Life of Wry

45: Minutes spent lazing in bed reading Facebook before actually getting up

5: Every single day’s goal for number of seconds between waking up and getting up

30: Minutes spent sweating on the stationary bike

50: Minutes spent doing my stretching/strength workout

9: Number of gin-soaked raisins I consumed to minimize overall body inflammation

20: Number of ounces of cafe au lait I drank while sitting on the patio at Cloud Forest Cafe

2: pats of butter I put on my toasted doughy white bagel at lunch with Jim at Crepeville

4: Minutes I got to spend on a phone conversation that Peter was having with Jim

2: Number of tries it took to produce an adequate supply of spit for today’s Covid test

50: Number of postcards I wrote to democratic voters in Roseville reminding them to vote NO on the California Governor recall election next month

Dozens: Number of interviews and analyses I listened to regarding Biden’s messed up effort to pull Americans out of Afghanistan

2: Number of Metagrip thumb braces I ordered to deal with my increasingly arthritic trapezium

4: Number of tries it took Jim and me to finally get that super heavy mirror back up after it spontaneously fell off the wall yesterday and, miraculously, did not break

6: Number of pints of cherry tomatoes Jim and I harvested today, along with 2 yellow zucchinis, 1 green zucchini, 1 eqgplant, 1 pepper, 2 large stalks of basil, and 9 large chard leaves

1: Pretty good dinner that I winged (I’m a recipe person), consisting of cherry tomatoes, eggplant, basil (and a bunch of other stuff) served over angel hair pasta

1: Number of episodes of Offspring I will watch with Jim as soon as I’m done with this blog

Feeling like meming tonight. Sometimes, the best statements on where we are at any given moment in history are memes.

Here are a bunch that I’ve collected over the past few weeks. They speak for themselves.

No order or theme.. just memes (and things):

(Referring, of course, NOT to President Biden, but the psycho before that.)

The Plush Horse was an iconic restaurant on the corner of Palos Verdes Blvd and Pacific Coast Highway in Hollywood Riviera (now called, ahem, Riviera Village).

It was one of the nicer restaurants in our immediate restaurant zone.. the other really nice one was The Velvet Turtle. Later in the 60s, the Admiral Risty and the Chart House opened, but we (kids) didn’t get taken to those for some reason. Of course there were lots of others, but with four kids, we didn’t go out that often to formal places (we were more Woody’s Smorgasbord people) and when we did, our family tradition was The Velvet Turtle.

A gazillion years ago, the Plush Horse closed and was replaced by a very fancy grocery store (not sure it was in the same footprint of if they rebuilt it, or what). Now that corner’s been completely bulldozed and I am not sure what’s going in. Sad (to me) to see so much change. Sigh.

Anyway.. how much change since the Plush Horse’s heyday? Check out this menu:

So much to say about this menu. The entree selections, the after dinner drinks, the “tossed green salad” (just cracks me up), the martini stuff, the maitre d’ thing, and of course those PRICES. The whole thing. Just makes me feel nostalgic and kinda old and kinda missing a simpler life (but not all the trappings of the fifties and sixties culture).

Just… gosh. How am I 65? How is this menu so weird?

I don’t mean to co-opt, no cultural misappropriation and definitely no disrespect. But the first thought that wafted over me as I ate my first ever Black Mission fig from my very own garden was I like the black fruit & vegetables best. Black fruit matters!

All summer — while I’ve LOVED the chard, LOVED the green and yellow zucs, LOVED the basil and, of course LOVED the orange and red cherry tomatoes — my far and away garden favorite has been the black, bulbous eggplant.

Now I can add Black Mission figs to the short list! I hope hope hope this is the start of an ongoing, bounteous fig crop that serves and delights us for rapturous decades.

Mmmmm, figs!

As HEAVENLY as it looks. Best fig I’ve ever eaten.

And here is our current inventory of eggplant, to be marinated, skewered and grilled tonight for dinner.

And here is today’s haul… never mind the embarrassment of yellow zucs piling up in the refrigerator!

Happy (VERY skilled) farmers.

I think I forgot to post this photo — taken July 30. It was a lovely thing to see down at the creek (the mighty Putah).

The red in the front is a flower we planted in our front yard giant pot, thanks to neighbors Ray and Verena who walked past our house one day and said, “What your big new pot needs is a splash of color; come by one day and I’ll give you one of ours!” And I did! It’s called St Elmo’s Fire. Ray said it would bloom bright orange for most of the year.

I don’t know what that purple flower is. Its blooming season seems very short. There are some pretty delicate raspberry colored flowers in front; I don’t know what those are either.

Honestly, I gasped when I came upon this.

A friend posted an excerpt from a New Yorker article by David Sedaris today. It resonated with her and most (all?) of the folks who responded to it on Facebook:

And I get it. It’s so tempting to think all is well in the capable hands of boring Joe (boring, as in: the day to day of running a monster government bureaucracy is slow, tedious and not very exciting).

It was a beyond-horrific and scary four years under the previous guy. The presidential campaign last year was brutal. The pandemic was traumatizing. AND….. the good guy won, we have (had) enjoyed a reprieve from covid, it’s summer… and everyone wants to put the worst of all of that behind us and move on, enjoy our kids, families, friends, yada yada. I definitely get it.

I think we have to be able to do that (enjoy life, enjoy the reprieve from pain and madness) … AND keep vigilant.

I responded with this buzz kill:

Thing is, the republicans have not let up and we look away at our peril. They’re busy changing election laws and cheating their way to power as we all think everything’s fine in boring Joe’s capable hands. In Calif, the reps are working feverishly to take control of the state with the smallest minority of voters ever through a bogus recall effort. Gotta keep your eyes open.

And a few people gave that a like.

As usual, I’m wrestling with that. I am desperate to not be weighed down with the negative; with the constant soul-crushing stupidity of right wing media; with immoral, power-grabbing republican lawmakers. It sucks joy right out of me and I don’t want to live in that space.

But I’m also inspired by my local peeps who continue to stay on the job. Seriously inspired. They are reading, listening, watching. They see what’s happening while the rest of the country goes about its summer fun… blissfully ignorant of some serious no-good sh*t going on out of view. Or even NOT out of view. It’s there to see, but people are tired and the bad guys know it. They are making hay while we’re looking away.

So I’m inspired to keep up the fight. I also feel a strong sense of responsibility. Not a curse, but feels like a curse, especially as I observe so many people (so many friends) ignoring it and having fun. No judgment. I’m jealous. I want bliss.

Caught between two states of mind.

~~

Related: We, Sister District CA-3 peeps, are raising money for a couple of Virginia candidates for the state legislature. Virginia’s election is in off years and, this November, they’re having an election for governor, and a whole bunch of state delegate seats (among other things).

Here’s me, Lucas (vice Mayor) and two SD summer interns (Evan and Khalil). We met at Central Park last week to make telephone calls to members of SD to get them to attend tomorrow’s fundraiser for Finale Norton. That’s pretty in the weeds, isn’t it? We’ll raise thousands of dollars. Crazy, huh? And it’s important because state houses are critical pieces of the puzzle. It’s starts small, folks. But it’s all important.

There’s also the fight for the For the People Act, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. And, so ridiculously, the bogus Gov Newsom recall effort. I’ll probably write more about that one later… but wow, it’s very possible the crazy republican effort to recall him will succeed because: DEMS AREN’T PAYING ATTENTION (and the reps are fired up). What a coup that would be.

Anyway… you have to keep an eye on what’s going on and do at least a teeny tiny bit to fight the bad guys. They really are up to no good.

The theme today? Wacky Son.

This is a Wacky Sun. I ordered it from a company in Alabama called Riverside Designs. (What would we do without Facebook ads?) It arrived today and it’s exactly what I was expecting/hoping for.

I actually think it’d look really cool on the wall in the living room.. but I bought it to adorn the backyard fence. Jim put it up today and it looks great!

I might hafta buy more .. they come in all kinds of designs and colors.

Here is the other wacky son… our sweet, adorable kiddo. We’ve been having lots of Facetime calls lately. I think he’s been welcoming the distraction as he stresses over something that’s coming up that he doesn’t want to talk about… (more on that later).

(I take a lot of screen shots when we’re talking … ) (Don’t ask me what Jim’s doing …)

I actually think there are other photos of mom and me that, in my opinion, show any resemblance more convincingly. I NEVER looked like my mom in the early days, and I certainly never looked anything like she did when she was a young woman. But as I’ve aged, our looks seem to be getting closer together.

And that’s funny.. since she’s a tall, olive-complected, dark hair/eyes person, and I’m.. well.. nothing of the sort. While I never looked like my dad either, I still picked up more of his Scandinavian features (coloring, anyway). My mom had some strong Askenazi Jew and Eastern European influences in her features, and I have some of that, too.

Here are a few of the young mom..

(And yeah, that’s me, probably a few months old.)

Anyway.. I took these two photos (top one of me and Sally about ten years ago.. we’re both 55 in that shot) and the bottom one taken when my mom was about 62 and I was about 36.

And did this so I could compare them side by side:

Mostly, I think the resemblance is in the short, thick hair and the long ears. She had some cosmetic work done that re-established her eyelids (you know how they disappear as you age) and she made her eyebrows do that with an eyebrow pencil. Our noses are both honky, but mine’s a bit more hook-ish. I don’t know…. sometimes I look in the mirror and see her looking back. Freaks me out. (As in, “mom!”). But then I think it’s nice that she comes to say hi from time to time. I miss her. Sometimes, the resemblance is really just the expression. I think we look a bit alike, but not hugely.

What do you think?

I wish I’d thought to count the number of zucchinis that we are harvesting off two zucchini plants — one green and one yellow. My lord.

I bought them (along with a bunch of other starts) at Lumeria on May 7. They didn’t get planted until May 17… look how cute:

That’s it on the right of the bed.

And now, three months later, this tiny little green zuc start is a total monster! Yesterday, I cut it way back, removing some of the scarily big leaves (leaves nearly 2 feet in diameter!), and here’s what it looked like after its trimming:

It has a new melon neighbor there to the right, but that huge, twisted gnarly thing heading leftward, that sorta looks like some kind of garden macrame, is what became of that delicate little start and, if I had to guess, I’d say we’ve picked about 30-40 zucs so far off this one plant (and the yellow zuc plant is nearly as prolific, growing in a nearby bed).

Mostly been grilling them, or sauteing big vegetable melanges that include zucs. I made zucchini bread a couple weeks ago and tonight made two more loaves of zucchini bread (a different recipe) and tonight I also made a Mediterranean casserole with zucs, cherry tomatoes, and basil (all from the garden), plus fresh bread crumbs, onions, garlic and ground lamb. Which was pretty good (but who knew Jim didn’t like lamb?). I have lots more casserole recipes to work through. Good thing, right?

I have so many garden shots, but it sorta becomes like sharing photos of your grandkids or pets… maybe people don’t really want to see baby garden plants?. I just want to make sure I remember what we did so we can make improvements next summer. I’m keeping a garden journal (of course I am), but honestly, I keep forgetting to make notes in it (I’ll get better.. this is so new).

Well.

Here’re tonight’s zucchinipalooza dishes… which we’ll be eating for days.

For the Mediterranean casserole, start by browning 3/4 lb of ground lamb with onions and garlic:

Then layer zucchini (1/4″ rounds) in a dish coated in olive oil:

Add all the ground meat, then a layer of tomatoes:

You fully cover that with half the bread crumbs (I cut about six slices from a loaf of Acme Italian bread and put the cubes into the food processor with 1 1/2 cup of fresh basil, salt and pepper), drizzle some olive oil over it, then do another layer of zucs, tomatoes and finish with the remaining bread crumbs. Again drizzle with olive oil and pop it into a 350 degree oven for an hour.

This is just before the oven part. After an hour (I added another 10 minutes to make sure the top layer of zucs was fully roasted) it comes out browned and crispy/crunchy on top.

I felt like it could use some rice or feta.. or something to give it a little more heft. I just realized we have a batch of tzatsiki left over from last week… which would have been a perfect accompaniment!

As I said, I also made more zucchini bread:

Very tasty. Though weirdly, baked these 50% longer than the recipe called for. Not sure why I couldn’t get to full doneness in the one hour specified.

I’m looking for someone to give zucchini bread to…

First, it must be noted that it is still very smokey hereabouts. As I write this, I’m looking out the window at a bright reddish-orange sun that is sinking westward. It’s cool looking, but is not a good sign. Here’s a pic of that glowing sun in an otherwise darkish late afternoon sky.

As a bookend, here’s the sun this morning, rising in the East. This picture was taken/posted by the Mishka’s folks:

I hate to complain about smoke, when, for those actually in the line of fire (so to speak), it’s so much worse.

Today’s memorial for Rick — who died last December, but whose memorial had to be delayed due to covid — was postponed, this time due to fire danger and unhealthy, smokey air. Given all the people who undoubtedly planned to be there from all corners, I’m sure today’s cancelation was a big headache and huge disappointment.

On the other hand, I have two friends who are at weddings today, and fortunately, for people and events along the coast, it’s a beautiful day. Whew for them!

Well. Here in the brown valley, it was mostly an inside day… not counting a quick trip to Farmers Market (AQI was in the 40s this morning (150s now) which was manageable) and a couple hours in the garden wrangling runaway melon shoots, and cutting back surplus tomato vineage (gosh.. isn’t vineage a word? WordPress’s spellcheck doesn’t think so.).

Here’s the enormous (much bigger and denser than it may seem) pile of stuff I removed from the beds to make room for the fruits and veggies that are trying to make a go of it (because, wow, those vines were growing like gangbusters, wrapping themselves around everything and burying the zucs, cucs, basil, berries, etc. Jim was afraid they’d soon overtake the patio furniture!).

I should have taken a before shot to illustrate how extensive the melon and tomato growth had become. Jim was serious when he feared for the patio furniture. But this after shot gives a little idea of the spillage. This is mostly ambrosia melon (there may also be a honeydew in there). I cut that tomato way back as it looks like it won’t be productive. I decided a little spillage is okay, especially as there looks to be a LOT of melon coming.

You can see how long some of those melon shoots are… this is watermelon escaping the bed and heading west. I decided to let some of those grow at will.. along with some tomatoes that seem not to be bothering anyone on the back side …

And here are some shots of little munchkins trying to grow:

A sweet little strawberry…

A little glob of eggplant (on a plant that has yet to yield a crop):

(The other eggplant variety has given us a rich bounty for nearly two months now.)

I believe these are ambrosia melons…

This is a watermelon!

Not in the raised beds, but here’re five (FIVE) figs!

I’ll close with this mistake of a shot, though I like it. I like that this kind of gardening lends itself to wearing flips.