My World of Wonders also known as The Wednesday Ws March 5, 2025

Where have I been this week?  Trader Joe's, a walk on King Street and lunch with my sweet bear. The local independent bookstore. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, we ended up with three shows in less than two weeks.  Out for a haircut.  The First Saturday morning community coffee, water aerobics. The gym, the pool. My doctor for my annual prescription renewals, the library, Aldi, and a tiny Mexican Restaurant that was very good. 

Who have I talked with? Ruth, Warren, Paul, Mike, Giuseppe, Larry, Elaine (she and I rode the condo shuttle bus at the same time until we retired.) Erica, Jessica, Cathy, a couple of ABA committees. My middle brother, three times. 

What have I been avoiding? Listening to the local lament about HWSNBN. The side chatter when I was having my hair cut was depressing - people summarily dismissed from jobs after 15-20 years of loyal service. 

What have I been reading? I finished The Plot Against Native America about the horrors of Indian Boarding Schools in Canada and the United States. Low Hanging Fruit Randy Rainbow's new book of sarcasm (if you want to know about him, search YouTube for his videos.) 

What have I been writing? I finished editing a piece on retirement planning, I am finishing an article on blogging, one on defining Elder Law, and one on staying active in the Bar Association as a reason to travel. These are all due while I we will be traveling, so I wanted to get them in early. 

What is a great relief this week? Taxes are done and filed. It was a complicated year, I had employment income, consulting income, pension income and retirement income. In the end, all is well. Turbotax gets less user friendly every year. I also did my middle brother's taxes, he is getting $38 back. 

What is the best thing I have read this week? 

(Warning it is political) 

"The Trump administration is a soap opera. The president is the producer and the star, responsible for the plot lines, the script, and the cast (all of whom are chosen to look the part). If a plot line works, such as a drive for a Nobel-Prize winning peace deal, then it will be developed and might run for many episodes. Otherwise it will be quietly dropped, or may just peter out. The purpose of every episode is to demonstrate the star’s brilliance." 

Read more at https://samf.substack.com/p/two-steps-backward 

Thank you to Angus in St Andrews for this link. Thinking of the chaos this way, makes sense. 

Travel Tuesday: From the Air

Potomac Yard, New Virginia Tech offices

Home is in one of the crescent shaped high rises on the hill

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Lincoln Memorial, and Washington Monument

 

Moody Monday: What am I thinking

 Several readers asked about the pieces I have the current community Art Gallery Show.  

The top piece is a sterling silver hollow construction.  It is a round box, about an inch tall, with a malachite oval bevel set on top. I started with a flat sheet of silver, and built it from there. 

The second piece is a large painting 30 by 40 inches, in colorful stripes. It was painted in 2020 in the dark days of lockdown. 

The third piece is a print of my favorite photo from last year, take mid-Atlantic last May. 

The last piece is metal inlay with cast silver features.  The body is brass and copper sheet, cut and inlaid. The head, shield and spear are lost wax silver castings.  

I should go back to doing metal work.  I really enjoyed it.  When you are in the middle of working on it, the rest of the world fades into the background.  

The weather has started to warm up a bit.  I have been out for a few nice long walks outside.  As much as I enjoy my treadmill time watching YouTube, walking outside allows me to get away in my mind. The think about what I want to think without reminders of the horrors going on around us.  I walked along the Potomac River along the north side of Alexandria, just down river from last month's airliner crash.  I couldn't stop myself from looking at the water, wondering what might be floating by. 

There is a call for the next art show, but I think I will pass on this one, among other things I will be unavailable when that show comes down, they want you to retrieve your art when the show ends. There I am thinking ahead. 

I have a couple of short articles to write before we leave in a little over a month for the next adventure.  What was I thinking when I said, yes I can do that? 

I am tackling things that need to be done that are within my control.  We filed for ETA permission to enter the United Kingdom, we need that for April. I filed on the App, Sweet Bear filed online. The application portal is still glitchy, for example, it won't process the credit card unless you enter the "state" and there is no designated line to enter the "State or Province.' Whoever wrote the code has never traveled outside of Britain.  Both of us were approved within a couple of minutes. I have done as much checking in for the cruise as I can. I am working on getting taxes done.  By the end of this week everything that needs to be done, should be done.  The got to do list, plus the current chaos have a low level anxiety simmering in my mind.  By tackling the things within my control, it becomes easier to live with the things I cannot control.  

Control what you can.  If you feel anxiety, you are not alone. Do what you can.  We will survive this. We must be here to rebuild when the dust settled and HWSNBN is a permanent resident on a golf course.    

The Sunday Five: Shoes

1: Do you prefer shoes that are comfortable or stylish? 

2: Do you wear shoes in the house when you are at home? 

3: About how many pairs of shoes do you currently own? 

4: When was the last time you had a pair of shoes resoled or otherwise repaired? 

5: When the weather allows, do you prefer to wear shoes or go barefoot? 

My answers: 

1: Do you prefer shoes that are comfortable or stylish?  Comfort - this has changed over the decades. 

2: Do you wear shoes in the house when you are at home? No, they come off and go in the closet as soon as I come in the house. 

3: About how many pairs of shoes do you currently own? About 30, then there is the big suitcase in the back corner of the closet that has probably another dozen in it. Yes, I had to go count. 

4: When was the last time you had a pair of shoes resoled or otherwise repaired? Probably 40 years ago. 

5: When the weather allows, do you prefer to wear shoes or go barefoot?  Barefoot, when I lived in Florida I would drive without shoes much of the year. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post - 50 States in 52 Weeks- Florida

 

Ah, Florida, the Sunshine State.  Florida played a major role in my life. My family first took me to Florida when I was 3 or 4 years old. We went back the year Walt Disney World opened, then a couple of winters later started spending winters in Florida.  My grandparents were on the west coast, north of Tampa about 60 miles.  The first winter we lived in Spring Hill.  After that we went to the east coast, across the intercoastal waterway from the space center.  I moved there after high school.  I lived in Titusville for about three years, then moved to Orlando. I lived in Orlando from 1980 to 1995. The last decade of that about three miles directly north of Orlando International Airport, step out the back yard and count the tires on the landing jumbo jets. 

I earned my first University degree at Rollins College in Winter Park. I built myself three homes. I sold and built over 250 houses over fifteen years (I didn't keep track of how many.) I had dark times, and good times.  I grew a lot, while I lived there. 

I met my sweet bear, and we moved when he had a great job opportunity, and the move opened the door for me to go back to school and earn a doctorate in my field. I was ready for a change, and moving was the surest way of assuring change. 

When people think of Florida, they think of sandy beaches and Walt Disney World. There is so much more to it. Central Florida is a complex landscape of pine and palmetto scrub.  There are thousands of freshwater lakes. There is rhythm to the four seasons in Florida that is subtle, and unique. It took me a decade of living there to really understand the seasons, the landscape, the place.  

Florida is crowded. Traffic is terrible due to poor planning and lack of infrastructure.  I can't explain the rise of far right politics. And hurricanes were an annual concern. 

I have to list Florida as a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there again.  

Foodie Friday: Bake Some Bread

There is nothing like the smell and taste of freshly baked bread.  My mother was afraid of working with yeast, and my grandmothers had breathed a sigh of relief when bakery bread relieved them of the work of baking bread. So I grew up in a house where bread was not made. I taught myself as an adult.   

A few background suggestions. 

I use a heavy duty stand mixer with a dough hook, in my case a Kitchenaid 5-quart.  I started kneading bread by hand. For a beginner I would recommend kneading dough by hand to get a feel for how it changes texture and springiness as it develops gluten.  Knowing how it should look, feel and sound, makes it easier to know when the machine has done its job well. 

I buy rapid rise yeast in bulk quantities.  When I started baking bread one of the local markets sold it in 1/2 pint containers in the refrigerated counter.  I order it in one-pound foil blocks. It stores in the freezer for years, in the refrigerator for months.  The yeast I am using now, has been in the freezer for 5 years, by accident I ended up with four pounds of yeast in late 2019.  

I use bread flour, a flour with a higher protein component.  This makes a stronger gluten, and I think a better bread than all purpose flour. I use the same brand of flour for greater consistency. Each flour will work a little differently.  The amount of flour that works well will vary with the flour itself, and with the humidity in the room. The recipe is a starting point, not a chemistry formula. If it seems to wet and sticky, add more flour, if it won't come together as a dough, add more water (or less flour.) 

Ingredients 

1.5 tablespoons of dry active yeast

1 tablespoon of sugar

2 cups warm water 105 degrees F

1 tablespoon salt

5.5 cups of bread flour (give or take .5 cups) 

1-2 ounces melted butter

handful of cornmeal

1 egg white and an equal amount of water  

Dissolve sugar in the water, check the temp, you want over 100 (f) under 115 (f)

Stir in yeast, and set aside for 5 minutes or so to activate the yeast. It will bubble and become foamy in about 5 minutes. If it does not, the yeast may be dead, start over. 

Mix flour and salt. 

Pour in liquid, mix by hand to form a very stiff dough. 

Knead, either by hand on a floured work surface or with a dough hook in a stand mixer for about 10 minutes. I set the Kitchenaid speed on the second notch. 

Melt the butter, 

Butter the bowl, and turn the dough to coat, cover and set aside to rise for 1.5 to 3 hours, until roughly doubled. 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

Form into two or three loaves

Place on baking sheet sprinkled with corn meal.

Brush the top of the loaves with an egg wash made from the egg white and water. This will form a nice crust on the top. 

Bake 35-45 minutes, until golden brown.  When done, it will sound hollow when thumped on the top or bottom of the loaf. 

Cool on a rack, and enjoy. 

I baked these two on a pizza stone. 

The best book I have ever read on bread baking, is "Beard on Bread" by James Beard, published in 1973. It is well worth chasing down a copy.  

The Thursday Ramble: Talking and talking too much

When I was in my late 20's, my mother gave me an envelope with all of my school report cards or grade reports.  I had no idea that she had kept them. If I dig through them, especially some of the early ones, I am sure I will find comments from teachers, that "he talks too much." I sometimes wonder if I still do.  Over the years I have heard the old sayings, you have two ears and one mouth, you should listen twice as much as you talk, and better to remain silent and have them wonder if you are a fool, than to speak up and confirm that you are. And yet I talk. Often more than I should.  I seldom say something that I regret saying, a few random comments over the years haunt me - thoughts that were unkind and should have remained unsaid. 

My worry is that I bore people by talking too much. 

Like many, I dislike silence. There is an old principle in sales, that when a sale is asked for (a closing question is asked) the next person who talks buys it. All to often the sales person grows afraid of the silence and speaks first.

In professional speaking, and I have done a lot of it over the years; and when presenting training, I worked hard on making what I said, worth listening to.  I also tried to make use of silence. I remember one time, I was doing a training on elder abuse for AARP in Nashville. I showed a video clip of an older gentleman who was being financially exploited by a handsome younger man. I asked the open questions about what was going on, why did the older man allow it to happen? And waited for the answers. A few came in, and no one would say gay.  Finally, after probably 30 seconds - but it felt like an hour, I spoke up. "I know there are Gay Men in Nashville, my ex-wifes' first ex-husband lives here."* The silence broken, and people started to talk - a - little. 

So what is the photo? Lion's Mane Mushrooms at a Sunday Market in Phoenix, locally grown.    

*She seems to have had better luck on the third, though she never married this one, he moved in with her two weeks after she moved out in 1991- and they are still together.