Travel Tuesday: Williamsburg Virginia

 

Moody Monday: Reminders of the Past

The street to the Colonial Governors House in Williamsburg Viginia

The trees lining the street on the right hand side are Catalpa Trees, causing an emotional flashback to my childhood.  My grandparent lived around the corner from us just down the hill on Gravel Creek Road. The road was lined with Catalpa trees down the hill to their driveway, and their driveway was lined with the Catalpa trees.  The trees have a large heart shaped leaf, bloom in the spring, and develop a seed pod about as big around as garden snake and about a foot long. The leafs have a mildly fizzy back side, and are leathery on the top side. They purchased the farm during World War II, and the trees had been planted by the previous farmer.  I remember a tree being struck by lightning one night in a massive thunderstorm, it was split all the way to the ground, and caught fire, that the thunderstorm put out.  

The trees remind me of riding my bike around the corner and up their driveway. Fond memories. I occasionally see a single tree here in northern Virginia, this was the first time I had seen a street or drive lined with them. 

My mood on seeing this was nostalgia, fond memories of the past. A sense of calm, and the constants that endure the passage of time.  Much of the world we live in, the things that dominate our attention are temporary, the trees will outlive and outlast most of what distracts us from enjoying today.  Be like the trees. 

The Sunday Five: Vacations

This post was triggered by Sassybear commenting that he has NEVER taken a two week vacation, and he is getting close to retirement. 
 

1: When was the last time you took a vacation (holiday for my international readers)? 

2: What is the longest period of time you ever took off from work for a vacation? 

3: Were there limits on how much time you could take off from work? 

4: Did you ever take planned, extended, unpaid time off from work? 

5: How do retired people take time off? 

My Answers:

1: When was the last time you took a vacation (holiday for my international readers)? Last April-May, we took a month off, a complete change of pace, routine, and place. 

2: What is the longest period of time you ever took off from work for a vacation? When I was working, about 2 1/2 weeks was the longest. 

3: Were there limits on how much time you could take off from work? With the exception of the last couple of years when I supervisory responsibilities that limited me to 13 days away, there was no official limit, but being gone for more than 10 days was frowned on. I stretched that to a little over 2 weeks a couple of times.  

4: Did you ever take planned, extended, unpaid time off from work? I love the concept of sabbatical - but never worked where that was offered.  I did take four months off one fall - it was life changing.  

5: How do retired people take time off? I think it is important to do a complete change of routine, we go away for a month. If we couldn't travel, I would order room service everyday for a week, let the laundry pile up. (The restaurant here at the condo delivers, just like room service in a hotel.) 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post - 50 States in 52 Weeks - South Dakota

I have been to South Dakota once, an AARP training in the basement of a casino in Deadwood.  It was a fast trip, fly in, spend the night, drive to Deadwood, spend the night, teach all day, and fly home that evening.  We stopped briefly at Mt Rushmore, and Crazy Horse.  It was summer, the weather was warm and dry. During the workshop, when the room went quiet, you could hear the slot machines dinging upstairs (old fashioned quarter machines.) The morning of the workshop I ordered breakfast, sat at a slot machine and put a handful of quarters in. Before my eggs-benedict arrived, I was up about $50, I cashed out while I was well ahead. 

South Dakota is near the center of the contiguous states, slightly north of center. It is sparsely populated, with miles and miles of rolling open countryside and forests. 

I am glad I was there once. 

I was looking for a particular photo, of me on a park bench in Deadwood. I know it is here someplace.  I have a folder with over 32,000 unsorted photos in it, a result of changing operating and filing systems a decade or so ago. 

Foodie Friday: Growing Up on A Farm

It was a funny farm*, but I did grow up on a farm, and the experience shapes my understanding of the food that we eat. 

How many of us really know beans about beans? The first photo is beans being left to mature and dry. There a thousands of varieties of beans. Green beans and dried beans come from different varieties of the same plant, the same pod, green beans are picked while green and cooked, dried beans are allowed to mature and naturally dry before harvesting. A dried bean is the seed for a new bean plant. For dried beans (what baked beans and bean soup are made from) you harvest the pods when the plant is has lived out its life cycle and is turning brown (usually by pulling the entire plant out of the ground) remove the pods, and then shell the beans. In farming this is done by a machine, in a home garden and before mechanization, it is done by hand. A very time consuming task. The beans are then allowed to complete drying.  Dried beans being seeds, store well for a year or more if kept dry. 

I was amazing by this pyramid of canned fruits and vegetables. 

My grandmother canned green beans, corn, carrots, beets, apple sauce, and tomatoes almost every year. My grandparents lived around the corner on the same farm that I grew up on. My grandparents always had a large garden, through the depression and World War II, they seldom went without, because they grew most of what they wanted (coffee, sugar and butter were hard to get during the War.) 

As a teenager, I became my grandmother's canning assistant. It can take hours to prepare the veggies.  Apples are peeled, cored, cut up and cooked down with sugar and spices. There were three apple trees in the their garden, the one behind the honey processing plant had the best apples. Green beans had to be trimmed, and cut or broken into pieces. My great grandmother couldn't see well enough to trim the ends with a knife, she would set there with a dishpan full of trimmed beans and snap them into precise one inch segments for canning. A couple of years my grandmother made chilli-sauce, a complex process that involved chopping and grinding a bushel of tomatoes, onions, and peppers, cooking and canning. I spent a couple of hours feeding and cranking an old fashioned hand grinder. She used a steam pressure cooker for most of her canning.  Only strawberry jam, and pears (we had bees in a pear orchard and boxes of pears would come home some years) were done in a boiling water bath (open kettle method.)  

There is something comforting about growing and preserving food. It is nesting, I occasionally get the urge to nest. 

I also find value in knowing where food comes from, and what is involved in getting it to the kitchen.   

*It was a honey farm, we had over 2,000 colonies of honeybees. Honey farm, funny farm. We lived on 80 acres and didn't really farm the farm. 

Thursday II

I write and publish a rant that goes negative, and then I feel bad about sharing something that makes people feel bad. 

There is so much awe and wonder in the world.  This is sound near Jamestown, Virginia.  A wonderful drive. 
 

The Thursday Ramble: Vandals and Good Kids

A week ago, I stopped for a walk at Jones Point Park, or as it is known locally, the troll park because parts of it are under a massive bridge, and trolls live under bridges in fairy tales. It is kind of a special place for us, we were married in the Park ten years ago next Friday. 

Two senseless acts of vandalism angered me. 

First, in the south west edge of the park, near were Hunting Creek empties into the Potomac River there is a raised wood walkway. About half of it is closed, because someone lit a fire on a wood walkway and burned into the underlying structure. What kind of an idiot lights a fire on a wood walkway? The park is maintained by our chronically underfunded National Park Service, this has been closed for a couple of years, on the endless list of repairs awaiting funding. 

The second is even more disturbing.

The park is located at what was the original southern - most point of the District of Columbia.  DC was originally ten miles, by ten miles, a square standing on end, and this was the bottom point of that square.  The first cornerstone, the first boundary marker for our national Capital is between the Lighthouse and the river.  We were married standing in that spot. 

The stone, almost 235 years old, is still in place. It sits at river level, and the ground around it has been filed to raise it above flood level. The marker was covered with a bronze and heavy plate glass cover. It has been that way for decades. There to be seen, protected from the weather and people wanting to chip off a corner of the stone. 

Vandals have broken the cover, smashing down the very heavy bronze structure, breaking the very thick plate glass. What a senseless act of destruction. It will cost thousands of dollars to repair, and while waiting for repair this monument of our nation's history is exposed to harm.  

For both of these I suspect bored teenagers or young adults.  I remember being bored at that age, with little money, and no idea what to do with my time. But I never destroyed public property or historical artifacts.   

Thinking back some of my contemporaries did a few senseless things. Smashing rural mailboxes, spreading cow manure down main street (the person who did that admitted it on his deathbed a few years ago.) I guess I was always the good kid. I like it this way.  

My World of Wonders - the Wednesday Ws - October 8th Edition

Where have I been this week? The library, a walk along the River, Huntley Meadows, Aldi, the Grille, the first Saturday community coffee, the pool, Huntley Meadows Park, and off on the road to Williamsburg, Virginia.  

Who have a talked with? My sweet bear, Susan, Giuseppe, Larry, Russ, Jon, Elaine, Renee, Scott, and Charlie. 

Who did I reach out to this week? Paula, and Timmy - emails to see how people are doing. Paula is the widow of Jays oldest brother, Tim I met 30 years ago when we first moved to Kentucky. 

What have I been up to in the kitchen? Chicken soup, chili, a nice stuffed pasta, and an Asian chicken noodle dish. 

Let me describe that last one. I found Asian Wheat Noodles at Trader Joe's (Trader Joe's was founded in California and is now owned by Aldi.) The noodles are pre-cooked you heat them in the microwave. I started with a chopped onion, a couple of stalks of celery sliced, a couple of carrots chopped, and four or five chopped mushrooms. I sauteed those with olive oil and sesame oil over medium heat until the onions were transparent and the carrots had started to soften.  I added cubed boneless chicken, covered and let that  cook until the chicken was nearly done. Then added chopped broccoli covered and let that cook for about 5 minutes (I loath overcooked broccoli.) I added a little water to assure that the broccoli would steam. While that was cooking I microwaved the noodles per the package directions.  I then added 3-4 heaping tablespoons of hoisin sauce (another Trader Joe's find) stirred, then stirred in the noodles and served.  Total work and cook time, about 25 minutes, and it was so full of flavor. 

Where am I and Why?  Historic Williamsburg and the Jamestown Settlement area have long been on our short list of places we should go back to.  We live in a high rise building, the electrical supply to the building is being updated requiring the power to be off for several hours.  The best way to work around this, is to be gone, so we are in Williamsburg, Virginia for a couple of days. 

Travel Tuesday: London Transport Museum at Covent Gardens

 

Monday Mood: A few things I have learned along the way

 

Never worry about making a bad decision. Consider the facts and make the best decision based on what you know at the time. Everyone makes a bad decision once in a while. 

Bad choices are almost always a result of things that were un-knowable at the time the choice was made. 

When you delegate a project, select the best person for the job, and then trust them.  I learned this one the hard way, when I first asked someone to take on a task, I was constantly looking over their shoulder and making suggestions such as "I would do it this way." A dear friend called me aside and said, "delegate and trust, they won't screw it up any worse than you would."  He was so right. 

Resist the urge to micromanage.  This is hard for control freaks to do. Be available to mentor, but leave people alone to sink or swim. Some of them are going to mess up - probably a sign that you picked the wrong person for the job - so really you messed up. 

Welcome everyone. For some showing up, is pushing themselves. 

Learn how to apologize. 

• Clearly describe what went wrong.
• Excuses cancel out the value of the apology 
• Take responsibility (even if it was not your responsibility) 
• Express your regrets clearly
• If there is anything you can do to remedy the situation describe it
• Express a commitment to doing better in the future.

A heartfelt apology goes a long way in making people feel better. It takes strength to apologize. Failing to apologize is a sign of weakness or lack of character. Apologize for things that happened on your watch, even if you didn't personally make the mistake. Back in the good old days (BC - before covid) when organizations hired trainers to do onsite workshops, I spent an afternoon learning and practicing apology.  

The Sunday Five: Safety Warnings

1: Do we really need signs on top of a stone wall, warning that if you walk along the top, you might fall and hurt yourself? 

2: Should we put up barriers along cliffs to lessen the likelihood of falling, or let natural selection take its course? 

3: Iceland has had to post signs warning people to not walk on the thin crust over lava, how stupid can people be? 

4: When you see someone sitting on a cliff, dangling their feet over the edge are you squeamish, or do you wish you were sitting next to them? 

5: Tobacco packaging in north America and western Europe contains often graphic health warnings, why would anyone continue to use a product when the packaging says this is likely to lead to gruesome death? 

My answers:

1: Do we really need signs on top of a stone wall, warning that if you walk along the top, you might fall and hurt yourself?  I think this is ridiculous, people who take risks assume the consequences. 

2: Should we put up barriers along cliffs to lessen the likelihood of falling, or let natural selection take its course?  Thinning of the herd. 

3: Iceland has had to post signs warning people to not walk on the thin crust over lava, how stupid can people be? Everytime we idiot proof it, someone comes up with a better idiot. 

4: When you see someone sitting on a cliff, dangling their feet over the edge are you squeamish, or do you wish you were sitting next to them? I get very uncomfortable. 

5: Tobacco packaging in north America and western Europe contains often graphic health warnings, why would anyone continue to use a product when the packaging says this is likely to lead to gruesome bad health or an unpleasant death? A monsterous addictive product and a real lack of counseling on how to escape the addition and otherwise cope with life's stress.

Please share your answers in the comments.  

The Saturday Morning Post - 50 States in 52 Weeks - South Carolina

 The last time I spent anytime in South Carolina in late 2014 and I was not moving well, and I didn't take a camera with me, hence the photo above is not from South Carolina (sorry.) That trip was a board meeting in Charleston, a historic port city on the Atlantic coast. 

South Carolina is north of Georgia, and south of North Carolina.  It is, was, and probably long will be the agricultural mid-south, with fishing along the coast. The far western end of the state climbs up the Appalachian mountains. 

Columbia is the state Capital, I did a couple of AARP trainings there. 

Driving down the east coast from the Washington DC area to Florida, South Carolina was a state that it was easy to drive through without stopping, as I often did. 

Bob and Carlos live outside of Columbia, I have really got to meet the man behind those words someday. 

The coast is pretty. The inland is deep south, old south. There are mountains in the west of the state, very near popular tourist spots. 

Foodie Friday: Cassoulet

I ran into an online video recently of a guy making cassoulet, it is a hearty French stew made with meats and beans. I have had it a few times, and attempted making it a time or two.  I was inspired. And his cooking style was very much like mine, there is a perfect classic version, and if you have an unlimited budget and time you don't know what to do with, Julia Child probably has the one correct way to make it. If you want something very-very tasty and want to work with what is readily at hand- let's play in the kitchen. 

It is a time consuming dish to make

Ingredients: 

1 cup dried white beans - I used great northern beans - use what you have handy. The classic dish uses larger beans. 

1/3 pound of smoked bacon - chopped

1/2 pound uncooked sausage - I used an andouille - cut into one inch rounds 

4 - boneless skinless chicken thighs 

1 onion - medium dice

2 stalks celery - sliced

1 large carrot - medium dice 

4-5 mushrooms - chopped 

2 cloves garlic - minced 

1 liter chicken stock - the richer the better

1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste

Salt and Pepper 

Water 

I started the evening before, putting one-cup of dried white beans to soak in about 4 cups of salted water. Because we had plans in the evening, these went into the soak about 5 PM and I didn't start cooking until noon the next day, so a good long soak. The video suggested salting the water, something I had been told incorrectly would result in the beans not softening. It adds taste. 

I start by chopping the veggies and setting aside, then chop the bacon and slice the sausage. 

Start by sauteing the bacon, as it releases fat, add the onions, celery, carrots, - cook 3 to 5 minutes until the onions start to soften, add mushrooms and garlic.  Cook 3-5 minutes. 

Add in the sausage. 

Drain and add in the soaked beans. 

Stir in the chicken stock and tomato paste.

Salt and Pepper - how much? Depends on how salty the sausage and bacon are. 

Place the chicken in. 

Add water to assure that everything is submerged, plus 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch of liquid above.  Stir well. The beans will absorb a couple of cups of liquid in cooking. 

Cover and place in a preheated 350 degree (f) oven. 

Check after a couple of hours, and add water if it appears to be cooking dry. 

After about 3 hours, remove the lid and continue cooking to thicken the sauce - about 1 more hour.

A word on chicken stock.  I had homemade, the few days before I had poached a whole chicken with onions, carrots and celery simmering for about 90 minutes. I removed and deboned the chicken and then simmered the bones and veggies in the liquid for another 2 hours. Strained out the bones and spent veggies and saved the stock. Made this way the stock is rich and gelatinous.  This stores well in the refrigerator for about a week, or freezes for longer.  It makes a wonderful base for soups, stews, gravy, and sauces. It brings a great depth of flavor. With the chicken I made a thick soup, and we had cold sliced chicken one evening. Basic stock making takes time, but it is worth it for the flavor you can capture, it makes basic relatively low cost ingredients go a long way. 

 

The Thursday Ramble: Offices

Sharon posted a photo of a spectacular building in London, that is filled with offices and that started me thinking about the offices I have worked in over the years. 

My first office, way back in the late 1970's was a rear corner in an old house converted to offices, with a view of the Vertical Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center across the Indian River. I shared the office with John, a retired CIA agent. A year or so later I changed firms, and didn't have an office for a while - working in the conference room or where ever space was free. From there we moved to a larger space with cubicles, what a dreadful place to work. The view from that first office was nice, but the building was a wreck, it blew into the middle of US-1 during a hurricane a couple of years after I moved away. 

In 1980 I started working for land developers and homebuilders in central Florida.  Offices were onsite, often in a garage finished to serve as a temporary office, sometimes in portable office trailers; rarely in a finished home. The nature of that work, was that the work locations changed often, sometimes every few weeks, at most every year or so. After a while I had an office kit that moved with me. A copy machine, desk lamps, even a small refrigerator. I would move in, settle in and make myself at home.  Most of the offices were nothing special, and I never grew fond of any them, none of them would I want to go back to. 

The last couple of years I was in law school, I had an office in the law school. I asked to serve as "editor" of an alumni magazine, that had suspended publication after the previous editor published an obituary of a very much still alive alumnus and significant donor to the law school.  The dean really was the editor, I think we published once in the two years I had keys to that office. It was an institutional office, nothing special, but it was a place to escape when I needed a minute. There was a locked closet in the office, that no one could find a key to. When I left they still had no idea what was locked in that closet. 

My first office after law school, was a converted hallway, with a collection of mismatched furniture. There was no heat or air conditioning in the space. I did a bunch of good work there. 

A couple of years later, we moved to a larger office, and I had a very large office, about 20 feet by 20 feet, with high ceilings and a large window (that opened.) The building had a been a residence for a nursing school run by an order of Nuns, when there was a hospital across the street.  The previous tenant was a mental health counseling service, the offices were soundproofed. The soundproofing was nice, the occasional visits by clients of the previous tenant could be a little disturbed. Two memories stand out, opening the window and shouting as someone who stole a case full of CDs out of my bosses unlocked car, and the afternoon the fireworks warehouse across the street burned down. Oh and there was the consistent talk about the building being haunted. My office was nice, the overall space lacked a reception area and I was seeing clients in the office, presenting a bit of a challenge. 

My first office in Washington DC is in the photo above. Just to the right of the last capital on the colonnade, a single window looking out onto H Street NW.  The building was about 100 years old, originally the Union Trust Bank Building. The office was large by DC standards, about 10 feet by 20 feet. I loved the view. I had individual heat and A/C (the windows were sealed shut.) My office was just about perfect. But there were challenges with the building, it was 100 years old with original plumbing and wiring. It didn't have parking, it was to large for our needs, and we were spread over 5 floors of the building. The interior offices were featureless. I understood why we moved, but I hated to leave. I would go back there again. The building was recently in the news. A restaurant went into the space on the ground floor that had been a bank, and that is where HWSNBNed was booed recently. 

From there we moved to a "modern" office building about three blocks north-east of the White House. My office was tiny, all but two offices were inside, meaning no window to the world. It was nice, modern, clean, sterile. It was a place to work, and not much more. It is one of those buildings that no one will cry when it is torn down. 

I never had the dream office, with vaulted windows, oak bookcases, and a view over a park or busy city street.  

My World of Wonders - the Wednesday Ws October already edition

 

Where have I been this week? A lot of time near home, the gym, the pool, the community center. Friday I needed a long walk, I took the subway three stops north to Braddock Road, walked west from there to Del Ray, north to Glebe Road, and across to the Potomac Yard subway station - about 1.25 hours of walking. Saturday evening we went to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for the opening gala of the National Symphony Orchestra's 95th season. I nice evening out. Mt. Vernon for a long walk. Into the City for shows at the Renwick and National Gallery of Art, about three hours of walking. 

What did I fall in lust with this week?  https://www.austinmotorcompany.com/

What have I been up to in the kitchen this week?  Roast turkey breast with stuffing, beef stew, cassoulet - more on that on Friday.  Swiss Steak. 

What YouTube channel have I been inspired by this week? https://www.youtube.com/@bokehbushido

What art am I working on? This one is not quite finished, the title is "What Memories Will You Lay To Rest This Year." Yes those are coffins and computer memory cards. 

What am I reading? Return: A journey Back to Living Wild, by Lynx Vilden. She is crazy, but there is insight in reading the works of a madman.  I will need to make a library run this week. 

What made me sad this week? The hardware store in my hometown closed a few months ago. It had struggled in the last couple of decades to remain relevant. The last family member to manage it was a year ahead of me in high school and died a couple of years ago. The last of the liquidation auction was last weekend, including the iconic fixtures that had been in the building for about 150 years. It was the kind of place you could go in, tell them what you were trying to do, and they would sell you the three screws you needed to finish the project. 

The photo is from the auction website. 

Travel Tuesday: Art at Sea on the Rotterdam

One of the reviews I watched on YouTube about the ship Rotterdam before we boarded last year, suggested going out of your way to see the art on the landings in the stairways. There are about 10 levels, and stairs fore and aft, so there is lot of art to see.  Some have asked, how do you stay busy during a week at sea? The better part of one afternoon was filled with walking down the each of the stairways, admiring the art.