Life of Wry

This cracked me up.

With Peter playing on two baseball teams this summer, a day hardly goes by when he isn’t playing in a baseball game, or having some kind of team practice. So, what does he do when he’s got some down time?

He’s carrying a bucket of balls, two bats, and a rubber T across the street to practice hitting. By himself. After spending a good part of the day with the varsity team at the Dustin Pedroia Summer Classic Baseball Tournament in Woodland. Tomorrow, a double header with the Junior Legion team.

They all put in this kind of time. They either love baseball or are extremely motivated. Or both. They all amaze me.

I snuck this photo as Jim and I were heading downtown for dinner and movie. Slackers. 

… get much better than this.

As summer baseball goes, anyway.  I’ve written about Clark Field in Woodland before… as it turns out, my Post 77 Boys blog post is one of the most read in my whole Life of Wry blog-o-verse… which has more to do with search engines and search queries and the fact there are a whole lot of people in the world interested in the American Legion baseball league, and less about my little ol’ blog post…. but here’s a link to it anyway, The Post 77 Boys from June 15, 2011.

So tonight? The summer varsity squad played under the lights on a warm (though not nearly as warm as the night I described three years ago), windless evening, on a field as beautiful and lush as the one I described back then. Only this time, Peter wasn’t the bat boy, he was the pitcher. And while not the biggest guy on the field, he wasn’t the shrimpy guy he was back then, either.

It was fun (very fun), he pitched well (quite well), and he gets to pitch again for the team next week. We might call that living to pitch (yet) another tournament.

Jim took some pictures. I like the effect through the heavy duty chain link fence.

A couple weeks ago, with Ruben’s help, we removed the last of the tangelo tree from our front yard. We are going to plant another, smaller, tree, but are waiting until the fall. In the meantime, we decided today to plant some summer grub.

From the front, here is our temporary garden patch:

And here it is from the path:

And this is what we got: 1) one regular red tomato, 2) one yellow cherry tomato, 3) two eggplants, 4) two different zucchinis, 5) one habanero chili pepper, 6) one serrano chili pepper, 7) one anaheim chili pepper, 8) two basils.

Eleven things.

But you know what really killed my back today? This stupid thing:

I finally decided it was time to clear the weeds that are growing in our sidewalk cracks. We are definitely bringing the neighborhood down with these weeds… we are looking very low-rent here at 609. Which is ridiculous for all the work Frances and I put into the yard… so.. I went at it.  But those guys are deep and hard to get. Other people probably use Round Up or a torch or something. I’m using this wonderful claw-on-a-stick that Jim made for this purpose. And it’s so clever, I think I’ll have him finish the job… because the above is as far as I got.  It’s all muddy because my other great idea was to soak the weeds so the dirt would soften and the weeds would come out easier.  I think all I did was provide water for the weeds so they’ll propagate more readily.

Anyway…

As a side note: I was so spent after my 4+ hours out there, I retreated to the backyard hammock and lay there for about three hours. The hammock’s nearly a daily thing so far this summer and I’m getting it down: I lay a camping pad over the hammock for softness, put a pillow down for my head (that was today’s new addition), set up a short stool next to me for my book, iPad, iPhone and something to drink.  I’ve rigged a rope between the hammock and a nearby tree which I use to get optimal swing. Then… I alternate activities: play Spider on my iPad while listening to music on my iPhone, or check Facebook on either device while listening to music, or read, or make calls, or text people. All while swinging in the shade. One of these days, I’ll be successful with the nap thing. Probably not ’til I’m 80. But I’ll keep working at it.

I was so happy, I about cried.

Took a drive on Pleasants Valley Road this evening with Peter. Heard all about today’s baseball practice, the car he’d get if he could get any car, his opinion of students who strategically pad their academic resumes with faux community service projects, and his theories on the proper way to brake a vehicle.

Among many other things.

Monkeyed around with some photo FX (monkeyed around, get it?):

What dad wouldn’t be happy with a son like that? And what son wouldn’t be happy with a dad like that? I’m totally biased, of course, but I think they both struck gold. 

Hey dad.. thinking of you today.  So much has happened to your oldest kid and only daughter in the last fourteen years! I think you’d be happy for me and pleased to know that things have turned out great.  You have a lot to do with that in direct, and so many indirect, ways, so.. thank you.

Here’s a bit of a summary.. you know.. in case you don’t already know all this.  Heck, what do I know…  I’m an earthly mortal and as far as I understand, this is all the consciousness that exists… but ya never know. Covering my bases here.

– Peter will be sixteen in nine days. Yes, 16!  Driver’s license right around the corner. Turns out, he’s a pretty good driver.. maybe as good as I was!  Maybe even better. So far, no near misses like that scary one when I was sixteen years old, driving back from Long Beach.. the one that almost took out our WHOLE FAMILY in one fell swoop. Our biggest issue with Peter right now is making sure he NEVER texts while driving.  Oh… texting is the way kids talk to each other these days. They use their smart phones, which we all carry with us at all times, which is not safe when they’re driving, but it will all get safer when voice recognition gets more sophisticated, and even safer when VR is built right into our cars, and, of course, safer still when cars are driving themselves, which is coming, but not soon enough, and… oh… never mind; things are very different now..

– Jim and I have been married now for almost eighteen years! I would describe it as a very good, very strong marriage. We talk a lot. In fact, we’ve been in weekly counseling for about seven years, which strengthens our communication and bond even more. Wish you and mom had done that. I know marriage counseling wasn’t as widely accepted in the 60s and 70s as it is now. I think some facilitated conversation would have helped your relationship with mom, I wish you could have talked more. Bottom line, I love the connection I have with Jim. I know you would be happy for me.

– Speaking of mom, she’s doing great. Slowing down physically, but hasn’t lost a thing between the ears. She had open heart surgery four and half years ago and about a year ago they put a pacemaker in. Smoking caught up with her, too. But hey, she quit! I think it’s been about seven years, which as you can imagine, took amazing strength and resolve. She really loved her Sherman Browns. She continued to play tennis for many, many years after you died, but that got too difficult. Now she gets her exercise by walking a mile on the Esplanade. She even walks up and down the ramps, her “Mt. Everest,” she calls it. She’s not playing as much bridge, but still gets together with her birthday group for lunches, and she still wipes me out in gin rummy. She has agency assistance during the day because she can’t drive anymore, and as you can probably guess, she just hates this. She takes care of everything–the house, the yard, finances, investments–all of it. You’d be proud of her. She keeps up with all the tennis tournaments and the stock market, still reads like crazy, keeps in touch with Bonnie, Petersons, Johnsons and a few friends… many are gone. She travels to Davis for Thanksgiving and we’ve taken a couple of great road trips. She’s still slim and trim, still rocks an amazing wardrobe, is still funny, fiercely independent, and smart as a whip. I’m betting you’re smiling right about now.

– Jay lives in Thailand! Remember his accident at TRW? His back just never recovered, even after three surgeries. I can’t remember if you knew that Northrup-Grumman absorbed TRW. I hope I’m not the one to tell you that! Anyway, Jay left work due to his back, settled with the company and shortly thereafter took off for Thailand. That, is a much longer story to fill you in on! He has a Thai girlfriend and seems happier and more relaxed than ever in a warm environment (Phuket, you’ve traveled there!) with warm water and spear fishing… easy on the spine.

– Chris still runs Headline Media. Still in PV. Still surfing. Still reading a lot. Unmarried, laid back and seems utterly content with his life.

– Matt left the world of mortgages and finance and now owns a sports bar in Long Beach with Eric, called Legends which is a big deal in Belmont Shores. I’ll give you a moment to process that. He describes the learning curve as near vertical, but loves it and is perfectly suited to it. He and Michael are celebrating about eighteen years together, still in the same house, which has expanded, as you might guess. New dogs, but same love of travel, entertaining, home and garden. They’re the best.

– John graduated from high school and ended up marrying his high school sweetheart. He and Alexis (I can’t remember if you ever met her) are made for each other. We hope they’ll start a family one of these days. He’s been working at Eric’s pub in Long Beach and builds guitars! He has just started to spend more time behind the bar at Legend’s. He has turned into a great adult.

– As a family, Jim, Peter and I still spend most of our vacation time in the Sierra. Next month will be our 15th annual trip to Tuolumne Meadows up in Yosemite and we’ll hike every single day. Peter has turned into a freakishly goal-oriented hiker with his sights set on many (most) of the world’s highest mountains. He’s seen grandpa’s tree at Fallen Leaf and feels pretty proud that there is some family history that links us to the Sierra. Yay grandpa! When Peter was eleven, we all climbed Mt. Whitney. Yep, right to the top! 14,500 feet! It was fantastic. When Peter gets old, he’ll probably tell stories about his adventures in the mountains just like Uncle Vic always does.

– By the way, Uncle Vic’s still alive. He’s going to be 92 in a couple weeks! He’s mostly in a wheel chair, but while he’s slowed down physically, he’s still sharp, sharp, sharp. Aunt Joy takes good care of him. And Aunt Ellie’s just fine, though dealing with lots of cancer-related things… she still stays up on the latest and best treatment for all of her issues and manages very well.  And Uncle Bud..wow, he’s going to be 90 in December.. he’s still here, too! Nearly bent into a 90-degree angle but still drives and plays golf even. I wish you were here to complete the six-some. Too much to catch you up on, with Johnson kids and their kids.  Subjects for another post.

– Related to our love of mountains and hiking, you’ll love this: I went to Nepal three years ago and trekked all the way up to the base camp of Mount Everest!! Over 18,000 feet. It is one of the most incredible experiences of my life (so far), and I am so glad I went. I felt bad going there without Peter and Jim, especially since Peter was such a Himalaya-o-phile at that time. He’d already been studying the mountain and its routes, knew all the surrounding peaks and the names of those who’d climbed there. But I got an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. You will never believe who I went with… two of the Hesse girls!  Yes!! Karen and Leslie.  I even wrote a book about it — 204 pages. I’m still very wordy, love to document everything.  Anyway. Nepal was amazing and it was great to reconnect with the Hesses. We talked a lot about you and Fred.

– Baseball is huge in our lives. Peter started playing t-ball when he was five years old. He started pitching at the AA level when he was about seven years old and has been pitching ever since. Kids who are serious about baseball play “travel ball” once they’ve aged out of Little League, so in addition to all the Little League all-star teams, Peter played a higher level of baseball in all these travel games and tournaments. He was lucky enough to make the high school freshman team two years ago, unlike Jay. It has really defined his high school experience so far. Wish the same had happened for Jay; I think about that a lot. You would love watching Peter play; he is a solid player and when he’s on the mound, he appears calm and confident (even when his hands are shaking, which they do when he’s nervous). It’s amazing to see how far these kids have come along. It gets harder and harder to make the team as the number of players selected for the high school teams gets smaller and smaller with every year. Not sure what will happen going forward, but for now he’s playing and having a great time.

– Speaking of baseball, we are not really Dodger fans. Not because we don’t love the Dodgers, but just because we’ve never found a team to get all hysterical about. If Peter has a favorite, it might be the Angels right now.  Yes.. the California Angels; they are popular! They are now called the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Nutty, right? They have this great guy named Albert Pujols who played forever with the St. Louis Cardinals.  I know, Dad.. the Cardinals. And another guy named Mike Trout. Peter really likes these guys, but more than being a rabid fan, he just likes to play. Vin Scully is still calling games for the Dodgers. Unbelievable, huh? He’s going to be 87 years old! Tommy Lasorda, too. Just like you if you were alive today. Crazy.

– I retired! Eight years ago (at 50). I know, hard to believe, huh?  I loved and enjoyed my job so much and was so excited about where the field was going and my role in shaping that vision. All I can say is it was unjust. As you know, unplanned retirement can be a little destabilizing. I am not at all unhappy about sudden retirement, and have found a number of other pursuits that inspire and engage me. I’m very okay, so don’t worry.

– Peter’s playing your piano. He sits down and plays almost every day. He’s never had lessons, but plays nicely. Rock and roll tunes mostly that he picks out, adds chords to, and perfects through relentless repetition. He’s taught himself watching YouTube videos. I just cracked myself up writing that… you have no idea what YouTube is. Remember that Internet thing that everyone was talking about in the 90s and how I tried to get you and mom to buy a computer? YouTube is this place on the Internet that has absolutely every song ever sung, snippets from every TV show ever made, every comedian and every comedy bit ever performed, how-to’s for everything imaginable… all available to watch.  Oh… never mind, it’s hard to explain. Anyway, Peter is playing your old piano.  We just had it tuned a couple weeks ago; sounds great and still looks beautiful. I am so grateful grandma gave it to me; it has found a good home here.

– Peter’s biggest project in his english class this year was to pick a career and explore it through research and interviews. He chose aeronautical engineering. How’s that for interesting!  Had you been around, I’m sure you would have given him a lot to think about. He loves science and math and can’t wait to take physics next year. For Jim’s birthday a couple months ago, the three of us went to see a documentary recently made about the Hadron Collider and Higgs Boson particle.  You may remember that guy, Peter Higgs, who in 1964, with a bunch of other physicists, theorized the existence of this particle that would validate the Standard Model, a fundamental part of particle physics theories… etc etc etc… I don’t understand much about it at all, but it’s really interesting and I’m sure you all talked about it at TRW back in the day. Its existence was proven in 2012!  I think he may have won a nobel prize for it. Anyway, all of this fascinates Peter and, who knows… maybe he’ll pursue a career along these lines. How about that?

– Related, a while back, Peter and I wandered around the Stanford campus and Peter imagined what it’d be like to go there. It’s pretty much impossible to get in these days. You, Uncle Vic, Aunt Ellie and grandpa are too removed to have any influence. It’s completely out of Peter’s reach academically anyway.  Only one kid from Davis got accepted this year. To get in, you pretty much need a GPA well over a 4.0 and SAT scores that are nearly perfect. Can you believe that, that you can actually have GPAs of 4.5 and higher!  Seems to defy the basic laws of math, doesn’t it?  But that’s the way college entrance is these days. Be glad it wasn’t the case for you or even me!  I’d never get into a UC today. Obama’s trying to fix that, but meeting up with resistance.

– Oh… Barack Obama is our current president. He’s black. Yep. That mere fact has brought our country to a political stand still, more polarized than ever, nothing’s getting done. Your republican buddies in Congress are blocking every effort of the administration. It’s pathetic. Oh, and there is a new “party,” not a real party, but a radical wing of the republican party… called The Tea Party. They have done more harm in the last eight years than I can explain in a paragraph. You wouldn’t recognize your own party.

– And, more good news, it’s likely that Bill Clinton’s wife Hillary will follow Obama into the White House. I am not kidding. The first woman president right on the heels of the first black president. How ya doin’ with all this?

– Well…   having broached politics… I guess I should tell you, I’m even more liberal than I was when you were around, and drifting further and further leftward with every election.  Sorry dad. Just following heart and trusting my conscience.. I think you’d want me to do that.  Right? I’m not even going to tell you what’s happened to mom’s politics, but let’s just say I respect her more than ever.

Now that you’re turning over in your grave, I’d better stop with the summary. But know that I’m thinking of you, and looking back mostly with love and fondness and gratitude. I accept that fathers of your generation were a different breed than the fathers of today–I’ve watched and learned a lot from Mad Men (that’s a TV show about corporate executives in the 50s and 60s)… it has helped me understand, generally, a lot of what motivated, inspired and derailed fathers in the 50s, 60s and 70s. I watch the show specifically with you in mind. It’s very weird, but also very illuminating. It’s been profound for me, even though it’s just a TV show. I have come to understand that era so much better. I know you were a product of the times and your upbringing. I know you loved us and did your best. I’d so love to talk to you about all of that, you know, if I could, though I’m not sure you were ever comfortable looking inward. I’m sure the drinking and the hard living were ways of avoiding most of that. And wow.. that’s a whole nuther set of topics…

I didn’t expect to go here when I started this post and feel like I need to be more fair and thoughtful if I’m going to keep writing… so perhaps more at a later time. For now, will wrap this up.

Thinking of you today, dad, and missing you. Wish you could see how everything has turned out.

With love.

P.S. Here’s a bench we installed in your honor right after you died. Since we scattered your ashes (you know this, right? at Point Lobos in Carmel?), I wanted a place close by where I could reflect and think about you… so.. the bench. It’s across the street, sits under a eucalyptus tree (of course) and is angled toward our house. This picture was taken about five years ago… Peter’s 10 and uncle Vic’s 86.

It has finally come to this….  Peter and Walter playing on the same team.

We met the Bolles when Peter and Walter were teammates on a fall AYSO soccer team almost eleven years ago.. the only time Peter ever played soccer.. so big in this town. Not his monkeys, not his circus (my current favorite saying).  Though soccer didn’t last, the friendship did. We’ve become very good family friends–regular dinners, birthdays, holidays, several trips together… basically, our boys have grown up together.

Instead of soccer, for Peter, it was baseball.  He started playing t-ball the following spring and, of course, that’s where he stayed.

The Bolles, too, are all about baseball (seriously all about baseball). Walter played soccer maybe one more year, but he also focused on baseball. Walter is a year older, however, so he and Peter have never played together on the same team. (There was one weekend a couple of years ago when Crush needed an extra player and Walter offered to fill in, but that doesn’t really count).

In Little League, while in the same division, they never played together; in District tournaments, they never played together. In travel, Walter played for Dynasty and Peter played for Crush. Walter played JV when Peter started as a freshman. Walter went up to varsity when Peter started JV. It’s not clear, yet, if Peter will make varsity next year, but so far this summer, he’s been getting a chance to pitch in tournament games.

So.. this is the closest we’ve come to date. Figured it was good for a few pictures! Here are Peter and Walter, in varsity whites, in the bullpen at the San Jose tournament. Peter’s warming up for his game. He pitched fine, though not as well as in his first varsity outing. He threw strikes and stayed in for six innings (plus, they won 7-1). He gave up 9 hits (ouch) but got out with only one run (unearned).. nice work defense! Walked one, hit one, struck out two. Hope he can keep that up. Hey, he even got an at-bat… got to 3-2, then hit a nice ball into deep center/right. Caught, but a good contact.

Here are a couple more shots:

At left, the hero pitcher from the playoff season, Kris Prince, who, as a non-starter all year, got starts in two championship contests, pitching complete 7-inning games; Walter, looking studious; and Peter.

And here’s a long shot that includes catcher Eric Walker, “E-Walk,” someone who’s played on and off of Peter’s teams for the last five years. He’s a year ahead and will rotate this year in the catcher slot. He’s the other half of the well-known twin set (brother Andrew, A-Walk), and son of gardening partner Frances.  Love that kid:

I can probably count the number of times I’ve had insomnia in my life… probably on one hand. But I had it last night.. er tonight.  Whatever.  Insomnia is not one of my issues… unless I have something I need to be alert for, and I get nervous I might not get enough sleep the night before.

I really had no reason to be nervous exactly, but having signed up to work this year’s Grad Night, and having signed up for the 1:15am to 5:15am shift, I felt like I should try to get some sleep during the day. Problem is, I’m not a napper either. I want to be… just have had no success doing it. Ever.

Anyway, tried to nap. Nothing. Then tried to just go to bed early.. and lay there wide awake from about 9pm until the time I’d determined was get-up-time. Nothing.

But… it turned out to be not an issue..  got dressed (was supposed to show up in 50’s attire… hmmm), drove over to Emerson, parked way far away, was directed to the parent volunteer check-in (wow), was directed to my station (I was a carnival game barker, located outside in an area traditionally staffed by the sophomore parents), got my instructions, and settled in. I was at first hyper-stimulated by the whole grad night scene. This was sufficient to stay alert-enough to do my job for a couple hours. Then just cruised sleepily, but adequately, through the next two.  Nobody was the wiser.

Grad night’s interesting. I think, for the most part, it’s a great thing. Provides an alcohol-free place for many hundreds of graduating seniors to party and celebrate. The community and parents totally rally on this, raising a couple/three hundred thousand dollars (really) to support the event. At least dozens of parents spend most of the year in preparation, and many hundreds help on the night itself; it’s an impressive operation and a community institution. I think it’s both about the kids and the parents, frankly. But I’m new at this.

I will choose a different shift next time.. not sure what, but having the exposure now, I can see there are far better roles to play.

Here are a few pics of the Grad Night–all terrible quality photos, but gives a sense of the scene:

The carnival area had three games. Mine was the hit-catapult-with-mallet-and-send-crab-or-lobster-flying-into-pot game.  Prizes escalate in value the more crustaceans you successfully land in the pot. More often than not, the head of the mallet flew wildly, and I’m surprised the catapult thingie lasted the night. The rules changed throughout, a la Calvin Ball, and pretty soon prizes were handed out for just showing up. Whatever, huh?

Then there was a shark thing (modified as the mechanism failed), and a frisbee toss thing that was pretty damn near impossible to achieve. Still, prizes were had.

After the kids had all left, and as the sun was coming out, I walked around a took a couple pictures:

The bathroom decorations are traditionally a big deal. This one (the only one I saw) was pretty impressive.. a roaring 20s theme:

This was the casino floor, set up in the multipurpose room:

This is the kindergarten wall.  A committee of six parents spent a good part of the year crafting this. One parent said she had spent at least 100 hours alone making her 3-4 buildings.  There were maybe 10-12 such buildings representing future “destinations” for the graduates:

A western sort of theme was in the courtyard.. these are life-sized buildings, but propped up with 2x4s behind, kinda like a movie set:

And finally, the full moon setting over the dance floor, also in the courtyard (full moon AND Friday the 13th):

Yes, as a matter of fact, that is a shot of my hair. Had about 6″ cut off today.  That Carrie does an amazing job of turning my hair into something it is not: straight, shiny and swingy. Felt just like Barbie’s little sister Skipper walking out of the salon this afternoon.

But here’s what I learned today: The reason my hair’s been wavy and oh-so-uncooperative lately?  Very uncharacteristically wavy, and so difficult to handle I’ve been avoiding even brushing it for the last four to five months because it’s too tangly, too frizzy, too matted, too weird? Well….. it seems I now have a critical mass of grey hair. There are so many of them, they’ve actually changed the texture and character of my hair. I’ve reached the point of no return; my hair is forever changed. I have officially entered the grey portion of the program.

Above, it doesn’t really look that grey, but it actually is. I have a few options to consider going forward…

Sigh.

As big as this seems, the really big news of the day, of course, is that school’s out.  Also out is Peter, from under the dark and ever-present homework cloud. (Not that he ever seems burdened by it… I think I suffer far more under that cloud.)  The last day of school is such a fantastic and magical threshold; I saw it in his whole being when we met briefly at the house between his various after school celebrations this afternoon. He is a happy, liberated kid with a long summer of sleepovers, baseball, backpacking and driving ahead of him.

Kind of impressively, his grades are already finalized and up on School Loop and it looks like he just may have avoided his first-ever high school C. But only by the thinest skin of his teeth. Hope he learned something from that and has a plan for avoiding his flagging attention span come next spring. Sure…

Downtown was bursting this afternoon with early-released high school and junior high school kids everywhere. UCD students were also everywhere, so many of whom were leading visiting parents through the streets, into and out of restaurants, etc. Saw a big cluster of students walking down our street carrying graduation robes on hangers. It’s all such an exciting scene. As I write this, (11:45pm), live rock and roll is thumping loudly next door as Anna, her many friends, and tons of out-of-town family members are all dancing and celebrating her PhD.

So end-of-school is the clear theme for the day, but I only got a picture of my hair… so a hair lead it was.

What to write about….

I got nada.

My day was about as ordinary and uneventful as they come. If there was a theme (there wasn’t), it might be the land.  But only two data points on that: 1) worked in the garden for four hours, weeding like a fiend (nothing more to report, except maybe that I took out two mock oranges which made all kinds of room in that one corner); 2) spent my usual hour and a half dealing with the CSA box.

That was about it. See? The land. 

But, okay…. maybe I can expand a little here on the CSA box:

Our CSA subscription over the past 2 – 2 1/2 years, for me, has been the most beautiful concept ever. EVER.  But, we fail miserably in our implementation.  

The idea of Community Supported Agriculture is brilliant, and Eatwell Farms does it right, all of it: the healthy, safe, organic, locally-grown food; the family who owns the farm–Nigel and Lorraine, Eric and Andrew–and lovingly tends it; the community they’ve created around supporting the farm–festivals and celebrations and gatherings of all sorts; the truly fantastic newsletter that comes with each box that includes detailed info about the ins and outs of running the farm, details about the week’s contents, recipes…it’s deeply inspiring. It’s intimate and personal. Their labor of love is an amazing gift. I’m not kidding, they do such a fantastic job on all of this.

Plus, we live smack dab in the middle of some of the richest farm country in the world, and can and should take full advantage of it. It’s part of what living in northern California should be all about. 

But for so many reasons we don’t take full advantage of Eatwell. The main reason is, we hardly cook anymore (we means Jim, who’s been the primary cook for about 16 years now).  Not critical… we just don’t. It’s either our impacted and unreliable evening schedule (that is to say, Peter’s schedule) or a lack of ideas at the ready. When we do cook, we recycle the same meals; they are great meals, Jim’s perfected them over the years, and he has a natural comfort and feel for cooking, but we’re out of ideas and we aren’t taking advantage of the incredible variety of CSA ingredients we get every two weeks. 

(That’s not entirely true: we do eat a LOT of greens, we’ll usually cook the potatoes, broc and romanesco when it comes, also tomatoes, various of the squashes, onions maybe. We definitely eat the strawberries and other fruit we get. I can’t even think of what else we get, but we do eat some of it.)

But the amount we throw out (compost) every two weeks is seriously staggering. We never use the radishes, the leeks, fennel, lettuces, various herbs.. I have no idea why, but all that stuff rots and slimes up and I end up with huge piles of it each time I need to clean out the refrigerator to make space for the new stuff.

The chore of unpacking a new, stuffed-to-the-gills box is huge. I dread this task. Not because of the slime but because it’s breathtakingly wasteful to throw out so much food. Nevermind that we spend a lot on this service and that we get so much food that takes up so much space in the refrigerator.  Mostly it just kills me to get rid of it untouched.  

So the plan is to bail out. At least for now. 

But here’s my promise to myself.  If I get–as I claim I am going to–back into cooking, and if, in the process, I develop a large and ready repertoire (a handy, accessible resource binder with tested and favored recipes), as I say I am going to do, then, as part of my food acquisition practice, I am going to go back and support Eatwell. Going to have a garden, going to prioritize local, going to focus on healthy. It’s not like we don’t do that now… I mean we shop exclusively at the coop and are mindful of eating well… but cooking shall become more of an adventure, if I ever act on this. 

But until then…  we’re letting our subscription expire. 

So very grumpy about it, too.