The Thursday Ramble: Origins

Origin is not destiny, but where we came from, shapes parts of who we are, as we move forward in life. I have landed on my feet a long way from where I started, and yet the history of where I started shapes a part of my life today. 

My grandfathers were farmers. My mother's parents had sold the farm in an early medical retirement by the time I was in school.  We lived on the same farm that my paternal grandparents lived on when I was born and growing up. My grandfather gave my parents five acres of the farm and they built a small house, settled in and raised a family. 

My grandparents raised a large garden, I spent many summer and Autumn days helping in their garden and helping my grandmother with canning and freezing the bounty of the garden.  We were surrounded by active farms, dairy, beef, pigs, and chickens. Fields of wheat, corn, and hay. The rhythm of the growing season is embedded in my being.  But it was a terribly isolating place to be. The house I grew up in is still over a mile from the nearest paved road. There were few neighbors, and my mother was not the most neighborly person.  

When I was in the first grade, the first time around, we lived in Phoenix Arizona for 4 or 5 months. The place left a magical impression on my brain. Changing schools a couple of times during that early stage, was a disaster. I spent another year in the first grade. That experience left me with a fear of failure. A fear that persisted through college, and graduate school, and passing the Bar Exam. I studied harder than most. It was an unhealthy fear that drove me to extremes, but it also resulted in doing well in school.  Maybe it is why I still read voraciously. 

When I was in the 8th grade, my parents started spending winters in Florida, the first winter in a large planned development north of Tampa named Spring Hill, then after that on the east coast, across the intercoastal waterway from the Space Center in Titusville, Florida. I had a bike, there were two shopping malls in town, I rode to and from school almost all of the time. It was a large town, really not large enough to be a city - more than I could explore in a day. 

Those early experiences continue to shape who I am. I greatly respect the countryside, and farms, but I have no desire to live in isolation again. That fear of failure, drove me to study more than most, something that probably continues to drive my professional writing. Those summer days helping my grandmother are the roots of my love of playing in the kitchen and of working with fresh real ingredients.  

I have landed a long way from where I started, but where I started shapes who I am here and now. 

My World of Wonders: October 21, 2026

 

Where have I been this week?  The pharmacy, Trader Joe's, the Farmer's Market, the pool, the treadmill at the gym, National Harbor in Maryland, the community center, the UPS store, the European market, Huntley Meadows, and Aldi. 

What has the weather been like? Changeable, 40 degrees and clear, 80 degrees and rain, howling wind, warm sun, it is that transitional time of the year when we have all four seasons in one week, sometimes in the same day. 

What did we do on our 34th Anniversary?  We went out to lunch at someplace new, Nan Xiang’s Soup Dumplings at National Harbor.  A soup dumpling is a Chinese dumpling that along with the usual fillings contains a hearty broth, you break it open and suck out the broth before eating the dumpling. It was a first for us. Very good. And they have a kitchen robot that to your table. This shot is the robot heading back to the kitchen. He plays music so hear him coming and going. 

What artsy stuff am I doing? I have sketched a figure to build the next painting, last week was the monthly arts committee meeting. I did a demonstration of how to prepare commercially made or recycled frames for hanging. I framed a piece of art that a high school friend sent me 50 years ago. I am sent it to her daughter. 

When am I looking forward to? Election day. Regime change starts at home, get out an VOTE the bastards out of control.  

What mistake did I make? I checked the box and ordered the large case of Kleenex, more boxes than I know how to store, such a great value. 

Travel Tuesday: Paris

 

Monday Moods: Travel

After 60 some years of traveling, there are a few things I have learned to make travel more pleasant. To improve my mood about travel. 

• Pack less, my father used to say take half as much stuff and twice as much money. 
• If you can't carry it, don't take it. Over the years I have downsized the cameras and lenses I carry, I carry a tiny computer, I leave things home, I leave things behind that I don't want to carry. 
• You don't need to stay connected. I started traveling long before cell phones, let alone international roaming. I would be gone for a week or two and guess what, the world didn't come to an end. Don't obsess over being constantly connected, if anything, plan a week with no connection at all. 
• Check a bag when you fly. It allows more flexibility when packing, it makes boarding and getting off of the plane much easier. I have a couple of airline credit cards that include as a perk, checked bags. When I fly other carriers, I always select a fare that allows me to select a seat and check a bag. 
• Be flexible.  I see people create detailed, almost hour by hour, itineraries of everything they "have to see and do." And when the museum is unexpectedly closed, or the wait to get in is hours long, their world is turned upside down.  Walk around the block, and see what is there.  
• The online maps application has never driven the route that it tells you can drive in 47 minutes. The estimates are based on driving at or near the speed limit. The reality, is this is often impossible, and even more often, not the way you want to drive it. Double the estimated driving time. Have time to pull over and see the view. Have time for the speed-bumps and roundabouts that the software didn't understand that you often won't drive anyplace near the speed limit. And if you do, you arrive a little early and have a little extra time to explore the place you are going to. 
• Always be nice to the desk agents.  By being nice I have gotten some amazing upgrades at hotels and car rental desks over the years. I have also been rude, and received what I deserved.  
• Arrive at the airport early, and once you have checked in, dropped off your checked bags, and cleared security, surrender all control. It is beyond your control, don't fight it. 

Relax and enjoy the adventure. It will make your Mondays all the more pleasant. 

Travel when you can. There are no guarantees that you will be able to take that trip later. 

The Sunday Five: Technology

1: When was the last time, if ever, you used a rotary dial phone? 

2: Do you know anyone's phone number without looking it up? 

3: Is your computer on WiFi or a cable?

4: Do you remember Windows 95? 

5: What was the earliest operating system you worked on? 

My Answers: 

1: When was the last time, if ever, you used a rotary dial phone? In the early 1990's visiting my sister and my parents one summer on the farm. 

2: Do you know anyone's phone number without looking it up? No. Someone asked me Sweet Bear's number, and I had to look it up. 

3: Is your computer on WiFi or a cable? My desktop is plugged directly into the modem, everything else is WiFi. 

4: Do you remember Windows 95? Yes, there was a YouTube the other day that encountered Windows NT, the child (in his 30's) had never hear of it before. 

5: What was the earliest operating system you worked on? Basic, I develop a program for home builders to price a home, add options, and calculate five different financing options. I gave a copy to a friend, who shared with a friend, who built a nice business out of it. I used their version of it the last few years I was in Florida. I started it, someone else made something out of it (I never felt bad about the fact that someone took what I started and made a finished product out of it.)  

Please share your answers in the comments.

The Saturday Morning Post: Screw up to learn to be creative

I had a flashback recently to an art class I took 35 years ago at Rollins College. It was a silver casting and construction class. One of the projects was to construct a hollow silver cylinder box. You start with a flat sheet of silver, roll it around a form, cut it size, solder the seam, solder on a top and bottom that are slightly larger than the cylinder, trim those to size, file the endes, and polish the finish on a buffing wheel. I started out with a large round, the larger size was easier to work with, or at least it seemed to be. I was working fast and feeling really good about it, and disaster struck. The piece caught on the buffing wheel, was pulled out of my grip and smashed into the floor. The professor who had been watching from a distance, and shaking his head from time to time, as I worked fast and cut a few corners watched it happen, and stepped into his office, the room could hear him laughing. I had screw up, I was working on too large of a piece, I was working to fast, he knew it, I knew it, the piece was a mess. 

I cleaned up, went home and thought about it, and I started over. I made a smaller piece. I followed the instructions. I put a lot of hours into it. In fact I will say that the most important thing I learned in that class, is to put the hours into do the job right. And many jobs will take much longer than you expect or hope. 

If I hadn't screwed up, I might never have learned that. 

There have been books written about making a mess and breaking things, the real message is to learn from the mess you make or the things you break, learn how to do them better. Learn to create, by screwing things up. 

Foodie Friday: Harvest Season

Here in the Northern Hemisphere it is harvest season. The bounty of the autumn is ready to be explored and enjoyed. Find your local farmers market. If you don't know where it is at, Google it (more than once I have found farmers markets for bloggers and left the answer in the comments), ask around, find who has what that is fresh, preferably local, though the best of the season is shipped into places where nothing is local. Here I pay a premium for farmers who come to us, or I can drive an hour or two into the country and buy directly at the farms. 

Buy what you normally wouldn't, buy what you love. 

As the weather turns cooler, it is a great season for soups and stews. A nice mix of chopped veggies, a little wine and stock, and let it simmer. 

I made chicken stock a couple of weeks ago. One whole chicken, an onion, a couple of carrots, a couple of stalks of celery, and several cloves of crushed garlic, water, a slow simmer and time. I had 6 cups of wonderful stock to cook with, and poached chicken for a couple of meals. Stock making is simple, toss it all in the big pot, add water and simmer. All it takes is time. 

I know there a beet haters out there. Peel and chop just one, and add it to a soup or stew as a background flavor.  You will be surprised. If you buy golden beets, you don't get the deep red color.