Should I or Should I Not?

Dropped a green M&M on the floor.  It rolled under the desk.  I used my foot to retrieve it across the carpet.

Sadly this treat went into the garbage.  Had the circumstances been different, the end action would have been different, too.

Generation Gap

Young co-worker (roughly age 30) asked me what I was listening to this morning.  “Simon & Garfunkel – long before your time,” I said.  She said that she knew who Simon & Garfunkel is and liked them.  I said, “I like Glenn Miller.”  She looked puzzled.  Me: “Big band from the 1940s.”

The 40-Year Plan

The College has a reception for retirees and service award recipients each May. Retirees are asked to speak for a couple minutes if they desire.

This is sort of what I said:

Three months ago I never expected to be here. I was on the 40-year plan. I wanted to know what the award would be for 40 years of service. [Someone in the audience said "a new car."]

My grandfather worked for 50 years for the U.S. Postal Service. He started in 1912, and was a rural letter carrier in Cumberland County, Illinois. He delivered the mail on his route by horse and buggy.

Grandpa was a "people person," and he enjoyed talking to people. Sometimes he was the only person the families on his route would see that whole week, and he exchanged news from town and among their neighbors with the folks he delivered to. He didn't gossip -- men do not gossip -- but he would tell them stories.

Later he became postmaster of his small town, and he enjoyed conversing with the people who would come to the post office to pick up their mail each day because there was no home mail-delivery in their town.

I think it was the people that my grandfather enjoyed most about his 50 years working for the USPS.

And I think "people" is the thing that kept me here at Parkland College for 38-and-a-half years ... because I am really going to miss Parkland Library's subscription to People magazine.

Dream A Little Dream Of Mom

Last night's dream:

My mom was living alone after my dad died.  We siblings had been watching over her, and she felt like we were telling her what to do too much so she ran away.  We eventually found her in a small town in Indiana – somewhat like GC or her childhood hometown.  I went to see how she was.

I found her along the main street “working” at a diner.  She wasn’t actually employed there – just that the owner-grill cook (a sort of Aunt Jemima-type person altho I never saw her and she could have been a man) kind of looked out for her and let Mom help.  There were café-type tables for the customers to sit at on the sidewalk in front of the diner.  Mom stood outside near the door holding a tray filled with cheeseburgers.  They looked really delicious: tasty, greasy, melted-cheesy burgers.  I guess Mom was sort of serving the hamburgers altho she wasn’t waitressing and I never saw anyone take one.  At one point Mom did pick up a triple-thick cheeseburger (3 meat patties) and take a big bite then put it back on the tray I suppose for someone else to select.

She was happy as a clam.  Pretty oblivious to anything going on around her, at times kind of flighty but able to focus on whatever it was we talked about.  At some point Mom removed a bunch of silverware she had stored in her pocket.  She took two forks and intertwined the tines together to straighten the ones that were bent.  I got the impression that she was familiar with the priest and church in town – that they watched out over her.

She told me she worked at the hospital, too.  I think she just sort of hung out there and they were used to seeing her around and treated her like a likeable stray dog, come and go as she pleased, everyone pleasantly greeting her.

We must have gone to her “apartment.”  [Reminded me of Harrison Ford’s apartment in The Fugitive – the one in Chicago that he rented from the Polish woman – altho Mom had only one room.]  I remember Mom pointing to her green rocker-recliner and saying Susan had given it to her.  She mentioned Susan a couple other times in the context that Susan had told her something or given her something.  And this made me wonder why Susan had never told us that she was in communication with Mom and where she was.

There was also something in the dream about Mom being barefoot and walking on stones along a railroad track.  I don’t quite know what that was about, but it reminded me of the train tracks that run through the center of her childhood hometown.

Basically, Mom was daft but happy.  She giggled and brushed aside anything that could be worrisome.  And everyone in the town looked out for her.  Kind of like Alfie Landau in GC.

Hospital Meals

I was a little disappointed when I learned that my surgery would be out-patient because I had thought I'd get a couple "free" meals, supper and breakfast.  Then it was explained that out-patient could include an overnight stay in the hospital, that I just had to be out in less than 23 hours. While I know the meals were not "free," I was anticipating having a meal served to me that I didn't have to prepare or clean up.

I chose from the "liquid diet" portion of the menu for my first food after being situated in my room: jello, iced tea and grape juice.  The juice was too sweet so after the first taste, I did not finish it.  The jello was ... well, jello.  I was just happy to have something to eat after having fasted for 20+ hours.

I knew that I wanted my dinner meal to be something easy to eat: nothing that needed a knife, nothing that required too much chewing, nothing that needed what I perceived to be a lot of internal breaking down.  I chose meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, and chocolate pudding.  Sadly, none of this tasted "good."  I can't say it was bad or that there was anything wrong with it.  Just that my taste buds were "off," and I simply was not interested in eating it.  Not even the chocolate pudding.  I nibbled on the meal, then set it aside with maybe only a quarter of it eaten.

(I managed to barf up what little was inside me.  That surprised me since I seldom throw up.)

One last chance for someone else to make me a meal:  For breakfast I chose oatmeal, a banana, bran muffin, and skim milk.  I was hoping the muffin would be commercially wrapped in plastic so I could take it home.  It was not.  It was dry and not very flavorful.  The banana did not taste like a banana, possibly because of screwed up taste buds so I only ate half of it.  I did like the oatmeal sprinkled with sweetener.

Overall, the food on this overnight "vacation" was a real disappointment.  It's not that I think it was poorly made, but I guess my taste was just off.

Once home, J. fixed me a lunch:  He heated up a slice of leftover Little Caesar's Pizza and brought a glass of water to me.

Jim and Richard's Wild Ride

This happened a couple years ago.

I took two CDs to listen to in the car when I went to visit Mom at SC on Tuesday.  When I got home I had them in hand but put them on the back (trunk) of the car to walk out to bring the mail in.  I thought to myself, “Don’t forget these are here.  You’ll end up like Grandma W. who put her purse on the back of her car then drove off.”  

The next morning (Wednesday) while eating breakfast I got to wondering about where those CDs were.  I didn’t see them on the kitchen table – where they likely would be.  Are they still inside the car?  Then I just forgot all about them.

The following morning (Thursday) when I put my purse and tote bag in the back seat of the car I saw the Jim Croce CD on the trunk of the car.  It was really wet – I thought that’s an awful lot of condensation from just sitting there overnight.

But then I got to thinking: There’d been two CDs.  And I put them there two days ago.  Well, yeah, Jim Croce is soaked – it’s been raining buckets all day Wednesday.  And what was the second CD?  It’s obviously gone for good, but what was it?  Oh, no.  A favorite: Richard Carpenter (after Karen died) playing solo piano.  Bye, Richard, but at least Jim Croce survived.  What a ride he had – to and from work yesterday, plus sitting out in the rain all day yesterday.

So, if I saw the Jim Croce CD on the back of the car this morning, how come I didn't see the 2 CDs Wednesday a.m.?  I could have saved both of them.

I’d purchased both CDs on eBay, and they were both favorites.  I’m glad I still have Jim Croce, but I’ll miss Richard.  

December 2015

Chicago

Our December festivities began with a visit to Chicago’s famed Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza.  Patrick had mentioned it to us a year ago – friends had told him it was fun and interesting.  It is modeled after the Christmas markets in Germany and has a definite German characteristic to it. 

We met P. at his apartment – my chance to see where he lived, I liked it.  We walked north to Wrigley Field to get a picture under the famous marquee.  Unfortunately the stadium is undergoing major renovations and the whole area is enclosed with construction barricades.  We settled on pictures in front of the “official” Cubs Store.

Patrick and John with a snowman made from baseballs

We then took the “el” train to downtown Chicago.  It was after 11 o’clock so we decided to have some lunch first.  We’d chosen The Berghoff Restaurant in keeping with the German theme of the day.  The Berghoff has been family-run since 1898.  My meal choice was Rahm Schnitzel.  John and Patrick chose the Berghoff Burger and a tortellini dish.  We all enjoyed our food.

We then walked a few blocks to Daley Plaza.  The Christkindlmarket was packed to the point of not being able to walk around freely.  I knew it would be crowded, but this was way beyond anything I’d imagined.  You simply were not able to walk comfortably anywhere.  We soon gave up, but lucky for me, I did get to hear a German oompah band play “Christmas in Killarney.” 

We discussed a couple museums to visit and settled on the The Field Museum because none of us had been there.  We took a cab.  We got lucky – it turned out to be reduced admission prices for Illinois residents.  While I wasn’t terribly interested in the displays, the Field Museum is a nicely designed building and the exhibits were superb especially for anyone interested in the topics.

The Field Museum, Chicago

We left the museum shortly before 5:00 and went to the supper destination that Patrick had chosen: Tango Sur, an Argentinian steakhouse.  We all had steak, and for reasons unknown to us, we were also served a complimentary dessert flan with 3 spoons to share.

Following our supper we took a cab back to Patrick’s apartment and prepared to leave.  John took Lake Shore Drive to I-55.  We seemed to be driving an exceptionally long time on I-55 looking for the intersection with I-57.  John finally said “Do you think we missed it?”  I checked our GPS location on the cellphone and discovered that we had indeed missed the connection and were headed off into unknown cornfields.  We mentally updated our route and exited I-55 onto Illinois 47 at Dwight.

Christmas with Family

Patrick arrived in town via Amtrak on the 24th.  I picked him up shortly after 11:00, and we decided since we were so close to the newly opened Black Dog location, we’d have lunch there.  Patrick phoned John, and he came and met us.  I branched out and ordered a chicken salad sandwich with twice-baked potato casserole.  John and Patrick chose traditional BBQ: pulled pork and burnt end sandwiches.

Our Christmas Eve supper was a crockpot recipe: Red Pepper Chicken.

Patrick found a couple presents to open on Christmas Day.  Christmas Day lunch was a new recipe: Oven Beef and Noodles.

That afternoon Patrick made Chocolate Chip-Pumpkin Cookies.  I've had this recipe for years, and it's one of his favorites.  Some were taken to each of the family gatherings, and there were plenty for Patrick to take into work with him on Monday.

Patrick makes delicious cookies

Saturday, the 26th, was a day with Benefiels in SB.  Then on Sunday, we were with the Bodes in GC.  Patrick headed back north on the train Sunday evening.  He toted home a Grammie-bag of goodies: his gifts, a balsam fir-scented Yankee Candle gift set with a shade that I'd been given at work, and the remaining cookies for his co-workers.

After 4 days, John and I finally finished off all the leftovers yesterday.  In addition to the leftovers from the previously mentioned recipes, there were also egg salad and potato salad that were our contributions to the family gatherings.

Another pleasant holiday.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Red Pepper Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4 oz. each)
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) Mexican stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 jar (12 oz.) roasted sweet red peppers, drained and cut into strips
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
Pepper to taste
Hot cooked rice 

Place the chicken in a 3-qt. slow cooker. In a bowl, combine the beans, tomatoes, red peppers, onion, salt and pepper. Pour over the chicken. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or until chicken is tender. Serve with rice.  4 servings.  (Taste of Home)

Oven Beef and Noodles

1 pkg. (1-1/2 oz.) onion soup mix    

4 C. water
1 can (10-3/4 oz.) cream of mushroom soup
3 lb. boneless beef chuck roast
1 pkg. (12-oz.) kluski egg noodles, uncooked
2 Tbsp. dried parsley

Combine onion soup mix and water in a covered roasting pan; stir in mushroom soup. Place roast in pan on top of soup mixture. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 4 hours, or until meat is very tender. 

Remove roast from pan and shred; return to pan. Add noodles to pan; reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, checking and stirring every 15 minutes, until noodles are tender. Add water if necessary to prevent drying out. Sprinkle with parsley before serving.  6 to 8 servings.  (Gooseberry Patch)

Chocolate Chip-Pumpkin Cookies

2 C. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C. cooked pumpkin
1 C. sugar
1/2 C. oil
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda dissolved in 1 teaspoon milk
1 C. semisweet chocolate pieces
1/2 C. chopped nuts (optional)

Stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.  Combine pumpkin, sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla.  Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture along with dissolved soda; mix well.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop by teaspoonfuls on lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake in preheated 375-degree oven 10 to 12 minutes.  Makes about 5 dozen.

Our yule log - "Merry Christmas" from Fluffy and Spike