since Diana and I talk about retirement destinations that often include debates about Paris and Montana – the cold in winter being a negative check against Montana.
“”The best thing about Paris? It’s a city of readers,” our neighbor said.
She said that in friends’ homes, books were as important as the furniture. She spent her summers reading in the city’s lush parks, then like potted palmettos in the Tuileries Garden, sent to the greenhouse at the first sign of frost, she spent winters at the library, curled up near the window with a book in her lap.”
Here’s a paragraph that made me think about how much Diana loves Paris:
“”Champagne!” the consul’s wife cried out. “More champagne.”
Fantastique! The last time I’d had a glass was at New Year’s. Popping corks – the sign of celebration, my favorite sound in the whole world – heralded servants who swirled around the room, proffering flutes. Everything was held out to me on a silver tray. Bubbles glistened in my glass, icy rivulets slid down my throat. I was so dazzled, I forgot Lawrence’s boorish behavior, forgot the diplomat.”
Odile, one of the two main characters, gets a job at the ALP and is responsible for writing a regular column about her work for the Herald:
“I know. You’re not that girl any longer. You’ve grown up and are doing a marvelous job. Everyone loves your column in the Herald, and your newsletter is delightful, especially your “What kind of reader are you?” interviews. It’s wonderful to get to know someone by the books they love.”
On discussion about whether the library should remain open as German occupation of Paris becomes imminent:
“She needed to convince them that the ALP must remain open. “Libraries are lungs,” she scrawled, her pen barely able to keep up with her ideas. “Books the fresh air breathed in to keep the heart beating, to keep the brain imagining, to keep hope alive. Subscribers depend on us for news, for community. Soldiers need books, need to know their friends at the Library care. Our work is too important to stop now.””
Lily, the second main character, living in Froid in 1980, reflecting on the death of her mother and dealing with her father’s new pregnant wife, Eleanor:
“When she stayed in bed all day like Mom, I remained at Eleanor’s side. I remembered a line from Bridge to Terabithia: “Life was as delicate as a dandelion. One little puff from any direction, and it was blown to bits.” As a kid, I thought only old people died. Now I knew differently. Why hadn’t I been nicer to Eleanor.”
An interesting exchange between Miss Reeder, Directress of the ALP, and the German officer sent to censor libraries (how great a word is Bibliotheksschutz?):
“”I was going to tell the Bibliotheksschutz that a library without members is a cemetery of books,” Miss Reeder said. “Books are like people; without contact, they cease to exist.”
“Beautifully said,” he replied.
” I was ready to humbly beg to keep the Library open. How could I have guessed that it would be you?”
“You must know I would never allow the Library to be close. However…””
One of my favourite simile’s in the book:
“Inside the Haussmannian building, the staircase curved like an escargot’s shell.”
I think I would be a big fan of the ALP logo:
“Inside the slim volume, the “American Library in Paris Inc, 1920″ bookplate showed the sun rising over an open book, a horizon as wide as the world. The book lay on a rifle, almost burying it – knowledge slaying violence.”
I really enjoyed this book – a relatively light and quick read with interesting insights into Paris and the library during World War II. Reading an author who splits time between Paris and Montana is interesting – I can’t think of two more different environments. Not much is really said about living in Montana – it’s just a neutral backdrop for the relationship between the older Odile and Lily. I’m interested to hear Clorinda’s critique of this book – she’s always very honest about her thoughts.
After taking a break to enjoy “The Paris Library”, I returned back to “The Moth and the Mountain”. I rejoined the story with Wilson fighting in France during World War I:
“Millions of men from both the German and the Anglo-French sides of the conflict had already died along the Western Front – a jagged stitch in northern Europe, which stretched from the English Channel to the Swiss border, whose entrenched outline had not significantly changed between the end of 1914 and the beginning of 1918, despite all the mud, rats, murder, shellfire and barbed wire there.”
Hard to imagine 4 years with no progress on either side and so many casualties.
It was interesting to read about a recruitment technique for World War I known as the Pals or Chums battalions:
“As a recruitment tactic, it was a wild success. Battalions were formed from groups of men who shared an employer (the Glasgow Tramways Battalion) or a common heritage (the Tyneside Irish Battalions).”
An interesting mathematical commentary on the futility of the 4 years of fighting:
“In the summer of 1917, one mathematically adept British officer at the front had made a calculation:
He roughed out the area between the “front” of that date and the Rhine…and divided this by the area gained, on the average, at the battles of the Somme, Vimy and Messines. The result he multiplied by the time taken to prepare and fight those offensives, averaged again. The result he got was that, allowing for no setbacks, and providing the pace could be maintained, we should arrive at the Rhine in one hundred and eighty years.“
I learned a new term:
“Triskaidekaphobia – an extreme fear of the number 13 – was widely shared.”
Moving back to discussion of Everest and a funny comment:
“The British director of the survey, Andrew Waugh, eventually renamed peak XV Mount Everest after his predecessor, Sir George Everest, and proclaimed the mountain to be 29,002 feet high, to dispel the impression that he had simply chosen a round number. Wags noted that Waugh was the first person to put two feet on the top of Everest. Satellites have now fixed the height of the mountain at 29,035 feet.”
I’m going to kick back and enjoy some more of this adventure before making dinner.
I found a new band that I really enjoy – instrumental music combining jam and funk elements with excellent musicianship. Here’s one from Circles Around the Sun:
It’s interesting that several of the members of Circles Around The Sun did stints in the Black Crowes – the band that I’ve been reading about over the last couple of weeks.
I joined the Tipitina’s record club a few weeks ago – as much to help the new Galactic owners of the music venue stay afloat as for the small pressings of concerts recorded at the legendary venue. I have seen so many fantastic concerts at Tipitina’s over the years – Dr. John, Anders Osborne, Little Feat, Trombone Shorty before he made it big etc. The first release is a recording of Professor Longhair at his home. An unadvertised feature on joining was a Zoom meeting to coincide with the release, featuring a panel watching videos and discussing the music.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Zoom meeting with members of Galactic, Johnny Vidacovich (legendary New Orleans drummer who played with Fess), Quint Davis (Jazzfest organizer) and several others telling stories about the music and their experiences with the artist. What a treat!
A record that I turn too for stress relief from time to time – it’s a strange album but one that I find strangely soothing – John Cale’s “Paris 1919”. I was turned on to it by Steve Forbert in his autobiography:
I love the descending brass and bass chords on Paris 1919 and the Welsh accent from Cale.
A good reminder from Steve Forbert that just because we hope or dream for something, doesn’t mean it will happen:
And finally, here’s another soothing song from Joe Lovano – what a great saxophone and piano sound:
Stay patient (Oh, so patient), calm and kind to everyone.
Bitter cold and no heat mean almost everybody has a burst pipe story. We were again very fortunate. I was watching TV on Thursday and wondered what all the static noise from the speakers was. I turned off the amp and TV and it persisted. Following the noise took me to a small river flowing out of an electric socket that is through the wall from our hose tap. Ugh! Rapid response required before the hardwood floors are ruined. Diana sprinted out front and began trying to find the water main under the snow. She found it quickly but we couldn’t get the frozen cap off. I got sufficiently mad at it and it popped off.
Water off and we now had a big flood to clean up. Fortunately our neighbor Daniel has a deluxe shop-vac that made quick work of the clean up. Daniel also helped us repair the burst so that we could turn the water on again. A trip to Home Depot – not a ton of fun with the road conditions – to pick up a pipe cutter and my new best friend – a Shark Bite pipe cap – and we were all set to execute our emergency repair. With phone communication in place I ventured back out front and slowly turned the water back on – all good. Crisis averted.
I finished reading “Hard to Handle.” A very enjoyable read and so disappointing to read story after story of how egomaniacal, uncaring, and intolerable both Chris and Rich Robinson really were throughout the life of the band.
Happy Saint Valentine’s Day to all of you. We are definitely staying inside to celebrate, except for a quick sprint that I plan later – out to the grill to cook the lobster tails. Temperatures are falling way below freezing very quickly and are not forecast to pass back above until next Saturday. We have an inch or snow just now and are expected to receive another 6 to 8 inches this afternoon with “near blizzard conditions.”
Weather has been the big discussion topic this week with an ice storm on Thursday causing havoc with traffic. Several massive pileups closed almost all the major highways through and around the Dallas/Fort Worth area. We don’t expect to be able to leave the house for the next week as several inches of snow and freezing temperatures will effectively shut down the roads until Saturday. The temperatures on the left have been significantly reduced in the current forecast.
I finished up “Shuggie Bain” by Douglas Stuart this week, and the narrative certainly didn’t get any more uplifting as Agnes, Shuggie’s mother, continues her downward spiral with alcohol abuse. There is a vague hope at the end that Shuggie is getting on his own feet and may have a successful future. I did continue to find humour in some of the phrases:
About this time of year, we would typically be “discussing” whether to attend the Mardi Gras season in New Orleans and looking forward to Jazzfest. Not this year, at least not until potentially October for Jazzfest. Anne shared this picture of Tin Men playing in front of one of the Mardi Gras float house in New Orleans. Will saw Tin Men with the boys crew at Mirliton Festival on his 25th birthday trip to NOLA, and loved them. They are best known to us for the classic “If You Can’t Make it Here” song – one of Timmy’s favourites and a great sing along number:
We’ve taken to reading a story from Diana’s Christmas Winnie the Pooh collection out loud if we’re not too tired when we make it to bed. I’m still perfecting the voices for each of the characters. Diana decided it would be good if Pooh could join us – and of course have easy access to his favourite food. I just hope that Hunny pot doesn’t fall on my head one night when I’m sleeping.
Monday and Wednesday were both great running days – sunny with temperatures in the mid 50s. Week 4 of Couch to 5K was much more pleasant the second time around. The last 5 minutes of running didn’t have me puffing nearly as much as on Monday. I hoping to make it to Week 5 next week without any injuries.
As if that wasn’t enough torture, I then made a trip to the grocery store with McD. In all fairness, I had volunteered to get some lobster tails to do a dry run on my Valentine’s day meal. We did pretty well – I overcooked the lobster a little bit but they still tasted great and we really liked the herb butter. That’s a picture from the recipe and ours didn’t look too dissimilar – we got too excited about tasting them and forgot a picture.
It won’t be snowing in Tampa today for the Super Bowl. We’re looking forward to settling in to watch a good game this evening. And I’m looking forward to the traditional pigs in a blanket that Diana will be cooking up.
I completed my journey through the life of John Steinbeck earlier this week. Souder’s book does a great job of intertwining Steinbeck’s writing exploits with the history of the world at the time, traveling through the Depression, World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. My only beef with Souder is the way he narrates objectively for the majority of the book and then feels compelled to dismiss points of view that are contrary to Steinbeck’s in a very flippant way, with no exploration of both sides of an argument.